The Hill: “Senators are leaving Thursday and will return to Washington on March 25. The Senate will vote on whether or not to take up the Green New Deal resolution after they wrap up consideration of a circuit court nominee.”
“The Green New Deal will need 60 votes to get over the procedural hurdle, something it stands little chance of doing in a GOP-controlled Senate where most Democrats are expected to vote present and Republicans won’t support it.”
“Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) took every possible position on President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build a wall along the Mexican border,” the Washington Post reports.
“At first, Tillis stood defiantly against Trump’s usurpation of congressional prerogative, declaring in a Washington Post op-ed almost two weeks ago that approving the emergency would ‘justify providing the executive with more ways to bypass Congress.'”
“Then, over the last week, as political pressure mounted, Tillis moved into the undecided column in hope of a compromise with Trump… By Thursday afternoon, as 12 GOP colleagues broke ranks with the president, Tillis instead fell in line.”
Howard Schultz apologized to two Democratic candidates after claiming he had spent more time with the military than anyone else in the 2020 field, Politico reports.
Said Schultz: “I apologize to Pete Buttigieg and Tulsi Gabbard who served our country honorably. In that moment I made something that should unite us all, about me. I made a mistake and I apologize.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders advocated for the nationalization of most major industries, including energy companies, factories, and banks, when he was a leading member of a self-described “radical political party” in the 1970s, a CNN KFile review of his record reveals.
Ron Brownstein: “The sprawling Democratic field is already so large, and so diverse in race and gender, that strategists are expecting tough competition in the early stages for almost every group of voters imaginable. But there’s one potential exception to that pattern: older voters. Even in a rapidly diversifying party, it’s virtually certain that most Democratic primary voters next year will be older than 45. Yet most of the top-tier candidates look best suited to compete for younger voters, an imbalance that grew more lopsided with the announcement from O’Rourke, who connected powerfully with youthful audiences during his narrow loss in last fall’s Texas Senate race.”
“This divergence could provide an important tactical advantage for former Vice President Joe Biden, who is likely to rely more on older than younger voters if he enters the race. It also suggests that O’Rourke is on a collision course with Bernie Sanders over the allegiance of youthful voters, who fueled the Vermont senator’s 2016 campaign.”
“The Senate easily voted to overturn President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the southwestern border, delivering a bipartisan rebuke to what lawmakers in both parties deemed executive overreach by a president determined to build his border wall over Congress’s objections,” the New York Times reports.
“The 59-41 vote on the House-passed measures set up the first veto of Mr. Trump’s presidency. It was not overwhelming enough to override Mr. Trump’s promised veto, but Congress has now voted to block a presidential emergency declaration for the first time — and on one of the core promises that animated Mr. Trump’s political rise, the vow to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.”
“The House of Commons voted in favor of delaying Brexit day beyond March 29, either to give time to implement a deal or to give time for an alternative course of action,” Politico reports.
“MPs voted by 412 to 202 (a majority of 210) in favor of a government motion that Theresa May was effectively forced into laying before the house after parliament voted Wednesday night to rule out a no-deal Brexit.”
Politico: “First a government shutdown re-focused public attention on President Donald Trump’s proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall — a major issue to Democratic voters and a signature concern of O’Rourke’s. Then Trump flew to El Paso to rally support for the wall, all but daring O’Rourke to confront him in his home town.”
“The result — a protest rally that drew thousands of supporters — confirmed to O’Rourke the durability of his appeal to Democrats beyond the 2018 Senate campaign. It offered the border-state politician a rationale for a campaign focused heavily on immigration. And it marked a turning point in O’Rourke’s deliberations about a run for president.”
“Privately, O’Rourke’s advisers were struck by the tenor of the crowd at his rally. The chants and placards were less about opposing Trump than encouraging to O’Rourke to run for president. And the candidate himself began to overcome concerns about the demands a campaign would place on his family.”
Former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) walked back his comment that President Trump could lose re-election.
Tweeted Ryan: “To be clear, GOP wins elections when they’re about ideas not when they’re personality contests like Dems and media want. We’re clearly better off because of Donald Trump. His record of accomplishment is why he’ll win re-election especially when compared to Dems’ leftward lurch.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin suggested he will protect President Trump’s privacy if he receives a request from House Democrats for Trump’s tax returns, NBC News reports.
Said Mnuchin: “We will examine the request and we will follow the law… and we will protect the president as we would protect any taxpayer.”
President Trump appeared to threaten potential violence against his political opponents, telling Breitbart that “it would be very bad, very bad” if his supporters were provoked into getting “tough.”
Said Trump: “I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump — I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”
“An appellate court in New York has rejected President Trump’s assertion that a sitting president cannot be sued in state court — a ruling stemming from a defamation lawsuit filed by a former The Apprentice contestant who accused the president of groping and kissing her in 2007,” ABC News reports.
“Summer Zervos’ lawsuit is now allowed to proceed with the prospect of the president having to sit for a deposition.”
The Washington Post notes the court cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Clinton v. Jones, which established that presidents can be sued while in office for unofficial acts.
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) said the ideas behind the Green New Deal are “tantamount to genocide,” Axios reports.
He added: “That may be an overstatement but not by a whole lot.”
President Trump said that he was struck by Beto O’Rourke’s gesticulations during the former Texas congressman’s first day on the campaign trail, NBC News reports.
Said Trump: “Well, I think he’s got a lot of hand movement. I’ve never seen so much hand movement. I said, ‘Is he crazy or is that just the way he acts?’ I watched him a little while this morning, during I assume it was some kind of a news conference, and I’ve actually never seen anything quite like it.”
Trump dodged a question about whether he thought O’Rourke or Joe Biden would make for a tougher opponent.
“The House passed a resolution—with overwhelming bipartisan support—calling for a public release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s anticipated report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
The vote was 420 to 0.
First Read: “What made O’Rourke a star in 2018, and what gives him promise in 2020, was his ability to raise money ($80 million for a Senate candidate) and to draw big crowds. So can he come close to the nearly $6 million Bernie Sanders raked in during his first 24 hours as a 2020 candidate? Can he exceed or double the $1.5 million Kamala Harris raised in her first day?”
“As for the crowds, O’Rourke will spend the next three days in Iowa, hitting Burlington and Muscatine (today), Mount Pleasant and Cedar Rapids (on Friday) and Waterloo and Dubuque (Saturday). He’s the first major 2020 candidate to immediately head to Iowa after announcing a bid.”
“Do the crowds show up in Iowa? What about his first official rally in El Paso on March 30 – does it come close to Harris’ 20,000-plus in Oakland, or Bernie’s 10,000-plus in Brooklyn and Chicago?”
“No Democrat in the 2020 field is as boom-or-bust as Beto. He’s either going to take off, justifying the Oprah appearance and Annie Leibovitz photo spread. Or he’s going to fall flat, proving that his 2.5-point loss in Texas (compared with Hillary’s 9-point defeat there in 2016 or Obama’s 16-point loss) was lightning in a bottle.”
“Fair or not, there’s no middle ground.”
A new Navigator Research poll finds that just 38% of Americans believe President Trump generally does what’s best for the country — a new low and a 6-point decline from December — while 62% now tend to say the president puts himself first.
Also interesting: Support for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has reached an all-time high of 58%.
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.