POLITICO Nightly: Trump’s multiracial miscalculation

 

By Charlie Mahtesian and Calder McHugh Former President Donald Trump participates in a question-and-answer session with political reporters at the National Association of Black Journalists Annual Convention in Chicago on Wednesday. Rachel Scott, senior congressional correspondent for ABC News (right) was one of the moderators. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO TIME BOMB — Donald Trump is once again at the center of the attention economy after drawing gasps for questioning Vice President Kamala Harris’ race and heritage . He’s muscled his way back into the news cycle after nearly two weeks of Harris dominance. The question is at what cost. It’s too soon to know whether Trump has done his campaign any lasting damage or whether he’s simply triggered another outrage cycle that’s destined to burn itself out. What seems clearer is that Trump has handed his party a time bomb that’s set to detonate after he’s left the scene, if not in November. That’s because the multiracial population in the United States — which includes Kamala Harris — is the fastest growing demographic group in the country, according to the 2020 Census. Between 2010 and 2020, it nearly tripled in size to 33.8 million people . These voters, who self-identify as more than one race, aren’t likely to take kindly to efforts to pigeonhole, politicize or disparage multiracial identity, as Trump sought to do with Harris, who is both Black and Asian American. “She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now, she wants to be known as Black,” Trump said in an interview Wednesday at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists. “So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” The problem isn’t merely Trump’s deliberately provocative remarks about the authenticity of Harris’ racial identity. It’s also what the discussion reveals about him and, by its tacit assent, the GOP. The very focus of his argument betrays an anachronistic view of race at a time when attitudes toward racial identity — for a variety of reasons — are rapidly changing. Trump and the older elements of the MAGA coalition may demand a crisper delineation of racial identity — the kind that they’ve been familiar with for much of their lives — but that’s at odds with the direction the country is headed. The ham-handed ploy to portray Harris, an HBCU grad, as a kind of race traitor or an inauthentically Black person mainly serves to remind voters of the 78-year-old Trump’s advanced age — nothing says septuagenarian like a preoccupation with pointless racial and ethnic distinctions. The trouble for the Republican Party is that Trump’s remarks come amid signs of a historic realignment, driven by gains among working class Latino and Black voters, that would remake the GOP into a populist, multiracial working class coalition . Many of those voters have a more fluid definition of race. Roughly 28 million Hispanics identified as more than one race in 2021 , up from just 3 million in 2010. The pace is slower among Black Americans, but still notable: In 2000, 93 percent identified their race and ethnicity as Black alone. By 2019, that number was down to 87 percent . And Trump’s attacks are all the more conspicuous given that the only non-white president the United States has ever elected is multiracial himself — Barack Obama was born to a white mother and a Black father. Trump, of course, was a prominent member of the “birther” movement, insisting that Obama was not born in the U.S. His attacks on Harris are of a different stripe — that she’s somehow not Black enough, or not authentically Black. They are reflected in some corners of the internet , where influencers suggest that Harris will prioritize “East Indian immigrants” over Black Americans, or that she doesn’t share the same experiences as other Black Americans given that she’s a descendant of Jamaicans rather than an American descendant of slavery, or “ADOS.” These ultra-fringe movements, though, are just that — representative of a tiny sliver of the American public. And if Trump wants to expand the Republican tent, attacking Harris for her racial background based on an outmoded understanding of race in America will likely do just the opposite. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s authors at cmahtesian@politico.com and cmchugh@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @PoliticoCharlie and @calder_mchugh . What'd I Miss? — Narrowed version of Trump’s New York gag order will remain in place for now, appeals court rules: A panel of appeals judges today rejected Donald Trump’s effort to toss the remaining limitations imposed by a gag order stemming from his Manhattan criminal case, leaving the Republican presidential nominee restricted in his public comments even during the heated general election stretch. In late June, Trump succeeded in convincing the judge who imposed the gag order, Justice Juan Merchan, to loosen the restrictions, allowing the former president to comment publicly on witnesses and jurors involved in Trump’s criminal trial, which ended in his conviction on 34 felony counts in late May. — Senate blocks bipartisan tax package: The Senate blocked a once-promising $78 billion tax package today in the chamber’s last vote before lawmakers headed out of Washington for August recess. The bill went down in a vote of 44-48, with the vast majority of Republicans, one Democrat and two independents voting against a procedural motion to limit debate on the package, which includes an expansion of family tax credits and would revive a trio of lapsed business breaks. It would have required 60 votes in favor to succeed. excerpt: “Sixteen million kids will be worse off and half a million will remain in poverty because Senate Republicans decided they’d rather wait around and hope Trump wins in November than take a bipartisan victory today,” said Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a prime negotiator of the package, in a statement after the vote. — Key Trump ally in 2020 should lose law license for two years, DC disciplinary panel rules: Jeffrey Clark, the former Justice Department attorney who became a central figure in Donald Trump’s bid to seize a second term he didn’t win, should be suspended from practicing law for two years , a Washington, D.C., disciplinary panel ruled today. The oversight panel, authorized by the D.C. bar, rebuked Clark for aiding Trump’s effort to use the Justice Department’s might to undermine the results of the 2020 election. As part of that effort, Clark proposed a plan to persuade Republican-led legislatures to appoint pro-Trump presidential electors in states Joe Biden won. Clark’s role in the scheme violated his code of professional ethics as an attorney and even threatened to destabilize the country, the panel found. Nightly Road to 2024 THE FRACKING WHISPERER — This week, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has been doing damage control for statements she made in 2019 in support of a ban on hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking. Politicians seeking votes in Pennsylvania have to stake middle ground on fracking, a method of drilling horizontally through shale to tap pockets of natural gas. Harris’ flip-flop is emblematic of the treacherous path Democrats tread in Pennsylvania where the fossil fuel industry flexes economic and political muscle , writes the Philadelphia Inquirer. At the same time, the state has forceful environmentalists pushing for renewable energy. Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, a potential Harris running mate, has managed to keep the natural gas industry from getting too uneasy, although bruising some people in the process. Observers say he could help Harris navigate a tricky landscape. THE NEVER SHAPIRO MOVEMENT — As Kamala Harris prepares to name her running mate ahead of a rally on Tuesday in Philadelphia, pro-Palestinian protests are very much part of the calculus surrounding Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro , who is believed to be on her shortlist of potential running mates, writes the New York Times. Efforts by a motley collection of left-wing and pro-Palestinian activists to derail his nomination have presented the Harris campaign with a decision as the vice president prepares to make one of most significant choices of her career: Should she take the opportunity to stand up to her far-left flank in an appeal to the center of the party and to independents, or should she shy away from inflaming an issue that has divided and bedeviled the party — Israel’s war in Gaza? BALLOT WARS — A judge refused today to put on hold his ruling that allows disabled people in Wisconsin to be emailed absentee ballots at home in November’s presidential election in the closely watched battleground state, reports the Associated Press. Republicans asked the judge to not enforce his ruling while their appeal is pending. But Dane County Circuit Judge Everett Mitchell rejected their arguments today, saying putting his ruling on hold “would inflict significant harm on both the disability rights advocates and the public interest.” It will now be up to the state appeals court to decide whether to pause the ruling that opens up a new way for an unknown number of disabled voters to cast their ballots in swing state Wisconsin before the Nov. 5 election. AROUND THE WORLD President Joe Biden, joined by relatives of prisoners freed by Russia, delivers remarks on the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan from Russian captivity today. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images FREE AT LAST — Four Americans and 12 Germans were released from Russia today in one of the biggest and most complex prisoner swaps in U.S. history . The Americans included three journalists: Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, according to U.S. officials. Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive and former Marine, was also released. One of the freed Germans was Rico Krieger, who had been sentenced to death in Belarus. Several Russian dissidents imprisoned in the country were also released. In exchange, Moscow received eight Russians who had been imprisoned in five different countries. The biggest prize of the group for Russia was Vadim Krasikov, a Kremlin-connected colonel in Russia’s secret service who was jailed in Germany in 2019 for killing a Chechen dissident. The deal, which had been in the works for more than a year, marks a major victory for President Joe Biden. “In the context of the war against Ukraine and the overall degradation of our relations with Russia, securing the release of Americans detained in Russia has been uniquely challenging,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters today. “It became clear that the Russians would not agree to the release of these individuals without an exchange that included Vadim Krasikov.” The agreement was finalized several days before the president announced that he was leaving the ticket, said a senior administration official. And read the inside story of how the negotiations went down from The Wall Street Journal . Nightly Number 0.25 percent The amount that the Bank of England just lowered its main interest rate , from 5.25 percent to an even 5 percent. It’s the first interest rate cut from the bank since the onset of Covid, and makes it the latest central bank to cut interest rates after a stretch of increases. RADAR SWEEP COVER ART COVERAGE — Do you have a favorite album cover? The art of figuring out how to brand the cover of a record has become an industry in and of itself. And while a lot of artists opt for abstract art on their albums, many over the years have ventured across America (and the world) in order to capture what they believe to be the right image to represent their music . In Smithsonian Magazine, Catherine Duncan took a look at six iconic covers — from KISS’ “Dressed to Kill” to Wilco’s “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” and the stories behind where exactly in the U.S. they were shot and why each artist chose these landscapes. Parting Image On this date in 1990: About 15,000 people, led by Roman Catholic nuns, march through the streets of New Delhi to the Indian Prime Minister V.P. Singh’s residence to protest the alleged rape in July of two Roman Catholic nuns in Gajraula, a town in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, and the police’s indifference to catch the perpetrators. | Barbara Walton/AP Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   Follow us

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POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: Now entering: Legislative limbo

By Kelly Garrity Presented by  NOTHING HAPPENS UNTIL SOMETHING MOVES — Who needs a last-minute tax-rebate bombshell when you can hit the self-destruct button? Lawmakers have reached an impasse on an economic development bond bill for the second session running — but this time without Chapter 62F to blame. Instead, they’re openly pointing fingers at each other for their failure to come to an agreement on one of the signature bills of the session — and one of Gov. Maura Healey’s biggest priorities — while signaling that “most” of the behemoth bill, save for the bonding side of it, can still get done in the informal sessions that will dot the rest of the year’s calendar. “We kept trying and trying to engage and just ran against brick walls,” House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz told reporters at the State House moments ago. “Eventually, we had to stop running into the brick wall.” The Senate’s response: “You can make blame but that gets us nowhere,” Senate President Karen Spilka said. “These are complex bills, they take a lot of time and energy.” House Democratic leaders also just told reporters that they failed to find consensus with the Senate on most of the bills that were still in conference as of this morning (or last night, in State House time): maternal health, hospital oversight, prescription drugs and federal matching funds, to name a few. State Sen. William Brownsberger also told reporters that a bill bumping up the number of liquor licenses in Boston “may not get done today” — around eight hours after negotiators picked up the paperwork necessary to file a compromise. And Senate Ways and Means Chief Michael Rodrigues said his chamber will not take up the overrides to Healey's vetoes of their FY25 budget that the House advanced, citing an anticipated poor revenue haul in July. It’s a stunning end to formal session — but one that was heavily foreshadowed by 19 months defined by deteriorating relations between chambers. And public griping between top House and Senate Democrats earlier this week set the stage for not only this marathon session that’s tracking to be one of the longest since the Legislature implemented the July 31 deadline (h/t SHNS’s Chris Lisinski ), but for lawmakers’ inability to strike key deals. Tensions between lawmakers had already appeared to have killed any chance of compromise on an energy bill — another unceremonious end to a session in which the acrimony between chambers was hardly more evident than in the public feuding between the chairs of the Legislature’s energy committee. State Sen. Michael Barrett, the Senate chair of the committee and the chamber’s lead negotiator on the legislation, threw shade on the House as he emerged shortly after midnight to warn reporters that there was unlikely to be an agreement. A compromise housing bond bill is on the move but the size and scope, at first glance, appears to be smaller than what Healey proposed for another of her signature bills. (Healey was at the State House well into the night — at one point even spotted entering House Speaker Ron Mariano’s office, though she emerged mum on any details.) Both chambers did manage to pass one big bill that would make it easier for people to qualify as parents, a win for LGBTQ+ couples that have historically faced challenges when it comes to claiming their children as their own. And a veterans bill will likely soon be added to the “finished” pile. Lawmakers also sent a bill that would ban the use of animals in traveling circuses to Healey’s desk. Lawmakers, pressed throughout the day and into the night and morning, shrugged off questions about whether they should have started negotiating and passing bills before the 11th hour. Asked whether marathon final formal sessions were an efficient way of lawmaking, Mariano replied: “Why wouldn’t it be?” GOOD THURSDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS . Stay tuned for Healey's reaction. TODAY — Gov. Maura Healey visits Park Street Station to celebrate the launch of the MBTA’s new contactless pay system at 9 a.m., rides the Green Line to the 10th annual Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS at Fenway Park at 10 a.m. and announces a round of Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Action grants at 12:30 p.m. in Leominster. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu visits Boston Public Schools STRIVE students at a workforce training program at Wentworth Institute of Technology at 10 a.m. in Mission Hill and speaks a the the Bynoe Park opening at 11:30 a.m. in Roxbury. Tips? Scoops? Birthdays? Formal session odds and ends? Email me: kgarrity@politico.com.   A message from Uber: Massachusetts Uber and Lyft drivers now earn at least $32.50 while working on the app, making them some of the highest paid drivers in the country. This new rate sets a high standard for driver pay across the nation. Learn more about what higher pay means for the state.   DATELINE BEACON HILL — “Online lottery charges toward legalization with some safety tweaks,” by Jennifer Smith, CommonWealth Beacon: “As she brought down the veto pen – using a relatively light touch to slash $317 million from 60 separate line items – Gov. Maura Healey left intact a long-sought provision that would expand the state Lottery online despite last-minute pushes to restrict its language. … Attorney General Andrea Campbell, while stopping short of actively advocating against the Lottery’s expansion online, raised red flags early in 2023 that without ‘safe and responsible app design and game offerings,’ the iLottery could mimic some of the more worrying addictive qualities of online sports betting. The compromise budget includes several safeguards sought by Campbell’s office, including a bar on online lottery play by people under 21 years of age.” — “For years, wealthy Martha’s Vineyard property owners have fought over a beach. Now, lawmakers are stepping into the fray,” by Matt Stout, The Boston Globe: “With no debate, the House last week passed a bill that seeks to clarify when a beach that has literally changed locations — moved by erosion, storms, or rising sea levels — qualifies as public land. Massachusetts has among the most restrictive ocean access laws in the country, which allow people to own land all the way to the low-tide line, clearing the way for private ownership of beaches. The seemingly esoteric language approved by the House immediately inflamed the long-running legal dispute an island away.” *****STEWARD HOSPITAL CLOSURES***** — “Judge approves Carney, Nashoba Valley closures as Steward crisis deepens,” by Priyanka Dayal McCluskey and Martha Bebinger, WBUR: “A federal judge on Wednesday cleared the way for Steward Health Care to close two Massachusetts hospitals, while the fate of the company’s other hospitals remains unsettled and Steward runs critically low on cash.” MIGRANTS IN MASSACHUSETTS — “Families, migrants in overflow shelter will be urged to find ‘safe alternative housing,’ document says,” by Chris Van Buskirk, Boston Herald: “Local families and migrants who have maxed out their time in overflow shelters and exhausted all other options will be directed by state officials to find a “safe alternative for housing” before being kicked out, according to a state informational document that was circulated Wednesday. The circulation of the document came one day before updated shelter rules in Massachusetts were set to take effect that limit stays in overflow sites to five business days and require families to wait six months before accessing the larger emergency shelter system.”   DID YOU MISS IT? On Tuesday, POLITICO and McKinsey  convened three conversations in D.C. with policymakers and space experts, including NASA Administrator Bill Nelson . The discussions also featured a panel of experts, an interview with Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-CO)  and Jerry Moran (R-KS) and an executive conversation with McKinsey's Ryan Brukardt . The conversations focused on the next great innovation frontier – the space industry , including deeper discussion around which sectors of the global economy see their growth arc in space and what the role of government leaders is in expanding and regulating the growing number of orbital ideas. CATCH UP AND WATCH HIGHLIGHTS HERE     FROM THE HUB — “‘They think it’s a joke’: Boston has rules for big construction projects that no one follows,” by Danny McDonald, The Boston Globe: “During the past four years, not a single construction project in Boston has reported meeting all the rules intended to diversify the industry and bolster the number of city residents working on construction sites, a Globe review has found. There was a $28 million construction of 88 new residential units on Harrison Avenue in the South End. Major renovations to a Charlestown address to create a new space for a school for the deaf. A planned 300,000-square-foot parking garage for a hospital in Jamaica Plain. A music venue added to Fenway Park. A new police station in East Boston. None were in full compliance with the Boston Residents Jobs Policy, a city ordinance that requires 51 percent of work hours on a project go to city of Boston residents, 40 percent of work hours go to workers of color, and 12 percent of work hours go to women.” — “Boston Police credit use of ShotSpotter with saving a shooting victim on Monday, but City Council remains skeptical,” by Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald: “Amid the latest police testimony around how ShotSpotter technology used by Boston PD contributed to saving the life of a shooting victim in Jamaica Plain this week, advocates and city councilors continue to challenge its effectiveness.” — “City sues police union to avoid paying legal fees for Boston police supervisors acquitted of overtime fraud,” by Dan Glaun, The Boston Globe: “The City of Boston is suing the police supervisors union to overturn an arbitrator’s decision that would force it to pay legal costs for two former police officers acquitted of federal overtime fraud charges.” — “Still getting trapped in Boston public housing elevators,” by Liz Neisloss, GBH News. PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES — “MBTA eyes redevelopment of crumbling Alewife garage,” by Jon Chesto, The Boston Globe: “MBTA general manager Phillip Eng has a $155 million problem on his hands: the crumbling Alewife parking garage. Next week, Eng will turn to the development industry to solve it. The T is dangling the opportunity to build on 13 acres in and around the Alewife Station — in a key spot at the end of the Red Line, where Route 2 enters Cambridge — and is sweetening the pot by offering another 20 or so acres next door that will free up after commuter rail maintenance and repair operations are relocated to Billerica.”   A message from Uber:     YAHD SIGNS AND BUMPAH STICKAHS FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins is endorsing Allison Cartwright for Suffolk County Supreme Court clerk, per her campaign. DAY IN COURT — “Worcester DA drops 25 criminal cases because of illegal state police recordings,” by Brad Petrishen, Telegram & Gazette: “Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.’s office on Wednesday dropped more than two dozen cases that a judge ruled were tainted by state police recordings made in violation of criminal wiretapping laws. … Fitchburg District Court First Justice Christopher P. LoConto, in a pointed ruling earlier this month, ruled troopers broke criminal wiretapping laws by using a smartphone application to record undercover drug stings without obtaining warrants.” 2024 WATCH MUST READ! tRUMP'S RACISM & BIGOTRY ON FULL DISPLAY!  Let's remember what tRump did to 5 INNOCENT BLACK KIDS who were sent to prison because of  tRump's racial hysteria.... Why did Daffy Don even attend the Black Journalists' Conference? And then get offended by the questions? He was so out of control, had to be led off stage... The Orange Turd is just STUPID & uninformed...including signs of DEMENTIA! — “5 things Trump said in a combative interview at Black journalists’ conference,” by Isabella Ramírez, Jared Mitovich and Kyle Cheney.   SUBSCRIBE TO GLOBAL PLAYBOOK: Don’t miss out on POLITICO’s Global Playbook, our newsletter taking you inside pivotal discussions at the most influential gatherings in the world. Suzanne Lynch delivers the world's elite and influential moments directly to you. Stay in the global loop. SUBSCRIBE NOW .     FROM THE 413 — “House and Senate Pass Akers Age Waiver at Last, Closing a Springfield Drama, Sorta,” by Matt Szafranski, Western Mass Politics & Insight: “Five months after the Springfield City Council and Mayor Domenic Sarno forwarded an age waiver for now-Police Superintendent Lawrence Akers, the bill has finally passed Beacon Hill. What is moving to Governor Maura Healey’s desk is not what city officials passed in February. Nevertheless, it will accomplish the home rule petition’s longstanding goal: allowing Akers to serve until age 70.” — “Can the Great Barrington Board of Health stop Dollar General from selling cheap cigarettes?,” by Heather Bellow, The Berkshire Eagle. THE LOCAL ANGLE — “Controversial statement divides Plymouth and the Wampanoag Tribe. 'A lot of ignorance,’” by Rachael Devaney, Cape Cod Times. — “Online lottery sales draw mixed reaction in Attleboro area,” by Stephen Peterson, The Sun Chronicle. HEARD ‘ROUND THE BUBBLAH TRANSITIONS — Diana Erani of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers is joining the National Association of Community Health Centers as chief operating officer in September. — Linda Murphy has been named executive editor of The Cape Cod Times. She was previously serving as interim executive editor. — Seble Alemu will be the new Executive Director of the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators starting early this month. HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to Boston City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, Jehuda Reinharz, Nora Bergman and Asher Perez.   A message from Uber: Massachusetts Uber and Lyft drivers now receive comprehensive benefits, including health insurance stipends for those working over 15 hours a week, paid sick leave, and occupational accident insurance. These protections ensure drivers have the support they need while maintaining their independence and mark a significant improvement in drivers’ quality of life. See how these benefits are changing gig work.   Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com .   Follow us on Twitter Kelly Garrity @KellyGarrity3   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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