| | | | |  | | By Bethany Irvine | Presented by the Brennan Center for Justice | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | |  The stakes in Arizona are high for VP Kamala Harris. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO | JUST A-SWINGIN' — KAMALA HARRIS and running mate TIM WALZ continue their barnstorm through key battleground states tonight with a rally in Phoenix, where the VP is hoping to put the Grand Canyon State’s 11 electoral votes back in play after they seemed to be slipping away from JOE BIDEN earlier in the summer. The stakes are high for Harris, who is hoping to break out of the Midwestern “blue wall” and create new paths to victory in the Sun Belt. Biden beat DONALD TRUMP by fewer than 11,000 in Arizona in 2020, and while Harris decided to pass on an opportunity to shore up her standing there by picking Sen. MARK KELLY as her running mate, “Democrats profess confidence that Harris is in solid shape in the state even without Kelly on the ticket,” AP’s Gabriel Sandoval and Nicholas Riccardi report. Turns out, they write, a Minnesotan on the ticket might not be much of a drag: “Arizona is something of a magnet for Midwesterners seeking to escape the cold. So, several observers say, Walz may still play well there.” New on air … Relatedly, the Harris campaign is up with a new TV spot this morning focused on border security as Trump trains his fire on her record as part of the Biden administration: “Fixing the border is tough. So is Kamala Harris,” the ad notes. Speaking of the Midwest … On the ground in Wisconsin, NBC News’ Ben Kamisar reports how multiple focus groups of voters there shared how they are feeling about the race since Harris’ swapped in for Biden. While established Trump voters “all agreed that Harris couldn’t win,” some told MSNBC political analyst Elise Jordan that they were newly concerned about the race: “Everybody’s excited about her, and that scares me,” said a 76-year-old woman who participated. Democratic voters, meanwhile, signaled broad relief with Biden’s decision to step aside, though young voters continued to raise concerns about Harris’s posture on the Israel- Hamas war. The 30,000-foot view: WSJ’s Gerald Seib digs into how Midwest battleground states, including Pennsylvania and Minnesota, are historically the “the power brokers” of presidential showdowns: “While many other parts of the country have sorted into neat red and blue columns, the big upper Midwestern states continue to sit on the dividing line between the two parties.” LOOK WHO’S COMING TO DINNER — Trump, meanwhile, is campaigning tonight in much less swingy territory. His scheduled rally in Bozeman tonight, in fact, is less about extending his own margins and more about a long-standing grievance with Democratic Sen. JON TESTER, NOTUS Reports’ Riley Rogerson and Reese Gorman report. After Tester opposed then-White House physician RONNY JACKSON’s appointment to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee back in 2018, Trump vowed vengeance. Now, “he’s eager for a rematch and is taking the fight back to Tester’s home turf with a Friday rally in Bozeman. He’s even bringing Jackson with him.” “Jackson told NOTUS he was attending the rally in Bozeman to support GOP Senate candidate TIM SHEEHY and to stand against Tester, who Jackson called ‘a national embarrassment in the Senate.’ … Whether Trump strikes a more pointed tone against Tester on Friday remains to be seen.” WHAT CHRIS LaCIVITA ISN’T READING — As Walz continues to face a barrage of attacks from Vance on the legitimacy of his military record, the Wall Street Journal editorial board nudges Trump’s campaign to move on from the allegations, noting that “the charges leveled so far about his military service look like ‘thin gruel,’ as our friends at the New York Sun put it.” Happy Friday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at birvine@politico.com.
| | | | A message from the Brennan Center for Justice: Supreme Court reform is an issue whose time has come. Public trust in the Supreme Court has plunged to the lowest level ever recorded, and term limits for the justices has broad bipartisan support. Congress must take action to establish 18-year term limits and bring regular turnover to the bench. The result? A Court with more legitimacy that better reflects American values. No one should have that much power for life. Learn more about term limits. | | | | | 7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | |  Palestinians flee the Khan Younis area of the Gaza Strip, following Israeli military evacuation orders on Thursday, August 8. | AP | 1. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: Israeli troops have launched a new assault into the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, “targeting Hamas fighters who the military claims still operate there despite repeated offensives,” AP’s Wafaa Shurafa reports from the Gaza Strip. The new attack come as U.S., Egyptian and Qatari leaders issued a joint statement yesterday urging Israel and Hamas to continue ceasefire talks and hostage negotiations, while “Israeli evacuation orders triggered yet another exodus of Palestinians from the heavily destroyed eastern districts of Khan Younis, where many had just returned less than two weeks ago.” And in the diplomatic arena … Washington’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza has sparked widespread frustration in Malaysia, threatening a key U.S. trade relationship in the semiconductor supply chain, WSJ’s Jon Emont reports: “[Malaysian PM ANWAR IBRAHIM] has openly criticized what he sees as U.S. failure to prevent suffering in Gaza. At the same time, he has strengthened his country’s ties with China.” Related read: “Iran Is Better Positioned to Launch Nuclear-Weapons Program, New U.S. Intelligence Assessment Says,” by WSJ’s Laurence Norman and Michael Gordon 2. LEND ME YOUR EAR: In a detailed guide for POLITICO Mag, Ian Ward delves into Sen. JD VANCE’s (R-Ohio) extensive network of advisers, political operatives and Silicon Valley donors that serve as his inner circle: Vance’s network “already bears the imprint of Trump’s influence ... But unlike Trump, Vance is deeply plugged into the New Right intellectual circles that have been driving the political debate within the conservative movement since 2016, and he looks to a core group of these writers, academics and right-leaning policy wonks for informal counsel and advice.” 3. HELLO, MR. CHIPS: Two years after the CHIPS Act was signed into law, the Biden administration is now left with the hefty job of doling out some $39 million in grants to revitalize domestic semiconductor manufacturing. That job falls to “MIKE SCHMIDT, who runs the Commerce Department’s 175-person Chips Program Office, or CPO,” Bloomberg’s Mackenzie Hawkins reports. “[Schmidt’s team] has one primary task: reducing reliance on Asia, and particularly Taiwan, for the tiny electronic components that power everything from microwaves to missiles.” And while Schmidt's office has made significant progress domestically, it’s struggling to persuade companies to bring all stages of chip production to the U.S. and dealing with labor and regulatory hurdles 4. DISINFORMATION STATION: A new threat intelligence report from Microsoft suggests Iran is strengthening its efforts online to influence the November election, AP’s Ali Swenson reports. The tech giant cites multiple incidents where the country sought to so disinformation online or get access to campaign and voter data. In one case, “a group linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in June targeted a high-ranking U.S. presidential campaign official with a phishing email,” while “Days later, the Iranian group tried to log into an account that belonged to a former presidential candidate, but wasn’t successful.” They aren’t the only ones … “The Microsoft report said that as Iran escalates its cyber influence, Russia-linked actors also have pivoted their influence campaigns to focus on the U.S. election, while actors linked to the Chinese Communist Party have taken advantage … current events in the U.S. to try to raise U.S. political tensions.” Related read: “Foreign TikTok Networks Are Pushing Political Lies to Americans,” by WSJ’s Georgia Wells, John West, Dustin Volz and Jack Gillum
| | | | During unprecedented times, POLITICO Pro Analysis gives you the insights you need to focus your policy strategy. Live briefings, policy trackers, and and people intelligence secures your seat at the table. Learn more. | | | | | 5. DOUG IN PARIS: “Doug Emhoff Stresses a Personal Push Against Antisemitism,” by NYT’s Aurelien Breeden: “‘It is a poison coursing through the veins of democracy and democratic ideals,’ Mr. Emhoff said on Friday at a commemoration of a deadly 1982 attack on a storied Jewish deli in Paris. ‘Part of fighting hate is living openly and proudly as a Jew and celebrating our faith and our culture … I love being Jewish, and I love the joy that comes with being Jewish. And I’m not going to let anyone tell me how to be Jewish.’” 6. LAY OF THE LAND: “White House, GOP push new remedy for housing: Selling federal land,” by Katy O'Donnell: “It’s simple in theory: The federal government — which owns roughly 28 percent of the land in the U.S. — would open up bidding for parcels to developers who commit to keeping a certain percentage of the units at an affordable level for the local population. … But there are numerous hurdles to developing housing on federal land, including clashing visions between the two parties over how the program would work and concern among environmentalists about a potential giveaway to developers.” 7. PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION: “Billion-dollar deficits, drastic cuts: Metro faces fiscal catastrophe,” by WaPo’s Michael Laris: “Billions of federal pandemic-relief dollars are now nearly gone, and the ‘nation’s subway,’ as some boosters call it, is facing massive deficits far into the future. … Either it’s ‘death by a thousand cuts or it’s death by a big sword,’ said Metro General Manager RANDY CLARKE, describing an ‘existential’ threat.”
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO GLOBAL PLAYBOOK: Don’t miss out on POLITICO’s Global Playbook, our newsletter taking you inside pivotal discussions at the most influential gatherings in the world. Suzanne Lynch delivers the world's elite and influential moments directly to you. Stay in the global loop. SUBSCRIBE NOW. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Kamala Harris won LULAC’s first-ever presidential endorsement. Pete Buttigieg raised more than $700,000 for Harris in Chicago. Tim Pool would like everyone to know he wasn’t serious about supporting RFK Jr. PLAYBOOK REAL ESTATE SECTION: “The Jackson Hole Ranch of Late Senator Herb Kohl Lists for $65 Million,” by WSJ’s Libertina Brandt: “Kohl lived full-time in Wisconsin, but bought the undeveloped ranch in the 1970s, using it as a getaway and a place to host friends, family and business associates … The ranch has roughly 1.5 miles of frontage on the Wild and Scenic Gros Ventre River, which is filled with native cutthroat trout and can be used for fly fishing and rafting.” WHITE HOUSE ARRIVAL LOUNGE — Ryan Nunn is now senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers at the White House. He most recently was assistant VP for applied research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. TRANSITION — Anna Leach Hartge is now senior adviser for strategic partnerships at AmeriCorps. She most recently was chief of staff of the Office of Communications and Outreach at the Department of Education. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
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