“San Francisco is so famous for its liberalism that the city has become shorthand for eccentric political sensibilities far to the left of most Americans,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“But after Tuesday’s trio of school board recalls, Democrats and Republicans alike see the city not as an outlier, but as a potential bellwether.”
The Economist: A successful school-board recall punishes left-wing excess.
Donald Trump met with Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Katie Britt (R) at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, Politico reports.
“The former president has been having buyer’s remorse after endorsing Rep. Mo Brooks for Senate, watching with frustration as Brooks has failed to catch fire with the MAGA base.”
“Brooks, who has struggled with disappointing fundraising and poll numbers, recently hit the ‘reset’ button on his campaign, hiring a new campaign team. But even as Brooks tries to recover, Trump, we’re told, has complained to associates that Brooks has been working with anti-Trumpers and — worse, in his eyes — has been seeking the endorsement of Jeff Sessions, the former Alabama senator and A.G. Trump loathes Sessions for recusing himself from the Justice Department’s Russia investigation.”
“Brooks recently called Sessions ‘one of the best senators we ever had.'”
“A judge will hear arguments Thursday in former President Donald Trump’s fight to avoid being questioned under oath in a New York investigation into his business practices,” the AP reports.
“New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking to enforce subpoenas her office issued in December to Trump and his two eldest children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr.”
“The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack is considering issuing a subpoena to Ivanka Trump to force her cooperation with the inquiry into Donald Trump’s efforts to return himself to power on 6 January,” The Guardian reports.
“Any move to subpoena Ivanka Trump and, for the first time, force a member of Trump’s own family to testify against him, would mark a dramatic escalation in the 6 January inquiry that could amount to a treacherous legal and political moment for the former president.”
Russia has expelled the deputy chief of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Moscow amid escalating tensions over Ukraine, the AP reports.
The U.S. embassy was quoted saying it would respond to the move.
“It’s very high.”
— President Biden, when asked by CBS News about the likelihood of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Of the 143 Republican congressional candidates in Texas, just 13 told the Houston Chronicle that President Biden’s victory in 2020 was legitimate.
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “More than 20% of the nation’s counties gave 80% or more of its 2-party presidential votes to either Donald Trump or Joe Biden.”
“Trump won the vast majority of these counties, but because Biden’s blowout counties are much more populous, he got many more votes out of his ‘super landslide’ counties than Trump got out of his.”
“Trump’s blowouts were concentrated in white, rural counties in the Greater South, Interior West, and Great Plains, while Biden’s were in a smattering of big cities, college towns, and smaller counties with large percentages of heavily Democratic nonwhite voters.”
“Ukraine’s military and the Russian-backed separatists it has battled for eight years in the country’s eastern Donbas region both accused the other side of opening fire on Thursday in violation of ceasefire agreements that have been shaky, at best, since they were signed seven years ago,” CBS News reports.
“The reports of shelling and gunfire were a worrying indication that tensions could be escalating despite Russia’s claims to be pulling forces back from Ukraine’s borders.”
Wall Street Journal: “The Ukrainian government said Kyiv-controlled areas of the Luhansk region came under sustained shelling Thursday morning.”
“Hopes were raised of a deal between the United States and Iran within days after both sides reported progress in talks on Tehran’s nuclear program,” the Times of London reports.
“Marine Le Pen has accused her spokesman of ‘high treason’ for allegedly spying on her on behalf of Éric Zemmour, her far-right rival in the French presidential election,” the Times of London reports.
“Le Pen, leader of the National Rally, suspended Nicolas Bay and described him as a ‘slimy slug’ who had tried to sabotage her campaign.“
“As the authorities threaten to arrest people blocking the streets of the capital, protest organizers on Wednesday appealed to supporters to pour into Ottawa and make their gatherings too large for the police to disperse,” the New York Times reports.
“Changing tactics, the organizers held a fairly standard and controlled news conference at a Sheraton hotel, trying to make their case to the journalists covering them and to ordinary Canadians. In the past, they have spoken primarily to supportive right-wing media, or at news conferences packed with supporters who heckled and intimidated reporters who asked questions.”
A total of 24 Russian warships have been operating in the Sea of Japan and the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk since Feb. 1, in what defense chief Nobuo Kishi called part of “unusual” large-scale military exercises, the Japan Times reports.
Playbook: “For months, many Republican operatives across the political spectrum — from MAGA world and the RNC to the NRSC and Team Mitch — have privately whispered agreement on one thing when it comes to Missouri’s crowded Senate GOP primary: They’d welcome any nominee except Eric Greitens.”
“The disgraced former governor of the Show-Me State resigned in 2018 after a woman testified under oath that Greitens tied her up in his basement, stripped her naked and took photos of her to use as blackmail in their extramarital affair — before forcing her to have oral sex with him. Greitens maintains that the exchange was consensual.”
“Despite that history — and despite a number of other prominent Republicans in the race — Greitens leads the pack in Missouri’s GOP primary. Party operatives know that if they want to stop him, they need to clear the field so that the anti-Greitens vote isn’t fragmented. But they’re at a loss over how to do that. None of the prominent candidates shows any sign of dropping out anytime soon.”
Hunter Biden’s ex-girlfriend has testified before a federal grand jury investigating him for alleged tax crimes, the Daily Mail reports.
“There’s a growing sense among Democrats that it’s time for a change of course at the White House — whether that means new strategy or new staffers,” NBC News reports.
“On the political front, President Joe Biden’s numbers aren’t getting better, his message isn’t resonating, and his party’s midterm prospects are bleak. On policy, his Build Back Better plan is dead, Covid is alive, and inflation is rising.”
“If he doesn’t take a new tack soon, it may be impossible for him to deliver for the public, help his party in November or move an agenda in the final three years of his term, according to a dozen lawmakers.”
“The Justice Department is launching a new initiative aimed at identifying companies that exploit supply chain disruptions in the U.S. to make increased profits in violation of federal antitrust laws,” 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.
