Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party trails the Blue and White party in 2 of 3 exit polls released as polls closed in Israel today, and the two are tied in the third poll, Axios reports.
All 3 polls show his right-wing bloc falling short of the 61 seats needed for a majority.
“The Trump campaign released a video Tuesday that goes after former Vice President Joe Biden for his verbal gaffes, which are interspersed with comments from various news anchors commenting about whether he has stamina to run a presidential race,” The Hill reports.
“I never met her. She never treated me nicely. But I would like to wish her family well. She was a professional, and I respect professionals.”
— President Trump, quoted by the Washington Post, on the death of journalist Cokie Roberts.
“The Trump administration is expected on Wednesday to formally revoke California’s legal authority to set tailpipe pollution rules that are stricter than federal rules, in a move designed by the White House to strike twin blows against both the liberal-leaning state that President Trump has long antagonized and the environmental legacy of President Barack Obama,” the New York Times reports.
“The announcement that the White House will revoke one of California’s signature environmental policies will come while Mr. Trump is traveling in the state, where he is scheduled to attend fund-raisers in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley.”
“Senior Republicans in Congress are expecting turmoil inside the National Rifle Association to sharply curtail the group’s participation in the 2020 campaign, conceding that they have lost confidence in the premiere gun rights organization,” the Washington Examiner reports.
The latest Siena poll finds New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio earned zero percent support for president in New York City, The Week reports.
He also did not crack one percent support across New York state in the poll.
Bill Gates told Bloomberg that he “wouldn’t be against a wealth tax” like the one Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is proposing, but he didn’t think it was realistic.
Said Gates: “I doubt, you know, the U.S. will do a wealth tax, but I wouldn’t be against it. The closest thing we have to it is the estate tax. And I’ve been a huge proponent that that should go back to the level of 55 percent that it was a few decades ago.”
“Corey Lewandowski jumped to President Trump’s defense on Tuesday during his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, blasting ‘Trump haters’ and making it clear he will not answer questions the White House wants him to avoid,” The Hill reports.
“The committee hearing quickly descended into chaos as Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) sought to question Lewandowski… Things quickly went downhill from there as GOP members pushed for an adjournment of the panel.”
“In less than three years, President Trump has named more former lobbyists to Cabinet-level posts than his most recent predecessors did in eight, putting a substantial amount of oversight in the hands of people with ties to the industries they’re regulating,” the AP reports.
“The Cabinet choices are another sign that Trump’s populist pledge to ‘drain the swamp’ is a catchy campaign slogan but not a serious attempt to change the way Washington works.”
“The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on Tuesday for failing to submit his book to the government for clearance,” CNBC reports.
CNN: “President Trump spoke for 95 minutes at a campaign rally in New Mexico on Monday night, among the longest speeches he’s given as President. We’re still working through the long transcript, but we know he made at least 26 false claims, most of them ones he’s often repeated over the past several months.”
“The White House is seeking to end the United Auto Workers strike against General Motors with an agreement that would reopen an assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio that GM shut down in March,” Politico reports.
“The effort would effectively put the White House on the side of the UAW and could boost the president’s reelection chances next year in Michigan and Ohio. Some 48,000 GM workers went out on strike Monday demanding higher wages, more generous health care benefits and more job security than management has been willing to offer in a new contract.”
“The bulldozers and excavators rushing to install President Trump’s border fence could damage or destroy up to 22 archaeological sites within Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in coming months,” according to an internal National Park Service report obtained by the Washington Post.
Rep. Paul Cook (R-CA) will retire from Congress at the end of this term and run for a seat on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, the Los Angeles Times reports.
A new Emerson poll in California shows a three-way race for the Democratic presidential nomination with Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders tied at 26%, followed closely by Elizabeth Warren at 20%.
A significant drop is seen between this tier and the next group of candidates; Andrew Yang is in fourth at 7%, followed by Sen. Kamala Harris at 6%, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke at 5% and Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 4%. Every other candidate is at 2% or less.
ABC News journalist and political commentator Cokie Roberts has died at the age of 75, ABC News reports.
“Roberts won countless awards, including three Emmys, throughout her decades-long career. She has been inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and was cited by the American Women in Radio and Television as one of the 50 greatest women in the history of broadcasting.”
Out early next year: Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction by David Enrich.
“Desperate for an American foothold, Deutsche started doing business with a self-promoting real estate magnate who most banks deemed too dangerous to touch: Donald Trump. Over the next 20 years, Deutsche executives—including a man with a damaged brain, the son of a Supreme Court justice, and Rosemary Vrablic—loaned billions to Trump and the Kushner family. Why?”
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.