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Donald Trump intends to stock the federal government with loyalists if re-elected to another term and, according to a report Monday, one likely candidate stands out for his allegiance to the former president.

Kash Patel joined the first Trump administration in 2019 with little government experience but swiftly rose through the ranks all the way to chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense just after the 2020 election. The author of a new deep dive into his career told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Patel posed a real danger if the former president returned to the White House.

Donald Trump suggested he might back out of a scheduled Sept. 10 debate with Kamala Harris, and the Washington Post's David Ignatius believes the former president is afraid of appearing alongside her onstage.

The former president has been knocked off balance since Harris took over as Democratic nominee from President Joe Biden after his disastrous showing in a June debate against Trump, Ignatius said. And he told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that the upcoming debate on ABC News is in real jeopardy.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake blamed "absurd partisan polls" after trailing in her Arizona race.

During a Sunday interview on NewsNation, host Chris Stirewalt noted that Lake had trailed Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) since the beginning of the race.

Fox News contributor Leslie Marshall challenged conservative pundit Tomi Lahren after she accused Democratic candidates of lying about their records.

During a Sunday Fox News panel discussion about Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, Lahren noted that the candidate and his wife had used intrauterine insemination — or IUI — instead of IVF treatments to start a family.

It did not take long on Sunday morning for conservative CNN political commentator Scott Jennings to realize he had stepped in it when he claimed, "People don't want to feel joy" during his appearance on "State of the Union."

During the panel discussion moderated by host Jake Tapper, CNN analyst Kate Bedingfield described the just concluded Democratic National Convention as joyful, telling her fellow panelists, "She [Kamala Harris] is proving herself outside of her comfort zone. She has spent the last month since it was thrust upon her this moment where she had to rise to the occasion to take on the mantle of being the Democratic nominee, which is a huge moment and she's done it successfully."

"You've seen — you see momentum, you see people excited," she continued. "So this notion like joy isn't a strategy; joy is actually what people want. This is what they want to feel right now and they're feeling it from her. She's also laying out substantive policy proposals which she did in her nominating speech. And the idea that these two things are somehow mutually exclusive, I don't think that's true."

"The joy will continue until morale improves," conservative analyst Jennings quipped before adding, "People don't want to feel joy, they want to feel relief," which made Bedingfield laugh.

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"The economic anxiety is real and it is — and you can say inflation is down and I know that's what the Democrats are going to argue," he persisted as Bedingfield looked on incredulously.

"Not a single person who was bought a single thing in the last four years or in the last four minutes, believes that and I think you get in trouble in politics when you tell people something that does not match their lived experience," he concluded.

"So a Republican strategist says people do not want to feel joy," a laughing Bedingfield repeated before adding, "That's quite a message."

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Fox News host Howard Kurtz suggested conservative author Ann Coulter "should be in prison" after she mocked the son of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz for crying during his father's acceptance speech.

A day after Walz accepted the Democratic nomination to run for vice president, Coulter called Gus Walz "weird" for his emotional outburst at the Democratic convention.

Fox News host Maria Bartiromo and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) argued that former President Barack Obama was controlling Democratic officials through an earpiece.

During a Sunday interview on Fox News, Bartiromo wondered who was "running the country while Kamala Harris is out campaigning."

In the midst of a wide-ranging interview with Sen. Lindsey Graham, CNN "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper blindsided the South Carolina Republican with a clip of Donald Trump telling a CBS reporter he doesn't listen to Graham's advice.

Brought on to talk about the current presidential campaign pitting Trump against Vice President Kamala Harris, host Tapper first pointed out that Graham has lightly criticized the former president for centering his campaign on personal attacks on Harris instead of addressing policy differences.

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance suggested "childless cat ladies" were to blame for being offended after he attacked them in a recent interview.

In an interview with NBC that aired on Sunday, host Kristen Welker asked Vance if he regretted lashing out at "childless cat ladies" in an interview with Fox News.