President Trump, a self-proclaimed master at making deals, again opted for executive action over negotiation with Congress. And, yes, we’re still waiting for Joe Biden to pick a running mate. It’s Monday, and this is your politics tip sheet. |
- With negotiations in Congress over a pandemic recovery package seemingly on the verge of collapse, President Trump took executive action on Saturday to extend federal relief himself. But Congress controls the power of the purse, and it is unclear whether Trump had the authority to act on his own — or whether the measures will have any immediate effect.
- The orders he signed were billed as a federal eviction ban, a payroll tax suspension, relief for student borrowers and $400 a week for unemployed people. But they do not add funding for small businesses, schools, or state and local governments, and do not include a second round of stimulus checks.
- Trump sought to justify his attempt to circumvent Congress by blaming Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, who he said had held “vital assistance hostage.”
- But in a joint statement, the Democratic leaders called the president’s actions “unworkable, weak and narrow,” while demanding that Republicans “return to the table” to continue negotiating. Pelosi later went on the Sunday shows and repeatedly called Trump’s moves unconstitutional.
- We are (still) waiting for Joe Biden to announce his choice of a running mate. And, well, he is a man who will not be rushed. “The deadline for a V.P. nomination is the convention,” said Representative Cedric Richmond, a co-chairman of Biden’s campaign. “He’s very deliberative with his decision-making. It works.”
- One of the top contenders, Senator Kamala Harris, has been a strong voice on the issue of police misconduct during what has been a summer of unrest. But during her long career in law enforcement — as both California’s attorney general and San Francisco’s district attorney — Harris was at times more reluctant to intervene in cases involving killings by the police.
- Among the small circle of people helping Biden decide whom to select for the ticket is Christopher J. Dodd, the former Connecticut senator. Dodd has been in the spotlight in recent days after Politico reported that he had privately complained that Harris had shown a lack of “remorse” over her clash with Biden at a Democratic debate last year. The attention has opened Dodd to criticism and revived examinations of his sometimes controversial résumé.
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- On the Republican side, there is no indication Trump wants to bump Vice President Mike Pence from the ticket. But Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor, so ingratiated herself with the president over the summer that, for a time, some had begun to wonder if she could replace Pence. The rumors — spurred by a flight Noem took on Air Force One with Trump, and her reported charming of him with a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore that included him as a fifth presidential likeness — grew loud enough that she flew to Washington to smooth things over with the vice president in person.
- With tens of millions of Americans expected to vote by mail in the coming election, the Postal Service is becoming an even greater concern. The agency is now led by Louis DeJoy, a major donor to Trump’s campaigns who was named postmaster general in May, and on Friday it announced a substantial reorganization that officials said was intended to increase efficiency.
- But some Democrats in Congress were suspicious of the changes, and a few urged the inspector general for the Postal Service to audit the new policies — including limitations on overtime — saying they were concerned the moves “pose a potential threat to mail-in ballots and the 2020 general election.”
- The tension surrounding the post office is just one aspect of a larger fight over voting rights, ballots and election integrity that some experts fear will make November a long, ugly and contentious month. Lawyers are already in court seeking to define the rules about how voting will take place, and preparing for fights over how votes should be counted.
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 | | Benjamin Rasmussen for The New York Times |
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Biden or Trump? Wall Street is betting on Biden |
President Trump has cut their taxes and slimmed regulations. And Joe Biden did not exactly wow them in the Democratic primary. Wall Street types first swooned for Pete Buttigieg and later dreamed of the possibility that one of their own, Michael R. Bloomberg, might become the nominee. |
But in a presidential contest between Biden and Trump, the financial industry has lined up firmly behind Biden, embracing his message about bringing stability even if that means taxes might tick upward. “For people who are in the business of hiring and firing C.E.O.s, Donald Trump should have been fired a while ago,” said James Attwood, a managing director at the Carlyle Group and a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs who recently contributed $200,000 to Biden and the Democratic National Committee. |
One campaign account that the Biden campaign established in part to solicit the financial industry raised $11.5 million in just May and June. |
Biden, despite his two terms as vice president and decades as a senator from Delaware, does not have deep ties in the financial power center of New York. But a number of Wall Street executives have been hosting $1 million-plus events for him in recent weeks. And the Biden campaign has aggressively pursued Wall Street cash, setting up economic and policy briefings for bundlers and other influencers in the industry. |
All that financial support comes with some political downside. Progressives whom Biden is hoping to turn out in historic numbers have long worried about the influence of the industry. |
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