CHRIS CRUCIAL: Why Kamala wants the mics on 🎙️

PLUS: 2024's biggest donor, revealed

Welcome to Chris Crucial. Check out my mission statement on why you should invest in me. It’s $6 a month/$60 for the year to become a paid subscriber! Do it today!👇

1. The mic debate

Whether the September 10 debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will happen is an open question at the moment due to a disagreement over the mics.

Yes, the mics.

If you remember back to the first debate — and if you forgot the first debate you need to see a doctor immediately because something may well be wrong with you — the agreement struck between the Trump and Biden campaigns was this: When the candidate wasn’t talking or it wasn’t his allotted time to speak, his microphone would be turned off.

This was a unique debate clause that I, for one, had never seen before. It was pushed by the Biden campaign because they believed that with open mics Trump would just talk and talk and talk — making it impossible for the president to get a word in edgewise.

Trump agreed to it — largely because he wanted to debate Biden so badly and was willing to say “yes” to just about anything.

I thought the muted mics clause would be a BIG deal. It wound up not mattering because Biden was so bad that whether or not the mics were hot at all times was entirely secondary to his slow-motion disaster.

Fast forward to today. And the shoe very much being on the other foot.

Here’s Politico, who broke the mic news:

Biden is no longer running for president. And Harris’ campaign wants the microphones to be hot at all times during the ABC debate — as has historically been the case at presidential debates.

“We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast,” Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign’s senior adviser for communications, tells POLITICO.

The Trump campaign has insisted that the terms of the debates, which were initially agreed to by Biden and the former president, still hold even though Harris is now the Democratic nominee. So, no mics.

And/but Trump himself seemed to suggest today that he was fine with the mics turned on the whole time.

“We agreed to the same rules, I don’t know, doesn’t matter to me, I’d rather have it probably on, but the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time,” Trump said in response to a question from a reporter.

Live look at Trump campaign:

My STRONG sense is that we will have this September 10 debate. And the mics will be on the whole time.

That is a good thing for Harris — and her campaign knows it. Here’s why:

a) Trump will try to bully her. He will try to make fact-free assertions when it’s his time to speak. He will make outrageous claims about Harris and her record.

In order to combat that stuff in real time, Harris’ team needs her mic to be open. She has to have to he ability to interrupt Trump.

That interruption strategy has a dual positive effect for Harris: It can function as a fact check, yes, but it ALSO can really piss Trump off. And it’s that latter reason that might matter more.

AND

b) Trump can talk himself into trouble. The more Trump talks — in debates at least — the worse he does. The reason he was so effective in the debate in June against Biden was he wasn’t able to get in his own way. His mic was muted when he wasn’t answering. Which meant that Trump didn’t really interrupt Biden — and that was terrible for Biden who sounded lost at times in his own answers.

Without a mute button, Trump will be free to talk and talk and talk. And that is a bad look for him always — but especially when your opponent is a woman of color.

In short: The mic move is a smart one for Harris. Lots of strategic upside.

2. More debate talk

I mentioned above that I am convinced the September 10 debate will happen. Mostly because the surest way to get Trump to do something is to say he is afraid of doing that thing.

I broke it all down in a new video posted to my YouTube channel. If you haven’t subscribed yet, I really hope you do today! It’s FREE.

3. The biggest political donor, revealed

Want to hear an AMAZING stat?

The top 50 donors to political candidates and causes have already given a total of $1.5 billion so far in the 2024 election cycle. Yes, that’s billion with a “b.”

That’s according to a new analysis from the Washington Post, which also shows that of the top 5 largest individual donors so far this cycle, four are giving exclusively to Republicans.

At the top of the list — with $165 million in donations — is Timothy Mellon. Mellon, who is 81 years old, is an heir to an railroad, oil and banking fortune. (He is related to Andrew Mellon who served as the Treasury Secretary in the 1920s.)

Mellon has given $125 million to the main Trump super PAC (Make America Great Again) and another $25 million to a super PAC that supported former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. (RFK Jr. dropped out of the race on Friday and endorsed Trump.)

While Mellon has been a major political donor to Republicans in recent elections, he has really ramped up the size of his contributions of late — as this chart from the Center for Responsive Politics makes clear:

Little is know about Mellon, who keeps almost no public profile. Here’s how the New York Times described him in a recent profile:

Mr. Mellon rarely engages with the news media and did not respond to interview requests. Even some of the candidates who accept his checks have little contact with him. The most detailed accounting of his life comes largely from two sources: an autobiography Mr. Mellon first published in 2014 and the paper trail he has left in court.

He has frequently become mired in disputes, some of them oddly small-bore and some just odd. In May — the same month he made a $50 million donation to support Mr. Trump — he filed a lawsuit against a family-owned car dealership in Connecticut, complaining that he had spent $7,300 on a failed engine replacement for a 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Years ago, he sued a group of explorers he had helped finance, claiming they had deliberately overlooked the wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane so they could keep raising money for their expeditions. Mr. Mellon was convinced he had seen Earhart’s head on the seafloor in a cellophane bag.

Uh, ok?

The dominance of major GOP-aligned donors puts to lie the idea pushed by many conservative activists that the likes of George Soros and other liberal billionaires are secretly financing political campaigns. (Soros did not make the top 10 in the Post’s donor list.)

The top Democratic donor this cycle is former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg has donated $41 million — good for 5th place on the list — with his largest contribution of $19 million going to a super PAC supporting Kamala Harris’ presidential bid.

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

“I am committed to doing all that I can to send President Trump back to the White House.” — Former Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard endorses Donald Trump

ONE GOOD CHART

An amazing look at the partisanship — and fact-based credentials — of virtually every major (and minor) media outlet.

SONG OF THE DAY

Jonsi is the frontman for the Icelandic band Sigur Ros. In recent years, he’s started making music on his own too — much of it without words. This is “Undercurrent” from his forthcoming album. (Jonsi’s album — “First Light” — is out at the end of this week.)

Thanks for reading! This nightly newsletter brings you ALL of what you need to know from the world of politics. Think of it as a daily cheat sheet! If you want to get it in your email inbox every night at 7:30 pm, become a subscriber today!