Up For Debate: Felon vs Prosecutor
Tuesday’s debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia will be the first face-to-face encounter between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. I’d like to think that, somewhere in the cosmos, our founders will be watching, rooting for democracy.
The New York Times published a poll on Sunday showing a very tight race with Trump slightly ahead. Both campaigns actually agree on something for once: this matchup will be a critical moment in the presidential contest.
During a weekend visit to a Penzey’s* spice store in Pittsburgh the Vice President said, “Look, it’s time to turn the page on the divisiveness. It’s time to bring our country together, chart a new way forward.”
Online trolls have overwhelmed the spice trader’s website, angry about the Harris visit and the owners’ liberal point of view. Typical MAGA.
The ex-President has followed his past script used before other big moments: work the refs, allege bias, make baseless claims of cheating and undermine the system. He has repeatedly attacked host network ABC as unfair.
He made headlines on Monday after posting a threat on social media threatening to jail “Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials.:, adding “Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”
While Harris has been studying for the debate in a Pittsburg hotel, her opponent has limited his general preparation to a few discussions on policy with staff. Having set the bar low so he can clear it or blame the moderators otherwise, he will seek to negatively shape voters’ perceptions of his Democratic rival.
I will be surprised if the debate covers much in the way of policy from either participant; it will be a contest of style over substance.
Elie Mystal, columnist and justice correspondent for The Nation, thinks Harris can win if she “knocks him off his vibe.” When the inevitable rant about immigration occurs, Harris could say something like:
“Immigrants are ruining the country? Donald, that’s a horrible thing to say about your wife, Melania, who I think is lovely.”
Mystal concludes:
I would like to encourage everybody to consume post-debate spin responsibly. We know the media is going to hold Harris to a different standard than Trump, and we can be almost sure that those same people will somehow find Harris lacking while Trump gets a free ride for his torrent of incoherent misinformation. We know that Harris could “win” the debate but lose the “show.” We know that Harris could win the debate and the show but still have to suffer old white men with television contracts taking potshots at her. The media is already sick of all the positive energy surrounding the Harris campaign; I expect they’ll use the debate to take as much steam out of her as possible.
Still, it surely can’t go any worse than the last one. My hope for the coming debate is that the Democrats come out of it with the same presidential candidate as they went into it 0
If you’re wondering about Donald Trump sounding even more unhinged lately, fear not: he is. Word salads, slurred or forgotten words, and forgetting questions are all seeing an uptick in his public appearances.
His answer on a simple question about child care in front of a room full of business leaders is Exhibit A:
Well, I would do that, and we’re sitting down, and I was, somebody, we had Sen. Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that, because, look, child care is child care. You have to have it — in this country you have to have it.
But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to — but they’ll get used to it very quickly — and it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s going to take.
I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country, because I have to stay with child care. I want to stay with child care, but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just told you about.
We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in. We’re going to make this into an incredible [country that can] afford to take care of its people, and then we’ll worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people, but we’re going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It’s about Make America Great Again, we have to do it because right now we’re a failing nation, so we’ll take care of it. Thank you. Very good question. Thank you.
A batshit answer, for sure. None-the-less, the audience applauded as if they’d heard something profound about a major issue. That act alone proves this election isn’t about policy --though the Heritage Foundation is giving him a guidebook– , it’s about a billionaire using the powers of government to benefit the wealthy.
Maybe you’re wondering about why Trump’s incoherency isn’t being covered in the press. Parker Malloy has some answers, calling the sanitizing of the candidate’s messages “Sanewashing.”
She quoted the New York Times, Politico, the Associated Press, Newsweek, and Fortune to make a point. All created summaries out of thin air to make the candidate seem reasonable.
You can watch the debate live on ABC and stream it via ABC News Live, Disney+, and Hulu starting at 6pm. Other networks may choose to broadcast the 90 minute event, which will include two commercial breaks and won’t include a live audience. And there’s always YouTube.
The Vice Presidential debate will be October 1. The Harris/Walz team has agreed to a second presidential debate in November, but it’s not a done deal.
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Notable election explainer. From Hamilton Nolan at How Things Work - Why Would Dick Cheney Endorse Kamala Harris?
All of us who vote for Democrats need to understand what we are getting. Our feeling of moral superiority on domestic policy—we are the ones against racism and poverty! We are the ones who protect women!—is at all times floating atop an unmentioned sea of weapons pointed at millions of less powerful people outside of our own borders. Republicans are bastards on domestic and foreign policy and Democrats are nicer on domestic policy and very, very close to Republicans on foreign policy. Even among Democrats, the baseline assumption that America must have enough guns to exert our will on the entire world is not questioned. Kamala Harris may push for paid family leave, but she is not going to dismantle the United States intelligence agencies.
Kamala Harris may raise taxes on capital gains, but she is not going to meaningfully slash military funding. Kamala Harris may protect abortion, but she is not going to stop sending weapons to Israel, or remove America’s drone bases in Africa, or Give Schools All The Money They Need and Make The Air Force Hold a Bake Sale to Buy a Bomber.
The harshest things that America does, its most uncompromising violence, its rawest assertion of pure power over weaker people, is always done overseas, far away from where we can watch it. For generations, there has been a mutual agreement from both major parties to do what must be done to protect America’s ability to militarily dominate the world—the gun that protects our concurrent ability to be richer than everyone else, the velvet fist that allows us to extract trillions of dollars in value from the Global South and use it to raise our own national standard of living. This commitment to maintaining the global order, people like Dick Cheney understand, is more important than all the other, smaller issues that voters get worked up about. This is the tree, not the branches.
