“I didn’t eat my dog. I didn’t shoot my dog. I loved my dog, and my dog loved me.”
— Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), quoted by HuffPost, dismissing comparisons to Gov. Kristi Noem (R).
“I didn’t eat my dog. I didn’t shoot my dog. I loved my dog, and my dog loved me.”
— Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), quoted by HuffPost, dismissing comparisons to Gov. Kristi Noem (R).
“A panel of federal judges has tossed out Louisiana’s new congressional map, striking the state’s second majority-Black district just months after it was signed into law,” Politico reports.
“The ruling, if it stands, could be a win for Republicans, since Democrats were almost certain to win the newly drawn district.”
Tim Kennedy (D) is projected to win the special election for New York’s 26th congressional district, the Washington Post reports.
“When Kennedy is sworn in as a member of the House Democratic conference, it will temporarily shave the chamber’s Republican majority to one seat, leaving a small margin for error for party-line agenda items.”
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“Hundreds of police officers in riot gear marched onto the campus of Columbia University in Upper Manhattan late Tuesday, where protesters had occupied a campus building, as clashes over the war in Gaza continued to escalate at American universities,” the New York Times reports.
Drenda Keesee (R), a right-wing pastor and broadcaster, said that she’s running for office because Jesus personally told her to.
Said Keesee: “He was holding my cheeks, and I was holding his cheeks and it was darkened but I could see him. He was there and we were holding each other’s face.”
She continued: “I get this call that I’m supposed to run for office and I’m like, ‘What am I going to do, Lord? Am I supposed to do this? Are you asking me to run for office?'”
“The District of Columbia’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel issued a recommendation this week battering the credibility of former Donald Trump Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark, saying Clark’s ‘dishonest attempt to create national chaos’ in the run-up to Jan. 6 meant the only suitable sanction would be disbarment because, put simply, nothing else would do,” Law & Crime reports.
From the opinion: “We must do what we can to ensure that this conduct is never repeated. The way to accomplish that goal is to remove from the profession lawyers who betrayed their constitutional obligations and their country. It is important that other lawyers who might be tempted to engage in similar misconduct be aware that doing so will cost them their privilege to practice law.”
“Josh Mandel (R), the former Ohio state treasurer and multiple-time U.S. Senate candidate, is facing a threat of jail time due to his years-old and increasingly contentious divorce case,” the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.
“In a written decision last week, an Ashland County magistrate ordered Mandel and his ex-wife, Ilana Mandel, each to spend seven days in jail for different violations of previous court orders connected to the divorce case.”
Louisiana Republicans pushed back votes on several bills that would have added exceptions to the state’s near-total abortion ban, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
“This gag order is totally unconstitutional. I’m the Republican candidate for president of the United States. I received this honor in record time. Nobody has ever gone faster… And I’m sitting in a court house all day long listening to this stuff.”
— Donald Trump, after his trial ended for the day.
“An appellate court has denied former President Trump’s bid to have Judge Juan Merchan recused from his hush money trial,” ABC News reports.
Puck: “On a brisk Friday evening earlier this month, David Sacks and Elon Musk convened a dozen or so of America’s most powerful business leaders for dinner at Sacks’ $23 million, 11,000-square-foot home in the Hollywood Hills. The dinner party, according to people familiar with the intimate gathering, comprised a veritable living room Milken conference: Michael Milken himself was there, in fact, as were billionaires Rupert Murdoch and Peter Thiel. A few government types, including Steven Mnuchin, scored invites. There were also some less politically active titans of industry, such as Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick. But all were there as members of a burgeoning anti-Biden brain trust, united by a shared sense of grievance.”
“The get-together, which hasn’t been previously reported, is the latest evidence of Musk’s growing power beyond Silicon Valley, as he’s evolved from political hobbyist to media owner and conservative icon.”
New York Times: “The reactions suggested that even as Republicans are waging an internal war over aiding Ukraine — one that is continuing even after the funding package cleared Congress and was signed into law — the issue is more divisive in their own ranks than it is among many of their constituents.”
“Immediately after the vote last weekend, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, the right-wing Republican who threatened to oust Mr. Johnson for allowing the vote, predicted that her colleagues who backed the measure would have hell to pay.”
Donald Trump “appears to have fallen asleep while listening to testimony — at times appearing to stir and then falling back to sleep,” NBC News reports.
“Trump’s eyes were closed for extended periods and his head has at times jerked in a way consistent with sleeping.”
Donald Trump has begun to remove the social media posts cited by Judge Juan Merchan in today’s gag order ruling, ABC News reports.
“The Biden campaign is mounting a concerted push to attack former President Donald J. Trump over statements he made to Time magazine in a wide-ranging interview published Tuesday morning, particularly on abortion,” the New York Times reports.
“In the interview, Mr. Trump refused to commit to vetoing a national abortion ban and said he would allow states to monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violated abortion restrictions.”
Wrote Biden on X: “This is reprehensible. Donald Trump doesn’t trust women. I do.”
“Donald Trump will make another stop in Wisconsin this week for a campaign rally as his criminal hush money trial continues in New York,” USA Today reports.
“Rishi Sunak urged Conservative Party faithful in a pre-election speech to take part in ‘the greatest comeback in political history,’ a tacit admission of the long odds the prime minister faces in local votes across England this week,” Bloomberg reports.
“Fox News appears to be taking Hunter Biden’s lawsuit threat quite seriously,” the Daily Beast reports.
“The network has quietly pulled down its six-part ‘mock trial’ series from its digital streaming service Fox Nation after lawyers for the presidential scion warned the network of their intention to sue for defamation.”
“The scrubbing of the series, which debuted in October 2022, directly complies with the demand from Biden’s legal team—powerhouse celebrity law firm Geragos & Geragos—to delete the content immediately.”
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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