A federal judge has ordered Andrew Miller, an associate of former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone, to testify before special counsel Robert Mueller’s grand jury, The Hill reports.
Mueller Wants Interview with Russian Pop Star
“Special counsel Robert Mueller has requested an interview with Russian pop star Emin Agalarov, who helped set up the now infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting,” NBC News reports.
Agalarov’s lawyer “did not elaborate on whether Mueller is also interested in speaking to Agalarov’s father, Aras Agalarov, a billionaire with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
Time to Retire ‘Red States’ and ‘Blue States’
Robert Kuttner: “Even states that are heavily Republican have plenty of Democratic voters, not to mention independents and swing voters. So there is no such thing as a ‘red’ state. It’s better and more accurate (and conducive to better understanding) to use terms like ‘Republican-leaning or ‘heavily Democratic.'”
“The current color-coding only dates to the 2000 election. Before 2000, networks did use color-coded maps, but varied them and were more likely to use red for Democrat, blue for Republican. In 2000, Tim Russert began coding Democrats as blue, supposedly to avoid any taint that Democrats were Reds.”
“Whatever the origin of the practice, it’s dumb, sloppy shorthand, with real negative effects. If the mainstream press wants to avoid being a target for Donald Trump’s ‘enemy of the people’ slurs, it can start by cleaning up its own act.”
Facebook Is Now the Biggest Right-Wing Media Company
Elijah Cone: “It doesn’t matter what Facebook intended to be. Facebook has become a media outlet—and, through the manipulative efforts of conservative activists, a grossly irresponsible, right-wing media outlet. It’s time to stop pretending otherwise.”
“Facebook’s efforts to appease right-wing critics have distorted the outlet’s political influence in many obvious ways. In response to the hearings on bias in Congress, Facebook hired conservative lobbyist Jon Kyl to lead a review. A six month study by Media Matters found that right-leaning pages continue to rack up more interactions on their posts than left-leaning or politically neutral pages, and conservative memes are by far the highest performing political content on the platform.”
Another GOP Incumbent In Trouble
A new Public Policy Polling survey in New York’s 24th congressional district shows challenger Dana Balter (D) with a narrow lead over incumbent Rep. John Katko (R-NY), 47% to 43%.
The Cook Political Report had the race at Likely Republican.
Why Trump’s Lawyers Fear a Mueller Interview
Greg Sargent: “What Giuliani really fears is that Trump will lie about conduct that Mueller is examining for potential obstruction of justice. Giuliani had previously expanded on this fear, insisting that Trump genuinely doesn’t believe he actually pressed Comey to drop the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn — which could lead Trump to deny to Mueller that it ever happened — and that Mueller might conclude otherwise, subjecting Trump to charges of lying to investigators.”
“But whether Trump believes he said this or not, Giuliani plainly fears that Mueller will believe the testimony of other witnesses to Trump’s conduct over that of Trump himself.”
Two Senators Sound Alarms on Russian Interference
“Two leading senators are asserting that President Trump has not focused on the clear threat the Kremlin poses in the 2018 elections, with one Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee contending that Russian hackers may have already targeted most — if not all — sitting US senators,” CNN reports.
“Ratcheting up the push for a more robust US response to Russian interference in the midterms and 2020 elections, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) are now slated to get a committee vote this month on a bipartisan bill is aimed at shoring up the nation’s election system. But the two senators said their plan has run into hurdles for months — and say the Russian threat is real headed into the midterms.”
Said Lankford: “While the President has been inconsistent in his tweets, and some of the messaging that he’s put on it, he’s the only one in the government that hasn’t been paying attention to this.”
Ivanka Trump Says Family Separations Was ‘Low Point’
Ivanka Trump told Axios that the news of family separations at the border “was a low point” during her time in the White House.
Said Trump: “That was a low point for me as well. I felt very strongly about that and I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children so I would agree with that sentiment. Immigration is incredibly complex as a topic. Illegal immigration is incredibly complicated.”
Tennessee Voters Head to the Polls
“After months of campaigning and more than $50 million in spending, Tennessee voters head to the polls Thursday decide who will be the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial nominees,” the Tennessean reports.
“Also on the ballot are primaries for the U.S. Senate, Congress, the state legislature and a host of local contests across the Volunteer State.”
Politico: Why is Tennessee’s primary on a Thursday?
What If Trump Is Trying to Throw the Election?
Walter Shapiro: “While delving into Trump’s psyche is a risky maneuver that should only be attempted while wearing a HAZMAT suit, a plausible case can be made that the president is subconsciously rooting for a Democratic Congress in 2019. In fact, given Trump’s contempt for political norms, there is a glimmer of a chance that he might be deliberately trying to wreck the GOP’s chances.”
“The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page, a place whose outlook rarely overlaps with mine, made a related case on Tuesday in an offering entitled ‘Trump’s Lose-the-House Strategy.’ Focusing on the threatened government shutdown, the Journal blames the baleful influence of Steve Bannon and his obsession with wedge issues like immigration that motivate the Trump base.
“But suggesting that the president is still under the sway of Bannon and his ultra-nationalist views is a way of letting Trump himself off the hook. It is akin to 19th-century Russian peasants saying after the Cossacks pillaged their village, ‘If the tsar only knew.'”
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Capuano Holds Decent Lead Over Primary Challenger
A new WBUR poll in Massachusetts finds Rep. Mike Capuano (D-MA) maintaining his lead over primary challenger Ayanna Pressley (D), 48% to 35%.
Politico: “The Pressley-Capuano matchup has drawn attention in the wake of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset victory in June over longtime incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY), thanks in part to Ocasio-Cortez’s primary-night tweet endorsing Pressley. The primary is on September 4, the day after Labor Day.”
Why Trump May Force a Shutdown Before the Election
Playbook: “What Hill Republicans don’t seem to understand is that Trump believes an immigration showdown before the election would be good for him. His thinking, according to people who speak with him, is that he won an election that was centered on immigration policy, so it’s a good issue to have front and center this fall. Furthermore, Trump is being pushed by aides who believe that he’ll never have bigger numbers on the Hill than he does now, so he should push for the policies he wants immediately.”
Trump Quietly Erases Obama’s Legacy
Axios: “The administration is allowing the sale of health insurance plans that undermine some of the main rules of the Affordable Care Act. And today, it will freeze federal fuel efficiency standards, undermining Obama’s goal of making them progressively tougher.”
“This is being done through rulemaking, which gets the attention of health care and environmental reporters, yet flies under the radar of the cable news networks. These moves have huge, long-term consequences — and they show how easily Trump can achieve his policy goals while the TV cameras are focused on the outrage of the day.”
A Green Wave Boosts Democrats
Joshua Green: “They’ve caught a green wave of cash— the torrent of money pouring into Democratic campaign coffers helped 73 House candidates outraise Republican incumbents and opponents in races for open seats in the second quarter, a Bloomberg analysis of Federal Election Commission data shows.”
“In the second quarter of this year, non-incumbent Democratic House candidates raised more than three times the amount they did in the same period in 2014. That works out to an average of $151,000 per candidate, compared with $101,000 in 2014.”
U.S. Has Done Little to Protect Against Russian Interference
Washington Post: “Two years after Russia interfered in the American presidential campaign, the nation has done little to protect itself against a renewed effort to influence voters in the coming congressional midterm elections, according to lawmakers and independent analysts. They say that voting systems are more secure against hackers, thanks to action at the federal and state levels — and that the Russians have not targeted those systems to the degree they did in 2016.”
“But Russian efforts to manipulate U.S. voters through misleading social media postings are likely to have grown more sophisticated and harder to detect, and there is not a sufficiently strong government strategy to combat information warfare against the United States.”
Republicans Fear Another Special Election Loss
Playbook: “Republicans are becoming increasingly concerned that they will lose the special election in Ohio’s 12th congressional district, which would be a horrible sign for their election prospects this fall.”
“For the last few weeks, Republicans involved in the race said internal polling had Republican Troy Balderson beating Democrat Danny O’Connor by a high single or low double-digit margin. But the race has tightened, and the election is five days away. A public poll conducted by Monmouth had Balderson up by one point yesterday.”
“This would be a tough loss for Republicans to explain away. This district has been held by Republicans — Pat Tiberi and John Kasich — for 35 years. They got the candidate they wanted in Balderson. The Congressional Leadership Fund, the GOP super PAC, has spent $2.4 million. The NRCC has kicked in $1.3 million.”
Quote of the Day
“I talk to him all the time, and he checks in on me all the time.”
— Meghan McCain, quoted by Glamour, on how former Vice President Joe Biden has been supportive during Sen. John McCain’s illness.
