Sen. Bernie Sanders told CNN that the release of DNC emails that prove that Party Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz needs to go.
Said Sanders: “I don’t think she is qualified to be the chair of the DNC not only for these awful emails, which revealed the prejudice of the DNC, but also because we need a party that reaches out to working people and young people, and I don’t think her leadership style is doing that.”
“Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager is alleging that Russian hackers are leaking Democratic National Committee emails critical of Bernie Sanders in an effort to help Donald Trump win the election in November,” CNN reports.
Said Robby Mook: “I don’t think it’s coincidental that these emails were released on the eve of our convention here, and I think that’s disturbing.”
A must-read from Josh Marshall: Trump and Putin: Yes, It’s Really a Thing.
“The head of the Democratic National Committee will not speak at the party’s convention next week, a decision reached by party officials Saturday after emails surfaced that raised questions about the committee’s impartiality during the Democratic primary,” CNN reports.
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“The Democratic Party arrived here still divided over the results of its presidential primary season, with anger at the nominating process, the Clinton-Kaine ticket and hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee spilling into the party’s final meetings before the convention begins,” the Washington Post reports.
“On each count, supporters of Bernie Sanders found new reasons to bristle about their choice in November. Hillary Clinton’s selection of Sen. Timothy Kaine as her running mate angered progressives who had lobbied for someone from their movement. The partial failure of a push to end the use of superdelegates — the party activists and elected officials who are unbound by the primary results — dredged up feelings that the Clinton-Sanders face-off had not been fair.”
Washington Post: “The call came through at 7:32 p.m. Friday. Clinton offered the job, Kaine accepted and then the former secretary of state said: ‘Now, I don’t want to alarm you, but John Podesta is outside your building right now.'”
“So it was that a process begun in secret more than three months ago — which had remained a mystery throughout, even to those who were being vetted — came to its cloak-and-dagger conclusion.”
Nicholas Kristof finds the evidence pretty compelling.
“Here we have a man who for more than four decades has been repeatedly associated with racial discrimination or bigoted comments about minorities, some of them made on television for all to see. While any one episode may be ambiguous, what emerges over more than four decades is a narrative arc, a consistent pattern — and I don’t see what else to call it but racism.”
Donald Trump declined to say whether or not ousted Fox News chief Roger Ailes is helping his presidential campaign, Politico reports.
Said Trump: “Well, I don’t want to comment. But he’s been a friend of mine for a long time.”
But he added “a lot of people are thinking he’s going to run my campaign.”
“Trying to count the ways I hate Tim Kaine. Drawing a blank. Congrats to a good man and a good friend.”
— Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), on Twitter.
Sen. Tim Kaine made his debut as Hillary Clinton’s running mate at Florida International University, “taking the stage with the soon-to-be Democratic presidential nominee in bilingual Miami so that he could show off his Spanishl,” the Miami Herald reports.
Said Kaine: “Bienvenidos a todos. We’re going to be compañeros del alma.”
Michael Tomasky: “Holy crap. He killed it. I’m not trying to spin you. I’m sitting here in shock. Shock. Tim Kaine was unbelievable.”
Los Angeles Times: “Friday morning, on the heels of her well-received speech at the Republican National Convention, prospective first daughter Ivanka Trump showed just how much she takes after her father: Her official Twitter account tweeted, ‘Shop Ivanka’s look from her #RNC speech’ to her 1.97 million followers, and a link to a Macy’s page that featured the polyester-and-spandex “sleeveless studded sheath dress” from her eponymous fashion line.”
“The tweet must have worked; the $158 dress, which was made abroad, sold out.”
If Hillary Clinton wins, and Tim Kaine becomes vice president, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) will get to appoint someone to the U.S. Senate.
Politico: “The buzz in McAuliffe land is that he can appoint a placeholder, like the 77-year-old Chuck Robb, or someone who is a longer-term option like Rep. Don Beyer, Creigh Deeds, Attorney General Mark Herring or Anne Holton, the education secretary who is also Kaine’s wife. Tom Periello, a one-term congressman who is now at the State Department, could also be an option. McAuliffe WILL NOT appoint himself, sources close to him say.”
The latest FiveThirtyEight forecast shows Hillary Clinton winning 290 electoral votes to Donald Trump’s 247.
Trump now has a 41% chance to win the election.
For comparison, The Upshot gives Trump a 26% chance to win and Sam Wang gives Trump a 20% chance.
New York Times: “It is almost as hard to imagine establishment Republicans, waiting in the wings in hopes that Mr. Trump’s candidacy was a fever waiting to break, finding a welcome among the delegates who made the party theirs in Cleveland, with cheers for Mr. Trump and other speakers who positioned themselves as opponents of the party’s status quo.”
“Whatever still exists of the moderate Republican wing — people like Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor; Mitt Romney, the party’s 2012 nominee; and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio — had virtually no presence at the convention this week. Their absence suggests that the convention was something of a breaking point: There may be no easy return to the Republican Party of the 1990s.”
Gov. John Kasich said that a “divider” like Donald Trump will have a hard time winning Ohio, an important battleground that could help decide the election in November, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Said Kasich: “Ohio’s a snapshot of the country. People in Ohio want to see a positive agenda, a positive way to move forward.”
However, Kasich said he would not actively campaign against Trump: “I don’t want to do that; that’s not my interest. And we’ll see what happens in the future. But right now, there’s just too many differences.”
A new RABA Research poll finds that 37% of Americans considered the Republican National Convention “a disaster,” while just 24% called it a “success.”
Women voters called the convention a “disaster” instead of a “success” by a 3 to 1 margin.
Among young voters, a whopping 55% called the convention a “disaster,” as opposed to just 13% calling it a “success.”
Donald Trump’s campaign wasted little time depicting Hillary Clinton’s new running mate as a continuation of the “rigged system,” casting Sen. Tim Kaine as “Corrupt Tim” and attacking him for supporting President Obama’s policies, Politico reports.
Said a spokesman: “It’s only fitting that Hillary Clinton would select an ethically challenged insider like Tim Kaine who’s personally benefited from the rigged system. While serving in government, Kaine has taken tens of thousands of dollars in freebies – more than $160,000 in fact – on free vacations, free clothes, and free tickets.”
Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) told Univision that she believes President Obama may have endorsed rival Kamala Harris in California’s U.S. Senate race because they are both black.
Said Sanchez: “I think they have, what he said they have, is a friendship of many years. She is African American, as is he. They know each other through meetings.”
Even before Sen. Timothy M. Kaine (D-VA) was unveiled as Hillary Clinton’s running mate, liberal groups were teed up to criticize the pick, the Washington Post reports.
“Kaine’s boosters say that Kaine, a former Virginia governor and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is far more progressive than many of his critics realize. But several organizations, including some with ties to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the runner-up in the Democratic primaries, sharply questioned Kaine’s liberal bona fides, pointing to Kaine’s support of trade deals and regulations favorable to big banks.”
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.
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