In today’s edition … Benjamin Netanyahu breaks with President Donald Trump, again … We want to hear about your summer vacations … but first …
Voters want fighters. But where is the limit?
Voters want fighters.
But I am not sure this is what they meant.
For years — really ever since the political rise of President Donald Trump — voters have told pollsters and reporters that they want to elect so-called fighters, often outsider candidates who won’t back down in the face of political pressure and will stand up for themselves, oftentimes in blunt terms, when confronted.
Yes, that has manifested itself in more outsider candidates who are unbothered in confronting the establishment in both parties.
But this trend has also led to more candidates who attempt to shake off true political scandals, hoping that voters’ desire for fighters will allow them to buck the laws of political gravity and survive scandals that mere years ago would have sunk a political career.
Take Rep. Max Miller, the embattled Republican congressman who is facing calls for his resignation over accusations of domestic violence made by his ex-wife.
The allegations against Miller are harrowing: Scalding his ex-wife and the daughter of Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, Emily Moreno, with hot water, holding a gun to her head and hurting their daughter. Miller denies the claims. But in an earlier era of American politics, such accusations of domestic violence — including injuring your own child — would likely have ended a political career, and at least made the accused a political pariah.
That has not happened. At least yet.
Miller seems all but certain to remain on the ballot in Ohio, our colleague Alexei Koseff reported over the weekend: “Under Ohio law, the deadline to fill a vacancy for the November general election is Monday at 4 p.m. But there are earlier steps in the process that seemingly would have necessitated Miller withdrawing already.”
Miller has fought the allegations, called them fabricated and pledged to keep on running for reelection. Moreno, the Republican senator, called on Miller to resign his seat and end his reelection campaign last week. That call was followed by Ohio Republican Sen. Jon Husted, a few other notable Republican lawmakers and some Ohio groups.
But Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have not called on Miller to resign. Trump told reporters last week that he was “going to look at” the Miller story. “I mean, so far, it’s accusations,” he told reporters. There has been some reporting that Trump privately believes Miller’s political future is in jeopardy.
Miller, a former Trump aide, told CNN last week that Trump told him over the phone that his reelection was “going to be a tough race.” But, seemingly aware of Republican’s desire for fighters, Miller tied himself to Trump fighting off what would have been career ending allegations.
Miller said Trump “faced the most extreme allegations in the world that hit him day after day after day, and people in the media, very much like yourself and others, said that he would have no shot at winning.”
“But guess what?” Miller said. “He stayed in, and he was resilient.”
To Shannon Burns, the head of Strongsville GOP, a grassroots Republican organization with deep roots in Miller’s district, that sort of fight is not only what Republican voters expect, it is what leads them to stand by Miller.
“I do think that all the types of personal attacks that are levied at candidates now, the base expects them to fight. And when they don’t, that is when they actually start to believe this is true,” said Burns, who planned to hold a rally with Miller today but decided to cancel due to security concerns.
“There has been a shift in our politics,” said Burns, noting that his decision to cancel the rally led him to get some “flack from our supporters who said you should have stood and fought and shouldn’t have backed down.”
Democrats have dealt with this on their side, too.
On the political front, Abdul El-Sayed, the recently crowned Senate nominee in Michigan, has cast himself as a “fighter” since the outset of his campaign, while casting his Democratic opponents as unable to meet the current moment.
“If you want a fighter, I’ve got receipts,” El-Sayed said earlier this year.
In the realm of taking on the fighter mantle to contend with more sordid matters, Graham Planter fended off rounds of scandals that would have sunk candidates years ago, from a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol to downplaying sexual assault concerns in deleted Reddit posts to sending sexually explicit text messages to women while he was married.
I remember speaking with more establishment Democrats at the time who were convinced each of these stories would be the end to Platner’s campaign. And they were wrong until Platner ended his campaign following a sexual assault allegation by a women he once dated. But even then, some Platner signs remained up long into the candidate’s countless scandals.
Platner’s top consultant came from the aptly named Fight Agency. “We’re looking to help American originals, ready to fight the toughest battles in politics,” their website reads. But even Morris Katz, Platner’s top consultant, acknowledged after weeks of standing by the scandal-plagued candidate that his campaign likely would have — maybe should have? — ended in an earlier kind of politics.
“In hindsight, knowing what we know now, the Reddit posts alone probably should have been enough — or should have been enough,” Katz said after the campaign ended. “The tattoo should have been enough. The initial New York Times story on troubling behavior should have been enough.”
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Our picks
- Surprise nominees, candidate scandals scramble the battle for Congress, from Isaac Arnsdorf, Praveena Somasundaram and Theodoric Meyer.
- Water systems are ripe for cyberattacks, experts warn after suspected Iranian hacks, from Ellen Nakashima and Amy B Wang.
- As a record El Niño ramps up, track how it’s reshaping the weather, from Ben Noll and John Muyskens.
- Inside school investigations frozen under Trump: Racial slurs, sexual harassment and more, from Laura Meckler.
- Why a murder trial is beginning nearly 30 years after Tupac Shakur’s death, from Hannah Knowles.
What we’re watching
It has been clear for weeks that arguably the biggest impediment to the adoption of a peace plan for Gaza has been Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his hardline government.
And on Sunday, a report from our colleagues Lior Soroka and Sammy Westfall made that dynamic clear.
Netanyahu publicly “rejected a U.S.-backed plan Sunday for Hamas to lay down its weapons in Gaza in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from the territory — a proposal President Donald Trump recently touted as a breakthrough toward ending the conflict there.”
“Israel does not accept the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said Sunday at the start of a government meeting. He said Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza will only come after “genuine disarmament, not fictitious disarmament,” from Hamas, and stressed his demands included the militant group give up all weapons.
This presents a predicament for Trump, who has staked any chance for peace on the region on the 15-point plan and his so-called Board of Peace. As The Post has reported and I have written about in this newsletter, how the president has handled wars abroad is one of the biggest knocks against Trump’s first term from both Democrats and his Republican base. A continuation of a conflict in the Middle East — on top of the ongoing conflict with Iran — is bad news politically for the president.
Trump has also been out of step with Israel on the issue. He claimed at a Cabinet meeting in July that Israeli officials were happy with the agreement.
“We do have an understanding with Israel,” Trump said at Camp David. “Israel is very happy about it. Israel helped us. They’ve been very good.”
They clearly are not. In a signal of how tenuous this situation is for the Trump administration, the White House referred a request for comment on Netanyahu’s remarks to the Board of Peace, which did not immediately respond.
In your local paper
Michigan Advance: Democrats are trying to quickly unite in a central Michigan district that could be critical to winning back the House later this year. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink and former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam attended a weekend event with progressive William Lawrence, who won the state’s primary last week. The ability for candidates like this to unify will be critical to Democrats’ chances this year.
Daily Montanan: Calls for Alani Bankhead to get out of Montana’s key Senate race are growing louder as the 5 p.m. Aug. 10 deadline for her to drop out approaches. An additional seven senators and 15 House members publicly called for Bankhead to withdraw over the weekend. Bankhead, as I have reported, has stridently said she won’t get out.
From you
Alec’s question about daylight saving time received a ton of responses, with a mix of people against permanent daylight saving time and others supporting a more consistent time.
I have to admit: I have not thought this much about the clock and time.
“I am in favor of not changing the clocks but would like Standard Time to be the year-round standard,” wrote Linda Glass. “Summer evenings are long enough “naturally” — another hour of daylight isn’t needed. On Standard Time the sun sets here (central KY) a bit after 8. Conversely, on DST in the Winter the sun would not rise until after 9! Boo!”
“From everything I’ve learned about this subject, I’ve concluded the primary positive reason behind the original daylight saving time plan was to give golfers more tee time,” wrote M. L. Fitzgerald. “Not sure if this represents a real need for its implementation for any period of time, much less a permanent one.”
“Please get rid of twice yearly time changes,” added Anne Garbe.
And Jim Kramper wrote: “I am against permanent daylight saving time. We need to go to permanent standard time. It is the natural way the human body reacts to sunrise/sunset. We need to become morning people, and not night owls.”
Send a reply
I am just getting back from vacation. So I want to hear about your trips. What is the best vacation you took this summer? It can be a short jaunt to a nearby location or something bigger. Let me get back into the swing of work through your trips! Let me and your fellow Early Brief readers know at [email protected].
Thanks for reading. You can follow Dan on X at @merica.
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