A little over a week ago, when Kevin McCarthy was in Ohio campaigning for Troy Balderson, his phone rang. It was President Trump. McCarthy quickly put Trump on speakerphone for a conversation with Balderson and the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Steve Stivers.
Why this matters: What happened next highlights Trump’s freewheeling approach to electoral politics this year. Most presidents don’t get involved in primaries, but Trump — to the horror of some top Republican officials — relishes his role as party kingmaker. And while his political team gives him advice, they can’t control him.
Since last summer, Trump's staff have changed their philosophy on his vacation. When Trump unwound last year at his Bedminster golf club or at his Mar-a-Lago estate, his senior staff often scrambled to fill his time — planning events and scheduling golf games with people who might engage him in productive conversation. They feared he would live-tweet his favorite TV shows, setting off national and geopolitical firestorms (remember the Obama wiretap classic?).
What's happening: But now his staff have largely given up on futile efforts to supervise him, leaving the president's schedule open and unstructured. He dines with friends and allies each evening and has a prison reform roundtable on Thursday. But besides that, for his week-plus stay at Bedminster, he will, unless things change, be on "Executive Time."
President Trump tweeted Sunday that the purpose of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Russians, Donald Trump Jr., and some of his top campaign officials was "to get information on an opponent."
Why it matters: The claim represents the latest in a series of shifting explanations from the Trump team about the true nature of the June 9, 2016 meeting, which was first described as a "short introductory meeting" about Russian adoptions last summer before culminating with the president's admission this morning.
President Trump tweeted Sunday morning about the now-infamous June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Russians and Trump campaign officials, including his son, Donald Trump Jr.
"Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!"
Why it matters: Trump and his son have repeatedly changed their stance on the purpose of the 2016 meeting. In a statement to The New York Times last July, which investigators now know was dictated by President Trump, Don Jr. said the meeting was primarily about Russian adoptions. Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen has also claimed that the president approved the meeting ahead of time, contradicting continued denials by Trump and his legal team.
Republican officials have started calling the midterms the "Barbell Election."
The big picture: A House Republican aide explains that Trump's approval ratings are like barbells: bulging favorables and unfavorables on each end, and few in the middle who have no opinion or are persuadable. "Those unfav folks are coming out," the official said. "It’s so, so crucial to get those base voters."
The office of First Lady Melania Trump has released a statement in response to President Trump's late night jab at NBA star LeBron James explaining that she would be "open to visiting" James' new I Promise school in Akron.
The background: Late Friday evening, the president tweeted a response to James' interview with CNN saying it made him "look smart, which isn't easy to do."
President Trump called out NBA superstar LeBron James in a surprise tweet late Friday night, saying his interview with CNN's Don Lemon made him "look smart, which isn't easy to do."
Why it matters: This isn't the first time the president has feuded with black athletes. James said in his interview with Lemon that he can't "sit back and say nothing" in regards to Trump's attacks on athletes and dividing the country, CNN reports.
At a Q&A hosted by Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond, Senator Elizabeth Warren said the U.S. criminal justice system is "racist...front to back," the Associated Press reports.
Why it matters: Warren, a potential Democratic candidate for the 2020 presidential election, is hoping to pick up more support from the African American community, something Bernie Sanders failed to do in the 2016 election, per the AP. Richmond told the AP ahead of the event that the "biggest political frustration in the African-American community is that we have a bunch of Democrats" who "don't get it — the black experience, the black struggle."
Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein are among the Senate Democrats expected to meet with President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, upon returning from August break, the AP reports citing a senior Democratic aide.
Why it matters: Democrats had previously refused to meet with the nominee after the administration refused to consider nominating former President Obama's choice to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, Merrick Garland. According to the aide, "senators will demand the records in dispute from Kavanaugh directly and question him about their contents during their meetings with him." Kavanaugh recently turned over thousands of documents that are now in review.
