Buttigieg triples fundraising haul

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Pete Buttigieg uses border to slam Republicans' Christian 'hypocrisy'

Reaction and analysis from First Baptist Church senior pastor and Fox News contributor Pastor Robert Jeffress.

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On the roster: Buttigieg triples fundraising haul - The Rulebook: ‘Necessity has made us allies’ - Team Trump turns focus to evangelicals - Trump meets Kim Jong Un in DMZ - When you want to have your cake and eat it too

BUTTIGIEG TRIPLES FUNDRAISING HAUL
Fox News: “Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg hauled in a whopping $24.8 million in fundraising from nearly 300,000 donors the past three months, his campaign announced on Monday. That’s a massive figure for a White House hopeful who was largely unknown just four months ago. And it’s more confirmation – along with polls – that South Bend, Indiana mayor has gone from a long-shot to top-tier contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. ‘This fundraising report shows that Pete’s message is resonating with Americans, and it’s proof that we are building an organization that can compete,’ Buttigieg campaign manager Mike Schmuhl wrote in an email to supporters early Monday morning. Buttigieg was the first candidate to announce campaign cash figures for the second quarter of fundraising in 2019, which came to a close hours earlier, at the end of June. The campaign received contributions during the second quarter from 294,000 donors, and had $22.6 million cash on hand as of Sunday night, according to national press secretary Chris Meagher.”

Harris raises millions hours after first debate - Politico: “Sen. Kamala Harris raised $2 million in 24 hours after her first presidential debate, her biggest fundraising day of the campaign, her campaign said Saturday. Donations flowed to Harris from 63,277 people, nearly 60 percent of which were first-time donors. The average donation was $30. Her previous largest day was $1.5 million after launching. By comparison, former HUD secretary Julián Castro had roughly 16,000 new donors and Sen. Cory Booker had almost 4,000 new donors after their Wednesday debate, their campaigns said Friday. Harris’ haul comes in the final days of the second fundraising quarter. She also is holding five fundraisers over the weekend in Los Angeles and San Francisco.”

She also secured two more Black Caucus endorsements - AP: “Two more members of the Congressional Black Caucus are backing Kamala Harris’s bid for the presidency: Reps. Bobby Rush of Illinois and Frederica Wilson of Florida. Endorsements from the caucus, which counts more than 50 members, could be influential in the Democratic presidential primary. With these two new supporters, Harris now has six endorsements from the CBC. … Rush will serve as Harris’ Illinois campaign chair.”

Biden embraces Obama amidst damage control  - Politico: “…Biden was fiery, concise and clear [on Friday] as he ticked off his work with hometown hero Barack Obama and defended his civil rights record, which came into question after his high-profile clash with Kamala Harris, the only black woman in the Democratic primary. … Biden’s mentioning of Harris’s name and his insistence that he respects her reflected the toll of the damage she inflicted on him. Normally Biden doesn’t mention his rivals, a luxury of being the frontrunner. …  Not everyone was impressed by Biden’s attempt at damage control. Leaving the event on Thursday, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) said Biden missed his opportunity. The former vice president, Rush said, ‘was using the Obama years as red meat’ in his remarks and didn’t shift his position enough…”

Only five Dems have secured spots in fall debates - AP: “The largest presidential field in modern Democratic politics could quickly shrink as more than half of the contenders are in real danger of failing to meet tougher requirements to participate in the fall round of debates. … They include Julian Castro, who is seeking to capitalize on his strong debate performance last week; Kirsten Gillibrand, one of her party’s most outspoken feminists; and Cory Booker, who rose to stardom as the energetic mayor of Newark, New Jersey. … Currently, the only locks for the fall debates are former Vice President Joe Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, California Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.”

THE RULEBOOK: ‘NECESSITY HAS MADE US ALLIES’
“Although the absolute necessity of system, in the conduct of any business, is universally known and acknowledged, yet the high importance of it in national affairs has not yet become sufficiently impressed on the public mind.” – John Jay, Federalist No. 64

TIME OUT: RESTORATION WAR PHOTOS
Fox News: “Matthew Porche has learned the ins and outs of the dry cleaning business for most of his life. Restoring clothing is what the third-generation owner of Uneeda Dry Cleaners in Houma, La. was destined to do. Those skills have proven to be handy elsewhere as he lends a hand to a southern Louisiana military museum in restoring the history of American soldiers who served in World War I and World War II. The idea came to Porche after seeing a volunteer at the Regional Military Museum trying to unroll a fragile World War-era photo with a small steamer. Porche, a volunteer member on the museum’s board of directors, said a single photo took about a half hour on average. … He had no doubt that his steam press, sitting just eight minutes away in his dry cleaning business, could get the job done much quicker.”

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SCOREBOARD
Trump job performance
Average approval: 44.5 percent
Average disapproval: 52 percent
Net Score: -7.4 points
Change from one week ago: no change 
[Average includes: Monmouth University: 42% approve - 51% disapprove; USA Today/Suffolk: 49% approve - 48% disapprove; Fox News: 45% approve - 53% disapprove; NBC/WSJ: 44% approve - 53% disapprove; Gallup: 43% approve - 55% disapprove.]

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TEAM TRUMP TURNS FOCUS TO EVANGELICALS
Axios: “President Trump’s re-election campaign is developing an aggressive, state-by-state plan to mobilize even more evangelical voters than supported him last time, campaign officials tell Axios. … The goal: Paint Trump as a champion of socially conservative issues and warn evangelical voters that his defeat could destroy the progress he's made. ‘There is a significant evangelical outreach effort. It's going to be state specific. It's going to exist in important battleground states and focus on churches and areas where we can have an impact,’ a campaign adviser said. … The campaign is hyper-focused on registration. It aims to make sure evangelicals, conservative Catholics and Mormons who are already registered vote on Election Day and — more importantly — ensure that the coalition they've built is registering people within their communities on the campaign's behalf, a campaign official said. … The Republican National Committee, which is working in tandem with the Trump campaign, will be launching a similar operation.”

And Latino voters - WaPo: “In an effort to buttress President Trump’s reelection chances, the Trump campaign is reaching out to an unlikely group: Latino and Hispanic voters.  In recent weeks, the campaign has made several hires to court these voters and placed targeted ads in Florida. Meanwhile, Trump conducted his first presidential interview with Spanish-language media giant Telemundo, and Vice President [Mike] Pence flew to Miami on Tuesday to officially launch the ‘Latinos for Trump’ coalition. … The president’s aides and advisers said the effort to target Latino voters reflects the need to expand the president’s base of support beyond his most fervent backers to prevail again in key swing states such as Florida as well as a belief that Trump can make a compelling case based on the performance of the economy.”

Republicans attempt to bridge gap in online fundraising - NPR: “Last week, Republicans launched a new online fundraising tool called WinRed. It's a platform they hope will close the gap between the GOP and Democrats, even though the digital highway is littered with their several previous failed attempts. WinRed, backed by President Trump's reelection campaign and Republican Party committees and congressional leaders, has the party's imprimatur in a way previous efforts did not. The effort is a partnership between Data Trust, a nonprofit clearinghouse for Republican data, and for-profit payment-processing firm Revv, and Republicans say the ‘green wave’ of money that Democrats rode in 2018 will provide momentum for their own efforts. … But for WinRed to ever work as intended, it will have to overcome doubts in the party. Operatives say that candidates will have to agree to use it and that the Republican fundraising culture must change — significantly.”

TRUMP MEETS KIM JONG UN IN DMZ
Fox News: “With wide grins and a historic handshake, President Trump became the first sitting U.S. leader to set foot in North Korea when he took 20 steps into the Hermit Kingdom on Sunday. Trump shook hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as he crossed the low stone curb separating the North and the South at around 3:45 p.m. local time. The event in the Demilitarized Zone — which also included a roughly 50-minute meeting behind closed doors — marked a return to face-to-face contact between the two leaders after talks broke down during a summit in Vietnam in February. Speaking to reporters afterward, Trump said that the two leaders had agreed to revive talks on the pariah nation’s nuclear program. Speaking to reporters afterward, Trump said that the two leaders had agreed to revive talks on the pariah nation’s nuclear program.”

Trump admin has been working on a NoKo plan - NYT: “But for weeks before the meeting … a real idea has been taking shape inside the Trump administration that officials hope might create a foundation for a new round of negotiations. The concept would amount to a nuclear freeze, one that essentially enshrines the status quo, and tacitly accepts the North as a nuclear power, something administration officials have often said they would never stand for. It falls far short of Mr. Trump’s initial vow 30 months ago to solve the North Korea nuclear problem, but it might provide him with a retort to campaign-season critics who say the North Korean dictator has been playing the American president brilliantly by giving him the visuals he craves while holding back on real concessions. While the approach could stop that arsenal from growing, it would not, at least in the near future, dismantle any existing weapons, variously estimated at 20 to 60.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Fox Poll: With 2020 in sight, 90 percent say voting is an act of patriotism - Fox News

Pergram: Senate makes House ‘eat it’ in border funding fight, as liberals fume at ‘betrayal’ - Fox News

Congress is ready to hear from Mueller - Politico

Examining HR practices over the last 30 years - Atlantic

AUDIBLE: CHEEEEEESE
“The photo line is always my favorite part of our events—and last night I took my 35,000th selfie!” – Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted on Saturday along with a video of her and supporter number 35,000 smiling for cameras.

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WHEN YOU WANT TO HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO
WPLG: “A woman who had the nerve to eat half a cake inside a Walmart, and then demand she get half-off for the rest has been banned from the store. The Wichita Falls Police Department says the woman went to the bakery of the Walmart on June 25 and began to eat the cake as she walked around the store, WWOR reports. When the woman went to the register, she said that half her cake was missing and she refused to pay for the missing half. After a Walmart employee called police, the woman paid for the full cake but was banned from the store.”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“A future trivia question and historical footnote, the spectacular 10-day flameout of Anthony Scaramucci qualifies as the most entertaining episode yet of the ongoing reality show that is the Trump presidency.” – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) writing in the Washington Post on Aug. 3, 2017.

Chris Stirewalt is the politics editor for Fox News. Brianna McClelland contributed to this report. Want FOX News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here.