The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

Welcome to Chicago. On Biden, Harris, Congress and the week ahead

Get your rest and your Celsius: It’s convention week

Johnson to Arizona, N.M. for Dem convention week

House Republicans’ impeachment report is out. It means very little.

THE TOP

Welcome to Chicago. On Biden, Harris, Congress and the week ahead

Happy Monday morning.

And welcome to Democratic convention week.

The next four days in Chicago will be full of history, spectacle and lots of big speeches. It will be a huge moment for the Democratic Party and the country.

A woman of color will be formally nominated as a major party presidential candidate for the first time. President Joe Biden will symbolically hand off the title of head of the Democratic Party to Vice President Kamala Harris, signaling that his 50-plus years in politics are soon coming to an end (more on this below). Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, both speaking this week, are symbols of what Democrats once were, while Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will step out on the national stage for the first time.

Harris heads into the convention with clear momentum. New polls show Harris has opened a narrow national lead over former President Donald Trump, a dramatic turnaround for Democrats in the last few weeks. A new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll shows Harris’ favorability rating has dramatically improved, ticking up almost 10 points to 48%. The battleground states remain, well, battleground states.

Harris and Walz — who did a Pennsylvania bus tour on Sunday — are drawing big crowds, while the VP unveiled the core of her economic plan on Friday. The campaign’s fundraising is off the charts as the party base got a huge boost with Harris’ ascension to the top of the ticket. Harris’ campaign announced a $370 million TV and digital ad buy on Saturday that will last through Election Day.

We’ll see in the next several days how much this momentum has flowed downstream. The DCCC and NRCC will report their July fundraising totals this week. The DCCC has been beating the NRCC like a drum all cycle (more on that below.)

There will be a veritable tidal wave of Harris’ origin stories over the next few days — here are some good ones — as well as breathless coverage of a possible Beyoncé appearance. Queen! Maybe!

Yet, as always, don’t get caught up in the show. Trump still leads Harris on the biggest issues for voters: the economy, inflation and immigration. DNC officials remain very concerned about pro-Palestinian protests inside and outside the convention as Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas continues to divide the the party. A number of vulnerable Senate Democratic incumbents — Sens. Jon Tester (Mont.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Jacky Rosen (Nev.) — won’t be in Chicago, although Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin and Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey will be.

Trump is still the best thing Democrats have going for them. He’s the one issue on which they all agree. And let’s forget all the “Trump will focus on his message” or Trump reset stories. Seriously, after nine years of Trump, why bother with that anymore?

Trump is never going to give up personal attacks on his opponents because for Trump, everything is personal. Trump claiming he’s “better looking” than Harris or “Comrade Kamala” or the VP is anti-Jewish (yeah, ok) is what he knows best. Trump also said he’s “entitled” to personal attacks on Harris because she called him weird and Democrats want to throw him in prison.

But even Trump’s closest allies wince when they hear these kinds of ad hominem attacks on Harris, especially racist or sexist barbs. “Donald Trump, the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “Policy is the key to the White House.”

This is what GOP congressional leaders have been talking about for weeks. Ask NRSC Chair Steve Daines or NRCC Chair Richard Hudson. Or Speaker Mike Johnson.

However, Trump knows that policy chops didn’t win him the White House in 2016, and he’s treating Harris as if she were Biden. So all this makes sense in the Trumpian worldview.

Now let’s talk about Biden’s speech tonight. Biden huddled at Camp David over the weekend with senior advisor Mike Donilon and speechwriter Vinay Reddy putting together his address, which will be historic in its own right.

Biden aides say the president will lay out in his prime time speech why Harris — his partner over the last four years — should be the next president. In Biden’s view, nothing less than the fate of American democracy is at stake in this election. Biden saved it in 2020 by defeating Trump, now he wants to help Harris save it again in 2024.

This is an extraordinarily delicate line that Biden and Harris are walking here. Harris wouldn’t be where she is without Biden. Biden wants Harris and her supporters to know that he “did more in one term than most presidents do in two.” Biden desires credit for his accomplishments, and the Biden camp remains unhappy with how he was treated by his own colleagues — especially Obama and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi — before he withdrew from the race.

Yet Harris can’t get where she wants to be — the Oval Office — without creating some space from Biden. Biden knows this. It will be fascinating to watch how they handle it tonight — and all week.

– John Bresnahan, Jake Sherman and Andrew Desiderio

NEW: We’re excited to return to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference with our signature half-day event! This year our “Punch Up” activation will partner with Chime on Thursday, Sept. 12, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. This exciting event will feature can’t-miss editorial conversations on financial inclusion and the future of digital banking, including a one-on-one interview with New York Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks, great networking, activations, music and delicious food and drinks. Join us just steps away from the Convention Center at the Unconventional Diner. Learn more about the event and RSVP here.

THE CONVENTION

Get your rest and your Celsius: It’s convention week

Happy Monday to all in Chicago. The weather for this looks glorious — 70s, sunny, with no rain on the horizon.

Let’s be honest: You’re here to raise money and party. We feel you. Chicago is great and Vice President Kamala Harris will be making history. But it’s really about the parties. So let’s go.

The Leaders’ Day: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will both attend the New York State breakfast. Jeffries will talk about protecting New York Frontline Democrats and flipping key House seats in the Empire State. New York Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler, Yvette Clarke and Nydia Velázquez will speak, as will Gov. Kathy Hochul and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

Before the convention begins, Jeffries is hosting an NYCxCHI event with musical guests, donors, stakeholders and friends.

Schumer will also attend the Wisconsin breakfast and will take part in union events and DSCC engagements.

Also today:

– Elegant Empowerment Brunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

– PODER PAC’s party at the House of Blues from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

– Friends of Maui has a concert to benefit Maui at the Harris Theater from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

– Third Way has a welcome party at 5 p.m at the Sofitel Magnificent Mile.

– BOLD Night, which honors Latinos in government, will run from 9 p.m. to midnight.

– A late-night party honoring the LGBTQ Equality Caucus Leadership and allies in Congress at Sidetracks from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.

– Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has a post-gavel reception for the Maryland Democratic Party at the Chicago Athletic Association at 10:30 p.m.

– Jake Sherman

THE SPEAKER

Johnson to Arizona, N.M. for Dem convention week

Speaker Mike Johnson will be out West this week on a campaign swing that will take him to Arizona and New Mexico, according to a person familiar with his schedule.

Johnson will be in Arizona Wednesday and Thursday, fundraising for Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.) and Abe Hamadeh, who is running to fill retiring Rep. Debbie Lesko’s (R-Ariz.) seat in the Phoenix suburbs.

The Ciscomani fundraiser will be in Tucson. The Hamadeh fundraiser is in Paradise Valley at his brother’s home.

House Republicans, aides and advisers in the GOP’s larger political orbit have become alarmed in recent weeks at the party’s cash position vis-à-vis Democrats. The DCCC has $17 million more in the bank. And Democratic candidates have been consistently outraising their GOP opponents this cycle.

To give a sense of just how much the political landscape has shifted for Republicans, NRCC Chair Richard Hudson told us at the GOP convention in Milwaukee that he was looking to expand the number of seats the party would contest because of the strength of former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

By last week, Hudson told incumbent House Republicans on a conference call that they need to show more effort to hold the House.

Plus, this week Democrats have their convention in Chicago, from which the party is sure to get a huge boost.

Johnson, to his credit, has spent much of the summer fundraising. Johnson just had his retreat last week at the Four Seasons in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and he’ll be hopping from coast to coast in the coming weeks to raise money for House Republicans. This month, Johnson will have traveled to 20 states and over 40 cities.

During a House GOP political conference call last week, Johnson announced a $4 million transfer to the NRCC. He has given $20 million to the NRCC since becoming speaker in October.

Johnson has recently been in Colorado, Montana, Washington State and California.

– Jake Sherman and Melanie Zanona

IMPEACHMENT TRACKER

House Republicans’ impeachment report is out. It means very little.

House Republicans are unveiling a long-awaited report on their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden this morning, bringing a close to the nearly yearlong investigation that failed to deliver any meaningful action in the House, let alone a conviction in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The nearly 300-page report, jointly released by the House Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees, asserts that “Biden has engaged in impeachable conduct.” It includes a lengthy summary of the House GOP probe, which officially began last September when the inquiry was opened unilaterally by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

House Republicans have been sitting on this final report for weeks, as we scooped last month, while they debated the timing and content of the document. It’s even less relevant now that Biden is no longer the Democratic presidential nominee.

Here’s a key section from the report:

Again, to be clear, this is not going to lead to a Biden impeachment in the House, as many Republicans remain unconvinced that Biden committed high crimes or misdemeanors. While GOP investigators were sometimes able to put Biden closer to his family’s overseas business deals than was previously known, they struggled to prove that the president personally profited off those deals or made policy decisions because of them.

Now, top Republicans have claimed from the outset that their goal wasn’t to impeach Biden, arguing it was purely a fact-finding mission. But by many accounts, the investigation failed to deliver on some of the GOP’s biggest claims. Even Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who was largely the face of the probe, was eager to move on from it.

And it looks like he already has. In the last few weeks, Comer has launched investigations into Vice President Kamala Harris’ role overseeing the administration’s border policy and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s potential connections to China.

– Melanie Zanona

… AND THERE’S MORE

First in Punchbowl News: The NRCC is launching mobile billboards outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week, taking aim at several vulnerable Democrats who are planning to skip the gathering.

The House Democrats being targeted by the new NRCC campaign are Reps. Yadira Caraveo (Colo.), Matt Cartwright (Pa), Jared Golden (Maine), Mary Peltola (Alaska) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.). The billboards, which will start circling the convention area beginning at 8 a.m. today, will have pictures of all five Democrats along with the words: “Have You Seen Me?”

Downtown Download. Who would’ve thunk it. The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate has registered to lobby. The Boston-based institute has registered four lobbyists to petition Congress on “[f]ederal funding and grants to support civics education.”

The Campaign. Taxpayers are paying for an ad from Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.) talking about his commitment to Israel. This spot is being aired using the franking privileges afforded to members of the House. It’s airing in Syracuse, N.Y.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) has his first ad up of the cycle. With all that money — $3.9 million on hand and $5.7 million raised this cycle — we’re pretty surprised too. In the spot, Lawler touts bipartisan work with Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), who is featured in a news clip in the ad.

– Jake Sherman and Melanie Zanona

MOMENTS

CLIPS