Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) warned against creeping authoritarianism in an intense speech peppered with historical references, likening the political moment that brought President Trump to power to the rise of Adolf Hitler, Roll Call reports.
Said Johnson: “Our democracy teeters on the brink of failure. Americans elected an authoritarian, racist, anti-immigrant strongman to the nation’s highest office.”
Saudi Arabia announced it will seek the death penalty against five suspects in the slaying of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a killing that has seen members of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage implicated in the writer’s assassination, the AP reports.
John Harris: “At important junctures of his public career Romney—like many or perhaps most politicians—has revealed himself as a supremely transactional figure, flexible in altering his words and his positions to align with self-interest as the occasion demands. If Trump is the more transactional figure—boasting about his deal-making savvy rather than trying to defend his gyrations as rooted in some higher morality—this is only a difference in degree, not a difference in kind.”
“Once the debate leaves the field of principle and moves to the field of results, there is no denying which of the two transactional figures is better at the game. … In all his campaigns Romney has emphasized his record of professional achievement and business success more than his ideological consistency—a pattern that has also marked Trump’s rise to the presidency.”
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President Trump told a group of lawmakers he can’t accept Democrats’ offer to re-open the government as the two sides negotiate border wall funding because he “would look foolish if I did that,” according to CNN.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he asked Trump why the government couldn’t be reopened while the two sides work to resolve their differences: “I asked him directly… He could not give a good answer.”
Playbook: “Pelosi returns to the speakership in a uniquely powerful position, especially when considering that many Democrats just waged a campaign that included sharp criticisms of her. The 78-year-old California Democrat just vanquished a group of her challengers with precision and speed that shocked many longtime Hill watchers. Most House insiders expected that today she’d be in the middle of a brawl for the speakership on the House floor. Instead, she’s waltzing toward grabbing the gavel.”
“One of Pelosi’s skills is grinding down the opposition. Whether it was lawmakers in 2009 and 2010 agitating for the public option in health care reform, or more recently the group of 17 Democrats who signed a letter saying they’d never vote for her, Pelosi is patient, and is able to bring people to her side.”
Rick Klein: “The easy part of governing during the Trump presidency is over. Yes, really.”
“Noon on Thursday opens a new chapter for President Donald Trump and the Washington scene he’s come to dominate.l
“It comes at something of a low point for Trump, who faces growing concerns inside his party, including those most vocally expressed by Mitt Romney, the incoming junior senator from Utah. The Republican Party as a whole, meanwhile, relinquishes power in the House in the middle of a prolonged government shutdown.”
“When Rep. Nancy Pelosi takes the speaker’s gavel once again, united GOP control of Congress evaporates. With it goes perhaps the biggest piece of Republican leverage in obtaining Trump’s signature campaign promise of a border wall — the reason for the shutdown that Trump says ‘could be a long time.k”
“The past seven speakers of the House have lost their majority, been forced out by their own colleagues, or stepped down amid personal scandal. One of them — Nancy Pelosi — now has a second chance to rewrite her legacy,” Politico reports.
“On Thursday, the 78-year-old Pelosi will be the first person in more than six decades, since the legendary Texas Democrat Sam Rayburn, to return to the speaker’s chair after losing it. She will be surrounded by children as she does so, a replay of an iconic moment from her January 2007 swearing-in ceremony as the first female speaker in history.”
“On Thursday, the 78-year-old Pelosi will be the first person in more than six decades, since the legendary Texas Democrat Sam Rayburn, to return to the speaker’s chair after losing it.”
Mark Harris (R) said he’ll ask a judge to certify his election in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District immediately, even as a probe into alleged election fraud continues, the Charlotte Observer reports.
“Harris’ announcement came after North Carolina state elections officials postponed next week’s hearing into allegations of election fraud in the 9th District — and after Gov. Roy Cooper accused Republicans of blocking the probe.”
Incoming Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) signaled “he would not go along with parts of lame-duck laws that curb his powers, suggesting that GOP lawmakers or their supporters would have to sue him over the issue,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“The Democrat’s stance changes the dynamic in the fight over the lame-duck legislation by prodding Republicans into initiating litigation instead of doing so himself.”
Washington Post: “Many mainstream Republicans are increasingly alarmed by Trump’s behavior and willing to battle with him in ways that would have seemed strained two years ago, when Trump had the party tightly in his grip after his stunning victory and its members largely fell into lockstep behind him.”
“Two years later, Trump’s presidency is under siege following Republican losses in the 2018 elections. An ongoing government shutdown, volatile financial markets, the special counsel probe, right-wing discontent over Trump’s failure to secure funding for a border wall, and empowered House Democrats all loom before the president, who has been isolated and lashing out at his critics. The collision of threats has frayed the bonds between Trump and some top Republicans even as the president retains strong support in polls of party voters.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) cautioned President Trump against giving in on his demand for funding for his proposed U.S.–Mexico border wall, claiming that doing so would likely be “the end of his presidency,” The Hill reports
Said Graham: “If he gives in now, that’s the end of 2019 in terms of him being an effective president. That’s the probably the end of his presidency. Donald Trump has made a promise to the American people. He’s going to secure our border.”
He added: “That’s the end of us if we give in on this issue as Republicans.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren called President Trump an “accelerant” to a corrupt system in her first interview since she announced she is exploring a 2020 presidential run, NBC News reports.
Said Warren: “Donald Trump is an accelerant. He takes a problem that has just been growing and growing and growing and he just sets it off. And makes it worse than it ever was.”
“House Democrats will immediately put their new political power to the test on Thursday by moving to reopen the federal government, setting up a confrontation with President Trump as a partial government shutdown enters its 13th day,” USA Today reports.
“Democratic leaders have scheduled a pair of votes on a package of bills to end the shutdown and give Congress more time to negotiate a deal with the White House over border funding.”
“But even if the bills are approved, as expected, the shutdown will likely go on. The package still must clear the GOP-controlled Senate, but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has said he won’t call for a vote on legislation to end the standoff unless it has Trump’s backing.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who announced on Monday that she is exploring a presidential run, is quickly assembling a robust and experienced team to lead a campaign in Iowa — an early signal of the outsized importance of a strong showing in the state, CNN reports.
“Government shutdowns should be as off-limits to budget negotiations as chemical weapons are to warfare. Nevertheless, we are stuck in one. Resolving it by going Real Big on immigration could be Trump’s Nixon-to-China, Reagan-to-the-Berlin-Wall moment in history.”
— Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), quoted by the Washington Post.
Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told NBC News that she will not provide funding for President Trump’s border wall.
Said Pelosi: “We can go through the back and forth. No. How many more times can we say no?”
Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) said “he will vote for a set of House rule changes drafted by the incoming Democratic leadership — a rare move for what is typically a strict party-line vote and one, he said, could mean ‘consequences’ from the GOP leadership,” the Washington Post reports.
Reed said he “was compelled to support the new rules after incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and fellow Democratic leaders made good on promises to include process changes he had pushed as co-chairman of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus. Those provisions were aimed at opening up the legislative process to bipartisan compromise and dissuading hostage-taking behavior by the ideological fringes of both parties.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) after a White House meeting with President Trump and other congressional leaders said Wednesday that the partial government shutdown could continue for days or even weeks, The Hill reports.
Said McConnell: “It was a civil discussion. We’re hopeful that somehow in the coming days and weeks we’ll be able to reach an agreement.”
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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