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Harris Trounces Trump in Their First Debate - The Wednesday AM Quickie 9/11/24

By Corey Pein —

It's nice to emerge from a major political news event and feel something besides profound grief and dread. I could get used to that. - Corey

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THE BIG NEWS

Harris Played Trump's Insecurities Like a Fiddle

There's no question that Kamala Harris won her first debate with Donald Trump last night in Philly. Her virtually flawless performance was a vindication for the Democrats who wanted her to replace President Joe Biden at the top of the party's ticket after Biden's disastrous debate with Trump in June. More importantly, the key audience for last night's debate – undecided voters and people who are just getting to know Harris – saw the Democratic nominee maintain a presidential temperament and full command of the facts while the Republican wannabe dictator ranted with alarming incoherence, becoming harder to follow as the night went on.

Harris evidently aimed to get under Trump's skin and, being who he is, he made her task so very easy. Again and again she baited him into sputtering rages, during which she would offer bemused skeptical looks, and after which she would mock his incompetence and correct his lies. The split screen frequently looked like this:

Harris's expression made clear she isn't buying whatever Trump is selling.

Progressives may have been disappointed by Harris's ongoing pivot to the center – she praised "the late great John McCain" and touted her endorsement by Dick and Liz Cheney – but she brought a cathartic element to the debate. Harris spoke to Trump in a way that a billionaire chauvinist who surrounds himself with bootlickers is not accustomed to being addressed, especially by a woman of color. And he handled it "like a dog." Harris told Trump what people really thought about him. She told him the generals who served under him thought he was a "disgrace." She told him the foreign dictators he celebrates only praise him "because they can manipulate you with flattery and favors." She told him his treatment of women, namely those suffering under the abortion bans he enabled, was "insulting" and "unconscionable." She drove him absolutely up the wall by pointing out that his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, had denounced his plans for the economy – and that many "people leave his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom."

With every single example she raised, she reminded Americans what a hate-fueled nightmare Trump was as president, and asked them to leave him and his chaotic reign in the past. And every single time, Trump responding by taking the bait and revealing the depths of his derangement.

The bigoted dotard was at times clearly "confused," as Harris observed. At one point, his voice even took on a lisping whistle, as though his teeth were coming loose. The old man tried to play the hits but couldn't stay focused. Lobbed a softball about his favorite subject, the border, Trump echoed neo-Nazi lies about Venezuelan migrants in Aurora, Colorado, and Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, raving that "they're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats." Did it make any sense at all to people who hadn't already absorbed his campaign's anti-immigrant blood libel? Or did he just sound insane? But no matter what the moderators asked about – the economy, climate policy, Israel's war in Gaza – Trump inevitably fell into a xenophobic spiel.

Perhaps viewers and voters who nurture the hate in their hearts respond well to his racist tirades, but most people could no doubt see that Trump was unwilling or unable to answer simple questions. When the moderators tried to pin him down on why he still doesn't have a plan for health care nine years after his first run for president, Trump replied defensively, "I have concepts of a plan." He sounded like a whiny teenager who didn't do his homework while speaking about matters of life or death. He waffled on abortion, refused to commit to vetoing a nationwide abortion ban, and creepily claimed that "I have been a leader on fertilization." He declined to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win its war of self-defense. He was utterly incoherent and self-contradictory on the subject of "J6," veering into a half-baked conspiracy theory, and prompting the moderator to note "the question was about you, not Nancy Pelosi."

Those looking for deep policy discussions of were disappointed. Harris built on her theme of building an "opportunity economy," promising tax breaks for entrepreneurs and new parents, new housing construction, subsidies for first-time home buyers, and a domestic manufacturing renaissance powered by clean energy. Trump was too distracted and unprepared to pay the slightest lip service to his platform, apart from backing mass deportations and making vague promises to cut "deals" with foreign dictators. He said nothing about tax breaks for tipped workers or any of the other pseudo-populist ideas his campaign has floated.

Knowing their candidate came out the loser, Republicans predictably complained about the ABC News moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis. But the Disney duo provided perhaps the best moderation Americans could've hoped for. Their questions stuck to matters people actually care about. They offered straightforward fact checks after Trump delivered certain outrageous lies – noting, for instance, that in no state is it legal to execute a newborn baby. And when Trump ranted over his allotted time, they cut him off and moved on. The moderators clearly came prepared for his bullsh*t. So unfair!

"We're not going back," Harris said in her closing statement. "We can chart a new way forward." Trump, given the last word, retreated to his safe space of doom and gloom, calling America "a nation in decline" but offering nothing in the way of solutions. He said "we're going to end up in a Third World War and it'll be a war like no other, because of nuclear weapons." What a way to say goodnight! Inshallah we'll soon be saying goodbye to this demented fascist, whose profound unfitness was plain for all to see last night. He botched the job so badly, I wouldn't be surprised if the first time Trump debated Harris will also be the last time.

He's scared, and it showed.

Future of Democracy Watch: JD Vance Says He Would Have Aided Trump's Coup on Jan. 6

  • Missouri Supreme Court Rules Measure Protecting Abortion Rights Can Stay on November Ballot The case featured a cousin of the late conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh (Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh) and the son of former US Attorney General John Ashcroft (Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft). via the Washington Post and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
  • Ranked Choice Ratf*ck? Alaska Judge Rules Against Democrats in Ballot Eligibility Case Democrats sought unsuccessfully to remove Eric Hafner, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in New York and "has no apparent ties to Alaska," from the ranked-choice ballot line alongside incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola. via the Associated Press.
  • Delaware Democrats Vote for Trans State Sen. Sarah McBride to Join Congress McBride, 34, is heavily favored to defeat Republican retired cop John Whalen III in the general election race to fill a seat Democrats have held since 2010; she will be the first transgender member of Congress. via NBC News.
  • 'Childless Cat Lady' Endorses Harris and Walz Taylor Swift encouraged her 283 million Instagram followers to register to vote, and to vote early, in her endorsement posted after last night's debate of Kamala Harris; Tim Walz welcomed Swift's endorsement as "a fellow cat owner." via Rolling Stone.

Climate Clusterf*ck: Humans to Blame for Record Methane Emissions

  • Wildfires Rage Across Western US and in Brazilian Amazon Meanwhile, US emergency management officials say Facebook is endangering lives by flagging their posts, including urgent warnings to evacuate, as spam. via the New York Times, the Guardian, and the Washington Post.
  • Super Typhoon Yagi Kills at Least 127 in Vietnam; Hundreds Injured; Dozens Missing; 1.5 Million Without Power "Meteorologists say that as the world warms typhoons can bring higher wind speeds and more intense rainfall." via BBC News.
  • Hurricane Francine Will Knock Out a Quarter of Oil and Gas Output in the Gulf of Mexico "Helping Francine gain hurricane status Tuesday night were the Gulf's exceedingly warm late-summer waters," the highest on record for the date at 87 degrees Farenheit. via the Associated Press and Reuters.
  • Britain, Birthplace of Coal Power, Will Close Its Final Plant This Month "Coal supplied 80 per cent of the UK's electricity in 1990 — but only 1 per cent last year" as the share of renewable energy grows thanks to "government financial support and falling production costs." via the Financial Times.

QUICKEST QUICKIES

  • NYPD Commish Ensnared in FBI Probe Is Daring Eric Adams to Fire Him The Mayor-Cop's administration is at the center of "at least four separate federal corruption inquiries." via Politico, the New York Times, and The City.
  • Biden Administration Demands 'Fundamental Changes' in Israel's West Bank Operations After Killing of American But the family of American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, killed last Friday at a protest near Nablus, said neither President Joe Biden nor anyone from the White House has called them to offer condolences. via the Los Angeles Times and Reuters.
  • House Republicans Bail on Mike Johnson's Spending Plan Ahead of Today's Vote Trump ordered the GOP caucus yesterday to shut down the government unless they got "absolute assurances on Election Security" in the spending package, meaning, a requirement for federal election voters to show "proof of citizenship" before registering. via the Washington Post and Politico.
  • Google and Apple Lose Multibillion-Dollar Antitrust and Tax Cases Before the EU European antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, once disparaged by Donald Trump as the "tax lady" who "really hates the US," called her $14.3 billion victory over Apple "very important to show European taxpayers that once in a while, tax justice can be done." via the AP.

SOME NUMBER

14

That's the likely minimum age Australians would have to be to access social media under legislation the government of Labor Party Prime Minister Anthony Albanese plans to introduce this year.

ON THE SHOW TODAY

9/11: It’s Hump Day!

DON'T MISS MR CLIPS‌

Charlie Kirk Absolutely HUMILIATED By College Student

Isn't he supposed to be the Republicans' youth whisperer?

26% of Voters Don't Trust Trump OR Harris on Israel

She didn't say anything new to win them over last night.

PARTING WORDS

"They shouldn't have allowed this company to keep producing ready-to-eat products, lunch meat that's going to go on people's tables, when they're seeing this level of violation. Consumers had to die before this plant got shut down, really is the bottom line."

-- Sarah Sorscher, an expert in food safety regulation at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, speaking to the New York Times about the US Department of Agriculture's failure to prevent a deadly listeria outbreak from meats processed at a Boar's Head plant in Jarratt, Virginia. Newly released inspection reports show the USDA found the disgusting facility posed an "imminent threat" to public health as early as 2022 but, for some reason, did not shut it down.

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