| | | | | |  | | By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun | Presented by |  | | | BEING THERE … NYT'S KATIE GLUECK and TOM KAPLAN found a ballroom in Wilmington, Del., at the Hotel du Pont being prepped for a big event -- presumably for JOE BIDEN'S VP announcement: "[I]t is worth noting that the Hotel du Pont was where he announced his 1972 Senate candidacy. It is also where he has made major political appearances in the decades since — including, in March, the last in-person event he held before the coronavirus shuttered the campaign trail for months. "Workers who were seen setting up for the event at the hotel appeared to be from BNY Production, a company that has been a frequent vendor for the Biden campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records. A truck from Wizard Studios, another event-production company that has worked for the campaign, was also parked outside the hotel on Monday." CLICKER -- THE DEM CONVENTION LINEUP: "DNC lineup will feature VP candidates plus Obamas, Clintons and AOC," by Holly Otterbein -- NOTE OF CAUTION from Bloomberg's @jeneps: "Seeing lots of comments that Susan Rice must be the VP pick since she's not on this list. That's ... not the way this works. The lineup is totally separate from the VP process. If the person Biden chooses is on this schedule, they'll just fill that hole with something else." STAFFING UP, VEEP EDITION -- "Biden campaign puts VP team in place ahead of announcement," by NBC's Mike Memoli and Amanda Golden: "Liz Allen, most recently a managing director at the Glover Park Group consulting firm, will be the running mate's communications director. ... Sheila Nix, who served as the chief of staff to Biden on the 2012 Obama reelection campaign and then joined Biden's team in the White House as chief of staff to second lady Jill Biden, will be a senior adviser to the running mate and her spouse. … "Karine Jean-Pierre, who recently joined the Biden campaign after serving as chief public affairs officer for MoveOn, will be the running mate's chief of staff while continuing to serve as a senior adviser to Biden. Also transitioning from within the campaign, Vince Evans will serve as the running mate's political director after serving as the campaign's southern political director." NBC HMM … MADISON CAWTHORN, the 25-year-old Republican who won a primary to succeed MARK MEADOWS in the House, posted smiling photos with a friend at ADOLF HITLER's summer home, calling the facist murdering tyrant "Fuhrer" -- German for "the Leader" -- in a series of photos posted to Instagram in 2017, though he did call him "a supreme evil." THE PHOTOS WERE UNEARTHED BY YASHAR ALI, the journalist. They've been scrubbed from CAWTHORN's Instagram page. THE CAPTION: "Vacation house of the Fuhrer. Seeing the Eagles Nest has been on my bucket list for a while, it did not disappoint. Strange to hear so many laughs and share such a good time with my brother where only 79 years ago a supreme evil shared laughs and good times with his compatriots." -- WE'VE REACHED OUT out to CAWTHORN to ask if he could explain the images, and the accompanying captions. He didn't respond. He posted a response to Facebook, in which he said he was celebrating the victory over Nazis. The GOP leadership -- including the NRCC -- has settled on the message that they "agree with Madison Cawthorn that Hilter was evil," as spokesman CHRIS PACK said. TODAY, IN THE SENATE "IN SESSION": Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL (R-Ky.) spoke to reporters after his floor speech and said he had just gotten off a conference call with Treasury Secretary STEVEN MNUCHIN and W.H. COS MARK MEADOWS: "We are doing that on a daily basis to keep all of my members informed on where we're headed. As you know, they have not reconvened. "WE'RE WAITING for the Democrats to indicate some interest in getting an outcome. In the meantime, as all of you know, school's about to resume, unemployment insurance plus-up has expired. And PPP is not able to function. There's a sense of urgency that the American people need us to address the situation. And so I think it's high time the Democrats indicated they were willing to talk rather than continuing to insist on things, for example, like tax breaks for rich people in blue states." Good Tuesday afternoon. | | A message from Nokia: From pushing 5G in the U.S. to developing what's next, Nokia creates and invests in our nation's future. Fueled by our U.S. innovation hubs including the iconic Nokia Bell Labs, Nokia delivers solutions both from and for America. Learn more. | | | MR. MEDIA -- ANTHONY FAUCI -- will sit down with MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY on Instagram! HOW IT'S PLAYING -- "Employers Cast Wary Eye on Trump Payroll-Tax Deferral," by WSJ's Richard Rubin: "Employers' biggest worry: If they stop withholding taxes without any guarantee that Congress will actually forgive any deferred payments, they could find themselves on the hook. That is a particular risk in cases where employees change jobs and employers can't withhold more taxes from later paychecks to catch up on missed payments. ... "Employers and their lawyers are waiting for the Treasury Department and the IRS to issue formal rules to turn the president's weekend statements and directives about the payroll-tax collection suspension into action. Those details will be crucial as companies decide whether and how to implement the plan, and many employers might not even bother if they have a choice. ... Every day that passes without those rules will make it harder to make any changes by Sept. 1, the start date set by Mr. Trump." WSJ THE COVID RIPPLE EFFECT -- "In the Wake of Covid-19 Lockdowns, a Troubling Surge in Homicides," by NYT's John Eligon in Kansas City, Mo., Shaila Dewan and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs: "Across 20 major cities, the murder rate at the end of June was on average 37 percent higher than it was at the end of May, according to Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The increase over the same period a year ago was just 6 percent. "In few places has the bloodshed been more devastating than in Kansas City, where the city is on pace to shatter its record for homicides in a year. Much of it has involved incidents of random, angry violence … disputes between strangers that left someone dead, or killings that simply cannot be explained." NYT AP: "New York's true nursing home death toll cloaked in secrecy," by Bernard Condon, Matt Sedensky and Meghan Hoyer: "New York's coronavirus death toll in nursing homes, already among the highest in the nation, could actually be a significant undercount. Unlike every other state with major outbreaks, New York only counts residents who died on nursing home property and not those who were transported to hospitals and died there. "That statistic could add thousands to the state's official care home death toll of just over 6,600. But so far the administration of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has refused to divulge the number, leading to speculation the state is manipulating the figures to make it appear it is doing a better than other states and to make a tragic situation less dire." AP THE REOPENING -- "Betsy DeVos publicly absent as critical decisions are made on public school reopenings," by NBC's Heidi Przybyla in Detroit: "As public schools grapple with the challenge of reopening during a pandemic, public education advocates are criticizing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for working remotely from Michigan, where she owns a sprawling waterfront estate with a round-the-clock security detail paid for by taxpayers. "And while keeping herself largely physically distanced as the coronavirus continues to spread, DeVos has been a forceful advocate for President Donald Trump's demand that schools reopen in full and in person — potentially placing millions of teachers and students at risk of infection. It's a striking bit of mixed messaging for DeVos, a billionaire heiress, major GOP donor and charter school advocate who had no experience with public education before she became education secretary." NBC -- HISTORY LESSON -- "Boston refused to close schools during the 1918 flu. Then children began to die," by WaPo's Dustin Waters | | | | BECOME A CHINA WATCHER: Mounting concerns over foreign interference are casting a shadow on the U.S. election this fall. Are concerns that Beijing might seek to influence the results valid? Join the conversation and gain expert insight from informed and influential voices in government, business, law, tech and academia. China Watcher is as much a platform as it is a newsletter. Subscribe today. | | | | | BEYOND THE BELTWAY -- "An economic crisis in Kentucky has workers, businesses furious with McConnell," by WaPo's Tony Romm: "About five months after Kentucky reported its first loss of life from covid-19, its economy continues to sputter amid the coronavirus pandemic. Many unemployed workers say their benefit checks aren't enough to afford their bills, and some here simply have stopped looking for jobs. Businesses say they're also hemorrhaging cash, and local governments fear they're on the precipice of financial ruin, too. "The economic tumult in Kentucky is vast, and it has added new urgency to the political standoff on Capitol Hill, where the prospect of a prolonged deadlock could worsen the financial woes in a state that was hurting long before the pandemic arrived. Caught in the middle is McConnell, 78, who some critics say has struggled to navigate the priorities of the president, the political desires of a fractious Republican conference and the economic needs in his own backyard." WaPo FOGGY BOTTOM READING -- "State Department did not consider civilian casualties when sending arms to the Middle East, report finds," by Jacqueline Feldscher and Halley Toosi: "The State Department did not fully consider the risk of civilian casualties when it approved more than $8 billion in arms sales to Middle Eastern countries last year, according to an inspector general report released Tuesday. ... "The IG determined that Pompeo carried out his use of emergency authorities properly. Yet it also said the department 'did not fully assess risks and implement mitigation measures to reduce civilian casualties and legal concerns' surrounding the transfer of precision guided munitions to the three countries. The inspector general provided additional details about this failure, as well as a recommendation, in a classified annex of the report." POLITICO … The report POMPEO ABROAD -- "Pompeo opens anti-China, anti-Russia tour in Czech Republic," by AP's Matthew Lee in Prague FOR THOSE KEEPING TRACK -- "Justice Department bid to drop criminal case against Michael Flynn returns to court," by WaPo's Ann Marimow: "The legal and political battle over the Justice Department's effort to drop its prosecution of President Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn returned to court Tuesday. The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is considering whether U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan must immediately sign off on the government's move to undo Flynn's guilty plea. "A divided three-judge panel in late June ordered Sullivan to close the case and said he was wrong to appoint a retired federal judge to argue against the government's position. But the full court, sitting Tuesday with 10 judges, agreed to take a second look at the unusual case that tests the power of the judiciary to check the executive branch." WaPo | | | | BETTING ON THE FARM FOR THE LONG GAME : Something unusual happened in Washington this summer: Senate leaders on both sides of the aisle unveiled a serious climate bill in the middle of a pandemic to make it easier to pay farmers to capture carbon. How are American farmers and food companies responding this time? "The Long Game" is designed for executives, investors and policymakers leading that conversation. Engage with the sharpest minds from the worlds of finance, technology, energy, agriculture and government around our biggest challenges. Searching for a nuanced look at these issues and solutions? Subscribe today. | | | | | KODAK UPDATE -- "Kodak Insider Makes Well-Timed Stock Gift of $116 Million to Religious Charity He Started," by WSJ's Theo Francis, Mark Maremont and Geoffrey Rogow: "In the days following the disclosure, the company's stock surged, then fell precipitously. The Securities and Exchange Commission and several congressional panels have opened investigations into how the company disclosed the deal and the timing of option grants given to Kodak Executive Chairman Jim Continenza. "A Kodak spokeswoman said the company would cooperate with any SEC investigation and congressional inquiries. None of Kodak's top executives have reported selling shares since the stock price ran up, and the company has said Mr. Continenza doesn't intend to sell any Kodak shares." WSJ TRANSITIONS -- Jessica Collins is now comms director for the House Oversight GOP. She previously was chief of public affairs at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. … Hannah Chatalas is joining the Global Situation Room as SVP for strategic growth. She previously worked for Michelle Obama in the White House and California first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Leila George-Wheeler, senior associate at Holland & Knight, and Erik Hansen, VP of government relations at the U.S. Travel Association, welcomed Zahra James Hansen on Saturday. Pic … Another pic -- Allison Ryan, director of comms and marketing at the Moving Picture Institute and a Cato Institute and Berman & Co. alum, and Lt. Col. Michael Ryan of the U.S. Air Force welcomed Caroline Miller Ryan on Saturday. 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