“Economic growth in the 19 countries that use the euro currency was 2.5% in 2017… Growth in the 28-member European Union also reached 2.5% last year,” CNN reports.
“It’s the best period of growth for both groupings since 2007, putting Europe just ahead of the 2.3% expansion posted by the U.S. in 2017.”
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) announced on Twitter that he has asked the U.S. Capitol Police to check the identification of all State of the Union attendees and arrest any “illegal” immigrants.
Said Gosar: “Of all the places where the Rule of Law needs to be enforced, it should be in the hallowed halls of Congress. Any illegal aliens attempting to go through security, under any pretext of invitation or otherwise, should be arrested and deported.”
During an interview on Fox & Friends — one of President Trump’s favorite television shows — Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) made sure to give a shout out to the Trump Hotel.
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Former Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY), who served seven months in prison for tax evasion, blamed his conviction in 2014 on the “same politically corrupt team of players” that he claims is driving the Russia investigation, the New York Daily News reports.
He named former FBI director James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch as part of a “politically corrupt team of players” and blamed them for everything “from sabotaging President Trump with the Russiagate conspiracy theory” to “letting Hillary Clinton off the hook in 2016.”
Former Gov. Chris Christie told ABC News that President Trump should not agree to be interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Said Christie: “In an investigation like this… there’s nothing you can do to make it shorter, there’s lots of things you can do to make it longer.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is encouraging her caucus to behave during President Trump’s State of the Union address tonight, Politico reports.
Said Pelosi: “Let the attention be on his slobbering self. If you want to walk out, don’t come in.”
She added that expectations are so low for Trump, he’s likely to get good reviews: “If his nose isn’t running and he isn’t burping, he did a great speech.”
Speaker Paul Ryan called to “cleanse” the FBI as he openly backed the release of a controversial memo that purportedly details alleged surveillance abuses by the U.S. government, Fox News reports.
Said Ryan: “Let it all out, get it all out there. Cleanse the organization.”
He added: “I think we should disclose all this stuff. It’s the best disinfectant. Accountability, transparency — for the sake of the reputation of our institutions.”
“FBI Director Chris Wray made clear in a message sent to all bureau employees on Monday night that Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s decision to step aside was a result of forthcoming information to be detailed in an Inspector General report,” NBC News reports.
“Wray alluded to having seen aspects of the IG’s report into the way the FBI handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server.”
The Atlantic: “Mueller will not indict Trump for obstruction of justice or for any other crime. Period. Full stop. End of story. Speculations to the contrary are just fantasy.”
“He won’t do it for the good and sufficient reason that the Department of Justice has a long-standing legal opinion that sitting presidents may not be indicted. First issued in 1973 during the Nixon era, the policy was reaffirmed in 2000, during the Clinton era. These rules bind all Department of Justice employees, and Mueller, in the end, is a Department of Justice employee. More to the point, if we know anything about Mueller, we think we know that he follows the rules—all of them. Even the ones that restrict him in ways he would prefer they not. And if he were to choose not to follow the rules, that, in turn, would be a reasonable justification for firing him. So … the special counsel will not indict the president.”
RNC chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel told Fox News that donations made by former finance chair Steve Wynn, who has been accused of sexually assaulting his employees, will only be returned if he’s found guilty.
“He cheats like hell… so I don’t quite know how he is in business. They say that if you cheat at golf, you cheat at business. I’m pretty sure he pays his caddie well, since no matter how far into the woods he hits the ball, it’s in the middle of the fairway when we get there.”
— Norwegian golf ace Suzann Pettersen, in an interview with VG, on playing golf with Donald Trump.
“Conservative MPs are considering another attempt at ousting Theresa May if the local elections go badly, as disillusionment with her leadership bubbles up among backbenchers once again,” the Guardian reports.
The frustration from her “lackluster performance, botched reshuffle and shifting Brexit strategy has caused talk of deposing her to resurface.”
The Sun reports that just eight more Conservative dissenters were needed to trigger a vote of no confidence against May.
First Read: “Here’s an important reminder: The investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election — and its ties to the Trump campaign — is real. And everything we’ve learned over the past year has only confirmed that reality… Indeed, there hasn’t been one development that has lessened suspicion of Russia’s ties and contacts to the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.”
Axios: 10 undisputed facts behind the Russia investigation.
In a 2016 radio interview, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said Donald Trump would “take, I think, unapologetic steps to use executive power to confront Congress in a way that is truly unconstitutional.”
Said Pruitt: “I believe that Donald Trump in the White House would be more abusive to the Constitution than Barack Obama — and that’s saying a lot… I really believe he would use a blunt instrument. This president at least tries to nuance his unlawfulness.”
Jimmy Kimmel is bringing adult film star Stormy Daniels on his show after the President Trump’s State of the Union speech tonight, the New York Post reports.
The FBI has a second memo that independently set out some of the same allegations made in a dossier by British former spy Christopher Steele, the Guardian reports.
“The second memo was written by Cody Shearer, a controversial political activist and former journalist who was close to the Clinton White House in the 1990s. Unlike Steele, Shearer does not have a background in espionage, and his memo was initially viewed with skepticism, not least because he had shared it with select media organizations before the election.”
“The striking similarity between a newly-released Treasury Department report of Russian oligarchs and a 2017 list of wealthy Russians published in Forbes Magazine is no coincidence,” BuzzFeed News reports.
“On Tuesday, a Treasury Department spokesperson confirmed… that the unclassified annex of the report was derived from Forbes’ ranking of the ‘200 richest businessmen in Russia 2017.'”
Out this summer: The Briefing by Sean Spicer.
“Sean Spicer takes readers behind the scenes of his turbulent tenure as President Trump’s press secretary, shedding new light on the headline-grabbing controversies of the Trump administration’s first year.”
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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