Josh Marshall
Bloomberg News this morning floats the doubly absurd idea that President Trump is weighing the possibility of putting $100 million of his own money into his campaign. On its face this seems absurd. Trump had to be dragged kicking and screaming to put half that amount into his campaign in 2016 when the campaign’s need for money was far, far greater. (We don’t even know if Trump has that scale of liquid assets available.) But the bigger question is, why does his campaign even need him to pump in his own money?
It’s been one of the cardinal points of 2020 coverage for months or even years that between small donor and fat cat cash the Trump campaign is raising an almost mind-boggling sum of money – more than $1 billion. Is the campaign really so down on its luck that another $100 million from Trump is going to be critical?
Since former campaign chief Brad Parscale was booted this summer, the campaign has been undergoing an internal audit to analyze spending. There have been hints of sweetheart deals and captive agencies owned by Parscale and others sweeping up a lot of the money in non-arms-length transactions. But could the scale of potential embezzlement and siphoning really have been so great to leave the campaign short on money at this critical juncture?
It seems hard to figure.
The Bloomberg article appears to have gotten Trump’s attention this morning prompting this tweet.
He seems to concede that the campaign overspent in the Spring but that this was because of the need to counter the “fake news” and the “China virus.”
This is of course nonsense. What’s notable is Trump’s felt need to address the issue or explain the spending. We get more of the story from the Times. This new article suggest it was just frittered away the money on profligate spending.
From the Times …
Of the $1.1 billon his campaign and the party raised from the beginning of 2019 through July, more than $800 million has already been spent. Now some people inside the campaign are forecasting what was once unthinkable: a cash crunch with less than 60 days until the election, according to Republican officials briefed on the matter.
The Times article suggests some of this was just sloppiness and cockiness. But given the centrality of corruption and self-dealing in the Trump world it seems highly unlikely that is the whole story.
Josh MarshallThis article in the Post talks to a number of epidemiologists who say we’re on the cusp of what may be the worst of the COVID-19 epidemic.
The article is based in significant measure on a new model from the IHME modelers at the University of Washington. They don’t have a perfect record. So I don’t think we should see this as consensus opinion or what “the science” says. But it’s worth taking note of as at least one quite dire outlook.
I hope you’re settling into a relaxing long weekend, or as relaxing as anything can be in these unsettled times. We are on the cusp of a vast civic storm unfolding over the next 60 to 90 days. So make the most of the respite.
While you’re here don’t miss our team’s “Is Your State Ready?” series. Josh Kovensky, Kate Riga, Matt Shuham and Tierney Sneed are looking at every state to look at their preparedness for this pandemic election. You can see the first three installments here.
You can also watch my conversation about Benito Mussolini, Italian Fascism and the rising global authoritarian movement with Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat of New York Univeristy.
Nicole Lafond
As President Trump and the White House collectively go after the Atlantic for its recent report on Trump’s remarks about the late-Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and fallen American soldiers, pundits and journalists across the spectrum are suggesting there’s one person who could easily set the record straight: John Kelly.
Josh Marshall
I wanted to update you on some new news on the Falwell/Trump 2016 endorsement scandal. Since we last checked in on this story another Liberty University student has come forward to say that Becki Falwell pursued him sexually. But it’s the Michael Cohen part of this story that remains the really newsworthy part.
It’s hardly the President’s biggest outrage. And there has been reporting that President Trump has been pressing the Pentagon to cut the subsidy provided to Star and Stripes, the paper for military service members that traces its history back to the Civil War. But Kathy Kiely, writing in USA Today, reports that Trump has ordered the publication shuttered this month. “The memo orders the publisher of the news organization (which now publishes online as well as in print) to present a plan that “dissolves the Stars and Stripes” by Sept. 15 including ‘specific timeline for vacating government owned/leased space worldwide.'”
California and New York now saying that they won’t play along with Trump’s pre-election COVID vaccine charade. They’ll refuse to distribute a vaccine that’s not safe and effective, which seems obvious on its face, but what they mean is a vaccine that’s been rushed through abbreviated phase III trials for political reasons. Josh Kovensky has our exclusive report.
Nicole Lafond
This morning we published two pieces with starkly disturbing headlines within about thirty minutes of each other.
Josh MarshallIn this week’s edition of The Josh Marshall Podcast we discuss the Democratic fretfest and barreling toward election day. Watch after the jump …
Josh Marshall
It’s easy to get lost in the big muddy river of polling data and headlines. But before we get further into the day I wanted to discuss a new group of polls that came out yesterday. This was the first batch of quality polls entirely after the GOP convention. The upshot of really all of them is that “law and order” is not only not helping Trump cut into Biden’s lead. Trump appears to be losing that debate on its own terms. When pollsters ask voters which candidate they trust more to handle civil unrest, protests or crime, they’re picking Biden.
House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) state late Monday night that her committee is launching an investigation into Postmaster General Louis DeJoy allegedly pressuring his former employees into donating to GOP candidates.
The first shots in the second American civil war have been fired — at least, according to some right-wing groups that have sought to use recent shooting deaths during protests across the country as a call to arms.
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