Principals

1. Vance attacks stick
2. Trump campaign hack
3. Vance backs $5,000 child tax credit
4. Harris’ economic plan
5. Biden talks exit
6. Israel expects Iran attack

PDB: Harris trusted more than Trump on economy

Trump to be interviewed by Musk on X… FT: Many Biden-backed manufacturing projects are delayed or paused … WSJ: Hidden US campaign against ISIS in Syria

Blueprint poll: Attacks on JD Vance are sticking

JD Vance is struggling with voters for all the reasons you’d expect, according to a new Blueprint polling memo shared with Semafor’s Kadia Goba. The centrist Democratic group’s latest survey found Vance underwater with voters at -11 favorability, similar to other public polling, with more respondents associating him with hardline positions on abortion, divorce, and families. Half of respondents said they’d heard of his “childless cat ladies” comments and when presented with a list of options to describe Vance, the most common answers they gave were “conservative,” “anti-woman,” and “weird.” Message testing suggested Democrats were on the right track: Independent voters were most moved by attacks derived from comments he’d made criticizing parents who divorced, defending the lack of rape and incest exceptions in a state abortion ban, and praising elements of Project 2025. “Everyone knows this has been a bad launch, but this is, I think, so far, the clearest data validation,” Blueprint pollster Evan Roth Smith said.

Trump campaign grapples with alleged Iranian hack

Donald Trump’s campaign is grappling with what it claims is an Iranian hack. The Trump campaign is blaming Iran for the hack and leak of internal communications over the last month, after Politico and other news outlets received an authentic February vetting file on Trump’s vice presidential pick, JD Vance, from a person using an AOL email account who identified only as “Robert.” The Washington Post reported that a Microsoft report last week was referencing the Trump campaign when it disclosed a group linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sent a spear-phishing email to a “high-ranking official” on a presidential campaign. The FBI, however, has not yet commented on the developments, and the Biden administration hasn’t yet formally determined who was responsible, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The sender has suggested they have access to more information but declined to reveal how they obtained the files. “I suggest you don’t be curious about where I got them from. Any answer to this question, will compromise me and also legally restricts you from publishing them,” the person emailed Politico. The situation will pose a challenge for news outlets, particularly if more internal communications are released as they were by the Russians in 2016. But Semafor’s Shelby Talcott and Ben Smith reported that the campaign’s exposure could be more limited than it might have been in the past because it has cautioned staffers to be careful of what is put into email.

Vance talks child tax credit, abortion

JD Vance backed a $5,000 child tax credit and said a second Trump administration would not block access to the abortion drug mifepristone during appearances on the Sunday shows. “I don’t think that you want this massive cutoff for lower-income families, which you have right now,” Vance said on CBS, without making clear who would qualify for an expanded credit if it were enacted. On CNN, he dismissed Democrats’ “weird” attacks on him as “schoolyard bully stuff” and defended his suggestion that parents get extra votes as a “thought experiment” during an interview with ABC. He also called white supremacist Nick Fuentes a “total loser” on CBS for launching racist attacks against his wife, Usha Vance, while defending Trump for having dinner with Fuentes in 2022.

Harris backs no taxes on tips

Vice President Harris took a page out of Donald Trump’s playbook and pledged to eliminate taxes on tips during a campaign stop in Las Vegas. “We will continue to fight for working families of America, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers,” Harris told a crowd at the University of Nevada. Harris also promised to lay out an economic policy platform this week, telling reporters it would be focused on “what we need to do to bring down costs and also strengthen the economy.” Republicans are putting pressure on Harris to sit for media interviews and offer more information about her policy proposals, as polls show her surging against Trump. “The only proposal she’s had since she became a presidential nominee is to steal one of Donald Trump’s ideas,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., quipped on Fox News.

Biden explains his decision to leave presidential race

President Biden said that he dropped out of the presidential race out of concern Democratic worries about his candidacy would be a “distraction.” “A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in their races and I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic — you would be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say, why did so — and I thought it would be a real distraction,” Biden told CBS News’ Robert Costa. He also cited his initial desire to be a “transition” president but said “things got moving so quickly it didn’t happen.” And Biden acknowledged defeating Donald Trump was more important than his own political ambitions. “I think I have an obligation to the country,” Biden said in the interview, his first since exiting the race. “We must, we must, we must defeat Trump.”

Iran strike on Israel within days

Israeli intelligence reportedly expects a much-anticipated Iranian attack within days, a move that comes amid growing doubts over a potential ceasefire in Gaza. The strike by Tehran, in retribution for the killings of senior commanders of the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups, exemplifies what The Economist described as “Iran’s frightening new playbook for war,” in which the country has a “new appetite for risk-taking” and is more willing to countenance direct conflict with Israel. In a sign of the rising tensions, the US increased its naval deployments to the Middle East. Within Gaza, meanwhile, prospects for a deal — seen as close just last week — were upended by an Israeli school strike that left dozens dead and sparked global outrage.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: The bipartisan House task force investigating the attempted assassination of Donald Trump is sending letters today to the Justice and Homeland Security Departments requesting all information already sent to Congress about the shooting and asking for a staff briefing by Aug. 16.

Playbook: Pressure is growing on Vice President Harris to say more about her proposed policies, but some Democrats think she should keep things vague. “Values unite and specific policies divide, so I don’t think there is a desire to spend the next 80 days litigating Medicare for All, for example,” one senior congressional aide said.

WaPo: Harris’ short tenure in the Senate was marked by her questioning of Trump officials and then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, but she didn’t play a major role in any legislation signed into law during that time.

Axios: New data shows a significant drop in violent crime during the first half of 2024, figures that undermine one of Trump’s attack lines.

White House

• The White House is announcing a new initiative called “Time is Money” to crack down on excessive wait times and hurdles required for canceling subscriptions, getting refunds for canceled flights, and submitting health insurance claims.
• The White House said it was “deeply concerned” following a deadly Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza.

Congress

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to block proposed budget cuts to the CDC included in a House bill. — AP

Economy

Employers are pulling back on their hiring of hourly workers. — WSJ

Polls

• For the first time, more Americans trust Vice President Harris to handle the economy than Donald Trump, according to a poll conducted for the Financial Times and the University of Michigan (Harris has only a one-percentage-point advantage over Trump).
• Harris leads Trump by four percentage points in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll.

On the Trail

• There is friction inside Vice President Harris’ campaign between new hires and officials who stayed on from President Biden’s campaign. — Politico
• Biden told CBS he plans to campaign for Harris in Pennsylvania and other states.
• Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday helped Harris raise $12 million at a fundraiser in San Francisco.
• Donald Trump has called Harris a “bitch” in private. — NYT
• The Trump campaign is dramatically increasing its spending on political ads in Georgia. — AJC
• Trump falsely accused Harris of using AI technology to create images of the crowd sizes at her rallies, promoting a conspiracy theory to explain the enthusiasm of the Democrats’ new ticket.

National Security

The US is waging a campaign against a resurging Islamic State in Syria. — WSJ

Foreign Policy

• The US is trying to convince Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro to leave power in exchange for pardons for him and his top lieutenants. — WSJ
• The US is lifting a ban on offensive weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukrainian troops are fighting in Russia. Meanwhile, Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of starting a fire at Zaporizhzhia — Europe’s largest nuclear power plant — in Russian-occupied Ukraine.
• Ukrainian troops are digging trenches in Russian territory, suggesting that Kyiv plans a prolonged defense of newly captured land.
• Israel is bolstering its power infrastructure in advance of a possible attack from Iran. — Bloomberg

Technology

• Elon Musk’s political posts have comprised 17% of his feed on X this year, up from 2% in 2021. — WaPo
• Former Google executive and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki died on Friday at 56.

Media

ABC News executive Dana Walden has a close friendship with Vice President Harris, raising conflict of interest concerns ahead of the debate next month. — NYT

Blindspot

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, curated with help from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: A federal judge ruled that the CDC is likely violating federal law by deleting the emails of former low-level employees after they leave the agency.

What the Right isn’t reading: Former California state Sen. Nate Holden said that he — not former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown — nearly crashed in a helicopter with Donald Trump, Politico reported.

Principals Team

Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Morgan Chalfant

Reporters: Kadia Goba, Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

Derek Guy is a fashion writer who is known on X as the “menswear guy.”

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