“Students arrived in some Florida public school classrooms this month to find their teachers’ bookshelves wrapped in paper — or entirely barren of books — after district officials launched a review of the texts’ appropriateness under a new state law,” the Washington Post reports.
“School officials in at least two counties, Manatee and Duval, have directed teachers this month to remove or wrap up their classroom libraries.”
“The expanding legal threats facing former President Donald Trump are testing as never before his decades-old playbook for fending off prosecutors, regulators and other accusers and foes, with his trademark mix of defiance, counterattacks, bluffs and delays encountering a series of setbacks,” the New York Times reports.
“In other legal maneuvering and in seeking to shape public opinion about cases involving him, Mr. Trump has experienced regular reversals in court in recent months even as he begins his campaign for another term in the White House.”
“Exxon Mobil rocketed to its highest-ever annual profit last year, riding surging oil prices to resurrect its status as one of America’s most profitable companies and erase billions of dollars of losses incurred during the pandemic,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The largest U.S. oil company turned in record annual earnings of $55.7 billion for 2022 in its quarterly earnings Tuesday, outpacing big banks, tech giants and vaccine makers.”
A Miami Herald review of Rep. George Santos’ (R-NY) campaign spending “in the region raises questions about some of his campaign reports, and about what, exactly, he did here — aside from holding a fundraiser on a yacht in Fort Lauderdale, which event organizers say did happen.”
“The managing partner of a diner where the campaign reported spending more than $200 over back-to-back days said he had no receipts matching items on the campaign reports.”
“A $199.99 stay at the high-end W South Beach hotel — where room rates are typically more than $700 per night — was flagged by the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center in a wide-ranging complaint with the Federal Elections Commission earlier this month as improbable.”
“Even his payments at a public beachside parking lot on Miami Beach, where the campaign listed payments as small as $3 and as big as $100, were deemed puzzling by the city’s parking department.”
Matt Lewis: “Media reports suggest that Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley are laying the groundwork to launch 2024 presidential primary bids. While there will surely be more entrants (John Bolton has already announced a bid, and Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo are both making noise), DeSantis and Haley are two of the more serious opponents Donald Trump will likely face.”
“But the question remains: Are either willing and able to launch a sustained attack on Trump? The verdict is out.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) “is standing his ground, refusing to apologize to Paul Pelosi for sharing conspiracy theories about the hammer attack… even after seeing the shocking police video of what went down,” TMZ reports.
A new Bulwark/North Star Opinion Research poll finds Donald Trump “has slipped to his lowest point since he emerged on the political scene almost eight years ago.”
“He remains a formidable force, to be sure, with a lock on approximately 30 percent of likely Republican primary and caucus voters nationally. But a majority of the GOP is ready to move on.”
“Former President Donald Trump is strapped for campaign cash following the mid-November launch of his 2024 presidential campaign,” NBC News reports.
“Trump, who has been the GOP’s most prolific fundraiser in recent years, pulled in about $9.5 million over the final six weeks of last year through his campaign and a joint fundraising committee.”
“In a sign that Trump understands he’ll need to raise more money faster for what promises to be a competitive GOP primary campaign, his campaign recently expanded its digital fundraising team by hiring the firm Campaign Inbox to solicit the small-dollar donor set. Campaign officials have long said he would use the early part of this year to build up his apparatus and begin expanding his footprint in early primary states.”
“Mitch Daniels is passing on a potential bid for an open Indiana Senate seat, forgoing what would have been one of the most hotly contested primaries in the 2024 cycle,” Politico reports.
Said Daniels: “After what I hope was adequate reflection, I’ve decided not to become a candidate for the U.S. Senate. With full credit and respect for the institution and those serving in it, I conclude that it’s just not the job for me, not the town for me, and not the life I want to live at this point.”
“Donald Trump’s endorsement helped push J.D. Vance and Eric Schmitt into the Senate. Now they’re nearly ready to return the favor,” Politico reports.
“Vance has told allies over the last few months that he anticipates endorsing Trump in the Republican primary… And Schmitt, whom Trump technically endorsed when he backed ‘Eric’ in the Missouri GOP primary last year, said on Monday that he’s supporting the former president.”
Washington Post: “After the release of a video on Friday showing Memphis police officers fatally beating Tyre Nichols, 29, earlier this month, there were hopes that Congress might once again begin negotiating how to reform policing practices, as anger grew over the death of another Black man following a violent encounter with local law enforcement.”
“But by Monday, any optimism for a big legislative deal seemed to have been squashed.”
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) expressed a keen interest in running for the state’s Senate seat now held by moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Bloomberg reports.
“Washington’s debt limit drama has Wall Street betting that the United States will employ a fallback option to ensure it can make good on payments to its lenders even if Congress doesn’t raise the nation’s borrowing limit before America runs out of cash,” the New York Times reports.
“But that untested idea has significant flaws and has been ruled out by the Biden administration, which could make it less of a bulwark against disaster than many investors and politicians are counting on.”
Semafor: Republicans have a plan B if the U.S. breaches the debt ceiling. It’d still be a disaster.
“The United States will not be sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine — at least not now,” Politico reports.
“Asked by a reporter outside the White House Monday if the U.S. would transfer the warplanes that Kyiv is pushing hard to receive, President Joe Biden responded: ‘No.’”
“The short remark is likely to send shockwaves across the Atlantic, following days of seeming momentum toward sending the fighter jets eastward. It could also sour relations with Kyiv when officials there were already feeling positive about a coordinated U.S.-German decision last week to send main battle tanks to the front lines.”
“Two people who found two classified documents in a Florida storage facility for Donald Trump have testified before a federal grand jury in Washington that’s looking at the former president’s handling of national security records at his Mar-a-Lago residence,” CNN reports.
“The two individuals who were hired to search four of Trump’s properties last fall were each interviewed for about three hours in separate appearances last week.”
CNN: “McCarthy is set to meet with President Joe Biden on Wednesday in a face-to-face that has already been subject to positioning and political messaging, moves that both sides hope will shape the fight to raise the debt limit over the next few months. White House officials have been steadfast that there will be no negotiations on the matter while House Republicans have framed Wednesday’s meeting as the beginning of debt ceiling talks.”
“Biden, asked by CNN what his message to McCarthy would be in that meeting, said it would be ‘show me your budget and I’ll show you mine.’”
“The statement carried echoes of the push by White House officials and congressional Democrats to force Republicans to put a plan on the table – even as they insist there will be no negotiations on the matter.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) told Newsmax that he’s “undecided” about whether to vote to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the Foreign Affairs Committee.
He noted he supported Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) removing Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) from the Intelligence Committee.
Said Gaetz: “It’s one thing to do dangerous things to the country with intelligence, it’s quite another to say, ‘I don’t like your viewpoint and thus I want to remove you. I don’t support that.”
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.