If it’s FRIDAY… Biden White House goes after Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., over his military blockade… GOP presidential hopefuls gather at Family Leader Summit in Des Moines, per NBC’s Alex Tabet and Jillian Frankel… Confidential DeSantis memo attempts to reassure donors amid early stumbles… And check out the cover of NBC’s Matt Dixon’s new book, “Swamp Monsters: Trump vs. DeSantis-the Greatest Show on Earth (or at Least in Florida).”
But FIRST... Does the most undisciplined candidate in the GOP presidential field — Donald Trump — have the most disciplined position on abortion when it comes to the general election?
That’s a question worth asking as many of the Republican presidential hopefuls — minus Trump — gather today in Iowa for the Family Leadership Summit, where they will address social conservatives and evangelical voters after Iowa Republicans passed their six-week abortion ban.
In fact, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (who’s been a subject of attention in the back-and-forth between Trump and the rest of the GOP field) is slated to sign that abortion ban into law at the event around 3:15 pm ET, NBC’s Alex Tabet and Jillian Frankel report.
Bottom line: Today’s speakers — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy — will all be embracing that six-week abortion ban, either directly or by their participation.
“My guess is they’ll all get the opportunity to talk about the life issue and presidential leadership as it relates to the life issue,” Family Leader President and CEO Bob Vander Plaats told the Des Moines Register. “And it’d be a wise move for them to highlight Gov. Kim Reynolds, the Legislature and all those who have worked so hard for the culture of life in Iowa.”
Except for Trump, who has carved out a different position on abortion after Roe v. Wade’s overturn -- which could have repercussions in the GOP primary as well as the general election.
Remember, Trump blamed abortion for the GOP’s underperformance in the 2022 midterms (of course, some of that was self-serving given the role that the former president and his endorsed candidates played in that GOP underperformance).
Now Trump doesn’t have a clear position on abortion after Roe’s fall. (Cue his non-answers from that May CNN town hall.)
But he probably sees the same polling we do: 61% of all voters disapprove of Roe’s overturn, and 57% are less likely to vote for a candidate who supports a six-week abortion ban (versus just 29% who are more likely to support such a candidate), according to last month’s NBC News poll.
There’s an enormous disconnect between the American public’s view on abortion and what’s playing out in Des Moines today.
Headline of the day
Data Download: The number of the day is … between 500 and 600
That’s how many people the Secret Service believes were in an area of the White House in the 48 hours before cocaine was found there, according to people familiar with a Secret Service briefing to the House Oversight Committee, NBC News’ Ryan Nobles, Rebecca Kaplan and Kyle Stewart report.
Members of the Oversight Committee were also told that the Secret Service believes they will not be able to definitively name the person who brought cocaine to the White House.
This comes after the Secret Service shuttered an investigation into who may have brought a baggie of cocaine into the White House with no leads. The baggie was discovered on a Sunday evening in the White House earlier this month.
Other numbers to know:
$155,000: How much former President Donald Trump’s super PAC paid to his wife, Melania, in 2021 in a payment labeled as a fee for a speaking engagement, the New York Times reports.
800,000: The number of student loan borrowers for whom the Education Department announced on Friday it would automatically forgive student loans.
84 million: The number of people under heat alerts in the U.S. on Thursday, with temperatures in some parts of the country expected to hover over 110 degrees over the weekend.
$38 million: How much the IRS says it collected in delinquent taxes from high-income taxpayers in the last few months.
28: The number of mass killings in the U.S. between Jan. 1 and June 30, a record for the deadliest six months of mass killings since at least 2006, according to a The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University partnership.
43: How many years it’s been since the last film and television performer’s strike in 1980. Actors are now on strike after their contract expired at the end of Wednesday.
Eyes on 2024: A sneak peek at Matt Dixon’s new book
Want to learn more about the clash that’s defining the battle for the future of the Republican Party? NBC News senior national politics reporter Matt Dixon has you covered.
First Read has a first look at the cover of Dixon’s new book, “Swamp Monsters,” ahead of its Jan. 9, 2024 publication. And we caught up with Matt for a brief Q&A about what he’s found in his reporting (note: the Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity).
FIRST READ: Just how pivotal was Trump’s endorsement of DeSantis in the 2018 Florida gubernatorial primary in helping him upset the favorite and set him on his path to where he is now?
MATT DIXON: It’s hard to overstate. I think there are pockets of DeSantis World that will tell you he would have won without Trump’s help, but they are very much the minority. Maybe they are right, but without question, DeSantis spiked in the polls after the endorsement, and there is no way he wins the GOP primary in such dominating fashion without Trump.
FR: This wasn’t simply an endorsement, it was a full-on embrace of the Trump brand, the ‘Build the Wall’ ad typifying that dynamic. How much was DeSantis a true believer, and how much of this embrace do you think was based on political expediency?
MD: This was the most interesting part of the reporting process. On the surface, it seemed the two were very close for years. But it was not always as it seemed. We found never-before-reported examples, going back to the very beginning of the relationship, that showed some tension from the start.
FR: Trump and DeSantis are two men who rely deeply on their family for counsel. For those who remember Ivanka Trump serving in the White House with Jared Kushner, with Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump playing key outside roles during the Trump presidency, how pivotal is the role that Casey DeSantis plays in DeSantis’ political orbit?
MD: She is not just an adviser, but THE adviser. Over their time in office, she has had a hand in most major strategic decision-making processes, and was even the point-person early in the administration for firing staffers at the Republican Party of Florida to stock it with DeSantis loyalists. The book really captures this and offers some colorful examples of this dynamic.
FR: The issue of Covid is one issue that DeSantis has started to use as a cudgel against Trump. Can you talk a bit about how the DeSantis campaign sees this as a contrast with Trump, how the governor feels his handling of the pandemic will play in the primary and if they’re concerned about how the message might play in the general election?
MD: For DeSantis, pandemic messaging is a huge part of his strategy for trying to take on Trump. The former president [elevated] Anthony Fauci and expedited vaccine development, which in the current Republican Party should be killers. But, so far, nothing DeSantis has tried has made a dent in Trump’s overwhelming support from the Republican base. There is a feeling that many people, even Republican primary voters, no longer fixate on the pandemic as much as DeSantis’ messaging does. His message is perfectly calibrated to where conservatives were during the height of the pandemic, but that has, so far, not paid off.
FR: Did you come across any big surprises in the course of reporting out the book?
MD: Absolutely! I came across many, and I can’t wait for people to buy the book and read about them.
In other campaign news…
Campaign clean-up: The DeSantis campaign is working to reassure donors and activists as he has struggled to gain traction in national polls, sending a memo earlier this month laying out its strategy as “focusing on the early states, refusing to give up on New Hampshire, not yet investing in “Super Tuesday” battlegrounds, zeroing in on DeSantis’ biography and sowing doubts about his competitors — particularly Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.,” NBC News’ Dasha Burns, Matt Dixon, Jonathan Allen and Allan Smith write in their exclusive report on the memo.
The debate about debates: DeSantis criticized former President Donald Trump, who has suggested he might skip the first primary debate, saying in an interview on a conservative radio program that “nobody’s entitled to this nomination.”
Speaking of debates: Eight GOP presidential candidates are one step closer to qualifying for the first primary debate, garnering enough support in a national poll from Morning Consult that does meet the RNC’s polling requirements, according to a person familiar with debate criteria.
Captain America: Former Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter plans to make a “meaningful” donation to support Trump’s presidential campaign, a spokesman told CNBC.
Senate race cash: Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego’s Senate campaign announced Thursday that it raised $3.1 million in the second fundraising quarter, per a press release. And Politico reports that Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who has not yet announced if he is running for re-election, raised $1.3 million from April through June. (As a reminder, fundraising reports are due to the Federal Election Commission on Saturday.)
Beg-ing for votes (again): Alaska Republican Nick Begich announced Thursday that he is making another run for his state’s at-large House seat.
ICYMI: What ELSE is happening in the world:
Arizona’s attorney general is investigating the circumstances surrounding a slate of pro-Trump “alternate electors” being offered up after the 2020 election.
The FDA has approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill in America.
An Arizona Republican referred to Black Americans as ‘colored people’ in House floor debate, prompting a vote to strike the comments from the record by unanimous consent.
