CNN: “Johnson’s success in defusing Trump’s shutdown threat while protecting dozens of vulnerable Republicans saved his gavel — but only for now. For Johnson, the next three months will either unlock his future as a second-term speaker or could see an end to his brief tenure atop the GOP conference.”
“And with his future on the line, Johnson will spend every day until November 5 trying to protect, and possibly even grow, his party’s majority.”
“For Jamie McGregor, a businessman in Springfield, Ohio, speaking favorably about the Haitian immigrants he employs has come to this: death threats, a lockdown at his company and posters around town branding him a traitor for hiring immigrants,” the New York Times reports.
“To defend himself and his family, Mr. McGregor has had to violate his own vow to never own a gun.”
Said McGregor: “I have struggled with the fact that now we’re going to have firearms in our house — like, what the hell? And now we’re taking classes, we’re going to shooting ranges, we’re being fitted for handguns.”
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Noah Shactman: “The connection between Adams and the paper was, at points, beyond symbiotic. In a way, Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid made Eric Adams mayor. From its front-page endorsement in the month before the Democratic primary in 2021 until the end of the election that year, the Post printed ten covers either boosting Adams or trashing his rivals. During that same time period, according to Nexis research results, the Post ran more than 300 items mentioning Adams. I’m sure a few were wholly negative, but I couldn’t find a single one.”
“At times, the Post let his team rebut negative stories that appeared in other outlets with narratives of their own, notably when Politico broke the news that Adams did not appear to live in New York.”
“Facing a tight re-election race, hardline Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is now claiming that he’s a bipartisan champion of reaching across the aisle,” Politico reports.
Said Cruz: “What is new is not that I’m passing bipartisan legislation that helps produce jobs in Texas. I’ve been doing that since the day I arrived in the Senate. What is new is we’re finally getting the press to report on it.”
Jonathan Chait: “Obviously, none of the particulars of these allegations — in Harris’s case, Trump hasn’t even managed to manufacture a pretextual criminal allegation — matter to Trump in the slightest. His view of the law is fully relativist. Actions taken on Trump’s behalf are by inherently legal, and actions taken against him are inherently illegal.”
“That is why Trump continuously brands his political opponents as criminals. In addition to all three of his Democratic campaign opponents, Trump has called for criminal charges to be brought against a long list of targets.”
Seth Masket: “Loyal readers will notice that I keep saying debates don’t matter much and then they keep mattering. The Trump-Biden debate was arguably the most consequential presidential debate ever, resulting in a candidate underperforming and dropping out a few weeks later. The Trump-Harris debate didn’t have quite as big an effect, but it was seen as a pretty historic blowout and built up a lot of support for Harris’ fledgling presidential campaign. But what can we expect from this week’s vice presidential debate?”
“It’s safe to say this won’t affect the polling in the election much, simply because these events tend not to, and generally matter considerably less than presidential match-ups do. Vice presidential debates usually sound like an awesome battle royale in theory, but they rarely amount to all that much in execution.”
“If you want to continue to be effective you have to do it from inside your own party. My goal has always been to get things done. I’ve been I think successful at it. And I’ve got two years and three months and I want to continue to get stuff done.”
— Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), quoted by Politico, on why he’s still supporting Donald Trump despite his lying about Haitian immigrants in his state.
“Some battleground state Republicans say they’re worried they see little evidence of Donald Trump’s ground game — and fear it could cost him the election in an exceedingly close race,” Politico reports.
“In interviews, more than a dozen Republican strategists and operatives in presidential battlegrounds voiced serious concerns about what they described as a paltry get-out-the-vote effort by the Trump campaign, an untested strategy of leaning on outside groups to help do field work and a top-of-the-ticket strategy that’s disjointed from the one Republicans down the ballot are running.”
“Hurricane Helene’s deadly devastation has scrambled the presidential candidates’ campaign plans, with Kamala Harris returning early from a campaign visit to Las Vegas to attend briefings and Donald Trump heading to Georgia to see the storm’s impact,” the AP reports.
“The death toll is close to 100 people and rising, with some of the worst damage caused by inland flooding in North Carolina.”
“In addition to being humanitarian crises, natural disasters can create political tests for elected officials, particularly in the closing weeks of a presidential campaign.”
“A criminal investigation is under way after staff at the US Department of Veterans Affairs illicitly accessed the medical records of Tim Walz and JD Vance, the Democratic and Republican vice-presidential nominees,” The Guardian reports.
“At least a dozen employees – including one doctor and one contractor – at the department’s healthcare body, the Veterans Health Administration, are believed to have improperly viewed the files.”
“Climate negotiators from Europe, Latin America and some island nations are bracing for the potential return to the world stage of Donald Trump, who withdrew the United States from the fight against global warming during his first term,” the New York Times reports.
“Nations will press forward without the United States if they must, according to climate negotiators who gathered in New York last week during the United Nations General Assembly. But the first Trump presidency was a setback in the climate fight, and a repeat would slow things down at a critical point when scientists say efforts need to speed up.”
“Pollsters caution against assuming that the polls this cycle are susceptible to the same errors as previous ones that underestimated support for former President Trump, arguing that every election is different and that this year’s polls are an accurate reflection of the competitiveness of the race,” The Hill reports.
“Already the longest-lived of the 45 men to serve as U.S. president, Jimmy Carter is about to reach the century mark,” the AP reports.
“The 39th president, who remains under home hospice care, will turn 100 on Tuesday, Oct. 1, celebrating in the same south Georgia town where he was born in 1924.”
Politico: “A lot has also changed since Trump was last in power — both for Trump and the presidency itself — that make it more likely that he will pursue his enemies and easier for him to direct the Justice Department to do so.”
“Trump has been through the legal wringer in the last year-and-a-half and will want payback. He’s a convicted criminal and still faces trials that could send him to prison, and he’s not likely to forget all about that even if his legal troubles essentially disappear once he reaches the White House. He could easily wreak havoc with many of his political opponents’ lives simply by subjecting them to long, costly and highly disruptive criminal investigations and prosecutions.”
“Even if the effort failed to produce any real convictions, the process itself would be a form of punishment for the targets. It could also seriously erode public faith in the federal criminal justice system while chilling political opposition to Trump.”
“Donald Trump supporters appear to have quit Netflix en masse after one of the online streaming giant’s co-founders publicly threw his backing behind Kamala Harris,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Reed Hastings, chairman of Netflix and a longtime Democratic supporter, announced his endorsement on July 22, later telling The Information he’d also donated some $7 million to the Harris campaign.”
Bloomberg: Netflix cancellations spiked after Reed Hastings donated to Kamala Harris.
NPR: “This month marks the 50th anniversary of Caro’s first book, The Power Broker. It told the story of how urban planner Robert Moses reshaped New York City and state through the roads and bridges he built — and the lives and communities he destroyed.”
“And it began to tell the story how political power really works, and how it’s welded in this country. It’s a story that, 50 years later, has Caro still hard at work, still time traveling through his research, writing and conversation.”
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.