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Fools on the Hill

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Just published: Fools on the Hill: The Hooligans, Saboteurs, Conspiracy Theorists and Dunces who Burned Down the House by Dana Milbank.

The Washington Post has an excerpt.

Fools on the Hill: The Hooligans, Saboteurs, Conspiracy Theorists, and Dunces Who Burned Down the House
Fools on the Hill: The Hooligans, Saboteurs, Conspiracy Theorists, and Dunces Who Burned Down the House
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Milbank, Dana (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 366 Pages - 09/24/2024 (Publication Date) - Little, Brown and Company (Publisher)
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Mike Johnson’s Secret Plan B

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“Shortly before Wednesday’s failed vote on the government spending stopgap, House Speaker Mike Johnson told senior Republicans in a private meeting that he had a Plan B — but wouldn’t tell them what it was,” Axios reports.

Trump’s Derision of Haitians Goes Back Years

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“Donald Trump had been in office for less than six months when he made clear his disdain for people from Haiti, offering a revealing prelude to his recent embrace of false rumors about Haitians eating pets in an Ohio town,” the New York Times reports.

“He insisted one afternoon in 2017 that immigrants from Haiti should not be let into the United States, shocking his chief of staff, secretary of state, homeland security secretary and others gathered in the Oval Office by declaring that people from the beleaguered nation ‘all have AIDS.'”

“Now, as he runs for a second term, Mr. Trump is once again denigrating Haitians, part of a pattern that goes back years and appears to have its roots in the early 1980s, when the Centers for Disease Control stigmatized Haitians as a particular threat in the spread of AIDS, driving years of panic about the newly discovered disease.”

Trump Accuses Fed of ‘Playing Politics’

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Donald Trump said the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point on Wednesday showed the U.S. economy was either “very bad” or the central bank was “playing politics,” the Financial Times reports.

Said Trump: “I guess it shows the economy is very bad to cut it by that much, assuming that they are not just playing politics. The economy would be very bad, or they are playing politics, one or the other. But it was a big cut.”

Pelosi Says She ‘Feels Sorry’ for McConnell

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Nancy Pelosi blasted Mitch McConnell, accusing the Senate GOP leader of failing to hold Donald Trump accountable for attempting to overturn the 2020 election, Semafor reports.

Asked if she had any advice for McConnell — who will make his own exit from party leadership but not Congress at the end of the year — Pelosi was withering: “I feel sorry for Mitch McConnell.”

GOP Funding Package Fails

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The House rejected Speaker Mike Johnson’s government funding package, a major embarrassment for the House Republican leadership, Punchbowl News reports.

The vote was 202 to 220 with two House Republicans voting present.

NOTUS: “Even if Johnson always intended to illustrate to Republicans that they have to work with Democrats to pass a funding bill — shorn of the GOP provisions on requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote — 16 defections will sting for Johnson.”

“But the embarrassment may be the point. The writing wasn’t just on the wall for the doomed fate of this bill; it was etched into the marble of the House chamber.”

Trump’s Talk of Prosecution Rattles Election Officials

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“Donald Trump’s escalating calls to investigate and prosecute election officials he sees as ‘corrupt’ are sounding alarms among democracy experts and the local and state workers preparing to run elections and tally millions of votes across the country,” the New York Times reports.

“In his refusal to accept his defeat in 2020, Mr. Trump already has accused election officials of working against him, calling them out by name on social media and spreading falsehoods about their work.”

West Coast Teamsters Endorse Harris

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“West Coast Teamsters announced their endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, just minutes after national Teamsters leadership declined to issue a presidential endorsement,” Politico reports.

“The move represents a sharp break within the powerful union’s membership in liberal states like California, where former President Donald Trump remains a widely unpopular political figure.”

Trump Media Sinks to New Low

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Trump Media closed Wednesday at a new post-merger low, on the eve of the expiration of “lockup” restrictions that have barred the Truth Social owners’ insiders, like majority shareholder Donald Trump, from selling their stakes, CNBC reports.

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.

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