Senate Dems Call On Postal Service Board To Reverse Changes Amid Concerns About Mail
Leigh Ann Caldwell
WASHINGTON Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other top Senate Democrats are increasing pressure on the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors to reverse changes enacted by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy amid concerns those changes could hurt the Postal Service’s ability to handle mail-in votes this fall.
The letter expands scrutiny of the Postal Service beyond DeJoy and to the six-member Board of Governors, all of whom were appointed by President Donald Trump.
You have the responsibility to reverse those changes and the authority to do so, the senators wrote.
The letter sent to the Board of Governors Monday morning and provided to NBC News is the latest effort by Congressional Democrats to halt and reverse the policy and operating directives implemented by DeJoy.
The Board of Governors has the authority to intervene in decisions made by the postmaster general. The group selected DeJoy for the position n May.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi informed House members this past weekend that they should expect to return to Washington to vote on legislation by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., to prevent any changes made to the Postal Service until the coronavirus pandemic is over. That vote is expected to take place on a rare Saturday session this week.
Trump defended DeJoy’s actions last Saturday as a way to turn around the agency, denying the moves were meant to discourage mail-in voting.
Biden Campaign To Air New Spot Across Cable Channels During Rnc
Mike Memoli
WASHINGTON Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign announced Monday that it will air a new television spot contrasting Biden’s vision for the United States with President Trump’s presidency on cable airwaves during the Republican National Convention as part of a $26 million ad campaign this week across broadcast, cable, radio and digital platforms.
The 60-second spot, entitled, “Heal America,” argues that the United States needs a team that’s “up to the task” of handling the four simultaneous crises plaguing the nation public health, economic, climate, and racial injustice.
“Together, they’ll lead America, unite America and heal America. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris: because a united America will be a better America,” the ad narrator concludes.
Biden Trump Campaigns Debut New Ads Ahead Of Biden’s Dnc Speech
WASHINGTON Ahead of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s acceptance speech Thursday at the Democratic National Convention, Biden and President Donald Trump’s campaigns are out with new ads to push their own Biden messaging.
Biden’s campaign unveiled an ad entitled, “What happens now”, which documents the former vice president’s experience during the economic crisis after the 2008 recession as proof he will be able to build back the economy from the coronavirus pandemic. The television ad is a part of the Biden campaign’s latest $24 million media buy next week and will air in key battleground states: Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The Biden campaign will also be expanding a previous ad that’s been running in Ohio titled, “Backbone.” That ad documents Biden’s upbringing in Scranton, Penn. and his understanding and commitment to working class families. Per the campaign, this is the “first major push during the general election” to lay out Biden’s biography. Biden’s life story has been a marquee of the DNC this week, with several speakers talking about Biden’s father losing his job and moving his family to Delaware from Pennsylvania for work.
And, as the DNC closes, the Trump campaign is out with a new digital ad highlighting a Biden figure that hasn’t taken part in the week’s festivities: Biden’s son Hunter.
Hunter Biden hasn’t appeared at the DNC, except for in a short clip when he eulogized his brother, Beau.
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President Trump Expected To Host Fundraiser In Florida Despite Coronavirus Spike
Monica Alba
WASHINGTON President Trump is expected to travel to Florida next week to host a high-dollar, in-person fundraiser on July 10 for his re-election effort, according to a Republican familiar with the event.
The dinner is set to take place at a private home in Hillsboro Beach, Fla. and will raise money for Trump Victory, the joint fundraising effort between the campaign and the Republican National Committee.
Ticket prices for the event are $580,600 per couple, and Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale and RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel are slated to co-host.
Due to health concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, all donors will have to test negative for the virus on the day of the fundraiser and the will also have to pass temperature checks and fill out a wellness questionnaire before the event. Test costs will be covered by Trump Victory.
Florida has seen a dramatic increase in coronavirus cases in recent weeks the state has had about 113,000 new cases since June 1, about two-thirds of the state’s 169,106 cases, according to NBC News analysis.
This will be the president’s first high-dollar fundraiser in July. In June, Trump hosted two multi-million, in-person fundraisers: one at a private residence in Dallas and one in Bedminster, N.J. at his golf resort.
The fundraiser comes after presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee outraised the GOP entities for the second consecutive month.
Trump Campaign Focuses Cable Tv Buys On Fox News While Biden Makes A Wider Play
Ben Kamisar and Melissa Holzberg
WASHINGTON Since April 8 the day Joe Biden became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has spent 52 percent of its cable TV ad spending on ads airing on Fox News, according to data from Advertising Analytics.
That differs from the Biden campaign’s cable TV buys, which have directed nearly 22 percent for ads airing on Fox News, 23 percent on CNN and 10 percent on MSNBC.
Trump has spent just 9 percent of his cable TV buys on CNN, and 6 percent on MSNBC.
And the two candidates are spending drastically different amounts on cable TV Trump has spent about $15 million, while Biden has spent about $2.5 million.
Cable TV buys don’t show the full picture of either campaign’s TV investments both have spent millions of dollars on traditional network TV ads, and the president has far outspent Biden at most advertising turns .
But the glimpse at how the candidates are approaching cable TV buys is one of many examples of Trump playing to his base while Fox News enjoys strong ratings across the board, polling also shows Fox News viewers are far more likely to support the president.
Of course, that doesn’t mean voters feel assured that Biden will win. While Biden carried support from a majority of registered voters in Pennsylvania in a recent Monmouth University poll, 57 percent of Pennsylvania voters said there is a “secret” group of voters who will support Trump but not tell anyone.
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Broad Coalition Of Progressive Groups Launches Effort To Aid With Voting Protection
Heidi Przybyla
WASHINGTON In the closing weeks of a general election, the vanguard of Democratic advocacy groups would typically be focused on electing candidates championing their various issue agendas from gun safety to veterans and women’s issues. But this year, a number of such groups are banding together for what they say is an unprecedented and necessary cause: preserving the integrity of the 2020 vote.
The campaign, which includes gun safety, women’s reproductive rights, LGBTQ, Latino and veterans groups, launches Wednesday to “serve as a powerful counterweight to President Trump’s and the Republican Party’s relentless and unprecedented voter suppression efforts and attacks on the right to vote, especially in the middle of a pandemic,” according to a statement given to NBC by organizers of the effort.
Hogan Gidley White House Spokesman To Move To Trump Reelection Campaign
Monica Alba
WASHINGTON White House spokesman Hogan Gidley will join the Trump campaign as its new national press secretary starting next week, the campaign announced Tuesday.
Hogan Gidley will be leaving the White House on July 1 and heading over to my campaign to be the National Press Secretary. He is a strong, loyal and trusted member of the team that I know will do an outstanding job! We must WIN this election! Follow him at .
Donald J. Trump
Gidley has been with the White House since October of 2017 and has served in several communications capacities, most recently as the principal deputy press secretary. Gidley will technically replace Kayleigh McEnany, who became the current White House press secretary when she left the role of the campaign’s national spokesperson in April.
Hogan Gidley has been at the Presidents side for three years and now he joins the fight to re-elect him, Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager, said in a statement.
He is a talented advocate and defender of the President and his policies and is never afraid to go into battle with hostile reporters and television hosts. Hogan is a great addition to the team and makes us even stronger.
Its the latest example of crossover and overlap between the White House and the outside re-elect effort as the incumbent president seeks a second term.
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Biden Campaign Raises Roughly $365 Million In Largest Monthly Haul To Date
WASHINGTON Former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign announced Wednesday that it had raised a record monthly haul of $365 million in August, a busy month that included the campaign adding California Sen. Kamala Harris to the ticket as well as the Democratic National Convention.
In a letter to supporters, Biden said that of the $364.5 million raised, $205 million came from online donations. The campaign also disclosed that 1.5 million Americans donated to the campaign for the first time in August.
Indications of a record monthly haul became evident after the campaign announced weeks ago it had raised $70 million during the virtual Democratic National Convention and $48 million in the two days after Biden announced Harris as his running mate.
Biden’s fundraising effort has seen a major jolt since the start of 2020, when the campaign only raised $57 million in the first three months, and had a smaller presence on television during the key stretch of primaries. The campaign has raised more in August than it did in the entire second financial quarter of 2020, when it brought in $282.1 million.
The combination of Bidens comeback to win the nomination and the onset of the pandemic, during which the Biden team stayed off the airwaves for weeks, allowed the campaign to stockpile funds through the spring and slowly cut into President Trumps once-massive cash on hand advantage.
Monica Alba contributed.
Biden Campaign Releases Two New Ads Focused On The Black Community
WASHINGTON The Biden campaign released two new digital ads focused on the Black community as a part of their $15 million, five-week ad buy in battleground states. The campaign started to run these digital ads on Juneteenth as well as radio and print advertisements as part of their mid-six figure investment in Black media in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona and North Carolina.
The one-minute ad titled Always recounts how Bidens career has been shaped by wanting to stand up and act against injustices. It briefly touts his early career fighting for the Black community by combating housing discrimination to being chosen former President Obamas vice president.
In a memo obtained by NBC News last week, the campaigns director of paid media explained the ad would re-introduce voters to the former vice president at a time when the Trump campaign is trying to discredit his civil and voting rights record. Notably the ad does not mention Biden signing the 1994 crime bill.
The second one-minute digital ad stresses whats at stake in this election, particularly in light of the civil unrest following the killing of George Floyd. The ad shows images of hurt protestors and armed officers as well as President Trump’s now infamous walk to St. John’s cathedral after police aggressively dispersed peaceful protestors.
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Nebraska Democratic Party Calls On Senate Nominee To Withdraw After ‘sexually Inappropriate Comments’
Ben Kamisar
WASHINGTON The Nebraska Democratic Party is calling on its party’s Senate nominee to step down after he made what it calls “sexually inappropriate comments” about a campaign staff member.
A former staffer of Omaha baker and Democratic Senate nominee Chris Janicek sent the party a formal complaint about Janicek, turning over a copy of the text message containing the remarks. That prompted the state party to privately demand Janicek’s decline the party’s nomination by Monday, as state party officials have the power to replace him on the ballot if he withdraws by Sept. 1.
But upon learning Janicek would not step down, the party’s executive committee voted unanimously to strip him of all party resources and released a statement publicly calling for him to step aside.
Our Democratic Party has no tolerance for sexual harassment, Jane Kleeb, the state party chair, said in a statement.
Our party will not extend resources or any type of support to any candidate that violates our code of conduct and doesnt treat men and women with the dignity and respect they deserve.
The Omaha World-Herald reported Tuesday that Janicek sent the text in a group message to at least five others, where he made a sexual comment directed at the former female staffer. That staffer was also a part of the group text.
And a spokesman, Scott Howitt, told the paper that Janicek apologized to all of the staffers he sent the message minutes after he made the comments.
Senate Democrats Want $350 Billion For Minority Communities In New Pandemic Relief Bill
Leigh Ann Caldwell
WASHINGTON While Republicans work on drafting the parameters of the next coronavirus relief bill, Senate Democrats are proposing that hundreds of billions of dollars targeted toward minority communities be included in the next legislative effort.
Senate Democrats say their $350 billion proposal is an important down-payment to address systemic racism and historic underinvestment in communities of color and also provide relief the communities that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID.
In a one-page white paper on their proposal for underserved communities, Senate Democrats say the fund will help the severe burden the pandemic has had on minority communities.
“Long before the pandemic, long before this recession, long before this years protests, structural inequalities have persisted in health care and housing, the economy and education. Covid-19 has only magnified these injustices and we must confront them with lasting, meaningful solutions that tear down economic and social barriers, and reinvest in historically underserved communities, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
The proposal comes as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to unveil Senate Republicans’ next relief bill as early as next week, setting up a clash with Democrats over a path forward as the economy still feels the impacts of pandemic.
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Virginia Republican Bob Good’s Campaign Ad Labelled ‘racist Dog Whistle’ By Dccc Aide
Liz Brown-Kaiser
WASHINGTON Republican House candidate Bob Good debuted his first campaign ad Tuesday in Virginias Fifth Congressional District, which a top Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee aide was quick to label a racist dog whistle.
Good a former Campbell County supervisor who previously worked for Liberty University is running against Dr. Cameron Webb, a physician and public health expert. He would be the first Black doctor in Congress if elected.
With chaos in our streets, Cameron Webb would make things worse. Webb would defund the police while crime spikes, the TV spots narrator says over dissolving footage of destruction and protests into a photo of Webb.
Look past the smooth presentation. Webbs real agenda: Government-run health care, higher taxes on the middle class, police defunded, crime unchecked, the speaker continues, calling Webb way too liberal.
The DCCC took issue with the ad shortly after it went live.
Lets say it plainly, this #VA05 ad is a racist dog whistle running because Bob Good knows he cant explain why voters should trust him over Cameron Webb to keep them safe during COVID-19, DCCC communications director Cole Leiter tweeted.
Lets say it plainly, this #VA05 ad is a racist dog whistle running because Bob Good knows he cant explain why voters should trust him over Cameron Webb to keep them safe during COVID-19.
Cole Leiter
Steve Bannon Former Top Trump Aide Applauds Biden Buy American Event
Kristen Welker and Mike Memoli
DUNMORE, Pa. A former top adviser to President Donald Trump is warning that Joe Bidens bid Thursday to wrest away one of his few remaining advantages in the 2020 race the economy could prove a success.
Steve Bannon, who played a lead role in the closing months of Trumps 2016 campaign and then in the early stages of his presidency, told NBC News that the former vice president appeared to be stealing notes from 2016 playbook.
Biden on Thursday, near his hometown of Scranton, rolled out the first plank of his Build Back Better economy plan, focused on attempting to revive American manufacturing through a significant infusion of federal dollars to buy American-made products, while also investing heavily in domestic research and development.
In a blistering speech, Biden said that the president had failed to live up to the promises he made to working-class voters in communities like the ones near his hometown of Scranton, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The truth is: Throughout this crisis, Donald Trump has been almost singularly focused on the stock market, the Dow and NASDAQ. Not you, not your families, he said. “If I’m fortunate enough to be elected president, I’ll be laser-focused on working families, the middle-class families that I came from here in Scranton, not the wealthy investor class.
To Bannon, it was an effective approach run as a populist and economic nationalist to keep Bernie voters.
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