President Trump preemptively attacked a forthcoming book from journalist Bob Woodward:
“The Bob Woodward book will be a FAKE, as always, just as many of the others have been. But, believe it or not, lately I’ve been getting lots of GREAT books! Everybody does phony books on Donald Trump and Republicans.”
Trump agreed to be interviewed for the book more than a dozen times, CNN reports.
“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said that Republicans do not support withholding funding from the U.S. Postal Service and, in a break with Trump, urged voters to cast ballots by mail,” the Washington Post reports.
Said McCarthy: “The Postal Service will have the funding that it needs. We will make sure of that. We want to make sure we have an accurate election. I think any Republican that gets their ballot in the mail should vote and make sure their vote is counted.”
When asked if the American people will have a free, fair and credible election in November, Speaker Nancy Pelosi told NBC News: “Not if the president has anything to do with it.”
She also called the actions of the Trump administration “a domestic assault on our Constitution.”
New York Times: “The lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, 38, who was assigned to the Russia investigation, plans to admit that he altered an email from the CIA that investigators relied on to seek renewed court permission in 2017 for a secret wiretap on the former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, who had at times provided information to the spy agency.”
“Mr. Clinesmith had written texts expressing opposition to President Trump, who is sure to tout the plea agreement as evidence that the Russia investigation was illegitimate and politically motivated.”
Jonathan Bernstein: “The thing is that Trump, by opposing money for the U.S. Postal Service and supporting ‘reforms’ that have slowed it down, is just handing former Vice President Joe Biden yet another easy campaign issue. Democrats may or may not be able to overturn new procedures that are causing significant problems, but they certainly can make sure that anyone who’s waiting on a letter or a package thinks that Trump is responsible when it doesn’t show up on time. And that’s not the kind of thing politicians want voters to blame them for.”
Barack Obama: “Everyone depends on the USPS. Seniors for their Social Security, veterans for their prescriptions, small businesses trying to keep their doors open. They can’t be collateral damage for an administration more concerned with suppressing the vote than suppressing a virus.”
“If you’re in a state where you have the option to vote early, do that now. The more votes in early, the less likely you’re going to see a last minute crunch, both at polling places and in states where mail-in ballots are permitted. Then tell everyone you know.”
FiveThirtyEight has a state-by-state guide to voting during the pandemic.
The Government Accounting Office ruled that acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and his principal deputy Ken Cucinelli are ineligible to be serving in their current roles because they were appointed illegally, the Washington Post reports.
Walter Shaub, the former Director of the Office of Government Ethics, tweets:
“My sincere belief is that it’s far worse than you think and will get worse than most imagine. I pray I’m wrong. But the next several months will determine the fate of the world, and you have the privilege of deciding that fate with your actions. You won’t get a second chance.”
“Before running for office, Republican congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote dozens of articles as a ‘correspondent’ for a conspiracy news website,” NBC News reports.
“In posts published on the now-defunct ‘American Truth Seekers’ website in 2017, Greene wrote favorably of the QAnon conspiracy theory, suggested that Hillary Clinton murdered her political enemies, and ruminated on whether mass shootings were orchestrated to dismantle the Second Amendment.”
In one post, Greene chronicled what she claimed was “disturbing behavior that seems to keep raring it’s ugly heads. Child Sex, Satanism, and the Occult all associated with the Democratic Party.”
“A federal judge appointed by Donald Trump gave the president’s campaign one day to turn over evidence to support its claims of widespread mail-in voting fraud or admit that it doesn’t exist,” Bloomberg reports.
Trump’s lawyers claimed Pennsylvania’s mail voting plan “provides fraudsters an easy opportunity to engage in ballot harvesting, manipulate or destroy ballots, manufacture duplicitous votes, and sow chaos.”
A new ad from the Lincoln Project used the words of some of Donald Trump’s former employees and Cabinet members against him.
Playbook: “With a pandemic coursing through America, Congress is home for the month, and won’t return until mid-September. With an election 81 days away, congressional leaders left town without coming to a deal with the White House on a stimulus relief bill that could help ease the pain of struggling Americans. It seems exceedingly unlikely a deal will come together before Sept. 30 — if at all.”
“What this is about is not complicated. Trump may be crazy, but he’s not stupid. And he looks at polling. He is behind. And I think what he and his friends believe is that if they can suppress the vote… they have a better chance to win the election.”
— Sen. Bernie Sanders, on CNN.
A cluster of Republican lawmakers is apparently considering a plot to oust House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as the GOP ponders its post-Trump future, the Washington Post reports.
“According to interviews with more than 10 House Republicans — all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to be frank — some GOP lawmakers are worried that McCarthy has tied the conference too much to Trump, refusing to stand up to the president or act as a buffer to distinguish the conference from him.”
“Others are also furious that he didn’t shield them from a recent Trump campaign demand that House members donate to the president’s reelection effort.”
The Cook Political Report shifted its ratings in 15 more House districts, including 11 moves towards Democrats and four towards Republicans.
They now forecast a Democratic net gain between zero and ten seats.
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.
