| | | | GOP worries over Trump intensify | | Republicans are freaking out about Donald Trump -- but the candidate himself is insisting his campaign has never been in better shape. "The campaign is doing really well. It's never been so well united. It's the best in terms of being united since we began. We are doing incredibly well," Trump said in Daytona Beach, Florida, today.
Republican leaders and even senior members of his own team expressed frustration with Tuesday's political meltdown -- which featured an intra-party attack on Paul Ryan and John McCain, more Khan family insults and calling out a crying baby from a campaign event. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was especially furious with Trump's refusal to endorse Ryan in his GOP primary. And Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, broke with Trump to endorse Ryan on Fox News. A source told CNN that some of Trump's campaign staff "feel like they are wasting their time."
The latest GOP defection: Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois, who told CNN's Wolf Blitzer this evening he can't support Trump. "No matter what the political cost to me, I'm an American before a Republican," he said. "I won't be silent. He can tweet all he wants."
Quite a conference call: Trump's senior staff -- Jason Miller placed the call in a room with Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Hope Hicks and Stephen Miller -- rang CNN's Dana Bash today to make clear they're not frustrated with their candidate. "Frankly the frustration we have is with you all, because you're not covering our side of the campaign. That's our frustration," Manafort said. More from CNN's Stephen Collinson and Dana.
What Hillary Clinton is doing with Trump in turmoil: Sitting back and watching, per CNN's MJ Lee.
The three-minute video to watch today: This New York Times take on Trump rallygoers -- uncensored. | | | Donald Trump was supposed to refocus on his message of bashing Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama today in Florida. But here are some of the tweets from reporters who covered Trump's remarks at his rally: | | US sent a plane with $400 million to Iran | | The Obama administration secretly arranged a plane delivery of $400 million in cash on the same day Iran released four American prisoners and formally implemented the nuclear deal, US officials confirmed Wednesday, CNN's Elise Labott, Nicole Gaouette and Kevin Liptak report.
President Barack Obama approved the $400 million transfer, which he had announced in January as part of the Iran nuclear deal. The money was flown into Iran on wooden pallets stacked with Swiss francs, euros and other currencies as the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement resolving claims at an international tribunal at The Hague over a failed arms deal under the time of the Shah.
What's new here: The Wall Street Journal details on how the money was transferred, which Republicans will use as a talking point. "Paying ransom to kidnappers puts Americans even more at risk," said Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk. | | Obama commutes 214 more prison sentences | | President Barack Obama granted a history-making 214 commutations, the highest number granted on a single day in more than a century. It's a continuation of his effort to reduce sentences for drug offenders, many of whom were punished under harsh sentencing laws that have since been relaxed, CNN's Samantha Reyes and Kevin Liptak report.
Number of the day: 562. That's how many individuals' sentences Obama has commuted -- more than the previous nine presidents combined. | | Huelskamp's loss a threat to GOP leadership? | | Rep. Tim Huelskamp, the three-term Kansas Republican who's a member of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus and has a long history of sparring with the party's leadership, lost his primary Tuesday night -- and now, fellow Freedom Caucus members are blaming House GOP leadership.
"Republicans need to be unified behind conservative principles to stop the Obama/Clinton agenda," Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a statement, per Politico's Rachael Bade. "The House Republican leadership's opposition to Tim Huelskamp significantly damaged the ability of House Republicans to do that."
At the core of their anger: House Speaker Paul Ryan would never go public with a promise to reinstate Huelskamp to the House Agriculture Committee seat that the previous speaker, John Boehner, had stripped away over Huelskamp's repeated defiance of leadership on key votes. "Everybody knows that if the speaker would have said that Tim's going back on the Agriculture Committee, it would have made a difference. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. But he wouldn't do that, so of course that's a problem," Jordan told The Hill's Scott Wong.
How does Boehner feel about Huelskamp's loss? Just check out this tweet from The New York Times' Carl Hulse: | | "He is such a good counter-puncher that he is knocking himself out." -- Ari Fleischer, the former George W. Bush press secretary, on Donald Trump, on CNN's "New Day." | | | Most forecasts have Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the election topping 70%. ... Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City will close its doors after Labor Day. ... The Supreme Court temporarily blocked a lower court's ruling allowing a transgender male student to use the boys' restroom at his school in Virginia, setting up the next round in the LGBT rights legal battle.
Programming note: Make sure to catch the Libertarian candidates, Gary Johnson and Bill Weld, in a town hall on CNN tonight at 9 p.m. ET.
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