The Washington Post reports the Justice Department Inspector General’s report are revelations of a previously unreported text message exchange betwee Peter Strzok, a key investigator on both the Clinton email case and the investigation of Russia and the Trump campaign, and FBI lawyer Lisa Page:
PAGE: He’s not ever going to become president, right? Right?!
STRZOK: No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it.
New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood filed suit against President Trump and his three eldest children alleging “persistently illegal conduct” at the president’s personal charity, saying Trump “repeatedly misused the nonprofit — to pay off his businesses’ creditors, to decorate one of his golf clubs and to stage a multimillion dollar giveaway at his 2016 campaign events,” the Washington Post reports.
“She said a 20-month state investigation found that Trump had repeatedly violated laws that set the ground rules for tax-exempt foundations — most importantly, that their money is meant to serve the public good, and not to provide private benefits to their founders.”
New York Times: “The lawsuit, which seeks to dissolve the foundation and bar President Trump and three of his children from serving on the boards of nonprofits, was an extraordinary rebuke of a sitting president. The attorney general also sent referral letters to the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission for possible further action, adding to Mr. Trump’s extensive legal problems.”
The Supreme Court has struck down a Minnesota law that restricted what voters can wear to polls, the AP reports.
“The justices ruled that the law violates the First Amendment. Still, the justices’ 7-2 ruling suggested that some restrictions on what people can wear to vote are permissible.”
“Most states have laws restricting what voters can wear to cast their ballots but Minnesota’s law is one of the broadest. It bars voters from casting a ballot wearing clothing with the name of a candidate or political party or related to an issue on the ballot.”
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The Justice Department’s inspector general found that former FBI Director James Comey “deviated” from FBI and Justice Department procedures in handling the probe into Hillary Clinton, damaging the law enforcement agencies’ image of impartiality even though he wasn’t motivated by political bias, Bloomberg reports.
From the report: “While we did not find that these decisions were the result of political bias on Comey’s part, we nevertheless concluded that by departing so clearly and dramatically from FBI and department norms, the decisions negatively impacted the perception of the FBI and the department as fair administrators of justice.”
North Korean state media released new behind-the-scenes footage of President Trump’s summit with Kim Jong Un, showing Trump saluting a North Korean General.
“I wouldn’t want to see homosexuals teaching school anymore than I’d want to see members of the American Nazi Party teaching school.”
— Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), quoted by the Salt Lake Tribune in 1977.
“No one should ever feel less because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. LGBT youth deserve our unwavering love and support. They deserve our validation and the assurance that not only is there a place for them in this society, but that it is far better off because of them. These young people need us—and we desperately need them. We need their light to illuminate the richness and diversity of God’s creations. We need the grace, beauty and brilliance they bring to the world.”
— Hatch, quoted by the Washington Post, in a speech yesterday honoring Pride Month.
Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY) told the Buffalo News that he will not back House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for another term as the top Democrat in the House.
Higgins cited the lack of a clear Democratic agenda as an alternative to President Trump: “She’s listening, but this is my conclusion: She’s aloof, frenetic and misguided.”
He added: “I’m giving voice to a frustration that I hear every single day. It’s members. I don’t want to call anybody out. But this is the conversation that is taking place.”
Molly Ball: “On June 5, the biggest primary day of the year, 42 of the 48 candidates endorsed by Emily’s List, which supports pro-choice Democratic women, prevailed in races up and down the ballot in eight states, from governor to state legislature… The trend shows no signs of abating… The result is that women, many of them new to politics, will be the face of the Democratic Party in the first national election of the Trump era.”
“Why are all these women winning in spite of such obstacles? One reason is other women are campaigning, organizing and voting for them… Democratic strategists hope this crop of fresh-faced women will give the party an advantage in November, primarily by providing a contrast to President Trump. Female candidates, they say, will appeal to voters looking for change and be natural messengers for issues, such as health care and education, on which polls show women candidates tend to be more trusted.”
For members: Democrats Make Their Bet on Women
A new Franklin & Marshall poll in Pennsylvania finds Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) leading challenger Lou Barletta (R) by a stunning 17 points, 44% to 27%, with 28% still undecided.
In the gubernatorial race, Gov. Tom Wolf (D) leads challenger Scott Wagner, 48% to 29%.
“A Texas shelter housing child immigrants who are separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border is reportedly overcrowded, highly structured, and full of murals featuring President Trump,” the Daily Beast reports.
“The Casa Padre shelter in Brownsville was opened up to a group of journalists Wednesday for the first time since the Department of Homeland Security announced a controversial new family separation policy.”
MSNBC reporter Jacob Soboroff tweeted that visitors are almost immediately greeted by a massive Trump mural featuring a quote that reads, “Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.”
Matt Lewis: “Yes, he has always had a huge ego and that machismo image that so many Trump fans exhibit, but he wasn’t always an alt-righter. I know this because, well, I used to know Corey… To be sure, he was always an immigration hawk and a hard-core Second Amendment activist, but this is all within the spectrum of mainstream conservative philosophy.”
“The fact that Stewart is now running (and winning) as a alt-righter shows that this isn’t a case of a few bad apples—this is a systemic problem. The incentives (for attention, for buzz, for winning elections) are all perverse now. What this means is that ambitious opportunists have realized that the way to win a Republican primary is to go to the dark side.”
Politico: “Put a blond combover on the elephant. Take down the pictures of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. It’s over. It’s Donald Trump’s GOP. The anti-Trump candidates are fleeing, and the ones who stick around are getting trampled. The chill has gone out among whoever’s left: there’s no more speaking up, and if there is, it’s just for the sake of a speech, a protest quote that quickly disappears. They chalk it up to party loyalty, or staying unified for the midterms. They say they still believe in the principles, but they don’t tend to do more than say the words. Then, when the microphones are off, they confide. They complain.”
“They nurse fantasies that there’s a reckoning coming, that maybe this will all end with the Republican Party nominating someone like Eisenhower. Or at least like Paul Ryan. And each time they watch another of their own go down, they wince, try to move on.”
Washington Post: “As a result, the Republican Party appears united now not by fealty to ideas or policies but to a man, one who defied the odds to win the presidency and who has magnetically drawn the party’s power bases to himself.”
For members: Trump Is In Total Control of His Party
Mike Allen: “It took Little Rocket Man just seven months to go from President Trump calling him ‘a sick puppy,’ to ‘very talented’ during the post-summit press conference, to syrupy praise of Kim Jong-un during the president’s interview in Singapore with Fox News’ Bret Baier.”
“The shift is jarring but is part of the Trump modus operandi: People come in and out of favor with wind-shear-like abruptness. Anyone in Trump’s orbit knows they can be banished on a whim — but have a good chance of coming back.”
“There’s no nuance with Trump. He oscillates between extremes, embracing and banishing people, even without real changes in their behavior.”
Politico: “The White House – which has been having trouble filling positions as it bleeds staffers – is now trying to find recruits at a conservative job fair on the Hill. ‘Interested in a job at the White House?’ is the subject line of an email that was blasted out widely to Republicans on the Hill late Wednesday advertising the upcoming event. It promises that ‘representatives from across the Trump administration will be there to meet job seekers of every experience level.’”
“A person familiar with the planning said that Johnny DeStefano, who oversees the White House personnel department, and Sean Doocey, a deputy assistant to the president for presidential personnel, are expected to be on hand, among other officials from the West Wing.”
Playbook: “Senior House Republicans tell us they don’t think any immigration bill will pass the chamber. There are two bills that will come to a vote: Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s (R-VA) bill, which is favored by many of the party’s conservatives, and a compromise bill. The vote is likely next Thursday, we’re told.”
White House Counsel Don McGahn “recused his entire staff last summer from working on the Russia investigation because many of his office’s lawyers played significant roles in key episodes at the center of the probe,” Politico reports.
“McGahn made the decision to halt his staff’s interactions with Special Counsel Robert Mueller because many of his own attorneys ‘had been significant participants’ surrounding the firings of national security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James Comey.”
“Complacency is our enemy. Anyone that does not embrace the Donald Trump agenda of making America great again will be making a mistake.”
— RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, on Twitter.
In an interview with Fox News, President Trump dismissed North Korea’s human rights violations and Kim Jong Un’s atrocities against his own people.
Said Trump: “Hey, he’s a tough guy. When you take over a country — a tough country, tough people — and you take it over from your father, I don’t care who you are, what you are, how much of an advantage you have. If you can do that at 27 years old, I mean, that’s one in 10,000 that could do that. So he’s a very smart guy. He’s a great negotiator.”
When pressed further, Trump responded: “Yeah, but so have other people done some really bad things. I could go through a lot of nations where a lot of bad things were done.”
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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