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How Democrats Help Trump

December 17, 2016 at 9:33 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

George Lakoff: “Without knowing it, many Democrats, progressives and members of the news media help Donald Trump every day. The way they help him is simple: they spread his message.”

“Think about it: every time Trump issues a mean tweet or utters a shocking statement, millions of people begin to obsess over his words. Reporters make it the top headline. Cable TV panels talk about it for hours. Horrified Democrats and progressives share the stories online, making sure to repeat the nastiest statements in order to refute them. While this response is understandable, it works in favor of Trump.”

“When you repeat Trump, you help Trump. You do this by spreading his message wide and far.”

Cheney Emerges As Surprise Trump Ally

December 17, 2016 at 9:32 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“During the campaign, Donald Trump trashed the hawkish foreign policy of the second Bush White House. But now, he and his team are relying on the man most closely identified with that regime — Dick Cheney — to help ensure that Rex Tillerson is confirmed next year as Trump’s secretary of state,” Politico reports.

“It’s a scenario no one could have possibly foreseen: that one of the key architects of the Iraq War, which Trump slammed on the campaign trail, is now being enlisted as an emissary for a man Trump wants to help steer his ship of state.”

Why Obama Didn’t Retaliate for Russian Hack

December 16, 2016 at 10:36 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Obama administration didn’t respond more forcefully to Russian hacking before the presidential election because they didn’t want to appear to be interfering in the election and they thought that Hillary Clinton was going to win and a potential cyber war with Russia wasn’t worth it,” multiple high-level government officials told NBC News.

Said one official: “They thought she was going to win, so they were willing to kick the can down the road.”

“The administration did take action in response to the hack prior to the election. In September, President Obama privately confronted Vladimir Putin about the hacks at the G-20 summit in China. He warned the Russian President of unspecified consequences if the hacks continued.”


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Trump to Nominate Mulvaney as Budget Director

December 16, 2016 at 10:30 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President-elect Donald Trump is set to nominate Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) as his budget director, “which would place a fiscal conservative who has warned against larger deficits in charge of the White House Office of Management and Budget,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Washington’s Farewell

December 16, 2016 at 6:49 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

In the mail: Washington’s Farewell: The Founding Father’s Warning to Future Generations by John Avlon.

A must-read.

First Press Conference vs. Last

December 16, 2016 at 3:06 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

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FBI Backs CIA Conclusion on Russian Hackers

December 16, 2016 at 2:35 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

FBI Director James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have backed a CIA assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election in part to help Donald Trump win the presidency, the Washington Post reports.

“Comey’s support for the CIA’s conclusion suggests that the leaders of the three agencies are in agreement on Russian intentions, contrary to suggestions by some lawmakers that the FBI disagreed with the CIA.”

Rohrabacher Defends Hacking as ‘Terrific’

December 16, 2016 at 2:33 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) told CNN that it was “terrific” that voters got more truthful information about Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, regardless of whether the hackers were Russian.

Said Rohrabacher: “The hackers, whether or not they’re Russian hackers, I don’t know. I know the CIA and the FBI disagree as to who the hackers are. But whether they’re Russian hackers or any other hackers, the only information that we were getting from hackers was accurate information, was truthful. And that’s not gonna turn the tide. If the American people have been given more truthful information, that’s terrific.”

North Carolina Strips New Governor of Power

December 16, 2016 at 2:04 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

North Carolina legislators wrapped up their work on a pair of controversial bills that would deprive the incoming governor of a substantial part of his power to make appointments, and reshuffle the regulation of lobbyists, ethics complaints and elections, the Raleigh News & Observer reports.

Outgoing Gov. Pat McCrory (R) has already signed one of the bills.

GOP Will Only Promise ‘Access’ to Health Care

December 16, 2016 at 1:59 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

House Republicans, responding to criticism that repealing the Affordable Care Act would leave millions without health insurance, said that their goal in replacing President Obama’s health law was to guarantee “universal access” to health care and coverage, not necessarily to ensure that everyone actually has insurance, the New York Times reports.

Said a top GOP staffer: “Our goal here is to make sure that everybody can buy coverage or find coverage if they choose to.”

Could Bernie Sanders Have Won?

December 16, 2016 at 12:31 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

Kevin Drum put together a nice chart of every Democratic presidential candidate in the postwar era — and included Bernie Sanders. The candidates are ranked from least liberal to most liberal using NOMINATE to gauge how liberal senators were, an academic paper to measure the governors; and some judgment to shift a few candidates around.

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Clinton Says FBI and Putin Led to Her Defeat

December 16, 2016 at 11:37 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Hillary Clinton attributed her defeat to a convergence of two “unprecedented” events: the release of a letter by FBI director James Comey, 10 days before the election, and what she called an “attack against our country” by Russian president Vladimir Putin, the New York Times reports.

“A few days after the election, she did talk about the impact of Mr. Comey’s letter in a conference call with supporters. But speaking in Manhattan on Thursday to a group of her campaign donors, many of whom are still despondent over her defeat, she was particularly pointed about the role of Russia.”

“The Russians, she said, sought to ‘undermine our democracy’ through cyberattacks on Democratic targets. She said the hacking into the Democratic National Committee and into the emails of her campaign chairman, John D. Podesta, were a result of Mr. Putin’s ‘personal beef’ against her, pointing to her accusation that Russia’s 2011 parliamentary elections were rigged.”

Will Obama Keep Playing Nice with Trump?

December 16, 2016 at 10:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rick Klein: “The outgoing president’s traditional pre-holidays news conference fills a press void, since there’s nothing similar from the president-elect, still. It also sets a critical tone for the balance of the transition. The non-aggression pact between Obama and President-elect Donald Trump got called off this week, owing to revelations surrounding the extent of Russian interference with the election. Now, the White House is pressuring Trump to acknowledge Vladimir Putin’s involvement, Hillary Clinton is blaming Putin, Trump is mocking Josh Earnest at rallies, and Trump aides are talking again about Clinton’s email arrangement.”

“Does Obama return to a high-minded tone about the importance of an orderly transition? Does he endorse efforts to get intelligence briefings for members of the Electoral College? Does he effectively declare war on Putin, or Trump, or both?”

Quote of the Day

December 16, 2016 at 9:23 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Do you think the Russians interfered with the outcome of the U.S. election or was it God?”

— Franklin Graham, on Twitter.

Trump Praises African-Americans Who Didn’t Vote

December 16, 2016 at 9:14 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Donald Trump’s barnstorming tour across the states that won him the White House continues to feature far more taunts of triumph than notes of healing after a bruising election,” the Chicago Tribune reports.

“Thursday’s rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, found the president-elect calling for the mostly white crowd to cheer for African-Americans who were ‘smart’ to heed his message and therefore ‘didn’t come out to vote’ for his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.”

Said Trump: “That was the big thing, so thank you to the African-American community.”

Warren and Booker Get Serious About 2020

December 16, 2016 at 8:59 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

Hillary Clinton considered both Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) as potential running mates, but their lack of foreign policy experience was seen as a negative. Both senators are moving to shore up that deficiency with new Senate committee assignments.

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Trump Not Taking Russian Hack Seriously

December 16, 2016 at 8:40 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

First Read: “Out of all of the recent developments in the news about Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential race — the CIA’s conclusion that it was done to help Donald Trump, the NBC report that Vladimir Putin was personally involved — the biggest has been Trump’s reaction.”

“First, he criticized the CIA… Second, Trump questioned — falsely — why it took the Obama administration so long to act on the claims of Russian interference…. And this morning, he’s re-litigating the information that came from the WikiLeaks dumps.”

“Does he think it delegitimizes his win? Does he truly have affinity for Russia and Putin? Does he not accept intelligence that’s contrary to his worldview? This Russia story is big news. But the biggest news of all has been the reaction from the president-elect.”

CNN: Russian hacking activity continues unabated.

What’s Wrong with the FBI?

December 16, 2016 at 8:05 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

John Podesta: “What takes this from baffling to downright infuriating is that at nearly the exact same time that no one at the FBI could be bothered to drive 10 minutes to raise the alarm at DNC headquarters, two agents accompanied by attorneys from the Justice Department were in Denver visiting a tech firm that had helped maintain Clinton’s email server.”

“This trip was part of what FBI Director James B. Comey described as a ‘painstaking’ investigation of Clinton’s emails, ‘requiring thousands of hours of effort’ from dozens of agents who conducted at least 80 interviews and reviewed thousands of pages of documents. Of course, as Comey himself concluded, in the end, there was no case; it was not even a close call.”

“Comparing the FBI’s massive response to the overblown email scandal with the seemingly lackadaisical response to the very real Russian plot to subvert a national election shows that something is deeply broken at the FBI.”

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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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