| | | | Donald Trump isn't backing Paul Ryan, John McCain | | Donald Trump is launching another intra-party war, telling The Washington Post's Philip Rucker he isn't backing House Speaker Paul Ryan or Arizona Sen. John McCain in their upcoming Republican primaries and casting New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte as weak.
Trump said he likes Ryan, "but these are horrible times for our country. We need very strong leadership. We need very, very strong leadership. And I'm just not quite there yet. I'm not quite there yet.
As for McCain, Trump said: "He has not done a good job for the vets and I've always felt that he should have done a much better job for the vets. So I've always had a difficult time with John for that reason."
Attacking Ayotte could actually help her in a tough re-election battle this fall against Democratic challenger Maggie Hassan. The New Hampshire governor has cast Ayotte as too cozy with Trump, who said Tuesday: "We don't need weak people. We have enough of them. We need fighters in this country. But Kelly Ayotte has given me zero support, and I'm doing great in New Hampshire."
Here's how Ayotte responded: | | | Meghan McCain, the daughter of the Arizona senator, weighed in as well: | | Trump's marathon news day | | This all happened in one day:
-- Trump told a mom "you can get that baby out of here" at a campaign rally in Virginia, after flip-flopping on whether he likes crying babies.
-- He was gifted a Purple Heart, declaring he "always wanted to get the Purple Heart" and that being handed one from a veteran who's supporting him was "much easier" than serving in combat.
-- President Barack Obama labeled Trump "unfit to serve as president" in an extraordinary denunciation from the White House. (Trump's comeback: Obama is just "concerned I'm going to win.")
-- Trump egged on his conflict with the Khan family, saying his position on keeping terrorists out of the United States is what really bothered the father of a soldier killed in combat -- not Trump's proposed Muslim ban.
-- Devout Trump supporter Chris Christie broke with him on whether Hillary Clinton is the devil. Trump says yes, Christie says no.
-- A longtime Christie aide broke the news to CNN's Jamie Gangel that she's not supporting Trump at all, and will vote for Clinton. Republican Rep. Richard Hanna is doing the same thing.
-- Trump suggested Americans should pull their 401(k) retirement funds out of the stock market entirely.
-- How to talk about sexual harassment became a daylong problem, with Eric Trump attempting to clean up his father's remarks by declaring that his sister Ivanka Trump is "a strong, powerful woman. ... I don't think she would allow herself to be subjected to that." (The Guardian's Scott Bixby wrote that she'd said in her 2009 book she was sexually harassed "many times" on her father's construction work sites as a teenager.) The episode drew huge criticism online, including from Fox News' Megyn Kelly: | | "Why are you still endorsing him? ... There has to come a point in which you say, enough." -- President Barack Obama, needling Republicans for continuing to support Donald Trump in an extraordinary political attack from the White House East Room. | | | | Donald Trump accepted a Purple Heart from a veteran at his Ashburn, Virginia, rally today, telling the crowd: "I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier." | | Top DNC staffers resign amid email controversy | | More fallout today from the Democratic National Committee email leak that has already claimed the job of chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz:
Three top party staffers are out. Heading for the exits Tuesday were chief executive officer Amy Dacey, communications director Luis Miranda and chief financial officer Brad Marshall. It's part of a housecleaning project by Donna Brazile, the interim Democratic chairwoman.
Running the show, per Brazile's memo today: "Tom McMahon, who served as executive director under then-chairman Howard Dean, and who led the party's efforts to develop and operationalize the 50-State Strategy, will lead the transition team." | | | Perhaps someone should have told the NRCC that their party's nominee, Donald Trump, is holding his own $25,000-per-ticket fundraiser at Woody Johnson's East Hampton estate on August 13, before the House GOP campaign arm sent out this email blast targeting Hillary Clinton today, flagged by CNN's Theodore Schleifer. | | Obama digs in against 2016ers on trade | | | From CNN's Kevin Liptak: President Barack Obama stressed that he still plans to move ahead with the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership deal while he's in office, despite opposition from both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. "Right now I'm President, and I'm for it," Obama said at a midday press conference with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. "And I think I've got the better argument. I've made this argument before. I'll make it again. We are part of a global economy. We're not reversing that." | | Arizona Democrats see an opening | | Donald Trump is deeply unpopular with Latinos -- and Arizona, a state where Mitt Romney won 54% of the vote, has the fourth-largest share of eligible voters who are Latinos in the nation. So, Democrats there are pleading with Hillary Clinton's campaign to make the state a priority on par with North Carolina, Politico's Theodoric Meyer reports.
Their conduit: Bill Clinton. At the convention last week and at a Phoenix fund-raiser in June, Democrats pressed him. "We made the pitch to him," bundler Jim Pederson, who hosted the June fund-raiser, told Meyer. "I got a call from him after the event, and he said, 'We're going to take a hard look at it.'" | | Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has chosen human rights activist Ajamu Baraka as her running mate. ... Bernie Sanders is in demand as a surrogate and supporter for Democratic senators in swing states. ... French President François Hollande says Donald Trump's "excesses make you want to retch."
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