“I look forward to welcoming Beto to the Brookland Baptist Church. I would love to be there to see if he can clap on beat.”
— Former South Carolina state Rep. Bakari Sellers (D), quoted by the New York Times, on whether Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) can appeal to black voters in the South.
“Members of the newly elected Congress are still waiting to be sworn in, but it looks like a 2020 battle is already heating up in Staten Island’s congressional district,” the Staten Island Advance reports.
“Rep-elect Max Rose (D) recently sent an email urging constituents to donate to his campaign, warning his base they needed to gear up because former Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY), who once held Rose’s seat, is planning to challenge him in 2020.”
“It’s a very tough race, and people aren’t nice about it. And I actually think that’s just fine. If you can’t get through it, then you shouldn’t do the job.”
— Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D), quoted by NPR, on the demands of a presidential campaign.
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Beto O’Rourke and Rev. Al Sharpton spoke on Friday, a source familiar with the interaction told BuzzFeed News, as O’Rourke considers a presidential campaign and courts allies of Barack Obama.
Said a Sharpton spokesperson: “They spoke and agreed to meet within the next couple of weeks and they had a great conversation.”
“As he continues to mull a 2020 presidential bid, Michael Bloomberg, a former New York mayor and onetime Republican, said that he thinks Democrats are looking for a ‘middle-of-the-road’ strategy and want a president who would govern pragmatically,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Bloomberg: “I think most Democrats want a middle-of-the-road strategy. They want to make progress, but they’re not willing to go and to push something that has no chance of ever getting done and wasting all their energy on that.”
“About 120 people showed up for Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s recent town hall, his first since losing his U.S. Senate race. The Texas Democrat then went home to live-stream himself cooking a chicken dinner with his wife, daughter and their pet snake Monty. That 45-minute broadcast attracted 257,000 views on Facebook — along with more than 12,400 comments,” the Washington Post reports.
“Presidential aspirants take heed: The 2020 campaign, which is poised to kick into high gear next year with dozens of potential candidates, will take place in a media landscape that has shifted in just the past two years and been radically transformed since the 2008 primary, which began before the release of the first iPhone.”
“Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and a group of House Democratic rebels are discussing a proposal to impose term limits on both party leaders and committee chairs,” Politico reports.
“Pelosi has been in private talks with a group of rank-and-file House Democrats, who have publicly opposed her bid to return to the speaker’s chair in the next Congress. Pelosi is looking to peel off a handful of those rebels, and allowing a term-limits proposal to move forward could be the price she pays for any such deal.”
“Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), who is poised to lead the House Foreign Affairs Committee, plans to conduct a thorough review of US policy towards Saudi Arabia — and that could include Jared Kushner’s ties to the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman,” CNN reports.
“Accused Russian spy Maria Butina appears to have reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors,” CNN reports.
“Butina is accused of trying to infiltrate Republican political circles and party leaders during the 2016 campaign in order to advance Russian interests, and prosecutors have said the former American University student was in touch with politically powerful Russians about her activities in the US.”
USA Today: “She is accused of infiltrating multiple political organizations, including the National Rifle Association, to gain influence for Russia.”
“The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review lower court decisions that blocked efforts in two states to end public funding to Planned Parenthood, refusing for now to get involved in state battles over abortion rights,” the Washington Post reports.
The cases did not touch on abortion itself, but three justices who said the court should have accepted the cases said that was the reason the court declined to get involved.
CNBC reports Republican-appointed justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh sided with their liberal colleagues.
The Washington Post has instituted a new fact checking category — called “Bottomless Pinocchios” — for President Trump’s false claims that have been repeated at least 20 times and were originally rated Three or Four Pinocchios.
“The Fact Checker has not identified statements from any other current elected official who meets the standard other than Trump. In fact, 14 statements made by the president immediately qualify for the list.”
“Facing the prospect of a devastating loss in Parliament, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced Monday that she would delay a vote on the Brexit plan she negotiated with the European Union,” the Washington Post reports.
Said May: “If we went ahead and held the vote tomorrow, the deal would be rejected by a significant margin. We will therefore defer the vote scheduled for tomorrow and not proceed to divide the House at this time.”
“May will likely go to Brussels this week for a last-ditch attempt to seek new concessions from European Union leaders and write a deal that her own party can support. But it remains unclear what Europe can offer May to placate her domestic critics. E.U. leaders have never had much patience for Britain’s domestic squabbling, since most view Brexit as an entirely self-inflicted wound.”
New York Times: May’s Brexit deal is probably going to fail. What happens then?
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) told CNN that he is “past 50-50” when it comes to the odds of him making a White House bid in 2020.
Said Hickenlooper: “I’d say we’re past 50-50. I think we’re probably 63, 64 percent.”
He added: “We’re seeing all kinds of evidence that the Trump presidency isn’t succeeding. It’s not taking America where it needs to go. It certainly isn’t fulfilling his promises to the rural parts of America.”
President Trump asserted Monday that payments to buy the silence of two women about alleged affairs were not illegal campaign contributions, as federal prosecutors contend, but instead a “simple private transaction,” the Washington Post reports.
“In his tweets, Trump suggested that the payments were being scrutinized only because prosecutors have not been able to find evidence of collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russia. He also appeared to suggest that prosecutors are taking their cues from Democrats… He further asserted that even if the payments could be considered campaign contributions, he should be facing a civil case rather than a criminal case. And he said, Cohen should be held responsible, not him.”
“Trump’s tweets were criticized Monday by several lawyers, both for their substance and for his public airing of a defense that could complicate matters if charges are ever brought against him.”
For members: The John Edwards Defense Won’t Work for Trump
“The job of White House chief of staff is close to impossible at the best of times, but President Donald Trump’s new West Wing enforcer faces an even tougher mission — one that may eventually evolve into an effort to save his presidency itself,” CNN reports.
“The next chief will walk into a White House engulfed in scandal, in the sights of special counsel Robert Mueller and newly empowered Democrats, at what is shaping up as one of the most grave constitutional moments in US history.”
Pennsylvania Senate President Pro-Tempore Joe Scarnati (R) has asked Sen.-elect Lindsey Williams (D) “to provide more documentation about her residency as Republicans decide whether to block her from taking her seat next year,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
“In the weeks before the November election, Republicans backed an unsuccessful legal effort to get her kicked off the ballot on the grounds that she did not meet the residency requirements outlined in the state constitution, which says that lawmakers must live in the state four years.”
“Ms. Williams, who has repeatedly said she does meet the requirements, prevailed and won election in the 38th Senatorial District, which includes parts of Pittsburgh and its northern suburbs.”
Rep.-elect Ross Spano (R-FL) “is struggling to hire office staff as he relies on a controversial adviser: one of the friends at the center of a campaign finance scandal that is rocking the Florida Republican,” Politico reports.
“Spano, an attorney and outgoing state legislator with past financial troubles, recently admitted in a letter to the Federal Election Commission that he might have committed a campaign finance ‘violation’ in failing for two months to disclose $180,000 he accepted from two friends.”
“But if the FEC deems the ‘loans’ to be campaign contributions, they would exceed legal donation limits of $2,700 per cycle, per contributor. And experts say it could constitute a criminal violation by Spano and, potentially, the two people who gave his campaign the money — Cary Carreno and Karen Hunt.”
Former FBI Director James Comey asked American voters to end Donald Trump’s presidency with a “landslide” victory for his opponent in 2020, CNN reports.
“He all but begged Democrats to set aside their ideological differences and nominate the person best suited to defeating Trump in an election.”
Said Comey: “I understand the Democrats have important debates now over who their candidate should be, but they have to win. They have to win.”
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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