“Leading Novak Djokovic sponsor Lacoste has said it plans to ‘review’ the events that led to the tennis star’s deportation from Australia, highlighting the potential fallout for athletes who remain unvaccinated against Covid-19,” the Financial Times reports.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports Djokovic got a “hero’s welcome” upon his return to Serbia.
“Novak Djokovic risks being frozen out of tennis as he chases a record 21st Grand Slam title, with rules on travelers who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 tightening in the third year of the pandemic and some tournaments reconsidering exemptions,” Reuters reports.
“The Serbian, who has not been vaccinated, was deported from Australia on Sunday ahead of the Australian Open after losing a court case to have the cancellation of his visa overturned.”
Meanwhile, Axios reports that all athletes must be vaccinated to compete in sporting events held in France, including the French Open in May.
“The day before the Australian Open was set to begin, Novak Djokovic, possibly the greatest tennis player of all time, ran up against a group of determined opponents that no amount of talent, training, money or willpower could overcome,” the New York Times reports.
“He lost his final bid to stay in Australia on Sunday when a three-judge panel upheld the government’s decision to cancel his visa.”
“More broadly, he lost to a government determined to make him a symbol of unvaccinated celebrity entitlement; to an immigration law that gives godlike authority to border enforcement; and to a public outcry over what was widely seen as Djokovic’s reckless disregard for others, particularly after he said that he had tested positive for Covid last month and met with two journalists anyway.”
“Tennis star Novak Djokovic has left Australia after losing his legal challenge to remain in the country and compete in the Australian Open despite not being vaccinated against the coronavirus,” the Washington Post reports.
“Former American Idol star Clay Aiken announced that he is making a second bid for a congressional seat from North Carolina, this time seeking the Democratic nod in a more liberal district than eight years ago,” the Washington Post reports.
Daily Beast: “Back in 2015, when Amber Heard and Johnny Depp got into some hot water for bring their dogs to Australia, the then-agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, threatened to have the animals euthanized.”
“Fast-forward six years, and Heard apparently still bears a grudge. She took to Twitter to introduce her newest dog and announce that she had named him… Barnaby Joyce.”
On hearing the news, Joyce said: “I get a real sense of accomplishment that I’m still in her head long after I’ve forgotten about them… Obviously, I now rate above Johnny Depp.”
Ruby Cramer has a must-read profile of the fallen lawyer:
“To ask Michael Avenatti to explain what happened is both vivid and vexing. The details of the last three years come easily — dates, names, locations, tweets, dinners, his thoughts at the time. It’s the big picture that causes difficulty… His main contention, his genuine belief, is that he would never have been pursued by federal prosecutors in three separate cases, on two coasts, held in solitary confinement alongside suspected terrorists and national security threats, if his name were not Michael Avenatti.”
Former Disney CEO Bob Iger told Variety he’s not going to run for president.
Said Iger: “Looking back on it, I think I was a little bit too idealistic. I think I was just really naive and maybe a bit presumptuous about my abilities, but more than that just presumptuous about my chances. And I’m just over it.”
NASCAR driver Brandon Brown doesn’t like the “Let’s Go Brandon” meme that bears his name, telling the New York Times that he has “zero desire to be involved in politics.”
“I believe in the rights that the Democrats want, but I believe in the taxes that the Republicans want.”
— Kim Kardashian, quoted by Bari Weiss.
Guests to a holiday party at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s home were told on their invitation they needed to be vaccinated in order to attend, Politico reports.
Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine advocate, said his wife made the invitation: “I guess I’m not always the boss at my own house.”
Daily Beast: “New documents show Kanye West’s doomed White House campaign—styled as an ‘independent’ third-party effort—appears to have disguised potentially millions of dollars in services it received from a secretive network of Republican Party operatives, including advisers to the GOP elite and a managing partner at one of the top conservative political firms in the country.”
“Potentially even more alarming? The Kanye 2020 campaign committee did not even report paying some of these advisers, and used an odd abbreviation for another—moves which campaign finance experts say appear designed to mask the association between known GOP operatives and the campaign, and could constitute a violation of federal laws.”
Elon Musk has been named Time magazine’s 2021 Person of the Year.
With a filing deadline looming, Matthew McConaughey told the Hollywood Reporter that he’ll let the public know “shortly” whether he’ll enter the Texas gubernatorial race.
Billionaire Peter Thiel anonymously purchased former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s Washington, D.C. home for $13 million, Politico reports.
The purchase of the splashy new Washington residence comes amid a burst of political activity for Thiel.
Matthew McConaughey, who continues to hint at running for Texas Governor, told the New York Times that “he believes that politics can be art — and he happens to be an artist.”
Howard Stern says he could launch a White House bid in 2024 against former President Trump, quipping he knows he’ll “beat his ass,” The Hill reports.
“I would just sit there and play that fucking clip of him trying to fix the election, over and over again… There’s no way I’d lose.”
“President Biden welcomed the Milwaukee Bucks, the NBA’s 2021 champion, at the White House for a ceremony Monday, a return for a tradition that was briefly halted during the Trump administration,” Axios reports.
☑️ Life in the Middle: Marginalized Moderate Senators In the Era of Polarization is available on Amazon. It takes a deep dive into the power of moderates and why we see them behave so precariously.
☑️ SECRETS by Fred Ellis Brock, the 3rd novel in The Seven trilogy, now available on Amazon. A thriller out of today's headlines: murder, treason, and UFO conspiracies. Wyatt-MacKenzie, publisher.
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.
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