A new Survey USA poll finds shows the race for the 50th Congressional District is anyone’s game, with Darrell Issa (R) and Ammar Campa-Najjar (D) in a statistical tie in the traditionally Republican stronghold, 46% to 45%.
How Political Sources Play the Anonymity Game
Tom DeFrank writes that years ago, an anonymous source gave him incredible insights on the 1988 presidential election on background — but warned DeFrank that when the story came out, he’d have to publicly deny it as “total bullshit.”
That source? George W. Bush.
GOP Lawmaker Spent $70K in Campaign Funds on Meals
Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) has used campaign funds for hundreds of trips to restaurants — and occasionally to stay at lavish hotels — according to a Politico analysis of the Ohio Republican’s campaign-finance filings over the past 3½ years.
“The individual receipts are fairly modest in most cases — typically ranging from $12 to a few hundred dollars. But together, ethics watchdogs say, they suggest a consistent pattern: Turner uses his donors to subsidize his personal dining costs, expensing an average of two meals a week.”
Trump Calls Himself ‘the Great Environmentalist’
“President Trump signed a largely symbolic proclamation Tuesday urging Congress to expand a moratorium on oil and gas drilling off America’s southeastern coastline, touting his controversial environmental record in a state in the crosshairs of climate change and electoral politics,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Since taking office, Trump has shredded dozens of environmental protections, dismissed the scientific consensus on climate change and tapped energy lobbyists to lead the agencies entrusted with safeguarding the country’s natural resources, but he dramatically recast his record in an effort to woo environmentally minded voters.”
Said Trump: “Number one since Teddy Roosevelt. Who would have thought? Trump is the great environmentalist.”
Trump Campaign Events Damaged White House Lawn
“President Trump’s reelection campaign is paying to replace sod on the White House South Lawn and Rose Garden after damage to the greenery late last month from large crowds and heavy equipment used for Republican National Convention festivities,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump’s unprecedented decision to stage overtly political events on public property — which drew complaints that the Trumps were overtly using ‘the people’s house’ for personal gain — continues to reverberate nearly two weeks later, as work crews re-sod grass and make other repairs.”
Vaccine Trials Halted In United Kingdom
“A large, Phase 3 study testing a Covid-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford at dozens of sites across the U.S. has been put on hold due to a suspected serious adverse reaction in a participant in the United Kingdom,” Stat reports.
“The nature of the adverse reaction and when it happened was not immediately known, though the participant is expected to recover.”
Biden Leads In Michigan
A new Glengariff Group poll in Michigan finds Joe Biden leading Donald Trump in the presidential race, 47% to 42%.
U.S. Seeks to Provide Trump Defense In Defamation Case
The U.S. Justice Department is seeking to take over the defense of President Trump in a defamation suit brought by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who claims Trump raped her two decades ago, Bloomberg reports.
In a court filing Tuesday, the Justice Department said Trump was acting “within the scope” of his job as president when he said Carroll lied about the incident, prompting her lawsuit.
Trump to Spend More In Minnesota Than Wisconsin
“President Trump’s campaign is currently planning to spend more money on advertising in Minnesota than in either Wisconsin or Michigan during the final stretch of the 2020 race, a significant shift in strategy as its path to 270 electoral votes narrows,” McClatchy reports.
“Trump’s campaign is slated to pour more than $14 million into Minnesota between the beginning of September through Election Day, compared to $12.6 million in Michigan and $8.3 million in Wisconsin, according to Advertising Analytics, a media tracking firm. The sums include ads booked to run on TV, radio and online.”
“It’s a reversal from the previous three months, when the president’s campaign had devoted more money to Michigan and Wisconsin, two Upper Midwest battlegrounds that Trump surprisingly carried in 2016, but where he has seen his standing slip.”
Peter Strzok Has a Warning About Russia — and Trump
Garrett Graff has an excellent review of Peter Strzok’s new book, Compromised.
“I’ve spent a dozen years covering the FBI, written multiple books about the bureau and dozens of magazine articles, interviewed hundreds of its employees—from evidence technicians and analysts to six of its eight directors—and probably spoken to FBI personnel more days than not since 2008. And part of what’s so surprising about Strzok’s unique and engaging book—part-memoir, part-lesson in intelligence tradecraft, and part-cri de couer—is just how utterly typical an FBI agent he appears to be.”
“Far from a conniving villain or Deep State plant, Strzok—who by the summer of 2018 was the deputy assistant director of the bureau’s counterintelligence division, the number-two job in one of the FBI’s most important missions—was widely regarded in the bureau as one of the most promising counterintelligence agents of his generation.”
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Strzok, Peter (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 387 Pages - 09/08/2020 (Publication Date) - Mariner Books (Publisher)
Trump Reverses Himself on Offshore Drilling
President Trump announced a 10-year ban on oil drilling off the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina — in a political reversal likely meant to help shore up his support in swing states, Politico reports.
Said one energy industry official: “It’s a complete ambush. Nobody knows where this came from. It totally seems like a campaign sort of thing.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I don’t think we’re going to go back to a traditional convention… I don’t know how you go back to four days in one city now that the rest of the country has had a part of it. This new convention playbook is going to get another round in 2024. It’s too good to pass up.”
— Former DNC chairperson Donna Brazile, quoted by the New York Times, on the future of party conventions.
Biden Ahead in Most Swing States
New polls from Redfield & Wilton Strategies:
- Arizona: Biden 48%, Trump 43%
- Florida: Biden 47%, Trump 44%
- Michigan: Biden 51%, Trump 40%
- North Carolina: Trump 44%, Biden 43%
- Pennsylvania: Biden 48%, Trump 43%
- Wisconsin: Biden 50%, Trump 41%
Biden’s Very Efficient Fundraising
New York Times: “Biden’s Zoom fundraisers typically took less than 90 minutes of the candidate’s time, could raise millions of dollars and cost almost nothing… Trump has almost entirely refused to hold such fund-raisers. Aides say he doesn’t like them.”
Quote of the Day
“President Trump tore through bureaucratic barriers… Compare that to Obama-Biden where they promised a vaccine and they vastly underperformed.”
— White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, on Fox News.
Trump Slams Pandemic Restrictions
“As the presidential campaign entered the post-Labor Day sprint to the finish line, President Trump returned to a familiar theme this week: minimizing the threat posed by the coronavirus, sometimes in ways that contradict the advice of federal health authorities,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to insist that ‘New York City must stop the Shutdown now‘ and then to claim that virus restrictions in other states were ‘only being done to hurt the economy prior to the most important election, perhaps, in our history.'”
Bill Clinton to Launch a Podcast
Former President Bill Clinton will launch a podcast in early 2021, Deadline reports.
Trump Using Same Playbook That Didn’t Work In 2018
New York Times: “President Trump is using a fear-based playbook that is as familiar to him as it is questionable in actually helping Republicans get elected in recent years. Some of the players have changed — instead of MS-13 gang members and migrant caravans, now there are rioters and looters — but the target audience and themes are the same: Suburban communities that he claims Democrats won’t keep safe. The president is even reusing phrases and imagery from 2018, with slogans like ‘jobs not mobs’ and ads showing Democratic politicians and liberal figures kneeling during the national anthem.”
“Democrats can point to the 41 House seats they picked up in 2018 to show that the Republican strategy did not work then, and that voters were more concerned about health care than havoc. Even Republicans say there is no solid evidence in their polling that proves the president’s tactics are helping him today.”
Washington Post: Trump employs images of violence as political fuel for reelection fight.