| | | | |  | | By Eugene Daniels, Rachael Bade and Ryan Lizza | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| 
Kamala Harris continues to show strength in the polling while Donald Trump searches for firm footing in the final stretch. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | NEW POLLS — A new NBC News national poll out this morning has good news and warning signs for both VP KAMALA HARRIS and former President DONALD TRUMP. The poll finds Harris with a 5-point lead over Trump among registered voters (49 percent to 44 percent). That includes a 16-point bump in Harris’s favorability since July, “the largest increase for any politician in NBC News polling since then-President GEORGE W. BUSH’s standing surged after the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” according to NBC. And when voters were given the ability to pick from the major third-party candidates, Harris’ lead actually increased against Trump: 47 percent to 41 percent, with ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. and JILL STEIN both taking 2 percent and Libertarian CHASE OLIVER pulling in 1 percent. Voters still give Trump the advantage on two of the biggest issues on voters’ minds: the economy and inflation. But his leads have decreased on both since Harris has taken over the top of the ticket. Meanwhile, a new CBS News/YouGov poll finds Harris with a 4-point lead nationally among likely voters, with a 2-point lead among likely voters in battleground states. TWO BIG-PICTURE READS … 1. On Harris’ strategy: After election cycles in which Democrats have hemorrhaged support from Latino voters, the party is making a “major shift” in outreach — an effective “rebuke of the belief long held by many Democrats that overt appeals on race and progressive policies on immigration are key to winning Latino votes,” as Megan Messerly and Daniella Diaz report this morning. “Harris is attempting to chart a path away from identity politics, including in the way she’s courting Latino voters in states like Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania. … Latino strategists on both sides of the aisle said the strategy reflects the diversity of Harris’ staff, which includes campaign manager JULIE CHÁVEZ RODRÍGUEZ, who is the granddaughter of the labor leader and civil rights activist CESAR CHÁVEZ. They say it also reflects a candidate who has a first-hand understanding of what it means to be defined by others on the basis of race or gender.” 2. On Trump’s campaign entering a new “turbulent phase”: For months, Trump’s topmost advisers have insisted that his 2024 campaign is, by har, the most disciplined political operation he’s ever run — an assessment we agree with, having reported on his prior two campaigns. Then came the past three weeks, which revealed that “whatever control and self-restraint helped launch Trump’s third presidential campaign has largely disappeared in the crucial final stretch,” WaPo’s Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and Marianne LeVine report. This isn’t just about LAURA LOOMER, or the baseless accusation that Haitian refugees in Ohio are eating dogs, or his attack on TAYLOR SWIFT, etc. It’s about a seemingly flailing campaign message. “[T]he current period has also ushered in a degree of policy incoherence. He has vacillated on abortion — an issue that has bedeviled him since Roe v. Wade was overturned with the help of Supreme Court justices he appointed — while abruptly announcing a proposal for federal coverage of IVF treatment. Facing pressure to compete with Harris, who is promising various tax credits if elected, Trump promised Tuesday in a social media post to ‘get SALT back’ — an apparent reversal of the 2017 law on state and local tax deductions that he implemented as president. He also offered an incoherent answer recently on how he would handle child care expenses, suggesting that his proposed sweeping tariffs would bring down those costs.” IN THE BATTLEGROUNDS — Here’s the rundown of the latest from the battleground states: — In Wilmington, North Carolina yesterday, Trump stumped before a typically boisterous crowd, speaking behind a pane of bulletproof glass while introducing supporters to two of his young grandchildren. “Trump liberally meted out hellos to prominent North Carolina Republicans, including Sen. TED BUDD, Reps. DAN BISHOP and DAVID ROUZER, state GOP Chair JASON SIMMONS, Republican National Committee Chair MICHAEL WHATLEY — and even Florida GOP Rep. ANNA PAULINA LUNA,” Ally Mutnick writes. Conspicuously absent was the man at the center of the political firestorm raging in the state: Lt. Gov. MARK ROBINSON. In the wake of a devastating CNN exposé this week, Republicans are concerned that his campaign is a sinking ship that could pull down the Trump campaign in the state. Worth flagging: Trump “devoted a chunk of this speech to a new appeal to women — ‘let’s talk about our great women, all right, because women have gone through a lot’ — promising to bring an end to the ‘national nightmare’ of the Biden administration. In an extended riff on an all-caps Truth Social post from late Friday night, Trump declared women were poorer, less healthy, less safe, paying higher grocery prices, more stressed and less optimistic than they were four years prior — but ‘I will fix all of that, women. I will fix all of that.’ ‘Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free,’ he said. ‘You will no longer be thinking about abortion, because it is now where it always had to be, with the states, and with the vote of the people.’” Related read: “Vance says allegations against Mark Robinson 'aren't necessarily reality,'” by NBC’s Lauren Mayk and Megan Lebowitz — In Pennsylvania yesterday, TIM WALZ rallied a crowd of about 1,500 in Bethlehem, a Lehigh Valley city long associated with the steel industry. The area — situated in of one of the most important swing counties in the nation — has flipped back and forth between the two parties in recent election cycles, as Meredith Lee Hill writes (it narrowly went for JOE BIDEN in 2020 after Trump carried it in 2016 and BARACK OBAMA won it in 2008 and 2012). What we’re watching in PA today: Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY will visit the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant today to thank factory workers who produce critical munitions for his nation’s fight against Russian aggression. To be clear: It’s not a campaign stop, but it’s not not political, coming as it does in a campaign where American support for Ukraine’s war effort has been a point of sharp division between the Trump and Harris campaigns. — In Georgia, the ghosts of 2020 loom large. Voters are split over whether Harris or Trump is the better pick to “strengthen democracy,” as WSJ’s Jimmy Vielkind and Cam Pollack report from Lilburn. (They note that few, if any, states have had to deal with such prominent and baseless allegations of “rigged elections” stemming from the 2020 vote.) And across Atlanta’s sprawling suburbs, voters are energized, NYT’s Rick Rojas finds. — In Michigan, Democrats are hoping that a wave of youth enthusiasm (for Harris and in defense of abortion rights) will bolster the party’s candidates this fall, as NYT’s Catie Edmondson reports from MSU’s campus on the banks of the Red Cedar River. (Among the potential beneficiaries of the vibe shift: Rep. ELISSA SLOTKIN, who is running for U.S. Senate, and CURTIS HERTEL, the former state senator who hopes to succeed her in an open House race that is among the nation’s most hotly contested.) More broadly, Republicans in the state are flummoxed that they have seen “little sign of the teams tasked with knocking on doors and turning out infrequent voters on behalf of Donald Trump, raising concerns about the party’s presidential nominee relying on outside groups for an important part of his campaign operations,” AP’s Thomas Beaumont and Joey Cappelletti report from Lansing. WHAT YEAR IS IT AGAIN? — “The Civil War Still Echoes in the South, Forcing Towns to Take Sides,” by WSJ’s Scott Calvert and Cameron McWhirter Good Sunday morning, and welcome to the first day of fall. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
| | | | A message from Instagram: Introducing Instagram Teen Accounts with automatic protections for teens.
Starting in September, Instagram is launching Teen Accounts with built-in protections limiting who can contact teens and the content they can see. Plus, only parents can approve safety setting changes for teens under 16.
This means parents can have more peace of mind when it comes to protecting their teens.
Learn more. | | | SUNDAY BEST … — Rep. JASON CROW (D-Colo.) on the Secret Service, on ABC’s “This Week”: “There’s no doubt they need additional resources, but additional funding of resources is not going to solve the problem between now and Election Day, so we need to have a discussion about what needs to happen in the next 45 days, actually, sooner than that, to make sure this does not happen again.” — Rep. MIKE KELLY (R-Pa.) on political violence, on “This Week”: “We have people acting out in a bad way, and something spurring them on to do that. A lot of it is the rhetoric. We’ve got to be careful about what we say and when we say it.” — Rep. MIKE WALTZ (R-Fla.) on the Secret Service, on “Fox News Sunday”: “We can talk about more funding, but that will take some time to get into place. And for God’s sake, if we need to buy the Secret Service some drones, I’ll hold up my credit card and buy drones, technology, whatever they need to get us through this election and over the next over the next few months.” — Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) on Trump’s comments about Jewish voters, on “Meet the Press”: “My advice to President Trump is that the Jewish-American voter, I’m sure they do care about Israel. There’s been no better friend of Israel. But talk about crime, talk about the economy, talk about inflation, talk about the border.” On the recent reports surrounding North Carolina Lt. Gov. MARK ROBINSON: “The charges are beyond unnerving. If they’re true, he's unfit to serve for office. … This is hanging over his campaign. Trump won in 2016 and 2020 when the governor candidate lost both times. I don’t think this hurts Trump. But as to Robinson, he's a political zombie if he does not offer a defense to this that's credible.” — Sen. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-Pa.) on whether Israeli PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU is “prolonging” the war in the Middle East, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “I thought what Israel chose to do about blowing up the pagers, and then walkie-talkies, and then after targeting and eliminating membership and leadership of Hezbollah, I absolutely support that. And in fact, if anything, I love it. And Israel demonstrated that they will not allow terrorists not to be held accountable, and I fully support that.” TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.
| | | | A message from Instagram:   | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | At the White House Biden will depart Wilmington, Delaware, to return to the White House in the afternoon. On the trail Harris will travel to New York for a campaign event.
| | PLAYBOOK READS | | 9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR
|  Biden convened leaders from Australia, India and Japan for the Quad leaders summit in Delaware this weekend. | Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo | 1. QUAD GOALS: With leaders from the Indo-Pacific gathered at his home in Delaware yesterday, Biden was heard saying he “believes China’s increasing military assertiveness is an effort to test the region at a turbulent moment for Beijing,” AP’s Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani report. “Biden’s comments were caught by a hot mic after he and fellow leaders of the so-called Quad delivered opening remarks before the press at a summit he’s hosting near his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. He said his administration sees Beijing’s actions as a ‘change in tactic, not a change in strategy.’” What Biden said: “China continues to behave aggressively, testing us all across the region, and it’s true in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, South China, South Asia and the Taiwan Straits. … At least from our perspective, we believe [Chinese President] XI JINPING is looking to focus on domestic economic challenges and minimize the turbulence in China’s diplomatic relationships, and he’s also looking to buy himself some diplomatic space, in my view, to aggressively pursue China’s interest.” 2. CORPORATE COUNSEL: Despite her campaign’s focus on everyday consumers, Harris has been “making a quiet play for Corporate America’s support, seeking out advice from leaders across sectors,” WSJ’s Tarini Parti, Emily Glazer and Maggie Severns report. “She has offered few policy specifics, but many executives say they view her openness to their feedback as enough for now.” Harris’ outreach to Wall Street and Silicon Valley types marks a “different approach than the one taken by Biden, who business leaders say didn’t make a concerted effort to engage them beyond formal meetings.” Among those who have been courted: MARK CUBAN and JAMIE DIMON. 3. UP FOR DEBATE: Harris laid down a fresh challenge to step onto the debate stage again yesterday, agreeing to an Oct. 23 debate hosted by CNN. But Trump responded quickly, arguing that the time has passed. “I’d love to, in many ways, but it’s too late, the voting is cast, the voters are out there,” Trump said at a rally in North Carolina. But in yet another instance of Trump and running mate JD VANCE singing from different hymnals, the Ohio senator said at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania that he’d be open to a second debate against Walz on top of their first debate set for Oct. 1. More from Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing 4. THE TAX MAN: “How Trump Could Upend Taxation in America,” by NYT’s Andrew Duehren: “His ideas — if they all became law, far from a sure thing in Washington — would in effect move the United States closer to a taxation system used in many other countries. Most advanced economies, including Canada, Germany and Japan, collect value-added taxes, essentially a national sales taxes on goods and services. “The United States is unique for not having such a tax. Many economists generally support so-called consumption taxes, which they view as an efficient and hard-to-evade way of collecting money for the government. Still, several of those economists do not view Mr. Trump’s proposals as the right way to reorient the country’s tax system, arguing that they could explode the deficit, spur trade fights and disproportionately burden lower-income Americans.”
| | | | A message from Instagram:   | | | 5. TRUMP 2.0: As Trump plots out what a return to the White House would look like, he is planning “to lead the GOP charge on gender identity,” WaPo’s Hannah Knowles writes, “testing the legal limits of federal action as the Supreme Court also takes up the issue.” However, Trump has been less vocal and clear on gay rights, “an issue where he is sometimes out of step with his most conservative Christian supporters” — though the first Trump administration did little to advance anti-discrimination laws. “Civil rights groups are already raising alarms and preparing to challenge Trump’s agenda in court.” 6. ON THE RECORD: “Harris Cracked Down on Violent Offenders, Showed Leniency on Less Serious Crime,” by NYT’s Robert Draper: “a close examination of her 12 years as an elected prosecutor, including interviews with more than 30 people who worked with her, shows a coherent record that is for the most part consistent. Ms. Harris seemed particularly focused on protecting the most vulnerable victims by cracking down on violent offenders while seeking alternatives to incarceration for less serious criminals. “Her priorities as a prosecutor became especially clear once she was given the authority by voters to establish them, after more than a decade spent working for other district attorneys. Those efforts were not always successful or politically advantageous, yet she undertook them anyway.” 7. ON THE GROUND IN OHIO: As the racist rhetoric against migrants in the community swirls around Springfield, Ohio, “parents, students, teachers and local officials are contending with threats that have derailed the community’s schools just weeks into the academic year,” Irie Sentner reports. “The city has seen dozens of threats in recent weeks, targeting schools, government buildings, hospitals and stores. Some public schools were evacuated last week before DeWine summoned state troopers to guard them.” 8. MUCK READ: “Lobbyists exploit massive loophole to wine and dine lawmakers, aides at fancy getaways,” by Adriana Navarro, Caley Fox Shannon, Taylor Nichols and Heidi Przybyla: “In 2007, after one of the biggest scandals in K Street history, Congress cracked down on lobbyists’ ability to wine and dine lawmakers and aides with a host of reforms — including limits on extravagant, all-expenses-paid trips. “In the nearly two decades since, the influence industry has blown a hole through those rules, according to a new analysis of House travel disclosure data by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland in partnership with POLITICO. U.S. representatives and their staff have taken at least 17,000 trips since 2012 that were paid for by private parties, many of them nonprofits with deep ties to lobbyists and special interests.” 9. POLITICAL VIOLENCE WATCH: “The Surprising Reality of Political Violence in America,” by NYT’s Charles Homans: “Instances of extremist violence have actually declined in recent years by some key measures. Although some Americans continue to say they approve of political violence, support for the most serious types of violence has not increased amid election-related tensions this year. And neither apocalyptic political rhetoric nor extraordinary events over the past few years have produced eruptions of political violence of the sort that many feared would become more commonplace after the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”
| | PLAYBOOKERS | | Barack Obama racked up a big fundraising tally for Kamala Harris. Angela Alsobrooks improperly claimed tax deductions on her properties in D.C. and Maryland. IN MEMORIAM — “Dan Evans, former Republican governor of Washington and US senator, dies at 98,” by AP’s Chris Grygiel and Gene Johnson: “Dan Evans, a popular three-term Republican governor of Washington state who went on to serve in the U.S. Senate before leaving in frustration because he felt the chamber was too rancorous and tedious, has died. He was 98. Evans died Friday, according to the University of Washington, where he had served as a regent and where the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance bears his name.” OUT AND ABOUT — Brooke Rollins, president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute and a Trump White House alum, was honored at the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s 35th Anniversary Ball with the Sam Houston Award. SPOTTED: Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Chad Wolf, Matthew Whitaker, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Pam Bondi, Doug Collins, Michael Faulkender, Ashley Hayek, Brett Tolman, Fred Fleitz, Alveda King, Heidi Overton, Paula White-Cain, Jack Brewer, Preston Parry, Catharine Cypher, Chase Forrester, Alexandra Campana Caro and Jessica Hart Steinman. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Natalie Pahz, a director of comms at CBS News who works on “60 Minutes” and the foreign desk, and Keyvon Pahz, a consultant for FactSet, in early August welcomed Wilhelmina Wallis Pahz. Pic … Another pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Jeffrey Goldberg … White House’s Kirsten Allen … CNN’s Jamie Crawford … POLITICO’s Kelsey Powers … NSC’s Daniel Gastfriend … U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman … Rich Meade of Prime Policy Group … Reta Jo Lewis … Kelly Coldiron … Katie McBreen of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association … Edelman’s Kelsey Cohen … former Sen. Tim Wirth (D-Colo.) … former Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) and Bill Enyart (D-Ill.) … Tommy Burr … Sandra Smith of Fox News … Joe Van Wye … Will Hadden … Monument Advocacy’s Matt McAlvanah and Winda Wanikpun … Amy Chozick … Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Institution … Carl Cameron … Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. … Stacy Kerr … Bill Middendorf (1-0-0) … TJ Ducklo ... Garrett Stephens of the Pivot Group ... Brett Broesder ... Heather Dawn Thompson … Lyndsay Keith … NBC’s Katherine Doyle … Daniela Fernández of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute … Stephanie Murray … Melissa Byrne … Kenneth Geller of Mayer Brown … Jeremy Siegel … Pavan Venkatakrishnan of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget … Elizabeth Markus of House Appropriations … CBS’ Kristin Brown … Tara Wilson of Sen. Ed Markey’s (D-Mass.) office … James Slepian 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.
| | | | A message from Instagram: Introducing Instagram Teen Accounts: a new experience for teens, guided by parents.
Starting in September, Instagram is launching Teen Accounts with built-in protections limiting who can contact teens and the content they can see. Plus, only parents can approve safety setting changes for teens under 16.
So parents can have more peace of mind when it comes to protecting their teens.
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