SUPPORTING
ITEM: Please become a voluntary paying subscriber or contributor to support this newsletter’s daily publication.
What that loudmouth will say on your morning August Zoom: I really should do this for Halperin today.
What you should say on your morning August Zoom: Everybody! Stop what you are doing and kick in!
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Thanks!
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PASSING
ITEM:
What that loudmouth will say on your morning August Zoom: Voters won’t feel any impact of this legislation before the midterms.
What you should say on your morning August Zoom: Politics is like shooting free throws – confidence, momentum, and attitude matter a lot.
“There is a clear momentum change,” said Senator Gary Peters, Democrat of Michigan and the head of the party’s Senate campaign arm. “I feel like we are in a really good place. Here we are going into August coming into Labor Day, and you look at where the numbers are, and our candidates are all doing really well in a tough environment.” (New York Times)
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FRAMING
ITEM: Take a look at the lead stories on the websites of battleground state newspapers:
And even Delaware’s top newspaper:
What that loudmouth will say on your morning August Zoom: Has anybody actually read what’s in this thing? I’m interested in the substance but the politics of it all is like crack (or Rice Krispies Treats…) to me.
What you should say on your morning August Zoom: Republicans will make some killer negative ads about taxes and out-of-control IRS agents, but this bill before November will be neither as popular as Democrats hope it will be nor as toxic as Republicans claim it will be with voters. Political reporters should not be the ones taking the lead on covering massive spending bills. Ever.
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SCRUTINIZING
ITEM: Get ready for 1,001 Wall Street Journal editorials and op-ed pieces and 2,001 congressional Republican tweets, ads, and press releases trying to destroy an already-passed piece of legislation.
What that loudmouth will say on your morning August Zoom: If Mitt Romney and Jim Jordan agree, how can the party lose/survive?
What you should ask on your morning August Zoom: Will Democrats sell this with waves and waves of storytelling featuring the real lives of real Americans who will be helped by this giant package – or simply claim it will be good, as featured via a bunch of politicians patting each other on the backs?
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KVELLING
ITEM:
Mr. Schumer, who unlike his predecessors is not known as a master tactician or gifted legislator, has struggled to produce for long stretches, needing every single vote from an ideologically mixed Democratic membership. Even his allies wondered whether he was too driven by a need to be liked or his own personal political considerations in warding off a potential primary challenge from his left to be capable of the kind of ruthlessness that would be needed.
What that loudmouth will say on your morning August Zoom: Carl Hulse sure knows how to hurt a guy.
What you should say on your morning August Zoom: As always, Chuck knows how to frame his own narrative better than any reporter:
“I’ve been a worrier all my life, but a happy worrier,” said Mr. Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader.
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DEALING
ITEM:
Negotiations between Iran and the U.S. on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal are close to completion, the European Union’s senior negotiator at the talks said Sunday evening, but it remained unclear whether Tehran will accept the final deal.
The text of an agreement could be closed in coming hours, said the EU’s Enrique Mora, the coordinator of the talks. However, Iran must still decide whether to set aside its demand that the nuclear deal can only be revived if a multiyear United Nations atomic agency probe into its nuclear program is closed.
What that loudmouth will ask on your morning August Zoom: Is this really happening?
What you should say on your morning August Zoom: If Mitt Romney and Jim Jordan agree, how can this deal lose/survive?
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FACE-OFFING
ITEM:
Congressional Republicans tout former President Donald Trump’s success in cutting taxes and transforming the Supreme Court, and cheer his America First approach to foreign affairs and ability to motivate Republican voters.
But as Mr. Trump weighs a new campaign for the White House in 2024, many GOP lawmakers aren’t ready to throw their support behind him. In interviews with nearly three dozen Republican lawmakers who were asked whether Mr. Trump should run, many deflected the question, saying that Mr. Trump’s decision is up to him without endorsing the idea….
The mixed feelings about a Trump run come as both parties are struggling with the best path forward. President Biden has said he plans to run for re-election, but in the face of lukewarm support in his party, some Democratic lawmakers have said they wish he wouldn’t. Republicans face a different dilemma: Mr. Trump has enthusiastic backing among many conservative voters, but turns off many others, and the party wants to avoid a replay of the 2020 loss of the White House and Senate. Mr. Trump often tries to punish his critics, further muddling the GOP picture….
“Unsolicited, what I hear every single day, from every single supporter at every single event, is, ‘We like Trump; he should really step aside,’” said one House Republican who doesn’t want Mr. Trump to run. “Most people probably also believe he’s the one candidate that could lose.”
Rep. Clay Higgins (R., La.), who didn’t say whether Mr. Trump should run, criticized Republicans who have been outspoken opponents of Mr. Trump. He said they would have a change of heart if he won the 2024 GOP presidential primary and then the presidency, much as many shifted their stance in 2016.
“If Trump decides to run, he is the nominee and he wins,” Mr. Higgins said. “There’ll be some Republicans who won’t like it. But watch. They’ll get real quiet.”
What that loudmouth will say on your morning August Zoom: I’m sure if Trump’s Senate candidates lose in the general, he will show the humility and judgment not to seek another White House term.
What you should say on your morning August Zoom: There’s a Democratic school of thought that says that Biden should only run if Trump is going to be the Republican nominee; there’s a Republican school of thought that says that Trump is the only Republican nominee who could lose the 2024 race; there’s a Democratic school of thought that says that Kamala Harris is the inevitable Democratic nominee if Biden doesn’t run; there’s a Republican school of thought that says that Ron DeSantis is the inevitable Republican nominee if Trump doesn’t run; none of these schools are obviously correct – and some are wrong!
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INVESTIGATING
ITEM:
CNN:
Personal cell phone numbers of US Secret Service agents have been provided to oversight bodies looking into the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
What that loudmouth will ask on your morning August Zoom: What is up with this thing?
What you should say on your morning August Zoom: One of the ten biggest stories in Washington is how the FBI has protected the Bidens and the Secret Service has protected the Trumps – or maybe that is TWO stories….
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ADAMSING
ITEM:
From Cindy Adams’ latest column:
Tony Bennett turned 96. Robert De Niro texted, sent videos and told him “I love you.” Stevie Wonder sent birthday stuff and said his favorite song’s “If I Ruled the World.”
What that loudmouth will say on your morning August Zoom: I can’t believe any of those cats still has lives left.
What you should say on your morning August Zoom: Only in Wide World of News, kiddos, only in Wide World of News.