THE FOLKS AT THE RNC ARE QUITE SENSITIVE to the notion that their convention this summer in Jacksonville, Fla., may be in trouble. But all publicly available evidence would suggest that, in fact, it is in trouble, and to think otherwise would be burying your head in the sand. ABOUT A HALF DOZEN SENATE REPUBLICANS have suggested they won't go, and even more have cast doubt on the convention or said that they haven't made their mind up. RNC-ALIGNED REPUBLICANS say it's two months away, and it's too early to make any determinations about the prospect of a large-scale gathering in hard-hit Florida. There are reports of efforts to study holding it outdoors. In August. In Florida. ON THURSDAY, THE RNC and TRUMP were dealt another blow. APPEARING IN KENTUCKY, Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL was asked if he would be attending the convention in Jacksonville this summer. He said he didn't have any idea whether the event would even be happening. -- MCCONNELL: "Well, I think the convention is a challenging situation. And a number of my colleagues have announced that they're not going to attend, and we'll have to wait and see how things look in late August and determine whether or not you can safely convene that many people." The clip AND THEN THERE'S THIS GREAT ANNIE KARNI and PATRICIA MAZZEI story on A15 of the NYT today, which suggests the Republican governor of Florida is trying to sabotage the convention because of a beef he has with a consultant! -- NYT: "DeSantis Is Said to Quietly Hinder Fund-Raising for Trump Convention": "[Gov. Ron] DeSantis, a Republican, has directed his top fund-raiser, Heather Barker, to tell donors not to give to the convention because of a personal dispute between the governor and Susie Wiles, his former campaign manager who is serving as an informal adviser to the convention planners, according to multiple people familiar with his actions. "Ms. Wiles is a veteran Republican operative who led Mr. Trump's Florida team in 2016 and who ran Mr. DeSantis's 2018 campaign for governor. Mr. DeSantis's relationship with Ms. Wiles soured over his suspicion that she had leaked embarrassing information." NEW … THE WHITE HOUSE is launching a rapid-response Twitter account to try to drive messages and make announcements. @WHRapidResponse is now live, and will be manned by the White House communications shop, under the direction of KAYLEIGH MCENANY and ALYSSA FARAH. -- FIRST TWEET: @WHRapidResponse at 12:01 a.m.: "Follow @WHRapidResponse as we cut through the bias and provide real-time updates on the historic accomplishments of President @realDonaldTrump's administration!" MERIDITH MCGRAW: "The White House's new briefing strategy: Short, with lots of commentary": "The White House's ever-mutating press conferences have found a new form. They're short, with frequent prepared commentary and press critiques. "It's a format that has taken shape under new White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who took over her role in April. McEnany initially chose to resurrect the concept of semi-regular briefings in the White House's press room — which had sat unused for over a year under her predecessors. But her briefings, often announced at the last minute, have since clocked in, on average, 25 minutes. And on occasion, they have been scheduled right before President Donald Trump's official events, giving McEnany a pre-planned stopping point. "The strategy has extended to President Donald Trump himself. The president has, in recent weeks, cut back his own free-for-all press conferences from early 2020 — taking questions just five times in June from a group of reporters. Instead, Trump has been gathering reporters for a self-described 'press conference' or 'news conference,' only to make long speeches straight into the TV camera before walking off without taking any questions. … "For the White House, the tactic has given the administration the opportunity to use the cameras in the room to project its message, surrounded by reporters who aren't able to ask many follow-up questions. And it has changed how the White House has conveyed information during two ongoing crises — the coronavirus pandemic and the protests against police brutality and racial injustice." POLITICO TRUMP'S FRONTS: NYT, banner headline: "PRESIDENT IS NOT 'ABOVE THE LAW,' JUSTICES DECIDE" … The NYT also fronted a Shane Goldmacher/Jim Tankersley story with this headline: "Biden Puts Economy at the Center of His Attack" … WSJ … N.Y. POST CANDACE OWENS RAISING MONEY FOR … HERSELF! OWENS -- a conservative activist -- is sending text message solicitations to raise money for herself, through an LLC called Candace Owens LLC. The solicitation says: "Hi it's Candace Owens. The Black Lives Matter movement is getting more power by the day and we must stop them. Stand with me." That directs to this page, which raises money for the LLC. "Paid for by Candace Owens LLC and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee," the page reads. -- WHAT MAKES THIS UNIQUE is it looks like a campaign advertisement, but it's not. It's directing money not to a campaign committee, but rather to a corporation. SCOOP … A NEW WHISTLEBLOWER … BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN: "A top terrorism fighter's dire warning" CORONAVIRUS RAGING … -- NYT: "U.S. Hits Another Record for New Coronavirus Cases": "Officials across the United States reported more than 59,880 cases on Thursday, setting a single-day record for the sixth time in 10 days, according to a New York Times database. The surge has been driven largely by states in the South and the West that were among the first to ease restrictions established during the virus's initial wave in the spring. At least six states set single-day case records on Thursday: Alabama, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Oregon and Texas. "The numbers were especially striking in Texas, which set a record for the fourth consecutive day with more than 10,900 cases. Nearly one in 10 of them were in Hidalgo County, which consists of over a thousand square miles of scrub and urban sprawl on the Mexico border." -- WAPO: "CDC feels pressure from Trump as rift grows over coronavirus response," by Lena Sun and Josh Dawsey: "The June 28 email to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was ominous: A senior adviser to a top Health and Human Services Department official accused the CDC of 'undermining the President' by putting out a report about the potential risks of the coronavirus to pregnant women. "The adviser, Paul Alexander, criticized the agency's methods and said its warning to pregnant women 'reads in a way to frighten women … as if the President and his administration can't fix this and it is getting worse.' "As the country enters a frightening phase of the pandemic with new daily cases surpassing 57,000 on Thursday, the CDC, the nation's top public health agency, is coming under intense pressure from President Trump and his allies, who are downplaying the dangers in a bid to revive the economy ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election. In a White House guided by the president's instincts, rather than by evidence-based policy, the CDC finds itself forced constantly to backtrack or sidelined from pivotal decisions." -- LAT: "Coronavirus hospitalizations jump 97% in Orange County in less than a month," by Hannah Fry: "The number of patients hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infections reached new heights Thursday in Orange County — jumping 97% over the past three weeks — an indicator that health experts say makes it clear the virus is spreading more rapidly in the region. "County health officials on Thursday reported that 691 patients were being hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infections. Seven days earlier, 556 people were hospitalized. A week prior there were 437 people in hospitals, and a week before that there were 351. The spike has prompted hospitals countywide to begin to prepare for a surge of sick patients, said Orange County Health Care Agency Director Dr. Clayton Chau." -- NPR: "Bolivian President Tests Positive For Coronavirus" MARC CAPUTO: "Trump advisers fracture over Roger Stone pardon": "Roger Stone is headed to prison next week unless Donald Trump intervenes. And a chorus of outside allies is pressing the president to do just that — over the wishes of White House and campaign aides who don't like Stone and think Trump has nothing to gain by helping him. "Both camps expect Trump will at least split the difference by commuting Stone's sentence, according to interviews with nine sources familiar with the discussions. A commutation would keep Stone from behind bars without wiping his record clean." KNOWING ELISSA SLOTKIN … TIM ALBERTA: "Elissa Slotkin's Reluctant War with Donald Trump": "She cannot hope to win reelection this fall without persuading a significant number of voters in Michigan's 8th Congressional District to split their tickets — four more years for Trump, two more years for her — and every feud with the White House is equivalent to a few more straight-party ballots being punched. "Whether Slotkin can have it both ways, speaking her mind about the president and winning over some of his supporters, may well determine not only her fate but the fate of Democrats in swing districts and battleground states across the country. "Slotkin didn't want it to be this way. She envisioned another hyperlocal campaign, like the one she ran in 2018, building consensus around kitchen-table issues and eluding perceptions of partisanship. But if her first two years in Congress taught her anything, it's that sooner or later, everyone has to pick a side. There is no middle ground when it comes to Donald Trump. "'He's forcing my hand,' Slotkin tells me a day after the tweetstorm, resignation dripping from her voice. 'He's doing things and saying things that call upon me to think about my fundamental oath of office.'" | 
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