The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that five of the presidential candidates have ties to the Pittsburgh area: Rick Santorum, John Kasich, Rand Paul, Martin O’Malley and Carly Fiorina.
“President James Buchanan is the only Pennsylvanian to hold the office, but with five hopefuls among 21 announced or likely candidates tracing roots to the state, that could change.”
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has taken a “no apologies” approach to inflammatory remarks and controversies, but one of his personal aides had some regrets, the New York Times reports.
“Michael Cohen, who is special counsel to Mr. Trump, said that it was a moment of ‘shock and anger’ that led him to suggest that rape could not occur between spouses. Mr. Cohen… was defending his boss after a Daily Beast report about the businessman’s relationship with his first wife, Ivana. The report described a previously reported episode between the two in 1989 that Mrs. Trump once described as rape.”
President Obama asserted that “he could win a third term if allowed by the Constitution, but said he was looking forward to life after the presidency, when he will be able to take a walk and spend more time with his family,” the New York Times reports.
Said Obama: “I actually think I’m a pretty good president. I think if I ran, I could win.”
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“Donald Trump’s celebrity — and intrigue as to how the other Republican candidates will deal with his presence — could deliver a ratings boost for the first GOP debate, set for Fox News on Aug. 6,” The Hill reports.
“The audience will not be as big as the first season finale of Trump’s NBC series The Apprentice, when 28 million viewers tuned in, but the interest around him, together with the rebukes he has drawn from other Republican contenders, could at least spike viewership beyond what would otherwise be expected.”
Here’s what’s trending on Wonk Wire today:
Only the top 10 GOP candidates in an average of the last five national polls will get a podium on the debate state on August 6. First Read crunched the numbers as they look today:
Not making the cut:
Rick Klein: “This hectic week-plus before the first Republican debate may be remembered for Mike Huckabee’s Auschwitz memoires, Lindsey Graham’s new cell phone, and maybe even Donald Trump’s trip across the pond to catch some golf. It might also be remembered as the period in time that Jeb Bush found the campaign groove he’s long promised – the one where he shows, in his words, a willingness to ‘lose the primary to win the general.'”
“Bush gave a Spanish-language interview denouncing Trump, jabbed at a certain former candidate famous for ‘self-deportation,’ and embraced a centrist’s vision of bipartisanship, as the New York Times’ Jonathan Martin documents. More interestingly, perhaps, he chose to engage and respond to Huckabee’s comments on the Iran deal – a deal, of course, that he harshly opposes: ‘The use of that kind of language, it’s just wrong,’ Bush said. Attacking fellow Republicans isn’t by itself a path to a nomination, as Bush and his team know. But it’s a calculation that there’s room for a grown-up in the chaos that is the nomination fight right now.”
“Imagine a NASCAR driver mentally preparing for a race knowing one of the drivers will be drunk. That’s what prepping for this debate is like.”
— GOP strategist John Weaver, on Twitter.
A new Monmouth poll in New Hampshire finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 24%, followed by Jeb Bush at 12%, John Kasich at 7%, Scott Walker at 7%, Marco Rubio at 6%, Ben Carson at 5% and Rand Paul at 5%.
“Setting ambitious goals for producing energy from the sun, wind and other renewable sources, Hillary Clinton seized on an issue Monday that increasingly resonates with Democratic voters and sets up a stark contrast with the Republican presidential field,” the New York Times reports.
“With many Republican candidates saying they do not believe that climate change is a threat or requires government intervention, Mrs. Clinton assailed their logic, saying, ‘The reality of climate change is unforgiving no matter what the deniers say.’ She set a goal to produce 33 percent of the nation’s electricity from renewable sources by 2027, up from 7 percent today — a higher goal than the 20 percent that President Obama has called for by 2030.”
Wonk Wire: A close examination of Clinton’s plan
Bloomberg finds Donald Trump is worth $2.9 billion and not the $10 billion he claims.
“The Bloomberg index values the real estate based on income it currently produces. Trump’s retail spaces could fetch higher rents if vacated and leased to new tenants at prevailing rates. It doesn’t value Trump’s brand beyond accounting for cash held in accounts for his licensing deals and business partnerships. Trump’s own estimations include much higher values for his brand.”
“Four leading GOP presidential candidates – Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker – are traveling to a Southern California luxury hotel in coming days to make their cases directly to the Koch brothers and hundreds of other wealthy conservatives planning to spend close to $1 billion in the run-up to the 2016 election,” Politico reports.
Mike Huckabee told the Today Show that if he was president, he would use the same language when referring to potential deals with Iran — and that the response from Jewish people to his controversial comments has been “overwhelmingly positive.”
Said Huckabee: “We need to use strong words when people make strong threats.”
A LA Jewish Journal survey finds that 48% of Jewish Americans support the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration while 28% oppose it and 25% hadn’t heard enough to form an opinion.
Jon Stewart “slipped unnoticed into the White House in the midst of the October 2011 budget fight, summoned to an Oval Office coffee with President Obama that he jokingly told his escort felt like being called into the principal’s office,” Politico reports.
“In February 2014, Obama again requested Stewart make the trip from Manhattan to the White House, this time for a mid-morning visit hours before the president would go before television cameras to warn Russia that ‘there will be costs’ if it made any further military intervention in Ukraine.”
“To engage privately with the president in his inner sanctum at two sensitive moments — previously unreported meetings that are listed in the White House visitor logs and confirmed to Politico by three former Obama aides — speaks volumes about Stewart and his reach, which goes well beyond the million or so viewers who tune into The Daily Show on most weeknights.”
A new CNN/ORC poll finds 49% of American voters approve of the way President Obama is handling his job, 47% disapprove, about the same as in a June survey.
“But on the President’s biggest accomplishment since then — the nuclear agreement reached between the U.S., its allies and Iran — most say they would like to see Congress reject it. Overall, 52% say Congress should reject the deal, 44% say it should be approved.”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) “backed down on Monday from a controversial plan to appeal to allow a simple-majority vote to repeal Obamacare, following a meeting in which he apologized to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for the actions of a Lee staffer,” the Washington Post reports.
“Lee abandoned his plan after first offering to give up in exchange for a later repeal vote as part of budget reconciliation and failing to find support from leadership. The Utah Republican clashed with McConnell and other party leaders over his plan to try and overturn Senate rules and force a simple-majority vote, known as the “nuclear option,” on an amendment to the must-pass highway funding bill.”
Donald Trump “has sold his penthouse unit in New York’s Trump Park Avenue building for $21 million,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Trump was the first and only owner of the unit, located on the 24th floor of the 32-story tower, though he never lived there. It has 10-foot ceilings, five bedrooms, seven bathrooms and one powder room. The 6,200-square-foot unit was listed for $35 million in 2013; it was last offered at $24.995 million, according to public records.”
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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