Federal authorities began investigating the email accounts of Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, as early as July 2017, only months after Mr. Trump took office, the New York Times reports.
The emails, dating back to January 2016, were sought by the office of Robert Mueller, the special counsel conducting the Russia investigation, the documents show.
First Read: “If he’s going to win, Biden has to shake things up, and that’s why we’re intrigued by the internet speculation that maybe he’s going to come out of the gates with a vice-presidential pick. (Is that why he met last week with Stacey Abrams?)”
“Of course, this kind of immediate VP move presents potential drawbacks. (Hello, Carly Fiorina…)”
“It suggests Biden can’t win by himself; it discourages alliances and endorsements from other 2020 candidates; and it eliminates the veepstakes speculation in the summer of 2020 (when a nominee-to-be is looking to raise his/her name ID, build a national infrastructure and rake in lots of money).”
“But it also acknowledges that Biden has to be unconventional if he wants to win – as Beto-mania, Pete-mania, and Kamala-mania are real things.”
Wall Street Journal: “Jeff Bezos and his allies have publicly speculated about how the National Enquirer acquired racy texts he sent his girlfriend, including at one point hinting Saudi Arabia or the White House may have been involved.”
“The reality is simpler: Michael Sanchez, the brother of Mr. Bezos’ lover, sold the billionaire’s secrets for $200,000 to the Enquirer’s publisher.”
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Politico:“The House Judiciary Committee announced on Monday that it received responses from a ‘large number’ of the 81 individuals and entities who were asked to provide documents as part of the panel’s wide-ranging investigation into obstruction of justice allegations against President Trump — but the committee was mum on details about who complied.”
Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Cornyn’s team plans to focus on votes Castro took against bills providing aid for Texans impacted by Hurricane Harvey — at times separating Castro from other Texas Democrats.”
“It also highlights places where the San Antonio Democrat, who hasn’t faced a Republican challenger since 2014, sided with the liberal wing of his party on issues such as immigration and the environment.”
“The White House plans to drop the word ‘acting’ from Mick Mulvaney’s title, officially making him President Donald Trump’s third chief of staff,” Politico reports.
“It’s a recognition that Mulvaney has successfully navigated a tumultuous West Wing. The former South Carolina congressman and White House budget chief talks to the president multiple times a day and maintains good relations with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner — Trump family members who also happen to be the White House’s two most powerful staffers — while giving them and other top staffers more leeway to operate than his predecessor, John Kelly.”
“Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand defended her office’s handling of sexual harassment claims on Monday night, saying that an aide was ‘believed’ and that her complaints were ‘fully investigated,'” Politico reports.
Wall Street Journal: “Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign is off to a gangbusters financial start, raising $6 million in just 24 hours, more than even Bernie Sanders. As for Mr. O’Rourke’s reputation as a strong leader—on that presidential characteristic he needs work.”
“The former Texas Congressman’s first few days as a candidate have been one long apology tour. At several stops he used a stock campaign line that his wife, Amy, raised their three children, ‘sometimes with my help.’ He meant it to be a self-deprecating joke and a note of gratitude to his wife, but in today’s identity-politics hothouse he was quickly denounced for his male privilege.”
“The Texan’s problem is that he looks like a pushover for the left’s grievance caucus. His instinct is to apologize for anything and everything: for youthful misconduct, for harmless comments, for being a white male.”
“Going everywhere, writing nobody off, taking no one for granted, could care less . . . what party you belong to, to whom you pray or whether you pray at all, who you love, how many generations you’ve been here, whether you just got here yesterday. We’re going to define ourselves by our aspirations, our ambitions and the ability to bring this country together.”
— Beto O’Rourke, quoted by the Washington Post.
“The 2020 campaign has arrived on college campuses—and at a few high schools—as Democratic presidential candidates scramble to establish relationships with young people, aiming to cultivate volunteers and stoke enthusiasm before school lets out for the summer,” McClatchy reports.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is calling for an end to the Electoral College as a way to guarantee that “every vote matters,” CBS News reports.
Said Warren: “My view is that every vote matters. And the way we can make that happen is that we can have national voting and that means get rid of the Electoral College.”
She added: “Presidential candidates don’t come to places like Mississippi… They also don’t come to places like California and Massachusetts, right? Because we’re not the battleground states.”
“Stung by obscene and pointed criticism, Representative Devin Nunes, a Republican from California, has sued Twitter and three users for defamation, claiming the users smeared him and the platform allowed it to happen because of a political agenda,” the New York Times reports.
“The complaint, filed in Virginia on Monday, seeks $250 million in damages. In making his case, Mr. Nunes, a loyal ally of President Trump and the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, repeated several common Republican complaints that Twitter has repeatedly denied: that it censors Republicans, “shadow bans” their accounts and actively helps their opponents.”
New York Times: “More than two years later, Mr. Trump’s financial ties with Deutsche Bank are the subject of investigations by two congressional committees and the New York attorney general. Investigators hope to use Deutsche Bank as a window into Mr. Trump’s personal and business finances.”
“Deutsche Bank officials have quietly argued to regulators, lawmakers and journalists that Mr. Trump was not a priority for the bank or its senior leaders and that the lending was the work of a single, obscure division. But interviews with more than 20 current and former Deutsche Bank executives and board members, most of them with direct knowledge of the Trump relationship, contradict the bank’s narrative.”
Zainab Ahmad, a leading Mueller prosecutor who oversaw the investigation of former national security advisor and Trump campaign aide Michael Flynn, has left Mueller’s team, Reuters reports.
Peter Wehner: “It doesn’t take a person with an advanced degree in psychology to see Trump’s narcissism and lack of empathy, his vindictiveness and pathological lying, his impulsivity and callousness, his inability to be guided by norms, or his shamelessness and dehumanization of those who do not abide his wishes. His condition is getting worse, not better—and there are now fewer people in the administration able to contain the president and act as a check on his worst impulses.”
“This constellation of characteristics would be worrisome in a banker or a high-school teacher, in an aircraft machinist or a warehouse manager, in a gas-station attendant or a truck driver. To have them define the personality of an American president is downright alarming.”
“Four leading Democrats are demanding a new FBI investigation into a Florida woman’s apparent ties to Donald Trump, focusing on whether she illegally sought to leverage her relationship with the President by selling access to Chinese clients,” CNN reports.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed laws punishing online media and individuals for spreading “fake news” or material that’s considered insulting to Russian officials, Bloomberg reports.
“Prosecutors can now complain about online publications to the state communications watchdog, which has powers to block access to the websites if their owners fail to remove the material promptly. Publications found guilty of spreading ‘unreliable socially significant information’ may face fines of as much as 1.5 million rubles ($23,000).”
A new CNN poll finds 71% of Americans say the nation’s economy is in good shape, the highest share to say so since February 2001, and the best rating during Trump’s presidency by two points.
“A majority give the President positive reviews for his handling of the nation’s economy (51% approve), and his overall approval rating has ticked up to 42% in the new poll. The 51% who say they disapprove of the President’s job performance overall represent the lowest share to do so in CNN polling since the start of his presidency.”
“Trump’s 42% approval rating at this point in his presidency puts him near the bottom of the list of modern elected presidents, between President Bill Clinton in 1995 (44%) and President Ronald Reagan in 1983 (41%). Both were re-elected to second terms.”
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.
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