Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) on Monday introduced a resolution condemning socialism, taking to the Senate floor to blast Democratic policies he said would lead to “complete government control,” The Hill reports.
Said Daines: “A radical, socialist, far-left movement is growing across this country. And it has taken root as the new voice of the Democratic Party … Today we make a choice. Freedom or Socialism. I choose freedom.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is offering to buy Rep. Ilhan Omar a ticket to Somalia so she will “appreciate America more,” echoing President Trump’s racist statement that the Minnesota Democrat and three other congresswomen should “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” the Washington Post reports.
Stuart Rothenberg: “For all the talk about why Donald Trump was elected president while losing the popular vote and how he could win again, one of the least discussed results of the 2016 election offers valuable lessons for Democrats.”
“An astounding 7.8 million voters cast their presidential ballots for someone other than Trump or Hillary Clinton. The two biggest third-party vote-getters were Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson (almost 4.5 million votes) and the Green Party’s Jill Stein (1.5 million voters). But others received almost another 1.9 million votes as well.”
“Libertarians and Greens may try to convince you that this reflects growing support for their parties. It doesn’t. Their strong showing was due to the unpopularity of the two major-party nominees.”
The Senate lost a bid to override President Trump’s veto and block arms sales to Saudi Arabia to punish the kingdom for the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi, Bloomberg reports.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has been telling colleagues that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has privately assured him she would allow a vote on the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement by October, Axios reports.
Pelosi’s office unequivocally denies that she gave Mnuchin any assurances on timing for a USMCA vote.
White House hopeful Andrew Yang announced Monday that he has reached the thresholds to qualify for the third and fourth Democratic primary debates, The Hill reports.
Candidates have to amass 130,000 unique donors and receive the support of at least 2% of respondents in four qualifying polls to appear in the third debate on Sept. 12 and Sept. 13.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), under fire for blocking two election security bills, hit back on Monday comparing the attacks against him to “modern-day McCarthyism,” The Hill reports.
Said McConnell: “I was called unpatriotic, un-American and essentially treasonous by a couple of left-wing pundits on the basis of bold-faced lies. I was accused of aiding and abetting the very man I’ve singled out as an adversary and opposed for nearly 20 years, Vladimir Putin.”
He added: “These theatrical requests happen all the time here on the Senate. I promise that nobody involved, including my friend the Democratic Leader who made the request, actually thought he’d get a Republican Senate to instantly unanimously pass a bill that got one Republican vote over in the House It doesn’t make Republicans traitors or un-American. It makes us policymakers with a different opinion.”
“I was down there also, but I’m not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you.”
— President Trump, quoted by CNN, in a speech to first responders and others impacted by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
“For what is supposed to be perhaps the most nonpartisan job in Washington — the director of national intelligence — President Trump has selected one of the fiercest political warriors in the capital,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump’s choice, Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX), has established himself during his nearly five years in Congress as a tough partisan… A relentless critic of the Russia investigation, Mr. Ratcliffe has shared some of Mr. Trump’s views and earned praise from critics of the so-called deep state of government bureaucrats.”
“Democrats have said he is unqualified and too overtly political, and even some Republicans privately said they thought Mr. Ratcliffe was the wrong choice, according to people familiar with their thinking. Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina and the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, waited nearly a day to publicly congratulate Mr. Ratcliffe, a subtle sign of discontent with the shake-up. But Republicans on the committee, which will vote on whether to send the nomination to the full Senate, are highly unlikely to buck Mr. Trump.”
Bloomberg: Trump’s polarizing pick for spy chief has tough path in Senate.
“CNN’s president, a media titan at the helm of a global news organization intensely covering the 2020 presidential election, has a longstanding personal rule against supporting politicians,” McClatchy reports.
“He’s broken it once — for Kamala Harris when she ran to become the first woman of color to hold the office of California attorney general a decade ago.”
“The assassination of Jamal Khashoggi was no aberration. A Vanity Fair investigation reveals how Saudi Arabia attempts to abduct, repatriate—and sometimes murder—citizens it regards as enemies of the state. On these pages are the stories of eight recent abductees—and those of four others who managed to elude capture—part of a systematic program that goes far beyond the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.”
“The Saudi campaign is ruthless and relentless. And it has more similarities with, say, the codes of a crime syndicate than it does with those of a traditional, modern-era ally of the United States of America.”
Politico: “Tom Steyer launched his 2020 campaign a little over two weeks ago and plans to self-fund his White House run with $100 million of his own money. But he still needs 130,000 people to donate to him by August 28 (and get at least 2 percent in four polls) to qualify for the third primary debate.”
“The bars imposed by the DNC pose a major test of whether Steyer’s message and his millions can actually attract enough support for a viable presidential campaign — and fast. Just days out of the gate, Steyer’s campaign has no grassroots fundraising base of its own and is competing for votes with candidates who have been in the race for months. So Steyer is flooding Facebook and Google with ads — at least $927,000 worth so far — trying to buy up new donors and airing over $4.3 million on TV spots that could give him a boost in the polls.”
A new Quinnipiac poll finds Joe Biden leads the Democratic presidential field with 34%, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 15%, Sen. Kamala Harris at 12% and Sen. Bernie Sanders at 11%.
Rounding out the Democratic field are Pete Buttigieg at 6%, and Beto O’Rourke and Andrew Yang at 2% each. There are four candidates with 1% each and 14 candidates at less than 1% each.
Last month, Biden had slipped to 22%, with Harris at 20%, Warren at 14% and Sanders at 13%.
Said pollster Mary Snow: “In the blink of an eye, the post-debate surge for Kamala Harris fades and Joe Biden regains his footing among Democratic presidential contenders Electability remains his strongest pull. Across the board, Biden remains by far the Democrat seen as having the best chance of defeating President Trump.”
Kentucky state Sen. Dan Seum (R) announced he would cross party lines and endorse the gubernatorial campaign of Andy Beshear (D).
“In 2016, every single Senate race went to the candidate of the same party that those states voted for in the presidential election,” Axios reports.
“That’s never happened before, since at least 1984. And the data shows that’s not great news for Democrats heading into the 2020 elections.”
“Because of their stronghold in rural areas, and based on previous presidential election results, the GOP has a 40-seat, ‘built-in base in the Senate.’ Compare that to just 26 Senate seats that Democrats are best positioned to win.”
“The executive director of House Democrats’ campaign arm is stepping down amid an outcry from Democratic lawmakers over the lack of diversity in the committee’s senior ranks,” Politico reports.
“President Trump on Saturday called Baltimore a ‘very dangerous & filthy place’ and suggested that Democratic politicians, including Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), had made the city all but uninhabitable,” the Washington Post reports.
“Leaders of Trump’s party appear to disagree: House Republicans have scheduled their yearly policy retreat for a downtown Baltimore hotel in September… That could present an uncomfortable situation for Trump, as sitting presidents customarily speak each year at their party’s House retreat.”
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.