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Trump’s Attempt to Bypass Congress Leaves Uneasy GOP

February 16, 2019 at 11:45 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “The president’s move left Senate Republicans sharply divided, and it remains to be seen whether they will act collectively to try to stop Mr. Trump or how far into unchartered territory they are willing to follow a headstrong president operating with no road map beyond his own demands.”

“The Republican resistance to Mr. Trump’s emergency declaration was much more pronounced in the Senate than in the House, where a few Republicans — in the minority but more closely aligned to Mr. Trump — groused. But most of the conservative rank and file embraced it.”

Quote of the Day

February 16, 2019 at 7:59 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The good news out of this unconstitutional power grab is it will split off some Republicans from this wannabe Franco.”

— GOP strategist John Weaver, quoted by USA Today, on how President Trump’s emergency declaration on the border threatens to split Republicans.

Kamala Harris Hustles to Lock Down California

February 16, 2019 at 7:50 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “The Democratic senator has been activating her forces on the home front since launching her White House bid last month — cornering some of the state’s most prolific donors, locking down big endorsements and homing in on a statewide blueprint to rack up early delegates.”

“California’s Super Tuesday primary is foundational to Harris’ plans to win the nomination. Her home-state advantage is an enormous asset, holding the promise of a huge haul of delegates early in the nomination fight. At the same time, a poor performance there could end her bid.”

“Well aware there’s no guarantee of success, Harris and her team of longtime operatives there started working the state long before many of her 2020 Democratic rivals arrived for their first fundraisers and retail campaign stops.”

Trump’s Border Emergency Drags GOP Into Risky Fight

February 16, 2019 at 7:44 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump’s decision to unilaterally attempt to build his promised wall at the Mexico border is pulling his party into a tailspin of drama and unease — a move that could help his own 2020 reelection effort even at the expense of fellow Republicans,” the Washington Post reports.

“Trump’s bid to circumvent Congress puts GOP lawmakers — including many vulnerable senators up for reelection in the next cycle — in the position of having to choose between their party’s leader and their self-described opposition to executive overreach.”

“If they back Trump’s emergency declaration, many lawmakers worry, they will be greenlighting a White House power grab that infringes on Congress’s constitutional power over spending. But if they oppose it, they risk attracting the wrath of Trump’s political base — and perhaps a primary challenge.”

The Hill: “Key congressional Republicans, meanwhile, don’t need any nudge from Democrats. They’re already tearing themselves apart over Trump’s declaration.”

O’Rourke Would Be Competitive Against Cornyn

February 16, 2019 at 7:35 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Texas finds Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) just ahead of possible challenger Beto O’Rourke (D) in a U.S. Senate race, 47% to 45% with 8% of registered voters undecided.

Trump’s ‘Emergency’ Is Completely Unique

February 16, 2019 at 7:34 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump on Friday pointed to nearly five dozen previous instances in which presidents of both parties have declared emergencies as justification for his invocation of extraordinary powers to build his border wall. But there is no precedent for what he has just done,” the New York Times reports.

“None of the times emergency powers have been invoked since 1976, the year Congress enacted the National Emergencies Act, involved a president making an end run around lawmakers to spend money on a project they had decided against funding.”

Washington Post: How Trump came to declare a national emergency to fund his border wall.

North Carolina Officials Will Consider Fate of House Seat

February 16, 2019 at 7:33 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Investigators on Monday will begin revealing the breadth of an alleged ballot-tampering scheme in North Carolina, launching a potentially bitter and partisan battle over how to fill a congressional seat that has remained vacant since January,” the Washington Post reports.

“The election has been in limbo since November, when evidence surfaced that a political operative paid by Republican candidate Mark Harris had assembled a crew of election workers to collect mail-in ballots from voters, a felony in North Carolina. With Harris leading Democrat Dan McCready by just 905 votes, the board declined to certify the results and launched a wide-reaching investigation instead.”

Manafort Faces 19 to 24 Years in Prison

February 15, 2019 at 7:30 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Prosecutors for special counsel Robert Mueller said in a new court filing that President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort is facing a sentence of 19.5 to 24.5 years in prison for the financial crimes for which he was convicted in a Virginia court last August.

Mueller Has Stone’s Communications with WikiLeaks

February 15, 2019 at 6:07 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Special counsel prosecutors said for the first time that they have evidence of Roger Stone communicating with WikiLeaks, CNN reports.

During its investigation of the Russian hack of the Democrats, “the government obtained and executed dozens of search warrants on various accounts used to facilitate the transfer of stolen documents for release, as well as to discuss the timing and promotion of their release.”

O’Rourke Actively Discussing White House Bid

February 15, 2019 at 6:05 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Two Democratic campaign strategists told Politico that they are in discussions with Beto O’Rourke and his team.

One of the strategists described those conversations as moving to “an operational level” after weeks of discussing 2020 in more theoretical terms.

“O’Rourke’s advisers had been speaking with Democratic strategists for months about a potential campaign, but only at a relatively abstract level… But after a massive rally in his hometown of El Paso this week, O’Rourke is now becoming personally involved in discussions about the shape of a 2020 campaign, the strategists said.”

Fact Checking Trump’s Emergency Declaration

February 15, 2019 at 6:03 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “Where to begin with Trump’s rambling news conference to announced he was invoking a national emergency to build a border wall? It was chock full of false and misleading claims, many of which we’ve previously highlighted, either in our database of Trump claims or our list of Bottomless Pinocchios.”

Ann Coulter Fires Back at Trump

February 15, 2019 at 5:27 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Ann Coulter fired back at President Trump in a KABC interview stating that “the only national emergency is that our president is an idiot.”

Said Coulter: “Thank God he’s relieved me of any responsibility for what he’s been doing. That was the biggest favor anyone could do for me today.”

Trump Attorneys May Have Lied About Cohen Payments

February 15, 2019 at 5:22 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) said that his panel received new documents showing that two attorneys for President Trump may have lied to government ethics officials about Michael Cohen’s payments to women alleging affairs with the president ahead of the 2016 election, Politico reports.

Said Cummings: “It now appears that President Trump’s other attorneys — at the White House and in private practice — may have provided false information about these payments to federal officials.”

New Jersey Attorney General Subpoenas Trump Inaugural

February 15, 2019 at 5:12 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“New Jersey’s attorney general has stepped into the investigation of President Trump’s $107 million presidential inaugural fund, issuing an administrative subpoena for the fund’s financial records, including any that document fund-raising in the state,” the New York Times reports.

“The New Jersey subpoena also demands records of any contributions made on behalf of foreigners, who are barred from contributing to inaugural funds, campaigns or political action committees in the United States.”

Judge Puts Gag Order on Roger Stone

February 15, 2019 at 3:40 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A federal judge has placed a gag order on longtime Donald Trump associate Roger Stone and attorneys involved in his criminal case, CNN reports.

Politico: “For Stone, the gag order was more a matter of when, and not if. The longtime GOP campaign operative and frequent TV commentator who hosts his own daily webcast has been on a media blitz since his indictment last month. He called into the conspiracy theory website InfoWars to give his first interview following his arrest.”

Mueller Interviewed Sarah Sanders

February 15, 2019 at 3:35 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told CNN that she has been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller: “The President urged me, like he has everyone in the administration, to fully cooperate with the special counsel. I was happy to voluntarily sit down with them.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

February 15, 2019 at 2:56 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I want to do it faster. I could do the wall over a longer period of time, I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it faster. I want to get it done faster, that’s all.”

— President Trump, quoted by ABC News, in declaring a “national emergency” for building a border wall.

2020 House Overview

February 15, 2019 at 2:35 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

For members: The new edition of Inside Elections.

This issue includes the first House ratings of the cycle. It also has capsules on more than 110 of the most competitive and interesting races. While it’s too early to know what the political environment will be like in 2020, the House majority should be in play, considering Republicans can get back to the majority by winning districts President Trump carried in 2016.

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