My friends, I had my first pre-election freakout of the Kamala era yesterday. It was minor and I got over it quickly, but it was a good reminder that we still have over three months to go and there will be ups and downs and we need to remember to BREATH and ACT and SUPPORT ONE ANOTHER and KEEP THE FAITH.
This has been an amazing, amazing, amazing couple of weeks. You can feel it right? The change in energy? The change in enthusiasm? The change in momentum? Lord, it is wonderful.
I’ve been on cloud nine!
Then yesterday I saw that, even though the numbers are improving, we are still on pretty even ground in the polls and the stock market had a bad day (btw, if that worried you too, see the comments section for reasons to not worry -— smart people in there with lots of info). Anyway, logically that shouldn’t be enough but it made me panic. What if we lose? What if trump wins?
And then I remembered that this is a marathon and not a sprint and that, even in the Kamala era, there are going to be good and bad days and good and bad moments.
And that is ok. Because there are STILL a ton of reasons to be optimistic and I would STILL much, much rather be in our position than theirs. We can do this! And we will!
So I thought I would share my reasons for optimism with you so that you can bookmark this for YOUR next freakout.
And I came up with TWENTY FIVE reasons! That alone is reason for optimism.
1. We have the enthusiasm
You know it. I know it. These last two weeks have been amazing!
Yes They Can?
Democrats haven’t been this fired up about a presidential candidate since Obama, and the Harris campaign is racing to capitalize on the momentum: hiring veteran ad-maker Jim Margolis, doubling down on TikTok (where Kamala is approaching Trump-level virality), and leaning into the J.D. Vance creep factor.
Why does enthusiasm matter? Because it gets people out, it gets people donating and it gets people voting!
Are you enthusiastic? then do something!
You can donate:
You can do something else:
now back to our list!
2. The Polling is Moving in our direction
would I like for Harris to be ahead by a million? You betcha! But the polling is moving in our direction and that is huge
Harris gaining ground in swing states: Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll
Quick note: The new Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll shows Harris improving the chances of victory in 6 of 7 swing states:
The poll - conducted online from July 24-28 - shows Harris leading Trump in Michigan by 11 percentage points, while in Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada, she has a 2-point advantage. Trump is ahead of Harris in Pennsylvania by 4 points and in North Carolina by 2 points. They are on equal footing in Georgia.
Wisconsin is the only state of the seven where Trump has narrowed his deficit with Harris in comparison to Biden's performance in a previous poll.
3. We have Joy
Enthusiasm is great (see item #1) but Kamala has brought JOY back to us as well! I could listen to that woman laugh all day. And good thing because she loves to laugh! we know she can be serious and tough when she needs to be but damn, joy is contagious and wonderful and she brings it. And, in the end, I think lots of people will pick joy over hatred. I really do
The Harris campaign and GOP chaos have brought joy back to politics
Vice President Kamala Harris has injected new life in this campaign. It’s fun again, and House Democrats are building on their best online fundraising day of the cycle—almost $1 million in one day for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee—and relishing this contest.
Take Maryland Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin, who told MSNBC on Sunday, "Democrats are having fun again. We've recovered our sense of humor.”
He continued, “The enthusiasm is real. It's genuine and if they want to say it's manufactured, that's cool. [Republicans] should continue to kid themselves all the way for the next 100 days."
4. We are finding support in all kinds of places
I mean a giant golf cart rally for Kamala in THE VILLAGES? Trump heaven? I’m tickled and excited!
Golf cart rally in The Villages helps kick off Kamala's grassroots Florida campaign
As The Who once sang: “Talkin’ abput my generation.” And what you’re about to see is probably one of the most unbelievable scenes from the first week of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
On Saturday, several hundred golf carts paraded through the streets of The Villages — one of the largest over-55 communities in the U.S. -- in an enthusiastic display of support for Kamala.
The Villages has long been considered a conservative stronghold where Donald Trump supporters have held their own golf cart rallies in previous campaigns. In the 2020 election. Trump carried the precincts in The Villages in the 2020 presidential election by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.
The Tallahassee Democrat newspaper wrote that the golf cart caravan in The Villages was just part of a series of events held across the state organized by the Harris campaign and the Florida Democratic Party in cities from Pensacola to Miami that included a series of training sessions, phone banks, and even an ice cream social. The Harris campaign hopes to mobilize the thousands of volunteers who have stepped forward since Kamala launched her candidacy a week ago.
“We are working for every vote in this state ... it’s one we are determined to win,” Jasmine Burney Clark, director of the Harris campaign in Florida, told The Tallahassee Democrat.
And the enthusiasm and energy shown by Harris supporters in their golf carts on Saturday is a hopeful sign.
Barbie Harden Hall, the Democratic candidate in Florida’s 11th C.D. which includes The Villages, spoke at the rally. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, she wrote.
My mind is still blown from today. For reference, this isn’t even HALF of the total golf carts that participated. Believe me, this is a BFD!
5. Y’all, the kids are registering to vote!
Getting gen Z out is HUGE and we are seeing signs it will happen. That is something polling will not account for and its great.
Ohio Gen Z registrations surge
The Ohio Secretary of State website publishes an updated statewide voter file every Saturday.
Comparing yesterday’s file, which includes data on new registrations for the previous week since VP Harris became the presumptive nominee, to the new registrations in the week before Pres. Biden’s announcement, shows large increases for voters under about age 30
Overall including all ages, 21,838 voters registered this week vs. 18,343 the previous week, an increase of 19%. So that's an indication of increased interest generally.
56% of this week's new OH registrations were female, compared to 48% of last week's.
The situation is similar to what happened wrt registrations immediately following the Dobbs decision in June 2022, which clearly turned out well for Ohio’s Reproductive Freedom Amendment passed last November by a wide margin.
Big surge in PA voter registrations
Going by the Pennsylvania statewide voter file updated last night, the last week since VP Harris become the presumptive Democratic nominee has seen a dramatic increase in registrations compared to the previous week, the lion’s share of increase coming from female voters
6. We are raising cash!
this is important because we need cash to win AND it shows enthusiasm
Harris campaign rakes in $310M in July, far outpacing Trump
The Joe Biden-turned-Kamala Harris campaign raised $310 million in July — a monster sum of cash sparked by the vice president’s entry into the presidential race.
Harris’ haul more than doubled the $137 million brought in by former President Donald Trump, who survived an assassination attempt and headlined the Republican National Convention last month. Harris’ campaign and other affiliated committees have $377 million in cash on hand, a $50 million advantage over Trump’s $327 war chest, according to figures released by both campaigns this week.
They’ve also raised over $1 billion during the campaign with four more months to go, the fastest to break the 10-figure mark in history, the campaign said on Friday.
You can donate:
7. Kamala inherited a great battleground infrastructure from Joe
Kamala Harris Campaign Touts ‘Massive’ Battleground Operation
Kamala Harris has launched an unprecedented field operation on the backs of volunteers in swing states that far exceeds Donald Trump’s in scope and size, her presidential campaign aides say.
“Trump’s battleground infrastructure simply pales in comparison,” Dan Kanninen, the battleground states director for Harris, told reporters during a Monday afternoon call.
The people power complements the more than $200 million raised in the Harris camp’s first week, two-thirds of which came from new donors, according to the campaign.
“We were only able to pull this off, this massive mobilization, because of the battleground infrastructure that we already had in place,” Kanninen said, a nod to the fact that Harris acquired President Joe Biden’s campaign staff and headquarters.
8. Harris’s Rallies are amazing!
Harris events: Not your father’s campaign rallies (or Biden’s)
There were hip gyrations from the stage. The playlist included “Girls in the Hood,” “Mamushi,” “Savage,” and “Body.” The candidate quoted Quavo.
A Joe Biden rally this was not.
If there was ever any indication of the head-snapping transition that Democrats have gone through, it was the one that occurred on Tuesday night in Atlanta when 10,000 people danced and cheered to Megan Thee Stallion before Vice President Harris took the stage for a campaign rally to the strains of Beyoncé's “Freedom.” Biden forecast this kind of a change four years ago when he talked about a bridge to a new generation, but that transformation didn’t take place until the past two weeks when he officially relinquished his grip on the party.
In Atlanta, the baton was fully passed to Kamala Harris. This was now her party. Her campaign. Her playlist.
From the music to the outfits — and, most tellingly, the crowd size — it was clearer than ever that the shift to a new Democratic generation was complete.
The crowds to date in the Harris for president campaign are simply more energized. They’re bigger and louder. And it is a different tapestry than the Democratic Party has presented to a general electorate since at least 2016.
Harris, at least in the opening weeks of her candidacy, is drawing the kind of energy and excitement that Barack Obama drew in 2008 or that Donald Trump brought in 2016.
Biden often quotes Abraham Lincoln or Irish poets in his speeches. On Tuesday night, Harris was quoting hip-hop artists in hers.
“Trump … Does not walk the walk,” she said. “Or as my friend Quavo would say: He does not walk it like he talks it.”
9. Democrats are thinking outside the box with ads
Rs are spending tons of money on TV ads which is great if you want to reach people who watch traditional TV and only those people.
Democrats Rent News Homepages to Troll ‘Scared’ Trump
The Democratic Party plans to launch digital homepage takeovers of local news organizations in battleground states to hound Donald Trump for dodging a debate with Kamala Harris, the Daily Beast has learned.
“Trump is a convicted felon whose Project 2025 agenda would ban abortion nationwide,” a preview of the ad reads. “No wonder he’s afraid to debate.”
Starting on Saturday in Georgia, Trump’s image will be splashed across the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s website, his tongue out and teeth bared, as the former president and his running mate, J.D. Vance, are set to rally that evening in Atlanta. The attack builds on weeks of Democratic efforts to tie Trump to Project 2025, which his campaign has disavowed, and the controversial initiative’s plans to limit reproductive rights.
The Democratic National Committee says it has approached seven major local newspapers in critical swing states about buying out their homepages if and when Trump visits. The DNC did not disclose the cost of the ad buy. Besides the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the news organizations to watch are the Detroit News, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Arizona Republic, the Raleigh News & Observer, the Las Vegas Sun and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Harris has seen sky-high enthusiasm since announcing her candidacy last month. While she has gained ground for the Democratic ticket in recent polls, she still trails in states that could determine the outcome of the election. The DNC is betting that hitting Trump where it hurts will help.
10. This short campaign is actually a godsend
Could a short campaign be exactly what Kamala Harris needs?
“One of the problems of having candidates running for years in advance of an election is the public can become tired of them and their message,” Squire said. “[Harris will] reap the benefits of having an organization in place; she can just take over the Biden-Harris organization,” while still being relatively fresh to voters. “She can run as not really the incumbent, and as somebody who is known a little bit, but not that well by many Americans.”
Harris may, to an extent, have the best of both worlds: She already has the benefit of being in national leadership positions. She has the Democratic machinery behind her, including Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and she will have access to Biden’s fundraising dollars. But voters haven’t been seeing her campaigning everywhere for months now, which means she’ll seem new.
the shorter campaign cycle may mean less opportunity for errors like the debate performance that ultimately caused Biden to step down. And there will be less time for Trump and the Republican Party to create damaging narratives about Harris that overshadow her policy and performance — provided she creates a narrative about herself first.
11. This campaign is bringing all kinds of folks together
These targeted zooms and associated fundraising have given me life. This is a campaign for EVERYONE and we are seeing it!
Legendary activist Kimberlé Crenshaw on why those white people Zooms give her hope
When word of massive, star-studded Zoom fundraisers for white Kamala Harris supporters spread across the internet, it certainly raised eyebrows.
Fundraisers from groups like Win With Black Women and South Asian Women for Harris were perhaps to be expected, since Harris is a biracial Black and South Asian woman. A fundraiser for Win With Black Men was equally intuitive. But fundraisers just for white people?
The fundraisers were massively successful. White Women: Answer the Call, which featured celebrities like Connie Britton, P!nk, and Megan Rapinoe among its more than 160,000 attendees, raised $11 million for the Harris campaign last week and sent 30,000 volunteers to Women for Harris. White Dudes for Kamala, which saw appearances from Jeff Bridges, Mark Hamill, and Pete Buttigieg, raised $4 million after the call on Monday.
“The idea was: How do we use our platform and our privilege to do the same thing Black women and men had done on their calls?” Shannon Watts, the organizer of the call and a prominent gun violence prevention activist, explained in an interview with The Cut. She added, “It was more like a reckoning than a rally.”
12. The former guy looks old and out of it by comparison
It is one thing to run against someone four years older, but running against a vibrant woman? Trump looks like shit. And that matters.
Suddenly Trump Looks Older and More Deranged
"On Thursday evening, this performance seemed deranged, sinister, and frightening. Now, following Biden’s decision to halt his own campaign, it just looks deranged. On the one hand, we have a sitting president who understood his limitations and, in an act of patriotism, selflessness, and party unity, decided to step away from power. On the other hand, we have a former president clinging to power, holding on desperately to the myth of a lost election, evoking the same predictable descriptions of carnage and disaster he served up eight years ago. Today, he is still attacking Biden, who is no longer his opponent," writes Anne Applebaum
Four days after the end of the Republican National Convention, it suddenly looks like a very different event. I watched it intermittently, on television, along with perhaps 25 million other Americans (a relatively small number, though enough to matter). I focused on the highlights, like most viewers did. I read the analysis and thought I understood what had happened. But in the light of President Joe Biden’s brave and unprecedented decision to drop out of the race, my memory of what Donald Trump and his party were doing and saying has permanently shifted. I suspect this will be true for at least some of the other 25 million of us too.
Whatever happens next, the frame has altered. Now it is the Republicans who are saddled with the elderly candidate, the one who can’t make a clear argument or finish a sentence without veering off into anecdote. Now the Democrats are instead proposing something new. Now it is the many pundits who were already bored by the race and ready to wrap it up who look foolish.
Remember, if you still can: The Republican convention was a carefully curated, meticulously planned presentation. As my colleague Tim Alberta has said, the theme was “strength.” Strength was expressed by exaggerated, absurd, comic-book figures: Hulk Hogan, Kid Rock. The latter chanted “Fight, fight!” and “Trump, Trump!” while pumping his fist. Then he sang “American Bad Ass,” an unlistenable work of profound dissonance. Trump himself walked into the convention hall to the strains of James Brown’s famously misogynistic anthem “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.”
14. Trump’s campaign is stuck with… trump
For about 5 seconds they kept him from being publicly unhinged. But he is trump. And racist assholes are going to racist asshole.
You’d almost feel bad for the people trying to help him EXCEPT they are people who would try to help trump, so……..
Trump’s ‘disciplined’ campaign is unraveling
For the last year, we’ve been hearing about the “disciplined,” “competent” and “professional” campaign Donald Trump is running. After his chaotic 2016 and 2020 campaigns, he brought in longtime Republican operatives Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita to lead a “low-drama” operation.
Well, the cat lady is out of the bag.
The trauma caused by the broadly panned choice of Sen. JD Vance as a running mate, combined with President Biden’s withdrawal from the race and the massive outpouring of support for Vice President Harris, have had a terrible effect on Trump: They have caused him to revert to being himself.
Discipline has broken down, and the out-of-control Trump — suppressed in recent months with varying degrees of success — is back on full display.
Trump's Disastrous Interview Shows He's Afraid of Kamala Harris
One of the abiding narratives of the 2024 campaign is that Donald Trump is a remarkably better candidate than in his 2016 and 2020 runs. Barrels of digital ink have been spilled in recent months, hailing the new, more “disciplined” and “strategic” Trump.
Sure, there is a modicum of truth to this narrative. Trump staying off Twitter to prop up his Ponzi scheme/social media allowed him to hide his most insane utterances from the broader public. Trump still says weird, creepy things like praising famous, fictional cannibals like Hannibal Lecter. However, he mostly avoids self-immolation. Nothing focuses the mind like the possibility of prison.
The myth of the newer, more disciplined Trump came to an end yesterday when he lost his marbles on stage during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference.
During the interview, Trump was hostile and incoherent. He lied and rambled. The interview went so poorly that his campaign ended the interview early, something that rarely happens at an in-person event.
While the whole New Trump thing is way overstated, it’s been a very long time since he has imploded in public like he did yesterday. Trump lost his shit for one reason — he’s scared of Kamala Harris.
Trump and his allies had a plan for how to hit Harris. Then he opened his mouth.
Scrambling to put an end to Kamala Harris’ ascent, Donald Trump’s campaign and outside allies came up with a plan: Hit her on immigration, her record as a “liberal prosecutor” and as a “radical.”
It didn’t last long.
During a 34-minute question-and-answer appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists, Trump questioned Harris’ Black identity. He said he would pardon violent Jan. 6 rioters, and he didn’t directly answer when asked if his vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, would be ready to assume the presidency.
The exchanges overshadowed the attacks his political operation has made against Harris in recent days, while Trump still seems to be searching for an effective message to damage her.
“They don’t have a narrative that they’re comfortable with about how to take down Harris,” said Chuck Coughlin, an Arizona-based political strategist. “He’s grasping around. I think he’s desperately grasping around with his instincts. I don’t think his team has any way to put their handle on this, and so he’s instinctually grasping around for what to say.”
15. They can’t land anything on Harris
they keep trying new things but nothing is working.
Donald Trump Is Flailing
It’s been 11 days since Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 election and endorsed his Vice President, Kamala Harris, for president. Perhaps the most striking development since then is not how well Harris has united the Democratic Party but rather how poorly Trump has responded to the switch.
The Trump campaign has veered from attack line to attack line and failed to develop a consistent anti-Harris message. Is she four more years of Biden’s allegedly disastrous economy? Is she the “border czar” who is responsible for the supposed influx of undocumented immigrants into the country? Is she a “DEI hire,” “San Francisco Democrat,” or “radical liberal” out of touch with ordinary Americans? So far, Republicans have trotted our various iterations of all three arguments in what has been a collective party flail since Harris’s virtual coronation as the Democratic standard bearer. With less than three weeks until the Democratic National Convention — and momentum on Harris’s side — there is an increasing odor of desperation emanating from the Trump campaign.
The trouble for Republicans is that Harris will almost certainly get a boost from the DNC, but more than anything else, she can use the four-day event to define herself and her campaign. Once that happens, it becomes more difficult for Republicans to cast her in a different and more negative light.
16. Vance
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣… enough said.
The Trump-Vance campaign would be great if not for Trump and Vance
Like so many wares branded with Donald Trump’s name, his 2024 campaign is a shoddy product in glossy packaging.
In recent days, Trump and his running mate have made it clear that their campaign is trying to sell a similarly defective product. Their handlers can try to present them as center-right populists who will get tough on immigration, while protecting entitlements and leaving abortion to the states. But let them speak unscripted for long enough, and the weird and hateful nature of their worldviews will shine through.
Inside the GOP meltdown over JD Vance: 'Unforced errors'
Sen. JD Vance has been dragging down the Republican presidential ticket since Donald Trump tapped him as his running mate, and it’s getting so bad for team GOP that some Republicans are speculating that Trump may dump Vance. However, it isn’t that easy: Vance would have to choose to leave the ticket.
That scenario would be lose-lose for Trump and Vance. The former would have to admit he made a colossal mistake, and the latter would end up on the damaged-goods table, with a dim political future after he’d been labeled too weird for this Republican Party.
But that hasn’t stopped congressional Republicans—who need a strong top of ticket to keep the House and take the Senate—from talking about the mistake Trump made.
“Some Republicans express buyer's remorse over Vance VP pick,” Axios reported last week. An anonymous House Republican told the outlet that the “road got a lot harder. He was the only pick that wasn't the safe pick. And I think everyone has now realized that."
"On the whole, the feeling is: doesn't add much," another House Republican said. "And now with Kamala at the top, the capacity to have expanded the map a little bit ... would have been much more beneficial."
17. trump is panicking. And its lovely
Trump Loses It Over Devastating Fox News Poll on Kamala Harris
Former President Donald Trump shared a slew of videos online attacking Vice President Kamala Harris, after a favorability poll aired on Fox News found she was leading him in a few key swing states.
The new poll, conducted July 22–24 and released Sunday, found that Harris’s approval rating had surpassed Trump’s in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota.*
Many online predicted that Trump would be incensed over the results. “The ketchup is going to hit the wall in Mar-a-Lago after this new Fox News poll,” remarked former Clinton White House aide Keith Boykin on X (formerly Twitter).
Within hours, Trump posted five separate videos on Truth Social
Trump was ‘trying to show strength’ in Chicago. He stepped on his campaign’s own talking points instead.
Susie Wiles, a top adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign, told surrogates on Wednesday morning that hammering their latest talking points — hitting Kamala Harris as “weak, failed, and dangerously liberal” — would be their messaging priority until advised otherwise.
Trump’s upcoming appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago came up only briefly, said a person with knowledge of the discussion.
Hours later their messaging plan was in disarray, with Trump’s remarks in Chicago questioning Harris’s racial identity — “She happened to turn Black,” he said — jolting the race and upending the news cycle.
It was perhaps the most vivid illustration yet of how, for all of its sophistication compared to Trump’s 2016 and 2020 operations, even a more professionalized Trump campaign is no match for the impulses of the candidate himself.
After scrambling since Harris entered the race to find a way to stop her climb, the Trump operation before Wednesday had settled on a policy-focused attack centered on immigration.
Trump stepped all over it.
Trump Just Had His Worst Week—Ever
IT MUST BE HARD TO TRANSITION from martyr anointed by God and positioned to win in a blowout to jealous old whiner grumbling about the misunderstood relevance of Hannibal Lecter.
Life came at Donald Trump fast when Sleepy Joe Biden took his name off the Democratic ticket and endorsed Kamala Harris last week.
Within days, the vice president had captivated the nation, united her party, upended the campaign, raised record sums, tied up the race in polling, and seen a bounce in her favorability ratings.
In the same stretch of time Trump had backed out of a debate, watched JD Vance become a meme, fielded concerns about what a failure it was to pick Vance, and seen his own approval rating erode under Harris’s attacks.
Even his main man, Elon Musk, piled on—suddenly denying he had committed to spending $45 million per month supporting Trump’s campaign.
These are the worst days Trump has had in his nearly a decade in politics. Getting indicted was nothing. Getting convicted was merely a speed bump. His 2020 electoral defeat and January 6th became opportunities to build his loyal base of the deceived and aggrieved. One could argue that Trump suffered a worse week in early October 2016 when the leaked Access Hollywood tape revealed he relished grabbing women “by the p—sy” and many in his party abandoned him in horror just weeks before the election. But back in 2016, Trump wasn’t trying to stay out of jail. A loss back then was going to get him a sweet perch on Fox & Friends to bash a President Hillary Clinton daily, and it might have even helped him land the Trump Tower Moscow deal he wanted so badly.
Ten days ago Trump thought he couldn’t lose. Yet new voter registration, donations, polling, and volunteer signups show Harris has been met with enthusiasm among young, black, Latino and independent voters.
Trump has been robbed of his mojo. Infuriated, he gripes nonsensically about wanting a refund for all the money he spent campaigning against Biden. He isn’t the messiah he thought he was two weeks ago, he is just the same man-baby he always was. And now he’s running against a black woman. He might lose to a black woman.
It’s very unfair.
18. We have the funniest people on our side
Roy Wood Jr. Sets Off Hilarious #WhenITurnedBlack Trend to Mock Trump
Former Comedy Central star Roy Wood Jr. is spinning Donald Trump’s latest nonsensical dog whistle towards Vice President Kamala Harris into a creative clap back for Black Americans.
“We now know Kamala’s brave story. When did the rest of you “turn” black? How old were you? Where were you when the blackness finally took over your body? Share your stories. This is a safe space.”
Some users claimed they finally “turned Black” once they mastered the card game Spades.
Others made the transformation after putting dinner leftovers away in recycled grocery tubs.
Some “turned Black” because they instantly knew that any request to spend money outside the house would be answered with, “Do you have money for that?”
Other’s think their Blackness was fully realized once they came to terms with Church being an all day event.
When you realize there’s a valid reason why you can’t invite just anyone to the cookout.
19. Trump’s attacks haven’t changed since 2016.
Trump has the same tricks. But we now know how to fight them,
It didn’t take long for former President Donald Trump to return to his well-worn playbook of resorting to attacks based on race and gender — familiar tactics he has used against political rivals, including in his 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton.
But it’s not 2016 anymore, and Democrats assert that the lessons learned from Trump’s campaign eight years ago guide their strategy now: Respond aggressively, use his attacks to bolster the campaign’s message and don’t let them distract from the issues.
20. We are getting in his head
Donald Trump: Stop Calling Me and J.D. Vance ‘Weird’
In a sign that his campaign isn’t all going to plan, Donald Trump had to assure voters during a podcast appearance that he and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, are “not weird people.”
That cutting piece of messaging by Democrats has been in full force for the past week or so on social media, in cable news interviews, and in stump speeches. Vice President Kamala Harris, for instance, described Trump as “just plain weird” at an Atlanta rally on Tuesday. She had similarly described the GOP ticket as “weird” at a Pittsfield, Massachusetts, fundraiser on July 27.
Trump, in perhaps his most insistent defense yet, said at least four times in the next minute that Democrats are weird.
“Well, they’re the weird ones,” he said, before once again criticizing Harris’ laugh. “That’s a weird deal going on there. They’re the weird ones. Nobody’s ever called me weird. I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not. And I’m upfront. And he’s not either, I will tell you. J.D. is not at all. They are.
21. He is showing people who he is
the trump amnesia was a real thing — people were supporting him because they forgot how awful he was. Lucky for us, he can’t help himself from reminding everyone.
Speaking to Black journalists, Trump reminded everyone how racist he can be
Instead of using the interview to present a positive case for the audiences that a roomful of Black journalists cover and inform, he immediately slid into the vindictive, petty, and confrontational persona that first shocked many Americans during the 2016 campaign, came to dominate daily life during Trump’s presidency, and which many Americans may have forgotten about since.
22. The rats are leaving the ship
Kyle Rittenhouse Isn’t Voting for Donald Trump: ‘We Need Champions’
Kyle Rittenhouse, who became a darling of the right after he fatally shot protesters in 2020, says he’s not going to vote for Donald Trump. “A lot of people are upset that I said I’m going to be writing in Ron Paul for president of the United States, and that is true, I will be writing in Ron Paul,” the 21-year-old said in a clip posted on X hours after sharing a picture of him posing alongside the former Texas congressman. “Unfortunately, Donald Trump had bad advisers, making him bad on the Second Amendment, and that is my issue,” Rittenhouse explained. “If you cannot be completely uncompromisable on the Second Amendment, I will not vote for you, and I will write somebody else in. We need champions for the Second Amendment or our rights would be eaten away and eroded each day.” Rittenhouse shot three protesters—two of whom died—in Kenosha, Wisconsin, four years ago, and was later acquitted of criminal charges connected to the bloodshed. Trump invited Rittenhouse to Mar-a-Lago after the trial, describing him as a “nice young man” and a “fan” of Trump.
23.We still have great days ahead!
The announcement of the VP! And most important, the convention! Those are things that will be energy and a boost! The Rs? Nothing.
24. Biden and Harris continue to be Amazing
Biden did more than any president for clean energy
At Canary Media, Jeff St. John and Dan McCarthy wrote a tribute to Biden the day after he announced he was no longer running for reelection:
No other U.S. president has accomplished as much to shift federal policy in support of cutting greenhouse gas emissions — and Biden has done so in a way that is bringing the production of key clean energy technologies to the U.S. and revitalizing the country’s struggling manufacturing sector.
The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in a party-line vote in 2022, is the most important climate legislation in U.S. history, directing what could add up to more than $1 trillion in federal tax credits and tens of billions of dollars of grants and incentives to manufacture and deploy everything from solar and wind power to industrial decarbonization technologies. [...]
This law alone has delivered swift and staggering results. More than $100 billion of private investment has been committed to building U.S.-based factories that make everything from solar panels to EV batteries. Over 90,000 jobs have been created in the process, most in Republican-led states. Clean energy installations have surged to record highs. Power sector emissions are showing signs of decline. [...]
In addition, the Biden administration has married social justice with its clean energy and infrastructure policies through its Justice40 Initiative, which requires that at least 40 percent of the benefits from these federal clean energy investments go to disadvantaged communities overburdened by pollution. Tens of billions of dollars are flowing to these communities to make solar panels more affordable, improve energy efficiency, and remediate the environmental harms of industrial and fossil fuel pollution.
In addition, under Biden, the Environmental Protection Agency has tightened restrictions on methane emissions from oil and gas operations, imposed a rule to slash emissions from power plants by the mid-2030s, and set stronger vehicle emissions standards. The administration has set limits on how much new drilling can occur on public land.
And freeing the prisoners!
This deal was in the works during the weeks when the press was hounding the president and suggesting he was not fit to do the work of the office. In fact, a senior administration official briefing reporters this morning pointed out that on July 20, an hour before he announced to the nation that he would not accept the Democratic nomination for president, Biden “was on the phone with his Slovenian counterpart, urging them to make the final arrangements and to get this deal over the finish line.”
Also in the swap were seven Russian citizens who had been detained as political prisoners, four of whom worked with Alexei Navalny, the political opposition leader who died in February in a Russian prison. They have left Russia and will make their way to other countries. It is extraordinary that the U.S. government managed to force Putin to release his own citizens, and Biden called it out. “It says a lot about the United States that we work relentlessly to free Americans who are unjustly held around the world,” he said. “It also says a lot about us that this deal includes the release of Russian political prisoners. They stood up for democracy and human rights. Their own leaders threw them in prison. The United States helped secure their release as well. That’s who we are in the United States.
“We stand for freedom, for liberty, for justice—not only for our own people but for others as well. And that’s why all Americans can take pride in what we’ve achieved today.”
Asking Germany to release Krasikov was a big ask, but the government was willing to exchange him for Navalny. After Navalny’s death, it seemed likely the deal could not be revived. But Sullivan believed he saw a way forward, and Biden called German chancellor Olaf Scholz and asked him to continue to move forward. “For you, I will do this,” Scholz said. The president told Sullivan to get it done. In April President Biden sent a formal request to Scholz asking him to make the complicated swap that transpired today. When a reporter today asked Biden what Scholz had demanded in return, Biden answered: “Nothing.”
In his remarks today, Biden emphasized that the deal was “a feat of diplomacy and friendship—friendship. Multiple countries helped get this done. They joined difficult, complex negotiations at my request. And I personally thank them all again. And I’ve thanked them personally, and I’ll thank them again.”
“This deal would not have been made possible without our allies Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Turkey. They all stepped up, and they stood with us. They stood with us, and they made bold and brave decisions, released prisoners being held in their countries who were justifiably being held, and provided logistical support to get the Americans home. So, for anyone who questions whether allies matter, they do. They matter.
“And today is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world—friends you can trust, work with, and depend upon, especially on matters of great consequence and sensitivity like this.
“Our alliances make our people safer.”
Sullivan was clear about where specific praise was due. “Today’s exchange is a feat of diplomacy that honestly could only be achieved by a leader like Joe Biden,” he said at a press conference this afternoon.” He directed the team and was personally engaged in the diplomacy necessary. “There is no more singular or concrete demonstration that the alliances that the president has reinvigorated around the world matter to Americans—to the individual safety of Americans and to the collective security of Americans,” Sullivan said. “And honestly, guys, I can just say this was vintage Joe Biden, rallying…American allies to save American citizens and Russian freedom fighters and doing it with intricate statecraft, pulling his whole team together to drive this across the finish line.”
Tearing up, Sullivan added, “Today…was a very good day.”
25. Even Putin Seems to Have Abandoned Trump
delicious
But the deal does suggest that Putin might be finding it in his own interest to look like he might be willing to negotiate on different issues going forward, a reflection of the damage the Ukraine war has inflicted on his own society. Russia has recently pulled its ships from the Sea of Azov, Russian mercenaries just suffered big losses in Mali, and today, Russian media reported that the country’s largest oil refinery was on fire. Putin might also be seeing that Trump’s path to the White House has gotten dramatically steeper in the past couple of weeks.
*
Indeed, Putin’s decision to go ahead with the swap was a blow to Trump.
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Gershkovich was a Wall Street Journal reporter when he was taken into custody in March 2023, and the Wall Street Journal covered the negotiations in quite some depth today. Reporters Joe Parkinson, Drew Hinshaw, Bojan Pancevski, and Aruna Viswanatha noted that Trump got wind that a deal was coming together and began to insist at his rallies and in interviews that Putin would free Gershkovich only for him.
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Putin has proven Trump wrong.
Other good news
Brown holds 4-point lead over GOP opponent in new Ohio poll
Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown holds a 4-point lead over his GOP opponent in Ohio, according to a new poll out Thursday morning.
Kansas Court Temporarily Blocks Voter Suppression Law
Pro-voter organizations were issued a win today after a Kansas court temporarily blocked a law that sought to criminalize some voter registration activities.
House Bill 2183’s false representation provision makes it a felony for an individual to knowingly “[r]epresent oneself as an election official” or “engage in conduct that gives the appearance of being an election official.”
Voting rights groups alleged that this so-called “false representation provision” is overly vague and poses undue risks to civic organizations, which often engage in voter registration activities that overlap with actions undertaken by election officials. In May, the Kansas Supreme Court held that the law likely violates the state constitution and sent the case back down to a trial court for further proceedings.
With today’s decision, the law will remain blocked until the court reaches a final decision on the legality of the provision.
DOJ Secures Spanish Language Voting Assistance in Rhode Island
After the U.S. Department of Justice entered an agreement in May with Pawtucket, Rhode Island to provide increased Spanish-language assistance for voting, a court has officially signed off on the agreement as of July 30.
Chuck Schumer’s ambitious plan to take the Supreme Court down a peg
Now Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) plans to introduce legislation that seeks to neutralize it.
The bill, known as the “No Kings Act,” has 29 co-sponsors, all of whom are members of the Democratic caucus.
Schumer’s bill relies on a rarely used congressional power to shrink the Court’s authority to hear certain appeals. The idea is to prevent the Supreme Court from enforcing its Trump immunity decision by removing the Court’s jurisdiction over presidential prosecutions.
The bill also declares that presidents, vice presidents, and former presidents and vice presidents “shall not be entitled to any form of immunity … from criminal prosecution for alleged violations of the criminal laws of the United States unless specified by Congress.”
On the Lighter Side
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![Text of Meme: "Voting isn’t marriage. It’s public transport. You’re not waiting for 'the one' who’s absolutely perfect; you’re getting the bus, and if there isn’t one to your destination, you don’t not travel — you take the one going closest." Debbie B. Moon Source: https://medium.com/@vickipps/voting-isnt-marriage-it-s-public-transport-b7630e6b210a](https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1062901/large/image.png?1650988509 "Text of Meme: "Voting isn’t marriage. It’s public transport. You’re not waiting for 'the one' who’s absolutely perfect; you’re getting the bus, and if there isn’t one to your destination, you don’t not travel — you take the one going closest." Debbie B. Moon Source: https://medium.com/@vickipps/voting-isnt-marriage-it-s-public-transport-b7630e6b210a")
