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The Bully Pulpit Is Being Used to Bully

December 8, 2016 at 12:00 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rick Klein: “In his month as president-elect, Donald Trump has used Tweets to blast protesters upset with his election; threaten a government contract awarded to a company opposing his agenda; falsely claim that he won the popular vote if you only count the votes of legal citizens; and attack a local union head – a private citizen – who went on television to question the accuracy of his claims of saved jobs. This isn’t crossing lines – it’s scribbling over the old ones, and redrawing the boundaries of propriety even before Trump takes office.”

“One question for those who might seek to challenge the president is how they react to this new reality. Trump won’t change – but will efforts to draw him out adjust? When a president reacts to cable news, or online chatter, the spotlight will be on not just the president but on the person or entities under attack.”

Trump Taps Puzder for Labor Secretary

December 8, 2016 at 11:25 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name fast-food executive Andy Puzder as labor secretary, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Puzder, chief executive of the parent company that runs Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s burger chains, “has been a vocal advocate for cutting back regulations he says have stifled growth in the restaurant industry” and “has criticized the Affordable Care Act and has argued against raising the federal minimum wage higher than $9 an hour.”

For members: Here’s Trump’s Cabinet So Far

Clinton Lost the Election In the Last Week

December 8, 2016 at 10:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

The 2016 presidential election featured an unusually large number of undecided voters. We’ve seen that state polls dramatically underestimated Donald Trump’s vote share and these undecided voters were one reason.

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Reid Warns GOP on Repealing Obamacare

December 8, 2016 at 9:55 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) offers a warning to Republicans in the New York Times:

Despite the fact that your nominee lost the popular vote by nearly three million votes, your leaders have announced their intention to repeal the Affordable Care Act early in the next Congress, with no replacement. This is a dramatic misreading of your mandate. It will lead you into a quagmire that will cause pain for millions of Americans and bedevil you for the next four years.

Repealing Obamacare will take health insurance away from millions of Americans — as many as 30 million, by one recent estimate. It will raise premiums and throw health insurance markets into disarray. Public support for repeal is low, and support for repeal without a replacement is in the basement.

If you continue down this path, you will be letting your reflexive opposition to President Obama’s legacy cloud your judgment. I was in the Senate when President George W. Bush misread his mandate and sought to privatize Social Security. His administration never recovered.

Ryan Suggests Trump Is Not Corruptible

December 8, 2016 at 9:39 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jonathan Chait: “Ryan does say he has ‘confidence’ in Trump to avoid self-enrichment, which is a comical statement. Governments don’t run on trusting leaders to do the right thing when nobody is looking. They’re supposed to have mechanisms of accountability. And what president-elect has provided less grounds for confidence in his lack of pecuniary motive than Donald Trump? This is a man who has engaged in business with organized crime domestically, and with corrupt regimes abroad, who routinely refuses to pay money he owes, who has engaged in flagrant self-dealing, and who habitually lies about absolutely everything. If Ryan has confidence Trump would not use his power for personal gain, what possible leader would give him pause?”

Greg Sargent: The coming Trump kleptocracy

Top Clinton Aide Hits Trump Campaign Again for Racism

December 8, 2016 at 9:30 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jennifer Palmieri: “A good bit of the post-election analysis has centered on what our campaign should have done differently. That’s appropriate. We should think long and hard about why we lost. Trust me, we have. But it’s also important for the winners of this campaign to think long and hard about the voters who rejected them. I haven’t seen much evidence of such introspection from the Trump side. That’s concerning. I don’t know whether the Trump campaign needed to give a platform to white supremacists to win. But the campaign clearly did, and it had the effect of empowering the white-nationalist movement.”

Ohio Fades As a Bellwether State

December 8, 2016 at 9:09 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

Ohio voted for the winner in the presidential election for the 29th time in 31 elections this year — or 94% of the time — the best record of any state since 1896, according to our friends at Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball.

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Lawsuit Alleges Trump Stole $6 Million from Members

December 8, 2016 at 8:47 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A federal judge “refused yet another request” by Donald Trump to toss a 2013 lawsuit filed against his Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, the Palm Beach Post reports.

“Club members say Trump hasn’t returned an estimated $6 million to members of his country club… Trump bought the club from the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club & Spa for $5 million in 2012. When the Ritz owned it, deposits ranging from $35,000 to $210,000 were refundable. But once Trump bought the club, some club members say Trump changed the rules and refused to return their deposits.”

Liberal Mega Donors Look to Run for Governor

December 8, 2016 at 8:08 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In three major states with a governor’s mansion up for grabs in 2018, a big-name, politically active billionaire or multimillionaire is taking steps toward a run — donors looking to take matters into their own hands after 2016’s gutting losses,” Politico reports.

“In Florida, it’s John Morgan, a wealthy attorney who has long been one of the Democratic Party’s biggest swing-state fundraisers. In Illinois, it’s J.B. Pritzker, the businessman and philanthropist with a history of pumping cash and Chicago political support toward Hillary Clinton. And in California, it’s Tom Steyer, the hedge fund manager-turned climate activist who used the 2014 and 2016 election cycles to become one of the left’s single biggest donors, to the tune of over $140 million. And more may be on the way.”

“It’s an unexpected development that stands to inject new life into the Democratic Party — but it also exposes the lack of clear pipeline for young, rising Democrats after a series of losses, at a time when they are down to just 18 governors across the country, from 29 just eight years ago.”

Trump Uses Web of LLCs to Hide His Business Ties

December 8, 2016 at 7:35 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Across Mr. Trump’s business, he uses a similar web of privately held LLCs and other entities to house his assets—everything from real estate to a vintage carousel in Manhattan’s Central Park, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of hundreds of pages of his corporate filings and personal financial disclosures. Fifteen entities, for example, are used to hold his interests in two airplanes and three helicopters.”

“Unlike publicly traded companies, Delaware LLCs don’t have to publish any financial information or even disclose the identity of the owner… None of the 96 LLCs examined by the Journal appear to regularly release audited financial statements. That opacity—compounded by Mr. Trump’s decision to break with decades of precedent by declining to release his tax returns—makes it impossible to gauge the full extent of potential conflicts between his business interests and presidential role.”

Boehner Compares Trump to Teddy Roosevelt

December 8, 2016 at 7:25 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former House Speaker John Boehner told WCPO that Donald Trump reminds him of Teddy Roosevelt, “another guy who saw himself larger than life.”

He added: “You look at what Teddy Roosevelt did, he came in to do big things. Donald Trump isn’t there to kind of trim around the edges and occupy the White House.”

Quote of the Day

December 8, 2016 at 7:21 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I don’t think the Democratic Party is in that big of trouble. I mean, if Comey kept his mouth shut, we would have picked up a couple more Senate seats and we probably would have elected Hillary.”

— Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), in an interview with Politico.

Rohrabacher Defends Russia In Interview

December 8, 2016 at 7:14 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Secretary of state candidate Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) told Yahoo News that the United States cooperating with Russia is a good thing and that China is not America’s friend.

In a contentious exchange with reporter Bianna Golodryga, Rohrabacher compared Putin to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. When Golodryga brought up Russia’s history of alleged human rights abuses, he responded: “Oh, baloney — where do you come from?”

When Golodryga said she immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet republic of Moldova as a political refugee, Rohrabacher retorted: “Then the audience knows you’re biased.”

Clinton Thank You Event Leaves Some Grumbling

December 8, 2016 at 7:05 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “Hillary Clinton’s first major political event since her defeat last month will be a thank-you party for those really, really big donors — the people who brought in many hundreds of thousands of dollars for her unsuccessful Democratic presidential bid — Democrats familiar with the lavish event said Wednesday.”

“Invitations to the party went out last week, and the remaining staff of the Clinton campaign has been fielding complaints ever since from donors who were not included. Some donors were told that the size of the party was dictated by the space constraints of the ballroom, people familiar with the event said.”

Judge Halts Recount in Michigan

December 7, 2016 at 10:50 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A federal judge “suspended a recount of the Nov. 8 presidential election that started three days ago and has yet to reveal fraud or significantly alter the results,” the Detroit News reports.

Jill Stein “failed to show she was an aggrieved candidate as defined by state law and entitled to a recount, the judge said. He concluded Stein’s request to test the election system’s vulnerability to fraud lacked evidence.”

RNC Christmas Party Will Be at Trump’s Hotel

December 7, 2016 at 10:49 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Republican National Committee will host its Christmas Party this year at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., the newest property of its newfound leader,” the Huffington Post reports.

“The event is said to be a more exclusive and celebratory affair this year owing to the unexpected election victories enjoyed by the party this November. But in moving the proceedings to Donald Trump’s downtown D.C. hotel, which only opened this past fall, the committee risks furthering the perception that the president-elect is leveraging his newfound political power for private gains.”

Trump Plans to Keep Stake In Businesses

December 7, 2016 at 10:21 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President-elect Donald Trump “is considering formally turning over the operational responsibility for his real estate company to his two adult sons, but he intends to keep a stake in the business and resist calls to divest,” the New York Times reports.

“Under a plan now being considered by the Trump family and its lawyers, Ivanka Trump, Mr. Trump’s elder daughter, would also take a leave of absence from the Trump Organization, in the surest sign that she is exploring a potential move to Washington with her husband, Jared Kushner. Mr. Kushner is discussing an as-yet undetermined role advising his father-in-law, and Ms. Trump plans on being an advocate on issues in which she has a personal interest, like child care.”

Trump Admits He Was Prepared to Lose the Election

December 7, 2016 at 10:14 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“One month after his upset victory, Donald Trump described the emotional roller coaster ride he experienced on Election Night — and confessed he was prepared to accept defeat — in a lengthy speech Wednesday morning at a private fundraiser in New York City,” CNN reports.

“Two attendees who were in the room described the President-elect’s mood as light-hearted, as he reveled in his unexpected win. But these sources also said Trump extended olive branches to his past critics, including President Barack Obama, his former rival Hillary Clinton, as well as the “Never Trump” crowd.”

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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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