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IN THIS EDITION

GOP struggles to find its Harris message

Vulnerable Dems see chance for ‘reset’ with Biden out

Inside Johnson’s assassination commission

THE TOP

GOP struggles to find its Harris message

Happy Tuesday morning.

House Republicans just got the rug pulled out from under them.

They’re so used to running against President Joe Biden and seem to be struggling mightily with how to run against Vice President Kamala Harris, a 59-year-old woman of Black and Indian heritage who is now the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Consider just what’s gone on during the last couple days. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) called Harris a “DEI hire,” a shocking remark that Democrats pushed back hard on.

Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah), one of just four Black House Republicans, then told us that Harris is “the greatest example of DEI.”

More Owens: “For those who believe in DEI, this is exactly what DEI is like. Kamala Harris.”

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) said on Sunday that Democrats “have to stick with her because of her ethnic background.” We followed up with Grothman on this, who then informed us “I don’t think people view her as Black.”

Grothman added that people “just view her as someone who did nothing on the border.”

Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), when asked if Republicans need to be careful in how they talk about Harris’ race, told us: “I’m not going to get into all the color stuff. I’m just looking at performance.”

What’s happened to Harris, Biden and the Democratic presidential ticket has no direct precedent. Democrats dumped Biden just months before the election, leaving Harris roughly 100 days to rally the party — and the nation — to her side.

But it’s also a problem for the GOP, which has spent the last couple of years probing every facet of Biden’s life. They dug into his family’s business deals. They considered impeaching him. They highlighted Biden’s every weakness, misstep and fumble. Now all of that’s changed.

Harris is a diametrically different challenge for Republicans. Biden is old and occasionally confused. Harris is younger and sharp. Biden is a white man. Harris is a woman of color. There are lots of firsts in Harris’ bio, of course.

Former President Donald Trump seemed to try out some attack lines against Harris on Monday night, labeling her as “Lyin’ Kamala” while calling himself “a fine and brilliant young man named DONALD. J. Trump.” At 78, Trump is more than 18 years older than Harris. Harris is trying out her own lines on Trump too.

To be clear, there are openings for Republicans to score political points against Harris. Biden did tap her to oversee the crisis at the southern border. Harris and the whole Biden administration clearly failed there. And the Trump campaign will tag her with the same economic talking points they were going to hit Biden on. Harris will be responsible for all the successes and failures of Biden’s presidency.

To that end, the House Republican leadership is moving headlong to the floor with an “emergency” resolution “strongly condemning the Biden Administration and its Border Czar, Kamala Harris’s, failure to secure the United States border.”

This non-binding resolution carries no actual weight. Passing the measure this week certainly isn’t an emergency, even if the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border is a pressing issue. What they really want to do is bash Harris on the issue, and this resolution from GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik is the vehicle to do that.

Speaker Mike Johnson told us Monday evening that the 2024 race is a contest “between policies not personalities.” Here’s more from Johnson:

But it’s clear there are some concerns inside the Republican Party about messaging against Harris.

An NRSC campaign “memo” Monday said that Harris sometimes laughs at “inappropriate moments.” They also criticized her love of Venn diagrams. Yeah, OK.

The NRCC, the House GOP’s campaign arm, sent talking points to their members in competitive races warning of the challenges of trying to define a presidential candidate in roughly 100 days. This will be critical for not only the presidential race but also down-ballot contests.

“Republicans have never had less time to define the presidential nominee of our opponents,” the memo said, according to a copy obtained by Punchbowl News. “Because of that, it is vital that our entire Conference is on message and working together to present Kamala Harris as an extreme San Francisco progressive who is out of step with the American people.”

The House GOP Conference also sent out a messaging memo to its members, making clear that a central part of their strategy will be linking Harris to Biden’s most unpopular policies, particularly at the border.

Nowhere in these memos does it say that Republicans should define Harris as being a DEI hire.

“It’s certainly not something I’m going to say,” NRCC Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) told us. “I’m going to remain focused on the policies.”

— Jake Sherman, Melanie Zanona, and John Bresnahan

THE SENATE

Vulnerable Dems see chance for ‘reset’ with Biden out

Democratic candidates in battleground Senate and House races are breathing a sigh of relief that the party is finally turning the page on a calamitous few weeks they feared would upend their own races.

President Joe Biden’s decision to step aside and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris has, for now, ended an embarrassing intra-party feud.

With the party rapidly coalescing around Harris and tens of millions of dollars pouring in, Democrats running in the most competitive contests see this moment as a “reset” that neutralizes Republicans’ months-long efforts to tie them to Biden — and more recently, Biden’s mental acuity.

“Once [Biden’s] decision was made, the family, the coalition got put back together,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told us. “There was a lot of money [that] just came off the sidelines in a very decisive and almost joyful way… That shows the anti-Trump coalition still exists and just needs to be activated. Now everybody understands it’s go time.”

House Democrats on Monday kept referencing the newfound “energy” they felt over the past 48 hours.

“I think Harris will continue to generate a lot of enthusiasm, which has obvious positive effects down-ballot,” said Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), who represents Frontliners in leadership.

“I love Joe Biden, but I think it’s a fact that we were having a difficult time activating our base,” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) said. “We have that problem solved.”

The Harris campaign announced Monday it raised a stunning $81 million in the 24 hours since Biden dropped out. Even more notable was the fact that 60% of the donors were giving for the first time, per the campaign.

And the DSCC on Sunday tripled its cycle record for individual grassroots donations on a single day. The DCCC also had a strong Sunday with nearly $1 million raised in the 24 hours following Biden’s announcement.

This is obviously good news for Democratic campaigns. But money isn’t everything, and Senate Democrats are still defending seats in states that Trump will win handily or is currently leading. Several vulnerable Democrats haven’t yet formally endorsed Harris.

The skeptics: The holdouts include Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) as well as Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine), Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.).

Rep. Emilia Sykes (D-Ohio) said she’s not sure how Harris will perform in swing districts like hers, despite endorsing the vice president.

“Just like any other candidate, she’ll have to let people know who she is and introduce herself,” Sykes said. “As a down-ballot candidate, you’re worried about everything.”

Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) backed Harris but also said: “A lot of swing voters back home, they don’t really know who she is.”

The key to victory for candidates like Tester and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is to distinguish themselves from the national party brand. That means they’ll need to outrun Harris by massive margins.

Democrats have long pinned their hopes on the notion that their competitive races are candidate-vs.-candidate battles. But the top of the ticket is undeniably a major factor.

Democratic campaign officials say those Democrats who called on Biden to step aside before Sunday — including Tester and Brown — showed they were willing to stand up to their party, a key element of their pitches to voters. In most battleground states, the GOP Senate challenger is running behind Trump in the polls.

GOP view: In a new memo, NRSC Executive Director Jason Thielman said Harris becoming the nominee “creates a strong down-ballot opportunity for Republicans.”

Thielman argued concerns about Biden’s mental acuity were “difficult to translate down-ballot,” and that Harris is “a bigger threat” to Democrats’ Senate majority than Biden was. And he recommends that GOP candidates “aggressively” tie their opponents to Harris, arguing she owns Biden’s record, particularly when it comes to the border.

— Andrew Desiderio, Max Cohen and Mica Soellner

HOUSE INVESTIGATIONS

Inside Johnson’s assassination commission

During the House Republican leadership’s weekly meeting Monday, Speaker Mike Johnson and his aides made one fact very clear: He intends to fill his slots on the commission to investigate the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump with serious lawmakers, not headline chasers.

The future of the panel depends on that.

House Democratic leaders have signaled that they are likely to join the committee if Johnson appoints sober, fact-seeking Republicans.

The House is slated to vote to create the panel later this week. The resolution, authored by Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Mike Kelly, mandates an 11-person panel. That means that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries can choose five Democrats to serve along with six Republicans, but Johnson gets effective veto power over Jeffries’ selections.

Johnson and Jeffries spoke by phone Monday evening about the task force, which would have full subpoena power.

Kelly seems likely to get a seat on the committee since it’s his resolution. House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) is interested in chairing the panel, as are Reps. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.), who was at the Trump rally, and Dan Bishop (R-N.C.). Bishop is running for attorney general of North Carolina.

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) pitched himself to Johnson personally, making the case that his military background and seat on the House Oversight Committee would make him well-suited for the post.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), meanwhile, said he communicated to GOP leadership that he’d be “be happy to go do it, if that’s helpful.”

Other names mentioned by GOP leadership insiders include Reps. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio.), Jerry Carl (R-Ala.) and Jake Ellzey (R-Texas).

Democrats are still sorting through potential candidates. But one name we’ve heard is Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). Thompson is the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security panel and chaired the Jan. 6 Committee.

Cheatle news: Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) filed a privileged resolution Monday night to impeach Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle over the security failures in the run-up to the Trump campaign rally. Republican leaders now have two legislative days to schedule a floor vote on the matter.

This comes after the disastrous House Oversight Committee hearing Monday, where Cheatle struggled to answer questions about how a would-be assassin was able to come within inches of killing a presidential candidate.

So far, Cheatle has resisted growing calls for her to resign. But given the bipartisan fury over the security failures, we wouldn’t be surprised to see some Democrats support Mace’s impeachment resolution. That would make Cheatle’s position politically impossible.

— Melanie Zanona and Jake Sherman

THE SENATE

Schumer to move on kids online safety package

News: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will kick off the process today to pass an unprecedented legislative package aimed at protecting minors from the harms of social media, with an initial procedural vote expected as soon as Thursday.

The package of bills, which includes the Kids Online Safety Act and the Children’s and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act, represents the most significant federal crackdown on Big Tech companies and social media platforms in the digital age.

The bills impose new privacy rules and require the platforms to give parents and guardians increased control over their children’s account settings. There’s broad bipartisan support for both pieces of legislation.

Schumer has tried to secure a time agreement in order to pass the package quickly, but hasn’t been able to get unanimous consent. Absent an agreement, final passage wouldn’t be until next week.

“It has been a long and daunting road to get this bill passed, which can change and save lives, but today, we are one monumental step closer to success,” Schumer told us.

Schumer is expected to announce his strategy during a floor speech after the Senate gavels in this afternoon.

— Andrew Desiderio

THE CAMPAIGN

We have a bunch of new ads, first for you here in Punchbowl News.

NRCC goes after Peltola: The NRCC’s independent expenditure arm is running its first ad of the entire 2024 campaign attacking vulnerable Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola (Alaska) by tying her to President Joe Biden. The spot features Peltola standing up for Biden’s “mental acuity” while also playing a clip of Biden stumbling during the June debate.

Gaetz attack: Florida Patriots PAC, the anti-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) group, is running a new ad about a controversial 2018 private trip Gaetz took to the Bahamas. The ad claims that Gaetz was accompanied by top donors and “five young female escorts,” one of whom was a teenage girl.

Allies of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy are trying to unseat Gaetz ahead of his Aug. 20 primary in the state’s 1st District. Remember: This PAC is backed by America Fund, which is funded by Republican donors like billionaire businessman Harlan Crow.

Wisconsin primary watch: State Rep. Katrina Shankland, a Democrat running in the state’s 3rd District primary, is airing three new ads ahead of the Aug. 13 primary. Shankland is challenging Rebecca Cooke for a chance to unseat Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.). In one ad, Shankland touts her legislative record while riding an ATV. Other spots focus on Shankland’s support from a teachers’ union and her position on health care.

Crypto PAC spends in Washington State: Protect Progress, a pro-cryptocurrency PAC, is launching a $1.4 million ad campaign to boost Democratic state Sen. Emily Randall in the 6th District race to succeed retiring Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.). The ad, which is running on cable, broadcast and digital, highlights that Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) has endorsed Randall.

— Max Cohen

MOMENTS

CLIPS