“Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office wants to ask President Trump about obstruction of justice,” sources close to the White House tell ABC News.
“The president learned within the last day that the special counsel will limit the scope of questioning and would like to ask questions both orally and written for the President to respond to.”
“According to sources familiar with the President’s reaction Wednesday morning, that was the genesis for his early morning tweet storm.”
“We believe the investigation should be brought to a close… Put up or shut up.”
— Rudy Giuliani, in an interview with CNN, on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
“Members of a president’s party often avoid mentions of the president during a midterm election year, but 2018 is proving to be an exception,” according to an analysis by the Wesleyan Media Project.
“President Trump was referenced positively in 14.8% of federal election ads (amounting to over 27,000 ads) in the past two months, whereas President Obama was mentioned positively in less than 1% of federal election ads aired during the same time period in 2010 and 2014. Even George W. Bush in 2002, whose approval ratings were sky high in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks, was mentioned positively in a smaller share of federal ads (13.9%).”
“Trump was also referenced negatively in fewer ads than Obama was in 2010 and 2014 during the same summer time period (June 5 through July 29). Trump gets a negative mention in 9.7% of airings, while Obama was mentioned in a disapproving way in 16.1% of ads in 2010 and 26.6 percent of ads in 2014. George W. Bush, however, was mentioned negatively in almost no ads in 2002 and in less than 5% of ads in 2006.”
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Hillary Clinton she was working with director Steven Spielberg to bring a book about women’s fight for voting rights, The Woman’s Hour, to television, Reuters reports.
Spielberg said that Clinton would be one of four executive producers on the show, which is being developed for a cable channel or a streaming platform.
The White House refused to invite Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) to the signing ceremony for a bill he sponsored, the Harrisburg Patriot-News reports.
“At least two people close to the matter confirmed that the White House invited all the Republican and Democratic lawmakers who worked on the bill — except for Casey.”
Just out: How to Use the Internet to Change the World – and Win Elections by Colin Delany.
A new Monmouth poll in Ohio’s 12th congressional district finds the special election race a toss up: “Different voter models suggest that the race could go either way.”
Tory Balderson (R) edges Danny O’Connor (D) by 44% to 43% among all potential voters – that is voters who have participated in an election since 2010 or have newly registered to vote.
A standard model that looks like a typical midterm voter pool also shows Balderon barely ahead, 46% to 45%. A lower turnout model where only the most reliable voters show up, shows Balderson ahead 49% to 44%.
However, in a Democratic “surge” model akin to turnout patterns that have been seen in many special elections held since 2017, O’Connor is just ahead, 46% to 45%.
Federal prosecutors prosecutors in the criminal trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort said that they might not call Manafort’s former business associate Richard Gates to testify, The Hill reports.
Said Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye: “He may testify in this case, he may not.”
Margaret Sullivan: “Hostility toward the media at Trump rallies is nothing new. It infected the presidential campaign and has marred every raucous gathering of supporters since the election.”
“But on Tuesday night in Tampa, the extreme aggression dropped the basement floor another level. This was a new low. And a scary one at that.”
Jim Acosta shared this video: “I’m very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy.”
Pew Research: “Over the course of an eventful first 18 months in office, President Trump’s approval ratings have remained remarkably stable. There has also been a wider gap between Republicans’ and Democrats’ views of Trump than for any other U.S. president in the modern era of polling.”
“Four-in-ten Americans approve of Trump’s job performance while 54% say they disapprove, according to a Pew Research Center survey in June. Trump’s approval ratings have hardly moved in surveys conducted by the Center this year, and his current rating is nearly identical to the 39% who said they approved of his performance in February 2017, shortly after his inauguration.”
A new Texas Lyceum Poll finds Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) leading challenger to O’Rourke (D) by a hair, 41% to 39% among likely voters.
That’s well within the survey’s margin of error of 4.67 percentage points.
A new Quinnipiac poll finds Cruz leading by six points, 49% to 43%.
“Arms control experts confirm to NBC News that both satellite photos and U.S. intelligence show North Korea is continuing to produce ballistic missiles and work on its missile program, even after the historic June summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The experts point specifically to a July 7 satellite photo that shows activity consistent with missile production.”
President Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to “stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further.”
He added: “Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!”
In an attempt to defend voter ID laws, President Trump “wrongly claimed that shoppers need to show photo identification to buy groceries,” the AP reports.
Said Trump: “If you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID. You go out and you want to buy anything, you need ID and you need your picture.”
“The White House is considering a second sharp reduction in the number of refugees who can be resettled in the United States, picking up where President Trump left off in 2017 in scaling back a program intended to offer protection to the world’s most vulnerable people,” the New York Times reports.
“This time, the effort is meeting with less resistance from inside the Trump administration because of the success that Stephen Miller, the president’s senior policy adviser and an architect of his anti-immigration agenda, has had in installing allies in key positions who are ready to sign off on deep cuts.”
Former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) hinted in an interview with WCCO-TV that he could run for public office again.
Said Franken: “I don’t know. I haven’t ruled it out, and I haven’t ruled it in.”
“A former girlfriend of Illinois state Rep. Nick Sauer (R) has filed an official complaint accusing the first-term Republican of creating a fake Instagram account and populating it with nude photos of her to lure men into ‘graphic’ discussions,” Politico reports.
Speaker Paul Ryan “was surprised and proud to find out he has Jewish roots,” the AP reports.
“The Wisconsin Republican discovered his family history while filming a segment for the upcoming season of the PBS series ‘Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr.’”
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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