Ann Coulter accused President Trump of being afraid to “fight” for his proposed border wall, as he weighs a bipartisan deal that would avert another government shutdown.
Said Coulter: “Trump talks a good game on the border wall but it’s increasingly clear he’s afraid to fight for it. Call this his Yellow New Deal.”
Politico: “If O’Rourke was testing Democrats’ appetite for his potential candidacy, the signs he saw on Monday were reaffirming — beginning with a march to the rally that was so thick with supporters that organizers linked arms in a circle around O’Rourke and his family to keep them moving through the crowd.”
“The speech — and O’Rourke’s promotion of it beforehand — marked a pivot for O’Rourke from a contemplative period of wayfaring to a more traditional brand of campaign politics following his closer-than-expected loss to Republican Ted Cruz in the Texas Senate race last year.”
Hillary Clinton responded to a tweet from President Trump in which he appeared to copy her 2016 campaign slogan, “Stronger Together.”
Said Clinton: “Now copy my plan on health care, a fairer tax system, and voting rights.”
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Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), “who is living in Florida, has appeared on several radio talk shows, speaking repeatedly about running against” current Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) “in four years if she does not keep government spending under control,” the Portland Press Herald reports.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that the Senate would hold an upcoming vote on the Green New Deal resolution introduced last week by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), CNBC reports.
Said McConnell: “I’ve noted with great interest the Green New Deal, and we’re going to be voting on that in the Senate to give everybody an opportunity to go on record.”
Axios: “McConnell wants to get Senate Democrats, especially the 2020 presidential election hopefuls, on the record about their support of the sweeping climate resolution.”
Philip Bump: “In other words, the whip count that matters here is not really what legislators on Capitol Hill think. It is probably — and we recognize the bizarreness of this sentence — more important what conservative commentators and Fox News presenters think of the deal than it is what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) thinks.”
“Trump’s mornings often begin with watching recorded episodes of Fox News programs that aired the night before and tuning in to ‘Fox & Friends.’ So here is a modern-day presidential whip count of what those programs are saying.”
Ron Brownstein: “One of the defining characteristics of the 2020 Democratic presidential contest is the unprecedented diversity of the field, which already features more women and minority candidates than ever.”
“But even more significant than the increasing variety of the contenders may be the growing diversity of the primary voters who will choose among them. Over the past decade, the electorate in the Democratic presidential primary has grown more racially diverse, better educated and more heavily tilted toward female voters.”
“Party strategists almost universally expect those trends to persist, and even accelerate in 2020, as minority, white-collar and female voters continue to recoil from President Trump.”
President Trump slammed a bipartisan deal to avert a government shutdown while providing some funding for barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “I can’t say I’m happy. I can’t say I’m thrilled.”
He did not say whether he would sign or veto the proposal but added he would hold a meeting to discuss it later.
“The House Judiciary Committee is building out its legal team with an eye toward an aggressive oversight agenda, tasking new outside attorneys with a review of issues that could be at the heart of an impeachment case against President Trump,” NBC News reports.
“The Democratic-led panel on Tuesday received approval to hire two ‘special oversight counsels’ — Norm Eisen, a former ethics official in the Obama administration, and Barry Berke, a New York-based criminal defense attorney.”
“Committee officials stress that the new hires should not be seen as the precursor to impeachment. But the very issues they will be focused on — abuses of power, the rule of law and obstruction of justice — could well produce threads that lawmakers could use to lay the groundwork for that.”
Politico: “Berke and Eisen have also partnered in a series of opinion articles suggesting Trump has already committed obstruction of justice that could put him on the verge of a criminal indictment.”
Jake Tapper does a pretty good job debunking President Trump’s claim that violent crime decreased in El Paso, Texas, because of barriers built at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Said Tapper: “The president is lying to you to get his border wall.”
USA Today: “Some time soon, federal authorities will begin selling off what’s left of Paul Manafort’s life, a small fortune amassed through a decade of illicit lobbying work. When they do, the investigation into Russian election interference stands to breach an unusual milestone: bringing in more money than it has cost.”
Washington Post: “Historically, these early low-dollar contributions were viewed largely as a sign of grass-roots support and an indication of potential voter enthusiasm. But that has changed in recent elections as small contributions have increasingly filled the coffers of many candidates — providing the fuel that allows them to be viable contenders.”
“Being able to raise a lot of money from a lot of small donors is now a test — not only of a candidate’s ability to tap this source of funds, but to go head-to-head against [Trump] and his army of grass-roots donors.”
“After two years and 200 interviews, the Senate Intelligence Committee is approaching the end of its investigation into the 2016 election, having uncovered no direct evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia,” NBC News reports.
“But investigators disagree along party lines when it comes to the implications of a pattern of contacts they have documented between Trump associates and Russians — contacts that occurred before, during and after Russian intelligence operatives were seeking to help Trump by leaking hacked Democratic emails and attacking his opponent on social media.”
Said Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC): “If we write a report based upon the facts that we have, then we don’t have anything that would suggest there was collusion by the Trump campaign and Russia.”
A new Siena College poll in New York finds Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) had a precipitous eight-point drop in his favorability rating, down to 43% from 51% last month.
And that may have been the good news: Cuomo’s job-performance rating was even worse, with just 35% of those surveyed saying he was doing a “excellent” or “good” job.
“It was a moment lost on Election Night. As newly elected Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) faced a blockade of TV cameras in Orlando, he told reporters that he had been misunderstood, or ‘unfairly demagogued,’ by political rivals and the media,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.
“At the end of a bitter campaign in which he cast himself as an uncompromising conservative who reveled in his support from President Trump, DeSantis said he was eager to move on and work with those who had tried to defeat him.”
“Three months later, his short time in office has already shattered assumptions that he would govern exclusively from the right. He has drawn unexpected praise from Republicans and Democrats.”
“The tragic reality is this planet simply can’t sustain billions of people consuming industrially produced animal agriculture because of environmental impact. It’s just not possible.”
— Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), in an interview with VegNews.
Mark Kelly, former astronaut and husband to former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ), released a video announcing his campaign to challenge appointed Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) In 2020.
USA Today: “McSally is considered one of the most vulnerable Republican senators heading into the 2020 election. McSally is a former Air Force pilot and was the first woman to fly combat missions.”
When his rally in El Paso, TX got underway last night, President Trump claimed that “69,000 signed up to be here. The arena holds about 8,000,” the El Paso Times reports.
He then thanked the fire department for getting 10,000 people in the El Paso County Coliseum, while noting that “tens of thousands of people are watching the screens outside.”
However, a fire department spokesman said 6,500 people were inside the venue and denied any special accommodations were made.
Trump then mocked the crowd size at Beto O’Rourke’s rally held at the same time saying it was no more than 300 people. However, the Texas Tribune reports the O’Rourke rally drew at least 7,000 people.
First Read: “Trump sure did elevate O’Rourke – by 1) going to El Paso in the first place and 2) deliberately trying to understate his crowd.”
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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