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Advisers Struggle to Obey Trump’s Kafkaesque Rules

September 11, 2019 at 7:25 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “Trump’s desires for his advisers range from the trivial — someone who looks the part — to the traditional — someone willing to vigorously support him and defend his policies in media appearances. But these demands can be grating and at times terminal for members of his staff — especially for those who, like the national security adviser, may find themselves at odds with the president on critical issues.”

Said one former Trump official: “There is no person that is part of the daily Trump decision-making process that can survive long term. The president doesn’t like people to get good press. He doesn’t like people to get bad press. Yet he expects everyone to be relevant and important and supportive at all times. Even if a person could do all those things, the president would grow tired of anyone in his immediate orbit.”

Supreme Court Backs New Trump Asylum Restrictions

September 11, 2019 at 7:20 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the Trump administration to bar many Central American migrants from seeking asylum in the United States. The court said the administration may enforce new rules that generally forbid asylum applications from people who had traveled through another country on their way to the United States without being denied asylum in that country,” the New York Times reports.

“A federal appeals court had largely blocked the new policy, but the justices, in a brief, unsigned order, allowed it to go into effect while legal challenges move forward. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented.”

U.K. Admits No Deal Brexit Could Result in Chaos and Riots

September 11, 2019 at 5:38 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A no-deal Brexit could result in rising food and fuel prices, disruption to medicine supplies and public disorder on Britain’s streets, according to secret documents the government was forced by MPs to publish on Wednesday,” The Guardian reports.

“A five-page document spelling out the government’s ‘planning assumptions’ under Operation Yellowhammer – the government’s no-deal plan – was disclosed in response to a ‘humble address’ motion.”

Michael Cohen Interviewed by State Prosecutors

September 11, 2019 at 5:34 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Prosecutors with the New York district attorney’s office interviewed Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen in recent weeks as part of their investigation of the Trump Organization’s handling of hush money payments,” CNN reports.

“Officials from the district attorney’s office, led by Cyrus Vance, interviewed Cohen at the federal prison in Otisville, New York, where he is serving a three-year sentence after pleading guilty to multiple crimes including campaign finance violations tied to payments to two women alleging affairs with Trump a decade ago.”

A Muddled Message on Impeachment

September 11, 2019 at 5:32 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “Depending on whom you ask, on Thursday morning, the House Judiciary Committee will vote on procedures to investigate whether to open an impeachment inquiry or to continue an already opened impeachment inquiry.”

“Or maybe there is no inquiry at all. At this point, it’s hard to say, in part because House Democrats offer different, often-strained answers to a straightforward question: Has the House begun an impeachment investigation of President Trump?”

Biden Leads Tight Democratic Race

September 11, 2019 at 5:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new CNN poll finds Joe Biden leading the Democratic presidential race with 24%, followed by Elizabeth Warren at 18% and Bernie Sanders at 17%.

Three other candidates have 5% or support or more in the poll: Sen. Kamala Harris (8%), South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (6%) and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (5%). The remaining candidates all score 2% or less in the poll.

It Doesn’t Even Matter That John Bolton Is Gone

September 11, 2019 at 3:55 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Susan Glasser: “The spectacle of the Trump Presidency often overwhelms our ability to process the stakes of any individual episode. But the firing of John Bolton was not just another Washington farce in what the President himself has now started calling, as he did the other day, on Twitter, ‘the Age of Trump.’ Bolton’s exit serves as a reminder that the intensive national-security decision-making process of previous Presidents, Republican and Democrat alike, has been abandoned by Trump, subverted to the Presidential ego, and will not return for the duration of his tenure.”

“It’s worth remembering that, as all this played out inside the White House, the Taliban almost showed up at Camp David, in time to mark the eighteenth anniversary of 9/11. Bolton, who evidently made his vocal opposition to the idea known to the media in a way that likely hastened his firing, didn’t stop Trump from hosting them. Nor, for that matter, did Pompeo, whose State Department team has been overseeing the talks. In the end, it was only the Taliban’s decision to continue killing American soldiers while simultaneously negotiating with the United States that provided the pretext for Trump to put a stop to his own hastily conceived idea. Trump will now become the only President ever to have had four national-security advisers in three years, but he might as well consider not having one at all.”

CNN: Trump makes clear he’s calling the foreign policy shots post Bolton.

Kushner Tells GOP to Unite Behind Immigration Plan

September 11, 2019 at 3:46 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner told Senate Republicans Wednesday that the party should unite behind a 600-page immigration plan he crafted ahead of the 2020 election so the party can provide a positive vision for immigration reform,” The Hill reports.

“Kushner’s main message to Senate Republicans was it would be smart for the party to unify behind a plan to counter Democratic attacks that Republicans don’t have any interest in fixing the nation’s broken immigration system.”

Democrats Target Suburban Voters In Key Battlegrounds

September 11, 2019 at 3:17 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Democrats say they are mounting a major push across battleground states to court suburban voters — a key voting demographic that was once the bedrock of the GOP but has been shifting away from the party in the era of President Trump,” ABC News reports.

“The effort, which will target areas that will likely define the 2020 presidential contest, kicks off on Thursday with a roundtable event, hosted by Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez, alongside local Texas residents in the suburbs of Harris County.”

Trump Denies Pressuring Agency on Hurricane

September 11, 2019 at 3:11 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump denied that his chief of staff Mick Mulvaney was acting on his orders when Mulvaney reportedly directed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to pressure a federal agency to rebuke scientists who had contradicted Trump’s hurricane claims, Politico reports.

Said Trump: “No, I never did that — I never did that.”

He added: “When they talk about the hurricane and when they talk about Florida and Alabama, that is just fake news. Right from the beginning, it was a fake story.”

Democrats Open Wide Lead for Congress

September 11, 2019 at 2:42 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Economist/YouGov poll finds Democrats with a double-digit lead in the generic congressional ballot, 49% to 38%.

Sanders Jumps Ahead In New Hampshire

September 11, 2019 at 2:21 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Franklin Pierce University-Boston Herald poll shows Bernie Sanders leading the Democratic field with 29% of likely primary voters, followed by Joe Biden with 21% and Elizabeth Warren at 17%.

The survey shows that the top tier of candidates is far ahead of the pack, with Kamala Harris landing a distant fourth with 6%, followed by Andrew Yang at 5% and Pete Buttigieg lands at 4%.

Senators Back Wall Even After Trump Grabs Military Funds

September 11, 2019 at 1:59 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Vulnerable Senate Republicans are standing with President Trump and his efforts to build the wall. And it may cost them,” Politico reports.

“Last week, the Trump administration unveiled its plan to divert $3.6 billion in military construction funding to build the president’s border wall, a move which came after Trump declared a national emergency in February to access the funds. Among the states with projects the administration plans to raid are Colorado, Arizona, North Carolina, Texas and South Carolina — all of which have senators up for re-election in 2020.”

Trump Rips John Bolton for ‘Big Mistakes’

September 11, 2019 at 1:56 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump blasted former national security adviser John Bolton, saying he had been fired after making “some very big mistakes” and that he did not get along with others in the administration, The Hill reports.

He added: “And it set us back, and frankly he wanted to do things — not necessarily tougher than me — You know John’s known as a tough guy. He’s so tough he got us into Iraq… but he’s actually somebody I had a very good relationship with. But he wasn’t getting along with people in the administration that I consider very important.”

Quote of the Day

September 11, 2019 at 1:45 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“You can always look at something, but I love the idea of fresh blood.”

— House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, quoted by the Washington Examiner, saying he won’t push to end term limits for committee chairs, despite President Trump’s suggestion.

Mark Sanford Is Running His Own Presidential Campaign

September 11, 2019 at 1:15 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Columbia State: “Beyond the obstacles posed by… Trump and his loyal GOP establishment, Republican Mark Sanford’s upstart presidential campaign already has a glaring problem, experts say.”

“The former South Carolina governor and congressman is banking on his own intuition to secure victories in primary states where he is eligible to compete, staffing his operation with a ‘band of volunteers’ with no expertise in his political history or experience running national campaigns.”

The National Environment Is Still Pretty Blue

September 11, 2019 at 1:09 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Daily Kos Special Elections Tracker shows that Democrats are outperforming Hillary Clinton’s margins by an average of 5.5% across 39 federal and state legislative special elections since November 2018.

This is roughly the same as the 6.5% spread shown in the generic congressional ballot averages.

Election Showed Trump Machine to Mobilize Rural Voters

September 11, 2019 at 1:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

CNN’s Dana Bash said that the North Carolina special election shows that President Trump’s campaign and the RNC have been building “an unbelievably huge war chest” in an effort to maximize rural voter turnout in 2020, The Hill reports.

Said Bash: “The president is the president because people came out to vote in places in the rural areas of North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan who hadn’t voted in some time. And if they did vote, probably they voted for a Democrat before.”

She added: “The machine that they’re building to identify those voters, get them out, is going to be enormous.”

Ryan Matsumoto: “While McCready outperformed his 2018 margin in suburban Mecklenburg County and roughly matched his 2018 margin in exurban Union County, he underperformed in the other more rural counties stretching to the Southeast.”