| | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross | Presented by ExxonMobil | | 
In a major win for Donald Trump, the classified documents case against him in Florida was dropped by Judge Aileen Cannon. | Carlos Osorio/AP | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | Today, as DONALD TRUMP enters Republican National Convention just days removed from an assassination attempt against him, he’s walking into Milwaukee with another weight off his shoulders. Judge AILEEN CANNON this morning dismissed the federal criminal case charging Trump with keeping highly sensitive national security secrets at his Mar-a-Lago compound and then obstructing government efforts to reclaim them, Kyle Cheney, Josh Gerstein and Betsy Woodruff Swan report. In her 93-page ruling, Cannon concluded that special counsel JACK SMITH’s appointment violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution, drawing on Justice CLARENCE THOMAS’ concurring opinion in the recent presidential immunity decision. “The Special Counsel’s position effectively usurps … legislative authority, transferring it to a Head of Department, and in the process threatening the structural liberty inherent in the separation of powers,” wrote Cannon, a Trump appointee. Read the full ruling Smith is almost certain to appeal the decision — and it’s reasonable to think he could get it overturned. But it’s yet another significant decision from Cannon that is a gift for Trump, which will again gum up the timeline well past this November’s election. The reaction: Trump posted on Truth Social — suspending at least for the moment the reported rhetorical pivot toward unity — about the case, decrying the “Witch Hunts” against him and the “January 6th Hoax” among other things. “The Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these Political Attacks, which are an Election Interference conspiracy against Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME,” Trump wrote. Rep. BYRON DONALDS (R-Fla.), who said he was on the phone with Trump when the decision came down, recounted the conversation to our colleague Kimberly Leonard: “He was excited, obviously,” Donalds said. “He said, ‘Judge Cannon obviously made a great decision. Really happy with the decision and now hopefully that puts a lot of this stuff to bed.’” VEEP DECISION COMING SOON — As expected, Trump will announce his running mate today, he confirmed to Fox News’ Bret Baier. It’s likely that we’ll get the official announcement some time this afternoon. Who might it be? FWIW, Sen. J.D. VANCE (R-Ohio) was spotted departing his home today with a motorcade, per Forbes. A senior Trump adviser declined to say whether the assassination attempt changed Trump’s calculus for his VP pick, Adam Wren reports. “What you'll get from the VP and from the president, I think, will make it clear why and how and everything, so until then, nothing to add,” this person said. “The adviser also declined to get into specifics about whether the assassination attempt changed their planned speeches in primetime at this week's convention in Milwaukee. ‘The themes and the process and the planning that went into the convention, or how it would run prior to Saturday, is exactly what's happening now,’ this person said.” But “the central thrust of the convention — with a heavy focus on appealing to traditionally Democratic-leaning demographic groups — will not change,” our colleagues Alex Isenstadt, Natalie Allison and Meridith McGraw report.
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NRSC Chair Steve Daines sat down for an exclusive interview at the CNN-POLITICO Grill. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | THE LATEST IN MILWAUKEE — NRSC Chair STEVE DAINES (R-Mont.) opened up the CNN-POLITICO Grill with an interview by our very own Rachael Bade. Three things that jumped out at us: 1. Daines pushed back strongly on the baseless conspiracy theories floating around that Democrats played a hand in the assassination attempt on Trump. “I’ve seen no evidence of a conspiracy. None,” Daines said. “We need a very thorough fact-based investigation of what went wrong.” 2. Daines expects “some kind of a bump, maybe, in the direction of President Trump and Republicans” after the assassination attempt, Daines predicted — though he cautioned that summer polling is not historically predictive of November voting. Daines also said the NRSC paused its Senate race polling in the wake of Saturday’s shooting to allow voters time to process the “emotional moment.” 3. Daines is urging Republicans not to focus too heavily on Biden’s age and fitness for office. “I don’t think we need to talk about President Biden’s mental acuity. I think we should be talking about his policies,” Daines said. He also argued that voter concerns about Biden’s age are already baked in at this point.
More reporting from Milwaukee:
- Anti-abortion advocates upset with the GOP’s watered-down abortion platform have abandoned plans to escalate their fight to the Republican convention floor this week after the assassination attempt, Megan Messerly reports.
- Crypto is crashing the party this week, with representatives from several top crypto firms hitting the convention to make their case to GOP power brokers — part of an aggressive push to swing the 2024 elections in the industry’s favor, Jasper Goodman writes.
- VIVEK RAMASWAMY is heeding Trump’s unity call: He opened the Heritage Foundation’s Policy Fest this morning by calling for Republicans to continue opposing the “ideology” that they believe is harmful to the country, without demonizing Democrats in the process, Natalie Allison writes.
Follow along with every update from the Republican National Convention with POLITICO’s live blog MEANWHILE … RON DeSANTIS is on to 2028. The Florida governor “is expected to speak at an Iowa Republican Party event during the GOP convention in Milwaukee on Wednesday,” Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs, Stephanie Lai, and Hadriana Lowenkron scoop. “DeSantis’ presence at the lunch event is seen as a key sign of his interest in running for president in 2028, the people said, who were granted anonymity to disclose a private conversation.” Good Monday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at gross@politico.com.
| | | | A message from ExxonMobil: The world needs ways to reduce carbon emissions. At ExxonMobil, we’re working on solutions in our own operations – like carbon capture and clean energy from hydrogen – that could also help in other industries like manufacturing, commercial transportation and power generation, too. Helping deliver heavy industry with low emissions. | | | | | 7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | |  Biden and Trump are locked in tight races in Pennsylvania and Virginia, according to new polling out today. | Valaurian Waller for POLITICO | 1. POLL POSITION: In a new NYT/Siena poll that will surely be the buzz of the hallways in Milwaukee and D.C., the Trump-Biden head-to-head is tightening up in two critical states, Adam Nagourney and Ruth Igielnik write. The toplines:
- In Pennsylvania, Trump leads Biden 48 percent to 45 percent.
- In Virginia, Biden leads Trump 48 percent to 45 percent.
It’s important to note that the poll was conducted from July 9-12, which was before the assassination attempt on Trump. And the leads in both states fall within the margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points. But it’s still a significant reading of the race: The path for Biden to win reelection would be extremely steep if he cannot claim Pennsylvania. And Virginia hasn’t voted red for president since 2004. What the Dump Biden crowd is reading: “The polls also found Vice President KAMALA HARRIS, who has been mentioned by Democrats as a potential successor should Mr. Biden leave the race, in a slightly stronger position against Mr. Trump than the president. In Virginia, she is 5 percentage points ahead of Mr. Trump among likely voters, and in Pennsylvania she trails Mr. Trump by a single point.” 2. SHOOTING FALLOUT: The Secret Service is planning a private briefing on Tuesday for the House Oversight Committee as congressional investigations into the assassination attempt against Trump kick off, Jordain Carney reports. “The closed-door briefing is the latest sign that Congress is gearing up for a sprawling, multi-committee investigation into the shooting at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania, which has sparked a litany of security questions from lawmakers since Saturday. In addition to the member briefing, Oversight Chair JAMES COMER (R-Ky.) has invited Secret Service Director KIMBERLY CHEATLE to testify publicly before his panel on July 22.” Cheatle is expected to attend tomorrow’s briefing. 3. HOW IT’S PLAYING: News of the assassinsation attempt on Trump obviously reverberated around the world. Our colleague Nahal Toosi has a download on how foreign diplomats are reacting: “The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has some of them now predicting that he will likely win the presidential race this November — and that more U.S. political violence is on the way. These assessments, no doubt being rapidly typed into classified cables to send to superiors back home, are not made willy-nilly. For diplomats from countries friendly with the United States, the conclusions are especially unnerving, because instability in America could mean instability everywhere.”
| | | | Understand 2024’s big impacts with Pro’s extensive Campaign Races Dashboard, exclusive insights, and key coverage of federal- and state-level debates. Focus on policy. Learn more. | | | | | 4. WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE ELECTING: “Inside the Trump Plan for 2025,” by The New Yorker’s Jonathan Blitzer: “The Center for Renewing America is one of roughly two dozen right-wing groups that have emerged in Washington since Trump left office. What unites them is a wealthy network based on Capitol Hill called the Conservative Partnership Institute, which many in Washington regard as the next Trump Administration in waiting. … “C.P.I. and its constellation of groups, most of which are nonprofits, raised nearly two hundred million dollars in 2022. The organization has bought up some fifty million dollars’ worth of real estate in and around Washington, including multiple properties on the Hill. A mansion on twenty-two hundred acres in eastern Maryland hosts trainings for congressional staff and conservative activists. Four political-action committees have rented space in C.P.I.’s offices, and many more belonging to members of Congress pay to use C.P.I.’s facilities, such as studios for podcast recordings and TV hits.” 5. MEDIAWATCH: If you’re an ardent weekday cable news watcher, you may have noticed a particular and peculiar absence from the lineup this morning: MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” was preempted for continued rolling coverage of the Trump assassination attempt. CNN’s Oliver Darcy gets the deets on why: “A person familiar with the matter told CNN that the decision was made to avoid a scenario in which one of the show’s stable of two dozen-plus guests might make an inappropriate comment on live television that could be used to assail the program and network as a whole. Given the breaking news nature of the story, the person said, it made more sense to continue airing rolling breaking news coverage in the fraught political moment.” However, “Morning Joe” is scheduled to return tomorrow morning. 6. BIG IN THE BIG CITY: “Inside the Money Race for the 2025 New York City Mayoral Primary,” by NYT’s Emma Fitzsimmons and Nicholas Fandos: “While most Democrats are preoccupied with the presidential race this November, the New York City mayoral race has begun and is showing signs of being more competitive than many expected. [ERIC] ADAMS, a former police captain who ran on a public safety message, is facing low approval ratings, prompting many Democrats to considering jumping in. Two Democrats — [SCOTT] STRINGER and ZELLNOR MYRIE, a state senator from Brooklyn — have already entered the race and announced their fund-raising totals on Monday, the first major reporting deadline. The current city comptroller, BRAD LANDER, is seriously considering joining the race, along with former Gov. ANDREW M. CUOMO.” 7. MEGATREND: “Evictions Surge in Major Cities in the American Sunbelt,” by WSJ’s Will Parker: “Tenant evictions look stuck at elevated levels in several corners of the U.S., showing little sign of returning to what was typical before the pandemic. Eviction filings over the past year in a half-dozen cities and surrounding metropolitan areas are up 35% or more compared with pre-2020 norms, according to the Eviction Lab, a research unit at Princeton University. This includes Las Vegas, Houston, and in Phoenix, where landlords filed more than 8,000 eviction notices in January.”
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| | | | A message from ExxonMobil: Today, heavy industry, power generation and commercial transportation account for nearly 80% of energy-related CO2 emissions. For these businesses, setting and achieving meaningful carbon-reduction goals can be complex. At ExxonMobil, we’ve been working on reducing our own carbon emissions. At our Baytown plant, one of the world’s largest integrated refining and petrochemical operations, we’re planning to deploy hydrogen power and carbon capture to reduce the site’s emissions by up to 30%. Now, we’re taking solutions like these to others in heavy industry. Using our technologies, we can help businesses create a plan to make similar reductions. And together, we can deliver a lower-emissions future. Let’s deliver. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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