“A federal immigration officer was ‘relieved of his duties’ and is under investigation after he shoved an Ecuadorean woman whose husband had been arrested and pushed her to the floor at an immigration courthouse in Manhattan,” the New York Times reports.
President Trump signaled that his administration will launch prosecutions against other political opponents, just hours after the justice department filed criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey, the Financial Times reports.
Asked about the indictment on Friday morning, Trump said that he had no list of who will be targeted next, but “there will be others.”
He added: “It’s about justice. Really, it’s not revenge. They went after me for four years.”
For members: Cross Trump at Your Peril
“These people are crazy, the Democrats. So if it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down. But they’re the ones that are shutting it down.”
— President Trump, quoted by NOTUS.
House Republican leadership is considering not bringing the chamber back into session next week, Punchbowl News reports.
The government shuts down Wednesday without a funding bill.
House GOP leadership sources say that the ball is in the Senate’s court and the House will come back when it needs to pass another bill.
Adam Serwer: “Everyone always has sound, rational reasons for caving to intimidation… But in every case, the act of capitulation compromises the very thing those capitulating say they want to protect. Fighting doesn’t always result in victory, but surrendering guarantees defeat.”
“The only people who have preserved their dignity or their rights in dealing with Trump are those who have been willing to stand up to him.”
New York Times: “Though there is no way of determining exactly how many people have faced workplace consequences, The New York Times identified more than 145 such cases through news reports, public statements and interviews with several of those targeted. Those who have faced discipline are professors and health care workers, lawyers and journalists, restaurant workers and airline employees…
“Firings over controversial statements are not new, but they appear to have become more frequent in recent years as online armies seek to identify and assail the employers of people who say things they deem inappropriate. In the wake of Mr. Kirk’s death, Vice President JD Vance urged people to call the bosses of those who celebrated the assassination.”
The indictment against former FBI Director James Comey appears to attribute to him words he never actually said, MSNBC reports.
The Economist: “Mr. Trump is using his office to punish adversaries in ways that are without precedent. The actions are often alarming in themselves, but what may eventually matter more is that together they are intensifying not just the perceived stakes of politics, which have been climbing for years among hyperpartisans, but the actual importance for officeholders of political authority. The way Mr. Trump uses power, in other words, is raising the real stakes for holding on to power. No one can be certain where this will lead, but it is surely sharpening the incentives of American politics.”
“It has always been crushing to lose an election, but the worthies of a defeated administration could count on lucrative corporate jobs or respectable postings at think-tanks or universities while they awaited the turn of the political wheel. This arrangement was cosy and could be corrupting, as some officials looked ahead to passing through the ‘revolving door‘ to a lobbying job and then maybe back to power. But it was also stabilizing. There was a good life to be had after government, along with the prospect of a return to public office, probably in a more senior role.”
“Now, when they lose power, officials have reason to fear criminal investigation.”
“The Trump administration recently approached a coalition of U.S. investors set to take over TikTok’s U.S. operations with an ask: Will the group make a payment to the federal government ‘in the low billions,’ according to a person with direct knowledge of the talks,” NPR reports.
“The response from the investors, which includes tech mogul Larry Ellison, the Murdochs and venture capital heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz, was an unequivocal yes.”
Said the person: “Not a single member balked. They see it as something of a finders’ fee.”
“The Trump administration is expecting a government shutdown come Wednesday and there are no current plans to negotiate with Democratic leadership,” Politico reports.
Said the official: “We’re going to extract maximum pain… Democrats will pay a huge price for this.”
“Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban threatened to severely punish those who make unfounded allegations against his cabinet, in a bid to deflect a scandal that may risk hurting his campaign for reelection next year,” Bloomberg reports.
“The government has come under fire over a case involving a juvenile detention center in Budapest, whose former director has been accused of running young women as prostitutes and other related crimes.”
David Frum: “Yes, Trump’s politicization of the Department of Justice is a backward-looking expression of hurt feelings. It’s also another step in a forward-looking plot to shred the rule of law in order to pervert the next election and protect his corruption from accountability. James Comey’s rights and liberties are not the only ones at risk today. So is your own right to participate in free and fair elections in order to render a verdict on Trump’s invasion of those rights and liberties.”
“Trump understands the stakes—and has been astoundingly transparent about his intentions. Will you listen and understand as clearly as he speaks and threatens?”
Miami Herald: “Federal prosecutor Will Rosenzweig took a short break from his healthcare fraud and money-laundering cases at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami this week to observe the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, with his family.”
“But he noticed something was amiss when his office-issued mobile phone wasn’t working on Tuesday. He called the office to find out what was wrong. Rosenzweig soon learned his phone was shut off because he had been fired by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi…”
“Rosenzweig was fired, according to multiple sources, because of the negative things he said about Trump on a social media blog before he became a federal prosecutor in Miami.”
A good observation from The Downballot:
“Even as a new independent poll finds a tied race for New Jersey’s open governorship, backers of Republican Jack Ciattarelli are still not spending as though they believe he’s in a tight contest against Democrat Mikie Sherrill.”
Earlier for members: Is the New Jersey Governor’s Race Really Close?
“Iran has increased construction at a mysterious underground site in the months since the U.S. and Israel pummeled its main nuclear facilities, suggesting Tehran has not entirely ceased work on its suspected weapons program and may be cautiously rebuilding,” according to a Washington Post review of satellite imagery and independent analysis.
“The ongoing work is at a site known as Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, or Pickaxe Mountain, where since 2020, Iranian engineers have been tunneling deep into the Zagros mountain range — about a mile south of the nuclear complex at Natanz, which was a target of U.S. bombing strikes on June 22.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
