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Welcome to Saturday, a/k/a another day along the way as we wait for the Tuesday debt ceiling confab at the White House and the Wednesday Trump town hall in New Hampshire on CNN.
Those events could be seismic or incremental – it’s exciting to think about what might be!
The question I get asked most often about the debt ceiling meeting is, “Will Team Biden change its posture before the get together to drop its absolute resistance to negotiations?”
My answer: I think the president probably will have a moderately fresh stance by Tuesday, but the White House is mostly going with a Journey point of view still. The administration won’t stop believing that Speaker McCarthy will fold at the last minute and accept a clean lift.
Spurring on the status quo Biden position on Friday: The new rosy employment figures and the ABC News/Washington Post poll, both of which encouraged the stand-pat crew around the president to continue to apply pressure to Not-Their Kevin, to stay with a posture of fighter over lover.
On the Trump town hall, the question I hear most frequently is, “How will Trump handle it?”
My answer: It depends somewhat on the questions from both the moderator and the audience, which depends on CNN, not Trump, of course. But my hunch is he will try to repeat back the names of the questioners with feel-your-pain humanity, as well as talk a lot about the future and a lot about Joe Biden. And not act cranky (except when provoked….).
But that is all speculation!
To fill the time between now and next week, I recommend watching the NBA playoffs, which are more exciting and intense than you can imagine.
Also, you might not know this, but we are in the midst of quite a Ron DeSantis news cycle.
In other words, here comes the beginning of the start of the front end of the intrigue. Read closely below. Some of the items will obviously connect to the Sunshine State topper; for others, the tie to him might seem more tenuous, but a close focus will make it all crystal clear.
1. Lots of money from all sorts of mysterious and new sources and outfits will be spent in small increments to probe for Trump’s vulnerabilities, like this:
#hmmmmmmmm
2. Liz Cheney will be doing interesting things, such as this:
#hmmmmmmm
3. Vivek Ramaswamy will be one of many candidates who will try to rip the bark off of Ron DeSantis, which Donald Trump appreciates, truly and bigly:
4. Until DeSantis “proves” he can beat Trump and/or until any of the others prove they can beat both DeSantis and Trump, the Establishment will float various names of saviors – which will have the unintended, paradoxical, and ironic effect of diminishing both DeSantis and the members of the field who might become the Third Man or Woman and, thus, increase Trump’s chances of being the nominee.
Also: Brian Kemp is likely not going to run – and, if he does, he would not likely be the white knight in shining armor the encouragers think he would be.
#EveryoneIsWesClarkAndFredThompson
5. ABC News says Team DeSantis is already doing debate prep, “paying close attention to how to help manage the governor's facial reactions,” and this:
"Ron always had a problem with letting attacks get to him and getting visibly shaken by them," one former adviser, who was previously involved in debate prep with DeSantis, told ABC News. "Not sure how that would play with Trump standing across from him."
6. This Washington Post story about how the governor has used the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for various seemingly political purposes is interesting and important as we game out the future. Note the unusual on-the-record quotes from former government officials who are critics of DeSantis, which is not common for any governor let alone one who rules with a pair of iron fists. Watch as the investigative reporting steps up in the coming weeks and months and you can bet you are going to see more of this. DeSantis is likely to have a reap/sow problem because, the word on the street is, he has treated many state and local officials no better than he treats his donors.
7. DeSantis actually did interviews with Hugh Hewitt and John Bachman on Friday:
8. If it’s Saturday night, it must be Wisconsin.
Here’s the New York Times on the event:
The Saturday event for Mr. DeSantis, an evening fund-raiser for the Republican Party of Marathon County where he will speak about his memoir, is sold out with more than 560 attendees, according to organizers.
“It’s not just Marathon County,” said Kevin Hermening, the county party’s chairman. “We have people traveling in from Chicago, Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee and Green Bay,” he said. “There is a real interest in listening to somebody who represents the next generation of conservative thought….”
Saturday’s fund-raiser is not a high-dollar affair, allowing Mr. DeSantis to talk directly to his party’s base. Individual tickets cost $75. A table of eight went for $1,000. Representative Tom Tiffany, a Republican who represents the area in Congress and has not made a presidential endorsement, will introduce Mr. DeSantis.
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IN OTHER NEWS
* President Biden’s interview with MSNBC that aired Friday night seems to not have created much new news. The New York Post summary is pretty representative. Given the content and timing, I feel confident in saying that this session won’t change a thing about a thing.
* There’s a lot of news going on with the various Trump legal matters; please check Google News for those developments.
*
* The media has turned against “Ted Lasso,” which I think is about the biggest U.K. story of the day.