“He’s done some irreparable damage to some things and he’s got to answer for them. It reinforced the anal opening that I believe Mueller to be.”
— Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), quoted by Politico, anticipating former special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony for Congress.
Politico: “For months, the Democratic presidential primary has been dictated by Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. That primary is now over.”
“After an eventful month and the conclusion of the first round of Democratic debates, there is a new top tier — and a sense among many campaigns and Democratic operatives that Biden and Sanders are suddenly within reach in a race that has broken wide open.”
Playbook: “The Buttigieg campaign announced this morning that it raised more than $24.8 million from more than 294,000 donors in the second quarter. The campaign has more than $22.6 million cash on hand.”
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New York Times: “From a seemingly fanciful tweet to a historic step into North Korean territory, President Trump’s largely improvised third meeting on Sunday with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, was a masterpiece of drama, the kind of made-for-TV spectacle that Mr. Trump treasures.”
“But for weeks before the meeting … a real idea ha[d] been taking shape inside the Trump administration that officials hope might create a foundation for a new round of negotiations.”
“The concept would amount to a nuclear freeze, one that essentially enshrines the status quo, and tacitly accepts the North as a nuclear power, something administration officials have often said they would never stand for.”
Associated Press: “Afterward, it was unclear whether the meeting was more show than substance. Other than the headline-grabbing moment and the unprecedented images, Trump’s only accomplishment appeared to be securing an agreement to restart nuclear talks that he himself had walked out on in February during his last summit with Kim in Vietnam.”
“President Trump’s re-election campaign is developing an aggressive, state-by-state plan to mobilize even more evangelical voters than supported him last time,” campaign officials tell Axios.
“Trump captured 81% of the evangelical vote in 2016, a huge accomplishment considering they make up roughly a quarter of the electorate and play a prominent role in swing states like Florida.”
“The goal: Paint Trump as a champion of socially conservative issues and warn evangelical voters that his defeat could destroy the progress he’s made.”
Washington Post: “According to data compiled by Adam Feldman, who runs the website Empirical SCOTUS, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have disagreed more than any pair of new justices chosen by the same president in decades.”
“Kavanaugh was about as likely to be in sync with his liberal seatmate Elena Kagan as his fellow conservative Gorsuch, Feldman’s research shows.”
New York Times: “Privately, people close to the White House said they viewed Ms. Harris as ‘very dangerous’ and the hands-down winner of the debate on Thursday. Others said they hoped the debate would serve as a warning for Republicans — including those in the president’s inner circle — who have been too dismissive of Mr. Biden’s less seasoned rivals.”
Playbook: “It’s hard to imagine any other president taking a bold step like this, let alone warmly embrace a third-generation tyrant who starves and imprisons his own people. But Trump has silenced the doubters within his own party, while Democrats have largely embraced his diplomatic efforts with Kim because they’d rather he try that than threaten ye olde fire and fury.”
“It remains to be seen, of course, whether Kim is simply using Trump to advance his own agenda, or whether he genuinely believes, as he said today, ‘we want to bring an end to the unpleasant past and try to create a new future.’ Even Trump sometimes seems aware of this; as he put it, ‘It’s just a step. It might be an important step, it might not.'”
“The Democratic debates this past week provided the clearest evidence yet that many of the leading presidential candidates are breaking with the incremental politics of the Clinton and Obama eras, and are embracing sweeping liberal policy changes on some of the most charged public issues in American life, even at the risk of political backlash,” the New York Times reports.
“Vowing to eliminate private health insurance, decriminalize illegal immigration and provide government health care benefits to undocumented migrants, high-profile contenders like Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris are wagering that they can energize voters eager to dismantle President Trump’s hard-line policies.”
“But with moderate Democrats repeatedly drowned out or on the defensive in the debates, the sprint to the left has deeply unnerved establishment Democrats, who have largely picked the party nominees in recent decades.”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) questioned whether Joe Biden could be a uniter on race if he wins the Democratic presidential nomination, accusing him of having an “inability to talk candidly about the mistakes he made,” NBC News reports.
Said Booker: “Whoever our nominee is going to be, whoever our next president is going to be, really needs to be someone who can talk openly and honestly about race. I’m not sure if Joe Biden is up to that task given the way the last three weeks have played out.”
A new Morning Consult poll finds Joe Biden leading the Democratic presidential race with 33%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 19% and Kamala Harris at 12%.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Face the Nation that Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) will be “a force to be reckoned with” following her strong performance in the first Democratic debate this week.
Said Graham: “One thing I’ll say about Kamala Harris, and I said this before, she’s got game. She is very talented, she’s very smart, and she’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”
“Senate Republicans are struggling to unite behind a plan to fund the government after budget talks have ground to a halt,” The Hill reports.
“Congress has until the end of September to prevent the second government closure of the year, but Republicans are struggling to overcome the first roadblock — agreeing to topline defense and nondefense figures or deciding what comes next if they can’t.”
“The drama over how to fund the government and avoid deep budget cuts has played out in private, closed-door meetings and put a public spotlight on the high-profile split among Republicans as well as with the White House about the best path to avoiding a shutdown.”
“President Trump became the first sitting American commander in chief to set foot in North Korea on Sunday as he greeted Kim Jong-un, the country’s leader, at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone and the two agreed to send their negotiators back to the table to seek a long-elusive nuclear agreement,” the New York Times reports.
“Met in the middle by a beaming Mr. Kim, Mr. Trump stepped across a low concrete marker at 3:46 p.m. local time and walked 20 steps to the base of a building on the North Korean side for an encounter carried live on international television — an unprecedented, camera-friendly demonstration of friendship intended to revitalize stalled talks.”
“Sen. Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign announced Saturday that it raised $2 million in 24 hours following her breakout moment in Thursday’s 2020 Democratic debate,” CNN reports.
“The donations came from more than 63,000 people — over half of those, 58%, were first time donors, according to the campaign.”
“Attorneys for Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), who has been indicted for campaign finance violations, asked the court to exclude allegations that he misused campaign funds during extramarital affairs, saying that his alleged relationships ‘often served an overtly political purpose,'” The Hill reports.
“Hunter’s attorneys said in court Friday that the government was attempting to ‘publicly embarrass Mr. Hunter with evidence that reflects poorly on his character,’ and that the value of the evidence is outweighed by the risk it would unfairly prejudice the jury against him, according to a document published in full by USA Today.”
New York Times: “All the site says about its creator is buried in the fine print at the bottom of the page. The site, it says, is a political parody built and paid for ‘BY AN American citizen FOR American citizens,’ and not the work of any campaign or political action committee.”
“There is indeed an American behind the website — that much is unambiguously true. But he is very much a political player, and a Republican one at that. His name is Patrick Mauldin, and he makes videos and other digital content for President’s Trump’s re-election campaign. Together with his brother Ryan, Mr. Mauldin also runs Vici Media Group, a Republican political consulting firm in Austin whose website opens with the line ‘We Kick’ followed by the image of a donkey — the Democratic Party symbol often known by another, three-letter, name.”
New York Times: “Barely a week ago, he was in theory a marked man, fingered by the United Nations as the probable mastermind behind one of the most grisly and sensational murders of recent years. But Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia has been wandering around the world stage in Japan the last couple of days hobnobbing with presidents and prime ministers as if he were just another leader deliberating on economics and energy.”
“No one is more important to Saudi efforts to rehabilitate their de facto ruler after the bone-saw killing and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi than President Trump, who joshed around with the crown prince during a summit photo session on Friday and hosted him for a personal breakfast on Saturday morning where he lavished praise on the prince as a reformer opening up his society.”
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.
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