Kamala hits the campaign trail backed by big money

How quickly things change. Heading into the weekend, high off a successful convention, Republicans held a $44 million lead. Then, President Joe Biden stepped aside, freeing the tens of millions of dollars top donors had held as ransom and simultaneously jolting depressed Democrats and small-dollar donors out of their malaise. By Monday evening, the Republican lead had vanished and the Republican Party found itself $37 million behind.

And with the addition of “soft money,” or money given to PACs and parties instead of to individual candidates, the number Democrats raised in two days looks more like $350 million. Even when you count the money megadonors held up, these are unreal numbers — and as strong a sign as you’ll see this summer that the Democrats are re-energized by the change in lineup.

That’s not to suggest that Vice President Kamala Harris has any real personal appeal herself, no matter how many cringey CNN segments are devoted to making her look cool (or how hard TikTok plays with its algorithms). But it can be said that Democrats aren’t ready to give up fighting former President Donald Trump — they were just sick of doing it with Biden in charge.

In reality, D.C. Democrats are quietly excited about the news cycles coming down the line — and how they might shield the voters from how incredibly grating a person Kamala Harris is.

Republicans eager to rest on how poorly Harris did in a crowded field of Democratic primary voters might reconsider those priors: It’s a different race now.

The Summer Olympics kicked off in Paris Friday and will help distract Americans’ attention from the political circus through the first two weeks of August. By then, it’s just one week of recess until the Democratic National Convention and, with it, a whole new week of pageantry.

That only gets them through most of August, however. Lots of time left for everyone to remember just how annoying the least popular Democrat of 2020 truly is. Republicans eager to rest on how poorly Harris did in a crowded field of Democratic primary voters might reconsider those priors: It’s a different race now.

There are, of course, land mines for the Democrats all around. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comes to Washington Wednesday at the invitation of both parties for a joint address to Congress. Harris is heading to a campaign event instead of presiding over the address, and the next in line, Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is boycotting the event.

Meanwhile, Biden, who has appeared in public once since withdrawing (and didn’t take any questions) canceled his meeting with Netanyahu, though the PM and Harris are supposed to meet later in the week. She’ll be treading carefully there, too, trying to reaffirm her support for the embattled ally while also scolding its leader enough to appease her radically anti-Israel base.

That Netanyahu’s speech is happening at all is a coup by Israel and her friends in Washington and a victory for Republicans happy to poke the Democratic foreign policy civil war.

That civil war is almost certainly coming to Chicago, too, where Democrats are set to gather for the first time since 1968. The ghosts of that violent and tortured convention past are so present as to be spooky: a deeply unpopular president declining to run for re-election, a new nominee the voters never actually voted for, and Democratic activists battling police in the streets over Democrats’ own foreign policy.

And finally, there is the president himself, who has completely disappeared from view since before he told his campaign staff and the world that he wasn't going to run again with a post on X. He’s set to address the nation Wednesday night from the Oval Office. What does he have to say, and how will he look and sound? It’s not all wine and roses for the party in power.

Nor are Republicans taking the sudden shift toward a unified Democratic Party sitting down. The rumor around town is that billionaire Elon Musk intends to send his recently pledged $45 million a month to fund the Republican ground game. Political consultants generally advise donors to funnel cash toward TV ads. Even though super PACs get a terrible TV buy rate, those same consultants earn lucrative commissions from the buys. It’s an ugly ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Democrats routinely dominate the ground game, relying on federal employees, unions, and an army of suspicious, ACORN-like nonprofits to do the work for them. If confirmed, Elon’s donation strategy is unusual — and a highly welcome turn for the Grand Old Party.

Just last week, Republicans couldn’t be more confident in their prospects for November. This week, Democrats are riding high after successfully replacing an addled president without sparking a vicious primary or convention battle. Neither side should rest easy. There’s plenty more to come.

Ben Boychuk: Don’t get cocky about Kamala

Daniel Horowitz: How ballot tricks could flip red states blue

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The fire rises: Punchbowl: Schumer to move on kids' online safety package

Turns out the Senate isn’t totally checked out. In an unexpected move, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is bringing a series of major bills designed to curtail Big Tech’s power and predatory practices.

The legislation is a rare thing: supported by conservative populists and liberal Democrats while opposed by a bipartisan coalition of corporatists and libertarians backed by big money. Andrew Desiderio reports:

The package of bills, which includes the Kids Online Safety Act and the Children’s and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act, represents the most significant federal crackdown on Big Tech companies and social media platforms in the digital age.

The bills impose new privacy rules and require the platforms to give parents and guardians increased control over their children’s account settings. There’s broad bipartisan support for both pieces of legislation.

Schumer has tried to secure a time agreement in order to pass the package quickly, but hasn’t been able to get unanimous consent. Absent an agreement, final passage wouldn’t be until next week.

Editor's note: Elon Musk has since disputed initial reports on the amount he's giving, calling the Wall Street Journal story "fake gnus."