CNN: “Holder’s travels have taken him to Arizona, Indiana and Ohio for state Democratic Party dinners, as well as Florida, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida and Georgia for events and meetings with local activists. Holder’s meetings generally focus on combating gerrymandering, his cause célèbre since leaving the Obama administration, but his events are often peppered with politics and — invariably — comments about his future.”
Female Fundraisers Are Powering Women Candidates
“It’s one of the defining stories of the midterms: An explosion of Democratic women running for office in record numbers and outperforming male rivals in primaries, potentially reshaping the party for years to come,” NBC News reports.
“Behind the scenes, Democratic women are looking to fuel the trend by expanding their reach within another historically male-dominated field: Political fundraising.”
“Over several cycles, donors have helped lay the groundwork for a national network of women’s ‘giving circles,’ an informal organization in which mostly upscale members pledge a minimum amount of cash toward candidates for an election cycle. The model is adapted from the philanthropy world, where similar groups pool together charitable donations.”
A Warm-Up for 2020
Atlanta Journal Constitution: “The race for governor between Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp is a warm-up for the 2020 presidential election and a historic test of whether Georgia is a battleground state in President Trump’s bid for a second term.”
“The duel between the two longtime rivals is poised to attract tens of millions of additional dollars, visits from a constellation of political stars and even more attention from national media casting the race as a litmus test for the presidential contest over the next 100 days.”
“The candidates have little choice but to nationalize the race. Kemp won a landslide victory over Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle last week thanks to Trump’s endorsement, and the president and other leading GOP figures have a direct stake in making sure Kemp prevails in November.”
Trump Threatens to Shut Down Government
President Trump “threatened to shut down the federal government if Congress does not pass sweeping changes to immigration laws, including appropriating more public money to build his long-promised border wall,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump’s threat raises the stakes ahead of a Sept. 30 government funding deadline, a political showdown before the November midterms that Republican congressional leaders had hoped to avoid.”
Playbook: “Republican leaders have been telling us for months that they think they’ve convinced Trump a shutdown is a bad idea. Clearly they have not. In fact, Trump seems to be broadening his demands. He is signaling he’ll demand immigration changes as part of the government funding bill. Government funding runs out 37 days before Election Day.”
“Some in Trump’s universe believe a shutdown would be a good base-rallying tactic.”
Quote of the Day
“I think the whole thing has gotten confused, quite frankly. Americans turn on the TV every day and, regardless of what channel or where they go to look for news online or in print, it’s constantly something else seems to be the story.”
— Sen. James Landford (R-OK), talking to ABC News about the Mueller investigation.
Trump Golf Resort Destroyed Special Nature Site
One of President Trump’s Scottish golf resorts has “partially destroyed” the special nature site on which it was built, the Observer reports.
“Normally the site’s conservation status would have prevented any significant development. But Trump said that, if he was refused permission to develop… he would withdraw from the entire scheme. He also claimed that, when completed, the land there would be ‘environmentally enhanced and better than it was before.’ The Trump Organization said last year its environmental approach to the course had been ‘first class'”
Trump Claims Higher Poll Numbers Than Abraham Lincoln
President Trump falsely claimed that he has the “highest poll numbers in the history of the Republican Party.”
He added: “That includes Honest Abe Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. There must be something wrong, please recheck that poll!”
Trump’s other tweets this morning included jabs at Michael Cohen and threats to shutdown down the government if Congress does not meet to his immigration demands.
DNC Acquires Voter Cell Phone Numbers
An internal memo says the DNC has reached out to 30 million voters so far and acquired 94 million cell phone numbers of registered voters ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
Axios: “There are only 100 days until the election. Reaching voters where they are —on cell phones, not landlines — and connecting with new voters will be crucial to Democrats’ efforts in November and looking ahead to the 2020 presidential election.”
Jared and Ivanka Step Back Into the Spotlight
New York Times: “As scrutiny of the couple often referred to as Javanka became increasingly intense during the president’s first year, Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump seemed to retreat from public view, and after several of their allies in the White House departed, there was a near-constant stream of questions about whether they would follow.”
“But as one staff member after another has disappointed him and has departed or been dispatched, Mr. Trump has retreated into the familiarity of his family — his daughter, above all, and eventually, her husband. As Mr. Trump, cut off from dissenting voices and convinced of his own popularity, has become more emboldened, so have his daughter and son-in-law.”
Liberal Secret-Money Group Hammers House GOP
“A network of secret-money nonprofit groups has spent millions of dollars attacking swing-seat House Republicans on health care and taxes, quietly becoming one of the biggest players in the 2018 political landscape,” Politico reports.
“The groups have local members and names like Floridians for a Fair Shake, Michigan Families for Economic Prosperity and North Carolinians for a Fair Economy. But they are all linked to one obscure nonprofit in downtown Washington, D.C.: the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which has funneled millions of dollars to progressive causes in recent years and set up each of the new groups, according to D.C. corporation records.”
Trump Plans to Cede Parts of Afghanistan to Taliban
“The Trump administration is urging American-backed Afghan troops to retreat from sparsely populated areas of the country, officials said, all but ensuring the Taliban will remain in control of vast stretches of the country,” the New York Times reports.
“The approach is outlined in a previously undisclosed part of the war strategy that President Trump announced last year… It is meant to protect military forces from attacks at isolated and vulnerable outposts, and focuses on protecting cities such as Kabul, the capital, and other population centers.”
Black Man Accuses Spicer of Using Racial Slur
“A black man yelled at former White House press secretary Sean Spicer in a bookstore and accused Spicer of calling him a racial slur when they were students at a prep school decades ago,” the AP reports.
Said the man: “You don’t remember that you tried to fight me? But you called me a (N-word) first.”
A security guard led the man away as he kept talking: “I was 14 then. I was a scared kid then, Sean. I’m not scared to fight you now.”
The Newport Daily News has the incident on video.
Cohen and Trump Legal Teams Have Severed Ties
Rudy Giuliani signaled that President Trump and his legal team are severing ties to Michael Cohen, Politico reports.
Said Giuliani: “We have complained to them that he’s violated the attorney client privilege, publicly and privately.”
“Giuliani confirmed the two sides have ended their joint defense agreement to share information.”
Trump Picks ‘Dioxin Lawyer’ to Run Superfund Program
“The lawyer nominated to run the Superfund toxic cleanup program is steeped in the complexities of restoring polluted rivers and chemical dumps. He spent more than a decade on one of the nation’s most extensive cleanups, one involving Dow Chemical’s sprawling headquarters in Midland, Mich,” the New York Times reports.
“But while he led Dow’s legal strategy there, the chemical giant was accused by regulators, and in one case a Dow engineer, of submitting disputed data, misrepresenting scientific evidence and delaying cleanup, according to internal documents and court records as well as interviews with more than a dozen people involved in the project.”
House Republicans Are In Total Disarray
Stan Collender: “When the House reconvenes, the GOP plans to devote a significant amount of the limited time it has left before fiscal 2019 begins to three tax cut bills that have no chance of being enacted any time soon because…wait for it…the Republican-controlled Senate has already said it’s not interested.”
“And none of this even begins to anticipate what the House Republicans who are running for reelection and think they will need to energize the Trump base will do in September as the Manafort trial and Cohen investigations continue and as the Mueller probe moves forward.”
“In other words, this year’s legislative crunch time is about to get very real but House Republicans have little leadership, no plan, a very divided caucus, are very likely to be distracted and are relying on a notoriously unreliable Donald Trump to do the right thing.”
“This is almost a textbook definition of political and legislative chaos.”
Gary Johnson Mulls Senate Bid
“Former Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson is considering jumping into the race for the U.S. Senate in New Mexico, raising the profile of a race that Democrats seeking to capture the majority in Congress had seen as a safe seat,” the AP reports.
Said consultant Ron Nielson: “He is weighing it over right now. He doesn’t want to get into a race he can’t win.”
“If Johnson, 65, enters the race, he would go against incumbent Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Mick Rich (R) in November.”
Kelli Ward Uses Photo Though Trump Asked Her Not To
Arizona Republic: “Trump agreed to pose for a photo with Ward during the December 2017 visit, but specifically asked that it not be shared, according to a White House official who witnessed the brief exchange but is not authorized to speak publicly about it.”
“Ward… has been seeking the president’s endorsement since the earliest days of her campaign; she also failed to capture Trump’s endorsement during her unsuccessful 2016 primary challenge of U.S. Sen. John McCain. For nearly a year, Ward has touted a tweet in which Trump invoked her name while slamming U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, who is retiring.”
Trump Policy Shop Alters Facts to Fit Message
“President Trump’s appointees in the health department have deleted positive references to Obamacare, altered a report that undermined the administration’s positions on refugees and added anti-abortion language to the strategic plan — part of an ideological overhaul of the agency’s research office,” Politico reports.
“While every administration puts its imprint on the executive branch and promotes ideas that advance its own agenda, this one has ventured several steps further — from scrubbing links to climate change studies from an Environmental Protection Agency website to canceling an Interior Department study on coal mining risks and suppressing reports on water contamination and the dangers of formaldehyde.”
“Inside the Health and Human Services policy research shop, staffers say the political pressures to tailor facts to fit Trump’s message have been unprecedented.”