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Wake Up To Politics - August 29, 2016

Monday, August 29, 2016
71 Days Until Election Day 2016
28 Days Until the First Presidential Debate
I'm Gabe Fleisher for Wake Up To Politics, and reporting from WUTP world HQ in my bedroom - Good morning: THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL!!!
To send me questions, comments, tips, new subscribers, and more: email me at gabe@wakeuptopolitics.com. To learn more about WUTP and subscribe, visit the site: wakeuptopolitics.com, or like me on Twitter and Facebook. More ways to engage with WUTP at the bottom.

  • Mark Your Calendars: Trump Immigration Speech on Wednesday After a week of raising questions over his “softening” immigration policy and canceling a speech on the issue planned for last Thursday, Republican nominee Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that he had rescheduled the address.
  • “I will be making a major speech on ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION on Wednesday in the GREAT State of Arizona,” Trump tweeted. “Big crowds, looking for a larger venue.”
  • Immigration was seen as Trump’s signature issue throughout the primaries, when he hit GOP rivals for not adopting as hard-line stances as he did. In recent days, Trump has been unclear on what his position is: his late 2015-early 2016 position of deporting all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States seems to be gone, replaced by a potential path to legalization for immigrants who leave but then come back and start paying taxes.
  • Speaking at Joni Ernst’s “Roast and Ride” event in Iowa over the weekend, Trump complained about media focus on his changing position. “All the media wants to talk about is the 11 million people,” he said, despite the fact that he had built his campaign on talking about illegal immigrants living in the U.S. “On day one, I’m going to begin swiftly removing criminal illegal immigrants from this country.
  • Trump’s running mate Mike Pence also offered a defense of Trump’s evolution over the weekend, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper that Trump would “articulate a policy” soon. “You see a CEO at work. You see someone who is engaging the American people, listening to the American people, hearing from all sides,” Pence said.
  • Link Roundup Must-read stories to start your day:
  • “Obama Finds an Ally in Wal-Mart, Whose Stores He Once Shunned”: “As a freshman senator with his eye on the presidency, Barack Obama said he’d never shop at a Wal-Mart and held the company up as an emblem of corporate greed.”
  • “Today, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is one of Obama’s most reliable corporate allies, a go-to partner that’s backed the White House on more than a dozen business initiatives, particularly Obamacare and climate change.”
  • “The pairing benefits both. Obama can point to Wal-Mart’s support to beat back Republican charges that he’s hostile to business. Wal-Mart can point to the president’s embrace to lure squeamish shoppers who, like Obama of old, have stayed away out of a belief the company hurts workers and undercuts competition. This is a key part of the company’s effort to spur continued growth.” (Bloomberg Politics)
  • “When LBJ and Goldwater Agreed to Keep Race Out of the Campaign”: “In retrospect, it’s clear that Barry Goldwater had a lot to gain by cynically playing the race card. It was 1964, and jittery Southern Democrats had fought in vain to prevent the historic Civil Rights Act from being signed into law. The South, solidly Democratic for a generation, was there to be won: Nationwide, a white backlash was already brewing.”
  • “Instead, Goldwater lost in one of the most lopsided elections in the history of the presidency. It probably could have been closer, except that he had a conscience.”
  • “On July 25, 1964, just over three months before Election Day, Goldwater visited the White House to privately talk to his opponent, President Lyndon B. Johnson. When he left, it was with a mutual promise not to exploit race for campaign purposes.”
  • “Now, with Donald Trump’s campaign flailing amid accusations of bigotry, it’s worth remembering a moment when a similarly hyperbole-prone candidate worked to reign in the fringe elements that could have easily overtaken his campaign.” (Politico Magazine)
  • “Inside debate prep: Clinton’s careful case vs. Trump’s ‘WrestleMania’”: “Hillary Clinton is methodically preparing for the presidential debates as a veteran lawyer would approach her biggest trial. She pores over briefing books thick with policy arcana and opposition research. She internalizes tips from the most seasoned debate coaches in her party. And she rehearses, over and over again, to perfect the pacing and substance of her presentation.”
  • “Donald Trump is taking a different approach. He summons his informal band of counselors — including former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, talk-radio host Laura Ingraham and ousted Fox News Channel chairman Roger Ailes — to his New Jersey golf course for Sunday chats. Over bacon cheeseburgers, hot dogs and glasses of Coca-Cola, they test out zingers and chew over ways to refine the Republican nominee’s pitch.”
  • “Trump’s aides have put together briefing books, not that the candidate is devoting much time to reading them. Trump is not holding any mock debates, proudly boasting that a performer with his talents does not need that sort of prepping. Should Trump submit to traditional rehearsals, some associates are talking about casting Ingraham, an adversarial chronicler of Clinton scandals, to play the Democratic nominee.”
  • “‘Donald Trump is the unpredictable X-factor and Hillary Clinton is the scripted statist,’ said Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s new campaign manager, in an interview. ‘I fully understand why Team Clinton feels the need to drown her in briefing books and Hollywood consulting.’” (Washington Post)
  • “Trump’s new aim: Poison a Clinton presidency”: “The trick out of Brooklyn isn’t just to make Hillary Clinton win but to make her win as something other than a brain-damaged crook who stole the election and will spend the next four years selling out the government from her deathbed.”
  • “The Clinton de-legitimization project is now central to Donald Trump’s campaign and such a prime component of right-wing media that it’s already seeped beyond extremist chatrooms into ‘lock her up’ chants on the convention floor, national news stories debating whether polls actually can be rigged, and voters puzzling over that photo they think they saw of her needing to be carried up the stairs.” (Politico)
  • Today on the Trail Neither member of the Democratic ticket has any public events today, although presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will attend a cocktail reception in East Hampton, New York tonight, at the cost of $33,000 to $100,000 per person.
  • Meanwhile, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will attend a fundraiser in Napa Valley, California tonight, with tickets ranging from $5,000 to $446,7000.
  • Trump’s running mate, vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, will campaign in Georgia today, holding a 2pm town hall at National Fairgrounds and Agricenter in Perry and a 7:30pm rally at the Cobb-Marietta Coliseum & Exhibit Hall Authority in Atlanta.
  • Despite voting Republican in every presidential election since 1996, the contest in Georgia this year is essentially tied. According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, Trump leads Clinton in the state by just 0.3%.
  • Polling Roundup A new poll released by Morning Consult on Sunday showed Hillary Clinton’s lead over Donald Trump shrinking. Clinton took 43% of the vote to Trump’s 40%, a three-point lead, in the national poll.
  • The poll was conducted of 2,007 registered voters, interviewed from August 24 to August 26; the margin of error was 2%.
  • In Morning Consult’s survey last week, Clinton was leading by six points, 44% to 38%. This week’s poll shows Trump and Clinton closer than in any of Morning Consult’s polling since late July, when Clinton also led by 3%.
  • According to Sunday’s poll, both candidates are still viewed unfavorably by a majority of voters, with 58% reporting negative views toward Trump and 47% holding a negative view of Clinton.
  • Also in the crosstabs: Trump’s “pivot” to African-American votes seems to be failing. The poll shows the Republican with the support of just 5% of black voters, compared to 79% supporting Clinton. Clinton also leads among women, 44% to 25%.
  • Quotes of the Day Top daily quote from each campaign:
  • Team Trump “I think that both candidates, Crooked Hillary and myself, should release detailed medical records. I have no problem in doing so! Hillary?” – Donald Trump tweet, Sunday
  • Team Clinton For all his lack of substance, Trump's showmanship, as ex-TV star, makes him a formidable debate foe. He thrashed his rivals in GOP debates – Brian Fallon (press secretary for Hillary Clinton), Saturday
  • Team Johnson “You know how crazy this election cycle is? I might be the next president.” – Gary Johnson on “Fox News Sunday”
  • Bonus: Video of the Day “Two Americas: Economy,” the latest Trump campaign ad, which goes on the air in Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, Nevada, Iowa, and New Hampshire today as part of a $10 million ad buy.
  • The 30-second spot, which can be seen here in YouTube, compares “Hillary Clinton’s America” (where “the middle class gets crushed, spending goes up, taxes go up, [and] hundreds of thousands of jobs disappear”) and “Donald Trump’s America” (where “working families get tax relief, millions of new jobs created, wages go up, [and] small businesses thrive”).
  • Today’s Trivia Today in…1957, Congress passed the first Civil Rights Act to become law since Reconstruction. The bill was only enacted after a record-breaking filibuster by which then-Senate?
  • Answer by emailing (trivia@wakeuptopolitics.com) or tweeting (@WakeUp2Politics) me by tomorrow! Correct respondents get their name in tomorrow’s newsletter.
  • Friday’s answer…on Friday, the trivia question was: what law gives the President the authority to create or expand National Monuments? (an authority he invoked that day).
  • The answer…the Antiquities Act of 1906. The law, signed by President Theodore Roosevelt, has been used more than a hundred times by sixteen presidents. A National Monument is protected by the National Park Service, just like a National Park.
  • GREAT JOB… Steve Gitnik, Shira Berkowitz, Devon Morris, Ellen Turnogian, Joe Bookman,  Joan Zucker, Thomas Alpert, and @ProfOrganizer!
  • Extra credit to those who mentioned “The West Wing” in their answer: the Antiquities Act is invoked by the show’s fictional President Josiah Bartlet in “Enemies,” the eighth episode of the first season, to create Big Sky National Park (the show incorrectly states that the law allows the President to create national parks) and protect the “pile of rocks” that a bill in Congress is attempting to allow be strip-mined.


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For more on Wake Up To Politics, listen to Gabe on NPR's "Talk of the Nation", St. Louis Public Radio, the Political Junkie podcast, and on StoryCorps; watch Gabe on MSNBC's "Up with Steve Kornacki"; and read about Gabe in Politico, the Washington Post, Independent Journal, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Salon, the Globe, and the St. Louis Jewish Light.