An Emerson Polling survey released Tuesday found both former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) leading President Trump by 10 points nationally, 55% to 45%.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren also led Trump in the survey, 53% to 47%, while Sen. Kamala Harris and Mayor Pete Buttigieg both led him 52% to 48%.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) “said Monday she won’t negotiate with Republicans who walked out to thwart landmark climate legislation, at least not until they return to the Capitol,” the AP reports.
“All eleven Republican senators didn’t show up to work for a fifth day Monday, denying Democrats the number of lawmakers needed to vote on a potential statewide cap and trade plan.”
President Trump warned Iran that any attack on “anything American” would be met with “great and overwhelming force” following Iranian remarks slamming new U.S. sanctions as permanently closing the path to diplomacy amid a spike in tensions in the Persian Gulf, the Washington Post reports.
Washington Post: ““Doubling down on his ideological purity and socialist credentials carries risks for the senator… It’s enabled Warren to position herself as impassioned but reasonable, while Sanders holds down the leftward flank of the Democratic Party and serves as the ideological outlier in the race.”
“For Sanders, the threat from Warren is different from any he’s faced during his long political career, including in his 2016 presidential run, since Warren in many ways embraces the same brand of fiery liberalism.”
Washington Post: “As Biden has traveled the country, he asked his sponsors for VIP hotel suites, town cars and professional drivers, chartered flights and travel expense reimbursements for some of his appearances that reached at least $10,000 per event.”
“The Washington Post found at least 65 instances in which Biden gave a speech or appeared at a book event; in at least 10 instances he did not take a fee, although in some of those cases he was reimbursed for travel expenses. Biden’s campaign said he has given less than 50 paid speeches, but declined to be more specific about exactly how many he delivered, or how much he earned in total.”
Wall Street Journal: “Last time around, there was the Russian cyberattack of party emails that U.S. intelligence has said was designed to help Republican Donald Trump defeat nominee Hillary Clinton. The party also battled complaints that superdelegates—those free to back any candidate, regardless of election results in the primaries—amounted to a fixed outcome at the expense of Sen. Bernie Sanders.”
“Since then, the party has reduced the clout of superdelegates. Still, gripes about party management remain, this time from the handful of candidates left off the list of 20 candidates set for this week’s two primary debates in Miami, the first of the 2020 cycle.”
“When the defense ministers of NATO countries meet in Brussels this week, there will be a notable absence: a Senate-confirmed, permanent United States Secretary of Defense,” CNN reports.
“The acting secretary and expected permanent nominee, Mark Esper, will be there, just as he was present at the White House last week as President Donald Trump and his national security team deliberated launching a military strike against Iran. But it’s not the same.”
“An acting defense secretary lacks the political capital and internal confidence of a permanent one. The Senate confirmation vests a secretary with explicit and implicit powers — from the ability to recruit and set long-term policies in the Pentagon to the power to communicate authoritatively with foreign counterparts and members of Congress.”
“Sen. Kamala Harris has added a fourth Congressional Black Caucus member to her list of endorsements from its influential members: Rep. William Lacy Clay,” CNN reports.
“Former Vice President Joe Biden has five endorsements from the caucus, as the 2020 Democratic hopefuls jockey for its members’ support.”
Nate Silver: “Another one of these for Harris. A gradual shift in support among black leaders from Biden/undecided to Harris would be one of the most significant events of the primary.”
Charlie Sykes writes an open letter to Democratic presidential candidates: “Trump could still win reelection, because he has one essential dynamic working in his favor: You.”
“Trump’s numbers are unmovable, but yours are not. He doesn’t need to win this thing; he needs for you to lose it. There are millions of swing voters who regard Trump as an abomination but might vote for him again if they think you are scarier, more extreme, dangerous, or just annoyingly out of touch.”
A new poll of MoveOn members nationwide finds Elizabeth Warren is the preferred candidate of 38%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 17%, Joe Biden at 15%, Pete Buttigieg at 12% and Kamala Harris at 7%.
“Congress is trying to rush $4.5 billion in emergency humanitarian aid to the southwestern border while placing new restrictions on President Trump’s immigration crackdown, spurred on by disturbing images of suffering migrant families and of children living in squalor in overcrowded detention facilities,” the New York Times reports.
“But with a House vote on the package planned for Tuesday, some Democrats are revolting over the measure, fearing that the aid will be used to carry out Mr. Trump’s aggressive tactics… Republicans are siding with the White House, which on Monday threatened a veto. They oppose restrictions in the measure that are meant to dictate better standards for facilities that hold migrant children and to bar the money from being used for enforcing immigration law.”
Reuters: “Palestinians burned portraits of President Trump as they protested in both the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Monday against U.S.-led plans for a conference on their economy in Bahrain.”
Top executives tell Axios that a real “Trump slump” is hitting digital and cable news.
“The shock factor around President Trump’s unplanned announcements, staff departures, taunting tweets and erratic behavior is wearing off, and media companies are scrambling to find their next big moneymaker.”
“Jared Kushner’s family averted disaster last year when a Canadian asset manager swooped in to buy their skyscraper in midtown Manhattan, which had been hemorrhaging millions of dollars. Now they’re facing a similar crisis a few blocks away,” Bloomberg reports.
“At the former New York Times building on West 43rd Street, a graying property in Times Square, the pattern is uncannily similar: Buy at a steep price, pile on too much debt, run up big losses, fight with tenants and flirt with default.”
“It’s the latest example of overreach for a family that built a fortune on suburban rental properties, only to have its urban ambitions stymied.”
Washington Post: “For a while, Trump considered Pirro for a Washington job, interviewing her for a top Justice Department position under Jeff Sessions — a job she lobbied hard to get, according to a senior administration official. But Sessions blocked the appointment, the official said, after which Pirro attacked Sessions on her show for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.”
“A former senior Commerce Department official refused to answer more than 100 questions during an interview with the House Oversight and Reform Committee that centered on the Trump administration’s controversial decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census,” Politico reports.
“Commerce Department lawyers instructed James Uthmeier, who served as senior adviser and counsel to Secretary Wilbur Ross, not to answer the committee’s questions about his contacts with the White House and his conversations with Ross.”
“President Trump’s honeymoon period with Mick Mulvaney is coming to an end. In recent weeks, Trump has been snapping at his acting chief of staff with some frequency, and expressing greater frustration with him than usual,” Politico reports.
“Trump has long said that he prefers the flexibility offered by temporary titles, but Mulvaney’s ongoing ‘acting’ status underscores the uphill battle he faces as Trump’s third chief of staff in less than two-and-a-half years. While Mulvaney is not in danger of losing his job any time soon, officials stressed, Trump’s treatment of him still signals to aides the slow deterioration of their relationship has begun.”
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.