Good morning! President Biden signed an order yesterday declaring today "Patriot Day and National Day of Service. In remembrance of the tragedies of September 11, 2001, he’ll attend ceremonies at Ground Zero in New York, the Flight 93 crash site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon in Arlington Virginia. Or, as he awkwardly put it, he's "doing 9/11."

Vice President Harris will appear with him at all three events. Former President Trump will visit Ground Zero and the Flight 93 National Memorial.

2024

🗯️ Harris, Trump meet for first time

Well… nobody tripped, ate a booger, or looked like a memory care escapee. But Donald Trump and Kamala Harris met for the first time on the debate stage last night in Philadelphia. Let's dive in so we can all sound smart at work today.

Post-game: Perhaps the biggest news came after the show when Travis Kelce’s girlfriend endorsed Kamala Harris, calling her a “steady-handed, gifted leader.” This could be critical for voters who were waiting to see if celebrities who’ve been endorsing Democrats since 2018 would keep it up in 2024.

Instant reaction polls show the majority of voters believe Kamala Harris trounced Donald Trump last night. CNN data have 63% of voters believing Harris won. The Washington Post held a live focus group of 25 undecided, swing-state voters. All but 2 agreed Harris outperformed Trump.

• Trump himself told Fox News that last night was his "best debate ever." But, signaling his discontent with the two ABC moderators, he called the debate a "three against one" affair.

Timing: Trump spoke for 43 minutes compared to Harris's 38 minutes. But Harris spent 17 minutes attacking Trump — nearly half her total time — while he only spent 13 minutes firing back.

• If you’d like to watch the game tape, the full debate is available here.

Future: The Harris campaign called for a second debate last night but Trump wasn't so sure. He tentatively agreed to the possibility "if it was on a fair network." Fox News sent a letter to both campaigns yesterday suggesting a rematch in October. Whether that even materializes or not, JD Vance and Tim Walz are slated for a CBS-hosted VP debate on October 1.

UNITED STATES

👩‍⚖️ The White House and Senate Democrats are planning a burst of last-minute judicial appointments. During the Trump presidency, the Senate confirmed 234 Trump-nominated judges. President Biden’s got 36 nominees working their way through the closely divided Senate as he looks to beat that record. But time is running short and vulnerable Trump-state Democrats may not be reliable votes.

🛢️ Hurricane Francine is expected to make landfall in Louisiana today. According to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), 24% of U.S. oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has been temporarily shut down in response. BSEE was founded in 2011 from remnants of an older agency that was blasted into the sun after failing to prevent literally the worst marine oil spill in history. RIP.

📡 DirecTV filed a complaint against Disney with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The two companies are battling it out over broadcast rights for Disney’s programming, including ABC and ESPN. FCC rules require the two to negotiate in good faith. DirecTV claims the House of Mouse is breaking that law by trying to force bad programming in with the good... while offering its own customers only the good stuff. The FCC's Enforcement Bureau, one of its seven divisions, is on the case.

POLITICS

🗳️ A look down the ballot

The presidential race is focused on debate fallout but the fight for control of Congress isn’t letting up. After all, winning the White House doesn’t mean as much if the new president can’t get anything through Congress.

• Should Democrats win control of the Senate, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says his party will change Senate rules to dump the filibuster.

Last night during the debate, New Hampshire, Delaware, and Rhode Island were counting ballots in 2024’s final party primary elections.

• Maggie Goodlander (D), the wife of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, easily won the Democratic nomination for New Hampshire’s 2nd congressional district.

• Sarah McBride (D) will likely become the first transgender member of Congress next year after winning the Democratic nomination for Delaware’s strongly Democratic 1st (and only) congressional district.

Senate

🔵 Democrats look good in Michigan’s Senate race. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D) leads ex-Rep. Mike Rogers (R) 48% to 41%.

🔵 Democrats lead the race for Senate in Pennsylvania, too. Sen. Bob Casey (D) tops Dave McCormick (R) by the same 48% to 41% margin.

🔵 Democrats also lead a poll of Wisconsin’s Senate race. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) beats Eric Hovde (R) 51% to 43%.

🔴 Despite good numbers in the Midwest, Democrats are unlikely to control the Senate next year if they can’t win in Montana, where Republican Tim Sheehy leads Democratic Sen. Jon Tester by 6%.

• As a potential bonus for Republicans, ex-Gov. Larry Hogan (R) ties with Angela Alsobrooks (D) in deeply Democratic Maryland.

Governors

The race to lead North Carolina is not as competitive as Republicans would’ve hoped. A new poll from Quinnipiac has Attorney General Josh Stein (D) leading Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson (R) by a whopping 12%, matching other recent surveys.

• North Carolina is mildly but inflexibly Republican at the federal level. But Republicans have gone 1-7 in the past eight races for governor.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore (D), who maxed out his charisma stat during character creation, apologized for allowing others to mistakenly claim he was awarded a Bronze Star during his time in the Army. If Harris loses this year, expect Moore to be a top Democratic contender in 2028.

TRIVIA

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is one of three major agencies supporting the work of Congress. Its army of writers and researchers acts as Congress's own think tank. In addition to policy assistance, the CRS tracks certain characteristics of members of Congress. According to the Congressional Research Service, what were the average ages of representatives and senators at the beginning of the current Congress (aka "in January 2023")?

Hint: Neither would be eligible for full Social Security.

WORLD

💂 Brits move to reform House of Lords

A third of Americans, including almost half of Democrats, already think the U.S. Senate is unrepresentative and needs to be changed. But instead of the selfless altruists we’ve got now, imagine if the U.S. Senate were composed of hundreds of business tycoons and ex-politicians, dozens of literal pastors, and a horde of men who are there exclusively because they’re descendants of the Founding Fathers. Welcome to the British House of Lords… for now.

In 1999, the left-wing Labour Party ran the show in London. They found the idea of hundreds of politicians-by-blood running around making laws to be, well, icky.

• The Labour government changed the law, kicking hundreds of so-called “hereditary peers” to the curb kerb. In the U.K., you can pretty much just… do that.

The coolest 92 hereditary peers were allowed to remain. They serve alongside hundreds of others who earn lifetime appointments via success in politics, business, or another discipline — and, of course, 25 members from the Church of England.

Fast forward to 2024 and the Labour Party is back in charge for the first time since 2010. And they want to finish the job they started back in ‘99. The new government laid out plans last week to ditch the 92 they couldn’t get last time around.

• Said one supporter of the plan, “People should not be voting on our laws in Parliament by an accident of birth.”

• An opponent slammed the idea as a “high-handed, shoddy political act.”

Should the plan go through, the House of Lords’ hereditary members would get the boot. The others still wouldn’t be elected. But lifetime appointments aren’t quite as controversial as hereditary seats.

Related: Prince Harry announced a new polo-focused Netflix docuseries hours after Princess Kate announced she's cancer-free.

BRIEFS

• No injuries reported as two Delate flights collide while taxiing on Atlanta runway

• SpaceX launches Polaris Dawn, private spaceflight set for furthest trip since moon landings

• Russia helping China develop military tech in exchange for war support, U.S. warns

• Amazon suffering worst drought in 40 years, says Brazil's president during trip to region

• National Institutes of Health to modernize syphilis testing after 80% infection rate increase

• Apple announces iPhone 16 with native AI, camera button, battery boost, and more

• Israel considers safe passage out of Gaza for Hamas leader in exchange for freeing remaining hostages

• U.S. to consider allowing Ukraine use of U.S.-made, long-range missiles to strike inside Russia

QUOTE

ANSWER

A recent CRS report indicates that, when they took office in January 2023, the current batch of representatives averaged 57.9 while senators were a spry 64.0.