THE SHOW NOTES: The Veep Theory, Russian/Chinese Bombers, & Slave To The Internet

Welcome! An Australian field hockey player is amputating part of his finder so he can play in the Olympics.

MUST WATCH: The media repeatedly claimed that Harris was Biden’s Border Czar.

BREAKING: Us economy soared past expectations with 2.8% growth in the second quarter.

BIAS: Government transparency site GovTrack deleted its 2019 claim that Kamala Harris was the most liberal member of the US Senate.

NEW: Uvalde school officer pleads not guilty to charges stemming from mass shooting - USA Today

KAMALA: Obama plans to endorse Harris for president soon - NBC

REVERSE: Gavin Newsom caved and issued an executive order to remove homeless encampments.

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Kamala & The Veep

As speculation continues to swirl regarding Kamala Harris’s selection for vice president, campaign insiders gave NBC unique insight into the absurdity of the presumptive nominee’s thinking. This is from NBC:

“Let’s just face it. There’s a lot of sexist, racist white dudes out there in America who don’t like Trump, but just need a little extra validation,” one person familiar with the campaign's thinking said. “And, bringing one of the people mentioned (Kelly, Shapiro, Beshear and Cooper) onto the ticket helps validate her among those constituents.”

Yikes.

Trump campaign advisor Chris LaCivita claimed yesterday that reliable sources tell him that Kamala Harris has picked Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro to be her VP. While unconfirmed, the news would match a parallel NBC story claiming that most Republicans view Shapiro as Trump’s most formidable rival.

As Donald Trump and the Republicans have gone on the attack against Harris, Democrats are worried that Harris is not getting in front of swing state voters quickly enough to define herself before Trump does it for her. In fact, Harris has raised roughly $100 million in the past week yet very few ads have aired on pivotal swing state screens.

David Axelrod explained that since Harris is inheriting the Biden campaign, the President used Mike Donilon to coordinate ad messages with one video producer. Since Harris’ team has reassigned Donilon, it has caused a significant delay in producing television ads at the most inopportune time. A Harris campaign staffer confirmed this with Politico.

The House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning Kamala Harris’ work on the border with the support of six Democrats and the entirety of the Republican caucus. Rep. Jared Golden, one of the Democratic holdouts in a highly contentious swing district, told Axios he will "absolutely not" commit to voting for Kamala Harris yet.

Russian/Chinese Bombers

Russian and Chinese warplanes were intercepted off the coast of Alaska by U.S. and Canadian fighters Wednesday, marking the first time strategic bombers from the two U.S. adversaries have operated together near North America, a U.S. official said.

Two Russian TU-95 Bear and two Chinese H-6 bombers flew into the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, a buffer zone in international airspace, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said. The flights, which came as close as 200 miles off the Alaskan coast, were the most recent sign of growing military and security cooperation between Moscow and Beijing. 

“It’s the first time that we’ve seen these two countries fly together like that [but] they didn’t enter our airspace,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at a press conference Thursday. 

Full story at The Wall Street Journal (paywall).

Must Watch

Check out this new ad that caught my eye. It’s like a JD Vance commercial, but not. You don't have to be a slave to the internet. You don't have to be a gig worker. You can commit to making America great again and build ships and bombs and cool stuff.

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• Russian warships to make Havana port visit this weekend, say Russian news agencies - Reuters

• Jennifer Aniston Wants To 'Pray' For JD Vance In Rare Political Dig - HuffPo

• Florida Homeowners See Resale Value Plunge in Multiple Cities - Newsweek

• Venezuela's election: More Maduro or a new democratic era? - CBC

Market snapshot: