The father of Trevor Reed, a Texas marine recently released from detention in Russia, told the Dallas Morning News that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) “didn’t do anything” to help negotiate the release.
Said Joey Reed: “He’s an embarrassment to the state of Texas. I don’t care what or who runs against him, I will work for their campaign to defeat that son of a bitch.”
Jonathan Chait: “Inflation is, by far, President Biden’s gravest problem. It is eating up the wage gains thrown off by the hot labor market and forcing the Federal Reserve to risk triggering a recession by raising interest rates. It is the main cause of his anemic approval ratings and the terrifyingly high probability that a dangerously authoritarian Republican Party will win the 2024 election.”
“There isn’t a button Biden can push to make the whole problem go away. But there is a button he can push to make some of the problem go away. The mystery is why he hasn’t pushed it.”
“That button is to rescind the tariffs imposed by his predecessor, which were created by executive order, and could be reversed the same way.”
Elie Honig: “It’s now early May – sixteen months since the January 6th attack, and fourteen months since Garland took office. There’s no technical reason DOJ needs to indict anytime soon — the federal crimes in play here typically carry five-year statutes of limitations — but the Department’s pace conveys a lack of urgency that is ill-matched to the gravity of the potential crimes.”
“Put it this way: if Trump did commit a crime relating to the coup attempt, it’s the most serious political crime in our country’s history. Yet the Justice Department is going to wait a year and change (and counting) to do anything about it?”
“I know, I know: these things take time, and they want their case to be perfect. That’s an easy refrain, but I reject it in these circumstances. During my fourteen years as a prosecutor, I saw law enforcement move with astonishing speed when circumstances demanded it.”
“Members of the US Senate are aiming to pass a bipartisan bill that would expand security protection to the family members of justices, following protests at some Supreme Court justices’ homes over the weekend,” CNN reports.
“I do not think Putin is a character like Hitler. He comes out of Dostoyevsky.”
— Henry Kissinger, in an interview with the Financial Times.
“Congressional Democrats are preparing a plan that would boost President Joe Biden’s requested $33 billion Ukraine aid package to nearly $40 billion, and a House vote is possible as soon as Tuesday,” the AP reports.
“In what would be a setback for Biden’s push for more COVID-19 spending, the measure would not include any of added billions in pandemic spending that the president has wanted included in the plan.”
“Sen. Joe Manchin has been labeled the most powerful man in Washington for his willingness to single-handedly tank President Joe Biden’s agenda. But on the Democratic campaign trail in 2022, Manchin, the centrist from West Virginia, is a target of derision,” NBC News reports.
“Democrats with some conservative policy positions are being scornfully compared to him by rivals appealing to primary voters to carry the party’s torch.”
“A new Alabama law banning certain medical treatments for minors with gender dysphoria takes effect today unless a federal judge grants a request to put a temporary hold on it while a lawsuit is pending,” AL.com reports.
“Alabama’s law is the first in the country to actually take effect.”
Days after Stacey Abrams (D) qualified to run for governor in March, a super PAC funded by billionaire megadonor George Soros put $1 million into her campaign, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
Citing “rumors around D.C.,” Breitbart reports that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and his family had to seek shelter at an undisclosed location.
Politico says the report seems to be fueled by comments from conservative lawyer Ilya Shapiro, who said on Fox News that he “heard that Justice Alito has been taken to an undisclosed location with his family.”
Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel (D) said she will refuse to enforce what she calls a 1931 “Draconian law,” which would make abortion illegal in Michigan if Roe v. Wade is overturned, MLive reports.
Said Nessel: “Let’s be clear, women in my state and states all over America are going to die because of this position.”
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) cut a television ad backing Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who faces Donald Trump-backed challenger Katie Arrington (R), the Columbia State reports.
Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick (R) released a new ad which suggests former President Donald Trump might have endorsed him — even though Trump actually endorsed rival Mehmet Oz (R) in the race.
Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg told ABC News that a clerk for a conservative justice is the “leading theory” amid intense speculation about who released a draft opinion authored by Justice Samuel Alito showing the court is set to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Said Totenberg: “The only one that makes sense is it came from somebody who was afraid that this majority might not hold.”
Earlier for members: The Supreme Court Leak Was Probably by Conservatives
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) tried to discredit a staffer he fired who was 28 weeks pregnant after she requested maternity leave, Jezebel reports.
“Court documents show that the congressman himself requested staffers write letters about the woman’s job performance after he fired her.”
A new AP-NORC poll finds about 1 in 3 U.S. adults believes an effort is underway to replace native-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains.
“About 3 in 10 also worry that more immigration is causing native-born Americans to lose their economic, political and cultural influence… Republicans are more likely than Democrats to fear a loss of influence because of immigration, 36% to 27%.”
“Former President Donald Trump said he no longer has four cell phones identified by the New York attorney general’s investigation into the Trump Organization’s finances but has turned over his personal phone to be searched as he tries to convince a state judge to lift a civil contempt ruling that so far has cost him $140,000,” CNN reports.
Nearly 40% of popular baby formula brands were sold out at retailers across the U.S. during the week starting April 24, USA Today 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.
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