Washington Post: “It was only 200 days ago, on his 601st day in office, that President Trump exceeded 5,000 false or misleading claims.”
“Now, on his 801st day, the count stands at 9,451, according to The Fact Checker’s database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement the president utters. That’s a pace of 22 fishy claims a day over the past 200 days, a steep climb from the average of nearly 5.9 false or misleading claims a day in Trump’s first year in office.”
Jonathan Chait: “Trump’s innovation of winning the election through adolescent-style bullying has carried over to his presidency. Presidents traditionally inculcate the virtues of decency, gentleness and generosity as part of their role as ceremonial head of state. One little-noticed feature of Trump’s presidency is how little time and attention he devotes to what used to be the banal presidential work of celebrating charitable good works and public service. Speeches and photo ops with volunteers, do-gooder business leaders, hospital visits and the like, once the barely-noticed daily bread of presidential messagings, has all but disappeared…”
“The message of any bully is that he is a winner — as are, to a pointedly lesser degree, his flunkies — and his targets are the losers. What is so remarkable about Trump is that he has no interest or need to conceal his cruelty. Trump is a highly familiar social type: the leader of a gang, taunting his targets while his flunkies guffaw. Before he came along, it was never possible to imagine such a person occupying the Presidency of the United States.”
“The House Judiciary Committee plans to vote Wednesday to authorize subpoenas to obtain the full report of special counsel Robert Mueller, escalating a feud with the Justice Department over a lengthy document detailing findings about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election,” the Washington Post reports.
“Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, on Monday announced plans for the panel’s vote, which would take place a day after a deadline the committee set for Attorney General William Barr to share the report.”
First Read has some good observations from Beto O’Rourke’s campaign kickoff in El Paso over the weekend:
“A Syrian asylum seeker who presented himself to Virgin Islands Police was transferred to Miami by immigration agents in defiance of a judge’s order that he be released,” the Virgin Islands Daily News reports.
New York Times: “She was the first major candidate to announce; she has set the pace on policy, unveiling a series of far-reaching proposals on child care, taxes and the role of large technology companies; and she defied the pleas of her longtime finance director and declared that she would stop pursuing big donations altogether, leading to his resignation.”
“But as the first fund-raising deadline arrives at midnight on Sunday, Ms. Warren — who last year was widely considered a would-be front-runner — finds herself in a political vise. Her rivals on either ideological flank will raise substantially more money in the first quarter than she does, and her focus on policy has not yet translated in the polls.”
Bloomberg: “Saudi Arabia and Egypt are unlikely to throw their weight behind the proposal being drawn up by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser, and White House Middle East peace negotiator Jason Greenblatt, according to interviews with key diplomats and analysts in Washington.”
“One diplomat described the initiative, which has yet to be made public, ‘hocus pocus’ and doubted whether Trump — who has raised questions about whether he supports a Palestinian state — cares about a negotiated settlement.”
Washington Post: “Twenty months before voters head to the polls, Graham is starting his campaign for a fourth Senate term early — and doing everything he can to link himself to the president. For Graham, the full embrace of Trump is, in part, an effort to stave off primary challengers, particularly someone who could be tempted to run against him as a Trump-style insurgent.”
Pete Buttigieg announced that his presidential campaign raised over $7 million in the first quarter.
Politico: “The challenge for Buttigieg goes beyond teaching America how to pronounce his last name. Local operatives said the 37-year-old lags behind the rest of the sprawling pack of 2020 candidates in building infrastructure in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — a problem Buttigieg’s campaign is racing to correct as resources start to roll in.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) writes in Politico:
“Since January 2017, for the first time in memory, a minority has exploited procedure to systematically obstruct a president from staffing up his administration. This new, across-the-board obstruction is unfair to the president and, more importantly, to the American people. Left unchecked, it is guaranteed to create an unsustainable precedent that would see every future presidency of either party obstructed in the same mindless way. The Senate needs to restore normalcy. And this week, we will vote to do just that.”
“When Kamala Harris made her much-heralded arrival in Washington as California’s first African American U.S. senator, she made a curious early decision. Within months of her swearing-in, she sponsored a bill urging states to eliminate cash bail, denouncing the system as a scourge on the poor and communities of color,” the AP reports.
“That position would become a key part of her criminal justice reform platform. But her choice surprised some bail reform advocates back in California. In her seven years as a district attorney, and then six as attorney general, Harris was absent on the issue, they say. In fact, less than a year earlier, her office defended the cash bail system in a pair of federal court cases, shifting course only weeks before she entered the Senate.”
Politico: “The photograph, taken at the White House in February 2015 during Ash Carter’s swearing-in ceremony to lead the Pentagon, captures Biden standing behind Stephanie Carter and whispering into her ear as his hands rest on her shoulders.”
“But in a blog post published Sunday on Medium, Carter wrote that Biden’s display of affection toward her in 2015 was appreciated, as she was ‘uncharacteristically nervous’ after slipping on some ice upon her arrival at the Pentagon earlier in the day.”
Said Carter: “After the swearing-in, as Ash was giving remarks, he leaned in to tell me ‘thank you for letting him do this’ and kept his hands on my shoulders as a means of offering his support.”
Jonathan Swan: “A major misconception on Capitol Hill right now is the notion that Mick Mulvaney is behind President Trump’s decision to back a lawsuit to demolish the Affordable Care Act.”
“After a week of talking to sources who’ve discussed the matter privately with Trump, it’s clear that this health care push is coming from the president himself. These people say Trump thinks it’s a great idea to try to brand the GOP as ‘the party of health care’ by backing the controversial litigation and pushing for legislative change.”
“Trump has privately said he thinks the lawsuit to strike down the Affordable Care Act will probably fail in the courts.”
“As he was deliberating last year over replacing Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, President Trump told confidants he had big plans for Judge Amy Coney Barrett,” Axios reports.
Said Trump: “I’m saving her for Ginsburg.”
“Trump used that exact line with a number of people, including in a private conversation with an adviser two days before announcing Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination.”
A new Harvard Institute of Politics Poll finds Sen. Bernie Sanders is the favorite among 18- to 29-year-old likely Democratic primary voters at 31%, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden follows in second place at 20%, Beto O’Rourke at 10%, Sen. Kamala Harris at 5%, Sen. Cory Booker at 3%, and Andrew Yang at 2%.
Axios: “The youngest Americans — millennials and Generation Z — will make up 37% of the electorate in 2020, per Pew Research.”
“Former Vice President Joseph Biden scrambled on Sunday to contain a quickly growing crisis for his likely presidential bid, putting forward several former female aides and allies to praise his treatment of women after Lucy Flores, a former Nevada legislator, accused Mr. Biden of kissing and touching her,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Biden also issued a sweeping statement acknowledging that he had shown ‘expressions of affection’ to people during his years on the campaign trail, but said, ‘not once — never — did I believe I acted inappropriately.’ It was the second damage-control statement to come from his team since Ms. Flores made her allegation on Friday, and it was released minutes before she appeared on CNN and argued that Mr. Biden’s behavior with her at a 2014 campaign event was ‘disqualifying’ for a presidential candidate.”
“Yet even as Mr. Biden defended himself, and his former staff members praised his conduct as a boss, some of the former vice president’s would-be rivals in the 2020 Democratic field and some allies said that Ms. Flores’s claim should be taken seriously.”
Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) said that he voluntarily took polygraph exams that support his claim that he did not sexually assault two women who leveled accusations against him earlier this year, NBC News reports.
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.