Today in one sentence: A 14-year-old killed two students, two teachers, and left at least nine more hospitalized after a mass shooting at a Georgia high school; the Biden administration accused Putin of orchestrating a campaign to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election, help Trump win, and erode international support for Ukraine; a nonpartisan watchdog group asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to remove Judge Aileen Cannon from Trump's classified documents case; and Biden is considering making his temporary asylum restrictions nearly impossible to lift.

1/ A 14-year-old killed two students, two teachers, and left at least nine more hospitalized after a mass shooting at a Georgia high school. Colt Gray will be charged with murder and tried as an adult. The high school reportedly received a phone call warning that there would be shootings at five schools, and that Apalachee High School would be the first. Biden called the shooting “another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart.” Kamala Harris added that “This is just a senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies, and it’s just outrageous that everyday in our country, in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school, worried about whether or not their child will come home alive […] We’ve got to stop it, and we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all. You know it doesn’t have to be this way.” Before today, there had been 29 mass killings in the U.S. so far this year. Last year, there were 217 deaths from 42 mass killings in the U.S. – one of the deadliest years on record for such shootings in the country. [Editor’s note: This is breaking news and will be updated as additional reporting becomes available.] (Associated Press / Washington Post / Politico / CNN / New York Times / NBC News / NPR / CBS News)

  • There have been 416 school shootings since the Columbine High massacre in 1999. More than 382,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine. (Washington Post)

2/ The Biden administration accused Putin of orchestrating a campaign to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election, help Trump win, and erode international support for Ukraine. The Justice Department charged two Russian media executives and seized 32 web domains that it said were part of a broad, ongoing effort by the Russian government to spread propaganda. The two employees of RT – a Russian state-controlled media outlet – covertly funded a Tennessee-based company with nearly $10 million “to publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government” on social media. The nearly 2,000 videos have gotten more than 16 million views on YouTube alone, prosecutors said. “The Justice Department’s message is clear: We have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic system of government,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. The Treasury Department also sanctioned 10 individuals and two entities in response to “Moscow’s malign influence efforts targeting the 2024 U.S. presidential election.” (Associated Press / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / Politico / CNN / New York Times / ABC News / NBC News / NPR / USA Today / Axios)

3/ A nonpartisan watchdog group asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to remove Judge Aileen Cannon from Trump’s classified documents case, arguing she’s taken “many efforts to undermine and derail the prosecution of this case.” In July, Cannon dismissed the federal case, which accused Trump of mishandling classified information after leaving the White House, citing the “unlawful appointment” of special counsel Jack Smith. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, joined by a retired federal judge and two legal scholars, requested that the case be reassigned to a different South Florida judge if the appeals court overturns Cannon’s ruling. “Even before she dismissed this case on novel and insupportable grounds that ignored both statutory authority and Supreme Court precedent, Judge Cannon’s other extraordinary rulings and sluggish administration of the case had provoked well-founded concerns that she might be biased against the Government’s case and unable to manage that case impartially,” CREW wrote. (The Hill / Axios / NPR)

4/ Biden is considering making his temporary asylum restrictions nearly impossible to lift. After Senate Republicans blocked a $118 billion bipartisan border package, which Republicans had demanded but later rejected after pressure from Trump, who wanted to make the border a campaign issue, Biden issued an executive order in June that temporarily suspended most asylum claims at the southern border when unauthorized crossings exceed a daily threshold. After the executive order went into effect, the number of arrests at the southern border has dropped from 118,000 in May to 56,000 in July. The ban was designed to be lifted when the number of migrants crossing the southern border illegally dropped below an average of 1,500 per day for one week, followed by a two-week waiting period. In July, Border Patrol apprehended an average 1,820 migrants a day. The change currently under discussion would increase the time the number of crossings must remain below that level to several weeks. (New York Times / Reuters)

  • 📅 The WTFJHT Calendar: Now until then.

  • 📺 Sept. 4: Proposed Fox News presidential debate.
    🗳️ Sept. 6: First state begins mail voting.
    📺 Sept. 10: Confirmed ABC News presidential debate.
    🗳️ Sept. 16: First state starts early voting.
    ⚖️ Sept. 18: Trump is sentenced.
    📺 Sept. 25: Proposed NBC News presidential debate.
    📺 Oct. 1: CBS News vice presidential debate.
    📆 Oct. 6: Last day to register to vote in some states.
    ⛔️ Oct. 14: Indigenous Peoples’ Day – No WTFJHT.
    🗳️ Nov. 5: Election Day.

  • ✅ Get election ready: Register to vote, update your address, or request an absentee ballot at Vote.org, TurboVote.org, RocktheVote.org, or VoteFromAbroad.org.

  • 📈 The WTFJHT Election Poll Tracking Tracker ™️

  • Harris +3.0 points (New York Times)
    Harris +3.1 points (538)
    Harris +3.4 points (Nate Silver)
    Harris +3.3 points (The Economist)
    Harris +1.9 points (RealClearPolitics)
    Trump +1.6 points (Election Betting Odds)

  • 🔮 Election Forecast Tracker

  • Harris wins 55 times out of 100. Trump wins 44 times out of 100. (538)
    Trump wins 58 times out of 100. Harris wins 42 times out of 100. (Nate Silver)
    Harris wins 50 times out of 100. Trump wins 50 times out of 100. (The Economist)