DEMS/ELECTION/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump, closing out a brutal week that plunged him deeper into legal and political peril, warned Ohio Republicans on Friday [8-24-18] that Democrats would destroy their state and impose policies that would spill ‘innocent blood’ if they were successful in November. While presenting himself as the savior of the party’s fortunes in a highly competitive state, Mr. Trump displayed little of his trademark swagger. Appearing subdued and distracted, he played up the strong economy and his trade policies, and charged without evidence that Democrats were putting the interests of undocumented immigrants before those of American citizens…After a week that brought the criminal conviction of his former campaign chairman; a guilty plea from his longtime lawyer, who implicated him in campaign finance crimes; and a grant of immunity to a top executive in his real estate empire, Mr. Trump alluded only glancingly to the scandals swirling around him. But even as he argued that the strength of the economy under his leadership should be enough to buoy Republicans in the coming contests, Mr. Trump was less bullish about his party’s chances than he has been in the past.”
–Julie Hirschfeld Davis, “Trump Boosts Ohio Republicans, Minus His Usual Swagger,” The New York Times online, August 24, 2018