The Note: Clinton’s Campaign Cash Blitz
— -- NOTABLES
--CLINTON’S FOCUS THIS WEEK: Money. The Democratic presidential nominee is currently in the midst of a multi-day, high-dollar fundraising blitz across the country, ABC’s LIZ KREUTZ reports. Following a weekend packed with five fundraisers in Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod (including one with an appearance by Cher), Clinton is traveling today to California where she’ll attend seven fundraisers over the next three days. She then travels to the Hamptons this weekend for even more fundraising events there. During this time, the former secretary of state will make few public appearances. (She only has one public event scheduled so far -- a rally in Reno, Nevada on Thursday -- as well as an appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” tonight.)
--CLINTON CAMP ANNOUNCES NEW $80 MILLION FALL TV AD BUY: Clinton’s campaign is ramping up its presence on the airwaves. According to an aide, the campaign has reserved $80 million worth of TV ad space in battleground states to take them through the fall campaign.MThe buy – which includes $3 million in additional ads for the remainder of August and nearly $77 million for September and October – is for Florida, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, North Carolina, as well as the Omaha area of Nebraska. http://abcn.ws/2baYCsQ
--TRUMP BEGINS DEBATE PREP: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump began debate prep with his first session Sunday at his residence in Bedminster, N.J., multiple campaign sources told ABC News. Advisers have provided Trump with videos of Hillary Clinton's 2000 and 2006 U.S. Senate debates, her 2007-2008 primary debates against then-Sen. Barack Obama, and her primary debates this cycle against Sen. Bernie Sanders, ABC’s JOHN SANTUCCI and TOM LLAMAS report. The New York real estate developer continues to be advised by former Fox News chief Roger Ailes, despite his not holding an official role in the campaign, sources told ABC News. Trump has not done any mock debate sessions yet but senior level aides indicate they have a person in mind to play Clinton in the eventual sessions, the sources said. http://abcn.ws/2bGnZzf
--ANALYSIS -- ABC’s RICK KLEIN: If that was the best week of Donald Trump’s campaign, as his new campaign manager contends, even his closest allies are grading him on a serious curve. Trump just fired his previous campaign chief, of course, after a series of damaging revelations about his ties to Russia. He also disclosed a campaign-finance report that revealed his operation to be “more concert tour than presidential campaign,” in the judgment of The New York Times. His new and overt efforts to reach out to black and Hispanic voters were clumsy and contradictory; even now it’s not clear if he would go ahead with his plan for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. But he did go a week without seeming to offend a new ethnic group, and made his first move in the direction of apologizing for his past insults. Most importantly to the legions of Republicans who would rather support the GOP nominee than not, he showed that he’s trying to win. He may not be capable of long-term discipline. For now, though, Trump appears to be listening to advice of those around him.
LAST WEEKEND ON THE TRAIL with ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI
TRUMP HAS STRONG FUNDRAISING MONTH, BUT DOESN'T CATCH UP TO CLINTON. The month of July was Donald Trump's strongest fundraising month of the general election so far, but his campaign finances are still dwarfed by Hillary Clinton both in spending and fundraising. The Republican nominee brought in approximately $36.7 million last month, 84 percent more than the $20 million his campaign raised in June and more than 12 times the $3 million in May. The campaign currently has a little more than $38 million in cash on hand. Despite the significant increase in fundraising in July, the Trump campaign's money pot is dwarfed by that of Clinton, ABC’s ALANA ABRAMSON notes. The Democratic nominee also in July had her greatest fundraising success of the general election to date. She brought in approximately $52.3 million in July, far more than the $26.4 million raised in May or the $36.4 million in June. The Clinton campaign has $58.5 million cash on hand. http://abcn.ws/2b80a82
TRUMP SAYS GOP 'MUST DO BETTER' FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS. Speaking to a largely white audience in Virginia Saturday afternoon, Donald Trump continued to make his appeal to African-American voters, blaming his own party for failing to garner black support. "I fully recognize the outreach to the African-American community is an area where the Republican party must do better and it will do better. The GOP is the party of Abraham Lincoln,” Trump said. "And I want our party to be the home of the African-American voter once again.” Saturday, in conjunction with the Republican National Committee, Trump attended a roundtable with the National Hispanic Advisory Council for Trump, a board that is an outreach arm of the RNC, ABC’s CANDACE SMITH reports. http://abcn.ws/2bCN7Hc
NOTED: TRUMP'S AFRICAN-AMERICAN SUPPORTERS ARE UNAPOLOGETIC. Even though many voters are suspect of his comments, some African-Americans welcome his words and are supporting his presidential candidacy. "It is time to wake up, African Americans -- wake up," Trump supporter Carl Nichols, who is African-American, told ABC News at the rally in Fredericksburg Saturday. "Life in Detroit, where I am from, looks like a warzone, because of the Democrats who have been there for 50 years.” ABC’s DAVID CAPLAN has more. http://abcn.ws/2bwPBti
CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER SUGGESTS TRUMP IS A 'PUPPET' FOR THE KREMLIN. Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager cautioned against reading too much into the departure of Donald Trump’s campaign chair Paul Manafort, suggesting Sunday that Russia is still at the “core” of the Republican nominee’s campaign and that Trump himself could be a “puppet” for the Kremlin. “Paul Manafort has been pushed out, but that doesn’t mean that the Russians have been pushed out of this campaign,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on "This Week." Manafort resigned this week following reports questioning his work as a lobbyist for pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarchs. http://abcn.ws/2b9yObI
TRUMP, CLINTON ‘HAVE NOT EARNED OUR VOTE,’ SAYS JILL STEIN. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein said Republican Party nominee Donald Trump and Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton “have not earned our vote” for president, ABC’s BLAIR GUILD writes. “Politicians do not have a new form of entitlement," Stein told ABC's "This Week." "They are not entitled to our vote. They have to earn our votes.” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos pressed Stein: “What do you to say to those voters who would worry that, by voting for you, that are progressives, that are liberals, that are Democrats, that by voting for you they would actually help elect Donald Trump?” Stein called such concerns “the politics of fear." http://abcn.ws/2bMg9re
TRUMP HAVING 'BEST WEEK' YET IN HIS RACE FOR PRESIDENT, CAMPAIGN MANAGER SAYS. Donald Trump’s new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway says the Republican nominee is having his best week so far in his campaign, and Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus agrees. "This is the best week, I think, so far in the Trump campaign," Conway said on ABC's "This Week." "Mostly because he's able to be himself, the authentic Donald Trump." On "This Week" GOP Chairman Priebus predicted Donald Trump's new "style" is going to lead to a boost in the polls. "I think he's had a great week, I think he's been on message, he's shown maturity as a candidate," Priebus said, adding, "I think that he's getting into a groove." ABC’s NICKI ROSSOLL has more. http://abcn.ws/2buS0pX
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
WITH MANAFORT GONE, WHO'S LEFT TO RUN DONALD TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN? With the resignation of campaign chairman Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign is now without a single senior figure who has ever run a campaign, ABC’s JONATHAN KARL writes. Donald Trump's team has always been a lean operation fueled by the candidate himself rather than the organization around him, but from the very beginning the Trump campaign included people who had at least some experience running political campaigns. But now the top ranks of the team include family members, conservative media executive Stephen Bannon and Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway, the new campaign manager. None of them have experience managing a campaign. http://abcn.ws/2b7hCqE
WHO’S TWEETING?
@SalenaZito: Trump voters not who you think they are - most never heard of Breitbart Coulter or alt right http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/08/21/at_the_base_of_trumps_support_131567.html …
@TomBeaumont: @ap: Trump's shrinking trade appeal evident in North Carolina, a must-win. Decades after NAFTA, new NC econ booming http://apne.ws/2bIscTm
@ananavarro: Oy. Pence interview w/@AlisynCamerota on @NewDay made me want to start a petition to send a SWAT hostage team to rescue him. #RescuePence
@matthewjdowd: Question for @KellyannePolls I thought you said trump doesn't personally insult anyone. Have you read his Twitter feed in last 24 hours?
@bpolitics: Conway Acknowledges ‘Rough Two Weeks,’ Defends Immigration Talk http://bloom.bg/2bwwcHP