“Members of the North Carolina Democratic Party on Saturday ousted their sitting chair, first vice chair, and second vice chair, voting instead to elect new candidates to the top four leadership positions,” WRAL reports.
“The overhaul comes three months after the party failed to win a single statewide race in the midterm elections. And two months after Meredith Cuomo, who had served as the party’s executive director since 2019, announced her resignation.”
Fox News: “With recent news that fringe 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson is headed to New Hampshire in the coming weeks, and with word this week that environmental lawyer and anti-COVID vaccine crusader Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will hold an event in the state early next month, the possibility of potential primary challenges to Biden is moving a bit closer to reality.”
“Evan Corcoran, one of Donald Trump’s lawyers, appeared before a federal grand jury last month as part of the special counsel investigation into whether classified information and other government records were mishandled at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate,” Bloomberg reports.
“After several days of bickering, it’s official: President Biden will not give an interview with Fox or any of its sister networks as part of its Super Bowl coverage this weekend,” Politico reports.
“The decision breaks with the tradition of presidents sitting for pre-game interviews with the network hosting the most-watched sporting event of the year.”
“In some respects, the White House’s dodge makes sense. Why play ball with a corporation whose networks routinely lambaste your administration? Supporters of Biden’s decision also note there’s recent precedent: Donald Trump refused to do a sit-down with game-day host NBC in 2018.”
“On the other hand, Biden just passed up a critical opportunity to speak to millions of Americans who ignored his State of the Union but sure as hell won’t miss the Super Bowl — one that comes ahead of a likely 2024 reelection campaign launch.”
Former president Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign commissioned an outside research firm in a bid to prove electoral fraud claims but never released the findings because the firm disputed many of his theories and could not offer any proof that he was the rightful winner of the election, the Washington Post reports.
“The campaign paid researchers from Berkeley Research Group, the people said, to study 2020 election results in six states, looking for fraud and irregularities to highlight in public and in the courts. Among the areas examined were voter machine malfunctions, instances of dead people voting and any evidence that could help Trump show he won, the people said. None of the findings were presented to the public or in court.”
Donald Trump has launched a stinging attack on pop star Rihanna ahead of her performance at the Super Bowl half time show on Sunday, the Daily Beast reports.
His comments came after Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) called on the NFL to remove Rihanna from the Super Bowl half time show line-up for a 2020 incident where she went to the famed Cadillac Ranch in Texas and spray painted “Fuck Donald Trump” in an act of political protest that she called “art.”
“Governor Ron DeSantis is actively preparing a run for president in 2024, even as he delays a formal announcement to keep Republican voters’ attention on his aggressively conservative record in Florida,” Bloomberg reports.
“Behind the scenes, DeSantis and his tight-knit team of advisers are interviewing national consultants to work on a presidential campaign. A retreat for roughly 150 donors, GOP leaders and lawmakers is planned for the final weekend in February at a hotel in Palm Beach, where DeSantis will tout his record as governor.”
“Aides are speaking to and vetting operatives in early states such as Iowa, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, who could oversee on-the-ground operations and ensure the campaign meets every requirement to qualify for the primaries, and his allies are starting to stand up a super-PAC to support his nascent candidacy, according to two people briefed on the plans.”
Toronto Mayor John Tory announced he was resigning Friday night at a press conference at city hall, about one hour after the Toronto Star revealed he had a months-long relationship with a now former member of his office staff, the Toronto Star reports.
“Former President Donald Trump’s legal team turned over more documents with classified markings and a laptop belonging to an aide to federal prosecutors in recent months,” CNN reports.
“The previously undisclosed handovers – from December and January – suggest the protracted effort by the Justice Department to repossess records from Trump’s presidency may not be done.”
“The Trump attorneys discovered the documents with classified markings in December, while searching through boxes at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence.”
New York Times: “A key priority for this new network of conservative thinkers is for the federal government to send parents cash monthly for each child, a sea change from decades of Republican thinking on family policy.”
“They hope the cash could encourage people to have more children, and allow more parents to stay home full- or part-time when their children are young.”
“Hours after the White House announced that a Super Bowl Sunday interview had been scrapped by the parent company of Fox News, Fox Corp. reversed course and stated that the interview was back on,” the Daily Beast reports.
“For years, Nashville leaders have watched Tennessee’s GOP-dominated Legislature repeatedly kneecap the liberal-leaning city’s ability to set its own minimum wage, regulate plastic bag use and place higher scrutiny on police officers,” the AP reports.
“Yet that simmering tension has only escalated this year as Republican lawmakers have introduced a string of proposals that local officials warn would drastically upend Music City.”
“The Biden administration’s decision to end the Covid-19 national emergency declaration could undermine a central justification for its student-debt forgiveness plan as the Supreme Court prepares to decide the fate of the program,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Biden outlined a plan in August to cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers making under $125,000 a year. Unable to pass the plan in Congress, the White House relied on expanded executive powers tied to the emergency declaration to enact the plan, and Mr. Biden said his intent was to ‘address the financial harms of the pandemic.'”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) endorsed former President Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House on Friday, becoming the fifth Republican and third freshman senator to offer his support, Politico reports.
“Since the spy balloon saga started, China has tried to play down the incident, maintaining that the United States is overreacting and that the vessel is mainly for gathering meteorological data,” the New York Times reports.
“But as American alarm and accusations have mounted about a broad surveillance program by Beijing, that strategy is increasingly coming under strain, forcing China into an awkward, at times self-contradictory position. Beijing is also starting to adopt a more confrontational tone, further raising the specter of escalation.”
Federal investigators found one additional document with classified markings during a search of former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home on Friday, The Hill reports.
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.