Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) issued a fiery warning to President-elect Donald Trump on the subject of torture, Politico reports.
Said McCain: “I don’t give a damn what the president of the United States wants to do. We will not waterboard. We will not torture people… It doesn’t work.”
Anyone who tries to resume torture, McCain said would find themselves in court “in a New York minute.”
Playbook: “The Koch brothers’ massive network of political organizations sat out this presidential election, instead focusing on the battle for control of the Senate. But, in a twist of luck, the Kochs have ended up with two of their favorites in the Trump administration: Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, who was nominated to be the CIA director, and Vice President-elect Mike Pence.”
“President-elect Donald Trump’s trio of hard-line selections on Friday served notice that he intends not only to reverse eight years of liberal domestic policies but also to overturn decades of bipartisan consensus on the United States’ proper role in world affairs,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump is moving quickly to realize his campaign’s promise of a nation that relentlessly enforces immigration and drug laws; views Muslims with deep suspicion; second-guesses post-World War II alliances; and sends suspected terrorists to Guantánamo Bay or C.I.A. secret prisons to be interrogated with methods that have been banned as torture.”
“President-elect Donald Trump will meet with Chris Christie on Sunday, an indication of how Trump is maintaining ties to the New Jersey governor despite removing him as the head of his transition team,” Politico reports.
“Donald Trump’s stunning victory will force the United States to confront a series of never-before-seen entanglements over the president’s private business, debts and rocky financial history,” the Washington Post reports.
“No laws prohibit Trump from involving himself in his private company, the Trump Organization, while serving in the highest public office.”
“And Trump has so far resisted the long-standing presidential tradition of giving his holdings to an independent manager, stoking worries of conflicts of interests over his businesses’ many financial and foreign ties.”
The Economist: “Aghast at the defection of millions who voted for Barack Obama in 2012 but for Donald Trump in 2016—notably working-class whites in the Midwest—the left wants the Democratic Party to snatch up the banner of economic populism and declare war on Wall Street, big business and other global elites. At post-election gatherings like the Democracy Alliance conference in Washington, DC, it is an article of faith that Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the snowy-haired, finger-jabbing scold who lost the Democratic presidential primary to Hillary Clinton, would have trounced Mr Trump in the general election.”
“Such Democrats are making a mistake. It is as if America’s political classes are bent on copying every part of Britain’s current flirtation with who-needs-experts populism. Not content with holding an election that saw voters sharply divided by education, age, geography and attitudes to social change—as happened with the Brexit referendum—American leftists seem ready to follow Britain’s Labour Party down the path of self-righteous irrelevance.”
Robert Reich: The Democratic party lost its soul
“President-elect Donald Trump is considering several retired military generals as possible picks to be secretary of defense,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, a former war commander who has long voiced concerns about the security threat posed by Iran, is among those being considered. Gen. Mattis is expected to visit with Mr. Trump in New Jersey.”
“Also under consideration is retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, a former commander of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Army Gen. Jack Keane, who has been advising the campaign, also has been in discussions and met with the president-elect on Thursday.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) offered his assessment of Hillary Clinton’s stunning defeat, calling it the “revenge of flyover country,” CNN reports.
Cruz said the election “was an incredible vindication for the American people across this country, and especially those that you know in rural America, in what elites on both coasts consider to be flyover country.”
He added: “I think the Clinton campaign found themselves utterly flabbergasted. They had not even contemplated the possibility that they might not prevail. And that, I think, is the direct result of not listening to and not hearing the American people.”
Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) “has emerged as the clear front-runner to serve as Donald Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services, according to several Republican sources close to the transition team,” Politico reports.
“Price, a physician and an ardent opponent of Obamacare, would lead the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act and potentially help Congress enact a new health plan. His selection would be a strong embrace of the House’s effort to repeal and replace Obamacare.”
Politico: “In the past week, Obama alumni have planned gatherings at Glascott’s Saloon in Chicago (an old campaign haunt) and The Winslow in New York. In Washington, they’re meeting in hotel lobbies, 14th Street bars, nonprofits’ conference rooms and living rooms, plotting the resistance over beer and hummus.”
“One attendee called the meetings ‘Obama Anonymous,’ and while they largely started as impromptu commiseration, they’ve shifted to mobilization. It’s an early sign that Obama can continue to command a formidable movement and potentially launch a serious defense of his legacy as a private citizen.”
Washington Post: “Back when many expected Trump to lose the election, speculation was rife that business would suffer at the hotels, condos and golf courses that bear his name. Now, those venues offer the prospect of something else: a chance to curry favor or access with the next president.”
“Perhaps nowhere is that possibility more obvious than Trump’s newly renovated hotel a few blocks from the White House, on Pennsylvania Avenue. Rooms sold out quickly for the inauguration, many for five-night minimums priced at five times the normal rate, according to the hotel’s manager.”
Politico: “In a phone call last week, the president-elect told Christie that he had become a political liability.”
“Trump and his top aides were most concerned about two issues, according to nearly a dozen people briefed on the process: Christie’s mismanagement of the transition, and the lingering political fallout of the Bridgegate scandal.”
“In their phone call, which was relayed by three sources, Trump expressed his worry about the recent conviction of two of the governor’s former top aides, who had accused him of knowing more about the shutdown of the George Washington Bridge than he let on. Was more damaging information to come, Trump wondered?”
The cast of the smash Broadway hit Hamilton told Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who attended the New York City show, that despite their concerns they hope Donald Trump’s administration will uphold American values, Reuters reports.
Said Brandon Victor Dixon, who played Aaron Burr in the rap musical: “We, sir — we — are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights. We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.”
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) says President-elect Donald Trump has agreed to a $25 million settlement to resolve three lawsuits over Trump University, the AP reports.
“Messages left with Trump’s attorneys weren’t immediately returned. Trump has strongly denied the allegations and said during the campaign that he wouldn’t settle.”
Stephen Bannon told The Hollywood Reporter that conservative Republicans won’t like everything President-elect Donald Trump has planned.
Said Bannon: “Like [Andrew] Jackson’s populism, we’re going to build an entirely new political movement. It’s everything related to jobs. The conservatives are going to go crazy. I’m the guy pushing a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan. With negative interest rates throughout the world, it’s the greatest opportunity to rebuild everything. Ship yards, iron works, get them all jacked up. We’re just going to throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks. It will be as exciting as the 1930s, greater than the Reagan revolution — conservatives, plus populists, in an economic nationalist movement.”
“Darkness is good. Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power. It only helps us when they get it wrong. When they’re blind to who we are and what we’re doing.”
— Trump strategist Stephen Bannon, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
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.