memeorandum: Times/SAY24 swing-state polls show Biden trailing and Democratic Senate candidates leading (YouGov)

2:30 PM ET, July 16, 2024

Top Items:

Jason Sattler / I Know How Much You Care:

JD Vance is Trump's gift to Putin — The GOP nominee may have picked the one American his second-biggest donor prefers over him. — 1× — The pick of JD Vance, who underperformed Ohio's last Republican Senator by 15% and the entire Ohio GOP ticket by 11%, has made clear …

Discussion: Semafor and The 19th

William Kristol / The Bulwark:

The Authoritarian Ticket — Another one for the “weeks where decades happen” files: Hours before the Republican National Convention and Donald Trump's selection of J.D. Vance as his running mate took over the news cycle, Judge Aileen Cannon squeezed in a little news of her own …

Discussion: Business Insider, Politico, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, PoliticusUSA, ABC News, Digby's Hullabaloo, Responsible Statecraft, Axios, The Spectator World, Reason and Fox News

Axios:

Behind the Curtain: Why J.D. … - Youth & vigor: Vance, who turns 40 in two weeks, is half Trump's age. … - Smart: Vance can put an intellectual wrapper around Trump's red meat. … - American Dream bio: James David Vance grew up in a broken Rust Belt home in Middletown, Ohio, with deep ties to Appalachia.

Discussion: Fox News, The Wrap, Wired, CNN, Semafor, The Daily Beast, Business Insider, USA Today, HuffPost, American Greatness, Silver Bulletin, New Jersey Online, New York Times, Plain Dealer, New York Daily News and Ohio Capital Journal, more at Techmeme »

Christopher Mathias / HuffPost:
JD Vance Is The GOP's Next-Gen Authoritarian

Discussion: The Guardian and Washington Post

Politico:
Playbook: Trump upstages Vance on Night 1

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Washington Post

Ross O'Keefe / Washington Examiner:
Here's who could take Vance's Senate seat after his vice president call

Discussion: Axios, Business Insider, Fox News, Politico, New York Times, Washington Times, CBS News, The Federalist, News18, USA Today, NOTUS and MLive.com

Suzanne Lynch / Politico:
Europe reacts to J.D. Vance as Trump's VP pick: ‘This is a disaster for Ukraine’

Discussion: USA Today, Business Insider, Bloomberg, New York Times, The i Paper, Semafor, Politico, Reuters, Washington Examiner, Defense One, HuffPost, NBC News, Mercury News, Raw Story, CBS News, The Daily Beast, Rolling Stone and The Moderate Voice

NBC News:
The inside story of how Trump chose JD Vance as his running mate

Discussion: Politico, Good Politics/Bad Politics, Tusk, Raw Story, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, New Republic, News18, Breitbart, New York Post, The Dispatch, New Jersey Online, The Wrap, Althouse, Deadline and Reuters

New York Times:

Schiff Warned of Wipeout for Democrats if Biden Remains in Race — Representative Adam B. Schiff of California told attendees at a Democratic fund-raiser that the party would lose the Senate and miss a chance to take the House if the president did not drop out.

Discussion: New York Magazine, Fox News, The Bulwark, HotAir, New York Post, Twitchy and IJR

Axios:

Scoop: How the DNC plans to run out the clock for Biden … - Once Biden receives votes from a majority of the nearly 4,000 delegates, it will become exceedingly difficult to remove him from atop the Democratic presidential ticket. — The DNC's current plan is to train state party chairs next week …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, American Prospect, acecomments.mu.nu, The Guardian, Twitchy, The Gateway Pundit and The American Spectator

Politico:

House Dems plot last-ditch effort to delay Biden nomination — One Democratic lawmaker is circulating a letter asking the DNC to postpone the virtual roll call vote expected to be conducted in the coming weeks. — Dozens of House Democrats are organizing a plan to speak …

Discussion: Fox News, Semafor and Mediaite

Lester Holt / NBC News:
Transcript: Read the full Biden interview with Lester Holt on NBC News

John King / CNN:
Private efforts to nudge Biden to step aside continue

Discussion: New York Times, Mediaite, WHDH-TV and Washington Post

New York Times:

Live Updates: Senator Menendez Found Guilty on All Counts in Corruption Trial — Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who survived a previous corruption indictment in 2017, was convicted in a federal bribery case involving businessmen and foreign governments.

Discussion: Washington Post, Associated Press, Politico, USA Today, freebeacon.com, CBS News, UPI, Ordinary Times, IJR and New Jersey Monitor

ABC News:

Sen. Bob Menendez found guilty on all counts, including acting as foreign agent, in federal corruption trial — Menendez is the first senator to be convicted of acting as a foreign agent. — Sen. Bob Menendez leaves Manhattan federal court, July 15, 2024, in New York City.

Discussion: New York Daily News, Raw Story, NPR, The Daily Beast, Politico, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Washington Examiner, New Jersey Online, Mother Jones, Al Jazeera, One America News Network, Shore News Network, Mediaite and CBS News

Jamie Joseph / Fox News:
Verdict reached in Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez's federal corruption trial

Discussion: NBC News, Axios, Roll Call, New Jersey Online, New Jersey Monitor, The National Pulse, RedState, ABC7, Exposing the role …, Twitchy and Washington Post

CNN:
Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez found guilty in federal corruption trial; Chuck Schumer calls on him to resign

Discussion: Fox News, Axios, Bloomberg, HuffPost, TMZ.com, Politico, Semafor, KFTC-TV, The Daily Signal, Common Dreams, The Daily Caller, New Jersey Online, Rolling Stone, New York Post, New York Daily News and UPI

Lisa Needham / Public Notice:

Special counsels are unconstitutional if they make Trump sad — PN is a reader-supported publication made possible by paid subscribers. Appreciate our independent journalism? Then please sign up to support us. — 🏙️ Subscribe to Public Notice 🏙️ — It finally happened.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, New York Daily News, Washington Post, PolitiFact, New York Post, New York Times, Sun-Sentinel, The Daily Beast, nationalinterest.org, Daily Caller News Foundation, OutsideTheBeltway and New Republic

Fox News:

Special counsel Jack Smith to appeal Trump classified documents case — A federal judge in Florida dismissed the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump on Monday — The Justice Department has authorized Special counsel Jack Smith to appeal U.S. District Judge …

Discussion: RedState, CNN, ABC News, The Atlantic, Semafor, The Gateway Pundit, Daily Caller News Foundation, Washington Examiner and The Daily Caller

Robert B. Hubbell / Today's Edition Newsletter:
The education of Aileen Cannon

Discussion: Rolling Stone, The Status Kuo, PinkNews, Mercury News, Just Security, The Intercept and New Republic

Ashley Oliver / Washington Examiner:
Ex-FBI informant Smirnov asks judge to follow Cannon's lead and toss case

Discussion: Media Matters for America

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic:

Stop Pretending You Know How This Will End — In the immediate aftermath of the failed attempt on Donald Trump's life, pundits and politicians rushed to proclaim that they knew exactly how the awful event would affect American politics. Commentators on the left and right predicted on social media that …

Discussion: OutsideTheBeltway, Los Angeles Times and The Daily Beast

Adam Serwer / The Atlantic:
Nothing About the Attempted Assassination Redeems Trump

Discussion: Popular Information and The Guardian

Mike Levine / ABC News:
FBI, DHS warn of possible ‘follow-on or retaliatory’ attacks in wake of Trump assassination attempt

Discussion: UPI

YouGov:

Times/SAY24 swing-state polls show Biden trailing and Democratic Senate candidates leading — YouGov polled seven battleground states - Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin - between July 4 - 12, 2024 for the Times and SAY24, a joint project of Stanford, Arizona State, and Yale Universities.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, freebeacon.com, Los Angeles Times, Jacobin and The Hill

Kimberly Leonard / Politico:
Trump campaign says the map has expanded

Discussion: Florida's Voice

Brian Slodysko / Associated Press: Kennedy and West third-party ballot drives are pushed by secretive groups and Republican donors

Dan Ladden-Hall / The Daily Beast:

‘Blindsided’ Jack Black Ends Tenacious D Tour After Trump Assassination Joke — SHOW'S OVER — The actor and musician also said he was “putting all creative plans on hold” amid an angry online backlash to his bandmate Kyle Gass' quip about the assassination attempt.

Wall Street Journal:

Elon Musk has said he plans to commit around $45 million a month to a new super political-action committee backing former President Donald Trump's presidential run, according to people familiar with the matter. — Other backers of the group, called America PAC, include Palantir Technologies …

Eboni Boykin-Patterson / The Daily Beast:

MAGA Turns on Trump for Platforming Amber Rose at RNC — ‘EMBARRASSMENT’ — Republicans have misidentified Rose as a porn star as they rip into her following her speech at the convention this week. — Some on the right are not happy with Trump's choice to platform media personality Amber Rose …

Discussion: The Root, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion and Billboard

ProPublica:

In Private Speech, J.D. Vance Said the “Devil Is Real” and Praised Alex Jones as a Truth-Teller — Vance gave the speech to the secretive Teneo Network. The GOP vice presidential nominee has been a member of the Leonard Leo-backed group, which seeks to cultivate conservative influence in business and culture.

Greg Sargent / New Republic:

Trump's Ugly New Post-Shooting Rant Instantly Wrecks His “Unity” Pivot — In the wake of the horrific attempt to shoot Donald Trump, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen of Axios reported Monday that advisers close to the former president say he “plans to seize his moment by toning down his Trumpiness” …

Eli Hager / ProPublica:

School Vouchers Were Supposed to Save Taxpayer Money. Instead They Blew a Massive Hole in Arizona's Budget. — Arizona, the model for voucher programs across the country, has spent so much money paying private schoolers' tuition that it's now facing hundreds of millions in budget cuts to critical state programs and projects.

Discussion: Diane Ravitch's blog and Iowa Starting Line

Jonathan Weisman / New York Times:

In Leaked Phone Call, Trump Tries to Coax Kennedy Into His Camp — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. apologized for a leaked video of the phone call, in which Donald Trump offers anti-vaccine messaging and says the wound to his ear “felt like the world's largest mosquito.”