memeorandum: Three Months Out From The Election, President Trump Faces Eroding Support On The Economy, Major Challenges with Independent, Suburban, And Middle Class Voters (Institute of Politics and Public Service)

12:50 PM ET, August 10, 2020

Top Items:

Chicago police return fire as looters hit Mag Mile, smashing windows and confronting officers — Hundreds of people swept through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago early Monday, smashing windows, looting stores, confronting police and at one point exchanging gunfire with officers, authorities said.

Discussion: Fox News, ABC7, Breitbart, Chicago Sun-Times, WGN-TV, Axios, The Daily Beast, CBS Chicago, FOX 5 San Diego, New York Post, The Week, The Hill and Patterico's Pontifications

Fox News:

Chicago rocked by widespread looting caught on video after police-involved shooting — Hundreds of people were seen looting stores such as Nordstrom, Walgreens and Macy's — Videos circulating online show widespread looting and clashes with police across Chicago's Magnificent Mile shopping …

Discussion: NBC Chicago, Townhall, ABC7, Breitbart and The Week

Don Babwin / Associated Press:

Shots fired as crowds clash with police in downtown Chicago — Hundreds of people smashed windows, stole from stores and clashed with police in Chicago's Magnificent Mile shopping district and other parts of the city's downtown — CHICAGO — Hundreds of people smashed windows …

Discussion: Twitchy

William Saletan / Slate:

How Trump Killed Tens of Thousands of Americans — On July 17, President Donald Trump sat for a Fox News interview at the White House. At the time, nearly 140,000 Americans were dead from the novel coronavirus. The interviewer, Chris Wallace, showed Trump a video clip in which Robert Redfield …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Institute of Politics and Public Service:

Three Months Out From The Election, President Trump Faces Eroding Support On The Economy, Major Challenges with Independent, Suburban, And Middle Class Voters — Americans Trust Vice President Joe Biden More Than President Trump on Key Issues — Democrats Have Much More Narrow Lead on Congressional Ballot

Discussion: Raw Story

Hans Nichols / Axios:

Trump tries to set a tax trap for Biden — President Trump is trying to lure Joe Biden into a Walter Mondale trap — attempting to force the Democratic nominee to embrace middle-class tax increases as part of his election strategy. — Why it matters: With his Saturday evening executive action …

Discussion: Raw Story

Institute of Politics and Public Service: Battleground Poll — The August 2020 Battleground Poll gave strong evidence that three months …

CNN:
Trump declares war on Social Security, Medicare

Discussion: HuffPost and Business Insider

Detroit Free Press:

Big Ten reportedly voted 12-2 to cancel football season; Michigan, MSU voted not to play — Longtime sports personality Dan Patrick reported during his radio show Monday morning that the Big Ten has voted. — There won't be a college football season this fall.

Discussion: The Hill

Detroit Free Press:

Sources: Big Ten cancels football season; no games for Michigan, Michigan State in 2020 — See you later, college football. — The Big Ten has voted to cancel the 2020 college football season in a historic move that stems from concerns related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic …

Discussion: ProFootballTalk, ESPN, WAVY-TV, TMZ.com and Sports Illustrated

Helen Branswell / STAT:

Winter is coming: Why America's window of opportunity to beat back Covid-19 is closing — The good news: The United States has a window of opportunity to beat back Covid-19 before things get much, much worse. — The bad news: That window is rapidly closing. And the country seems unwilling or unable to seize the moment.

Discussion: The Week and NPR

Jacob Pramuk / CNBC:

Mnuchin is open to restarting virus relief talks: 'We're prepared to put more money on the table' — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the White House is open to resuming coronavirus aid talks with Democrats and putting more relief money on the table to reach a compromise.

Discussion: The Hill, POLITICUSUSA, MSNBC and The Guardian

Reuters:
Mnuchin says a U.S. coronavirus relief bill could come this week

Discussion: Politico and One America News Network

Wall Street Journal:
Trump's Executive Orders

Discussion: Washington Post and The Hill

Brooke Singman / Fox News:
Trump says Schumer, Pelosi ‘want to meet to make a deal’ on coronavirus relief

Discussion: Reuters, The Federalist and The US Sun

Dartunorro Clark / NBC News:
Schumer calls on top Republicans to make a deal on coronavirus relief

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and IJR

Alex Abad-Santos / Vox:

Performative masculinity is making American men sick — American men are failing the pandemic. — Fellas, is it gay to not die of a virus that turns your lungs into soggy shells of their former selves, drowning you from the inside out? Is wearing a mask to avoid death part of the feminization of America?

New York Times:

Hong Kong Publisher Jimmy Lai Is Arrested Under National Security Law — The pro-democracy figure is the most high-profile figure detained under the sweeping law imposed by Beijing on the semiautonomous territory. — HONG KONG — The Hong Kong police on Monday arrested seven people …

Discussion: Washington Post, Axios and UPI

Associated Press:
China sanctions 11 US politicians, heads of organizations

Discussion: ABC News, The Daily Caller and The Hill

JR Ross / WisPolitics.com:

UW-Madison: Battleground state poll shows Biden leading Trump in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — CONTACT: Veronica Rueckert, rueckert@wisc.edu , 608-262-7288 — New surveys in three key battleground states show former Vice President Joe Biden with solid leads over President Donald Trump …

Discussion: CBS News

Politico:

Facing bleak November, Republicans look to stoke BLM backlash — For a brief moment after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis policeman in late May, some members of the GOP joined calls for change as protests exploded onto streets across the country. That moment is over.

Discussion: Twitchy, Raw Story, Breitbart and The Guardian

Ben Smith / New York Times:

How Pro-Trump Forces Work the Refs in Silicon Valley — The new referees in American politics are Facebook, Google and Twitter, and they would be wise to pay attention to lessons the old media tried to learn. — One of the oddest moments during last month's tech hearings on Capitol Hill came …

Discussion: Fox News, OutKick, The Daily Beast and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Domenico Montanaro / NPR:

Arizona Focus Group Sees Trump's Crime Attack On Biden As ‘Far From Reality’ — Audio will be available later today. — The ad is stark. — An elderly white woman is watching the news. An anchor reports that cities want to “defund” the police, as she hears a noise coming from elsewhere in the house.

Discussion: Raw Story

Eric Tucker / Associated Press:

GOP senator subpoenas FBI over Russia, defends Biden probe — WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said Monday that he has subpoenaed the FBI to produce documents to his committee related to the Trump-Russia investigation. — The Wisconsin senator also defended a separate investigation …

Discussion: The Hill

Betsy Woodruff Swan / Politico:
Ron Johnson subpoenas documents from FBI director

Discussion: Fox News, National Review, New York Post, Raw Story and Law & Crime

John Myers / Los Angeles Times:

California's public health director resigns amid questions about coronavirus test data — Gov. Gavin Newsom's director of the California Department of Public Health resigned on Sunday, an abrupt departure of a key advisor in the state's coronavirus battle just days after the discovery …

Discussion: National Review, The Hill, Just The News, The Wrap and UPI

Jerry Taylor / Niskanen Center:

What Democrats Can Learn from the Republicans about Political Power — For as long as we've had reliable data on the matter, evidence tells us that when it comes to public policy, Americans lean significantly to the left. And yet, the party of the right continues to win elections …

New York Times:

2020 Election Live Updates: Democratic Convention to Feature Obamas and Clintons — Joe Biden is expected to announce his running mate within days, an event that could be about as normal as the 2020 campaign gets. — RIGHT NOW President Trump said in a court filing that Manhattan prosecutors' attempt …

Discussion: Poynter, CNN, Just The News and Althouse

Jeffery C. Mays / New York Times:

Who Opposes Defunding the N.Y.P.D.? These Black Lawmakers — Several Black City Council members have lashed out at progressives, comparing calls to defund the police to “colonization” and “political gentrification.” — With New York City on the cusp of cutting $1 billion from the Police Department …

Ebony Bowden / New York Post:

Possible Biden VP pick Rep. Karen Bass spoke at socialist forums — WASHINGTON — Rep. Karen Bass, who is on the shortlist of Joe Biden running mates, was a keynote speaker at two socialist events in Los Angeles in the 1980s and 90s, The Post can reveal. — The revelation comes …

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

The Senate Is America's Most Structurally Racist Institution — In a time when institutions across the country have undergone a searching self-examination, the reckoning has only begun for the most powerful source of institutional racism in American life: the United States Senate.

Discussion: Twitchy

Dave Levinthal / Business Insider:

Louie Gohmert, the mask-averse congressman who contracted COVID-19, is postponing his in-person ‘birthday bash’ fundraiser — An updated invitation indicates Gohmert is rescheduling his big-dollar event from August 20 to sometime in October. — Gohmert had promised guests a “special gift” …

Elena Schneider / Politico:

As decision day nears, VP hopefuls rake in big money for Biden — The Democrats vying to be Joe Biden's running mate have made the rounds of the Sunday shows. They've enlisted surrogates to talk them up to the vetting committee and have been preparing for their one-on-one interviews with Biden himself.

Discussion: Associated Press