Political Wire Members get the complete experience: exclusive analysis, a 24/7 trending news, no advertising, the weekly news quiz and more.
Join today for instant access.
“The U.S. and South Korean militaries launched eight ballistic missiles into the sea Monday in a show of force matching a North Korean missile display a day earlier that extended a provocative streak in weapons demonstrations,” the AP reports.
“The tit-for-tat missile launches were aimed at demonstrating the ability to respond swiftly and accurately to North Korean attacks.”
Arizona U.S. Senate hopeful Blake Masters (R) acknowledged that the United States has a gun violence problem. But he also has a theory about why there’s a problem — it’s “Black people, frankly,” the Daily Beast reports.
“President Joe Biden and his aides have grown increasingly frustrated by their inability to turn the tide against a cascade of challenges threatening to overwhelm the administration,” Politico reports.
“Soaring global inflation. Rising fuel prices. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A Supreme Court poised to take away a constitutional right. A potentially resurgent pandemic. A Congress too deadlocked to tackle sweeping gun safety legislation even amid an onslaught of mass shootings.”
“In crisis after crisis, the White House has found itself either limited or helpless in its efforts to combat the forces pummeling them. Morale inside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is plummeting amid growing fears that the parallels to Jimmy Carter, another first-term Democrat plagued by soaring prices and a foreign policy morass, will stick.”
“Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to Serbia has been cancelled after countries around Serbia closed their airspace to his aircraft,” Reuters reports.
Vladimir Putin said that Russia will strike new targets if the United States sends long-range missiles to Ukraine, Axios reports.
A new CBS News poll finds that 44% of Republicans say mass shootings are “something we have to accept as part of a free society.”
“You know, it’s one thing to sort of watch the news and to read about what’s happened to our party… It is really another thing to be here, and to look, and see all these empty seats and not see another Republican here.”
— Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), on CBS News, on what her father told her during the January 6 commemoration at the Capitol.
Rep. Tom Rice (R-SC), who voted to impeach Donald Trump, said he could possibly see voting for him again, Politico reports.
Said Rice: “If he came out and said: I’m sorry I made a huge mistake on January 6th, then I might consider it.”
“A gunman suspected of fatally shooting a retired county judge at a Wisconsin home had a list that included Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers,” the AP reports.
The former judge “was found zip-tied to a chair in his home and had been fatally shot.”
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein: “Donald Trump not only sought to destroy the electoral system through false claims of voter fraud and unprecedented public intimidation of state election officials, but he also then attempted to prevent the peaceful transfer of power to his duly elected successor, for the first time in American history.”
Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA), who worked as a technical adviser for the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, told CNN that he has left the Republican Party and that he will never run again as a Republican.
Said Riggleman: “What I’ve seen behind the scenes has pushed me further away. That the party has moved away from conservative principles to this cult of personality that Liz Cheney is talking about. She’s absolutely correct.”
Washington Post: “On Dec. 14, the pair seemed to make progress. Manchin had offered to support a $1.8 trillion package, a step toward the White House position, while Biden agreed to jettison a budget gimmick that Manchin believed disguised the true cost of the plan. The tenor of their conversations was ‘peachy,’ according to one person briefed on the talks, and the two sides agreed to put out a statement saying they would continue talking.”
“And then, incredibly, it all fell apart.”
“As the Supreme Court rounds the final weeks of the term it has yet to decide an unusually high number of cases including disputes over abortion, gun rights, religious liberty, immigration and the environment — issues that deeply divide the public and exacerbate the ideological split on the 6-3 conservative-liberal court,” CNN reports.
“June is always a fraught time at the court, as several justices have openly acknowledged in speeches over the years. But this spring is different. Not only are the nine judges reshaping contours of social issues that drive the public debate, but they are also working to salvage the institutional legitimacy of their own branch of government.”
“In a last-ditch effort to salvage their leadoff presidential selection position, Iowa Democrats are proposing two key changes that they hope will increase participation and avoid the chaos that marred their 2020 caucuses,” the AP reports.
“One change would allow Iowa Democrats to submit presidential preference cards by mail or in person before caucus night. Critics have long argued that the caucuses, held in the dead of winter at the dawn of a presidential election year, have prevented older adults, disabled people and shift workers from being able to take part.”
“The second change would eliminate the often confusing and time-consuming process of realignment, where supporters of a candidate who does not reach a minimum threshold of support in a precinct are allowed to choose another candidate. The new plan eliminates a second choice.”
Washington Post: “The fact that Fetterman and his campaign won the nomination without fully disclosing the extent of his physical maladies has raised concerns among Democrats that there may be more bad news to come, potentially endangering the party’s hopes for retaining Senate control this fall.”
“The politician, whose advisers have pitched him as an ‘authentic, straight-talking, no-B.S. populist’ — sporting a shaved pate, graying goatee and Carhartt sweatshirts — now faces the challenge of explaining the confusion to voters.”
“Almost a year after the formation of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, lawmakers are set to take their case public,” the Washington Post reports.
“On Thursday night, Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) will launch a series of televised hearings featuring a combination of live witnesses, pretaped interviews with figures that include Trump family members and previously unseen video footage.”
CNN: House Democrat expects disturbing new evidence at January 6 hearings.
“Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen denied that she tried to decrease the size of the $1.9 trillion rescue package Democrats approved in early 2021, defending legislation that is now a focus of debate about the causes of currently high inflation,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Yellen’s statement comes after Bloomberg News reported that a forthcoming biography about Ms. Yellen states that she had sought to lower the amount of spending in the legislation.”
Dan Balz: “In recent days, President Biden has spoken about guns on prime-time television and written for the Wall Street Journal (about inflation) and the New York Times (about Ukraine). He’s traveled to Uvalde, Tex., to grieve over the mass shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers. On Wednesday, he led a White House meeting to discuss the infant formula shortage. On Friday, he was out again, this time from Delaware, speaking about the economy and inflation.”
“In other words, the president seems to be everywhere. But to what end? It is something that worries Democrats heading toward the November midterm elections. But is it a problem of messaging or of policy, of words without impact or simply a sign of a weary and unhappy electorate that has stopped paying close attention to a president? Whatever it is, the political ramifications are serious. Biden has little time to figure it out, if it can be figured out, before voters render their judgment on his first two years in office.”
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.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.