“I think the Democrats are crazy to not try and deal with him directly. Seven years ago, he was a Democrat. It doesn’t take any brains to realize that he’d be open.”
— Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), quoted by the Washington Post, on negotiating with President Trump.
New York Times: “According to interviews with dozens of storm victims, one of the busiest hurricane seasons in years has overwhelmed federal disaster officials. As a result, the government’s response in the two biggest affected states — Texas and Florida — has been scattershot: effective in dealing with immediate needs, but unreliable and at times inadequate in handling the aftermath, as thousands of people face unusually long delays in getting basic disaster assistance.”
“People who call FEMA’s help line at 1-800-621-FEMA have waited on hold for two, three or four hours before they even speak to a FEMA representative.”
Jason Zengerle: “Christie insists that he and Trump have no problems with each other — that, in fact, they’ve been friends for years — and it’s obviously important to him that people know he views himself and the businessman turned president as peers. … Christie says of Trump: ‘He gets mad at me at times, he yells at me at times, but he respects me.’ Christie adds that he often yells back at Trump, although ‘less now that he’s president.’”
“Indeed, it’s conventional wisdom among political insiders that Christie’s problem isn’t so much with Trump as it is with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, whose father Christie sent to prison when Christie was a federal prosecutor.”
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Boston Globe: “It was a high-profile hearing with a financial bigwig whose firm had wronged millions of consumers, a made-for-You Tube moment, as Senator Elizabeth Warren made him squirm from her perch on the Senate Banking Committee. Then the Massachusetts Democrat made a surprising move. She met with reporters.”
“In what would have been routine for most of her colleagues, she took questions in the hallway outside the hearing room where she’d just been grilling former Equifax CEO Richard Smith. For Warren it was an exceedingly rare event. So rare, in fact, that her office had to announce it was happening by e-mail first. CNBC carried the informal press conference live. Those few minutes in the hallway earlier this month are part of a subtle but noteworthy shift in strategy for the liberal firebrand.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) “has confirmed that he will run for re-election in the Senate as an independent in 2018, despite recent pressure from some Democrats to join the party,” The Hill reports.
Said Sanders: “I am an independent and I have always run in Vermont as an independent, while I caucus with the Democrats in the United States Senate. That’s what I’ve been doing for a long time and that’s what I’ll continue to do.”
“One aspect of the conflict, by the way, that I will never, ever countenance is that we drafted the lowest-income level of America and the highest-income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur. That is wrong. That is wrong. If we’re going to ask every American to serve, every American should serve.”
— Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), on C-SPAN.
“The Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee — engaged in a high-pressure, high-stakes tax policy rewrite — are currently exploring not cutting the income tax rate for people who earn $1 million or more per year,” according to Jonathan Swan.
Playbook: “Multiple Republicans have even suggested to us the tax rate could go from 39.6% to 40% for top earners. It’s tough to separate hyperbole from reality, so take this with a grain of salt. If it happened, it would would strip Democrats of a talking point, and could help with revenue. On the other hand, Republicans would be raising a tax rate. We doubt it will happen, but it does give a sense of where the debate is.”
“Democratic candidates are reporting historic early fundraising totals, alarming GOP strategists and raising the prospect that 2018 could feature the most expansive House battlefield in years,” Politico reports.
“Animated by opposition to President Trump and the Republican congressional majorities, at least 162 Democratic candidates in 82 GOP-held districts have raised over $100,000 so far this year… That’s about four times as many candidates as House Democrats had at this point before the 2016 or 2014 elections, and it’s more than twice as many as Republicans had running at this point eight years ago, on the eve of capturing the House in the 2010 wave election.”
“The Environmental Protection Agency has canceled the speaking appearance of three agency scientists who were scheduled to discuss climate change at a conference on Monday in Rhode Island,” the New York Times reports.
“The move highlights widespread concern that the E.P.A. will silence government scientists from speaking publicly or conducting work on climate change. Scott Pruitt, the agency administrator, has said that he does not believe human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are primarily responsible for the warming of the planet.”
“Tony Podesta and the Podesta Group are now the subjects of a federal investigation being led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller,” NBC News reports.
“The probe of Podesta and his Democratic-leaning lobbying firm grew out of Mueller’s inquiry into the finances of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort… Manafort had organized a public relations campaign for a non-profit called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECMU). Podesta’s company was one of many firms that worked on the campaign, which promoted Ukraine’s image in the West.”
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) is officially running for a second term, Politico reports.
Said Rauner: “We can throw in the towel, walk away and leave our future to the same corrupt career politicians. Or we can fight. I choose to fight.”
“President Trump campaigned as one of the world’s greatest dealmakers, but after nine months of struggling to broker agreements, lawmakers in both parties increasingly consider him an untrustworthy, chronically inconsistent and easily distracted negotiator,” the Washington Post reports.
“As Trump prepares to visit Capitol Hill on Tuesday to unify his party ahead of a high-stakes season of votes on tax cuts and budget measures, some Republicans are openly questioning his negotiating abilities and devising strategies to keep him from changing his mind.”
“The Democratic National Committee gathered here over the past week with one worry on every activist’s mind: We’d better not lose the Virginia governor’s race,” the Washington Post reports.
“It’s a surprising case of the jitters over a place that hasn’t elected a Republican to statewide office in eight years — and that voted resoundingly against Donald Trump last year. But nationally, Democrats haven’t won a marquee race since losing the presidency. They lag Republicans in fundraising. A loss for Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam against Republican Ed Gillespie on Nov. 7 could stir doubts about message and strategy just as the party is gearing up nationally for next year’s all-important midterm elections.”
New York Times: “By the summer of 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had had enough. His own party controlled both houses of Congress, yet the latest elements of his New Deal were stalled. Exasperated by fellow Democrats standing in the way, Roosevelt resolved to push some of them out of office.”
“Nearly 80 years later, President Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, has declared a “season of war” to push out problematic Republicans in midterm elections, just as Roosevelt tried to do to balky Democrats. But Roosevelt’s purge backfired. Not only did he fail to take out his targets, but he also emboldened them, all but dooming his domestic program for much of the rest of his presidency.”
New York Times: “All three committees looking into Russian interference — one in the House, two in the Senate — have run into problems, from insufficient staffing to fights over when the committees should wrap up their investigations. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s inquiry has barely started, delayed in part by negotiations over the scope of the investigation. Leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, while maintaining bipartisan comity, have sought to tamp down expectations about what they might find.”
“Nine months into the Trump administration, any notion that Capitol Hill would provide a comprehensive, authoritative and bipartisan accounting of the extraordinary efforts of a hostile power to disrupt American democracy appears to be dwindling.”
Axios: “Mueller was always going to be the last word. Turns out he may have the only definitive word.”
President Trump “urged House Republicans on a conference call to rally behind a Senate-passed budget bill, touting it as the quickest way to enact sweeping tax cuts later this year without Democratic support,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump: “We are on the verge of doing something very, very historic.”
“Following multiple failed attempts to overhaul the health-care system, Republicans are eager for a marquee legislative victory and see tax reform as their best shot at working with Trump to deliver on a major campaign promise.”
Josh Kraushaar: “House Republicans are growing increasingly alarmed that some of their most vulnerable members aren’t doing the necessary legwork to protect themselves from an emerging Democratic tidal wave. In some of the biggest media markets, where blockbuster fundraising is a prerequisite for political survival—most notably in New York City, Los Angeles, and Houston—Republican lawmakers aren’t raising enough money to run aggressive campaigns against up-and-coming Democrats.”
“Of the 53 House Republicans facing competitive races, according to Cook Political Report ratings, a whopping 21 have been outraised by at least one Democratic opponent in the just-completed fundraising quarter. That’s a stunningly high number this early in the cycle, one that illustrates just how favorable the political environment is for House Democrats.”
The Atlantic reports that three families of fallen service members received next-day UPS letters from President Trump in the past week, as the White House is scrambling to defend the president’s characterization of his communications with grieving military families.
Timothy Eckels Sr. hadn’t heard anything from President Trump since his son Timothy Eckels Jr. was killed after a collision involving the USS John S. McCain on August 21. But then, on October 20, two days into the controversy over the president’s handling of a condolence call with an American soldier’s widow, Eckels Sr. received a United Parcel Service package dated October 18 with a letter from the White House.
“Honestly, I feel the letter is reactionary to the media storm brewing over how these things have been handled,” Eckels told The Atlantic. “I’ve received letters from McCain, Mattis and countless other officials before his. I wasn’t sure if the fact that the accident that caused Timothy’s death has still yet to officially have the cause determined played into the timing of our president’s response.”
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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