Political Wire

  • Front Page
  • Members
    • Subscribe
    • Sign In
  • Trending
  • Resources
    • Politics Extra
    • Political Job Hunt
    • Political Dictionary
    • Electoral Vote Map
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • Contact Us

Become a member to get many great benefits -- exclusive analysis, trending news, a private podcast, no ads and more!

If you're already a member, log in for the full experience.


Wave of Threats Made to Jewish Centers

February 20, 2017 at 8:33 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In the wake of 11 new threats today against Jewish centers, from New York to New Mexico, the FBI said it is investigating, along with the Department of Justice, bomb threats to the centers across the country,” ABC News reports.

“Federal authorities are looking into threats communicated to at least 60 Jewish centers around the country this year. The threats started in January and the FBI began investigating later that same month. The threats have come in ‘different waves,’ with more threats phoned in to centers today, according to one source familiar with the matter.”

Trump Continues Attack on Sweden, With No Evidence

February 20, 2017 at 7:51 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump “escalated his attack on Sweden’s migration policies on Monday, doubling down on his suggestion — based on a Fox News report — that refugees in the Scandinavian country were behind a surge in crime and terrorism,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Trump set off consternation and ridicule on Saturday when he seemed to falsely imply to a throng of supporters at a rally in Florida that a terrorist attack had occurred in Sweden, which has admitted tens of thousands of refugees in recent years.”

Can Mattis Push Trump Towards the Conventional?

February 20, 2017 at 7:45 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis “appears to be at odds with President Donald Trump on Russia and other key issues, setting up potential discord but also helping to nudge the White House toward more conventional policy stances,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“In recent days, other top administration officials have aired foreign-policy views that don’t align perfectly with the new president… But it is Mr. Mattis who has differed with the president on the most issues. And while that could set up a clash with a White House that has said those who don’t agree with the president should leave, the defense chief seems to have had the most success in prodding Mr. Trump away from some of his positions.”


You're reading the free version of Political Wire

Upgrade to a paid membership to unlock full access. The process is quick and easy. You can even use Apple Pay.

    Upgrade Now

  • ✔ Become a member to get many great benefits -- exclusive analysis, a trending news page, a private podcast, no advertising and more!
  • ✔ If you're already a member, log in for the full experience.



Yiannopoulos Loses Book Deal

February 20, 2017 at 5:24 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Simon & Schuster is canceling the publication of Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos, according to USA Today.

Yiannopoulos received a $250,000 advance for the book.

Yiannopoulos to the Hollywood Reporter in December: “I met with top execs at Simon & Schuster earlier in the year and spent half an hour trying to shock them with lewd jokes and outrageous opinions. I thought they were going to have me escorted from the building — but instead they offered me a wheelbarrow full of money.”

Meanwhile, The Hill reports employees at Breitbart News “are reportedly prepared to leave the company if controversial senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos is not fired.”

McMaster’s Book Surges on Bestseller Lists

February 20, 2017 at 5:20 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Trending on Amazon: Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam by H. R. McMaster, President Trump’s new national security adviser.

White House Admits Trump Played Full Round of Golf

February 20, 2017 at 4:12 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump “played a full round of golf Sunday, enjoying once again a habit he regularly assailed Barack Obama for. After initially saying Trump had only played a few holes, the White House reversed itself Monday after professional golfer Rory McIlroy posted on his website that he had played 18 holes with the president,” Politico reports.

CNN notes how Trump suggested the 2016 presidential campaign that if elected he was “not going to have time to go play golf.”

Trump’s Revised Travel Ban Targets Same 7 Countries

February 20, 2017 at 4:10 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A draft of President Trump’s “revised immigration ban targets the same seven countries listed in his original executive order and exempts travelers who already have a visa to travel to the U.S., even if they haven’t used it yet,” the AP reports.

“A senior administration official said the order, which Trump revised after federal courts held up his original immigration and refugee ban, will target only those same seven Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya.”

“The official said that green-card holders and dual citizens of the U.S. and any of those countries are exempt. The new draft also no longer directs authorities to single out — and reject — Syrian refugees when processing new visa applications.”

Le Pen Gains In French Polls

February 20, 2017 at 4:08 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new OpinionWay poll in France finds that first-round support for anti-euro candidate Marine Le Pen rose one percentage point to 27%, with Emmanuel Macron and Francois Fillon unchanged at 20% each.

“While no surveys so far have shown Le Pen even close to a victory in May’s run-off, she’s quickly narrowing the gap to her rivals. OpinionWay showed Macron would defeat Le Pen by 58 percent to 42 percent in the second round. His advantage has halved in less than two weeks.”

Trump Picks McMaster as National Security Adviser

February 20, 2017 at 3:12 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump picked Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, a widely respected military strategist, as his new national security adviser, calling him “a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience,” the New York Times reports.

The Washington Post reports that retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who has been serving in an acting capacity as national security adviser, will be the chief of staff on the National Security Council.

Thomas Ricks: “Picking McMaster is not a bad thing. I’ve known him since he was major. He’s smart, energetic, and tough… That said, the basic problems remain. To do the job right, McMaster needs to bring in his own people. And it remains unclear if he can get that.”

CPAC Dumps Keynote Speaker Over Pedophilia Comments

February 20, 2017 at 2:03 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Milo Yiannopoulos lost his keynote speaking slot at the Conservative Political Action Conference after tapes surfaced of the right wing provocateur and senior Breitbart editor advocating for sexual relationships between ‘younger boys and older men,'” Politico reports.

Daily Beast: “Reached immediately after the decision, Yiannopoulos had no comment on the cancellation, but just hours before the announcement, Yiannopoulos expressed regret for the comments to The Daily Beast in a statement and an interview, saying the comments were in no way meant to condone predatory behavior toward children.”

Lewandowski Admits No Voter Fraud in New Hampshire

February 20, 2017 at 2:01 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Donald Trump’s first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, conceded to David Axelrod that there was no evidence for the president’s claim that Massachusetts Democrats were brought into New Hampshire by bus on Election Day to steal the state for Hillary Clinton.

Ranking the Presidents

February 20, 2017 at 12:07 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Just in time for Presidents Day, C-SPAN has an updated survey of 91 historians that ranks the presidents from best to worst.

Here are the top 10:

  1. Abraham Lincoln
  2. George Washington
  3. Franklin D. Roosevelt
  4. Theodore Roosevelt
  5. Dwight D. Eisenhower
  6. Harry S Truman
  7. Thomas Jefferson
  8. John F. Kennedy
  9. Ronald Reagan
  10. Lyndon Johnson

Of our most recent presidents, Barack Obama is currently ranked 12th, Bill Clinton is 15th, George H. W. Bush is 20th, Jimmy Carter is 26th and George W. Bush is 33rd.

Not My Presidents Day

February 20, 2017 at 11:41 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to attend demonstrations across the country to rally against President Trump on President’s Day,” The Hill reports.

“Rallies are scheduled to take place in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, among other cities. More than 47,000 people on Facebook have said they would attend a rally in New York City, and tens of thousands of others have said they will attend other rallies nationwide.”

The GOP’s Long-Term Structural Senate Advantage

February 20, 2017 at 11:27 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Stuart Rothenberg: “These days, Republicans have a structural advantage in the fight for the House because of how district lines were drawn earlier in the decade. But the party’s current structural advantage in the Senate may be even more important, since it doesn’t depend on state legislators drawing favorable lines, and the Senate has responsibilities that the House doesn’t.”

“The GOP’s structural Senate advantage is simply a matter of numbers – the number of states that are reliably Republican or Democratic.”

Why Polls Differ on Trump’s Popularity

February 20, 2017 at 10:41 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Nate Silver: “Here’s what we can say for sure: It’s unprecedented for a president to face so much opposition from the electorate so soon. Recent polls show that anywhere between 43 and 56 percent of Americans disapprove of President Trump’s job performance. Even if you take the low end of that range, Trump’s numbers are much worse than any past president a month into his term.”

“But beyond that, there’s a lot of seeming disagreement in the polls about exactly how unpopular Trump is — and even whether his disapproval rating exceeds his approval rating at all.”

“What’s the real story? The differences between the polls aren’t random, or at least they don’t appear to be based on the relatively limited amount of data we have so far. Instead, Trump’s approval ratings are systematically higher in polls of voters — either registered voters or likely voters — than they are in polls of all adults. And they’re systematically higher in polls conducted online or by automated script than they are in polls conducted by live-telephone interviewers.”

Joe Piscopo Mulls Bid for New Jersey Governor

February 20, 2017 at 10:27 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “While the daily whiplash out of Washington commands almost all the political attention, New Jersey is one of two states that will elect a new governor this year, as the eight-year reign of Gov. Chris Christie, once a national darling and now with historically low approval in his home state, comes to an end. And Mr. Piscopo is hoping to parlay his Jersey credentials and rising political profile — he campaigned for President Trump, and his radio show focuses on conservative politics — into a long-shot bid for governor as either a Republican or an independent in a state where Democratic voters vastly outnumber Republicans.”

“For the moment, the seriousness of Mr. Piscopo’s potential run remains shrouded in a statewide listening tour of sorts — meetings with union leaders, industry experts and elected officials, sprinkled with the occasional keynote at Republican county dinners or cable news appearances. If he decides to jump into the Republican primary, he has an April 3 filing deadline.”

The Crazy Driver

February 20, 2017 at 10:21 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Graydon Carter: “Trump fatigue has set in, and set in hard. Even the Republicans, who have ridden this stalking horse into office, holding their noses in the hope that they can manipulate him into furthering their agenda, are now mulling their options.”

“Perhaps we’re all wrong, though. Perhaps the president is playing a game of chess and the rest of us are simply moving checker pieces around. Perhaps he intended his Muslim ban to create such havoc and misfortune that we would be looking the other way as he went about the business of dismantling the assets of proper governance. Perhaps he has just taken the crazy-driver approach to new extremes: when there is an erratic, swerving driver up ahead on the highway, you tend to pull back and give him the road. At a certain point, though, you wait for your moment and pass him, relaxing only when you can see him in your rearview mirror. Or perhaps he’s just trying to figure out which chess piece is which, and he really is a crazy driver.”

Wave of Democrats Run In Virginia

February 20, 2017 at 8:52 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Buoyed by a wave of progressive activism that began after the election of President Trump, Virginia Democrats plan to challenge 45 GOP incumbents in the deep-red House of Delegates this November, including 17 lawmakers whose districts voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton,” the Washington Post reports.

“In some districts, multiple candidates will compete in Democratic primaries for the chance to challenge a Republican incumbent. And at least one Democratic incumbent from Northern Virginia will face a primary challenge, from a local school board member who said Clinton’s defeat helped propel her to run.”

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 6309
  • 6310
  • 6311
  • 6312
  • 6313
  • …
  • 8118
  • Next Page »

Get Smarter About Politics

Members get exclusive analysis, a trending news page, the Trial Balloon podcast, bonus newsletters and no advertising. Learn more.

Subscribe

Your Account

Sign in

Latest for Members

  • It’s Pretty Simple, Stupid
  • Weekly News Quiz
  • Disrupting Politics
  • Why Does Trump Let Kennedy Push a Fringe Agenda?
  • A Rebrand That’s Unlikely to Work

Word of the Day

Straight Ticket: Straight ticket voting allows voters to choose every candidate on a single party’s slate by making just one ballot mark.

Read the full definition

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.

Praise for Political Wire

“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”

— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”

“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”

— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report

“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”

— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report

“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”

— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia

“Political Wire is a great, great site.”

— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”

“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”

— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post

“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”

— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit

“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”

— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.

Copyright © 2025 · Goddard Media LLC | Privacy Policy | Corrections Policy

Political Wire ® is a registered trademark of Goddard Media LLC