“Democrats and progressive groups are urging voters to cast their ballots as early as possible — and increasingly, in person — amid concerns that President Donald Trump’s intervention and postal delays could disrupt the mail voting process this fall,” NBC News reports.
9/11 Fades From Congressional Memory
Washington Sun: “Less than 10% of lawmakers who were at the Capitol that day are still in a Congress that has no plans to mark a fateful day of its history.”
Stick a Fork in ‘Em
Andrew Egger: “Ever since Democrats’ major overperformance in last year’s off-year elections, I’ve been saying over and over: time is a finite resource for Donald Trump and his party. If they wanted to stave off disaster in the midterms, they would need to get moving fast to woo back disaffected members of their 2024 coalition. Every day spent failing to achieve that goal was a day wasted.”
“Now, in the afterglow of this week’s ludicrous, somnambulant GOP midterm convention, I’m about ready to call it. Republicans are out of ideas and out of time.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Those of us in authority on that day did not see the nature of the danger in time to prevent the attack of 9/11. We did what we knew to do, but by definition, it was not enough.”
— Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, quoted by the New York Post.
Trump Ties Iran War to U.S. Security in 9/11 Speech
“President Donald Trump defended the war in Iran during a Pentagon ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, tying the conflict to the U.S.’s decades-long fight against terrorism,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Trump: “It is a war on sick, horrible terror. We salute our first responders and law enforcement, and we love them, and we salute the service members working right now to ensure the world’s number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never ever have a nuclear weapon.”
Why Donald Trump’s Coalition Is Disintegrating
The Economist: “To understand why Mr Trump’s coalition is falling apart, recall how he won election to a second term in 2024. Covid-era spending and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed inflation to 9% in 2022, the highest rate in decades.”
“For a population accustomed to predictable prices, this was a profound shock. Even as the economy grew and inflation fell in 2024, Americans rated prices as their top concern. Accepting the Republican nomination in July of that year, Mr Trump promised that under his leadership ‘inflation will vanish completely.’ Democrats, meanwhile, struggled to persuade voters they could be trusted. The 81-year-old incumbent, Joe Biden, did not appear up to the job. A last-minute switch to Ms Harris, Mr Biden’s vice-president who had flailed in a presidential primary just four years before, was not enough to save the party.”
“Mr Trump’s victory over Ms Harris, with a 1.5-percentage-point margin, rested on a fragile coalition of voters dissatisfied with Democratic leadership.”
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Trump’s Speech Draws 2.5 Million on Fox News
“President Donald Trump’s speech on the opening night of the Republican midterm convention drew about 2.5 million viewers on Fox News, according to Nielsen data, potentially undercutting his claim the event ‘beat the NFL’ opening night,” Reuters reports.
“Ratings for the game are not yet available, but the NFL averaged about 18 million viewers per game last season, and last year’s opener drew close to 28 million.”
Navy Secretary Confirms Iran Attack On Bahrain Base
“Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao confirmed this week that a major American military hub in Bahrain was badly damaged by Iranian attacks — and he was unsure whether keeping U.S. forces there is feasible long-term,” the New York Post reports.
Said Cao: “They blow the hell out of Bahrain.”
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GOP Influencers Largely Avoided Talking About Economy
New York Times: “More than 100 influencers were invited to the midterm convention by members of the Republican National Committee, a committee spokeswoman said. They were given some of the best seats in the arena and special ‘creator’ credentials that granted them access to a list of Republican Party leaders eager to sit for interviews.”
“They recorded content from a special platform directly across from the stage where the president spoke. They partied after hours at an event hosted by TikTok, where they snacked on miniature cheesecakes and an assortment of cake balls.”
“The difficult task facing these dozens of conservative influencers was figuring out how to boost the Republican Party, when the image of prosperity projected from the stage was different from the reality of surging costs.”
Republicans Embrace Cult Status
Rolling Stone: “It’s still Donald Trump’s party — and don’t you doubt it.”
“On the second night of the Republican midterm convention in Dallas — an event ostensibly meant to boost the GOP candidates on the ballot in November — the party fully embraced its status as a cult of devotion to a single man: the president.”
“In a video played on the screens throughout the American Airlines Center, a voice declared that ‘on June 14th, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker,’ so God gave us Trump.'”
“The video opened by zooming into planet Earth, landing on a childhood photo of the president.”
GOP Lawmaker Who Defied Trump Declared Winner
“Indiana’s Supreme Court on Thursday ruled after a months-long recount that a Republican incumbent state senator narrowly defeated his Trump-backed challenger in the GOP primary for the state Senate seat,” NBC News reports.
“The court declared state Sen. Spencer Deery the winner of the Senate District 23 Republican primary in May, certifying that he beat challenger Paula Copenhaver by three votes, and ordering that his name appear on the general election ballot in November.”
Surgeon General Pick Held Tobacco and Pharma Stocks
“President Donald Trump’s surgeon general nominee reported investments in the tobacco company Philip Morris International,” NewsNation reports.
“Nicole Saphier disclosed these investments in an ethics agreement, where she pledged to completely or partially divest from those companies, as well as shed stock holdings with a host of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry leaders — including Eli Lilly, Biogen, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Merck, AbbVie and more.”
Congress Wakes Up to the AI Doomsday Threat
“A groundswell of urgency over artificial intelligence is surging in Congress amid growing fears that the technology could destroy civilization,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“After years of limited actions, dozens of lawmakers are now touting new proposals to regulate artificial-intelligence models that have stepped up their capabilities.”
Axios: Congress gripped by AI panic after doomsday warnings.
Republicans Ask Voters to Be Patient On the Economy
“President Donald Trump and his Republican allies sought to tackle voters’ concerns about the economy and the rising cost of living at their two-day midterm convention, with affordability proving to be one of the biggest themes throughout,” NBC News reports.
“The message was clear: Help is on the way — but it’s going to come after the November elections.”
Iran Used American AI Model to Target U.S. Navy Warships
“Iran used American-developed artificial-intelligence models to try to target U.S. Navy ships in the Middle East, according to an Anthropic report warning of emerging national-security dangers,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“An Iranian-linked group compiled information from ship and aircraft transponders, military photographs and commercial satellite photos to track American warships and look for vulnerabilities in their ship-born communications.”
Flanagan Leads Tafoya in Minnesota Senate Race
A new Quantus Insights poll in Minnesota finds Peggy Flanagan (D) leading Michele Tafoya (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 48% to 44%.
Minnesota Senate Race
Peggy Flanagan (D) 48%
Michele Tafoya (R) 44%
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