Bill Clinton’s foundation doled out $2 million to a power company partly owned by a wealthy blond divorcée about whom questions have been raised as to whether she is the frequent visitor to his home nicknamed “Energizer,” the New York Post reports.
The “commitment” to Julie Tauber McMahon’s firm from the Clinton Global Initiative was placed on its 2010 conference agenda at Clinton’s urging.
According to Game Change, Clinton had an extramarital affair with McMahon.
Ben Carson has been placing calls and “reaching out to everyone” to make the case that despite Donald Trump’s insults in the primary race, the party needs to come together, the New York Times reports.
The outreach includes Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush, all of whom were frequent targets of insults from Mr. Trump during the primary campaigns.
Despite a relatively good day yesterday, First Read points out that Trump still have a big problem with his party.
“Not only has the sitting GOP House speaker not endorsed Trump, but the last two Republican presidents (George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush) and the previous GOP presidential nominee (Mitt Romney) are all sitting out the 2016 race. Folks, this is extraordinary and unprecedented. And while we fully expect Ryan to eventually back Trump, that we are EVEN having this discussion underscores the party’s divisions.”
Donald Trump told ABC News that “he doesn’t not believe that voters have a right to see his tax returns before they vote, but that he would gladly made them public once the audit is over.”
Said Trump: “I don’t think they do.”
Trump also hit Hillary Clinton: “I sort of have to laugh when Clinton says it, Mrs. Clinton said I should give my tax returns. What about all the e-mails or missing Goldman Sachs speeches?”
“A recording obtained by the Washington Post captures what New York reporters and editors who covered Trump’s early career experienced in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s: calls from Trump’s Manhattan office that resulted in conversations with ‘John Miller’ or ‘John Barron’ — public-relations men who sound precisely like Trump himself — who indeed are Trump, masquerading as an unusually helpful and boastful advocate for himself, according to the journalists and several of Trump’s top aides.”
Trump told CNN that the recording isn’t him, “despite evidence he admitted it in the past.”
Politico: “As Trump moves to work in closer concert with the Republican National Committee apparatus, some campaign aides and allies are pushing him to block lucrative party contracts from consultants who worked to keep him from winning the nomination, according to four sources familiar with the discussions.”
“The blacklist talk — which sources say mostly targets operatives who worked for Never Trump groups, but also some who worked for Trump’s GOP presidential rivals or their supportive super PACs — strikes against a Republican consulting class that Trump has assailed as a pillar of a corrupt political establishment. It’s a sweet bit of turnabout for Trump aides and consultants who in recent months were warned that their work for the anti-establishment billionaire real estate showman could diminish their own career prospects.”
Donald Trump alleged that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos uses his ownership of the Washington Post to secure tax benefits for his company, Politico reports.
Said Trump: “Every hour we’re getting calls from reporters from The Washington Post asking ridiculous questions and I will tell you, this is owned as a toy by Jeff Bezos, who controls Amazon… He’s using the Washington Post for power so that the politicians in Washington don’t tax Amazon like they should be taxed.”
“There’s that guy who’ll walk into the bar and say anything to get laid. That’s Donald Trump right now to a T.”
— Mark Cuban, quoted by Business Insider.
“Supporters of billionaire Donald Trump appear unfazed by his decision to accept money from outside donors, despite his earlier vow to self-fund his presidential campaign and his criticism of rivals as puppets of wealthy special interests,” Reuters reports.
Congressional campaign fundraising is such a “disgusting and appalling” process that multimillionaire Randy Perkins (D) won’t hit up contributors anymore and is refunding donations to anyone who asks, he told Politico.
Said Perkins: “In order for me to keep raising money, I now have to go to people I don’t know. They don’t know who the hell I am. My own team says ‘Randy, you’ve got to keep raising money.’ Whether you’re running as a Democrat or a Republican, the expectation is you’ve got to raise, raise, raise, raise. It’s not something I’m willing to do. It’s disgusting and appalling.”
“Democrats hold a registration advantage over Republicans in four of seven battleground states likely to play a central role in the presidential election, even as Republicans and independents have made gains,” Bloomberg reports.
“The party that now controls the White House is ahead in registered voters in Florida, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, while Republicans hold the lead in Colorado, Iowa and New Hampshire, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Politics. Three other likely battlegrounds — Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin — don’t register voters by party.”
Huffington Post: “One close Clinton confidant said that she and her aides were ‘thrilled to see Warren get under his skin.’ Another senior Clinton adviser, who is advocating internally for Warren as a vice presidential pick, said the senator has ‘very influential people in the campaign pushing for her.'”
Said one longtime Clinton veteran: “You want a running mate who can take the fight to the other side with relish. Geography does not matter, but attitude and talent and energy and bringing excitement to the campaign, Senator Warren does all that.”
“The attributes that Warren would bring to the VP slot extend beyond vigorous mocking of Trump. Top Democrats increasingly see a dual-female ticket as a potent response to a GOP nominee with a well-documented past of sexist remarks.”
“After days of confusion over Donald J. Trump’s hints that he would change his tax plan to reduce its budget-busting cost and make it less generous to the rich, his spokeswoman on Thursday sought to clear things up: He plans no changes, Hope Hicks said, and advisers who say otherwise do not speak for him,” the New York Times reports.
“The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity,” the New York Times reports.
“It does not have the force of law, but it contains an implicit threat: Schools that do not abide by the Obama administration’s interpretation of the law could face lawsuits or a loss of federal aid.”
Washington Post: “Watch the video above, and try not to cringe. It’s Jon Keyser, Republicans’ preferred candidate to challenge Sen. Michael Bennet (D) in the Colorado Senate race, having what can be charitably described as a brain freeze — or, less charitably, a Marco Rubio moment. And it isn’t good news for Senate Republicans hoping to unseat Bennet in a race that could help them keep the Senate.”
The Lid: “We don’t know exactly how all this will play out yet, but it’s fair to say that Ryan’s slow-walking to a Trump endorsement could provide him some cover later on if Trump goes down in flames and Ryan wants to pick up the pieces. ”
“Bottom line: Paul Ryan isn’t stepping through the endorsement door yet, but he also certainly doesn’t seem to be positioning himself to lead one side of an intra-party war that would last until November. Plus, when even James Baker and Lindsey Graham are making at least half-hearted movements towards workable relationships with Trump, the name of the game here seems to be putting Humpty-Dumpty back together again when it comes to the fractured GOP.”
“The Clinton Global Initiative, which arranges donations to help solve the world’s problems, arranged a financial commitment that benefited a for-profit company part-owned by people with ties to the Clintons, including a current and a former Democratic official and a close friend of former President Bill Clinton,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Clinton talked up the company in public and endorsed it with then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu when the company was in line for a federal grant, which it later won.”
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.