The Democratic National Committee’s computer systems were breached by hackers linked to the Russian government, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The Washington Post reports the party’s entire file of opposition research against Donald Trump had been taken.
“We were getting to be kind of pansies in politics. People used to shoot each other on the Senate floor, you know.”
— Jeff Roe, former strategist for Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) presidential campaign, quoted by the Huffington Post.
James Hohmann: “Clinton made a savvy strategic decision last year not to tack left on national security during the primaries. She lurched leftward on everything from trade to Wall Street to head off Bernie Sanders’s unexpectedly strong insurgency, but she more or less stuck to her guns on national security – even in the face of intense attacks over her Iraq vote. She vigorously defended her hawkish posture in Libya and Syria during the debates, while expressing more regret for her vote on Iraq than she did last time. She also defended her relationship with Henry Kissinger, who many on the left loathe. The campaign was playing a long game, and they knew that there would be long-term costs for articulating more dovish positions.”
“Now that the nomination is wrapped up, if anything, she can take a harder line.”
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Sam Stein interviews Danny Diaz (Jeb Bush’s campaign manager), Jeff Roe (Ted Cruz’s campaign manager) and Alex Conant (Marco Rubio’s communications director).
“Well-compensated, highly intelligent and very publicly defeated, each one of them is still angry, both at Trump and at the media. Each one of them has theories about how we got to this very disconcerting place in American political history. And not one of them is prepared to vote for Trump.”
“The stories they told me over a 90-minute conversation at a bar called Black Jack in Washington DC provided an entirely different view of the campaign and of elite Republican thinking. They spoke with unusual candor about which strategies they pushed that they now regret, how they believe network executives conspired against their candidates, what a disaster the Republican convention will be and why a Hillary Clinton blowout may be upon us.”
Charlie Cook: “If anything that either Clinton or Trump says or does turns out to be a determining factor, Trump is more likely to play that role. Whether one likes or dislikes Hillary Clinton, or agrees or disagrees with her on issues, she is a tested and experienced candidate and considered a safe pair of hands.”
“Trump, by contrast, is a grenade with the pin halfway out. The possibility of a sudden explosion is never far away, and this prospect gives sleepless nights to Republican elected officials and strategists. GOP pollsters are probably doing a land-office business these days, surveying states and districts to advise their Republican clients exactly how they should position themselves—whether they should stand close to Trump or dig a protective trench.”
First Read: “Remember when Trump advisers were suggesting that their candidate would back off or moderate his temporary Muslim ban? Well, there’s no backing off after yesterday’s speech. And it raises a series of questions for every Republican out there, including House GOP leaders… Do you support or oppose Trump’s speech? Do you support his temporary Muslim ban? Do you believe that the U.S. should suspend all immigration from places where there is a proven history of terrorism? And do you agree with Trump’s insinuation — from his remarks Monday morning — that President Obama is somehow complicit in the Orlando mass shooting?”
First Read: “This presidential contest is turning out to be more than a battle of Democrat vs. Republican, liberal vs. conservative, blue vs. red. Instead, yesterday’s dueling speeches by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on the Orlando shooting revealed it to be an even bigger fight over what kind of country the United States of America should be — open, inclusive and tolerant, or closed, divided and intolerant? That’s the choice.”
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), who won the special election to replace former Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), has officially joined the Freedom Caucus, which helped push the former Speaker into retirement prematurely last year.
Rick Klein: “All conventional wisdom about how a politician responds to a terrorist attack or a mass shooting had gone out the window with Trump’s first series of Tweets, where he accepted congratulations for being right and called on President Obama to resign from office. Before Trump started speaking in New Hampshire, he had suggested that the president secretly might want ISIS to succeed. By the time he was done, he had misled his audience about the Orlando shooter’s birth status, and expanded his proposed Muslim ban to include all immigration from parts of the world with established ties to terrorism.”
“At some point, the talk about a new Donald Trump, or a reined in Donald Trump, or a ‘presidential’ Donald Trump – all of it will fade away. What’s left is a man who has played to the anger and fears of the American people to astounding effect, and apparently won’t stop until he’s either elected, or not.”
“Let me go a step further, because remember, San Bernardino, Fort Hood, and Orlando involve American citizens. We’re going to ultimately declare a war on Islamic supremacists and we’re going to say, if you pledge allegiance to ISIS, you are a traitor and you have lost your citizenship. And we’re going take much tougher positions. In the late 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt was faced with Nazi penetration in the United States. We originally created the House Un-American Activities Committee to go after Nazis. We passed several laws in 1938 and 1939 to go after Nazis and we made it illegal to help the Nazis. We’re going to presently have to go take the similar steps here.”
— Newt Gingrich, in an interview on Fox News.
Mickey Edwards: “As the national chairman of the American Conservative Union and a founding trustee of the Heritage Foundation, I sat with him at his annual appearances at the Conservative Political Action Conference. I saw his instinctive compassion as, at my request, he diverted Air Force One to fly us over the city of Bartlesville, in my congressional district, after it had been heavily damaged by a tornado. As a member of the Republican congressional leadership, I met with him in the Oval Office every week of his presidency.”
“I know Ronald Reagan would never have endorsed Donald Trump for the presidency. Not ever. No matter what.”
“Donald Trump’s combative anti-terrorism speech Monday flouted the typical post-tragedy script and left Republican insiders fretting that the business mogul is unprepared to play a crucial presidential role: national healer,” Politico reports.
“It was the latest display of the party’s conundrum of how to deal with their unpredictable standard-bearer whose views they often don’t share. Many Republicans appeared downright fatigued by the almost daily exercise of Trump saying something provocative or worse, and them having to answer questions about it.”
Washington Examiner: “Trump is making abundantly clear in the wake of the Orlando terror attack that there will be no general election pivot by his campaign.”
A new NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll finds Hillary Clinton now leading Donald Trump nationally by seven points, 49% to 41%.
“Clinton narrowed Trump’s lead among men and white voters to single digits over the past week and now leads Trump by 25 points — 58% to 33% — among voters describing themselves as moderate.”
Nate Cohn: “According to an Upshot analysis of Pew Research data, nearly half of white working-class Democrats think it’s more important to protect gun rights than to control gun ownership. That’s a larger percentage of Democratic voters than agree with Mr. Trump on many of the other issues that he stresses on the campaign trail.”
“At the same time, Mr. Trump’s position has considerable support from Republican-leaning voters. About three-quarters of Republican-leaning voters side with gun rights over gun control, according to the Pew data.”
“That’s even better for Mr. Trump than a lot of his other populist wedge issues, like trade and immigration. It’s about as good as any issue for Republicans — even general conservative attitudes such as whether the government is wasteful.”
One day after the worst mass shooting in American history, Rep. Andy Holt (R-TN), is firmly standing behind his decision to give away am AR-15 semi-automatic rifle as a door prize at his next fundraiser, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports.
Said Holt: “It has nothing to do with the style of weapon. It has everything to do with who’s behind the weapon.”
Former Sen. Larry Pressler (R-SD) endorsed Hillary Clinton for president and called for universal background checks on all gun sales and an assault weapons ban in the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, The Hill reports.
Said Pressler: “I can’t believe I’m endorsing Hillary Clinton for president, but I am. This morning, I woke up and told my wife, ‘Did I really do that?’ But I did.”
He added: “If someone had told me 10 years ago I would do this, I wouldn’t have believed them.”
Donald Trump “left little doubt on Monday that he intends to run on the same incendiary proposals on immigration and terrorism that animated his primary campaign, using his first speech after the massacre in Orlando, Fla., to propose sweeping measures against Muslims that paid little heed to American traditions of pluralism,” the New York Times reports.
“Without distinguishing between mainstream Muslims and Islamist terrorists, Mr. Trump suggested that all Muslim immigrants posed potential threats to America’s security and called for a ban on migrants from any part of the world with ‘a proven history of terrorism’ against the United States or its allies. He also insinuated that American Muslims were all but complicit in acts of domestic terrorism for failing to report attacks in advance, asserting without evidence that they had warnings of shootings like the one in Orlando.”
The Lid: “Setting aside the impact that repeating his theories could have on his own electoral chances, Trump’s statements when it comes to national security could be the most consequential parts of his rhetoric when it comes to downballot races. For weeks or even months to come, Republican lawmakers will be asked by journalists and by their political opponents if they believe that Obama is somehow complicit in terror attacks. They’ll be peppered with questions about Trump’s suggestion that Obama should resign in the wake of the attack. They’ll face another round of inquiries about his proposed ban on Muslim immigration.”
“In press conferences, debates, and opposition research, Trump’s positions will be omnipresent for Republicans running for office at any level. If you’re a Republican in a contested race, it’s just about the last thing you probably want to spend the next 147 days doing.”
Donald Trump is rescinding the Washington Post’s credentials to cover his campaign events, Politico reports.
Said Trump: “Based on the incredibly inaccurate coverage and reporting of the record setting Trump campaign, we are hereby revoking the press credentials of the phony and dishonest Washington Post.”
Taegan 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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