“CNN’s broadcast of the Democratic debates on Tuesday night attracted 8.7 million viewers… Another 2.8 million people watched via the CNN Digital live stream,” The Hill reports.
“The first of two debates from Detroit was watched by approximately 7 million fewer people than the June 26 debate broadcast by NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo, which attracted 15.3 million viewers for the broadcast from Miami.”
“In the biggest Fed decision since 2015, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday it would slash its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point, as expected,” Axios reports.
“While previous Fed regimes have cut rates when the economy was not in the throes of a recession, it’s still a rare move — one that will likely be a legacy-shaping milestone in Jerome Powell’s tenure as Fed chairman.”
The New York Times says the cut “is meant to protect the economy against the potentially harmful effects of a growth slowdown in China and Europe and uncertainty from President Trump’s trade war.”
The U.S. has obtained intelligence that the son and potential successor of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Hamza bin Laden, is dead, NBC News reports.
President Trump defended himself on Twitter against accusations of racism by calling himself the “least racist person in the world” and by insulting the intelligence of CNN’s Don Lemon, who is black, referring to him as “the dumbest man on television.”
Philip Bump: “Quinnipiac University released new polling data showing that three-quarters of black Americans — and more than half of Americans overall — think Trump is not only not the least racist person in the world but is actually explicitly racist. It’s not just black Americans. Most independents think Trump is racist. Most white women think Trump is racist. Most whites with a college degree think Trump is racist.”
“The groups that don’t think that tend to be white, male, Republican and lacking a college degree.”
Washington Post: “The missile launch was the second in a week, after Pyongyang also fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan last Thursday.”
“Although a ballistic missile test is a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and the missiles are designed to threaten South Korea, Trump played down the significance of last week’s test, saying many countries test short-range missiles.”
James Hohmann: “Warren was aggressive about forcing her way into the fray, and she was rewarded with more speaking time than anyone else. Her background as a onetime Oklahoma state champion high school debater shone through repeatedly. She was most disciplined about sticking to her script and delivered well-rehearsed lines in a way that didn’t make them sound canned. She also did a better job than the others onstage of telling anecdotes to humanize policy debates.”
“She espouses essentially the same ideas as Sanders but makes them sound less radical. For this reason, Warren remains an existential threat to his candidacy. Sanders advisers are loath to acknowledge this reality, even privately.”
Van Jones: “Sanders re-established himself as trying to lead the revolution. When Elizabeth Warren is trying to lead the country. She is trying to be president of the United States.”
President Trump took aim at the Democratic presidential candidates following night one of their second debates, saying his potential opponents in the 2020 election would lead the country “into an economic sinkhole, the likes of which we have never seen before,” NBC News reports.
He added that if he had not won the 2016 election, the United States would be in a “Great Recession/Depression.”
The Washington National Cathedral warned in a statement that President Trump’s words “give cover to white supremacists.”
Make no mistake about it, words matter. And, Mr. Trump’s words are dangerous.
These words are more than a “dog-whistle.” When such violent dehumanizing words come from the President of the United States, they are a clarion call, and give cover, to white supremacists who consider people of color a sub-human “infestation” in America. They serve as a call to action from those people to keep America great by ridding it of such infestation. Violent words lead to violent actions.
When does silence become complicity? What will it take for us all to say, with one voice, that we have had enough? The question is less about the president’s sense of decency, but of ours.
Out later this year: The Broken Road: George Wallace and a Daughter’s Journey to Reconciliation by Peggy Wallace Kennedy.
“An intimate portrait of a daughter’s struggle to grapple with a father whom she loves but whose politics she abhors and her extraordinary odyssey to find her own voice.”
Wallace Kennedy recently commented to the Birmingham News: “I’ve never seen anything like it. I saw daddy a lot in 2016.”
North Carolina State Board of Elections Chairman Robert Cordle resigned from the board Tuesday after he opened a statewide conference for hundreds of election officials Monday with a joke about cows and sex, WRAL reports.
The joke was republished by Wataugha Watch — and yes, it was completely inappropriate.
Jason Steinhauer: “Technically, electability simply means an ability (or the perceived ability) of a candidate to win the general election — that is, to earn a majority of the electoral college votes.”
“But at its heart, ‘electability’ is a strategy employed by the party that prioritizes party victory over any one particular candidate or an ideological agenda. Certain candidates may appeal to particular factions of a party, but not all can deliver enough states to win the White House. An electability strategy assesses the realities of the electoral map, and attempts to put forth a candidate who can deliver the right mix of states and votes that will best assure victory for the party.”
“This strategy empowers the party structure, of course, and disadvantages those who may seek to upend it. But it has succeeded in putting forth successful candidates during contentious elections. In fact, Abraham Lincoln — arguably the most significant president in our nation’s history — won his party’s nomination and ultimately the White House on the back of his ‘electability.'”
Some supporters of Marianne Williamson have organized an “occult task force” to help her campaign, the Washington Post reports.
The person organizing the task force said that a group of 13 chaos magicians, witches and energy workers were doing synchronized “gestures” to help their candidate gain more visibility during last night’s Democratic debate.
First Read: “Biden’s task won’t be easy, however. He’ll be flanked on one side by Kamala Harris (who charged at him on bussing and segregationist senators in Miami), and one the other side by Cory Booker (who’s loaded for bear on Biden’s 1994 crime bill).”
“By the way, last night’s debate stage was all-white, while tonight’s is full of diversity – Harris, Booker, Castro and Yang.”
“Plodding progress in trade negotiations between the U.S. and China this week is partly the result of a new tactic from Beijing, which increasingly thinks waiting may produce a more favorable agreement,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“U.S. and Chinese negotiators held four hours of talks Wednesday, after a dinner the night before, and then wrapped up their first face-to-face meeting since negotiations foundered more than two months ago. Neither side announced any breakthroughs; China described the talks as constructive and said the next round would be held in the U.S. in September.”
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told CNBC that it was clear it was the United States that continued to “flip flop.”
Axios: “To try to make up for Biden’s shortcomings last time, some of his prep sessions (though not exclusively) have been with smaller groups of advisers, with aides asking him what he thinks instead of over-prepping and jamming his head.”
Jonathan Bernstein: “One interpretation is that Republicans don’t expect to return to a House majority in 2020. The current breakdown is 235 Democrats, 197 Republicans, one independent (the former Republican Justin Amash), and two vacancies last held by Republicans. So the party, if it holds the two open seats and wins back Amash’s, would only need to gain 18 others to restore its majority. A spate of retirements signals that they don’t really think that’s likely.”
“The thing about House elections is that expectations matter. A lot. The more a party thinks it’s going to be a good year, the more it will attract the resources needed to win, including strong candidates.”
“As for the timing? It’s possible that all the new retirements were long planned. It’s interesting, though, that they come after Robert Mueller’s testimony revived interest in President Trump’s scandals – and, perhaps more relevant, after Trump’s ‘send her back’ rally and his continuing series of bigoted tweets. It’s not crazy to speculate that one or more of these Republicans just didn’t want to campaign for reelection in that kind of atmosphere.”
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.