Jerry Falwell Jr. told Politico that he urged President Trump to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions over his handling of investigations into Russian election meddling, saying the attorney general has lost evangelicals’ support.
Falwell also said he plans to bring up the subject again Monday evening at a small gathering with Trump and the first lady.
Rick Hasen: “In a case with potentially national implications both short term and long, a three judge district court in North Carolina has held that the congressional redistricting plan—put in place after North Carolina’s districts last time were found to be a racial gerrymander—are an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. The remedy is not set yet, but the court may have a remedy in place for the 2018 elections, something I find surprising.”
“If this opinion stands (and given the current 4-4 split on the Supreme Court, any emergency action could well fail, leaving the lower court opinion in place), the court may well order new districts be drawn in time for the 2018 elections.”
A new Survey USA poll in California’s 50th district finds Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) leading challenger Ammar Campa-Najjar (D) by eight points, 47% to 39%.
Hunter was indicted last week for misusing campaign funds.
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“The White House on Monday afternoon re-lowered its flags to half staff after drawing significant backlash for returning them to full staff less than 48 hours after the death of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ),” The Hill reports.
“The flag outside the U.S. Capitol remained at half staff throughout Monday. Flags typically remain lowered through the burial of a sitting lawmaker or major public figure.”
The Washington Post notes President Trump also finally released a statement saying he respects McCain’s “service to our country.”
Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer’s (R) campaign chairman has endorsed independent Greg Orman’s bid for governor after Colyer lost the Republican primary to Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), the Wichita Eagle reports.
“The move by Steve Baccus, a long-time former president of the Kansas Farm Bureau, marks the first public defection to Orman from Colyer’s team after an often-bitter race between Colyer and Kobach.”
In the wake of his recent outbursts, White House officials have discussed whether President Trump would listen to his closest New York City friends in an effort to rein him in, Gabriel Sherman reports.
“Two sources briefed on the matter told me that senior officials talked about inviting Rudy Giuliani and a group of Trump’s New York real-estate friends including Tom Barrack, Richard LeFrak, and Howard Lorber to the White House to stage an ‘intervention’ last week. ‘It was supposed to be a war council,’ one source explained. But Trump refused to take the meeting, sources said.”
More than ever, Trump is acting by feeling and instinct. Said one former White House official: “Trump is nuts. This time really feels different.”
Deputy Chief of Staff Bill Shine has privately expressed concern… telling a friend that Trump’s emotional state is “very tender.”
An inspector general report finds President Trump “was more intimately involved in the debate over relocating the FBI headquarters than Congress was told,” Roll Call reports.
Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-VA) said the report “confirmed his suspicions that the president was involved in the decision to scrap plans to vacate the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building on Pennsylvania Avenue.”
Said Connolly: “When we began this investigation, the prospect that President Trump was personally involved in the government-led redevelopment of a property in close proximity to the Trump Hotel was dismissed as a conspiracy theory. Now, the president’s involvement in this multi-billion-dollar government procurement which will directly impact his bottom line has been confirmed by the White House Press Secretary and government photographs.”
Wall Street Journal: “After more than two decades of tension within the GOP between a restive base and its traditional establishment, Trumpism, the archetypal grass-roots movement, is winning.”
“With the 2018 primaries about to end, all but two of the 37 Republicans Mr. Trump has endorsed for House, Senate and governor during their primary campaigns have won. Mr. Trump has abandoned or undercut the party’s traditional commitment to free trade, fiscal conservatism and a hawkish foreign policy. Mr. Trump’s most vocal GOP critics in elective office … have been defeated in primaries, announced their retirement or gone quiet.”
New York Times: How to get a Trump endorsement.
Franklin Foer: “According to McCain aides, the crucial moment came in the planning for the 2008 convention. I was told that Manafort lobbied desperately to become manager of the Republican National Convention, to take on the role of orchestrating the show. This was the sort of job that he held several times before. It represented the sort of behind-the-scenes power that he sought his entire career. Because of his relationship with Davis, and because of his resume, he thought of the job as something close to his birthright.”
“But McCain didn’t want any further association with Manafort, so he denied him the job, a rejection that sent Manafort into a fit of rage and depression. All the evidence for rejecting Paul Manafort as a man of dubious character was amply available in 2008—and McCain acted upon it.”
President Trump had trouble getting Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on the phone this morning to announce a trade agreement.
North Korea’s state newspaper accused the United States of “hatching a criminal plot to unleash a war against the DPRK” while “having a dialogue with a smile on its face” following a report on South Korean radio that American forces in Japan were running drills aimed at invading Pyongyang, CNN reports.
Elaine Kamarck: “Forget the Russians, the adult film stars, the Playboy bunnies, and the illegal payoffs covering up sexual misconduct. Forget the hotels full of foreigners enriching the president. And forget the convictions of his former campaign manager and his personal lawyer who may in the near future implicate the president himself in their wrongdoings.”
“The clearest potential violation of the law so far has been around a much less sexy issue—the issue that got President Richard Nixon in the end—obstruction of justice. In an exhaustively documented, 167-page 2nd edition of their report, Presidential Obstruction of Justice: The Case of Donald J. Trump, Barry H. Berke, Noah Bookbinder and Norman L. Eisen lay out the historical and legal bases for the concept and the charge.”
“For those who think obstruction of justice was something made up by the Democrats to get at President Trump, have a look at the Declaration of Independence. It begins with a long list of grievances against King George. Eighth in the list is the following: ‘He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.'”
“As President Trump has threatened to take away the security clearance of Bruce Ohr, a career Justice Department official, he has described him as a ‘creep,’ accused him of profiting off ‘disgraced’ information and wondered aloud why he still works in the executive branch,” the New York Times reports.
“But Mr. Ohr is far from corrupt, friends and former colleagues said. An experienced law enforcement official who spent years battling Russian organized crime, he developed a deep understanding of that dangerous underworld, they said, including raising concerns about at least one oligarch whose name has resurfaced amid the scrutiny of contacts between Trump associates and Russia.”
Earlier for members: Just a coincidence?
“The United States and Mexico reached a deal on Monday to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and talks with Canada were expected to begin immediately in the hopes of reaching a final agreement by Friday,” Reuters reports.
Said one Trump administration official: “We are now inviting the Canadians in as well and hope that we can reach a fair and successful conclusion with them as well.”
James Fallows: “With McCain’s death, and until a (presumably Republican) replacement is named, only 50 Republican senators are available to vote, while the Democrats and independents together number 49.”
“This means that just one Republican senator joining the Democrats and independents would give them 50 votes, against only 49 Republicans, until McCain’s successor is sworn in. And even after that, a total of two Republican senators would have it in their power to create a 51-vote majority and impose limits on an executive they know to be out of control.”
“Pam Bondi is still the attorney general of Florida, at least for another four months,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.
“But last week Bondi had a different job: co-host of Fox News’ The Five. She subbed on the news talk show not once, not twice, but three times, appearing as a panelist Wednesday through Friday.”
“The situation was so unprecedented for a sitting elected official that Bondi first sought guidance from the Florida Commission on Ethics, the government body that oversees conduct of public officials.”
“Iowa is set once again to lead off the Democratic Party’s presidential nominating process with its first-in-the-nation caucuses: The Democratic National Committee on Saturday scheduled that party’s caucuses for Feb. 3, 2020,” the Des Moines Register reports.
A new Emerson College poll in Texas finds Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) barely ahead of challenger Beto O’Rourke (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 38% to 37%, with 21% still undecided.
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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