“Let’s be honest, the Republicans have nominated the looniest of the right-wing lunatics to become our country’s next Commander-in-Chief.”
— Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), quoted by the Washington Examiner.
“Let’s be honest, the Republicans have nominated the looniest of the right-wing lunatics to become our country’s next Commander-in-Chief.”
— Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), quoted by the Washington Examiner.
“State Department staffers wrestled for weeks in December 2010 over a serious technical problem that affected emails from then-Secretary Hillary Clinton’s home email server, causing them to temporarily disable security features on the government’s own systems,” the AP reports.
“The emails… show that State Department technical staff disabled software on their systems intended to block phishing emails that could deliver dangerous viruses. They were trying urgently to resolve delivery problems with emails sent from Clinton’s private server.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) will not campaign with Donald Trump in the battleground state of Florida, Politico reports.
Said Rubio: “It’s not that I’m looking to undermine him, but I think the differences between us on key issues are so significant that I just don’t plan to campaign — I’ve got to run my own race.”
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Donald Trump’s campaign “is preparing a sophisticated operation to fight back against resurgent plans by recalcitrant conservatives to deny him the nomination at next month’s Republican National Convention,” Politico reports.
“The effort will rely on a team of 150 volunteers and paid staff to keep the convention’s 2,472 delegates in line, and it will utilize a database with information on many of the delegates.”
“It doesn’t appear that I’m going to be the nominee, so I’m not going to determine the scope of the convention. I’ve given a few speeches in my life. It would be nice to speak at the Democratic National Convention. If for whatever reason they don’t want me to speak, then whatever.”
— Sen. Bernie Sanders, quoted by the Washington Post.
Donald Rumsfeld told the Daily Mail that he will support Donald Trump with his vote in November.
It’s ‘not a close call,’ he said in a 25-minute phone interview.
He added: “I’m a Republican, and there’s not any doubt in my mind how I’ll vote… I don’t believe Hillary Clinton is qualified to be President of the United States.”
Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser under Republican presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, Politico reports.
Said Scowcroft: “Secretary Clinton shares my belief that America must remain the world’s indispensable leader. She understands that our leadership and engagement beyond our borders makes the world, and therefore the United States, more secure and prosperous. She appreciates that it is essential to maintain our strong military advantage, but that force must only be used as a last resort.”
Patrick Ruffini: “I don’t like Trump, but speaking objectively and from experience, Trump’s low-rent demagoguery is tailor-made for fundraising success on the Internet. Trump appeals viscerally to a grassroots concerned about immigration, security, and the loss of American identity. He’s been able to fill stadiums for rallies (provided they are close enough to the election). He’s generated massive revenues for media companies and built an unprecedented social media following for a Republican candidate. He’s been able to do things at a grassroots level that no other Republican candidate before has done, and had he tried earlier, this would have translated to tens of millions in online contributions in the primary and hundreds of millions in the general.”
“About the only place Trump’s political success so far isn’t reflected is in own campaign bank account — which has burned through all but $1.3 million in cash with five months to go.”
Pew Research: “For the first time in surveys dating to 1992, majorities in both parties express not just unfavorable but very unfavorable views of the other party. And today, sizable shares of both Democrats and Republicans say the other party stirs feelings of not just frustration, but fear and anger.”
“More than half of Democrats (55%) say the Republican Party makes them ‘afraid,’ while 49% of Republicans say the same about the Democratic Party. Among those highly engaged in politics – those who say they vote regularly and either volunteer for or donate to campaigns – fully 70% of Democrats and 62% of Republicans say they are afraid of the other party.”
House Democrats “are staging a sit-in on the chamber floor claiming they will not leave until the House takes a vote on gun violence,” Roll Call reports.
“In the effort being led by Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), members are chanting ‘No bill, no break,’ reading the names of victims, and giving short speeches. Many are sitting on the floor.”
Normally, you could watch the live stream from the House but GOP leaders have shut it down.
Mike Murphy, who ran Jeb Bush’s super PAC during the GOP presidential primaries, writes in the Washington Post:
So as the Trump campaign moves into full meltdown, Republicans are seeing a presumptive nominee on a mission of political suicide. Nobody in the party wants a nominee with the Secret Service code name “Certain Train-wreck.” The question is: Can anything be done about it? The answer is yes. If Trump rolls into the convention broke and with a terrible deficit in the polls, the delegates may indeed act. Under convention rules, they have the power to do so. GOP conventions are party affairs empowered to pick the best candidate to win the general election. If Trump’s incompetence doesn’t change, he may well get fired in Cleveland.
“In a move that could signal a shift in Donald Trump’s combative strategy in handling the political press, the campaign allowed formerly blacklisted outlets and journalists into the candidate’s speech Wednesday morning,” BuzzFeed reports.
“Bernie can be a determinative force in many races, and I hope he will help us beat Trump and elect a Democratic Senate.”
— Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), quoted by the National Journal.
A new Rasmussen Reports survey finds that 73% of Republican voters believe that GOP leaders have lost touch with Republican voters. Just 20% say those leaders have done a good job representing GOP voters.
“Gary Byrne, a former Secret Service agent who worked in Bill Clinton’s White House, tells a dramatic story in his upcoming book about how he personally helped a White House steward dispose of towels stained by semen and lipstick to protect the president from a sex scandal.”
“That story, as well as another Byrne tells about walking in on Bill Clinton making out with a TV journalist, is different from what he told investigators from Kenneth Starr’s Office of the Independent Counsel in 1998, a BuzzFeed News review of interviews, depositions, and grand jury testimony has found.”
“In a major reversal highlighting Republican fear over losing the Senate majority and his own ambition, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) will break a longstanding promise not to seek re-election, becoming an instant favorite but facing the challenge of running in a presidential year featuring Donald Trump,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.
Miami Herald: “National Republicans fearful of losing Senate control to Democrats mounted a campaign to keep Rubio on the ballot for Florida’s swing seat. He consented just two days before Friday’s state candidate-qualifying deadline.”
New York Times: “The senator has told colleagues and advisers that he would like to run for president again, either in 2020 or 2024. But he increasingly came to believe that doing so from the private sector would be difficult.”
For members: Rubio Not Favored In Florida’s Senate Race
“Donald Trump has been doling out diamond cuff links to unsuspecting pals as presents — but they’re actually fabulous fakes,” the New York Post reports.
“At least three recipients later learned that the glittery gifts were valuable only as mementos from Trump.”
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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