“Maria Bartiromo repeatedly used her Fox Business show to peddle an election fraud conspiracy theory that she claimed originated with the wife of a friend of a friend in Texas and that she made no apparent effort to confirm,” Media Matters reports.
“But when the Texas Department of Public Safety and the local Republican Party investigated her reckless allegation, they discovered that none of it was true.”
Andrew Egger: “We don’t know yet whether Kamala Harris and company will ride out of this week with the traditional post-convention polling surge—after all, parties don’t usually ride into their conventions on the heels of a race-resetting, vibe-unleashing change to the top of the ticket.”
“But here’s what we can say: Two days in, the Democrats are undoubtedly putting on the kind of high-energy, focused, and above all unified show that good polling tends to follow.”
Associated Press: “The state’s attorney general said he asked to file a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court in what is considered a long-shot attempt to assert state powers on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property across about one-third of Utah.”
“Here is a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago… There’s the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes.”
— Barack Obama, at the Democratic convention, joking about the size of Donald Trump’s penis. (Watch the video.)
Politico: “Tumultuous overseas events like Brexit are often harbingers of U.S. elections. What will be this year’s?”
“Donald Trump campaigned Tuesday in Michigan, arguing there is a ‘crime wave’ going on at levels ‘nobody has ever seen before,’ but Federal Bureau of Investigation data shows the national violent crime rate dropped in the two years after he left the White House,” the Detroit News reports.
Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) “ranked first on Tuesday in an open primary to set the field for her re-election bid, claiming just over 50% of the vote in preliminary results, well ahead of 11 challengers vying for her position as the state’s sole member of the House,” the New York Times reports.
“The results put Ms. Peltola in a strong position for the general election in November, setting the stage for a possible replay of her successful run in 2022, when Republicans split their party’s support in the state’s unusual ranked-choice system and propelled her to victory.”
“Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attempt to elect conservative-leaning school board members across Florida hit a snag Tuesday, as candidates backed by the Republican governor fell in several key races,” Politico reports.
“DeSantis, who has made reshaping Florida’s education system a top priority, endorsed 23 candidates ahead of Tuesday’s election. And as of late Tuesday night, at least 11 appear to have lost. That is a notable downturn from 2022, when DeSantis saw a runaway success: Of the 30 he endorsed two years ago, just five lost.”
The first night of the Democratic National Convention averaged 20 million viewers across 13 networks, surpassing the audience for the initial day of the Republican National Convention by about two million viewers, Deadline reports.
“President Biden approved in March a highly classified nuclear strategic plan for the United States that, for the first time, reorients America’s deterrent strategy to focus on China’s rapid expansion in its nuclear arsenal,” the New York Times reports.
“The shift comes as the Pentagon believes China’s stockpiles will rival the size and diversity of the United States’ and Russia’s over the next decade.”
“House Democrats’ largest super PAC got a $10 million cash infusion from Michael Bloomberg,” Politico reports.
“That’s more than half the nearly $20 million House Majority PAC raised in July, according to a campaign finance report it filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission. The group ended the month with more than $105 million in the bank.”
“You can tell those flannel shirts he wears don’t come from some political consultant, they come from his closet. And they have been through some stuff.”
— Barack Obama, speaking about Gov. Tim Walz at the Democratic convention.
John Harris: “The central question of the 2024 election, of course, isn’t what the Obamas think is the most effective way to confront Trump.”
“But they did provide a template for making him seem more prosaic that might fit into larger case Harris and vice presidential nominee Tim Walz are making — putting less emphasis on the threat he poses to democracy than the one they say he poses to the middle class’s desire for economic security and a return to normality in civic life.”
“As Democrats fill this week’s convention with a renewed sense of optimism, there’s one person many credit for the sharp reversal of their political fortunes: Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker whose work to pressure President Biden off the ticket has inspired fresh appreciation for the longtime party operator’s strategic acumen,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Pelosi: “The convention is, of course, a different one than was envisioned one month ago, and it’s one that is going to be enthusiastically attended.”
But the credit, she insisted, “goes to the president. He made the decision about how we would proceed, and I respect him for the decision. His selflessness is something that the American people admire greatly, and the reaction that people have had to it, I hope, is satisfying to him in return.”
“Vice President Kamala Harris made a brief video appearance at the DNC from a Milwaukee rally after she officially accepted the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nomination following roll call on Tuesday,” Axios reports.
“The simultaneous vision of two packed arenas comes as Harris has been weaponizing crowd sizes against former President Trump, to the frustration of her Republican presidential rival.”
“Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?”
— Michelle Obama, quoted by Politico, slamming Donald Trump in her speech to the Democratic convention.
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.