One of us here is a delegate to the Chicago DNC convention in August. Turns out that privilege comes with demands on your time. That includes, coincidentally, being present when the party’s candidate shows up in your state to campaign. About the time this posts, I’ll be on the way from my end of the state to one such event four hours away. (N.C. is nine hours from east to west.)
I can only imagine what it’s like to be the youngest state chair in the country, Anderson Clayton, now 26. She’s been barnstorming North Carolina’s 100 counties since her 2023 election and attracting national press along the way. And fitting presidential visits into that schedule. Here she is at 24 (June 2022) taking a selfie with a local blogger who avoids selfies. Gen Z gonna Gen Z.
I’ll try to share what I can through the August convention. These things tend to be tightly controlled and hyper busy. It was less demanding to attend the Charlotte convention in 2012 on a press pass.
Your patience appreciated.
Digby will be along presently with some presidential debate coverage/fallout. And there will be fallout.
Disgraced and demoted Dr. Ronny “Pill Mill” Jackson wants drug testing before the debates. Rep. Ronny Johnson Jackson can demand that testing as part of the pre-debate messaging push. But he KNOWS that it won’t happen, especially for this debate. But the testing and doctor we should be talking about is Dr. Sean Conley, who was Trump’s doctor before the 2020 Trump/ Biden debate. If you recall everyone was supposed to be tested for COVID AT THE VENUE, THE DAY OF THE DEBATE.
Trump spent much of Saturday with the woman he nominated to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court: Amy Coney Barrett. She and her family — including her husband and seven children — were all on hand at the White House, and met with Trump, the first lady and the Pences in the Oval Office.
Later, Trump attended a rally in Pennsylvania.
According to Meadows, Trump tested positive before traveling to the rally in Pennsylvania and then subsequently tested negative.
Now, you will note that this is “according to Meadows” and that Trump subsequently tested negative.” This is from Meadow’s book, but remember, he didn’t write this under oath. We don’t know the exact details of when Trump was tested or the type of test. What we do know is that Meadows and Dr. Conley hid that information from everyone, including Chris Christie, who got COVID from Trump during debate prep. Think of all the people Trump met with, like Goldstar families and soon to be Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
ONLY the DoD Inspector General can demand Dr. Conley and the testing people in the White House Medical Unit to tell them who was tested when, and then where the information sent.
I had been researching executive orders, state and federal laws around COVID reporting since Trump’s June 20, 2020 rally in Tulsa. The rally was a documented super spreader event. I determined that Trump and his campaign staff hid reporting on the number of people infected at the rally by ordering people NOT to take tests at the rally but to travel by car to other states days later. Trump’s campaign staff used privacy laws, and uncoordinated public health laws, to avoid being caught violating Oklahoma’s Executive Orders and Federal COVID reporting laws.
When Meadow’s book came out in 2021 I went back to the research I did before during and after the Tulsa Rally. I suggested to the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis @COVIDOversight, that they look at Meadow’s book and cross reference with his messages on his phone to see if he was the one who told the traveling nurses hired by the campaign to stop the testing when they saw how many were infected.
I don’t know if they ever did, or if they got the hard evidence they would need to PROVE that Mark Meadows, Tony Ornato and/or Brad Parscale broke local, state and federal laws about COVID test reporting in Tulsa. (Like Halting & delaying testing the day of the rally prevented discovery of others who may be infected. This appears to be a violation of Oklahoma state law, Title 63. Public Health and Safety statutes. Specifically, under §63-6103, The Catastrophic Health Emergency Powers Act,)
BOTTOM LINE: I STILL want someone to be held responsible for the infections and deaths the violations of public health laws caused. It wasn’t just Herman Cain, THOUSANDS DIED in and around Tulsa. It’s documented.
Meadows Hid The Truth and Lied, People Got Sick Of COVID And Died
Why bother writing this? Because the MSM needs to be reminded that treating Trump AND HIS ENABLERS like normal people is a mistake of deadly proportions.
The only way we hear new info in the MSM is when a new book on this time period comes out, otherwise it’s old news.
Trump violated the agreed upon rules for the debate.Mark Meadows and Dr. Conley made this violation possible. It is possible that Dr. Conley broke the Federal COVID testing reporting laws. Also, Meadows might have broken laws about reporting sick workers. I think he did. There needs to be an investigation, like the DoD IG’s March 2021 report about Ronny Jackson’s behavior which led to him being demoted to CAPTAIN from Rear Admiral in JULY 2022.
The press can’t learn the truth about medical issues within the White House. Unless the DoD IG’s office does it, no one will ever know or be held responsible for Trump’s willful infections of others.
I always hear, “You can’t reach his base.” Yes, I don’t think Hope Hicks, Bill Stepien, Stephen Miller or Kellyanne Conway will step forward and tell people Trump knew he had COVID and infected them. But maybe we can reach the MSM, since they like to have Chris Christie on. Trump infected Christie during his debate prep, he almost died.
I checked, but I didn’t see that there were any protocols for COVID testing at today’s debate venue. But bringing up COVID testing would give the MSM an excuse to remind the public that Trump is willing to kill his closest advisors to hid his secrets.
The Biden campaign is using Thursday’s debate to launch a new offensive against Trump allies’ radical plans to transform the U.S. government, known as “Project 2025.”
The Biden campaign wants to convince jaded voters that a second Trump presidency poses grave risks to the country. Biden officials see Project 2025 — which calls for an unprecedented expansion of presidential power — as a useful blueprint for what Trump’s return would bring. The controversial transition agenda was compiled by the Heritage Foundation with input from close Trump allies and former aides — some of whom are likely to take top jobs if he wins — but Project 2025 is not an official campaign platform.
The Trump campaign points instead to the Agenda47 website for policies explicitly endorsed by former President Trump.
The Project 2025 proposals have started to attract more attention online as more Americans tune into the race.Google search interest in “Project 2025” surged earlier this month, and a John Oliver segment on Trump’s plans for a second term racked up nearly 5 million views on YouTube in under a week.
The Biden campaign, whose messaging around Project 2025 accelerated after March’s State of the Union address, is trying to capitalize on the viral momentum. It launched a new website Thursday highlighting contentious policies from the Heritage Foundation’s 920-page “Mandate for Leadership,” a comprehensive policy guide for reshaping the federal government.
I think the John Oliver segment that went viral had a big impact, which is telling. (We could use more of that sort of thing.) In case you missed it:
Here’s a new Biden ad. Project 2025 is all about the Comstock Act and banning abortion and contraception.:
Following SCOTUS ruling, Biden campaign releases a new ad featuring an Idaho obstetrician who fled the state because of the MAGA abortion ban at the heart of today’s case – which left her fearing criminal charges for treating her patients, even in cases to protect their lives. pic.twitter.com/qzaGLlX5Zp
I’m so old I remember when candidate Barack Obama was forced to give a major address to distance himself from a pastor whose church he attended from time to time because of comments the pastor made when he wasn’t present. The whole country was Up In Arms.
Extremist commentator Christiane Northrup has promoted a pro-Nazi film that denies the Holocaust, encouraged people to check out the infamous antisemitic tract Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and repeatedly pushed the conspiracy theory that a secretive mafia is hiding behind Jewish identity to control world events. Still, Northrup has spoken twice at Trump’s Miami resort alongside Eric and Lara Trump and been featured in a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. campaign video.
Northrup is a former OBGYN who initially gained fame as a self-help author who was praised by Oprah Winfrey. Since then, as The Washington Post reported in May 2022, Northrup has claimed COVID-19 “was part of a plot involving Deep State brainwashing and treacherous depopulation schemes” and she “encouraged fans to check out QAnon, called the Centers for Disease Control a ‘covid death cult,’ and described the vaccines as crimes against humanity.”
Northrup is listed as a “featured” speaker on the pro-TrumpReAwaken America Tour. She, along with Eric and Lara Trump — now the co-chair of the Republican National Committee — appeared on the tour’s stops at Trump Doral in Miami, Florida, in May and October 2023.
A poster for the tour’s next stop in Selma, North Carolina, in October lists Northrup, Eric Trump, and Lara Trump as scheduled speakers.
The tour has become a magnet for Hitler-promoting antisemites. Including Northrup, Media Matters has now identified at least five speakers who have shared antisemitic and pro-Hitler material.
Fine, fine, perfectly fine…
This is the caliber of people who come to speak at the Republican presidential candidate’s home. Raving nut-cases. And the chair of the RNC and her husband, the candidate’s son, are on the campaign trail with her. ((Not to mention fellow weirdo Robert F. Kennedy Jr.)
Just don’t use the “N” word (Nazi) to describe them. People get very upset.
July of that year was a real nail biter … and Obama went on to win by 4 points.
How about 1992?
G. Elliott Morris of 538 (formerly the Economist poll) has this to say about that new NY Times poll, dropped coincidentally on the night before the debate, showing Trump up 6 among registered voters. (Biden is ahead among likely voters,.)
Here the NYT is acknowledging partisan non-response is driving swings in their poll results. Good on them for being honest, this is probably happening to most pollsters at this point. But if a pollster can detect this, shouldn’t they adjust for it? pic.twitter.com/ekQKf6u7XM
Donald Trump’s plans to make America great again are going to include a lot of whining.
Trump on Tuesday morning in an interview on CNN’s “New Day” proclaimed that he is “the most fabulous whiner” when confronted with an opinion piece that criticized him using the same label.
“I do whine because I want to win and I’m not happy about not winning and I am a whiner and I keep whining and whining until I win,” Trump told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Tuesday.
This is what four year olds do before they learn that they can’t have everything they want when they want it. Trump never learned that lesson.
He knows he no longer has to legitimately win anything
A disturbing number of Republican congressmen are onboard for the lunatic right-wing conspiracy theory that Joe Biden will be on performance-enhancing drugs for tonight's debate. https://t.co/aX3nRRAoyEpic.twitter.com/kRMWAeWDv9
Donald Trump in recent days gave speeches in Washington and Philadelphia and greeted supporters at a cheesesteak restaurant in Pennsylvania. He flew to New Orleans for a fundraiser Monday, and called in to a roundtable with Black leaders on Wednesday in Atlanta.
Ahead of what could be the most consequential political event of the cycle, Trump has continued campaigning and has eschewed intense debate preparations, even as Joe Biden has remained hidden away at Camp David to get ready.
That’s made easier by the fact that he’s already declared the debate is essentially rigged.
Trump and his team have worked to undermine, undercut and cast doubt on the historic debate before it’s started: They’ve questioned the fairness of CNN moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper. Trump and his allies have criticized the format of the debate. They’ve repeatedly asked President Joe Biden to take a drug test.
It’s a playbook Trump has followed for years, most notably ahead of the 2020 election and his criminal trial this spring in Manhattan. If Trump comes out the winner of the debate, his allies predict, then it will be in spite of the obstacles. If Trump stumbles, then he has already set up who and what to blame. It’s also a brand of grievance politics that has long animated Trump’s most fervent supporters and helped him, baselessly, explain away past political failures and legal setbacks.
Win-win for the sore loser. And his followers can’t get enough of it.
Trump’s Himmler:
Here’s our future Secretary Of State:
The whining and crying continues: “The most important person tonight is going to be the engineer who decides when microphones go on and off. I’d like to know who he or she is, how they voted .. This is not a debate.” pic.twitter.com/58q5kQi2VJ
A strong showing by Biden will neutralize Trump’s claims about his opponent’s cognitive decline.The Trump campaign knows this. That’s why, in recent days, Trump and his aides have been working overtime to mitigate the damage should Biden deliver a commanding performance similar to his fiery State of the Union address. The Trump campaign’s first tactic is the most Trumpian: Spread a nasty smear. At a Pennsylvania rally on June 22, Trump made the baseless claim that Biden will use drugs to get “jacked up” for the debate. Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told me that Biden’s State of the Union speech was “evidence” that Biden uses performance-enhancing drugs. “The Joe Biden who delivered the State of the Union is not the same Joe Biden the American people see every day. It’s clearly two different people. It’s literally Jekyll and Hyde,” Miller said. (Asked about Trump’s drug claims, a Biden campaign spokesperson said the former president is “resorting to desperate, obviously false lies.”)
Secondly, the Trump campaign is lowering the bar by playing the media’s victim. If Biden wins on Thursday, Trump can say CNN rigged the debate in Biden’s favor, regardless of whatever millions of Americans see with their own eyes. “It’s a three-on-one dynamic with Biden, [Jake] Tapper and [Dana] Bash,” Miller told me. “The structure makes it impossible for President Trump to get a fair shake,” Miller said. The Trump campaign will also say the media grades Biden on a curve. “The media has lowered the bar so much that if Biden can stand up for 90 minutes, he’ll be declared the winner,” Miller told me.
Trumpworld’s third move is to turn Biden’s serious debate preparation against him by highlighting that Trump is conspicuously not doing formal debate prep—a clear flex to show Trump isn’t worried about Biden. According to Miller, Biden is spending a week prepping at Camp David because the Biden campaign didn’t expect Trump to accept their offer to debate with a mainstream media moderator. “The Biden people didn’t want the debate to happen. The terms of the debate were so one-sided in their favor they didn’t think Trump would accept. But Trump called their bluff. That’s why Biden is freaking out and taking a week off to prepare,” Miller said.
Apparently, they don’t believe there’s a chance in hell of Trump just winning the debate on the merits. And they’re right about that. He’s a narcissistic imbecile. But these people do have a talent for influencing the media and indoctrinating their followers.
So CNN believes it can keep Donald John Trump under control during tonight’s debate. They have rules. Rules will tame him. And no live audience to mug for. They’ll mute the candidates’ mics when their answer periods are up.
Will all those rules keep this exercise on the rails? CNN has said that moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash “will use all tools at their disposal to enforce timing and ensure a civilized discussion” (emphasis mine).
But it remains to be seen what that means. If Trump begins stalking the stage menacingly or either candidate starts interrupting (or even yelling), will Tapper and Bash open up a trapdoor? Whip out a lasso or old-timey shepherd’s crook to yank the candidates offstage? Pull a fire alarm?
And there’s no plan for live fact-checking. How will any falsehoods be curtailed?
They won’t be. Trump is a firehose of falsehoods.
CNN CEO Chris Licht was fired a month after a town hall with Trump moderated by Kaitlan Collins last May became an “opportunity to spew lies, smear enemies, and insult the moderator.” No one (here) needs reminding that Trump lost the 2020 election yet incited a mob to storm the Capitol on his behalf. Rules are for suckers and always “rigged.”
“I also expect that CNN is going to rig it as much as possible and make it as favorable as they possibly can for President [Joe] Biden, but I don’t think it’s going to work,” Speaker Mike Johnson told Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.
Team Trump is pre-spinning the debate every which way so Trump can claim victory whatever happens tonight. Heads he wins, tails Biden loses. They’re pre-spinning November as well.
Still, the big question of the night is: Will CNN be able to keep things civil? Cutting the mics will certainly help, but presumably, the moderators won’t be able to physically restrain Trump from, say, wandering up and talking into Biden’s microphone. Less dramatically, a candidate’s mic might still pick up another candidate’s shouting. Plus, the reality is, they’ll be in the same room. Trump yelling at Biden, calling him crooked or sleepy or accusing him of being on drugs, might prove distracting enough to derail the debate, even if viewers at home can’t hear it. CNN may have removed the unpredictability of a live studio audience, but it can’t remove the unpredictability of Donald Trump.
No flashbulbs, please. They upset the big gorilla.
