Please right now today become a voluntary paid subscriber to support my work on the Wide World of News here: If you wish to contribute a different amount to the cause, you have these options: * Buy me a cocktail (at Atlanta prices….), tax and server tip included, by clicking here. * Buy me a cup of coffee (or a week’s worth) by clicking here. * Check. Send a simple email to markhalperintalk@gmail.com and ask where you can send a piece of paper. • PayPal. markhalperinnyc@gmail.com • Venmo. Mark-Halperin-4 (telephone number ends in x3226) • Zelle. markhalperinnyc@gmail.com Thank you for your support and encouragement. Mark **** Any fool cub reporter can get a leak of a “Ron Klain memo,” but it takes years of journalism experience to get multiple FAKE memos on the same day, written to political heavyweights such as Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and more. Read on to see the latest reporting and analysis of the midterms, the world stage, and beyond, all embedded in a high-minded conceit. **** TO: Senator McConnell FROM: Josh Holmes The interview with Manu was great. As we gamed out, he asked all the right questions (Trump, Rick Scott, Biden, Cheney, your short-term plans, your long-term future), so it wasn’t a waste of your time. Since it went up on CNN.com, the reaction has been fantastic and now we don’t have to answer these same questions again during the last four weeks – we can just keep referring back to what you told Manu. It’s like what I always heard from the Cheney team when he was vice president. The VP didn’t like to get up to do any Sunday show but Russert, because he knew Tim would ask the right questions and it wouldn’t be a waste of his time. He couldn’t count on that with anyone else, he thought. We think we remain on track to hold our 50 seats, then win Nevada and, maybe Georgia, (and maybe one more!) and we have our majority. “On track” assuming we can keep helping Dr. Oz and Herschel Walker not screw this up. I know you would also like to get additional funding to Colorado, which means raising still more money from our big donors. I know that’s a big ask because you HATE fundraising. Just kidding!! And, yes, we continue to background the press to make sure they know that Rick Scott had two jobs: raising sufficient funds and candidate recruitment. The data we have gotten back from Georgia so far is fine. The folks in Chevy Chase, Arlington, and Manhattan might be hyperventilating over every new interview with this woman making the abortion charge against Herschel (she talked at greater length to the Washington Post). But there is no evidence that folks in the Peach State Waffle Houses see it like one breathless reporter does:
Yes, an accredited journalist actually wrote that. There will be more fundraising and polling data later today. **** TO: Donald Trump and Susie Wiles FROM: Chris LaCivita Ron Johnson is going to be fine. If Barnes thinks abortion is his ticket back, forget it. We have our boot on his neck and he is done. Not quite done yet, but getting there, is this Fetterman character. Dr. Oz’s fav/unfav is still nothing to write home about (although his numbers aren’t as brutal as Blake Masters’…), but even NBC News is driving home Fetterman’ mental incapacity. There is a quaint story in The Hill, pearl clutching over how negative the Senate campaigns have been so far. They claim “nastiness has reached new heights.” I had to laugh at that. Just wait until both sides put out there best shots in the closing days. Steve McMahon agrees with me, of course. As always, some of best oppo can’t find a home with the liberal media, so we keep giving stuff to the Free Beacon. We just need some of that material to migrate, Swift Boat-style, to the mainstream. I will have more spots for you to look at later today. **** TO: JRB FROM: Ron Klain Good morning. Great Tapper interview! The U.K. is in economic meltdown, there is no gas at French stations, and our economic team remains on high alert for some sort of global economic October shock/surprise. We will make sure that you get all the credit you deserve for the Israel and Lebanon deal. Crime is still a big problem in the midterms; we are getting back a lot of data from battleground House races that suggest a genuine vulnerability, as sort of a one-two punch with inflation. You can read about it in the Wall Street Journal here. We gave it our best shot over the summer and last month to neutralize this. Fingers crossed now. What kills us politically is when the local news goes from “if it bleeds, it ledes” reporter stories to paid ads from Republicans attacking our folks for “defund the police.” Here is the Frank Foer story you asked for making the compelling case for why General Garland will indict Trump. Frank is one of the only people in DC who is considered to be as smart as I am, so you should definitely read it. Finally, at your request, flags will be lowered at half-staff for Angela Lansbury. I will spend a fair amount of time at senior staff explaining who she is. I will see you after your workout. **** TO: Speaker Pelosi FROM: Steve Elmendorf I get your message. I know how dire things are, and I know you can’t stand the thought of handing the gavel to Kevin McCarthy, who makes John Boehner look like Churchill and Martin Luther King combined. But I don’t think I can raise even one more dollar. Just kidding! I know the focus now is on making sure our folks in the 14 Republican-held seats in districts that Biden won in 2020 are fully funded. Yes, I know, McCarthy is a fundraising beast. I’m on it. I will have a spreadsheet to your folks by COB today. **** TO: Kevin McCarthy FROM: Newt Keep planning for your speakership. The die is cast. **** TO: Senator Tom Cotton FROM: Brian Colas You were so good in Georgia with Herschel yesterday. What a rally! And what an opportunity for you to show the national press that you have game. I feel dumb sending you news clips since you read everything before I do, but making sure you saw this sentence from the New York Times story about our big private theme – that Ron DeSantis is Scott Walker redux, a hot governor who peaked too early and will flame out in Iowa:
Ha to that. We are all set for the Team Cotton fall retreat at the Salamander Resort and Spa November 11-13, right after Election Day. We have booked Jennifer-Ruth Green and Tiffany Smiley to be there – win or lose, they are both going to be big stars in the party and it is great to have them around you. At some point, we have to demonstrate a capacity to win female votes. Unlike Team Youngkin, which believes in convening folks without an ask for checks, we have set this at $2,500-$10,000. Anyone who thinks we haven’t figured out how to run against Trump and come out the better for it just isn’t as smart as we are. See you after your workout. **** TO: Tony Blinken FROM: Jake Sullivan I still don’t know how you do all that travel, but somebody has to keep the coalition of the willing willing. The Saudi thing is a nightmare from a PR point of view. I can’t imagine we can come up with anything that gives us leverage, but the press will move on. What we really have to focus on is how to keep Iran from blowing up into a domestic political crisis before the election. **** TO: Ron Klain FROM: Anita Dunn Can we pick ‘em or can we pick ‘em!!??!! The president of the United States does a primetime interview, his first of his time in office with a major cable news network, and it barely gets picked up anywhere! Even the New York Post could only take two lame shots at making fun of JRB’s answers. Even John Podhoretz came up empty! And even Sean Duffy and the anchors on “Fox and Friends First” expressed sympathy for JRB as a dad – and then Duffy was reduced to claiming the president went soft on Hunter because they are co-conspirators and he has to worry about Hunter flipping! Seriously. That is what he said. Can you say “one-day story”??!! When the Hunter stuff comes up again we can just keep referring back to what he told Tapper. See you after your Tab. You’re a free subscriber to Wide World of News. For the full experience, become a paid subscriber.
© 2022 Mark Halperin
|
