“The president’s lead lawyer for the special counsel investigation, John Dowd, resigned… days after the president called for an end to the inquiry,” the New York Times reports.
Washington Post: “Dowd’s departure was a largely mutual decision made after the president lost confidence in his ability to handle special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and Dowd became frustrated with Trump’s recent efforts to bring on new attorneys.”
Thomas Friedman: “During the campaign he promised to release them after the I.R.S. finished auditing him. Then, after he was elected, Trump said, sorry, not going to release them ever. And nothing happened. Trump, I am reliably told, has actually said to people close to him, ‘Can you believe I got away with that?'”
“Once Trump saw that he could get away with not disclosing his tax returns, he knew he could get away with anything. He knew that once he compromised the G.O.P., even its evangelical wing, into giving him a pass on his taxes, they’d roll over for anything — sex with porn stars, endless lying, trashing the F.B.I., coddling Putin. Once you erase a big red line, it’s hard to start enforcing others.”
“Get me Trump’s tax returns. Because there must be something very important in them that he wants to keep hidden. Maybe it’s just the embarrassment that he is not as rich as he claims, or, maybe, it’s something more fundamental — like how dependent he is on Russian oligarchs for financing, so much so that Putin has leverage on him. Whatever the reason, though, when Trump saw he could get away with hiding them, he knew he could break any rule, tell any lie and violate any presidential norm — and he’s done just that.”
“Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton recorded a video used by the Russian gun rights group The Right to Bear Arms in 2013 to encourage the Russian government to loosen gun laws,” NPR reports.
“The episode, which has not been previously reported, illustrates the common cause that Russian and American gun rights groups were forming in the years leading up to the 2016 election through former National Rifle Association president David Keene. Keene appointed Bolton to the NRA’s international affairs subcommittee in 2011.”
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Gov. John Kasich (R) said that the Republican Party has “never been my master” and that “all of my options are on the table” for 2020, Politico reports.
Asked if he was ruling out running against President Trump as an independent, Kasich told reporters, “All of my options are on the table. But I’m a Republican, I’m a conservative, and I just want to add to the public debate and do a good job.”
A senior GOP Senate aide vents to Jonathan Swan: “Everyone is over the leaks from this White House. Why is it that every emotional moment he has, has to be leaked, has to be a tick-tock, every second has to be transmitted to you guys in the press?”
The aide continued: “It is a disservice to the president when every single thing and every single thought gets leaked out… I don’t understand why people don’t get that. It’s not fair to the president, to his agenda, and to those who work hard every day to move the ball down the field.”
Politico: “What GOP leaders fear most heading into the thick of the midterm elections: incumbents who haven’t seen a real race in years snoozing as a Democratic wave builds. Speaker Paul Ryan and the National Republican Congressional Committee are less concerned about their battle-tested swing-district members — who face tough races every election cycle — and more worried about complacent Republicans not prepared for a fight.”
“It’s one of the reasons Ryan’s political team and NRCC officials have started holding a series of meetings with lawmakers from traditionally reliable GOP districts. Their message: Get ready for a roller coaster and begin your campaign in earnest now.”
GQ pieces together “the whole weird, sleazy weekend” when Donald Trump met Stormy Daniels at a celebrity golf tournament in Tahoe and reportedly began an affair.
“Of course, Trump’s Tahoe trip haunts him in other ways. Another porn star he supposedly met there came forward with allegations in 2016 that Trump kissed her and two friends without permission that weekend. And another woman still—a Playboy model named Karen McDougal—reportedly admitted to a secret tryst with Trump while in Tahoe that weekend. On Tuesday, McDougal, who had signed a secrecy agreement, lodged a lawsuit of her own, suing for the right to share her story of the alleged affair (Trump has denied the relationship).”
“It’s fair to wonder how a single long-forgotten weekend could, all these years later, cause so much trouble. It’s also reasonable to wonder just what the hell was going on in Tahoe across those four misbegotten days.”
“Republican-affiliated campaigns, committees and outside groups have spent more than $3 million at various Trump properties since just after the 2016 election through last month, with roughly $924,000 coming from the Republican National Committee,” according to ABC News.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) is writing a book about the polarization of America, the Lincoln Journal Star reports.
“The book is coming together during the 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. hours that Sasse devotes to reading and writing most days.”
It’s going to be titled Them: Why We Hate Each Other and How to Heal.
President Trump called former Vice President Joe Biden “weak, both mentally and physically,” suggesting he could easily beat up Biden, in response to the former vice president’s comment that he would have sought to fight Trump over his remarks about women if the two were in high school together, Politico reports.
Said Trump: “Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Don’t threaten people Joe!”
Retired four-star Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey tore into White House adviser Jared Kushner during an interview on MSNBC.
Said McCaffrey: “Putting Jared Kushner, a 30-something person with no foreign policy or defense policy experience, as a leading representative of the United States is simply outrageous.”
He also warned that Kushner’s portfolio shows the “personalization of a family business dealing with U.S. policy.”
A new Public Policy Institute of California poll finds Gavin Newsom (D) has surged ahead in the gubernatorial race with 28%, followed by John Cox (R) at 14%, Antonio Villaraigosa (D) at 12%, Travis Allen (R) at 10%, John Chiang (D) at 6% and Delaine Eastin (D) at 5%. A quarter of likely voters are still undecided.
In the U.S. Senate race, Sen. Dianne Feinstein continues to lead Kevin de León (D) by double digits, 42% to 16%, among likely voters, with 39% undecided.
Former CIA Director John Brennan suggested that President Trump is withholding criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin because the Russians might have compromising personal information on Trump, CNN reports.
Said Brennan: “I think he is afraid of the President of Russia.”
Asked why, Brennan said, “The Russians could have something on him personally that they could always roll out and make his life more difficult.”
While not definitively saying yes, Mark Zuckerberg told Recode that he’s “open” to testifying before members of Congress regarding Facebook’s recent privacy scandal involving Cambridge Analytica.
Said Zuckerberg: “We let the community down and I feel really bad and I’m sorry about that.”
“Thousands of Milwaukee voters have been dropped from voter rolls — including some erroneously — through the state’s registration system,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“Some 44,000 voters were removed from city rolls after the state started using a new process in the Electronic Registration Information Center, they said. It’s unclear how many of those were dropped in error.”
“Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI investigated Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year for misleading lawmakers about his contacts with Russians before eventually closing that part of the case,” Bloomberg reports.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has so far discussed with President Trump’s lawyers four main topics they want to talk about with the President, CNN reports.
“According to two sources, the areas that the special counsel investigators have indicated they want to pursue with Trump are the President’s role in crafting a statement abroad Air Force One that miscast Donald Trump Jr.’s campaign June 2016 meeting with Russians in Trump Tower, the circumstances surrounding that Trump Tower meeting as well as the firings of FBI Director James Comey and national security adviser Michael Flynn.”
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) said Wednesday that special counsel Robert Mueller should be fired from his position investigating Russia’s election meddling and the Trump campaign, The Hill reports
Said Gohmert: “I think Mueller should be fired. He should never have been appointed and he should never have accepted. He should be fired.”
However, Gohmert “clarified that he thinks the president should not actually fire Mueller, because Republicans in Congress might impeach him if he did so.”
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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