While visiting shooting victims and medical personnel at a hospital in El Paso, a video shows President Trump started bragging about the size of the crowd at his rally before attacking Beto O’Rourke.
Pentagon Warns ISIS Is Resurging In Syria
In a sobering new report, the Pentagon’s independent watchdog concludes that the remnants of the Islamic State militant group have been capitalizing on President Trump’s drawdown in Syria, the Washington Post reports.
From the report: “Despite losing its territorial ‘caliphate,’ the Islamic State solidified its insurgent capabilities in Iraq and was resurging in Syria. The reduction of U.S. forces has decreased the support available for Syrian partner forces at a time when their forces need more training and equipping to respond to the ISIS resurgence.”
Trump, just three weeks ago: “We did a great job. We have 100 percent of the caliphate, and we’re rapidly pulling out of Syria. We’ll be out of there pretty soon.”
Trump’s Trip Was ‘Something of a Debacle’
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman told CNN that aides to President Trump think he behaved disastrously yesterday while he was supposed to be consoling the victims of the El Paso and Dayton shootings.
Said Haberman: “Most people – while they would I suspect not say that publicly – will privately admit that yesterday was something of a debacle. These are not the headlines they wanted to see. They wanted him to go in and behave differently. The goal was to go in and get out with as little news as possible.”
Tucker Carlson Suddenly Takes a Vacation
Facing mounting controversy for declaring the very real problem of white supremacy in America to be a “hoax,” Tucker Carlson announced at the end of his Wednesday night Fox News show that he will be taking a vacation, CNN reports.
Trump Rages at Cable News Pundits
President Trump lashed out at MSNBC and CNN, saying the networks invite guests to appear “as experts on ‘Trump’ ” that “have no idea what I am all about,” The Hill reports.
Tweeted Trump: “Just watched a world class loser, Tim O’Brien, who I haven’t seen or spoken to in many years, & knows NOTHING about me except that he wrote a failed hit piece book about me 15 years ago. Fired like a dog from other jobs? Saw him on Lyin’ Brian Williams Trump Slam Show. Bad TV.”
He added: “I am so amazed that MSNBC & CNN can keep putting on, over and over again, people that have no idea what I am all about, and yet they speak as experts on “Trump.'”
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Warren and O’Rourke Say Trump Is a ‘White Supremacist’
“Elizabeth Warren and Beto O’Rourke both called President Trump a ‘white supremacist,’ an extraordinary charge at an extraordinary moment in American politics,” Axios reports.
“This is a big shift from calling the president a white nationalist. Check out Merriam-Webster’s definition of white supremacist: ‘a person who believes that the white race is inherently superior to other races and that white people should have control over people of other races.'”
Yes, Republicans Should Be Worried About Texas
Sean Trende: “It seems a stretch, but remember that Mitt Romney won Texas by 16 points, Donald Trump won by nine, and Cruz won by just three. These are not good trendlines for the GOP. States do shift their partisanship quickly at times. George H.W. Bush won New Hampshire by 26 points in 1988 and New Jersey by 14; in 1996 New Jersey went for Clinton by 18 points, while New Hampshire was a 10-point Clinton win. That same year, West Virginia was a 15-point Clinton win; eight years later George W. Bush won it by 13.”
“We might write off 2018 to the bad GOP year and Cruz’s unpopularity. But that requires ignoring some substantial evidence to the contrary. One has to ignore that John McCain won the state by double digits in a 2008 environment that was probably even worse for the GOP than 2018, while John Cornyn won re-election against a hyped Democratic opponent handily.”
“Most importantly, one has to ignore the nature of political coalitions in the Age of Trump. Trump has generally improved GOP fortunes in rural American and in the towns, and in states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio, all of which has generally helped the Republican Party. But there is little doubt that the GOP has suffered substantial losses in the suburban areas that once formed the backbone of the party while doing little to advance its cause in the major cities.”
Quote of the Day
“Our country is hurting. And it would be nice if the United States had a president right now. Because we really don’t… One of the fundamental ideas of the presidency is to bring people together and to lift people. And we just don’t have that.”
— Mayor Pete Buttigieg, quoted by the Orlando Sentinel.
Most Pennsylvanians Think It’s Time for a Change
A new Franklin & Marshall poll in Pennsylvania finds 38% of registered voters believes President Trump has done a good enough job to deserve reelection, while 61% voters say it is time for a change.
Banks Give Documents on Russians Linked to Trump
“Major Wall Street banks have given congressional committees investigating President Trump thousands of pages of documents related to Russians who may have had dealings with Mr. Trump, his family or his business,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Some banks are also giving documents related to Mr. Trump’s business, the Trump Organization, to New York state investigators.”
Why Biden Is Vulnerable In Iowa
New York Times: “The cause of Mr. Biden’s weakness in Iowa is fairly obvious: His national edge is mainly attributable to a wide advantage among black voters, and relatively speaking, there aren’t many black voters in Iowa.”
“The state’s Democratic voters are also relatively young, and caucuses tend to favor ideologically consistent, progressive candidates with highly engaged grass-roots support.”
What Is Tulsi Gabbard Up To?
“Tulsi Gabbard’s slashing debate performance is giving her presidential campaign a badly-needed pulse — and stoking a flurry of speculation about what her end game is,” Politico reports.
“Gabbard delivered a piercing, if inaccurate, appraisal of Kamala Harris’ law enforcement record — then turned it into a misleading, yet effective, online ad push. Adding to the intrigue, she had a hushed sideline conversation with Joe Biden — with whom she seems to have little in common politically — after the debate.”
“It’s all triggered a parlor game back in Hawaii, where the four-term congresswoman is at risk of losing a primary for her House seat as she’s stuck at 1 percent in the crowded race for the Democratic presidential nomination.”
Harris Buys First Ads In Iowa
Sen. Kamala Harris “will make the first television advertising purchase of her presidential campaign Thursday, investing in a six-figure TV and digital buy across the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa,” CNN reports.
Trump Suggests He’ll Commute Blagojevich’s Sentence
“President Trump said on Wednesday night that he was ‘strongly considering’ commuting the 14-year prison sentence of Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor who was convicted of trying to essentially sell President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat for personal gain,” the New York Times reports.
“In remarks aboard Air Force One, Mr. Trump described the incriminating phone call in which Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, was taped discussing selling the seat as mostly a minor offense and something ‘many’ politicians have done.”
Trump Turns Day of Grieving Into Day of Grievances
“It was intended to be a day for President Donald Trump to pay his respects to the victims of two deadly mass shootings, thank first responders and serve as consoler-in-chief,” NBC News reports.
“But before he even left the White House on Wednesday for El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, the president used his bully pulpit to settle political scores and lash out against slights.”
Daily Beast: “It underscored a reality that’s become obvious to anyone who has ever worked for or even casually observed Trump: He’ll find a way to make nearly any national tragedy into an airing of his personal grievances, and neither he nor nearly anything else will change in the process.”
El Paso Patients Refused to Meet with Trump
Washington Post: “None of the eight patients still being treated at University Medical Center in El Paso agreed to meet with Trump when he visited the hospital, UMC spokesman Ryan Mielke said. Two victims who already had been discharged returned to the hospital with family members to meet with the president.”
Russian Interference Likely Did Not Affect 2016 Result
Alan Abramowitz: “I find no evidence that Russian attempts to target voters in key swing states had any effect on the election results in those states. Instead, the results were almost totally predictable based on the political and demographic characteristics of those states, especially their past voting tendencies, ideological leanings, and demographics. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the Russians weren’t trying to influence the results or that they might not succeed in the future. Nor does it speak to Russian efforts to hack into U.S. voting systems and potentially alter voter registration data or even election results themselves.”
“There are plenty of grounds for real concern here. Indeed, the Electoral College system used to choose the president almost invites efforts to interfere in the election. Whereas trying to affect the national popular vote results would probably be prohibitively expensive, efforts to target a few key swing states could be much more cost-effective and harder to detect.”
