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Unemployment Rate Drops to 4.6%

December 2, 2016 at 9:32 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“U.S. employers hired at a steady clip in November while the unemployment rate fell to the lowest level in nine years, signs of enduring labor-market growth that will likely leave Federal Reserve officials on track to raise interest rates later this month,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Nonfarm payrolls rose by a seasonally adjusted 178,000 in November from the prior month, the Labor Department said. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.6% from 4.9% in October as some people found jobs while others dropped out of the workforce. At 4.6%, the rate is the lowest since August 2007. Economists expected 180,000 new jobs and a jobless rate of 4.9% in November.”

Trump’s Calls to World Leaders Leave Diplomats Aghast

December 2, 2016 at 7:27 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President-elect Donald Trump “inherited a complicated world when he won the election last month. And that was before a series of freewheeling phone calls with foreign leaders that has unnerved diplomats at home and abroad,” the New York Times reports.

“In the calls, he voiced admiration for one of the world’s most durable despots, the president of Kazakhstan, and said he hoped to visit a country, Pakistan, that President Obama has steered clear of during nearly eight years in office.”

Trump Administration Plans Ambitious Agenda

December 2, 2016 at 7:26 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Vice President-elect Mike Pence told the Wall Street Journal that the incoming Trump administration “is planning a burst of activity that would take aim at the gridlock in Washington, pressing forward with its goals to overhaul the tax code, health care and immigration laws.”

He said President-elect Donald Trump “is preparing ambitious 100-day and 200-day plans aimed at fulfilling core campaign promises and jump-starting economic growth.”

Asked what might surprise voters about the Trump White House, Mr. Pence said: “I think the only thing that will surprise them is that Washington, D.C., is going to get an awful lot done in a short period of time.”

Trump Gloats About Victory at Rally

December 2, 2016 at 7:21 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico:”In his first public rally since winning the presidency, Donald Trump casually announced a cabinet pick and used soaring rhetoric to outline an ambitious, unifying vision for the next four years—before veering off script and rubbing his stunning victory in his detractor’s faces.”

“During a freewheeling speech in Cincinnati on Thursday night that was proto-Trump and harkened back to his rough-and-tumble campaign style, the president-elect encouraged chants of ‘Lock her up’ by invoking Hillary Clinton’s name, incited boos of home state Governor John Kasich, mocked independent candidate Evan McMullin as a nobody and spent close to four minutes attacking the ‘nasty, dishonest press.'”

Wall Street Journal: “But there was one notable difference: with the election over, the crowd was far smaller, and there were many empty seats in the upper deck of the 18,000-seat arena.”

Supreme Court Pick Coming Soon

December 2, 2016 at 7:16 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President-elect Donald Trump said he had narrowed his choices for a potential Supreme Court nominee to “three or four” candidates and that a decision would be coming “pretty soon,” Politico reports.

Said Trump: “They are terrific people, highly respected, brilliant people and we’ll be announcing that pretty soon too.”

Trump Will Meet Again with Goldman Exec

December 2, 2016 at 7:08 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn “is scheduled to meet with President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team this weekend amid growing speculation the longtime banker is seeking to leave Wall Street for a government job,” Bloomberg reports.

“Since his initial meeting with Trump on Tuesday, a swirl of reports has linked Cohn’s name to a variety of senior posts, though one person with direct knowledge of the situation said the executive isn’t likely to get a cabinet seat. Possibilities include heading the Office of Management and Budget, or taking a position at the Treasury Department or Federal Reserve, another person with knowledge of the talks said.”

Most Cabinet Picks Will Be Done Next Week

December 2, 2016 at 7:07 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President-elect Donald Trump suggested he will reveal “almost all” of his remaining Cabinet choices next week, Politico reports.

Said Trump: “We already have some that we have, but they’ll be starting next week big league. We have some tremendous people, tremendous people that are coming on.”

Trump’s Stock Holdings Are Another Conflict

December 2, 2016 at 7:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President-elect Donald Trump “has disclosed owning millions of dollars of stock in companies with business pending before the U.S. government and whose value could rise as a result of his policies,” the Washington Post reports.

“Trump’s stock holdings, which are separate from the more high-profile real estate and branding empire that he has said he will separate from in some fashion, represent another area rife with potential conflicts of interest that Trump has yet to address as he prepares to take office.”

Trump Has a Massive Web of Conflicts

December 1, 2016 at 10:07 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former Bush White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter:

One of Mr. Trump’s most lucrative initiatives has been the licensing of the Trump brand — and name. There are Trump-branded properties like towers and hotels in some 20 countries. .

This first presents an ethical problem: No president should allow his name to be put on commercial properties in return for payment. The presidency is not a branding opportunity. President Trump can’t do this unless he wants to create the impression that he is being paid off.

But it also presents a global security risk. A building branded with the name of an American president — any president, but perhaps especially Mr. Trump — would be a tempting target for terrorists and other enemies of the United States. Who is going to protect the buildings?

Trump Supporter Declares ‘End of Facts’

December 1, 2016 at 9:48 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

In an interview on The Diane Rehm Show, Donald Trump supporter and CNN political commentator Scottie Nell Hughes declared the end of facts, the Washington Post reports.

Or, in her own words: “There’s no such thing, unfortunately, anymore of facts.”

She explained: “One thing that has been interesting this entire campaign season to watch is that people that say facts are facts, they’re not really facts. Everybody has a way, it’s kind of like looking at ratings or looking at a glass of half-full water. Everybody has a way of interpreting them to be the truth or not true.”

A Stunning Look at Unbalanced 2016 Campaign Coverage

December 1, 2016 at 9:03 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

At this week’s post-election conference at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, CNN president Jeff Zucker insisted that media coverage of the presidential candidates was fair:

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Mook Says Clinton Failed to Attract Young Voters

December 1, 2016 at 8:29 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook acknowledged that the Clinton campaign lost the election because “younger voters, perhaps assuming that Clinton was going to win, migrated to third-party candidates in the final days of the race,” according to the Washington Post.

He noted that the campaign needed to win upwards of 60% of young voters but it was able to garner something “in the high 50s at the end of the day. That’s why we lost.”

The Campaign Managers Look at 2016

December 1, 2016 at 8:28 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

If you have a few hours, representatives from the Clinton and Trump campaigns joined together at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government to discuss the presidential race.

The roundtable was moderated by Dan Balz for The Washington Post, Katherine Miller for Buzzfeed, and Andrea Mitchell for MSNBC.

Other sessions on the Democratic and Republican primaries are available here.

Exchange of the Day

December 1, 2016 at 8:12 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Washington Post notes a post-election conference got nasty with a tense exchange between Clinton aides Jennifer Palmieri and Joel Benenson and Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway:

PALMIERI: “If providing a platform for white supremacists makes me a brilliant tactician, I am proud to have lost. I would rather lose than win the way you guys did.”

CONWAY: “Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacists had a platform?”

PALMIERI: “You did, Kellyanne. You did.”

CONWAY: “Do you think you could have just had a decent message for white, working-class voters? How about, it’s Hillary Clinton, she doesn’t connect with people? How about, they have nothing in common with her? How about, she doesn’t have an economic message?”

BENENSON: “There were dog whistles sent out to people… Look at your rallies. He delivered it.”

CONWAY: “Guys, I can tell you are angry, but wow. Hashtag he’s your president. How’s that?”

A Cabinet Ted Cruz Would Have Picked

December 1, 2016 at 4:55 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Amy Walter: “If personnel is policy, most of Trump’s cabinet picks suggest he’ll govern more like a traditional, conservative Republican than a populist, big government or anti-establishment GOPer. Yes, senior advisor Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn, his pick for National Security Advisor, are controversial and potential bomb-throwers. But, the rest of his choice thus far are for more conventional. In fact, his cabinet picks thus far don’t look a whole lot different from those a President Ted Cruz would have chosen.”

“For a guy who spent the campaign in a kind of ideological fluidity, he’s put together a ‘dream team’ on the Cabinet for conservative and mainstream Republicans who have long pined for lower taxes, school choice/private school vouchers, an end to Obamacare and a dismantling of Dodd-Frank.”

Trump Wants Mattis for Defense Secretary

December 1, 2016 at 4:24 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen retired Marine Gen. James Mattis to be secretary of defense, the Washington Post reports, “nominating a former senior military officer who led operations across the Middle East to run the Pentagon less than four years after he hung up his uniform.”

“To take the job, Mattis will need Congress to pass new legislation to bypass a federal law stating that defense secretaries must not have been on active duty in the previous seven years. Congress has granted a similar exception just once, when Gen. George C. Marshall was appointed to the job in 1950.”

4 Nightmare States for Democrats

December 1, 2016 at 4:00 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A Smart Politics study finds that for the first time in party history, Democratic presidential nominees have suffered statewide defeats by increasingly larger margins in five consecutive elections – in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Pollsters Missed Less-Educated White Voters

December 1, 2016 at 3:00 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Nate Silver: “In the 10 states with the largest share of white voters without college degrees, Trump beat his polling average by an average of 8 percentage points — a major polling miss. But in the 10 states with the lowest share of white voters without college degrees, Clinton beat her polls by an average of 3 points (or 4 points if you count the District of Columbia as a state). Overall, the correlation between the share of white non-college voters in a state and the amount by which Trump overperformed (or underperformed) his polls is quite high.”