“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should be removed from the Michigan ballot, the state Court of Appeals ruled Friday,” Bloomberg Law reports.
Trump Took No Questions at ‘Press Conference’
New York Times: “After talking for 45 minutes, Donald Trump — who mocked his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, for not speaking to the media — left without taking questions.”
CNN cut away after two minutes. Fox News didn’t even air it.
E. Jean Carroll’s Lawyer Hints at New Defamation Claim
After Donald Trump again said E. Jean Carroll “makes up a story,” her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, left open the idea of filing a new defamation claim against him, the New York Times reports.
Said Kaplan: “I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: all options are on the table.”
Quote of the Day
“I’m disappointed in my legal talent.”
— Donald Trump, at a news conference after attending a hearing to appeal his sexual abuse and defamation case — while standing next to his lawyers.
A Compromised Party
Stuart Stevens: “The degree of Russian compromise of the Republican party is one of the great stories of American political history. Those of us who worked within the party saw it happen, accompanied by a right-wing media industry that found it profitable to label Russian influence a ‘hoax.'”
“There’s nothing like it in American history.”
Majority of Swing State Voters Say Trump Is ‘Too Extreme’
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The Movie Trump Doesn’t Want You to See
“Donald Trump doesn’t want Americans to see The Apprentice, and with good reason—it’s a bona fide supervillain origin story,” the Daily Beast reports.
“It’s an incisive primer on the relationship with Roy Cohn that made the 45th President of the United States who he is today. Which is to say, it lays out the gory details regarding the source of his egomania, greed, ambition, vanity, sociopathy, and heartless rapey-ness, the last of which comes to the fore in a brutal assault of his first wife Ivana.”
Florida Senate Race a Toss Up
A new The Hill/Emerson College poll in Florida finds Sen. Rick Scott (R) barely ahead of challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D), 46% to 45% with another 9% still undecided.
Books Deals Can Add Up to Millions for Justices
“For Supreme Court justices, books deals have become a highly lucrative way to shape the public narrative of their lives and legacies,” the New York Times reports.
“The money brought in by those deals, one of the few ways that they can supplement their income, often far eclipses their salaries, roughly $300,000.”
January 6 Cannot Be Denied in the Courtroom
“Inside Washington’s federal courthouse, there’s no denying the reality of Jan. 6, 2021. Day after day, judges and jurors silently absorb the chilling sights and sounds from television screens of rioters beating police, shattering windows and hunting for lawmakers as democracy lay under siege,” the AP reports.
“But as he seeks to reclaim the White House, Donald Trump continues to portray the defendants as patriots worthy of admiration, an assertion that has been undercut by the adjudicated truth in hundreds of criminal cases where judges and juries have reached the opposite conclusion about what history will remember as one of America’s darkest days.”
“The cases have systematically put on record — through testimony, documents and video — the crimes committed, weapons wielded, and lives altered by physical and emotional damage. Trump is espousing a starkly different story, portraying the rioters as hostages and political prisoners whom he says he might pardon if he wins in November.”
Treasury Recovered $1.3 Billion from Wealthy Tax Dodgers
“The IRS has collected $1.3 billion from high wealth tax dodgers since last fall, the agency announced Friday, crediting spending that has ramped up collection enforcement through President Joe Biden’s signature climate, health care and tax package signed into law in 2022,” the AP reports.
Exchange of the Day
Donald Trump took a question at the New York Economic Club:
QUESTIONER: If you win in November, can you commit to prioritizing legislation to make child care affordable? And if so, what specific piece of legislation will you advance?
TRUMP: Well, I would do that. And we’re sitting down—you know, I was—somebody we had, Sen. Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that—because, look, childcare is childcare, it couldn’t—you know, there’s something—you have to have it. In this country you have to have it.
But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to, but they’ll get used to it very quickly. And it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including childcare, that it’s gonna take care. We’re gonna have, I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time. Coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country, because I have to stay with childcare. I want to stay with childcare. But those numbers are small, relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth—but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just told you about.
We’re gonna be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as childcare is talked about as being expensive, it’s relatively speaking not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in. We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people, and then we’ll worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people, but we’re going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It’s about Make America Great Again. We have to do it because right now we’re a failing nation, so we’ll take care of it. Thank you.
McCormick Told Firm to Stay Silent About Sexual Advances
Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick (R) pressed former employees at his hedge fund “to remain silent about unwanted sexual advances they said they experienced at the company,” USA Today reports.
Florida Senate Challenger Launches WhatsApp Channel
“Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the former U.S. House Democrat now challenging Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott for the Senate, has launched a new campaign on WhatsApp to reach voters and attack a sea of disinformation,” NPR reports.
“The direct messaging operation is part of a broader attempt to close the gap in a race that has grown increasingly tight. Democrats face an uphill battle undoing Republican gains in the state in recent years, particularly in an election where former President Trump is expected to add to GOP turnout in the state. However, Democrats think they can move the needle, particularly with Latino voters, through smartphones.”
Job Growth Rebounded Slightly Last Month
“U.S. job growth rebounded slightly in August after a mid-summer scare, keeping the Federal Reserve on track to begin cutting interest rates at their meeting in two weeks,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The economy added 142,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department, an uptick from July hiring that sparked slowdown fears and jarred global financial markets. The unemployment rate in August ticked lower to 4.2%.”
Russia Targeted Gamers in Propaganda Campaign
Newly unsealed court documents reveal in unprecedented detail a Russian propaganda campaign aimed at gamers and minorities to swing the 2024 presidential election, Wired reports.
Ex-Democratic Senate Leader in California Switches Parties
“Gloria Romero, the former Democratic majority leader in the California state Senate, announced on Wednesday that she was switching to the Republican Party and voting for Donald Trump in November,” the Los Angeles Daily News reports.
