This weekend much discussion broke out on the Web about why the “legacy” media keeps normalizing Trump while nitpicking Harris. See, for example, this substack article by Margaret Sullivan, who was a media columnist for the Washington Post and before that the public editor for the New York Times. In brief, in the headlines Trump’s racist ranting gets normalized, while Harris is unnecessarily criticized in what Sullivan called a non-story.

There’s not a simple explanation for this. See, for example, Josh Marshall, Yes. Political Journalism Remains Wired for the GOP.  Josh says the uneven coverage is not being driven by money or even partisanship but by deeply ingrained institutional culture. And I think he’s right. This has been true for many years, from way before Trump got into politics. If anything, the bias was worse during the Bush II years than it is now, IMO. Remember Media Whores Online? It was all about calling out the right-wing bias in news media. That site went offline 20 years ago.

Speaking of right-wing bias, Kamala Harris has agreed to be interviewed by Fox News. I’m not sure that’s a good idea. But it probably won’t hurt, I guess.

Under the heading Why Is This Election So Close? — The Guardian reports that the app being used to coordinate the Trump’s campaign “ground game” is a mess. The app doesn’t work half the time, leaving the campaign partly blind as to where their canvassers are going and what they are actually doing. The campaign insists everything is fine.

And under the heading What Trump Hath Wrought — FEMA efforts iin North Carolina are being hampered by threats against FEMA workers. One fellow was arrested today .

Yesterday in Michigan:

Trump: These things were coming cylinders, no wings, no nothing, and they’re coming down very slowly, landing on a raft in the middle of the ocean someplace with a circle, reminded me of the Biden circles that he used to have.. then I heard we lost pic.twitter.com/5rtC7wJH00

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 10, 2024

I found this transcript on Facebook:

He was speaking to the Detroit Economic Club, in Detroit — and bashed Detroit. At one point he called Detroit a “once great city.” At another point, he warned his audience that if Kamala Harris becomes president, the whole nation will be Detroit. “It will be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president,” Trump said. “You’re going to have a mess on your hands.”

I take it this did not go over well. I suspect he didn’t entirely understand where he was. Early stage Alzheimers would account for this. If I’m right, at this point the man is on autopilot. He isn’t entirely certain where he is, but his handlers can put him in front of a microphone and he can still do his free-association rambles. He still knows people and things he’s known for a long time, but he can’t retain new information. And the old stuff probably gets jumbled. He may have notes or a teleprompter in front of him reminding him that he’s supposed to talk about the economy. But if I’m right, he’s going to forget how to read soon. And I’m betting his children and his top campaign advisers know this is happening and are working to keep it hidden, at least until after the election..

If I’m right, there won’t be any more one-on-one interviews of Trump, or forums in which Trump has to answer more than one question. That would lay bare his inability to take in new information. He may not be able to follow multiple questions or remember what he just said. The only exception might be if he talks to a partisan interviewer who understands the situation and gives him prompts to keep him on topic, and who would allow the video of the interview to be edited.

There are still people, like this guy, who think Trump’s verbal strangeness is part of some master plan. I don’t think so.

Note that Trump, having dropped out of the 60 Minutes interview, now wants CBS to lose its license for going ahead with the Harris interview.

In recent days, the former president has lambasted the Harris interview, accusing CBS News of editing the sit-down with correspondent Bill Whitaker. On Thursday, Trump used his Truth Social platform to again take aim at what he alleged to be “a giant Fake News Scam,” accusing “60 Minutes” of replacing Harris’ answers with another to “make her look better.”

“60 Minutes is a major part of the News Organization of CBS, which has just created the Greatest Fraud in Broadcast History,” Trump wrote. “CBS should lose its license, and it should be bid out to the Highest Bidder, as should all other Broadcast Licenses, because they are just as corrupt as CBS — and maybe even WORSE!”

Um, this isn’t rational. But it’s consistent with Alzheimers. People with Alzheimers sometimes imagine wildly random threatening things. And giant faucet, anyone?

See also Michigan newspaper issues correction after Trump claims he won man of year award.  More evidence Trump is seriously confused.

Other Stuff to Read

ProPublica, by Robert Downen and Jeremy Schwartz. In Texas’ Third-Largest County, the Far Right’s Vision for Local Governing Has Come to Life

Slate, by Dahlia Lithwick. John Roberts Has Lost the Public. Does He Care?

The Atlantic, by Jim Nichols. The Moment of Truth. Lovely essay.

I hope everyone made it through the hurricane. Let’s hope that’s it for this hurricane season.

Yesterday, after Donald Trump denied he had sent covid test machines to Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin confirmed that he had. But the Kremlin denied that Trump and Putin have been talking on the phone since. What to make of this? Maybe Putin thought Trump needed a reminded that I own you. Also, Woodward cited an intelligence analyst as the source of the covid machine story, so it must be assumed the intelligence agencies knew about this. Whether the intelligence agencies know about the phone calls isn’t clear.  See also Marcy Wheeler.

I found a news story from April 2020 in which Trump brags about these  particular test machines, by Abbott Labs.

A coronavirus test made by Abbott Laboratories and introduced with considerable fanfare by President Donald Trump in a Rose Garden news conference this week is giving state and local health officials very little added capacity to perform speedy tests needed to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That’s a whole new ballgame,” Trump said. “I want to thank Abbott Labs for the incredible work they’ve done. They’ve been working around-the-clock.”

Yet a document circulated among officials at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency this week shows that state and local public health labs were set to receive a total of only 5,500 coronavirus tests from the giant manufacturer of medical devices, diagnostics and drugs, according to emails obtained by Kaiser Health News.

Elsewhere — I’ve been working really hard at ignoring the polls. But the polling issue gets in my face sometimes anyway. One issue that keeps coming up is that in both 2016 and 2020, Trump voters were undercounted. I keep seeing headlines saying that Dems are terrified Trumpers are being undercounted again. Now I see in a Newsweek story that pollsters are now “correcting” for the undercount in various ways. Maybe they’re over-correcting? A recent article by Nate Cohn in the New York Times goes into more detail about different ways polls are being “weighted,” arriving at different results. See also Josh Marshall’s miscellaneous thoughts on polling. It’s entirely possible the race isn’t quite as close as the polls are saying.

Getting back to hurricanes — Trump, Vance, and other right-wing tools have been flagrantly and shamelessly lying their butts off about the FEMA response to Helene and Milton.  (For some reason, I keep wanting to call yesterday’s storm “Winslow.” Maybe there will be a Hurricane Winslow some day.) Vance wrote an op ed for the Wall Street Journal about the Biden-Harris mismanagement of Helene, which of course I can’t read. Meanwhile, politicians of the affected areas, including Republicans, have been heaping praise on FEMA and the rest of the feds. The people whose lives have been impacted will, sooner or later, figure out who’s telling the truth. Although I understand there are people who refuse to ask FEMA for help because they’ve been told FEMA will confiscate their houses.

At Slate, Ben Mathis-Lilley writes Trump Is Doing His Best to Make the Hurricane Into a Bad Issue for Him. Mathis-Lilley reminds us of times that Trump tried to politicize or otherwise unnecessarily inject himself into situations and got burned in the process. The Bible Stunt and the Bleach Suggestion, for example. He may well be overplaying his hand now. I guess we’ll see, won’t we, North Carolina?

Those of you in Florida, or trying to get out of Florida, please stay safe. And please check in when you can. I’ve just read that highways are jammed and gas stations are running out of fuel.

I watched a bit of the 60 Minutes interviews with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Today the legacy media types are all writing columns saying some of her answers could have been better, but there are no major screaming controversies about anything that was said. There is possibly about as much commentary on Trump’s non-appearance. CBS provided details on the communications between CBS and the Trump campaign about the interview. Trump had agreed to do the interview weeks ago, and CBS and the campaign had worked out a schedule for when and where the interviewing would take place. And then last week Trump cancelled for bogus reasons and denied he had ever agreed to the interview.

I agree with Lawrence O’Donnell (beginning at 4 minutes) that Trump’s mental decline would have been way too obvious in such an interview. Especially if he is in early stage Alzheimer’s, as I suspect, he would be unable to follow a series of questions or remember what he just already said. I’m betting the family and senior advisors talked him out of it.

Regarding interviews, do read Josh Marshall, Insider Newsletters Still Struggling to Make Interview Fetch Happen. Mainstream media continues to grumble that Harris is avoiding “serious” and “substantive” interviews, meaning from legacy/mainstream media. Never mind that Trump avoids such interviews more. She’s appearing on television talk shows and on popular podcasts and other places that are watched by people who are not necessarily news junkies. Sounds like a plan to me. But this part of the article speaks to what I’ve been thinking about a lot of “serious” interviewing.

Harris has now taken questions from the inside-the-Beltway press, in impromptu sessions, in a sit-down interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, with reporters at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, where Daniels was actually one of the questioners. But again and again these interviews have focused on process questions and restating opponents’ attacks and asking Harris to respond. In Dana Bash’s interview with Harris and Walz, the most focused questions were over whether or not Harris had “flip-flopped” on fracking and why Walz had said he and his wife used IVF rather than a related but distinct fertility treatment. In other words, they actually haven’t been very substantive at all. They are more confrontational, but absent a basis in policy particulars it’s not clear why that’s better than an at-length interview in which potential voters get a feel for who the candidate is and that discusses issues like abortion rights or jobs or foreign wars or immigration policy in ways that actually connect with people’s lives. The whole proposition becomes more a matter of candidate feats of strength for campaign gatekeepers than questions that are particularly substantive or ones that campaign reporters have an especial ability to address.

I should note here: I’m not picking on Dana Bash. Her interview is what we now expect from a major media interview. The problem isn’t the interviewer but the format, the genre of interview. Not only are these interviews not terribly valuable for the candidate; they’re not terribly valuable as journalism. You can tell your favored candidate to blow off the prestige MSM interviews guilt free.

Amen.

Bob Woodward is about to release a new book. I don’t intend to read it. Bob may be a genius at sniffing the inner lives of U.S. leaders, but he’s a dull, stiff, boring writer. Possibly the juiciest bit to come out is that in 2020, as the Covid pandemic was getting serious, Trump sent test kits to Putin for his personal use. He has also remained in touch with Putin these past four years. They’ve been on the phone with each other several times. No surprise there.

Speaker Mike Johhnson has joined the Republican chorus ripping the Biden Administration’s response to Hurricane Helene. At the same time, he’s refusing to call the House back into session to appropriate more money for disaster relief. Today’s Republican party in a nutshell. See also Newsweek, How Mike Johnson’s Big Decision Could Impact Helene Relief Efforts.

Liz Cheney has been saying that if Trump loses in November, what’s left of the Republican party might have to form a new party. Zachary Basu of Axios also writes that a Potential Trump loss threatens destruction of the modern GOP. “Never before has a party’s identity been so deeply entwined with the fate, fortunes and flaws of one man. Four consecutive poor election cycles would unleash a wave of sustained scrutiny that the GOP — as it currently exists — may not survive,” writes Basu. 

If the Republicans suffer significant losses, including the White House, in November, then certainly the MAGA movement can’t survive as a political force except maybe as a local or regional entity. It won’t die right away, of course, but since it’s a cult of personality it won’t survive without Donald Trump.

And Trump is being eaten alive by senlility with every passing day. Whether he wins or not, I expect that by some time next year the Trump family will be forced to admit he has Alzheimers. His short-term memory issues are getting more pronounced. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he’s already been diagnosed and the family is keeping it secret as long as possible, And most likely MAGA will go the way of the Temperence Movement once he’s no longer able to lead it. Do read this weekend’s New York Times exposé of Trump’s mental state.  See also The Media Is Finally Waking Up to the Story of Trump’s Mental Fitness by Michael Tomasky at The New Republic.

If MAGA dies in a timely manner, IMO there might be enough left of the old GOP establishment to reconstitute something approximating the old GOP. And if the MAGAts stomp out and form their own party, so much the better. But Cheney and Basu apparently think it’s more likely that the remnants of the old establishment will have to form a new party and let the Republican Party die from MAGA cancer, so to speak. And they’re closer to the thing than I am.

But if Trump wins, the Republican Party is still toast. It will be utterly consumed by MAGA, and MAGA is not a political party but only a caricature of one. The real question then will be if the United States survives, especially as we’ll end up with President J.D. Vance. I don’t even want to think about it.

Meanwhile, the rhetoric coming from Trump and his allies is increasingly dangerous. Now they’re openly claiming that Democrats were behind the two assasination attempts.

At Talking Points Memo, David Kurtz writes that West Virginia is considering secession if Trump loses.

Take, for instance, the resolution that four GOP lawmakers introduced Sunday in the special session in West Virginia. It’s as extreme as anything I’ve seen in the last few years. The proposed resolution, inter alia, calls on West Virginia not to “recognize” the results of the 2024 presidential election if “election fraud in any state was a major reason that resulted in a candidate for President obtaining a majority in the Electoral College.”

“Election fraud” is defined in the text very broadly to include a laundry list of bogus right-wing claims ranging from non-citizen voting to “prosecutions for apparent political motives.” By this definition, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s ongoing prosecution of Donald Trump could be sufficient grounds on its own for West Virginia to refuse to recognize a victorious Kamala Harris as the legitimate president. 

This is from the draft resolution:

That, the State of West Virginia will not recognize any election of the Democrat candidate for President during the 2024 election cycle if the Republican presidential or vice-presidential candidate is assassinated, seriously injured during an assassination attempt, incarcerated, de facto eliminated or barred from the ballot in any states, or is the subject of legal actions that preclude their effective campaigning …

This probably won’t go anywhere, of course, but the fact that actual state legislatures are thinking about this is worthy of note.

Just letting you know I’ll be away from my computer until Sunday. Spending some time with my children and grandsons. Please feel free to leave comments about whatever is going on.

I believe the most linked thing on the Intertubes today is this piece by Richard Hasen,
“Jack Smith’s Big New Jan. 6 Brief Is a Major Indictment of the Supreme Court” at Slate. It begins,

It’s rare to simultaneously feel red-hot anger and wistfulness, especially when merely reading a document. But those are exactly the emotions that washed over me when I read the redacted version of special counsel Jack Smith’s brief reciting in detail the evidence against Donald Trump for attempting to subvert the 2020 election. The anger is at the Supreme Court for depriving the American people of the chance for a full public airing of Donald Trump’s attempt to use fraud and trickery to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory before voters consider whether to put Trump back in office beginning January 2025. The wistfulness comes with the recognition that there is about an even chance that this will be the last evidence produced by the federal government of this nefarious plot. If Donald Trump wins election next month, the end of this prosecution is certain and the risks of future election subversion heightened.

And then, after a concise review of the many times Trump could have been stopped and at least disqualified from running again, Hasen concludes,

The New York Times recently reported on the internal Supreme Court deliberations, and they paint Chief Justice John Roberts, author of the Trump immunity decision, as having turned from a justice known for seeking common ground and minimalist outcomes to one set out to protect the office of the presidency at all costs. The opinion was so focused on the risks to the vigorousness of the activities of future presidents that could come from the threat of future prosecutions that it was willing to ignore the current threat to democracy today from Trump’s actions in 2020, not to mention his continued insistence that he won the last election.

Right now it appears to be a toss-up whether Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris will win office in the November election. If Trump wins, he will have his attorney general fire Smith and shut down this prosecution. If he keeps his promises, he even may seek to investigate and prosecute Smith, Harris, Biden, and others. There is a risk of authoritarianism down the line.

The fact that no jury may pass on the deadly serious allegations in Smith’s complaint will do more than simply let Trump and others off the hooks for their potential crimes. It will make future criminal activity related to American elections much more likely. And it all could have been avoided if McConnell, Garland, and especially the Supreme Court had done the right thing.

Hat tip to Scott Lemieux of Lawyers, Guns and Money for referring to the immunity decision as “the Dred Scott of the 21st century.”

There’s another good analysis of Where We Are by Kavid Kurtz at TPM, The Jan. 6 Case Against Donald Trump Is Part Of America’s Founding Story.

The case laid out by Smith broadly follows the already-familiar contours of the conspiracy to overturn the results of an election Trump lost. It’s a narrative we know because we saw most of it with our own eyes. What we couldn’t see directly was pieced together by the House Jan. 6 committee and journalists working tirelessly to document the conspiracy’s many disparate elements and to identify the vast cast of characters that ended the United States’ streak of peaceful transitions of power.

There remains great civic value in repeating that story for ourselves and for future generations so that it becomes woven into our collective memory like the Boston Tea Party or the firing on Fort Sumter or the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

The Jan. 6 debacle is a part of the nation’s founding story, even though it comes nearly 250 years later, because the same principles that animated its creation were under sustained attack, the same threats that the constitutional system was specifically designed to protect against were on full display, and the reactionary forces of chaos and destruction that always linger just over the horizon advanced to within minutes and feet of prevailing over democracy and the rule of law.

Heather Cox Richardson’s October 2 letter is also worth reading. The danger is palpable, yet so many of us do not see it. And may I say I’d like to personally look up every undecided voter in the U.S. and smack them in the head? Pull your heads out of your asses, people.

And I don’t doubt Philip Bump at WaPo is right when he writes that No amount of evidence will convince Republicans of Trump’s 2020 guilt. This is just willful blindness and tribal loyalty.

Update: Here are two more links. Marcy Wheeler, John Roberts’ Sordid Legacy: 14 Pages of Mean Tweets; and Josh Kovensky at TPM, The Striking Details That Jack Smith Used To Tighten His January 6 Case Against Trump.

There are hopeful signs. Yes, the polls are tight, but I keep reading that the Republicans are worried about their ground operations. One of Trump’s decisions this year was to dismantle the RNC’s ground operations so that GOTV efforts could be outsourced to groups like Turning Point. Then the Guardian reported last week that Trump’s ground operation is now largely being run by Elon Musk, or at least a group funded by Elon Musk. Now Republicans have been worried because they’re not seeing much GOTV activity. With such a tight election, it’s going to be all about getting people to the polls. (Of course, Trump says he’s got enough votes already.)

Josh Marshall, today:

The thing you hear again and again about canvassing and ground operations is that you cannot just overwhelm it with money. Money is obviously critical. But you need a lot of institutional experience and time to make it work. …Canvassing and field operating takes time and institutional experience.

TPM Reader BP in Maine notes this article in The Bangor Daily News which reports that Elon Musk’s America PAC is hiring canvassers in Maine now — as in, a little more than a month before Election Day. On September 23rd, Bloomberg News reported hiring in New York, California and Michigan. (In the first two, that’s going to be for House races rather than the presidential.) I don’t want to rule out the possibility that this is additional hiring in Maine for the final push. But it doesn’t sound like it. Other reports noted that Musk’s group recently fired the firm they’d hired for field work in Nevada and were looking for a new firm. Again, this all seems quite late in the game to be in the hiring stage. But I stress again that we’re possibly getting an incomplete view.

Another tidbit comes from this article from a couple weeks ago which notes that Turning Point Action, which was supposed to be an anchor of the Trump campaign’s outside group strategy, ramped its efforts back to focusing on Arizona and Wisconsin and didn’t have the resources to be operating in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and other swing states.

From what I’ve read, the Democrats have tons more money and have had their field offices open and fully operational, and canvassers out and about, for quite some time already. Republicans are putting more efforts into preparing legal challenges to the vote if Trump loses. And, of course, if all else fails, start some riots.

There are some redactions, I understand, but most of it is now public. I’m still digesting this, but here are some links.

New York Times, Judge Unseals New Evidence in Federal Election Case Against Trump

Talking Points Memo, UNSEALED: Jack Smith Details Why Trump Isn’t Immune From Prosecution For Jan. 6 Crimes

CBS News, Key takeaways from special counsel Jack Smith’s major filing in Trump’s 2020 election case

MSNBC, Read Jack Smith’s unsealed redacted motion on Trump presidential immunity

I’m sure there will be more commentary tomorrow.

I bailed on the veep debate, thinking it was going better for Vance than for Walz. Today the general consensus appears to be that the debate was either a Vance win or a draw, but I take it Walz did land a few punches. See Josh Marshall’s debate wrap-up for an “it was a draw” argument.

If we still have a country when this election is over, somebody needs to sit down with the networks and permanently nix the “no fact checking” provision. If a candidate refuses to participate if there will be fact checking, turn the debate into a prime time interview with the other candidate. And the candidate who refused to debate gets no equal time. Or maybe Democrats should refuse to paraticipate if there will be no fact checking. This is ridiculous. “No fact checking” gives too much of an advantage to liars.

Here’s some better news: “The Cook Political Report on Tuesday shifted Texas’s Senate race from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican,” signaling momentum for Rep. Colin Allred’s (D) challenge against incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz (R) in the red state.” Fingers crossed.

Perhaps the larger news story from yesterday is that Trump gave a news conference in Milwaukee yesterday in which he was so out of it that even the Washington Post noticed.

He spoke of “a million Rambos.” “Turnarounds” and “gotaways” and “dead-head spending.” He mixed up Iran with North Korea and strained to pronounce United Arab Emirates. He marveled at Hurricane Helene coming so late in the storm season, which typically runs through November. He falsely claimed government agencies can’t name the U.S. population, and he compared the conflict between Israel and Iran to “two kids fighting in the schoolyard.”  …

… Trump spoke slowly and appeared tired. It was his second stop of the day, and he has picked up the pace of campaigning in recent weeks. …

… Trump was more energetic during a speech to supporters in Waunakee, Wis., earlier Tuesday. He went on an extended riff about the 1987 film “Full Metal Jacket” and made up a false claim that Harris raised taxes as the San Francisco district attorney, which is not a power of that office.

See also Aaron Rupar’s Public Notice substack.

Apparently the event in Milwaukee was originally supposed to be a rally, and tickets were distributed. But when ticket holders showed up they were not allowed in; just media. I don’t know what’s up with that.

It was just a couple of weeks ago that Bill Scher at Washington Monthly was writing about Trump’s laziest campaign. Apparently he’s been picking up the pace in response to the poll numbers. I know I wouldn’t have the stamina to maintain a presidential campaign schedule without falling apart, but I’m not running for president. Trump is. I wonder if he’ll make it to election day.

Consider this an open thread to talk about whatever, including the debate. The debate starts at 9 EST. That’s 10 Central and some time tomorrow in Hawaii. I’ve worked really hard at not anticipating how the debate will go.

If you’d like something interesting to read while you wait, I recommend If Helene affects voting, Trump may pay the price by Philip Bump at WaPo, It so happens that nearly a quarter of 2020 Trump voters in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas live in counties declared federal disaster areas. They’ll be receiving all the federal aid from the Biden Administration that the Administration can shovel at them as fast as it can.

Trump has backed out of an interview on 60 Minutes. The plan had been to broadcast back-to-back interviews of Harris and Trump. The Harris interview is still on, but Trump is refusing to be interviewed.

In a statement, the Trump campaign denied it had agreed to the interview.

“Fake News. 60 Minutes begged for an interview, even after they were caught lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop back in 2020. There were initial discussions, but nothing was ever scheduled or locked in,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said.

“They insisted on cutting out of the interview to do fact-checking,” he added.

Asked by CNN if there’s still a chance Trump might sit for the interview, Cheung replied: “Now that they’ve lied about the interaction, they just f**ked themselves.”

The odd thing is Trump is still telling people that Harris doesn’t do interviews because she’s too incompetent or brain damaged or something. Even Trump’s culties might notice that she’s being interviewed and he isn’t.

The Debate Begins

Here we go …

Okay, I’ll watch for a while, but if it’s going to be Vance lying his ass off about Trump’s record, with no fact checks, I’m not sure I can stay with it.

Vance’s answer to the climate change question was weird.

I don’t have a clear sense of how this might be viewed by the infamous undecided voters. Maybe the best we can hope for is a wash.

If anyone’s here, feel free to comment. I’ll check in later.