“The judge in charge of Roger Stone’s criminal trial on Friday demanded to know why the court wasn’t made aware of the ‘imminent general release’ of a book that could include discussion of the longtime Trump adviser’s legal proceedings, potentially violating a gag order,” Politico reports.
“Judge Amy Berman Jackson gave Stone’s lawyers until Monday to explain why they didn’t tell her until this week about the looming publication, which she emphasized ‘was known to the defendant.'”
“As more former aides shared stories of sometimes-abusive behavior, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar vowed Friday to improve relations with her staffers,” the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
“The Minnesota presidential candidate is trying to rise from a large field of competitors as stories about her treatment of employees long shared privately among Democratic operatives and insiders are spilling into the open. Former employees of her Senate office and previous political campaigns have anonymously described to BuzzFeed, the New York Times and now the Star Tribune, many examples of behavior by Klobuchar they considered abusive, bullying and demeaning.”
“The top tax-writing committee in the House is readying a request for years of President Trump’s personal tax returns that is expected to land at the Internal Revenue Service as early as the next few weeks, according to congressional aides involved in the process. And Democrats are prepared to ‘take all necessary steps,’ including litigation, in order to obtain them,” NBC News reports.
“Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) has asked the committee’s attorneys to prepare the request… Neal has also contacted the chairs of several other House investigative committees, including Oversight and Government Reform, Financial Services, Intelligence and Judiciary, asking them to provide detailed arguments for why they need the president’s tax returns to conduct their probes.”
Paul Manafort asked a federal judge in Virginia to give him a prison term “significantly below” the 19 to 24 years called for under sentencing guidelines, calling that range “clearly disproportionate to” his crimes of bank and tax fraud, the Washington Post reports.
Michael Bloomberg’s closest advisors “have been interviewing potential aides in early caucus and primary states as the billionaire considers a 2020 run for president,” CNBC reports.
“Kevin Sheekey, one of Bloomberg’s closest confidants, has been meeting with prospective staff members in Iowa and New Hampshire… Iowa and New Hampshire serve as the first two states in the presidential primaries while also acting as an early litmus test for those looking to capture the nomination. Both of the early contests are expected to take place in February 2020.”
President Trump “attempted to clarify his comments that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was not responsible for the death of Otto Warmbier after a bipartisan backlash and a blistering statement from Warmbier’s parents,” NBC News reports.
Said Trump: “I never like being misinterpreted, but especially when it comes to Otto Warmbier and his great family. Remember, I got Otto out along with three others. The previous Administration did nothing, and he was taken on their watch. Of course I hold North Korea responsible for Otto’s mistreatment and death.”
“Mark Penn, one of the primary architects of President Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign, met briefly with President Trump in the Oval Office last week,” the New York Times reports.
“The face-to-face meeting, the first between Mr. Trump and a onetime loyal adviser to the Clintons, marked what some saw as the inevitable conclusion of Mr. Penn’s long-running political metamorphosis.”
“As Democrats have moved to the left, Mr. Penn, with his centrist politics, has become alienated from a party in which he once reigned as a winning pollster and is a frequent guest on Fox News and the author of op-ed articles criticizing the special counsel’s investigation as a ‘partisan, open-ended inquisition.’ He has even adopted the president’s term, ‘deep state,’ to describe people he views as Democratic operatives sabotaging the Trump administration from within the government.”
“Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) capped a tumultuous week Friday with his debut appearance at the American Conservative Union’s CPAC conference — and receiving a subpoena as he left the stage,” the Kansas City Star reports.
“Elad Gross, a Democratic candidate for attorney general who is suing Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s office, said on Twitter that the Missouri senator was served moments after he completed his appearance.”
New York Times: “In 2016, Mr. Sanders had little choice but to run the race of an outsider — disorganized, decentralized and improvisational. But as the Vermont senator formally kicks off his second presidential bid with an appearance in his native Brooklyn on Saturday, this much is apparent: He is at least attempting to mount a different kind of campaign.”
“Yet even as he builds a more sophisticated and modern organization, Mr. Sanders’s iconoclasm and possessiveness over his brand of democratic socialism has created turmoil in his own ranks. His media consulting team abruptly quit this week after the senator and his wife, Jane, expressed displeasure with the sleek announcement ad the advisers produced, deeming it inauthentic, and instead booked a Vermont studio to record a no-frills, nearly 11-minute video that Mr. Sanders wrote himself, according to multiple Democratic officials familiar with the matter.”
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) “is close to a decision about a 2020 presidential bid, with the campaign eyeing an announcement in Denver as soon as next week,” the Denver Post reports.
“The former Colorado governor received a permit to hold an event March 7 in the amphitheater at Civic Center park… The disclosure comes a day after The Sun cited several sources close to the Democrat who said that he would announce a bid the first week of March.”
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told CNN that he believes climate change could threaten economic growth.
“It’s a position that puts him at odds with the Trump administration and the President himself, who has openly questioned whether the climate is warming at all.”
Said Hassett: “It’s something people should take seriously and think about.”
Wall Street Journal: “Now, enthusiasm for the proposal is waning as supporters face pointed questions over how it would work—and how it would be paid for. As a result, more candidates are backing intermediate measures, including optional buy-ins to government-run coverage that are likely more attainable in the short term.”
“Net support for a single-payer health system among all registered voters … fell from about 30% in November 2018 to 12% in February.”
Politico: “Two years into Trump’s tenure, current and former U.S. officials say they are worried about the long-term damage his administration is still doing to the way such critical decisions are made — with dangerous consequences that are not always easy to perceive. They worry Trump’s presidency has poisoned the relationship between career government staffers and political appointees, threatening the ability of a future president to make decisions based on nonpartisan expertise.”
“In a particularly telling example, one former NSC staffer recalled informing a Trump political appointee that the administration should re-think a proposed executive order because it could undercut efforts to protect human rights.”
Said the staffer: “This could make the president look really bad.”
The political appointee replied: “The president doesn’t care about the things you care about, and the sooner that you know about it, the better.”
David Wasserman: “Republicans will need to gain 18 seats to win back the majority (or 19 depending on the outcome of a new election in NC-09), and have no shortage of good-looking targets, at least on paper: there are now 31 Democrats sitting in districts carried by President Trump in 2016 and just three Republicans sitting in districts carried by Hillary Clinton.”
“But Democrats have history on their side: the House majority hasn’t flipped twice in a row since 1954 and hasn’t flipped during a presidential cycle since 1952. Democrats have gained House seats in five of the past six presidential elections (save for 2004, when Republicans drew a favorable new map in Texas) and in seven of the past eight presidential cycles, the net partisan seat shift in the House has been in the single digits.”
“It’s tough to see Republicans winning the House back unless President Trump’s approval rating is significantly higher than today’s 42 percent come 2020… It’s too early to offer a range of gains and losses, but Democrats begin the cycle with an edge – one they hope can sustain them until districts are redrawn in 2021.”
Renato Mariotti: “This is due in part to Trump’s successful disinformation crusade, which has worked to raise a nearly impossible and definitely illogical bar for Mueller to clear: proving ‘collusion’ and charging a grand criminal conspiracy involving the Trump campaign and the Russian government. But it is also due to Trump’s critics, who have responded to Trump’s ‘No collusion!’ mantra by shouting back, ‘Yes, collusion!'”
“The word collusion appears nowhere in the order authorizing Mueller’s investigation. There is not even a relevant crime called ‘collusion.’ What Mueller is tasked with is investigating ‘any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with’ the Trump campaign.”
“If ‘links and/or coordination’ also don’t sound like crimes, that’s because they aren’t. While Mueller is directed to charge and prosecute crimes he discovers, his is primarily a counterintelligence investigation — not a criminal one — the purpose of which is to identify threats to our national security, potentially including the President of the United States and his associates.”
“I think not. Hillary and I have fundamental differences.”
— Sen. Bernie Sanders, when asked on The View if he would ask Hillary Clinton for campaign advice.
Vice President Pence warned that “socialist” policies embraced by Democrats, including presidential candidates, risk throwing the country into the kind of economic free-fall and autocratic grip ravaging Venezuela, the Washington Post reports.
Said Pence: “Democrats openly advocate an economic system that has impoverished millions of people around the world. Under the guise of Medicare-for-all and a Green New Deal, Democrats are embracing the same tired economic theories that have impoverished nations and stifled the liberties of millions over the past century. That system is socialism.”
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.