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Georgia GOP Says Trump Can’t Take State for Granted

May 21, 2019 at 7:08 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Support for Trump was unquestionable, and colorful, as more than 1,500 delegates to the Georgia Republican Party gathered last week for an annual convention in this port city and tourist Mecca… But in conversations with the Washington Examiner, veteran GOP activists were sober about the challenges confronting Trump in Georgia absent a significant investment in resources.”

“Reliably red since the mid-1990s, the state is in transition, spurred by Democratic gains in the Atlanta suburbs that are partly a byproduct of a rejection of the president. Republicans, chastened by last year’s razor-thin gubernatorial contest, say this evolution might have reached a tipping point.”

The electoral map becomes very tough for Trump if he cannot hold Georgia.

Speculation Grows Amash Will Challenge Trump

May 21, 2019 at 7:05 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“There is growing buzz that Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) will leave the Republican Party to mount a challenge against President Trump as the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate,” The Hill reports.

Iran Poised to Exceed Limits on Nuclear Stockpile

May 21, 2019 at 6:47 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Wall Street Journal: “Iranian officials said they could exceed within weeks an internationally agreed cap on their stockpile of low-enriched uranium, as tensions between Iran and the U.S. escalated.”

House Freedom Caucus Condemns Justin Amash

May 21, 2019 at 6:45 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “House Freedom Caucus condemns Amash over impeachment comment,” by Melanie Zanona: “The House Freedom Caucus on Monday night formally condemned one of its founding members for declaring that President Trump committed impeachable offenses, but stopped short of kicking Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) out of the hard-line conservative group.”

Said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): “It was every single person who totally disagrees with what he says.”

Quote of the Day

May 21, 2019 at 6:38 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“He’s not from Pennsylvania, I guess he was born here, but he left you folks. He left you for another state. Remember that, please. … He left you for another state, and he didn’t take care of you, because he didn’t take care of your jobs. He let other countries come in and rip off America. That doesn’t happen anymore.”

— President Trump, quoted by Politico, speaking about Joe Biden at a rally in Pennsylvania.

How Robert Mueller Testifies

May 21, 2019 at 6:35 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Darren Samuelsohn: “It’s impossible to know how Mueller will respond to questions Democratic and GOP lawmakers are teeing up for him. But when it comes to the character at the center of the drama, there’s actually some evidence for how it’s going to go. Over his most recent 12 years in public life, as the FBI director under two presidential administrations, Mueller testified more than 50 times before Congress… They’re all archived on C-SPAN—more than 140 hours of video footage starring the man Americans have been waiting to hear from.”

“I watched more than 20 hours of that footage, a representative sample of big and small hearings on a range of issues spanning the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, before both friendly and hostile lawmakers.”

Atlanta DAs Won’t Prosecute Under Abortion Law

May 21, 2019 at 6:27 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The abortion ban could be postponed while it makes its way to the nation’s highest court, but local prosecutors are preparing for the possibility that House Bill 481 will take effect. The district attorneys for Georgia’s four most populous counties — Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb and DeKalb — all told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that they would not, or could not, prosecute women under the new law.”

Blowout

May 20, 2019 at 9:05 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Coming this fall: Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth by Rachel Maddow.

Pelosi Clashes with Leadership on Impeachment

May 20, 2019 at 8:37 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“House Democratic leaders sparred internally on Monday over whether to begin an impeachment inquiry against President Trump, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her allies rejecting the call to move forward for now,” Politico reports.

Washington Post: “At least five members of Pelosi’s leadership team — four who also sit on the House Judiciary Committee with jurisdiction over impeachment — pressed Pelosi to allow the panel to start the inquiry, which they argued would help investigators attain documents and testimony Trump has blocked.”

“The meeting underscores the first time Pelosi’s rank-and-file members — including members of her leadership team — have lobbied her to change her long-held position on impeachment.”

O’Rourke Would Do Fox News Town Hall

May 20, 2019 at 7:57 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Beto O’Rourke told Politico that he would participate in a town hall hosted by Fox News.

Said O’Rourke: “Absolutely… This campaign is about going to where people are, and you see that physically in where I show up. But it also has to be in those channels or those social media streams where people get their news and their information. That also includes Fox.”

Sasse Expected to Run for Re-Election

May 20, 2019 at 7:53 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) “is expected to run for reelection next year and is likely to announce his campaign this summer,” Politico reports.

“While no final decision has been made and the Nebraska Republican still has to discuss the matter with his family, Republicans believe Sasse has every intention of running for his seat despite intense speculation to the contrary.”

Chat Shows Possible Ballot Tampering In Miami

May 20, 2019 at 7:50 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“An explosive, 150-page WhatsApp chat leaked to Miami New Times appears to show members of Miami-Dade County Commission District 5 candidate Alex Diaz de la Portilla’s 2018 campaign team discussing destroying or stealing absentee ballots from voters who selected one of Diaz de la Portilla’s opponents, Zoraida Barreiro.l

Russian Documents Show Desire to Sow Violence

May 20, 2019 at 7:45 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Russians who were linked to interference in the 2016 U.S. election discussed ambitious plans to stoke unrest and even violence inside the U.S. as recently as 2018,” according to documents reviewed by NBC News.

“The documents — communications between associates of Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Kremlin-linked oligarch indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller for previous influence operations against the U.S. — laid out a new plot to manipulate and radicalize African-Americans. The plans show that Prigozhin’s circle has sought to exploit racial tensions well beyond Russia’s social media and misinformation efforts tied to the 2016 election.”

Kobach Demands Cabinet Appointment, Access to Jet

May 20, 2019 at 6:38 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “Access to a government jet 24 hours a day. An office in the West Wing, plus guaranteed weekends off for family time. And an assurance of being made secretary of homeland security by November.”

“Those were among a list of 10 conditions that Kris Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state, has given to the White House if he is to become the administration’s ‘immigration czar,’ a job President Trump has been looking to create to coordinate immigration policy across government agencies.”

“Other conditions included having a staff of seven reporting to him, walk in privileges to the Oval Office, a security detail if deemed necessary and the title of assistant to the president.”

Barr Says He’s Fighting for the Presidency, Not Trump

May 20, 2019 at 6:34 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Attorney General William Barr told the Wall Street Journal that “his long-held belief in executive power is more about protecting the presidency than the current officeholder.”

Said Barr: “I felt the rules were being changed to hurt Trump, and I thought it was damaging for the presidency over the long haul.”

He added: “At every grave juncture the presidency has done what it is supposed to do, which is to provide leadership and direction. If you destroy the presidency and make it an errand boy for Congress, we’re going to be a much weaker and more divided nation.”

Trump Jr. Wants to Run for Mayor

May 20, 2019 at 6:31 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

According to Page Six, Donald Trump Jr. is telling people he would like to run for New York City mayor.

Judge Upholds Subpoena for Trump Financial Records

May 20, 2019 at 5:13 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A federal judge in Washington D.C. refused to block a House subpoena to President Trump’s accounting firm for his financial records on Monday, Axios reports.

Wall Street Journal: “The House Oversight Committee is seeking eight years of financial statements and other records related to Mr. Trump, his real-estate company, his foundation and other entities belonging to the president.”

Cohen Testified Trump Lawyer Told Him to Lie

May 20, 2019 at 5:12 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Michael Cohen “told a House panel during closed-door hearings earlier this year that he had been instructed by Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow to falsely claim in a 2017 statement to Congress that negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow ended in January 2016,” the Washington Post reports.

“House Democrats are now scrutinizing whether Sekulow or other Trump attorneys played a role in shaping Cohen’s 2017 testimony to Congress. Cohen has said he made the false statement to help hide the fact that Trump had potentially hundreds of millions of dollars at stake in a possible Russian project while he was running for president.”