Now that the presidential campaign and most of the furor over Hillary Clinton’s email scandal are behind us, the Pence administration is going to court to argue for its own brand of email secrecy. The administration is fighting to conceal the contents of an email sent to Gov. Mike Pence by a political ally. That email is being sought by a prominent Democratic labor lawyer who says he wants to expose waste in the Republican administration. … But legal experts fear the stakes may be much higher than mere politics because the decision could remove a judicial branch check on executive power and limit a citizen’s right to know what the government is doing and how it spends taxpayer dollars.
Of GOP insiders said Pence would beat Clinton in their states, Politico reports. “But only a 44% minority of GOP insiders say Trump would defeat Clinton in their state if the election were held today — fewer than the slightly more than half that picked Trump in recent weeks as he closed the gap with Clinton in the polls.”
Of those who watched the vice presidential debate thought Gov. Mike Pence performed better while 42% said they thought Sen. Tim Kaine won, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.
I think it’s inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country.
— Gov. Mike Pence, reaffirming the Trump campaign’s “extraordinary embrace of Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, signaling a preference for the leadership of an authoritarian adversary over that of America’s own president, despite a cascade of criticism from Democrats and expressions of discomfort among Republicans,” the New York Times reports.
Number of words Donald Trump uttered in their first interview together, while Mike Pence’s word count clocked in around 900. “When Pence did get the chance to speak, Trump would often cut him off with a correction or answer of his own,” reports the Washington Post: “Trump did most of the talking during the 21-minute segment that aired on Sunday night, while Pence sat beside him, gazing approvingly and allowing Trump to answer nearly all of the questions, even those directed at him.”
Number of minutes “Trump stood there alone … delivering a long and improvised riff that emulated his rallies instead of a traditional vice-presidential debut.” … If ever there was a moment for Donald J. Trump to share the spotlight, his formal announcement of his running mate on Saturday was it. Instead, his introduction of Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana was a remarkable reminder that ultimately, the Trump campaign is about one person,” the New York Times reports.
Gov. Mike Pence’s approval rating, according to a new Howey Politics Indiana poll — down from 62% in February. The survey was less than a month “after Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a law hailed as a reaffirmation of the First Amendment by supporters but derided as bigoted against gays and lesbians by critics.”
Well, I don’t know if we’re checkmating. But we’re trying — we’re trying to score a victory for the Republican people, for — for the American — for the Republican people — trying to score a victory for the American people, not for the Republican Party. That victory is going to come in stages here.
– Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), inadvertently telling the truth on Fox News about the true purpose of the tea party faction’s objective in shutting down the government.
The recent news out of Kentucky was just awful,
They found the senator unconscious and horizontal.
And since his hospitalization,
There’s been little news about his condition,
But now everybody’s having a 20-minute conversation with Mitch McConnell.
“We are done, Americans are done with endless conflict in the Middle East, spending trillions of dollars, American lives… this is insane and we have to call it for what it is.”
An Associated Press-NORC survey found that 44% of American Jews hold a favorable opinion of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, compared with 39% who view him unfavorably. By contrast, just 32% of respondents said they have a favorable opinion of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while 59% said they have a negative view.
“Their New Deal is socialism for the super-rich (and their own enrichment) even if it means increasing poverty, inequality, and illness at home and around the world. They also want to rewrite history to ignore and outright deny our past flaws while banning books that say otherwise from our libraries. And they select even our military leaders based on their version of political correctness over ability.”
— Former President Bill Clinton, quoted by Deadline, in his July 4th message.
President Donald Trump is asking for $1,500,000 million for the military for next year. That’s close to $600 billion (adjusted for inflation) more than we were spending on the military in fiscal year 2025, before Trump took office, Alternet reports. This increase is huge by any measure. It comes to around $4,600 per household. It is around 8% of the total budget.
A new Emerson College survey of likely 2026 voters finds the Democrats with an 11-point advantage over the Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, leading 53% to 42%. President Trump holds a 39% job approval rating, consistent with the past two months, whereas his disapproval increased another point, to 57%.
A new American Research Group poll finds just 30% of Americans say they approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president and 67% say they disapprove.
Wall Street Journal: “Around 40% of voters in the 2024 election said the economy was their top issue, far outstripping any other matter. And those voters favored Donald Trump by 60% to 38%. Many say they were moved by his pledges to tame inflation, rebuild U.S. infrastructure, cut red tape and trim government waste. … About a year and a half later, more voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy than approve, 61% to 35%, an average of polls by the Cook Political Report found this month.”
A Reuters analysis of Trump’s public comments from June 23 through July 6 (13 days) — when a string of left-wing Democratic candidates won their party’s primaries in New York — found he invoked communism 81 times.
