A new Monmouth poll finds Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) leads challenger Scott Wallace (D) by 7-points among registered voters, 49% to 42%.
However, the race is much tighter using two different likely voter models. A historical midterm model gives Fitzpatrick a negligible 48% to 47% lead, while a model that includes a turnout surge in areas where President Trump is unpopular gives an insignificant edge to Wallace at 48% to 47%.
Just published: How To Democrat In the Age Of Trump by Mike Lux.
“Lux looks at how the party managed to turn off both base and swing voters in the years following Obama’s historic victory, culminating in its loss. He writes about the false choices – focus on swing vs. base voters, fairness vs. growth in the economy, urban vs. rural outreach – that have hurt Democratic chances.”
“If I were President of the United States and I had a lawyer that told me I could pardon myself, I think I would hire a new lawyer.”
— Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA), quoted by CNN, on President Trump claiming he had an “absolute right” to pardon himself.
“In mid-September, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator’s director of scheduling and advance, Millan Hupp, reached out to the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., with an unusual request. Hupp wanted to know how much the hotel would charge EPA chief Scott Pruitt for purchasing one of its used mattresses,” the Washington Post reports.
“The senior EPA official also scouted apartments for her boss in some of the District’s hippest neighborhoods, and helped arrange his family vacation to California over the New Year’s holiday so that the Pruitts could watch the Oklahoma Sooners play in the Rose Bowl.”
The Supreme Court ruled for a Colorado baker who refused to create a wedding cake for a gay couple, the Washington Post reports.
New York Times: “Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority in the 7-2 decision, relied on narrow grounds, saying a state commission had violated the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom in ruling against the baker, who had refused to create a custom wedding cake for a gay couple.”
Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) told CNN that he believes the White House is “very concerned” about President Trump’s base showing up for the midterm elections in November.
Said Santorum: “They look at the election results in my home state of Pennsylvania… and the fact is that voter turnout in a lot of Trump areas has been very low among Republicans.”
He added: “They need to show something more than just having pass the tax cut to energize the base. If they don’t then they are left saying this is about Donald Trump. I’m not sure that’s enough.”
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Politico reports that “before he left the White House, former National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn would withhold jobs report data from President Trump until shortly before their release because he was worried the president couldn’t help but say something about them.”
President Trump tweeted that he has the “absolute right to pardon myself,” but says he has “done nothing wrong” in Russia investigation.
His assessment echoed that of his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who offered an expansive view of the president’s executive powers during a series of interviews over the weekend.
Jerome Corsi, author of Killing the Deep State, told C-SPAN that the CIA is planning to kill President Trump.
Said Corsi: “The central premise of this book is that President Trump is the target of a coup d’état being undertaken by the Deep State, including the CIA, NSA, and other intelligence agencies that maintain a commitment to a globalist New World Order.”
Daily Beast: “This Corsi book does not have a mainstream publisher, as one of his earlier ones did. Instead, it has been published by a book division of the far right-wing Newsmax, run by Trump’s friend Christopher Ruddy.”
“First lady Melania Trump will attend a reception for Gold Star families Monday, her first public appearance since being hospitalized for several days last month,” USA Today reports.
A call about trade and migration between President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron soured last week after Macron candidly criticized Trump’s policies, CNN reports.
Said one source: “Just bad. It was terrible. Macron thought he would be able to speak his mind, based on the relationship. But Trump can’t handle being criticized like that.”
Bill Clinton was interviewed by Craig Melvin on NBC’s Today Show about whether he ever apologized to Monica Lewinsky:
MELVIN: “I asked if you’d ever apologized. And you said you had.”
CLINTON: “I have.”
MELVIN: “You’ve apologized to her?”
CLINTON: “I apologized to everybody in the world.”
MELVIN: “But you didn’t apologize to her?”
CLINTON: “I have not talked to her. I– I thought it—”
MELVIN: “Do you feel like you owe her an apology—”
CLINTON: “No, I do—I do not. I’ve never talked to her. But I did say, publicly, on more than one occasion, that I was sorry. That’s very different. The apology was public.”
Clinton is on a book tour promoting his new novel with James Patterson, The President Is Missing.
Jim VandeHei: “In our lifetime, no president has matched Donald Trump’s ability to summon the power of the pulpit, friendly media, and the tweet-by-tweet power of repetition and persuasion to move minds en masse.”
“You see this in the silence of Republican critics; the instant shifts in GOP views of the FBI, Putin and deficits; and the quick, widespread adoption of his branding efforts around ‘deep state,’ ‘Spygate’ and ‘no collusion.’ We hear so much, so often that we become numb to what Trump is doing. This allows big things (such as fundamental shifts in governing norms) to seem like small things or nothing at all.”
“Trump and allies are floating untested legal arguments: The president can’t obstruct justice, or can unilaterally shut down probes of himself, or can even pardon himself. If you think he won’t try something unprecedented — and maybe get away with it, at least with Republicans — you aren’t paying attention.”
Politico: “Expect lies. Do your homework — because they will have. Choose your words very carefully. And have Job-like patience. Oh, and remember that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un considers himself a supreme being.”
“These are some of the tips offered by half a dozen of the select American diplomats who have actually sat face-to-face with North Korea’s mercurial and often maddening regime. They provide some guidance to President Donald Trump and his advisers as they prepare for a June 12 summit with Kim in Singapore aimed at convincing him to surrender his nuclear arsenal.”
Playbook: “A petition to force a wide-ranging immigration debate on the House floor stands at 213 — five short of the requisite 218. House Republican leaders have been working feverishly behind the scenes to strike a compromise that would avoid the free-flowing debate, and instead give Republicans a series of circumscribed votes this month. The GOP has scheduled a two-hour policy meeting Thursday to discuss immigration.”
“No matter what happens, these next four weeks will be dominated, in part, by the immigration debate that Congress has been yearning for for the last six years. This could be a defining moment for the GOP, and there is lots of skepticism that this will go smoothly.”
“A group of top business economists believes the major tax cuts President Donald Trump pushed through Congress will give a significant boost to economic growth this year and next year. But they worry that by 2020, the country could be entering a new recession,” the AP reports.
“Part of the drop-off in optimism reflects growing worries about what Trump’s get-tough approach on trade might do to U.S. growth prospects.”
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.