Pete Buttigieg weighed in on his opponents’ plans to implement “Medicare for All” and free college tuition, calling them “questionable on their merits” and “pretty far out from where Americans are,” CNN reports.
Said Buttigieg: “I do think that we should be realistic about what’s going to work. And just flipping a switch and saying we’re instantly going to have everybody on Medicare just like that — isn’t realistic.”
“A federal investigation into whether Trump Organization executives violated campaign-finance laws appears to be wrapping up without charges being filed,” CNN reports.
“In January, one month after Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison, prosecutors requested interviews with executives at the company… But prosecutors never followed up on their initial request, people familiar with the matter said, and the interviews never took place.”
Playbook: “There are just 8 days left this month when the House and Senate are both in session. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Speaker Nancy Pelosi have both said that the debt limit needs to be lifted this month before everyone gets out of town.”
“Now, both sides want to strike a budget deal that would lift spending caps for the next fiscal year. They would then attach a debt limit hike to that. But… If they can’t get a spending deal, there’s another bill both chambers want to pass before August: the 9/11 first-responders bill. Attach a debt limit increase to that and it would be quite tough to vote against it.”
Quartz notes there’s a framed photo of conservative commentator Tomi Lahren hanging in the U.S. Border Patrol headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Lahren has called immigrants “shifty and adaptable,” and has claimed they are bringing disease to the U.S. She regularly pushes alt-right conspiracy theories and believes an “invasion by foreigners” is “overwhelming” the country.
“When Sen. Bernie Sanders brought his presidential campaign to Pittsburgh earlier this year, he quietly added a poignant stop to his schedule: a visit to the Tree of Life synagogue, where 11 congregants were killed in an anti-Semitic shooting last fall,” the New York Times reports.
“But his appearance also came with explicit instructions to his campaign aides, according to two Democrats familiar with the conversation: They were not to tell the news media about his conversation with the rabbi there. Some aides dissented, believing there was a graceful way to disclose the visit. But Mr. Sanders, the only Jewish candidate among the leading Democratic contenders, did not want the visit to be perceived as a publicity grab.”
“When Vice President Pence visited a migrant detention center here Friday, he saw nearly 400 men crammed behind caged fences with not enough room for them all to lie down on the concrete ground. There were no mats or pillows for those who found the space to rest. A stench from body odor hung stale in the air,” the Washington Post reports.
“When reporters toured the facility before Pence, the men screamed that they’d been held there 40 days, some longer. They said they were hungry and wanted to brush their teeth. It was sweltering hot, but the only water was outside the fences and they needed to ask permission from the Border Patrol agents to drink.”
Boston Globe: “Six months until the 2020 New Hampshire primary, the largest field of presidential candidates in history has morphed into two camps: the vast majority of Democrats who, at this point, appear to have little chance of winning — and a smaller group, any of whom may have a shot.”
“Traditionally, Iowa and New Hampshire — the states that come first on the presidential nominating calendar — have winnowed the field of contenders. But the unprecedented primary field of two dozen Democrats has presented a unique situation to voters who, until recently, have been eager not to count anyone out of the race just yet.”
“An Associated Press analysis has found that like many counties in Pennsylvania, the vast majority of 10,000 election jurisdictions nationwide use Windows 7 or an older operating system to create ballots, program voting machines, tally votes and report counts.”
“That’s significant because Windows 7 reaches its ‘end of life’ on Jan. 14, meaning Microsoft stops providing technical support and producing ‘patches’ to fix software vulnerabilities, which hackers can exploit.”
“After fighting for months in court to try to get a citizenship question on the 2020 Census — and briefly overruling his own Justice Department’s legal surrender — Trump abandoned the effort in a manner that had a familiar plot twist: A surprise backup plan that, in Trump’s view, is actually better than the original plan,” the Washington Post reports.
“It’s part of a pattern that Trump has developed during a presidency in which many of his most hard-fought battles have ended in defeat or awkward pivots to secondary options.”
“Ever the brand strategist, Trump rarely gives up quietly, instead preferring to invite the cameras in and make the case that his losses are actually unexpected victories. From his failed efforts to repeal Obamacare to Republicans’ loss of the House majority in 2018, Trump has proved adept at seeing — and promoting — the bright side of failure.”
The Guardian offers another great review of American Carnage:
Tim Alberta, Politico’s chief political correspondent, has written a masterful must-read. Across 600-plus pages, he chronicles more than a decade of transformation and turmoil within what was once but is no longer the party of Abraham Lincoln…
Alberta’s storytelling is bolstered by his access to powers that be and were. Trump, Ryan and John Boehner, another ex-speaker, all go on the record. American Carnage is filled with scoop. It is an exercise in a pulling back the curtain, not breathlessness.
The Intercept: “When news broke that thousands of current and former Border Patrol agents were members of a secret Facebook group filled with racist, vulgar, and sexist content, Carla Provost, chief of the agency, was quick to respond.”
Said Provost: “These posts are completely inappropriate and contrary to the honor and integrity I see — and expect — from our agents day in and day out. Any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable.”
“For Provost, a veteran of the Border Patrol who was named head of the agency in August 2018, the group’s existence and content should have come as no surprise. Three months after her appointment to chief, Provost herself had posted in the group… Provost’s comment was innocuous — a friendly clapback against a group member who questioned her rise to the top of the Border Patrol — but her participation in the group, which she has since left, raises serious questions.”
New Yorker: “Early next week, according to a D.H.S. official, the Trump Administration is expected to announce a major immigration deal, known as a safe-third-country agreement, with Guatemala.”
“For weeks, there have been reports that negotiations were under way between the two countries, but, until now, none of the details were official. According to a draft of the agreement… asylum seekers from any country who either show up at U.S. ports of entry or are apprehended while crossing between ports of entry could be sent to seek asylum in Guatemala instead.”
“Former special counsel Robert Mueller and two House panels struck a deal Friday to reschedule his congressional testimony for July 24 and agreed to give lawmakers more time to question him about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by President Trump,” the Washington Post reports.
“Mueller had been scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees on July 17 in a much-anticipated public appearance… Instead, Mueller will testify beginning 8:30 a.m. on July 24, the two committees announced late Friday, for an ‘extended period of time.'”
“Mueller will testify for three hours before the Judiciary panel and then give testimony to the Intelligence Committee.”
Andrew Sullivan: “I suspect many of us voted for the Democrats last fall because we wanted a serious check on President Trump’s intensifying authoritarianism. That includes many of us who don’t support the far left’s takeover of the Democrats, but who saw the urgency of an opposition with teeth, confronted as we are by a deranged, tyrannical bully in the White House. What would happen if the Mueller Report emerged with a Republican House still intact, we worried? How could we begin to investigate Trump’s tax returns, or his cronies’ corruption, or his foul pedophile friends, or his murky real estate money-laundering, if Paul Ryan, the Randian eunuch from Wisconsin, were still in charge?”
“It turns out, six months later, that on all these topics, the Democratic House majority didn’t matter much at all. Whenever a serious administration abuse of power seems to demand investigation, Speaker Pelosi springs almost instantly into inaction. There is nothing she won’t not do.”
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) has proclaimed Saturday as Nathan Bedford Forrest Day in Tennessee, a day of observation to honor the former Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader whose bust is on display in the state Capitol, the Tennessean reports.
Per state law, the Tennessee governor is tasked with issuing proclamations for six separate days of special observation, three of which, including the July 13 Forrest Day, pertain to the Confederacy.
Colorado’s Department of Human Services is now acknowledging to CBS Denver that five reports of neglected children were missed — possibly for as long as five years — after they were sent to a state email address that was not being checked or monitored.
“Indicted Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) is sending Islamophobic mail pieces to voters in his Southern California district, attacking his Democratic opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, for his deceased grandfather alleged ties to a 1972 terrorist attack,” Politico reports.
“The mailers show a photo of one of the terrorists involved in an attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics wearing a ski mask on one side, and photos of Campa-Najjar and Muslim Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, on the other. Campa-Najjar is Christian.”
“The House voted Friday to curb President Trump’s ability to strike Iran militarily on Friday, adopting a bipartisan provision that would require the president to get Congress’s approval before authorizing military force against Tehran,” the New York Times reports.
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.