A new Quinnipiac poll finds that just 31% of American voters like President Trump as a person, while 59% dislike him.
Republicans like Trump by a 66% to 24% margin, the only listed party, gender, education, age or racial group which likes him.
Meanwhile, Trump currently has a 41% to 54% job approval rating, including 48% who disapprove strongly and 30% who approve strongly.
NBC News traces the “Qanon” conspiracy theory back to three people.
“Now, the people behind that effort are at the center of a fractious debate among conspiracy enthusiasts, some of whom believe the three people who first popularized the Qanon theory are promoting it in order to make a living. Others suggest that these original followers actually wrote Q’s mysterious posts.”
“While the identity of the original author or authors behind ‘Q’ is still unknown, the history of the conspiracy theory’s spread is well-documented — through YouTube videos, social media posts, Reddit archives, and public records reviewed by NBC News.”
“Defense attorneys for Paul Manafort rested their case on Tuesday without calling any witnesses or having the former Trump campaign chairman testify in the trial where he is accused of bank and tax fraud,” Reuters reports.
“At the same time, the judge overseeing the trial rejected Manafort’s motion to throw out the 18 charges against him.”
Politico: “Closing statements will begin Wednesday, with jury deliberations to follow.”
President Trump’s campaign “said it has filed for arbitration, accusing Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former campaign aide and White House official, of breaching a 2016 nondisclosure agreement with the campaign,” CNN reports.
“The move is the first legal action the Trump campaign has taken since Manigault Newman published a tell-all book about her time as a Trump campaign adviser and senior White House official.”
A must-read: An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics by Greg Sargent.
“At the heart of this dangerous moment is a paradox: It took a figure as uniquely menacing as Trump to rivet the nation’s attention on the fragility of our democracy. Yet the causes of our dysfunction are long-running — they predate Trump, helped facilitate his rise, and, distressingly, will outlast his presidency.”
Roger Stone shared an image on Instagram of himself, President Trump and several other Trump allies wearing spacesuits with swastikas on them.
Said Stone: “I love this — proud to be in this crew — but the only lies being told are by liberal scumbags.”
He’s since deleted the image.
A new CNN poll finds that just 34% of Americans approve of President Trump’s handling of the Russia investigation as compared to 55% who disapprove.
In addition, 56% believe Trump has interfered with the investigation while just 38% who say he has not. And 58% say this is a serious matter that should be investigated while only 37% who think it’s mainly an effort to discredit Trump.
Greg Sargent: “Trump is losing every single public argument about the Mueller probe.”
A new Monmouth poll in New Jersey’s 3rd congressional district finds Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ) barely leading challenger Andy Kim (D), 41% to 40%, among all potential voters – that is voters who have participated in an election since 2010 or have newly registered to vote.
“When applying two different likely voter models, the contest shifts in the Democrat’s favor although it remains basically tied. A historical midterm model gives Kim 45% support and MacArthur 44%, while a model that includes a turnout surge in Democratic precincts gives Kim a slight 46% to 43% lead. These gaps are within the margin of error for these samples.”
The Cook Political Report has the district as Lean Republican.
Bradley Moss: “What is concerning here is the continuous and repeated appearance of political considerations seeping into the traditionally apolitical disciplinary process at the FBI. President Trump made no bones about his distaste for Agent Strzok, just as he similarly publicly criticized Director Comey and Director McCabe prior to their terminations. All three men played or were still playing a role in the investigation into the president’s campaign before they were fired.”
“With the firing of Peter Strzok, the president’s purge of senior FBI leadership who helped launch that investigation is now complete. For those wondering whether Trump would allow the bureau to do its job without political interference from the White House, I think we have our answer.”
“Paul Manafort turned to Jared Kushner for help in an attempt to secure a Trump administration job for a Chicago banker at the center of Manafort’s fraud trial,” Bloomberg reports.
“Manafort… got a quick response.”
“‘On it!’’ Kushner replied on Nov. 30, 2016, according to an email submitted by prosecutors into evidence Monday at Manafort’s trial on bank and tax-fraud charges.”
A new recording obtained by CBS News seems to back up Omarosa Manigault-Newman’s story in her new book, Unhinged, that several Trump campaign advisers discussed an alleged tape which had Donald Trump saying the N-word during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump campaign advisers denied yesterday that any conversations took place but the new recording “appears to confirm Omarosa’s claims that Trump campaign officials were aware of a tape in which then-candidate Trump uses a racial slur, and they talked about how to handle it.”
A new Gonzales Research poll in Maryland finds Gov. Larry Hogan (R) leading challenger Ben Jealous (D) by 16 points, 52% to 36%.
President Trump fired off a nasty tweet at his former aide Omarosa Maigault Newmany, calling her a “lowlife” and a “dog.”
Said Trump: “When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!”
“The confidence indices are telling a very important story, and POTUS is polling in the low to mid fifties on the economy. The great blue wall has crashed. I think GOP will lose seats but keep the House.”
— White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, quoted by Politico.
“The West Virginia House of Delegates voted late Monday night to impeach all of the justices on the Supreme Court, a decision prompted initially by reports of extravagant spending on office renovations,” the New York Times reports.
“In a series of votes that frequently fell along rough party lines, lawmakers approved 11 articles of impeachment against the four sitting justices, sending the process on to the State Senate.”
Charleston Gazette-Mail: “Throughout debate on the articles, leaders in the Republican-majority House said they would work through midnight to finish the work amid arguments from House Democrats that the presentation of the articles was done in a way that would allow Republican Gov. Jim Justice to appoint four justices on the five-member court for the next two years.”
“Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) holds a narrow 44% to 41% lead over Gov. Rick Scott (R) among Latino voters in Florida’s Senate race, according to a new poll that’s raising fresh concerns among Democrats that the incumbent is in a dicey position with a core group of voters he needs to carry by bigger margins,” Politico reports.
“For Democrats, those numbers are a problem because a Republican who wins as much of the Hispanic vote as Scott is taking usually wins statewide in Florida. Democrats outnumbered Republicans in the survey by 40% to 33%.”
“Tom Steyer’s NextGen America organization is working to register 100,000 students in one month at college campuses across 11 states as part of its ‘Welcome Week’ program launching this week,” Axios reports.
“This is the group’s biggest voter registration effort yet, focused specifically on the most crucial bloc of non-voters, and it’s happening just three months before the 2018 midterm election.”
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.