Paul Ryan Faces Challenges Even If GOP Retains House, Rick Perry To Go Dancing, And Trump’s Biggest Fans

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August 30th, 2016

Top Stories


5 Points On The Nightmare Paul Ryan Faces Even If The GOP Keeps The House

The Gist: An election that preserves GOP control of the House but shrinks its margins significantly will exacerbate the challenges Ryan was already facing with regard to navigating a fractured party.

Rick Perry To Join Cast Of ‘Dancing With The Stars’

The Gist: Former Texas Governor and two-time GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry will soon throw on his dancing shoes.

Trump Surrogate Apologizes For Tweet With Cartoon Of Clinton In Blackface

The Gist: Pastor Mark Burns, an African American surrogate for the Trump campaign, said that the tweet was supposed to draw attention to Clinton’s attempt to “pander” to black voters.

From The Reporter’s Notebook


TPM’s Tierney Sneed reported on the tightrope Paul Ryan will have to walk if the GOP maintains control of the House but their margin shrinks considerably. Even before the new term, we’ll get a preview of how he intends to navigate it, said Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “We’re going to see it in the lame duck session and even before that when we’re going to have the struggle over what kind of resolution to do and whether Ryan can get votes from a continuing resolution from Republicans alone,” Ornstein said, referring to the deadline to fund the government coming up in late September.

Agree or Disagree?


Josh Marshall: “Trump isn’t the leader of the GOP. He’s not trying to be. Historic party leaders – FDR, Reagan, possibly Obama – fuse party coalitions together on new and transformative terms. McCain or Romney may have failed to achieve that goal in its entirety. But Trump hasn’t even tried. He’s simply taken control of the largest constituency block and decided to rule it as his own. The party’s institutional apparatus was too weak to prevent it. Like warlordization in a state collapse context, Trump’s action confirms the breakdown of institutional control but also makes recovery and unity even more difficult to recover.”

Say What?!


“You shoot at the enemy. You try to identify the enemy. And the enemy right now, the overwhelming majority right now coming in are people of color or people of Hispanic origin.”

– Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) encouraged law enforcement to treat people of color as “the enemy” during a Friday press conference.

BUZZING: Today in the Hive


From a TPM Prime member: “I don’t think anyone is in charge of anything other than Trump. I believe the chaos is caused by Trump’s capricious personality, combined with an inability to delegate any real authority. As Josh pointed out, his ‘campaign manager’ is acting more like a strategist or surrogate. When Lewandowski was the campaign manager he acted like a body man. This makes sense only if Trump is the one actually calling all the shots and everyone else is either a flunky or an advisor. Political professionals have made no impact on the campaign because they are used to exercising authority. My guess is the only people around Trump with any authority are his kids, and that is subject to his whims.”

Related: Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway insisted that Trump’s position on deportation has remained “pretty consistent.”

Have something to add? Become a Prime member and join the discussion here.

What We’re Reading


Spending five years with Trump’s biggest fans. (Mother Jones)

110 Republican leaders who won’t vote for Donald Trump, and when they reached their breaking points. (The New York Times)


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