“President Trump retweeted a pair of posts from his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski ahead of an evening rally in New Hampshire — where state Republicans fear Trump will promote a potential Senate run by his divisive ex-aide,” Politico reports.
O’Rourke Relaunches Campaign as Crusade Against Trump
“Beto O’Rourke plans to present himself to the country as a changed candidate on Thursday, with his presidential campaign recast as a moral crusade against President Trump in the aftermath of a mass shooting in El Paso, his hometown,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. O’Rourke, who represented the city in Congress until the start of this year, said he would abandon the relatively traditional approach he has so far taken — with limited success — and largely detach his travel from a primary calendar that tethers most candidates to a handful of early-voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire.”
“Instead, Mr. O’Rourke said he would now plan his political activities around confronting Mr. Trump in direct and personal terms, and highlighting what Mr. O’Rourke views as the injustices of Mr. Trump’s administration. He intends to seek out immigrant-rich towns to campaign in, and to make gun control a central issue.”
Biden Allies Float Scaling Back Events
“Allies to Joe Biden have been floating the idea of altering the former vice president’s schedule in an effort to reduce the gaffes he has made in recent days,” The Hill reports.
“The allies, growing increasingly nervous about Biden’s verbal flubs, have said it’s an approach that’s been suggested to campaign officials on the heels of the former vice president’s stumbles.”
How Elizabeth Warren Bounced Back
Walter Shapiro: “If this were a typical political comeback story (the kinds that are immortalized in best-selling campaign books that later become HBO docudramas), Warren would rescue her campaign at this critical juncture with a dramatic gesture or bold decision. You could imagine the overheated prose: ‘Elizabeth Warren was angry. Her White House dreams were as bankrupt as her campaign treasury. In just a few hours, she….'”
“The ensuing campaign narratives could take any number of forms. Here’s a brief hypothetical sample: Maybe Warren would use the first debate to puncture the pretensions of a pesky rival, as Walter Mondale did in 1984 when he belittled Gary Hart’s ‘new ideas’ with a line stolen from a hamburger-chain commercial: ‘Where’s the beef?’ Or Warren might emulate a floundering Bill Clinton in 1992 by placing an unorthodox figure like James Carville in charge of every aspect of the campaign. She could even go the full John McCain route—jettisoning, as he did in 2007, the entire structure of his consultant-heavy operation to run a bare-bones, seat-of-the-pants campaign for the nomination.”
“But now for the dramatic revelation: Absolutely nothing changed with the Warren campaign. Like a sailboat caught in a summer squall, the good ship Liz’s Luck righted itself as soon as the winds died down.”
Political Wire Straw Poll Results
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Many Democrats Worried About Warren
New York Times: “Even as she demonstrates why she is a leading candidate for the party’s nomination, Ms. Warren is facing persistent questions and doubts about whether she would be able to defeat President Trump in the general election. The concerns, including from her admirers, reflect the head-versus-heart debate shaping a Democratic contest increasingly being fought over the meaning of electability and how to take on Mr. Trump.”
“Interviews with more than three dozen Democratic voters and activists in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina this summer, at events for Ms. Warren as well as other 2020 hopefuls, yield a similar array of concerns about her candidacy.”
New Hampshire GOP Worried About Lewandowski
“President Trump’s Thursday evening rally in Manchester, N.H., is ostensibly about ginning up support for his reelection campaign,” Politico reports.
“But the state’s establishment GOP class is worried he’ll use the event to do something else: Talk up Corey Lewandowski’s potential 2020 Senate bid.”
“Dave Carney, a longtime New Hampshire-based strategist who’s worked on an array of statewide Republican campaigns, called the idea of a Lewandowski candidacy a ‘joke.’”
Netanyahu Will Likely Block U.S. Lawmakers
A forthcoming trip to the region by Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) will most likely be denied in its current proposed format, a senior Israeli government official told the Washington Post.
“Denying entry for Omar and Tlaib would likely deepen the divide between the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Democrats, who have privately said such moves are not emblematic of a country that prides itself as a democracy tolerant of political expression.”
Susan Collins Pushes GOP on Guns
“Susan Collins has watched countless gun debates stall out over the years. But this time, she says, will be different,” Politico reports.
“The Maine moderate has long been a lonely voice on guns in the GOP. She’s one of just two Republicans left in the Senate who previously supported a bipartisan background checks bill and the only Republican serving who backed an assault weapons ban. Every time she’s gotten close to winning even modest new gun regulations, the effort collapses due to conservative opposition.”
“But with President Donald Trump talking up new gun regulations, Collins is increasingly optimistic and has assumed a central role in the burgeoning effort to find a consensus among Republicans.”
China Threatens Retaliation Over Tariffs
“China on Thursday threatened retaliation if Washington steps up their war over trade and technology by going ahead with planned Sept. 1 tariff hikes on additional Chinese imports,” the AP reports.
“Beijing will take unspecified ‘necessary countermeasures,’ the Cabinet said. It gave no details. President Donald Trump has said he plans to impose 10% duties on an additional $300 billion of Chinese imports.”
“The Chinese announcement made no mention of Trump’s decision Wednesday to postpone penalties on about 60% of those goods until December.”
Corbyn Hopes to Block No-Deal Brexit
“Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the U.K.’s opposition Labour Party, asked rival parties to support him as prime minister in a coalition to block Boris Johnson’s government from pursuing a no-deal Brexit,” Bloomberg reports.
“Corbyn wrote to other political parties’ leaders and rebels in the Conservative Party Wednesday, seeking support in a vote of no confidence in the government. He said that if that was successful, they should make him caretaker prime minister so he could delay Brexit and call a general election.”
Autopsy Found Broken Bones In Epstein’s Neck
“An autopsy found that financier Jeffrey Epstein sustained multiple breaks in his neck bones, according to two people familiar with the findings, deepening the mystery about the circumstances around his death,” the Washington Post reports.
“Among the bones broken in Epstein’s neck was the hyoid bone, which in men is near the Adam’s apple. Such breaks can occur in those who hang themselves, particularly if they are older… But they are more common in victims of homicide by strangulation.”
“The details add to the bizarre circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death, which have launched a wave of questions and conspiracy theories about how he could have died in federal custody. Even President Trump has egged on speculation, without evidence, that Epstein — whose alleged victims say they were pushed to have sex with his powerful and celebrity friends — might have been killed to keep him from spilling the secrets of others.”
Hickenlooper Will End White House Bid
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper plans to drop out of the 2020 presidential race on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reports.
O’Rourke Will Resume Campaign With Major Speech
“Beto O’Rourke will formally rejoin the presidential race on Thursday, resuming a campaign that has been suspended for nearly two weeks with what he promises will be a ‘major address to the nation’ from his hometown of El Paso, Texas, where a mass shooting killed 22 people,” the AP reports.
Trump’s Gun Control Discussions Still Theoretical
New York Times: “What President Trump has not done yet is the kind of arm-twisting of Republican senators wary of gun control legislation that will be necessary to force a bill through Congress, according to interviews with White House officials and congressional aides. He has shown no interest so far in a major address to ensure that public opinion is behind such a move. And he and his aides have yet to settle on what he will actually propose.”
“But they have commissioned a poll through his campaign to assess where his supporters are on different gun control measures, and they will have the results by September, when the Senate returns from summer recess, according to three people briefed on the plans.”
“Until that happens, the discussion inside the White House about what, if anything, to do about new gun measures — and Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, has warned that it will have to be the president who calls Republicans to action — is largely theoretical.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“He’s mentally declining. He’s losing his step here in terms of how he’s thinking about human beings, and he’s creating a corrosive, socially dividing cancer in the country that’s not worth the economics.”
— Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, quoted by the Washington Post, on President Trump.
Big Majority Supports Gun Background Checks
“In the wake of two mass shootings, overwhelming and bipartisan majorities of voters favor background checks on gun buyers and taking guns from people who are a danger to themselves or others,” according to the latest Fox News Poll.
“Two-thirds also support a ban on ‘assault weapons,’ although that majority is largely driven by Democrats.”
Meanwhile, President Trump’s job ratings are increasingly negative in the shooting aftermath, as 59% say Trump is “tearing the country apart,” compared to 31% who feel he’s “drawing the country together.”
Trump Won’t Back Hong Kong Protesters
President Trump’s top aides are urging him to back Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters, but the president isn’t interested, Politico reports.
“As the protests have intensified over the past month, the president has remained determined to keep China’s human rights abuses from complicating his trade negotiations, going so far as to make a unilateral concession to Xi in the run-up to the G-20 Summit in June.”
