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ISIS Will Use Trump to Recruit

January 28, 2017 at 2:57 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Five current or former members of ISIS tell BuzzFeed that President Trump “will shorten the time it takes for us to achieve our goals.”

“One reason they cited for this optimism was Trump’s divisiveness within America, which they believed would weaken the country… ISIS also sees Trump as an ideal enemy for propaganda purposes, the former and current members of the group said, believing that his campaign’s heated rhetoric about Muslims will help the extremist group with recruitment by reinforcing its central narrative that America and the West are at war with Islam.”

Republicans Insist Refugee Ban Isn’t a Muslim Ban

January 28, 2017 at 2:54 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump’s order to temporarily halt admission to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries is not a Muslim ban, Republicans in Congress, including aides to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI),” the Washington Post reports.

“Ryan was among the first lawmakers on Friday to back Trump’s order, which would prevent anyone from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and Libya from traveling to the U.S. for 90 days. The order contains an exception for religious minorities, meaning it effectively applies only to Muslims.”

Key sentence: “The majority of Republicans in Congress were silent on the order Saturday.”

A Profile in Cowardice

January 28, 2017 at 8:33 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

David Brooks: “If Reagan’s dominant emotional note was optimism, Trump’s is fear. If Reagan’s optimism was expansive, Trump’s fear propels him to close in: Pull in from Asian entanglements through rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Pull in from European entanglements by disparaging NATO. It’s not a cowering, timid fear; it’s more a dark, resentful porcupine fear.”

“We have a word for people who are dominated by fear. We call them cowards. Trump was not a coward in the business or campaign worlds. He could take on enormous debt and had the audacity to appear at televised national debates with no clue what he was talking about. But as president his is a policy of cowardice. On every front, he wants to shrink the country into a shell.”

“Trump has changed the way the Republican Party sees the world. Republicans used to have a basic faith in the dynamism and openness of the free market. Now the party fears openness and competition.”

Refugees Already Being Detained

January 28, 2017 at 8:22 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump’s executive order closing the nation’s borders to refugees was put into immediate effect Friday night. Refugees who were in the air on the way to the United States when the order was signed were stopped and detained at airports,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Trump’s order, which suspends entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days, created a legal limbo for individuals on the way to the United States and panic for families who were awaiting their arrival.”

Associated Press: “Cairo airport officials say seven U.S.-bound migrants — six from Iraq and one from Yemen — have been prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York’s JFK airport.”

Trump’s First Interview Ratings Well Short of Obama’s

January 28, 2017 at 8:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Variety: “The first primetime interview with President Trump after his official ascension to the office didn’t set the Nielsen charts aflame. In Nielsen’s preliminary ratings, President Trump’s interview with ABC News’ David Muir on Wednesday night drew a 1.7 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and 7.5 million viewers on the whole, winning the night but well short of President Obama’s first primetime interview after taking office in 2009.”

“Obama’s first primetime interview — as opposed to a televised press conference or late-night talk show appearance — on March 22, 2009 notched a 3.9 rating in the 18-49 demo and drew a total audience of 17.04 million.”

Advice for Those Mulling Jobs In Trump Administration

January 28, 2017 at 7:48 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

David Frum: “A law-abiding person will want to stay as far as possible from the personal service of President Trump. As demonstrated by the sad example of Press Secretary Sean Spicer spouting glaring lies on his first day on the job, this president will demand that his aides do improper things—and the low standards of integrity in Trump’s entourage create a culture of conformity to those demands.”

“A wise patriot might be wary of working directly for or near Flynn or anybody else tied to the Russian state, the entities it controls, or Russian business interests. The National Security Council staff has engorged itself to such an enormous size in recent years—now some 400 people—that there are many important roles to fill, safely firewalled away from Flynn.”

“At the other departments or agencies of government, here’s the test: Odds are that the department or agency head will sooner or later be called upon to some improper thing at some point during the Trump administration.”

Russian Arrests Pose Clue In Election Hacking

January 28, 2017 at 7:32 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Ever since American intelligence agencies accused Russia of trying to influence the American election, there have been questions about the proof they had to support the accusation,” the New York Times reports.

“But the news from Moscow may explain how the agencies could be so certain that it was the Russians who hacked the email of Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Two Russian intelligence officers who worked on cyberoperations and a Russian computer security expert have been arrested and charged with treason for providing information to the United States.”

Trump Agrees to Not Talk About Mexico Paying for Wall

January 28, 2017 at 7:04 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In a bid to repair a rift with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, President Trump agreed on Friday to stop speaking publicly about one of his signature campaign promises: that Mexico would pay for the construction of a wall along the U.S. border,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The concession was detailed in the joint U.S.-Mexico statement after the two leaders had an hour-long phone call, but not in the White House’s version. A White House official said Mr. Trump did indeed agree to stop talking publicly about Mexico paying for the wall, which was one of his most oft-repeated lines that rallied his supporters during the 2016 campaign.”

Pence Pledges Full Review of Voting Rolls

January 28, 2017 at 7:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In a private meeting with congressional Republicans this week, Vice President Pence vowed that the Trump administration would pursue a wide-ranging probe of voting rolls in the United States to examine whether millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election as President Trump has charged.”

“The vice president’s comments, captured in a recording obtained by the Washington Post, give the clearest indication yet of how the Trump administration intends to investigate whether 3 million to 5 million people voted illegally in the 2016 general election, an unsupported claim Trump has made.”

Ramping Up, Not Shutting Up

January 27, 2017 at 11:02 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Despite Steve Bannon telling the news media to shut up this week, Political Wire is doing the opposite.

We’re adding more analysis and new features to cover the most interesting and unpredictable political landscape in our lifetimes. Your support is the key.

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Ryan Won’t Promise Health Insurance for All

January 27, 2017 at 10:07 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

House Speaker Paul Ryan sidestepped an opportunity to embrace President Trump’s goal of “insurance for everybody,” saying instead that congressional Republicans are aiming for “universal access,” the AP reports.

Trump Shuts Door to Refugees

January 27, 2017 at 8:19 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump signed an executive order Friday that would temporarily halt the nation’s refugee program and usher in the most sweeping changes in more than 40 years to how the U.S. welcomes the world’s most vulnerable people,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“The order would block all refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days and suspend the acceptance of refugees from war-torn Syria indefinitely.”

Politico: “Trump’s order, which he has described as ‘extreme vetting,’ could pose some legal and procedural headaches for the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, the two agencies largely responsible for implementing the policies. That’s in large part because some of the language is vague and hard to define.”

Calexit Backers Can Begin Collecting Signatures

January 27, 2017 at 5:14 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Backers of a proposed constitutional amendment seeking California’s secession from the U.S. can begin collecting voter signatures to qualify for the 2018 ballot,” according to the Sacramento Bee.

“The so-called Calexit movement emerged within days of the upset presidential victory of Republican Donald Trump, who lost California by nearly 4.3 million votes. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that nearly one in three Californians support the state leaving the U.S.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

January 27, 2017 at 4:59 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I think the media is the opposition party in many ways. I’m not talking about everybody, but a big portion of the media, the dishonesty, total deceit and deception. It makes them certainly partially the opposition party, absolutely. I think they’re much more capable than the opposition party. The opposition party is losing badly.”

— President Trump, in an interview with CBN.

McConnell Rules Out Filibuster Change

January 27, 2017 at 4:30 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “all but ruled out the possibility of a change to the filibuster rule this year,” The Hill reports.

McConnell made his comment “one day after President Trump said he wants Senate Republicans to strip Democrats of the power to filibuster Supreme Court nominees if they attempt to block his pick.”

Said McConnell: “Senate rules are a matter for the Senate and a lot of other people have opinions. We’ve already adopted the rules for this Congress at the beginning of the year. Basically we didn’t adopt any because in the Senate rules are permanent, unlike the House which every two year adopts a new set of rules. We don’t.”

Voters Just Want Changes to Obamacare

January 27, 2017 at 4:28 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Quinnipiac poll shows that just 16% of Americans want Congress to repeal all of Obamacare, while 51% say it should repeal only parts and 30% say it shouldn’t repeal anything.

More important: When asked if they would be more likely or less likely to vote for a senator or member of Congress who votes for repeal, voters said “less likely” by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.

Trump Proposed Abolishing the Electoral College

January 27, 2017 at 3:03 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump proposed getting rid of the Electoral College in a meeting with congressional leaders, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“During the gathering, the talk turned to campaigns, elections and voter fraud. Mr. Trump then told the group that he was interested in getting rid of the Electoral College and replacing it with a national popular vote, say people who attended. Mr. Trump lost the popular vote to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, a fact that has irritated the president to the point that he has called for a national probe of alleged voter fraud.”

“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, spoke up, pointing him to the 2000 recount in Florida that lasted more than a month until it was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court. Imagine what a nationwide recount would look like. Mr. Trump demurred, and said he was fine to leave the current system in place.”

Donald Trump vs. Andrew Jackson

January 27, 2017 at 2:56 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jon Meacham: “The biggest distinction is experience. Jackson came to the presidency as a former judge, general, senator and presidential candidate. Despite his rabble-rousing image — opponents worried Jackson would become an ‘American Bonaparte’ — Jackson was in fact at home in the precincts of power because he’d been around the capital a good deal before becoming president.”

“The other key difference is that Jackson knew how to manage his own weaknesses. He wasn’t always successful at it, but a Jacksonian temper tantrum or threat was often calculated, not unhinged. We don’t yet know whether Trump can pull off the same feat of compensating for — and even leveraging — his hypersensitivity, for instance, and his weakness for hyperbole and chaos. I hope he can do what Jackson did and turn these vices into means for virtuous ends. To me, that’s perhaps the greatest question about Trump and temperament.”

Meacham’s book, American Lion: Andrew Jackon in the White House, is highly recommended.