Political Wire

Become a member to get many great benefits -- exclusive analysis, trending news, a private podcast, no ads and more!

Jindal Says Now Is Not Time for Gun Control Talk

July 25, 2015 at 8:16 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 62 Comments

Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) “said any conversation about new gun restrictions isn’t appropriate at this moment — while families are grieving loved ones and others still lay in the hospital as a result of the Lafayette movie theater shooting,” the New Orleans Times-Picyaune reports.

Said Jindal: “I’m sure folks will try to score political points off this tragedy, as they have tried to do off previous tragedies. It hasn’t even been 24 hours. Let’s focus on these families.”

Wonk Wire: States with gun control laws have fewer gun deaths

Lee Hopes to Use Nuclear Option to Repeal Obamacare

July 25, 2015 at 7:52 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 38 Comments

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) announced that “he plans to use a complicated procedural maneuver known as the nuclear option to repeal the Affordable Care Act with just 51 votes,” the Washington Post reports.

“Democrats famously used the strategy in 2013 to break a Republican blockade of President Obama’s nominees to fill judicial openings. Now Lee wants to use the partisan procedure get rid of Obamacare.”

“It’s unclear whether Lee’s gambit will work — but if it does, there are likely 51 senators who would vote to repeal Obama’s signature domestic achievement. The issue is whether such language can get a vote on the Senate floor to begin with.”

Priebus Says Trump Won’t Run Third Party

July 25, 2015 at 7:49 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 28 Comments

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said he does not think Donald Trump will run as a third-party candidate, The Hill reports.

Said Priebus: “I don’t think he’s going to do that. I think he knows that if you’re going to beat Hillary Clinton — if Hillary Clinton is going to get beat, there’s only one party that’s going to beat her: It’s the Republican Party.”

Vitter Slips in Louisiana Governor’s Race

July 24, 2015 at 10:17 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 17 Comments

A new Market Insight poll in Louisiana finds John Bel Edwards (D) leading the gubernatorial jungle primary with 30%, followed by David Vitter (R) at 24%, Scott Angelle (R) at 14% and Jay Dardenne (R) at 12%.

Trump Bars Iowa Newspaper from Event

July 24, 2015 at 9:58 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 23 Comments

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has denied The Des Moines Register press credentials to gain access to a candidate event scheduled for Saturday, the Des Moines Register reports.

“The reason: an editorial published by the newspaper last Tuesday calling on Trump to quit the Republican race.”

“Register political columnist Kathie Obradovich was informed Friday that she had been denied a credential to the event, a ‘family picnic’ featuring Trump… Trump’s national campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, told Obradovich in a phone call that the Register was being excluded from the event because of the editorial.”

U.S. Preparing to Release Israeli Spy

July 24, 2015 at 4:06 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 61 Comments

“The Obama administration is preparing to release convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, according to U.S. officials, some of whom hope the move will smooth relations with Israel in the wake of the Iran nuclear deal,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Such a move would end a decades long fight over Mr. Pollard, who was arrested on charges of spying for Israel in 1985 and later sentenced to life in prison. The case has long been a source of tension between the U.S. and Israel, which has argued that a life sentence for spying on behalf of a close U.S. partner is too harsh. For decades, Israel has sought Mr. Pollard’s early release only to be rejected by the U.S.”

The Trump Technique

July 24, 2015 at 3:43 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 23 Comments

Lexington: “The Trump technique involves confiding in unhappy Americans that they are victims of a plot—and a plot, what is more, that could be easily thwarted. In his telling, scheming foreign governments have outwitted a soft political elite in Washington and preyed on America’s openness and generosity. He is tapping into a political tradition with deep roots. The Know-Nothings are only one example. The ‘America First’ movement of the early 1940s accused decadent Europeans and well-connected Jews of conspiring to drag America into a new world war. In the 1960s the John Birch Society saw communist cunning at every turn.”

“To difficult questions Mr Trump offers appealingly simple solutions, starting with this most painful puzzle for conservatives: if America is the mightiest country in the world, how come it feels so weak? His answer goes beyond blaming Barack Obama and the Democrats. The fault, he insists, lies instead with the governing class in both parties, which has betrayed a great nation.”

So What Does Trump Want from Republicans?

July 24, 2015 at 2:46 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 42 Comments

The Economist: “You’d have to be astoundingly brazen to run for president, churning up toxic xenophobic sentiments, just to get the political leverage to win a huge tax break, or to build a casino or to stop somebody else’s casino. But Mr Trump is neither a meek nor public-spirited man. And, astonishingly enough, he may have actually succeeded in putting the Republican Party in a corner.”

“If cutting a sweet deal is what Mr Trump was aiming to do all along, we might have to admit that he is more than the attention-seeking buffoon he appears to be. It may be that he is a attention-seeking, buffoonish genius. In any case, Mr Trump has floated the possibility that he may try to wreck the Republican Party’s presidential chances unless it coughs up a little ‘fair’ treatment, whatever that means. If the GOP doesn’t think it can neutralize Mr Trump’s threat of a third-party run by utterly demolishing his reputation, then they’re going to have to consider a little fairness. Not a bad month’s work for Mr Trump.”

Court Says Perry Must Face Abuse of Power Charges

July 24, 2015 at 1:54 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 25 Comments

“An appeals court on Friday rejected one of the criminal counts against former Gov. Rick Perry but said he must face the other one in the abuse-of-power case against him,” the Houston Chronicle reports.

“Perry was indicted by a grand jury in 2014 after being accused of abusing his veto power to try to force out the Democratic Travis County district attorney in the wake of her messy drunken-driving arrest. The former governor, who is running for the GOP nomination for president, repeatedly failed in efforts get the indictment dismissed by state Judge Bert Richardson.”

The Latest on Wonk Wire

July 24, 2015 at 1:10 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 3 Comments

Here’s what’s trending on Wonk Wire today:

Clinton Used Private Email for Classified Information

July 24, 2015 at 12:41 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 135 Comments

“An internal government review found that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent at least four emails from her personal account containing classified information during her time heading the State Department,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

In a letter to members of Congress, the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community “concluded that Mrs. Clinton’s email contains material from the intelligence community that should have been considered ‘secret’ at the time it was sent, the second-highest level of classification.”

The Most Dangerous Man in Politics

July 24, 2015 at 11:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 28 Comments

Rick Klein: “Donald Trump is the most dangerous man in politics today, with his unlimited funds, overall showmanship, and disregard for conventional political and even human rules of interaction, coupled with his threat to bolt the Republican Party if things don’t go his way. But in dragging the campaign show – 100-odd reporters following around the white baseball cap that came out of a 1980s golf pro shop – to the Texas-Mexico border, Trump looks like he got what he wanted yet again. The focus was on immigration and the border, not on disparaging comments about Sen. John McCain’s service, or even Trump calling anyone a ‘loser’ or a ‘dummy.’ If you needed yet another exhibit in Donald Trump’s capacity to dominate the media cycle – and more on his terms than not – the images from the border, white hat and all, should suffice for a while.”

Cruz Accuses McConnell of Lying to Him

July 24, 2015 at 11:11 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 27 Comments

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in a blistering floor speech accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) of lying to him over a deal to vote on reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank, The Hill reports.

Said Cruz: “The majority looked at me and said ‘there is no deal, there is no deal, there is no deal.”

He added: “Well, we now know that when the majority leader looks us in the eyes and makes an explicit commitment that he is willing to say thing that he knows are false. That has consequences for how this body operates,” he said. “If you or I cannot trust what the majority leader tells us, that will have consequences on other legislation, as well as on how this institution operates.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

July 24, 2015 at 11:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 30 Comments

“I’m the tortoise in the race. Slow and steady progress each and every day.”

— Jeb Bush, quoted by the Washington Post.

Rand Paul Won’t Share Campaign Data with the RNC

July 24, 2015 at 9:45 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 13 Comments

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) “is the only one of the party’s candidates trying to assemble a full-fledged presidential campaign who has refused to sign a so-called data agreement with the RNC,” Bloomberg reports.

“This is a standard arrangement in both parties, designed to permit candidates to benefit from one of few durable resources in American politics: a national party’s voter database. In exchange for access to it, candidates pledge that after the election they will enrich the database by returning intelligence gathered on the electorate through their interactions with individual voters.”

Trump’s Cash Might Not Be Enough for Long Campaign

July 24, 2015 at 9:39 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 14 Comments

Although he claims he’s self-funding his campaign, Donald Trump’s “financial disclosure made public this week casts doubt on the idea that he has access to enough cash right now to spend the $1.5 billion or more it’s expected to cost to reach the White House in 2016,” Politico reports.

“Three estimates calculated after the release of the document on Wednesday put the upper limit of his cash and liquid assets at roughly $300 million. That’s plenty of money to get him a long way, but not necessarily all the way to November 2016, if he doesn’t implode first.”

Trump Admits He’s Thin-Skinned

July 24, 2015 at 9:28 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 14 Comments

Donald Trump admitted on Morning Joe that he’s “thin-skinned” when it comes to media coverage of his presidential campaign.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I’m leading in all of the polls by a lot. I was just listening to you, Joe, and you know we all love you and Mika, but I was listening to you talking about Bush and Rubio and a couple of others and you sort of forgot to mention my name even though I’m creaming them all in the polls. I don’t understand what you’re doing.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Donald, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? We’ve been talking about you for a week. What are you talking about?

TRUMP: Joe, you were talking about Kasich and you mentioned Bush and Rubio and somebody else that I won’t mention because I actually like that person.

SCARBOROUGH: What are you talking about? What are you talking about, Donald? How thin is your skin? I’ve been talking about you for a week.

TRUMP: No, no, I agree with that. But when you were talking about Bush who, by the way, is about ten points lower than me, you sort of mentioned like, you know, can Kasich beat Bush? Well, you know, excuse me, what about Trump? I mean, you know, we are ten points ahead.

SCARBOROUGH: Donald, you don’t really – You aren’t really that thin-skinned, are you?

TRUMP: Yes, oh, I’m thin-skinned.

Trump Third Party Bid Would Seriously Hurt GOP

July 24, 2015 at 9:03 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 22 Comments

Harry Enten: “Donald Trump is making noise about an independent bid for president. If the Republican National Committee doesn’t treat him fairly, Trump says, he’ll be more likely to launch a third-party run. I don’t know if he is at all serious, but I do know two things: History suggests that an independent Trump campaign would crash and fail; polling suggests that even if that happened, Trump could take the Republican candidate down with him.”