“Palm Beach, one of the richest American enclaves, is seeking government assistance after the cost to protect its most famous resident — former President Donald Trump — soared to $93,000 a day,” Bloomberg reports.
“The local sheriff’s office was forced to ramp up spending on Trump’s security detail after an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania two months ago. Now a second attempt, this time at a golf course near Trump’s home in Florida, has renewed calls to boost it even further.”
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “Polling in states that are somewhat competitive for president but outside the group of 7 that is likely to decide this election generally reflect what happened in 2020, although Donald Trump is usually performing slightly better than the actual 2020 results in those states, much like the polling in the key battlegrounds that we covered last week.”
“A long-awaited plan to help Ukraine rebuild using Russian money is in limbo as the United States and Europe struggle to agree on how to construct a $50 billion loan using Russia’s frozen central bank assets while complying with their own laws,” the New York Times reports.
Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde (R) “has quietly replaced key parts of his campaign in recent months as he continues to trail Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) in the polls,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“Over the last three months, the multimillionaire banking mogul has parted ways with his fundraising and media consultants and the top member of his communications team.”
Joe Rogan praised Kamala Harris on his podcast saying she was much better prepared for the debate than Donald Trump.
Said Rogan: “I just wanna say, whoever’s helping her, whoever’s coaching her, whoever’s the puppet master running the strings, you did an amazing job.”
He added: “The difference in that debate was not a difference in who’s gonna have better policies? Who’s gonna be better for the country? The difference in the debate, in my opinion, was who was better prepared. She was way better prepared… Even when it came to answering tough questions, instead of answering, she would just say things that she believed and they sounded real good, and that’s the sound bite.”
A new Monmouth poll finds 49% of registered voters say they will either definitely (39%) or probably (10%) vote for Kamala Harris in November while just 44% will definitely (34%) or probably (10%) support Donald Trump.
About half say they will definitely not vote for Trump (48%), while a smaller number say they definitely will not vote for Harris (42%).
Democrats will regain their majority in the Pennsylvania House today when voters in two Philadelphia-area districts head to the polls to fill vacancies, the AP reports.
No Republican filed to run in either district.
Kamala Harris has opened up a 5-point lead nationally in The Economist‘s vote tracker.
“Law enforcement officials at a Virginia military base are still actively investigating an August incident at Arlington National Cemetery involving what has been described as a confrontation between former President Donald Trump’s campaign and a cemetery worker, even as the Army says it considers the matter closed,” ABC News reports.
“Investigators are seeking to interview the officials involved in the incident.”
Kentucky state Sen. Johnnie Turner (R) was hospitalized following an accident involving a riding lawn mower Sunday afternoon in which he drove into the deep end of a swimming pool, the Kentucky Lantern reports.
A new St. Anselm College poll in New Hampshire finds former Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R) leading Joyce Craig (D) 46% to 43% in the race to replace retiring Gov. Chris Sununu (R).
Jonathan Chait: “Donald Trump infamously said at the presidential debate he had the ‘concept of a plan’ to replace Obamacare. As is often the case when Trump commits verbal self-harm, it fell to J.D. Vance to turn his car wreck of a statement into an intelligible position.”
“What Vance came up with is not only surprising but, if understood properly, far more damaging than Trump’s original statement. The Trump plan, according to Vance, is to permit insurance companies to discriminate against people with preexisting conditions.”
Brian Beutler: Vance lets slip: He and Trump are coming for your health care.
Nikki Haley is joining SiriusXM in a deal that will see her host a new weekly politics show for the satellite radio giant, the Hollywood Reporter reports.
“The show is slated to run through next year’s presidential inauguration as of now.”
“Senate Republicans have quietly reversed course on trying to rebuke or embarrass the Biden White House, concerned it could help Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stay in power,” Axios reports.
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) admitted they were “not actually getting anything done” with the votes, but it created a situation in which Democrats “can send a message that they’re pretending to back home.”
Speaker Mike Johnson is planning to hold a vote Wednesday on his six-month CR coupled with the SAVE Act, Punchbowl News reports.
The vote is likely to fail.
“Democrats have spent much of the 2024 campaign reminding Americans of what happened on Jan. 6, 2021. But on Capitol Hill, some are already getting worried about Jan. 6, 2025,” Politico reports.
“They are hoping that Harris will win in November and they’ll flip the House, too — meaning it would likely be Hakeem Jeffries holding the speaker’s gavel as the process of certifying a Harris victory gets underway.”
“But it’s another scenario that is nagging top House Democrats — that Speaker Mike Johnson might keep his majority as Harris wins and find himself in a position where he could obstruct the counting of electoral votes and possibly throw the election to the House under the constitutional provisions of the 12th Amendment.”
Washington Post: “Republicans have been twisting themselves in knots over abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade just over two years ago. Now, a significant number of Republicans in tight races are expressing some level of support for abortion rights or its twin issue, in vitro fertilization — which for some of them is a reversal of previously held positions.”
“Republicans watched in the 2022 election cycle as voters sided with abortion rights measures in all six states with such measures on the ballot, and Republicans in House and Senate races underperformed as abortion became a key issue for voters.”
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.