A new WSJ/NBC News poll finds Donald Trump has jumped to the front of Republicans’ 2016 presidential candidate field nationally, holding that position even after a spate of incendiary comments by the real-estate magnate about Mexican migrants, other GOP candidates and party leaders.
The poll found that 19% of Republican primary voters picked Trump as their first choice, followed by 15% for Scott Walker, 14% for Jeb Bush and 10% for Ben Carson.
Vice President Joe Biden and his associates “have begun to actively explore a possible presidential campaign, which would upend the Democratic field and deliver a direct threat to Hillary Clinton, several people who have spoken to Mr. Biden or his closest advisers say,” according to the New York Times.
“Mr. Biden’s advisers have started to reach out to Democratic leaders and donors who have not yet committed to Mrs. Clinton or who have grown concerned about what they see as her increasingly visible vulnerabilities as a candidate.”
Bloomberg: “According to two people familiar with the network’s plans, candidates will get one minute to answer each question addressed to them by moderators Megyn Kelly, Chris Wallace and Bret Baier during the program, which begins at 9 p.m. Eastern time on August 6.”
“Candidates who are called upon will be given only 30 seconds for rebuttals. If a candidate’s name is invoked during someone else’s answer to a question, that candidate will get a chance to respond for a length of time at the moderator’s discretion. The campaign of one leading candidate believes after communications with Fox executives that there will not be a rigorous attempt to make sure all ten candidates get equal time to speak.”
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Donald Trump “is assembling a team of political strategists and campaign staffers charged with sustaining his lead in the Republican presidential polls,” The Hill reports.
“While strategists say Trump still got a ways to go to catch up to his rivals for the White House, he is taking aggressive steps to build a political machine, particularly in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.”
“In the strongest action ever taken in the United States to combat climate change, President Obama will unveil on Monday a set of environmental regulations devised to sharply cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from the nation’s power plants and ultimately transform America’s electricity industry,” the New York Times reports.
“The rules are the final, tougher versions of proposed regulations that the Environmental Protection Agency announced in 2012 and 2014. If they withstand the expected legal challenges, the regulations will set in motion sweeping policy changes that could shut down hundreds of coal-fired power plants, freeze construction of new coal plants and create a boom in the production of wind and solar power and other renewable energy sources.”
“I never thought I’d run for president. It’s audacious until you look at the other people.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), quoted by Melinda Henneberger.
“The fact is the Democratic Party has a problem. Their problem is that Elizabeth Warren is taking over that party. That’s who is taking over.”
— Gov. Chris Christie, quoted by The Hill.
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) revealed that “several of her adult children are living at the Governor’s mansion,” KFOR-TV reports.
“In the case of the governor’s 28-year-old daughter, she’s actually driven a travel trailer onto the property for a place to stay.”
The Guardian “has learned that Trump has joined the tier of Republican White House hopefuls to whom the DNC assigns a full-time staff member, devoted to responding to statements and pushing back against his campaign.”
“Previously, the staffer in question only had New Jersey governor Chris Christie to monitor. But as Trump’s fortunes have risen in the polls and Christie’s have fallen, the DNC has changed its focus.”
A new Gravis Marketing national poll finds Donald Trump crushing the GOP presidential field with 31%, followed by Jeb Bush at 13%, Scott Walker at 13%, Ben Carson at 6%, Mike Huckabee at 6%, Ted Cruz at 6%, Marco Rubio at 5% and John Kasich at 5%.
The New York Times looks amount of money raised by the presidential campaigns, super PACs and other PACs and nonprofits supporting each candidate.
Maureen Dowd reports that the death of Joe Biden’s son has prompted the vice president to consider a run for the White House.
“Beau was losing his nouns and the right side of his face was partially paralyzed. But he had a mission: He tried to make his father promise to run, arguing that the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values.”
Weekly Standard: “Ask this question: Who gave Maureen Down the details of the conversations between Joe Biden and his sons? The details are, after all, pretty … detailed: There are direct quotations from Beau, Hunter, and Joe; a sentence capturing the thought process of Joe; a brief description of Beau’s physical state. It’s great reporting, and it’s a story well-told; but we can ask, how did Maureen Dowd know this? Who was willing and able to give her this level of detail?”
William Saletan: “If Republicans win the White House next year, they’ll almost certainly control the entire federal government. Many of them, running for president or aspiring to leadership roles in Congress, are trying to block the nuclear deal with Iran. This would be a good time for these leaders to show that they’re ready for the responsibilities of national security and foreign policy. Instead, they’re showing the opposite. Over the past several days, congressional hearings on the deal have become a spectacle of dishonesty, incomprehension, and inability to cope with the challenges of a multilateral world.”
Hillary Clinton “released a flurry of documents Friday that included a physician’s declaration of her personal health and a batch of financial information, in a bid to rebut accusations of secrecy surrounding her presidential campaign,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The financial documents showed Mrs. Clinton and her husband earned $139 million in adjusted gross income over the past seven years, including $28 million last year, when they paid an effective tax rate of more than 35%. The release coincided with a voluminous release of Clinton emails from her time as secretary of state.”
Politico: “In a statement accompanying the returns released Friday, Clinton seemed to try to play down the multi-million-dollar figures by stressing her humble roots and her intention to overhaul the tax code.”
Donald Trump is staking his run for president in part on a vow to protect American jobs but his companies “have sought to import at least 1,100 foreign workers on temporary visas since 2000,” Reuters reports.
A new Gravis Marketing survey in Iowa finds Donald Trump way ahead of the GOP pack with 31%, followed by Scott Walker at 15%, Jeb Bush at 10%, Bobby Jindal at 7%, Mike Huckabee at 6%, Ted Cruz at 6%, Ben Carson at 5% and John Kasich at 5%.
“Billionaires are bankrolling the early days of the 2016 presidential campaign to an unprecedented degree, with at least 40 of the wealthiest Americans plowing $60 million into super PACs aligned with the top tier of candidates,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The torrent of super PAC money is revolutionizing presidential politics in the wake of a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that opened the door to unlimited contributions from corporations, unions and individuals into these outside groups.”
“In a biting surprise attack, delivered as Mr. Bush, the former Florida governor, waited backstage here at the annual convention of the National Urban League, Mrs. Clinton portrayed him as a hypocrite who had set back the cause of black Americans,” the New York Times reports.
“It was an unexpected moment of political theater that seemed to presage what could be a bitter general-election rivalry between two of the biggest names in American politics.”
Politico: “When Bush finally took the stage to address issues of race and repairing American cities, he didn’t hit back.”
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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