“President Biden enjoyed high approval among Americans in the early months of his presidency. Millions of vaccines were distributed throughout the United States. The White House trumpeted high job growth as proof of a rebounding economy,” the New York Times reports.
“But privately Mr. Biden’s lead pollster was already sounding the alarm that even with the early successes, certain gathering threats could sink support for the president and his party.”
Tucker Carlson, the highest rated host in cable news, told Axios he hasn’t read a word of this weekend’s New York Times series about him — “and of course won’t.”
“Moscow is recasting its fight with Ukraine as a broader war between Russia and the West, as Kremlin leaders and state propaganda outlets warn Russians that the conflict with its smaller neighbor could spill over into a global clash,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The Kremlin and state-controlled media have warned in recent days that the West ultimately seeks to contain—or even destroy—Russia and have threatened retaliation, including the possibility of nuclear strikes.”
Associated Press: “The text exchange, in an April 22 court filing from the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot, is in a batch of startling evidence that shows the deep involvement of some House Republicans in Trump’s desperate attempt to stay in power. A review of the evidence finds new details about how, long before the attack on the Capitol unfolded, several GOP lawmakers were participating directly in Trump’s campaign to reverse the results of a free and fair election.”
“It’s a connection that members of the House Jan. 6 committee are making explicit as they prepare to launch public hearings in June. The Republicans plotting with Trump and the rioters who attacked the Capitol were aligned in their goals, if not the mob’s violent tactics, creating a convergence that nearly upended the nation’s peaceful transfer of power.”
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) said that he’s weighing a White House bid in 2024 and that he would still consider running even if former President Donald Trump enters the race, CNN reports.
Said Hutchinson: “You’ve got to get through, of course, this year. But that’s an option that’s on the table.”
He added: “I’ve made it clear: I think we ought to have a different direction in the future. I think he did a lot of good things for our country, but we need to go a different direction.”
Neil Parish has told the BBC he is resigning as an MP after admitting he watched pornography twice in Parliament.
He said the first time was accidental after looking at a tractor website, but the second time – in the House of Commons – was deliberate.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds President Biden’s standing with Americans has improved slightly over the past two months, but he remains in negative territory in most assessments of his performance in office and Republicans hold substantial advantages over Democrats on key economic indicators that are shaping the midterm election year.
With a 42% approval rating overall, Biden gets low marks on his handling of the economy and inflation and Republicans are significantly more trusted than Democrats on both measures.
Biden’s worst ratings come on the dominant issue of inflation, with 68% saying they disapprove compared with 28% who give him positive marks.
“This is the first time the president has attended this dinner in six years. It’s understandable. We had a horrible plague – followed by two years of Covid.”
— President Biden, quoted by The Guardian, at the White House Correspondents’ dinner.
“Just imagine if my predecessor came to this dinner this year. Now that would really have been a real coup.”
— President Biden, quoted by the Los Angeles Times, at the White House Correspondents’ dinner.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) promised to wage a vigorous review into the origins of the coronavirus if Republicans retake the Senate and he lands a committee chairmanship, the AP reports.
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a delegation of U.S. lawmakers met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Saturday night, as Russia’s military advance stalled in Ukraine’s east,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Pelosi: “Our delegation traveled to Kyiv to send an unmistakable and resounding message to the entire world: America stands firmly with Ukraine,”
New York Times: “The visit on Saturday by Ms. Pelosi and a few fellow Democratic lawmakers was kept secret until they returned to Poland, where they held a news conference on Sunday morning and vowed to back Ukraine ‘until victory is won.’”
Washington Post: “Pelosi walked the streets of Kyiv with several House Democratic lawmakers, including Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks and Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern.”
“The White House Correspondents’ Dinner makes its grand return Saturday night, two years after the pandemic shut it down and six years since the last time a commander-in-chief attended the event,” ABC News reports.
“President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden are scheduled to attend the charity event at the Washington Hilton, the first sitting president to do so since 2016. Former President Donald Trump vocally snubbed his three invitations during his time in office.”
New York Times: “In some respects, Mr. Carlson has taken Trumpism away from Mr. Trump. While the former president has urged his followers to get vaccinated and sought to claim more credit for his administration’s efforts to fight Covid-19, Mr. Carlson has continued to promote doubt about the vaccines’ efficacy, even likening mandates to Nazi medical experiments.”
“On the Jan. 6 anniversary, Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican, set out to walk back his comments accurately calling the Trump-inspired riot a ‘violent terrorist attack.’ He didn’t apologize to Mr. Trump. He apologized to Mr. Carlson, in a cringing appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
“Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows accused the congressional committee investigating last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol of leaking all of the text messages he provided to the panel in what he says was an effort to vilify him publicly,” the AP reports.
“Some Twitter power users, including journalists and politicians, are apoplectic about Elon Musk’s planned takeover of the platform. But there are plenty of optimists, in tech and among the general public, who believe Musk could make Twitter better,” Axios reports.
“With the deal expected to close later this year, what happens on the platform and to the platform will likely shape both the 2022 midterms and the next presidential election.”
New York Times: How Twitter’s board went from fighting Elon Musk to accepting him.
“A second woman has publicly accused Charles Herbster, the Republican candidate for governor in Nebraska endorsed by former President Donald Trump, of groping her at a 2019 Republican fund-raising dinner,” the New York Times reports.
“Elizabeth Todsen said Mr. Herbster grabbed her at the dinner in Omaha and said details of the incident reported earlier this month by the Nebraska Examiner were correct.”
New York Times: “In the years since, Mr. Carlson has constructed what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news — and also, by some measures, the most successful. Though he frequently declares himself an enemy of prejudice — ‘We don’t judge them by group, and we don’t judge them on their race,’ Mr. Carlson explained to an interviewer a few weeks before accusing impoverished immigrants of making America dirty — his show teaches loathing and fear.”
“Night after night, hour by hour, Mr. Carlson warns his viewers that they inhabit a civilization under siege — by violent Black Lives Matter protesters in American cities, by diseased migrants from south of the border, by refugees importing alien cultures, and by tech companies and cultural elites who will silence them, or label them racist, if they complain.”
“Vladimir Putin is set to declare all-out war on Ukraine as his military chiefs seek ‘payback’ for their invasion failures,” the Telegraph reports.
“Frustrated army chiefs are urging the Russian president to drop the term ‘special operation’ used for the invasion and instead declare war, which would enable mass mobilization of Russians.”
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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