| | | | Why Trump so badly wants 2020 to be all about socialism |  | | Master brander Donald Trump -- and his fellow Republican elected leaders -- have clearly made a decision that the best chance for him (and them) to win in 2020 is to call Democrats "socialists" at every turn.
"The Dems were trying to distance themselves from the four 'progressives,' but now they are forced to embrace them," Trump tweeted in the wake of his racist attacks on 4 Democratic congresswomen over the weekend. "That means they are endorsing Socialism, hate of Israel and the USA! Not good for the Democrats!"
Three days earlier, Trump retweeted this clip of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (La.) saying: "There are no moderates left in the Democrat party. It's liberals vs. socialists now...and the socialists are winning. How can Democrats be this out of touch? @realDonaldTrump said it best: America will never be a socialist country."
On Tuesday, defending Trump from claims of racism, House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy said this: "I believe this is about ideology. This is about socialism vs. freedom."
This is not by accident. And numbers surfaced by Pew this week make very clear why the socialism push is on hot and heavy.
The answer: The Republican base HATES socialism.
In the Pew poll, which was done earlier this spring, 84% of Republicans and lean Republicans said they have a negative view of socialism. That number included 63% of Republicans who said they has a "strongly" negative view of it.
Remember that Trump believes that the polarization of politics -- which he quickened but didn't create -- means that elections are typically won and lost in your base, not among the ever-dwindling number of swing voters who hop from party to party every four years. Trump also knows that lots of those "lean" Republicans dislike his personal style and his tweeting.
How do you convince those soft(er) Republicans to be for Trump in 2020 despite their misgivings? You find an issue that you can brand the other side with that makes the choice in 2020 between someone you have doubts about and someone that you believe will fundamentally undermine the capitalist system that has, to borrow a phrase, made America great.
You getting it now? If the choice in 2020 is between Trump and and a Democrat, he likely loses. If it's between Trump and a Democrat-who-is-really-a-Socialist, he has a hell of a lot better chance at a 2nd term,
The Point: There's no positive message that gets Trump reelected in 2020. (No, not even the economy.) Which is why he and his side are trying so hard to sell the socialism story on Democrats.
-- Chris | | "Forget the man's tweets, he's playing us like a Stradivarius."
-- Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who dropped the gavel and left the House floor during a vote to condemn the President for racist tweets. | | | When Kansas GOP Sen. Pat Roberts announced earlier this year he would not be running for reelection, all eyes turned to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who hails from the Sunflower State.
In February, Pompeo ruled out a Senate bid. But now it sounds like he's singing a slightly different tune. In an interview with a Kansas media outlet, Pompeo suggested he is not actively pursuing a Senate bid in his home state, but did not explicitly rule it out.
"Look, we love Kansas but I am very focused on my mission serving America and President Trump as the Secretary of State," Pompeo told KCMO Radio Wednesday. "That's my mission and as I think I've said a couple of times, I intend to do this so long as President Trump wants me to be engaged in this activity."
BUT when Pompeo was pushed further on the question of whether he could be swayed, he equivocated.
"I would have never dreamed that I'd be the Secretary of State even a year before I became the director of the CIA, a year before that," Pompeo said. "And so I always leave open the possibility that something will change and my path in life will change too, but my mission set is really very clear." | | Breaking tonight: House kills impeachment bill, 332-95
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Notre Dame came far closer to collapsing than people knew. This is how it was saved. | | | A scorching hot Wednesday for the East Coast calls for a guilty pleasure: Soak Up the Sun by Sheryl Crow. | | The Squad
The group made up of four female members of Congress singled out by President Donald Trump in his racist Twitter tirade this weekend: Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Trump, in a tweet, suggested that "they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came."
Only Omar is foreign-born. She came to the US as a refugee from Somalia and became a US citizen in 2000, when she was 17, according to The New York Times.
Born and raised in the Bronx, Ocasio-Cortez is the daughter of working-class Puerto Rican parents. Tlaib was born and raised in Detroit. She was elected in 2018, is the first Palestinian-American woman to serve in Congress, and she and Omar are the first two Muslim women ever elected to Congress. Pressley was born in Chicago.
They were first in the news for their public spat with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but Trump's racist comments -- and subsequent doubling down -- has brought the Democrats closer together.
As Pelosi said Tuesday, "These are our sisters. The fact is, as offended as we are, and we are offended by what he said about our sisters." | | Following the release of second-quarter FEC financial filings, CNN's David Wright broke down where things stand financially in five key 2020 Senate races -- Maine, South Carolina, Colorado, Arizona and Montana.
Note: It's still really, really early for non-presidential races, so these numbers should not be interpreted as a "state of the race" snapshot, but more an approximation of where candidates stand at the outset.
Here is a takeaway for each state: | |  | | From Brenna: "Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver decided he'd had enough, dropped the gavel and left the House floor. Share The Point with someone who will not stand for any nonsense." | | | | | | |
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