| | | | |  | | By Calder McHugh | | Presented by |  | | | |  Duane Schwingel, a.k.a. Uncle Jam, wears a fake ear bandage with the words "Fight! Fight! Fight!" while singing songs outside a hotel during the final day of the Republican National Convention. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | CALM BEFORE THE STORM — When former President Donald Trump takes the stage this evening to accept the GOP nomination for president, he’ll be capping off one of the most unified and optimistic Republican conventions in decades. There have been no platform fights or wayward delegations. No convention floor chaos and shouting matches. The rollout of vice presidential nominee JD Vance has so far unfolded without a hitch. Vanquished past rivals like Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz, who famously refused to endorse Trump at the 2016 convention, sang Trump’s praises. More recent foes, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, bent the knee. Over the first three days of the convention the former president has been lionized as Braveheart, an American Churchill, “the greatest president of our lifetime” and “the greatest president that’s ever lived.” The rare moments of discord, like Minority Leader Mitch McConnell being booed on the floor, only served to reinforce that the takeover of the Republican Party by the Trump wing is complete and absolute. After he survived an assassination attempt on Saturday — and repeated the refrain “fight” as he was dragged quickly off stage by the Secret Service — Republicans in Milwaukee have vowed to do just that, chanting “fight” in lockstep on the floor and screaming in approval every time Trump entered the convention hall or was shown on screen. Unlike July of eight years ago, from the grassroots to the highest levels of the party virtually every attendee is confident in a Trump victory. He’s up in the polls, even before they measure the effect of the attempt on his life or any potential convention bounce. And there are barely any protests to be found outside the convention. All the while, the party is peering over at the dysfunction on the other side of the aisle with glee. It will all culminate this evening with a speech that Trump insists will be about national unity after he “tore up” what were likely a litany of incendiary remarks about Biden and Democrats after the shooting on Saturday. It all seems like a glide path to victory. Only, it might all fly out the window in the weeks to come, in the event President Joe Biden decides to bow out of the presidential race. The GOP will still be unified, but the dynamics of the campaign could be about to change dramatically. There’s more reason than ever to believe Biden could withdraw from the race, perhaps as soon as this weekend. There are reports that former President Barack Obama is telling allies that Biden’s path to winning re-election has greatly diminished. The walls appear to be closing in on the 81-year-old president, with Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer reportedly telling Biden in person he should end his campaign and Jeffrey Katzenberg telling him big donors are headed for the hills. Even the grassroots are increasingly restive. It adds up to the most concerted push yet to get Biden to consider leaving the ticket. If he listens sooner rather than later, the announcement could reset the race, immediately blotting out the goodwill generated by a successful Republican convention and reenergizing Democrats for the homestretch. The betting markets, already increasingly confident that Biden will leave the race, are now pricing in a Harris-led Democratic ticket. The website Polymarket gives Donald Trump a 64 percent chance of claiming victory in November. Harris is at 21 percent, while Biden is down to a miniscule seven percent chance of prevailing. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at cmchugh@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @calder_mchugh.
| | | | A message from Johnson&Johnson: We’re restoring the true meaning of healthcare—developing advanced treatments and smarter and less invasive solutions for today’s most complex diseases. See how we're connecting the best of Health&Care for every patient and provider. Learn more | | | | | — Major NYC hospital warns of safety risks from delayed closure: A continued exodus of health care workers from a historic Manhattan hospital on the brink of closure is posing risks to patient safety “in the very near future,” according to hospital officials. Staffing woes have escalated in recent weeks as Mount Sinai Beth Israel approached and then passed its long-planned closure date of July 12, which was predicated on state approval. The medical director of Beth Israel’s intensive care unit left at the end of June, and the hospital’s chief nursing officer is resigning next month, hospital officials said in court papers filed as part of an ongoing lawsuit over the closure. — Appeals court blocks Biden’s student loan repayment plan, in latest legal blow to administration: An appeals court today temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s new student loan repayment plan, leaving millions of borrowers uncertain about the monthly payments they owe. The move will increase pressure on the Education Department to halt student loan payments while the legal fight plays out. Much of the program, known as SAVE, took effect last year. But some provisions, such as lower monthly payments, were set to start in July. — The right is attacking the Secret Service’s women agents. Trump hasn’t joined in: Donald Trump and his family are treading carefully around a growing chorus of Republicans blaming the Secret Service’s diversity promotion efforts for last Saturday’s assassination attempt on the former president. While an array of right-wing commentators and some Republican lawmakers have claimed the attack highlights the way DEI policies at the Secret Service have blurred the agency’s focus on its essential mission — specifically calling out the agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, and the female agents who helped rush Trump off the stage at the rally — one person who has yet to join in the criticism is Trump himself.
| | | | Understand 2024’s big impacts with Pro’s extensive Campaign Races Dashboard, exclusive insights, and key coverage of federal- and state-level debates. Focus on policy. Learn more. | | | | | | | | | PAYBACK — Democrats in Michigan cut off a vulnerable House Democrat from a major part of campaign operations after she called last week for President Joe Biden to step down from the ticket. Officials reversed that decision today, after facing questions from POLITICO. Rep. Hillary Scholten, a first-term Democrat who flipped a traditionally Republican seat in 2022, was booted last week from a coordinated effort between the Biden campaign and the state party to elect candidates up and down the ticket. TIPPING POINT — President Joe Biden’s reelection bid appeared to be nearing the point of collapse today, amid a cascade of warnings from the Democratic Party’s top leaders that they have lost confidence in his candidacy. The flurry of damaging revelations across a 24-hour span marked perhaps the lowest moment of a three-week political nightmare for Biden, who has tried and failed to rebuild confidence within his own party following a dismal debate performance last month. THE PEDRO MARTINEZ ARGUMENT — Rep. Jamie Raskin privately urged Joe Biden in a letter earlier this month to hear out fellow Democrats as he makes a decision about whether to stay in the presidential race. Raskin — the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee and a previous Donald Trump impeachment manager — didn’t echo other Democrats’ calls for Biden to drop out of the race in the July 6 letter. Instead, Raskin spent much of the four-page letter praising Biden and his legacy, but ended it by comparing Biden to Pedro Martínez, a Boston Red Sox starting pitcher whose extended time in a famous playoff game is widely seen as contributing to the team losing a shot at the World Series in 2003. RFK RUMORS — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is on the ballot in only nine states, canceled all of his public events this week and apologized for the release of a video that revealed part of his private phone call with Donald Trump. But despite rumors swirling in Milwaukee all week of a detente being brokered between the independent long shot and Republican nominee, Kennedy does not appear poised to drop out of the race. A person familiar with the Kennedy campaign said the candidate has commissioned more internal polling this week and is not slowing down his operation. This comes as a Kennedy campaign bus literally circled the convention site as delegates prepared to nominate Trump.
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The Swedish ambassador to the U.S. Urban Ahlin speaks during the annual Nobel Symposium in Washington, DC, on Nov. 14, 2023. | Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images | LANGUAGE BARRIER — As European leaders brace themselves for Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House, they are trying to pitch continued U.S. support for NATO and Ukraine by using Republican-friendly terms. The ambassadors to the U.S. from Sweden, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany all said they are prepared to work with whoever is the next American president during a conversation with POLITICO at the convention. But Trump’s selection of JD Vance — one of the Senate’s top Ukraine skeptics — has only heightened concerns that Trump may pull support for Kyiv if he wins in November. Urban Ahlin, the Swedish ambassador to the U.S., invoked the Republican Party’s focus on law and order to make the case for continued U.S. support for Kyiv. “I’ve heard at this Republican convention many times how important it is that you as a citizen abide to the law, and I agree with that,” Ahlin said. “But it is also important that countries abide by the international law, and the Russians have broken every law there is.” Ahlin is not the first European official in recent weeks to advocate for Ukraine and NATO in language that appeared to be directed at Trump and his allies. NATO leaders touted their increased defense spending and the importance of burden-sharing at the NATO Summit in Washington earlier this month, and one European defense minister likened the alliance to a golf club where everyone must pay their membership fees. Andreas Michaelis, Germany’s ambassador to the U.S., projected confidence about NATO’s commitment to Ukraine. “I’m not so concerned at this point about the level of support that comes from the U.S., and I’m certainly not concerned about the level of support that comes from the Europeans,” he said.
| | | | The CNN-POLITICO Grill has quickly become a key gathering place for policymakers and thought-leaders attending the RNC in Milwaukee.
On Tuesday, POLITICO and Bayer convened two conversations: a discussion with Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Rep. G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) and an executive conversation with Bayer’s Jessica Christiansen, senior vice president and head of crop science and sustainability communications.
The conversations focused on the news of the day in Milwaukee, including deeper discussion centered on the critical challenges faced by the agriculture sector.
CATCH UP HERE | | | | | | | | | | | | | OUT, DEMON — Exorcisms are on the rise in America again. Outside of Nashville, Tennessee, a far-right firebrand preacher named Greg Locke has found an increasing following of people who want to see him expel devils and perform exorcisms. It’s turned into a spectacle complete with LED lights on a giant cross, as Locke perfects his old-school, twangy preacher appeal to a growing number of followers. But what he’s expelling is often thoroughly modern — he deals with people concerned about their ADHD, OCD, IBS, dyslexia and more, believing these are signs of the devil within them. At a certain point, Locke yells, “Tell that gluten-free demon, up and out, right now!” For Harper’s Magazine, Sam Kestenbaum saw up close how Locke works and reported on the rise in interest in his preaching style and substance.
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On this date in 1967: Then-Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall, nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the U.S. Supreme Court, sits at the witness table before testifying on his fitness for the post before the Senate Judiciary Committee. | AP | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.
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