“No president has ever consulted more widely or talked to more people from more backgrounds to seek input for a Supreme Court nomination.”
— Judge Brett Kavanaugh, quoted by Axios, after being nominated to be a Supreme Court Justice by President Trump.
“The Trump administration on Monday lost a bid to persuade a federal court to allow long-term detention of migrant families, a significant legal setback to the president’s immigration agenda,” the New York Times reports.
“In a ruling that countered nearly every argument posed by the Justice Department, Judge Dolly Gee of the Federal District Court in Los Angeles held that there was no basis to amend a longstanding court decision that forces the government to avoid holding migrant children for longer than 20 days.”
President Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, NBC News reports.
“If confirmed, he would make the Supreme Court solidly conservative, joining Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch — providing a five-vote majority. He would be sure to join the conservatives more often than Kennedy, who sometimes voted with the court’s liberals in cases raising hot-button social issues.”
New York Times: “Judge Kavanaugh’s long history of legal opinions, as well as his role in some of the fiercest partisan battles of the last two decades, will give Democrats plenty of ammunition for tough questions.”
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The 2004 Green Day hit song ‘American Idiot‘ is climbing the music charts in the United Kingdom ahead of President Trump’s visit there later this week, the HuffPost reports.
The song is the No. 1 single on Amazon’s list of best-selling songs in Britain.
“Mitch McConnell and his Republican Caucus are enthusiastic about the prospect of filling a Supreme Court vacancy before the midterm elections. But they don’t deny the enormity of the task at hand,” Politico reports.
“McConnell is overseeing the slimmest Senate majority in modern times to handle a Supreme Court confirmation, and he has no margin for error in what’s effectively a 50-49 majority with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) still out with brain cancer. The Kentucky Republican is simultaneously engaged in a brutal fight for control of the Senate that will be animated by the Supreme Court battle inside the chamber.”
Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), who is running for the Senate in North Dakota, said that he advised President Trump not to be pressured into making his Supreme Court nomination “some sort of affirmative action pick,” CNN reports.
“In their Moscow meetings with members of Russia’s parliament last week, an all-Republican delegation of U.S. members of Congress met with at least two individuals currently sanctioned by the United States,” BuzzFeed News reports.
“U.S. law does not prohibit US officials from meeting with individuals who’ve been sanctioned, although it does prohibit providing services to them, and it is perhaps unsurprising that a congressional delegation meeting with high-level Russians would include meetings with sanctioned individuals — the point of the sanctions put in place last April was to target those perceived to be close to the Kremlin.”
“As Washington searched for clues to Mr. Trump’s selection for the Supreme Court, one of his top candidates, Judge Kavanaugh, was spotted leaving his office on Monday afternoon in a black sedan followed by a series of black sports utility vehicles containing security personnel,” the New York Times reports.
“The entourage accompanying Judge Kavanaugh, who sits on the United States Circuit Court for the District of Columbia, was unusual and attracted the attention of people working at the courthouse in Washington, according to a person informed about the activity who asked not to be identified. It was not immediately clear where Judge Kavanaugh was being taken.”
“If the lead-up to President Trump’s Supreme Court nomination announcement feels like reality-TV drama, it’s because that’s exactly how it was designed,” the Daily Beast reports.
“But instead of a one-year contract as Trump’s errand boy, the ‘winner’ on Monday night will likely nab a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land and a chance to reshape American law and jurisprudence for generations.”
The formal announcement is expected at 9 p.m. ET.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), back from a trip to Moscow, said that Congress “went too far in punishing Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” Roll Call reports.
Said Johnson: “I’ve been pretty upfront that the election interference — as serious as that was, and unacceptable — is not the greatest threat to our democracy. We’ve blown it way out of proportion.”
“President Trump’s transformation of the Republican Party is taking full root — with the president in recent days shunning traditional alliances and values that have long been core tenets of the GOP,” the Washington Post reports.
“The hardening of Trump’s positions on key parts of his ‘America First’ agenda comes just four months before November’s midterm elections. That is increasing the pressure on congressional Republicans to either embrace the most controversial tenets of his presidency or attempt to distance themselves from them in hopes of attracting the independent voters they are likely to need to retain control of Congress.”
David Frum: “Two British cabinet ministers have resigned within the past 24 hours, an upheaval not seen since at least 1982.”
“Both resigned for the same reason: to protest Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to preserve some of the benefits of EU membership for Britain in a post-Brexit world. That plan is not a very realistic or workable plan. But that’s not why the two ministers have resigned. They have resigned in protest that the plan is not fantastical enough, that it does not rely enough on fairy dust and magic wishes. Ominously, something like half the British Conservative party agrees with the departing ministers.”
“As he heads into this week’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit meeting, President Trump is widely seen as a wild card among allies who are seeking to show solidarity against Russian threats, fixated instead on his spending grievances and primed for a bitter confrontation that could further isolate the United States,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump’s increasingly strident complaints about NATO and apparent willingness to give the benefit of the doubt to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia have worried America’s staunchest allies — and some within his own administration — and threaten to transform the gathering in Brussels into a showcase for dysfunction rather than unity.”
President Trump “has settled on a nominee for Supreme Court hours before a scheduled announcement, as some advocates prepared for the rollout of Judge Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Allies of Judge Hardiman said they had been told to be ready to start touting the one-time taxi driver’s blue-collar roots, in hopes this would resonate with Mr. Trump’s supporters, according to a person familiar with the matter. They also said they’d been told the judge was in Washington, D.C., for a conference.”
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) announced that his campaign has raised more than $10.7 million in three months — three times what incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) received, Roll Call reports.
“Scott himself has not contributed any money to the campaign… even though he reported a net worth of $149 million last year. Scott has a track record of donating to his own campaigns: $75 million in his 2010 bid for governor and $12.8 million in his 2014 reelection campaign.”
“In the 10 days after long shot Democratic candidate and veteran MJ Hegar published her widely-praised viral video, her campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. John Carter (R-TX) raised $750,000,” the Texas Tribune reports.
“It’s only the latest large fundraising figure reported by a Democratic U.S. House candidate from Texas, but it might well be one of the most jaw-dropping in the country.”
“They come after me because I’m effective. I’ve made some very powerful, rich enemies.”
— House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in an interview with Rolling Stone.
The Wall Street Journal says Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s chances of being President Trump’s choice for Supreme Court are “fading.”
“Mr. Trump has also voiced reservations about another candidate, federal Judge Raymond Kethledge, believing he didn’t show the sort of energy the president likes to see in his appointees.”
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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