Donald Trump suggested Sunday evening that he might skip a Sept. 10 ABC News debate with Vice President Kamala Harris (D), after agreeing to participate as the GOP presidential nominee earlier this month, the Washington Post reports.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Trump's social media post Sunday night.
Playbook: "But behind the scenes, well before he clicked the 'publish' button on that post, the two campaigns hit an impasse over the rules of the debate, according to four sources familiar with the issue."
"The holdup? Whether or not the candidates' microphones will be muted when it isn't their turn to speak."
"Harris' campaign wants the mics to be hot at all times during the ABC debate, as has historically been the case at presidential debates."
"Our understanding is that Trump's handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don't think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own."— Harris campaign adviser Brian Fallon, quoted by Politico, on Donald Trump threatening to back out of the September 10 debate.
"Donald Trump appeared to undercut his campaign's efforts to keep the same rules in place for his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris next month," CNN reports.
"Trump's team would like for the microphones to be muted throughout the debate except for the candidate whose turn it is to speak, as was the case during the first debate with President Joe Biden."
"But while Trump took aim at what he called the 'biased' network Sunday evening – complaining about reporter Jonathan Karl and a panel of 'Trump Haters' on his Truth Social platform – he said Monday that he would prefer the mics to stay on."
Robert Reich: How will team Trump tell him he should be muted during his debate with Harris?
"U.S. prosecutors are seeking to reinstate the criminal case charging Donald Trump with mishandling classified documents and obstruction, arguing a Florida judge was wrong to toss out the indictment this summer," Bloomberg reports.
"Less than three months before US voters decide if Trump should win a second term as president, Special Counsel Jack Smith's office on Monday asked an appeals court to reverse US District Judge Aileen Cannon's July order. Prosecutors say Cannon erred in finding Smith's appointment was unconstitutional."
"Donald Trump attempted to strike a new tone on the issue of abortion this week, saying he would be 'great for women and their reproductive rights' — to the frustration of anti-abortion advocates," Politico reports.
"The former president invoked the phrase in a post on Truth Social on Friday, reflecting his campaign's frenzied attempt to reset the narrative in the race against Vice President Kamala Harris and present more moderately on the issue of abortion, which has plagued Republicans electorally since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022."
"Donald Trump has said abortion is an issue best left to the states, complained about Republican messaging and avoided mentioning it in a speech accepting his party's nomination," Bloomberg reports.
"The GOP presidential nominee is now taking a new tack: Positioning himself as a leader on women's reproductive rights, much to the outrage of Democrats — who say the pivot is an insincere ploy to win over voters — and some of his allies who think he's abandoned them."
"Trump's comments come as the Republican ticket struggles with how to talk about the reproductive rights restrictions they've championed for years, without turning off the key swing state voters they'll need in November. Earlier this month, Trump said he was open to restricting access to mifepristone, a pill used in medical abortions."
J.D. Vance said Donald Trump would not support a national abortion ban if elected president and would veto such legislation if it landed on his desk, the AP reports.
Said Vance: "I can absolutely commit that."
He added: "Donald Trump's view is that we want the individual states and their individual cultures and their unique political sensibilities to make these decisions because we don't want to have a nonstop federal conflict over this issue."
Michael Tomasky: "Harris's campaign so far has been a work of genius on several levels, but maybe the most ingenious stroke of all has been the decision to mock Trump—to present him not only as someone to fear but also to ridicule. Harris perfectly encapsulated this two-pronged attack in these memorable lines from her acceptance speech: 'In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences—but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.… Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails.'"
"But the emphasis has been on ridicule (Tim Walz's "weird" comment, Maryland Governor Wes Moore's jab at Trump's bone spurs, Barack Obama's hilarious hand gesture when he was talking about Trump's obsession with crowd size). It's great on three levels. The first is that it must drive Trump nuts, and when he goes nuts, he says especially nutty things. Second, it's arguably more persuasive to swing voters than calling Trump a fascist. Trump is a fascist, make no mistake. But he's also ridiculous. Mocking him over his Hannibal Lecter obsession will stick in apolitical people's minds far more strongly than warning about his plans to wreck the Justice Department, and in its way, it's just as disqualifying."
Kamala Harris is having it both ways as she simultaneously takes credit for the Biden-Harris record while casting herself as a new leader who "won't go back." She seems to be using two competing messages, much to the frustration of Donald Trump and Republicans.
Here's why she can pull it off:
- Trump was already president for four years. Everything Harris wants to turn the page on — the hate, the chaos and the whining — are his direct legacy.
- Aside from a brief period after the January 6 riots, Trump never really went away.
- Harris, as a woman of color, is much different messenger than the norm.
- Implicit in Harris' campaign is the message that if she wins, Trump will finally be done.
- Harris holds a unique advantage that we've never seen before in our politics. She can hold rallies in front of Air Force Two while waving a "change" banner.
- Polls have shown that Americans are thirsting for a new and more optimistic politics.
If Harris can convince voters that she "won't go back," then she will likely win this election.
"One of Venezuela's top election officials, in a declaration sure to jolt the crisis-weary nation, said in an interview that he had no proof that Venezuela's authoritarian president won last month's election," the New York Times reports.
"Since the July 28 vote, governments around the world have expressed skepticism, and even outright disbelief, over President Nicolás Maduro's claim to victory. But the statement by Juan Carlos Delpino — a member of the government body that announced Mr. Maduro's win — represents the first major criticism from inside the electoral system."
Donald Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to mark the three-year anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as he sought to turn the chaotic pullout into a resonant line of attack against Vice President Kamala Harris, The Hill reports.
"Vice President Kamala Harris said that she stands behind President Joe Biden's decision to leave Afghanistan, as the Democratic nominee came under attack from Donald Trump on the third anniversary of the botched U.S. withdrawal," USA Today reports.
Said Harris: "Over the past three years, our Administration has demonstrated we can still eliminate terrorists, including the leaders of al-Qaeda and ISIS, without troops deployed into combat zones. I will never hesitate to take whatever action necessary to counter terrorist threats and protect the American people and the homeland."
"Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office has been working behind the scenes to get House conservatives to drop their demands that a short-term funding bill include an immigrant voting crackdown," Axios reports.
"A GOP showdown is brewing ahead of the Oct. 1 government funding deadline. Conservatives have shown a willingness to flirt with shutdowns to push their priorities, which McConnell's team wants to avoid."
"The Harris campaign is casting a drastically wider net in recruiting House Democrats to stump for the presidential ticket, gauging the interest of almost every member," Axios reports.
"Over a dozen Democratic lawmakers and aides described a 'night-and-day' contrast with the surrogate operation under President Biden."
"To many House members, the shift is evidence of their new importance under the leadership of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former House member."
Donald Trump said that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk likely couldn't serve in his hypothetical White House cabinet due to the demanding schedule of running his various companies, CNBC reports.
Said Trump: "He wants to be involved. Now look, he's running big businesses and all that, so he can't, really, I don't think he could be cabinet. I'd put him in the cabinet, absolutely, but I don't know how he could do that with all the things he's got going."
Donald Trump "is talking down the economy like his election depends on it," Axios reports.
"It might. Trump knows that nothing matters more than economic issues. That makes the next 71 days a battle to convince voters their wallets are still hurting."
"The former president is seizing on every negative bit of economic news to make the point that the economy is much worse than the Biden administration says."
"Until now, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster has held his fire about his stint in the Trump White House. McMaster served with distinction in key American conflicts of the past decades: the Gulf War, the Iraq War and the war in Afghanistan, but as McMaster recounts in his new book, At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House, in some ways, his most challenging tour as a soldier was his last one: serving as the national security adviser to a notoriously mercurial president," CNN reports.
"In his blistering, insightful account of his time in the Trump White House, McMaster describes meetings in the Oval Office as 'exercises in competitive sycophancy' during which Trump's advisers would flatter the president by saying stuff like, 'Your instincts are always right' or, 'No one has ever been treated so badly by the press.'"
"Meanwhile, Trump would say 'outlandish' things like, 'Why don't we just bomb the drugs?' in Mexico or, 'Why don't we take out the whole North Korean Army during one of their parades?'"
"Fresh off a week of daily counterprogramming events and an effort to steal the spotlight from his new opponent, Donald Trump and his campaign are seeking to harness that pace in the lead-up to November — with plans to aggressively ramp up the former president's schedule, hone his debate skills and cultivate a new ground-game strategy tied to the early voting states," CNN reports.
"The new approach is itself an acknowledgment that Trump's campaign has struggled to adapt to the fast-changing political landscape after President Joe Biden ended his campaign less than four months before Election Day."
Playbook: "The accelerated clip comes after Trump spent the summer engaged in a fraction of the number of rallies he headlined in 2016, spending most of his time trolling Biden from Mar-a-Lago. Even when he hit the trail, he prioritized stops in the Republican stronghold of Montana and deep blue New Jersey — puzzling plenty of Republicans fretting about more vital battleground states."
"Kamala Harris' strategy for the 71-day sprint to the Nov. 5 election is built around a few key goals: Outwork Donald Trump, stay in the news, and campaign aggressively in states that could increase her paths to victory," Axios reports.
"That's why the vice president is packing her campaign schedule this week, starting with a bus tour in southern Georgia. She'll also sit for her first interview as a presidential candidate and ramp up preparations for her Sept. 10 debate against Trump."
Washington Post: "The president has not spoken publicly or to the press since Monday night — after he gave an emotional speech, formally passing the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris — on the first night of the convention. With cease-fire talks for the war in Gaza resuming on Sunday, Biden's low profile is notable."
"As Donald Trump emerged to a thunderous roar of approval in the heart of Pennsylvania's Rust belt, he was back in his comfort zone among the people who once put him in power," The Guardian reports.
"But by the time he stepped off the stage nearly two hours later, even some of the former US president's supporters were wondering whether his rallies are doing his re-election campaign more harm than good."
Stephen Collinson: Trump's personal attacks aren't just who he is. They're his strategy.
Tim Miller: "So puzzle me this: There are two options for president. On the one hand you have a woman who just presented herself as a mainstream Democrat who plans to respect and uphold the fundamental American political traditions at home and abroad."
"On the other you have a candidate who you have acknowledged is the most flawed person you have ever encountered, a danger to the country, and an existential threat to our system of government—a convicted criminal, an abuser of women, and a moron. How in God's name do you justify silence in the face of that choice? This is not a close call!"
"Some of these people might be making calculations about their political futures. If so, that's utterly craven. But take the morality out of it: It's also ridiculous. None of these folks have a political future as long as Trump is around."
A longtime Donald Trump supporter who was billed by CNN as an "undecided" voter said he told network before his appearance that he backed Trump.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) vowed to stand by former President Donald Trump despite Trump saying he "doesn't care" what Graham thinks, CNN reports.
Donald Trump's campaign is disputing the Foo Fighters' claim that the use of their song "My Hero" during a campaign rally was unauthorized, The Hill reports. However, a spokesperson for the band said: "Foo Fighters were not asked permission, and again, even if they had been they would not have granted it."
"A New York federal judge ordered U.S. probation officials to investigate the recent arrest of a convicted drug dealer who was released from prison in early 2021 after his 10-year sentence was commuted by former President Donald Trump," CNBC reports. "The order raises the possibility that the drug dealer, Jonathan Braun, could be sent back to prison."
Colorado Republicans voted to oust state party chairman Dave Williams from his leadership position, Colorado Public Radio reports. "Williams dismissed the meeting as 'illegal', possibly setting up a legal showdown over the leadership of the party."
"It's the most tumultuous chapter yet in the endlessly controversial tenure of Williams, who took the helm of the state GOP in 2023, and has angered many in the party for his hard right stances and willingness to attack other Republicans."
Rudy Giuliani said that Steve Bannon is being "tortured" by not having access to television in prison, the HuffPost reports. Said Giuliani: "Steve Bannon is not being treated the way other prisoners are being treated. His case has been moved from the Bureau of Prisons to crooked attorney general Garland's office, and they're calling the shots because contacts that I have in the Bureau of Prisons have told me they've been taken outta the case."
He added: "Boy, this election is about a fascist regime. And Steve Bannon is prime number one victim."
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