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Mark Cuban Still Mulling Presidential Bid

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Billionaire Mark Cuban told CNBC he hasn’t ruled out an independent run for the White House in 2020.

Said Cuban: “We’ll see what happens. It would take the perfect storm for me to do it. There’s some things that could open the door, but I’m not projecting or predicting it right now.”

He added: “I still think there’s a real opportunity for somebody who is in the middle but has some charisma, has the ability to relate to both sides but is not a politician. The reality is people don’t trust politicians.”

Trump Calls Wray’s Anti-Spying Remarks ‘Ridiculous’

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President Trump told reporters he “didn’t understand” FBI Director Christopher Wray’s “ridiculous” answer that the FBI didn’t spy when looking into then-candidate Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 election, Politico reports.

Said Trump: “I didn’t understand his answer. I thought the attorney general answered it perfectly. So I certainly didn’t understand that answer. I thought it was a ridiculous answer.”


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Biden Thinks Republicans Will Work with Democrats Again

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Campaigning in New Hampshire, Joe Biden predicted that once President Trump is out of office, Republicans will have “an epiphany” and work with Democrats toward consensus, Bloomberg reports.

Playbook: “One truly wonders what available evidence there is to come to a conclusion like this. When Biden was last in office, he was Obama’s link to Mitch McConnell — so he does have recent experience working with Senate Republicans. But very, very few people think the GOP is on the brink of a bipartisan epiphany.”

Ukraine Prosecutor Made Up Biden Claim

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“A Ukrainian lawmaker accused his country’s top prosecutor of manufacturing a ‘conspiracy’ about U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, adding to a political intrigue playing out from Kiev to Washington,” Bloomberg reports.

“The lawmaker, Serhiy Leshchenko, said he had been given parts of a letter written by the prosecutor with the intent of currying favor with the Trump administration. The letter was sent by the prosecutor through unofficial channels to President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.”

Trump Says He’d ‘Absolutely’ Deploy Troops

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President Trump dismissed last night’s New York Times story on the administration’s internal debate over sending 120,000 troops to the Middle East to counter Iran as “fake news,” Politico reports.

But, he added: “Would I do that? Absolutely. But we have not planned for that. Hopefully we won’t have to plan for that. If we did that we would send a hell of a lot more troops than that.”

DeSantis Says Two Florida Counties Were Hacked

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “met with the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security last week to discuss the revelation in the Mueller report that ‘at least one’ Florida county had its election information accessed by Russian hackers in 2016,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.

“On Tuesday, DeSantis told reporters that he had been briefed on that breach — which actually happened in two counties in Florida — but that he couldn’t share which counties had been the target.”

Watch the Libertarian Party

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Joshua Spivak: “Democrats have long complained — with good reason — about the role of the Green Party in depriving Al Gore of the White House in 2000. Nader received 2.74% of the vote (he did not appear in all states), including 1.63 percent in the critical state of Florida that Gore lost by 537 votes. That 2.74% was a strong showing for a third party, but in 2016, the Libertarian Party topped that total.”

“The Libertarian Party had never before received more than 1.1% of the vote in a presidential election. But with New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld serving as their ticket, the party rocketed to 3.24% of the vote. In two of the critical states that Trump flipped, Michigan and Wisconsin, Johnson topped 3.6%. In Pennsylvania, the third normally Democratic stronghold that voted GOP, Johnson received 2.4%.”

“It is not clear from the polling, but one of the reasons for Trump’s surprise victory was the cratering in support for Johnson in the waning months of the election. In September, he was polling at 9%, which fell off heavily by Election Day.”

Wisconsin GOP’s Finances In Bad Shape

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Wisconsin’s Republican Party “fell so far behind financially in recent months that it missed payments to insurers and racked up nearly $600 a month in interest on a maxed-out credit card,” the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.

“The review, commissioned by Sen. Ron Johnson and other top Wisconsin Republicans in the wake of statewide losses in 2018, also showed the party was ‘recklessly reliant’ on consultants, some of whom made more than $500,000 doing routine work for the party.”

Biden’s Early State Numbers Look Like Past Winners

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Harry Enten: “Joe Biden is enjoying a large lead in national primary polls. Primaries, of course, aren’t all conducted at once, but rather are held in a sequential fashion, with the early contests of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina being pivotal. Indeed, many national primary polling frontrunners first started showing weakness in early state polling.”

“Unlike those frontrunners — and importantly for his election chances — Biden’s early state numbers currently are mostly like his his national numbers — which was the case for previous frontrunners who went on to win their party’s nomination.”

“Leading in all the early states at this point has historically been a fairly good sign. Dating back to 1980 (the year in which we start getting solid state polling data), nine candidates in competitive primaries have led in polling around this point in the cycle in both Iowa and New Hampshire. All but one candidate (Ted Kennedy in 1980) who led in Iowa and New Hampshire would go on to win their party’s nomination.”

Warren Declines Fox News Town Hall

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) turned down a Fox News invitation for a televised town hall and denounced the cable network as a “hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists,” Politico reports.

“The network has been inviting Democratic presidential candidates to participate in town halls moderated by its news reporters. Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar already done the events, while Pete Buttigieg and Kirsten Gillibrand are scheduled to. All of them have criticized the network’s coverage of the Trump administration but defended going on the network as a means to reach voters.”

“Without mentioning her rivals, Warren argued that agreeing to go on the network would implicitly help Fox News.”

White House Explores New Farmer Bailout Plan

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“White House officials are scrambling to come up with a new bailout plan to placate furious farmers after President Trump’s initial idea of donating unused crops to poor countries came under scrutiny,” the Washington Post reports.

“Amid intense political pressure from Senate Republicans, White House officials are eyeing different ways to advance funds to agriculture companies that have complained they are being caught in the middle of the escalating trade battle with China.”

Stevens Worries About Trump’s Damage to Judiciary

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Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens told CNN he hopes President Trump won’t “do too much damage” to the judicial branch.

Said Stevens: “I think he often speaks about them as Obama judges and other kinds of judges. But I think John Roberts was dead right when he said that there are only one kind of judges and they’re all working for the federal government.”

Democrats Should Be Shouting Trump’s Trade Failures

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Catherine Rampell: “Republicans, of course, are too cowardly to challenge Trump on much of anything. But Democrats, particularly those angling for the presidency, should be shouting from the rooftops. They should be sharing soybean-farmer sob stories and damning stats with any voter still considering following Trump off the protectionist cliff. Especially given academic research finding that ‘Trump Country’ has been hurt most by his trade conflicts.”

“Instead — with rare exceptions — Democrats have been muted or mealy-mouthed in their criticism. Perhaps this is because, when it comes to trade policy, most of them don’t have a leg to stand on.”

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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.

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