The Conversation -- September 27, 2024

Presidential Race

Katie Rogers & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: “Vice President Kamala Harris met with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Thursday at the White House, a sign that President Biden’s administration is positioning her to take over a politically fraught diplomatic relationship if she wins the election in November. The meeting, held shortly after Mr. Biden announced $8 billion worth of military support to the war-torn country, was Ms. Harris’s second this week with a key world leader — even as she runs a presidential campaign focused on domestic issues. Ms. Harris, who has met with Mr. Zelensky a half-dozen times since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, said at the White House on Thursday that ... those who would have Ukraine trade territory for peace were supporting 'proposals of surrender' — a dig at ... Donald J. Trump ... and his skepticism of aid for Kyiv.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ You can see video of Vice President Harris's and President Zelensky's remarks here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, in a New York Times op-ed: “... I have already cast my ballot for character — and voted for Vice President Kamala Harris.... Character is the ultimate measure of leadership for those who seek the highest office in our land.... Regardless of what a person says, character is ultimately laid bare in his or her actions. So I pay attention to what a leader does.... Ms. Harris has the strength, the temperament and, importantly, the values to serve as commander in chief. When she sits down with world leaders like President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, representing the United States on the global stage, I have no doubt that she is working in our national interest, not her own. I would urge others to vote as I have.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Filip Timotija of the Hill: “Former Kansas Republican Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (R-Kan.) is endorsing Vice President Harris in the 2024 presidential election, stating the White House contest 'presents a stark choice that is not easy for any of us.' Kassebaum, who served three terms in the upper chamber, announced her backing of the Democratic nominee in a Thursday statement alongside two other GOP officials, former Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger and retired federal circuit judge Deanell Reece Tacha.”

In a New York Times article titled, “Harris Has a Lot of Strengths. Giving Interviews Isn't One of Them,” reporter Rebecca O'Brien concedes (in Graf 10), “It is a fundamental imbalance of the campaign, not lost on Ms. Harris’s supporters, that while her every remark is scrutinized, her opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, seems to suffer few consequences for his public remarks, which are often undisciplined explorations of grudges, rumors and preoccupations, laden with innuendo and outright falsehood, often untethered from standard syntax and, at times, reality.... Consider an answer Mr. Trump gave last month in an interview with Dr. Phil McGraw, in response to a question about what he thought about Ms. Harris: ~~~

“She’s a Marxist. Well, I can see, by action, she’s a person that wanted to defund the police very strongly, bailed out a lot of people in Minnesota from jails who did some really bad things. I saw that very loud and clear then, when that took place, a lot of bad things. She’s done a lot of bad things. There will be no fracking. There’ll be no drilling. She doesn’t want to drill, which will mean our country is going to shrivel up and die. You can’t run the country without fossil fuel, at least not for quite a while because you don’t have the power. They don’t have the power. You have all sorts of nice contraptions, but they don’t have — wind is fine, but it kills the birds. It destroys the fields. Destroys the fields, what it does.”

     ~~~ Marie: See yesterday's Comments for a discussion of the NYT's/media's criticisms of Harris versus their coddling of Trump. I can't recall ever seeing a NYT story dedicated to criticizing Trump's verbal skills, whereas the paper made careers for reporters writing about Joe Biden's garbled speech. Now, for a second time and based on the same interview, is taking digs at Harris's responses. In that interview, it should be noted, Harris' performance was a bit rocky, IMO, but it by no means approached Trump's incoherent stream-of-unconsciousness babble. I'm not saying the critiques of Harris are wrong; what I am saying is that if a paper publishes criticisms of the Democratic presidential candidates, they should pan the Republican candidate every time he makes disastrous remarks -- which is every damned time he opens his mouth or writes a comment on his failing social media site. The excuse, “But 'Trump's a Shambolic Nitwit' Isn't News!” is not good enough. ~~~

     ~~~ But wait! The Unpossible Is Possible! Michael Gold & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: At a Trump Tower event billed as a news conference about the U.S.-Mexico border, “Mr. Trump quickly appeared to grow bored with the remarks he read from, and drifted repeatedly toward other topics. He talked about inflation, accused [Vice President] Harris of lying about working at McDonald’s years ago and nursed his fury over how the ABC News debate moderators handled his face-off with Ms. Harris nearly three weeks ago. At the beginning of the news conference, Mr. Trump struggled at times to articulate his thoughts or make a point clearly. He stumbled over some words as he read from remarks he had plainly not written. He bootstrapped one thought onto another based on whether the words associated with something else, as opposed to having a clear through line. ~~~

“And you know, you can go to California, where she ruined San Francisco.... She destroyed. San Francisco may have been the greatest city in the world, 16, 18 years ago, and now it’s a practically unlivable place. And I hate to say that. I have property in San Francisco. It’s not a good thing to say, but this far supersedes my ownership of property. It’s an unlivable place. It was the best city. Bob Tisch, of Loews, a friend of mine. Great guy. Wonderful man. He was in San Francisco. He was in Chicago. He had big businesses all over, the Tisch family. Bob Tisch used to tell me that he thinks San Francisco is the greatest city in the country. He passed away, quite a while ago. But, and San Francisco probably was. And now it’s not even livable.”

     ~~~ Read on. It's almost as if some New York Times editor read your criticisms yesterday.

Seb Starcevic & Csongor Körömi of Politico: “... Donald Trump lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday for not making concessions to Russia, giving his strongest indication to date he would stop backing Kyiv if he wins the U.S. presidential election. Trump, speaking at a campaign event in North Carolina, said Ukraine should have 'given up a little bit' to appease Moscow and avoid a bloody conflict with its invading neighbor, which he said 'didn’t need to happen.... 'We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal, Zelenskyy,' Trump railed in a lengthy tirade.” AP story linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.)

New York Times Editors: “Dozens of people who know [Donald Trump] well, including the 91 listed here, have raised alarms about his character and fitness for office — his family and friends, world leaders and business associates, his fellow conservatives and his political appointees — even though they had nothing to gain from doing so. Some have even spoken out at the expense of their own careers or political interests. The New York Times editorial board has made its case that Mr. Trump is unfit to lead. But the strongest case against him may come from his own people. For those Americans who are still tempted to return him to the presidency or to not vote in November, it is worth considering the assessment of Mr. Trump by those who have seen him up close.” The editorial includes derogatory assessments of Trump from a few of his closest associates. (Also linked yesterday.)

New York Times Editors republish their July 11 editorial, titled “Donald Trump Is Unfit to Lead.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Matt Egan of CNN: “... a new analysis finds that ... [Donald Trump]’s plans for tariffs, deportations and the Federal Reserve would ... cause weaker economic growth, higher inflation and lower employment, according to a working paper released Thursday by the Peterson Institute for International Economics. In some cases, the damage could continue through 2040. 'We find that ironically, despite his “make the foreigners pay” rhetoric, this package of policies does more damage to the US economy than to any other in the world,' the Peterson Institute working paper from researchers Warwick McKibbin, Megan Hogan and Marcus Noland concluded. The paper represents the most comprehensive analysis to date on the combined impact of Trump’s trade, immigration and Fed proposals. The findings are stark.”

Ah, the Family That Grifts Together. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: “While promoting a memoir, [Melania Trump] told Fox News that she blamed Democrats and members of the news media for the assassination attempts against her husband.” (Also linked yesterday.)

So first, RAS learns this about the Center for Free Speech Absolutism, Elon Musk, Proprietor: ~~~

     ~~~ Elizabeth Lopatto of the Verge: “X is preventing users from posting links to a newsletter containing a hacked document that’s alleged to be the Trump campaign’s research into vice presidential candidate JD Vance. The journalist who wrote the newsletter, Ken Klippenstein, has been suspended from the platform. Searches for posts containing a link to the newsletter turn up nothing.... Though other news outlets have received information from the hack, they declined to publish. Klippenstein says in his newsletter that a source called 'Robert,' with an AOL email address, offered him the document.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ But then Ken W. finds this: ~~~

     ~~~ “The Vance Dossier.” Ken Klippenstein: “Behold the dossier. It reportedly comes from an alleged Iranian government hack of the Trump campaign, and since June, the news media has [have!] been sitting on it (and other documents), declining to publish in fear of finding itself at odds with the government’s campaign against 'foreign malign influence.' I disagree. The dossier has been offered to me and I’ve decided to publish it because it’s of keen public interest in an election season. It’s a 271-page research paper the Trump campaign prepared to vet now vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. As far as I can tell, it hasn’t been altered, but even if it was, its contents are publicly verifiable. I’ll let it speak for itself.” The page has a link to the dossier (or you can download it). As Klippenstein points out, there are “No Jason Bourne style capers appear, and there’s no sleaze.” MB: So sorry to say there are no fun/gross revelations about JayDee having his way with Grandma's sofa. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Betsy Swan & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “A grand jury has indicted multiple Iranians on charges related to hacking Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. The federal charges stem from an Iranian operation that allegedly stole internal Trump campaign communications this summer.... Stolen materials from the Trump campaign were later sent to journalists and individuals associated with President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign before Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee. The names of the defendants and the specific criminal charges were not immediately available. A grand jury secretly approved the indictment on Thursday afternoon. The Justice Department is expected to announce the charges as soon as Friday.”

Paul Krugman of the New York Times: “... the tech bro style in American politics has emerged as a major force, one that, in my view, is pushing our democracy closer to catastrophe.” Krugman concentrates on Elon Musk, JD Vance, and the emergence of cryptocurrency as a major source of campaign financing.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: “A nearly 200-page special counsel filing of facts and legal argument on why Donald Trump can be criminally prosecuted for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election landed Thursday in D.C. federal court, triggering a process that could end in the public seeing significant new details of the case before the November election. The massive brief on special counsel Jack Smith’s case against the former president — which could run up to 180 pages, plus more in exhibits — was filed under seal, per the court’s order, a spokesman for Smith’s office said. It will remain that way until U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan decides what she wants to do with a redacted version, which prosecutors also planned to file under seal with the expectation that it will later be released publicly. Here’s what we know about what happens next.” Politico's report is here.

Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: “Voting technology company Smartmatic and conservative cable channel Newsmax have reached a settlement, averting a defamation trial that would have begun Monday over allegations that Newsmax personalities and guests spread lies about the 2020 election and Smartmatic’s role in it. Details of the 'confidential' settlement were not released. The settlement came as the process of picking a jury was underway....”

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: “An investment company formed by two former contestants on 'The Apprentice' TV show sold almost all of their 5.5 percent stake in ... Donald J. Trump’s social media company, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday. United Atlantic Ventures sold roughly 7.5 million shares of Trump Media & Technology Group within the past few days, after a lockup provision that had barred large investors, including Mr. Trump, from selling any shares ended on Sept. 19. The two principals of United Atlantic, Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, were founders of Trump Media and its flagship social media product, Truth Social. They were both contestants on the second season of 'The Apprentice,' the reality TV show that helped raised Mr. Trump’s national profile.... At the stock’s current price of about $14 a share, the two men’s entire equity stake was worth roughly $100 million.... Both Mr. Litinsky and Mr. Moss were 'fired' by Mr. Trump from the show, but Mr. Litinsky later went to work for Mr. Trump as the head of his television production company. Shortly after Mr. Trump left the White House in 2021, Mr. Litinsky and Mr. Moss approached him with the idea of founding his own social media company.” A CBS News story is here.

Justin Jouvenal & Tobi Raji of the Washington Post: “A sweeping bill introduced by a Democratic senator Wednesday would greatly increase the size of the Supreme Court, make it harder for the justices to overturn laws, require justices to undergo audits and remove roadblocks for high court nominations. The legislation by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is one of the most ambitious proposals to remake a high court that has suffered a sharp decline in its public approval after a string of contentious decisions and ethics scandals in recent years. It has little chance of passing at the moment, since Republicans have generally opposed efforts to overhaul the court. Wyden, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said the goal of the bill is to restore public confidence in a battered institution. He said he hopes to get parts of the bill passed, even if the whole package is not embraced by lawmakers.”

Steward, led by its founder and CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre and his corporate enablers, looted hospitals across the country for their own profit. While they got rich, workers, patients and communities suffered. Nurses paid out of pocket for cardboard bereavement boxes for the babies to help grieving parents who had just lost a newborn. -- Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), on the Senate floor, Wednesday ~~~

~~~ Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: “The Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to hold Steward Health Care chief executive Ralph de la Torre in contempt of Congress, asking the Justice Department to pursue criminal charges against the hospital executive for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena. It is the first time since 1971 that the Senate has asked the Justice Department to pursue criminal contempt charges against an individual, lawmakers said. Steward, a for-profit company that owns about two dozen hospitals across the country, is engaged in bankruptcy proceedings and has been seeking to sell its hospitals. Community leaders and health workers in states served by Steward’s facilities have blamed the company’s leaders for extravagant paydays even as hospitals struggled to meet mortgage payments and cover other expenses. The Justice Department also has been investigating the company regarding allegations of fraud.”

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Mississippi. Still Dickensian. David Nakamura & Robert Klemko of the Washington Post: “A tiny police department in Lexington, Miss., whose chief was fired two years ago for using a racial epithet, has engaged in the systemic use of excessive force, jailed suspects improperly and targeted Black people, the Justice Department said in a report released Thursday. The results of a nearly 11-month federal civil rights investigation found that the Lexington police force, which has fewer than 10 officers, pursued overly aggressive tactics in response to relatively minor infractions, in part as a strategy to drive up revenue through fines and processing fees. During the past several years, the police department’s revenue grew sevenfold in a jurisdiction in one of the poorest counties in the nation, as officers routinely violated suspects’ civil rights, federal authorities said.... The police 'turned the jail into the kind of debtor’s prison that Charles Dickens wrote about in his novels written in the 1800s — only this happened in Mississippi in 2024,' [U.S. Attorney Todd] Gee said.”

New York. Dana Rubinstein & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: “Mayor Eric Adams of New York City, a former police captain who ran on a law-and-order platform but whose tenure has been consumed by accusations of corruption, spent years accepting free airline tickets, lavish overseas accommodations and illegal campaign donations from Turkey, federal prosecutors said on Thursday. In return for the gifts and donations, Mr. Adams used his influence as Brooklyn borough president and later as mayor to assist Turkish officials with issues they were facing in the city, prosecutors said — most notably in obtaining safety clearances from the Fire Department for a new high-rise Turkish consulate building.”

From the New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in the indictment of New York City Mayor Eric Adams (related stories as well as the NYT liveblog linked yesterday):

“Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on federal charges of bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. The indictment, which was unsealed on Thursday morning, follows an investigation that started in 2021 and has focused at least in part on whether he conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign campaign contributions and whether he took official actions on its behalf. Federal prosecutors said that Mr. Adams 'sought and accepted improper valuable benefits' for at least a decade, when he was then the Brooklyn borough president, according to the indictment.

“Federal agents searched the official residence of Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday morning, hours before prosecutors were expected to announce the details of a federal indictment against him.... At about 6 a.m. on Thursday, nearly a dozen men and women dressed in business attire arrived in S.U.V.s outside the entrance of Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, on the Upper East Side. At least one vehicle had a federal law enforcement parking placard on its dashboard. They carried briefcases, backpacks and bags. Many agents were still at Gracie Mansion later in the morning when some of the mayor’s top advisers and his former chief counsel, Brendan McGuire, walked inside.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The AP is updating developments here. NBC News updates are here. A CNBC story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the indictment, via Politico. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Dana Rubinstein & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: “The indictment of Mayor Eric Adams unsealed on Thursday provides a banquet of strange, amusing and troubling vignettes unearthed during the investigation by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and the F.B.I. Here are 10 of them[.]” Funniest: No. 10: “After F.B.I. agents seized Mr. Adams’s personal phone in November 2023, he claimed he was unable to remember the password because he had recently changed it. He had changed it, he said, to prevent staff members from inadvertently or intentionally deleting anything because of the investigation.” MB: I wonder if it was little Eric who coined the dog-ate-my-homework excuse. An AP report is here.

Bill Mahoney & Nick Reisman of Politico: “Gov. Kathy Hochul [D] has begun to examine a long-dormant power that lets governors remove local officials such as New York City mayors, following Thursday’s indictment of Eric Adams [D]. Lawyers in Hochul’s office on Thursday internally discussed the legal and constitutional framework for removing an elected official, according to two people familiar with the conversations....”

New York Times Editors: “To serve the city that elected him, Mr. Adams should immediately resign and turn City Hall over to someone untainted by criminal charges and endless investigations.... The challenge of governing the city is daunting for even the best mayors, and the specter of widespread corruption in the Adams administration has little precedent.”

North Carolina. Ashley Fields of the Hill: “North Carolina’s State Board of Elections has removed 747,000 people from its list of registered voters within the last 20 months, officials announced Thursday in a press release. The State Board of Elections in the release said the majority of those stripped from the rolls were deemed ineligible to be registered because they had moved within the state and did not register their new address, or because they did not participate in the past two federal elections, prompting an inactive status. Other reasons for removal included death, felony convictions, out-of-state moves and personal requests for removal, the board said.”

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Japan. Motoko Rich of the New York Times: “The elite power brokers of Japan’s governing party appeared to take public sentiment into account on Friday when they elected Shigeru Ishiba, 67, to become the next prime minister of Japan. Mr. Ishiba, a former defense minister who has long been popular with rank-and-file members of the Liberal Democratic Party but less favored by parliamentary lawmakers, had run for the leadership four times before finally attaining victory on Friday. In a runoff between Mr. Ishiba and Sanae Takaichi, Mr. Ishiba, who is known for his plain-spoken opinions and extreme interest in military equipment, defeated Ms. Takaichi 215 to 194 in voting at the party’s headquarters in Tokyo. He will officially take over as prime minister next Tuesday, replacing Fumio Kishida, the outgoing prime minister.”

Ukraine, et al. Yasmeen Abutaleb & Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, appealing urgently to President Joe Biden on Thursday to let the country extend its use of American weapons, waded into a heightened partisan divide over the Russia-Ukraine war, with the U.S. presidential election weeks away. Biden met with Zelensky at the White House on Thursday, but he did not grant Kyiv’s request for permission to fire American-made missiles deeper into Russia. Instead, he announced the delivery of more military aid and new air defense capabilities, as the White House sought to show strong support for Ukraine while rejecting the country’s primary plea.... Donald Trump, meanwhile, announced that he would meet with Zelensky on Friday morning, apparently a last-minute addition to the Ukrainian leader’s schedule following growing tensions between Zelensky and Republican leaders.” An AP story is here.