“Shares of Trump Media sank more than 7% Friday morning, hitting a new 52-week low one day after lockup restrictions expired,” CNBC reports.
“Trading volume was heavier than average on Friday morning, but it will likely be several days before public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal whether this volume is due to early investors selling shares now that the lockup period is over, or merely a higher than average number of retail investors trading the stock.”
“The Georgia State Election Board is set to vote on Friday on a package of nearly a dozen rules that would change the way elections are conducted amid growing pressure from almost every level of Georgia state government advising the board that it is operating outside of its legal authority,” the New York Times reports.
Washington Post: “The flurry of rulemaking is the work of a new right-wing majority that took control of the board in May with an avowed mission of preventing fraud and other irregularities from tainting the presidential result this year. All three are supporters of former president Donald Trump, and the rules they are pushing have been promoted by the state’s leading proponents of the false claim that President Joe Biden stole the Georgia election in 2020.”
“Robert F. Kennedy suspended his presidential campaign last month with about $4 million in debts,” the New York Times reports.
“He had only $2.2 million in cash on hand as of Aug. 30, suggesting his decision to leave the race might have been forced in part by financial issues.”
The Democratic National Committee announced it was putting Donald Trump’s comments praising North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) on nine billboards around Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro, the New York Times reports.
“A super PAC closely tied to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is pouring money into two Republican-held House districts that former President Trump won in 2020,” Axios reports.
“It’s the latest sign that House Democrats are bullish about their chances of unseating GOP incumbents with Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket.”
“House Majority PAC is reserving $1.1 million for ads in Iowa’s 1st District, which is held by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and voted for Trump by more than 3 percentage points.”
“They are also putting $400,000 into Wisconsin’s 3rd District, which is held by Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) and went for Trump by 6 points in 2020.”
New York Times: “After CNN published its report, Mr. Trump’s first reaction was that he wanted nothing to do with the scandal and didn’t see why he should get involved, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. His impulse was to ignore the controversy and power through. People close to the former president are holding out hope that Mr. Robinson will still decide to quit the race, despite his early defiant statement of his intention to continue his run for governor.”
“But with Mr. Trump preparing to visit North Carolina for a rally on Saturday, he’s expected to talk about the controversy in passing, either on his Truth Social platform or once he’s in the state. People close to him anticipate that he will deliver a version of a comment he has made about countless supporters or former aides: that he hardly knows the guy.”
Axios: North Carolina is Trump’s emerging Achilles’ heel.
“The Supreme Court on Friday turned down an appeal from the Nevada Green Party, keeping the progressive party off the state’s November presidential ballot,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“The justices refused to intervene and overturn the state supreme court, which ruled two weeks ago the Green Party used the wrong form when gathering signatures. There were no dissents.”
“Hezbollah was scrambling Friday to recover from a week of blows delivered by Israel, including an unusually heavy series of airstrikes across southern Lebanon and attacks that caused electronic devices carried by thousands of the militant group’s members to explode virtually simultaneously across the country,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The group is trying to determine whether any of its communications networks are safe as it searches for security gaps and hunts down the possibility of moles in the organization.”
“If the election does not go his way, the economy will tank, Christmas will be canceled, and America as we know it will be ‘finished,’ Donald Trump promised in the run-up to the 2020 election,” NBC News reports.
“That race did not go his way, of course, and none of Trump’s prophesied cataclysms materialized under Joe Biden’s presidency. But that has not stopped Trump from recycling some of the same dark portents about a Kamala Harris presidency.”
“President Biden will summon his Cabinet Friday for the first time in eleven months and direct them to speed up their efforts to implement his agenda,” Axios reports.
“From implementing clean tech tax credits to spending billions of dollars to build roads, bridges and semiconductor facilities, top officials know that there’s more work to do.”
Stephen Collinson: “The question of whether Mark Robinson’s political disaster will seriously hurt Trump’s chances in one of the most tightly fought and important battleground states is a complex one. Trump voters are hugely loyal to their candidate — so it doesn’t necessarily follow that if they disdain Robinson, they won’t vote for the ex-president. And Democrats have several times thought North Carolina was ripe to pick off in recent elections — only for it to stubbornly stay red.”
“Still, any fall-off of Republican turnout could be significant in a race that is currently neck-and-neck. And the implications are massive, since North Carolina could open up a fallback route to the White House for Harris in the event that she loses one of the Blue Wall states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin or Michigan.”
CNN: Watch Trump’s past comments about GOP’s Mark Robinson.
“The stars of Democratic politics were aligning behind Kamala Harris. Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama and assorted liberal luminaries had sung her praises at the Democratic convention. Megawatt endorsements from Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish would soon follow. But there’s another pop star who has not weighed in — and whose endorsement could hold unique power in November,” the Washington Post reports?
“By late August, political consultant Maria Cardona’s phone was buzzing with texts from people in Latino Democratic circles, asking the same question.”
Said the messages to Cardona: “Where’s Bad Bunny? We have to get Bad Bunny.”
A new AP-NORC poll finds “neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump has a decisive edge with the public on the economy, turning an issue that was once a clear strength for Trump into the equivalent of a political jump ball.”
“The finding is a warning sign for Trump, who has tried to link Harris to President Joe Biden’s economic track record.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) writes in the New York Times:
“As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator J.D. Vance, I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield. This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there…”
“The Springfield I know is not the one you hear about in social media rumors. It is a city made up of good, decent, welcoming people. They are hard workers — both those who were born in this country and those who settled here because, back in their birthplace, Haiti, innocent people can be killed just for cheering on the wrong team in a soccer match.”
Sidney Blumenthal: Trump and Vance’s Springfield smear is a microcosm of their entire campaign.
At a campaign event with Oprah Winfrey, Kamala Harris identified herself as a gun owner and said if someone breaks into her home, “they’re getting shot,” the Detroit News reports.
She added: “I’m not trying to take everyone’s guns away.”
CNN: Kamala Harris is a gun owner. Here is what we know.
In-person early voting starts today in Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia, USA Today reports.
For members: The Importance of Banking Early Votes
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.