Source: The Hill

A statue of Frederick Douglass was ripped from its pedestal in upstate New York on Sunday, the day marking the 168th anniversary of the American abolitionist giving one of his most seminal speeches condemning slavery.

Rochester police said that the statue was taken from its base in Maplewood Park and carried about 50 feet to a site near the Genesee River gorge, according to The Associated Press. The base, lower part of the statue and a finger on its left hand were reportedly damaged.

Carvin Eison, a leader of a project that brought a Douglas statue to the park in the city, told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle that another statue would have to take its place because the damage was too significant to repair.

https://twitter.com/Atyia_Collins/status/1279868812905635840

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/505955-frederick-douglass-statue-vandalized-ripped-from-base-in-new-york

The Hill

Democrats are within striking distance of retaking the Senate majority in November, while Republicans are facing an increasingly difficult electoral map as President Trump’s sagging poll numbers threaten to drag down vulnerable GOP incumbents.

Several recent polls show Democratic challengers leading Republican incumbents in Arizona, North Carolina and Iowa. The GOP is also fending off tough challenges in a handful of other states, including Colorado, Maine and Montana.

Democrats need three or four seats to win the Senate, depending on who wins the White House.

Republicans still appear on track to unseat Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) in Alabama, the only Democratic senator in the Deep South. But in Michigan, one of the states Republicans saw as a potential pick-up opportunity, polls show Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) leading Republican John James.

Politico

Donald Trump’s collapsing poll numbers have Democrats thinking bigger than just winning the White House and seizing the Senate — they’re imagining a rout that extends all the way down the ballot.

Intent on not repeating the mistakes of 2010 under then-President Barack Obama, the party is seizing on a once-in-a-decade opportunity to drive the redistricting process — and reverse the built-in advantage Republicans amassed over House district lines after the last census.

From Pennsylvania to Texas to Minnesota, cash-flush Democrats are working to win back legislative chambers needed to take control of drawing congressional maps — or at least guarantee a seat at the table. If they succeed, it would correct an Obama-era down-ballot shellacking that handed Republicans House control and resulted in the loss of more than 900 Democratic legislative seats.

The devastating results for Democrats in 2010 — part of a multi-million dollar effort by Republicans and Karl Rove to zero in on winning governor’s offices and battleground statehouses — gave the GOP total control in 19 states and allowed them to draw 213 congressional districts.

Source: Nevada Independent

n March 31, a regional field director for the Trump campaign in Nevada penned a letter to Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. Right from the start, he did not mince words:

“In 2016, Donald Trump lost Nevada by a narrow margin,” Joshua Skaggs wrote. “In the 2018 midterm elections, Republicans lost ground on the democrats (sic). Based on my observations so far in the 2020 election cycle, I am concerned that President Trump and other Republicans on the ballot will not prevail in Nevada in November.”

The main thrust of the letter is Skaggs asserting to McDaniel that registration numbers here “are being falsely inflated” to give a rosier picture of Nevada’s viability for the GOP. “We both want to see President Trump reelected in 2020 so I urge your timely attention to this matter,” Skaggs wrote. (I would post the letter, which I obtained, but it contains some sensitive, personal information, too.)

...snip...

After they learned I had the letter, I am told, they fired Skaggs, believing (incorrectly) that he had given me the missive. They have staff sign NDAs and by all accounts treat them like serfs. I’m surprised they are not doing better here.

Read more: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/trump-campaign-operatives-letter-to-rnc-illuminates-gops-problem-in-nevada

Source: New York Daily News

The numbers don’t lie: “Sleepy Joe” just doesn’t have the ooomph of “Crooked Hillary” — or even “Lyin’ Ted.”
Trump’s favored insult for Democratic rival Joe Biden is falling flat with the public even as Election Day nears, according to an analysis of Google search trends reported by Axios on Sunday.

Americans are searching for “Sleepy Joe” at just about a third of the rate that they searched for the negative moniker aimed at Hillary Clinton during the same period of 2016.

The data suggests that voters are not latching on to Trump’s negative campaign to make Biden more unpopular. That’s a cornerstone of Trump’s effort to win reelection in November because his own unfavorable ratings have been remarkably high throughout his presidency.

Read more: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-trump-biden-election-20200705-xfwyha5yobftzfdcrpxxop5wea-story.html

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1279884213055926272

...or will Trump insist on hosting three hours of prime time every night?

Source: Boston

President Trump will hold an outdoor campaign rally next Saturday night in New Hampshire, his campaign announced Sunday, marking the third time he will campaign in the state in a year, and the second time he will travel to New England in a little over a month.

Trump’s campaign announced the president will hold a Saturday evening rally with the president at the Portsmouth International Airport. (The last time Trump held an event at that location was in 2011 when he flew up in a helicopter to explore a run for president — on the same morning President Barack Obama released his full birth certificate, hoping to end false rumors stirred by Trump and others that he was not born in the United States. )

Due to precautions in the coronavirus era, the rally is expected to take place entirely outside. “There will be ample access to hand sanitizer, and all attendees will be provided a face mask that they are strongly encouraged to wear,” the campaign said in a statement.

Trump is trailing Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden nationally by double digits and by 9 points in the most recent poll of voters in New Hampshire, which has been considered a swing state for the past two decades. Possibly because he is behind, or possibly because he has repeatedly downplayed the risks of COVID-19 by refusing to wear a mask himself and saying last week that the disease will “disappear,” Trump began holding in-person rallies two weeks ago in Tulsa, Okla.

Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/05/metro/trump-hold-outdoor-rally-nh-next-weekend/?p1=Article_Recirc_Most_Popular

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Gives "Live Free or Die" a whole new meaning...

Politico

Donald Trump’s campaign once spoke of expanding his electoral map into blue-leaning territory like Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico and New Hampshire.

Now, winning at least a handful of those states has become a matter of survival.

States that top campaign officials had said they had the luxury of pursuing are no longer considered add-ons to the president’s electoral vote tally but backstops to keep him afloat, according to multiple people close to or involved with his reelection operation.

The most telling sign of Trump’s defensive posture is his recent mammoth TV ad buys. The campaign is spending big to retain states he won in 2016 and to shore up support in places a Republican should already dominate, like Georgia or Florida’s Panhandle.

Washington Post

As the United States again confronts its history of racism, as outrage again erupts over police killings, leaders in Ghana say they’re rolling out the welcome mat for black Americans who want to get away from the turmoil.

The government has negotiated with local chiefs to earmark 500 acres of land near the nation’s center for newcomers, carving out enough space for about 1,500 families. Survey and registration fees are waived for members of the African diaspora.

The effort grew out of a public campaign called the Year of Return, which attracted a record number of tourists to the West African country last year — four centuries after the first slave ship reached Virginia — and aims to convert visitors to residents with special land deals, expatriate guides and easier paths to citizenship.

“We want to remind our kin over there that there is a place you can escape to,” said Akwasi Agyeman, chief executive of the Ghana Tourism Authority. “That is Africa.”