“If you wanted to kill a bunch of MAGA voters in the middle of the heartland, how better than to target them and their kids with this deadly fentanyl?… It does look intentional. It’s like Joe Biden wants to punish the people who didn’t vote for him and opening up the floodgates to the border is one way to do it.”
— J.D. Vance (R), in an interview with Gateway Pundit.
“Shanghai’s lockdown has kept tens of millions of residents trapped indoors for a month and a half. Thousands of others in China’s wealthiest city have found themselves in the opposite predicament: living in the street,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“President Biden argued Tuesday that congressional Republicans would worsen inflation and raise taxes on American families, part of a growing effort to cast the GOP as obstructing his agenda and fixated on culture wars instead of governing,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“With midterm elections looming, Mr. Biden remains weighed down by low approval ratings and rising public frustration with high prices fueled by the pandemic, government spending and the war in Ukraine. Now he is eager to take the offensive and put pressure on Republicans to defend their own plans.”
“Russia’s nearly three-month-old invasion of neighboring Ukraine has been punctuated by flawed planning, poor intelligence, barbarity and wanton destruction,” the New York Times reports.
“But obscured in the daily fighting is the geographic reality that Russia has made gains on the ground.”
Puck: “These days, Ellison’s commitments to GOP causes are trending red hot. Last week, he was revealed as the single biggest outside backer of Elon Musk’s officially apolitical, but pointedly conservative-friendly, takeover of Twitter.”
“Ellison, once a registered Democrat, has also donated a staggering $25 million to Republican senator and potential presidential hopeful Tim Scott, placing him alongside Peter Thiel in the upper echelon of conservative Silicon Valley mega-donors.”
“Senate Republicans are dismissing attacks on Mehmet Oz’s Turkish citizenship by his GOP rivals, boosting the campaign of the Donald Trump-endorsed TV star ahead of next week’s primary,” Politico reports.
“In interviews, Republicans gave Oz what amounts to a leg up in his nasty primary by saying that they have no concerns about his loyalty and no problems with him receiving classified briefings should he become a U.S. senator.”
“The Supreme Court is set to gather Thursday for the first time since the disclosure that it voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, and there’s no sign that the court is changing course from issuing that ruling by the end of June,” Politico reports.
“Justice Samuel Alito’s sweeping and blunt draft majority opinion from February overturning Roe remains the court’s only circulated draft in the pending Mississippi abortion case, Politico has learned, and none of the conservative justices who initially sided with Alito have to date switched their votes. No dissenting draft opinions have circulated from any justice, including the three liberals.”
“Republican voters in Nebraska on Tuesday rejected a candidate for governor accused of sexually assaulting multiple women, nominating University of Nebraska regent Jim Pillen over Charles Herbster, an agribusiness executive supported by former president Donald Trump,” the Washington Post reports.
New York Times: “Mr. Herbster is the first candidate endorsed by Mr. Trump to lose a Republican primary in 2022. Many more Trump-endorsed candidates are facing stiff headwinds in coming primaries, starting with contests for governor in Idaho next week and in Georgia on May 24.
“It’s been 75 days since Russia invaded Ukraine, and as the battle becomes a grinding war of attrition, Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be preparing for ‘a prolonged conflict,’ a top U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday,” the Washington Post reports.
Wall Street Journal: “U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told lawmakers Tuesday. U.S. spy agencies, she said, see a lengthy war of attrition that is unlikely to be settled by the current fighting in eastern Ukraine, and little chance of a near-term negotiated solution.
“Some Federal Reserve officials have begun to acknowledge that they were too slow to respond to rapid inflation last year, a delay that is forcing them to constrain the economy more abruptly now — and one that could hold lessons for the policy path ahead,” the New York Times reports.
“Inflation began to accelerate last spring, but Fed policymakers and most private-sector forecasters initially thought price gains would quickly fade. It became clear in early fall that fast inflation was proving to be more lasting — but the Fed pivoted toward rapidly removing policy support only in late November and did not raise rates until March.”
Wall Street Journal: Senate confirms Lisa Cook to Federal Reserve Board.
“The House of Representatives will officially allow congressional staffers to unionize, marking a historic milestone following years of workplace complaints on Capitol Hill,” the Washington Post reports.
New York Times: “The vote came amid pressure from aides, particularly junior staff members, who have become increasingly open about their frustrations with the low pay, long hours and notoriously difficult work environment on Capitol Hill.”
Politico: “The move comes amid a swelling tidal wave of grievances from staff, along with efforts by leadership and lawmakers to stem burnout and brain drain among employees who serve vital roles in the legislative branch, including serving constituents, conducting oversight of federal agencies and drafting legislation.”
“Top Republicans are mounting a last-ditch, behind-the-scenes effort to stop state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a leading voice in the movement to overturn the 2020 election results, from winning the party nomination for governor in Pennsylvania,” Politico reports.
Philadelphia Inquirer: “Republican leaders are trying to corral Mastriano’s four leading rivals to urge all but one of them to drop out — and endorse the one with the best poll numbers. One version of the proposal calls for rallying behind former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, who was well-liked by former President Donald Trump and polling in second place in the latest public survey. It’s a long-shot ploy a week before the primary that many Republicans believe is likely to fail.”
“But it reflects the panic in some quarters over the likelihood Mastriano, a far-right state senator from Franklin County, will lead the GOP ticket this fall.”
Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV) defeated Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) in a primary in West Virginia that again proved both the power of an endorsement by former President Donald Trump and the weight that right-wing ideology holds with Republican primary voters, the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Mooney, a four-term House Republican known more as a conservative warrior than a legislator, used Mr. Trump’s endorsement to overcome a distinct disadvantage: The redrawn district he was running in included far more of Mr. McKinley’s old district than Mr. Mooney’s.”
“The huge margins Mr. Mooney was able to run up in the fast-growing counties from his old district along the Maryland state line proved too great for Mr. McKinley… It was a thorough repudiation of Mr. McKinley’s pragmatism.”
Ohio U.S. candidate J.D. Vance (R) once wrote for a website run by David Frum, who now offers a personal reflection on the Vance he knew in The Atlantic.
“Vance wrote for FrumForum under a pseudonym. So, even as my former contributor’s career has lurched in disturbing directions, I’ve felt honor-bound to maintain confidentiality about the pieces.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) called on President Biden to resign, alleging that Biden is mentally unfit to carry out his duties as president, Fox News reports.
Said Scott: “Let’s be honest here. Joe Biden is unwell. He’s unfit for office. He’s incoherent, incapacitated and confused. He doesn’t know where he is half the time. He’s incapable of leading and he’s incapable of carrying out his duties.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) investigation into allegations surrounding Mayor Eric Garcetti and his former top aide found it “extremely unlikely” that Garcetti was unaware of the aide’s alleged inappropriate behavior, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The 23-page report released Tuesday concluded that Garcetti “likely knew or should have known that Rick Jacobs was sexually harassing multiple individuals and making racist comments towards others.”
New York Times: “Faced with financial pressure and a federal investigation into his taxes and foreign consulting work, Hunter Biden has turned for money and strategic advice to an unlikely source: a wealthy Hollywood lawyer and novelist best known for brokering a lucrative licensing deal for the animated series South Park.”
“The lawyer, Kevin Morris, has quietly taken on an expansive role as a financier, confidant and would-be avenger for Mr. Biden, handling sensitive subjects for President Biden’s son that could have acute political ramifications for the White House.”
Rolling Stone: “Near the beginning of Donald Trump’s time in office, the then-president had a pressing question for his national-security aides and administration officials: Does China have the secret technology — a weapon, even — to create large, man-made hurricanes and then launch them at the United States? And if so, would this constitute an act of war by a foreign power, and could the U.S. retaliate militarily? Then-President Trump repeatedly asked about this.”
Said a former Trump official: “It was almost too stupid for words. I did not get the sense he was joking at all.”
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.