Welcome to The Lid, your afternoon dose of the 2016 ethos… Chris Christie announced his presidential run Tuesday with the campaign slogan “Telling It Like It Is.” Rejected slogans included “I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed” and “Christie 2016: Come at me, bro”
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’16 AT 30 THOUSAND
It’s document dump Tuesday, everybody! In addition to a new tranche of emails from Hillary Clinton being released tonight (by court order), Jeb Bush is expected to make 33 years of personal tax returns public later today. The tax release is clearly intended to be a direct poke at Clinton -- and it’s also a tacit acknowledgement of how much damage previous GOP nominee Mitt Romney sustained in 2012 from being cagey about his own financial data. The immediate headlines for Jeb are likely to point out just how much his income skyrocketed after he left public office in 2007, and tidbits like his high-dollar speaking fees probably won’t endear him to the more populist wing of the GOP. But putting so much information out there (even though much of it, from his gubernatorial years, was already public) at least gives Bush the ability to counter every accusation that he’s “out of touch” with an argument about being “the most transparent presidential candidate in history.”
POPPING ON NBC POLITICS
- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie promised to tell the hard truths “whether you like it or not” when he launched his presidential campaign on Tuesday.
- He told NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell after his announcement: “I earn political capital to spend it. Not to keep it in a drawer or put it on a frame on the wall.” Watch the video here.
- And in an interview with Matt Lauer, he said of the crowded GOP field: “I think the biggest problem with so many people is getting attention, and I've never had any problem getting attention.”
- But on the first day of his official campaign he already needs a turnaround, NBC’s Perry Bacon writes.
- Save this one: NBC’s Mark Murray compiles your guide to the 2016 money race.
- Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush will release 33 years of personal tax returns on Tuesday, his campaign says.
- “By a 2-to-1 margin, more Americans support the United States and other world powers pursuing a nuclear deal with Iran than oppose it, according to new results from the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll,” NBC’s political unit intern Jessica Washington writes.
CAMPAIGN QUICK READS
BUSH: The Washington Post previews the release of Jeb Bush’s tax returns.
CRUZ: He did Simpsons impressions for Buzzfeed, because millennials.
CLINTON: The State Department said Tuesday that it would release about 3,000 pages of Clinton emails at 9 p.m. ET.
She also joined Pinterest.
FOR THE RECORD…
“Forwards, not backwards. Upwards, not downwards. And always twirling, twirling for freedom.”
- Ted Cruz impersonating “Kang” from “The Simpsons.”
TOMORROW’S SKED
Rand Paul campaigns in western Iowa.
Ben Carson speaks at the Anderson County Republican fundraiser in South Carolina.
Bernie Sanders holds a rally in Madison, Wisc.
