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Impeachment Push Could Backfire on Democrats

May 21, 2018 at 7:21 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jeffrey Toobin: “According to Quinnipiac, seventy-one per cent of Democrats already favor impeachment. To proponents, a nearly fifty-fifty split among the voting public at this early date, before Mueller has reported his findings, is significant. In primaries for the 2018 elections, some prominent Democrats, such as Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor of California, who is running for governor, made support for impeachment a major part of their platforms. Tom Steyer, a San Francisco billionaire, has since last year been running television advertisements supporting impeachment, and has generated a mailing list of more than 5.2 million people. Steyer is now on a thirty-city speaking tour.”

“For the moment, he and his followers are outcasts from the Washington consensus. But their passion, and the mounting evidence against the President, raises the question of whether the drive for impeachment is more likely to result in Trump’s removal from office or in a Democratic civil war.”

Top Republicans Consider Pushing Ryan Out

May 21, 2018 at 7:15 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Top Republicans in Congress and the White House have in recent days entertained a plan to push House Speaker Paul Ryan out of his post over the summer, in an effort to clear the way for his presumed successor, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, to assume the speakership,” the Weekly Standard reports.

“A source involved in the conversations and who has discussed the idea with President Trump told The Weekly Standard that Trump believes there is merit to the plan, but has not formed a final position. McCarthy has been weighing the effort alongside a small group of trusted advisers, considering the pros and cons of forcing Ryan’s hand, and debating the best time to launch the effort. As of last week he had not spoken to Ryan about the idea.”

Bernie’s Army In Disarray

May 21, 2018 at 7:13 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Bernie Sanders’ top operatives formed ‘Our Revolution’ after he lost the 2016 primaries to keep his army organized and motivated — and potentially prepare for another presidential run in 2020,” Politico reports.

“But an extensive review of the Sanders-inspired group depicts an organization in disarray — operating primarily as a promotional vehicle for its leader and sometimes even snubbing candidates aligned with Sanders. Our Revolution has shown no ability to tip a major Democratic election in its favor — despite possessing Sanders’ email list, the envy of the Democratic Party — and can claim no major wins in 2018 as its own.”


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Trump Invites Hundreds of Local Officials to White House

May 21, 2018 at 7:08 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump “is amassing an army of political insiders for 2020 — all without leaving the White House. The Trump administration has hosted 14 ‘state days’ over the past few months, inviting county commissioners of both parties to come through for tours and meet senior administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence,” Politico reports.

“While the daylong events are formally billed as a way to establish a relationship between behemoth federal agencies and their local counterparts, they also are designed to engender new loyalty to a president some Republicans refused to support in 2016 as he begins to look ahead to his reelection campaign.”

Can Paul Ryan Quell a Rebellion In the House?

May 21, 2018 at 7:04 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Playbook: “The discharge petition to force a series of immigration votes on the House floor is 22 lawmakers short of 218 — a huge number of Democrats signed in the last few days. Speaker Paul Ryan is hoping that he can keep Republicans from signing onto the petition, instead opting for a tightly controlled series of Republican-leaning votes in June.”

“If Republicans sign on this week — the last week before a weeklong Memorial Day recess — Ryan’s plan could be foiled, which would be seen internally as another blow to the speaker. If the discharge petition reaches 218, Ryan would need those Republicans to essentially abandon the petition by voting to turn it off in order to proceed to his vote plan. The leadership feels like it’s stopped the rush to sign the petition by convincing lawmakers the controlled series of votes is a better option. We’ll see if that holds this week.”

Trump Grappling With Risks of North Korea Meeting

May 20, 2018 at 10:17 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump, increasingly concerned that his summit meeting in Singapore next month with North Korea’s leader could turn into a political embarrassment, has begun pressing his aides and allies about whether he should take the risk of proceeding with a historic meeting that he had leapt into accepting,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Trump was both surprised and angered by a statement issued on Wednesday by the North’s chief nuclear negotiator, who declared that the country would never trade away its nuclear weapons capability in exchange for economic aid.”

“Mr. Trump’s aides have grown concerned that the president has signaled that he wants the summit meeting too much… The aides are also concerned about what kind of grasp Mr. Trump has on the details of the North Korea program, and what he must insist upon as the key components of denuclearization.”

RNC Apparently Paying Legal Bills for Hope Hicks

May 20, 2018 at 10:02 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The RNC paid nearly half a million dollars to a law firm that represents former White House communications director Hope Hicks and others in the Russia investigations,” the Washington Post reports.

“Last year, the RNC began tapping a pool of money stockpiled for election recounts and other legal matters to pay the ballooning legal fees of Trump and his associates drawn into the Russia investigations.”

Rosenstein Tries to Buy Time In Face of Trump Demands

May 20, 2018 at 8:06 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

In response to President Trump demanding an investigation into whether the FBI “infiltrated” his presidential campaign, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein “asked its internal watchdog, the Office of the Inspector General, to expand its current inquiry into the surveillance of a former Trump campaign official to include the questions raised by the president,” the New York Times reports.

Said Rosenstein: “If anyone did infiltrate or surveil participants in a presidential campaign for inappropriate purposes, we need to know about it and take appropriate action.”

“By handing the question to the inspector general, Mr. Rosenstein appeared to be trying to thread the needle, giving the president what he said he wanted without fully bowing to his demands. But it was not clear whether that would satisfy Mr. Trump, who in February complained that it was ‘disgraceful’ for the Justice Department to hand over the surveillance investigation to an inspector general who lacks prosecutorial power, saying it would ‘take forever’ and suggesting that he was ‘an Obama guy.'”

Paul Ryan’s House Is Collapsing

May 20, 2018 at 7:59 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jonathan Swan: “Paul Ryan’s House is collapsing, and if the chaos keeps accelerating it could force him out of the speakership before his planned graceful exit at the end of the year.”

“A group of about 20 moderate Republicans are threatening to help Democrats force a vote on a DACA bill. If this works, it could trigger a larger rebellion — likely driven by the Freedom Caucus — similar to the revolt that brought down Ryan’s predecessor John Boehner.”

“On Friday, House Republicans failed to pass the farm bill — one of Congress’s few remaining must-pass projects. Ryan, a lame duck Speaker, has little power over his members. He can’t convincingly threaten them. And nor can he cajole them or make any promises to help members in the future. He’s stuck.”

“The Republican House is careening into chaos at the moment its members most need to rally together. We’re less than six months away from the midterms, and the House is on the line. Hill Republicans are anxious and effectively leaderless. Nobody fears repercussions from a lame duck Speaker. So even the usually well-behaved moderate members are wreaking havoc.”

Trump May Force a Major Crisis This Week

May 20, 2018 at 4:38 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

President Trump’s demand that the Justice Department explore whether it or the FBI “infiltrated or surveilled” the Trump campaign could force a crisis for the department. It would be a corrupt attempt to directly interfere with an investigation into his campaign.

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Giuliani Says Mueller Plans to Wrap Up Obstruction Probe

May 20, 2018 at 4:19 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rudy Giuliani told the New York Times that special counsel Robert Mueller plans to finish by September 1 its investigation into whether President Trump obstructed the Russia inquiry, the New York Times reports.

He said that “waiting any longer would risk improperly influencing voters in the midterm elections in November.”

“Mr. Giuliani’s comments were an apparent attempt to publicly pressure Mr. Mueller amid their interview negotiations. He urged that the investigation be wrapped up as soon as possible, pointing as a cautionary tale to the revelation by the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey in the last days of the 2016 presidential race that he was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Mr. Comey’s announcement is widely blamed by Democrats for costing her the election. The F.B.I. found no wrongdoing.”

Trump Says He’ll Demand Justice Department Probe

May 20, 2018 at 2:13 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump said that he would “demand” the Justice Department explore whether it or the FBI “infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes” — perhaps signaling the start of a showdown between the nation’s chief executive and its federal law enforcement apparatus, the Washington Post reports.

His comment followed a six-part morning tweetstorm in which he lashed out at “the World’s most expensive Witch Hunt.”

Trump Says Mueller Wants to Hurt GOP In Midterms

May 20, 2018 at 2:11 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump “raged anew on Sunday about the special counsel investigation, charging that it had turned up no evidence of collusion with Russia and was now casting a worldwide net so that it could stay active until the midterm elections and harm Republicans’ chances,” the New York Times reports.

Said Trump: “Republicans and real Americans should start getting tough on this Scam.”

Mnuchin Says Trade War Is ‘On Hold’

May 20, 2018 at 12:27 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the United States and China are stepping back from a possible trade war after two days of talks that produced “meaningful progress,” the Washington Post reports.

“Despite not getting China to agree to trim its overall trade surplus with America by a specific amount, Mnuchin said the U.S. team did get a number of commitments on a framework for reducing the deficit over time, including big increases in purchases of farm products and a doubling of purchases of U.S. energy products.”

Said Mnuchin: “We are putting the trade war on hold.”

Did the Blue Wave Crest Too Soon?

May 20, 2018 at 12:05 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “Some Republicans see something unusual in today’s numbers. Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster, is one of them. ‘There’s a lot of stuff going on that we just haven’t seen before,’ he said. Newhouse sent along a chart that compares four previous wave elections: 1994, 2006, 2010 and 2014. In all cases, the percentage of people who, at the time of the election, said the country was heading in the right direction was just below 30. By his measure, it’s currently 39 percent.”

Said Newhouse: “Can you have a wave election if ‘right direction’ is 38 or 40 percent? Is that possible?”

Quote of the Day

May 20, 2018 at 10:36 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I don’t think the president regarded him as a political genius or was open to his desires in that area. And he had a tendency to discount any political advice that Michael would give him.”

— Roger Stone, on Meet the Press, about President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Giuliani Sets New Conditions for Mueller Interview

May 20, 2018 at 10:18 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rudy Giuliani told the Wall Street Journal that President Trump “shouldn’t agree to talk with special counsel Robert Mueller without knowing more about a man said to have approached Trump campaign aides in 2016 as part of the U.S. investigation into Russian election interference.”

Giuliani said Trump could be “walking into a trap” unless federal prosecutors make clear the role played by the suspected informant and whether the person compiled any “incriminating information” about the president’s associates.

A Remarkable Moment I’m Sorry I Missed

May 20, 2018 at 9:49 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

For weeks, I’d mocked the royal wedding an unnecessary distraction in a world dealing with enormous problems. I didn’t watch and promised I wouldn’t mention it on Political Wire.

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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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