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Bush Tries to Save Senate Seats

June 17, 2016 at 6:20 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 29 Comments

“After eight years of largely abstaining from politics, former President George W. Bush is throwing himself into an effort to save his party’s most vulnerable senators, including several whose re-election campaigns have been made more difficult by Donald Trump’s presence at the top of the ticket,” the New York Times reports.

“In the weeks since Mr. Trump emerged as the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Mr. Bush has headlined fund-raisers for two Republican senators and has made plans to help three more. Among them are Senators John McCain of Arizona, who was one of Mr. Trump’s earliest targets of derision, and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, who has struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s inflammatory talk.”

Sanders Winds Down Campaign

June 16, 2016 at 9:50 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 269 Comments

Sen. Bernie Sanders signaled “that he was winding down his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, but he did not explicitly quit the campaign or endorse rival Hillary Clinton,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

Said Sanders: “The major political task that we face in the next five months is to make certain that Donald Trump is defeated and defeated badly. And I personally intend to begin my role in that process in a very short period of time.”

Politico: “Delivering his first speech to supporters in a week — an uncharacteristically long period of silence for a campaign built around massive rallies throughout the country — Sanders got as close as he has to acknowledging that Clinton has won, but he devoted the bulk of his remarks to outlining the “political revolution” he has been stumping for over the past year.”

Dozens of Diplomats Protest Obama’s Syria Policy

June 16, 2016 at 8:50 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 66 Comments

“Dozens of State Department officials this week protested against U.S. policy in Syria, signing an internal document that calls for targeted military strikes against the Damascus government and urging regime change as the only way to defeat Islamic State,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The ‘dissent channel cable’ was signed by 51 mid- to high-level State Department officers involved with advising on Syria policy in various capacities… The cable… repeatedly calls for ‘targeted military strikes’ against the Syrian government in light of the near-collapse of the cease-fire brokered earlier this year.”

“The views expressed by the U.S. officials amount to a scalding internal critique of a longstanding U.S. policy against taking sides in the Syrian war, a policy that has survived even though the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has been repeatedly accused of violating cease-fire agreements and Russian-backed forces have attacked U.S.-trained rebels.”

The GOP Is Stuck with Trump

June 16, 2016 at 6:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 157 Comments

Amy Walter: “To those GOPers still thinking/hoping that Trump will ‘get the message’ and suddenly become a more focused and disciplined candidate, I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Here’s the deal, Trump is not going to change. Ever. This is the candidate who won the primaries. This is the candidate you are going to nominate in July. And, this is the candidate who you will have to decide to support or not in November. There’s simply no other option.”

McCain Blames Obama for Orlando Shooting

June 16, 2016 at 3:33 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 236 Comments

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) argued that President Obama was “directly responsible” for the terror attack in Orlando by not stopping the spread of ISIS, the Washington Post reports.

“McCain’s statement goes beyond the criticism of Obama that has been leveled by his Republican colleagues in the Senate, and echoes remarks made this week by presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who seemed to connect Obama to the attack… Federal law enforcement officials have said the gunman, Omar Mateen, pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi but they have not disclosed any evidence that Mateen had any direct contact with adherents of the terror group or whether he was specifically directed by the Islamic State in any way.”

Booker Says He’s Not Being Vetted

June 16, 2016 at 3:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 51 Comments

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said that he is not being vetted as a potential running mate for Hillary Clinton, after a report named the New Jersey Democrat as one of several under consideration, Politico reports.

Said Booker: “I am hearing much more from media folks like you asking me these questions. It’s flattering and everything like that, but I’m not being vetted.”

Trump Needs to Work on Going ‘Off the Record’

June 16, 2016 at 1:42 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 80 Comments

This “anonymous” official quoted by Politico sure sounds like Donald Trump:

The Trump campaign would not comment on the record about its relationship with the RNC. One Trump Tower official called it “a great relationship. I work well with everybody over there, and I haven’t heard of anyone who doesn’t have a great relationship with them.

Ryan Has No Plan to Rescind Trump Endorsement

June 16, 2016 at 12:53 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 65 Comments

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) told reporters he wasn’t planning on taking back his endorsement of Donald Trump, The Hill reports.

Said Ryan: “That’s not my plan. I don’t have a plan to do that.”

He added: “Look, we’re going to disagree on some things… What we do agree on is we don’t want another Democrat in the White House.”

Trump Veers Away from Battleground States

June 16, 2016 at 12:46 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 117 Comments

Donald Trump’s campaign schedule “is being driven by his fund-raising needs, prompting him to appear in heavily Republican states like Georgia and Texas and diverting his attention from battlegrounds where Hillary Clinton is spending her time,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Trump’s aides, scrambling to raise money to compete against Mrs. Clinton’s cash juggernaut and extensive donor network, have scheduled fund-raisers in places like Georgia, North Carolina and Texas this week.”

Another GOP Lawmaker Won’t Endorse Trump

June 16, 2016 at 12:38 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 13 Comments

Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) “says he is not planning to endorse Donald Trump for president, deepening the divide in Michigan’s GOP congressional delegation about supporting the party’s presumptive nominee,” the Detroit News reports.

Upton said that Trump has gone “off the track.”

GOP Lawmaker Reads Gays ‘Worthy of Death’ Bible Verse

June 16, 2016 at 12:35 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 75 Comments

At a House conference meeting, Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) read from a Bible verse that calls for death for homosexuals shortly before the chamber voted to reject a spending bill that included an amendment barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, Roll Call reports.

“Passages in the verses refer to homosexuality and the penalty for homosexual behavior. ‘And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet,’ reads Romans 1:27, which Allen read, according to his office.

British Lawmaker Dead After Attack

June 16, 2016 at 12:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 25 Comments

Jo Cox, a member of the British parliament, has died after she was shot and stabbed during an attack in her constituency, the BBC reports.

New York Times: “The campaigns representing the two sides in next week’s European Union referendum — Britain Stronger in Europe, which favors remaining in the European Union, and Vote Leave, which advocates departure from the 28-nation bloc — suspended their campaigning for the day, out of respect for Ms. Cox.”

Bush Official Will Vote for Clinton

June 16, 2016 at 12:12 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 56 Comments

“Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state under George W. Bush, says he will vote for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, in one of the most dramatic signs yet that Republican national security elites are rejecting their party’s presumptive nominee,” Politico reports.

Is Trump Now Pushing for Gun Control?

June 16, 2016 at 12:01 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 14 Comments

Rick Klein: “The latest Trump endorsee forced to wonder what Trump is thinking is the NRA, which didn’t anticipate a certain Tweeting presidential candidate in writing its post-Orlando script. It’s not clear what specific policy Donald Trump is pushing in his not-yet-scheduled meeting with the NRA. It’s not clear if the NRA knows what he’s up to in pushing for suspected terrorists to be denied access to guns. It’s also not clear that the Senate’s decision to hold votes on gun control Thursday is directly connected to the pressure applied by Trump.”

“But what is clear is that Trump – despite his half-threat to ‘do this alone’ on the campaign trail – will have outsized influence on national debates over the next five months, at the very least. His unpredictability, along with the more predictable populist streak he flashes so often, won’t exist by itself, no matter who endorses his candidacy.”

Trump Fights to Keep Deposition Video Secret

June 16, 2016 at 12:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 36 Comments

“Lawyers for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump are intensifying their drive to make sure the public doesn’t see videos of Trump’s recent testimony in connection with class-action fraud lawsuits over his Trump University real estate seminar program,” Politico reports.

“In a court filing late Wednesday night, Trump’s attorneys argued explicitly for the first time that the deposition videos should be kept under wraps because they would become weapons in the ongoing presidential contest.”

Trump to Hold Fundraiser at Goldwater Home

June 16, 2016 at 11:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 43 Comments

“An exclusive fundraiser featuring presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will take place at the landmark former home of Barry Goldwater, the five-term conservative U.S. senator from Arizona who clinched the GOP nomination for the presidency in 1964 over more moderate rivals,” the Arizona Republic reports.

“Trump’s insurgent GOP run has invited numerous comparisons with Goldwater’s doomed bid. Like Trump, Goldwater upended the Republican establishment in the primaries but faced a difficult general-election landscape. However, despite his dramatic defeat at the polls, Goldwater’s candidacy is credited with helping to remake the Republican Party and paving the way for fellow Cold War conservative Ronald Reagan’s victory in the 1980 presidential race.”

Can Clinton Do to Trump What Obama Did to Romney?

June 16, 2016 at 10:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 70 Comments

Byron York: “In post mortems of the 2012 presidential race, President Obama’s team gave much credit for their victory to early ad campaigns portraying Mitt Romney as an uncaring, out-of-touch rich guy.”

Said David Axelrod to the Harvard Political Review in 2013: “We defined the race and Gov. Romney before the conventions. And he was digging out of that hole for the remaining two months.”

“Now, there’s talk in the political world that Hillary Clinton and Democratic strategists are trying to do the same thing to Donald Trump — to define him, and the race, before the conventions and put him in a hole he can’t dig out of. Democrats are running millions of dollars in ads portraying Trump as dangerously unfit for the office of president.”

Clinton Has the Airwaves to Herself

June 16, 2016 at 9:08 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 41 Comments

First Read on Hillary Clinton’s battleground ad blitz:

“Don’t be surprised if the positive spots run more often than the anti-Trump contrast ad. Why? Because the Clinton camp probably realizes it needs to work on Hillary’s favorable numbers, especially since Trump’s unfavorable ratings are about as low as they can go. More than anything else, the ad blitz demonstrates Clinton’s financial superiority right now. How long will she have the battleground-state airwaves to herself? Remember, the pro-Clinton Super PAC is already on the air in these states. But where’s the Trump/GOP cavalry?”