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Christie Finds Two Paths to White House Blocked

June 30, 2015 at 9:57 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 15 Comments

Gov. Chris Christie, “whose meteoric rise as a national Republican in his first term was matched only by his spectacular loss of stature at home in his second, is set to enter the 2016 presidential race on Tuesday morning bearing little resemblance to the candidate he once expected to be,” the New York Times reports.

First Read: “There are two paths to winning a party’s presidential nomination. One, you sell yourself as the right candidate to win over the base on the issues — i.e., the ideological warrior. But that was never going to be Christie’s route. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Christie had a problem with GOP primary voters BEFORE Bridge-gate. Two, you sell yourself as the person who is the most electable, the candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton — i.e., the winner. But that route for Christie looks much less promising for him than it did two years ago.”

Christie Moves to Loosen Gun Laws

June 30, 2015 at 9:43 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 9 Comments

“At 9:30 p.m. on the eve of his Republican presidential campaign kickoff, Gov. Chris Christie announced a change to state firearm policy on an issue that has been riling gun rights activists,” the Newark Star Ledger reports.

“The governor also signaled support for loosening New Jersey’s strict gun control laws.”

KKK Plans Rally at South Carolina Capitol

June 30, 2015 at 9:39 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 67 Comments

“The Ku Klux Klan will hold a rally at the S.C. State House next month to protest efforts to remove the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds,” the Columbia State reports.

The GOP Needs to Change

June 30, 2015 at 9:33 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 75 Comments

Charlie Cook: “The momentous events of the last week can be interpreted in numerous ways. But one thing has become increasingly clear: The Republican Party needs to change.”

“Simply put, Republicans are loaded up in a car, racing toward a generational cliff with their eyes focused on the rearview mirror, with many (but notably not all) oblivious to the societal changes taking place all around them and the growing wedge building between their comfort zone and presidential swing voters… Republicans need to do some soul-searching about their future and their relationships with voters of generations to come. Vibrant parties change with the times, adapt themselves to changing conditions and circumstances. Maybe this past week will help the GOP do this.”

Bush Will Release 33 Years of Tax Returns

June 30, 2015 at 7:33 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 16 Comments

Jeb Bush “is planning to release 33 years of tax returns Tuesday – the most ever by U.S. presidential candidate,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The decision to release more than three decades of financial information comes as Mr. Bush aims to demonstrate he is more transparent and accessible than his opponents, particularly Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. She has filed the financial disclosure form required for presidential candidates but has not made her tax returns public.”

Cruz Says States Should Ignore Gay Marriage Ruling

June 30, 2015 at 7:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 64 Comments

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told NPR that states should ignore the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage ruling.

Said Cruz: “Those who are not parties to the suit are not bound by it… The parties to a case cannot ignore a direct judicial order, but it does not mean that those who are not parties to a case are bound by a judicial order.”

Many Presidential Hopes Ride on New Hampshire

June 30, 2015 at 7:27 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 7 Comments

“As soon as he makes his presidential announcement tomorrow, Chris Christie will race to New Hampshire for a town hall. The embattled New Jersey governor has little choice: he has to go all-in on the Granite State,” Politico reports.

“Trouble is, he’s not alone. Jeb Bush and Rand Paul are also heavily invested in New Hampshire. So are a handful of GOP long-shots ranging from George Pataki to John Kasich, all of whom will be focusing their campaigns almost entirely on the first-in-the-nation primary state. Never before have so many White House hopefuls bet so much on a single primary.”

Chelsea Clinton Got $65K for Speech

June 30, 2015 at 7:23 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 27 Comments

The Washington Post reports Chelsea Clinton was paid $65,000 for a speech at the University of Missouri after officials balked at her month’s $275,000 fee.

“More than 500 pages of e-mails, contracts and other internal documents obtained by The Washington Post from the university under Missouri public record laws detail the school’s long courtship of the Clintons. They also show the meticulous efforts by Chelsea Clinton’s image-makers to exert tight control over the visit, ranging from close editing of marketing materials and the introductory remarks of a high school student to limits on the amount of time she spent on campus.”

Ted Cruz Praises John Roberts in Memoir

June 30, 2015 at 7:20 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 4 Comments

Sen. Ted Cruz writes in his new memoir A Time for Truth that when he was a young lawyer learning how to argue a case in the Supreme Court, he had a role model: John G. Roberts, whom he described as “a brilliant Supreme Court lawyer,” the “best advocate” of his generation, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“That would be the same John Roberts, now chief justice of the Supreme Court, that Mr. Cruz has been lambasting of late for last week’s ruling upholding a key piece of President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law.”

Meanwhile, Politico reports that Cruz accuses Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in the book of “maneuvering to dry up his fundraising and plant hit pieces in the press aimed at hurting him politically.”

U.S. Chamber Takes On Anti-Smoking Laws

June 30, 2015 at 7:18 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 17 Comments

New York Times: “From Ukraine to Uruguay, Moldova to the Philippines, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its foreign affiliates have become the hammer for the tobacco industry, engaging in a worldwide effort to fight antismoking laws of all kinds, according to interviews with government ministers, lobbyists, lawmakers and public health groups in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States.”

“The U.S. Chamber’s work in support of the tobacco industry in recent years has emerged as a priority at the same time the industry has faced one of the most serious threats in its history… Facing a wave of new legislation around the world, the tobacco lobby has turned for help to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with the weight of American business behind it.”

‘Tanned. Rested. Ready.’

June 29, 2015 at 4:03 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 82 Comments

New Orleans Times Picayune: “That’s the slogan on Gov. Bobby Jindal’s first official campaign shirt. And yes, ‘tanned’ is supposed to be a reference to Jindal’s brown skin tone.”

“Jindal used a similar line about being ‘tanned’ in his official presidential campaign launch… National media has seized on Jindal’s relationship with the Indian community, and the Jindal campaign has found some of the coverage and reporting offensive.”

Extra Bonus Quote of the Day

June 29, 2015 at 3:48 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 34 Comments

“NBC is weak, and like everybody else is trying to be politically correct— that is why our country is in serious trouble.”

— Donald Trump, quoted by The Week, after NBC severed its business relationship with him.

NBC to Donald Trump: ‘You’re Fired’

June 29, 2015 at 2:23 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 63 Comments

NBC Universal announced it had ended its relationship with Donald Trump over comments he made recently about immigrants coming over the Mexico border, Deadline Hollywood reports.

Trump will no longer host “Celebrity Apprentice” and the network also said it would no longer air the “Miss USA” and “Miss Universe” pageants on its network, which are produced with Trump.

Bonus Quote of the Day

June 29, 2015 at 2:20 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 69 Comments

“Just who do they think they are when one person can reverse 200-and-something years of precedent in our country and thousands of years of precedent in western civilization?”

— Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore (R), quoted by the Associated Press, on the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.

Trump Would Change Hair If Elected

June 29, 2015 at 2:13 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 26 Comments

Donald Trump says “if he gets elected president, he would have to change his hair style because he wouldn’t have time to maintain it,” the Des Moines Register reports.

Said Trump: “I would probably comb my hair back. Why? Because this thing is too hard to comb. I wouldn’t have time, because if I were in the White House, I’d be working my ass off.”

Behind the Collapse of the Confederate Flag

June 29, 2015 at 12:42 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 38 Comments

New York Times: “The stunningly quick collapse of support for the Confederate flag has been told largely through the public pronouncements of one governor, Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina, who persuaded the legislature to reconsider the flag’s prominent perch on the capitol grounds. But behind the scenes, powerful forces — capitalism, Christianity, social media, college sports and a Republican Party eager to extricate itself from the past — were converging. Within five days, decades of resistance in South Carolina, a state that had held fiercely to its Confederate identity, fell away.”

Quote of the Day

June 29, 2015 at 12:19 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 54 Comments

“If we don’t try to broaden out the map … we’re going to have to win with an inside straight, to use a Vegas term. Inside straight flush or whatever … I’m not a big gambler so I don’t know any gambling—does that sound stupid when you say that?”

— Jeb Bush, quoted by Bloomberg.

The Latest on Wonk Wire

June 29, 2015 at 12:18 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 2 Comments

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