Morning Consult Washington: Week in Review & What's Ahead

By Cameron Easley

Week in Review

Republican National Convention

Ahead of the launch of the Republican National Convention, President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign released a list of 50 goals for a second term, including a “return to normal in 2021,” term limits for members of Congress and the creation of “10 million new jobs in 10 months.” The second-term priorities were released after the Republican National Committee opted against adopting a new party platform for 2020, instead passing a resolution to “enthusiastically support” the “America-first” agenda and “reject the policy positions of the Obama-Biden administration.”

On Night 1, Trump and his Republican allies opened their convention with dark and ominous warnings about how Democrats will govern if they are victorious in the November elections, along with praise for how Trump has steered the country through the coronavirus pandemic and promises of economic revitalization in the near future. Earlier in the day in his first address at the convention, the president baselessly accused Democrats of “trying to steal the election” from the GOP “just like they did last time, with spying.”

In a bid to broaden his appeal beyond his conservative base, Trump used the powers of his office during Night 2 of the RNC to naturalize five people of color as American citizens and pardon a Nevada man convicted of bank robbery, both in videos recorded at the White House, traditionally a campaign-free space. In another norm-breaking moment, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whose department officials have long avoided partisan political activities, addressed the convention from the roof of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, saying the president’s “America First vision” has not made him “popular in every foreign capital, but it’s worked.”

During his keynote speech on Night 3 of the RNC, Vice President Mike Pence criticized the unrest in the streets of Kenosha, Minneapolis and Portland that have occasionally turned violent this summer in the wake of police killings of Black Americans, emphasizing support for the police. He also warned Americans that “you won’t be safe” in Democratic nominee “Joe Biden’s America” and vowed to “make America great again, again” in a second term in office for Trump.

In a 70-minute speech from the White House lawn, Trump accepted the GOP presidential nomination on Night 4 of the RNC, framing himself as a vanguard against left-wing radicals and a defender of law and order while misrepresenting his own record in tackling the coronavirus pandemic that has taken the lives of nearly 180,000 Americans this year. Ahead of his speech, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, accused the president of failing the American people in a detailed takedown of his response to the coronavirus, calling on the country to hold him accountable for minimizing the pandemic.

Following the RNC, Mecklenburg County officials announced two convention attendees and two staffers tested positive for COVID-19. That disclosure came after county health officials had expressed concerns about a lack of social distancing and mask wearing during the RNC business meeting in Charlotte on Monday.

2020

A post-convention Morning Consult survey found Trump had trimmed his deficit with Joe Biden from 10 percentage points to 6 points, largely fueled by gains among suburbanites and white voters. However, Biden continues to hover around majority support, putting the Democratic Party in a much stronger position than it found itself coming out of the conventions four years ago.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe informed the House and Senate Intelligence committees that he would no longer provide in-person briefings on election security, instead providing written updates for panel members. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) denounced the decision, accusing the Trump administration of abdicating its duty to keep Congress informed.

Two current senior Trump administration officials are said to have anonymously signed on to an effort among current and former Trump administration officials to elect Biden. According to the person familiar with the project called the Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform, one of those anonymous officials plans to reveal their identity closer to the election and lose their job as a result.

More than two dozen GOP former legislators endorsed Biden’s presidential campaign, including former Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona. The endorsements coincided with the Biden campaign’s launch of “Republicans for Biden,” an effort meant to encourage grassroots organizing efforts among GOP voters who are supporting the former vice president over Trump.

A federal judge put on hold a Trump campaign lawsuit that was seeking to block Pennsylvania counties from using drop boxes to collect mail-in ballots, dealing a blow to the president’s efforts to restrict the voting method. U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan said state courts should first have a chance to rule on the matter, and the Supreme Court in the Keystone State has a 5-2 Democratic majority.

Trump administration

The Justice Department said it would launch a civil rights investigation into the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was left partially paralyzed after police officer Rusten Sheskey fired at him in front of his children in Kenosha, Wis. The DOJ announcement came after Trump vowed on Twitter to send federal law enforcement and the National Guard to Kenosha to stem protests that have led to arson, and after Kyle Rittenhouse — a white 17-year-old whose social media accounts displayed an apparent predilection for guns, law enforcement and the president — was arrested after allegedly shooting three protesters on the streets, killing two of them.

A person died from a shooting in Portland on Saturday night amid clashes between a caravan of Trump supporters and Black Lives Matter protesters in the streets. While it was unclear if the shooting was linked to a skirmish that broke out when the caravan reached the city’s downtown, a freelancer said that the victim, a white man, was wearing a hat with the emblem of the Patriot Prayer, a right-wing group whose members have frequently clashed with protesters in Portland in the past.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he was in surgery during an Aug. 20 task force meeting when team members discussed updating Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testing guidelines to discourage asymptomatic people from undergoing COVID-19 testing, including those who have been in close contact with an infected person. Fauci said he was concerned that the change in the guidance, which comes after Trump has repeatedly suggested the United States should cut back on testing, could erroneously convey to the public that asymptomatic spread is not a big concern.

The Trump administration fired two senior public relations experts who had been advising the Food and Drug Administration following a botched communications rollout of a blood plasma treatment for COVID-19, where high-ranking officials made exaggerated statements that public health experts said undermined public trust in the FDA..

The Trump administration announced a $750 million agreement to purchase 150 million rapid COVID-19 testing kits Abbott Laboratories in a bid to significantly expand the nation’s testing capabilities. Abbott said it plans to ship tens of millions of tests next month and increase production to 50 million tests in October; that monthly figure would roughly double the number of tests performed in the United States last month.

Trump announced in a tweet that he will nominate Chad Wolf, the acting Department of Homeland Security secretary since November 2019, to fill the post on a permanent basis. The move comes after the Government Accountability Office in a report earlier this month said the appointments of Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, the senior official performing the duties of the deputy secretary, were invalid.

The United Nations Security Council said it will not act on the Trump administration’s bid to reimpose multilateral sanctions on Iran after 13 of the 15 members on the panel said the United States had no standing to do so given its withdrawal from the international accord. While the Trump administration’s options are unclear, some diplomats are said to expect it to try next month to pressure Niger, which will take over the council’s rotating presidency in September, to take action.

White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told Trump that she will step down from her role at the end of the month in order to spend more time with her family as her children begin a new academic year of remote learning. Conway’s impending exit will leave Trump’s re-election effort without a key longtime adviser, who led his campaign down the stretch of the 2016 election.

Trump Organization probe

The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a state Supreme Court judge to order Eric Trump to answer questions under oath and to compel the Trump Organization to hand over documents as part of its inquiry into whether the company overstated assets in order to secure loans and tax benefits. The request came after the president’s son, who is an executive vice president of the company, pulled out of an interview with the attorney general’s office last month and the Trump Organization refused last week to comply with seven subpoenas related to the investigation.

Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve announced a policy shift where the central bank will aim for inflation above its long-term goal of 2 percent, meaning in effect the Fed will keep borrowing costs low for a long period instead of hiking rates pre-emptively to prevent higher inflation. The change, according to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, also reflects the central bank’s belief that “a robust job market can be sustained without causing an outbreak of inflation.”

Coronavirus relief funding talks

Pelosi said she offered to reduce her proposed price tag for a coronavirus relief package by $200 billion, to $2.2 trillion, in a bid to restart stalled negotiations, but was rebuffed by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during a 25-minute phone call yesterday. The lack of progress in the talks — the first between the two sides since early August — raises the stakes for negotiations when lawmakers return to the Capitol next month ahead of a Sept. 30 government funding deadline.

Claire Williams contributed.

What’s Ahead

Congressional primary elections in Massachusetts — including the Democratic race between Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Joe Kennedy — are on Tuesday.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its August jobs report on Friday.

The House and Senate are not in session. The Senate is not set to return until Sept. 8, the day after Labor Day, and the House has no votes planned before Sept. 14.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said a coronavirus relief package should be folded into talks on a stopgap spending bill to fund the government past its current Sept. 30 deadline.

Events Calendar (All Times Local)

09/01/2020
Massachusetts holds primary elections

View full calendar

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