.@MarthaMcSally takes opening q on Trump getting virus and....unspools oppo file on @CaptMarkKelly, including his work w China

He says she “attack(ed) my patriotism,” immed likens McSally attack to her calling @kyrstensinema a traitor at 2018 debate

a prickly open in the🌵
“he’s chuck schumer’s star recruit,” says @MarthaMcSally of @CaptMarkKelly

fact check: true.

but...this is sorta the problem for her!
McSally repeatedly asked if she’s proud of her support for Trump

She won’t say. “I’m proud to be fighting for Arizona every single day”

Kelly says his conduct is “not acceptable”

But he doesn’t want to say Trump’s name either, pivots to healthcare and laments the tax bill.
The diff on the above is the AZ Dems have tolerated their candidates running toward middle.

AZ Rs less likely to offer charity toward their senator declining to say she’s proud of a president they love.
No better sign of how little Biden offers to R candidates than McSally citing Kelly once having promised to support Bernie “when he was surging”
“Sen McCain was a hero of mine,” says Kelly, accuses McSally of not standing up for him

McSally says she’s urged Trump not to attack McCain and adds:

“it pisses me off when he does it.”

Plus a nice pivot to a predictable attack: McCain always said where he stood, Kelly won’t.
McSally best moment comes at end of debate, when she and moderator press Kelly why he ran a gun control group but now rarely talks about the issue. He says he discusses mostly what's on minds of voters...and pivots away from guns.
Ahhhh, ye ole "use closing statement to issue a challenge to hold more debates" move. McSally even proposes three towns they could go. Kelly, sitting on a lead + mountain of cash, dodges.

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More from @jmartNYT

30 Sep
An ugly melee unheard of in modern American presidential debates

w @alexburnsNYT>

nytimes.com/2020/09/29/us/…
The president’s bulldozer-style tactics represented an extraordinary risk for an incumbent who’s trailing Mr. Biden in large part because voters, including some who supported him in 2016, are so fatigued by his near-daily attacks and outbursts
Recall our polling from the weekend: even 40% of Republicans support mandatory masking if ya can't distance.

Yet the president belittled Biden for frequently wearing a mask & mocked his own adviser, Fauci , on the matter.

Totally disconnected from where voters are on this
Read 4 tweets
27 Sep
NEW: NYT survey has Biden up 49-41, thanks to commanding lead w women & independents + a tied race (!) among men

And warning signs abound for GOP on Scotus, Roe & Covid

71% of indies + 31% of Rs want legal abortion all or some of time

w @alexburnsNYT >

nytimes.com/2020/09/27/us/…
Here is why some in Trump’s orbit we’re pushing Lagoa, and not just bc of Florida:

A majority of voters said they would be less likely to vote for Trump If his Scotus pick were to overturn Roe, even higher among women + indies.
For all (tired) jokes about diners, anybody who's followed politics since 2017 can easily grasp the race: there's an ongoing suburban backlash against the Trump Party

White women with college degrees:

Biden: 60
Trump: 34

White men with college degrees:

Biden: 50
Trump: 45
Read 4 tweets
27 Sep
Republicans rally to court pick, see opening to recast election.

Ink not even dry on the appointment before Trump pops up to reiterate first law of Trump era: he’ll always change subj, usually back to himself
Want to know why the race is so stable, beyond the diamond-encrusted polarization of our times?

Bc events only matter so much when a sitting president acts in this fashion ^

nytimes.com/2020/09/27/us/…
On another note, amazed @wexler hasn’t surfaced yet to recall FRITZ’s response when @henrymcmaster challenged him to a drug test in 1986 Senate race:

“I'll take a drug test, if you'll take an IQ test”
Read 5 tweets
25 Sep
NEW: Real Talk...

Republicans are mostly enthusiastic about a Scotus fight bc it changes the topic from Trump & covid + they think angry Dems will make ACB a sympathetic figure

w @maggieNYT on a plan that’s based as much in hope as in strategy >

nytimes.com/2020/09/25/us/…
Lamar! — saying it out loud >

“Either the election can be about Trump or about Covid or about the Supreme Court. And I think, of those three, if it’s about the Supreme Court, that traditionally has helped Republicans more.”
What is striking for a president who’s shown no hesitation in using the levers of power for political purposes, he has shown scant interest in even considering Lagoa to help in FL

@SenRickScott makes case to us

But as @maggieNYT notes, Meadows + the right want ACB
Read 7 tweets
22 Sep
NEW: Even before Friday, NC was crucial.

Now Tobacco Road is at the center of the political universe

With CO, ME, AZ drifting from Rs, the Senate and future of the court could hinge on @ThomTillis v @CalforNC

My dispatch from Franklin St >

nytimes.com/2020/09/22/us/… Image
Why did Tillis move so swiftly to embrace Trump’s tbd court pick?

He thinks his best chance is to grab Trump coattails and hope Trump pulls out NC

And Tillis still has work to do w Rs: 12% of them in our poll still undecided on their own senator !
Yet base consolidation may not prove cost-free in NC, where the key voters live in the burbs & dwell in the political center

Consider: half of new voter registrants in the last 4 years come from just the state’s 4 biggest counties. and they’re flicking to I - not R or D
Read 8 tweets

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