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From The Reporter’s Notebook
Donald Trump has a solution in mind for those who’ve been unhappy with debate moderators: get rid of them altogether. In a Tuesday interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Trump said that he wants to have a debate where he and Hillary Clinton are just “talking” sans moderator because of concerns that moderators are biased, TPM’s Kristin Salaky reported. “Let Hillary and I sit there and just debate,” he said. “I think the system is being rigged so it’s going to be a very unfair debate. I can see it happening right now because everybody was saying ‘he was soft on Trump,’ and now the new person is going to try and be really hard on Trump just to show the establishment what he can do.”
Agree or Disagree?
Josh Marshall: “Pence seems more than anything just clumsy finding himself refusing call an avowed racist and former KKK leader ‘deplorable.’ But it also shows the difficulty of the topic. The Trump campaign wants to keep the conversation to a broad mass of supporters. They don’t want to get into litigating who’s deplorable and who’s not. After all, even if they’re way fewer than half, Trump has a huge following of noxious ‘deplorable’ followers. Is David Duke ‘deplorable,’ how about alt-right golden boy Milo? Frankly, how about the publisher who’s pushed the ‘alt-right’ into the mainstream. Before Trump, that person was Breitbart publisher Steve Bannon, who is now of course Trump’s campaign manager. This whole part of the campaign debate is now in a chaotic flux, made more so by Clinton’s illness. But this could easily turn against Trump.”
Say What?!
“I think it’s very unfair what they are doing.”
– Donald Trump says that debate moderators will be “really hard” on him and recommends getting rid of them altogether.
BUZZING: Today in the Hive
From a TPM Prime member: “Considering people of a different color to be of lower value is deplorable on its face, and calling someone a racist is factual, not derogatory. The terms homophobe, Islamphobe, white supremacist, would not be be disputed particularly by those referenced. Implying a large portion of Mexican immigrants are criminals is factually wrong and shows a nativist stance. These positions are deplorable. The people themselves may be paragons of virtue otherwise, but these views are not acceptable in America today. Clinton is not saying untruths, or using insults instead of argument. The quibble might be the percentage, but the large percentage of white men supporting Trump is hard to explain in policy terms. It only makes sense as a diffuse version of racism and sexism.”
Related: Two members of Trump’s inner circle shared memes featuring a symbol popular with the white nationalist alt-right.
Have something to add? Become a Prime member and join the discussion here.
What We’re Reading
Trying to stay healthy on the campaign trail. (STAT)
Can Jonathan Safran Foer write fiction about anything but himself? (New Republic)
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