“President Trump implied in a pair of interviews Thursday that he was ready to grant clemency to Roger Stone, his friend and ally who was convicted of, among other things, lying to federal investigators and is set to go to prison this month,” CNN reports.
“Trump is widely expected to pardon or commute Stone’s sentence.”
Said Trump: “He was framed. He was treated horrible. He was treated so badly.”
Alabama state Sen. Del Marsh (R) said he is not concerned about the state reaching more than 2,000 cases of coronavirus in one day, WSFA reports.
Marsh says he wants to see more people with COVID-19 because “we start reaching an immunity as more people have it and get through it.”
“As Texas on Thursday set single-day records for deaths from coronavirus and how many people the disease has put in the hospital, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) was bracing for even more bad news,” the Dallas Morning News reports.
Said Abbott: “The numbers are going to look worse as we go into next week.”
The Texas Tribune reports Texas is reporting more than 100 new deaths from coronavirus today.
“Packed elevators and crowded committee rooms. Legislators sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on the House and Senate floor. People standing close to each other and talking, sometimes leaning in to whisper, without a mask in sight,” the AP reports.
“Those were common scenes at the Mississippi Capitol in June — a month that saw a historic vote to remove the Confederate emblem from the state flag — and now at least 26 lawmakers have been diagnosed with the coronavirus in the biggest known outbreak in any state legislature in the nation.”
“That works out to about 1 in 7 Mississippi legislators.”
Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said that amid “an explosion of COVID,” all Kentuckians must wear masks in public starting Friday at 5 p.m., the Louisville Courier Journal reports.
The Texas Republican Party sued Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D) for canceling the party’s in-person convention scheduled for next week in downtown Houston, the Houston Chronicle reports.
“The mayor of Seoul, the country’s second-most powerful official and a potential presidential candidate, was found dead just days after a secretary in his office told the police that he had sexually harassed her since 2017,” the New York Times reports.
“A Seoul police officer confirmed early Friday that the body of the mayor, Park Won-soon, had been discovered on a hill in northern Seoul, several hours after his daughter had reported him missing.”
“Word of the mayor’s death and its possible links to sexual misconduct sent shock waves across the country, not only because Mr. Park was a political star but also because he had long been seen as a champion of women’s rights.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley criticized Confederate symbols before the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, and called the Civil War an “act of treason,” Axios reports.
Said Milley: “For those young soldiers that go on to a base of Fort Hood, Fort Bragg, whatever, named after a Confederate general, they can be reminded that that general fought for an institution of slavery.”
“Federal officials were so worried Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell might take her own life after her arrest that they took away her clothes and sheets and made her wear paper attire while in custody.” the AP reports.
“The media’s been asking this question for four years, and for four years, the president has said the same thing, his taxes are under audit, and when they’re no longer under audit, he will release them.”
— White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, quoted by Axios, when asked why President Trump still won’t release his tax returns.
“The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Muscogee Creek Nation’s reservation was not officially terminated at Oklahoma statehood, as justices issued a decision that may upend state jurisdiction in much of the former Indian Territory,” the Oklahoman reports.
“The decision is expected to have huge implications for criminal, and possibly civil, matters in most of eastern Oklahoma.”
“The judge in Michael Flynn’s criminal case asked a federal appeals court Thursday to reconsider its ruling last month ordering him to dismiss the prosecution of the former national security advisor to President Trump,” CNBC reports.
“When President Trump first threatened to pull the Republican National Convention out of Charlotte, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida started campaigning to bring the event to his state,” the New York Times reports.
“But now, as convention planners in Jacksonville seek to raise tens of millions of dollars on an almost impossibly rushed time frame, and in the middle of a raging pandemic, the governor is hindering those efforts, interviews show.”
“Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, has directed his top fund-raiser, Heather Barker, to tell donors not to give to the convention because of a personal dispute between the governor and Susie Wiles, his former campaign manager who is serving as an informal adviser to the convention planners.”
“The first planned federal execution in 17 years is that of a convicted killer whose victims’ relatives have told President Trump that putting him to death would only compound their grief and have asked a federal judge to halt it,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told the Cincinnati Enquirer he was uncertain about attending the Republican convention next month.
Said McConnell: “It’s a challenging situation and a number of my colleagues announced they are not going to attend. And we’ll have to wait and see how things look in late August to determine whether or not you can safely convene that many people.”
Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former attorney and fixer, has been taken back into federal custody, according to Reuters.
Cohen was spotted dining out last week when he was supposed to be in home detention.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in North Carolina finds Joe Biden leading Donald Trump in the presidential race, 50% to 46%.
In the U.S. Senate race, Cal Cunningham (D) leads Sen. Thom Tillis (R), 47% to 39%.
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.