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Hagerty largely ignored Sethi most of the race seemingly confident of his lead which his internal polls had at 17 points until earlier this month, when he abruptly went on the offensive. His recent campaign speeches and interviews are chock-full of attack lines. His campaign has dubiously accused Sethi of donating money to a group "bankrolling these rioters" in an ad with a wounded veteran telling voters that Sethi can't be trusted to defend the flag.

And Hagerty has been repeatedly mispronouncing Sethi's name as "Set-ee" instead of "Seth-ee" a year into the race, even in response to reporter questions with the correct pronunciation. Hagerty told POLITICO it was inadvertent, and he didn't know which pronunciation Sethi, the son of Indian immigrants, prefers.

Bill Hagerty is Thurston Howell III without the charm," said Jordan Gehrke, Sethi's senior strategist, comparing Hagerty to the out-of-touch millionaire in the '60s-era sitcom "Gilligan's Island." "Hes desperate. He should be. Sethi's own internal poll released earlier this month showed the race within 2 points.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), who endorsed Hagerty, shot back that Sethis recent attacks were fiction. I think its despair, he said.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann arrives for a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. | AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

The outcome almost certainly has no bearing on the makeup of the Senate, with Republicans strongly favored to retain the seat in November. But the battle is a window into the changing nature of the Republican Party, in which economic populism is in vogue, and race and identity have been thrust to the fore.

Many ambitious Republicans eager to position themselves as future leaders of the party have picked sides. Last week, Cruz endorsed Sethi, joining Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. Two other 2024 presidential prospects, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, have lined up behind Hagerty, with Cotton's super PAC set to make its first 2020 expenditure to attack Sethi.

The brawl between the two candidates escalated when Sethi went after Hagerty over his support of Romney in 2008 and 2012, branding him as a "Mitt Romney Republican" scarlet letters in Trumps GOP.

Since then, the race has devolved into a gnarly thicket of misleading attacks: Sethi's campaign is running an ad that claims Hagerty is endorsed by Mitt Romney, even though the Utah senator hasn't endorsed and Hagerty has denounced him aggressively on the trail. Hagerty's team has accused Sethi of donating money to a group supporting the rioters, a distortion of a $50 contribution in 2008 Sethi made to a Democratic congressional candidate in Virginia that was processed by ActBlue, a party-aligned payment platform that has been used recently by Black Lives Matter-linked groups and other protestors.

Hagerty, a former private equity executive and Jeb Bush delegate, was the sort of business-first conservative who donated to both Al Gore and George W. Bush in 2000, mirroring some of Trump's political donating habits before his presidential run. But in 2020, he has run on a message tailored for the Trump era, telling POLITICO that Black Lives Matter is an anti-Semitic and Marxist organization thats calling for the removal of the images of Jesus Christ. In a recent direct-to-camera ad, Hagerty declared: "Burn our flag or destroy a monument, you go to prison." He's leaning heavily on Trump's endorsement, which came in a presidential tweet.

I think the very first issue is supporting President Trump, Hagerty said. That's the big issue here in Tennessee. Folks in Tennessee want a candidate that's going to support they want a senator that's going to support President Trump and his agenda.

Sethi, a physician and political newcomer, has used $1.9 million of his own wealth to amplify his message bashing the economic lockdowns and racial justice protests. Church with too many people is a crime. Thousands of people protesting is not, went one viral ad. You got a problem with any of that? Youre a racist, and you want to kill Grandma.

Hagerty has fought back with his own barrage of ads, taking loans of at least $6.5 million to fund his campaign, according to FEC records.

They have both continued in-person campaigning during the coronavirus pandemic even as many campaigns have retreated. Masks are provided and encouraged but not required at Sethi's events, many of which were packed indoors this past weekend. We try to encourage social distancing but when your crowds are growing and growing, it becomes more challenging, Sethi told POLITICO.

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Sethi has drawn attention for his unapologetic and provocative TV ads that try to ride a conservative backlash to the recent Black Lives Matter protests. One accused liberals of not really caring about Black lives because Planned Parenthood places clinics near minority communities, and asking voters if they are sick of liberals saying watching American cities get ripped apart is a chance for you to examine your privilege.

While Hagerty has brandished his Trump endorsement, Sethi has pounded him for his links to Romney. Hagerty worked with Romney in private equity and served on both of his presidential campaigns, including as national finance chair in 2008. He defends his 2012 work as an effort to defeat Barack Obama, whom he calls the worst president of his lifetime, but condemns the Utah senator's recent politics.

Hagerty's response suggests Romney, who preceded Trump as the GOP's presidential nominee, has now become toxic in Republican primary politics. Hagerty frequently bashes him on the trail and told POLITICO that Romneys disagreements with Trump negatively impacted his own job as ambassador. Unprompted, he also called Romney irresponsible for marching with Black Lives Matter protesters recently.

Sethi was unconvinced.

I just think someone like that really has no place in the Republican Party anymore, and Bill Hagerty represents that, said Sethi. Now hes trying to hide it.

Romney hasnt officially endorsed Hagerty or weighed in on his behalf, other than saying he would "love it" if Hagerty entered the race last year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Jack Johnson, the GOP leader in the state Senate who endorsed Hagerty, said if anyone would be concerned about his past relationship with Romney, it would be Trump himself.

I think he's convinced that any past support or relationship with Mitt Romney is water under the bridge and not really relevant right now because he's obviously 100 percent supporting President Trump, and vice versa, Johnson said.

Tom Ingram, a former Alexander chief of staff, said that even with declining national approval ratings, Tennessee is still a Trump all caps, underlined, italicized state, and Romney is a frontline Trump enemy. In large part because of the presidents endorsement, Ingram added that I think it would be a pretty stunning upset if Hagerty lost.

Hagerty has support from more than a dozen senators and has long-held relationships with Tennessee Republican officials stretching back years, both before and after he served as a top adviser to former Gov. Bill Haslam. Dozens of current and former members of the state legislature endorsed him alongside the president and his allies. Hagerty also rolled out endorsements from Vice President Mike Pence and Fox News host Sean Hannity in the closing stretch of the race.

As with most other Republican primaries across the country this year, support for and from Trump has been central, although a few of his endorsed candidates have lost in recent primaries.

Fleischmann, who has endorsed Hagerty, said Trumps backing was golden, and that the president discussed Hagerty and the race with him multiple times last year. Trump keeps regular contact with Hagerty: They spoke by phone last week, and the president held a tele-conference with Hagerty the week before to rally supporters ahead of early voting. Youve got a real primary here, and the other side is spending a lot of money. But Bill is somebody that will never, ever let you down, Trump said, adding that Hagerty was one of my earliest supporters, despite his support for other primary candidates in 2016.

Hagertys campaign publicly shrugged off the challenge at first from Sethi and another self-funder, perennial candidate George Flinn and released an internal poll earlier this month showing them up 17 points. But last week, the Hagerty campaign abruptly shifted gears and began pounding Sethi as Massachusetts Manny and trying to tie him to Obama because he applied for a nonpartisan White House fellowship in 2009.

On mispronouncing Sethis last name on the stump, Hagerty says the slight is unintentional.

I'm just not sure what his preferred pronunciation is, but there's nothing underlying it, Hagerty said.

How many years of higher education at Vanderbilt does it take to properly pronounce a last name?, Jeri Thompson, the wife of the late Tennessee senator Fred Thompson who has endorsed Sethi, shot back. For shame, Ambassador Hagerty.

Asked if he thought Hagerty was deliberately mispronouncing his name to make him sound more foreign, Sethi said, I think that [voters] can make that judgment for themselves.

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The attacks have trickled down to the staff level. Hagertys campaign has bought Facebook ads hitting Sethis campaign manager and top consultant for calling Trump a Manchurian candidate and a short-fingered vulgarian during the 2016 Republican primary. Primaries are messy, said Chris Devaney, Sethis campaign chairman. Fact is, Manny supported President Trump in the primary, while Hagerty was supporting Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio.

The winner of the primary will likely face Democrat James Mackler, an Army veteran and attorney, in the general election. Like many Democrats, Mackler hit both GOP candidates for holding events during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Real leaders put the health and welfare of those they are elected to serve ahead of their own self-interest, he said.

Alex Isenstadt contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this story misstated the decade in which the TV sitcom "Gilligan's Island" aired. It was the 1960s.

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The nastiest Republican primary in the country - POLITICO

The organizers of a young Republican group who oppose President Trump say they want to build the GOP of the future by staying away from unproductive discourse and providing a better alternative to the left.

Called Gen Z GOP, the nationally focused group with Massachusetts roots officially launched over the weekend with a social media video that lays out a vision for a new Republican Party that attracts the newest generation of voters.

The group vehemently opposes a lot of what the left stands for today, said Samuel Garber, a freshman at Bates College.

But the GOP ratcheting up the rhetoric on the right will not attract the Gen Z generation, and drives people further away from the Republican Party, he said.

We are somewhere in the middle, where a majority of the country and state (Massachusetts) is, Garber said.

In the video launched over the weekend, the group says The Republican Party has been hijacked in recent years.

As Republicans, we believe that the party of Lincoln is worth saving from its current flirtation with authoritarian populism, the video narrator says. But we do not seek to return to the politics of the past. We seek to present a new vision a vision that does not cave to the polarized choices of left and right, but one that embraces nuance, freedom and opportunity.

The Gen Z GOP promotes: free trade and fiscal responsibility, bipartisan reform for border security, and private-public partnerships to provide accessible health care.

We strive to be a GOP that pursues climate change solutions that harness American innovation and create green energy jobs, the narrator says. A GOP that can embrace Americans of all backgrounds, proudly proclaim that Black Lives Matter and work to combat injustice and inequality.

One of the reasons for forming this group was sparked by the unproductive discourse from the Massachusetts Republican Party, said Mike Brodo, a junior at Georgetown University.

The current leadership is caving to the national GOP playbook, Brodo said of the MassGOP. Its that unproductive discourse that turns Gen Z away from the political party.

MassGOP Chairman Jim Lyons on Sunday said he looks forward to having an opportunity to speak with the Gen Z GOP organizers.

In response to their criticism, Lyons said, Our basic platform is freedom, individual liberty, personal responsibility and a free-market system rooted in capitalism. He also said that the radical left on Beacon Hill attacking our police is something we should all be concerned about.

In addition to the video over the weekend, Gen Z GOP is launching a podcast on Monday.

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Gen Z GOP wants to build the Republican Party of the future - Boston Herald

Congress has approved roughly $2.5 trillion since March to rescue an economy battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

And it doesn't look like it will be nearlyenough.

Lawmakers are working on a fifth round of stimulus relief that could dwarf the four previous rounds of assistance combined.

The Democratic-led House has passed the HEROES Act, a roughly$3.4 trillion bill that would provide a second round of direct payments to millions of Americans, provide nearly $1 trillion to revenue-strapped states and local governments, and provide billions forhousing and food assistance.

The Republican-controlled Senate has introduced its counter-proposal, the HEALS Act, a $1.1 trillion package that also includes direct payments but no federal aid for housing, food or state and local governments. It has yet to pass the chamber.

The latest on negotiations: Democrats and Republicans have 'most productive' stimulus talk to date, but deal still 'not imminent'

Here are some of the key similarities and differences between the two proposals.

The Democratic bill proposes extending the currentbenefit of $600 per week(which ends July 31) through December, a federal bonus on top of what states pay. The Republican plan proposes cutting that amount to $200 through September and then limiting the maximum benefit (state and federal combined) to 70% of an applicants pay moving forward.

Both bills would provide another stimulus check to millions of Americans under the same rules as the CARES Act: $1,200 for individuals earning up to $75,000 (phasing out at $99,000); and $2,400 for married couples earning up to $150,000 (phasing out at $198,000). The Democratic bill would be more generous for dependents ($1,200 for each dependent up to three versus $500 for each dependent in the GOP bill).

Democrats propose nearly$1 trillion in direct aid to help states, counties and cities whose budgets have been decimated by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. The Republican bill has no such aidthough it does provide states and local governments more flexibility in how they use aid provided in earlier stimulus bills.

The Democrats' proposalprovides roughly $200 billion in housing assistance to help renters and homeowners affected by coronavirus avoid eviction/foreclosure. The GOP bill includesno such aid.

The Democrats provide about $60 billion to reopen schools, compared to $70 billion in the GOP bill. Each also provides about $30 billion to assist colleges.But the Democratic bill says thenearly $1 trillion in aid for stateand local governments could be usedfor education as well. The GOP bill does not and says that a portion of the education aid must go to help private schools reopen as well.

Democrats are proposing roughly $380 billion on ways to combat the coronavirus.Most of that would beused on two priorities: $100 billion to reimbursehospitals and other health care providers for pandemic-related costs, and $98 billion to assist laid-off workers pay for the health coverage they lost because of the economic steps taken to control the pandemic. The Republican plan sets aside$111 billion, much of it to help federal agencies and private companies develop vaccines and therapeutic remedies ($50 billion) or to help medical providers cover costs ($25 billion).

Senate Republicans release info on $1 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package

The new GOP plan includes another check for Americans and continued help for the unemployed.

USA TODAY

There's a big gulf on COVID-19 testing and contact tracing as well with Democrats proposing $75 billion and Republicans $16 billion.

The Democrats provide $290 billion in business assistance but largely in tax credits to companies that keep employees on the payroll and in tax breaks for pandemic-related expenses. The Democraticplan also includes a number of other priorities, including $190 billion in "hazard pay" for essential workers nationwide, $35 billion for food assistance to poor families, and $3.6 billion to help states run their elections in November. The GOP proposal does not include money for those but it does provide $158 billion in grants and loans to help small businesses stay afloat.

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$1,200 checks? Money for schools? Breaking down what Republicans and Democrats want in the coronavirus stimulus plan - USA TODAY

The Trump administrations decision to withdraw nearly 12,000 troops from Germany has come under bipartisan attack in the Senate, amid warnings it would disrupt US alliances.

The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, fended off insistent questions in the Senate on Thursday, and in so doing, falsely claimed to have fought along the East German border when he was stationed there as an army lieutenant in the late 1980s. There was no fighting in Germany during the cold war.

The Pentagon has insisted the withdrawal was ordered as part as an overall strategic repositioning of US forces abroad, but Donald Trump made clear that he saw it as punishment of Germany for not spending enough on defence.

Pompeo said that the state department had been part of the discussion about the redeployment, which involves 6,400 soldiers being brought to the US and another 5,500 being placed elsewhere in Europe, mostly Belgium and Italy.

Questioning Pompeo at a hearing of the Senate foreign relations committee, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen said: The only country that has publicly supported the removal of US troops from Germany today has been Russia.

The Republican senator Mitt Romney, reflecting widespread unease in the GOP about the move, told Pompeo: I have heard from the highest levels of the German government that this is seen by them as an insult to Germany, and I cant imagine at a time when we need to be drawing in our friends and allies so that we can collectively confront China, we want to insult them.

Pompeo insisted that the withdrawal of troops to the US did not mean they were off the field.

These units will participate in rotational activity. Theyll be forward deployed, he said. They wont be stationed or garrisoned, but make no mistake about it, they will be fully available to ensure that we can properly prosecute the challenges we have from the global powers.

His remarks appeared to reflect defence department assurances that troops brought back to the US would be available to serve temporary tours in the Baltic states, Poland or the Black Sea region.

When pressed by Shaheen on the impact of the withdrawal on the relationship with Berlin, Pompeo did not directly respond, but said: This is personal for me. I fought on the border of East Germany when I was a young soldier. I was stationed there.

Pompeo served as a lieutenant in a tank regiment in West Germany from 1986 to 1991, during which time the east-west border was entirely peaceful. He did not take part in any combat during his military career.

Shaheen reminded him that his former unit was one of those being recalled to the US. Foreign Policy cited defence department documents on Thursday, in which troops in Germany were informed the redeployment would likely take months to plan and years to execute.

Trump has said he ordered the move because Germany was not spending enough on its own defence and American taxpayers were being taken for suckers.

However, Germany has recently increased its spending, and has said it is on course to achieve the 2% GDP target for defence expenditure that Nato set for 2024.

Belgium and Italy, where many US troops are due to be redeployed, spend less than Germany as a share of national income.

Diplomats and former officials have suggested that Trumps decision may have been driven by personal animus towards Germany and its chancellor, Angela Merkel.

Fox News reported in June that the withdrawal was the idea of the ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, as a reprisal for Angela Merkels decision not to attend a G7 summit at Camp David at the height of the pandemic.

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Democrats and Republicans take aim at Pompeo over US troop withdrawal from Germany - The Guardian

Trump told WRAL he would announce the exact location of his acceptance speech in the coming week.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the Republican National Convention was set to take place in Charlotte. But as cases and deaths mounted in North Carolina over the spring, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper insisted a scaled-down convention was necessary.

Trump bristled at the possible denial of a blockbuster event and wrote on Twitter on June 2 that he would be moving the main action of the convention away from North Carolina.

Nine days later, the Republican National Committee picked Jacksonville as its new destination, with Trump scheduled to deliver the keynote acceptance address as part of a multinight event. But the shift to Jacksonville proved to be too fraught with complications as Floridas Covid-19 caseload spiked, straining the state's resources.

As recently as July 21, Trump campaign officials were assuring the public the event could go on safely, even as local law enforcement sounded warning signs. Trump called off the Jacksonville event on July 23.

It's just not the right time, Trump said.

The North Carolina Democratic Party blasted Trumps acceptance speech flip-flop as evidence of his bungled response to the coronavirus.

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Trump says he will accept Republican nomination in North Carolina after all - POLITICO