Political Wire

Members Get the Full Experience

  • Exclusive analysis you won’t find elsewhere
  • Real-time trending news page
  • Private Trial Balloon podcast and Inside Elections newsletter
  • No advertising

Become a member. Already a member? Log in.


Democrats Look to Governor’s Races for Rebuild

By Leave a Comment

“Shell-shocked Democrats looking to recover from 2016 see the large slate of upcoming governor’s races as their most likely path out of the political wilderness — starting in the Midwest,” Politico reports.

“Twenty-seven of the 38 governorships up in 2017 and 2018 are Republican-held, including many seats that will be open after eight years of GOP control. That means widespread opportunities for Democratic gains, as well as a critical chance for new ideas and new blood to emerge as the party seeks to identify its next generation of leaders and dig out from a low point after President-elect Donald Trump’s shocking White House win.”

“The sweeping gubernatorial map takes in virtually every national battleground state and segment of the electorate.”

GOP Lawmaker Slams Romney

By Leave a Comment

Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) slammed Mitt Romney as an “ego-maniac,” Politico reports.

Said Collins: “Well, I mean, what do I know about Mitt Romney? I know that he is a self-serving, ego-maniac who puts himself first, who has a chip on his shoulder, that thinks he should be president of the United States.”

He added: “I mean, there’s no love lost between me and Mitt Romney. I’ve called him a loser for the last six months, even though I supported him.”

Gingrich Says Transition Turning Into Reality TV Show

By Leave a Comment

Newt Gingrich, who backs Rudy Giuliani for secretary of state, told the Wall Street Journal that the search for the nation’s top diplomat is playing out a bit like Donald Trump’s longtime reality show, The Apprentice, as he publicly mulls the candidates’ skill sets and invites “audience participation.”

Said Gingrich: “It’s the only place so far that we have seen him trying to do an open apprenticeship, if you will.”

Special Offer

Get smarter about politics with exclusive insights, bonus newsletters, a private podcast and no advertising -- join Political Wire today and save 20% off an annual membership.



Quote of the Day

By Leave a Comment

“Just wanted you to know that I am thinking of you and wishing the best. For what it’s worth, I thought the move you pulled was kind of badass.”

— Jared Kushner, in a 2013 email to David Wildstein obtained by the Washington Post, amid growing evidence that Wildstein had ordered the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge to payback Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) political enemies.

Trump Said to Be ‘Furious’ at Conway

By Leave a Comment

Two sources at the top of the trump transition team confirm to MSNBC that Donald Trump was furious at Kellyanne Conway’s comments on Sunday suggesting Trump betrayed his supporters by even considering Mitt Romney for a position in his cabinet.

Said one: “Kellyanne went rogue at Donald Trump’s expense at the worst possible time.”

“Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus have reportedly been growing frustrated by Kellyanne Conway’s failure to become a team player in a transition process where the top players are forming a tight knit group around the president-elect.”

Conway pushed back telling The Hill the reporting was “sexist” and said she could have any job she wants.

The U.S. Election Unmapped

By Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

Lisa Charlotte Rost has created a really good visualization of the 2016 presidential election which shows how a series of narrow wins in key states led to Donald Trump’s victory in the Electoral College while losing the popular vote.

Join now to continue reading.

Members get exclusive analysis, bonus features and no advertising. Learn more.

If you’re already a member, sign in to your account.

How Trump’s War on the Media Hurts Democracy

By Leave a Comment

First Read: “Think about it: Every time Trump claims, without substantiation, that millions voted illegally, and every time the news media call him out for it, that only delegitimizes the media among Trump’s supporters. And then when the same media write and cover Trump’s conflicts of interests (or policy proposals or anything else), those same supporters won’t believe a word of it. Will the media be alone in this challenge? Or will members of BOTH parties decide that what’s happening to two key institutions — the press and the vote — is worth fighting for?”

Unprecedented Corruption at the Top

By Leave a Comment

Paul Krugman: “Remember all the news reports suggesting, without evidence, that the Clinton Foundation’s fund-raising created conflicts of interest? Well, now the man who benefited from all that innuendo is on his way to the White House. And he’s already giving us an object lesson in what real conflicts of interest look like, as authoritarian governments around the world shower favors on his business empire.”

“Of course, Donald Trump could be rejecting these favors and separating himself and his family from his hotels and so on. But he isn’t. In fact, he’s openly using his position to drum up business. And his early appointments suggest that he won’t be the only player using political power to build personal wealth. Self-dealing will be the norm throughout this administration. America has just entered an era of unprecedented corruption at the top.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

By Leave a Comment

“If we’re given the White House and both houses of Congress and we don’t deliver, I think there will be pitchforks and torches in the streets. And I think quite rightly. I think people are so fed up with Washington. This election was a mandate with change, and the most catastrophic thing Republicans could do is go back to business as usual.”

— Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), quoted by the Daily Beast.

What James Comey Did

By Leave a Comment

New York Review of Books: “The announcement predictably played right into the hands of Trump, who immediately took the occasion to repeat his charge that Clinton should be locked up. None of this should have happened; under long-standing Justice Department practice, Comey should have kept silent about the fact of further investigation, especially so close to an election.”

“Whether Comey’s imprudent intervention changed the outcome of the presidential election, the damage to the integrity of both the political and criminal processes has been done. The criminal process has been politicized, and the political process has been tainted by misuse of official power. The question that remains is what should happen now. At a minimum, the Justice Department policies that Comey violated must be strengthened and formalized to ensure that this never happens again.”

Trump Falsely Claims Millions Voted Illegally

By Leave a Comment

Donald Trump tweeted without evidence that millions of people voted illegally in November’s presidential election, Politico reports.

Said Trump: “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

Ezra Klein: “This tweet is an example of one of Trump’s other dangerous qualities: his tendency to believe what he wants to believe about the world, facts be damned. Trump lost the popular vote, and he lost it by a wide margin — more than 2 million votes and counting. A wise man would take that information seriously and think about how to staff his White House, set priorities, and moderate his message to win over a majority of the public. Instead, Trump appears to have told himself the vote count was riddled with fraud and that he really did win a majority of the legitimate vote — and thus he doesn’t need to consider what it means that most voters didn’t want him to win the presidency.”

Conflicts of Interest Could Bring Down Trump

By Leave a Comment

Peggy Noonan: “I don’t know if there’s anyone around him who can convince him that the attitude with which he’s operated for 50 years must end, and something wholly new and different begin.”

“But whoever does must be aware of this: The press, which wants to kill him, is going to zero in on his biggest weak spot: money, profit, the deal. Democrats too will watch like hawks. And this is understandable! Presidents shouldn’t ever give the impression things aren’t on the up and up. And Mr. Trump campaigned saying he’d dismantle the rigged system, drain the swamp, fight the racket.”

“The press does not believe, not for a second, and Democrats do not believe, not for a second, that Mr. Trump will be able to change the habits of a lifetime. They are relying on it.”

Obama and Trump Talk Regularly

By Leave a Comment

President-elect Donald Trump and President Obama have been in regular communication, CNN reports.

Said Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway: “I can tell you from President-Elect Trump’s side that he very much enjoys speaking with President Obama, talking about the serious issues that face this country and the world. They get along nicely. They disagree on many things. That’s not going to change.”

Conway Unloads on Romney

By Leave a Comment

Appointing Mitt Romney as secretary of state would be viewed by many supporters of President-elect Donald Trump as a major betrayal, former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told CNN.

Said Conway: “It’s just breathtaking in scope and intensity.”

She added: “I’m all for party unity, but I’m not sure we have to pay for that with secretary of state position.”

GOP Senators Won’t Be a Rubber Stamp

By Leave a Comment

“While much of the attention in Washington is on who will fill the Trump cabinet, it is already clear who some of the most important people will be when it comes to fulfilling the Trump agenda,” the New York Times reports.

“One group will be particularly well positioned to either accommodate or infuriate Donald Trump: a handful of independent-minded Republican senators who have shown a willingness to break with the president-elect and have readily split with their own party on issues in the past.”

“Given the narrower divide in the Senate after the election, these senators must be kept on board if Mr. Trump and the Republican majorities in the House and the Senate want to advance legislation and nominations in the face of Democratic opposition. Some are already making known their readiness to take on the new administration.”

The Hill: GOP senators wary of nuking filibuster

Watch Trump Swear at His Staff

By Leave a Comment

“Donald Trump swore at his staff, boasted about destroying people’s homes, and stuffed cash into a worker’s pocket during a trip to Scotland in 2010,” footage obtained by BuzzFeed News reveals.

“In an episode of the short-lived Golf Channel show Donald Trump’s Fabulous World Of Golf, which the channel refused to release before the U.S. election, Trump talked about getting rid of the ‘ugly’ homes surrounding his golf course and told a member of staff to ‘use his fucking brain’ or he’d be fired.”

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.

Praise for Political Wire

“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”

— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”

“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”

— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report

“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”

— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report

“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”

— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia

“Political Wire is a great, great site.”

— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”

“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”

— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post

“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”

— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit

“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”

— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.