NOT a Swiftie
TUESDAY 9/17/24
Fed Watch – It’s here, finally. The Federal Open Market Committee meets Tuesday and Wednesday, with a much-anticipated – by home- and car-buyers, and the Harris/Walz campaign – interest rate cut expected at its scheduled press conference, 4:15 pm Eastern time Wednesday. Fed-watchers are expecting either an 0.25-point or an 0.5-point rate cut, based on a 2.5% Consumer Price Index and cooling jobs market.
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Meanwhile, on The Hill – As of Tuesday, Congress has just 14 days to pass a budget, or more likely a continuing resolution to avoid federal government shutdown at the end of the month, Punchbowl News notes. Adding to the pressure is President Biden’s call for more Secret Service funds after an apparent second assassination attempt on Donald J. Trump.
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Swift v. Trump – Pop superstar Taylor Swift’s endorsement of the Harris/Walz ticket coming immediately after last Tuesday’s presidential candidates’ debate continues to grab headlines, as pundits try to figure out what effect, if any, it will have on the November 5 election.
It will, if Trump’s reaction is any indication. On Sunday, Trump posted “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT” in a post on Truth Social between his “screed” about capital gains and a video clip from a rally, according to The Atlantic.
--TL
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Trump Targeted Again -- MONDAY 9/16/24
UPDATE -- Ryan Wesley Routh, suspect in what appears to be the second assassination attempt of Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, appeared briefly in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida, in shackles and with a public defender, where he was charged with possession of a firearm despite a previous felony conviction, and of possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number, the AP reports. Meanwhile, President Biden called on Congress to provide more resources to Secret Service, which he said, "needs more help."
Golf Hazard – Conspiracy theories and misinformation ran wild Sunday, predictably, on such social media outlets as Elon Musk’s X-Twitter after the FBI arrested Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, in connection with an apparent assassination attempt at one of the former president’s golf clubs, near Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Those conspiracy theories and the misinformation seems to have been tamped down by Monday, at least when considering only respectable news outlets.
Trump issued an email via his presidential campaign (per NPR’s Morning Edition) after the incident that reads; “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I want you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL.”
Routh’s own posts on X in 2022 “revealed a penchant for violent rhetoric” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to The New York Times, whose reporter, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, interviewed the suspect for a 2023 article about foreign fighters and volunteers in Ukraine.
Routh has had “numerous” run-ins with law enforcement, and The Associated Press cites a 2002 news story in the Greensboro, North Carolina News & Record that says a man with the same name was arrested in a three-hour standoff with police after he was pulled over during a traffic stop and barricaded himself inside a roofing company he had owned at the time.
Routh was registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012 and most recently voted in last March’s Democratic Party primary there, according to The Guardian, and he made 19 small donations totaling $140 since 2019 to the pro-Democratic political action committee ActBlue, using a Hawaii address. Routh voted for Trump in 2016 according to Morning Edition and he has indicated support for both former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Gun's serial number... The serial number of the gun found in the alleged assassination attempt, earlier identified as an AK-47, has been partially scratched off (per The Wall Street Journal).
Musk tweet… Elon Musk posted, then removed, a tweet on his X social media site wondering why Donald J. Trump has been targeted twice while the former and current Democratic candidates have not, CNN reports: “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.”
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About the Haitian Immigrant Falsehood – CNN’s Dana Bash pressed GOP vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (OH) on his promotion of fake stories of Haitian immigrants capturing and eating pet dogs and cats, and geese captured from a local pond in Springfield, Ohio, on State of the Union Sunday. Bash noted that nearly 20 Springfield institutions, including government buildings, have been searched and/or closed due to multiple bomb threats called in.
“The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes,” Vance replied. “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do, Dana, because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast.”
In a separate interview with Bash, Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said of Trump/Vance, “They’re hurting our city and their words are doing it.” Rue said Springfield has the support of Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to handle the an influx of Haitian immigrants, who are legal, under temporary protected status.
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Austin’s Ruling – Was Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin’s decision to rescind plea deals with alleged 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other men legal? A Guantánamo judge will consider the issue beginning this week, NPR’s Morning Editionreports. Some families of victims of the attacks want to see the defendants face the death penalty, but others believe the men will never come before the court because torture of them has tainted evidence in the case.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa