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China Opens New Front In Trade War

August 5, 2019 at 6:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Reuters: “China let the yuan breach the key 7-per-dollar level on Monday for the first time in more than a decade, in a sign Beijing might be willing to tolerate more currency weakness that could further inflame a trade conflict with the United States.”

“The sharp 1.4% drop in the yuan comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump stunned financial markets by vowing to impose 10% tariffs on the remaining $300 billion of Chinese imports from Sept. 1, abruptly breaking a brief month-long ceasefire in the bruising trade war.”

“Some analysts said the yuan move could unleash a dangerous new front in the trade hostilities – a currency war.”

House GOP Retirements Continue

August 4, 2019 at 11:18 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Ken Marchant (R-TX) will announce his retirement from Congress tomorrow, the New York Times reports.

He’ll be the fourth Texas Republican in recent weeks to call it quits.

Marchant’s district is highly competitive. After winning it by double digits, he only carried it by three percentage points last year.

Trump Crashes Wedding Between Massacres

August 4, 2019 at 11:10 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump found time between gun violence massacres to celebrate at his golf club over the weekend, the New York Daily News exports.

The commander-in-chief appeared to crash a wedding at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., hours after a mass shooting took the lives of 20 people in an El Paso, Texas, Walmart and shortly before a different gunman killed nine people outside a Dayton, Ohio, bar.


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Trump Mulled Declaring State of Emergency In Baltimore

August 4, 2019 at 6:07 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jonathan Swan: “Nobody knew it was coming, nobody knew how to handle it, and a week later, senior White House officials have their fingers crossed that the president won’t turn their week upside-down once again with another tweet about a Fox and Friends segment. As the week has unfurled, people inside and outside the White House described to me how a few pokes of a keyboard by the leader of the free world sent some of Washington’s most powerful political players scrambling for cover.”

“In at least one conversation with senior aides and another discussion with an outside ally, Trump entertained the idea of declaring a state of emergency in Baltimore — an extraordinary action that would potentially open up new federal powers and funding… The idea would be to say that the living conditions in Baltimore were unacceptable and that people were suffering because their Democratic representatives let them down. So Trump would take action to fix things.”

“Trump also discussed declaring a state of emergency in other cities controlled by Democrats, including San Francisco and Detroit.”

‘There’s No Excuse for Supporting This President’

August 4, 2019 at 5:59 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jennifer Rubin: “In sum, we are awash in hate crimes and white nationalist-inspired mass murders. We have a president whose words inspire and bolster perpetrators of these heinous acts. That makes Trump not only a moral abomination, which no policy outcome can offset, but a threat to national security. Those encouraged by his words in recent years kill more Americans than Islamist terrorists.”

“If that is not justification for bipartisan repudiation of this president and removal from office at the earliest possible moment I don’t know what is. Those who countenance and support this president for his white-grievance mongering are not merely ‘deplorable’ but dangerous.”

Flashback Exchange of the Day

August 4, 2019 at 5:36 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

In May, President Trump lamented the problem of migrants at the Southern border during a rally in Panama City Beach, Florida.

TRUMP: How do you stop these people? You can’t.

SOMEONE IN THE CROWD: Shoot them.

TRUMP: Only in the Panhandle can you get away with that statement.

The audience of thousands cheered and Trump smiled.

Never Again?

August 4, 2019 at 5:20 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Vox notes there have been 2,189 mass shootings since the massacre of children at Sandy Hook elementary school.

In total, there have been at least 2,475 killed and 9,137 wounded in those shootings.

Mexico Vows Legal Action After Shooting

August 4, 2019 at 5:01 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Mexico on Sunday threatened to take legal action against the United States for failing to protect its citizens after this weekend’s mass shooting in the border city of El Paso,” NBC News reports.

“Of the 20 people gunned down at a Walmart at the Cielo Vista Mall, at least three were Mexican citizens, and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard promised Mexico City will act.”

McConnell Fractures His Shoulder

August 4, 2019 at 4:01 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suffered a fractured shoulder Sunday from a fall outside his home in Louisville, briefly hospitalizing the Kentucky Republican,” the Washington Post reports.

The Great Unraveling of America

August 4, 2019 at 3:58 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Will Bunch: “When things fall apart, they shatter into a million pieces. I can’t tell you yet exactly how the bloodshed in El Paso is related to a mass murder in Dayton, or to the social dysfunction right here in Philadelphia that caused someone to spray bullets into a crowd of people shooting a hip-hop video, or into a crowded block party in Brooklyn the night before that. I can’t explain why people tweeting about El Paso couldn’t use the hashtag #WalmartShooting because it was already in use for a man who’d just murdered two employees at an outlet in Mississippi.”

“All I know is that it’s all starting to feel like the same event — a Great Unraveling of America. The feeling only grew worse when I read that the authorities in El Paso believe some of the wounded may not go to local hospitals … because they’re so afraid of our immigration cops. It seemed like one more sign that conditions in this country — the violence, the fear, the embrace of racism and xenophobia from the highest levels, and the long slide into neo-fascism — have become intolerable. And yet — with the blood of El Paso and Dayton not yet dry — far too many are still tolerating this.”

So Much for Ending American Carnage

August 4, 2019 at 3:52 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Walter Shapiro: “In his 2017 inaugural address, Donald Trump railed against “crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives” in the inner cities. Then Trump declared, in words that now echo with bitter irony, ‘This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.'”

“There is no way to know with absolute certainty how much of the current wave of ‘American carnage’ is directly due to Trump’s own words and his embrace of white nationalist themes. But even the Trump squad of gleeful apologists at Fox News would find it hard to argue that the president has lived up to his inaugural claim.”

CBS News: 29 people killed in two mass shootings in less than 14 hours.

The View from Australia

August 4, 2019 at 3:50 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sydney Morning Herald: “In time, we will learn exactly what drove the suspect to carry out today’s mass shooting, but what we know for sure is the United States finds itself in the midst of a domestic white nationalist terrorism crisis.”

Top Republican Blames Video Games for Shootings

August 4, 2019 at 2:47 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told Fox News that video games are to blame, following the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton this weekend.

Said McCarthy: “To have a game of shooting individuals and others, I’ve always felt that is a problem for future generations and others.”

Democrats Pressure McConnell to Bring Senate Back

August 4, 2019 at 2:11 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A growing number of Democrats are calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to cancel the chamber’s August recess so that they can take up gun control legislation in the wake of two mass shootings this weekend,” NBC News reports.

“Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on the Republican leader to end the chamber’s break to vote on a universal background check bill after the two shootings – one in Dayton, Ohio and another in El Paso, Texas – left at least 29 dead and 53 injured in a matter of just 13 hours. The Senate is currently in recess until September.”

Trump Must Outperform His Popularity Again to Win

August 4, 2019 at 1:44 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Ed Kilgore: “The specter that most haunts Democrats as we hurtle toward the 2020 election is that Donald J. Trump managed to get himself elected president in 2016 despite terrible, historically unprecedented (for a major-party presidential nominee) unpopularity, as measured by favorability ratios (Gallup had him at 36 percent favorable/61 percent unfavorable on election eve). To put it mildly, Trump overperformed his favorability numbers, even if you take into account Hillary Clinton’s unpopularity, which was strong, although not in Trump’s neighborhood (Gallup had her favorability ratio at 47/52). And if you don’t want to rely on Gallup, the official exit polls gave Trump a 38 percent approval rating among voters who actually showed up, compared to HRC’s 43 percent.”

“Now that Trump is POTUS, it’s his job-approval numbers that are the most relevant measure of his popularity. And those who have been staring at his approval ratings have to wonder: Are they good enough, or close to good enough, for another Trump win if (a) he drags his opponent down in public esteem as he dragged down HRC, and (b) he gets the benefit of an Electoral College advantage via more efficient distribution of his popular vote?”

For members: Trump Is Running Behind His Approval Rate

Trump Remains Out of Sight

August 4, 2019 at 1:13 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“As the nation reeled from two mass shootings in less than a day, President Trump spent the first hours after the tragedies out of sight at his New Jersey golf course, sending out tweets of support awkwardly mixed in with those promoting a celebrity fight and attacking his political foes,” the AP reports.

“Trump was to return to Washington on Sunday evening, at which point aides said he would likely address reporters, but the nation did not glimpse the president in the immediate aftermath of a shooting in El Paso, Texas, that killed at least 20 people and, hours later, and one in Dayton, Ohio, that claimed at least nine lives. Never seemingly comfortable consoling a nation in grief, Trump will be carefully watched for his response as authorities investigate whether the El Paso shooter left behind an anti-immigration manifesto that echoes the president’s hardline rhetoric about the border, again inviting comparison to his predecessors who have tried to heal the country in moments of national trauma.”

O’Rourke Says Trump Is a White Nationalist

August 4, 2019 at 1:06 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Beto O’Rourke told CNN that President Trump was responsible for shooting incidents yesterday added that he believes Trump is a white nationalist.

Said O’Rourke: “There is an environment of it in the United States. We see it on FOX News, we see it on the Internet. But we also see it from our commander in chief. He is encouraging this. He doesn’t just tolerate it; he encourages it, calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, warning of an invasion at our border, seeking to ban all people of one religion.”

He added: “Folks are responding to this. It doesn’t just offend us, it encourages the kind of violence that we’re seeing, including in my home town of El Paso yesterday.”

North Korea Features Trump On Its Stamps

August 4, 2019 at 1:02 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Quartz: “North Korea has made headlines of late for launching new missiles, showing off its latest submarines, and publicly executing prisoners. Less noticed, it’s also recently released stamps featuring US president Donald Trump with Kim Jong Un.”

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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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