Donald Trump addresses the National Rifle Association convention in Louisville this May. (John Sommers II/Reuters)

With Breanne Deppisch

THE BIG IDEA: Donald Trump is focusing on running up his margin of victory in rural areas to offset his weakness in the suburbs.

The National Rifle Association is boosting this effort with a $5 million advertising campaign focused on smaller media markets in battleground states.

The group’s dramatic new commercial, which begins running today, features a woman asleep in bed when an intruder breaks in. Hearing glass shatter, she runs to get a gun. But, as she approaches, the safe with the weapon disappears. A narrator says it takes police an average of 11 minutes to respond to a 9-1-1 call. The spot ends with yellow police tape and cop cars parked in front of the house, leaving the ominous impression that something terrible has happened to the woman.

“Hillary Clinton could take away her right to self-defense,” a female narrator says. “And with Supreme Court justices, Hillary can. Don’t let Hillary leave you protected by nothing but a phone.”

Watch the ad:

Half of the $5 million buy will go toward broadcast networks in rural Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia – a few of which Trump needs to find a way to win. The other half will run on national cable, including Dish and Direct TV, which disproportionately serves rural communities.

The group hopes the spot will resonate with moderate women who feel vulnerable in the wake of recent terrorist attacks, from stabbings at a mall in rural Minnesota to explosions on a street in New York City.

The NRA’s advertising complements Trump’s recent scheduling decisions. He’s campaigning in many out-of-the-way places that have not received attention from presidential candidates in recent memory. Tonight, for instance, he will stump in Kenansville, North Carolina, a town of 850 where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans two-to-one. Knowing that Clinton can run up the score around Charlotte and Raleigh, he’s looking for record turnout in exurban and rural areas that have been buffeted by globalization and deindustrialization.

The NRA’s buy is meaningful because it comes as Clinton and her allies continue to massively outspend Team Trump on the air:

-- NRA leaders have gone all-in for Trump largely because of the Supreme Court. In 2008 and 2012, they waited to endorse until October. In 2016, they formally backed Trump in May. They say Second Amendment jurisprudence is especially fragile and fear any Democratic appointee to replace Antonin Scalia – including Merrick Garland – would inevitably roll back the 2008 decision in Heller vs. District of Columbia. The case was decided on a 5-4 vote, and Scalia wrote the majority opinion.

Trump often talks about gun rights during his stump speech, often courting controversy. Last month, he riffed on how "the Second Amendment people" could stop a President Clinton from overreaching.

Last Friday night, he said he’d love to see Clinton’s security detail disarm. “Let’s see what happens to her,” he said. (Many in the mainstream media said he raised the specter of violence.)

These comments closely echo years of NRA messaging: that Clinton is a hypocrite for not letting regular people protect themselves when she has armed guards.

The group backed up Trump in the face of widespread criticism after both incidents. Strategists say people in the heartland understand what he means in a way the “Morning Joe” audience cannot. “Hillary Clinton is an elitist, out-of-touch hypocrite who believes in one set of rules for her and a different set of rules for the rest of us,” said Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute of Legislative Action.

-- Speaking of guns: Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) will go up today with a response to his opponent’s ad in which he builds a rifle. Democratic challenger Jason Kander said he supported background checks and preventing people on the terrorist watch list from buying guns. The incumbent’s response features clips of several people building rifles quickly, including his opponent. “But only one of these is a Hillary Clinton national campaign chairman,” a narrator says. “Only one received an F [from the NRA] … only one supports amnesty for illegal immigrants. When it comes to the U.S. Senate, Missouri voters know what’s important.” Outside groups on both sides continue pouring money into Missouri. The NRSC yesterday, for example, placed a $270,000 buy in the St. Louis market to help Blunt and said more money is on the way.

Watch the spot first in the 202:

Good morning from Carleton in Northfield, Minnesota – the city of cows, colleges and contentment -- and welcome to the Daily 202, PowerPost's morning newsletter. With contributions from Elise Viebeck (@eliseviebeck). (Sign up to receive the newsletter.)
Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush at the Kennedy Center in 2011 (Kris Connor/Getty Images)

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING:

-- George H.W. Bush plans to vote for Clinton, according to a member of the Kennedy family. The 92-year-old's preference was revealed by former Maryland Lieutenant Gov. Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend, the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy. "The President told me he’s voting for Hillary!!” she posted on Facebook, alongside a photo of the two together in Maine.  A spokesman for Bush declined to confirm her statement, saying: "The vote President Bush will cast as a private citizen in some 50 days will be just that: a private vote cast in some 50 days.” (Politico’s Darren Samuelsohn)

-- On the flip side, two of the GOP’s biggest donors are falling in line. Via Matea Gold:

  • TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts intends to give at least $1 million to a super PAC supporting Trump. During the primaries, Ricketts and his wife funded an anti-Trump super PAC.
  • Billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife shelled out at least $20 million to support congressional Republicans last month, a long-awaited cash infusion from the casino magnate.

GET SMART FAST:​​

  1. The Justice Department is investigating the death of Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man who was tasered and fatally shot by Tulsa police. Footage from the incident is very disturbing. (Peter Holley, Wesley Lowery and Derek Hawkins)
  2. Senate leaders pushed back votes on a stopgap spending bill to keep the federal government open beyond Sept. 30, seeking to buy more time as lawmakers negotiate differences on funding levels. (Kelsey Snell)
  3. Federal officials plan to aggressively regulate driverless cars in the U.S., issuing a spate of new guidelines that automakers must comply with. (Ashley Halsey III and Michael Laris)
  4. A humanitarian convoy was attacked while attempting to provide medicine and supplies to citizens in Aleppo, leaving at least 12 aid workers dead. U.N. officials are outraged at the strike, which was likely launched by the Russians or Assad’s regime. (Karen DeYoung and Erin Cunningham)
  5. President Obama met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for a strategy session in New York, hashing out plans to liberate the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul. Both leaders seemed optimistic after the talks, with Obama saying the efforts could move forward “fairly rapidly.” (Greg Jaffe)
  6. Paris authorities announced eight new arrests in connection with the Bastille Day terrorist attack in Nice that left 86 dead. Prosecutors said the suspects are all linked to the attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel. All eight men are either Tunisian or French. (AP)
  7. Republicans on the House fetal tissue panel are seeking to hold a California firm that procures fetal tissue specimens in contempt of Congress, accusing the small biotech company of ignoring subpoena demands. Democrats call the move a “manufactured controversy" and say the GOP is being “McCarthyesque.” (Mike DeBonis)
  8. The U.S. government mistakenly granted citizenship to more than 850 immigrants from countries “of concern to national security” or with high immigration fraud rates, according to a new DHS audit. The feds reply that they are investigating the issues and pledged to review “every file” identified as problematic. (AP)
  9. Federal authorities in Mexico discovered a van that was outfitted with a homemade bazooka, apparently intended to launch packages over the U.S. border. (Lindsey Bever)
  10. OPM directed federal agencies to take further steps to protect their employees, especially those who are pregnant, from work-related exposure to the Zika virus, including by changing their work arrangements and by being flexible in granting tine off. ( Eric Yoder)
  11. At least 17 were killed in violent Congo protests, after the government sought to push back the country’s upcoming election. Rioters threw stones, set fire to vehicles and burned an officer alive. (AP)
  12. France became the first country in the world to ban plastic cutlery, outlawing all disposable utensils and plates from within its borders by the year 2020. The new law comes as part of a country-wide push towards greener, more environmentally-friendly forms of manufacturing. (James McAuley)
  13. Jim Carrey was sued for the wrongful death of his late girlfriend. The suit, filed by Cathriona White’s estranged husband, claims the actor supplied her with powerful prescription drugs she used to commit suicide last year. Carrey said in a statement that he “will not tolerate this heartless attempt to exploit me or the woman I loved." (Elahe Izadi)
  14. The Anti-Defamation League deployed representatives to Silicon Valley in an effort to combat online harassment aimed at Jews, especially on Twitter. (Buzzfeed) 
  15. Sarah Palin sold her gated estate in Scottsdale. The former Alaska governor’s Tuscan-style, 8,000-square-foot home went for $2.275 million. (Los Angeles Times)
  16. A very sexually-active hooded tortoise in the Galapagos has been credited with saving his entire species from extinction. Researchers say he has fathered some 800 young – nearly half of every hooded tortoise currently in existence. (Cleve R. Wootson Jr.)
Christie's former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, arrives in court for her trial. (Kevin R. Wexler/Northjersey.com via AP)

BRIDGEGATE:

-- Federal prosecutors said Chris Christie was told about the politically-motivated scheme that shut down the nation’s busiest bridge as it was happening, the first time officials have alleged in court that he knew about the plot as it was going on. From Katie Zezima and Matt Zapotosky: "The assertion came during the trial of two of Christie’s former aides, whom prosecutors accuse of hatching a plan to create a mammoth traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge to retaliate against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for not supporting Christie’s reelection bid. During opening statements Monday in Newark, prosecutors said one of the former aides, William E. Baroni Jr., the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and a third Christie associate, David Wildstein, a former Port Authority executive, informed the governor about the traffic shutdowns during a Sept. 11 memorial service in 2013. 'The evidence will show that . . . they bragged about the fact that there were traffic problems in Fort Lee and that Mayor Sokolich was not getting his calls returned,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna said."

-- Trump issued a statement of support to the New York Times after the revelations: “I have known and liked Chris for 15 years. After his recent run for president, he called me to say that he would like to endorse me in that he sees a movement like he has never seen before. I was greatly honored, accepted his endorsement, and he has been a spectacular advocate ever since.” He made no mention of the trial or accusations against the governor.

-- Bottom line: If Trump wins, Christie (currently running his transition effort) will never become Attorney General. This will give Democrats another reason to block his nomination. Seriously, think about it: Which Democratic senators are going to cross party lines to vote for his confirmation?

DOMESTIC TERROR:

-- Police arrested the man believed to be responsible for this weekend's bombings in New York and New Jersey, charging 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami with attempted murder of a police officer. He is expected to face further charges. Law enforcement and New York City officials said they do not believe Rahami operated as part of a terrorist cell, and they are not actively seeking any other suspects. But they said they had more work to do to determine what motivated him and if anyone helped. “We have every reason to believe this was an act of terror,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. More from Ellen Nakashima, Matt Zapotosky and Mark Berman:

  • The FBI said Rahami was not previously on the bureau’s radar.

  • A fingerprint from a cellphone that was recovered proved key to identifying him.

  • The pressure-cookers and pipe bombs, linked to cell phones, were constructed with “easily-bought,” unregulated materials. The amateur device, touted for years by al-Qaeda, has been used in multiple global attacks. (Sari Horwitz)

Obama, joined by U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, speaks at the Lotte Hotel in New York. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

-- Obama urged calm during a press conference, calling on Americans to remain vigilant but “not to succumb to fear." "At moments like this, I think it’s important to remember what terrorists and violent extremists are trying to do: They are trying to hurt innocent people, but they also want to inspire fear in all of us and to disrupt the way we live and to undermine our values,” he said. (Greg Jaffe)

-- The candidates’ responses were exactly what you’d expect: From Clinton, an appeal for steady leadership and presidential bearing, and for Trump, a get-tough message. From Anne Gearan, Sean Sullivan and John Wagner:

  • Trump suggested that racial profiling is necessary to counter the threat. “These attacks and many others were made possible because of our extremely open immigration system, which fails to properly vet and screen the individuals or families coming into our country," he said. He then asserted that police “know who a lot of these people are.” “They are afraid to do anything about it,” he continued, “because they don’t want to be accused of profiling.” 
  • Clinton called for “resolve” in the fight against terror and said Trump is a recruiting tool for ISIS: "We know that a lot of the rhetoric that we’ve heard from him has been seized on by terrorists, including ISIS, because they are looking to make this a war against Islam,” she said.

-- HRC has opened an advantage on who is best to handle terrorism. Our most recent Post/ABC poll put him 9 points behind Clinton on the question of which candidate would "do more to make the country safer and more secure." A recent Fox News survey showed Clinton turning a 12-point deficit among registered voters on "terrorism and national security" from May into a 3-point advantage in August -- even as the race tightened overall. (Aaron Blake)

-- Terrorism will come up at the first debate, six days from now. NBC anchor Lester Holt released a list of three subjects he will focus on next Monday night. They are “America's Direction," "Achieving Prosperity" and "Securing America.” Note that these are intentionally broad categories, which gives the moderator a freer hand. There will be six, 15-minute segments. Two 15-minute segments will focus on each of the three topics. The 90-minute debate starts at 9 p.m. ET.

Clinton meets with President Petro Poroshenko of the Ukraine and his staff in Manhattan. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

THE DAILY HILLARY:

-- Obama is approaching the presidential campaign with a new sense of urgency and concern, changing his tone amid a growing realization that Trump’s defeat is not inevitable. From Greg Jaffe and Juliet Eilperin: “Obama’s change in tone is ... an acknowledgment of some of Clinton’s weaknesses. ... White House officials have privately fretted about some of Clinton’s recent missteps ... [Now], in remarks in recent days, Obama has cast the election as central to his legacy, essentially placing himself on the ballot with Clinton."

-- Trolling Trump, Clinton met with the president of Ukraine (one of Vladimir Putin's biggest antagonists). Russia annexed Crimea two years ago, and the countries skirmish almost daily. Ukrainian officials said they invited HRC to meet with Petro Poroshenko. (Both candidates met with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.) 

-- Appearing on NBC's "Tonight Show," Clinton accused Trump of having a “bromance” with Putin. Host Jimmy Fallon jokingly presented Clinton with a bagful of things he said Trump had left behind after his appearance last week on the same program. Among them: a photo of Putin in a heart-shaped frame. “The most famous bromance going, right?,” she quipped. (John Wagner) 

-- Clinton has penned an open letter to Wells Fargo customers who were victims of its “widespread illegal practices,” vowing to address bank misconduct as she slammed the company for opening fraudulent accounts. Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf testified today before the Senate Banking Committee. "He owes all of you a clear explanation as to how this happened under his watch," Clinton writes in the statement. "There is simply no place for this kind of outrageous behavior in America."

-- Tim Kaine told voters in Iowa that one of his own children supported Bernie Sanders over Hillary in the Democratic primary as he urged millennials to rally around the ticket. “Hey, we’re a big family on the Democratic side,” Kaine told the audience at Iowa State University. (John Wagner)

-- Bill Clinton delivered opening remarks at the 12th Clinton Global Initiative session, bringing together government, philanthropic and corporate leaders for the organization’s annual three-day summit in New York. Clinton’s speech also served as a farewell address of sorts, coming weeks after he announced he will stepping down from the CGI board. “I think the way to end this is not on a nostalgia trip, but in doing what we set out to do, which is to keep going and push the ball forward,” he said during his remarks. (Abby Phillip)

-- Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook sent donors a memo outlining their paths to 270 electoral votes. “Hillary is nearly certain to win 16 ‘ blue' states, including Washington D.C., which will garner her 191 electoral votes,” Mook writes in the 2,000-word note. “If we add the five states that FiveThirtyEight.com gives Hillary a 70% or greater chance of winning (Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin), Hillary only needs 10 more electoral votes." (Politico’s Gabriel Debenedetti)

-- A new right-wing super PAC launched a $1.2 million ad campaign attacking Clinton’s health, invoking conspiracy theories that the Democratic nominee suffers from a mysterious illness. "C is for 'concussion,' a bump in December," the ad’s narrator says in a sing-songy voice. "C is for cough that's affecting her bid." “The spot, running just in Wisconsin, reflects how Clinton's stumble and brief respite from the trail mainstreamed a conspiracy theory that she is covering up severe health problems,” David Weigel writes.

-- Suburban women may be "Clinton's lifeline," the Wall Street Journal's Gerald F. Seib writes from north of Philly. "Says one Trump adviser flatly: ‘Suburban women will decide this election.’”

-- Inside Hillary’s struggles with younger black voters, via Buzzfeed’s Darren Sands: “Rashad Drakeford, a former White House aide, oversees the ‘Revolt 2 Vote’ initiative, which conducted research focused on young voters of color. Drakeford said the study found that among those who said they were not engaged in the election, half of the respondents said it was because they ‘couldn’t find truth in the noise of the media’s political coverage,’ and a third said it’s because ‘nothing will change regardless of who gets elected.’ ‘The biggest thing the Clinton campaign has to convey over these two months is ‘Why Hillary?’ without [the answer being] ‘Trump,’’ he said.”

Trump rallies in Ft. Myers, Fla. (AP/ Evan Vucci)

THE DAILY DONALD:

-- Paul Ryan met privately with Ivanka Trump in New York. A spokesman for the House speaker said yesterday's meeting was held at her request. An aide described the sit-down as a “productive conversation where Ryan spoke about his 2012 experience and Ivanka shared updates about her father's campaign.” (CNN)

-- Joe and Mika may be seeking to rekindle relations with Trump: The “Morning Joe” co-hosts Scarborough and Brzezinski visited Trump Tower last week, CNN Money’s Dylan Byers reports. The three discussed the possibility of conducting a "Morning Joe” interview, though nothing was finalized. The meeting comes after a summer of public feuding, with Trump tweeting a rumor last month that the two co-hosts are romantically involved.  

-- More than 50 national security leaders called on Trump to disclose his overseas business dealings, saying in an open letter that the mogul’s overseas engagements could pose “significant conflicts of interest” if he guides U.S. foreign policy. Signatories include a number of former Bush administration officials. (CNN)

-- “Trump Charity Failed to Heed States’ Rules With Veterans Event,” by the New York Times's Peter Eavis: “He boycotted a televised debate in January, instead holding a high-profile charity event for veterans in Iowa that helped raise millions of dollars from donors around the country. But Mr. Trump’s charitable foundation … did not take a basic legal step that nonprofit experts say is required of charities when they hold fund-raisers that may draw donors from many states. Some 40 states require registration by charities raising money within their borders. But the [Trump Foundation] does not show up in the charity registers of 38 of those states. ... The Clinton Foundation appears to be registered in nearly all the states."

-- The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos argues that Trump’s campaign tells us a lot about what kind of commander-in-chief he would be: “For more than a year, Trump has encouraged supporters to regard him as a work in progress—‘Everything is negotiable’—and the ambiguity has ushered him to the threshold of power. But envisaging a Trump Presidency has never required an act of imagination; he has proudly exhibited his priorities, his historical inspirations, his instincts under pressure, and his judgment about those who would put his ideas into practice. In the early decades of this century, Americans have sometimes traced our greatest errors to a failure of imagination: the inability to picture a terrorist, in a cave, who is able to strike; the hubris to ignore extensive State Department predictions of what would come of the invasion of Iraq. Trump presents us with the opposite risk: his victory would be not a failure of imagination but, rather, a retreat to it—the magical thought that his Presidency would be something other than the campaign that created it.”

THE BATTLEGROUNDS: 

-- Zignal Visual: Obamacare is taking center stage again in the battle for the Senate. In seven of the most competitive Senate battles this year, our analytics partners at Zignal Labs see the Affordable Care Act taking center stage. Used mostly as a line of attack against Democrats, discussion over the health care law continues to dominate in battleground Senate races. Here's a look at the top issues in tweets and stories that mention Democrats and Republicans, respectively, in the seven top US Senate races:

-- A Monmouth University poll of GEORGIA shows Trump up just 3 points (45-42). 

-- Florida is gonna Florida, explains Democratic operative Steve Schale (who directed Obama's 2008 victory in the state): “It has been close since 1992, and it will be close in 2016, 2020, and 2024.” Still, he believes Clinton has a narrow edge there for two reasons:

  • Demographics: “The state is getting more diverse, and while that doesn’t guarantee her a win, it does give her a cushion. Based on growth alone, Obama’s 0.9 percent win in 2012 is probably worth closer to 1.2-1.5 percent in 2016, simply based on demographic trends. She has a cushion to bleed a little among whites and still win."
  • Organization: “This is where the Clinton operation will reap its investment. By registering voters, and turning out more of the lower propensity Black and Hispanic voters, her campaign can capitalize on the demographic advantages. Organizations are like kickers in football — they aren’t vital in blowouts, but you better have a good one in a close game, and they are building an organization designed to win a close election.”

-- Case in point: “Trump’s Phantom Florida Ground Game,” by the Huffington Post’s S.V. Date: “In a downtown office building, the Duval County Republican headquarters for the fall elections, stands a life-size cutout of Trump. Unfortunately for the GOP presidential nominee, that’s about the extent of the Trumpiness to be found there. Staff members point visitors toward a different office a few miles away ... But there, the situation is even worse.” The strip-mall office is “not quite open,” although the woman who identified herself as Trump’s office manager said it would be within days ― as soon as the air conditioning problems had been sorted out and furniture and equipment could be delivered.”

-- More than one-third of Americans will have already voted for president before Nov. 8. "Building on the ground-game innovations of Obama’s two successful efforts, Clinton’s campaign has reshuffled its entire org chart with the election timetable in mind," per Bloomberg's Sasha Issenberg. "Trump’s team, meanwhile, contends he is a nontraditional candidate -- relying on down-ballot Republicans to pick up the heavy lifting.”

Style reporter Monica Hesse spends the night inside The Trump International Hotel. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

WAPO HIGHLIGHTS:

-- The Post’s Monica Hesse reviewed her $805-a-night stay at D.C’s new Trump Hotel – and found a mostly empty hotel filled with gawking tourists. “This lookie-looing happens at other swanky hotels: the Four Seasons, the Ritz, or the Plaza … where [tourists] … line up for the high tea experience,” she writes. “But it happens in a different way at the Trump International, where the luxury is tied not to a brand but a man, and where that man professes to be both a man of exquisite tastes and a man of the people. A man who not only accepts that his supporters wear baseball caps indoors but, since announcing his candidacy, does so himself … The lookie-loos at the Trump International have not put on their Sunday best to roam around one of the ‘great hotels in the world.’ They’re in fanny packs and sports jerseys, capri pants and Naturalizers. Trump has said he is a populist, and his heart-stoppingly expensive hotel at times has the casual vibe of the amusement park you’d drive one hour to visit but not two. Six Flags Trump, the spiritual home of the carnival-barker presidential candidate.”

Dahir Adan was born in Africa but had lived in the United States for 15 years. His father identified him as the assailant in the St. Cloud, Minnesota, mall stabbing attack that wounded nine people. (AFP)

-- “An unassuming life before a suspect’s rampage in a Minnesota mall,” by Abigail Hauslohner and Drew Harwell: “Nothing seemed awry when Dahir Adan told his family that he was going out to buy an iPhone on Saturday night. It’s unclear what time he put on a security guard’s uniform like the one he wore while working a previous job at a nearby appliance factory. And it’s unclear what was going through the 20-year-old’s head when he walked into a shopping mall in the small Minnesota city where he’d grown up, wielding a knife.” As officials investigate the Saturday stabbing rampage, they are also attempting to understand what could have driven a young Somali-American man who had been in the U.S. since he was a toddler, to commit such an act of violence. “Community leaders say the ethnically diverse high school has one of the largest Somali student populations in the area. But bullies sometimes pick on the Somali students … [who have reported being] called ‘ISIS” or ‘terrorist.' ... 'This is what drives some of this anger sometimes,’ one community leader said."

SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ:

This picture is taking off on Facebook:

Donald Trump Jr. provoked an online firestorm after sharing an image that likened Syrian refugees to pieces of candy:

Trump’s analogy is “at best disconcerting and at worst offensive,” Philip Bump explains. Most of all, it is patently untrue: According to a Cato Institute study, the annual risk to an American of being killed by a refugee in a terror attack is 1 in 3.64 billion. “In other words, for every 10.92 billion years that Americans live -- one Skittle, if you will -- refugees will kill an American in a terror attack in three,” Bump writes. “An actual Skittle is about 1 centimeter squared by about a half a centimeter tall (or thereabouts). Setting aside questions of stacking the oblong Skittles in this very large bowl by assuming each will occupy two-thirds of that volume, we're talking about one-and-a-half Olympic swimming pools of Skittles. And in that pool: Three poison Skittles. So how many handfuls could I grab before I got one that's poisoned? Specifically, about 68.7 million.”

Here's how Skittles responded:

As Donald Jr. tweeted, this was the scene in London. Some 2,500 lifejackets worn by refugees who made the sea crossing from Turkey to the Greek island of Chios were displayed in a "Lifejacket Graveyard" in Parliament Square. 

(Matt Dunham/AP)

Rick Perry seems to be enjoying himself on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars":

Willie Nelson's wife posted this picture of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe over the weekend. If you look closely, you can see marijuana in the photo:

Asked about the marijuana by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy said the governor stopped by Nelson’s bus while thanking several performers at Farm Aid 2016, an annual festival meant to benefit family farmers. Coy said McAuliffe, who opposes marijuana legalization, visited Nelson for 10 minutes or less and “had no idea” what else was on the bus. “He was not and still is not aware of whatever was on the table or anywhere around him and wouldn’t know marijuana or related paraphernalia if it walked up and shook his hand,” Coy said. “He’s cool, but he’s not that cool.”

Trump asked how Rahami "got through the system":

Lindsey Graham said the suspect should be transferred to military custody:

Here's how he put it on Twitter:

Seeming disappointed, Trump said the "evil thug" will get "room service," legal representation and medical treatment (click to watch):

A few reactions to that position:

Check out part of this tweetstorm from #NeverTrump GOP strategist Patrick Ruffini on why so many Republican consultants aren't backing Trump:

Rates are apparently down at Trump's hotel in D.C.:

One store in Illinois is using Colin Kaepernick's jersey as a floor mat because he won't stand for the National Anthem:

This is what a New York Republican congressman had to say after the bombing suspect was captured:

GOOD READS FROM ELSEWHERE:

-- Politico, “Was the Terror Coverage More Explosive Than the Bombs?” by Jack Shafer: “In a rational world, we would interpret the inept crimes of accused pipe bomber Ahmad Khan Rahami as evidence that 15 years after the big one, the terrorist threat in America is akin to a brush fire—the kind of thing that inevitably flares up and causes some damage before the experts put it out. Instead, thanks to the cable news channels and some in the Web and print space, we’ve turned it into a mighty conflagration. In the current atmosphere, every terror-motivated crime has come to feel like a dire assault on the homeland, exploding in the news with much more success than the actual bombs involved. The fact is, everywhere you look in modern life, we’re safer. [But] the paradox of all this safety is that it ends up making a lot of us feel all the more unsafe when we’re reminded that random tragedies do happen—and to clamor for an even bigger airbag when they do, even though the rational mind tells us we’ve reached a diminishing point of returns on that investment.”

HOT ON THE LEFT:

“Gun inequality: US study charts rise of hardcore super owners,” from The Guardian: “Americans own an estimated 265 million guns, more than one gun for every American adult, according to the most definitive portrait of US gun ownership in two decades. But the new survey estimates that 133 million of these guns are concentrated in the hands of just 3% of American adults – a group of super-owners who have amassed an average of 17 guns each.” The Harvard/Northeastern survey estimates that America’s gun stock has increased by 70 million guns since 1994. 

  

HOT ON THE RIGHT:

“Republican friendships shatter over Trump,” from The Hill: “A few months ago, Matt Schlapp, the former White House political director under President George W. Bush [who organizes CPAC], walked into a cocktail party and tried to join a conversation with Republican consultants he has known for years.  ‘The conversation quickly ended,’ Schlapp [said] … ‘It’s one of those moments when you wonder, ‘Hey, do I have something on my face?’’ Schlapp’s decision to support Trump for president has cost him friends in Washington’s elite Republican circles.  He’s hardly alone. Old allies in Washington … are no longer on speaking terms because one backs Trump … Divisions have run so deep in some cases that they could take years to heal. ‘It’s personal. It’s painful. It’s people you grew up with,’ he added. ‘When those relationships break, it’s really heartbreaking.’”

DAYBOOK:

On the campaign trail: Trump is in High Point and Kenansville, N.C.; Pence is in Williamsburg, Va.

At the White House: Obama speaks to the plenary session at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this morning. Then he holds a bilateral meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeri and pays courtesy calls to General Assembly President Peter Thomson of Fiji and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. In the afternoon, the President will attend a luncheon hosted by Ban Ki Moon. Later in the afternoon, the President will attend a CEO roundtable. Afterward, the president will participate in a Refugee Summit family photo and meeting. In the evening, the President will deliver remarks at a reception for foreign heads of delegations to the General Assembly. POTUS will overnight in New York.

Joe Biden speaks at a DCCC fundraiser in NYC before bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece and President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine, and participates in the Leaders' Summit on Refugee's at the United Nations General Assembly.

On Capitol Hill: The Senate meets at 10 a.m. to work on the motion to proceed on the legislative vehicle for the short-term CR. The House meets at 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes on 34 suspension votes postponed until 6:30 p.m.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: 

“They pay us a lot of money, and we need money to pay our producers and directors.” – Larry King explains why he works for the state-funded Russia Today (NYT)

NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.:

-- Another mostly-cloudy day ahead, with a few morning showers, today’s Capital Weather Gang forecasts: “Areas of morning fog with a few isolated showers around, especially early south and east of the city. With mostly cloudy skies, our highs manage to edge up into the lower to middle 80s this afternoon, with light breezes from the north.”

-- The Nationals lost to the Marlins 4-3.

-- Fairfax County Public Schools superintendent Karen Garza announced her resignation, moving on to a new role at an Ohio-based education nonprofit after four years in the job. (T. Rees Shapiro, Moriah Balingit and Antonio Olivo)

-- Two teenagers were arrested in the slaying of the 20-year-old man whose body was found floating over the weekend in a Prince George’s County creek. (Lynh Bui)

VIDEOS OF THE DAY:

A timelapse shows the construction of the African American history museum from start to finish:

HRC talked with Fallon about running for president as a woman:

More here:

She also joked about her pnuemonia:

Drew Carey cut a brief ad for Gary Johnson:

Jamie Foxx chatted with TMZ about the election and the possibility of a Kanye run in 2020:

A clip from Clinton's speech at Temple University for millenials:

This orphaned baby koala found comfort in a stuffed animal friend: