Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) got into a heated online exchange on Monday after Scott took a jab at the Green New Deal and Ocasio-Cortez shot back that it was embarrassing that a sitting U.S. senator could say something “lacking so much critical thinking,” The Hill reports.
“Scott later claimed that Ocasio-Cortez didn’t understand sarcasm and that she embarrassed both herself and Congress as a whole.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) has drawn a Republican challenger in 2020, the Raleigh News & Observer reports.
“Garland Tucker III, the retired chairman and CEO of Triangle Capital Corporation and an author, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Committee to run in the Republican primary on Monday. Tucker wrote Conservative Heroes: Fourteen Leaders Who Changed America — Jefferson to Reagan and has served on the board of the John Locke Foundation and the Raleigh-based Civitas Institute.”
“House Democrats on Monday demanded government records related to the federal response to the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, as President Trump and his critics continue to feud over whether the administration exacerbated the human suffering from one of the worst natural disasters in recent memory,” the Washington Post reports.
Politico: “The unconventional, often gimmicky fundraising arms race is part of a desperate scramble to make it past a new threshold set by the DNC, 65,000 individual donors… The requirement has reshaped the strategy of candidates struggling to cross the donor mark, changing spending priorities and altering the path of their campaigns.”
“Such is the importance of the debates that some presidential campaigns have decided to prioritize Facebook advertising over hiring staffers in early states, several campaign aides said. Others noted that the rules prioritize chasing viral moments early in the campaign over building traditional vote-getting infrastructure in Iowa and New Hampshire. But defenders of the new rules say that they have just forced campaigns to prove they can compete in the 21st century before the election year.”
“More than 370 former federal prosecutors who worked in Republican and Democratic administrations have signed on to a statement asserting special counsel Robert Mueller III’s findings would have produced obstruction charges against President Trump — if not for the office he held,” the Washington Post reports.
“The statement — signed by myriad former career government employees, as well as high-profile political appointees — offers a rebuttal to Attorney General William Barr’s determination that the evidence Mueller uncovered was ‘not sufficient’ to establish Trump committed a crime.”
A Mother Jones investigation “has discovered that another Chinese American Trump supporter and fundraiser also tried to sell access to Mar-a-Lago. This Trump funder, Xinyue ‘Daniel’ Lou, says he ended up failing to pull off this venture, but he tells Mother Jones that he was trying to leverage his donations to Trump and his pro-Trump activism in 2016 by packaging a trip for Chinese businesspeople that would include a stop at Mar-a-Lago.”
“He also notes that he has been instructed by the Republican National Committee to say nothing publicly about his fundraising work for the GOP and Trump, which included rounding up people he described as ‘Chinese’ for a Trump fundraiser in 2017.”
New York Times: “More than halfway into Mr. Trump’s term, he and Mr. Pence have developed what aides describe as a rhythm, in which the president lays out the broad contours of policy and then hands off to the vice president to make the granular sales pitch.”
“Privately, several Republican donors have made it clear to administration allies that they want to hear more about policy from a White House where the dominant story line has been Mr. Trump’s unconventional approach to the presidency. Ideally, they would like for Mr. Trump to be that messenger: They note that Mr. Pence may be an explainer, but he is not a decision maker in the White House on policy. Still, the role Mr. Pence plays has been a comfort to Republicans, particularly those for whom policy is a vital aspect of conservatism.”
“The Trump administration plans to allow 30,000 more foreign workers temporarily into the United States for seasonal work through the end of September, a move that reflects how the booming economy has complicated President Trump’s efforts to restrict legal immigration,” the AP reports.
“It would benefit oyster shucking companies, fisheries, loggers and seasonal hotels, including Trump’s own Mar-a-Lago club — all of which use the visas to hire migrants for temporary work they say Americans won’t do.”
A new Monmouth poll finds 57% of Americans say that socialism is not compatible with American values, while just 29% say it is compatible.
Key finding: 42% have a negative opinion of socialism in general, with another 45% having a neutral opinion and just 10% holding a positive view of socialism.
Meanwhile, 39% of Americans have a positive opinion of capitalism in general, while 40% have a neutral opinion and another 17% hold a negative view of capitalism.
“If this is in their path to take back the House, they’re fucked.”
— Rep. Max Rose (D-NY), quoted by BuzzFeed News, saying Republicans will not be able to win back his Staten Island seat.
Michael Cohen spoke to reporters briefly outside his Manhattan apartment before heading to report to a federal prison facility in upstate New York — suggesting once again that he had more secrets to spill, the Washington Post reports.
Said Cohen: “I hope that when I rejoin my family and friends that the country will be in a place without xenophobia, injustice, and lies at the helm of our country. There still remains much to be told, and I look forward to the day that I can share the truth.”
A new Gallup poll finds President Trump’s approval rate at 46%, the highest it’s been since he took office more than two years ago.
Beto O’Rourke told the Dallas Morning News that he now supports impeaching President Trump.
Said O’Rourke: “We’re finally learning the truth about this president. And yes, there has to be consequences. Yes, there has to be accountability. Yes, I think there’s enough evidence now for the House of Representatives to move forward with impeachment. This is our country, and this is the one chance that we get to ensure that it remains a democracy and that no man, regardless of his position, is above the law.”
A new Firehouse Strategies poll finds Joe Biden has boosted his early lead in the first three states to vote in the Democratic race for president.
Biden’s best state is South Carolina, where he has 48% support (36% in February), followed by Iowa with 35% (25% in February), and New Hampshire at 34% (22% in February). This represents a double-digit boost in all three states over the past three months.
Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders in second in all three states, in the low double-digits. Pete Buttigieg, who was not included in the February survey, finished third in all three states with support ranging from 5% in South Carolina to 11% in Iowa. Elizabeth Warren comes in fourth and has not changed in her levels of support since February.
Kamala Harris, on the other hand, had a steep drop since February, and now comes in fifth place. Beto O’Rourke, Amy Klobuchar, and Cory Booker failed to break 5% in any of the three states.
“The Massachusetts Republican Party is aiming to protect President Trump from primary challengers such as former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld by approving a new winner-takes-all delegate plan,” Politico reports.
Gerald Seib: “With relatively little investment, the Russian leader is expanding his toehold in the Western Hemisphere and potentially getting access to giant oil and uranium supplies by backing a dictator in Venezuela.”
“With relatively little investment, he has expanded his base of operations in the Middle East by propping up a dictator in Syria and by trying to send some sophisticated Russian military equipment into Turkey. (For the latter effort, he’d actually turn a profit.)”
“And with relatively little investment, and little notice from a distracted international community, he has kept up a low-level war against those fighting a Russian takeover in eastern Ukraine, holding on to a bargaining chip he might find useful someday.”
“He does all this while overseeing an economy roughly the size of South Korea’s, which produces little or nothing the world wants to buy, outside of oil and military gear.”
“Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said they will vote Wednesday on whether to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress after Barr missed a deadline to produce a complete version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report,” the Washington Post reports.
“The panel had set a deadline of 9 a.m. Monday for Barr to provide the unredacted version of Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. It announced the planned vote in a statement Monday.”
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.