Trump Releases Ad Celebrating SpaceX Launch: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign released a digital advertisement celebrating the recent launch of the SpaceX rocket, highlighting one of the president’s achievements as he faces a storm of criticism for his response to the protests over police violence.

The video, titled “Make Space Great Again,” features a cinematic montage of the blastoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, footage of NASA offices, as well as images of the two American astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, in the SpaceX capsule. Trump attended the launch, the first time U.S. astronauts have been sent into orbit from U.S. soil since 2011, and the ad shows him watching as the rocket takes off.

“They did the impossible because they knew that together, there is absolutely nothing American’s can’t do,” Trump says in the video. “Now we are ready to begin the next great chapter of America’s space exploration.”

The two-and-a-half minute advertisement has more than 16,000 views on YouTube. It comes as the president’s campaign faces falling poll numbers amid nationwide unrest over the killing of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police, a deep economic downturn and criticism of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has left more than 100,000 Americans dead.

Polls Show Trouble for Trump in 3 Key States (6:48 p.m.)

A new round of state polling from Fox News shows trouble for President Donald Trump in three states he won in 2016: Arizona, Ohio and Wisconsin.

In Arizona, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden leads Trump 46% to 42%.

In Ohio, Biden is edging out Trump 45% to 43%.

And in Wisconsin, Biden beats Trump is 49% to 40%.

The margins of error are 3 percentage points in Arizona and 3.5 points in Ohio and Wisconsin. -- Gregory Korte

Cities Vie to Host Republican Convention (4:33 p.m.)

Several cities and states indicated they were eager to host the Republican National Convention after President Donald Trump said he was pulling the event from Charlotte, North Carolina.

A person familiar with GOP discussions said places being considered include Nashville, Las Vegas, and Jacksonville and Orlando, Florida, as well as Georgia and Arizona.

All of the states under consideration with the exception of Nevada are led by a Republican governor. Almost every state being considered is nearing a full reopening from the coronavirus lockdown, allowing most retail stores, gyms, theaters and salons to operate, along with allowing dine-in service. The exception is Tennessee where most but not all counties have reopened.

Trump said Tuesday that the GOP was “forced to seek” a new city for the party’s convention after North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said his state could not agree to demands for a “‘full convention’ which includes 19,000 delegates,” as well as “full hotels and bars at capacity” because of health considerations linked to the coronavirus.

Despite Trump’s declaration, it’s likely that the convention, which the Republican National Committee has been planning for two years, will at least partly remain in Charlotte. An RNC official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive party deliberations, said Tuesday that Trump’s acceptance speech would be held in another city, but the party still hoped to conduct its official convention business in Charlotte, if public health rules permit it in August. -- Emma Kinery and Ryan Teague Beckwith

Trump, Biden ‘Too Tight to Tell’ in Texas Poll (2:39 p.m.)

President Donald Trump’s 1 point lead over Joe Biden puts them neck-and-neck in Texas, a state Trump can scarcely afford to lose.

A new Quinnipiac University poll shows Trump leading 44% to 43% with a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.

The result in Texas could depend on what post-Covid life is like in November. Texas voters trust Trump more to handle the economy, 54% to 40%, but trust Biden more on health care, 49% to 43%. Biden also has a small edge on handling the coronavirus specifically, 47% to 45%.

“Too tight to tell in Texas,” said Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy. “As the country confronts chaos and Covid-19, perhaps one of the most important states of all is a toss-up.”

With 38 electoral votes, Texas is the biggest competitive state. Even if Trump were able to hold every other state he won in 2016, a Biden win in Texas would give him the 270 electoral votes needed to win. -- Gregory Korte

Clyburn Says No Rush for Running Mate Pick (10:35 a.m.)

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn says Joe Biden should take his time in selecting a running mate, even as some Democrats are pressuring him to move quickly.

“Haste makes waste. I’m advising him not to be hasty,” the South Carolina Democrat said Wednesday at a Washington Post Live event. “Let’s take our time. Let’s do the vetting. Let’s do the polling.”

Clyburn, who is credited with breathing new life into Biden’s candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination just before the South Carolina primary, said vetting doesn’t just mean looking through a potential vice-presidential pick’s bank accounts, but “making sure you get somebody who will excite your base as well as the independent voters.”

Though Clyburn said months ago that Biden had to choose a black woman as his running mate, the top-ranking African American in Congress stressed Wednesday that choosing one would be a “plus” but not a “must.”

“The only thing that’s a must in this process at this time is to win,” he said. “That’s the must. It will be a plus to have an African American woman. It will be a plus to have a Latina. And it will be a plus to have a woman.”

If Biden doesn’t choose a black woman, Clyburn said he would tell anyone who is disappointed that beating a president who is “anathema” to their futures and everything important to them is more important than anything else. -- Jennifer Epstein and Laura Litvan

COMING UP

Primaries are coming up next week in the U.S. Virgin Islands, West Virginia and Georgia. The Democratic national convention is scheduled for the week beginning Aug. 17, while the Republicans are slated to meet a week later, beginning on Aug. 24.

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