;)
The Conversation -- September 11, 2024
Caitlin Emma & Olivia Beavers of Politico: "House GOP leaders pulled their six-month stopgap funding plan on Wednesday, hours before a scheduled floor vote. Facing a number of Republican holdouts, Speaker Mike Johnson said they'll delay the vote until next week as they work to quell Republican opposition and 'build consensus.'"
Jennifer Peltz & Karen Matthews of the AP: "With presidential candidates looking on, some 9/11 victims' relatives appealed to them Wednesday for accountability as the U.S. marked an anniversary laced with election-season politics. In a remarkable tableau, President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris stood together at ground zero just hours after Trump and Harris faced off in their first-ever debate. Trump and Biden -- the successor whose inauguration Trump skipped -- shook hands, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared to facilitate a handshake between Harris and Trump. Then the campaign rivals stood only a few feet (meters) apart, Biden and Bloomberg between them, as the hourslong reading of victims' names began. At Trump's side was his running mate, Sen. JD Vance."
Nahal Toosi of Politico in Politico Magazine: "By the time the debate was over, several foreign officials from both U.S. allies and more neutral countries told me they felt more confident that [Kamala] Harris could handle the tricky personalities she'd encounter while in the world's most powerful job. 'Composed, authoritative, and presidential,' one European diplomat raved.... Her ability to manage Trump offered assurance that she could navigate tough personal relationships. Given that international relations often come down to the nature of personal relations, this matters."
CNN anchors & others analyze the Harris-Trump debate:
~~~~~~~~~~
Presidential Race
Okay, so Kamala Harris pulled off the best debate performance in history. But let's get to the big news! ~~~
~~~ Daniel Arkin of NBC News: "Pop superstar Taylor Swift endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential candidacy Tuesday night after the high-stakes debate. 'I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,' Swift said in a post on Instagram. 'I;m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman's right to her own body for decades." ~~~
~~~ Nicholas Nehamas, et al., of the New York Times: "The endorsement by [Taylor] Swift, delivered minutes after [Vice President] Harris and Mr. Trump had stepped off the debate stage in Philadelphia, offers Ms. Harris an unrivaled celebrity backer and a tremendous shot of adrenaline to her campaign, especially with the younger voters she has been trying to attract.... She signed her post as 'Childless Cat Lady,' a reference to comments made by Mr. Trump's running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, about women without children. The photo that accompanied her post showed her holding a furry feline, Benjamin Button, her pet Ragdoll." ~~~
~~~ Maybe you thought the Creep of the Night Prize should go to Trump. Nope: ~~~
~~~ Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "... Elon Musk offered to impregnate Taylor Swift on Tuesday after she endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. Less than two hours after Swift endorsed Harris for president and signed her endorsement with, 'Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady' -- a dig at ... Donald Trump"'s running mate JD Vance -- Musk penned a bizarre proposal to the pop star on ... X. 'Fine Taylor ... you win,' wrote Musk, who has fathered twelve children. 'I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.'"
Lisa Lerer & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "From the opening moments of her first debate against Donald J. Trump, Kamala Harris craftily exploited her opponent's biggest weakness ...: his ego.... Ms. Harris questioned the size and loyalty of the crowds at his rallies. She said world leaders call him a 'disgrace.' And she claimed his fortune was built by his father, recasting a business mogul who proudly boasts of being a self-made man as just another nepotism baby. Then she stood by and watched, as Mr. Trump did himself a whole lot of damage. In answer after answer, the former president reminded Americans of his role in so much of what many would rather forget: the deadly and devastating pandemic, his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election, a bloody siege on the U.S. Capitol and the fall of Roe v. Wade. He lingered on his criminal charges and praised Viktor Orban, the strongman leader of Hungary. He defended a false claim that migrants in Ohio are eating their neighbors' dogs and cats and recycled years-old anti-abortion attack lines that Democrats supported 'execution after birth.'... He's the former reality television star, but she clearly understood the power of the medium. Her expression was her rebuttal." Here's an ABC News highlights video:
~~~ If you want to watch the full debate (which is not painful!), YouTube video is here. ABC News has a transcript of the debate here.
Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "... in an evening rife with missed opportunities and curious rabbit holes for Mr. Trump, [there] was the exchange where he seemed to lose his way -- the temptation he could not resist, no matter how many allies might have hoped he could hear their pleas to double back.... 'I'm going to actually do something really unusual,' she said, addressing the audience at home. 'I'm going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump's rallies. Because it's a really interesting thing to watch.' Smirking, provoking, Ms. Harris ticked through some common Trump digressions, like windmills and the fictional killer Hannibal Lecter. Mr. Trump's eyes narrowed, and his head cocked to the left. 'And what you will also notice,' she said, as Mr. Trump bobbed a bit, pendulum-like, 'is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.... The one thing you will not hear him talk about is you.'...
"As ... David Muir strained to redirect the conversation..., he was not interested. 'First, let me respond as to the rallies ....'... When Mr. Trump was done litigating his rally crowds ('We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics') and conspiracy-casting about hers ('People don't go to her rallies -- there's no reason to go -- and the people that do go, she's busing them in and paying them to be there'), he turned to a widely debunked yarn about Haitian immigrants in Ohio abducting and feasting on their neighbors' pets. 'They're eating the dogs!' he said. 'The people that came in -- they're eating the cats!'"
Oh, Dear. When You've Lost Lindsey.... Igor Bobic of the Huffington Post: "Conservative pundits acknowledged on Tuesday that Vice President Kamala Harris got the better of former President Donald Trump in Tuesday's presidential debate in Philadelphia, citing her success in getting under his skin. 'Let's make no mistake. Trump had a bad night,' Fox News host Brit Hume said.... 'She was exquisitely well-prepared, she laid traps, and he chased every rabbit down every hole,' added former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who often appears as a commentator on ABC News. 'Whoever prepared Donald Trump should be fired. He was not good tonight at all,' Christie said.... 'Trump lost the debate, and whining about the moderators doesn't change it,' conservative radio host Erick Erickson wrote on X.... Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) ... said afterward that the former president's debate team should be fired and that Trump was unprepared, calling the debate a 'disaster,' according to The Bulwark's Tim Miller."
John Harris of Politico in Politico Magazine: Vice President Harris "plainly used her long days of debate prep in a Pittsburgh hotel to compile a rich anthology of taunts, putdowns and derisive one-liners against ... Donald Trump.... He responded to her jabs in detail, and thereby let her drive the agenda for the evening. He raised his voice and scowled.... While Harris was coached up to her eyeballs, Trump was improvisational to the point of incontinence.... By any conventional measure of debates, she won the debate by getting him to do most of her work."
David Firestone of the New York Times: After the first 10 minutes of the debate, during which Donald Trump managed to contain himself, "he descended from a discussion of tariffs into a description of immigrants -- one he returned to over and over again during the evening -- that could only be described as a form of nativist hysteria.... The debate was an unqualified success for Harris not just because she was able to define herself and her plans but also because she was able to push a few buttons and let Trump show off his truest self."
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post has some takeaways from the debate: "1. Harris successfully made it all about Trump -- and he struggled.... 2. Trump's fire hose of falsehoods.... 3. Harris delivered an impassioned case on abortion.... 4. Trump was all about undocumented immigrants and migrant crime[.]"
Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: "Former President Trump said during Tuesday night's debate he was interested in trying to repeal ObamaCare again, but indicated he doesn't have a plan to replace it. 'We are working on things. We're going to do it. We're going to replace it,' Trump said.... 'I have concepts of a plan. I'm not president right now,' Trump said." MB: The MSNBC panel thought "concepts of a plan" was a mighty hilarious copout.
Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: In the context of 105 minutes of fierce debate in Philadelphia, exchanges "in which ABC News moderators David Muir & Linsey Davis fact-checked Donald Trump] were fleeting. But they signaled a shift -- for an evening, at least -- in the balance of power between Mr. Trump and the many journalists who have struggled, or stopped trying, to construct factual guardrails around the bombardment of baseless claims that he regularly unleashes on live TV. Using calm and authoritative tones, Mr. Muir and Ms. Davis offered a model for real-time fact-checking that has been absent from many recent presidential debates. Mr. Trump's apocalyptic portrait of an America besieged by migrant crime was met by Mr. Muir&'s polite reply: 'As you know, the F.B.I. says overall violent crime is coming down in this country.' 'They didn't include the cities with the worst crime! It was a fraud!' Mr. Trump retorted. 'President Trump, thank you,' said Mr. Muir, before moving on.... Donald J. Trump Jr., in a social media post, referred to the moderators as 'hacks.' On Fox News, the partisan host Laura Ingraham declared that 'ABC's goal tonight was to help Kamala Harris' and Sean Hannity called ABC News 'the biggest loser in the debate.'" ~~~
~~~ David Bauder of the AP: "In an illustration of how difficult it is to conduct a presidential debate in a polarized country, ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis fact-checked and corrected Trump four times Tuesday and were attacked angrily by the former president and his supporters. Trump, shortly after he left the stage in Philadelphia, sent out a message on his social media platform: 'I thought that was my best debate, EVER, especially since it was THREE ON ONE!'" MB: News for Donnie & Junior & Laura & Sean: "Trump logged 43 minutes and 3 seconds of time talking, while Harris had 37 minutes and 41 seconds, according to a count by The New York Times." So the idea that the moderators favored Harris over Trump is nonsense. She just didn't lie like the rug on Trump's head. ~~~
~~~ Marie: It appears to me that Trump truly thinks it's unfa-a-a-air when someone calls out his lies. He believes he should be allowed to win a debate or dominate a conversation by simply telling effective lies -- like Haitian immigrants are eating your dog. And if someone says that's not true (as Muir did), then Trump follows up with, "They're eating your cat!" And when even that, for some odd reason, doesn't work, he provides a "source": "I saw it on TV!" Many people complained about Jake Tapper and Dana Bash who "moderated" the CNN debate between Biden and Trump but refused to do even a teensy bit of fact-checking. You really see what a difference it makes to have, you know, a couple of journalists weigh in with facts from time to time. (And of course it makes a tremendous difference to have an opponent who cleans your clock and laughs at your lies.) ~~~
~~~ Judy Berman of Time: "Whereas the moderators of the earlier debate, CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, faced widespread criticism for letting such flagrant falsehoods go uncorrected, [Linsey] Davis and ... David Muir repeatedly fact-checked responses in real time and asked follow-up questions when necessary.... Davis and Muir's fact-checks were sporadic but effective, tamping down Trump's most egregious inventions.... Fact-checking, following up, and holding candidates accountable for past statements are the bare minimum that news organizations hosting televised presidential debates must do to ensure that such spectacles are useful to --rather than just mildly entertaining meme fodder for -- the American public."
Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "A whopping 63% of those who watched the ABC News presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris told CNN on Tuesday that Harris won the debate.... CNN political director David Chalian said 37% said Trump had won.
New York Times reporters live-updated the presidential debate. Here are some excerpts:
Jess Bidgood: "Harris made a point of introducing herself by name. It's a reminder to viewers that this is the first time she and Trump are meeting." [MB: Because Trump didn't attend President Biden's & Vice President Harris's inauguration.]
Maggie Haberman: "So far, Harris appears to have irritated Trump and he sounds defensive, responding to what she's said or moderators have said instead of delivering his own message."
Alan Rappeport: "It is worth noting that Trump was incorrect when he said that his tariffs took billions of dollars away from China. The burden of the tariffs was largely borne by U.S. consumers." [MB: Thanks, Alan. Explain that to Peter Baker.]
Bidgood: "In his rambling answer on abortion, Trump mixed up the states of Virginia and West Virginia and said falsely that a baby could be executed at nine months."
Haberman: "Trump repeated the falsehood that Democrats wanted Roe v. Wade to end. It's basically handing Harris a line on an issue she's been a forceful voice on."
Michael Grynbaum: "The moderator Linsey Davis just now refuted Trump's false claim that some states allow for the killing of a baby after birth."
Haberman: "Trump is stumbling on a question about whether he would veto a national abortion ban, saying only that it won't pass Congress. He is clearly angry. And that is not what his advisers wanted to see."
Katie Rogers: "This lengthy exchange on abortion, with Trump getting visibly angry, is an advantage for Harris."
Bidgood: "Harris looks straight at the camera as she urges viewers to go to a Trump rally. There, she says, they'll hear him talk about nonsensical things, and they'll see people leaving early. This is something that clearly annoys him."
Rappeport: "It appears that Harris successfully goaded Trump on crowd size. He responds angrily and accuses Harris of busing people into her rallies."
Rogers: "Trump just started talking about an online conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants eating dogs in Springfield, Ohio, which gets a laugh out of the vice president. Her mic is off, but she laughed and shook her head and appeared to mouth, 'What?'"
Jonathan Weisman: "... we have now had the first moment where Harris intentionally tried to get under Trump's skin -- and it worked. Going after the former president's ego, Harris said people leave his rallies exhausted and bored. He had to respond, saying no one goes to her rallies. Then he angrily fell back to his immigration issues, bringing up baseless rumors of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating pet dogs and cats. Again, a moderator, David Muir, interjected, saying the town's city manager had told ABC News there was no credible allegation that any pets had been killed."
Jonathan Swan: "Trump is visibly infuriated at the ABC fact-checking."
Rogers: "One of the interesting themes of this debate so far is how Harris has been on the offensive for most of it, and how Trump's angry rebuttals are laced with misinformation, mixed-up facts and kernels of conspiracy theories."
Haberman: "Trump essentially repeated his false claim that Harris suddenly started calling herself Black."
Grynbaum: "There was much ado about muted microphones before this debate. But ABC News has taken a pragmatic approach: On several occasions, the network has turned the microphone on when a candidate requests time to respond to a particularly sharp attack. In some cases, it has allowed the candidates to engage directly with each other. But a few of those exchanges have descended into crosstalk, and were hard for viewers to follow."
Weisman: "The first, and probably the only, presidential debate of this fall neared its end on friendly turf for Harris, race and division in the United States. She used it to bring up Trump's racist past, his early legal troubles for refusing to rent to Black tenants and his push for the death penalty for the later-exonerated 'Central Park Five.'"
Rappeport: "Trump, declining to end on an optimistic note, concludes by calling Harris 'the worst vice president in the history of our country.'"
Weisman: "The closing arguments framed the election -- and the campaign of the next two months. Harris used her last time with the microphone to strike a tone of moderation and project politics into the future. Trump used his to attack his opponent, bringing back a line of attack he used effectively against Hillary Clinton eight years ago: If you have so many great ideas to solve the nation's problems, why haven't you done them? To Harris's optimism, Trump ended with this: 'We're a failing nation. We're a nation in serious decline.'"
CNN reporters are providing what they call "instant analysis" on CNN's main page. So far (20 minutes in), they're doing a pretty good job.
Moderator David Muir has been doing some serious fact-checking of Trump. He lets Trump get away with dozens of ancillary lies (and Harris attacks many of those lies), but Muir shut down the Big Lie and others. He's also raising some good questions of the candidates.
"A Little, Tiny, Teeny, Itty, Bitty Weeny." Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign is running a trolling ad ahead of the debate Tuesday directed at exactly one person: ... Donald J. Trump. The ad highlights former President Barack Obama's mocking comment in his speech last month at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, referring to Mr. Trump's 'weird obsession with crowd sizes,' and an accompanying hand gesture.... If Mr. Obama's words and gesture retained some marginal degree of subtlety, the ad turned them into a sledgehammer, zooming in on his hands and his glance downward. Later, it showed empty seats against the sound of crickets and zoomed in on Mr. Trump's hand -- recalling Senator Marco Rubio's jabs from the 2016 Republican primary in which he said Mr. Trump had small hands.... The Harris campaign seemed to dispel any doubt that the ad was intended more for Mr. Trump's eyes than for voters, by noting that it was airing on Fox News in Mr. Trump's home media market, West Palm Beach, Fla., and in Philadelphia, where he will be on Tuesday for the debate." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The ad fits in quite well with our discussion in yesterday's thread. Akhilleus wrote, in response to a comment that Harris might want to knee Trump for stalking her on-stage: "Kneeing Fatty in the groin (to have the desired effect), would require surgical strike capability. That tiny mushroom head and microscopic balls would not be easy targets. It'd be like hitting a penny with a rock from a mile away. Maybe there's a strain of pigs who can root out teensy mushroom dick truffles. Hey, it's worth a try. Oink, oink, Donnie."
Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: "Melania Trump has a memoir coming out on Oct. 8.... She has been releasing short-form videos of herself talking into the camera, which her husband ... Donald J. Trump has been reposting to his own social media feeds. True to Mrs. Trump's sphinx-like style, her videos are somewhat cryptic. In one posted on Tuesday, she appears before a shadowy backdrop, dressed all in black, to muse conspiratorially about the attempt on her husband's life.... In another video, posted on Sunday, Mrs. Trump narrates while white text crawls across a black background: 'It has become increasingly apparent that there are significant challenges to free speech, as demonstrated by the efforts to silence my husband.' The mysterious videos about mysterious forces are the most the public has heard from the mysterious former first lady in a long while."
Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "A quarter of Republicans think Trump should seize power even if he loses.... That's the determination of new national polling from PRRI."
Alex Henderson of AlterNet: "On Sunday, September 8, polling expert and FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver updated his presidential election forecast and gave GOP nominee Donald Trump a 63.8 percent chance of winning the Electoral College in November and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris only a 36 percent chance. But veteran conservative consultant Stuart Stevens -- a Never Trumper conservative who is supporting Harris -- is critical of Silver's forecast, arguing that there is a connection between Silver's FiveThirtyEight and billionaire Trump supporter Peter Thiel. In a September 10 post on X..., Stevens wrote, 'Polymarket is Peter Thiel's creation. @NateSilver538 is being paid by Peter Thiel.'... According to Axios' Sara Fischer, the predictions market platform Polymarket hired Silver as an adviser in July."
Johnson's Spending Bill DOA. Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Speaker Mike Johnson's initial plan to avert a government shutdown has run into a wall of Republican opposition, as lawmakers from an array of factions in his party balk at a six-month stopgap funding measure that Democrats have already rejected. Mr. Johnson has said he plans to bring up a spending bill this week that would extend federal funding through March 28, which includes a measure that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. The addition of the voting restriction bill was a nod to the right flank of his conference and an effort to force politically vulnerable Democrats to take a fraught vote. But his $1.6 trillion proposal was almost immediately met with an outpouring of skepticism by House Republicans on Monday evening as they returned to Washington after a lengthy summer recess. Hard-line conservatives, including Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, said they would oppose the legislation because it would extend current spending levels they believe are too high." (Also linked yesterday.)
Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: "Melania Trump suggested there is a conspiracy behind the assassination attempt on her husband ... Donald Trump -- saying, 'there is definitely more to this story.'... Melania Trump is not the only member of the Trump family who seems to believe there was a larger plot surrounding the shooting. Both of Donald Trump's sons -- Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump -- floated the idea that Democrats were behind the attack." (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~~~~~~~~
Delaware, Rhode Island Primary Elections. Amy Wang & Staff of the Washington Post: "Delaware state senator Sarah McBride is projected to win the Democratic primary for the state's at-large congressional seat, according to the Associated Press, defeating two other candidates and setting her on a course to become the first openly transgender member of Congress in U.S. history.... Former police officer John Whalen III is projected to win the Republican primary.... New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer is projected to win the Democratic primary for Delaware governor, according to the Associated Press, upsetting Delaware Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, who had been dogged by a recent investigation into inconsistencies in her past campaign finance reports.
Incumbent Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) is projected to win the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Rhode Island, according to the Associated Press, defeating little-known challenger Michael Costa....
Missouri. Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Washington Post: "Just several hours before ballots were to be finalized, the Missouri Suprem Court ruled Tuesday afternoon that a measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution is specific enough to present to voters in November. The decision came after a short but politically fraught morning hearing before all seven judges -- four of them women, five of them appointees of Republican governors. Only days earlier, a lower-court judge had ruled the ballot measure invalid because it does not identify which laws it would repeal.... The outcome means that Missouri will remain among more than half a dozen states with measures to protect abortion rights on their ballots this fall, including in presidential battleground states such as Arizona and Florida."
New Hampshire Primary Election. Jenna Russell of the New York Times: "Maggie Goodlander, a former Justice Department official and political newcomer, won the Democratic primary for New Hampshire's Second Congressional District on Tuesday after a close race against Colin Van Ostern, according to The Associated Press. Ms. Goodlander, who grew up in Nashua, N.H., but spent most of her adult life elsewhere, is married to Jake Sullivan, President Biden's national security adviser.... More than a dozen candidates vied for the Republican nomination; Lily Tang Wiliams came out on top, according to The Associated Press, and will face Ms. Goodlander in November."
~~~~~~~~~~
Ukraine, et al. Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: Antony Blinken "made a rare wartime visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, offering a sympathetic ear to its leaders as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mounted a push to win permission to use long-range U.S. missile systems to strike deep into Russia, despite being rejected last week by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Kyiv's attempt to sway the Biden administration came as Ukraine has faced heavy bombardment from Russia in recent days -- especially on its power sector -- a situation that Blinken warned ahead of the visit could soon get worse after the United States accused Iran of shipping short-range ballistic missiles to Russia earlier this month. The Ukrainian effort is a continuation of a dynamic that has marked relations between Kyiv and Washington since the full-scale Russian invasion two and a half years ago. Ukraine has pushed for more and better weaponry, while Washington has resisted, fearing escalation with Russia, only to relent later.
News Lede
Washington Post: "The peak of Atlantic hurricane season has arrived, and right on schedule, a hurricane is bearing down on the Gulf Coast. Francine, upgraded from a tropical storm to a hurricane Tuesday night, is forecast to make landfall in Louisiana on Wednesday." ~~~
~~~ AP Update: "Hurricane Francine struck Louisiana on Wednesday evening as a Category 2 storm that forecasters warned could bring deadly storm surge, widespread flooding and destructive winds on the northern U.S. Gulf Coast. Francine made landfall in Terrebonne Parish, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Morgan City, the National Hurricane Center announced at 4 p.m. CDT. Packing maximum sustained winds near 100 mph (155 kph), the hurricane crashed into a fragile coastal region that hasn't fully recovered from a series of devastating hurricanes in 2020 and 2021." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post has live updates here.
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Reader Comments (32)
Did TFF really say Biden was paid three and a half million dollars by the Moscow mayor's wife?
Always learning something. Hadn't heard that one before.
@Ken Winkes: That's a new one on me, too. We just don't listen to/read enough right wing "news." Jonathan Weisman of the NYT wrote in the liveblog linked above, "As the debate moves to closing statements, the former president's last words before the final break were meant to impugn President Biden, accusing him baselessly of taking money from China and the 'mayor of Moscow’s wife.' This, he argued, 'is a crooked administration.'”
NBC News
"Taylor Swift endorses Kamala Harris after presidential debate
The musician's endorsement, which had been widely anticipated, was signed "Childless Cat Lady.""
"“Childless Cat Lady Inexplicably Enjoying Life.” - New Yorker
A good night!
Kamala Harris kicked that fat bastard all over the stage. It was a thing of beauty. As the debate wore on, she got stronger, he got stranger. She was flying, he was flummoxed. He couldn’t even look at her, looking instead at the moderators, appealing for help. She, on the other hand, looked right at him like a prosecutor nailing a sweaty perp in the witness chair. She would occasionally smirk at his lies and at other times gave him that seriously concerned look, the way you look at a crazy person on the subway.
The moderators let him get away with a lot, but called him on a few big things which I was almost stunned to see. Fatty tried his usual trick of shouting over people, but in the entire time, he didn’t come near uttering a single syllable about policy proposals except to bellow out his usual stupido superlativoes about billions of this and trillions of that, numbers with no basis in facts or supporting connective tissue that might allow viewers a fighting chance to figure out what in the holy hell he was yapping about.
As Harris continued to needle him I kept expecting Trumplethinskin to explode, and finally he did, sputtering complete nonsense about immigrants kidnapping pets and eating them. He might as well have been talking about sharks and magnets under water.
I knew once he grabbed at the pet eating thing he was cooked. Done. His gasbag tank empty.
The fact that he couldn’t restrain himself from shouting back at Harris after she pushed that button about bored rally goers bailing on him should be exhibit one as evidence of how easy it is to manipulate this sad sack. If it’s that easy to get him screaming, flip it around. It would be just as easy to work this jamoke with flattery. He can’t help it. Guys like Putin know this all too well.
When Harris whacked him about how world leaders laugh at him I thought he was gonna stroke out. He started shouting about Victor Orban. Victor fucking Orban is his character witness? He might as well have told viewers to call his mob pal Vinnie Boombah, for a reference as to his bona fides as an honest “bidnessman”. “Victor Orban sez I’m the best”. Jeeeesuz.
All in all, a great night.
Now let’s see how the Both Sides MSM calls it.
Me? I’m going to bed happy.
Endorsement from some singer who goes to football games? So what? As the great Donald would say, no one’s ever heard of her. Biggest selling recording artist in the world last year with over 10 million albums sold in the US alone? Big deal. The Dear Leader is backed by all-time greats like that guy Ted somebody, and that old guy who is always tearing his clothes off, the Hulk guy who said he was gonna body slam Nancy Pelosi for letting those nice people visit the Capitol.
Superstars like you read about.
So there.
What losing looks like.
“Burnt-sienna face paint melting around the edges, shoulders sagging, lips and neck hole pursed, Donald Trump shambled over to the bank of cameras. Reporters shouted questions about his bizarre claim that immigrants were eating pets. They wondered if he would debate his foe again, why he was so rattled by her, and whether he was disappointed that she had earned the coveted Taylor Swift endorsement.
Standing in the back, I tried to get in the mix, shouting repeatedly—to one communications staffer’s great annoyance—about Trump’s inability even to look in the alpha dog vice president’s general direction. ‘Why wouldn’t you even look at her?’ I yelled out again and again.
At one point it seemed as if he heard it, glancing my direction. But he looked away, desperate to find some more friendly turf. For a few minutes he stood there, halfheartedly claiming that he had won the debate and implausibly explaining his presence [in the spin room] as a result of ‘promises’ he made to appear on his beloved cable news. Eventually, he shuffled back behind the pipe and drape, flanked by staffers who were alternately red-faced or ashen. For Donald Trump and his surrogates, this was the spin room from hell.”
Tee-hee. Tee-hee.
Too much winning…so tired of all this winning…must lie down…
Test…
Squarespace mad Trump lost…
Let’s all be nice to the loser.
NPR had on two commentators this morning to talk about last night’s wake for the Fat Fascist, one a Democrat, the other representing the Traitors.
The NPR person asked if Harris delivered any knock out blows. Here I am trying to decide which of the fifty direct punches to that orange face would be selected.
Alas, according to these guys, there were none. The Traitor guy said Harris made a “few” points but nothing really damaging. The Democratic lady, trying to be nice (I think), agreed.
Christ all-fucking mighty. Why do we always have to be nice to these goddam people? No knock out punches? This was like Muhammad Ali back in his heyday when he’d fight a Chump of the Month. The fight would be over by the third round but he’d keep the guy on his feet another couple of rounds just to get in some exercise, then he’d hit him hard enough to kill his whole family.
No knockouts? Like I said, this was a wake. The only difference is, at most wakes, when they have the viewing of the body, the stiff isn’t still yapping.
But let’s be nice.
If it were the other way around, do you think the Traitor guy would be all solicitous? Fuck no! He’d be pointing and laughing.
I guess the best thing you can say at a wake is “Gee, he looks just like himself.” That was true. Trump looked just like himself. A bloated idiot in makeup.
My favorite line of the night:
“I have been a leader on fertilization,” he (the Pretender) declared.
No kidding.
@Akhilleus: You'll feel better about NPR if you read Domenico Montanaro's assessment of the debate performances: "Trump’s team ahead of the debate equated the Republican standard-bearer to boxing great, Muhammad Ali. If he was a boxer, Trump was cut and bleeding in the middle of the fight, and by the end, was TKO’d."
I never watch the debates live, because the magic of the internet allows me to catch them in the proper order: (1) Kimmel, Colbert and Stewart; (2) "serious" panels a la Maddow; (3) the paperz.
This does include some personal hazard, though. Some of Colbert's work last night could have caused serious coffee-through-nose ejections if coffee intake was not carefully managed.
But the risk was worth it.
If VP Harris decides to be a horologist after her two upcoming presidential terms, she has shown the creds. She truly cleaned that fat German's cuckoo clock.
Who knows what it means in this strange political time, but it feels good, and for today that is sufficient.
The most frightening bit of news was that statement that 25% of
republicans, or trump worshippers, think that if he loses he should
seize power anyway.
That 25% could be those gun knobbers for trump.
I don't own a gun yet, even though I was a sharpshooter in the
military, so maybe I'll just order some bars for the windows.
Even when Donnie is "prepared" it is so easy to manipulate him. It's another illustration of why Orban and Putin and the rest of the club of cruel love Trump so much. Trump was emotional, unprepared and ill informed, typical Trump. As the misogynists are always arguing, how can we trust power and leadership to someone who is so emotional? I just hope all those fence sitters that watched last night saw the same shit show that we did. As the MAGA cult has shown us, Americans are masters of only hearing what they want to hear and ignoring the rest.
The high light for me, was watching his orange face turn red.
Isn't Donald his own debate team? Isn't that what he keeps telling everyone. He is his own best advisor. So the Republicans like Graham are really saying that Trump should fire himself. I fully support firing the people behind that weak pathetic debate performance too.
How many reviews of Melanie's memoir will just be "I really don't care, do you?"?
Melania's new book is available on Amazon for only $28.00, but
you must wait until Oct 8 release date. I just can't wait, will no doubt
loose sleep worrying until Oct 8.
And that's for the hard cover version. The soft cover is cheaper.
Soft cover reminds me of a first lady who did soft porn. Film at eight.
All Trump wants in Ukraine is peace in our time.
@Akhilleus-
Burnt sienna? More like yellow ochre.
Philip Bump says Trump might try to seize power after losing. Well, we know that Republicans will be up to shenanigans to make sure he wins, but if that doesn't work, I'd like to see him try...
Gonzo,
Certainly a yellow spine. Like all bullies, Trump is at heart, a coward. In that space, with no screaming MAGAts to draw off of, to make him feel like a big man, Trump folded. He resorted to shouting, to nonsensical pleas to anyone to believe his outlandish lies, to blubbering and bellowing.
Harris needed no encouragement from a worshipful crowd of sycophants. She’s used to standing up in a courtroom and going it alone. Without his ass kissers to tell how wonderful he is, to react deliriously to his promises of tough guy violence and racial insults, he was a fat, scared old man, apoplectic that this woman—a woman of color!—was humiliating him in front of the whole world. Dressing him down, calling him out on his lies, his incompetence, and his clownishness, pointing out to him and to everyone that other world leaders LAUGH at him.
All he could do was sputter the MAGA version of “I know you are, but what am I?”
But you’re right. Once he gets back before the droolers, his anger will boil over. His 2025 handlers will goad him into violent action.
It’s gonna be bad. But at least those chimerical undecideds know what they’re getting if they vote for this small, spit-angry, demented charlatan.
Couple brief thoughts about the debate. I watched with my daughter, who lived in Charlottesville for several years--including during the Unite the Right rally. I thought she was going to throw something at the TV when Trump asserted he didn't say what he said about fine people on both sides. Even years after the rally, she was uncomfortable going downtown, saying the vibe of the whole place was unsavory. She knew other people who felt the same way.
As for Taylor Swift, I saw that she had posted her endorsement on Instagram about 15 minutes after it went live. At that point, the post had been liked by nearly 1 million people. In the minute it took me to read and refresh the post, another 300,000 had signed on. Currently, the post has been liked by 8.9 million. No idea how many people follow/like the tangerine menace on his Napoleon-complex Twitter knockoff, but I'm guessing she smoked him.
Elizabeth,
Your daughter’s personal experience of the kind of violence instigated and applauded by Trump dovetails nicely with one of Kamala Harris’s most effective strategies, making a direct connection to viewers on a personal level. She made a point of looking directly at the camera, the viewers. Trump never did that once. He’s too wrapped up in his own grievances and pathologies to even make the attempt.
I’ve read some opinionators whining that she didn’t provide a detailed enough explanation of certain economic instruments like tariffs or GDP, criticizing her talking about tariffs as if they were the same thing as a sales tax. And yeah, if you tried that in your Ec 10 final, you’d be marked down for it. But stop 50 people in the street and ask them to explain the operation of a tariff and its micro and macroeconomic effect, and I’m guessing you might get five who could get close and maybe one who could ace the question. But ask that same group about sales tax and they’d all get it right.
Effectively, to the average consumer, the end result is the same. You pay more for something. That’s all you gotta know.
Make it personal. Talking about abortion, she relayed horror stories about individual Americans. No one watches a debate for philosophical and moral exegesis. How does this policy affect me? She also kept it ultra personal by calling what’s going on in many states a “Trump abortion ban”. (That was brilliant.) Make it personal.
But as a good prosecutor, Harris understands that.
I read a New Yorker article years ago about the Klaus von Bülow trial. Ol’ Klaus was suspected of killing his rich wife Sunny with an overdose of insulin. The DA brought in a raft of experts from the Joslin Diabetes Clinic to explain the pathophysiology of the body’s response to insulin, yadda, yadda, yadda.
The jury found Klaus not guilty. Afterwards, asked about the trial, a number of jurors confessed that they got lost listening to researchers and clinicians drone on for hours about the underlying science. What they should have said was “Sunny was rich, Klaus knew how much insulin to give her. He wanted her dead, he gave her a hot shot. Case closed.”
Keep it personal, the way Harris connected with your daughter. That’s what a skilled prosecutor can do.
The question now is, will enough voters find the Fat Fascist guilty.
I know what I’d say.
While I acknowledge that Trump fans aren't very bright, surely some of those who watched the debate must have noticed that Harris easily goaded Trump into making ridiculous statements and spouting bald-faced lies. Particularly because he has been telling his MAGA base that Harris is "not intelligent," uninformed and barely able to speak in full sentences, one would think some among the MAGA crowd would have been a little shocked at how Harris manipulated their hero.
Then, after winding Trump up all night, Harris said this, in what I think was her most effective moment, because she already had shredded Trump: "... it is very well known that Donald Trump is weak and wrong on national security and foreign policy. It is well known that he admires dictators, wants to be a dictator on day one according to himself. It is well known that he said of Putin that he can do whatever the hell he wants and go into Ukraine. It is well known when that he said when Russia went into Ukraine it was brilliant. It is well known he exchanged love letters with Kim Jong un. And it is absolutely well known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you [Trump] to be president again because they're so clear, they can manipulate you with flattery and favors. And that is why so many military leaders who you have worked with have told me you are a disgrace. That is why we understand that we have to have a president who is not consistently weak and wrong on national security including the importance of upholding and respecting in highest regard our military."
IOW: "Again and again, you have told people I was a stupid woman, incapable of speaking. Yet if a stupid, inarticulate woman like me can get the better of you as I have done tonight, obviously these foreign dictators you think are so great are easily able to manipulate you. You are a fool and the country cannot afford to have a fool for its president*."
Marie,
Thanks for the Montanaro link. This is the sort of thing we should have been reading all along, not Trump Translation Monkeys turning a half burned piece of charcoal left over from last night’s barbecue into the Hope Diamond.
Okay a final note…
Ahhhh…the schadenfreude she is good, no?
Well, boys and girls, enjoy it while it lasts. Both Sides will be back at it tomorrow.
But for now, just imagine the screaming and howling by Baby Trumpy. Remember that story about him throwing a sandwich at the wall and spraying ketchup everywhere because some little thing pissed him off?
Today, aides are rushing the food away as soon as the orange gob is stuffed.
Heh-heh.
And hey, great job on debate prep, guys. But you can’t blame them entirely, to slightly paraphrase an appropriate Dorothy Parker quote, you can lead a whore to culture but you can’t make him think.
The thing about tariffs -- in fact, one of the purposes of tariffs -- is that they raise the price not only on the foreign goods, but also on comparable domestic goods. Say a Chinese-made clothes dryer costs $400. You might buy it because it costs less than a similar U.S.-made model, which sells for $450.
So Trump slaps a 20% tariff on the Chinese dryer, raising the price to $480. Okay, great. Now, the American model is a bargain at $450. Oh, wait. The American capitalist sees an opportunity to make more money (thanks, Trump!). He raises the price of his dryer to $480, too. His dryer costs more than it did, but it is still more competitive than it was back when it cost $50 more than the Chinese model.
And of course it's the American consumer -- who has all those diapers to dry -- who gets screwed because she has to pay more for a dryer, no matter what the country of origin.
Voters for Trump
Oops, forgot to mention this one thing…
I keep reading about Trump’s “brilliant” GOTCHA moment last night.
Towards the very end, Fatty howled “All these ideas. You had three and a half years to do all this, why didn’t you do it then?”
No journalists seem to be able to figure this out. But this is a question on the order of “The tide goes in, the tide goes out. How does that happen?”
Yeah. Harris and Biden have had some great ideas. Why weren’t they implemented?
Easy! TRUMP!
Anything needing congressional approval has to go through the Trump and Traitor controlled House. Something great for the American public? If Biden could get credit for it, the bobble heads called Fatty. Fatty said “Biden will look good? No way. Vote it down.” And they did. Even if, especially if, Americans would benefit.
That’s why. In a way, it’s a similar answer to the tides question: something white, round, cold, old, dumb, and distant.
The moon, and Trump.
Akhilleus,
Biden and Harris also had a worldwide health and economic disaster to guide us all out of. On top of that there was the aftermath of the political disaster Trump left the country when he tried to overthrow the people's will. As usual the Democrats had to clean up the trash fire Republicans left them on the way out.
Now going viral in the culinary blogosphere:
A top food writer's secret recipe for braised kittens in parakeet sauce.
A spicy ethnic play on the all-American hot dog.
And an updated version of the classic Stone Soup, this one featuring a pet rock.
Bon appétit!
What was going through Trump’s mind as the names of the dead were read at the 9/11 commemoration:
Loser, loser, sucker, stupid, sounds like a black name; wouldn’t have voted for me, deserved to die, loser, loser, loser, Jew? Fuck ‘im; loser, sucker. Fuck! How long do I have to stand here? I’m hungry. My golf game is suffering. Look at that cheatin’ bitch. If I were still President I could have her killed now that I have that immunity thing…