“I mean they’re just attacking me like crazy right now.”
— Gov. Kristi Noem (R), quoted by Politico, saying the Republican Party was “in a war” with the media and Democrats who “don’t care about the truth.”
“I mean they’re just attacking me like crazy right now.”
— Gov. Kristi Noem (R), quoted by Politico, saying the Republican Party was “in a war” with the media and Democrats who “don’t care about the truth.”
“Donald Trump’s political operation raised more than $76 million in April, campaign officials told donors on Saturday,” Politico reports.
“Trump advisers revealed the number, up from $65.6 million in March, during a presentation at a private Trump campaign and Republican National Committee-hosted donor retreat.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) became the latest Republican to hit Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) over her plan to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), The Hill reports.
Said Crenshaw: “She needs her time in the spotlight, you know, and it’s been a while, and I think it’s one last ditch effort to get attention, is what she’s looking for.”
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“Charlie Spies, the Republican National Committee’s chief counsel, was pushed out of his new role just two months after taking the job, amid a storm of controversy over conflicts involving other clients at the firm where he still works,“ the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Spies, a veteran election-law lawyer whom the R.N.C. hired in March primarily because of his knowledge of how best to use existing regulations to a campaign’s or a candidate’s advantage, has been under attack since soon after he arrived at the committee.”
“On his first visit to Europe in five years, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, appears intent on seizing opportunities to loosen the continent’s bonds with the United States and forge a world freed of American dominance,” the New York Times reports..
“The Chinese leader has chosen three countries to visit — France, Serbia and Hungary — that each, to a greater or lesser degree, look askance at America’s postwar ordering of the world, see China as a necessary counterweight and are eager to bolster economic ties.”
Donald Trump’s former communications director Hope Hicks, 35, is engaged to Goldman Sachs boss Jim Donovan, 58, Page Six reports.
“Fresh from his criminal trial in New York, Donald Trump delivered a frustrated and often profane roughly 75-minute speech at a Republican National Committee donor retreat in Florida on Saturday, attacking one of the prosecutors pursuing him and comparing President Biden’s administration to the Nazis,” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “These people are running a Gestapo administration.”
“In his speech, he complained repeatedly about the criminal trial in Manhattan, to which he will return on Monday, insisted that Democrats use ‘welfare’ to cheat in elections and said he would need an attorney general with ‘courage’ as he mocked his former attorney general, William P. Barr, who recently endorsed him after speaking critically of Mr. Trump since the administration ended.”
“The presidential election may come down to a city in the Midwestern prairie that is home to Warren Buffett — a prospect that is raising hopes among some Democrats that the once-prolific political donor will come off the sidelines to try to power President Joe Biden to reelection,” Bloomberg reports.
“Back in 2016, the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman wrote checks for Democrat Hillary Clinton’s White House bid, appearing onstage with her at a rally and scoffing at her rival, Donald Trump. For decades before that, he had sprinkled money on moderate Democrats in US Senate races all over the country. As recently as 2019, he lavished a six-figure check on the party’s committee that supports House candidates.”
“But since then, his money spigot has remained closed to federal political candidates up and down the ballot as he aimed to spare his companies and employees from any potential backlash. And that choice has become more conspicuous as his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, has been thrust into the unusual position of potentially deciding this year’s presidential race.”
“The U.S. is in talks with close partners to lead a group of allies that would give as much as $50 billion in aid to Ukraine, with the massive outlay being repaid with the windfall profits from sovereign Russian assets that have been frozen – and are accruing interest — mostly in Europe,” Bloomberg reports.
“Republicans have launched more than 30 investigations into the State Department since taking power in 2023, an unusually high number that is fueling partisan tensions,” Politico reports.
“Democratic lawmakers and State Department officials say this particular chapter of the growing partisan rancor on Capitol Hill is affecting U.S. foreign policy: It distracts U.S. diplomats from their jobs.”
Nevada Independent: “The lawsuit alleges that the four-day period for mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be received violates federal law because it does not conform to the Election Day deadline established by the federal government.”
“Israel-Hamas war demonstrations at the University of Mississippi turned ugly this week when one counter-protester appeared to make monkey noises and gestures at a Black student in a raucous gathering that was endorsed by a far-right congressman from Georgia,” the AP reports.
Said Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA): “Ole Miss taking care of business.”
Politico: “He not only looks angry and alone in the courtroom, his public remarks betray the sense he feels that way.”
“Reports suggest Trump has taken to bad mouthing his lead lawyer Todd Blanche in closed door phone calls, as he grows frustrated that Blanche won’t follow his lead. In a gag order hearing on Thursday, after Blanche agreed with Judge Juan Merchan that no one forced Trump to attack Michael Cohen online, Trump reportedly looked over at Blanche and shook his head.”
Wall Street Journal: “How this plays with voters could be crucial to whether the polarizing lawmaker wins a third term, as Republicans try to take back the Senate, where Democrats currently have a 51-49 majority. Cruz, who leads his Democratic rival, Rep. Colin Allred, in opinion polls, is trying to keep his core conservative base while also bolstering it with suburban swing voters, playing up legislative accomplishments on state issues and a sweeping air-travel bill, among others.”
“It is a tack he hasn’t taken in previous campaigns. Democrats, who have long used Cruz as a hyperpartisan punchline, say the new pitch won’t work.”
“Donald Trump is on trial for 34 felony counts of what could be the dullest sounding crime in New York’s penal code: falsifying business records,” the New York Times reports.
“Yet, across nine witnesses and two weeks of testimony, jurors have been treated to hours of mesmerizing courtroom theater.”
“There was talk of a sex scandal with a porn star, a surreptitious recording of a future president and the tearful testimony of a former confidante in the glare of the witness stand. There was even a celebrity roll call: Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan and the reality television star Tila Tequila were all name-checked this week, drawing chuckles in the Lower Manhattan courtroom.”
“The phrase ‘falsifying business records,’ however, was not uttered to the jury during testimony. Not even once.”
Wall Street Journal: The delicate art of “shutting up” Donald Trump.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee “is expected to launch its first ads in the coming weeks against its next top target this cycle: Rep. Jamaal Bowman in New York’s 16th Congressional District,” The Intercept reports.
“AIPAC planned to spend at least $100 million this cycle to oust members of the Squad, who have led calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to U.S. military support for Israel. The lobby group’s threat would make it the largest player in the Democratic Party primary season.”
“The group, however, has now distanced itself from the pledge after one of its top targets, Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) won her primary last week.”
“As protests over the Israel-Gaza war sweep college campuses, pro-Palestinian activists are ramping up plans for a major show of force at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, increasingly worrying Democrats who fear the demonstrations could interfere with or overshadow their efforts to project unity ahead of the November election,” the Washington Post reports.
“If unruly protests unfold during the four days of the convention on Aug. 19-22 — especially if they feature inflammatory rhetoric, property damage or police intervention — they could strike at the heart of the Democratic message that President Biden represents competent and stable leadership, while presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump is an agent of chaos and confusion.”
David Brooks: Why the protests help Trump.
New York Times: “For the youngest Trump supporters participating in their first presidential election this year, Mr. Trump represents something that is all but impossible for older voters to imagine: the normal politics of their childhood.”
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.
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