“A leading super PAC that backs Senate Republicans says it will spend $23 million to buy TV time in the small but crucial battleground state of New Hampshire as the group targets Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in a key contest,” Fox News reports.
Biden Tamps Down Talk of Primary Challenge
Washington Post: “After a string of legislative and policy wins applauded especially by liberals, along with dropping gas prices and rising poll numbers, more Democrats are accepting that Biden will likely be the party’s standard-bearer for one more presidential election.”
Support for Legalized Abortion Grows
A new Wall Street Journal poll finds that the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade has made 83% of Democrats likelier to vote in November, compared to just 31% of Republicans.
The poll also shows support for legalizing abortion ticking up: Sixty percent of voters think the procedure should be legal most or all of the time (up from 55% in March), while just 6% want a complete ban without exceptions (down from 11%).
Biden Planned This Week’s Speech for Months
Playbook: “Months ago, with the economy in flux, his legislative agenda adrift and his approval ratings mired in the 30s, President Joe Biden was ill-positioned to break through with any compelling message to the American people — let alone an existential warning about the state of American democracy.”
“But Biden’s late-summer bounce has buoyed not only his poll numbers but also his credibility as he chose this week to launch a new broadside against his predecessor and his ‘MAGA Republican’ loyalists. Its centerpiece — his Thursday speech warning against the anti-democratic assault from former President Donald Trump and his core followers — was an election-season clarion call unlike anything in modern American history, Eugene, Sam Stein and Jonathan Lemire write this morning.”
“The speech was months in the making. Aides said Biden started planning a democracy-themed address in June, but events continued to get in the way of its delivery.”
Trump Plots Aggressive Midterm Strategy
“Donald Trump’s political advisers are in early discussions with Republican campaigns about actively deploying him on the trail this fall, with party strategists placing a risky bet that Trump can boost GOP turnout without repelling moderates and independents who do not support the former president,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump plans to be more engaged in October than in September, by appearing at rallies, in robocalls and potentially on tele-town halls and at fundraisers, according to a close adviser, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential strategy. Trump’s political team has told others they want to be cooperative and helpful, focusing Trump on rural areas where he has strong support. Talks have included states across the South and Upper Midwest, among others.”
“But the risk is acute that his presence could distract from what the GOP has sought to make its central message of the midterms: that voters should fire Democrats who have presided over rising costs and violent crime.”
Republicans Lose It Over Biden’s Speech
New York Times: “The Republicans’ reaction to Mr. Biden’s speech was remarkable. For years, they stood quietly by as Mr. Trump vilified and demonized anyone who disagreed with him — encouraging supporters to beat up protesters; demanding that his rivals be arrested; accusing critics of treason and even murder; calling opponents ‘fascists’; and retweeting a supporter saying ‘the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.’ But they rose up as one on Thursday night and Friday to complain that Mr. Biden was the one being divisive.”
Meadows Turns Over Texts to National Archives
“Within a week of the FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows handed over texts and emails to the National Archives that he had not previously turned over from his time in the administration,” CNN reports.
“Meadows’ submission to the Archives was part of a request for all electronic communications covered under the Presidential Records Act. The Archives had become aware earlier this year it did not have everything from Meadows after seeing what he had turned over to the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021.”
Pennsylvania at the Center of the Political Universe
New York Times: “Perhaps no other state features as many high-stakes, competitive races, each pulsing with political currents shaping midterm campaigns across the country. The open race for governor between a right-wing political outsider and a veteran of the Democratic establishment may determine both the future of abortion rights and of free and fair elections in a large presidential swing state.”
“The personality-driven, increasingly ugly Senate contest — shaped by clashes over celebrity and elitism, crime and crudité, and a candidate’s health — could decide control of the chamber.”
“And in races up and down the ballot, Pennsylvania is poised to test whether the political realignment of the Trump era can hold, after the moderate Philadelphia suburbs overwhelmingly rejected the former president’s brand of politics, while many white working-class voters abandoned the Democrats to embrace him.”
Biden at the Barricades
Jonathan Alter: “You are either with us, or with the terrorists.”
“That’s how President George W. Bush framed the challenge just after 9/11. Bush went on to make some terrible decisions, including to invade a country—Iraq—that had nothing to do with the terrorist attack on the United States. But at the time, the clarity of those words was bracing.”
“Now, 21 years later, President Biden has done something similar in response to today’s threat. He has properly framed the great political challenge of our time, not just for the 2022 and 2024 elections but through at least the middle part of the 21st Century, when Donald Trump’s cult followers will still be roaming the land.”
“Biden was basically saying, You are either with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that were written just behind me—that’s ‘us’—or you are with the political terrorists who use fear and threats of violence to get their way. There’s no middle ground.”
Hillary Clinton Has ‘No Regrets’ Staying in Marriage
Hillary Clinton said she has “no regrets” about choosing to stay in her marriage to former President Bill Clinton, The Hill reports.
Said Clinton: “It took a lot of, honestly, prayer, and thoughtfulness, and talking to people I totally trusted, to really think through — because it was all being done in public.”
She added: “So it made it even more painful and difficult.”
Biden to Crack Down on Chinese Tech
President Biden plans to sign an executive order this month that could dramatically limit U.S. investments in China, Semafor reports.
Biden is also considering an order which would target services including TikTok by limiting how Chinese internet companies can collect data on U.S. citizens.
Lee Zeldin Turns to Trump for Cash In New York
New York Times: “Republicans running statewide in a Democrat-dominated state like New York often follow a predictable path toward the political center. On Sunday, though, Representative Lee Zeldin will take a different route — south to the Jersey Shore for a fund-raiser starring former President Donald Trump.”
“The high-profile rendezvous, at the palatial seaside retreat of old Trump real estate friends, has already prompted days of Democratic attacks against Mr. Zeldin, the Republican nominee for governor.”
Mitch McConnell’s Woes Pile Up
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “spent the summer watching Democrats score a series of legislative victories of the sort he once swore he would thwart,” the New York Times reports.
“His party’s crop of candidate recruits has struggled to gain traction, threatening his chances of reclaiming the Senate majority. And this week, his dispute with the leader of the Republicans’ Senate campaign arm escalated into a public war.”
“As the Senate prepares to return to Washington next week for a final stint before the midterm congressional elections, Mr. McConnell is entering an autumn of discontent, a reality that looks far different from where he was expecting to be at the start of President Biden’s term.”
Wisconsin Republican Calls for ‘Pitchforks and Torches’
Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels (R), who was endorsed by Donald Trump, is calling for people to take up “pitchforks and torches” in reaction to a story that detailed his giving to anti-abortion groups, the AP reports.
A New Excuse for Trump Having Classified Documents
Jared Kushner offered up a new explanation to Sky News for why Donald Trump had top secret documents at Mar-a-Lago: “This may be a paperwork issue.”
Who’s Been Inside Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Office?
“Since leaving the White House, former President Donald Trump has hosted a string of admirers and associates in his personal office at Mar-a-Lago,” ABC News reports.
“From celebrities to dignitaries, many of his visitors have posed for photos and received mementos — and now, according to the Justice Department, it turns out at least some may also have been in close proximity to unsecured classified documents that the DOJ says should not have been in Trump’s possession.”
Pentagon Aims to Speed Arms Sales to Allies
“The Pentagon has launched a wide-ranging push to speed up sales of U.S. arms to foreign allies in an effort to better compete with China and refill the arsenals of friendly nations that have given military gear to Ukraine,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I frankly am skeptical of the claim that he declassified everything. You know, because frankly, I think it’s highly improbable… If in fact he sort of stood over scores of boxes, not really knowing what was in them and said I hereby declassify everything in here, that would be such an abuse and — that shows such recklessness — it’s almost worse than taking the documents.”
— Former Attorney General Bill Barr, on Fox News.