“Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood took $50,000 from an associate of a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire at the center of a sprawling scheme of illegal foreign campaign contributions,” Axios reports.
“LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Illinois and a member of President Obama’s Cabinet, agreed to repay the money, pay a $40,000 fine and cooperate with prosecutors to settle the matter.”
Washington Post: “The opening months of the Biden administration have provided the Democratic Party with a rare ‘do-over’ — a chance to enact wide-ranging agenda items far more quickly and on a larger scale than in 2009. Even Biden’s slogan, Build Back Better, aspires to improve what came before.”
“Surrounded by many of the same top aides who worked in the Obama White House, the Biden team is behaving almost as if it is back to work after a lengthy sabbatical, picking up where Obama left off without having to ascend a learning curve.”
“The Donald Trump era offered Democrats a view of their worst nightmare — a president that most of them saw as authoritarian and dangerous to the country’s future. Bound by that fear, Democrats say they are attempting to undo what many both inside and outside the administration view as the mistakes and disappointments from the Obama years.”
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Maureen Dowd: “So now comes a delicious twist: President Biden is being hailed as a transformational, once-in-a-generation progressive champion, with comparisons to L.B.J. and F.D.R. aplenty, while Obama has become a cautionary tale about what happens when Democrats get the keys to the car but don’t put their foot on the gas.”
“The collective smirk was wiped off the face of Obamaworld this past week, as former aides expressed their irritation at the retrospective dissing, and while Biden’s inner circle enjoyed an unfamiliar sensation: schadenfreude. Now the friendly fire once aimed at Biden is coming toward Obama.”
Philip Bump has a telling look at some of the big-name CPAC speakers from — and what happened to them in the years to come.
“Trump was followed by Rep. Mia Love (R-UT), former U.N. ambassador John Bolton and radio host Glenn Beck. Love was seen as a rising star in the GOP, a Black woman elected from Utah. But two years later she would lose her reelection bid — and be mocked by President Trump for not being sufficiently loyal to him. Bolton ran afoul of Trump even more dramatically, writing a tell-all book about his tumultuous tenure in the White House.”
“Beck, though, is probably the most instructive inclusion. Before the 2016 election, when it seemed likely that Trump would lose, Beck excoriated him as ‘an immoral man who is absent decency or dignity’ But, like so much of the conservative right, when Trump took power, Beck slipped back into the flock.”
Gallup: “Americans are most likely to name President Donald Trump and Michelle Obama as most admired man and woman in 2020.”
“Trump tied former President Barack Obama for the honor last year but edged out his predecessor this year. Trump’s first-place finish ends a 12-year run as most admired man for Obama, tied with Dwight Eisenhower for the most ever.”
Barack Obama told Jonathan Chait that while he didn’t keep a checklist, he did keep track of his policies Donald Trump either rolled back or tried to dismantle.
Said Obama: “I don’t have a checklist in my desk where I’m like, All right, this survived, that they tried to reverse but weren’t organized enough to do. I do pay attention. I have paid attention to those areas where what the Trump administration attempted to do did some serious damage and where it’s more of a short-term setback on what is a long-term success.”
More specifically, Obama said the Affordable Care Act “remains robust” but “when it comes to some of our climate-change regulations, there’s been some damage done.”
“I will say that I’m not surprised that somebody like Trump could get traction in our political life. But if we were going to have a right-wing populist in this country, I would have expected somebody a little more appealing… I guess I would not have expected someone who has complete disdain for ordinary people to be able to get attention and then the following from those very same people.”
— Barack Obama, in an interview with The Atlantic.
“What I think is indisputable is that I signified a shift in power. Just my mere presence worried folks, in some cases explicitly, in some cases subconsciously. And then there were folks around to exploit that and tap into that.”
— Barack Obama, in an interview with The Atlantic.
Out next week: A Promised Land by Barack Obama.
Obama will be interviewed on 60 Minutes this weekend.
“Barack Obama had always intended to sit out the first presidential election of his post-presidency, taking heed of the private guidance given to him from Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush,” CNN reports.
“Obama vastly preferred governing to campaigning, his friends have long known, so they believed him when he said he looked forward to watching from the sidelines. But those plans were tossed aside by the election of President Trump and his first term in office.”
“Obama is poised to return to the campaign trail here on Wednesday, making his first in-person appearance in his effort to help Joe Biden in the waning days of his bid for the White House. If the election of Trump was a reaction to the Obama presidency, the November race offers another opportunity to take the country’s measure of the men.”
Former President Barack Obama’s memoir will be published in two volumes — with a 768-page Volume 1, A Promised Land, out November 17 in 25 languages.
There is not yet a release date for the second volume.
New York Times: “Demand for the book is expected to be extraordinary, and Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House, has ordered a first printing for the U.S. edition of 3 million copies. To accommodate such an enormous order, Crown plans to print about 1 million of those books in Germany and has arranged for three ships, outfitted with 112 shipping containers, to bring those copies to the United States.”
Barack Obama posted a video conversation with Sen. Kamala Harris “to share a few tips about serving alongside our friend Joe Biden.”
Daily Show: “Sure, 180,000 Americans have died from coronavirus on Trump’s watch, but six years ago today, President Obama wore a tan suit.”
President Trump on Twitter: “Looking back into history, the response by the ObamaBiden team to the H1N1 Swine Flu was considered a weak and pathetic one. Check out the polling, it’s really bad.”
Here’s Gallup from April 2009: “Americans give the Obama administration high marks for its handling so far of the continuing spread of swine flu, or H1N1 virus, in the United States… 66% of Americans say they approve of how the administration is handling the situation, while 16% disapprove and 17% have no opinion.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tore into his fellow Republicans on Fox News for considering a coronavirus relief package that could cost more than $1 trillion.
Said Paul: “I am very upset with my colleagues. They went 8 years. They should apologize now to President Obama for complaining he was spending and borrowing too much. He was a piker compared to their borrowing and what they’re doing now.”
Axios: “Paul’s comments, while tongue-in-cheek, underscore the divisions within the Senate Republican conference, where as many as 20 GOP senators are likely to vote against any coronavirus relief bill — even if a deal is reached between Democrats and Trump administration.”
Michelle Obama said in a new episode of her podcast that she is “dealing with some form of low-grade depression” this year.
Said Obama: “Not just because of the quarantine, but because of the racial strife, and just seeing this administration, watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting.”
She added: “I have to say that waking up to the news, waking up to how this administration has or has not responded, waking up to yet another story of a Black man or a Black person somehow being dehumanized, or hurt or killed, or falsely accused of something, it is exhausting. And it has led to a weight that I haven’t felt in my life, in a while.”
President Trump accused his predecessor, Barack Obama, of treason, without offering any evidence or details to back up his claim, the Washington Post reports.
The president has frequently accused others of “treason,” but Monday marked the first time that he has leveled that claim against the man who preceded him in the Oval Office.
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.