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“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.”
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) has filed paperwork with the FEC to run for U.S. Senate in California, Puck reports.
Politico: “Lee, a member of the House since 1998, will join a field that already includes two of her colleagues — California Democrats Reps. Adam Schiff and Katie Porter. Feinstein formally announced she would not seek another term on Wednesday, though the jockeying to replace her had already been well underway for months.”
Politico: “After the influential Koch network announced this month that it would endorse a rival candidate to former President Donald Trump, donors aligned with Mike Pence privately reached out in hopes of securing its backing.”
“Despite those ties, however, the Koch network is, so far, content to keep its powder dry, looking to survey the field before deciding how to shape it.”
“A Denver city councilperson who uses a wheelchair said he was humiliated and dismayed after an election debate on Monday evening was held in a venue without wheelchair access, forcing him to crawl onto the stage while in full view of the crowd,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Chris Hinds, who is running for reelection, said he had had no choice but to participate in the debate. Had he refused he would have had to forfeit roughly $125,000 in campaign financing.”
Associated Press: “The public on Thursday will see portions of a report by a special grand jury that investigated whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies committed any crimes while trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia.”
“The report’s introduction and conclusion, along with a section in which the grand jurors expressed concerns that some witnesses may have lied under oath are to be released. But any recommendations on potential criminal charges will remain under wraps for now.”
Jonathan Martin: “High-level Democrats are rallying to President Biden’s reelection, not because they think it’s in the best interest of the country to have an 82-year-old start a second term but because they fear the potential alternative: the nomination of Kamala Harris and election of Donald Trump.”
“Not that many of them will say it publicly, at least not that directly.”
Said Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN): “Nobody wants to be the one to do something that would undermine the chances of a Democratic victory in 2024. Yet in quiet rooms the conversation is just the opposite — we could be at a higher risk if this path is cleared.”
“Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that he will challenge a subpoena by the special counsel overseeing Trump investigations to compel his testimony before a grand jury — pursuing it to the Supreme Court if necessary,” the AP reports.
“President Joe Biden is planning to deliver his most extended public remarks yet — as early as Thursday — on the unidentified objects that the U.S. military has been shooting down,” NBC News reports.
“Biden will use his address to explain how the administration intends to deal with aerial balloons and other objects spotted in the future, based on a study conducted by a series of government agencies.”
“When Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was 24, he did something that many millions of people do each year: He got married,” the New York Times reports.
“That marriage, to a Brazilian woman, would last seven years. In that time, Mr. Santos began to lay the groundwork for a largely fictional life story, moving back and forth between New York and Florida, working sporadic jobs that he later falsely inflated into a successful Wall Street career, and navigating a handful of evictions. He would also date men — even proposing to one in 2014.”
“By 2019, Mr. Santos was divorced, not long before he launched his first congressional campaign. But the old relationship drew new scrutiny on Wednesday, via a letter filed with ethics watchdogs in the House of Representatives requesting an investigation into whether Mr. Santos has violated federal immigration laws.”
“Republicans seeking the party’s 2024 presidential nomination have so far ignored an issue that’s been central to the conservative movement for decades: abortion,” NBC News reports.
“Senior American officials increasingly believe the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina in early February was originally supposed to conduct surveillance over U.S. military bases in Guam and Hawaii, but winds carried it off course to Alaska, Canada and finally the continental United States,” the New York Times reports.
“The evolution of Washington’s understanding of the Chinese military’s original goals and new details that reveal misreadings of the U.S. reaction by Chinese officials in private meetings reflect how difficult it is for the United States and China to discern each other’s intentions — a gap that American officials fear could lead to greater mistrust in an already fraught relationship or even to armed conflict.”
“Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday signed into law a bill to expand a controversial state program used to relocate migrants from anywhere in the country to Democratic-led cities,” Axios reports.
“The program, which now gains an additional $10 million in funding, faced intense backlash after Florida officials were accused of misleading migrants and promising false incentives.”
Nikki Haley told NBC News that she “didn’t ask” for a blessing when she spoke to former President Donald Trump before announcing her 2024 White House bid this week.
Said Haley: “I told him that I thought that we needed to go in a new direction.”
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.
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