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How to Make an Interview Go Viral

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There’s no better way to draw attention to something than to tell people they’re not allowed to see it.

Jimmy Kimmel demonstrated that this week when he announced that an interview with Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico (D) couldn’t be broadcast on his show.

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The GOP’s Message Doesn’t Add Up

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If the first rule of a political campaign is to settle on a compelling narrative, Republicans are having trouble finding one at their midterm “convention.”

Consider three observations:

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Fetterman’s Power Play

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Making predictions in politics is a fool’s game.

But here’s one I won’t shy away from: Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-PA) video appearance at the Republican midterm convention shut the door on any chance of him winning reelection as a Democrat.

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Nothing Stays Buried Forever

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One of the most interesting feature of modern campaigns is that candidates can never really put their past controversies behind them.

Old comments keep “resurfacing.”

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What to Watch Until Election Day

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We’re less than two months from Election Day and the broad contours of the midterm elections have come into focus.

Donald Trump’s approval rating has sunk to the lowest point of his presidency. Gas prices — actually all prices — are way up. And the United States remains stuck in a costly war with Iran with no strategy to get out.

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Germany Takes a Hard Right Turn

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The far-right Alternative for Germany’s strong showing in yesterday’s state elections could have consequences well beyond German politics.

The big loser is Chancellor Friedrich Merz. He’s not yet in danger of losing power, but the AfD has almost doubled its national support in the last two years while backing for Merz’s party has collapsed.

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Democrats Get a Boost in the Map Wars

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I got to this a little late last night because I was at the U.S. Open watching some great tennis, but Democrats got two potentially significant redistricting wins.

First, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the state must use its old congressional map in this year’s general election.

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The Democrats’ Red State Workaround

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Democrats may be stumbling into a way to “win” in some of the reddest states in the country.

The trick is not running a Democrat.

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What We Learned This Summer

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Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer, though with at least another six weeks of outdoor tennis ahead of me, I’m not quite ready to concede the point.

Still, it’s a useful moment to reflect on what we learned politically this summer — and what it means for the fall campaign.

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The Hegseth Warning Signs Were There

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Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) called on President Trump to fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

And his criticism was especially harsh.

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Hakeem Jeffries Is No Nancy Pelosi

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) suddenly has a leadership problem.

Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) stunned Democratic leaders by voting with Republicans on a procedural rule setting the terms for debate on a package of bills.

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Can a Democrat Win in South Carolina?

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South Carolina’s Republican Senate primary may be over, but Ralph Norman apparently isn’t ready to leave the race behind.

Asked what he would tell voters who remain undecided in the general election, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) had a straightforward answer: “Vote for Ralph Norman.”

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The GOP’s Trump Trap

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Republicans have a fairly obvious problem heading into the midterm elections.

They need to persuade many of the lower-propensity voters who turned out for Donald Trump to show up again when he is not on the ballot.

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Trump Nationalizes the Midterms

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A week ago, President Trump told a South Carolina rally exactly how he wants Republicans to think about the midterm elections.

Said Trump: “What I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot. Just say that I’m on the ballot one more time.”

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Elizabeth Warren’s Tariff Logic Gets Twisted

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is demanding answers from Apple after the company received nearly $2.2 billion in tariff refunds.

Wrote Warren: “This amounts to a multi-billion dollar windfall, which could still grow if more of your refund petitions are granted.”

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The Great Technology Backlash

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What once sounded like the plot of a spy thriller is quickly becoming a real political issue.

And it’s happening much faster than Washington seems capable of responding.

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Trump Can’t Say He Wasn’t Warned

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President Trump’s war with Iran is shaping up as one of the most spectacular foreign policy blunders of any modern presidency.

The Iranian people are hardly better off. Iran’s leadership appears more entrenched than ever. And the regime now has even more incentive to acquire nuclear weapons, threaten its neighbors and target American interests in the region.

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The Fight Over Trump’s Mail-Voting Order Isn’t Over

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The Supreme Court cleared the way for President Trump’s new mail-voting requirements to take effect before the midterms.

But that does not mean the order will take effect.

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Talking Points is my analysis of the political landscape, written only for Political Wire members.

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Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

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