President Biden plans to deliver a prime time address on recent mass shootings and urge Congress to pass “commonsense laws” in response, the Washington Post reports.
Politico: “Biden has delivered relatively few prime time addresses to date. Absent his speeches before joint sessions of Congress, he spoke to the nation last March to mark the one-year anniversary of the country shutting down due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The speech is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said he’s willing to do “whatever it takes” to reelect Tom Rice (R) to Congress as the embattled Republican incumbent faces a crowded primary over his vote to impeach then-President Donald Trump, the Charleston Post & Courier reports.
Derek Thompson: “In May, the Federal Reserve published a report on the economic well-being of American households in 2021. This survey is infamous for revealing, in 2013, that half of Americans couldn’t cover a $400 emergency with spare cash.”
“In 2021, the findings were surprisingly positive, especially given the relentless heartrending punishment that is the 2020s news cycle. Self-reported financial well-being increased to the highest percentage in the nine-year history of the survey. As for that $400 emergency payment, more than two-thirds of adults now say that they can make it. This key measure of financial security improved 40 percent, during a pandemic.”
“Now here’s where things get weird. The Fed also asked Americans how they felt about the local and national economy. And though the number of Americans who said that they personally were “doing at least okay” actually rose slightly from 2019 to 2021, their evaluation of the national economy plummeted in that time frame.”
“Disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti was sentenced to four years in prison for stealing nearly $300,000 from his former client, adult film actress Stormy Daniels,” CNN reports.
Jonathan Chait: “Donald Trump’s bid to win an unelected second term spectacularly failed. But the effort he inspired is winning a longer-term campaign to reshape his party into an organ to advance his belief that Democratic election victories are inherently illegitimate. Trump’s success can be seen in the general refusal of Republican officials to acknowledge Joe Biden’s legitimate victory and their co-option of stop-the-steal fantasies with vote-suppression laws and new election police forces.”
“Its most dangerous manifestation is probably the creation of an institutionalized movement to disrupt and challenge elections on the ground as they occur.”
CNN has added a “Breaking News” guideline to its stylebook, to address overuse of the breaking news banner across its network and cable news writ-large, Axios reports.
“A judge declined to put a former Detroit police chief on the Republican ballot for Michigan governor, the third candidate to lose a court challenge after election staff said campaign petitions were marred by fraudulent signatures,” the AP reports.
“It’s a remarkable setback for James Craig (R), who has high name recognition in southeastern Michigan and retired as Detroit’s top cop last year to make his first run for office.”
Utah County Attorney David Leavitt called for an outside investigation and the resignation of the county’s top law enforcement officer, saying Sheriff Mike Smith has dredged up outlandish allegations accusing the county attorney of “cannibalizing young children” and participating in a “ritualistic” sex ring, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, put out a tweet denying that he’s retiring from the House of Representatives.
“OPEC and its allies agreed Thursday to a bigger-than-expected oil-production increase of 648,000 barrels a day in July and August, OPEC delegates said, allowing Saudi Arabia to potentially pump more crude and paving the way for a potential deal with the U.S.,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The move would represent a significant shift for the Saudis, who have resisted calls from the U.S., U.K. and other Western countries to pump more oil to help reduce a price boom resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The discussions come after a flurry of diplomacy between Washington and Riyadh, with senior U.S. officials traveling to Saudi Arabia in recent weeks to broker a deal.”
“After Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) flipped an Orange County House seat in 2020, she was hailed as one of the new faces of the Republican Party: a 58-year-old Korean American politician who was able to win a seat even as Joe Biden carried the district at the top of the ticket,” the New York Times reports.
“After redistricting, the seat was drawn even more in her favor in 2022. Instead of having a Democratic tilt, analysts say, it now favors Republicans — and seemingly Kim.”
“And yet an expensive rescue mission on Kim’s behalf has been not so quietly underway in recent weeks ahead of California’s June 7 primary, which was supposed to have been a cakewalk for the incumbent Republican.”
A new Wall Street Journal-NORC poll finds that 68% of Americans want the Supreme Court to uphold Roe v. Wade, and 58% favor women having access to legal abortion for any reason — the highest it’s been since the question was first asked in 1977.
Meanwhile, a new Gallup poll finds that after a decade in which Americans’ identification as “pro-choice” varied narrowly between 45% and 50%, the percentage has jumped six points to 55% in the latest poll.
Queen Elizabeth II kicked off four days of festivities to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee, the 70-year anniversary of her ascension to the throne, the BBC reports.
Wall Street Journal: “The Trooping of the Colour, an annual military parade that marks the queen’s official birthday, featured over 1,200 British Army soldiers and 240 horses marching in tight formation. The Queen, who has suffered mobility problems of late, stood on the balcony at Buckingham Palace dressed in a dove-blue dress and holding a walking stick, as she inspected the troops marching past.”
The White House is lifting a longtime barrier of entry to many young Americans as it announces it will pay its interns starting this fall, CNN reports.
“The Senate’s bipartisan group considering new gun control measures met Wednesday, and our reporting indicates the talks are progressing at a somewhat quick clip,” Punchbowl News reports.
Said Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME): “We are making rapid progress toward a common sense package that could garner support from both Republicans and Democrats.”
“Rapid progress. That’s not something you hear too often during thorny and complicated legislative negotiations.”
“The white supremacist accused in the Tops Markets mass shooting that killed 10 people faces a 25-count indictment in Erie County Court, including a charge of domestic terrorism,” the Buffalo News 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.