The Libertarian Party has urged Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) to consider mounting a third-party challenge to President Trump in the 2020 presidential election, Roll Call reports.
The Michigan Republican said that while he would not “rule out” a bid, he has not completely “thought through” his plans.
“In a surprise move, Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday offered to reach out to the opposition Labour Party on a joint plan for Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, and said she would seek a second delay from the European Union,” the New York Times reports.
“Mrs. May made the announcement after her cabinet met for seven hours amid a growing sense of crisis over Brexit, as the process of withdrawing from the bloc is known. Parliament is deadlocked on the issue, and lawmakers are increasingly concerned about a disorderly, possibly economically damaging exit without an agreement.”
“A federal grand jury has indicted the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party and a major Republican campaign donor on conspiracy and bribery charges,” the Raleigh News and Observer reports.
“Robin Hayes is also charged with three counts of making false statements to the FBI. Hayes had announced Monday that he wouldn’t seek another term as NC GOP chairman, a decision he attributed to health concerns.”
Jonathan Bernstein: “I can’t manage to put aside an Axios item about President Donald Trump from last Friday. Jonathan Swan reported that “administration officials past and present have told us that Trump savors news coverage that shows him acting unilaterally.” Swan was focused on Trump’s habit of overruling and humiliating his staffers and appointees, which is partly why his administration has had record turnover and why the applicant pool is so small for open jobs. But the point about acting alone is worth delving into.”
“It’s a reminder of what the political scientist Richard Neustadt explained decades ago: that presidents are at their weakest when they try to act on their own, and that doing so imposes heavy costs down the line. Every president gets rolled by the bureaucracy. To Trump, it happens repeatedly, in public, over an enormous variety of things. Every president gets frustrated when faced with stubborn staffers, selfish members of Congress, interest groups that refuse to compromise, and a court system that denies them what they think they’re entitled to. But every other modern president has understood that accomplishing anything requires dealing with all of those legitimate parts of the public-policy process and more. Which means bargaining, cajoling, politicking and horse trading. Two years in, Trump still hasn’t learned the basic rules of the game.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders announced that he has raised $18.2 million from more than 900,000 individual donations since launching his presidential campaign on February 19.
Roll Call: “House Democratic women, armed with more numbers and the power of the majority, are getting organized, switching their working group to a more formal caucus and launching a political action committee to help further grow their ranks.”
“The Democratic Women’s Caucus is the new name of the Democratic Women’s Working Group. Open to all 91 House Democratic women, the caucus will be led by an expanded leadership team of three co-chairs and two vice chairs.”
“White House National Security Adviser John Bolton is expanding his influence in increasingly visible ways, pursuing his own longstanding foreign policy priorities at the risk of tensions with top administration officials — and even Donald Trump himself,” Bloomberg reports.
“Since joining Trump’s White House, Bolton has pursued an agenda that includes trying to break Iran financially, oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, shield Americans from the reach of the International Criminal Court and toughen the U.S. posture toward Russia. He coordinated with key lawmakers, U.S. diplomatic and defense officials and the Israelis to compel Trump to slow an abrupt withdrawal of American forces from Syria.”
Ron Brownstein: “In media interviews last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders — among the front-runners for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination — pointedly refused to endorse legislation that House Democrats had introduced to expand the ACA and to block Trump administration initiatives designed to weaken some of its core consumer protections. Instead, Sanders underscored his support for replacing the ACA with ‘Medicare for All’ legislation, in which government would become the ‘single payer’ for virtually all health care services.”
“Sanders’ cool posture toward the House legislation crystallizes the critical choice Democrats face on health care.”
“With Trump again emphasizing his determination to undo the ACA — both by backing litigation that would invalidate the entire law and by proposing to replace it with block grants for states in his latest budget — Democrats must decide how to respond. The choice is whether to center the party’s 2020 health care message on defending and reinforcing the ACA or to offer their own fundamental change by proposing to replace the law with a single-payer plan that would eliminate virtually all private health insurance.”
Washington Examiner: “Controversial former Vice President Dick Cheney, who was castigated by liberals as the evil genius behind former President George W. Bush, is now a steady, quiet, and influential force behind his daughter Liz Cheney’s climb to the highest echelons of GOP politics.”
“A political duo since Dick Cheney, 78, left the West Wing in 2009, their partnership has extended to the House of Representatives, where Liz Cheney, 52, was elected the No. 3 ranking Republican after winning just her second term last year in the at-large seat her father once held. The Wyoming congresswoman’s chief of staff is a longtime Dick Cheney aide, and the former veep is a ubiquitous presence at strategy sessions and at fundraisers for her political operation.”
Former Gov. John Kasich, who is reportedly mulling a presidential bid in 2020, has a new book coming later this year: It’s Up to Us: Ten Little Ways We Can Bring About Big Change.
Buzzfeed: “Everybody already knows what they think about Joe Biden putting his hands on people, because we’ve all seen this happen in public. We’ve seen Biden kiss people at public events! We’ve all had years to think about it! Does anyone need a photograph of Lucy Flores and Joe Biden to know that, at some point, somewhere, over the last 40 years, someone might have been uncomfortable because the situation wasn’t quite right?”
“But the current system still isn’t ready to handle a well-known, gray-area subject like this. As she said on TV over the weekend, Flores didn’t consider it sexual harassment, she just was uncomfortable, and we all know what she means.”
Michelle Goldberg: “So I don’t think Biden’s avuncular pawing is a #MeToo story… But if Biden was more oblivious than predatory, his history still puts him out of step with the mores of an increasingly progressive Democratic Party. On Sunday, The New York Times reported that some Democrats are bracing ‘for an extended reckoning about Mr. Biden and gender if he enters the race.’ The inevitably of such a reckoning should make Biden reconsider getting in.”
Playbook: “His team has not made Biden available for a single interview, allowing others to tell his story. This isn’t 2009. On-the-record statements don’t suffice. A lot of folks are wondering why Biden won’t address this head-on.”
“Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot face off Tuesday in a historic election that will see Chicago elect its first black woman mayor,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
“Preckwinkle and Lightfoot emerged from a field of 14 candidates in February, with Lightfood receiving 17.5 percent of the votes while Preckwinkle got 16.1 percent. Since then, the rivals have tried to one-up each other on their progressive credentials, with each trying to paint the other as a product of the Democratic machine.”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The marquee race Tuesday is for state Supreme Court, with conservatives hoping to widen their control of the court and liberals seeking to put themselves on a path to try to take the majority in 2020.”
“Liberals are backing Lisa Neubauer and conservatives are supporting Brian Hagedorn… The winner will replace retiring Justice Shirley Abrahamson, the longtime leader of the court’s left wing.”
“The Department of Homeland Security has disbanded a group of intelligence analysts who focused on domestic terrorism,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Numerous current and former DHS officials say they find the development concerning, as the threat of homegrown terrorism—including white supremacist terrorism—is growing.”
“In the wake of this move, officials said the number of analytic reports produced by DHS about domestic terrorism, including the threat from white supremacists, has dropped significantly. People in and close to the department said this has generated significant concern at headquarters.”
First Read: “For the short term, Trump’s decision to punt on health care for the time being relieves some anxiety for congressional Republicans after Trump’s Justice Department said the entire Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, is unconstitutional.”
“Thought bubble for a GOP senator: ‘Phew, we don’t have to come up with another plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.'”
“But in the long term, at least through the 2020 election, Trump’s tweets allow every Democratic campaign to say, ‘The president wants the presidential election to be a referendum on health care!’ And we saw how that played out in 2018.”
“The best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico is President Donald J. Trump.”
— President Trump, on Twitter, while accusing Puerto Rican officials of mismanaging funds provided for cleanup on the island after Hurricane Maria left thousands dead.
“Four months ago, shortly after President Trump’s Twitter account sent out an image suggesting Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be prosecuted and imprisoned for appointing special counsel Robert Mueller, the president took the rare step of telling Rosenstein it was a mistake,” ABC News reports.
“The previously unreported anecdote reflects how — despite unrelenting attacks on Mueller, Mueller’s team and others at the Justice Department — Trump often tried to avoid clashes with Rosenstein, the person who appointed Mueller in the first place.”
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.