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On the roster: Harris hops over Sanders in Iowa - Team Trump announces $105m fundraising haul - Trump signs border aid package into law - Audible: You do you, Marianne - Louise was not *ahem* emused



HARRIS HOPS OVER SANDERS IN IOWA

USA Today: “The first Democratic debate has reshaped the presidential field in Iowa, surging support for California Sen. Kamala Harris, undercutting the standing of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and raising questions about the solidity of former vice president Joe Biden's frontrunner status. In a new Suffolk University/USA TODAY Poll, Biden continues to lead the field, backed by 24% of those who say they are likely to attend the Democratic caucuses in Iowa that open the presidential contests next year. But Harris has jumped to second place, at 16%, leapfrogging over Sanders, whose support sagged to single digits. At 9%, he finished fourth, behind Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 13%. The new standings are hardly set in stone. Six of 10 say they might change their mind before the caucuses; just one in four say their minds are firmly made up. The second set of debates, scheduled for the end of the month in Detroit, could upend the horserace again.”



Bernie raises $18 million - NYT: “Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont raised $18 million in the past three months, his presidential campaign said on Tuesday. The total was another display of his strength with small donors, but it also showed that his fund-raising had slowed since he began his campaign. Mr. Sanders’s fund-raising total for April through June was roughly equal to what he raised in the first six weeks of his presidential bid, in February and March. It was also significantly less than the $24.8 million that Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., collected in the past three months, an eye-popping sum that the Buttigieg campaign revealed on Monday. Mr. Sanders and Mr. Buttigieg are the first two Democratic candidates to disclose their fund-raising for the second quarter of this year, which ended Sunday. Their totals are likely to be among the largest in the field.”



Buttigieg returns to Silicon Valley for more cash - Yahoo: “On the heels of an impressive fundraising quarter, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg is returning to Silicon Valley later this month to endear himself to the tech industry’s deep-pocketed donors. According to an invitation reviewed by Yahoo News, Google policy adviser Jacob Helberg and PayPal investor Keith Rabois will host a reception for Buttigieg in San Francisco on July 24. Billed as an ‘evening reception and conversation,’ the event will be co-hosted by Pay By Group CEO Camilo Acosta, angel investor Cyan Banister and former Facebook product manager Seth Rosenberg. Interested attendees can join as a ‘co-host,’ by either shelling out $2,800 or raising $15,000, or can participate as a ‘champion’ with a $1,000 donation. A Buttigieg campaign aide who spoke on condition of anonymity said that high-ticket fundraisers are only a part of the mayor’s fundraising strategy. Coupled with the big-ticket events are grassroots-level fundraisers.”



#YangGang hits donor requirement for later debates - The Hill: “Presidential candidate Andrew Yang reached the donor requirement for the third and fourth Democratic primary debates. Yang's campaign announced Monday afternoon that the long-shot candidate surpassed the necessary 130,000 individual donors and 400 per state unique donors in at least 20 states. ‘This campaign has continued to beat every seasoned politico’s best expectations and I couldn’t be more proud of our team. We have hit this number before sitting Senators and Governors without the backing of the establishment in Washington,’ campaign spokesman Zach Graumann said in a statement. The donations don't guarantee Yang will appear on the September debate stage, however.”



Hickenlooper finance director jumps ship - Politico: “The national finance director for John Hickenlooper’s presidential campaign is departing and joining rival Beto O’Rourke’s effort, O’Rourke’s campaign told POLITICO on Monday. The aide, Dan Sorenson, is leaving the former two-term Colorado governor the day after the deadline for 2nd-quarter fundraising and after last week’s Democratic debate — an ominous sign for a presidential bid that has struggled to gain traction. … The Hickenlooper campaign already faced a steep climb to qualify for the fall debates, which require 130,000 donors and reaching 2 percent in four qualifying polls. Even if he ultimately withdraws from the race to challenge Republican Sen. Cory Gardner in Colorado — as some party leaders had long hoped he would — there is now a crowded field of Democrats already running that he would have to defeat.”



The ladies aren’t waiting - Vogue: “And yet [Elizabeth Warren’s] gender is a subject she and the other female candidates can’t escape. … Perhaps that’s because they have so little else in common. The six women running for the Democratic nomination come from different backgrounds. They range in age from 70 (Warren) to 38 (Representative Tulsi Gabbard). They are lawyers and senators, professors and soldiers and even an author and spiritual adviser to Oprah Winfrey (Marianne Williamson). They disagree on campaign tactics and policies. I spoke to Senator Amy Klobuchar just after she came out against Warren’s plan to cancel most student debt and make tuition at public colleges free. (And don’t even get the other women started on Gabbard’s foreign-policy positions.) But they also form an unlikely sisterhood in the inspiring, baffling, often infuriating contest to defeat President Trump.”



[‘Twenty things you probably didn’t know about Marianne Williamson’ - National Review ]



THE RULEBOOK: HEAR, HEAR

“For in politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1



TIME OUT: LAST FLIGHT

History: “On July 2, 1937, the Lockheed aircraft carrying American aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan is reported missing near Howland Island in the Pacific. The pair were attempting to fly around the world when they lost their bearings during the most challenging leg of the global journey: Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island, a tiny island 2,227 nautical miles away, in the center of the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca was in sporadic radio contact with Earhart as she approached Howland Island and received messages that she was lost and running low on fuel. Soon after, she probably tried to ditch the Lockheed in the ocean. No trace of Earhart or Noonan was ever found. … An intensive search of the vicinity by the Coast Guard and U.S. Navy found no physical evidence of the fliers or their plane. Additional searches through the years have likewise failed to find any trace of the Lockheed or of Earhart and Noonan.”



Flag on the play? - Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM with your tips, comments or questions.



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 ANNOUNCES $105M FUNDRAISING HAUL

Fox News: “The Trump campaign announced Tuesday that its re-election operation raised a whopping $105 million in the second quarter, a figure that blows past what the Democratic candidates have been pulling in. As for their war chest, the campaign reported it had $100 million in cash on hand. President Trump raised a large chunk of that -- $24.8 million -- in the 24 hours after his 2020 re-election campaign launch last month. The figures revealed Tuesday indicate fundraising has been steady throughout the quarter. … The figures cover money raised through a joint effort involving the Republican National Committee, and joint-fundraising committees Trump Victory and Trump MAGAC (Make America Great Again Committee). The Trump campaign and his committees brought in $54 million in the second quarter, with the RNC bringing in $51 million. According to the Trump campaign, all three fundraising entities ‘doubled their digital investment’ during the second quarter, and raised more online in the second quarter than the entire first half of 2018.”



TRUMP SIGNS BORDER AID PACKAGE INTO LAW

AP: “President Donald Trump signed a $4.6 billion aid package on Monday to help the federal government cope with the surge of Central American immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Many Democratic lawmakers were hoping for more. They wanted to provide stronger protections for how migrants are treated at holding facilities and to make it easier for lawmakers to make snap visits. Trump signed the bill in the Oval Office, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. The emergency legislation was needed to ease overcrowded, often harsh conditions at U.S. holding facilities for migrants seeking asylum… ‘This is a humane solution to a tremendous problem that starts because of our bad immigration laws,’ Trump said. … The bill bolsters care for tens of thousands of arrivals taken into custody monthly and sets guidelines for how the Trump administration must handle them.”



Dem lawmakers visit Texas border facilities - El Paso Times: “U.S. lawmakers who visited Texas border facilities on Monday described a ‘broken’ and ‘horrifying’ system of immigration detention at the nation's southern border where women in one cell were allegedly told to drink water from a toilet. ‘We came today and we saw that the system is still broken,’ said U.S. congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas… Lawmakers said one of the women at the station alleged that border agents told her to drink water from the toilet. … The state and federal lawmakers — all Democrats — one by one tried to address reporters at a news conference outside the Clint facility, but they could barely be heard above the jeers of protesters who heckled them in Spanish and English. … Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., described the experience on Twitter as ‘horrifying’ and ‘haunting.’”



PLAY-BY-PLAY

Arizona governor heats up spat over Nike’s move to nix patriotic shoe - Fox News



Congress stuck on how to respond to election hacking and fraud - WSJ



Pergram: Longest-ever roll call vote was Senate's ‘Revolution Number 9’ - Fox News



Crispin Sartwell: The self-esteem movement and the origins of our rotten politics - WSJ



AUDIBLE: YOU DO YOU, MARIANNE

“I didn’t know how to play that game. I didn’t know how to box. Hopefully I will be better at that by the time of the next debate. You have to roll with life.” – Democratic candidate Marianne Williamson talking to Vice News.



FROM THE BLEACHERS

“I haven't heard the Democrats say what will happen to all those insurance company employees. Actually, Medicare for all might have been possible in the 1950s when I entered the workforce, medical insurance wasn't available for many jobs. And I worked at Prudential Insurance!” – Karen Morrow, Tampa, Fla.



[Ed. note: Ha! But I think you are on to something there. Democrats have spent a pretty big chunk of the past 60 years trying for a do-over at Harry Truman’s failed bid for universal coverage.]



“Chris, I very much liked Charles Krauthammer's narrative when he was alive. I believe he said some important and insightful things. However, after reading the quotes at the end of several of your daily newsletter/blog, I cannot understand why you are choosing the ones you choose. With notable exceptions, the quotes you have chosen seem obscure, even opaque. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, but what does Anthony Scaramucci have to do with anything NOW or with anything EVER?” – Eric Hutchins, Santa Barbara, Calif.



[Ed. note: I think you may be taking things a little too seriously, Mr. Hutchins. We serve up one little bauble from Charles each day as a reminder of his prodigious gifts. We started replaying the classics before his death, which was a little more than a year ago. I’d encourage you to take them for what they are. And hey, the Scaramucci line was pretty funny!]



Share your color commentary: Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM and please make sure to include your name and hometown.



LOUISE WAS NOT *AHEM* EMUSED

KING 5: “An escaped emu was sitting in the yard of an Orcas Island [Washington] home on Thursday when a cautious deer got a little too close for comfort. Video from KING 5 viewer Robin Watson shows the deer slowly walking up to the emu when the emu jumped up and started chasing the buck. The deer began running around trying to escape with the emu close behind. The deer was able to get away after hiding behind a tree, but not before running around in several circles with the emu in tow. … The Islands' Sounder reports that a 1-year-old emu named Louise went on a nearly 12-hour adventure Thursday after strong winds had blown open a gate during the night. Community members were able to wrangle the emu and bring her back home.”



AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…

“For all its tongue-in-cheek irony, Krauthammer's Law [Everyone is Jewish until proven otherwise] works because when I say ‘everyone,’ I don't mean everyone you know personally. … But if ‘everyone’ means anyone that you've heard of in public life, the law works…” – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) writing in the Washington Post on Sept. 25, 2006.



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.