Welcome to the online version of From the Political Bureauan evening newsletter featuring the latest reporting and analysis from the NBC News Politics team from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.
In today’s edition, NBC News’ Capitol Hill team recaps Donald Trump’s visit to Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Plus, senior political reporter Jonathan Allen explains why the ‘Blue Wall’ is Joe Biden’s best bet to get 270 electoral votes.
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Trump’s visit to Capitol Hill brings a rare moment of Republican Party unity
By Scott Wong, Sahil Kapur, Ali Vitali and Julie Tsirkin
Three and a half years ago, then-President Donald Trump incited a violent riot at the Capitol in an attempt to undo the power struggle. Joe Biden‘s election victory and remaining in power, a special parliamentary committee concluded after a lengthy investigation.
On Thursday, Trump made his first visit to Capitol Hill since before the Jan. 6 attack, as Republicans welcomed their party’s presumptive 2024 nominee as a hero.
The closed-door meetings with Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate represented a rare moment of unity for a party that has been embroiled in civil war since that day.
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Here are the top moments from Trump’s trip to Washington:
Repairing fences: Trump made peace with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who had blamed the former president for the deadly riot at the Capitol. The two men had not spoken since December 2020. McConnell said he and Trump shook hands several times Thursday, calling it “a good meeting” and a “completely positive session.”
Trump delivered a message about “unity,” a source said during his meeting with Republicans in the House of Representatives. He offered to hold teletown halls for members facing tough races and emphasized that Republicans should not attack each other.
At one point, two sources said, Trump implored a close ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to get along with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., whom she was trying to oust from power.
“Marjorie, are you nice to Mike?” Trump asked, the sources said, prompting laughter from Republicans in the House of Representatives. A source who observed Greene’s reaction said she made a “kind of” hand gesture, which Greene herself later confirmed.
Abortion caution: Trump acknowledged that the abortion rights issue has cost Republicans a lot of money and that it is too important to ignore, while adding that it is now back in the hands of the people and the states. He also expressed support for an abortion policy that includes exceptions, such as in cases of rape, incest and the life of the mother.
“We are the party of common sense” on these and other important issues, Trump told lawmakers. Members in the audience had mixed reactions to his abortion story, the sources said.
Milwaukee bashing: Trump also made an attack on Milwaukee, where the Republican National Convention is taking place. The former president called the city, the most populous in the state of Wisconsin, “terrible” and overrun with crime, the source said, adding that no one in the room disagreed with him.
Read more from Trump’s day on Capitol Hill →
Biden’s ‘clearest path’ to victory is through the Rust Belt (and Omaha)
By Jonathan Allen
If Biden loses in November, his aides could regret the spending decisions they make now.
The “clearest path” for Biden to win reelection runs through Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — the three states that flipped to Republicans in 2016 and back to Democrats in 2020 — according to Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. who serves as campaign co-chair, and many other Democratic strategists.
If Biden retains those states, along with Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, he could lose the rest of the swing states and still collect exactly the 270 electoral votes he needs to secure a second term.
But Biden campaign officials are convinced that putting all their eggs on the “Blue Wall” is a mistake. In addition to the early campaign money, they also deployed staff, surrogates and advertising dollars to Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.
They may be right in saying that Biden is best served by pursuing all permutations that could lead to a majority in the Electoral College.
Simple arithmetic dictates that winning 16 electoral votes in Georgia or North Carolina, or 11 in Arizona, would more than make up for losing 10 in Wisconsin. Likewise, retaining Nevada’s six electoral votes would outweigh losing Nebraska’s second district, which awards one elector for each congressional district a candidate wins.
But polls consistently show Biden trailing in Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada. Moreover, with the exception of Nevada, those states have been weaker for Democrats than the Rust Belt trio in recent presidential elections.
Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin are the “must have” states, according to Faiz Shakir, a Democratic strategist who managed Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign.
There is a very modern model for winning the presidency by focusing on those three states: that’s how Trump claimed the Oval Office in 2016. At the time, Hillary Clinton’s campaign team talked a lot about the value of pursuing multiple paths to 270 electoral votes. As it turns out, they were all turned off by Trump’s performance in the Rust Belt.
So while political junkies play the electoral card to see how they can produce 270 votes for one candidate or another, the most valuable area has not changed.
Biden aides say it’s far too early for triage. But with yet another election that promises to be close, it could quickly become late.
That’s all from The Politics Desk for now. If you have any feedback – like it or not – please email us at politicsnieuwsbrief@nbcuni.com
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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
