A new Echelon Insights poll finds Joe Biden leading Donald Trump in the presidential race nationally, 53% to 38%.
Trump’s approval rate is 37% to 60%. Democrats lead the generic congressional ballot, 51% to 37%.
A new Public Policy Polling survey finds Mark Kelly (D) leading Sen. Martha McSally (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 51% to 42%.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in North Carolina finds Cal Cunningham (D) leading Sen. Thom Tillis (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 48% to 40%.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Maine finds Sarah Gideon (D) leading Sen. Susan Collins (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 47% to 42%.
New battleground polling provided to Vanity Fair suggests that the Black Lives Matter protests themselves “changed America’s opinions about race so quickly, and so profoundly, that Trump unknowingly planted himself even further on the wrong side of public opinion than previously understood.”
“Avalanche found resounding support for the protests not just among Biden supporters, but among persuadable voters and even soft Trump supporters. The hardcore Vote Trump respondents were against the protests, with 56% opposing them. But among the softer Lean Trump set, an eye-opening 59% said the protesters were ‘completely right’ or ‘somewhat right’—probably not what the president had in mind when he commandeered Lafayette Square. And 72% of Americans with Mixed Feelings about the presidential race—precious undecided voters—said the protesters were right too.”
“But just as remarkable were the shifts among those persuadables in the 10 days between June 1 and June 11, a window that opened with burning cities and Trump’s march to St. John’s Church, but concluded with mostly peaceful demonstrations nationwide. During that period Avalanche found that support for the protests grew 10 points among Mixed Feelings voters, 14 points among Lean Biden voters, and a head-spinning 25 points among Lean Trump voters.”
President Trump is the narrator of the Lincoln Project’s new attack ad.
The ad presents a brutal timeline of his response to the coronavirus pandemic, beginning with his statement on January 22: “We have it totally under control. One person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”
Associated Press: “Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, a Democrat, quietly ordered the Lee statue and busts of generals J.E.B. Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and others removed from the historic Old House Chamber. A moving crew worked through the night Thursday — carefully removing the monuments and their plaques and loading them into a truck and taking them to an undisclosed location.”
“The stealth approach avoids the possibility of protests or a lawsuit to keep the monuments in place, but may prompt criticism that the monuments were moved without public discussion.”
Politico: “Cities across the country are bracing for a surge of evictions as a four-month federal moratorium that has protected millions of tenants from losing their homes in the middle of the pandemic expires Friday at midnight, with no relief in sight from Congress.”
“A slew of progressive challengers upset entrenched incumbents in the New York Legislature in the recent Democratic primary, cementing their movement’s influence in Albany and making it likely that the state government will become one of the most liberal in the nation,” the New York Times reports.
“The results, held up for weeks because of delays caused by the coronavirus outbreak, set up potential clashes between an emboldened Legislature eager to push the priorities of the left and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a moderate Democrat who generally favors a get-it-done philosophy.”
Pew Research: “Republicans and Democrats remain far apart in their views of the public health threat posed by the coronavirus outbreak. More than eight-in-ten Democrats (85%) say the outbreak is a major threat to the health of the U.S. population, compared with 46% of Republicans.”
When the FBI gave candidate Donald Trump his first intelligence briefing in 2016 and warned that foreign agents might try to infiltrate his campaign, Trump asked, “Are the Russians bad?” according to an official summary of the meeting, the HuffPost reports.
“Senior House Republicans are pleading with the deep-pocketed Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign to provide financial help as Democrats vastly outraise the GOP, but top campaign officials are so far declining to commit,” the Washington Post reports.
“While the Trump campaign and the RNC have brought in record amounts of money, some Trump officials see donating to the House as a wasteful investment as the GOP’s chances of reclaiming the majority sharply deteriorate. Their decline in fortunes can largely be attributed to Trump’s sagging support over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the sliding economy.”
“He insisted that it was safe, that people could go back to work, that schools could reopen, that he could hold packed indoor campaign rallies, that he could even hold a full-fledged, boisterous, bunting-filled nominating convention as if all were well,” the New York Times reports.
“Only now, it is all crashing down around President Trump. The president who shunned masks and pressured states to reopen and promised a return to the campaign trail finds himself canceling rallies, scrapping his grand convention, urging Americans to stay away from crowded bars and at long last embracing, if only halfheartedly, wearing masks.”
“It may not be the death of denial, but it is a moment when denial no longer appears to be a viable strategy for Mr. Trump. For more than three years in office, he proved strikingly successful at bending much of the political world to his own vision of reality, but after six months the coronavirus pandemic is turning out to be the one stubborn, inalterable fact of life that he cannot simply force into submission through sheer will.”
“President Trump is relying on an outlier interpretation of a recent Supreme Court decision to assert broad new powers as he prepares to sign a series of executive orders in the coming weeks.” the AP reports.
The expansive view of presidential authority has been promoted by John Yoo, a Berkeley Law professor known for writing the so-called ‘torture memos.’”
“Donald Trump says Joe Biden wants to abolish the suburbs. But polls show a different truth: The suburbs want to abolish Donald Trump,” Politico reports.
“If current numbers hold, the Republican Party will suffer its worst defeat in the suburbs in decades — with implications reaching far beyond November.”
“President Trump’s whipsaw decisions to first move the Republican National Convention’s in-person main events, then to cancel them are costing GOP donors millions of dollars,” NBC News reports.
“Of the $38 million raised by the host committee for the convention’s original location — Charlotte, North Carolina — the majority has been spent, the Republican officials said. The host committee in Jacksonville, Florida, where Trump had moved the convention, raised an additional $6 million, but GOP officials said much of that money remains.”
“Now, the president’s team is searching not only for a new stage from which he can deliver a speech accepting his party’s nomination for a second term, but also a way to appease Republicans who have nothing to show for their donations.”
New York Times: Inside Trump’s about-face on the Republican convention.
Washington Post: How the Republican Convention came undone.
0 comments on “What Now?! – July 26, 2020”