Messengers On, and Off, Point

Both Harris and Trump answered questions before the public yesterday.

Photos from Facebook via the Miami Herald

There might not be another debate between Trump and Harris before Election Day, but that doesn’t mean we can’t perform some useful side by side comparisons. The candidates made that easy by both appearing in public yesterday to answer questions, with Harris doing an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists and Trump delivering a town hall in Michigan.

Many argue Kamala Harris should do more interviews, and perhaps they have a point, especially if she performs as well as she did on Tuesday. Some of the press, of course, still found fault with her delivery. This headline from Politico could have been written by the New York Times Pitchbot:

Just to be clear, when a male candidate does this, it’s called being “disciplined” and “on message.” The fact is, Harris was relatable, prepared, yet passionate in her responses, even through some pretty tough questioning. 

The same can’t be said of Trump. Major media is once again trying to “sanewash” his performance, meaning they are pulling what nuggets they can out to try and normalize him to their audiences. I’m not interested in doing that, so in today’s piece I’ll present much of what he said verbatim after briefly explaining briefly why it’s just bonkers. 

Harris demonstrates her substantive chops

The debate didn’t provide Harris much opportunity to speak in detail about her priorities, policies and governing philosophies, but we got plenty of that in her interview yesterday before the NABJ.

Right out the gate, she was asked about the economy and given a chance to answer what she admittedly dodged in the debate: Are we better off than we were four years ago?

Harris made the case for why we actually are, explaining that when they came into office, they were cleaning up a big mess left by the prior administration’s mismanagement of Covid, where millions had been thrown out of work and a pandemic was raging. Further, Trump had just tried to overturn the election through a violent insurrection at the Capitol. Harris laid out how they had created 16 million jobs, including 800,000 manufacturing jobs, with unemployment at historic lows, including Black unemployment. She touted how the administration had lowered the price of insulin to $35 for seniors and capped out of pocket drug expenses for them at $2,000. And they authorized Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to bring down the price of prescription drugs. At the same time, she acknowledged that the price of groceries remains too high and that there is more work to do.

She spoke about the need for sensible gun safety laws. She cited specifically her support of background checks to see if a potential gun purchaser has a history that should raise any concerns, how she favors a ban on assault style weapons, and how she wants to close the gun show loophole for firearm purchases.

Her passion on the subject of abortion was evident when she spoke about the tragic death of Amber Thurman, who was denied medical care in Georgia under its new abortion ban. And she reminded the audience that Donald Trump had called the ban that took Thurman’s life a “beautiful thing.”

She addressed reports that Black men aren’t supporting the Democratic Party as strongly as in elections past. “I think it’s very important to not operate from the assumption that Black men are in anybody’s pocket. Black men are like any other voting group. You got to earn their vote so I’m working to earn the vote. Not assuming I’m going to have it because I am Black,” Harris said.

In one of the most memorable moments of the interview, Harris responded to Republican critics of her signature laugh and joyful demeanor. “I’ll say to whoever the young people are who are watching this: Sometimes your adversaries will try to turn your strength into a weakness. Don’t you let them,” she implored, turning and looking out at the audience.

Harris also poignantly addressed the lies Trump is spewing about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, and how leaders like Trump with huge audiences who are willing to rely on “groundless tropes” can’t ever be trusted to have the mic again. “You cannot be entrusted with standing behind the seal of the President of the United States of America, engaging in that hateful rhetoric that is designed to divide us as a country,” she said.

Her five and a half minute response on this question is worth listening to in full.

Meanwhile, Trump continued to circle the drain

If Trump is hoping to convince undecided voters that he is still fit for the job, he didn’t do himself many favors during his town hall yesterday, hosted by his former press secretary and now Arkansas governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

When asked about inflation by a member of the audience, Trump gave a rambling response where he ended up talking about windmills. He promised to bring down interest rates, even though the president has no authority over the Fed in this regard. And he seemed to argue that one way to solve high prices is to (checks notes) limit the amount of food coming into the country. Apparently he does not understand the basic laws of supply and demand.

I promised no sane washing, so here is the text of his response in full:

Other notable moments include when he falsely claimed global warming would create new seafront property in Michigan. “You’ll have more seafront property, right, if that happens,” Trump told the audience. This of course is untrue; even if all the polar ice melted, the entire state remains hundreds of feet above sea level. “If I have a little property on the ocean, I have a little bit more property, I have a little bit more ocean,” the ex-president said. In fact, most of Florida, including Mar-a-Lago. would be submerged in a world without polar ice.

Another notable lapse occurred when he claimed that Bagram, which is an airbase in Afghanistan, is somehow connected to oil drilling in Alaska. Had Biden made such a glaring mistake, it would be nonstop news about his failing mental capacities.

And he rambled on, and on, and on. Indeed, Trump even rambled when he tried to defend against claims that he rambles. You cannot possibly sanewash this:

It got so bad, host Sarah Huckabee Sanders ultimately tried to rescue Trump, claiming the crowd “doesn’t mind that he gives long answers” because he actually has “something to say.”

Hoo boy. It’s going to be a long 49 days till the election.