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The Conversation -- October 17, 2024
Presidential Race
Nicholas Nehamas & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: “Vice President Kamala Harris sat for the most adversarial interview of her campaign on Wednesday, sparring with the Fox News anchor Bret Baier over the border, President Biden’s mental fitness and whether ... Donald J. Trump is a threat to American democracy.For a Democratic presidential candidate, appearing on Fox News is about as close as going into the lion’s den as it gets.... But Ms. Harris — giving her first interview on Fox News in an attempt to reach millions of voters, especially conservative-leaning women, who have probably not heard much of her message — largely steered the conversation in her preferred direction. Here are six takeaways from the interview. [1] She broke with Biden (a little).... [2] An aggressive Bret Baier pushed right-wing arguments.... [3] For Harris, the interview was largely meant to appeal to women ... [4] and those women saw the vice president being interrupted repeatedly.... [5] The interview showed the limits of her outreach to Republicans.... [6] Harris flipped a Trump transgender attack back on him.” ~~~
~~~ Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “A campaign ad released by ... Donald J. Trump in battleground states slams Vice President Harris for supporting taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for prisoners and migrants, concluding: 'Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.' But ... Trump appointees at the Bureau of Prisons, a division of the Justice Department, provided an array of gender-affirming treatments, including hormone therapy, for a small group of inmates who requested it during Mr. Trump’s four years in office.” ~~~
~~~ Fritz Farrow, et al., of ABC News: "Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday hammered ... Donald Trump as thin-skinned and a threat to U.S. democracy in a combative interview with Fox News.... The interview was testy throughout, including multiple exchanges in which Harris and Fox News anchor Bret Baier repeatedly spoke over each other." ~~~
~~~ Brian Stelter of CNN: “Fox is effectively a television extension of Donald Trump’s campaign.... Analysts have described the vice president’s appearance on Fox as a surprising visit to 'enemy territory.' [Bret] Baier has tried to position himself above that partisan fray as 'fair, balanced and unafraid,' as he says in his sign-off every night. But a review of Baier’s emails and comments during the 2020 election aftermath suggests otherwise. And his recent social media activity shows that he is supremely aware of the Fox base’s extreme disdain for Harris and distrust of the media. Baier, the anchor of Fox’s 6 p.m. 'Special Report' newscast, is also the network’s chief political anchor.... Baier expressed a remarkable degree of sympathy for the Trump base’s unsupported screams about a stolen [2020] election.”
Erica Green of the New York Times: “Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday made her most direct and expansive pitch yet to conservative and moderate voters, appearing in Pennsylvania with a phalanx of Republican elected officials who have set aside their party loyalties to try to defeat ... Donald J. Trump. At a campaign event in Bucks County, Pa., Ms. Harris tried to strike a unifying tone even as she castigated her opponent, casting her campaign as one that embraced anyone who believed that Mr. Trump should not serve a second term.... The gathering in Washington Crossing, Pa., [close to where George Washington crossed the Delaware to attack the Hessian garrison in Trenton] featured distinctly patriotic notes not found at other campaign events, including a large, red banner reading 'Country over party,' the presenting of the colors and the Pledge of Allegiance.... Ms. Harris laid out a broad, historically based argument about the sanctity of democracy.... As she recited how Mr. Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election, she went out of her way to praise former Vice President Mike Pence, who has declined to endorse his former boss, for his 'courage and patriotism' in preventing Mr. Trump from 'overturning the will of the American people.'” ~~~
~~~ You can watch Harris's full speech here.
Here was Gov. Tim Walz in rural Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, discussing gun control to people who just might be gun owners. There's a punch line: ~~~
~~~ There's a somewhat hilarious update on those 34 felonies. See Rachel Maddow's live report, embedded below, & Megan Lebowitz's print story, linked below, which is based on Maddow's reporting.
~~~ And here's Walz talking about venture capitalist JayDee: ~~~
Alan Blinder of the New York Times: “Jimmy Carter, who turned 100 on Oct. 1 and has been in hospice care since February 2023, submitted his absentee ballot on Wednesday, according to Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson. Jason Carter, the chairman of the Carter Center, said in a text message on Wednesday that his grandfather’s ballot had been deposited at a drop box at a local courthouse. For weeks, according to the Carter family, the former president was privately playing down becoming a centenarian. Instead, Mr. Carter’s relatives said, he was most eager about voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Michael Gold & Jazmine Ulloa of the New York Times: “Mr. Trump faced blunt, direct questions in both English and Spanish from undecided Hispanic voters throughout [a Univision] town hall, which will be broadcast [Wednesday] at 10 p.m. Eastern time. Men and women from across the country came to Univision’s Miami-area studio in Doral, Fla., and questioned the former president’s positions on climate change, gun control and abortion rights, and his baseless claims about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio.... Mr. Trump kept his composure, avoiding the hostility he often exhibits when similarly questioned by the news media. But Mr. Trump did not directly engage with many of the thoughtful questions from these voters. Skirting specific answers, he retreated to his standard campaign language, often talking up the achievements of his administration and making vague promises for the future.... When Mr. Trump was asked about immigration, a central issue of his presidential campaign this year, he also remained vague about his policy plans. In front of an audience of about 100 Latino voters, he did not once mention his pledge to undertake the largest deportation operation in American history.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Marie: That was a televised town hall. A teevee network gave citizens the opportunity to discuss issues with a politician, in this case a politician running for office. The event was supposed to allow for the free flow of ideas (as much as tht is possible in a made-for-television show). The town hall -- in its ideal form -- constitutes a useful, if not necessarily essential, tool for democracy, giving both the politician and the citizens a chance to learn from each other. But when is a televised town hall not a town hall? When the only people in attendance, including the moderator, are part of the cult of the politician, when all of the questions put to the politician are prescreened, and when these deceptions are kept secret from the television audience, then the event would better be described as a cult meeting dressed up as a town hall. ~~~
~~~ Trump's Potemkin Town Hall. Hadas Gold & Liam Reilly of CNN: “Fox News hosted an all-women town hall with ... Donald Trump, billed as an opportunity for female voters to ask the Republican candidate questions that matter to them. The Georgia town hall, where Trump took questions on reproductive laws, transgender rights and other issues, aired Wednesday morning. But Fox News did not disclose that the female audience it selected for the event was packed with local Republican supporters and the network edited its broadcast to remove some of their vocal advocacy of Trump. The Georgia Federation of Republican Women wrote on its Facebook page Wednesday that the group helped host the event, posting photos from the venue and writing they were 'Super excited for the opportunity of hosting this event right here in Georgia!'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is how the authoritarians do it. There is a dramatic and ironic contrast between Harris's "going into the lion's den," as the NYT put it, on the same day Trump granted an audience to his courtesans. When Trump calls Harris "weak," he is projecting again. ~~~
~~~ Maggie Astor of the New York Times: “... Donald J. Trump declared himself the 'father of I.V.F.' in a town-hall event Tuesday focused on women’s issues, an eyebrow-raising nickname that was his latest attempt to claim an advantage on a matter that has become a political liability. The Supreme Court justices Mr. Trump appointed enabled the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a ruling that he has praised and that opened the door to possible restrictions on in vitro fertilization.... Congressional Republicans have voted twice in the past four months to block bills that would protect the legality of I.V.F.... Mr. Trump said, as he has before, that he learned how significant the Alabama Supreme Court ruling was from Katie Britt, the state’s junior senator and a Republican.... He added that he had asked Ms. Britt to explain to him what I.V.F. was before concluding that he supported it.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: The first IVF baby was born in 1978. Donald Trump admits he didn't know what IVF was until last year when Britt became a U.S. senator. Forty-five years later. He is the "father of IVF" the way he is the historian who discovered that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. He thinks that when he occasionally learns something he didn't know before (even if millions of people already knew it), that he invented it. When the shrinks are writing down the symptoms & delusions of narcissism, they should add this one. ~~~
~~~ Daniel Dale of CNN: At the fake town hall, Trump “told a bunch of lies.... [He] made at least 19 false claims in the one-hour event that aired Wednesday morning..., notably including an absurd claim that he is 'the father of IVF.'”
Caroline Vakil of the Hill: “Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) said Wednesday that former President Trump did not lose in 2020 'by the words that I would use' — some of his most extensive comments yet on the subject of the last presidential election results. 'First of all, on the election of 2020 — I’ve answered this question directly, a million times — no,' Vance said a campaign event in Pennsylvania when a reporter asked what message Vance thought it sent to independent voters when he didn’t directly answer the question 'Did Donald Trump lose in 2020?... I think there were serious problems in 2020. So did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use,' Vance said.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.
Neal Katyal in a New York Times op-ed: “In 2024, the judicial branch may be unable to save our democracy. The rogues are no longer amateurs. They have spent the last four years going pro, meticulously devising a strategy across multiple fronts — state legislatures, Congress, executive branches and elected judges — to overturn any close election. The new challenges will take place in forums that have increasingly purged officials who put country over party. They may take place against the backdrop of razor-thin election margins in key swing states, meaning that any successful challenge could change the election.... In the courts, dozens of suits have already been filed.... State officials and local election boards also can wreak havoc by refusing to certify elections, and this time they will have new tools to manufacture justifications for undermining democracy.... State legislatures ... might make baseless allegations of fraud and interfere to get a different slate of electors appointed to the Electoral College, as happened in 2020.... The Congress has the power to swing the entire election.”
Spencer Hsu & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “A Supreme Court ruling in June dealt a blow to the Jan. 6 prosecutions: More than 100 of the people at the Capitol riot, the high court said, had been improperly charged with obstructing an official proceeding. But Donald Trump was not among them, because he did far more than interrupt the proceedings at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, special counsel Jack Smith asserted in a new filing Wednesday. In the filing — the first time Smith has formally given his view of how the Supreme Court’s decision in Fischer v. United States affects the Jan. 6 prosecution of the former president — the special counsel pointed to what he alleges were efforts by Trump and his allies to have slates of electors in states where President Joe Biden won cast their vote instead for him. That, Smith argued, qualifies as impairment of evidence and obstruction of an official proceeding, even under the Supreme Court’s new, narrower guidance.” The NBC News report, by Ryan Reilly, is here.
Trump Offers Stormy Daniels More Hush Money. Megan Lebowitz of NBC News: “... Donald Trump this summer offered a financial incentive to adult film star Stormy Daniels if she agreed to keep quiet about Trump — including about the relationship that became the center of the hush money payments that ended up the subject of a New York criminal trial — ... MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reported on Wednesday.... In a [civil] case separate from the [criminal] hush money trial [in which Trump was convicted of 34 felonies], Daniels was ordered to pay for Trump’s legal fees after she lost a defamation suit she filed against him. About two months after the hush money trial, Trump’s lawyer told Daniels’ representative that the former president would agree to a lower payment if she agreed not to make any disparaging comments about Trump.... In a statement to MSNBC, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung falsely asserted that the documents Maddow referenced 'were attained as part of an illegal, foreign hacking attack against President Trump and his team.'... MSNBC obtained the documents from Daniels’ lawyer, not through a hack.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: In October 2016, Donald Trump agreed to pay Stormy Daniels hush money, an agreement that eventually led to his conviction on 34 felony counts. Now, in October 2020, Trump has once again offered Daniels hush money. It isn't only that you can't teach an old dog new tricks; this old dog can't stop doing the old tricks. Here's Rachel Maddow reporting on her findings on last night's Chris Hayes show: ~~~
Okay, this is mighty gross opinionating, but I guess Trump deserves it: ~~~
Two stories from the "How Low Can They Go?" File Drawer: ~~~
⭐ 1. Anna Massoglia of Open Secrets: “An initiative called Progress 2028 that purports to be Kamala Harris’ liberal counter to the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is actually run by a dark money network supporting ... Donald Trump. Building America’s Future, the dark money group at the helm of the network, has steered money to a constellation of groups and initiatives boosting Trump’s agenda and spreading messaging aimed at chipping away voters from Harris. The dark money group reportedly received over $100 million in funding from billionaire Elon Musk, along with other donors, the New York Times recently reported.... Some of the policies listed in Progress 2028 highlight disproven and misleading claims about Harris’ positions. Policies listed include 'Empowering Undocumented Immigrants, Building Our Future' and 'Expanding Medicaid to Undocumented Immigrants.'... Some individuals have received text messages directing them to the Progress 2028 page.... Progress 2028 has also started pouring money into digital advertising.... Building America’s Future ... has a history of fueling initiatives impersonating and parodying Democrats.”
2. David Corn of Mother Jones: “In Arizona, older people recently received a mailer declaring Medicare had been cancelled. It had a big red stamp that proclaimed, 'Medicare Cancellation Notice.' Also emblazoned on its front was this: 'Warning: Rates are going up & plans are being cancelled. Details enclosed.' Its return address was the 'Department of Medicare Cancellation, Kamala Harris Administration.' That return address should have been a tip-off that this was not an official notification—along with a scrawled add-on in cursive: 'I hope you can afford to lose your insurance! — Kamala Harris XOXO.' It’s hard to know whether any recipient saw this and received a shock, fearing their Medicare was being cut off. But the group that sent out this official-looking piece of campaign literature, Make America Great Again, Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC, was spreading false and misleading information about Medicare and about Harris.... MAGA, Inc. is the top pro-Trump super PAC.”
Sam Woods in McSweeney's on the dilemma of the undecided Hobbit, torn "between the Dark Lord determined to return to power and stay there until shadows drown all of Arda, or the Elf Galadriel, who seems to be great and exceedingly normal, but I just wish I knew more about her."
Justin Jouvenal Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday for a Biden administration plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants burning fossil fuels, denying an emergency appeal by more than two dozen Republican-led states, utilities and others.... The Biden administration said the plan was calibrated to avoid economic harm and problems for the electric grid, and that the rule would protect communities from pollution and help the nation meet long-term goals to combat climate change. The initiative is one of the administration’s most significant actions on global warming.... As is customary, the majority of the justices did not give a reason as to why they denied the emergency request on carbon emissions from power plants. But a statement attached to the denial order indicates that some justices may be inclined to eventually block or strike down the power plant regulations.” MB: Usual suspects (Thomas, Kavenaugh, Gorsuch), except Alito recused himself for no specified reason.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: “Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and matriarch of a political dynasty, was remembered on Wednesday by three presidents, star musicians and many, many relatives during a memorial service in Washington. President Biden eulogized Mrs. Kennedy, who died last Thursday at 96, as 'a hero in her own right, full of character, full of integrity and empathy, genuine empathy.' Growing emotional, Mr. Biden credited her for encouraging him to stay in the Senate after a car accident killed his first wife and infant daughter in 1972. 'Ethel Kennedy would hear none of it,' Mr. Biden said in the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. 'Fact is, like she did for the country, Ethel helped my family find a way forward.'... Mr. Biden and two former presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, gave speeches. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi honored Mrs. Kennedy 'from an official standpoint and from a girlfriend standpoint.' Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the civil rights leader, compared Mrs. Kennedy to his mother, saying she built 'beautiful bridges of greater understanding.'”
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California. Ruth Graham & Orlando Mayorquín of the New York Times: “The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation’s largest, has agreed to pay $880 million to 1,353 people who say they were sexually abused as children by Catholic clergy. The settlement, which experts said was the highest single payout by a diocese, brings Los Angeles’s cumulative total in sex abuse lawsuits to more than $1.5 billion. The settlement was announced on Wednesday in a joint statement by lawyers for the plaintiffs and the archdiocese.... The agreement represents the near conclusion to decades of litigation against the archdiocese, with only a few suits remaining. Over the years, the archdiocese has sold off real estate, liquidated investments and taken out loans to cover the staggering costs of litigation.”
Georgia. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: “A Georgia judge [-- Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas A. Cox Jr. --] on Wednesday blocked a series of rules approved this year by a pro-Trump majority of the state’s election board, admonishing the board in stinging language that the rules are 'ILLEGAL, UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND VOID.' The judge struck down more than a half-dozen new rules, including one that allowed county election officials to launch investigations of irregularities, which critics feared would delay certification.” CNN's report is here.
Montana Senate Race. “Little Black Girls.” Igor Bobic of the Huffington Post: “Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy of Montana wants to abolish the U.S. Department of Education, claiming it is meant to 'indoctrinate and enslave' students across the country, according to The Daily Montanan.... 'We formed that department so little Black girls could go to school down South and we could have integrated schooling. We don’t need that anymore,' he [said].... [Sen. Jon] Tester [D-Mont.] slammed his GOP opponent and vowed to protect the public school system on Tuesday.”
Texas Senate Race. Saul Elbein & Julia Mueller of the Hill have some takeaways from the debate between Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) & Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Allred is challenging Cruz for the Senate seat. (Also linked yesterday.)
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Italy. Emma Bubola of the New York Times: “Italy passed a law on Wednesday that criminalizes seeking surrogacy abroad, a move the country’s conservative government said would protect women’s dignity, while critics see it as yet another crackdown by the government on L.G.B.T. families, as the law will make it virtually impossible for gay fathers to have children. Surrogacy is already illegal in Italy. But the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has vowed to broaden the ban to punish Italians who seek it in countries where it is legal, like in parts of the United States. Analysts saw the legislation as a way for Ms. Meloni to assert her conservative credentials and appeal to her political base, which disproportionately opposes surrogacy and adoption by gay couples. Italy, home to the Vatican, already ranks low in Europe when it comes to civil liberties, and Italian critics say that by imposing further restrictions on gay families, Ms. Meloni has taken a particularly hard line.”
Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in Israel's wars is here: “The United States carried out strikes in Yemen using long-range B-2 stealth bombers to target underground weapons storage facilities used by the Houthis, an Iranian-backed militant group, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that there had been 'some improvement' in food aid delivery to northern Gaza in recent days, after no aid had entered for about two weeks and the Biden administration warned Israel that military aid could be affected if the flow of aid did not increase.”
Ukraine, et al. Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: “President Biden surged $425 million to Ukraine’s defense against Russia on Wednesday.... Mr. Biden spoke by telephone to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine about the security package, which includes munitions, armored vehicles and other weapons, the White House announced. The package comes as Mr. Biden is set to travel to Germany on Thursday for a brief trip that is likely to be his last visit to Europe as commander in chief. He will use the opportunity to remind the world of the importance of alliances just three weeks before the U.S. presidential election.” (Also linked yesterday.)
4 Comments
Reader Comments (4)
Test.
So let me get this straight…Kamala Harris walks into what has been described as a campaign headquarters for Donald Trump and is grilled by one of Fox’s premiere supporters of the MAGA mob who screams that the last election was stolen. Trump, meanwhile, sits comfortably in the bosom of that very same mob, tricked out like a town hall, but which can be described charitably as a complete setup, an audience full of Trump voters, responding to pre-vetted questions, a total scam.
What does the AG Times do? Open the NYTimes site and here’s what you see: “Inside the $700 million Kamala Harris ad-checking factory!”
Holy shit, that sounds pretty squirrelly. Is she really spending all that money trying to trick voters? The National Enquirer, oops, I mean the AG Times wants to know.
What else? Oh…Donald Trump bravely faced tough questions from Hispanic voters but came out unscathed! Hooray!
Then: Can Kamala Harris really build 3 million new housing units? I mean, c’mon…
No mention of Fatty’s fake town hall. Maybe there’s something buried in some other page, but if you just scan the opening page of their website you see:
Harris spending a shit ton of money to massage her messaging.
Brave Sir Donald stands tall.
Harris makes a promise. But is this realistic?
This is how it will be until Election Day.
A fucking disgrace.
Harris Calling out Fox News Gas lighting in real time.
And once again we have Musk behind fake news with his bankrolling a fake Harris site about fake handouts to the scary migrants. All government contracts with Musk lead businesses should be immediately terminated. He is a national security threat. And adversarial to what this country aspires to be.