I joined The Buckley Club podcast (subscribe here) to talk about the ongoing congressional spat over Zika funding, the “rider” controversy, and the hidden hand of Big Pumpkin. My part starts at the 10:30 mark.
Liam Talking Trump on MSNBC
Chris Hayes was kind enough to invite me on “All In” on Wednesday night to talk about Trump and the tightrope of white grievance politics.
Click here for the full segment- my part begins around the 2 minute mark.
Morning Joe Debut (Sort Of)
Ok fine, so it’s a tweet, but it still counts.
How to Triage Trump
Over at National Review I break it to my fellow #NeverTrumpers that the RNC is not going to “pull the plug” on the Trump campaign. But what’s far more important than the public posture is what happens behind the scenes:
So no, the RNC isn’t going to “cut Trump off.” But it’s instructive to consider where the committee is putting its cash to begin with. The national party isn’t stockpiling cash for a big media blitz down the stretch like its congressional-campaign counterparts. The money is paying for field staff and setting up victory offices. It’s going toward mailers, campaign literature, and chasing down absentee ballots. These are shared, mutually beneficial investments for the good of the entire ticket. The question isn’t whether to do these things, it’s where to deploy the effort. And that’s the key: Triage isn’t punitive, it’s a function of scarcity, efficacy, and allocation.
Click here for the full column.
NYT on Trump and the RNC
NYT’s Nick Confessore looks at the Trump campaign’s reliance on the RNC:
Some Republicans believe that with the fall campaign weeks away, the party should focus its money and efforts down ballot to protect Republicans’ congressional base. That would mean quietly ignoring Mr. Trump’s call this month for a 50-state field operation and instead emphasizing congressional districts and swing states that are also Senate and House battlegrounds.
“They can’t do anything publicly — you can’t rebuke your nominee,” said Liam P. Donovan, a former aide to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “But you could allocate resources to places where it helps up and down the ballot.”
Click here for the rest of the story.