President Trump’s job approval doesn’t fluctuate much, but it just hit 42% — its lowest point since January 2018 — in the Civiqs tracking poll.
“It has been 88 years since Kansas last sent a Democrat to the United States Senate — one of only three Democrats ever to represent the state in the upper chamber. But this year, in a challenging and unstable political environment for Republicans, party leaders are growing fearful that this reliably Republican stronghold will instead become an expensive, high-stakes battleground that could determine the balance of power in Washington,” the New York Times reports.
“Ahead of the August primary, Democrats have largely rallied around Barbara Bollier, a retired anesthesiologist who was until recently a Republican. Republicans, meanwhile, are locked in an intraparty competition that has all of the trappings of a full-out brawl: attack ads, bitter recriminations between the candidates and a party chair who tried to intervene and sparked backlash. At the center of the fireworks is Kris W. Kobach, a hard-line Trump supporter who has been an incendiary presence in Kansas politics for years.”
“President Trump is set to resume in-person fundraising events as he tries to jumpstart efforts to boost his White House campaign after a months-long pause on many election activities due to the coronavirus outbreak,” The Hill reports.
“Stuart Stevens, the former chief strategist for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, said Thursday that he has joined the Lincoln Project, a super PAC launched by a group of veteran Republican operatives seeking to defeat President Trump,” the Washington Post reports.
“Republicans planning their party’s convention on Thursday gave North Carolina’s governor a deadline of June 3 to approve safety measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus during the event, planned for Charlotte in August,” the New York Times reports.
“The move came as President Trump pressures Democratic leaders in the state to allow him to hold the kind of convention he wants, and as they cite public health concerns and say it is too soon to make a determination.”
Washington Post: “Trump has been determined, Republicans in contact with him say, to hold a large-scale convention without an audience filled with masked people.”
President Trump called North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) on Friday and insisted on a full Republican convention this summer with no face masks or social distancing, CNN reports.
“Joe Biden is facing growing pressure from activists and party leaders to pick a nonwhite running mate in the wake of explosive incidents involving race and police violence that have stoked widespread outrage,” the Washington Post reports.
“Biden has pledged to select a woman, prompting leading Democrats to publicly and privately promote several high-profile women of color for the job. Those calls have grown louder this week following the death of a black man in police custody in Minneapolis, a racist conflict in a New York City park and the fatal shooting of a black jogger in Georgia.”
Rep. Val Demings (D-FL), writing in the Washington Post: “As a former woman in blue, let me begin with my brothers and sisters in blue: What in the hell are you doing?”
With Amy Klobuchar now eliminated, I feel the choice is down to Warren v. Harris, with Val Demings as a skyrocketing wildcard. A black woman and a cop who shined during impeachment may be the ticket. Biden-Demings. Hmmm.
“I hope people feel safe to go out and vote, but if they don’t, you know, the No. 1 thing — their safety should be No. 1. If they don’t, then don’t go out and vote.” — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R), quoted by the Kansas City Star.
“As of Thursday morning, about 1.3 million registered Democrats had requested and been approved for mail ballots for the June 2 primary election, compared with about 524,000 Republicans. Republicans made just 29% of the requests, even though they represent 38% of registered voters in the state and 45% of those registered with either major party,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Said GOP county chairwoman Lee Snover: “We’re kind of listening to Trump on this. He’s spoken about it. He’s tweeted about it. He doesn’t want us to do it.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) explained on MSNBC why she did not go after numerous police officers who shot civilians when she served as Hennepin County attorney in Minnesota.
Said Klobuchar: “When I was county attorney, cases we had involving officer-involved shootings went to a grand jury. I think that was wrong now. It would have been much better if I took responsibility and looked at cases and made a decision myself.”
She added: “We did not blow off these cases. We brought them to a grand jury, presented the evidence for a potential criminal prosecution, and the grand jury would come back with the decision.”
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) said Friday that he believes it’s not the right time to choose Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) as apparent Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s running mate in light of the developing events in Minnesota following the death of George Floyd, NBC Newsreports.
Said Clyburn: “We’re all victims sometimes of timing and some of us benefit tremendously from timing. This is very tough timing for Amy Klobuchar, who I respect so much.”
Atlanta Journal Constitution: “It was a stunning accusation: Two days before the 2018 election for Georgia governor, Republican Brian Kemp used his power as secretary of state to open an investigation into what he called a “failed hacking attempt” of voter registration systems involving the Democratic Party.”
“But newly released case files from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reveal that there was no such hacking attempt.”
Joe Biden’s campaign “has canceled plans for a fundraiser headlined by Andrew Weissmann, a former top prosecutor with Robert Mueller’s special counsel team who has been a lightning rod among supporters of President Trump,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The June 2 event had been billed as a ‘fireside chat’ with Weissmann, who departed Mueller’s team last year and is working on a book about his role in the probe, and Anne Milgram, a former New Jersey attorney general. The fundraiser was pulled shortly after it was posted late last week, but not before it garnered widespread media attention.”
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