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Memo Justifying Iran Strike Cites No Imminent Threat

February 15, 2020 at 5:23 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The White House told Congress on Friday that President Trump authorized the strike last month that killed Iran’s most important general to respond to attacks that had already taken place and deter future ones, contradicting the president’s claim that he acted in response to an imminent threat,” the New York Times reports.

“In a legally mandated, two-page unclassified memo to lawmakers, the White House asserted that the strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani was ‘in response to an escalating series of attacks in preceding months’ by Iran and Iran-backed militias.”

Rise of Sanders, Trump Shows Decline in Party Power

February 15, 2020 at 5:21 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Wall Street Journal: “Self-described democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Trump rose in politics by developing strong personal brands, while keeping only tenuous ties to—and frequently criticizing the leaders of—the parties they later sought to lead.”

“Their ascents are the latest sign that the nation’s political parties have lost influence in choosing their own presidential nominees, a development that some party officials see as inevitable in the modern media environment and an era of billionaires funding their own campaigns, as Mr. Trump initially did and Democrat Michael Bloomberg is doing today. But it is one that they say has made politics more volatile and partisan.”

Inside Pete Buttigieg’s Dash for Cash

February 15, 2020 at 5:16 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “In the compressed and crucial weeks between the New Hampshire primary and Super Tuesday, Pete Buttigieg is moving aggressively to replenish his campaign coffers with an ambitious schedule of 10 fund-raisers held across six states in a 14-day period.”

Bloomberg-Clinton?

February 15, 2020 at 12:08 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Mike Bloomberg is considering making Hillary Clinton his running mate, a source close to his campaign has told Drudge Report.

Bloomberg Has Battled Women’s Allegations For Years

February 15, 2020 at 9:57 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “While allegations about Bloomberg’s comments and treatment of women have received notice over the years, a review by The Post of thousands of pages of court documents, depositions obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and interviews with witnesses underscores how Bloomberg and his company, Bloomberg LP, have fought the claims.”

“A number of the cases have either been settled, dismissed in Bloomberg’s favor or closed because of a failure of the plaintiff to meet filing deadlines. The cases do not involve accusations of inappropriate sexual conduct; the allegations have centered around what Bloomberg has said and about the workplace culture he fostered.”

Deep Cracks Emerge In Biden’s Firewall

February 15, 2020 at 7:52 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “Interviews with two dozen South Carolina lawmakers, consultants and voters here suggests there are deep cracks in Joe Biden’s firewall state, where his campaign expects to turn his misfortunes around with a robust victory that highlights his broad-based support — particularly among African Americans.”

“No one denies the state has an affinity for the former vice president to Barack Obama. Biden boasts endorsements from nearly 200 black South Carolina community figures and state and national legislators, a testament to his decades-long relationships with many leaders here. And he’s led in every single public poll in the state over the past year.”

“But his advantage has gradually eroded.”

Sanders Tricked by Russian Pranksters

February 15, 2020 at 7:47 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Russian pranksters claim they called Sen. Bernie Sanders pretending to be climate activist Greta Thunberg and offered Thunberg’s support to his campaign, the Daily Mail reports.

Sanders suggests that ‘Greta’ make a statement in his support and that they do an event together when she next comes to the U.S.

Bill De Blasio Endorses Sanders

February 15, 2020 at 7:42 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Mew York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose brief presidential campaign failed to get off the ground last year, endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont for the Democratic nomination, the New York Times reports.

“His choice is a reversal from four years ago, when he endorsed Hillary Clinton over Mr. Sanders, but it is not entirely unexpected. He said last summer that in retrospect, he believed Mr. Sanders would have won the 2016 election if nominated.”

Klobuchar and Steyer Can’t Name Mexico’s President

February 15, 2020 at 7:40 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer were stumped when asked during a televised interview in Nevada to name the Mexican president, the AP reports.

Pompeo Secretly Met Russian Foreign Minister

February 14, 2020 at 10:01 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday in an encounter the American side apparently wanted to keep under wraps,” Politico reports.

“The State Department made no announcement of the meeting, which took place in Lavrov’s own dedicated meeting room at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof, where the major annual conference of politicians, policymakers and security experts is held. Pompeo’s aides also did not provide any readout after the meeting ended.”

Prosecutors Continue Probe Into Giuliani

February 14, 2020 at 7:03 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“As the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump drew to a close in Washington earlier this month, federal prosecutors in New York contacted witnesses and sought to collect additional documents in an investigation related to Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani,” the Washington Post reports.

“The recent steps — including an interview with a witness last week — indicate that the probe involving Giuliani and two of his former associates is moving forward, even as the Justice Department has set up a process to evaluate claims Giuliani is making about alleged wrongdoing in Ukraine related to former vice president Joe Biden.”

Roger Stone Asks for New Trial

February 14, 2020 at 7:00 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Defense attorneys for Roger Stone demanded a new trial Friday, one day after President Trump suggested that the forewoman in his longtime political confidant’s case had ‘significant bias,'” the Washington Post reports.

“The legal motion could affect Stone’s Feb. 20 sentencing date on charges of witness tampering and lying to Congress.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

February 14, 2020 at 4:02 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“It was really touching. I got phone calls, text messages from people who I’ve become friends with over the last number of months, including Cory, Kamala, Beto and people that have reached out on a personal level. They’re not trying to get anything out of it. It’s just sort of sharing your human experience.”

— Andrew Yang, quoted by the New York Times, on ending his presidential campaign.

The Benefits of Being Joe Biden’s Brother

February 14, 2020 at 3:36 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

ProPublica: “The Biden brothers … have pursued overlapping careers — one a presidential aspirant with an expansive network of well-heeled Democratic donors; the other an entrepreneur who helped his brother raise political money and cultivated the same network to help finance his own business deals.”

“Jim Biden, 70, has cycled over the years from nightclub owner to insurance broker to political consultant and fundraiser to startup investor and construction company executive. But the through line of his resume was his bond with his brother, a Democratic Party stalwart in a position to push legislation or make government contracts happen.”

DNC Schedules March Debate

February 14, 2020 at 3:15 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Democratic National Committee will host another presidential primary debate on March 15 in Phoenix, just two days before the Arizona primary, Politico reports.

The debate will be the 11th of the party’s nominating process.

U.S. Readied Sanctions Then Mysteriously Backed Off

February 14, 2020 at 3:01 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Daily Beast: “Late last year, the U.S. government signaled that it was about to level a new round of sanctions targeting people and entities linked to Deripaska… Back in April 2018, the U.S. sanctioned the oligarch, who once lent millions of dollars to convicted Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort as part of a decades-long relationship between the two men. Over the following months, Deripaska’s allies made a deal with Treasury to limit Deripaska’s control over the companies in exchange for sanctions relief. Then Treasury lifted the sanctions on the companies—though the sanctions on the oligarch himself are still in place. In the year since then, it’s been all quiet on the Deripaska sanctions front.”

“Until December, that is. What’s strange is that despite the signal, Treasury didn’t follow through and the sanctions—which would have targeted the unnamed people and entities because of their proximity to Deripaska—didn’t materialize. It’s been two months since the U.S. indicated that the new sanctions were about to come out, and there’s been no movement from Treasury on the oligarch. The two months of inaction has stirred suspicions of political interference in the sanctions process.”

Sanders Would Defeat All Rivals If Head-to-Head

February 14, 2020 at 2:15 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that Sen. Bernie Sanders would defeat each of the other Democratic presidential candidates in a one-on-one race — in many instances by double-digit margins. 

Barr Reviewing Case Against Michael Flynn

February 14, 2020 at 2:10 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Attorney General William Barr has assigned an outside prosecutor to scrutinize the criminal case against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn,” the New York Times reports.

“The review is highly unusual and could trigger more accusations of political interference by top Justice Department officials into the work of career prosecutors.”

Asha Rangappa: “This is simply insane. Barr is basically trying to systematically ‘undo’ the entire Mueller investigation. And it’s so Trump can have reelection fodder.”

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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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