A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
‘Bad Genes’
In a campaign that Donald Trump has centered on race ever since the biracial Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee, the former president continues to ratchet up the toxicity of his rhetoric as the election approaches.
After he and his running mate JD Vance targeted Black Haitian immigrants legally residing in Springfield, Ohio, culminating with a campaign stop there last week, the former president began repeating nonsensical claims about Black immigrants from the Congo.
Then in a new level of vitriol – that echoes some of the worst racism that history has to offer – Trump suggested Monday that some immigrants are genetically inferior:
JUST NOW: @realDonaldTrump leans heavily into race science by telling @hughhewitt that you can tell whether migrants are predisposed to committing murder by "their genes."
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) October 7, 2024
"We got a lot of bad genes in our country right now," he adds. pic.twitter.com/t722iYq4Hm
As Philip Bump notes, it’s not the first time Trump has invoked his baseless theory of genetic differences as part of a broader racist appeal to his audiences.
The dehumanizing of immigrants is nothing new for Trump, either. The not-so-subtle shift to focusing on immigrants of color, while facing off against an opponent with Black and South Asian heritage, is new to this campaign cycle, but it of course reminiscent of his deep foray into birtherism during the presidency of Barack Obama.
Trump’s Deep Anti-Semitism On Full Display, Too
To mark the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Donald Trump trafficked in a patented mix of anti-Semitism and narcissism:
- “I did more for the Jewish people than anybody — and it’s not reciprocal,” Trump complained to Hugh Hewitt.
- In the same interview, Trump falsely claimed that he had visited Gaza in the past.
- To make matters worse, a Trump campaign aide pushed back against the insinuation that Trump had lied about visiting Gaza by claiming Gaza is “in Israel” and Trump had visited Israel. Ergo?
Abortion Watch
Several new developments, all with consequences for women’s health and the 2024 election:
- Georgia: Georgia Supreme Court reinstates state’s 6-week abortion ban
- Texas: The Supreme Court Punts Again On Emergency Abortion Care
- Florida: DeSantis Threatening Jail Time for Running Abortion Rights Ads in Florida
BREAKING …
The FBI probe of the sexual assault claims against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh were constrained by the Trump White House, according to a new report to be released today by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a fierce opponent of Kavanaugh’s 2018 nomination.
SCOTUS Begins Its New Term
- TPM’s Kate Riga: The Supreme Court Returns For A Culture War Term
- Nancy Gertner and Stephen Vladeck: This Supreme Court Is Its Own Worst Enemy
- NYT: Death Penalty, Nuclear Waste and More: Supreme Court Rounds Out Coming Term
By The Numbers
Kamala Harris takes a lead in NYT/Siena poll for the first time, pulling ahead of Donald Trump among likely voters nationwide 49%-46%.
Tampa Faces Catastrophic Hurricane Milton
The long-feared direct hit on Tampa by a major hurricane – the likes of which hasn’t been experienced in more than a century, during which time development of the bay area exploded – seems nearly inevitable as Milton approaches from the west across an exceptionally warm Gulf of Mexico, according to forecasts from the National Hurricane Center.
Tampa’s unique geography makes it the major U.S. city most vulnerable to a storm surge. The current storm surge warning predicts 10-15 feet of water above normally dry ground in and around Tampa, which is dotted with canals, inlets, and channels that make vast areas of residential and commercial development vulnerable to inundation.
In terms of flooding potential, we’re talking Katrina and Sandy levels of potential inundation. Whether Milton, which deepened Monday into one of the strongest storms on record in the Atlantic basin, leaves a similar trail of destruction and loss of life as those two historic storms will depend in part on how successful today’s continuing evacuation of the west central Florida coastline is. It’s not a survivable storm surge for those who remain.
Evacuating large areas of a major urban area is neither simple nor easy, and in some ways we need to be honest with ourselves that it’s not entirely possible. The logistics are difficult, the communications challenges hard to overcome, and the sheer number of old, infirm, immobile, and those without means makes it a sobering reality that while it’s easy to call for a mass evacuation, it’s nearly impossible to execute one.
If you’ve not lived on the Gulf Coast, it’s difficult to describe how little time you have to decide whether to call an abrupt halt to normal life and shift into hurricane mode. Do you skip class or work today or wait and see until tomorrow? Do you cancel that long-awaited doctor appointment, that much-needed treatment, or that scheduled surgery? What about that deadline at work, or your contractual obligation to a client, or the much-needed service your business provides? These are agonizing decisions that might be easier if they came once a lifetime or once a decade, but they now come more often, sometimes multiple times a year.
The Tampa region is still picking up the pieces from the record storm surge that Hurricane Helene brought as it brushed by on its way to landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida two weeks ago. The second major storm in as many weeks makes it both more challenging to prepare for the second storm and more daunting to recover in its aftermath.
If you have loved ones in the Tampa area, urge them to leave. The pain of regretting your decision to stay after it’s too late to leave is exquisite, especially if you have children, elderly parents, employees, or others depending on you to make good decisions. You do not want to spend the rest of your life carrying the burden of a bad decision with no escape hatch.
Too Much Irony To Bear
"Ironically, we cannot show Climate Central’s 'Climate Shift Index: Ocean' for Milton…b/ the data for that product comes from NOAA NCEI facility in Asheville, NC, which was severely affected by record flooding spawned by Hurricane Helene two weeks ago."https://t.co/wyCUIjjD2k
— David Kurtz (@TPM_dk) October 7, 2024
Exclusive
WSJ:
Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death,” walked out of a U.S. prison almost two years ago in a trade with Moscow for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner. Now he is back in business, trying to broker the sale of small arms to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants.
Meet The TheoBros
A good introduction to the world that JD Vance comes from via Mother Jones. If you’ve been following TPM’s coverage of Christian nationalism, you’ll see some familiar characters and overlapping lineages:
So Gross
Elon & Tucker having a good laugh in new interview: “Nobody has even bothered to kill Kamala because it’s pointless. Ha, ha, ha. What do you achieve? Nothing, you just bought another puppet Nobody is trying to kill Biden, it would be pointless.” pic.twitter.com/9evhzElxai
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 8, 2024
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First, with Ernie and a cauliflower from the farmer’s market.
The soul of fascism right there. Genetics were the Germans claiming science for their wanton self love, vicious ignorance and murderous, monkey-like behavior.
Girl kitty in the bushes!
Cruciferous yes… Cabbage no.
Ernie is a good looking boy
Why do the Republicans ignore climate change and allowing weapons of war to be sold to civilians? You would think this could pick up some votes in the next month.