Sunday Talk: Shut Happens

Politico: “If Republicans had any hope of Trump tempering his hard-line rhetoric in an effort to win back more moderate voters he lost to Joe Biden in 2020 — something more traditionalist Republicans have pushed for — his post-conviction messaging shows the former president may be unwilling to do so.” Said former Georgia GOP chair John Watson: “The former president is never going to get away from those components of his rhetoric.”

“President Joe Biden’s campaign launched an attack ad against former President Donald Trump from France on Friday, placing Trump’s past criticisms of members of the military against the image of the hallowed grounds of Normandy,” Politico reports. “The minute-long video — which was shared on X after Biden concluded a speech at Pointe du Hoc — went after Trump for reportedly disparaging service members, including calling them ‘losers’ and ‘suckers.'”

A new University of Chicago poll of voters under age 40 finds Joe Biden leading Donald Trump in the presidential race by just two points, 34% to 32% with 34% of respondents currently backing a third-party candidate or saying they would support “someone else.”

“What you don’t hear from Joe Biden is any attack on the judge, any attack on the prosecutor, any attack on the process by which his son is currently in federal court; any suggestion that he would misuse the presidential pardon power; any suggestion that his supporters should riot in the streets over it.

“Rep. Henry Cuellar’s (D-TX) corruption trial will take place next year after Election Day,” the Texas Tribune reports. “The Laredo Democrat was indicted last month on charges of bribery, money laundering and illegally working on behalf of the Azerbaijani government. His trial was scheduled to kick off in July, but now will not begin until spring 2025 with an interim pretrial conference in December.

“President Biden is dispatching his Cabinet members to help him sell his three signature legislative accomplishments in swing states. He’s also quietly deploying some of them to raise money and attend political events across the country,” Axios reports. “By day, they tout the president’s agenda. By night, they help collect checks on his behalf.” “The moonlighting secretaries — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo are particularly active — give donors what many desperately crave: An inside view of how Biden’s team plans to prevent Donald Trump from returning to the White House.” “It’s one of the advantages of incumbency as Biden tries to harness the prestige and power of the presidency to make his case for a second term — and fund that effort.”