President Trump spoke to reporters: “They’re all Democrats delays. There are delays at the airport. That’s standard.”
He added: “I look at people with very low IQs like Crockett, this woman Crockett. I’ve never met her but she’s a low IQ individual.”
“Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene isn’t backing down from her very public break with fellow Republicans on health care that shook up Washington,” NBC News reports.
Said Greene: “What I am upset over is my party has no solution. It’s not something that we talk about frequently, but it is a reality for Americans, and it’s something that I don’t think we can ignore. I want, I really want to fix it.”
New York Times: Health care politics bolster Democrats in shutdown fight.
“Democrats are largely standing by their nominee for Virginia attorney general after revelations that he once mused about killing a GOP lawmaker — worrying some in the party who want to draw a hard line against political violence and drawing accusations of hypocrisy from Republicans,” the Washington Post reports.
“Top Democrats have condemned the 2022 texts from Jay Jones but declined to join Republicans in calling for Jones to drop out, with early voting already underway in the battleground state. Republicans have quickly made the texts part of their closing pitch to voters, highlighting them in ads and attacking other Democrats for their muted responses.”
“Gold — typically a safe-haven in times of turmoil — is soaring at the same time the stock market is hitting new highs, an unusual dynamic that is troubling some market insiders,” Axios reports.
“The rally in gold reflects investors’ desire to diversify away from dollar-denominated assets as trust in the U.S. slowly erodes, they say.”
“Gold futures on Tuesday topped a record high of over $4,000 an ounce for the first time, putting the precious metal on track for its best year since 1979 — a year of double-digit inflation, a Mideast oil crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. So far this year, the price of gold is up 51%.”
Wall Street Journal: Gold rally points to eroding faith in central banks worldwide.
“American soybean farmers are in panic mode as they harvest what is expected to be a bumper crop without their biggest customer: China,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“A host of alternative jobs data from Wall Street are pointing in the same direction: The U.S. labor market is losing steam,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“These numbers are getting more attention while the federal government shutdown keeps the lights off at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, delaying new data in an unsettled time for the jobs market.”
“In the federal data void, Bank of America this week said it is seeing signs of rising unemployment and slowing job growth in its customers’ data. Private-equity company Carlyle Group, extrapolating from companies in which it owns stakes, said Tuesday that it thinks overall U.S. jobs growth slid in September from an already weak official reading in August. Goldman Sachs said its measure of labor-market tightness fell last month back to levels seen in 2015, indicating a tough landscape for job seekers.”
“Local and state politicians railed Tuesday against the Trump administration’s federalization of the National Guard in Illinois as hundreds of guardsmen gathered and protesters vowed to continue to challenge their presence,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, speaking in Minneapolis, suggested that President Trump’s actions are a precursor to trying to intimidate Democratic voters ahead of next year’s midterm elections.”
Said Pritzker: “He wants us all, in big cities, to get used to the idea that it’s OK to have military on the streets. You are going to see soldiers outside your polling place. That’s going to intimidate a lot of people. And especially it’s going to intimidate people who are not Republicans.”
Playbook: “At 10 a.m. this morning, former FBI Director James Comey will appear in a Virginia courthouse to face federal charges. The hearing will be brief. Comey will be formally charged with lying to Congress and with obstruction of justice, and he will plead not guilty. A trial date may be set. The whole thing should be over in a few minutes.”
“But this is a momentous day for America — and not just because Comey is the first former FBI chief to be arraigned since Richard Nixon’s fall guy L. Patrick Gray in 1978. (The charges against Gray were later dropped.) Today’s proceedings matter because after years of threats, Trump is following through on something he has long vowed to do: criminally prosecute his political foes. It’s a moment many believed would never come.”
Punchbowl News: “One week from today, Oct. 15, some 1.3 million active duty service members will miss their next scheduled paycheck if nothing is done first. Tens of thousands of deployed or full-time National Guard members and thousands of Coast Guard personnel face the same threat.”
“There needs to be some resolution to the funding impasse by Monday, Oct. 13, for military personnel to get paid. That’s not looking promising.”
“Do not do it. I repeat. Do not do it. There will be no coming back from that. I repeat again. For the love of God. Do Not Do It.”
— Laura Loomer, on X, warning President Trump not to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell.
“Let’s do the fucking news.”
— Bari Weiss, quoted by Semafor, after introducing herself to CBS News staff as their new editor in chief.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) accused President Trump of deploying National Guard troops to the Democratic cities of Chicago and Portland based on fixations that stem in part from his being mentally impaired, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Said Pritzker: “This is a man who’s suffering dementia.”
The Independent: New conspiracies over Trump’s health swirl after text interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“One week into the government shutdown, top Republican leaders appear to have lost the plot,” Politico reports.
“President Donald Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are straining to project a united front against Democrats, just barely concealing tensions over strategy that have snowballed behind the scenes since agencies closed last week.”
“The Trump administration’s strategy to swiftly roll out mass layoffs of federal workers during the government shutdown has shifted in recent days, as an increasing number of Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officials acknowledge the potential political perils of the move,” CNN reports.
“Members of Congress in both parties bristled Tuesday at a White House memo arguing that federal workers who have been furloughed as part of the government shutdown are not necessarily entitled to back pay,” Axios reports.
“The threat has had little apparent impact with its intended target — congressional Democrats — who expressed confidence that President Trump would ultimately lose any legal fight to deny shutdown pay.”
Said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD): “The law is simply not on the side of Trump’s threats to withhold pay from federal employees that he somehow disfavors.”
Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) is preparing as soon as next week to announce her campaign for the U.S. Senate, Axios reports.
“An announcement from Mills, a two-term popular governor, would mark another recruiting victory for Democratic leaders. But it also would set off another complicated Democratic primary pitting the party’s establishment and progressive wings against each other.”
President Trump called Democrats “insurrectionists” Tuesday and slammed the left for what he described as “kamikaze” attacks on America, invoking increasingly warlike rhetoric to describe the opposition party, Axios reports.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) questioned Attorney General Pam Bondi at a Senate hearing:
WHITEHOUSE: There’s been public reporting that Jeffrey Epstein showed people photos of President Trump with half-naked young women. Do you know if the FBI found those photographs?
BONDI: You sit here and make salacious remarks once again trying to slander President Trump left and right. When you’re the one who was taking money from one of Epstein’s closest confidants, I believe…
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.