“Steve Bannon took election denialism to an unhinged level on his podcast this week, when he didn’t just indulge in the baseless claims of election fraud favored by former President Donald Trump, but went so far as to tell Kari Lake ‘you’re the frickin’ governor of Arizona,’” Mediaite reports.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told ABC News that Donald Trump “can’t win a general election” and predicted the former president will not be successful in his 2024 presidential run.
Said Christie: “I’ve said, over and over again, that he can’t win a general election. That’s not speculation. That’s based upon the polling that I was privy to pre-the 2020 election, and what we saw actually happen in the 2020 election. And it’s only gotten worse since then.”
“The Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said Sunday he agreed with a statement that suggested the U.S. could be at war with China in 2025 — but the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee pushed back,” Politico reports.
Said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX): “I hope he’s wrong as well. I think he’s right, though, unfortunately.”
British prime minister Rishi Sunak has sacked Nadhim Zahawi, chairman of the Tory Party, for serious breaches of the ministerial code after an investigation found he failed to be honest and open about his tax affairs, the Times of London reports.
NBC News: “For years, the Republican National Committee has been closely tied to Donald Trump. But with other candidates likely to run against him in 2024, RNC members want neutrality.”
“Speaker Kevin McCarthy has backed his fellow Republicans into a corner with one of the promises he made to his far-right flank to land his job: opening the door to considering fringe legislation that would replace the income tax with a federal sales tax and abolish the IRS,” Politico reports.
“Most GOP members appear determined to distance themselves as much as possible from the idea and McCarthy himself said this week he doesn’t support the legislation. But Democrats aren’t going to let the issue die quietly. They’ve been more than happy to use it as a cudgel to portray Republicans as dangerous radicals.”
Dan Balz: “Trump’s path to GOP nomination is strewn with obstacles. Still, a wide field could so divide the race that Trump could take the nomination, as he did in 2016, by winning a plurality of primary voters.”
Playbook: “There is a very déjà vu quality to the reporting. There are a million reasons that Trump shouldn’t still be standing and that his party should reject him and move on and find a new nominee for 2024. But he has a good chance of winning anyway if he can just clear a few hurdles in the primaries.”
“Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Sunday he thinks President Joe Biden will come to an agreement with him regarding the debt ceiling, despite the Biden administration’s previous assertions that they wouldn’t negotiate with House Republicans on the issue,” Politico reports.
Said McCarthy: “His staff tries to say something different, but I think the president will be willing to make an agreement together.”
Asked about White House concerns that some Republicans are seeking cuts to Social Security and Medicare, McCarthy said: “Let’s take those off the table.”
“I think it’s a terrible situation. It’s very unfortunate. He’s, he’s told some whoppers. Reminds me of Biden, actually, the closest thing I can think is Biden, because he’s told some whoppers.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by Politico, on Rep. George Santos (R-NY).
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) predicted on Sunday that former President Donald Trump would not win the New Hampshire GOP primary in 2024, dinging the early performances of Trump’s re-election bid and adding that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) would more likely come out on top, The Hill reports.
“In 2011, after faltering debt limit negotiations with House Republicans brought the U.S. to the brink of economic calamity, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden sat by the fireplace in the Oval Office, with their top aides on the couch. While relieved at having narrowly averted disaster, they were stunned by what had transpired,” NBC News reports.
“Obama and Biden made a vow: Never again.”
“Slightly more Americans think the Biden administration is handling the classified documents investigation well than badly, with most saying President Biden has tried to cooperate with it,” according to a new CBS News poll.
“The situation is not impacting Mr. Biden’s broader ratings. His job approval rating remains unchanged in recent weeks. And he’s still about as well-liked personally by a majority, compared to a year ago. ”
“Context matters too, as big numbers of people think it might even be commonplace for former high-ranking officials to have classified materials at home. More than eight in 10 suspect this generally happens at least ‘sometimes’ or even ‘a lot.'”
“Rifts in the GOP between those who support Donald Trump’s false 2020 election fraud claims and those who want the party to move on from the former president have resurfaced in party leadership races in key states, with each side blaming the other for disappointing midterm results,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Joe Biden’s expected re-election bid will thrust his wife, Jill Biden, further into the public eye, as the White House deploys the self-described introvert to help win over women,” Bloomberg reports.
“What little polling exists in regard to the first lady, who is 71, suggests she’s unknown to many Americans, even after two years at the side of the world’s most powerful person. But within the White House she is understood to be the president’s closest and most protective confidante.”
Politico: “In recent days, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called Trump and suggested she would be announcing her decision to enter the presidential race soon, a conversation that a person familiar with it described as cordial.”
Said Trump: “She called me and said she’d like to consider it. And I said you should do it.”
Politico: “Along with staff from the Trump-allied Make America Great Again PAC, there are around 40 people working on Trump’s campaign or with the aligned PAC, according to multiple advisers.”
“There is a push for the campaign to be scrappier than it was in 2020, when a massive operation worked out of a slick office building in Arlington, Virginia. And that ethos, according to an adviser, extends to how Trump will approach fundraising with a focus on small-dollar donations over big donor events.”
“Arizona Republicans on Saturday selected former state treasurer and Donald Trump aide Jeff DeWit to be the party’s next chairman, turning to a familiar face with relationships across the fractured party after its worst election in decades,” the AP 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.