The Note: Guns, climate debate reveal missing Democratic middle
The ground has clearly shifted under the party's feet.
The TAKE with Rick Klein
A slow-moving storm has kept politics mostly in place these last few days -- even while President Donald Trump freelances in creative meteorology.
But the debates exposed by the news this week have revealed some stark realities about the Democratic presidential field. The winnowed list of contenders who will participate in next week's primary debate on ABC is notably short on moderate voices -- and it shows.
Wednesday's marathon climate-change forums on CNN showcased a race to spend trillions -- and more mentions of Gov. Jay Inslee's name than he might have had as an actual candidate.
The shooting in Texas, meanwhile, has sparked discussion among candidates that treats any current congressional action -- still an uncertain prospect -- as the least that can be done. Talk of buybacks and national gun registries are standard fare for candidates, regardless of legislative and political prospects.
"There's going to be a huge march to the left" among the presidential candidates, former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., said on the "Powerhouse Politics" podcast.
The candidates see themselves as moving toward where voters are, and there's some evidence that that is true on both issues in the news.
But when candidates like former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Amy Klobuchar count as moderates, the ground has clearly shifted under the party's feet.
The RUNDOWN with MaryAlice Parks
As congressional Democrats gear up to return to Washington next week, expect them to bring the fight not just on gun safety, but immigration and, yes, possible articles of impeachment too.
On Wednesday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., announced his team had subpoenaed the Department of Homeland Security for documents "relating to the President's multiple alleged attempts to offer pardons to officials carrying out his illegal and cruel immigration policies."
Last week, a White House official said Trump was only "joking" when reports surfaced in the Washington Post that he had suggested pardoning federal officials if they broke the law or ignored regulations in order to fast-track construction of a wall on the southern border. Nadler's committee also cited reports that the president had allegedly told officials that he would pardon them if they illegally denied migrants or asylum-seekers entry into the country.
"The [Constitution's] Framers did not envision the use of the presidential pardon power to encourage criminal acts at the President's direction," Nadler wrote in his statement and said the work could inform any recommendation about articles of impeachment.
Adding fuel to the political fire, the Department or Health and Human Services' own Inspector General this week published a damning report on the trauma experienced by undocumented children who were separated from their parents and held in custody in detention centers at the border.
The TIP with Alisa Wiersema
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio bucked criticism when he became the 23rd Democratic candidate for president in May. Four months later, there are still 20 people running, but only half meet the necessary thresholds to make the debate stage in Houston next week. De Blasio is not among them, and that fact is now forcing the two-term mayor to grapple with the reality of his longshot prospects.
"I'm going to try to get into the October debates if I can. I think that's a good reason to keep going forward and, if I can't, I think it's really tough to conceive of continuing," de Blasio said on Wednesday.
His self-imposed deadline leaves de Blasio with just 26 days to overcome significant hurdles in order to qualify for the next round of debates. In just over three weeks, he will have to come in at 2% in at least four national polls and boast at least 130,000 unique donors across 20 states, with 400 donors per state.
That outlook doesn't seem promising for a candidate who has steadily hovered around 1% in the polls throughout his entire campaign, but de Blasio isn't alone -- nine other candidates currently risk missing next month's debate in Ohio amid dismal poll results and lagging donor numbers. As de Blasio assesses his own political future, he's also implying a possible benchmark for others in the same boat.
THE PLAYLIST
ABC News' "Start Here" podcast. Thursday morning's episode features ABC News Chief Meteorologist Ginger Zee, who gives us the latest on Hurricane Dorian's track as it heads up the East Coast. Then, ABC News' Stephanie Ebbs gets us up to speed on all the key climate change terms you'll be hearing on the 2020 campaign trail in the months ahead. http://apple.co/2HPocUL
ABC News' "Powerhouse Politics" podcast. ABC News contributor and former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., joins ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl and Political Director Rick Klein to talk about how the mass shooting in Odessa, Texas has "changed the dynamic" around gun legislation. Plus, 10 Democratic primary candidates get set to fight in the next debate, hosted by ABC News in partnership with Univision. http://apple.co/2Zfz5nD
FiveThirtyEight's "Politics Podcast." In this installment, the crew debates whether the field has been winnowed to 10 and looks at the potential dynamic of the third Democratic primary debate now that there's only one night of action. The team also discusses a Monmouth University poll released last week that suggests there is essentially a three-way tie between former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The pollster who conducted the survey described it as an "outlier." Does that matter? http://apple.co/23r5y7w
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The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights the day's top stories in politics. Please check back tomorrow for the latest.
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