“If the lead-up to President Trump’s Supreme Court nomination announcement feels like reality-TV drama, it’s because that’s exactly how it was designed,” the Daily Beast reports.
“But instead of a one-year contract as Trump’s errand boy, the ‘winner’ on Monday night will likely nab a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land and a chance to reshape American law and jurisprudence for generations.”
The formal announcement is expected at 9 p.m. ET.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), back from a trip to Moscow, said that Congress “went too far in punishing Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” Roll Call reports.
Said Johnson: “I’ve been pretty upfront that the election interference — as serious as that was, and unacceptable — is not the greatest threat to our democracy. We’ve blown it way out of proportion.”
“President Trump’s transformation of the Republican Party is taking full root — with the president in recent days shunning traditional alliances and values that have long been core tenets of the GOP,” the Washington Post reports.
“The hardening of Trump’s positions on key parts of his ‘America First’ agenda comes just four months before November’s midterm elections. That is increasing the pressure on congressional Republicans to either embrace the most controversial tenets of his presidency or attempt to distance themselves from them in hopes of attracting the independent voters they are likely to need to retain control of Congress.”
David Frum: “Two British cabinet ministers have resigned within the past 24 hours, an upheaval not seen since at least 1982.”
“Both resigned for the same reason: to protest Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to preserve some of the benefits of EU membership for Britain in a post-Brexit world. That plan is not a very realistic or workable plan. But that’s not why the two ministers have resigned. They have resigned in protest that the plan is not fantastical enough, that it does not rely enough on fairy dust and magic wishes. Ominously, something like half the British Conservative party agrees with the departing ministers.”
“As he heads into this week’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit meeting, President Trump is widely seen as a wild card among allies who are seeking to show solidarity against Russian threats, fixated instead on his spending grievances and primed for a bitter confrontation that could further isolate the United States,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump’s increasingly strident complaints about NATO and apparent willingness to give the benefit of the doubt to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia have worried America’s staunchest allies — and some within his own administration — and threaten to transform the gathering in Brussels into a showcase for dysfunction rather than unity.”
President Trump “has settled on a nominee for Supreme Court hours before a scheduled announcement, as some advocates prepared for the rollout of Judge Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Allies of Judge Hardiman said they had been told to be ready to start touting the one-time taxi driver’s blue-collar roots, in hopes this would resonate with Mr. Trump’s supporters, according to a person familiar with the matter. They also said they’d been told the judge was in Washington, D.C., for a conference.”
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) announced that his campaign has raised more than $10.7 million in three months — three times what incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) received, Roll Call reports.
“Scott himself has not contributed any money to the campaign… even though he reported a net worth of $149 million last year. Scott has a track record of donating to his own campaigns: $75 million in his 2010 bid for governor and $12.8 million in his 2014 reelection campaign.”
“In the 10 days after long shot Democratic candidate and veteran MJ Hegar published her widely-praised viral video, her campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. John Carter (R-TX) raised $750,000,” the Texas Tribune reports.
“It’s only the latest large fundraising figure reported by a Democratic U.S. House candidate from Texas, but it might well be one of the most jaw-dropping in the country.”
“They come after me because I’m effective. I’ve made some very powerful, rich enemies.”
— House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in an interview with Rolling Stone.
The Wall Street Journal says Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s chances of being President Trump’s choice for Supreme Court are “fading.”
“Mr. Trump has also voiced reservations about another candidate, federal Judge Raymond Kethledge, believing he didn’t show the sort of energy the president likes to see in his appointees.”
NBC News: “Heading into the summer with a major cash advantage over the Democrats, the RNC says its efforts to contact voters ahead of the November midterms are on pace to match, and in some categories have already surpassed, the 2016 presidential election. The RNC told NBC News it has already made 20 million traditional voter contacts by phone or door knocking this election cycle, a large number for a non-presidential election year.”
“That’s just part of the total 487 million contacts it says it has already made this cycle, including emails opened (250 million), calls made for data gathering purposes (183 million), digital petitions or surveys completed (19 million), direct mail sent (9.6 million), and get-out-the-vote calls made (5.6 million).”
“Donald Trump’s personal driver for more than 25 years says the billionaire real estate developer didn’t pay him overtime and raised his salary twice in 15 years, clawing back the second raise by cutting off his health benefits,” Bloomberg reports.
“Some members of President Trump’s exclusive Florida clubs appear to have been invited to an Air Force One tour last year, according to an invitation obtained by BuzzFeed News which was cross-checked with records received through a Freedom of Information Act request.”
“Members would not confirm or deny that they actually attended, but the invitations would raise more questions about the blurry line between Trump’s administration and his family’s private businesses. Although past administrations have given Air Force One tours to friends, family, and even donors, in this case those attending would have paid Trump’s exclusive clubs thousands of dollars annually.”
“Signaling he has not yet settled on his pick for the Supreme Court, President Trump on Monday morning worked the phones primarily seeking input about two judges who are apparently the finalists, Brett Kavanaugh and Thomas Hardiman,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump appeared to be going back and forth between Judge Kavanaugh, the favorite of the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, and Judge Hardiman, whom the president’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, a former colleague of Judge Hardiman’s, has pressed him to choose.”
For members: Two Paths for Trump on the Supreme Court
From the Washington Post:
One night, after Miller ordered $80 of takeout sushi from a restaurant near his apartment, a bartender followed him into the street and shouted, “Stephen!” When Miller turned around, the bartender raised both middle fingers and cursed at him, according to an account Miller has shared with White House colleagues.
Outraged, Miller threw the sushi away, he later told his colleagues.
Jonathan Chait: “This account — which, again, comes from Miller himself — shows a high-level presidential adviser responding to a completely nonviolent and nonthreatening gesture by throwing away his own food. The story does not explain why throwing away his own sushi in any way advanced his cause.”
“Until this month, President Trump had not made more than 60 false claims in any single week of his presidency. He has now made 100 false claims in each of the last two weeks,” the Toronto Star reports.
“After shattering his old record by uttering an astonishing 103 false claims two weeks ago, an average of 14.7 per cent, Trump delivered precisely 100 false claims last week, an average of 14.3 per day.”
“Boris Johnson resigned as Britain’s foreign secretary on Monday, becoming the second cabinet minister to quit in less than 24 hours in protest over plans from Prime Minister Theresa May to soften the economic impact of British withdrawal from the European Union,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Johnson’s departure followed that of David Davis, who quit as Brexit secretary late Sunday, and deepens the mood of crisis gripping Mrs. May’s government three days after she thought she had won agreement from her cabinet on a Brexit plan.”
The BBC says Johnson’s exit had turned an “embarrassing and difficult situation for the PM into potentially a full-blown crisis.”
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.