5. Can Trump expand the map?:
President Donald Trump travels to Duluth, Minnesota, on Wednesday as he desperately tries to find a place Hillary Clinton won in 2016 that he can flip on November 3.
For Trump, making Minnesota (and its 10 electoral votes) competitive is almost a necessity, given his struggles in states he carried in 2016 like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and Florida.
4. How many more Trump defectors?:
It’s normal, every four years, for one or two Democrats to endorse the Republican president (Zell Miller and George W. Bush in 2004, for example) and vice versa.
What is unprecedented is not only the number of Republicans who have crossed party lines to back Biden over Trump, but also how senior these officials are.
“He lacks the empathy, integrity, intellect and maturity to lead,” Ridge wrote of Trump.
Ridge joins fellow Bush cabinet secretaries Christine Todd Whitman (EPA) and Colin Powell (State) as Biden endorses. Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, and Chuck Hagel, the former Nebraska Republican senator, both of whom served in the Obama cabinet, have also backed Biden.
Are there more defections to come? Who? When? And while it won’t change the minds of the hardcore Trumpers within the GOP, does the avalanche of senior officials siding with Biden impact any swing voters?
3. The ACB fight begins:
The drama is, largely, over in the fight to confirm Trump Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. She will, barring some sort of major catastrophe during her confirmation hearing (or revelation) be confirmed with at least 50 Republican votes.
But that doesn’t mean the stakes aren’t still high — particularly for the senators asking the questions. And the questioners (aka members of the Senate Judiciary Committee) include the likes of vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
Moments like these hearings are watched extremely closely by donors and activists — and can position a senator for future bids for either leadership positions or national office.
Klobuchar, for example, stood out during Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation for her personal testimonial about her father’s battle with alcoholism.
Every senator — Republican or Democrat — wants to have that moment, and will begin positioning themselves to be a major player in the confirmation fight.
2. How Biden wins the debate:
The former vice president is in the driver’s seat in the race right now. But a poor debate performance would still be a problem.
Biden tends to struggle to think as quickly on his feet as these debates reward and occasionally heeds the time rules a little too closely — interrupting himself in the middle of a thought.
The key for Biden is to avoid being dragged into the ditches that Trump will try to drive it toward. Biden needs simply to stay on message: Which primarily will be about how Trump has handled (or not handled) the coronavirus.
1. How Trump wins the debate:
Trump’s debate MO is simple — he will throw anything and everything at the former vice president. Trump wins if any of it — and, again, there will a lot — throws Biden off or rattles him.
He will also interrupt, bully and cajole — both Biden and the moderators — simply to attempt to dominate the stage and look “presidential.” And judging from his 2016 debates against Hillary Clinton, Trump will also declare himself the winner — no matter what happens.