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Matt Mackowiak

Matt Mackowiak

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Matt Mackowiak is an Austin and Washington, DC-based political and communications consultant and President of Potomac Strategy Group. He has served in senior roles for two U.S. Senators and a Governor, in the Bush administration. Matt appears regularly on MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, CNBC, CBC-TV, and the BBC. From 2007-2009 Matt served as Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), the fourth highest ranking member of the Republican Leadership, and from 2005-2007 he served in the same role for three-term former U.S. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT).

Latest Podcast Episodes of Matt Mackowiak's Mack On Politics

Articles by Matt Mackowiak

Donald Trump must focus on agenda, raising approval rating

As we enter the fall, the White House, including the president, must narrowly focus on the twin goals of raising the president's approval rating and moving his legislative agenda before 2018 begins. Anything that does not assist in these goals must be put on the back burner, as there is an opportunity cost for everything they do.

August 23, 2017
FILE - In this July 31, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump in the East Room of the White House. Trump signed on Aug. 2, what he called a "seriously flawed" bill imposing new sanctions on Russia, pressured by his Republican Party not to move on his own toward a warmer relationship with Moscow in light of Russian actions.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Donald Trump-endorsed immigration plan has a lot of merit

Throughout the campaign, President Trump's hardline views on ending sanctuary cities, stopping illegal employment, building the border wall, rapidly deporting criminal aliens and pushing for Kate's Law were brought up in nearly every speech.

August 2, 2017
Attorney General Jeff Sessions leaves the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July, 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Jeff Sessions firing by Trump would be unwise

It has been almost unprecedented to watch a president of the United States repeatedly criticize and undermine his own attorney general in the way President Trump has gone after Attorney General Jeff Sessions these past two weeks.

July 26, 2017
President Donald Trump and the first lady Melania Trump exit Air force One upon their arrival in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, July 5, 2017. President Trump arrived in Poland ahead of an outdoor address in Warsaw on Thursday and energy talks with European leaders. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Donald Trump G-20 schedule is quite busy

President Trump is spending the week in Europe, first visiting Poland, then attending the Group of 20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, and then he heads back across the Atlantic again next week to attend a Bastille Day parade in Paris at the invitation of new French President Emmanuel Macron.

July 5, 2017
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., confers with Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, left, before the start of a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 20, 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Have you heard? Elizabeth Warren has another regulatory overreach idea

Consider, as an important case study, Sen. Elizabeth Warren's drive to regulate personal hearing aids, known as PSAPs (personal sound amplification products). Her legislative vehicle is the Federal Drug Administration reauthorization bill, which needs to pass in the next couple months. The bill would impose new FDA regulations on existing PSAPs, preempting state laws and regulations that have been on the books for decades.

June 28, 2017
Democratic candidate for 6th congressional district Jon Ossoff, left, waves to the crowd while stepping offstage with his fiancee Alisha Kramer after conceding to Republican Karen Handel at his election night party in Atlanta, Tuesday, June 20, 2017. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Georgia special election will truly prove special

I freely admit that we can spend far too much time analyzing the results of one special election, occurring in a particular district, with two particular candidates, held on a particular day more than 16 months from the 2018 midterms.

June 21, 2017
James B. Comey's firing will have immediate and long-term ramifications. (Associated Press)

As questions mount, the White House could use a few good answers

President Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James B. Comey has set in motion a series of events that present the most serious threat to his presidency yet. We can all speculate where we would be had Mr. Trump not decided to dismiss the FBI director, but the simple fact is that the White House has lost the ability to control where this story goes from here.

May 17, 2017
FILE - In this April 20, 2017 file photo, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks in New York. Clinton said Tuesday, May 2, 2017, that she's taking responsibility for her 2016 election loss but believes misogyny, Russian interference and questionable decisions by the FBI also influenced the outcome. (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen, File)

Hillary Clinton seeks scapegoats for her 2016 debacle

On Tuesday, while being interviewed by Christiane Amanpour at a "Women for Women" event in New York, former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton cast specific, targeted and direct blame at everyone, but herself, for her shocking election loss in November.

May 3, 2017
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, will turn 68 this year. In today's column, Matt Mackowiak argues that Democrats aren't the Party of the Future because much their leadership is over retirement age. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Democrats can’t chart their way forward in this wilderness

Like most minority parties that lose the White House, the Democratic Party is without a national leader. Their legislative caucuses in the House and Senate have elected leadership, but the party itself has several elected officials fighting to lead it into the future, all with an eye toward 2020. And the party's most visible figures aren't exactly fresh faces.

April 26, 2017