“Donald Trump put on quite a show during a campaign speech in Greenville, South Carolina, on Thursday, where he read The New York Times from the podium and asked someone to join him on stage to inspect his hair,” TPM reports.
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Trump’s Lean Campaign Breaks the Mold
“Not only is Donald Trump an unconventional candidate, he’s got a campaign operation that turns the conventional wisdom of electoral politics on its head. While Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton boasts an army of more than 350 paid staffers, Trump’s operation fields less than a tenth that number,” U.S. News reports.
“It includes a coterie of about a dozen paid staffers operating out of the campaign headquarters at Trump Tower on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue — the same building where Trump lives and runs his real estate empire. His team has no pollster, fundraisers or media consultant and only announced its first full time, big-name policy adviser this week. The rest of the 25 or so paid members of the Trump campaign are mostly in the early- voting states of New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina.”
Hillary Clinton’s Wobbly Summer
Joe Klein: “Clinton has seemed rather wobbly this summer to a new generation of journalists—and citizens—who know only the myth of the Clintons: a brilliant, undefeatable political juggernaut. But the Clintons have always been a high-wire act. There have always been press conferences like the one in Las Vegas; there have always been crises like the server…. The Clintons, in essence, were the Donald Trumps of their time: you just didn’t say, or do, the things they said and did, and survive in American politics.”
“So if you’re Hillary and you’re fretting through a hostile press conference in Vegas, here’s what’s going through your mind: here we go again. Another cycle of dust and blather to be endured…. Smart politicians have a different sense of chronology than journalists. They are not concerned with ‘winning the day’ or the week. They know that the memory of the public is an eyelash in the wash of time…. Hillary Clinton is a tough politician but not an especially artful one…. There have been too few fine moments, and a new stage of the campaign begins now.”
Trump’s Insults Shock Even Seasoned Politicians
Donald Trump “is turning the schoolyard taunt into a political art form,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“These aren’t gaffes or off-script asides. They are part of a strategy, people close to Mr. Trump say, of knocking his Republican presidential rivals off their game. That, at least for now, is getting him the attention and poll ratings he wants among voters looking for an antidote to the artifice of U.S. politics.”
“But the intensely personal nature of Mr. Trump’s insults, sometimes mocking his rivals by mimicking them, is startling even to those who have grown accustomed to the sometimes low levels of civility in politics today.”
Harkin Advises Against Biden Run
Former Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), “a fixture in Iowa Democratic politics for over four decades, discouraged Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday from entering the presidential race, suggesting that Hillary Rodham Clinton, if elected, could name him to a top diplomatic post instead,” the New York Times reports.
Sanders Plans Next Phase of Campaign
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) “huddled with advisers at his home here Wednesday to chart what he describes as the second phase of a campaign that has exceeded all expectations but still lacks the infrastructure and support from the party elites that could help him compete with Clinton on a national level,” the Washington Post reports.
“He said he will issue a slew of detailed policy proposals, including for a tax system under which corporations and the wealthy would pay significantly more for initiatives that would benefit the poor and middle class, and will pour resources into voter outreach in early nominating states.”
Trump Would Raise Taxes on the Wealthy
Donald Trump told Bloomberg that his economic vision for America includes raising taxes on the wealthy.
Said Trump: “I would change it. I would simplify it.”
He would also tax hedge fund managers: “I would take carried interest out, and I would let people making hundreds of millions of dollars-a-year pay some tax, because right now they are paying very little tax and I think it’s outrageous. I want to lower taxes for the middle class.”
Inside the Trump-Bush Feud
Washington Post: “The 2016 campaign is merely the latest manifestation of decades of discord between Trump and the Bush family. Since the gilded 1980s, when Trump and George H.W. Bush rose as forces in their respective spheres, the relationship between Trump and the Bushes has been a melodrama — veering between displays of public affection and acerbic insults.”
“At the core, there are clashes of style, manner and class between the Bushes — a patrician clan of presidents, governors and financiers who have pulled the levers of power for generations — and Trump, a hustling New York City deal-maker who turned his father’s outer borough real-estate portfolio into a gold-plated empire.”
Biden Not Sure Family Ready for Another Run
Vice President Joe Biden told DNC members “that he was uncertain if his family had the ’emotional fuel’ for another presidential campaign,” the New York Times reports.
Were he to run, he would “have to be able to commit to all of you that I would be able to give it my whole heart and my whole soul,” he said, “and right now, both are pretty well banged up.”
He added: “I’m not trying to skirt your question. That’s the truth of the matter, but believe me, I’ve given this a lot of thought and dealing internally with the family on how we do this.”
First Read: “Folks, this isn’t a way to stoke the 2016 fire. Indeed, it’s more throwing water on it. It’s as if Biden was trying to tell the political world: calm down.”
Clinton Softens Tone on Email
Hillary Clinton “has often dismissed questions over her use of a private email server as secretary of state, suggesting last week that it’s only reporters who care about the matter. On Wednesday, she took a more conciliatory tone,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Appearing before cameras after a speech in Iowa, she said she understands the concerns: “I know people have raised questions about my email use as secretary of state, and I understand why. I get it.”
Trump’s Lead Grows While Clinton’s Shrinks
A new Quinnipiac poll finds Donald Trump expanded his lead over the Republican presidential pack with 28%, followed by Ben Carson at 12%, Jeb Bush at 7%, Ted Cruz at 7% and Marco Rubio at 7%.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads with 45%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 22% and Joe Biden at 18%.
Michigan Political Sex Scandal Gets Weirder
“Someone using the name ‘Todd Courser’ purchased a cell phone used to send anonymous text messages to Michigan state Rep. Todd Courser (R) and other figures at the center of a political sex scandal,” MLive reports.
“It’s the latest bizarre twist in the sex scandal involving Courser and fellow Republican Rep. Cindy Gamrat (R), who are accused of trying to cover-up their extra-marital affair… News of the sex scandal broke earlier this month when a former staffer shared audio recordings of Courser plotting a fake email that accused himself of having sex with a male prostitute and doing drugs, an apparent attempt to discredit any real revelation.”
Trump Signaling He Will Forgo a Third-Party Bid
Donald Trump “has told several top Republicans that he will swear off the possibility of an independent bid and commit to running his presidential campaign under the party’s banner,” the Huffington Post reports.
“Such a move could endear Trump further to Republican voters who have remained skeptical about his allegiance to a political party he joined relatively recently. Trump had drawn sharp criticism from GOP leaders concerned that a third party bid would effectively guarantee a Democratic win in the general election.”
Trump Plans Meeting with Evangelical Leaders
Wall Street Journal: “Leading in the polls but lacking deep political roots with the religious right, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has summoned a group of evangelical Christian leaders to his office for a meeting next month.”
Possible Biden Bid Puts Fundraisers on High Alert
“The possibility that Vice President Joe Biden may jump into the 2016 presidential campaign is convulsing the network of wealthy Democrats that financed President Obama’s two White House bids, galvanizing fundraisers underwhelmed by Hillary Clinton’s performance,” the Washington Post reports.
“A wide swath of party financiers is already convinced that Biden will make a late entry into the race and a sizeable number are now contemplating backing him, including some who have already signed on with Clinton… Their potential support — driven in part by a desire to recapture the passion they felt in Obama’s campaigns — could play a key role in helping the vice president decide whether to move forward on a third White House run.”
Trump Says He’ll Never Eat Oreos Again
Donald Trump vowed that he would stop eating Oreos, citing the cookie maker’s decision to close a plant in Chicago and move it to Mexico, the AP reports.
Said Trump: “I’m never eating Oreos again,” before adding that he would consider it if he could find some that were made in the U.S.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“He is dominating this conversation unlike anything I’ve ever seen, I guarantee you. It is something to see. Everybody keeps saying, ‘oh, it’s going to go away.’ As of now, it seems to be sticking around a bit longer than anybody thought.”
— James Carville, quoted by The Hill, on Donald Trump’s “unprecedented momentum.”
Trump Proves Facts Don’t Always Matter
Rick Klein: “One of the strangest and most irresistible moments of this or any campaign will be remembered for the surreal scene of Donald Trump having his security guards kick Jorge Ramos out of a news conference, then denying he did it, letting him back in, and jousting on immigration policy with one of the most trusted voices in Spanish-language news. But the exchange wasn’t about policy – and in fact confirmed that the Trump candidacy relates to policy only in the sense that baseball games relate to hot dogs. That is to say, you can get your policy when you go see Donald Trump, but that’s not what your ticket actually buys.”
“To watch Trump dispute Ramos’ facts and statistics, then claim that he’s got a ‘bigger heart’ than the Univision anchor, is to realize that Trump’s casual relationship with facts and workable policy is actually most likely part of his appeal. This poses fresh challenges for the media – not just Ramos-style questioners – and also for his rivals. The games may be rigged, but few in the audience can claim they didn’t get their money’s worth. And Trump, of course, owns the ballpark, and is trying to buy the league.”
