2020
After Another Week of Setbacks, Trump Looks to Change the Story Line
Peter Baker, The New York Times
When President Trump’s strategists mapped out their plans for the critical week leading to the Republican National Convention that would nominate him for a second term, the schedule somehow did not include a sensational arrest on a Chinese billionaire’s yacht. The last thing the president wanted to see as he kick-starts his campaign was the architect of his last campaign hauled away in handcuffs on charges of bilking his own supporters in a build-the-wall fund-raising scam.
The enduring Trump mystery: What would Trump do in a second term?
Nancy Cook and Meredith McGraw, Politico
As a reality TV star, Donald Trump seized the White House with an unusual slate of Republican pledges: take on China, tear up trade deals, restrict immigration. But as president, Trump has faced warnings from a long line of GOP stalwarts that he can’t win in 2020 by offering more of the same.
Twitter slaps warning label on Trump tweet for violating ‘election integrity’ rules
Allan Smith, NBC News
Twitter on Sunday slapped a warning label on one of President Donald Trump’s tweets about vote-by-mail, saying the post violated the company’s rules around elections but that it would not be removed. “This tweet violated the Twitter Rules about civic and election integrity,” the label read.
Inside the Democratic Party’s plan to prevent vote-by-mail disaster
Zach Montellaro and Elena Schneider, Politico
The Democratic Party is kicking off the most complicated get-out-the-vote campaign in history — all without knocking on a door. The party’s virtual convention marked the unofficial start of a massive public education, voter contact and legal strategy to make voting by mail a success in the fall, a huge priority for Joe Biden’s campaign.
Trump’s family members, conservative allies dominate GOP convention lineup
Seung Min Kim and Felicia Sonmez, The Washington Post
The Republican National Convention will be heavy on members of President Trump’s family, as well as conservative congressional allies of the president, senior administration officials and viral stars who have gained fame and a following on the right. The lineup of speakers, released by the president’s campaign Sunday, will feature at least one person from Trump’s family — many of whom work either at the White House or on his reelection efforts — on each of the four nights of the convention. Trump himself speaks Thursday night.
In Year of Virtual Politics, Republican Delegates Flock to Charlotte Convention
Annie Karni, The New York Times
Shirlene Ostrov, the Republican state party chairman from Hawaii, has barely left her home in Mililani since March, because of the island’s rigorous stay-at-home order put in place to combat the spread of the coronavirus. So Saturday morning found her releasing a lot of pent-up energy as she waved an American flag and hammed it up for photos in a colorful dress, on a red carpeted backdrop outside the Westin Charlotte, where delegates were gathering over the weekend for the Republican National Convention.
Sen. McSally urges supporters to donate to her campaign instead of buying a meal
Dennis Welch, Arizona’s Family
Down in the polls and behind in fundraising, Arizona Sen. Martha McSally is telling her supporters to “fast a meal” and donate the money to her campaign instead. The Republican senator made the request at a recent event in northern Arizona, where she told the audience that she needs more money to keep pace with her Democratic opponent, Mark Kelly.
White House & Administration
Trump touts FDA’s emergency authorization of convalescent plasma as historic breakthrough, but scientists are doubtful
Carolyn Y. Johnson et al., The Washington Post
President Trump announced Sunday that he had helped break through a regulatory “logjam” to grant emergency authorization of convalescent plasma to treat covid-19, a “powerful therapy” that he claimed “had an incredible rate of success,” despite the fact that his own scientists are calling for more studies to definitively show it works. The announcement, at a news conference where Trump was flanked by Food and Drug Administration commissioner Stephen Hahn and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, drew criticism from physicians and scientists, who said their statements misled the public by overstating the evidence behind a therapy that shows promise but still needs to be rigorously tested.
Pompeo heads to Mideast as part of Trump’s Arab-Israeli push
Matthew Lee, The Associated Press
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on a trip to the Middle East, the first of two senior U.S. officials to travel to the region this week as the Trump administration presses an ambitious Arab-Israeli peace push that President Donald Trump hopes will burnish his foreign policy credentials ahead of November’s election. Pompeo is traveling to Israel, several Gulf Arab states and Sudan and will be away when he is scheduled to speak on Tuesday to the Republican National Convention, which will nominate Trump for a second term.
Trump obliterates lines between governing and campaigning in service of his reelection
David Nakamura, The Washington Post
Trailing in the polls and struggling to find a message, President Trump is leveraging one of the most powerful assets he has left — his White House office — in service of his reelection bid, obliterating the lines between governing and campaigning and testing legal boundaries in ways that go well beyond his predecessors. In recent weeks, Trump has acknowledged he was opposed to funding for the U.S. Postal Service because he does not want the money used for universal mail-in voting. He sent Homeland Security authorities to quell social justice protests in what he termed “Democrat cities.”
Billions in Hospital Virus Aid Rested on Compliance With Private Vendor
Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New York Times
The Trump administration tied billions of dollars in badly needed coronavirus medical funding this spring to hospitals’ cooperation with a private vendor collecting data for a new Covid-19 database that bypassed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The highly unusual demand, aimed at hospitals in coronavirus hot spots using funds passed by Congress with no preconditions, alarmed some hospital administrators and even some federal health officials.
Revealed: Jared Kushner’s Private Channel With Putin’s Money Man
Erin Banco, The Daily Beast
On a late afternoon in March, a large military aircraft bearing the Russian Federation insignia descended into John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Its mission: to deliver personal protective equipment and ventilators to nearby hospitals scrambling to treat patients during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.
Meadows: Trump doesn’t know much about QAnon
Maya Parthasarathy, Politico
President Donald Trump doesn’t know much about QAnon because there are more important things to focus on, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Sunday. Trump last week declined to condemn supporters of QAnon, the baseless far right conspiracy theorists who allege the president is secretly fighting an underground child sex ring, among other things.
Federal judge halts Betsy DeVos’s controversial rule sending coronavirus aid to private schools
Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post
A federal judge in Washington state temporarily blocked Education Secretary Betsy DeVos from enforcing a controversial rule that directs states to give private schools a bigger share of federal coronavirus aid than Congress had intended. In a lawsuit filed by the state, U.S. District Judge Barbara J. Rothstein on Friday issued a preliminary injunction and castigated the Education Department over the July 1 regulation about the distribution of federal funds.
Senate
McConnell rips Democrats for passing ‘piecemeal postal bill’, ‘ignoring the urgent needs’ of Americans
J. Edward Moreno, The Hill
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) accused House Democrats of “ignoring the urgent needs” of Americans in passing legislation that includes $25 billion to boost the U.S. Postal Service, calling it a “piecemeal postal bill.” The bill was passed in a rare Saturday vote largely along party lines, 257-150, with 26 Republicans bucking party lines to support it.
House
Pelosi defends endorsing Joe Kennedy in Democratic primary
Maya Parthasarathy, Politico
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday defended her endorsement of Rep. Joe Kennedy in his Democratic Senate primary, saying “people can support whoever they want.” The California Democrat last week endorsed Kennedy, who is challenging incumbent Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, in a surprise move that could give Kennedy a significant boost in the contentious primary race.
Progressive Groups Are Getting More Selective In Targeting Incumbents. Is It Working?
Nathaniel Rakich and Meredith Conroy, FiveThirtyEight
In 2018, now-Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley shocked the political world by unseating 20-year incumbents in their Democratic primaries. And this year, the trend continued with progressives Marie Newman, Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush winning their own upsets against long-serving congressmen.
General
Joe Biden Would Likely Use a Familiar Tool—Executive Powers—to Reverse Trump Immigration Policies
Michelle Hackman, The Wall Street Journal
President Trump has used his executive-branch authority to remake nearly every facet of the U.S. immigration system. If Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is elected in November, he is expected to use many of those same levers to undo Mr. Trump’s changes and even end some immigration enforcement measures that have been in place for decades.
Alex Morse Was Accused, Condemned and Then Vindicated. Will His Experience Change Anything?
Jeremy W. Peters, The New York Times
Political careers usually don’t survive allegations like these. And for about a week, it seemed as if Alex Morse’s might not either. On Aug. 7, the student newspaper at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst reported that the state chapter of the College Democrats had disinvited Mr. Morse, a congressional candidate and former guest lecturer at the university, from its future events, claiming “numerous incidents” of unwanted and inappropriate advances toward students.
In secretly recorded audio, President Trump’s sister says he has ‘no principles’ and ‘you can’t trust him’
Michael Kranish, The Washington Post
Maryanne Trump Barry was serving as a federal judge when she heard her brother, President Trump, suggest on Fox News, “maybe I’ll have to put her at the border” amid a wave of refugees entering the United States. At the time, children were being separated from their parents and put in cramped quarters while court hearings dragged on.
States
Video shows police in Kenosha, Wis., shooting Black man in back
Linda Givetash and Caroline Radnofsky, NBC News
A Black man was shot in the back multiple times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday, a bystander’s video showed, prompting community protests and widespread anger. The incident comes just three months after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
The six political states of North Carolina
David Weigel, The Washington Post
For a long time, Republicans who ran for president didn’t have to worry about North Carolina, even when Democrats did well down ballot. Democrats have held the governor’s office here for all but four years this century, and since the 1970s, no Senate race here has been won with more than 55 percent of the vote.
Texas Republicans Say New Slogan Was Inspired by Poem, Not QAnon
Matthew Rosenberg, The New York Times
Facing questions about its use of the slogan “We Are the Storm,” a rallying cry for QAnon adherents, the Texas Republican Party is defending its adoption of the language, saying it was drawn from a poem and had nothing to do with the internet-driven conspiracy theory that claims President Trump was elected to save America from pedophile Satanists. The state party was responding to a report in The New York Times on Thursday about how a small but growing number of Republicans nationwide have signaled support for QAnon, a movement that the F.B.I. has warned could inspire domestic terrorism.
Portland police respond to Saturday night demonstration with blockade, force, riot declaration: Key takeaways
Molly Harbarger, The Oregonian
Portland police repeatedly blocked a march to an East Portland police building late Saturday before officers ultimately used force to break up the crowd. Police said they decided to advance after people in the group shot paintballs and threw objects at the building.
Advocacy
Virtual convention format gains fan base on K Street
Alex Gangitano, The Hill
The virtual format of the 2020 Democratic National Convention drew praise from K Street lobbyists, with many wondering if the successful aspects of this year’s gathering will make traditional conventions a thing of the past. Democratic lobbyists said they were surprised by how much they liked the online approach, calling it innovative and even intimate.
A Message from the American Petroleum Institute:
New polling shows Americans in key battleground and production states recognize the value of natural gas and oil in their lives, and most support political candidates who advocate for ongoing domestic energy production. Democratic, Republican and independent voters all agree that natural gas and oil will remain essential to the U.S. energy mix over the next few decades, and an overwhelming majority find it’s important to reduce our dependence on foreign energy. Dig into the data to learn more.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
The Grand Old Meltdown
Timothy Alberta, Politico
Earlier this month, while speaking via Zoom to a promising group of politically inclined high school students, I was met with an abrupt line of inquiry. “I’m sorry, but I still don’t understand,” said one young man, his pitch a blend of curiosity and exasperation. “What do Republicans believe? What does it mean to be a Republican?”
For Conservatives to Have Any Hope, Trump Has to Lose
Peter Wehner, The New York Times
“You’re a traitor to the cause.” In one form or another, that’s the charge most often made against so-called Never Trumpers, a group of which I consider myself an early and unofficial co-founder.
Trump delivered – why I’m voting to reelect the president
Sen. Lindsey Graham, Fox News
President Trump has delivered. His record is clear.
Trump’s Second-Term Opening
The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal
Democrats nearly exhausted the flattering adjectives in Roget’s Thesaurus last week as they described the kind of man Joe Biden is. Republicans can respond this week by laying out the kind of country America could be, if voters entrust them with another four years of leadership.
Research Reports and Polling
Republicans see U.S. as better off now than 4 years ago ahead of convention
Anthony Salvanto et al., CBS News
It was mostly Democrats who watched last week’s convention, and they liked what they saw. Now, as the Republicans begin theirs, we find a Republican Party whose voters not only hold a different view of things in America than Democrats do — but also one very different from most voters overall. And therein may lie Republicans’ own challenge.
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