Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told Axios he is exploring a new career that includes connecting the next-frontier worlds of space and AI with Washington.
McCarthy has been friends with Elon Musk for about a decade, and says he could imagine working with him or other future-tech moguls.
“Airbnb will announce Monday that Ron Klain — former White House chief of staff, and one of Washington’s best-connected Democrats — will join the company as chief legal officer on Jan. 1,” Axios reports.
“It’s a surprise twist for the storied career of Klain, who remains a confidant of President Biden, with a big behind-the-scenes voice in his re-election campaign.”
“MyPillow is auctioning off hundreds of pieces of equipment and subleasing manufacturing space after several shopping networks and major retailers took the company’s products off shelves,” the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
“Major retailers such as Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond and Slumberland Furniture all said they will no longer sell MyPillow products as CEO Mike Lindell continues to falsely claim that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.”
Get 20% off an Annual, Family or Inner Circle membership using coupon code 0020PD.
Today only!
Wall Street Journal: “Travel analysts and advisers say traffic to Disney’s U.S. parks, and some rival parks, has slowed this summer. Data from a travel company that tracks line-waiting time at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., shows that the Independence Day weekend was one of the slowest in nearly a decade.”
“Disney faces a unique set of challenges right now, from streaming losses to executive succession to a political and legal fight with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Revenue from its parks division has long been a bright spot for the company, buoying overall earnings.”
New York Times: “The business of being Chris Christie has received only sporadic attention since he left public office. But his latest enterprise — a presidential campaign bent on taking down former President Donald Trump, a man he once endorsed and advised — has cast a new light on his success.”
“A close review of corporate and government records as well as interviews with more than 30 people familiar with his lobbying and consulting work shows Mr. Christie has profited from his relationship to the man he now wants to defeat, as well as from the political profile he gained in eight years as New Jersey’s governor.”
“Mr. Christie has made millions from interests wanting to leverage his political ties, including pharmaceutical, medical and sports betting companies, like DraftKings — whose hiring of Mr. Christie has not been previously reported. Some had business with the state when Mr. Christie was governor, and saw him as a reliable advocate for their bottom line, while others were interested in tapping into his close association with Mr. Trump and the Trump administration.”
Wall Street Journal: “Bud Light’s sales have tanked since April, when transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney posted an image on Instagram of a personalized Bud Light can that the brand had sent her as a gift.”
“The Instagram post sparked an uproar, and brewer Anheuser-Busch’s response to the boycott angered even more people.”
Wall Street Journal: “With one blunder after another, the brewing giant behind the brand became a case study in how not to handle a culture-war storm.”
An amazing statistic from a Washington Post profile of Jeff Roe, founder of the GOP consulting firm Axion Strategies: “Axiom now captures at least 63% of every dollar spent by its campaigns, versus less than 10% as just general consultant.”
“In the 2022 cycle, Roe told investors his firm, which also has corporate clients, had taken in $196 million in net revenue, while earning more than $22 million as profit after depreciation and taxes. By 2024, he said those numbers would climb to $250 million and about $36 million in profit.”
“The scale of that revenue — which both allies and detractors consider staggering within the Washington consulting class — underscores the extent to which Roe has rapidly become a major player in the Republican political consulting world, guiding the campaigns of thousands of candidates in recent years, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars and building a lengthy list of clients.”
New York Times: “A group of conservative operatives using sophisticated robocalls raised millions of dollars from donors using pro-police and pro-veteran messages.”
“But instead of using the money to promote issues and candidates, nearly all the money went to pay the firms making the calls and the operatives themselves, highlighting a flaw in the regulation of political nonprofits.”
Bud Light sales are down 26% after the fallout from a social media promotion featuring a transgender influencer, Barron’s reports.
“The fight between Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and the Walt Disney Company is headed to court,” the New York Times reports.
“On Wednesday, a board appointed by Mr. DeSantis to oversee government services at Disney World voted to nullify two agreements that gave Disney vast control over expansion at the 25,000-acre resort complex. Within minutes, Disney sued Mr. DeSantis, the five-member board and other state officials in federal court, claiming ‘a targeted campaign of government retaliation.’”
CNBC: “The lawsuit dramatically escalates the drawn-out feud between DeSantis, who is expected to become a top Republican contender for the 2024 presidential race, and Disney, Florida’s largest employer.”
NBC News: “An early primary could add $1.12 billion to Georgia’s economy, according to a new economic impact report prepared by economist Tom Smith of Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, who has studied the economic impact of major sporting and cultural events on local economies.”
“The 26-page report, commissioned by Democrats and first shared with NBC News, estimates that a 12-candidate field would bring $220 million in direct spending from campaigns, PACs and media outlets, from TV ads and staff members’ salaries to hotel, car, office and event space rentals to extra business for restaurants, caterers and more.”
“Donald Trump, the ex-president, is about to make history as the first former POTUS to be criminally charged. But Donald Trump, the 2024 presidential candidate, isn’t about to let the buzz around his booking go to waste — and he may include using his mugshot in a large campaign marketing blitz,” Rolling Stone reports.
“In recent days, some of Trump’s close aides and advisers have pushed the ex-president to turn his mugshot into fuel for a fundraising drive, or as a potent new symbol on 2024 campaign merchandise.”
“Wealth funds in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have invested hundreds of millions of dollars with Jared Kushner’s private equity firm, joining Saudi Arabia in backing the venture launched by former President Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law as he left the White House,” the New York Times reports.
“The infusion of money from interests in the two rival Persian Gulf monarchies reflects the continued efforts by Mr. Trump and his aides and allies to profit from the close ties they built to the Arab world during his presidency and the desire of leaders in the region to remain on good terms with Mr. Kushner as his father-in-law seeks the presidency again.”
“A network of political non-profits formed by judicial activist Leonard Leo moved at least $43 million to a new firm he is leading, raising questions about how his conservative legal movement is funded,” Politico reports.
“Leo’s own personal wealth appeared to have ballooned as his fundraising prowess accelerated since his efforts to cement the Supreme Court’s conservative majority helped to bring about its decision to overturn abortion rights. Most recently, Leo reaped a $1.6 billion windfall from a single donor in what is likely the biggest single political gift in U.S. history.”
“There’s good news for Biden appointees eyeing the exits: Unlike your predecessors from Donald Trump’s chaotic administration, you’re in demand in the private sector,” Politico reports.
“While the 46th president has presided over comparatively little turnover in his two up-and-down years in office, this month’s announcement that White House chief of staff Ron Klain would depart seemed to sound the starting gun on the period when insiders naturally start contemplating life on the outside. And though the scramble is only just starting, the prospects are much better than most people might have expected in the crisis environment of 2020.”
Bloomberg has a fun quiz to test your ability to pick out a Democrat or Republican based on their campaign logos.
New York Times: “American entrepreneurs have long mixed their business and political interests. But no one in recent memory has fused the two quite as completely as Mr. Lindell. In less than two years, the infomercial pitchman has transformed his company into an engine of the election denial movement, using his personal wealth and advertising dollars to propel the falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.”
“In the process, Mr. Lindell has secured a platform for his conspiracy theories — and a devoted base of consumers culled from the believers.”
ProPublica has a deep dive on other funders of the election denial movement.
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.
“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.