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“I have watched with dismay and increasing horror as my nephew, who is an educated man and well aware of his heritage, has become the architect of immigration policies that repudiate the very foundation of our family’s life in this country. … If my nephew’s ideas on immigration had been in force a century ago, our family would have been wiped out.”
— Stephen Glosser, uncle of White House aide Stephen Miller, writing in Politico.
“There are problems with impeaching Donald Trump. A big one is the holy terror waiting in the wings. … That would be Mike Pence, who mirrors the boss more than you realize. He’s also self-infatuated. Also a bigot. Also a liar. Also cruel. … To that brimming potpourri he adds two ingredients that Trump doesn’t genuinely possess: the conviction that he’s on a mission from God and a determination to mold the entire nation in the shape of his own faith, a regressive, repressive version of Christianity. Trade Trump for Pence and you go from kleptocracy to theocracy.”
$1 billion
Associated Press: “The November midterms are on pace to shatter records for political spending. While more than $1 billion raised so far nationally is helping finance battlegrounds that are poised to decide control of Congress, restless donors aren’t stopping there — they’re also putting cash into races and places they never have before to help underdog Democrats.”
“It’s like a fire. Fires are a part of the ecosystem, part of the natural progress. And when the forest burns, it’s purified. There can be new growth. For there to be new growth of a conservative movement, of a right center party, the one that I joined in 1988, it needs to burn to the ground.”
— Former GOP strategist Steve Schmidt, talking about the Republican party on MSNBC.
“Well, he’s had the nuclear codes for a year and a half, and we’ve been all right.”
— Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), in an interview with the Weekly Standard, on his comments during the 2016 primaries that Donald Trump was so mentally unstable he couldn’t be trusted with the nuclear launch codes.
50
“Fifty Democrats running for the House say they won’t support the California lawmaker for speaker, according to an NBC News survey of candidates and their public statements.” … “At least 41 of the party’s nominees for House seats have declared they will not back Pelosi and nine incumbent Democratic lawmakers are on the record opposing her… An additional 34 Democratic nominees are neither for nor against Pelosi, who has led her party in Congress since 2003.”
14
Washington Post: “Unlike most states, Vermont has no age requirement for gubernatorial candidates, only a residency requirement. [Ethan] Sonneborn, who has lived in Bristol for 14 years — his entire life — makes the cut.” … “With all those hurdles cleared, could Sonneborn… actually win the Democratic nomination on Aug. 14? Probably not. Age aside, he is hamstrung by very low name recognition, a problem that his adult Democratic opponents face as well. But hey, nobody thought a 14-year-old would actually run, let alone land himself on the ballot, let alone participate — and hold his own — against his adult competitors in several candidate forums.”
$41.7 million
Republicans and affiliated outside groups have now spent about $41.7 million on special elections this cycle as compared to just $12.3 million for the Democrats. First Read: “That’s more than a 3-1 ratio. And it shows just how much Republican outside groups were propping up their candidates in these specials, and how untenable that model will be for November.”
“There’s a real likelihood that they not only win the House, but they win it by 10 or 12 more seats than they need.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), quoted by the New York Times, on midterm election prospects for Democrats.
“We won a district where we can nominate a bag of cement… and we won by 1,000 votes. That means… they are playing 50 seats deep in our infield and almost winning. What does that tell you about our midterms?”
— GOP strategist Mike Murphy, quoted by The Atlantic, on what last night’s Ohio special election says for the November midterms.
