Ohio U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance (R) stood up for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) appearance at a white nationalist conference last month, insisting: “She did nothing wrong.”
Said Vance: “She is my friend, and she did nothing wrong… and I’m absolutely not going to throw her under the bus, or anybody else who is a friend of mine.”
“Internal White House records from the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol that were turned over to the House select committee show a gap in President Donald Trump’s phone logs of seven hours and 37 minutes, including the period when the building was being violently assaulted,” the Washington Post reports.
“The House panel is now investigating whether Trump communicated that day through backchannels, phones of aides or personal disposable phones, known as ‘burner phones.’”
“One lawmaker on the panel said the committee is investigating a ‘possible coverup’ of the official White House record from that day.”
“Federal prosecutors and congressional investigators have gathered growing evidence of how a tweet by President Donald Trump less than three weeks before Jan. 6, 2021, served as a crucial call to action for extremist groups that played a central role in storming the Capitol,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump’s Twitter post in the early hours of Dec. 19, 2020, was the first time he publicly urged supporters to come to Washington on the day Congress was scheduled to certify the Electoral College results showing Joseph Biden as the winner of the presidential vote.”
“Extremist groups almost immediately celebrated Mr. Trump’s Twitter message, which they widely interpreted as an invitation to descend on the city in force.”
Wall Street Journal: “A wide-open view of the inner workings of what is perhaps the world’s biggest and most dangerous organized cybercrime group is a surprising consequence of the war in Ukraine. An anonymous researcher who had infiltrated the group’s servers, and who identified himself as Ukrainian, posted the data on Twitter on Feb. 27. ‘Ukraine will Rise!’ he then wrote in a March 2 tweet.”
“Security researchers and U.S. officials say the internal conversations amount to the most complete and candid public look yet at the operations of a criminal ransomware enterprise.”
“Global supply strains that started to ease in early 2022 are worsening again as headwinds strengthen from the war in Ukraine and China’s Covid lockdowns, threatening slower growth and faster inflation across the global economy,” Bloomberg reports.
New York Times: “In a world contending with no end of economic troubles, a fresh source of concern now looms: the prospect of a confrontation between union dockworkers and their employers at some of the most critical ports on earth.”
The long-stalled nomination of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to be U.S. ambassador to India is in limbo, with some Senate Democrats privately whispering its dead – or “withering on the vine,” in the words of one Democrat, Punchbowl News reports.
Donald Trump put out a statement bragging about a hole-in-one he made while playing with pro golfers. It was incredible even for him.
Said Trump: “I won’t tell you who won because I am a very modest individual.”
Nebraska state Sen. Bruce Bostelman (R) “apologized on Monday after he publicly cited a persistent but debunked rumor alleging that schools are placing litter boxes in school bathrooms to accommodate children who self-identify as cats,” the AP reports.
Said Bostleman: “They meow and they bark and they interact with their teachers in this fashion. And now schools are wanting to put litter boxes in the schools for these children to use. How is this sanitary?”
“The false claim that children who identify as cats are using litter boxes in school bathrooms has spread across the internet since at least December.”
Out this week: American Reboot: An Idealist’s Guide to Getting Big Things Done by former Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX).
If that title sounds like a book by someone running for president in 2024, it’s because he is.
“The House’s Jan. 6 select committee vented frustration with the Justice Department on Monday for not criminally charging former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows for contempt of Congress and not taking other steps to support their investigation,” Politico reports.
“As the panel teed up two more criminal referrals — this time seeking contempt charges against former Trump aides Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro — members repeatedly urged the Justice Department to take more-aggressive action.”
“It is absolutely essential for our democracy that we win. I fear for our democracy if the Republicans were ever to get the gavel. We can’t let that happen.”
— Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in an interview with Molly Ball.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said Monday that former President Donald Trump was warned of the possibility of violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Axios reports.
Said Cheney: “We have learned that President Trump and his team were warned, in advance and repeatedly, that the efforts they undertook to overturn the 2020 election would violate the law and our Constitution.”
She added: “They were warned that January 6th could, and likely would, turn violent.”
“Members of the Democratic National Committee voiced support Monday for 2024 presidential nominating procedures under review that could dislodge Iowa from its five-decades status as the caucus starting point,” Axios reports.
“North Korea looks set to detonate its first nuclear bomb in more than four years, as the U.S.’s sanctions disputes with Russia and China make further United Nations penalties against the country unlikely,” Bloomberg reports.
“The Defense Department plans to accelerate production of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles so it can refill its own depleted stocks as it continues to send the vital systems to Ukrainian forces fighting the Russian invasion,” CNN reports.
New York Times: “A bipartisan coalition of county-level election administrators — the people who carry out the day-to-day work of running elections — is speaking out against the latest Republican measure. At a legislative hearing on Monday, they warned that the proposal would create additional burdens on a dwindling force of election workers and that the provisions could lead to more voter intimidation.”
Los Angeles Times: “Since taking office, the roster of confidants she relies on for advice and support has contracted and tilted away from her long-time home base of California. The narrowing of her inner circle reflects both the demands of the vice presidency, which leave little time for social calls, and her own tendency to be selective in whom she seeks counsel, according to interviews with longtime friends, advisors and current and former staffers.”
“The change has left close friends saying they are satisfied and pleasantly surprised by her efforts to stay in touch, even if the calls are understandably less frequent. Yet some of her earliest backers warn that her outreach has been insufficient to maintain a loyal base of support and could hamper her ability to make another run at the presidency. They also worry that Harris, unlike President Biden, lacks a full stable of trusted and tested allies to guide her through a vice presidency that has proved to be as daunting as it is historic.”
Former CBS News correspondent and current Fox Nation host Lara Logan said that “the theory of evolution is the result of a wealthy Jewish family paying Charles Darwin to devise an explanation for what gave rise to humanity,” Rolling Stone 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.
