The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
●CA-50: Rep. Duncan Hunter, who was one of the first two congressional Republicans to endorse Donald Trump in 2016, seems intent to do his best Trump impression now that he's been indicted for allegedly misusing donor money. On Wednesday, Hunter declared that the U.S. Department of Justice is "the Democrats' arm of law enforcement. … It's happening with Trump and it's happening with me." The DOJ of course is run by Jeff Sessions … who was the third congressional Republican to endorse Trump in 2016.
Campaign ActionHunter also seems intent to be a pain toward his own party's leadership as well. Speaker Paul Ryan removed Rep. Chris Collins from his committees after the New Yorker was indicted two weeks ago for insider trading, and he sought to do the same thing to Hunter. But while Collins (who endorsed Trump along with Hunter on the same day two years ago) went along quietly, Politico reports that Hunter is refusing to step down. House Republicans reportedly will vote in early September to strip Hunter of his committee assignments.
Hunter has been in the spotlight for alleged campaign violations since 2016, and federal prosecutors allege that he and his wife, Margaret, filed false FEC charges to disguise the fact that they spent $250,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses for things such as family vacations, video games, and to transport his kid's pet rabbit on an airplane flight. Still, the actual indictment has some gory new details.
Perhaps the most memorable story from the indictment is how in 2015, in order to justify their use of campaign funds to pay for a trip to Italy, the congressman tried to set up a tour of an American Navy facility. After the Navy told him they could only provide a tour on a certain day, the indictment describes Hunter instructing "his chief of staff, ‘tell the Navy to go f--- themselves [no alteration in original],’ and no tour occurred."