When Trump Goes Low...

Today’s notice: Harris treading lightly, MTG treading heavily and one of Trump’s attorneys allegedly treading on ground dangerous to her law license.

To Respond or Not to Respond

The Republican presidential campaign is skipping down an exceptionally dark path this week, fanning the flames of false claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio as Laura Loomer — Trump’s travel buddy to ... the 9/11 memorial ceremony — feuds with Marjorie Taylor Greene over who is the real racist.

The rising ugliness is stress-testing the Harris strategy of largely avoiding this stuff.

On the campaign trail Thursday, NOTUS’ Jasmine Wright asked Harris twice, in shouted — but very audible — questions, whether the vice president had anything to say to the people of Springfield, Ohio. Harris didn’t engage. A campaign official pointed me to Harris’ August “Same old tired playbook. Next question please” response to Trump’s identity questioning on CNN when I asked whether they would respond to Republicans’ explicit racism.

But Democrats have differing views on what Harris should do now.

“I think everyone should be engaging, not in a back-and-forth, but just making sure that we’re reaffirming the humanity of the Haitian community,” Rep. Maxwell Frost, who is of Haitian descent, told NOTUS’ Calen Razor. “Affirmative statements to the Haitian community are important at this moment.”

Rep. Al Green advised a more cautious approach. “I expect her to stay with her agenda,” he said. Otherwise, Harris “will spend her day just responding to this insanity.”

That’s also what Harris surrogate Tammy Duckworth told me in the spin room Tuesday night.

“This is the signal to their base, right? And frankly, Kamala needs to not focus on that,” she told me. “We need to talk to the American people about what we’re going to do to make their lives better.”

—Evan McMorris-Santoro

Meanwhile: A Curious Addition to the MTG-Loomer Feud

In a rant about her distaste for Loomer, Greene tells NOTUS’ Ben T.N. Mause and Reese Gorman that she doesn’t like the way some people talk about Kamala Harris and race. She said she hasn’t been a fan of the questions about whether Harris is Indian or Black, or the taunts about “people that don’t have children” but have pets. “I don’t like any of that,” Greene said.

Yes, much of that talk has been coming from Donald Trump and JD Vance. No, Greene didn’t call out the Republican ticket — at least not by name.

Read the story here.

Front Page

• Harris Takes a New Campaign Strategy to North Carolina: She held two rallies in North Carolina hours after her campaign signaled a more aggressive approach.
• Trump, Harris and Biden, Lockstep Over U.S. Steel, Run Up Against Local Leaders: Japanese company Nippon’s proposal to buy U.S. Steel has scrambled politics.
• GOP Lawmakers Embrace Trump’s Baseless Claims: Republicans seemed more disturbed by the moderators fact-checking Trump than they were with his false claims.

NOTUS Scoop: Alina Habba’s Quiet Settlement

Alina Habba Angela Weiss/AP

Habba, the attorney and Trump campaign surrogate made famous after representing Trump in several of his courtroom fights, has signed a monetary settlement with the former server at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club who accused Habba of betraying her oath as a lawyer to get into Trump’s inner circle.

The terms of the Habba’s settlement with the server remain confidential, but it might not be the end of the story. Jose Pagliery reports Habba may still face a formal legal ethics investigation over the server’s allegations of fraud, all related to a hush money deal over sexual harassment allegations against a club manager.

Read the story here.

Zombie RFK Jr. and the Third-Party Bogey-Candidates Are Still Scaring Dems

Democrats should be scared of third-party candidates, even after the cycle’s independent candidate supervillain, RFK Jr., dropped out of the race. That’s according to MoveOn and Third Way, which are out later today with a fresh warning to Dems that Cornel West, Jill Stein and others are collectively drawing enough support from voters to “potentially lock the Democratic ticket out of a victory.” The two groups plan to continue their work together to combat the third-party candidates, including an expected paid media campaign closer to Election Day.

NOT US

NOTUS reporters kill it, but some of our other favorite stories this week were published by … not us.

• Student reporters at Columbia dug into how their school hired private investigators to surveil protesters in the Columbia Spectator.
• Surprise, surprise, NewsGuard confirmed the supposed lost cat in Springfield, Ohio, was third-hand gossip.
• Meanwhile, Haitians in Springfield are paying the price for the rumor. One woman told The Haitian Times she woke up to broken windows and acid on her car this week.
• Miami Herald laid out how Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing the limits of state resources in his war against the abortion ballot amendment.
• José María Del Pino at NTN24 showed how asking the same question over and over, in just the right way, really works.

Be Social

Rep. Tim Burchett had some, er, technical problems.

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