Donald Trump successfully pivoted to the general election by getting into a fight with a kindly old man and your local fire marshal. Trump is the first presidential candidate in recent memory whose support *dropped* after his convention, though that’s probably because the elite media isn’t properly covering his fight with that kindly old man. And Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, received a post-convention bounce, though that may well have been because Tim Kaine drove every registered voter to Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up stuff for their dorm room. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Monday, August 1st, 2016:
TRUMP SHOOTS OWN FOOT FOR FOUR STRAIGHT DAYS - It was amazing. Did you see it? They actually televised it. Ariel Edwards-Levy: “This year’s Republican National Convention was the first in at least 30 years to leave the public less likely to support a presidential nominee, according to a Gallup poll released Monday. About half of Americans polled said they’re less likely to vote for GOP nominee Donald Trump based on what they saw or read about the RNC. Only 36 percent said they’re more likely to vote for Trump. That gives the event an overall net -15 point effect, marking the first time a convention has left a negative impression in a Gallup poll on the subject. By contrast, 41 percent of Americans said the Democratic National Convention made them less likely to support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, while 45 percent said it made them more likely to do so, resulting in a net +4 point effect.” [HuffPost]
This is why we can’t have nice things: “Following Gold-Star father Khizr Khan’s powerful speech at the Democratic convention last week, sales of pocket Constitutions have skyrocketed. But the edition topping Amazon’s charts – right up there with the new Harry Potter book — comes with annotations and right-wing commentary from Glenn Beck’s favorite conspiracy theorist.” [The Intercept]
We’re doing some airstrikes in Libya today.
TRUMP ALREADY SETTING UP TRANSITION MESSAGING - That is to say, his messaging for Hillary Clinton’s transition. Reid Epstein: “Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday cast doubt on the legitimacy of the November general election, expanding on his long-running theme that the political process is stacked against him. ‘I’m afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest,’ Mr. Trump told a rally in Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Trump spent months during the Republican primary contest arguing that the complex system of accruing delegates was ‘rigged’ against him, despite his series of victories in primaries and caucuses. But Monday’s remarks mark the first time Mr. Trump has suggested the general election is stacked against him.” [WSJ]
POST-CONVENTION BEAT SWEETENER ALERT: TIM KAINE GETS ALONG WITH BLACK PEOPLE - From the Times: “Powered by his ambition and ideals, Mr. Kaine took the helm of a racially divided and crime-ravaged city against considerable opposition from many African-Americans here who believed Richmond needed a black mayor. He cast himself as a bridge builder, and African-American leaders of that time remember him as a stark departure from the white legislators they had known before.” From the Post: “[P]eople who worked with Kaine when he served on the City Council in Richmond — a forum routinely convulsed by racially charged debates about the city’s divisive past — say he brings a nuanced and historically informed approach to race relations that could help soothe a country wracked by debates about policing and discrimination…’The main problem with race,’ he said, ‘is whites don’t know what it’s like to be a minority.’ Kaine’s support in Richmond’s black community stemmed in part from his concerted and public efforts to reverse that problem in his own life.”
DELANEY DOWNER - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump seems to think fire safety rules are holding America back. At a rally Monday in Columbus, Ohio, Trump complained that the local fire marshal had turned thousands of his supporters away because the town’s mayor is a Democrat. “He ought to be ashamed of himself,” he said. “They turned away thousands of people.” Bashing the fire marshal appears to be a new part of Trump’s stump speech. “This is why our country doesn’t work,” Trump said Friday, disgusted that more people couldn’t come inside an event in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “We have a fire marshal that said, ‘Oh, we can’t allow more people.’ It really is so unfair to the people. I’m so sorry. I have to have apologize. But it’s not my fault. I just came here.” [HuffPost]
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LOL? A MAJOR PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN IS LITERALLY BEING COMPROMISED BY A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT - Charlie Trie would be proud. S.V. Date: “Both Donald Trump and his campaign chairman said Sunday they had nothing to do with altering the Republican Party’s position on Ukraine ― which must have been news to GOP leaders who confirmed last week that Trump’s campaign insisted on exactly that change. The modified party platform drops its call to provide arms to Ukraine in response to Russia’s occupation of that country’s Crimea province in 2014. It represents a victory for Russian president Vladimir Putin, who soon after annexed the region. Two Republican National Committee officials acknowledged privately last week that Trump’s campaign pushed for the change, which was made in platform committee meetings in the days prior to the start of the Republican convention in Cleveland two weeks ago.” [HuffPost]
TRUMP CONTINUES TERRIBLE NEWS CYCLE - Trump’s campaign strategy increasingly recalls Mel Gibson in the first “Lethal Weapon,” where he gets people do do what he wants by being completely irrational. David Wright: “[E]ven as the Khans expressed their desire to leave the controversy behind, Trump responded to the criticism during the interview on Twitter. He wrote, ‘Mr. Khan, who does not know me, viciously attacked me from the stage of the DNC and is now all over T.V. doing the same - Nice!’ even as the Khans expressed their desire to leave the controversy behind, Trump responded to the criticism during the interview on Twitter. He wrote, “Mr. Khan, who does not know me, viciously attacked me from the stage of the DNC and is now all over T.V. doing the same - Nice!” [CNN]
SADLY INEVITABLE THING HAPPENS, SADLY - Amanda Terkel: “Khan is facing accusations that so many other high-profile Muslim Americans face: that he is unpatriotic and a terrorist. The most blatant example of these baseless allegations came Sunday from Roger Stone, a longtime Trump confidant, ‘Mr. Khan more than an aggrieved father of a Muslim son- he’s Muslim Brotherhood agent helping Hillary.’ Sandy Rios, the director of government affairs at the American Family Association, also questioned why Khan has not denounced the Muslim Brotherhood on her radio show Friday. ‘From my perspective, it is the responsibility of Mr. Khan to distinguish himself from Islamists, from the Muslim Brotherhood, whose treatise is to destroy us from within,’ Rios said.” [HuffPost]
Still endorsing him, though: “Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war, praised the late Army Capt. Humayun Khan for being “an example of true American greatness” after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized his parents, Khizr and Ghazala Khan…’It is time for Donald Trump to set the example for our country and the future of the Republican Party. While our Party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us,’ McCain said Monday in a statement.” [HuffPost’s Paige Lavender]
TRUMP SELF-FUNDING WITH OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY - Sam Stein: “On his issue page, Donald Trump says that he is ‘totally’ self funding his campaign so that he doesn’t ‘owe anything to lobbyists and special interests.’ This is simply not true. It hasn’t been for a while, if ever...The latest example of how inapplicable the title of “self funder” is to Donald Trump will come on Saturday, Aug. 6. On that day, Trump will travel to Nantucket to attend a high-end fundraiser with his finance chairman and RNC Chair Reince Priebus. The event will be held at the home of Ron Weinberg, who runs the private equity firm Weinberg Capital Group, and his wife...It costs $50,000 per couple to co-chair the event; $25,000 per couple to host; $10,000 per person for a photo op; and $2,700 per person for a general reception. The proceeds will be shared among the Trump campaign, the RNC and state parties in Arkansas, Connecticut, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.” [HuffPost]
TIM HUELSKAMP IN TROUBLE - Simone Pathe: “Three-term Rep. Tim Huelskamp is once again in the political fight of his life. Republican voters in his rural Kansas district will decide on Tuesday whether Huelskamp’s ideological conservatism represents them or whether the way that his conservatism has manifested itself — namely, in a vote against the farm bill — is a betrayal. In many ways, this is a classic GOP primary with the anti-tax Club for Growth backing Huelskamp and the pro-business Chamber of Commerce supporting his opponent.” [Roll Call]
HELP WANTED - MUST BE ‘BOLD PROGRESSIVE’ - Amanda Terkel and Sam Stein: “Hillary Clinton’s campaign said it is looking for a progressive replacement to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) to chair the Democratic National Committee, reflecting the party’s attempts to unify with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) supporters. ‘We will want a person at the head of the party that represents the progressive platform that the party adopted and that represents that spirit of reform and integration of the grassroots into the party,’ Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta told The Huffington Post in an interview Thursday at the Democratic National Convention.” [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU’VE READ THIS FAR - Here’s a metaphor for the Trump campaign.
ICYMI: YET ANOTHER STRONGMAN FOR TRUMP - Chris Coons standing up to dthugs and tyrants, just like we knew he would [swoon]. Lily Kuo: “According to Coons and Schiff, the discussion turned tense when Mugabe asked why the US insists on sanctioning Zimbabwe. The senators and their delegation listed reasons why the sanctions have remained in place—the US has sanctioned the country since 2002 after reports of election abuse and human rights violations. Mugabe has held on to power by repressing his rivals as well as the public. After an awkward silence, Mugabe said, ‘Once [Trump] is your president, you’ll wish you’d been friendlier to me,’ according to Coons’ retelling of the encounter.” [Quartz]
COMFORT FOOD
- History’s greatest ramen commercial.
- The entire 8-bit Cinema catalog.
- A look inside Rio’s favelas.
TWITTERAMA
@mobute: imagine if mount rushmore didn’t exist and you wanted to invent it in 2016 & you knew everyone would be like “lmao are you for fucking real”
@daveweigel: Every Green Party conversation through Nov.
STEIN: Both parties are the same
REPORTER: Actually no
VOTER: WHATEVER, CORPORATE MEDIA
@elisefoley: Trump: “You know who says don’t use twitter? Your enemies.” It’s true — whenever I have good jokes people tweet “Elise.” at me
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