Comment on Obama Toasts Governors, Jokes About the Oscars

“Democrats are watching with growing unease as GOP super PACs pour money into Senate races that will determine control of Congress next year, cutting into their long-running financial advantage this election season,” Semafor reports. “The late influx of cash in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland threatens Democrats’ tenuous two-seat hold on the Senate, which is certain to drop by one in November thanks to a lost seat in West Virginia.

“Donald Trump’s fixation with tariffs has become an obsession — a policy panacea he claims will fuel a manufacturing boom, lower grocery prices, cut the deficit, stop wars, pay for tax breaks and even solve the child care crisis,” Axios reports. Said Trump: “Tariffs are the greatest thing ever invented.” “The impact of Trump’s plan to impose massive tariffs — with or without the support of Congress — has become the single biggest economic question of the 2024 election.” New York Times: Trump’s low-tax, high-tariff strategy could clash with economic realities.

Nate Cohn: “Ever since Donald Trump’s stunning victory in 2016 — when he lost the popular vote by almost three million votes but still triumphed with over 300 electoral votes — many who follow politics have believed Republicans hold an intractable advantage in the Electoral College.” “But there’s growing evidence to support a surprising possibility: His once formidable advantage in the Electoral College is not as ironclad as many presumed.

“The private equity firm run by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, has been paid at least $112 million in fees since 2021 by Saudi Arabia and other foreign investors, even though as of July it had not yet returned any profits to the governments largely bankrolling the firm,” the New York Times reports. “Those are among the findings of a Senate Finance Committee inquiry into the operations of Affinity Partners, the Miami-based firm Mr.

“Derided by Donald Trump as a ‘communist,’ Kamala Harris is playing up her street cred as a capitalist,” the AP reports. “Attacked by Harris as a rich kid who got $400 million from his father on a ‘silver platter,’ Trump is leaning into his raw populism.” “The two presidential candidates are set to deliver dueling speeches on Wednesday that reflect how they’re honing their economic messages for voters in battleground states.

CNN Poll: “Harris leads Trump 52% to 40% among these likely voters younger than 35. That still suggests a tighter race among this group than in 2020, when President Joe Biden ended up with a 21-point margin among the same age group, according to exit polls.” “But it marks a return to more typical voting patterns after polls earlier in the year showed Biden struggling to rally youth support for a second term.”