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Obama’s Favorite Books of 2017

January 4, 2018 at 8:35 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

As he did each year when he was president, Barack Obama shared a list of his favorite books of 2017:

  • The Power by Naomi Alderman
  • Grant by Ron Chernow
  • Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
  • Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein
  • Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
  • Five-Carat Soul by James McBride
  • Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
  • Dying: A Memoir by Cory Taylor
  • A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
  • Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
  • Coach Wooden and Me by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
  • Basketball (and Other Things) by Shea Serrano

A Big Decision Awaits Democrats on Spending

January 4, 2018 at 8:33 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The following post for members is by David T.S. Jonas, who most recently served as policy director for Tom Perriello’s (D) campaign for Virginia Governor.

2017 has come and gone, and with control of Congress and the White House, Republicans produced just one major legislative victory: the Trump tax cuts. What started off as an effort to reform our Swiss-cheese brick of a tax code became a complete caricature of itself by the time the bill finally passed. The tax code got more complicated, it became even easier for already-successful companies and wealthy individuals to selectively lower their returns, and most incredibly of all, the entire effort was deficit-financed to the tune of around $2 trillion.

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GOP Strategist Says Midterm Blowout Will Doom Trump

January 4, 2018 at 8:23 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Republican strategist Rick Tyler told MSNBC that Republican will turn on President Trump and impeach him should they lose heavily in the 2018 midterms.

Said Tyler: “When does the Republican Party turn? When they get wiped out. That’s what happens. If they get wiped out in 2018, the Republicans will absolutely turn on Donald Trump.”

He added: “And I think to the point where they will impeach him and they will get 67 percent of the vote in the Senate to impeach him, to do that. But it will require a wipe out.”


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Second Excerpt of Book Coming Today

January 4, 2018 at 7:37 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A second excerpt of Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House will be released today, according to CNN.

“The national news coverage of the book’s revelations — including shocking quotes from Steve Bannon — sent the book soaring on Amazon.com. By 3 p.m. ET, it was ranked #1 on the site’s best-selling books list. Twenty-four hours earlier, it had been ranked #48,449.”

Update: It’s up at the Hollywood Reporter.

Trump Shatters Decades-Old Nuclear Taboo

January 4, 2018 at 7:35 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “President Ronald Reagan was warming up for a national radio address on Aug. 11, 1984, when an open microphone caught him joking about nuclear war. ‘My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever,’ Reagan quipped. ‘We begin bombing in five minutes.’ The international outcry that followed — newspapers condemned Reagan, and some Soviet forces were reportedly placed on alert — underscored one of the first rules of the American presidency: Don’t speak lightly about nuclear war.”

“To President Donald Trump’s critics, that is one of many norms he has recklessly shattered, most recently with a tweet on Monday in which Trump declared that his ‘nuclear button’ was ‘much bigger and more powerful’ than the one North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, claimed in a recent speech to have on his desk. Democrats and foreign policy experts fiercely denounced Trump’s rhetoric as alarming and dangerous.”

HuffPost: Can anyone prevent Trump from issuing a nuclear strike? Not really.

Bannon Praises Trump In First Comments Since Book

January 4, 2018 at 7:27 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Stephen Bannon called President Trump “a great man” on his radio show late Wednesday night and said he supported him “day in and day out,” the Washington Post reports.

“It was the most direct reference in the program, otherwise devoted to immigration, to the explosive day that had just passed as a result of the release of some searing book excerpts that quoted Bannon.”

Mercer Pulls Away from Bannon

January 4, 2018 at 7:08 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “Bannon has in recent weeks also alienated his main financial backer, Rebekah Mercer, after he told several other major conservative donors that he would be able to count on the Mercers’ financial support should he run for president, a person familiar with the conversations said.

“The person said Mercer now does not plan to financially support Bannon’s future projects — and that she was frustrated by his moves in Alabama and some of his comments in the news media that seemed to stoke unnecessary fights. A person close to Bannon said he was not running for president. Bannon and Mercer declined to comment through representatives.”

Mike Allen confirms Bannon has told friends he’d run for president in 2020 if Trump does not.

How Michael Wolff Defends His Reporting

January 4, 2018 at 7:02 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

From New York Magazine:

He conducted more than 200 interviews. In true Trumpian fashion, the administration’s lack of experience and disdain for political norms made for a hodgepodge of journalistic challenges. Information would be provided off-the-record or on deep background, then casually put on the record. Sources would fail to set any parameters on the use of a conversation, or would provide accounts in confidence, only to subsequently share their views widely. And the president’s own views, private as well as public, were constantly shared by others. The adaptation presented here offers a front-row view of Trump’s presidency, from his improvised transition to his first months in the Oval Office.

Mike Allen reports Wolff also “has tapes to back up quotes in his incendiary book — dozens of hours of them.”

White House Bans Personal Cell Phones

January 3, 2018 at 11:23 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

White House staffers have been told they can no longer use personal cell phones anymore, according to the New York Times.

Axios: “Leaks were likely a motivating factor, particularly as the announcement comes after today’s chaos over a forthcoming book.”

Trump Lawyers Send Bannon Cease and Desist Letter

January 3, 2018 at 11:09 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Lawyers for President Trump sent a cease-and-desist letter to Trump’s former senior strategist Stephen Bannon, arguing he had violated a non-disclosure agreement in speaking about his time on the campaign and in Trump’s most trusted inner circle,” the Washington Post reports.

ABC News: “During the campaign, then-candidate Trump had all campaign staff sign a non-disclosure agreement which required all staff, according to campaign sources, to refrain from any disparaging comments against the candidate, his family or the Trump campaign and organization.”

Lawmakers Sought Advice from Psychiatrist

January 3, 2018 at 11:08 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Lawmakers concerned about President Trump’s mental state summoned Yale University psychiatry professor Dr. Bandy X. Lee to Capitol Hill last month for two days of briefings about his recent behavior,” Politico reports.

“In private meetings with more than a dozen members of Congress held on Dec. 5 and 6, Lee briefed lawmakers — all Democrats except for one Republican senator, whom Lee declined to identify.”

Lee’s professional warning: “He’s going to unravel, and we are seeing the signs.”

Inside Trump’s Two Days of Fury

January 3, 2018 at 8:56 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump “started 2018 in a fury partly fueled by anger at his legal team for offering shifting timelines about when the Russia investigation would end,” CNN reports.

“Trump’s lawyers held talks with members of Mueller’s team a few days before Christmas… and are no longer putting specific dates on when they expect the investigation to end.”

Rupert Murdoch Controls What Trump Thinks

January 3, 2018 at 7:59 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

For those wondering what it will take for GOP lawmakers to finally turn against President Trump, their focus is misplaced. Republicans may be less responsible for keeping Trump in power than Fox News.

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Trump Disbands Voter Fraud Commission

January 3, 2018 at 7:15 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump “is dissolving a controversial commission that was charged with investigating his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud during the 2016 election,” Politico reports.

Washington Post: “The commission met only twice amid a series of lawsuits seeking to curb its authority and claims by Democrats that it was stacked to recommend voting restrictions favorable to the president’s party.”

Rick Hasen: “The Commission was poorly organized and conceived. It tried to operate to a large extent in secrecy, without recognition that doing so would violate the federal laws that govern presidential commissions and that protect privacy. It made rookie, boneheaded mistakes about handling documents used by the Commission, again in violation of federal law. It did not seem to have an end-game.”

Thiel May Create New Conservative News Network

January 3, 2018 at 7:14 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel wants to create a new conservative cable news network and his representatives have engaged the powerful Mercer family to help with funding,” BuzzFeed News reports.

“Thiel, a Facebook board member who secretly funded lawsuits to bring down Gawker Media, had originally explored a plan to create the network along with Roger Ailes, the late founder of Fox News, according to a soon-to-be published book by journalist Michael Wolff. But BuzzFeed News has learned that Thiel has continued looking into fashioning a Fox News competitor even after May 2017 death of Ailes.”

Bannon Predicts He’ll Be Talking to Trump Again

January 3, 2018 at 5:15 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Associated Press reports Steve Bannon “was not surprised or particularly bothered by the blowback” from Michael Wolff’s new book.

“Bannon vowed on Wednesday to continue his ‘war’ on the Republican establishment and also predicted that, after a cooling-off period, he’d continue to speak with Trump, who likes to maintain contact with former advisers even after he fires and sometimes disparages them.””

‘I Hope I’m Wrong, But There’s a War Coming’

January 3, 2018 at 5:07 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Atlantic: “There are sounds, for those who can hear them, of the preliminary and muffled drumbeats of war. The Chinese are reported to be preparing refugee camps along North Korean border. Resources are being shifted to observe and analyze the North Korean military. Mundane logistical processes of moving, stockpiling and updating critical items and preparing military personnel are under way. Only the biggest indicator—the evacuation of American dependents from South Korea—has yet to flash red, but, in the interest of surprise, that may not happen.”

“America’s circumspect and statesmanlike Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, talks ominously of storm clouds gathering over Korea, while the commandant of the Marine Corps simply says ‘I hope I’m wrong, but there’s a war coming.'”

Excerpt of the Day

January 3, 2018 at 4:40 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Trump liked to say that one of the things that made life worth living was getting your friends’ wives into bed.”

— From Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, page 23.

The book, due out next week, just hit #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list.

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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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