From Jonathan Bernstein:
There’s not much happening in the 2020 race at the moment. That’s when reporters start chasing dubious stories.
We’ve apparently reached the silly season of nomination politics. That’s not surprising. There is, after all, very little happening on the surface at the moment. The basic stories about most of the top candidates have been told. And there hasn’t been much movement either in the polls or in endorsements for weeks. Even the latest round of campaign-finance reports was fairly dull. As Nate Silver points out, this is exactly the formula that gets reporters chasing new — and potentially dubious — stories.
And so we get late speculation about new candidates jumping into the race, fueled by quotes from big donors who aren’t thrilled with the current lineup.