Rick Gates, who worked on President Trump’s campaign and inauguration, “is still cooperating with the government and shouldn’t be sentenced yet for his guilty plea to conspiracy,” Bloomberg reports.
Politico: “Gates could get tapped as a witness in the Justice Department’s cases against both former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig and longtime Trump associate Roger Stone.”
Politico: “The Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 700 points, or 2.7 percent, in afternoon trading, after a flurry of belligerent tweets from President Trump — and quick retaliation from China in the form of new tariffs — threw gut punches at hopes for a deal between the two nations.”
“The sell-off framed a central conflict inside the White House — and seemingly within the president’s own mind. Trump loves a booming stock market, which he tracks obsessively, and views it as an indicator of success on par with his approval rating. At the same time, he loves his power to unilaterally impose tariffs, and sees winning tough concessions from China as key to his 2020 reelection bid.”
“But those two political imperatives are once again at odds.”
David Bernstein: “Barring something unexpected, this Tuesday will mark two months since the U.S. Senate held a roll call vote on passage of any type of legislation. That was a joint resolution to nullify President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the Mexican border (which Trump later vetoed).”
“It’s been three months, as of Sunday, since the Senate last took yeas and nays on a genuine, full-fledged bill: the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act. It passed, 92 to 8, and was later signed into law.”
“So there was some eye-rolling last week when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell harshly criticized House Democrats, telling them to ‘move on’ from investigating the Trump administration, and get back to the business of legislating for the country… The United States Senate, that great deliberative body, has effectively ceased legislating this year. It has shut down. Closed for business until 2021.”
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“Secretary of State Michael Pompeo made scant progress persuading European Union counterparts to take a harder line toward Iran during a quick visit to Brussels, with the EU standing behind the nuclear accord abandoned by Washington — and warning of a potential military conflict,” Bloomberg reports.
“Pompeo presented what the U.S. says is fresh intelligence on the threat posed by Iran in meetings with counterparts from the three EU nations that joined the landmark 2015 accord that President Trump abandoned a year ago. The top U.S. diplomat received a cool initial response to the surprise visit as foreign ministers from the 28-member bloc convened in the Belgian capital.”
President Trump said that he would agree not to use any information hacked or stolen by foreign adversaries in his 2020 re-election campaign, NBC News reports.
Said Trump: “I would certainly agree to that. I don’t need it. All I need is the opponents that I’m looking at. I’m liking what I see.”
“Ahead of Alabama’s potential vote on a near-total abortion ban, the state’s lieutenant governor took to Twitter to urge his fellow lawmakers to pass the legislation without exceptions for rape or incest,” CBS News reports.
Said Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth (R) in a video: “Abortion is murder. Those three simple words sum up my position on an issue that many falsely claim in a complex one.”
He that “there should be no amendments, which appeared to be a reference to exceptions for rape or incest.”
“A Danish politician has found a unique way of attracting potential voters — posting a campaign ad on a porn site,” Politico reports.
His slogan is translated to the suitably highbrow: “When you finish wanking, vote for Jokke” — a nickname given to people called Joachim.
Politico: “The similarities between their credentials — and the disparity between how their campaigns have been covered on the campaign trail — are frustrating Booker allies who question whether the media is giving the New Jersey senator a fair shot.”
“Other Democrats see Buttigieg’s rise as a reflection of entrenched racial and gender biases — that the Buttigieg bump would be impossible if he wasn’t a white man.”
HuffPost: “Steve Bullock and his team know his entrance into the race will be greeted with a few groans… But Bullock and his entourage also are confident his surprisingly progressive-for-Montana profile and record will stand out enough to rise above the din of nearly two dozen candidates speaking simultaneously to overwhelmed primary voters.”
“The message the governor wants to bring from Montana to the rest of the country is about more than simply defeating the president. He wants to fix the political system ― making campaign donations more transparent and less influential and creating a less partisan atmosphere … Bullock believes attracting support from Trump voters in red states isn’t just necessary to win, it’s also necessary to govern. The overall goal is to project a philosophy that’s both liberal enough to satiate his own party’s left and practical enough to win over centrists.”
Wall Street Journal: “Republicans are looking to avoid a runoff in Tuesday’s primary for North Carolina’s do-over Ninth Congressional District race, a possibility that seemed unlikely in March when 10 candidates filed for the empty seat.”
“Avoiding a four-month runoff would be a boon to the Republican candidate, who will face Democrat Dan McCready in the fall. Mr. McCready had $1.6 million in cash on hand as of April 24 … In a recent poll, State Sen. Dan Bishop was the top candidate, with 31% support, while Stony Rushing, a gun-range owner and Union County commissioner, had 17%.”
Bloomberg: “The European Union is finalizing a list of American goods to target with retaliatory tariffs in the event that U.S. President Donald Trump, who is expected to make a decision by May 18, imposes levies on car imports.”
“A 25 percent U.S. levy on foreign cars would add 10,000 euros to the sticker price of European vehicles imported into the country, according to the European Commission.”
“Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer warned Monday that his colleagues might be too eager to overturn earlier rulings that he said deserve respect as established precedent, mentioning a key abortion ruling as one of them,” NBC News reports.
Said Breyer: “The law can retain the necessary stability only if this court resists that temptation, overruling prior precedent only when the circumstances demand it.”
Wall Street Journal: “Bernie Sanders, the independent Vermont senator who came up through that state’s democratic socialist party, launched his insurgent campaign for president four years ago as an outsider challenging the Democratic machine.”
“Now, in this early stage of the 2020 presidential race, Mr. Sanders is a Democratic front-runner and newly minted millionaire, with high name recognition and $18 million raised in the first six weeks of his campaign, so far outpacing his rivals. His campaign today has the trappings of the very establishment he eschews, making it a challenge to set himself apart in a wide field of Democrats, including some who have sought to emulate his previous run.”
Jonathan Bernstein: “One possible answer is that Trump is trying to hide information from Congress because it would only confirm the parts of Mueller’s report that weren’t exonerating at all. Although the probe didn’t establish a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russian agents, it did find a whole lot of dubious choices and a whole lot of obstruction of justice. It would make sense if the president didn’t want further details of that misconduct made public.”
“What worries me is that there’s another possible answer, and it’s a lot worse.”
“What if Trump is stonewalling Congress because the lesson he took from the Mueller report is that his behavior was perfectly okay? That is, what if Trump isn’t pretending that he didn’t do the misdeeds detailed in the report? What if instead he thinks that Attorney General William Barr, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other congressional Republicans are now willing to go along with a theory of presidential power so expansive and unrestricted that even John Yoo and other advocates of executive authority are alarmed?”
A new OH Predictive Insights poll in Arizona shows Sen. Martha McSally (R) just ahead of challenger Mark Kelly (D), 45% to 44%.
President Trump “tried to take credit on Monday for a sudden turnaround in the Boston Red Sox’ season, pointing out that the reigning World Series champions have gone undefeated since their fraught visit to the White House last week,” Politico reports.
Said Trump: “Has anyone noticed that all the Boston Red Sox have done is WIN since coming to the White House! Others also have done very well. The White House visit is becoming the opposite of being on the cover of Sports Illustrated!
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suggested Donald Trump Jr. ignore a subpoena from his Republican colleague in the Senate and “call it a day.”
Said Graham: “If I were Donald Trump Jr.’s lawyer, I would tell him, you don’t need to go back into this environment anymore. You’ve been there for hours and hours and nothing being alleged here changes the outcome of the Mueller investigation.”
“The polls may be middling, the fundraising so-so, but Elizabeth Warren has one key asset in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination — a campaign plan more clearly defined than that of just about any other candidate,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“While many of her rivals are recalibrating their strategies and looking for new ways to stand out in a huge field largely eclipsed by former Vice President Joe Biden, Warren is pressing ahead, tortoise and hare style.”
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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