Good morning, joining Michael Brooks this Thursday on the Majority Report is Ben Burgis, author of Give Them an Argument: Logic for the Left, to discuss the 2020 Democratic candidates and their particular uses of logic to attract voters before they head to the polls. With the second round of Democratic debates only 2 weeks away, Michael and Ben examine how the format can be improved and better inform prospective voters. Burgis believes the debates have fallen to a state of "he said, she said" format where follow-up questions are little more than trivia. Burgis then explains what logic and rhetoric means in political discourse. Logic is the substance of your arguments while rhetoric is the way you describe those arguments. Burgis argues that logic without rhetoric is ineffective to convince people, but rhetoric without logic is like a gift wrapped box with nothing in it, aka Ben Shapiro. Burgis and Brooks look into some of the logically inconsistent arguments developing in the 2020 campaign, including the Medicare for All versus Medicare for Those Who Want It. In all polling on healthcare, the question is never "do you like your health insurance?" it's always "are you satisfied with your coverage?" which does not address people's real problems with their healthcare like keeping their doctor, actually using their insurance, and the complexities of in-network navigation, billing, or claims processing. But how do you convince someone who prefers reform over structural change? Burgis believes this is a hard argument to make because the details of Warren's "plan for that" platform is more palatable for voters who see structural reform as unrealistic, despite the fact that means-tested programs are always culled after they're initiated.

And in the Fun Half: Meghan McCain found a way to make the Squad v. Trump development about her agency, beyond 2020: removing the conditions that brought Trump, Bernie Sanders explains why the M4A criticism of "it can't be done" is baseless, Dave Rubin clip of the day, Puerto Rico is due statehood, diet and wellbeing in a socialized healthcare system, Lindsey Graham says a MAGA Somali would be a celebrity at the Trump White House, Ilhan Omar explains why Trump is both a racist and a fascist, Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein party at Mar-A-Lago, the next steps in forming a new Sudanese government, plus your calls and IMs!

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TODAY'S HEADLINES: 

TrumpRally Erupts in Raucous Chants of ‘Send Her Back’ as Trump Goes After Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar (The Root)

Rand Paul blocks funding bill for 9/11 victims over hypocritical budget concerns. (ThinkProgress)

House Democrats voting to hold Barr, Ross in contempt. (Hill)

And our QUICKER QUICKIES HEADLINES:

Joshua Trees are being wiped out by Climate Change (Earther)

Ebola Outbreak in Congo is declared a global health emergency (NYT)

DNC warns 2020 campaigns not to use FaceApp developed by Russians (CNN)

Democrats ask Labor Department to investigate Amazon warehouses (The Hill)

Widespread, oppressive and dangerous heat to roast much of the U.S. through the weekend (WaPo)