Morning Report — Trump calls for unity; Biden eyes exit?

by TheHill.com - 07/19/24 6:43 AM ET

Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.

It was a study in contrast.

Thursday marked a boisterous and celebratory end to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee as former President Trump officially accepted the nomination to become his party’s candidate. Across the aisle, the mood was tense, as pressure mounts on President Biden to drop his reelection bid.

Democratic insiders said Biden could make a major announcement about his future in the coming days, The Hill’s Amie Parnes and Alexander Bolton report. Congressional leaders, meanwhile, expect that Vice President Harris will become the nominee if Biden drops his reelection bid. The talk among high-level strategists and donors has now turned to who is best positioned to serve as Harris’s running mate, with a short list of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D).

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) both communicated to senior party leaders that they would not be interested in serving on the ticket.

Two key figures who could help bring the president closer to a decision are former President Obama and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The Washington Post reports Obama has told allies in recent days that he thinks the president needs to consider the viability of his candidacy. And since Biden’s dismal debate performance three weeks ago, Pelosi has listened to members, huddled with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and called Obama, writes The Hill’s Amie Parnes. Behind the scenes last week, Pelosi relayed her concerns to Biden, coupled with poor polling showing he would lose to Trump.

“She’s like a magician,” said a source close to Pelosi. “She’s extraordinarily intentional.” With Biden, the source added, “She’s trying hard to keep the balance and helping him reach a decision by gently pulling, never pushing.”

IT ALL BOILS DOWN to Biden’s most perilous moment yet, The Hill’s Niall Stanage writes in The Memo. The president has tried several times to heal the wound he inflicted upon himself with his dismal debate performance on June 27 in Atlanta. But none of it has worked. The 81-year-old Biden, now self-isolating with COVID-19, has offered grim counterprogramming to an energetic Republican convention this week, writes The Hill’s Alex Gangitano. While Biden is isolating in Delaware, his campaign has been releasing ads and holding press conferences to counter Republicans — but the president himself will not have any public appearances for at least a few days.

TRUMP CLOSED OUT an emotionally charged convention with an appeal for the country to heal “discord and division” days after he was injured in an assassination attempt — even as he mocked and attacked his opponents. In a speech that lasted more than an hour, Trump dramatically recounted the experience of the shooting at his rally five days prior, and he opened and concluded with calls for Americans to set aside partisan divisions he has often stoked himself.

“I am running to be president of all of America, not half of America,” he said.

Those calls for unity didn’t last throughout the speech; instead he delivered something akin to a rally speech with an intensely somber opening. He simultaneously urged Americans to stop fighting among themselves while railing against Democrats and frequently going off script.

Trump referred to an “inflation crisis,” an “illegal immigration crisis” and an “international crisis” that he blamed on “the current administration.” He described a bleak state of affairs in the four years since he left office, calling the country a “nation in decline.”

▪ The Hill: Key takeaways from the fourth and final day of the Republican convention.

▪ The Washington Post: Fact-checking Trump’s speech on Day 4 of the convention.

▪ The Hill: Five key moments from Trump’s speech.

▪ The New York Times analysis: Trump promised to bridge political divides on Thursday, and then returned to delighting in deepening them.

▪ The Hill: Biden is “more determined than ever” to beat Trump after his RNC speech, according to his campaign.

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY

▪ A massive tech outage is sweeping the globe today, knocking out operations for banks, media companies and emergency services, and forcing airlines to ground flights.

▪ The number of migrants crossing the southern border continued to drop in July, nearing a threshold that would require officials to lift a partial ban on asylum claims enacted by Biden.

▪ Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said Sean O’Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, apologized to him after both drew headlines for challenging each other to a physical fight at a hearing last year.

LEADING THE DAY

MORE IN POLITICS

UNEXPECTED UNITY: Republicans are finding themselves in a somewhat unexpected position: fully in sync, while Democrats hash out a major internal disagreement in public. It’s been a remarkable split screen playing out this week, writes The Hill’s Brett Samuels. Republicans are gathered in Wisconsin, unified and energized behind Trump’s candidacy, while Democrats are in open disagreement over whether Biden should remain atop the ticket.

It’s a far cry from the 2016 Republican convention, when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) — who also spoke this week — urged delegates to vote their conscience and some in the party were resigned to defeat in November.

Meanwhile, phone calls between lawmakers and the heads of the Secret Service and FBI have done little to quell a growing litany of questions as to what actions law enforcement officers did — and didn’t — take ahead of the shooting at Trump’s rally. New admissions that the Secret Service had flagged gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks as “suspicious” and a possible threat more than an hour before the shooting have placed intense heat on the agency.

With more questions than answers at this point, Republicans have intensified calls for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s removal. Cheatle so far has refused to step down, with the agency asserting that the “continuity of operations is paramount during a critical incident.” The Hill’s Ellen Mitchell breaks down four key revelations about the incident.

Democrats are sharpening their attacks against Trump’s vice-presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), calling him an anti-abortion extremist and a Trump clone who will pursue a far-right agenda that’s hostile to women. The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel reports Democrats see abortion as a key weakness for the Trump ticket, and are eager to highlight Vance’s past comments and positions to draw a contrast with Harris.

“A Trump-Vance administration will jeopardize reproductive freedom in all 50 states,” Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All, said on call Monday. “This isn’t an abstract idea. We know they have no plans to stop at overturning [Roe v. Wade].”

2024 Roundup

▪ Behind all the pageantry, the convention made clear what Trump’s governing style would look like in a second term: assertive, adversarial and unconstrained.

▪ A top adviser to Trump called for the Secret Service director’s resignation on Thursday, as the agency took steps to bolster security for the Republican nominee’s next rally on Saturday.

▪ Details on Trump’s health after the shooting have been trickling out from friends and family.

▪ Republican efforts to win over Black voters during the convention in Milwaukee may have fallen short as GOP members failed to showcase party diversity and fell back on controversial talking points.

▪ An overwhelming majority of Latino voters in a recent survey said they feel used as pawns by politicians who don’t actually care about them.

▪ Lou Dobbs, the conservative television and radio host who loomed large over the cable news landscape for decades at CNN and Fox Business, died Thursday. He was 78.

WHERE AND WHEN

The House will meet Monday at noon.

The Senate will convene Monday at 11:30 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The president is in Delaware, isolating with COVID-19.

Vice President Harris has no public schedule.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is in Arizona. He will speak at a campaign event in Scottsdale before attending events in Tempe and Phoenix. In the evening, he will attend the WNBA All-Star Weekend Skills Challenge and 3-Point Contest.

ZOOM IN

© The Associated Press / Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Orange County Register | California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a law this week barring school districts from passing policies that require schools to notify parents if their child asks to change their gender identification.

EDUCATION & TECH

CALIFORNIA HAS THROWN DOWN a new gauntlet in the fight over transgender students, writes The Hill’s Lexi Lonas. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) this week signed a law saying teachers could not be required to tell parents about a student’s name or pronoun change in most circumstances, leading to at least one district filing a lawsuit and tech billionaire Elon Musk announcing he would pull his businesses out of the state. While LGBTQ advocates say the law will prevent forced outings and protect young people, opponents argue California is withholding vital information from parents about their children. The move is the first of its kind and came after multiple schools in the state attempted to implement policies requiring the opposite.

CNBC: The White House announced Thursday it will cancel $1.2 billion in student debt for 35,000 workers, a result of recent fixes to a popular debt relief program for public service workers.

HOUSING AND HIGH FINANCE are the two sectors of the economy where government regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) is most needed, a House Financial Services Committee working group concluded after a series of meetings with industry players. The group’s report paints a picture of AI as becoming infused within numerous financial subsectors and stitched into the transactional fabric of the economy (The Hill).

The Wall Street Journal: Scientists have asked a gripping question: Are three thumbs better than two? To answer it, they’re deploying robotic digits.

ELSEWHERE

INTERNATIONAL

EUROPE MUST PREPARE for a decade of war in Ukraine, said Jens Stoltenberg, the outgoing secretary-general of NATO. Stoltenberg told the BBC the “paradox” of the war in Ukraine is the longer the alliance commits to fighting, the faster a resolution will be reached.

“The paradox is that now [Russian President Vladimir Putin] believes that he can wait us out. So therefore, the war continues,” he said. “When we communicate very clearly that we are here for [the] long haul, that we have strong enduring support for Ukraine, then we have the conditions for a solution where Ukraine prevails as a sovereign independent state.”

Stoltenberg’s Thursday comments came as leaders from across Europe expressed support for Ukraine and concern about the direction of the U.S. at a security-focused summit clouded by worries about whether Washington will remain a reliable ally if Trump wins a second term (The Hill).

The Washington Post: The prosecution in Russia’s closed trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich for alleged espionage requested an 18-year prison term on Friday.

CEASE-FIRE TALKS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise visit to troops in Rafah, southern Gaza on Thursday, saying it was essential that Israel keep control of a strip of territory along the enclave’s border with Egypt. Netanyahu is set to address Congress next week, and the speech is expected to be contentious, particularly if he cannot close a deal with Hamas to end the war before he travels.

Yair Lapid, the leader of Israel’s parliamentary opposition, on Wednesday called on Netanyahu to cancel his speech unless he planned to announce an agreement. “He needs to declare a hostage deal — without inventing conditions or raising obstacles every 10 minutes,” Lapid said on Israeli news radio, alluding to reports that Netanyahu has complicated negotiations by adding conditions that Hamas would likely resist (The New York Times and The Associated Press).

▪ The Hill: Biden is expected to see Netanyahu when he is in Washington next week, but the White House cautioned the president’s recovery from COVID-19 will take priority.

▪ NBC News: Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to reject the establishment of a Palestinian state, reflecting a decline in support for a two-state solution.

▪ The New York Times: The Iran-backed Houthi militia claimed responsibility for a drone attack in central Tel Aviv that crashed into a building near the U.S. consulate early this morning.

OPINION

■ Trump meets half the moment in his RNC speech, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board.

■ Rushing Biden’s nomination would be a grave mistake, by The Washington Post editorial board.

THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏👏👏 Congratulations to this week’s Morning Report Quiz winners! Our puzzle took a cue from current headlines and explored the historical presidential assassination attempts.

Here’s who went 4/4: Tom Chabot, Lynn Gardner, Harry Strulovici, Susan Reeves, Tim Pike, Stan Wasser, Adam Prucka, Rich Davis, Bill Moore, Joe Erdmann, Rick Schmidtke, Peter Sprofera, Robert Moore, Chuck Schoenenberger, Steve Jenning, Sharon Banitt, Thomas Gentithes, Lou Tisler, Anita Bales, Dave Conover, John Trombetti, Robert Bradley, Laura Rettaliata, Jack Barshay, Randall S. Patrick, Carmine Petracca, Steve James, Tim Burrack and Savannah Petracca.

They knew President Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.

It’s true that when Life magazine first published photographs from the Zapruder film that captured President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, they omitted stills at the urging of Abraham Zapruder.

President Ford faced two assassination attempts within weeks of one another but was hurt in neither.

And finally, as he was campaigning for a third term, folded papers and a metal glasses case blunted a shot taken at President Theodore Roosevelt.

Stay Engaged

We want to hear from you! Email: Alexis Simendinger (asimendinger@digital-release.thehill.com) and Kristina Karisch (kkarisch@digital-release.thehill.com). Follow us on social media platform X: (@asimendinger and @kristinakarisch) and suggest this newsletter to friends!