Chris Christie told the New York Times that he has seen a “significant” change in Donald Trump’s mental capabilities.
Said Christie: “He wasn’t as good in 2020 as he was in 2016. I saw decline in his skills in ’20 from ’16, and you see significant declines still. What masks it is that he is still physically pretty vibrant and energetic, unlike the president.”
“Donald Trump promises the biggest deportation event the U.S. has ever seen if he is elected — a promise he has predicated, in part, on the notion that immigrants in the U.S. legally and illegally are stealing what he calls ‘Black jobs’ and ‘Hispanic jobs.'” the AP reports.
“But government data show immigrant labor contributes to economic growth and provides promotional opportunities for native-born workers. And a mass deportation event would cost U.S. taxpayers up to a trillion dollars and could cause the cost of living, including food and housing, to skyrocket, economists say.”
Nate Cohn: “You may find this unsatisfying — I do too — but it does yield an important insight: With less than four weeks to go, the polls don’t offer a clear answer on who will win.”
Dan Pfeiffer: “Trump hasn’t done a mainstream press interview in a month; and his last 26 interviews were with conservative media and podcasters. Trump’s newfound reticence is in particular contrast with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz’s recent media blitz.”
“Trump’s campaign thinks their best path to victory is for swing voters to see as little of Trump as possible. This is, of course, a counterintuitive approach for any candidate, let alone someone with Trump’s insatiable need for attention.”
Wall Street Journal: “Comparing exactly how the economy has done during the Biden administration versus the Trump administration is less than straightforward. The pandemic severely disrupted the country during Trump’s last year in office, and into the Biden years. Both men might like a pass or two on some aspects of how things fared under their watch.”
“Some caveats probably are in order, and the president’s ability to influence something as large and complex as the U.S. economy is often limited. That said, both were in charge, and their economic records are their economic records.”
Vice President Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and “possesses the physical and mental resiliency” required to serve as president, her doctor said in a letter released Saturday that summarizes her medical history and status, the AP reports.
NPR: Harris releases medical report, drawing another contrast with Trump.
“There’s less than a month left in the presidential election, which will not only shape Donald Trump’s political legacy and the nation’s trajectory, but also likely decide whether he’ll face multiple prison sentences. And as he makes his closing argument, Trump is planning to amp up his violent, fascist rhetoric all the way to Election Day,” Rolling Stone reports.
“In recent conversations with close allies, the former and perhaps future president has stressed that he can’t — as some advisers apparently would like him to — play it safe in these final weeks of campaigning.”
“If polls are any guide – and there are many questions about them – Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is in better shape now than he was at this time in 2020 and in his winning White House campaign of 2016,” USA Today reports.
“Yes, Trump trails Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in most polls. But the all-important caveat is that he’s down against the incumbent vice president by smaller margins than he faced in his first two general elections – both of which saw him score higher with actual voters than the ones who responded to pollsters.”
New York Times: “The rant, described by seven people with knowledge of the meal who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, underscored a reality three weeks before Election Day: Mr. Trump’s often cantankerous mood in the final stretch. And one of the reasons for his frustration is money. He’s trailing his Democratic rival in the race for cash and has had to hustle to keep raising it.”
“Not only does Ms. Harris have far more money to buy ads and pay for staff after raising $1 billion in less than three months as a candidate — a sum greater than the total Mr. Trump raised all year — but she has also been freed from having to plead directly to donors anymore.”
“Kamala Harris has improved her party’s standing among Black voters since President Biden left the presidential race, but she still significantly trails Mr. Biden’s 2020 share of that vital Democratic constituency,” according to a New York Times/Siena College poll of Black likely voters.
“Nearly eight out of 10 Black voters nationwide said they would vote for Ms. Harris, the poll found, a marked increase from the 74 percent of Black voters who said they would support Mr. Biden before he dropped out of the race in July. But Mr. Biden won 90 percent of Black voters to capture the White House by narrow margins in 2020, and the drop-off for Ms. Harris, if it holds, is large enough to imperil her chances of winning key battleground states.”
“Iran’s government is extremely nervous and has been engaging in urgent diplomatic efforts with countries in the Middle East to gauge whether they can reduce the scale of Israel’s response to its missile attack earlier this month and – if that fails – help protect Tehran,” CNN reports.
“Kamala Harris’s campaign plans to release a report on her medical history and health information, a move to contrast the 59-year-old Democrat with Donald Trump, her 78-year-old rival, who has shared little recent information about his health,” the New York Times reports.
New York Times: “In the nearly four years since he left the White House, Mr. Trump has acted as something of a shadow president on international affairs operating out of what he used to call the Winter White House at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.”
“Even before he kicked off a comeback bid to reclaim his old office, foreign governments realized that Mr. Trump was still a force in American politics and that they needed to take him into account in their dealings with the United States.”
“Now that he is the Republican nominee for president in next month’s election, foreign leaders have been playing up to Mr. Trump even more.”
Washington Post: “Internal polls on both sides roughly match the public numbers that show the race in the seven battleground states within the statistical margin of error and mostly unchanged in recent weeks. Both campaigns calculate victory based on their own turnout models.”
“But the two camps are treating that information in divergent ways. Trump’s team has embraced bravado as it tries to keep its candidate on message and encourage him to avoid the sort of high-profile national audiences that might motivate Harris’s supporters…”
“Vice President Kamala Harris’s team has, by contrast, embraced the ‘underdog’ spirit of her July launch, hoping to motivate more action from her supporters and grab the attention of those sitting on the sidelines.”
With wars in Ukraine and the Middle East looming over the U.S. election, voters give Donald Trump the edge over Kamala Harris on who would better navigate the country through both conflicts, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll of seven battleground states.
Trump leads Harris among swing-state voters, 50% to 39%, on who is best able to handle Russia’s war in Ukraine and has a wider advantage, 48% to 33%, on who is better suited to handle the Israel-Hamas war.
New New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena polls of likely voters:
“Both campaigns see Pennsylvania as the most pivotal battleground in this election, and are putting more money, time and energy there than anywhere else, including $350 million in television ads from Ms. Harris, Mr. Trump and their allies.”
“Donald Trump escalated the nativist, anti-immigration rhetoric that has animated his political career with a speech Friday in Aurora, Colo., where he repeated false and grossly exaggerated claims about undocumented immigrants that local Republican officials have refuted,” the New York Times reports.
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.