The 2020 Presidential Campaigns’ Battle Over Branding

Dan Pfeiffer: “Most Americans have paid little to no attention to politics since 2020. They aren’t following the day-to-day of the election or Trump’s trials. Most haven’t thought much about Trump since January 6th, 2021. Polls show that voters have a weird amnesia-fueled nostalgia for Trump’s presidency…” “Biden needs to remind voters of the chaotically erratic behavior that defined Trump’s presidency and caused a critical segment of the electorate to vote against him in 2020.

“CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate the first 2024 presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump next month,” Politico reports.

“Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) is open to reinstating the blue slip on circuit court nominees next year, a proposal that would restore significant power to the minority party to block the White House’s judicial nominees,” Politico reports. “Durbin said during a committee markup last week that he’d entertain conversations around restoring the blue slip — which home-state senators could use to effectively veto certain nominees — but only if it is bipartisan and agreed to before Election Day.

Jonathan Last: “Trump’s first term turned out much worse than anyone feared. He did the mean tweets and some racist stuff. He deployed armed, masked, and unbadged federal agents to grab citizens off the streets. He did his family separation policy with migrants. Not great, but also not ‘end of the Republic’ stuff.” “But then the sum of all fears hit.

Boston Globe: “Maybe pencil in the dates, but don’t write it down with a permanent marker.” “Coming up with dates, times and a television partner is the easy part. Agreeing to everything else, including who will moderate, could be very thorny especially when it is two campaigns in direct negotiations. Before the commission would just tell the candidates how the debates would be run and who would moderate.” “These agreed-upon debates could go haywire for any number of reasons.” “Among those skeptical these debates will happen?

“A jury was selected and sworn in Wednesday for the bribery trial of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ),” ABC News reports. “Federal prosecutors in New York have alleged that the New Jersey Democrat accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars, mortgage payments and a luxury convertible in exchange for the senator’s political clout.