“While Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) has said he will not seek re-election in 2020, he still raked in nearly $630,000 in political contributions last year,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
“Herbert wasn’t just letting money flow in, he actively sought it — including spending at least $158,000 to host his annual fundraising gala, and another $15,500 to stage a fundraising golf event.”
NBC News interviewed political scientist Brendan Nyhan about his new study on the spread of fake news.
Said Nyhan: “The group that visited fake news websites the most frequently was the 10% of Americans with the most conservative information diets. These are people who are visiting a lot of websites that are disproportionately consumed and shared by conservatives relative to liberals. It’s not that fake news is a substitute for political news, it’s being added on to a diet of like-minded political news of a more conventional variety.”
He added: “They’re a subset of Americans who follow politics extremely closely. For all the saturation coverage that politics receives, its still a pretty small part of the news diet for most people.”
Also interesting: “Facebook stands out in our data as the site people visited most disproportionately prior to visiting a fake news website. We don’t observe the same pattern with Google, Twitter, or web mail platforms. Journalists love to talk about Twitter, but it just doesn’t compare in reach to Facebook.”
“Even the stuff that’s not true, it’s true.”
Mike Allen: “Hill sources tell us that a House Democratic takeover is now likely.”
“One strategist close to Republican leaders believes that a loss of the House is ‘baked in,’ and said top Republicans don’t see a way to avoid it.”
“It would take a flip of 24 seats for Dems to take over. The average loss for the president’s party in his first midterm is about 32 seats, and we’re hearing forecasts of 40+ losses.”
President Trump tweeted that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that he terminated last year is “probably dead” because he claims Democrats aren’t negotiating in good faith.
Said Trump: “DACA is probably dead because the Democrats don’t really want it, they just want to talk and take desperately needed money away from our military.”
However, the Wall Street Journal reports the Trump administration said that it would “resume accepting renewal applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, bowing for now to a federal court ruling that blocked an effort to end the Obama-era policy.”
The New York Times reports Mitt Romney sent word to Utah Gary Herbert (R) about the state’s open Senate seat in November’s elections: “I’m running.”
“His yet-to-be-declared candidacy is already highlighting the enduring fractures over President Trump in this heavily Mormon state, where voters have long been uneasy with Mr. Trump’s conduct. At issue is whether Mr. Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, should be an overt check on the president, and even use a Senate platform to mount his own White House comeback, or act as an ally and retain access to Mr. Trump the way Mr. Hatch has done.”
“When the wave comes, it’s always underestimated in the polls. That is the reason that Republicans are ducking for cover.”
— A conservative political strategist, quoted by the Washington Post.
Politico: “The GOP is forced to defend 13 states that former President Obama won — from Maine to New Mexico to Wisconsin — while Democrats are protecting just one — Pennsylvania — that fell to Trump.”
“Republicans now admit that a handful of once-competitive battlegrounds are nearly out of reach for them in 2018. Meanwhile, Democratic hopes are rising in a handful of conservative strongholds.”
The word “shithole” along with a “poop” emoji was projected onto President Trump’s hotel in Washington, D.C. last night.
The White House disputed that President Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that “I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un of North Korea,” with press secretary Sarah Sanders calling it “fake news.”
The Journal then decided to release the relevant portion of the audio and had a third party transcription service also confirm the quote.
“A raft of retirements, difficulty recruiting candidates and President Trump’s continuing pattern of throwing his party off message have prompted new alarm among Republicans that they could be facing a Democratic electoral wave in November,” the Washington Post reports.
“The concern has grown so acute that Trump received what one congressional aide described as a ‘sobering’ slide presentation about the difficult midterm landscape at Camp David last weekend, leading the president to pledge a robust schedule of fundraising and campaign travel in the coming months.”
“But the trends have continued, and perhaps worsened, since that briefing, with two more prominent Republican House members announcing plans to retire from vulnerable seats and a would-be recruit begging off a Senate challenge to Democrat Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota despite pressure from Trump to run.”
Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told a radio show that Trump and Republicans are “in trouble” if Democrats retake the House in the 2018 midterms, The Hill reports.
Said Lewandowski: “Their goal is to first and foremost stop the president’s agenda. And, I think, their secondary goal is to file articles of impeachment against this president, which are completely unfounded.”
“Chelsea Manning (D), the transgender former Army private who was convicted of passing sensitive government documents to Wikileaks, has filed to run for the U.S. Senate in Maryland,” the Washington Post reports.
“Manning, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, would be challenging Democrat Ben Cardin, who has served two terms in the Senate and is up for re-election in November.”
Hawaii officials confirmed “that there was no ballistic missile headed toward the state, minutes after an emergency alert was sent to cellphones urging people to seek immediate shelter,” the New York Times reports.
The Daily Beast was informed that porn star Jessica Drake is not allowed to discuss President Trump on account of a non-disclosure agreement she signed barring her from any such talk.
NDAs are often deployed as part of settlements to silence accusers.
Washington Post: “A decade after the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the United States suddenly finds itself at a place where almost everyone who wants a job can find one.”
“The unemployment rate in December was 4.1 percent, leaving employers struggling to attract and retain good workers and raising the prospect of higher wages as the United States approaches congressional elections in November.”
Related: This Year Looks a Lot Like 2006, Except for One Thing
“Five Republican lawmakers told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that they received calls from the governor since the news of the affair broke Wednesday.”
“The phone calls underscore the lengths to which [Missouri Gov. Eric] Greitens, a Republican, is going to preserve his political career. In the past, Greitens has derided members of the Legislature, at one point comparing them to third-graders and calling them into Jefferson City for two special sessions last summer, which he called ‘summer school.’”
“Now, he is seeking their support as well as trying to shore up support among his donors.”
Politico: “Donald Trump got crushed by Hillary Clinton in Massachusetts. And after his first year in office, polls show the president is now even less popular here.”
“Trump’s rock-bottom ratings should be dragging Republican Gov. Charlie Baker to defeat in 2018. Instead, the opposite is occurring. Baker is not only more popular than any other politician in solidly Democratic Massachusetts, he’s the most popular governor in the nation.”
“His defiance of the laws of political gravity is proving maddening to opponents who once viewed him as a certain one-termer. And it offers a ray of hope to the handful of other Republican governors facing blue-state electorates in November with the prospect of an unpopular president in the background.”
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.