New York Times: “The campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, when combined with their super PACs, have raised $1.3 billion, and that’s not counting money raised by dark-money organizations that are active in the presidential race and don’t disclose their donors.”
“The final two months of the election typically see donors write some of the biggest checks of the campaign season. So we’re just getting started.”
“Donald Trump’s campaign, under pressure from Vice President Harris’ rise in the polls, is facing a persistent challenge from within: Trump himself, and his tendency to undermine his own strategy,” Axios reports.
“The ‘Trump will be Trump’ dynamic has been evident throughout 2024. But as the campaign heads into a nine-week sprint to Nov. 5, his off-script whims appear to be increasingly throwing mud on his advisers’ game plans.”
“The 2024 presidential race is set to enter a critical new juncture, with Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump set to debate and the first swing state ballots hitting mailboxes shortly after the Labor Day holiday weekend,” CNN reports.
“As the calendar turns to September, both campaigns are narrowing their focus on key battleground states — with Harris eyeing an expanded map and Trump digging in across the Upper Midwest states that delivered him the presidency in 2016 and ousted him from office in 2020.”
“It all comes as voting is set to begin this week. The first ballots of the 2024 election will go out Friday in North Carolina, one of a handful of potentially critical Sun Belt states. Then, two weeks later, early in-person voting starts in Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia.”
“A man at Donald Trump’s rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, stormed into the press area as the former president spoke Friday but was surrounded by police and sheriff’s deputies and was eventually subdued with a Taser,” the AP reports.
“The altercation came moments after Trump criticized major media outlets for what he said was unfavorable coverage and dismissed CNN as fawning for its interview Thursday with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz.”
“For Kamala Harris, it is Pennsylvania. For Donald Trump, it is Georgia,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Each campaign has a state that is arguably ‘must-win’ in its path to 270 electoral votes, which explains why both nominees are expending so much time, energy and money in those two places—to secure their own prize and block the other.”
“Harris will spend part of the Labor Day holiday in Pittsburgh alongside President Biden, after a postconvention bus tour Wednesday and Thursday that took her through rural Georgia. Trump, meanwhile, has been traveling across the so-called “blue wall” states, including the biggest battleground prize of Pennsylvania.”
Said Democratic strategist Doug Sosnik: “There are two pivot points for the election: Pennsylvania and Georgia. If Trump can win Pennsylvania or Harris can win Georgia, I think they are then overwhelming favorites to win the election. It’s still possible for Trump to win without Georgia, it’s still possible for Harris to win without Pennsylvania, but it’s a lot more difficult.”
Kamala Harris taunted Donald Trump for insisting on muted microphones at their debate.
Said Harris: “Donald Trump is surrendering to his advisors who won’t allow him to debate with a live microphone. If his own team doesn’t have confidence in him, the American people definitely can’t. We are running for President of the United States. Let’s debate in a transparent way—with the microphones on the whole time.”
“Donald Trump refused to commit to vetoing a federal abortion ban when asked about the issue by Fox News,” CNN reports.
Said Trump: “I’m not going to have to think about it, because it’s working out so well right now. The states are doing it. It’s a state’s issue.”
Donald Trump seemed to nod at Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a rally in Pennsylvania by vowing to rid the environment of toxic chemicals and “get them out of our bodies” and food supply, CNN reports.
Said Trump: “We’re going to make America healthy again. We’re not doing so well with health, but we’re going to solve a lot of those problems, I think, over the next short period of time.”
Sen. J.D. Vance said that professional women “choose a path to misery” when they prioritize careers over having children in a September 2021 podcast interview in which he also claimed men in America were “suppressed” in their masculinity, The Guardian reports.
The vice-presidential candidate said of women like his classmates at Yale Law School that “pursuing racial or gender equity is like the value system that gives their life meaning… but they all find that that value system leads to misery.”
Vance also sideswiped Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a one-time Somali refugee, claiming she had shown “ingratitude” to America, and that she “would be living in a craphole” had she not moved to the US.
Columbia Journalism Review: “When a presidential candidate violates universal and established norms, it’s okay to come out and say it. But the coverage of former president Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery, on August 26, showed the difficulties newsrooms have in covering unprecedented events, especially when it involves the nation’s military, veterans, and Donald Trump.”
Jonathan Chait: Trump honors “suckers and losers” with illegal Arlington Cemetery photo op.
New York Times: “The results have been confusing and fluid, a contradictory mess of policy statements as he has once again tried to rebrand himself on an issue that many of his supporters view in strict moral terms, and had come to believe that he did, too.”
“Mr. Trump’s shifting views have been especially difficult for social conservatives to navigate. Some anti-abortion leaders in his orbit have tried lobbying him to align his public position with theirs. Many others are staying quiet and sticking by him, hoping that what he is saying now is just an act to get elected and that, if he does get elected, he will again govern as ‘the most pro-life president’ in American history.”
Washington Post: Trump contradicts himself on abortion, searching for a winning message.
CNN: Harris slams Trump for saying he’s voting against Florida abortion amendment.
A new SurveyUSA poll in Minnesota finds Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump, 48% to 43%, with four percent preferring another candidate and five percent undecided.
A new EPIC-MRA poll in Michigan finds Donald Trump just ahead of Kamala Harris, 47% to 46% with another seven percent undecided.
In the U.S. Senate race, Elissa Slotkin (D) leads Mike Roger’s (R), 46% to 42% with 12% undecided.
New York Times: “A month later, polls show that the number of Americans who dislike Mr. Vance continues to grow — but Mr. Trump could not be happier.”
“The reason: Mr. Vance’s relentless pace of full-throttle performances as Mr. Trump’s well-trained attack dog has pleased the former president and instilled a sense of stability inside a campaign still shaken by President Biden’s sudden exit from the race.”
“Mr. Trump had instructed his young sidekick to fight forcefully through those initial attacks, and later said Mr. Vance’s execution exceeded his expectations.”
“Attitudes on abortion are deeply entrenched and have motivated voters across the American political landscape for decades. But in a post-Roe world, with abortion access sharply limited or at stake in several states, voters who want to protect abortion rights are increasingly energized,” the New York Times reports.
“Although the economy remains the No. 1 issue for voters, a growing share of voters in swing states now say abortion is central to their decision this fall, according to New York Times/Siena College polls earlier this month. This represents an increase since May, when President Joe Biden was still the Democratic presidential nominee. And by a wide margin, more say they trust Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump to handle abortion.”
“Donald Trump headlined an event sponsored by the Heritage Foundation in Washington on Friday, magnifying the struggle he faces in credibly distancing himself from Project 2025, a controversial policy plan the conservative think tank shepherded,” the Washington Post reports.
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.