Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) predicted that former President Donald Trump “would not be the party’s nominee for president in 2024, pointing to the number of seats lost by Republicans in the House and Senate over the four years Trump was in office,” The Hill reports.
Said Cassidy: “That’s a theoretical that I don’t think will come to pass. I don’t mean to duck, but the truth is you could ask me about a lot of people, if they are fit. Point is, I don’t think he’ll be our nominee.”
Aides tell the Associated Press that Donald Trump will use his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference to blast President Joe Biden and try to cement his status as the party’s undisputed leader going forward despite his loss in November.
Trump will say, according to released excerpts: “I stand before you today to declare that the incredible journey we began together four years ago is far from over. We are gathered this afternoon to talk about the future — the future of our movement, the future of our party, and the future of our beloved country.”
According to USA Today, Trump will say Biden has had “the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history.”
“White House officials have said neither they nor Biden plan to comment much on Trump’s speech because they expect to be busy working.”
“At least 18 people were killed in Myanmar on Sunday, the United Nations said, as security forces began their toughest crackdown yet against protesters who have taken to the streets every day for more than three weeks to oppose this month’s coup, signaling the military’s growing willingness to use lethal force despite international condemnation of its actions,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced that a former federal judge would conduct an outside review of the two sexual harassment charges against him, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Cuomo: “I ask all New Yorkers to await the findings of the review so that they know the facts before making any judgments. I will have no further comment until the review has concluded.”
Washington Post: “The court on Tuesday will review the shield provided by the Voting Rights Act (VRA), first passed in 1965 to forbid laws that result in discrimination based on race.”
“The cases at the Supreme Court involve two voting regulations from Arizona that are in common use across the country. One throws out the ballots of those who vote in the wrong precinct. The other restricts who may collect ballots cast early for delivery to polling places, a practice then-President Donald Trump denounced as ‘ballot harvesting.'”
“But the greater impact will be the test that the increasingly conservative court develops for proving violations of the VRA, as new laws are proposed and state legislatures begin redrawing congressional and legislative districts following the 2020 Census.”
“I think he’s going to run in 2024 because this is the most money that he’s ever made. Just imagine making $300 million off of these rubes that he’s conning after the election with his big lie… So he’ll run again in 2024.”
— Anthony Scaramucci, on MSNBC, predicting Donald Trump will run for president in 2024.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Saturday declared a Republican takeover of the House majority a sure bet in 2022, the Washington Times reports.
Said McCarthy: “I will bet my house … my personal house.”
He said there was “not a chance” they lose in 2022.
“A second former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is accusing him of sexual harassment, saying that he asked her questions about her sex life, whether she was monogamous in her relationships and if she had ever had sex with older men,” the New York Times reports.
“The aide, Charlotte Bennett, who was an executive assistant and health policy adviser in the Cuomo administration until she left in November, told The New York Times that the governor had harassed her late last spring, during the height of the state’s fight against the coronavirus.”
“Nebraska’s most politically involved Republicans, many of whom have been itching to give Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) a piece of their mind, sent him a message on Saturday,” the Omaha World Herald reports.
“But the Nebraska Republican Party stopped short of formally censuring Sasse. Instead, core activists on the GOP’s State Central Committee passed a resolution attacking Sasse’s work as a senator.”
Washington Post: “The story of Cawthorn’s rise is, by any measure, an extraordinary accomplishment at a young age by a man who suffered a horrific injury. But an examination by The Post of how he ascended so quickly shows how even one of the most neophyte elected Republicans is adopting the Trump playbook, making false statements about his background, issuing baseless allegations about voter fraud and demonizing his political opponents.”
“Led by loyalists who embrace former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of a stolen election, Republicans in state legislatures nationwide are mounting extraordinary efforts to change the rules of voting and representation — and enhance their own political clout,” the New York Times reports.
“At the top of those efforts is a slew of bills raising new barriers to casting votes, particularly the mail ballots that Democrats flocked to in the 2020 election. But other measures go well beyond that, including tweaking Electoral College and judicial election rules for the benefit of Republicans; clamping down on citizen-led ballot initiatives; and outlawing private donations that provide resources for administering elections, which were crucial to the smooth November vote.”
“His presidency was unlike any other, so why would we expect his post-presidency to be like any other?”
— James Carville, quoted by the New York Times, on Donald Trump.
Associated Press: “Facing damning evidence in the deadly Capitol siege last month — including social media posts flaunting their actions — rioters are arguing in court they were following then-President Donald Trump’s instructions on Jan. 6. But the legal strategy has already been shot down by at least one judge and experts believe the argument is not likely to get anyone off the hook for the insurrection where five people died, including a police officer.”
Washington Post: “Starting Monday, the White House’s press office said it will start charging journalists for coronavirus tests, which are required for anyone entering the White House grounds. The proposed cost for each test: $170. With dozens of journalists at the White House each day, the fees could add up to tens of thousands of dollars flowing from newsrooms, many of them small and cash-strapped, into government coffers.”
“Until now, the cost of testing has been borne by the White House. But officials there contend that the cost of maintaining the testing regime for nearly a year has strained its budget. So it wants to shift the burden onto news organizations: No test, no entry to the White House.”
Politico: “Traditionally, state legislators and political mapmakers rely heavily on recent election results for clues about how communities will vote in the future — baselines they use to gerrymander advantageous districts for their party. But the whiplash in Trump-era elections make drawing conclusions from those results more complicated this year.”
“And both parties’ strategists know that if they make bad bets, drawing districts based on elections that were driven more by Trump’s singular personality than by trends that will persist until 2030, those mistakes could swing control of the House against them over the next decade.”
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) told The Atlantic there would have been 150 Republican votes in the House of Representatives to impeach Donald Trump after the Capitol insurrection if it had been a secret ballot.
Instead, there were only 10.
“Richard Grenell, a top ally of former President Donald Trump, strongly hinted at a run for California governor in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday morning,” Politico reports.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) appeared at a white nationalist convention Friday night, marking new GOP support for the racist movement, the Daily Beast reports.
Gosar was joined at the event by former Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who lost his congressional committee seats after defending white nationalism.
The organizer of the event praised the January 6 Capitol riot as “awesome,” describing it as “light-hearted mischief.”
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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