Donald Trump is denying reports that he asked Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner to be part of his 2024 presidential campaign.
He says he “specifically asked them not to do it” noting it’s “too mean and nasty with the Fake & Corrupt News and having to deal with some absolutely horrendous SleazeBags in the world of politics, and beyond.”
New York Times: “For generations, Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti, saw only a trickle of its people migrate northward. But soaring inflation, declining wages and the erosion of democracy under an increasingly authoritarian government have drastically shifted the calculus.”
“Now, for the first time in Nicaragua’s history, the small nation of 6.5 million is a major contributor to the mass of people trekking to the U.S. southern border, having been displaced by violence, repression and poverty.”
“While attention has focused this year on the record numbers of Venezuelans and Cubans pouring into the United States, this less-noted but remarkable surge of Nicaraguans is also adding to the migration crisis in a big way, sending money back to their families and, inadvertently, providing an economic lifeline to a government under sanctions from the United States.”
Democratic lawmakers are calling for Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) to resign from the House seat he won in November, after the Long Island Republican admitted to “résumé embellishment” — dialing up the pressure on GOP leadership to respond, the Washington Post reports.
“South Korea’s military apologized for failing to shoot down North Korean drones that flew across the border, an incident that raised concerns about South Korea’s defenses amid the North’s growing nuclear and missile threats,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Moments after China said it would reopen its borders to international travel for the first time in almost three years, sales of air tickets out of the country soared, as people leapt at the chance to put the stifling restrictions of zero-Covid behind them,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Top of the getaway wish list were regional destinations a short hop away, with Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan favorite choices.”
New York Times: “China’s hospitals were already overcrowded, underfunded and inadequately staffed in the best of times. But now with Covid spreading freely for the first time in China, the medical system is being pushed to its limits.”
“I never claimed to be Jewish. I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’”
— Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY), quoted by the Jerusalem Post.
“A Russian sausage magnate and politician who briefly criticised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has died after falling from the third-floor window of a luxury hotel in India,” The Telegraph reports.
“Pavel Antov was a member of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party and a multi-millionaire, having founded one of Russia’s largest sausage makers.”
Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY), who was a former call center employee, told City and State NY that his wealth skyrocketed in the past several years to enable him to lend hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign.
He said that after different jobs, he opened his own firm and “it just worked because I had the relationships and I started making a lot of money. And I fundamentally starting building wealth.”
He added: “I decided I’d invest in my race for Congress. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“China sent a record number of military aircraft to menace self-ruled Taiwan in a large show of force to the Biden administration, signaling that Beijing wants to maintain pressure on Taiwan even as some tensions between the superpowers are easing,” the New York Times reports.
“The swarm of Chinese fighter jets, maritime patrol planes and drones that buzzed the airspace near Taiwan in the 24-hour period leading to Monday morning demonstrated Beijing’s appetite for confrontation with the United States over Taiwan, the island democracy China claims as its territory.”
“The military activity — which, according to Taiwan, included at least 71 Chinese aircraft — came days after President Biden’s latest move to expand American support for the island. Beijing has denounced the United States’ effort as an attempt to contain China and interfere in its domestic affairs.”
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) petition for a grand jury investigation into COVID-19 vaccines, in which he decries the ongoing vaccine campaign as ‘propaganda’ by the Biden administration, is drawing fierce criticism from health experts,” The Hill reports.
“Physicians and public health experts say his request betrays decades of established procedure designed to ensure the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, and only serves to stoke further immunization fears.”
Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) came clean to the New York Post on Monday, admitting that he lied on the campaign trail about his education and work experience — but insisting that the controversy won’t deter him from serving out his two-year term in Congress.
Said Santos: “I am not a criminal. This will not deter me from having good legislative success. I will be effective. I will be good.”
Santos confessed that he had “never worked directly” for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, chalking that fib up to a “poor choice of words.”
He also admitted that he never graduated from any college, despite previously claiming to have received a degree from Baruch in 2010.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) has accused Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) of having “crossed a rubicon” after she slammed Republicans who intend to vote against a Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speakership, the Daily Beast reports.
Said Biggs: “She’s kind of crossed the Rubicon there. She’s calling us liars and saying we’re misleading.”
Politico: “A razor-thin victory by Democrats, combined with a handful of vacancies and the hardball political culture in the state capitol, has kicked off a high-stakes battle for control of the House.”
“Both parties see the ensuing fight as not just as a matter of political power, but democratic governance and the rule of law itself. Privately, they fear the next few weeks could plunge the state into an unprecedented level of chaos.”
Politico: “The new federal rules, executive orders and pending legislation aimed at China’s high-tech sectors, which began this fall and will continue in 2023, are the culmination of years of debate spanning three administrations.”
“Taken together, they represent an escalation of former President Donald Trump’s tariffs and trade disputes against Beijing that could ultimately do more to slow Chinese technological and economic development — and divide the two economies — than anything the 45th president did while in office.”
South Korean military officials say North Korea has flown five drones across their mutual border, the BBC reports.
New York Times: “Democrats, who retained all but one of the governor’s offices they hold and won control of state legislatures in Michigan and Minnesota … are putting forward a long list of proposals that include creating automatic voter registration systems, preregistering teenagers to vote before they turn 18, returning the franchise to felons released from prison and criminalizing election misinformation.”
“Democrats who won re-election or will soon take office have interpreted their victories as a mandate to make voting easier and more accessible.”
Wall Street Journal: “Almost everyone on Wall Street and in Washington got 2022 wrong. The Federal Reserve expected 2021’s inflation surge to be transitory. It wasn’t. … Top Wall Street analysts predicted markets would have a so-so year. They didn’t.”
“The extent to which many investors, analysts and economists were wrong-footed has left many looking at the coming year with a sense of unease. … If there is a lesson to be taken away from the past 12 months, some investors and analysts say it is this: Be prepared for more surprises.”
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.