The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

What it’s really like covering the RNC

Fun — and odd — moments from Milwaukee

A policy reporter dives into campaign season

Behind the scenes of the Biden campaign

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What it’s really like covering the RNC

Welcome to The Readback, our weekend digest featuring the best of Punchbowl News – a quick roundup of all our scoops, analysis and Capitol Hill insight you won’t find anywhere else. We’ve also included a few of our favorite outside reads from the week.

Now let’s talk about the RNC:

We were in Milwaukee this week for the Republican National Convention. And we both had the opportunity to be on the convention floor for the highlight of the week: former President Donald Trump’s keynote Thursday night speech.

The address marked some of Trump’s first public comments following the harrowing assassination attempt he survived in Butler, Pa. And for the first 20 minutes of Trump’s Milwaukee speech, the entire arena listened — rapt with attention — as Trump described the shooting (for the first and only time, he said) in detail.

You could hear a pin drop. Delegates, the media, lawmakers — everyone was in a sort of stunned silence as Trump captivated the crowd with the remarkable tale of how his slight shift saved his life. It was a slice of history playing out before our eyes.

Trump sounded quiet, reflective even. This was the ‘new Trump’ that some advisers had promised when it emerged he had completely rewritten his speech following Saturday.

One emotional moment came when Trump tried to convey the unlikely nature of his survival by saying he wasn’t supposed to be here tonight. One person in the audience yelled, “Yes you are!” Soon, every Republican in the Fiserv Forum was united in a “Yes you are!” chant.

But Trump’s soft-spoken vibe didn’t last very long.

We were told before the speech that in the spirit of unity, Trump wouldn’t mention President Joe Biden once. Roughly 30 minutes into his address, Trump said Biden’s name. The reporters gathered on the convention floor swiveled around as if to say, “Did that just happen?”

Trump acknowledged the ad-lib and promised he wouldn’t mention Biden again. (He did.)

And just like that, we were back into Trump rally mode. Lengthy off-script divergences, insults aimed at Democrats and the media, a rambling cadence and strings of lies.

The speech stretched on and on, with delegates and journalists alike checking their watches and growing restless.

Trump finally finished well after midnight Eastern time, bringing a unique convention — with a distinct lack of GOP infighting that we’ve become accustomed to on the Hill — to a close.

In some ways, though, it felt like we were back at the Capitol. On Thursday afternoon, we staked out a meeting between Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s running mate, and GOP senators and candidates.

The meeting took place at a restaurant in downtown Milwaukee. Vance, of course, had his motorcade. But senators were walking in like they would to any other meeting on the Hill that we’d be staking out. Some of them joked to us that it was as if they — and we — had never left the Capitol.

What I’m reading/watching/listening to: The entire Punchbowl News team has been captivated by this Washington Post video featuring top Republicans struggling to answer what their song of the summer is. Come for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy citing a Bakersfield favorite, stay for South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster just listing every artist under the sun.

— Max Cohen and Andrew Desiderio

You can find The Readback in your inbox every Saturday at 10 a.m. And don’t hesitate to reach out to readback@punchbowl.news with feedback. Enjoy The Readback.

Fun — and odd — moments from Milwaukee

​​Political conventions are gatherings of the die-hards.

So it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that we encountered some of the biggest Donald Trump fans in the country — and they proved it with their outfits.

Some were as basic as a t-shirt saying they’re “voting for the felon” — a reference to Trump’s conviction in the New York City hush-money case.

An omnipresent sight was homemade ear bandages worn by delegates to show solidarity with Trump after the shooting.

Others… Well, see for yourself above.

The convention itself was something of a political Disneyworld. Everywhere you looked, there were stars of conservative media, leading politicians and political junkies.

An idea of the environment: We were chatting with former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) outside the arena on Tuesday. Ford is now a pundit on Fox News. During the five-minute chat, more than six separate people stopped and asked for a picture with Ford. These were the core, core Fox News demographic!

We even saw a bunch of Fox superfans waiting outside the network’s booth in the arena to catch a glimpse of the on-air talent as they made their way to and from the mini-studio.

One of our favorite things to do was showing up early to the arena and getting some work done in the morning. For starters, our seat in the rafters of the arena provided a quiet place with some WiFi. But better than that, you get a sneak peek of all the action to come later that night at the convention.

We received a preview of the top musical acts, including Kid Rock’s new Trump-themed song, a soaring opera rendition and country star Brian Kelley.

You also never know who you’re going to run into at these types of confabs. Andrew bumped into Dennis Quaid — yes, THE Dennis Quaid — at the CNN-Politico grill on Thursday night and snapped a selfie. Parent Trap fans rejoice!

Punchbowl News HQ: We were thrilled to be able to host a daylong event on Wednesday that brought together so many friends of Punchbowl News, including many of our sponsors and fellow journalists. A few lawmakers also stopped by.

The ice cream social was a big hit (how could it not be?) as was the live taco stand. Check out photos from Punchbowl News HQ here. And watch our behind-the-scenes video here.

Don’t miss: We’ll be headed to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention in August. Interested in attending the Punchbowl News HQ on Aug. 21? Please let us know here.

— Andrew Desiderio and Max Cohen

A policy reporter dives into campaign season

You don’t need me to tell you it’s been an absolutely constant, wild week of news. I can tell you, though, that the news catches us all – even when your beat is theoretically quieter.

The big news lately hasn’t been squarely in my (currently) quieter world of tax and financial services policy. But seismic political developments have a way of trickling into policy land.

It’s a sort of funny experience as a policy reporter. Big news unfolds. This week that ranged from former President Donald Trump picking Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate to Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-N.J.) conviction to the continued trickle of calls for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the Democratic ticket.

My first thought is usually, “Wow.” And then the Vault team and I (shout out to Brendan Pedersen and Dave Clarke) start chatting about what – if anything – this news means for our beat.

This week, that meant digging into the archives to find a February conversation I had with Vance about the child tax credit, which I rehashed for our look at his unique economic policy profile this week.

It also meant tracking the RNC and what went down at a big tax event alongside the convention from afar (while cheering on our team there in Milwaukee!).

We were able to bring readers key details about the tax fête, including a who’s who of the influential players on and off the Hill attending.

Then there’s the election. One of the things I really like about what I get to do at Punchbowl News is following the thread of my beat through political storylines. We know it’s all interconnected so we want to cover it that way. So it was fun digging into some ads airing on TV in big campaigns that talk about taxes.

On that note, if you’ve got ideas about how taxes are popping up on the campaign trail, reach out: laura@punchbowl.news.

What I’m watching: Season 2 of The Traitors. I know I’m late to the game on this one, but it’s so good.

A couple of Hill reporter friends had been trying to get me to watch this for a while, and I’m so glad I finally listened. Throwing a bunch of reality TV stars together to do outrageous tasks and turn on each other is a recipe for success. I’m already pumped for Season 3.

– Laura Weiss

Behind the scenes of the Biden campaign

President Joe Biden got a brief reprieve earlier this week, with the country’s focus on former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Convention.

But we knew the Biden campaign wasn’t sitting idly by amid a growing chorus of demands that he step aside. So this week, Max and I wanted to take readers behind the scenes of what the Biden team is doing to try to quell the rebellion among Democrats.

For Democrats, this is among the most sensitive of topics, even though more than 20 lawmakers (and growing) have said Biden shouldn’t run for president again.

Given the topic, it’s already hard to get Democrats to talk about this on the Hill. During a recess week when the party is focused on counter-messaging the Republican National Convention, it was even trickier.

But, we pulled together a list and both started reaching out to key voices who might be willing to talk. That includes prominent Biden supporters, like Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), who is featured in the item.

We also granted anonymity to members who were critical of Biden but didn’t want to go public so they could speak candidly.

So, what did we find out from our reporting?

Shoring up support: The campaign is keeping things pretty quiet for now, but we found that Biden has been trying to shore up support among key Democratic lawmakers of color, like leaders in the Congressional Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus and the Asian Pacific American Caucus. All three groups have received increased engagement from Biden allies in recent weeks.

Making amends: The Biden team has made an effort to make amends with some of the president’s opponents on the Hill. Campaign staffers reached out to lawmakers who didn’t get a chance to ask questions in Biden’s calls with various groups last week and apologized. We reported that Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) and Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) were both denied the opportunity to ask questions, despite signaling they wanted to do so multiple times.

But, this was all before Biden was hit with a triage of other issues. A day after our story ran, Biden tested positive for Covid. That same day, we also reported that Democratic leaders pushed the DNC to delay the virtual roll call vote to nominate Biden, and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) called on the president to step aside. Schiff is a close ally of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and is almost guaranteed to become the next senator from California.

This upcoming week is definitely going to be one to watch. The president has been adamant that he is in the race to the end, but there’s a lot lining up against him right now. Allies of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have signaled the two will be forced to go public with their misgivings about Biden’s candidacy if he doesn’t exit the race.

And we’ll note that Republicans have been having a good time at the expense of the Democratic infighting. Here’s a note from the Trump campaign this week that said they can’t lock in a date for the vice presidential debate yet because they don’t know who the Democratic presidential nominee will be. Ouch!

What I’m watching: I’m watching the original Melrose Place because everything is better in the 90s.

– Mica Soellner