SATURDAY MARQUEE MATCHUPS
Alabama vs. Georgia
2. Harris vs. Trump
A day after Vice President Kamala Harris discussed immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, former President Donald Trump is expected to respond by again linking her to illegal border crossings at an event in a western Wisconsin river town.
Trump heads Saturday to Prairie du Chien, a town of about 5,000 people just across the Mississippi River from Iowa, for a campaign event focused on immigration. He is expected to highlight the local case of a Venezuelan national accused of sexually assaulting a woman and attacking her daughter in an alleged domestic dispute.
Lichtman vs. Silver
SATURDAY MARQUEE NEWS
1.
2. Harris border speech aftermath
Loved by:
On her first trip to the southern border as the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered one of her party’s toughest speeches on immigration and border policy in a generation. Even as she did, she tried to paint former President Donald J. Trump as a feckless chaos agent without the ability to deliver the hard-line results he has promised.
B. Arizona’s biggest newspaper:
C. Democrats who think the box of being tough on the border was checked.
Not loved by:
A. The Border Patrol Union:
B. Paul Gigot
C. Team Trump:
3. The Dame:
SATURDAY TRUMP-VANCE MISHEGAS
1. New York Times on Trump in Michigan Friday, brilliantly listenining:
And at one point, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he has made some of his immigration claims — including his continued insistence that other countries are deliberately sending prisoners and the mentally ill across the southern border — without evidence, then maintained that he had not needed it anyway.
“They’re dumping them in our country, and I never had proof,” Mr. Trump told hundreds of people at a manufacturer in Walker. He added, “You know why? It’s common sense….”
And as he was talking about his proposed tax cuts, he stopped briefly to acknowledge people leaving his event before he was finished, falsely insisting that people do not leave his rallies early and that “when they do, I finish up quick.”
At their debate, Ms. Harris rankled Mr. Trump when she suggested people were leaving his events early because they were bored and exhausted. On Friday, Mr. Trump told the crowd that those leaving early were headed backstage to take photos. Some of them likely were doing so, but the crowd behind the press riser had already thinned out well before he made that remark.
Warren, Michigan town hall:
2. The Washington Post got some JD Vance Twitter DMs he sent to an unnamed interlocutor, in which Vance criticized Trump in 2020 and predicted he would lose the election to Joe Biden – a story the New York Times picked up and paired with some past statements about Vance and car seats and birthrates.
3. The Wall Street Journal speculates about a Trump Justice Department, with Attorney General names floated and possible policy positions perused.
SATURDAY HARRIS ADJUSTMENTS
1. New York Times:
The Biden administration on Friday announced that next year older Americans would face lower average monthly premiums for their prescription drugs, a feat achieved by pouring billions of dollars into subsidies for insurers. The move avoided a potential minefield of higher costs affecting the nation’s most stalwart voters weeks before the presidential election.
In a savvy response to the specter of huge spikes in costs, administration officials decided months ago to funnel money from a Medicare trust fund to offset rate increases that could have cost millions of people hundreds of dollars more a year.
Premiums would have gone up largely because of a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket spending, and other changes to Medicare under President Biden’s signature legislative accomplishment, the Inflation Reduction Act.
Higher premiums could have been politically damaging to the presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, and threatened one of the Biden-Harris administration’s most important talking points — its success in lowering patients’ drug costs.
SATURDAY BATTLEGROUND STATES
1.
2. Associated Press:
North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson received burns Friday night while attending a truck show as he was campaigning for governor, his campaign said.
Robinson was making an appearance at the Mayberry Truck Show in Mount Airy when he was injured, campaign spokesperson Mike Lonergan said in a statement.
Robinson was treated at Northern Regional Hospital in Mount Airy for second-degree burns, he added.
“He is in good spirits, appreciates the outpouring of well wishes, and is excited to return to the campaign trail as scheduled first thing” Saturday morning, Lonergan said.
Lonergan didn’t immediately respond to texts seeking details on how and where the burns occured. Robinson had made campaign stops starting Friday morning with Moore County Republicans. He has four stops scheduled for Saturday.
3. A Wall Street Journal ed board member went to recent Harris and Trump events in Pennsylvania and came away with both an essential reading op-ed piece and no idea who will win the Keystone State’s electoral votes.
So: Harris won the news cycle.
Or: Maybe Trump did.
To be continued…..
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2028
