Bobby Goodlatte, son of House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), gave some more details about why he’s supporting a Democrat to replace his father in Congress:
“I’m deeply embarrassed that Peter Strzok’s career was ruined by my father’s political grandstanding. That committee hearing was a low point for Congress.”
“Thank you for your service sir. You are a patriot.”
Josh Marshall has an interesting look back at a series of videos Donald Trump made from 2011 to 2014 which were “a sort of dry run” for the Trump we now know today.
“Trump is a cretin and a racist and a buffoon. But we fool ourselves if we don’t recognize that he is a sort of savant, a con man but an instinctive political animal who has a deep hold on a big chunk of the country. Language, tone and voice are at the heart of that. Understanding how this happened is well worth our time.”
Billionaire Tom Steyer “plans to spend an additional $10 million on helping Democrats take control of the House by attempting to drive up turnout among infrequent voters motivated by the idea of impeaching President Trump,” Bloomberg reports.
“That will be on top of $110 million Steyer has already pledged for the November elections through his two political organizations.”
Steyer now has an email list of 5.5 million voters, with an average of 10,000 names per congressional district.
A federal judge appointed by President Trump “ruled that special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe is constitutional and legitimate, rejecting an effort by a Russian company — accused of financing a massive political influence operation in the United States — to stamp out the ongoing investigation,” Politico reports.
Axios: “This is the fourth federal judge to strike down efforts to invalidate Mueller’s probe.”
“People see me aggressively tackling challenges and always assume it must be some part of a bigger plan. And therefore question, well what’s his plan? What’s he trying to do? How about, I’m just doing the right thing, right now? It doesn’t have to be part of a larger plan.”
— Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), quoted by BuzzFeed News on being seen as a potential presidential contender in 2020.
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) August 13, 2018
Michael Avenatti told The Guardian that he has had conversations with former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, but would not comment any further.
Said Avenatti: “I’m not going to go into the details of what I said about that. She had reached out to me a number of months ago.”
In the mail: The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic by Benjamin Carter Hett.
“A riveting account of how the Nazi Party came to power and how the failures of the Weimar Republic and the shortsightedness of German politicians allowed it to happen.”
DailyKos has compiled a fantastic spreadsheet of presidential election results by media market over the last 10 elections.
“What’s very interesting about these presidential/media market numbers is that, unlike congressional districts or legislative districts, media market boundaries don’t change every decade… Media market boundaries follow county lines and stay stationary, so you can track those numbers longitudinally and watch how different parts of the country evolve politically, at a more detailed level than states but at a less granular level than individual counties.”
Paul Rosenzweig, a lifelong Republican and former aide during the Kenneth Starr investigation into President Clinton, told CNN that he will be voting for a Democrat in a federal election for the first time in his life.
Said Rosenzweig: “The Republican Party, seems to me, to no longer deserve my support or frankly the support of anybody who thinks that the legislative branch should act as a check and balance against executive authoritarianism.”
The FBI has fired Agent Peter Strzok, “who helped lead the bureau’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election until officials discovered he had been sending anti-Trump texts,” the Washington Post reports.
“The termination marks a remarkable downfall for Strzok, a 22-year veteran of the bureau who investigated Russian spies, defense officials accused of selling secrets to China and myriad other important cases. In the twilight of his career, Strzok was integral to two of the bureau’s most high-profile investigations: the Russia case, and the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state.”
New York Times: “Mr. Strzok became emblematic of Mr. Trump’s unfounded assertions that a so-called deep state of bureaucrats opposed to him was undermining his presidency.”
Gallup: “Democrats have a more positive image of socialism than they do of capitalism. Attitudes toward socialism among Democrats have not changed materially since 2010, with 57% today having a positive view. The major change among Democrats has been a less upbeat attitude toward capitalism, dropping to 47% positive this year — lower than in any of the three previous measures.”
“Republicans remain much more positive about capitalism than about socialism, with little sustained change in their views of either since 2010.”
President Trump responded to former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman on Twitter after she played a secret tape of their phone conversation:
Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time. She never made it, never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said OK. People in the White House hated her. She was vicious, but not smart. I would rarely see her but heard really bad things. Nasty to people & would constantly miss meetings & work. When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems. I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me – until she got fired!
CBS News: “Critics of the Trump administration’s response to the hurricanes that ravaged Puerto Rico last year are launching a seven-figure campaign to mobilize displaced Puerto Rican voters ahead of the midterm elections – and planning big demonstrations in New York and Florida to mark the anniversary of Hurricane Maria.”
Rudy Giuliani said “that the president never had a conversation last year with James Comey, then the F.B.I. director, about ending the investigation into the fired national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, contradicting a memo Mr. Comey wrote at the time,” the New York Times reports.
However, Giuliani’s statement “appeared at odds with his own previous comments… Last month, when pressed on ABC News by George Stephanopoulos about whether Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey he hoped he could see his way to ending the Flynn case, Mr. Giuliani interrupted him to say that Mr. Trump did not say that. ‘What he said to him was, “Can you give him a break?”’ Mr. Giuliani said in that interview.”
NBC News has obtained audio from Omarosa Manigault Newman, which she says is a recording of a phone call between her and President Trump one day after Chief of Staff John Kelly fired her from her senior White House position. The tape appears to show Trump having no idea that Newman had been dismissed by his Chief of Staff John Kelly.
TRUMP: “Omarosa, what’s going on? I just saw on the news that you’re thinking about leaving? What happened?
OMAROSA: General Kelly – General Kelly came to me and said that you guys wanted me to leave.
TRUMP: No… I, I – Nobody even told me about it.
OMAROSA: Wow.
TRUMP: You know they run a big operation, but I didn’t know it. I didn’t know that. Goddamn it. I don’t love you leaving at all.”
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.