Sunday morning talking heads

Will the 2020 presidential election include a noteworthy third-party candidate? That’s the hottest topic on this morning’s Sunday shows as Justin Amash sits down with “State of the Union” to discuss his decision to quit the GOP. Odds are he won’t give a straight answer about seeking the Libertarian Party’s nomination; he’s only been an ex-Republican for two days, after all, and the horse-race coverage of a new presidential candidacy would quickly drown out the substantive argument he’s trying to make right now against hyperpartisanship. We may, however, get a straight answer from him about whether he’ll seek reelection to the House as an independent. Michigan law allows for straight-ticket voting on ballots, which makes it all but impossible for an indie to win. Amash will have to choose between a doomed House run and a doomed — but potentially decisive — presidential run.

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Elsewhere the subject du jour is immigration, with acting DHS secretary Kevin McAleenan stopping by “This Week” to discuss the border crisis. McAleenan has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons, from acidic media coverage of immigrant detention facilities to rumors that he was the person who leaked the news of impending ICE raids in major cities days before they were set to begin, forcing Trump to postpone them. The president’s allies have reportedly been pressuring McAleenan to quit because of that. He’ll be grilled about it this morning. Following him on “This Week” will be far-left Dem House freshman Rashida Tlaib, who’ll be on to accuse McAleenan of running “concentration camps” and allege racism in matters various and sundry. And acting USCIS chief Ken Cuccinelli will appear on “Face the Nation” to make the case for including a citizenship question in the next census and to explain how it is he’s able to hold his current job lawfully when he hasn’t been confirmed by the Senate and didn’t work for the agency until a few weeks ago.

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One other figure to watch is GOP Rep. Will Hurd, who’ll have something to say about each of this morning’s key topics. Hurd represents a border district in Texas that’s overwhelmingly Latino and has taken a more moderate stance on immigration than most of his caucus. He opposes a wall, for instance, and was known to say earlier this year that the alleged crisis at the border was a myth until the evidence in his own district to the contrary became overwhelming. As with Amash, his contrarianism has been noticed by the White House:

Amash is not the only sitting Republican incumbent that the Trump team has its eye on. Trump advisers are growing increasingly annoyed by Texas Rep. Will Hurd, a frequent critic of the president’s immigration policies. Last week, Trump’s reelection campaign took the rare step of sending a tweet taking the swing-district congressman to task over one of his cable news appearances.

Is Hurd on his way out of the GOP too? Probably not, and Trump probably won’t push too hard to make trouble for him knowing how easy it might be for Dems to flip a majority-Latino district next year. Hurd will be on “Meet the Press” to offer his thoughts about Amash’s defection and conditions at the border. The full line-up is at the AP.

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