A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Hate To See It
Donald Trump is in a vastly different position than he was just a month ago. And it shows.
The race remains tight, but the advantage is now with Kamala Harris and the Trump campaign is telegraphing the flip in the dynamics of the race in ways small and large.
Trump keeps providing himself with potential exit ramps from the Sept. 10 debate with Kamala Harris, complaining anew yesterday that he shouldn’t have to attend the debate because it’s hosted by ABC News, which he claims is against him. This despite him already agreeing to an ABC News debate, first with Biden and then again with Harris.
But in another sign of the changed dynamics of the race, the Harris campaign is now the one haggling over its terms, arguing that the candidates’ microphones should stay on throughout the debate. That’s a change from Biden’s position. He opposed hot mics and made that a condition of his initial offer for debates. In the overall scheme of things, it’s a small point of gamesmanship, but it’s one where Harris is being more aggressive than Biden was, suggests she’s happy to joust with Trump’s attempts to talk over her, and generally puts the onus on Trump to respond and parry her demands.
In another overt sign of Trump’s campaign being on its heels, Trump himself is increasing the pace of his own campaigning, his campaign staff told the WSJ: “Advisers to Trump, who are bracing for Harris to enjoy a postconvention boost in polls, say he will be more active on the campaign trail after setting a modest pace when President Biden was still in the race.”
I’d take a wait-and-see approach to how much more effort Trump actually expends campaigning. Believe it when you see it, especially in light of this reporting from the WSJ in the same story: “In a shift, more of the events Trump’s campaign is eyeing are smaller in scale, which saves money, but they also are designed to keep Trump more focused on a given topic, a constant struggle.”
If rebooting the Trump campaign requires keeping him “on topic,” it makes me skeptical how real the reboot really is. It’s going to be a long road to November for the Trump campaign, stuck with a candidate who may be chronically trailing in race, outshone by a mixed-race woman, and facing the prospect of not just losing but of real prison time when it’s all said and done.
RFK Jr. Is The MAGA Flavor Of The Week
The weird, narcissistic, and pointless presidential campaign of RFK Jr. ended Friday the only way it really could, with an endorsement of Donald Trump. Despite (or maybe because of) all his baggage – anti-vax, pro-bear-roadkill, etc – RFK Jr. is now the flavor of the week in MAGA Land, with Trump going so far as to retweet a post referring to a Trump-Kennedy “ticket.” Poor JD Vance.
2024 Ephemera
- Harris $$$: The Harris campaign raised $82 million during the Democratic convention, bringing its total haul since she became the presumptive nominee to $540 million, the campaign reported.
- D’oh: Trump event at wall Obama built highlights an unkept promise
- TPM’s Josh Marshall: How Kamala Made Trump the Incumbent
Don’t Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out
The Colorado Republican Party voted to oust its controversial chairman, Dave Williams who was elected just last year. Williams, among other things, had vilified the LGBTQ community, including calling for the burning of all Pride flags.
About That Rejected Arkansas Abortion Rights Referendum …
Former Antonin Scalia clerk Adam Unikowsky takes a closer look at last week’s decision by the Arkansas Supreme Court to reject an abortion-rights ballot initiative, ostensibly because the sponsors failed to dot their i’s and crosses their t’s. Unikowsky’s provocative title gives you a sense of where he’s headed: “They didn’t submit a photocopy that wasn’t required.”
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
In another indication of the Supreme Court’s degraded and vague firearms’ jurisprudence, a federal judge in Kansas last week ruled that a longstanding ban on machine guns violates the Second Amendment, dismissing machine gun possession charges against a criminal defendant.
Quote Of The Day
After over a year in this job, I cannot understand Putin’s hold on Trump.
Former Trump National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, recalling in his new memoir what he once confided to his wife
Trump Prosecution Watch
- Mar-a-Lago case: Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appeal brief is due Tuesday at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, where he’s seeking to get Judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal of the case overturned. Cannon dismissed it on the grounds that Smith was unlawfully appointed as special counsel.
- Jan. 6 case: Friday is the deadline for Smith and Trump to submit a joint status report to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan with a proposed pretrial schedule to resolve, among other things, the impact of the Supreme Court’s horrendous presidential immunity decision.
Virus Lives Out Fauci Revenge Fantasy
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the U.S. response to the COVID pandemic and retired after nearly 40 years as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is recovering at home after being hospitalized with a West Nile virus infection that he most likely acquired from a mosquito bite in his D.C. backyard. Fauci, 83, is expected to make a full recovery.
See Ya In 2025!
The two American astronauts stranded aboard the International Space Station will not use the janky Boeing Starliner that got them there to return to earth. Instead, the Boeing craft will return autonomously next month, and the astronauts will wait until next year for a SpaceX craft to arrive and ferry them back home, NASA announced over the weekend.
Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore arrived at the ISS in June on a planned eight-day mission that will now stretch some eight months until the SpaceX Dragon is scheduled to return in February.
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Alright. Let’s all get machine guns. Semi-auto is soooo passé.
Here’s hoping the week brings unlimited heartburn for TCF and his entourage!
WTF is it with Republican presidential candidates strapping to the roof of the car things that shouldn’t be strapped to the roof of the car?
The severed whale head is the most macabre and, dare we say it, weird
@castor_troy already has his on order.