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Where the Real Power Lies In the GOP

January 4, 2018 at 10:19 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jon Favreau: “I wasn’t as surprised about how the Republican Party has behaved toward Trump because, though I badly missed the ultimate prediction of who was going to win in the general election, I believed Trump was going to win the primary.”

“Having watched it from my perch at the White House during the Obama administration, I thought the Republican Party had rotted. The party has a base that is constantly in a frenzy because of the right-wing media. That’s the real center of gravity in that party. It’s not the Republicans in Congress; it’s not even really Donald Trump. So to me, that partisanship is wholly due to the fact that the Republican Party has been rotten to its core for some time now.”

For members: Rupert Murdoch Controls What Trump Thinks

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Are House Hunting

January 4, 2018 at 10:12 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“It seems Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are looking to put down roots in Washington — the couple has recently been touring homes for sale,” the Washington Post reports.

“Javanka, both White House advisers in addition to being the son-in-law and daughter of the president, respectively, rent a six-bedroom home in the swanky Kalorama neighborhood — a spot they settled into last year after leaving Manhattan for Washington following President Trump’s election. The location has its upside: loads of charm, plus it’s close to their synagogue, TheShul of the Nation’s Capital, meaning the couple and their three children have a short walk on Sabbath days, when the observant family eschews transportation.”

“Downsides? The house is very close to two streets, making it highly visible.”

Trump Tries to Halt Publication of Book

January 4, 2018 at 10:04 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump’s lawyer demanded that author Michael Wolff and his publisher immediately “cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination” of a forthcoming book, Fire and Fury, according to a letter obtained by ABC News.

The letter says they are looking into possible defamation of Trump and his family and invasion of privacy. It goes on to accuse the author of “actual malice.”


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Two GOP Lawmakers Call on Sessions to Resign

January 4, 2018 at 10:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) write in the Washington Examiner:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the Russia investigation, but it would appear he has no control at all of the premier law enforcement agency in the world. It is time for Sessions to start managing in a spirit of transparency to bring all of this improper behavior to light and stop further violations. If Sessions can’t address this issue immediately, then we have one final question needing an answer: When is it time for a new attorney general?

Sadly, it seems the answer is now.

Sessions to End Policy That Let Legal Pot Flourish

January 4, 2018 at 9:28 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Attorney General Jeff Sessions “is rescinding the Obama-era policy that had paved the way for legalized marijuana to flourish in states across the country,” the Associated Press reports.

“Sessions will instead let federal prosecutors where pot is legal decide how aggressively to enforce federal marijuana law.”

Trump Aide Said Drafting of Statement Was Obstruction

January 4, 2018 at 9:24 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Axios has more from Michael Wolff’s book:

On the the July 8 preparation aboard Air Force One of the initial (and false) explanation about the Trump Tower meeting with Russians during the campaign, made under Trump’s personal direction: “Ivanka, according to the later recollection of her team, would shortly leave the meeting, take a pill, and go to sleep. Jared, in the telling of his team, might have been there, but he was ‘not taking a pencil to anything.”

“Nearby, in a small conference room watching the movie Fargo, were Dina Powell, Gary Cohn, Stephen Miller, and H. R. McMaster, all of whom would later insist that they were, however physically close to the unfolding crisis, removed from it.”

“Mark Corallo [former spokesman for Trump’s personal legal team] … privately confiding [to Wolff] that he believed the meeting on Air Force One represented a likely obstruction of justice — quit.”

Trump May Boot Katie Walsh from Outside Group

January 4, 2018 at 9:05 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jonathan Swan: “Senior White House officials are debating whether Katie Walsh should be fired from Trump’s main outside group, America First, after comments she reportedly made to the author Michael Wolff.”

“The Wolff reporting on Walsh that infuriated West Wingers: Figuring out what Trump wants is ‘like trying to figure out what a child wants,’ Wolff quotes Walsh as saying. Walsh told me yesterday she never said those things, but Axios’ Mike Allen reported this morning that Wolff has tape recordings of his conversations with Bannon and Walsh.”

Trump’s Actions Suggest He’s Worried About Bannon

January 4, 2018 at 8:55 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

James Hohmann: “The fact that Trump’s lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter last night to Bannon, arguing that he violated the employment agreement he signed with the Trump Organization and likely defamed the president, reflects the palpable concern about what he might say. The lawyers said Bannon must stop communicating either confidential and or disparaging information, as well as preserve all records in preparation for an ‘imminent’ lawsuit. This is a classic Trump tactic, but it can also be read as at least a tacit admission that there is some there there.”

Playbook: “The White House can’t argue simultaneously that the book is completely incorrect and Bannon violated a non-disclosure agreement. If he violated a non-disclosure agreement then something he said was right!”

Obama’s Favorite Books of 2017

January 4, 2018 at 8:35 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

As he did each year when he was president, Barack Obama shared a list of his favorite books of 2017:

  • The Power by Naomi Alderman
  • Grant by Ron Chernow
  • Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
  • Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein
  • Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
  • Five-Carat Soul by James McBride
  • Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
  • Dying: A Memoir by Cory Taylor
  • A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
  • Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
  • Coach Wooden and Me by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
  • Basketball (and Other Things) by Shea Serrano

A Big Decision Awaits Democrats on Spending

January 4, 2018 at 8:33 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The following post for members is by David T.S. Jonas, who most recently served as policy director for Tom Perriello’s (D) campaign for Virginia Governor.

2017 has come and gone, and with control of Congress and the White House, Republicans produced just one major legislative victory: the Trump tax cuts. What started off as an effort to reform our Swiss-cheese brick of a tax code became a complete caricature of itself by the time the bill finally passed. The tax code got more complicated, it became even easier for already-successful companies and wealthy individuals to selectively lower their returns, and most incredibly of all, the entire effort was deficit-financed to the tune of around $2 trillion.

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GOP Strategist Says Midterm Blowout Will Doom Trump

January 4, 2018 at 8:23 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Republican strategist Rick Tyler told MSNBC that Republican will turn on President Trump and impeach him should they lose heavily in the 2018 midterms.

Said Tyler: “When does the Republican Party turn? When they get wiped out. That’s what happens. If they get wiped out in 2018, the Republicans will absolutely turn on Donald Trump.”

He added: “And I think to the point where they will impeach him and they will get 67 percent of the vote in the Senate to impeach him, to do that. But it will require a wipe out.”

Second Excerpt of Book Coming Today

January 4, 2018 at 7:37 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A second excerpt of Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House will be released today, according to CNN.

“The national news coverage of the book’s revelations — including shocking quotes from Steve Bannon — sent the book soaring on Amazon.com. By 3 p.m. ET, it was ranked #1 on the site’s best-selling books list. Twenty-four hours earlier, it had been ranked #48,449.”

Update: It’s up at the Hollywood Reporter.

Trump Shatters Decades-Old Nuclear Taboo

January 4, 2018 at 7:35 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “President Ronald Reagan was warming up for a national radio address on Aug. 11, 1984, when an open microphone caught him joking about nuclear war. ‘My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever,’ Reagan quipped. ‘We begin bombing in five minutes.’ The international outcry that followed — newspapers condemned Reagan, and some Soviet forces were reportedly placed on alert — underscored one of the first rules of the American presidency: Don’t speak lightly about nuclear war.”

“To President Donald Trump’s critics, that is one of many norms he has recklessly shattered, most recently with a tweet on Monday in which Trump declared that his ‘nuclear button’ was ‘much bigger and more powerful’ than the one North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, claimed in a recent speech to have on his desk. Democrats and foreign policy experts fiercely denounced Trump’s rhetoric as alarming and dangerous.”

HuffPost: Can anyone prevent Trump from issuing a nuclear strike? Not really.

Bannon Praises Trump In First Comments Since Book

January 4, 2018 at 7:27 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Stephen Bannon called President Trump “a great man” on his radio show late Wednesday night and said he supported him “day in and day out,” the Washington Post reports.

“It was the most direct reference in the program, otherwise devoted to immigration, to the explosive day that had just passed as a result of the release of some searing book excerpts that quoted Bannon.”

Mercer Pulls Away from Bannon

January 4, 2018 at 7:08 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “Bannon has in recent weeks also alienated his main financial backer, Rebekah Mercer, after he told several other major conservative donors that he would be able to count on the Mercers’ financial support should he run for president, a person familiar with the conversations said.

“The person said Mercer now does not plan to financially support Bannon’s future projects — and that she was frustrated by his moves in Alabama and some of his comments in the news media that seemed to stoke unnecessary fights. A person close to Bannon said he was not running for president. Bannon and Mercer declined to comment through representatives.”

Mike Allen confirms Bannon has told friends he’d run for president in 2020 if Trump does not.

How Michael Wolff Defends His Reporting

January 4, 2018 at 7:02 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

From New York Magazine:

He conducted more than 200 interviews. In true Trumpian fashion, the administration’s lack of experience and disdain for political norms made for a hodgepodge of journalistic challenges. Information would be provided off-the-record or on deep background, then casually put on the record. Sources would fail to set any parameters on the use of a conversation, or would provide accounts in confidence, only to subsequently share their views widely. And the president’s own views, private as well as public, were constantly shared by others. The adaptation presented here offers a front-row view of Trump’s presidency, from his improvised transition to his first months in the Oval Office.

Mike Allen reports Wolff also “has tapes to back up quotes in his incendiary book — dozens of hours of them.”

White House Bans Personal Cell Phones

January 3, 2018 at 11:23 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

White House staffers have been told they can no longer use personal cell phones anymore, according to the New York Times.

Axios: “Leaks were likely a motivating factor, particularly as the announcement comes after today’s chaos over a forthcoming book.”

Trump Lawyers Send Bannon Cease and Desist Letter

January 3, 2018 at 11:09 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Lawyers for President Trump sent a cease-and-desist letter to Trump’s former senior strategist Stephen Bannon, arguing he had violated a non-disclosure agreement in speaking about his time on the campaign and in Trump’s most trusted inner circle,” the Washington Post reports.

ABC News: “During the campaign, then-candidate Trump had all campaign staff sign a non-disclosure agreement which required all staff, according to campaign sources, to refrain from any disparaging comments against the candidate, his family or the Trump campaign and organization.”

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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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