Murdoch in Milwaukee.

Pelosi on the prowl.

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1. Sen. JD Vance:

President Trump’s vision is so simple and yet so powerful. We’re done, ladies and gentlemen, catering to Wall Street. We’ll commit to the working man.

We’re done importing foreign labor, we’re going to fight for American citizens and their good jobs and their good wages.

We’re done buying energy from countries that hate us; we’re going to get it right here, from American workers in Pennsylvania and Ohio and across the country.

We’re done sacrificing supply chains to unlimited global trade, and we’re going to stamp more and more products with that beautiful label, “Made in the U.S.A.”

We’re going to build factories again, put people to work making real products for American families, made with the hands of American workers.

Together, we will protect the wages of American workers — and stop the Chinese Communist Party from building their middle class on the backs of American citizens. (Sources: politico.com, nytimes.com, excerpted from full transcript of Sen. Vance’s speech to the Republican National Convention)

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2. A new kind of Republican Party is revealing itself at its national convention, one that is increasingly embracing economic populism at home and isolationism abroad, shifting its decades-long position on abortion and not only leery of, but hostile to, certain business interests. Trump’s newly-announced running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, has said that the GOP is in a “late Republican period,” and needs to “get pretty wild, and pretty far out there.” And that’s exactly what’s unfolding in Milwaukee. It’s the result of a confluence of economic, demographic and cultural changes — including a newly ascendant labor movement, which the GOP finds itself increasingly attracted to, at least nominally. “I think what we’re witnessing now is a full on frontal assault on conservatism,” said Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence from 2019 to 2021, who is so estranged from this new version of the party that he was advised to skip the convention. “You have speakers that are basically saying NATO was at fault for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and referring to job creators as ‘corporate pigs,’ and announcing national right to work,” he said. “That’s an enormous departure from where our party has been and I don’t think it’s a prescription for success.” Perhaps most shocking to some traditionalist Republicans was the fiery speech from International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien — the first Teamster to speak at an RNC in its 121-year history. (Source: politico.com)    

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3. Demographic change was dooming the Republican Party, GOP leaders concluded, and so they came up with a plan: To draw in the nation’s exploding number of Latino and other minority voters, the party had to soften its stance on immigration. Instead, the party under Donald Trump has gone in a sharply different direction. Today, Republicans are embracing Trump’s get-tough immigration policy, which not only calls for aggressive efforts to seal the border with Mexico but the largest campaign in U.S. history to find and deport immigrants who have entered the country illegally. And yet Trump is drawing more support from Latino voters than any GOP nominee since George W. Bush. His support among Black voters, if polling trends hold until Election Day, would be stronger than recorded for any Republican nominee in exit polls dating to 1972.  (Source: wsj.com)  

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 4. President Biden tested positive for Covid on Wednesday, forcing him to cancel a campaign event in Las Vegas and likely sidelining him for days following the conclusion of former President Donald J. Trump’s nominating convention on Thursday. The illness, which the president’s doctor said had produced only mild symptoms so far, was diagnosed even as the Democratic revolt over his candidacy got louder. Mr. Biden told reporters, “I feel good,” as he boarded Air Force One in Las Vegas to fly back to his beach house in Delaware, where he plans to recuperate. But having Covid is all but certain to complicate the president’s ability to answer his critics, many of whom have said they want him to show that he still has the vigor and energy to prosecute the case against Mr. Trump in campaign rallies, interviews and other events.  (Source: nytimes.com)   

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5. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told President Biden last week that she and other Democratic lawmakers worry that he’s dragging down the party, in an extraordinarily candid confrontation that came amid mounting pressure on Biden to end his reelection campaign. Ms. Pelosi also warned Biden that some Democratic lawmakers would start to grow louder in their griping about his political weaknesses, according to two people close to Pelosi. She urged the president to make a decision about stepping down soon. (Source: politico.com)

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