The Week: “The creator of the Ugly Gerry typeface doesn’t identify themself on the Ugly Gerry website or Twitter feed. But they did blatantly call out the congressmembers representing those districts in tweets of each letter, and call on readers to ‘use the font to tell Congress how happy you are that your vote doesn’t matter.'”
Trump Mocks Cummings Burglary
“President Trump on Friday seemed to make light of new reports that a Baltimore home owned by Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) was burglarized hours before Trump started attacking him on Twitter last weekend,” the Washington Post reports.
Tweeted Trump: “Really bad news! The Baltimore house of Elijah E. Cummings was robbed. Too bad!”
This Didn’t Age Well
Tim Alberta writing in Politico two years ago: “Will Hurd is the Future of the GOP”
The Non-Trump Wing of the GOP Wants Out
First Read: “Think about the other GOP retirements we’ve seen – Reps. Susan Brooks, Martha Roby, and now Hurd.”
“And these Republicans parachuting out of the Republican Party underscore how vulnerable Trump really is, despite the growing economy.The fewer Will Hurd-like members running in 2020 reduces the number of moderate/non-Trump Republicans who would eagerly go to the polls for those representatives – and then still hold their nose and vote for the president.”
“The Republican Party is getting smaller and smaller, and that isn’t good news for an incumbent Republican president.”
Playbook: “If you are a House Republican, this has been an absolutely gutting few weeks. And, truly, if someone is trying to spin you on how the political picture is not that bad for the House GOP right now — at this moment — you ought to discount them as a political professional or analyst. Because it’s really, really bad, deflating and discouraging.”
Quote of the Day
“Just between us, and the readers of this magazine—there’s zero chance.”
— Michelle Obama, quoted by The National, on whether there was even a one percent chance she might run for president.
How Swing States Set Public Policy
Adam Eichen: “Presidential elections are currently decided by swing states, ones that are less racially diverse than the country as a whole and, in 2016, represented only 35 percent of eligible voters. Last presidential election, 95 percent of candidate appearances and 99 percent of campaign spending went to fourteen states. None of them are particularly rural nor, with the exception of New Hampshire, remotely small.”
“The swing states, due to their electoral significance, also have a stranglehold on national policies. The coal industry, for example, has outsized influence because of its prominence in Pennsylvania. So, too, does the ethanol industry because of Iowa. Moreover, US tariffs have disproportionately benefited industries located in swing states, and the battleground states have historically received more in federal grants than the rest of the country.”
Omar Trolls Trump About Visit to Africa
Weeks after “send her back” chants erupted at one of President Trump’s rallies, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) fired back by posting a photo of herself and Speaker Nancy Pelosi visiting Africa.
Said Omar: “They said ‘send her back’ but Speaker Speaker Pelosi didn’t just make arrangements to send me back, she went back with me.”
Klobuchar Makes the Cut for Next Debate
Sen. Amy Klobuchar “has met the donor threshold to compete in September’s third Democratic debate,” NBC News reports.
“Klobuchar’s campaign previously said she’d met the polling qualification of at least two percent in four major surveys for the ABC-hosted debate in Houston, Texas. But meeting the donor threshold makes her the eighth of 24 candidates to check both qualifying boxes.”
U.S.-Russia Arms Control Treaty Dies
“The United States plans to test a new missile in coming weeks that would have been prohibited under a landmark, 32-year-old arms control treaty that the U.S. and Russia ripped up on Friday,” the AP reports.
“Washington and Moscow walked out of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty that President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed in 1987, raising fears of a new arms race. The U.S. blamed Moscow for the death of the treaty. It said that for years Moscow has been developing and fielding weapons that violate the treaty and threaten the United States and its allies, particularly in Europe.”
Trump Declined to Warn China Before Announcing Tariffs
“President Trump resisted giving Beijing advance notice of his intent to slap a new 10% tariff on $300 billion in Chinese goods in an Oval Office meeting before he announced the duties,” Bloomberg reports.
More GOP Retirements Coming
Playbook: “Here’s the bleak reality for the House GOP. It’s summer recess, which means lawmakers are home with their families. As soon as the sun will rise, people will be reminded over the summer that being a member of Congress is not as fun as being at home with their kids or family. Plus, being in the minority stinks. This probably won’t get better for Republicans anytime soon.”
“Expect more people to jump ship — and soon. Rumors are already swirling about another retirement as soon as today.”
China Threatens Countermeasures to Tariffs
Associated Press: “China’s government has threatened unspecified ‘necessary countermeasures’ if Trump’s planned tariff hike goes ahead.”
“The Commerce Ministry said Trump’s announcement is a violation of his agreement with President Xi Jinping in June to revive negotiations aimed at ending their fight over Beijing’s trade surplus and technology ambitions.”
“The ministry said if the U.S. measures took effect, ‘China will have to take necessary countermeasures to resolutely defend its core interests.’ The statement issued Friday continued, ‘All the consequences will be borne by the United States.'”
Justice Department Declines to Prosecute Comey
New York Times: “The Justice Department declined to prosecute the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey after determining that two memos he wrote about his interactions with President Trump contained classified information and examining whether he mishandled the documents.”
“The F.B.I. upgraded the memos to confidential — the lowest level in the government’s system of classifying information — shortly after the president fired Mr. Comey in May 2017, the people said. Mr. Comey had kept several memos at his home and shared one with a friend when he thought they contained only routine information, but the determination that some memos included classified material prompted the investigation into whether he mishandled them.”
Boris Johnson’s Party Suffers Special Election Defeat
“British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s governing Conservative Party has a lost a special election, leaving it with a wafer-thin working majority in Parliament of just one vote,” the AP reports.
“Johnson says Britain will leave the European Union on Oct. 31, with or without a divorce deal. But Parliament is likely to try to thwart his plans.”
North Korea Fires More Missiles
North Korea fired two short range ballistic missiles, both landing in the sea, NBC News reports.
This is the country’s third missile launch in the last two weeks.
Kobach Uses Border Wall Group to Fund Senate Bid
“Kris Kobach is using a nonprofit group he advises to raise money for his U.S. Senate campaign, and legal experts say one recent fundraising push likely ran afoul of federal campaign finance laws,” the Daily Beast reports.
“On Thursday, Kobach sent a fundraising appeal to an email list maintained by We Build The Wall, a 501(c)(4) advocacy group currently attempting to build a wall on the southern border using private funds. Kobach is on the group’s advisory board and serves as its general counsel.”
Manhattan D.A. Subpoenas Trump Over Hush Money
“State prosecutors in Manhattan subpoenaed President Trump’s family business on Thursday, reviving an investigation into the company’s role in hush-money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign,” the New York Times reports.
“The subpoena, issued by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, demanded the Trump Organization provide documents related to money that had been used to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels, a pornographic film actress who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump.”
Wall Street Journal: “The subpoenas come weeks after the federal probe into the hush-money payments, run by the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, appeared to close without any indictments of Trump Organization executives.”
Will Hurd Won’t Seek Re-Election
Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX), “the lone black Republican in the House and the rare GOP lawmaker to criticize President Trump at times, will not seek reelection,” he told the Washington Post.
“Hurd’s retirement is the third by a Texas Republican in the past week and the ninth by a party incumbent, dealing a blow to GOP efforts to regain control of the House in next year’s election.”
