|
Capital Journal
|
Good morning from the WSJ Washington Bureau.
|
|
|
Trump's Day: The president has lunch with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the White House.
Tanks: Two 60-ton Abrams tanks will be on display for the Fourth of July parade Thursday in Washington. The parade will also feature a march of ceremonial troops and flyovers of the Blue Angels demonstration team, F-35 stealth jets and the Air Force One jumbo jet that transports the president.
Amazon: Amazon.com has been on a buying binge in recent years, but the U.S. government’s increased scrutiny of large tech companies threatens to slow that pace.
|
|
|
Mr. Trump plans to nominate economists Judy Shelton and Christopher Waller to fill board vacancies at the Federal Reserve. The president has recently escalated his criticism of the central bank for raising interest rates last year and called on it to lower interest rates, Paul Kiernan and David Harrison report.
|
|
|
|
Tanks and other military vehicles arrived in Washington via rail from Fort Stewart, Ga. Defense officials are racing to figure out how to safely display them in the capital on July 4. PHOTO: LEAH MILLIS/REUTERS
|
|
|
The U.S. military, famed for its ability to rapidly deploy to the far corners of the globe, is facing a new logistical challenge: How to get two heavy tanks across roughly 3 miles of the nation’s capital without tearing up roads and bridges before President Trump’s Fourth of July celebration, Nancy A. Youssef reports.
|
|
The administration dropped plans to add a citizenship question on the 2020 census, a turnaround that comes after defiant statements following last week’s Supreme Court decision to halt the query, Jess Bravin and Janet Adamy report. The government’s stated reason for adding the citizenship question was to help protect minority voting rights.
|
|
Two of the nation’s most powerful unions face a potential loss of members and millions of dollars when a new government rule that changes how fees are collected comes into effect Friday, Kris Maher reports.
|
|
|
The House Ways and Means Committee sued the Treasury Department and the IRS for access to Mr. Trump’s tax returns, putting the clash over the returns and audit records exactly where Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D., Mass.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have predicted it would land, Richard Rubin reports.
|
|
After months of epistolary exchanges and subpoenas, the dispute over President Trump's tax returns has finally landed in federal court. This collision has been building to this moment since Mr. Trump took office without releasing his returns voluntarily as his predecessors did. Democrats' victory in House elections last year assured that lawmakers would invoke a 1924 law that lets them get anyone's returns. The administration, unsurprisingly, hasn't complied. Now we're in for months, at least, of motions and rulings and appeals, potentially all the way up to the Supreme Court.
|
— Richard Rubin | richard.rubin@wsj.com
|
|
|
|
A Supreme Court ruling has revived hopes that the Equal Rights Amendment, first approved by U.S. lawmakers in 1972, could meet a critical threshold for ratification, which would bring the issue back before Congress next year, Kristina Peterson reports.
|
|
|
Conditions at Border Patrol stations in South Texas are so bad that migrant men detained in one facility pleaded for help from government inspectors visiting in June, according to a Homeland Security report release Tuesday. Alicia A. Caldwell and Andrew Duehren report.
|
|
Democratic lawmakers were angered by a report of vulgar posts in a private Facebook group of U.S. Border Patrol agents, Andrew Duehren reports. ProPublica reported on Monday that members of the group joked about people who have died attempting to enter the U.S. and had made threats against Democratic members of Congress.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional email consultants who have worked on presidential campaigns have bad news: There is no such thing as too much. And the more cringeworthy the content, the more likely you are to click and give money, Julie Bykowicz reports.
|
|
“What annoys you the most in your inbox is probably what’s doing the best for a candidate.”
|
— Liz Zaretsky, who has written emails for presidential campaigns
|
|
|
|
Bernie Sanders raised about $18 million in the second quarter, as he continued to rake in contributions from small donors, Chad Day reports. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s campaign has enjoyed the advantages of being an incumbent, with his re-election effort raising $105 million.
|
|
Campaign Wire: Pete Buttigieg seeks to move racial disparity discussion beyond South Bend, more.
|
|
|
|
What Fundraising Totals Mean at This Stage of a Presidential Race
|
|
|
|
The 2020 presidential candidates are beginning to reveal how much money they raised in the second quarter of the year. Do the totals matter now?
|
|
|
|
Harris Surges in Polls After Debate Performance
|
|
|
|
A string of recent polls suggest that Sen. Kamala Harris’s performance in the debate last week has propelled her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.
A Quinnipiac University poll of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters nationally showed Ms. Harris, whose criticism of Joe Biden’s record on race was one of the most discussed moments of the second debate night last week, gaining significant momentum in the campaign. Ms. Harris polls at 20% in the Quinnipiac poll, trailing front-running Mr. Biden by just 2 percentage points.
A Quinnipiac poll last month, before the debates, put Ms. Harris at 7%.
Other polls also show strong support for the California Democrat. A Suffolk University/USA Today poll of likely Iowa Democratic caucus goers also showed her in second place to Mr. Biden. The former vice president led that poll with 24% of respondents saying they support him, and 15.6% reported favoring Ms. Harris.
In a poll of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents conducted by CNN and SSRS in the days after the debate, 17% of respondents said they supported Ms. Harris, again placing her in second place to Mr. Biden. That represented a jump from 8% from the month before.
Of course, her debate performance may not be the only—or primary—factor driving Ms. Harris’s recent gains in the polls. And she is not the only candidate who has gained traction: the CNN/SSRS poll also showed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) doubling her support, from 7% in May to 15% in June.
But the polls suggest that well-received debate performances can have an important impact on the early stages of the 2020 presidential primary. If Mr. Biden’s support falls further, other candidates, including Ms. Harris, may soon begin to lead in some polls.
Write to Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com
|
|
|
A U.S. citizen related to the most senior Chinese politician jailed in an anticorruption campaign said authorities won’t let her leave China, in a rare public airing of grievances, reports James T. Areddy. U.S. diplomats say China is applying exit bans more broadly to block departures of Americans—and that few publicize their ordeals out of fear.
|
|
The Trump administration is split on how to handle China, and the president’s decision to give Huawei a temporary reprieve has left the endgame as muddy as ever, Greg Ip writes.
|
|
|
-
President Trump's whirlwind diplomacy with China and North Korea produced good photos but uncertain results. (Bloomberg)
-
The women's national soccer team is both a source of pride and a reminder of the spirit of reform that is the best of the American ethos. (The Atlantic)
-
Nike's decision to pull a new sneaker adorned with a Betsy Ross flag because some white nationalists have been using the same symbol shows a distinct lack of backbone. (USA Today)
|
|
|
This newsletter is a production of the WSJ Washington bureau. Our newsletter editors are Tim Hanrahan, Kate Milani, Troy McCullough and Daniel Nasaw. Send feedback to capitaljournal@wsj.com. You can follow politics coverage on our Politics page and at @wsjpolitics on Twitter.
|
|