The parents of a Springfield, Ohio boy whose death last year became fodder for the anti-immigrant right told national Republican politicians on Tuesday to stop abusing their son’s memory.
Continue reading “Father of Child Killed in Ohio Crash Begs Trump, Vance To Stop Politicizing Son’s Death”Kamala Harris Directly Confronted The Trump Menace In Our Midst
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Standing Up To The Bully
Kamala Harris practiced a different kind of dominance politics in last night’s debate, confronting the menace of Donald Trump directly and taking him down a peg like you would a schoolyard bully.
After nearly a decade of Trump doing as he pleases with little accountability, a lot of appeasement, and very rare consequence, he was brought up short by an opponent who looked him in the eye, called him out, didn’t back down, and in the process threw him off his game and took command of the debate stage.
The emotional weight of her presentation was centered on confronting him with a combination of mockery, scorn, bemusement, disdain, and condescension. Yes, it got under his skin, Yes, he was rattled, Yes, it turned him into a fulminating old man. I’m less interested though in the stagecraft she used than in the catharsis it provided to viewers who have craved to see Trump get his comeuppance for so many years, only to be repeatedly and endlessly disappointed.
It was Joe Biden’s failure to confront Trump on this level during their debate in June that led to the existential crisis among Democrats. Biden failed in multiple ways in that debate, but the biggest letdown was his failure to stand up to Trump in a convincing fashion and instead let Trump run all over him.
In contrast, Harris confronted Trump repeatedly. She referred to him as a “disgrace” twice, as “dangerous and unfit,” as “confused,” and as lacking the right “temperament” to be president. She derided him to his face as someone dictators know “they can manipulate … with flattery and favors.” She often referred to him in the second person, a more charged and direct way of punching the bully in the nose. She called him out for warring against the rule of law and the Constitution and for his own criminally-charged conduct.
Just don’t confuse catharsis with election victory. The most sobering part of the evening was knowing that a solid 40+% of the country remains under the sway of this petty bully, huckster, narcissist, a chronic fabricator of falsehoods and misinformation. But at least Harris called him for those things.
Trump has no affirmative case to make for being president. He can’t win over new voters, so his only path is to tear down Harris to make her an unacceptable choice. By that measure alone, Harris was able to turn the tables.
A Panoply Of Kamala Harris Reaction Shots
A grateful nation vicariously reacted to Donald Trump through the facial expression of Kamala Harris (click to enlarge):
A Final Flex
The Harris campaign immediately called for another debate with Trump as soon as the candidates left last night’s debate stage. Trump waffled a bit when asked about it post-debate and refused to commit to another installment.
The Debate By The Numbers
The most annoying thing the moderators did was to repeatedly let Trump grab control of the microphone and talk out of turn. That led to considerable disparities in total time spoken and number of times speaking:
‘I Have Concepts Of A Plan’
Step aside “Infrastructure Week,” we have a new winner in the category of endless Trump promises that he never delivers on.
Somehow Trump went backwards from always on the verge of releasing his own Obamacare replacement plan while president to four years later having only the “concepts of a plan.”
What it looks like when a huckster is exposed:
Post by @aaron.ruparView on Threads
Harris’ Embrace Of The Military
It was a low-key point of emphasis, but Kamala Harris explicitly aligned herself with the military eight different times in the debate, by my count.
At first I thought it was an effort to highlight’s Trump’s consistent disparagement of the service members, but it came up in enough different contexts to make me think it was also a calculated effort to bolster her national security credentials and inoculate her against doubts about her becoming the first woman commander in chief.
The Most Absurd Non-Trump Moment
Climate change got short shrift in the debate, a single question framed in the most unsophisticated, open-ended way:
The question to you both tonight is what would you do to fight climate change? And Vice President Harris, we’ll start with you. One minute for you each.
It’s a measure of the degraded state of our public discourse about climate change that the debate question would be so general and non-specific – with an entire 60 seconds to respond.
Look What You Made Her Do
Taylor Swift, the preeminent childless cat lady, timed her endorsement of Kamala Harris to land just after the debate ended, which led to the odd scene of Rachel Maddow reading Swift’s Instagram post to Tim Walz live on the air.
Big News
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that a measure to enshrine abortion rights will remain on the November ballot.
Army Stonewalls On Trump Arlington Fiasco
New reporting from Greg Sargent:
The Army has yet to provide Democrats in Congress with its internal incident report detailing the confrontation, even though they have been demanding it for almost two weeks, a congressional aide familiar with the situation tells me. Democrats have also demanded a blow-by-blow account of what exactly was communicated to the Trump campaign before the incident. Trump aides were warned against carrying out prohibited activities, and a full accounting would show the degree to which they knew in advance that their filming would violate specific laws and regulations. That has not been forthcoming either, the aide says.
More On The Terrorgram Indictment
Joyce Vance, on the feds busting up the Terrorgram Collective with the indictment of two of its alleged leaders:
Terrorgram Collective is a transnational terrorist group that operates on the digital messaging platform Telegram, where it promotes white supremacist accelerationism, an ideology centered on the belief that the white race is superior; that society is irreparably corrupt and cannot be saved by political action; and that violence and terrorism are necessary to ignite a race war and accelerate the collapse of the government and the rise of a white ethnostate.
Good Read
The Atlantic: Why Mike Lee Folded
It Will Forever Be Known As The Pet-Eating Debate
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Harris Baits A Bitter And Defensive Trump Into Exposing His True Colors
Just like the first first presidential debate of 2024, the second first presidential debate of 2024 (now with a different Democratic candidate) was quite an experience. A very different kind of experience.
Confrontation was a clear theme that ran throughout the hour and 45 minutes. Vice President Kamala Harris baited former President Donald Trump over and over again, leaving him glowering, defensive and bitter.
Continue reading “Harris Baits A Bitter And Defensive Trump Into Exposing His True Colors”Harris Successfully Goads An Increasingly Irate Trump In Strong Debate Performance
The first debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump couldn’t have gone much better for Harris, who successfully baited an increasingly irritated (and loud) Trump on everything from the enthusiasm of his rally attendees to being an embarrassment in the eyes of foreign leaders.
The first half of the debate, where most impressions are formed, was also heavy on her best issues and Trump’s worst, including abortion and the Jan. 6 attack. Even the immigration portion, Trump’s favorite issue, began with relitigation of the border bill he instructed his Republican allies to kill.
Trump pivoted continuously to illegal immigration; Harris repeated her vision of an opportunity economy for middle class Americans.
In a sign of confidence, the Harris campaign called for another debate as soon as this one ended. To cap the night, Taylor Swift endorsed Harris, signing her endorsement “childless cat lady.”
Debate Wrap Up: No One Has Ever So Thoroughly Dominated Donald Trump
I feel obligated to note at the top that you can win a debate and lose the election. Donald Trump isn’t a momentary candidate. He has a big national political following that has remained loyal over almost a decade. Nothing happened tonight that is going to shake the confidence of his supporters. But with that said, this debate was an absolute rout. Harris had a minute or two of nerves in her opening statement. But from the very first exchange she maintained the initiative, kept Trump on the defensive the entire time and simply dominated him. I don’t see any way to contest that basic verdict.
She set a tone at the very start when she walked right into his space to shake his hand and made him almost pull back into himself in response. She was in charge and never stopped being in charge.
Continue reading “Debate Wrap Up: No One Has Ever So Thoroughly Dominated Donald Trump”She’s Spun Him a Thousand Times
10:38 PM: In any war, in any sport, you maintain the initiative and you’re on the road to victory. Harris has controlled the entire debate. She’s effectively baited him in a way no other candidate has ever been able to do. It’s not like she’s going to rocket into some big lead. People aren’t going to abandon Trump. But she needed to show she can dominate him, be the one in control. She has. It’s as simple as that. She’s also gotten him to spend most of the debate showing his most feral and angry self. This debate was a rout. I don’t think there’s any other way to put it.
10:19 PM: Is she actually going to overmatch him on the Afghanistan withdrawal question?
10:05 PM: Trump has simply been on the defensive for every moment of this debate. She delivers her messages, while also baiting him and he responds and gets angrier in a way that makes him even less coherent than normal. She’s controlling the tempo and frankly dominating the debate. Meanwhile he’s spent most of the debate talking about his worst vulnerabilities.
Okay, Take Two …
9:55 PM: Trump’s definitely not going to be a strongman and his character witness is Viktor Orban.
9:54 PM: They say you’re a disgrace. Wow.
9:48 PM: So Trump spent his time saying that Nancy Pelosi did January 6th.
9:44 PM: So I’m going to say that energy answer wasn’t great for Trump. Good lord.
9:37 PM: I keep hoping she’ll say one thing and then she doesn’t. But she says something better. She’s hitting her points.
9:33 PM: Obviously Afghanistan is a good issue for Trump. It is what it is. But Trump’s getting angrier and angrier. It’s visible.
9:29 PM: She’s just baiting him and he’s taking the bait. He’s hitting points he wants to certainly. But he is reacting to her.
9:23 PM: JD made a crunchy sound after Don threw him under the bus.
9:21 PM: Harris’s response on abortion was literally perfect.
9:20 PM: There are technical points I was hoping Harris would hit on abortion. But what she’s actually doing is much better. “Trump abortion bans”.
9:18 PM: This is a good example of a case in which his furry and fast talking could give the appearance of coherence. But it’s all nonsense. I’m listening now to the abortion answer. It just sounded like jibberish.
9:14 PM: She’s spinning him in the circles. I’m not trying to be over-optimistic. But every exchange so far is her pressing a point that is important to her campaign and he’s responding and often with a fugue of nonsense.
9:11 PM: She’s driving this debate so far.
9:08 PM: Harris started a bit nervous, a touch wobbly. But she’s hitting the points she needs to hit. She’s making him respond. That’s what I’m seeing so far.
9:01 PM: Why is he calling him “President Trump”. He’s the former President. He’s not Prsident.
Okay, let’s do this.
Vance Says He Wanted Jan. 6 To Last For Weeks
Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) went all in this week on Trump’s effort to reverse his loss in the 2020 election.
In a video appearance on the All In podcast, Vance was asked whether he would have done what Mike Pence wouldn’t: refuse to certify the 2020 election.
Continue reading “Vance Says He Wanted Jan. 6 To Last For Weeks”How JD Vance Turned The Conspiracy Machine On Haitians In A Small Ohio City
For the past day, Viles Dorsainvil has been fielding all kinds of calls: some threatening, some demanding that he leave, others plaintive, still more worried.
Continue reading “How JD Vance Turned The Conspiracy Machine On Haitians In A Small Ohio City”How Harris Took Over The Campaign, Surged, And Still Faces A Tough Fight Against Trump
Democrats might be forgiven for experiencing a slight touch of PTSD as they watch Kamala Harris’ soaring and sudden ascent to the party’s presidential nomination seem to stall. The scene could be seen as reminiscent of Harris 2020 primary campaign, where she entered the race to great fanfare and, at one point, surged in the polls before ultimately crashing out before the first votes were even cast.
Continue reading “How Harris Took Over The Campaign, Surged, And Still Faces A Tough Fight Against Trump “