2020
Trump goes dark on TV as early voting looms
Alex Isenstadt, Politico
Donald Trump is getting pummeled on the TV airwaves, alarming Republicans and prompting the president’s allies to plead for outside help. August has been a blowout: Trump has been outspent on TV more than 2-to-1 over the past month, according to the media tracking firm Advertising Analytics.
Republican convention becomes a showcase for potential successors
David M. Drucker, Washington Examiner
Embedded inside a Republican National Convention dedicated to elevating President Trump is a preview of the looming battle to control the party’s post-Trump future, with potential 2024 contenders using prime speaking slots to advance their political ambitions. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley delivered a well-received keynote address Monday night.
Stephanie Bice wins GOP runoff, will face Rep. Kendra Horn
Stephanie Akin, Roll Call
State Sen. Stephanie Bice won the Republican nomination Tuesday to challenge vulnerable freshman Democrat Kendra Horn in Oklahoma’s 5th District after a contentious primary runoff that tested whether GOP primary voters will always side with the most ardent supporter of President Donald Trump. Bice was leading businesswoman Terry Neese 52 percent to 48 percent when The Associated Press called the Republican runoff for the Oklahoma City-area district at 9:25 p.m. Central time.
RNC Speaker Cancelled After Boosting QAnon Conspiracy Theory About Jewish Plot to Enslave the World
Will Sommer, The Daily Beast
One of the speakers for the second night of the Republican National Convention was pulled from the program after The Daily Beast surfaced a tweet from her, earlier in the day, urging her followers to investigate a supposed Jewish plot to enslave the world. “Do yourself a favor and read this thread,” Mary Ann Mendoza, who is a member of the Trump campaign’s advisory board, tweeted to her more than 40,000 followers Tuesday morning.
Anti-Abortion Activist Abby Johnson’s Conversion Story Has Been In Dispute Since the First Time She Told It
Matthew Dessem, Slate
Tuesday night’s Republican National Convention featured a speech from Abby Johnson, who explained how she went from being the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic to becoming an anti-abortion activist. It’s a story she’s told publicly many times before, first in an appearance on Huckabee on November 8, 2009, a month and a day after quitting her job at Planned Parenthood, and most recently in Unplanned, a 2019 film based on her 2011 memoir. It’s also a story whose basic facts are still in dispute.
Sara Gideon open to repealing Senate filibuster as Democrats eye health care overhaul
Jessica Piper, Bangor Daily News
House Speaker Sara Gideon, the Democrat facing U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in November, said Tuesday she would support repealing the Senate filibuster if needed for her party to pass major legislation on issues such as health care. The answer came as she rolled out a health care agenda mainly reiterating her support for a Medicare-like public option, which is a possibility if Democrats control both houses of Congress and the presidency after the 2020 election.
RNC Ratings Down Significantly Compared to Night One of DNC
Matt Wilstein, The Daily Beast
Television ratings for the first night of the Democratic National Convention were down about 25% from the equivalent night four years earlier. The RNC’s first night ratings, which included speeches from Donald Trump Jr. and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), were even worse.
Trump’s Fights Are Their Fights. They Have His Back Unapologetically.
Trip Gabriel, The New York Times
DiAnna Schenkel is a law school graduate who once ran on the Democratic ticket for her city council. She voted twice for Barack Obama. A 59-year-old suburbanite in North Carolina, she worries about her Black son-in-law being racially profiled by the police, pulled over and beaten or worse.
Hillary Clinton says Joe Biden should not concede on election night
Jason Lange, Reuters
Hillary Clinton has a piece of advice for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden: Whatever happens, do not concede defeat on the night of the Nov. 3 election. Clinton, a Democrat, lost the 2016 presidential election to President Donald Trump, a Republican whose re-election bid is facing a stiff challenge from Biden, who has been leading Trump in public opinion polls.
White House & Administration
C.D.C. Now Says People Without Covid-19 Symptoms Do Not Need Testing
Katherine J. Wu, The New York Times
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly modified its coronavirus testing guidelines this week to exclude people who do not have symptoms of Covid-19 — even if they have been recently exposed to the virus. Experts questioned the revision, pointing to the importance of identifying infections in the small window immediately before the onset of symptoms, when many individuals appear to be most contagious.
‘We definitely lost time’: Inside Mike Pence’s coronavirus response
Dan Diamond and Adam Cancryn, Politico
Mike Pence had just accepted the biggest assignment of his political life, overseeing the nation’s response to the emerging Covid-19 virus, when White House officials confronted the vice president with an urgent question: what to do about the cruise ships? It was the last weekend of February, and the nation’s top health officials had concluded that cruise lines were a major factor in spreading the virus — each vessel a potential hothouse of invisible infections.
US citizenship agency drops plan to furlough 70% of workers
Sophia Tareen, The Associated Press
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services canceled more than 13,000 employee furloughs Tuesday, averting a catastrophe for the cash-strapped agency that oversees the nation’s legal immigration system. Officials said “unprecedented spending cuts” and a revenue increase allowed the agency to drop the furloughs, but they warned of longer wait times and further backlogs, including for those seeking work permits, green cards or citizenship.
Top ICE lawyer to lead immigration agency
Priscilla Alvarez and Geneva Sands, CNN
The top lawyer at Immigration and Customs Enforcement will succeed Matt Albence to lead the agency, ICE announced Tuesday. Tony Pham, who came to the United States as a refugee, previously served as ICE’s principal legal adviser.
They tried to get Trump to care about right-wing terrorism. He ignored them.
Betsy Woodruff Swan, Politico
Elizabeth Neumann spent March 13 and 14 of 2019 at a conference in the picturesque Spanish port city of Málaga. The topic: terrorism.
Congress
Congress faces tough call next month on stopgap funding length
Paul M. Krawzak, Roll Call
Partisan tensions are set to color talks on how long the stopgap funding bill for federal agencies needed next month should run, on top of already fraught coronavirus aid discussions. It’s a typical election-year question with major implications for government operations and stakeholders who depend on them: Will Congress punt decisions into a postelection lame-duck session, or opt for a lengthier continuing resolution that runs into perhaps March?
The Democrats Are United to Fight Trump, but Policy Fights Are Looming
Thomas Kaplan and Lisa Friedman, The New York Times
The Democrats made one thing clear with the virtual pageantry of their convention last week: They are united to defeat President Trump in November. The festivities also foreshadowed another looming fight, this one between the moderate and progressive wings of the party.
House Democrat opens investigation into Pompeo’s RNC speech
Jennifer Hansler, CNN
A House Democrat has opened an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s controversial decision to address the Republican National Convention. Rep. Joaquin Castro, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, said in a statement Tuesday that the “American people deserve a full investigation.”
Matt Gaetz builds national profile, but says focus is on Trump election
Lindsey McPherson and Stephanie Akin, Roll Call
He recently starred in an HBO documentary, backed candidates in Florida primaries that beat the GOP leadership’s picks and used his signature snark to draw a contrast between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden on the opening night of the Republican National Convention. But Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz does not see the national profile he’s building as a steppingstone to higher office or a shot at the House Republican leadership, he told CQ Roll Call in an interview Tuesday.
GOP candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene spread conspiracies about Charlottesville and ‘Pizzagate’
Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, CNN
In the years before she ran for office, GOP congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote two conspiracy-laden blog posts speculating that the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that led to one counter-protester’s death was an “inside job” and promoting a debunked conspiracy alleging some Democratic Party leaders were running a human-trafficking and pedophilia ring — known as “Pizzagate” — was real. Greene, running now to represent in the northwest corner of Georgia in the US House, made the comments in 2017 and 2018, writing for the now-defunct website of American Truth Seekers, a conspiracy-laden blog.
General
Teva Pharmaceutical’s U.S. Unit Indicted on Price-Fixing Charges
Brent Kendall and Jared S. Hopkins, The Wall Street Journal
The U.S. business of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. was indicted Tuesday on charges the generic drugmaker fixed prices on cholesterol medication and other drugs. The Justice Department’s antitrust division brought the case in a Pennsylvania federal court, alleging Teva Pharmaceuticals USA engaged in anticompetitive conduct that resulted in at least $350 million in overcharges to consumers.
Ex-Intel Chief: ‘I Wish We Had Taken More Action’ Against Russian Meddling
Greg Myre, NPR News
In August 2016, during the run-up to the last presidential election, U.S. intelligence officials began briefing congressional leaders on what they described as unprecedented Russian interference efforts. The Russians had a history of meddling, but this time was different, Mike Rogers, then the director of the National Security Agency, told All Things Considered co-host Mary Louise Kelly.
Jerry Falwell Jr. May Be Owed $10.5 Million by Liberty University
Ian Lovett and Andrea Fuller, The Wall Street Journal
Liberty University owes Jerry Falwell Jr. a total of about $10.5 million over the next two years after he resigned as president of the nation’s largest evangelical college following several scandals, according to a person close to Mr. Falwell with knowledge of his employment contract. Mr. Falwell is due his $1.25 million salary for two years, followed by a lump-sum payment of about $8 million, because of a clause in his contract that allowed him to resign with full pay if his responsibilities were curtailed, which they were when he was put on an indefinite leave of absence two weeks ago, the person said.
States
2 shot dead and 1 injured in Kenosha during protests; police looking for man armed with a long gun
Patrick Marley and Sarah Volpenhein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Kenosha Police said early Wednesday morning that two people had been shot and killed and a third injured during protests over the shooting of Jacob Blake; authorities were looking for a man armed with a long gun. Earlier Wednesday, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that one victim had been shot in the head and another in the chest late Tuesday, just before midnight.
Virginia Judge Rules Lee Statue Dispute Can Go to Trial
Scott Calvert, The Wall Street Journal
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam suffered a setback in his bid to take down a prominent statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, after a judge ruled that a lawsuit seeking to block the monument’s removal can proceed to trial. Richmond Circuit Court Judge W. Reilly Marchant on Tuesday denied state officials’ motion to throw out the suit, which was brought by several people who live near the 130-year-old statue. The judge set an Oct. 19 trial date.
Advocacy
New Details Revealed of RNC Fundraiser’s Lobbying for China
Aruna Viswanatha and Rebecca Ballhaus, The Wall Street Journal
A senior Chinese government official enlisted the help of a top fundraising official at the Republican National Committee to lobby the Trump administration in 2017 to return a Chinese businessman living in the U.S. who has long been sought by Beijing, according to a court document filed in Hawaii last week. Sun Lijun, China’s then-vice minister of public security, met in a hotel suite in Shenzhen in May 2017 with Elliott Broidy, a venture capitalist and, at the time, national deputy finance chairman of the RNC, according to the document.
Hope Hicks landed lucrative gigs after her first stint at the Trump White House
Brian Schwartz, CNBC
Hope Hicks, a longtime confidant of President Donald Trump’s, landed high-paying gigs, including a Wall Street speaking engagement, between White House stints, according to her latest financial disclosure report. After serving as one of the leaders of Trump’s White House communications shop, she departed the administration in March 2018.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
Trump needs a convention bounce
Nathan L. Gonzales, Roll Call
Whether you believe in convention bounces or not, President Donald Trump and the Republicans need one to salvage the elections this fall. On the current trajectory, former Vice President Joe Biden is likely to win the White House and Democrats are more likely than not to take control of the Senate.
Trump’s coalition is narrowing
Ronald Brownstein, CNN
One thing is clear as Republicans convene their national convention this week: This is now President Donald Trump’s party. The question is whether it can survive in that form in a country that will grow irreversibly more diverse through the 2020s.
The Crisis That Democrats Dare Not Mention
Rich Lowry, National Review
The Democratic National Convention portrayed an America suffering from every possible sort of malady — except urban unrest.
The RNC Has Made a Compelling Case for America’s Imminent Collapse
Eric Levitz, New York Magazine
The paranoid authoritarianism on display at the Republican convention makes it clear that our Republic’s fever isn’t breaking anytime soon.
Research Reports and Polling
As TikTok and Huawei Restrictions Mount, Americans See China as Top Threat to Silicon Valley’s Tech Dominance
Sam Sabin, Morning Consult
With the backdrop of the Trump administration’s continued restrictions and threats against China-based Huawei Technologies Ltd. and ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok, a new survey indicates that Americans see China as the top threat to Silicon Valley’s dominance in the global tech industry. Over half of the 2,200 U.S. adults (53 percent) surveyed in a recent Morning Consult survey said they saw China as a “major threat” to America’s technology and innovation dominance, making it the country with the highest-perceived threat level of any other listed in the survey. India followed China, with only 8 percent saying the former is a major threat.
|
