Among the tidbits the New York Times found in the new book, Free, Melania:
“While the president sleeps in the master bedroom on the second level of the White House residence — he requested a lock for his door — Mrs. Trump stays on the third floor, in the two-room space formerly occupied by Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson.”
“Attorney General William Barr has told associates he disagrees with the Justice Department’s inspector general on one of the key findings in an upcoming report — that the FBI had enough information in July 2016 to justify launching an investigation into members of the Trump campaign,” the Washington Post reports.
“The Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, is due to release his long-awaited findings in a week, but behind the scenes at the Justice Department, disagreement has surfaced about one of Horowitz’s central conclusions on the origins of the Russia investigation. The discord could be the prelude to a major fissure within federal law enforcement on the controversial question of investigating a presidential campaign.”
“The Trump administration proposed tariffs of up to 100% against $2.4 billion of French imports, saying the tariffs are justified because of a new digital-services tax imposed by France that weighs heavily on U.S. technology companies,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Washington Post: “Monday’s protectionist flurry came as the president’s ‘America First’ trade policy remains bogged down at the negotiating table and on Capitol Hill less than a year before the 2020 election.”
Former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told The Axe Files that he’s “concerned” that nobody is left in the White House with the “personality” to push back against President Trump.
Said Cohn: “I am concerned that the atmosphere in the White House is no longer conducive, or no one has the personality to stand up to tell the president what he doesn’t want to hear.”
“The U.S is ‘likely’ to bring additional charges in a case against Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, associates of Rudy Giuliani who are accused of skirting campaign contribution limits as part of a plot to oust the American ambassador to Ukraine,” Bloomberg reports.
“House Republicans plan to argue that President Trump was acting on ‘genuine and reasonable’ skepticism of Ukraine and ‘valid’ concerns about possible corruption involving Americans, not political self-interest, when he pressed the country for investigations of his Democratic rivals, according to a draft of a report laying out their impeachment defense,” the New York Times reports.
“In a 123-page document that echoes the defiant messaging that Mr. Trump has employed in his own defense, the Republicans do not concede a single point of wrongdoing or hint of misbehavior by the president.”
“After years of denials and claims he was the target of a political witch hunt, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) is scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday morning to change his plea of not guilty to charges stemming from a sweeping campaign finance investigation,” the San Diego Union Tribune reports.
“The reversal comes nearly six months after Hunter’s wife and former campaign treasurer, Margaret Hunter, admitted to her role in a widespread scheme that saw the couple allegedly spend more than $200,000 in campaign donations on family expenses like vacations, gas, groceries, school lunches and oral surgery.”
“The congressman was seeking re-election but typically a guilty plea would include an agreement to step down.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) will travel to Iowa to campaign for Sen. Kamala Harris as she tries to rebound amid a critical stretch in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, the AP reports.
NBC News: “The court has steadfastly declined to take up any gun rights cases since ruling in 2008’s Washington, D.C. v. Heller that the Second Amendment provides a right to keep a handgun at home for self-defense, and later clarifying in 2010’s McDonald v. Chicago that the right applies nationwide.”
“Now the court’s willingness to take the New York case — even though the law at issue was recently repealed — has gun rights supporters feeling optimistic that it could lead to a ruling about the right to bear arms outside the home. Gun control advocates, in contrast, fear the court’s new conservative majority may produce a decision that the National Rifle Association could use to fight against many of the 300 local gun restrictions enacted since the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012.”
Tom Steyer purchased the domain name for President Trump’s campaign slogan, “Keep America Great,” which now redirects visitors to a web page calling Trump a “fraud” and “failure.”
New York Times: “Interviews with more than 50 reproductive rights leaders, clinic directors, political strategists and activists over the past three months reveal a fragmented movement facing longstanding divisions — cultural, financial and political. Many said that abortion rights advocates and leading reproductive rights groups had made several crucial miscalculations that have put them on the defensive.”
In a remarkable PBS interview, Michael Bloomberg denied that Chinese President Xi is a dictator.
President Trump criticized House Democrats on Monday for scheduling a key impeachment hearing during his trip to London for a NATO meeting, CNBC reports.
However, House Republicans conducted impeachment proceedings 21 years ago against President Bill Clinton while he was on several overseas trips too.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who helped draft an article of impeachment against Nixon as a congressional staffer and served on the House Judiciary Committee during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, told CNN that she thinks that President Trump’s actions involving Ukraine are “far more serious” than Watergate.
Said Lofgren: “President Nixon’s misconduct related to trying to use the levers of government to hide the Watergate burglary… His misconduct had to do with trying to throw the election but at least it didn’t involve involving other foreign nations. If you take a look at the — what the founding fathers were concerned about, it was the interference by foreign governments in our political system that was one of the gravest concerns. Nixon’s behavior didn’t fall into that range. So in that way, this conduct is more serious.”
President Trump’s 2020 campaign announced Monday it will no longer allow reporters from Bloomberg News to obtain credentials to cover Trump campaign events, Axios reports.
President Trump falsely claimed Ukraine’s president had cleared him of wrongdoing in an interview with Time magazine.
Said Trump: “The President of Ukraine has just again announced that President Trump has done nothing wrong with respect to Ukraine and our interactions or calls.”
In reality, Volodymyr Zelenskiy actually criticized Trump for holding up Ukraine’s military assistance and said Trump hurt his country by repeatedly calling it corrupt.
“Lobbyists either helped draft or made extensive revisions to opinion columns published by three state lawmakers in a way that warned against the dangers of Medicare-for-all and other government involvement in health care,” according to the Washington Post.
“Montana state Rep. Kathy Kelker (D) and Sen. Jen Gross (D) acknowledged in interviews that editorials they published separately about the single-payer health proposal included language provided by John MacDonald, a lobbyist and consultant in the state who disclosed in private emails that he worked for an unnamed client.”
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.