By Brakkton Booker

With help from Ella Creamer, Jesse Naranjo and Teresa Wiltz 

POLITICO illustration/Photos by AP

What up, Recast family! President Joe Biden tours wildfire-ravaged Maui. And ex-President Donald Trump confirms he’ll surrender to Georgia authorities on Thursday. First, though, we set our sights on tomorrow's first Republican presidential candidate debate. 

The stage is set.

The unofficial start to the fall campaign season kicks off Wednesday in prime time when eight GOP presidential hopefuls will gather in Milwaukee to sell their vision for the country.

First, the basics.

Who’s in: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur and political newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

With more than a dozen declared candidates, the Republican National Committee hoped setting a Monday evening deadline for candidates to meet donor and polling thresholds would keep the Debate stage manageable and perhaps help generate buzz for viewers.

Instead, a lot of focus has been on who won’t be there — and on the litany of counterprogramming options being planned by the GOP’s undisputed frontrunner, former President Donald Trump.

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There’s Trump’s pre-taped interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, which CNN is reporting will be released around the same time as the debate. Trump is planning to eclipse any positive glow his GOP rivals may receive from the debate stage by turning the media’s glare back on him and his legal woes.

“I’ll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be ARRESTED by Radical Left District Attorney, Fani Willis, who is overseeing one of the greatest Murder and Violent Crime DISASTERS in American History,” he declared on his Truth Social platform.

Trump of course easily qualified to be on that Wisconsin stage but is opting to skip it, citing his enormous double-digit lead over his rivals.

So, as a viewer or a Republican primary voter, why should you tune in to see Fox News moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum lob questions on the economy, foreign policy, the perception that America has a two-tiered justice system and who is the most “anti-woke”?

Fox News' Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier are set to moderate the first GOP primary debate. | Matt Rourke/AP Photo

There are plenty of reasons, according to several Republicans who chatted with me. Some are hoping to see who will call Trump out on the litany of criminal charges he’s facing. Others will be watching for clues to what the future holds for the GOP when Trump — eventually — exits the political stage, whenever that may be.

Former RNC Chair Michael Steele agrees there’s no reason for Trump to show up given his lead in the polls. But, he adds, his expectations are low that any other candidate will have a lasting breakout moment on the debate stage. He is looking for candidates to join Christie and Hutchinson in hammering away at Trump on the four separate criminal cases he is facing.

“We have 90 felony [counts against him]. At some point, someone's gotta say, ‘Damn, that's a lot of crime going on,’” Steele tells The Recast.

“What you’ll probably find is that with everybody else … they’ll be mealy-mouthed and milquetoast in their response to all the indictments and legal woes of Trump,” he continues. If they’re not going to swing at the opponent who is lapping them in the nominating field and fail to point out Trump’s biggest liability, Steele says, then “why are they even bothering to run?”

Veteran GOP strategist Alice Stewart, who previously worked on the presidential campaigns of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, pushes back against the notion that Milwaukee is hosting the “kiddie table” debate.

“Anybody who says this,” says Stewart, who isn’t working with a campaign this cycle, “needs to recognize the fact that ‘the kid’ is the one who doesn't show up.”

She points to the NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll out Monday which showed 42 percent of likely Iowa caucusgoers say they support Trump. She sees a silver lining in that nearly 60 percent of likely caucusgoers say they are open to picking another Republican candidate to be the party’s nominee.

Because of that, she is hoping that after this debate, the field will shrink significantly.

“The current, fractured field only favors the frontrunner and Trump benefits from all these people in the race,” she adds. “If we can winnow the field down, it's going to be a bad day for Donald Trump.”

The former president and current frontrunner in the GOP primary has notably opted to forgo the debate. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo

Others, like Ja’Ron Smith, who served as an adviser to Trump during his White House years, is watching to see which candidates can articulate nuances on policy rather than score political points against one another — or Trump in absentia.

When asked if those policies include wading into anti-woke sentiments that have animated the campaigns of DeSantis and to a lesser degree Scott and Ramaswamy, he demurred.

“To me, wokeness is virtue signaling and scoring political points,” Smith said. “Instead of the … cultural warfare, I'll be watching who has the potential to help us unite the country.”

Smith also notes, the former president in all likelihood will be the titular head of the Republican Party, until Trump decides to pass the baton.

So the Milwaukee debate, in reality, may be about the future of the Republican Party — not in 2024, but down the line in 2026 and 2028 or beyond.

That may be the real reason to watch.

All the best,
The Recast Team

CHICAGO’S MAYOR’S FIRST 100 DAYS

“The Democratic Party as a whole definitely can model its work off of what we're doing in Chicago,” Mayor Brandon Johnson tells POLITICO. | AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

Chicago’s new mayor, Brandon Johnson, just hit the arbitrary, but widely used, benchmark of early performance: his first 100 days in office.

While almost no elected official declares success after their first three months in office, Johnson, a Democrat, is sounding an uber-positive, if not overzealous, tone about his tenure thus far, according to my colleague Shia Kapos, author of POLITICO’s Illinois Playbook.

“The Democratic Party as a whole definitely can model its work off of what we're doing in Chicago,” he tells Shia.

He divulged that he talks regularly with the other “big four” mayors representing the nation’s most populous cities: Eric Adams of New York, Karen Bass of Los Angeles and Sylvester Turner of Houston. Like Johnson, the mayors are all Black. Whenever they meet up, Johnson says, they discuss everything from a “strategic way” to support migrants to helping those “struggling in poverty.”

Read more of Shia’s interview with Johnson here.

‘WE’RE LOVING IT’: ATLANTA REACTS TO TRUMP INDICTMENTS 

A person holding a sign that reads "Lock Him Up" stands outside of the Fulton County Courthouse, Monday, Aug. 14, in Atlanta. | Alex Slitz/AP Photo

All eyes were on Atlanta last week, when Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis slapped former Trump and 18 allies with racketeering charges for their alleged interference with the outcome of the presidential election in Georgia.

Teresa Wiltz — our editor — traveled to Atlanta to take the pulse of the city: How is the ATL, the Hollywood of the South, reacting to being the host of the political trial of the century?

Here’s what she found:

Back in the day, Atlanta was the cradle of the civil rights movement, home to activist icons such as Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy Sr., Julian Bond, Rep. John Lewis and C.T. Vivian, a hub of Black exceptionalism. That’s a history the city wears consciously, as evidenced here by the plethora of murals, museums and streets — some named after the parents and grandparents of kids I grew up with. And now Atlanta, the so-called Black Mecca, is the epicenter of a fight over the peaceful transfer of power. As I tool around Atlanta, I encounter Atlantans who are very conscious of the significance of this trial — and of how, once again, their city will play an important role in making American history.

They’re very aware of all of this.

And they’re positively gleeful.

“We’re getting a kick out of Trump getting booked at the Rice Street Jail,” says Eddie Jewell, a 54-year-old Uber driver and lifelong Atlantan, referring to the nickname for the Fulton County Jail.

“We’re loving it,” Jewell says, with a hearty laugh. “For a long time, he’s been recklessly saying things and now he’s being called out. How are you going to call the secretary of state and ask him to overturn an election?

“John Lewis is smiling,” he says. “Dr. King is smiling. I know [former Mayor] Andy Young in his wheelchair has a big smile on his face. … I think it’s great the birthplace of the civil rights movement is having a big part of this.

“All eyes are on us right now and not for the wrong reason. For a great reason. Dr. King said, ‘We shall overcome.’ And we are definitely overcoming.”

Read more here.

ICYMI @ POLITICO

In her mind, the vice president is the same person she was when the prevailing narrative of her was that of a star prosecutor, ascendant political talent and even the future of the Democratic Party. | Photos by Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO

Kamala’s Second Act? — POLITICO’s Eugene Daniels explores how the veep, who has endured a steady onslaught of scrutiny, is facing the reality that the success of the Democratic ticket in 2024 may hinge on her.

Two Must Reads: We focused on the debate at the top. Now here is extended reading on two of the most intriguing candidates on the debate stage. The first piece, by Gary Fineout, Sally Goldenberg and Mia McCarthy, explores how DeSantis is seeking a big debate win. And POLITICO’s Michael Kruse looks at how Christie is one of a few candidates vociferously making the case against Trump to GOP voters.

Karen Bass Boosts the Blue — The police union in Los Angeles dropped millions in a (failed) attempt to ensure she wouldn’t get elected. Here’s the surprise: Halfway through her first year, Bass pushed for a bigger police force and boosted officers' pay. More on the evolving relationship between Bass and the LAPD from Melanie Mason.

THE RECAST RECOMMENDS

“Daughter of the Dragon” by Yunte Huang chronicles the life of Anna May Wong, Old Hollywood’s most famous Chinese American actress, and the xenophobia she faced.

Star Wars aficionados take note: A spinoff starring Rosario Dawson as “Ahsoka” Tano premieres today on Disney+.

Mayowa Ogunnaike dances in verdant fields for Corinne Bailey Rae’s “Peach Velvet Sky” — a ballad inspired by Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.”

Oz Rodriguez’ “Miguel Wants To Fight” is a coming-of-age comedy about a martial arts-obsessed teen desperate to throw his first punch. Catch it on Hulu.

In Usher’s MV for “Boyfriend”, Keke Palmer gets ready for a girls’ night out in a Las Vegas casino. Is she clapping back at her (ex?) beau? 

TikTok of the Day: Moves

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