THE DAILY NEWSLETTER - MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 2022

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
Chuck Todd

Chuck Todd grilled Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on whether or not he wanted to see his own party win the midterm elections in a stunning exchange on Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press.

While Todd was one of five hosts to virtually sit down with Manchin on Sunday, he secured the senator's most newsworthy comment on the midterm elections.

Despite a pointed grilling from Todd, the West Virginia Senator refused to say that he wanted his own party to win the midterm elections.

“Do you hope Democrats keep control of the House and Senate?” Todd asked Manchin.

“I think people are sick and tired of politics, Chuck,” Manchin replied.

“I really do. I think they’re sick and tired of Democrats and Republicans fighting and feuding and holding pieces of legislation hostage because they didn’t get what they wanted, or something or someone might get credit for something."

Manchin then refused to "predict what's going to happen," prompting Todd to ask what result the senator wants.

But Manchin, for a second time, twisted himself in knots to avoid the question.

Todd took one final shot at getting a response, asking, “You don’t care about the outcome this year of the election?”

“Whatever the voters choose,” Manchin said — dodging one more time.

Similarly, Manchin also refused to commit to supporting President Joe Biden in a separate interview Sunday with ABC’s Jonathan Karl.

While Manchin appeared on five shows Sunday, Todd's interview stood out above the rest, as Manchin's silence on the topic was deafening.

The anchor also managed to corner Manchin into refusing to support his own party shortly after he had reached an agreement with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on a reconciliation bill this week.

MEDIA LOSER:
Ben Domenech

Fox News contributor and Spectator editor-at-large Ben Domenech went after service members in a heated Twitter spat with a veteran on Saturday.

Domenech’s outrage was triggered by a Fox News opinion piece from Lucas Kunce, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran and Democratic Senate candidate in Missouri.

Kunce’s piece argues that Republicans “turned their backs on veterans like me” by delaying the PACT Act, a bill to care for veterans and 9/11 first responders exposed to toxic chemicals.

“Many struggle with chronic respiratory issues. Migraines. Cancer," Kunce wrote.

"So imagine how we all felt on Thursday, watching all these Republicans, most of whom have never even worn the uniform, throw us a giant middle finger?”

Domenech went after the column on Twitter, calling it “authoritarian horsecrap” to use a vote on burn pits to try and get rid of the filibuster.

"You do not get to sweep away the tenets of government because it doesn't accord to your wishes," he added.

The tweet prompted an intense Twitter exchange, with Kunce responding, "I got sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, so I’ll be damned if some Bush White House toady is going to lecture me about democracy.”

"I don't think we needed to pay you to travel across the world and murder brown people, Lucas," Domenech shot back.

"You should probably send that money back."

While Domenech held several mid-level positions in the Bush administration, he clarified that he "left the GOP in 2006 over Iraq."

Regardless of one's stance on the Iraq War, going after veterans burdened with health complications is a grossly misguided way to criticize pretty much anything -- especially if done in an attempt to defend a Senate procedure.

The A-Block

'Quietly preparing'

President Donald Trump's legal advisersare “quietly preparing” for possible criminal charges to be filed by the Department of Justice.

In an article published Sunday, Rolling Stonereported that Trump’s legal team has been growing “increasingly anxious” that the ex-president could face prosecution for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden, including the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Three anonymous sources described as “people familiar with the matter” spoke to Rolling Stone and provided written communications for the magazine to review, saying that Trump's lawyers were “brainstorming strategy and potential defenses,” and that Trump had been briefed “on potential legal defenses on at least two occasions this summer.”

June’s bombshell Jan. 6 hearing testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson was the trigger for why the legal team had “intensified” their efforts, the sources claimed.

The sources also spilled the tea on who the Trump legal team thought might serve as a possible “fall guy” for the former president.


In Other News...

Trump Weaves Together Three Different Bonkers Conspiracies in All-Timer of a Backhanded Covid Sympathy Note to Biden

Political, Media, and Entertainment Figures Mourn Death of Nichelle Nichols, Beloved for Groundbreaking Star Trek Role

Basketball World Mourns the Passing of NBA Icon and 11-Time Champion Bill Russell: ’Stood for Something Much Bigger Than Sports’

Huh?! James Carville Defends Not Just the Political Strategy, But the Ethics of Dems Propping up Extremist Republicans: I Don’t See a ‘Moral Problem’

RATINGS: Fox News’ The Five Leads Cable News

Must See Clip

Daring rescue

Rescue workers in Kentucky airlifted an 83-year-old woman from her home, as it was almost entirely underwater amid the state's devastating floods.

The Wolfe County Search & Rescue Team posted footage of the mission on Facebook, sharing that the team saved all 5 residents from their submerged home.

Each family member, including the 83-year-old woman, was transported out of the home and onto the roof where a guardsman was positioned to assist with the hoist.

They were then airlifted from the house and taken to safety.

Watch the rescue here.

Links We Like

- Sarah Ellison and Jeremy Barr, Washington Post
Can Biden's highs overshadow the lows?
- Michael D. Shear, New York Times
Buzzbee on her first year at the Washington Post
- Charlotte Klein, Vanity Fair
How Weinstein got away with it
- Jonathan V. Last, Bulwark
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