Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was questioned by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) before the House Foreign Affairs Committee:
LIEU: Are you going to speak at CPAC today?
POMPEO: Yes.
LIEU: So you could only give two hours to Congress, and instead of answering questions on life and death issues you’re going to go talk to a special interest group?
POMPEO: Yes.
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee told Fox & Friends that President Trump didn’t get enough credit for what he’s done to halt the spread of coronavirus.
Said Huckabee: “He could personally suck the virus out of every one of the 60,000 people in the world, suck it out of their lungs, swim to the bottom of the ocean and spit it out, and he would be accused of pollution for messing up the ocean.”
The comments sent the hashtag #SuckItTrump soaring on Twitter.
“House Democrats are seeking interviews with the four career prosecutors who quit the case of Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of President Trump, after Trump and Justice Department leaders intervened to demand a lighter jail sentence,” Politico reports.
The interviews are part of “broader demands for documents and testimony about allegations of political interference by Trump in the work of the Justice Department.”
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Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney criticized the news media for refusing to cover what he described as President Trump’s loving relationship with his 13-year-old son, Barron, the New York Times reports.
“He said Mr. Trump is in frequent contact with his youngest son, calling to check in on him and let him know of his whereabouts. But, Mr. Mulvaney said, ‘the press would never show you that because it doesn’t fit that image of him, the press wants him to be this terrible monster.'”
“Mr. Mulvaney’s decision to discuss Barron Trump was curious, especially when Melania Trump, the first lady, and senior White House officials have gone to great lengths to make sure he enjoys the privacy afforded to other children of presidents growing up in the uncomfortable spotlight of the White House. The White House press corps has generally agreed to grant Barron Trump the same privacy.”
A new Wason Center poll in Virginia finds Joe Biden leading the Democratic field with 22%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 17%, Mike Bloomberg at 13%, Pete Buttigieg at 8%, Elizabeth Warren at 8% and Amy Klobuchar at 5%.
Asked if they will support the party’s eventual nominee, 82% of Democratic primary voters say yes, and 67% say “definitely.”
Of the 18% who are uncertain or who say they definitely won’t, two-thirds fear the nominee will be “too liberal” and about one-fifth fear the nominee will be “too moderate.”
Joe Biden admitted he wasn’t arrested years ago trying to see Nelson Mandela in South Africa, telling CNN: “I said arrested. I meant I was not able to move… I guess I wasn’t arrested. I was stopped. I wasn’t able to go where I wanted to go.”
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney acknowledged that the coronavirus is likely to cause disruptions to everyday life, such as school closures and changes to public transportation, Bloomberg reports.
Said Mulvaney: “Are you going to see some schools shut down? Probably. Maybe see impacts on public transportation? Sure, but we do this. We know how to handle this.”
He added: “Really what I’d like to do today to calm the markets is tell people to turn their televisions off for 24 hours.”
Mulvaney also claimed that the media is only covering the virus because they believe doing so will “take down the president.”
A new Goldman Sachs report is warning Wall Street that the coronavirus outbreak could cost President Trump the election in November, CNN reports.
From the report: “If the coronavirus epidemic materially affects US economic growth it may increase the likelihood of Democratic victory in the 2020 election.”
Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi said he now sees a 40% chance of a US recession during the first half of 2020, up from 20% previously.
A new ABC News/Ipsos poll of finds Bernie Sanders is considered the strongest contender among an engaged Democratic base of debate watchers to take on President Trump in November.
As of this morning, the FiveThirtyEight forecast shows a 51% chance that no one will win a majority of delegates before the Democratic convention.
That outcome would result in the first contested convention since 1952.
A new Data for Progress poll in South Carolina finds Joe Biden leading the Democratic primary race with 34%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 25%, Tom Steyer at 13%, Pete Buttigieg at 13%, Elizabeth Warren at 7% and Amy Klobuchar at 5%.
FiveThirtyEight: Biden surges in South Carolina.
A new WBUR/MassInc poll in Massachusetts finds Bernie Sanders leading the Democratic primary race with 25%, followed by Elizabeth Warren at 17%, Pete Buttigieg at 14%, Mike Bloomberg at 13%, Joe Biden at 9% and Amy Klobuchar at 6%.
A new UMass Amherst poll finds Sanders ahead with 25%, followed by Warren at 23%, Buttigieg at 14%, Biden at 12%, Bloomberg at 9% and Klobuchar at 7%.
“In just a matter of weeks, top economists and investment bank analysts have gone from expecting the coronavirus outbreak to have minimal impact on the U.S. economy to warning that an outright recession may be on the horizon,” Axios reports.
“The outbreak threatens U.S. consumer-oriented businesses like restaurants, bars and travel, which have held up the economy as business investment has turned negative and the manufacturing sector has fallen into recession, largely as a result of the U.S.-China trade war.”
“It’s going to disappear. One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
— President Trump, quoted by CNN, on the coronavirus crisis.
Politico: “They’re visiting early primary states, reaching out to major donors, and — in one instance — even running commercials in Iowa. But perhaps the most overt display of ambition is on display this week here at the Conservative Political Action Conference, a rite of passage for White House aspirants eager to audition before thousands of activists whose support can be critical down the line.”
“Those with the most prominent speaking roles — a list that includes the likes of Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — are regarded as likely 2024 contenders. At Wednesday evening’s opening reception, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley was mobbed by fans, including a woman who wore a ‘Nikki 2024’ baseball cap. Haley took a picture with the woman and signed the hat.”
Politico: “Just as his White House bid appeared to be sputtering to an ugly end, there are signs of life for Joe Biden still. And perhaps more than that. A second-place finish in Nevada, a major endorsement in South Carolina, a strong debate Tuesday and a pair of polls showing him with a staggering lead here have given new hope to his campaign.”
“Money is flowing anew into his war chest, as well as to a super PAC supporting him. Armed with those data points, the campaign and super PAC are telling donors that Biden — given his strength among African-American voters and momentum kicking in at the right time — is quickly emerging as the alternative to frontrunner Bernie Sanders.”
Politico: “Warren is at risk of losing her home state, the latest indignity in her long slide in the polls in her own backyard. As recently as October, the two-term senator held a 20-percentage point lead over Sanders, according to a WBUR poll. According to the latest public poll, she trails him by one point. Now, in the run-up to the March 3 primary, Sanders is going all in on his bid to pick off Massachusetts, culminating in a four-day music and canvassing festival in Worcester that begins Friday.”
Meanwhile, Politico reports a super PAC backing Warren will spend $9 million on a Super Tuesday ad buy.
Boston Globe: “On the cusp of Super Tuesday contests next week that could put Sanders on a fast-moving path to the Democratic presidential nomination, he has begun toning down his rhetoric a bit, distancing himself from his own calls for ‘revolution’ and serving up a more suburban-friendly twist to his sweeping policy platform while highlighting more of his biography.”
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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