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The Conversation -- November 1, 2024
Presidential Race
Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: “Vice President Kamala Harris ... ramped up her campaign’s heavy reliance on star power Thursday, as more celebrities took the stage alongside her at rallies in the fiercely contested battleground states of Arizona and Nevada. The vice president appeared in Phoenix with Los Tigres del Norte, a Mexican norteño band famous for anthems portraying the plight of undocumented immigrants. Later on Thursday, she was scheduled to stop in Reno, Nevada, before appearing in Las Vegas alongside the vintage Mexican pop rock band Maná and pop icon Jennifer Lopez. Harris’s campaign has stacked her schedule with celebrity surrogates who have huge social media followings, seeking to build up enthusiasm and turnout as early in-person voting comes to an end in several states, including Nevada and Arizona on Friday. Wednesday night in Madison, Wisconsin, more than 13,000 people turned out for Harris’s rally-concert that featured performances by Mumford & Sons, Gracie Abrams and the National.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: If Harris has a "heavy reliance on star power," it's because her campaign does have star power. Here's what passes for star power in the Trump camp. Sad.
Katie Rogers, et al., of the New York Times: “Vice President Kamala Harris attacked ... Donald J. Trump on Thursday for claiming that he would protect American women 'whether the women like it or not.' Later, her campaign pounced on a new Trump remark that his ally Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would 'work on women’s health' in his administration.... Ms. Harris, speaking from Wisconsin on Thursday morning, said that Mr. Trump’s comments, made the previous evening at a rally in the state, were 'very offensive' to all Americans.... 'He simply does not respect the freedom of women or the intelligence of women to know what’s in their own best interest and make decisions accordingly. But we trust women[,' she said at a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, Thursday.]” ~~~
~~~ Marie: The article covers Trump's campaign stops as well as Harris's. Aside from his comment about siccing RFK Jr. on women, I found this remark extremely offputting: “I love Hispanics, and they’re hard workers, and boy are they entrepreneurial, and they’re great people, and they are warm. Sometimes they’re too warm, if you want to know the truth.” You couldn't do much more to otherize and stereotype people who may -- or may not -- have a slightly different cultural heritage than your own.
Tania Ganguli of the New York Times: “LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers star, on Thursday became one of the country’s biggest celebrities ... to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, saying: 'When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me.'... Mr. James has campaigned for Democrats in the past and has spoken out against ... Donald J. Trump. Mr. James also posted a video that spliced together civil rights protests and abuses from several decades with comments by Mr. Trump and footage from the former president’s recent rally at Madison Square Garden. The video made the argument that Mr. Trump is racist and ended with the written quote: 'Hate takes us back.'”
Tara Suter of the Hill: “The Economist announced Thursday that the outlet is backing Vice President Harris over former President Trump in the upcoming election.... 'While some newspapers refused to back a presidential candidate this year, today The Economist is endorsing Kamala Harris,' Economist editors wrote in the endorsement published early Thursday. 'Tens of millions of Americans will vote for Mr. Trump next week. Some will be true believers. But many will take a calculated risk that in office his worst instincts would be constrained.' The writers added later that if Trump were to win election, 'Americans would be gambling with the economy, the rule of law and international peace.'” (Also linked yesterday.)
More Fallout from ApostropheGate. Aamer Madhani & Zeke Miller of the AP: “White House press officials altered the official transcript of a call in which President Joe Biden appeared to take a swipe at supporters of Donald Trump, drawing objections from the federal workers who document such remarks for posterity, according to two U.S. government officials and an internal email obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. Biden created an uproar earlier this week with his remarks to Latino activists responding to racist comments at a Trump rally made by the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who referred to the U.S. island territory of Puerto Rico as a 'floating island of garbage.' Biden, according to a transcript prepared by the official White House stenographers, told the Latino group on a Tuesday evening video call, 'The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.' The transcript released by the White House press office, however, rendered the quote with an apostrophe, reading 'supporter’s' rather than 'supporters,' which aides said pointed to Biden criticizing Hinchcliffe, not the millions of Americans who are supporting Trump for president.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I really don't know how “the official White House stenographers” were able to see into the President's heart to determine whether or not an apostrophe was intended. For the alterations to “draw objections” seems rather petty. MEANWHILE, Trump too suffered “more fallout” from the umbrage he feigned over Biden's remark. See video & story linked below.
Tobi Raji of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump sued CBS News on Thursday over an interview with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris that aired on its '60 Minutes' program earlier this month, arguing that the network’s edit of the sit-down was 'deceitful' and 'amounts to a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.' The long-shot claim was filed in the Northern District of Texas courthouse where Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, a Trump nominee, is the sole judge. While Trump has complained about the '60 Minutes' interview for weeks, it is standard for television networks to edit interviews for broadcast, especially to fit time restraints. A spokesperson for CBS News called the lawsuit 'completely without merit.'...” The Hill's report is here.
Nick Corasaniti & Michael Gold of the New York Times: “... Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, escalated their false attacks about the security of the Pennsylvania elections on Thursday, ramping up baseless accusations about voter fraud that could erode confidence of the results in one of the most critical battleground states. On Thursday Mr. Trump posted on his social media site that Pennsylvania was 'cheating' and breaking the law. He called for prosecutions, though he made no specific allegations. Earlier in the day, Mr. Vance seized on deceptive posts online claiming that Democratic Party volunteers were impersonating election officials at polling sites. The remarks followed a script similar to the final days of his 2020 campaign, when the former president spread dozens of falsehoods about voting before trying to overturn the election. This year, he is focusing most of his false claims on Pennsylvania.... Throughout the past week, election officials in Pennsylvania have been rebutting specious claims of fraud while also reporting when systems flagged suspicious activity, informing voters of issues and enforcing the law where necessary. This is the system working exactly as it should, they have said.... Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania’s Republican secretary of state, used his daily news briefing on Thursday to offer a calm yet pointed response to some of the false allegations gaining traction online.” ~~~
~~~ Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Wednesday lodged claims of voter fraud in Pennsylvania, a state critical to his election prospects. But Democratic officials and voting rights advocates said that Trump’s allegations are wildly exaggerated and that the problems he and Republicans are focused on are not only common, but also proof that election safeguards are working as intended. For months, Trump has been using misinformation to lay the groundwork to claim a stolen election if he loses, just as he did in 2020.... Experts and officials say the Pennyslvania claims are in keeping with his insistence that the only way he can lose this year is if the other side cheats....” Read on for details. The ABC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
More fallout from the garbage-truck stunt. Trump nearly slips on the pavement, has trouble opening the truck door & more trouble getting into the cab: ~~~
~~~ Marie P.S. I know this is performance art and Trump is wearing a costume, but does he have to wear so much orange makeup? I am not aware of many orange-hued sanitation workers. Trump's application of orange-face seems inappropriate to the character he's trying to play. ~~~
~~~ Katie Hawkinson of the Independent: Gov. Tim “Walz, speaking in Bucks County, Pennsylvania on Thursday, slammed the septuagenarian after he flew to Wisconsin, donned a bright orange safety vest, and got into a garbage truck in an attempt to troll Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. 'Look, this dude’s nearly 80 years old,' Walz said. 'He d*** near killed himself getting into a garbage truck.'”
They said, ‘Sir, I just think it’s inappropriate for you to say.’ I pay these guys a lot of money. Can you believe it? I said, ‘Well, I’m going to do it. Whether the women like it or not, I’m going to protect them.’ -- Donald Trump, remarks at a rally Wednsday ~~~
~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: “Without apparently meaning to — but without being able to help it — Trump with that line distilled the wide gender gap that’s defining the 2024 presidential contest.... While Trump has a well-established reputation for dishonesty, there are moments when he speaks with an unexpected clarity. His offhand remark about being indifferent to what women might want from his presidency was just such a comment.... Others[, too,] have leaned into a paternalistic and chauvinistic approach to getting Trump elected. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently promised a cheering Trump audience that Trump would return to the White House like an abusive father, ready to dispense corporal punishment to get his children — that is, Americans who deviate from how Trumpworld thinks they should act — back in line. Jesse Watters, the Fox host who filled Carlson’s slot, said on a different show that he would view his wife voting for Harris as an act of marital infidelity.” ~~~
~~~ Kathleen Culliton of the Raw Story: "Jesse Watters on Wednesday night shocked even his own co-hosts with his reaction to Vice President Kamala Harris ads informing conservative women they do not have to disclose for whom they voted — and that the information cannot be accessed by the public. 'If I found out Emma was going into the voting booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that's the same thing as having an affair,' Watters said. 'That violates the sanctity of our marriage. What else is she keeping from me? Why would she be lying? It's over, Emma....That would be D-Day'... 'I don't care what type of marriage you have — traditional, modern, whatever — that's not healthy,' replied Mike Nellis, a former Harris adviser and organizer of White Dudes for Harris. 'And it's weird.'" Others piled on. ~~~
~~~ Charles Davis of Salon: “Women, it turns out, do not care for [Trump's indifference to their wants and needs] — a large majority of them, at least. While millions will still vote for the Republican candidate, perhaps hating immigrants more than they love reproductive rights, the only certainty at this point is that many millions more will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. In the latest ABC News/Ipsos national poll, the Democrat enjoyed a 14% advantage with women over Trump; among women with a college degree, that number rose to 23%; among women voters under 40, it rocketed to 34%.... That, in turn, is causing some MAGA commentators to break from their usual posture of feigned confidence to outright panic.... Speaking with former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, [Turning Points USA head Charlie] Kirk seemed genuinely upset that women could be voting for Harris in massive numbers — and lying to their controlling husbands about it. 'It is so repulsive. It is so disastrous. It is the embodiment of the downfall of the American family. I think it’s so gross. I think it’s just so nauseating,' Kirk said, set off by a new ad, produced by a liberal Christian organization, that features Julia Roberts reminding women that how one votes need not be shared with any emotionally-stunted man who would throw a fit.” ~~~
~~~ Perhaps you're a normal person familiar with normal relationships, so you naturally wondering why such an ad is necessary. ~~~
~~~ Rebecca Solnit of the Guardian explains: “... a lot of households are not democracies; they’re dictatorships. This may impact public life, in that it seems to generate a meaningful amount of voter intimidation and suppression. As in previous election cycles, people doing door-to-door outreach to voters are encountering men who prevent their wives from even conversing at the door or who believe their registered-Democrat wives are Republicans and women fearful of speaking or of disclosing their party and chosen candidates.” ~~~
⭐ David Sanger of the New York Times: “... should Mr. Trump prevail [in the election], it will almost certainly mark a return to an era of foreign policy decrees, untethered to any policy process, at a moment of maximum international peril.... To read the memoirs of Trump officials who tried to manage foreign-policy-by-declaration is to page through a litany of anger-management incidents and decisions made without benefit of any real policy process or consultation of allies. But perhaps the most striking is how Mr. Trump’s aides — or at least those whom he later fired — recount story after story of keeping a naïve president from being manipulated by authoritarians, from Kim Jong-un of North Korea to Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Sanger's analysis is a stark and deeply frightening reminder that our fellow Americans, in their astounding stupidity, may put an insane, unstable monster not just in a position to ruin this country but also to destroy what currently passes for the world order. ~~~
~~~ “A Very Fragile Situation.” Peter Baker of the New York Times: President “Biden’s [last] foreign visitor [before the election] happened to be President Nikos Christodoulides of the Republic of Cyprus, a small island nation ... that could play an important role for whoever is the next president. Cyprus, once a financial haven for Russians, has been a key focus of the effort to sever Moscow from the West while also serving as an important conduit for humanitarian aid to Gaza. The two leaders 'had an in-depth discussion on a range of foreign policy issues of mutual interest,' including the Russian war on Ukraine and Israel’s war against Hamas and Hezbollah, according to the summary released by the White House. Mr. Biden praised Cyprus for its 'support for the maritime humanitarian corridor' delivering thousands of tons of food and other aid to Gaza. In an interview after the session, though, Mr. Christodoulides expressed the same concern heard often in Europe and other parts of the world about what he expects to be a volatile period to follow Tuesday’s vote and what it would mean for the international order. 'There is always a fear that you could have an America stepping back, a kind of seclusion and isolation,' Mr. Christodoulides said. 'We’ve seen it in the past. That’s the main concern because the region is in turmoil right now. It’s extremely dangerous.... In a way, there’s a vacuum.... You don’t know in two months what is going to happen. It’s a very fragile situation.'”
Tatum Hunter of the Washington Post: “... young people are encountering the ['Access Hollywood'] tape for the first time on TikTok, where users are sharing videos of their reactions and, in some cases, reaching large audiences. Many first-time voters were young teens in 2016 when The Washington Post first reported the incident, in which the former president seemed to endorse sexual assault during a behind-the-scenes conversation on an 'Access Hollywood' set when he didn’t realize his microphone was on.... This week, many said on the social network they were shocked by the former president’s words and confused why the episode wasn’t a dealbreaker in 2016.” The article includes the full video. You can also find it here, if you want to send it to someone who may not remember it. And here it is, via CBS News.
Emily Davies & Joe Heim of the Washington Post: “The mysterious tiki torch statue, part of a series of artworks popping up across the country apparently meant to mock ... Donald Trump, fell Wednesday evening at the hand of a man wielding his skateboard as an ax, according to authorities. The incident occurred about 6:15 p.m. in D.C.'s Freedom Plaza, where the torch once stood about eight feet tall. By the time the skateboarder was done with it, according to charging documents, it was broken into multiple pieces.... Prosecutors charged a man named Balarama-Dasa Adebisi with destruction of property and possession of cocaine. A Park Police officer in charging documents said a 'white powdery substance' was found in Adebisi’s pocket after he was detained on charges of destroying the statue....
“The people who obtained a permit from the National Park Service to temporarily display the tiki torch statue and a replica of Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s desk topped by a giant swirl of fake poop on the National Mall near the Capitol last week have also claimed responsibility for two statues of Trump that appeared in Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon. Those statues had plaques on them reading 'In Honor of a Lifetime of Sexual Assault.' They quoted from Trump’s 2005 remarks to 'Access Hollywood' host Billy Bush about being able to kiss women without asking them and grab them by their genitals. Both of the Trump statues were placed next to prominent female nude sculptures.” ~~~
~~~ digby finds another statue "honoring" Trump, this one for his "lifetime of sexual assault." Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Chris Cameron, et al., of the New York Times: “Senator JD Vance of Ohio criticized what he called 'gender transition craziness,' spoke dismissively of women he claimed were 'celebrating' their abortions and said that studies 'connect testosterone levels in young men with conservative politics' during a three-hour episode of 'The Joe Rogan Experience' that was released on Thursday. Mr. Vance criticized transgender and nonbinary people at length during the conversation, saying that he would not be surprised if he and ... Donald J. Trump won what he called 'the normal gay guy vote.' And he suggested that children in upper-middle-class white families saw becoming trans as a way to improve their odds of getting into Ivy League colleges.” Read on. Even Joe Rogan pushed back on some of this nonsense.
Will Oremus & Trisha Thadani of the Washington Post: “An attempt by Philadelphia’s district attorney to block Elon Musk and his pro-Trump super PAC from continuing a $1 million daily giveaway to registered swing-state voters was put on hold Thursday morning. A hearing on the motion ended without a ruling, after lawyers for the billionaire and his America PAC filed late Wednesday to have the case moved to federal court. Lawyers for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner signed an order Wednesday compelling Musk to appear at City Hall on Thursday for the hearing, but the billionaire, who has become a key backer of ... Donald Trump, did not attend. Musk’s attorneys argued that the proceeding was moot since the case was no longer in the judge’s jurisdiction.... The case now moves to federal court, where Krasner said he will push for it to be speedily remanded to the district court, perhaps as soon as Thursday afternoon.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Voter Suppression: Incompetent, Partisan Judges Edition. Ian Millhiser of Vox: “On Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit handed down an astoundingly poorly reasoned opinion claiming it is illegal for a state to count a ballot mailed before Election Day but that arrives for counting afterward. Eighteen states, plus the District of Columbia, currently count at least some late-arriving ballots. The opinion in Republican National Committee v. Wetzel is difficult to parse. Important sections of it appear to be missing several paragraphs, as the decision makes logical leaps without explaining key concepts. It reaches some of its central conclusions without citing a legal authority ... to support those conclusions. If this opinion were submitted as part of a law school exam, the student would risk a failing grade.... The one good thing about the Wetzel opinion is that the Fifth Circuit didn’t give it immediate effect, so it is very unlikely to impact the current election. Still, there are two good reasons to be troubled that a federal appeals court handed down such a cocamamie decision. One, is that Wetzel is emblematic of the many bad election decisions we can expect to be handed down in the coming days.... [The other is that] the three judges involved in the case, Kyle Duncan, James Ho, and Andy Oldham, are widely viewed as potential Supreme Court nominees if Trump becomes president again — certainly, the three of them have all auditioned very hard for such a promotion.” Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
The Cheese Stands Disbarred. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: “Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who was a key architect of the idea to use false slates of pro-Trump electors to overturn the 2020 election results, was indefinitely barred by a state appellate court on Thursday from practicing law in New York. The disciplinary action was the latest instance of Trump-aligned lawyers losing their licenses over their efforts to help the former president try to subvert the 2020 election.... In an eight-page opinion, the court focused on [Mr. Chesebro's] felony conviction in Georgia, concluding that it was sufficiently serious and similar to a felony in New York to bar him from practicing law 'effective immediately.'”
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Texas. How Donald Trump & Greg Abbott are protecting women, whether they like it or not: ~~~
“Josseli Barnica is one of at least two pregnant Texas women who died after doctors delayed emergency care. She’d told her husband that the medical team said it couldn’t act until the fetal heartbeat stopped.... Neither [woman] had wanted an abortion, but that didn’t matter. Though proponents insist that the laws protect both the life of the fetus and the person carrying it, in practice, doctors have hesitated to provide care under threat of prosecution, prison time and professional ruin.” (Also linked yesterday.)
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