Trump prepares for Hurricane Florence by denying the deaths caused by Hurricane Maria, and Democrats spend the final months of the midterms talking health care. Then Mike Levin, the Democratic candidate in the CA 49th, joins Jon, Jon, Tommy, Dan, and Erin Ryan on stage at the El Rey theater in Los Angeles.

Show Notes:

Trump’s bananas tweet

• Washington Post: Trump questions number of deaths attributed to Hurricane Maria, falsely says Democrats created a higher count to make him look bad
• New York Times: Rejecting Puerto Rican Death Toll, Trump Accuses Democrats of Inflating It
• Washington Post: Why Trump’s tweets about Puerto Rico are obviously untrue
• Washington Post: Puerto Rico residents see a failure at all levels of government
• Washington Post: A year after Hurricane Maria, a Puerto Rican town is still in upheaval
• Politifact: Puerto Rico’s power grid was weak, not dead, before hurricanes
• ABC News: Thousands of water bottles, meant for Puerto Rico’s Hurricane Maria survivors, left to rot on airport tarmac
• The Atlantic: Trump’s Dubious Revisionist History of Hurricane Maria
• Politico: Trump tries to rewrite history on Maria as Hurricane Florence approaches
• NBC News: FEMA head defends $10 million transfer to ICE, accuses Democrat of ‘playing politics’
• Buzzfeed: More Than 2,000 Puerto Ricans Applied For Funeral Assistance After Hurricane Maria. FEMA Approved Just 75.
• Vox: House Democrats accuse Republicans of shutting down Hurricane Maria investigation
• ABC News: Death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria officially raised to 2,975 from 64
• CNN: Puerto Rico says power restoration after Hurricane Maria is complete, but that’s not quite right
• Politico: How Trump favored Texas over Puerto Rico
• Vox: Florida’s GOP candidate for governor wants nothing to do with Trump’s Puerto Rico conspiracy
• CNN: Top Florida Republicans distance themselves from Trump’s false claims on Puerto Rican death toll
• USA Today: Paul Ryan disagrees with Trump on accuracy of hurricane death toll in Puerto Rico
• Politico: ‘Mr. President. SHUT UP’: Florida Republicans pan Trump’s Puerto Rico conspiracy

Are we prepared for Florence?

• Washington Post: Hurricane Florence’s assault begins. ‘Catastrophic’ surge and flooding feared
• New York Times: Hurricane Florence Is a Formidable Test for FEMA and Trump
• NBC News: Trump says feds are ‘totally prepared’ for Hurricane Florence
• Washington Post: A ‘no-brainer’: Climate change has made Hurricane Florence worse

FEMA and ICE

• Vox: Is Trump using hurricane relief money to fund ICE? Not exactly
• Politico: Trump’s FEMA chief under investigation over use of official cars

Climate change

• SF Gate: Protesters gathering in S.F., say climate change leaders not doing enough
• The Atlantic: California’s Record on Climate Change Is a Stark Rebuttal to Trump
• Mercury News: Trump is a “liar, criminal, fool” on climate change says California Gov. Jerry Brown
• New Yorker: A Summer of Megafires and Trump’s Non-Rules on Climate Change
• Los Angeles Times: How Trump’s climate change decisions impact smaller countries
• New York Times: Scott Pruitt, Former E.P.A. Chief, Is in Talks for His Next Job: Coal Consultant
• Washington Post: Pruitt faced mounting financial pressures as EPA chief, new documents show

Healthcare

• Washington Post: Preexisting conditions take center stage in Democratic attack ads
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Health industry experts fear ‘chaos’ if Texas judge suspends Affordable Care Act
• Texas Tribune: Texas asks a federal judge to block Obamacare nationwide
• Vox: The clearest sign yet that Republicans are really worried about the new Obamacare lawsuit
• Kaiser Health News: A Texas lawsuit threatens the Affordable Care Act
• Axios: Texas lawsuit throws the ACA’s future into uncertainty
• New York Times: The New Obamacare Lawsuit Could Undo Far More Than Protections for Pre-existing Conditions
• Vox: The new anti-Obamacare lawsuit heads to court today. Scholars think it’s “absurd.”
• Axios: Progressives target 20 vulnerable Republicans on health care
• NBC News: Democrats dropping $21 million on Senate digital ads largely targeting health care
• NBC News: Beyond Obamacare: Democrats have plans, GOP is out to destroy them
• New York Times: Legal Case to Smash Obamacare Hands the Democrats a Hammer
• Kaiser Family Foundation: Kaiser Health Tracking Poll – Late Summer 2018: The Election, Pre-Existing Conditions, and Surprises on Medical Bills
• Washington Post: For first time since 2010, America’s progress on health insurance stalls
• Washington Post: The Health 202: The rate of people without health insurance is creeping upward
• Washington Post: More than 4,300 Arkansas residents lose Medicaid under work requirements

Joe Manchin

• New York Times: Manchin Counts on Health Care to Stave Off Republican Tide in West Virginia
• Huffington Post: Sen. Joe Manchin Shoots GOP Obamacare Lawsuit In New Re-Election Ad

Michigan GOP candidate governor

• Associated Press: AP Interview: Schuette says Medicaid law not going anywhere
• Michigan Public Radio: Michigan Truth Squad: Michigan Democratic Party attacks Bill Schuette on health care
• Detroit News: Poll: Whitmer leads Schuette by comfortable edge in Michigan governor’s race

Medicaid expansion

• Associated Press: Voters to decide on expanding Medicaid
• Forbes: Red State Medicaid Expansion Polls Well As Midterms Loom
• CNN: Voters will decide whether to expand Medicaid in these red states
• Los Angeles Times: Red-state voters look to expand Medicaid this fall, despite Trump’s enduring hostility to Obamacare
• New York Magazine: Obamacare on the Ballot: Will Red-State Voters Expand Medicaid This Fall?
• New York Magazine: Maine’s Top Court Orders GOP Governor to Stop Ignoring Voters and Expand Medicaid

Mike Levin

• Washington Post: Top green group to spend an unprecedented $60 million on 2018 race
• The Nation: Can California Democrats Flip the House in November?
• Think Progress: How ‘Medicare for All’ became a rallying cry in California’s most conservative districts
• Times of San Diego: Democrat Mike Levin, at Anaheim Rally, Eyes Obama Bump Among ‘Key’ Independents
• Courthouse News Service: Obama Stumps in California to Take Back House in November
• Los Angeles Times: Will California flip the House? The key races to watch – California 49
• NBC San Diego: President Trump Endorses Republican in Competitive North County Race Over Twitter
• Times of San Diego: Trump Endorses Two Republicans with Ties to San Diego in Late-Night Tweets
• New York Times: Will the Birthplace of the Modern Right Turn Blue?
• New Yorker: A Tight, Chaotic Primary Race in California’s Forty-Ninth District
• San Diego Union Tribune: 49th Congressional District candidate Mike Levin on the issues
• Politico: Orange Crush: Inside the GOP Struggle to Hold the Southern California Suburbs
• Mother Jones: This Democrat Just Emerged to Run Against the Richest Man in Congress
• Nate Silver: FiveThirtyEight
• Vote Save America- GOTV Events and more