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Donald Trump has been “discussing” the pros and cons of another debate with Kamala Harris, notwithstanding his statement saying “it’s too late” to debate again, the Washington Post reports.
Some advisers, including Kellyanne Conway, “have privately been pushing him to do another debate, and he has not ruled it out despite publicly saying he won’t.”
“To my friends in Nebraska, that one electoral vote could be the difference between Harris being president and not, and she’s a disaster for Nebraska and the world.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), quoted by Politico, on his trip to Nebraska to push for the state’s Republican leadership to change how it awards its electoral votes.
The Democratic National Committee is running a mobile billboard campaign tonight around Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania, trying to taunt him into agreeing to a second debate with Kamala Harris, the New York Times reports.
Said the billboard: “There’s no debate: Trump’s a chicken.”
After a wave of resignations, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Marco Robinson (R) has just three people still working on his gubernatorial campaign — two campaign spokesmen and a bodyguard, WUNC reports.
“In Donald Trump’s imaginary world, Americans can’t venture out to buy a loaf of bread without getting shot, mugged or raped. Immigrants in a small Ohio town eat their neighbors’ cats and dogs. World War III and economic collapse are just around the corner. And kids head off to school only to return at day’s end having undergone gender reassignment surgery,” the Washington Post reports.
“The former president’s imaginary world is a dark, dystopian place, described by Trump in his rallies, interviews, social media posts and debate appearances to paint an alarming picture of America under the Biden-Harris administration.”
“It is a distorted, warped and, at times, absurdist portrait of a nation where the insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to deadly effect were merely peaceful protesters, and where unlucky boaters are faced with the unappealing choice between electrocution or a shark attack. His extreme caricatures also serve as another way for Trump to traffic in lies and misinformation, using an alternate reality of his own making to create an often terrifying — and, he seems to hope — politically devastating landscape for his political opponents.”
“The race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is the first presidential election in half a century in which neither candidate is openly telling voters much about their religion or faith,” Axios reports.
“The lack of emphasis on religion comes as the percentage of Americans identifying as ‘religiously unaffiliated’ has skyrocketed to 27% — a larger share of the population than mainline Protestants and evangelical white voters combined.”
“In the flood of election polls you’ll see over the next few weeks, most polling groups will include responses from ‘likely voters.’ And often from nobody else,” the New York Times reports.
“In theory, these poll numbers should yield more accurate results, since the people who actually vote are the ones who dictate the outcome on Election Day. But creating a precise picture of who will vote in November is a complicated endeavor.”
“After all, how exactly can a pollster know who is ‘likely’ to vote, and who therefore will be the focus of their results? There’s no one right answer, and every polling firm has its own strategy.”
The Hill: Democrats fear pollsters are undercounting Trump.
A new New York Times/Siena poll in Arizona finds 58% of like voters said they planned to support an amendment to the state’s Constitution codifying “the fundamental right to an abortion.”
Nate Cohn: “It’s been nearly two weeks since the first presidential debate, and the polls have reached their verdict on the fallout: The race remains very close.”
“On average, Kamala Harris is faring about one point better across 34 polls that measured the race before and after the debate. It leaves the contest deadlocked, with neither candidate enjoying a meaningful advantage in the key states.”
“By the usual measures, this is a small post-debate bounce. In fact, it is the smallest bounce for the perceived consensus winner of the first presidential debate so far this century.”
“Democrats are outspending Republicans on political ads by about a half-billion dollars since Aug. 1,” Axios reports.
Bloomberg: “An influx of Wall Street and Silicon Valley donor support for Kamala Harris is translating into a distinct campaign advantage to the tune of nearly $5 million a day, allowing her to go on offense against Republican Donald Trump.”
A new series of New York Times/Siena polls of likely voters:
“But in one sign of how these contests remain up for grabs, about 15 percent of the electorate in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina described themselves as undecided or not definitely decided, leaving open the possibility that they could still change their minds.”
Nate Cohn: “In one sense, the finding is very clear: It’s a good set of numbers for Mr. Trump. It’s not necessarily an exceptional one, as Ms. Harris’s easiest path to victory lies in the Northern battlegrounds. But Mr. Trump’s path to victory begins in the Sun Belt; if he wins these three states, he wouldn’t need many more.”
“It’s a telling sign of the state of global affairs that Volodymyr Zelensky’s first stop on his US visit was in the swingiest of swing states in the presidential election: Pennsylvania,” Bloomberg reports.
“The visit was to an ammunition factory, one of the few in the country making the kind of artillery shells that Ukraine is running low on in its fight against Russia. What’s more it’s in Scranton, President Joe Biden’s home town and a symbol for the disaffected voter in the Rust Belt that will decide who wins.”
“Pennsylvania also happens to be home to one of the largest Ukrainian American populations in the US.”
Axios: Zelensky arrives in U.S. ahead of presenting Biden with “victory plan.”
“Vice President Kamala Harris raised $27 million at a packed New York City fundraiser on Sunday, her largest fundraising haul since she took over at the top of the ticket from President Joe Biden,” the AP reports.
Harris said she would deliver a speech Wednesday outlining her economic vision, saying there is “more we can do to invest in the aspirations and ambitions of the American people while addressing the challenges they face.”
“Several top staffers and fundraisers for Mark Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign have quit,“ WRAL reports.
“The North Carolina Republican Party nominee for governor is facing increased pressure and skepticism from members of his party after a recent report by CNN alleging that he made lewd, racist and pro-Hitler comments on a pornographic website’s messaging board.”
Raleigh News and Observer: Mark Robinson’s top campaign staff in NC governor’s race resign in wake of scandal.
“House GOP leaders on Sunday unveiled a plan to keep the government funded for three months after Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) opening gambit to avoid a shutdown failed due to opposition from Republicans,” The Hill reports.
“The continuing resolution (CR), which was the result of bipartisan negotiations in the House and Senate, would keep the government funded at current levels through Dec. 20 — setting up a holiday funding fight.”
Kamala Harris repeated her call for Donald Trump to accept an invitation from CNN for a second debate, the New York Times reports.
Said Harris: “He should accept. I feel very strongly that we owe it to the American people and to the voters to meet once more before Election Day and continue the conversation.”
“When elections officials in Palm Beach County, Fla., emailed ballots last week to military and overseas voters, they failed to notice a typographical error: The name of Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the Democratic nominee for vice president, was misspelled as ‘Tom Walz,’” the New York Times reports.
“J.D. Vance not long ago described conspiracy theories as the feverish imaginings produced by ‘fringe lunatics writing about all manner of idiocy,’” the AP reports.
“That was before he became a rising star in Republican politics.”
“The Ohio senator and GOP’s vice presidential nominee has in recent years declared that the federal government deliberately allowed fentanyl into the United States to kill conservative and rural voters. He has praised Alex Jones, a well-known conspiracy theorist who claimed the deaths of 20 young children in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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