Political Wire

  • Front Page
  • Sign in
  • Members
    • Monthly – $6 a month
    • Annual – $60 a year
    • Member Benefits
    • Account
    • Exclusive Analysis
    • Member Library
    • My Favorites
  • Resources
    • Political Calendar
    • Political Job Hunt
    • Political Dictionary
    • Electoral Vote Map
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Archives for 2016 Campaign

Why Trump Was Friendly to Vladimir Putin

September 8, 2020 at 11:29 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Michael Cohen writes in his new tell-all book that Donald Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin during the 2016 presidential campaign because he assumed he would lose the election and wanted to make sure he could borrow money from Russian sources for his real estate empire, NBC News reports.

Also interesting: “When a Russian oligarch bought Trump’s mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2008 for nearly double what Trump paid for it — a $50 million profit — Trump believed Putin was secretly funding the deal.”

Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump
Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Cohen, Michael (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 439 Pages - 09/08/2020 (Publication Date) - Skyhorse (Publisher)
Buy on Amazon

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign, Political Books

What Mueller Missed About Trump and Russia

September 3, 2020 at 10:06 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

James Risen looks at the final Senate Intelligence Committee report that was dumped just before the conventions and hasn’t gotten enough media attention.

“When Donald Trump traveled to Moscow in November 1996, looking for real estate development opportunities, he didn’t get a hotel deal in Moscow, but he may have found a new woman, and the Russian government probably knew about it, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s remarkable new report on the committee’s three and a half year investigation into Trump and Russia.”

“Trump met the Russian woman through his business connections at a party at a luxury hotel in Moscow, and the two apparently had a brief affair, at a time when Trump was married to his second wife, Marla Maples. The Senate report has redacted the woman’s name and blacked out her face in photos taken of her with Trump at the time and provided to the committee. But the report explains in detail how Russian intelligence operatives keep track of the sexual activities of visiting foreign business executives, and notes that the Moscow-based U.S. businessman who introduced Trump to the woman probably told Russian government officials about it.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign, Foreign Affairs

Bonus Quote of the Day

September 1, 2020 at 11:31 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I think I did win the popular vote. There was tremendous cheating in California. There was tremendous cheating in New York and other places.”

— President Trump, in an interview on Fox News, falsely claiming he won the popular vote in 2016.

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign

Why Biden Is Leading

August 27, 2020 at 5:19 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Amy Walter: “This week I dug into the most recent national poll from Pew Research and compared it with the results of their 2016 validated vote survey (basically, a post-election exit poll that uses official voting records). What you find is that Trump is hitting his 2016 share of the vote among most demographic groups. But, he’s not grown beyond those voters. Instead, it’s Biden who has improved markedly on Clinton’s 2016 performance.”

“Now, the all-important caveat. The voter validated survey is of people who actually voted in 2016, while the July-August survey is of registered voters. In other words, some of the people in the July-August survey may not vote, while everyone in the 2016 survey did. But, it does help give us some perspective on how Trump is performing with key demographic groups compared to how he did with them in 2016.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign, 2020 Campaign

The Real Backstory of Jerry Falwell’s Trump Endorsement

August 24, 2020 at 3:50 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

Your support makes this site possible. Join today for the complete Political Wire experience and get exclusive analysis, new features and no advertising.

Sign in to your account or join today!

If you’re already signed in and still seeing this message, your subscription has expired. To renew your membership, navigate to your account, adjust your credit card information and click Renew Now.

Join for just $6 a month or $60 a year.

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign, Dirty Tricks, Members

Trump Admitted Blacks Not Voting Helped Him Win

August 21, 2020 at 3:45 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Independent has audio of Donald Trump meeting with Black leaders just days before his inauguration where he boasted of receiving more African-American votes than the two previous GOP presidential candidates — while also benefiting from some Black people not voting at all.

Said Trump: “I got many more votes than Romney, many more votes than McCain… we ended up with 11 per cent… and I’ll tell you, it’s much more if you add — many blacks didn’t go out to vote for Hillary because they liked me — that was almost as good as getting the vote.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign

Only the Best People

August 20, 2020 at 11:13 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Phillip Bump notes Donald Trump’s first 2016 campaign manager was arrested for battery after grabbing a reporter in 2016.

His second campaign manager went to prison on a variety of federal charges stemming from the Mueller probe.

His third campaign manager was just indicted on federal fraud charges.

Axios: “Bannon’s indictment makes him the sixth person linked to the senior leadership of the 2016 Trump campaign to be hit with federal charges. The others are Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen — all of whom faced indictments under the Mueller investigation.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign

What Trump Is Asking You to Believe

August 18, 2020 at 2:07 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

Your support makes this site possible. Join today for the complete Political Wire experience and get exclusive analysis, new features and no advertising.

Sign in to your account or join today!

If you’re already signed in and still seeing this message, your subscription has expired. To renew your membership, navigate to your account, adjust your credit card information and click Renew Now.

Join for just $6 a month or $60 a year.

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign, Members

Manafort Used Many Encrypted Messaging Apps

August 18, 2020 at 12:29 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The final Senate Intelligence Committee report finds Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort used ten different encrypted messaging apps, including WhatsApp, Wickr, Signal, Threema, Skype, Snapchat, Fiber, Hushmail, WeChat and Voxer.

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign, Political Consultants

Roger Stone Coordinated Timing of Wikileaks Dump

August 18, 2020 at 10:32 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The final Senate Intelligence Committee report on Russian interference in the 2016 election has some damning details about the day the infamous Access Hollywood tape was released, Politico reports.

The Trump campaign team knew about the tape an hour before its release. Roger Stone then told Jerome Corsi to get Julian Assange at Wikileaks to “drop the Podesta emails immediately.”

WikiLeaks did so about 30 minutes after the tape was published.

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign

Senate Details ‘Aggressive’ Russian Attack on Election

August 18, 2020 at 9:42 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Senate Intelligence Committee released its fifth and final report on Russia’s “aggressive, multifaceted effort” to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

This seems particularly damning:

Manafort hired and worked increasingly closely with a Russian national, Konstantin Kilimnik. Kilimnik is a Russian intelligence officer. Kilimnik became an integral part of Manafort’s operations in Ukraine and Russia, serving as Manafort’s primary liaison to Deripaska and eventually managing Manafort’s office in Kyiv. Kilimnik and Manafort formed a close and lasting relationship that endured to the 2016 U.S. elections. and beyond.

Axios: “On numerous occasions, Manafort sought to pass sensitive internal polling data and campaign strategy to Kilimnik. The committee was unable to determine why or what Kilimnik did with that information. The committee did, however, obtain ‘some information’ suggesting Kilimnik ‘may have been connected’ to Russia’s hacking and leaking of Democratic emails.”

The bottom line:

Taken as a whole, Manafort’s high level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services, particularly Kilimnik and associates of Oleg Deripaska, represented a grave counterintelligence threat.

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign

Trump Insider Led Effort to Remove Him from Ballot

August 17, 2020 at 2:19 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A powerful Republican central to the president’s 2020 reelection bid was part of a more concerted effort than previously known to remove him from the ballot in 2016,” Business Insider reports.

“The maneuvers of Katie Walsh and, to a lesser degree, her husband, Mike Shields, have been discussed quietly among some of President Trump’s closest advisers for years. They have both served in powerful posts, including in the White House and the Republican National Committee. Some of those advisers have debated whether the two actually want to help the president or whether they simply want to cash in on their access to Trump.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign, 2020 Campaign

Wicked Game

August 8, 2020 at 10:58 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Out just before the election: Wicked Game: An Insider’s Story on How Trump Won, Mueller Failed, and America Lost by Rick Gates.

“Rick Gates, who served as Donald Trump’s deputy campaign chairman in 2016 and as a cooperating witness in the Mueller investigation, gives readers a rare, in-depth look at one of the most controversial elections—and presidents—in U.S. history.”

Wicked Game: An Insider's Story on How Trump Won, Mueller Failed, and America Lost
Wicked Game: An Insider's Story on How Trump Won, Mueller Failed, and America Lost
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Gates, Rick (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 226 Pages - 10/13/2020 (Publication Date) - Post Hill Press (Publisher)
Buy on Amazon

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign, Political Books

‘Are the Russians Bad?’

July 25, 2020 at 7:35 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

When the FBI gave candidate Donald Trump his first intelligence briefing in 2016 and warned that foreign agents might try to infiltrate his campaign, Trump asked, “Are the Russians bad?” according to an official summary of the meeting, the HuffPost reports.

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign, Foreign Affairs

Two Crimes That Helped Trump Win In 2016

July 15, 2020 at 1:23 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “A porn star was paid to keep silent about her alleged dalliance years earlier with a presidential candidate, which a judge has agreed was an illegal violation of campaign finance laws.”

“The private emails of Democrats were stolen and published, which prosecutors have said was an illegal intervention into the U.S. political system by foreign operatives.”

“The two crimes were undertaken to help Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016. They led to the indictment or conviction of 13 men, including Trump’s personal attorney. But for nearly four years, Trump has bullied, browbeaten and litigated his way out of efforts to pin down whether he had involvement in or knowledge of the illicit actions that were undertaken to help his presidential campaign.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign

No Hoax

July 13, 2020 at 9:01 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

First Read has the “indisputable” facts on the Russia investigation:

  1. Trump and his campaign asked for Russia’s help in the 2016 presidential race.
  2. Trump and his campaign got that help — in a contest decided by fewer than 80,000 votes in three states.
  3. Roger Stone lied about his contacts with Russian intelligence and WikiLeaks.
  4. The president commuted Stone’s prison sentence, despite White House aides disagreeing with the move.
  5. And Stone admitted his objective was protecting Trump.

“Yes, some of the liberal theories about Russia investigation never came to pass (Michael Cohen didn’t travel to Prague; that ‘pee tape’ appears to be fantasy).”

“And, yes, Mueller concluded that his investigation didn’t establish ‘that that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.’ (Though note he said ‘Russian government’ and not intermediaries like WikiLeaks.)”

“But what did happen was a bigger scandal — involving a foreign adversary — than we can remember for any recent administration or major presidential campaign.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign

Tuberville Could Not Have Voted for Trump

July 10, 2020 at 2:29 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Despite claiming many times he voted for Donald Trump for president, Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Tuberville’s voter registration was cancelled in August 2016 due to inactivity, according to Ryan James Girdusky.

He had registered in the state of Indiana but never voted there, so they kicked him off the voter rolls.

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign, 2020 Campaign Tagged With: AL-Sen

Rallies Didn’t Help Trump Win Key States In 2016

June 26, 2020 at 11:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Alan Abramowitz: “Trump campaigned more times in more states than Hillary Clinton in 2016. However, a regression analysis of the 2016 results does not show rallies having a significant impact on that election’s results.”

“Campaigns may derive indirect benefits from rallies, though, such as voter contacts, press coverage, and donations. But there’s not much evidence to show that the number of rallies in a given state had an impact on the results.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 721
  • Next Page »

Your Account

Sign in

Latest for Members

  • It Comes Down to Mitch McConnell
  • The GOP Is Headed Towards Collapse

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.

Praise for Political Wire

“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”

— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”

“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”

— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report

“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”

— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report

“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”

— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia

“Political Wire is a great, great site.”

— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”

“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”

— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post

“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”

— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit

“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”

— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.

Copyright © 2021 · Goddard Media LLC | Privacy Policy

Political Wire ® is a registered trademark of Goddard Media LLC