Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) told the Washington Post that he “has received a fine reception from his Senate Republican colleagues and Utah GOP leaders, following his lone Republican vote to convict President Trump in the impeachment trial.”
“Signaling he wants to be a team player, Romney flew home to Salt Lake City for meetings last Thursday — a day after the Senate vote — and then to Palm Beach, Fla., for a National Republican Senatorial Committee gathering.”
Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) filed a $400 million lawsuit against CBS, alleging the company defamed him when it broadcast interviews with two women he says have falsely accused him of sexual assault, Fox 5 reports.
Coming soon: Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy by David Frum.
“A huge swath of Americans see the rest of the country building a future that doesn’t have a place for them. It’s no wonder they’d rather burn it all down. But the fire can be stopped by Americans who act now to protect their country and its democracy.”
In a sign of fallout over the Justice Department’s decision to downgrade a sentencing memo for Roger Stone, top Mueller prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky filed a notice withdrawing from the case this afternoon.
Meanwhile, MSNBC reports another Roger Stone prosecutor — Jonathan Kravis — “has resigned as an Assistant United States Attorney and therefore no longer represents the government in this case.”
And Vox reports that Adam Jed becomes the third Stone prosecutor to withdraw.
NBC News reports that Michael Marando is the fourth prosecutor to resign.
Washington Post: “The department’s decision to overrule frontline prosecutors and the prosecutors’ subsequent moves laid bare the tension — between career prosecutors and department leadership — that has roiled the Stone case in recent days, and it raises fresh concerns about the politicization of Trump’s Justice Department.”
After months of promises that the U.K. would be next in line for trade negotiations with the Trump administration, White House economic adviser told Bloomberg that the European Union might still be the easier target for a quick outcome aimed at avoiding a transatlantic tariff battle.
He said trade talks with the EU and U.K. are on separate tracks but because of “some structure” on the EU side, “reigniting that will be easier” than starting from scratch with the U.K.
Former President Barack Obama warned back in 2016 that the U.K. would be at the “back of the queue” in any trade deal with the U.S. if the country chose to leave the EU.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign released a memo downplaying expectations in New Hampshire and laying out a delegate path in granular detail, the New York Times reports.
“The memo provides, by far, the most detailed projections released by any campaign of delegate viability heading into Super Tuesday, predicting a ‘three-way race’ between herself, Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders, the Vermont senator. She omits Mr. Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., even though he received more support than her in Iowa and could do so again in New Hampshire. Candidates need to reach 15 percent support in each congressional district to win delegates, as well as statewide for statewide delegates.”
For members: The New Hampshire Expectations Game
Rudy Giuliani is working on a new documentary about Hunter Biden, Yahoo News reports.
“Giuliani and his production team, led by veteran California Republican fixer Tim Yale, have been conducting interviews for the documentary… They have also approached potential investors in the film, showing them trailers with footage of former Vice President Joe Biden and actors portraying Hunter Biden and Ukrainian officials.”
A new Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll in Utah shows voters mostly approving of Sen. Mitt Romney’s vote to convict President Trump on abuse of power charges, 49% to 40% with 11% unsure.
However, among Republicans only, 60% had a negative reaction to Romney’s vote, while 31% were positive.
“The White House is expected to pull the nomination of Elaine McCusker to be the Pentagon’s comptroller and chief financial officer in the latest staffing fallout from President Trump’s impeachment,” the New York Post reports.
“McCusker resisted the president’s directive to stall about $250 million in military aid to Ukraine and her emails protesting the delay were leaked in January to the blog Just Security ahead of Trump’s Senate trial.”
“The Justice Department is in the late stages of deciding whether to charge businessman and Trump ally Erik Prince in an investigation into whether he lied to Congress in its Russia probe and violated U.S. export laws in his business dealings overseas,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Daily Beast: “Consider just the data. There are more than 150 Sanders campaign staffers in New Hampshire along with 17 state offices. On Saturday alone, the campaign had about 1,000 out-of-state volunteers helping with get-out-the-vote operations on top of the 14,000 regular, active volunteers in the state. The number of households that the campaign visited just that day was 150,000. The state only has about 640,000 household units, according to Census data.”
“The Justice Department plans to reduce its sentencing recommendation for longtime President Trump confidant Roger Stone, after top officials were apparently blindsided by the seven-to-nine year penalty prosecutors urged a judge to impose,” the Washington Post reports.
“In a stunning rebuke of career prosecutors that will surely raise questions about political meddling in the case, a senior Justice Department official said the department ‘was shocked to see the sentencing recommendation in the Roger Stone case last night.'”
Associated Press: “It was not immediately clear what prompted the reversal. But it is exceedingly rare, particularly in a high-profile case like Stone’s, for the Justice Department to reverse its own prosecutors on a sentencing recommendation.”
The wealthiest one percent of Americans now account for 56% the value of equities owned by U.S. households, the Financial Times reports.
First Read: “Unlike the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary is a typical kind of election contest — with participants casting secret-ballot votes, and ‘the winner’ is the candidate who gets the most votes.”
“Undeclared — or independent — voters may vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary, and they simply choose a Dem or GOP ballot. Afterwards, the voter becomes a registered member of that political party unless they specifically fill out a form confirming they wish to return to “undeclared” status.”
“Forty-two percent of the state’s voter are undeclared, more than any other voting bloc in the state.”
“Under state law, all polling places must open no later than 11:00 am ET and close no earlier than 7:00 p.m. ET. The earliest that NBC’s Decision Desk may be able to make a projection of the winner at 8:00 pm ET.”
A new Monmouth poll finds just 42% of registered voters feel that President Trump should be reelected, while 55% say it is time to have someone new in the Oval Office.
However, about two-thirds of American voters believe that Trump will definitely (27%) or probably (39%) get reelected in November.
A new Monmouth poll finds Bernie Sanders leading the Democratic presidential race nationwide with 26%, followed by Joe Biden at 16%, Elizabeth Warren at 13%, Pete Buttigieg at 13%, Mike Bloomberg at 11% and Amy Klobuchar at 6%.
Said pollster Patrick Murray: “Iowa has had a significant impact on the race, especially for Biden, whose support was always soft and based largely on the perception of electability.”
Also interesting: “Democratic voters in states that hold nominating contests this month through Super Tuesday spread their support across a number of candidates – 21% Sanders, 16% Warren, 14% Biden, 13% Bloomberg, 11% Buttigieg, 7% Klobuchar, and 6% Yang. In states that vote after Super Tuesday, 30% back Sanders, 18% Biden, 14% Buttigieg, 11% Warren, 9% Bloomberg, 5% Klobuchar, and 3% Yang.”
Vox: “A string of strong polls over the weekend have shown the Minnesota senator overtaking Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden to reach third place in New Hampshire, which votes Tuesday. Over the weekend, her campaign reported $2.5 million in post-debate fundraising — an impressive two-day number in the context of the $11.4 million she raised in the last three months of 2019.”
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.