A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
‘Sucker Punch’
The Trump campaign had at least a month of forewarning that President Biden ending his re-election bid was a plausible scenario, and they let every reporter within earshot know that if that happened they were ready. It did, and they weren’t.
GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance fessed up to donors in Minnesota over the weekend that Kamala Harris has thrown the Trump campaign for a loop:
All of us were hit with a little bit of a political sucker punch. The bad news is that Kamala Harris does not have the same baggage as Joe Biden, because whatever we might have to say, Kamala is a lot younger. And Kamala Harris is obviously not struggling in the same ways that Joe Biden did.
A sucker punch is a cheap shot, delivered without warning to an unsuspecting victim. It’s fitting that Vance would couch it in terms of victimization, the perpetual posture of MAGA adherents. Their constant whining about fairness grew out of conservatives’ own decades-long misinterpretation of special interests on the left as animated by “grievance” politics. The result was a transformation of older white voters into a special interest group of their own, with a parallel set of grievances that mirrored what they had railed against for so long. That’s how you get canards like reverse discrimination against whites.
Back in the real world, Harris’ ascension to the nomination was not without warning or time to prep. The failure of the Trump campaign to do so effectively remains inexplicable and a bit mystifying. They seemed wedded to what they thought was a winning campaign strategy against Biden. They may have been right about that; we’ll never know.
But in the meantime, there’s a campaign to be run, and Trump finds himself with an opponent whose age and vigor isn’t an issue but more importantly who has captured the zeitgeist in a way that Trump craves and can’t possibly reproduce himself. His mass appeal has always been narrower than the broad cultural currents of our time. He’s pro wrestling, not the Olympics.
MAGA’s complaining about it all being unfair is weak sauce in the face of the transcendent energy and enthusiasm Harris is initially generating.
Trump Tries To Return Anti-Immigration Focus
- The Trump campaign’s first major attack ad on Kamala Harris goes back to the well with an anti-immigration appeal, as if Joe Biden had never left the race. The ad buy is north of $12 million and is on the air in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, and Wisconsin.
- TPM’s Khaya Himmelman: MAGA Resurrects Most Vile Non-Citizen Voting Hysteria As It Flails In Attacking Harris
Not Even Remotely Reassuring
Given a chance to disavow interpretations of his recent comments that his Christian supporters won’t have to vote again after 2024 because he’s going to “fix” things, Trump bobbed and weaved but offered no concrete assurance:
On The Trail
- Harris will campaign today in Atlanta, where she’s trying to put Georgia back in play.
- North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) withdrew his name from veep contention.
- In a Fox News interview, Trump concedes he will “probably end up debating” Harris.
2024 Ephemera
- Harris tacks close to Biden on abortion.
- David Dayen talks to Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), the only member of Congress who has worked for Kamala Harris.
- “White Dudes For Harris” raise more than $4 million with live-streamed event.
Iran Meddling In U.S. Election
Iran continues to try to sow chaos in the United States through misinformation campaigns and is now also using a covert online influence campaign to undermine Donald Trump’s candidacy, the U.S. intel community assesses.
Trump Shooting Update
- Donald Trump agreed to do a standard victim interview with the FBI about the attempt on his life.
- The gunman used an alias to make 25 online gun-related purchases between the spring of 2023 and the first half of this year, the FBI revealed. He has also bought materials used in explosives six times.
- The gunman’s online search history included information about power plants, mass-shooting events, improvised explosive devices and the assassination attempt on Slovakia’s prime minister in May, according to the FBI.
- Just stop:
Quote Of The Day
The court asserted it was making a ruling for the ages. That isn’t true. The court made a ruling for one – a former president.
President Joe Biden, castigating the Supreme Court for its ruling on presidential immunity in Trump v. United States in speech at the LBJ Library in Austin calling for reforming the high court
Wayne LaPierre Banned From NRA
A New York judge has banned former NRA honcho Wayne LaPierre, 74, from holding a paid position with the organization for a decade.
Remembering The My Lai Massacre
With the discovery that Army Lt. William L. Calley, Jr., the only U.S. service member convicted in the My Lai massacre in Vietnam in 1968, died at the age of 80 back in the April without public notice, let me draw your attention to one of the few heroes of that horrific day.
Hugh Thompson was an Army helicopter pilot who along with his two crew members intervened to stop the massacre, positioning his chopper between Vietnamese civilians and advancing U.S. troops. He was able to rescue some civilians and reported the massacre up the chain of command, which eventually led to the operation being halted. He later testified at Calley’s court-martial.
After his military career ended, Thompson wound up living for a time in my hometown of Lafayette, Louisiana, flying helicopters for the offshore oil and gas industry. It wasn’t until the 1990s, around the 30th anniversary of the massacre, that Thompson garnered recognition for his exemplary conduct on that black day in U.S. military history. He died of cancer in 2006 at the age of 62.
Photo Of The Day
From the farthest-flung Olympic venue – Tahiti – comes this epic shot of Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina:
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