Gavin Newsom tells reporters that the last debate had “some impact” on the race but it “wasn’t profound” Fact check: Not sure about that

Vivek Ramaswamy tells me he spoke to Trump this morning and thinks the ex-president is “in a great place” ahead of the debate “He’s incredibly ready for tonight”

As a reporter asks him about the bipartisan border bill in the Spin Room, Marco Rubio notes “there wasn’t, like, some website where you could see the progress going on in the negotiations. No one knew what was in the bill until it was unrolled.” Not a bad idea, though, Senator!

Rumor going around the pre-debate Spin Room that politicians on both sides think their candidate is going to win tonight Standby for more…

Spotted in the Spin Room: RFK Jr, in his way to a Newsmax hit

For those keep tracking at home, Harris has now successfully gotten Trump to eat into his own answers on immigration and her policy changes — two of his best issues — by goading him on crowd sizes and receiving money from his father, respectively

Trump giving a clear (and familiar) glimpse at his media diet tonight, saying he heard about immigrants eating pets from “the television” and defending his comments on Charlottesville by pointing to fact-checks by Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham

Trump’s rejoinder on Ukraine is that Putin would be “much happier” if he was president?

Harris offers no answer to question on whether she bears responsibility for Afghanistan withdrawal — but ABC moderators don’t follow up. Notable since they did follow up when Trump dodged questions on abortion ban, January 6th regrets, and Russia/Ukraine war

Trump closes by “asking one simple question”: why hasn’t Harris achieved what she’s calling for during her 3+ years as vice president? A question he did not ask earlier in the debate, as he instead allowed Harris to distract him while getting stuck down rabbit holes

Re-upping. It’s been 23 years today. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

Otter’s AI summary of my recording of last night’s Trump scrum in the Spin Room. Honestly not wrong.

Asked about Trump’s refusal to say he wants Ukraine to win the war, Byron Donalds told me it would be “irresponsible” to take a side in a “major foreign policy conflict” But doesn’t Trump want Israel to beat Hamas? Donalds wouldn’t say. wakeuptopolitics.com/p/what-trump-d…

Started reading Gabe Fleisher when Gabe was 14 years old. Didn’t take a day to realize there wasn’t any kid out there quite like him. Flash forward to this morning: Wake Up to Politics is as essential a read as any out there. And taking a quantum leap. Congrats, Gabe.