President Trump is considering an executive order to try to move forward with a citizenship question on the 2020 census, Axios reports.
But there is considerable skepticism within the administration that an executive order would succeed.
President Trump is considering an executive order to try to move forward with a citizenship question on the 2020 census, Axios reports.
But there is considerable skepticism within the administration that an executive order would succeed.
CNN: “In one of the least polarizing speeches of his presidency, Trump paid tribute to America’s armed forces at a July Fourth appearance before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington that unfolded amid stormy skies and criticism that he was politicizing the nation’s Independence Day celebrations.”
“As warplanes roared overhead and the jumbo jet used as Air Force One performed a rare flyover over the National Mall, Trump spoke as critics accused him of exploiting the nation’s birthday party for his own political ends in an event he had dubbed ‘A Salute to America.’ Trump’s speech lacked the partisan rhetoric of his rallies. But the event nevertheless bolstered the President’s narrative that he is a strong commander in chief and a decisive leader.”
Associated Press: “He largely stuck to his script, avoiding diversions into his agenda or re-election campaign.”
Daily Beast: Trump’s not-crazy speech just highlighted the norms he’s crushed.
“The Supreme Court is already poised to drop some big political bombshells right into the heat of the 2020 campaign. And there are even more waiting in the wings,” Axios reports.
The justices are likely to take up an abortion case out of Louisiana. And yet another challenge to the Affordable Care Act is also working its way through the system.
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“Joe Biden compared President Trump to the kind of bully that he would ‘smack’ in the mouth as a child during an interview broadcast Friday in which the former vice president sought to dispel concerns about his shaky first Democratic debate performance,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Biden: “You walk behind me in the debate. Come here, man. The idea that I’d be intimidated by Donald Trump. He’s the bully that I knew my whole life. He’s the bully that I’ve always stood up to. He’s the bully that used to make fun when I was a kid that I stutter, and I’d smack them in the mouth.”
Washington Post: “The 2020 Democratic presidential race is still wide open, but candidates who have yet to break through have to decide how long they want to ride it out. In some cases, their ambitions for political Plan B will force them to make that call sooner rather than later.”
Joe Biden told CNN that he wasn’t prepared for Sen. Kamala Harris to confront him on issues of race the way she did at the first Democratic primary debate.
Said Biden: “I was prepared for them to come after me, but I wasn’t prepared for the person coming at me the way she came at me.”
Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs on Thursday described the U.S. generals who did not support President Trump’s “Salute to America” Fourth of July celebrations as “snowflakes,” and criticized them for not winning any recent wars, The Hill reports.
“President Trump read most of his Independence Day speech from a prepared text, but stumbled on his history at one point: He talked about airports during the American Revolution,” USA Today reports.
Said Trump: “Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over airports.”
Of course, there was no air travel in 18th Century America.
Rebecca Traister: “In past weeks, the curtain has officially been raised on the vast and diverse field of candidates for the Democratic nomination, many of them politicians who would not have been seen on a presidential debate stage — and never in these numbers — even a decade ago…”
“But we’re also getting our first real taste of the punditry that will frame this next year and a half, and so far, it is the opposite of fresh, diverse, or forward-thinking. Rather, the analysis coughed up by some of the nation’s loudest and most prominent talking heads sounds familiar and stale. The dispiriting truth is that many of those tasked with interpreting our politics are — in addition to being extremely freaked out by the race they’re covering — totally ill-equipped for the historic task ahead of them.”
Politico: “Even though the Sanders team would never call it a ‘reset,’ his aides are sharpening a new line of attack against his rivals and experimenting with different ways to connect with hard-to-reach voters as the race heats up. They’re also continuing to shift from big rallies to more intimate events in the nation’s early states, such as ice cream socials and selfie lines — an acknowledgment that Sanders needs to adopt a more personal approach and participate in additional retail politicking to win.”
“And even Sanders’ allies admit that he faces unique difficulties in 2020: Unlike in 2016, many of Sanders’ opponents have adopted major planks of his platform, giving voters more than one progressive candidate to choose from in the race. In recent weeks, some Sanders supporters have questioned if he should take a different approach in the debates, after not participating in mock sessions while prepping for the first showdown and ultimately failing to take on Biden in a memorable way.”
New York Times: “The slate of 24 contenders is too unwieldy for a constructive debate, many activists and strategists say, and too large for most voters to follow. And with a leadership vacuum at the top of the party, there is no one to elevate candidates with an endorsement, or help steer third-tier candidates out of the race when they’ve reached their plausible expiration date.”
“Former President Barack Obama, an influential voice among many Democrats, is sitting out the primary. The Clintons, a once-dominant party presence, are largely unwelcome this time around. In Washington, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is focused on keeping the House in order, and Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, has failed to recruit presidential candidates like Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana and former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas into potentially winnable Senate races.”
Washington Post: “The White House has also been scrambling in recent days to line up enough attendees, as Trump’s aides fret that either thunderstorms or the traditional free concert on the other end of the Mall could diminish the crowd for Trump’s 6:30 p.m. speech.”
“The administration has provided 5,000 tickets to the military, the Pentagon announced Wednesday. Trump’s reelection campaign has handed passes out to allies, donors and trade associations — from the American Bankers Association to the British Embassy… while several fundraisers and operatives also were tasked to hand out tickets.”
The Economist: “What would change if America became the 22nd country to make voting mandatory? To estimate non-voters’ views, The Economist used the Co-operative Congressional Election Study (CCES), a 64,600-person poll led by Harvard University. The survey includes demographic data such as race and age, as well as participants’ recollections of whom they voted for and verified records of whether they voted. In general, voters and non-voters from similar backgrounds had similar opinions. Using a method called ‘multilevel regression and post-stratification’, the relationships between demography and vote choices can be used to project state-level election results—and to estimate what might have happened in the past under different rules.”
“Non-voters are relatively uneducated, young and non-white. The first of these traits predicts conservatism, but the others point to liberalism. If everyone voted, 30% of voters in the 21 most competitive states would not be white, up from the actual figure of 25%. As a result, in a typical cycle Democrats would add 50 electoral-college votes—enough to reverse the result in 2016.”
President Trump responded to Rep. Justin Amash’s op-ed announcing that he would leave the Republican Party, calling him “one of the dumbest & most disloyal men in Congress,” USA Today reports.
Said Trump: “Great news for the Republican Party as one of the dumbest & most disloyal men in Congress is ‘quitting’ the Party.”
He added” “Knew he couldn’t get the nomination to run again in the Great State of Michigan. Already being challenged for his seat. A total loser!”
USA Today: “Warren isn’t the only 2020 candidate taking selfies, but the Massachusetts senator has set herself apart in the crowded field by making the photo line a signature part of her campaign events. Her campaign says she’s already taken 35,000 selfies at town halls and other events since launching her campaign six months ago.”
Explaining how many would post their photos to social media, Democratic party operative Chad Crabtree said: “You can’t buy advertising like this.”
Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI), writing in the Washington Post:
Today, I am declaring my independence and leaving the Republican Party. No matter your circumstance, I’m asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us. I’m asking you to believe that we can do better than this two-party system — and to work toward it. If we continue to take America for granted, we will lose it.
Sen. Kamala Harris labeled President Trump a “predator” that she could take on due to her background as a prosecutor — a new line of attack against the president as the California Democrat is surging following her debate performance last week, USA Today reports.
Said Harris: “I know predators. And we have a predator living in the White House.”
Harris added that Trump “has predatory nature and predatory instincts.”
A new Gallup Poll finds President Trump’s approval rate at 41% to 54%.
When asked for their opinion “based on what you know about Robert Mueller’s investigation into Donald Trump’s activities,” 45% of U.S. adults said Trump should be impeached and removed from office over the matter, while 53% said he should not be.
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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