“Former Vice President Mike Pence wants to make something clear: No 2024 Republican presidential candidate will outflank him on the gender, sexuality and education controversies that animate the right,” Politico reports.
“He’s staking a claim as an original, if sunnier, culture warrior — a bona fide alternative to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley…”
Failed New Hampshire U.S. Senate nominee Don Bolduc (R) will endorse Nikki Haley’s (R) presidential bid later today, NH Journal reports.
Tom Nichols: “For all her talk about ‘a new generation,’ Haley knows that the Republican base doesn’t want to move on. Those voters, to judge from the polls, want Trump, unless he can’t win; in that case, they’d like a Trump who can win, a candidate who reeks of Trump’s cheap political cologne but who will wisely wear somewhat less of it while campaigning in the crowded spaces of a general election.”
Meanwhile, in an interview on Fox News, Haley couldn’t name a single issue where she differed from Trump.
“Top House Republicans are exploring significant changes to the nation’s food stamps program, including benefit cuts and stricter work requirements, as some in the new majority scramble for ways to slash government spending this year,” the Washington Post reports.
“The early discussions have come in the context of the budget, as GOP leaders look to deliver on their promise to eliminate the federal deficit over the next decade. But their policy decisions could carry great consequences for the roughly 41 million people who receive monthly food aid — and find themselves scrounging in the face of high bills.”
David Kurtz: “I remain baffled by how long it’s taken the Justice Department to pull the trigger on this subpoena (assuming it’s the first and only subpoena of Meadows in its Jan. 6 probe, and there’s no sign of any others). Clearly, Meadows is so high up in the scheme that you wouldn’t start with him, but even allowing for working your way through other witnesses first, this has taken an extraordinarily long time to come to fruition. Only now will litigation kick off over the claims and privileges Meadows will likely assert as grounds not to comply with the subpoena, another source of delay.”
Elie Honig: “Merrick Garland couldn’t have subpoenaed Mike Pence and Mark Meadows in, say, late 2021… why, exactly?”
“Republican lawmakers are wary of their party’s propensity for self-inflicted wounds and are hoping for more discipline heading into the next election cycle,” The Hill reports.
“Leading Republicans think that the House GOP’s raucous reception of President Biden at last week’s State of the Union played into the president’s hands and that the proposal by Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) to sunset all federal legislation after five years is a political gift to Democrats.”
Said Sen. John Thune (R-SD): “I think Republicans have got to be wise in how we talk about these issues.”
“When President Joe Biden sets out for his annual physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Thursday morning, he’ll be setting a new record – as he does every morning – as the oldest US president ever,” CNN reports.
“Biden’s age is ‘omnipresent’ in nearly every conversation, at a time when he’s preparing for a reelection announcement that would try to extend his time in the Oval Office until he is 86 years old.”
“Biden hasn’t officially decided to run again, though he’s said he intends to and his campaign infrastructure is largely in place. Even though aides say the president has told them that his age will not be the determining factor in his final decision about running for reelection, conversations about it are shaping everything from planning anticipated campaign schedule logistics to calibrating Vice President Kamala Harris’ role as his running mate.”
A legal group plans to file bar complaints Thursday against four lawyers representing Kari Lake in voter fraud litigation, NBC News reports.
“Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is again attracting controversy in the wake of the Ohio train derailment, with elected officials from both parties questioning his ability to lead the department and respond to crises,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“Buttigieg, tapped for the position after attracting presidential buzz as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has found himself under frequent fire, leading to concerns about his fitness for the role and whether his performance harms his political future.”
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) “appears to have thwarted an attempt to stop law enforcement obtaining menstrual histories of women in the state,” The Guardian reports.
“Youngkin, who has pushed for a 15-week abortion ban to mirror similar measures in several Republican-controlled states, essentially killed the bill through a procedural move in a subcommittee of the Republican-controlled House.”
“Special counsel Jack Smith is locked in at least eight secret court battles that aim to unearth some of the most closely held details about Donald Trump’s actions after the 2020 election and handling of classified material,” CNN reports.
“The outcome of these disputes could have far-reaching implications, as they revolve around a 2024 presidential candidate and could lead courts to shape the law around the presidency, separation of powers and attorney-client confidentiality in ways they’ve never done before.”
“Yet almost all of the proceedings are sealed, and filings and decisions aren’t public.”
“There’s more bad news for Vladimir Putin. Europe is on course to get through winter with its vital gas storage facilities more than half full,“ Politico reports.
“That means despite the Russian leader’s efforts to make Europe freeze by cutting its gas supply, EU economies will survive the coldest months without serious harm — and they look set to start next winter in a strong position to do the same.”
“You have an ex-president who remains very popular with the base, and I think that you have a lot of senators — again, I don’t want to speak for anybody in particular, this is just my sense — a lot of senators who probably would be very interested in running.”
— Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), quoted by the Washington Post, on how Donald Trump has frozen the presidential ambition of many Republican senators.
“Breaking a weekslong impasse, the New York State Senate rejected Gov. Kathy Hochul’s nominee to lead the state’s highest court, holding an unexpected floor vote on Wednesday that capped a dramatic battle that had roiled Democrats in the State Capitol,” the New York Times reports.
“The vote — the first time that the State Senate has rejected a governor’s pick for chief judge — amounted to an extraordinary repudiation of Ms. Hochul by members of her own party at the start of her first full term as governor.”
David Malpass, a Trump appointee “under fire for months by critics who accused him of climate denialism, said he would resign in June, a year before his term ends,” the New York Times reports.
“The departure of Mr. Malpass is likely to add new urgency to sweeping changes that were already underway at the World Bank. It will also give President Biden, who came to office with an ambitious climate agenda, the opportunity to install a leader whose term will stretch until 2028.”
“The Federal Election Commission is warning Representative George Santos to substantiate who is in charge of his campaign’s finances — or risk a ban on raising or spending any money,” Bloomberg reports.
“The FEC sent a letter to Santos asking him to file paperwork to list the treasurer of his campaign, after his previous one resigned in January. The letter adds to confusion over who’s in charge of the embattled New York Republican’s campaign accounts.”
Meanwhile, CBS News reports police interviewed Santos in a 2017 international case of credit card and identity theft.
Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) announced her endorsement of former president Donald Trump in his presidential run in 2024, Wyoming Public Radio reports.
She called Trump one of the best presidents of her lifetime.
Washington Post: “As DeSantis gears up for a potential presidential run in 2024, Black activists and political strategists around the country are organizing, protesting and preparing to highlight the particular danger they say he and his anti-“woke” movement pose to civil rights and to their push to tackle racism as a systemic issue. Some say they are determined not to repeat what they consider a tepid and belated response to former president Donald Trump’s rise in 2016, and argue that DeSantis’s political strategy is even more rooted in racial division than Trump’s.”
“These Black leaders view Florida’s recent rejection of an Advanced Placement African American history course as part of a pattern of dismissing their community’s concerns and enacting policy that threatens their rights.”
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.