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Koch-Backed Groups Will Pressure GOP on Health Repeal

March 5, 2017 at 1:10 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Saying their patience is at an end, conservative activist groups backed by the billionaire Koch brothers and other powerful interests on the right are mobilizing to pressure Republicans to fulfill their promise to swiftly repeal the Affordable Care Act,” the New York Times reports.

“Their message is blunt and unforgiving, with the goal of reawakening some of the most extensive conservative grass-roots networks in the country. It is a reminder that even as Republicans control both the White House and Congress for the first time in a decade, the party’s activist wing remains restless and will not go along passively for the sake of party unity.”

“With angry constituents storming town hall-style meetings across the country and demanding that Congress not repeal the law, these new campaigns are a sign of a growing concern on the right that lawmakers might buckle to the pressure.”

Quote of the Day

March 5, 2017 at 12:52 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“You make up something and then you have the press write about it, and then you say, ‘everybody’s writing about this charge.’ It’s a tool of an authoritarian, to just have you always be talking about what you want to be talking about.”

— House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in an interview on CNN, on President Trump’s suggesting he was wiretapped during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Rubio Says We’ll Know About Trump’s Claims Soon

March 5, 2017 at 12:44 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told CNN that whether or not President Trump’s unsubstantiated assertions that President Barack Obama wiretapped his phones at Trump Tower during the presidential election are true will become clear “very quickly.”

Said Rubio: “I imagine we’re going to learn more about it here over the next few days, one way or the other.”

He added: “I’m not sure what it is he is talking about. Perhaps the President has information that is not yet available to us or to the public. And if it’s true, obviously we’re going to find out very quickly. And if it isn’t, then obviously he’ll have to explain what he meant by it.”

Politico: Lawmakers “stunned, baffled” by Trump’s wiretap accusations.


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Baby Boomers Won’t Be Largest Voting Bloc in 2020

March 5, 2017 at 10:49 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

Ron Brownstein points out that the brightest spot for Democrats in an otherwise bleak electoral landscape may be President Trump’s continued weakness “with members of the Millennial generation—who are poised to surpass the more Republican-leaning baby boomers in 2020 as the largest generation of eligible voters.”

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What People Are Reading

March 5, 2017 at 10:04 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

On the Washington Post fiction bestseller list:

3. 1984 by George Orwell: “A novel of the perils of a totalitarian police state.”

5. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood: “A dystopian novel set in a theocratic-totalitarian state.”

7. It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis: “A populist president becomes a dictator.”

White House Says Trump Won’t Comment on Allegations

March 5, 2017 at 9:43 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

White House press secretary Sean Spicer released the following statement on President Trump’s accusation that former President Obama ordered wiretaps against the Trump campaign:

Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling.

President Donald J. Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016. Neither the White House nor the President will comment further until such oversight is conducted.

It’s Literally Pay to Play at Mar-a-Lago

March 5, 2017 at 9:26 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Examiner: “If you pay $200,000 a year to the company Donald Trump owns, you too can have access most weekends to the president and his top officials. As an alternative, your organization could cut a $150,000 check to bring in a couple of hundred people who will have a chance to schmooze with the president and cabinet officials. Foreign moguls and dignitaries welcome.”

“This isn’t Bill Clinton’s Lincoln Bedroom. This isn’t the Clinton Foundation during Hillary’s reign at the State Department. This is Mar-a-Lago.”

Palm Beach Post: Trump mingles with Mar-a-Lago guests outside charity ball.

A Blockbuster In Search of a Hero

March 5, 2017 at 9:24 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “The truth is that most every Republican is thoroughly gun-shy about going against Trump.”

Trump’s Russia Controversy Isn’t Going Away

March 4, 2017 at 10:31 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Dan Balz: “Russia has become the slow burn of President Trump’s administration. It is the issue that he and his team cannot get beyond. They cannot get beyond it because they are skittish about accepting what is already known. They cannot get beyond it because they have not been as forthcoming as they could be about what they did. They cannot get beyond it because they don’t know what they don’t know.”

“It’s important to remember that much isn’t yet known about the whole controversy, particularly the contacts between Trump campaign officials or advisers and the Russians. That there were contacts is not in dispute. Some appear routine, but the circumstances and the content of all those contacts is far from fully known. It’s possible they will add up to little or nothing. It’s also possible they will add up to something significant.”

Trump Inherits Secret Cyber War Against North Korea

March 4, 2017 at 9:31 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“An examination of the Pentagon’s disruption effort, based on interviews with officials of the Obama and Trump administrations as well as a review of extensive but obscure public records, found that the United States still does not have the ability to effectively counter the North Korean nuclear and missile programs. Those threats are far more resilient than many experts thought, the New York Times’s reporting found, and pose such a danger that Mr. Obama, as he left office, warned President Trump they were likely to be the most urgent problem he would confront.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

March 4, 2017 at 4:11 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“We are in the midst of a civilization-warping crisis of public trust, and the President’s allegations today demand the thorough and dispassionate attention of serious patriots.”

— Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), in a statement.

Trump Will Unveil New Travel Ban on Monday

March 4, 2017 at 3:58 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump “is expected to sign on Monday a new executive order on his controversial travel ban at the Department of Homeland Security,” Politico reports.

“It is unclear how significant the changes to the current order will be or whether the White House will continue a court fight over its old order.”

This is odd: “Employees at DHS were instructed to work from home on Monday morning.”

Trump Went ‘Ballistic’ at White House Staff

March 4, 2017 at 2:54 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Before heading off to his so-called “winter White House” in Palm Beach, President Trump summoned some of his senior staff to the Oval Office and went “ballistic,” senior White House sources told ABC News.

“The president erupted with anger over the latest slew of news reports connecting Russia with the new administration — specifically the abrupt decision by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign.”

Politico: “The meeting on Friday got heated once it turned to the topic of Sessions. What, Trump wanted to know, was the logic of the move? The president made it clear he thought the whole thing had been handled poorly, and that Sessions shouldn’t have recused himself, according to sources familiar with the meeting. His exasperation was apparent.”

How Trump May Be Skirting His Own Ethics Rules

March 4, 2017 at 2:23 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

ProPublica: “In a little-noticed action, Trump killed the Obama-era requirement that the Office of Government Ethics publish an annual report disclosing such waivers. Trump’s order also removed the requirement to provide a public interest justification for waivers.”

“That means Trump can exempt an official from the lobbying limits at any time, for any reason, with no public disclosure.”

Democrats Try New Tactic to Get Trump’s Tax Returns

March 4, 2017 at 2:11 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“State legislators across the country are debating new measures that would require candidates running for president to publicly disclose their tax returns to qualify for the ballot,” The Hill reports.

“Democrats, incensed by Trump’s false claims of being prevented from releasing the documents because of an IRS audit, see the legislation on the state level as a way to force the president’s hand when he seeks reelection in 2020.”

Spokesman Says Obama Never Ordered Wiretaps of Trump

March 4, 2017 at 2:07 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A spokesman for former President Obama released a statement on President Trump’s assertion that Obama ordered wiretaps of the Trump campaign:

“A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice. As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”

Of course, the statement doesn’t deny that Trump’s phones were tapped only that the Obama White House didn’t order them.

Quote of the Day

March 4, 2017 at 12:39 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I’m very worried that our president is suggesting the former president has done something illegal. I’d be very worried if in fact the Obama administration was able to obtain a warrant lawfully about Trump campaign activity with foreign governments. It’s my job as United States senator to get to the bottom of this.”

— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), quoted by The Hill.

Trump Just Made a Big Russia Problem Even Bigger

March 4, 2017 at 12:33 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

The wiretaps that President Trump tweeted about this morning were first reported by Heat Street the day before the election:

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Astrotweeting: “Astrotweeting” is the creation of fake Twitter profiles to show support for a political candidate.

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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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