Mark Robinson did not drop out of the gubernatorial race in North Carolina. He blew past the deadline for dropping out and will be the GOP candidate until the bitter end. Several news stories say that Trump is trying to ignore the mess. But Trump has a rally scheduled in North Carolina tomorrow. Robinson will not be there, but if any of the press can get close to Trump they’ll no doubt ask Trump to comment on Robinson. And Trump will no doubt say he barely knows the guy. Meanwhile, the Harris-Walz campaign is said to be preparing television ads tying Robinson to Trump. None are online yet, but I bet they will contain some of the same news bits as this CNN report:

Update: Here’s the ad, just made available.

In other salacious news, see New Court Filings Place Matt Gaetz at a Party at the Center of the Sex Trafficking Scandal. And with a teenage girl. Unfortunately, according to the one poll I could find, Gaetz is currently 47 points ahead of his Democratic opponent for his House seat. As long as that’s the case I doubt he’ll be pressured to drop out.

Yesterday, as the Robinson bombshell was all over the news, Stable Genius Trump addressed Jewish audiences about rising antisemitism in the United States. He brilliantly made his point by adding to the rising antisemitism. According to The Forward,

In a speech Thursday billed as former President Donald Trump’s answer to rising antisemitism, he said Jews would bear much of the responsibility if he loses the presidential election.

And in a second speech later in the evening, to the Israeli American Council, Trump elaborated on his past assertions in recent weeks that Israel would not survive if he doesn’t win in November, by painting a doomsday scenario in which Iran launches nuclear weapons and invoking the Holocaust. 

“The Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss,” Trump said during the first speech of the evening, an hourlong address at an event called “Fighting Antisemitism in America,” organized with GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson, at the Hyatt Regency hotel on Capitol Hill.

“You can’t let this happen,” he told his largely Jewish audience. 

Trump in recent weeks has offended many Jews by questioning their mental health for voting for Democrats — as most Jews do — and predicting Israel’s demise should Harris win. But Thursday night’s comments seem to represent an escalation in Trump’s rhetoric, in that he singled out Jewish Americans — who represent only about 2% of the electorate — as a significant reason he might lose the election, one whose results he has never pledged to accept. 

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said after the speech that Trump’s remarks endanger Jews. …

… Trump often talks about his support for Israel in transactional terms, suggesting Israelis owe him loyalty in return. Many Israelis appreciate how, in his first term, Trump relocated the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognized Israel’s control over the Golan Heights, withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and brokered the Abraham Accords. 

And while his complaints about American Jews voting for Democrats have grown common in recent weeks, the theme is not new. After the 2020 presidential election, in which 77% of Jewish voters chose President Joe Biden, Trump accused them of ingratitude.

In these and other remarks Trump consistently conflates all Jews with Israelis, and assumes that American Jews owe their first loyalty to Israel, not the U.S. See also Rolling Stone. Once again, Trump’s utter lack of self-awareness is stunning.

And speaking of bigotry, the very Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, has an op ed in the New York Times defending the Hatians of Springfield and (more in sorrow than anger) calling out Trump and Vance for spreading vicious lies about them.

What’s Up with the Teamsters?

What’s really pissed me off today are the Teamsters. There’s something seriously out of kilter with its leadership. See especially The Gigantic Failure That Led to the Teamsters’ Decision Not to Endorse Harris or Trump by Steven Greenhouse at Slate. Do read this. Open in an incognito window if you hit a paywall. The difference between Trump and Harris on unions is massive. There’s no excuse for this.

The Teamsters say that the decision was based on an “internal survey” of members. What they didn’t tell you was that this “survey” was not an actual polling of members but taken from responses to a survey printed on the back of a Teamster magazine. Steven Greenhouse continues,

But to my mind, that internal survey showing so many Teamsters backing Trump highlighted something else: The union’s leadership must have done a dreadful job informing and educating rank-and-file members about how hugely anti-union Trump is and how aggressively anti-union and anti-worker Trump’s first administration was (and appointees were). Also, Teamster leaders evidently also failed to explain to rank-and-file members that Harris has fought for policy after policy strongly backed by the Teamsters and other unions, including the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which is the labor movement’s No. 1 legislative priority and would make it considerably easier for the Teamsters and other unions to organize. Trump opposes the PRO Act. Harris also supported the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which together will create hundreds of thousands of good-paying union jobs for Teamsters and other union members. Harris, unlike Trump, also supports increasing the pathetically low $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage to at least $15.

This could be the real reason:

Many Teamsters remain angry at Biden for signing legislation in December 2022 that blocked a threatened nationwide rail strike. The Teamsters board seemed to be making this a litmus test, wanting Harris and Trump to pledge not to block a national rail strike even though presidents and Congress are specifically empowered to do so under the Railway Labor Act.

The problem was that a prolonged rail strike at the time would have devastated the fragile economy, in particular the Biden Administration’s work to lower inflation without triggering a recession.

Update: See Timothy Noah, The Teamsters President Is Out of His Depth.

In Other News

MAGA Republicans Pass New Election Rules in Georgia That Could Rig the State for Trump

Digby, Will This Election End Up Before The Supreme Court?

House Republicans work to defuse Trump as they defy shutdown demands