“In a break with longstanding tradition, Melania Trump opted to ride with the guests she invited to share her first lady’s box during President Trump’s State of the Union address,” CNN reports.
“The motorcade ride, from the White House south lawn to the Capitol building, is just a handful of minutes, but for a first couple who has not been publicly seen together since New Year’s Eve, the separate cars were another in a string of isolated movements from a very independent first lady.”
“Top Justice Department officials made a last-ditch plea Monday to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly about the dangers of publicly releasing a memo alleging abuses by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the Washington Post reports.
“Shortly before the House Intelligence Committee voted to make the document public, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein warned Kelly that the four-page memo prepared by House Republicans could jeopardize classified information and implored the president to reconsider his support for making it public… Rosenstein was joined in the meeting at the White House by FBI Director Christopher Wray.”
President Trump’s attorneys “are arguing that special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has not met the high threshold they believe is needed to interview a president in person,” CNN reports.
“Trump’s attorneys would like Mueller’s prosecutors to show that only the President can give them the information they require.”
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House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) “refused to answer when a colleague asked him if he had coordinated his incendiary surveillance memo with the White House,” the Daily Beast reports.
“The Trump administration’s top public health official bought shares in a tobacco company one month into her leadership of the agency charged with reducing tobacco use — the leading cause of preventable disease and death and an issue she had long championed,” Politico reports.
“The stock was one of about a dozen new investments that Brenda Fitzgerald, director of the CDC, made after she took over the agency’s top job.”
“Buying shares of tobacco companies raises even more flags than Fitzgerald’s trading in drug and food companies because it stands in such stark contrast to CDC’s mission to persuade smokers to quit and keep children from becoming addicted.”
“The White House’s original choice for U.S. ambassador to South Korea is no longer expected to be nominated after he privately expressed disagreement in late December with the Trump administration’s North Korea policy,” the Washington Post reports.
“Victor D. Cha, an academic who served in the George W. Bush administration, raised his concerns with National Security Council officials over their consideration of a limited strike on the North aimed at sending a message without sparking a wider war — a risky concept known as a ‘bloody nose’ strategy.”
Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R_CO) “is ending his bid for the Republican nomination for Colorado governor on Tuesday because he hasn’t raised the money he believes would be necessary to win an expensive election against a wealthy Democrat willing to spend millions on his campaign,” Colorado Politics reports.
Said Tancredo: “I do not want to win a primary and lose a general, and I fear that was where we were going.”
“The Justice Department’s inspector general has been focused for months on why Andrew McCabe, as the No. 2 official at the FBI, appeared not to act for about three weeks on a request to examine a batch of Hillary Clinton-related emails found in the latter stages of the 2016 election campaign,” the Washington Post reports.
“The inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, has been asking witnesses why FBI leadership seemed unwilling to move forward on the examination of emails found on the laptop of former congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) until late October — about three weeks after first being alerted to the issue.”
“A key question of the internal investigation is whether McCabe or anyone else at the FBI wanted to avoid taking action on the laptop findings until after the Nov. 8 election.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he sees no need to act to protect special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, Bloomberg reports.
Said McConnell: “My understanding is there’s no effort under way to undermine or remove the special counsel. Therefore I don’t see any need to bring up legislation to protect someone who appears to need no protection.”
“McConnell declined to say what Republicans would do if Trump sought to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein or Mueller.”
“Economic growth in the 19 countries that use the euro currency was 2.5% in 2017… Growth in the 28-member European Union also reached 2.5% last year,” CNN reports.
“It’s the best period of growth for both groupings since 2007, putting Europe just ahead of the 2.3% expansion posted by the U.S. in 2017.”
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) announced on Twitter that he has asked the U.S. Capitol Police to check the identification of all State of the Union attendees and arrest any “illegal” immigrants.
Said Gosar: “Of all the places where the Rule of Law needs to be enforced, it should be in the hallowed halls of Congress. Any illegal aliens attempting to go through security, under any pretext of invitation or otherwise, should be arrested and deported.”
During an interview on Fox & Friends — one of President Trump’s favorite television shows — Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) made sure to give a shout out to the Trump Hotel.
Former Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY), who served seven months in prison for tax evasion, blamed his conviction in 2014 on the “same politically corrupt team of players” that he claims is driving the Russia investigation, the New York Daily News reports.
He named former FBI director James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch as part of a “politically corrupt team of players” and blamed them for everything “from sabotaging President Trump with the Russiagate conspiracy theory” to “letting Hillary Clinton off the hook in 2016.”
Former Gov. Chris Christie told ABC News that President Trump should not agree to be interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Said Christie: “In an investigation like this… there’s nothing you can do to make it shorter, there’s lots of things you can do to make it longer.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is encouraging her caucus to behave during President Trump’s State of the Union address tonight, Politico reports.
Said Pelosi: “Let the attention be on his slobbering self. If you want to walk out, don’t come in.”
She added that expectations are so low for Trump, he’s likely to get good reviews: “If his nose isn’t running and he isn’t burping, he did a great speech.”
Speaker Paul Ryan called to “cleanse” the FBI as he openly backed the release of a controversial memo that purportedly details alleged surveillance abuses by the U.S. government, Fox News reports.
Said Ryan: “Let it all out, get it all out there. Cleanse the organization.”
He added: “I think we should disclose all this stuff. It’s the best disinfectant. Accountability, transparency — for the sake of the reputation of our institutions.”
“FBI Director Chris Wray made clear in a message sent to all bureau employees on Monday night that Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s decision to step aside was a result of forthcoming information to be detailed in an Inspector General report,” NBC News reports.
“Wray alluded to having seen aspects of the IG’s report into the way the FBI handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server.”
The Atlantic: “Mueller will not indict Trump for obstruction of justice or for any other crime. Period. Full stop. End of story. Speculations to the contrary are just fantasy.”
“He won’t do it for the good and sufficient reason that the Department of Justice has a long-standing legal opinion that sitting presidents may not be indicted. First issued in 1973 during the Nixon era, the policy was reaffirmed in 2000, during the Clinton era. These rules bind all Department of Justice employees, and Mueller, in the end, is a Department of Justice employee. More to the point, if we know anything about Mueller, we think we know that he follows the rules—all of them. Even the ones that restrict him in ways he would prefer they not. And if he were to choose not to follow the rules, that, in turn, would be a reasonable justification for firing him. So … the special counsel will not indict the president.”
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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