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Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who has been subject of a Justice Department investigation for sex trafficking, is now serving on subcommittee investigating the “weaponization” of the federal government, including ongoing criminal investigations, CNN reports.
Gaetz switched onto the panel in place of Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who said the change was for a “variety of good reasons.”
“A former Las Vegas-area elected official accused of killing a veteran investigative journalist wants to represent himself at trial,” the AP reports.
“A judge set a Feb. 28 hearing Monday on a request by Damian Sheets, a defense attorney hired last month by Robert Telles, to withdraw from the case.”
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) is calling on lawmakers in the Sooner State to deliver a bill to his desk that “bans all gender-transition surgeries” for minors, Fox News reports.
Rep. George Santos (R-NY) brushed off Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s confirmation that the House Ethics Committee is looking into his many lies and questionable campaign finances, telling CNN he’s “not concerned.”
In a series of posts on Truth Social, Donald Trump is taking aim at Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) — including apparently accusing him of being a groomer and pedophile.
“Federal law enforcement officers say they seized 11 guns, a silencer, more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, body armor plates and several pounds of a binary explosive from a Springfield man with ties to the Boogaloo extremist anti-government group,” the Springfield News-Leader reports.
Slate: “As a baseline matter, the evidence that the former president committed crimes seems powerful. In Cohen’s guilty plea, he stated under penalty of perjury that Trump ‘directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election.’ That testimony is supported by an audio recording in which Cohen and Trump discussed the hush money payment to McDougal and how it could be accomplished surreptitiously through a shell company.”
“Trump has also indicated more than once that he was directly involved in the payments to Clifford, including saying in 2018 that the payments ‘came from me.’ He made a further admission last week on his social media platform, Truth Social, apparently acknowledging that he coordinated with Cohen to make the payments.”
“And all of this is backed up by the Trump Organization’s internal business records, falsely describing the reimbursements to Cohen as ‘legal expenses.’ Trump himself signed six of the repayment checks, including while in the Oval Office.”
John Cassidy: “Joe Biden will have plenty to talk about in his State of the Union address. In the past year, he has signed into law several major pieces of legislation, retained control of the Senate, presided over an economy that added five million jobs, led a coalition in support of Ukraine, and, just last week, ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon.”
“But the heart of Biden’s speech will likely focus on his economic agenda, the core of which is an ambitious industrial policy designed to strengthen manufacturing, hasten a green energy transformation, create well-paid jobs, and insure American technological leadership over China.”
Charlie Sykes: “I apologize in advance for my underwhelming interest in tonight’s SOTU, but my jadedness (if that is a word) has been hard won. For well over 40 years, I’ve watched the pomp, ceremony, and hype of the crucial-make-or-break-bully-pulpit pageant, and I frankly can’t remember anything from any of them, except for the theatrical sideshows. (‘You lie!’)”
“I’m sure Joe Biden will give a workmanlike speech, full of substance, lists of accomplishments, and poignant stories of people in the galleries, but he will be speaking to a performative House majority that wouldn’t know actual substance if it was zapped in the face by a Jewish space laser.”
“To the extent there is any drama, it will probably center on whether Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert start screaming at the president (or one another)… again.”
Kaleigh Rogers: In defense of the mostly-pointless State of the Union.
“Millions of dollars are being smuggled into Afghanistan from Pakistan every day, providing some support for the squeezed economy after the US and Europe denied the Taliban regime access to billions in foreign reserves,” Bloomberg reports.
“For Islamabad, the outflows are exacerbating a rapidly developing economic crisis.”
“A 23-year-old Kansas mayor who re-installed himself back into office last month in what some horrified observers said was ‘essentially, a coup’ is refusing to leave in the face of furious community opposition,” the Daily Beast reports.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said he won’t rip up President Biden’s State of the Union speech tonight, The Hill reports.
Said McCarthy: “I don’t believe in the theatrics of tearing up speeches.”
A White House’s memo highlights some of the policies President Biden will announce tonight during his State of the Union address.
Punchbowl News: “By making the ‘Unity Agenda’ a key portion of his address, Biden is presenting himself as a bipartisan dealmaker who wants to help average Americans. He’s looking to claim the political middle ground from Republicans – both in what his administration has done already and what it wants to do.”
“The thing to focus on here is Biden – like former Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama before him – is looking to seize the middle ground in policy fights with Republicans. If he can do so, that will help the president and the entire Democratic Party if he runs again in 2024.”
U.S. Navy sailors recovered the remains of the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina after it was shot down.
“The House Republican investigation into the financial dealings of President Joe Biden’s family risks turning off more voters than it attracts,” Bloomberg reports.
“The Biden-centric investigation led by the Oversight and Accountability Committee kicks off Wednesday morning, just hours after the president delivers his State of the Union address to Congress. At the center of the probe is the contents of the laptop of Biden’s son Hunter — a topic that’s been a far-right preoccupation since 2020.”
“Yet a series of recent polls show the majority of Americans just aren’t that interested in what may or may not be on Hunter Biden’s hard drive.”
Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh will be formally installed as the next Executive Director of the NHL Players’ Association in the coming days following the State of the Union address by Presiden Biden, the Daily Faceoff reports.
Playbook: “His contract is expected to include a roughly $3 million annual salary and allow him to live in Boston.”
Foreign Affairs: “Since the start of the crisis, hard-liners have tightened their grip on the reins of power. This faction opposes engagement with the West and does not wish to return to the 2015 nuclear deal. At home, it favors isolationism and tight control of the social and political spheres. Abroad, it favors aggressive regional policies and increasing collaboration with Russia.”
“Far from chastened by the protests, in other words, the regime that is now emerging from the initial phase of the unrest is even more intransigent and potentially aggressive than ever before.”
David French: “The instant that a person or an institution becomes closely identified with one political “tribe,” members of that tribe become reflexively protective and are inclined to write off scandals as ‘isolated’ or the work of ‘a few bad apples.'”
“Conversely, the instant an institution is perceived as part of an opposing political tribe, the opposite instinct kicks in: We’re far more likely to see each individual scandal as evidence of systemic malice or corruption, further proof that the other side is just as bad as we already believed.”
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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