“I simply disagree with the president about the harm that it does. As I’ve told him repeatedly, the votes just aren’t there to change it.”
— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by the Washington Post, on President Trump’s call to abolish the legislative filibuster.
“Twitter and Facebook are scrambling to assuage conservative leaders who have sounded alarms — and sought to rile voters — with accusations that the country’s tech giants are censoring right-leaning posts, tweets and news,” the Washington Post reports.
“From secret dinners with conservative media elite to private meetings with the Republican National Committee, the new outreach reflects tech giants’ delicate task: satisfying a party in power while defending online platforms against attacks that threaten to undermine the public’s trust in the Web.”
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The Supreme Court has delivered a devastating blow to public-sector labor unions, ruling 5-4 that they cannot collect fees from non-members, the Washington Post reports.
“The case has major implications for the future of organized labor, which has become a pillar of Democratic Party politics, and for the millions of workers in the nearly half of states that authorize payments from nonmembers to cover the cost of collective bargaining.”
Axios: “The public sector is one of the last bastions of labor’s strength — about 34% of government workers are unionized, compared with just 6.5% of the private sector. But this ruling could shrink those rolls significantly.”
James Hohmann: “In many ways, Crowley’s defeat is analogous to then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s unexpected fall in a Virginia GOP primary four years ago this month. Republicans fared well in the midterms that year, just as Democrats almost certainly will this November, but Cantor’s downfall was a clear harbinger of the mass disruption to come, including Trump’s takeover of the GOP.”
“Just like loathing of Barack Obama kept Republicans united in 2014, disgust with the president will keep Democrats together going into the fall elections. But make no mistake: The party’s identity crisis will be front and center after November, especially if Nancy Pelosi steps down or gets dislodged as the leader of House Democrats. The internecine conflict could become all-consuming in the free-for-all nominating contest to take on Trump in 2020 and cause a leftward lurch that helps the president win reelection.”
In an all-caps tweet, President Trump urged House Republicans to pass the compromise immigration bill today — even though he said they were “wasting their time” just last week.
A new Axios/Survey Monkey poll finds that 92% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say that traditional news outlets “knowingly report false or misleading stories at least sometimes.”
A big majority of Democrats and non-leaning independents also feel this way, but not nearly to the same extent.
ProPublica: “Since Donald Trump declared his candidacy for president in late 2015, at least $16.1 million has poured into Trump Organization-managed and branded hotels, golf courses and restaurants from his campaign, Republican organizations, and government agencies. Because Trump’s business empire is overseen by a trust of which he is the sole beneficiary, he profits from these hotel stays, banquet hall rentals and meals.”
“The vast majority of the money — at least $13.5 million, or more than 84 percent of what we tracked — was spent by Trump’s presidential campaign (including on Tag Air, the entity that operates Trump’s personal airplane). Republican Senate and House political committees and campaigns have shelled out at least another $2.1 million at Trump properties.”
Jonathan Chait: “Conservative media could take its cues from the party’s congressional leadership, but its most influential figures have personal ties to the president. As Gabriel Sherman has reported, Trump communicates so frequently with Fox News he is serving in some sense as its de facto editorial director. To the extent Trump deserves credit for his takeover of the party, it is through his canny playing of the inside media game, wooing powerful insiders in the right-wing media to make him (rather than Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell) the protagonist of their drama.”
“Disgraced journalist Mark Halperin has been spotted with a string of powerful media industry pals, insiders told Page Six — including CNN and PBS folks — sparking buzz that he’s the latest #MeToo-struck star to plot a comeback.”
“But sources close to the political pundit insist to us that they were all just social calls.”
This is the moment Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D), a 28-year-old running her first campaign, discovered she had ousted veteran Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) in New York’s 14th congressional district.
“Voters in three key Senate battleground states prefer the next Congress to be a check on President Donald Trump rather than a booster for his policy priorities, and only about a third say Trump deserves to be re-elected,” according to new polls of Arizona, Florida and Ohio conducted by NBC News/Marist.
Democrats are already up with an ad using Rep. Dan Donovan’s (R-NY) primary statements against him: “I’ve supported the president 90 percent of the time in my votes… I voted seven times to repeal Obamacare.”
David Wasserman: “The Tea Party waves of 2010 and 2014 didn’t topple many House GOP incumbents in primaries, but they did take out House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Much in the same way, the hardcore Resistance took out Crowley but could help power Democrats to gains this fall.”
“Crowley’s exit begins the conversation about the next generation of House Democratic leadership anew. Less senior members likely to receive more attention include Reps. Cheri Bustos (IL-17), Joe Kennedy III (MA-04), Linda Sanchez (CA-38), Katherine Clark (MA-05), Seth Moulton (MA-06), Ruben Gallego (AZ-07) and others. And, any aspirants will need to be on good terms with the party’s increasingly dominant progressive base.”
Mike DeBonis: “Crowley loss does not sound like a win for Pelosi/Hoyer. It sounds like Taps for the whole Dem hierarchy. Wake-up call for a party that has put off a generational change for too long.”
Jonathan Swan: “America’s allies in Europe are worried about Donald Trump’s expected meeting next month with Vladimir Putin. Senior officials from four NATO member nations told me their worst fear is that Trump clashes with America’s allies at the NATO summit in Brussels on July 11-12 and then shortly afterwards lavishes praise on Putin.”
“They say that would leave Europeans feeling abandoned and would advance Russia’s goal of dividing European and transatlantic alliances.”
“Satellite images from last week show that North Korea is making numerous improvements to the infrastructure at a nuclear research facility,” The Hill reports.
“The images, obtained by North Korea analysis outlet 38 North, come just weeks after President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed an agreement that called for a denuclearized Korean peninsula.”
Washington Post: “President Trump’s victory Tuesday in the Supreme Court’s ratification of his travel ban marked a milestone in his attempt to paint broad swaths of immigrants as dangerous — a rhetorical strategy that has underpinned the administration’s sweeping efforts to unilaterally curtail immigration. Since taking office 18 months ago, Trump has amplified, and attempted to codify into policy, his campaign-trail warnings of the threats posed by foreigners who attempt to enter the United States, including those who come through legal channels…”
“Critics expressed fears that the court’s ruling would embolden Trump to further test the limits of his statutory authority to enforce border-control laws without explicit approval from lawmakers.”
Stephen Bannon texts Jonathan Swan: “Travel ban vindication big deal for his psyche — reinforces his instincts are right and the haters are wrong.”
Washington Post: “The fourth-ranking Democrat in the House has lost his bid for another term: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old activist who ran on abolishing ICE and making Medicare a universal program, defeated Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) in an upset.”
“Crowley is the first incumbent Democrat to lose renomination since 2014, when a Massachusetts Democrat was brought down by scandal. Crowley, who was first elected in 1998, had grown his profile inside the party and faced no personal controversies.”
New York Times: “The race was not close. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez had more than 57 percent of the vote, with almost all precincts reporting.”
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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