Question: Now that Donald J. Trump has decisively won a second term, will the president-elect again embrace Project 2025, which obviously was written for him in the first place?

FRIDAY 11/8/24

Racist Text Messages to Black Youth, Adults – The FBI and several state attorneys general have opened inquiries into racist text messages sent to Black men, women and children that started to appear Wednesday, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. The texts have gone out to Black middle-school, high school and college students, including the 17-year-old son of St. Louis’ mayor, according to the report, and say the recipients have been chosen for “some sort of indentured servitude.” (Listen to NPR’s report here.)

NPR tried calling phone numbers associated with the texts, to no avail. There is no indication yet whether the texts might be related to election day bomb threats at polls or pre-election day misinformation and disinformation thought to have come primarily from Russian hackers.

•••

EU to Abandon Ukraine? – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told an informal conference of European Union leaders in Budapest Friday that the EU must rethink its support for Ukraine following Donald J. Trump’s election victory, Reuters reports. Orbán, who is a close friend of both Trump and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, said Europe cannot finance the war without US support. 

Trump has promised to “end” the war via negotiations between Putin – who has fortified his aggression with North Korean army troops – and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

“The Americans will quit this war, first of all they will not encourage the war,” Orbán told state radio (a product of his own authoritarian rule).

Meanwhile … The Biden White House is rushing to process about $50 billion in guaranteed loans to Ukraine before January 20. 

Speaking at the EU leaders’ conference in Budapest Thursday, Zelenskyy said this: “There should be no illusion that a just peace can be brought by showing weakness. Peace is a reward only for the strong.”

•••

Newsome Jumps Trump – Gov. Gavin Newsome Thursday issued a proclamation calling for a special session of the California legislature “to safeguard California values and fundamental rights in the face of an incoming Trump administration.” It is set to begin December 2, the day newly elected members of the state senate and assembly will be sworn in. 

“The special session will focus on bolstering California legal resources to protect civil rights, reproductive freedom, climate action and immigrant families,” the proclamation states. 

Newsome is a likely candidate for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination who was considered in the running after President Biden stepped down from his re-election bid and before Vice President Kamala Harris was named his successor.

The special session will assure California “won’t be flat footed come June,” said Attorney Gen. Rob Bonta, (per the Los Angeles Times). “You can be sure that as California attorney general, if Trump attacks your rights, I’ll be there. If Trump comes after your freedoms, I’ll be there. If Trump jeopardizes your safety and well-being, I’ll be there.”

James Gallagher, the California assembly’s Republican leader, responded thusly: “This special session is a shameless political stunt. The only ‘problem’ it will solve is Gavin Newsome’s insecurity that not enough people are paying attention to him.”

Newsome v. Musk? … Lots of context here. In addition to the civil rights issues AG Bonta mentions above, Sacramento is concerned Trump will seek to gut California of its ability to set its own emissions standards established during Gov. Ronald Reagan’s administration. Later, during the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (also a Republican), California established a zero-emissions mandate, which had stemmed early losses at Tesla as it sold EV credits to automakers that fell short of the standard. 

But by the ‘10s, CEO Elon Musk, who appears headed to the Trump White House as a government waste-reduction czar, said he would have preferred Tesla to stand on its own without the ZEV credits. 

•••

Casey Defeated in PA – The Associated Press has called Pennsylvania’s US Senate seat for Trump-backed Republican challenger David McCormick, former CEO of the world’s largest hedge-fund. However, three-term incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D) had not conceded as of Friday morning, saying at least 100,000 ballots – including provisional, military and overseas – are yet to be counted, according to the AP, which reports McCormick leads by 31,000 votes.

The Senate count now stands at 53 Republican, including McCormick, to 45 Democratic, with two races yet to be called. In the House of Representatives, Republicans have 211 seats to 199 Democratic seats, with 25 races to be called, and 218 necessary for the majority.

--TL

_______________________________________________

THURSDAY 11/7/24

This Just In -- Ex-president/President-elect Donald J. Trump has named a top political aide, Susie Wiles, as chief of staff. She will become the first woman in the role.

•••

UPDATE – The Federal Reserve lowered its target interest rate by ¼ points to the 4 ½% to 4 ¾% range, while reiterating it remains “strongly committed to supporting maximum employment and returning inflation to its 2% objective.” Whether meant intentional or not, the commitment seems to warn about potentially inflationary policies like tax cuts and tariffs.

II -- Chairman Jerome Powell said he does not expect the general election to influence the Fed's rate setting in the future, though the next president or Congress could enact fiscal policy that "could have effects over time that do matter." (Per Marketplace.) Powell also said he will not step down as Fed chairman if President-elect Trump asks him to, according to Marketwatch.

Another Rate Cut? – The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates by another ¼-point when it concludes its Board of Governors meeting Thursday afternoon, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. This would mark the second benchmark rate cut since the Consumer Price Index fell close to the Fed’s 2% target late this year. In September, the Fed cut the rate by a half-point as the CPI came down to 2.5% from its end-of-pandemic high of 9.1% in June 2022.

Fed up? ... While Thursday’s expected cut was considered the second of many, the economic policies of President-elect Donald J. Trump could potentially blunt that. Specifically, another tax cut financed by hiked tariffs on imported goods would potentially re-fuel inflation. Trump already has spoken of taking executive control of the otherwise independent Fed and is unlikely to re-appoint its chair, Jerome Powell, when his term from the first Trump administration expires May 15, 2026.

•••

Zelenskyy Promotes ‘Peace Through Strength’ – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made his most-pointed response to President-elect Trump’s vow to work out a peace plan between Ukraine and Russia, at the European Political Community Summit in Budapest Thursday, per The Kyiv Independent.

“There should be no illusions that a just peace can be bought by showing weakness,” Zelenskyy said. “Peace is a reward only for the strong.”

Trump has said he can “solve” it in a day, as he has promised for a number of other issues, which apparently means handing over parts of Ukraine already claimed by Vladmir Putin’s Russian army. 

Meanwhile, President Biden is rushing to distribute before he leaves office a remaining $50 billion in Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration loans, backed by interest earned from immobilized Russian sovereign assets, reports Morning Edition.

•••

That’s a Wrap – Justice Department special prosecutor Jack Smith is expected to wrap up his two cases against president-elect/ex-President Donald J. Trump – conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election and hoarding of classified documents -- before Trump’s January 20^th inauguration (per NPR’s All Things Considered). Because a sitting president cannot face trial, that gives Smith 74 days as of Thursday to present his case. Afterward, he faces potential retribution from the once and future prez.

•••

Next House – Control of the House of Representatives for the 119^th Congress remains undecided, with 40 seats yet to be called. As of Thursday morning, there are 205 Republican, and 190 Democratic victors, with 218 needed for control. It may take weeks before numbers are final, according to The New York Times.

New Senate … Republicans already have taken the Senate, with 52 seats. Democrats now have 44 seats. Key races in Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania have yet to be called.

--TL

_______________________________________________

Trump Will Be #47; GOP Takes Senate

WEDNESDAY 11/6/24

There will not be the long, drawn-out ballot count in the battleground states that virtually everybody (including us) had predicted. North Carolina and Georgia fell to Donald J. Trump before midnight Tuesday, while blue counties in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan were showing smaller margins for Kamala Harris than for Joe Biden four years earlier and Trump’s margin in key red counties in most states grew from 2020.

Trump, 78, was leading the popular vote Wednesday morning for the first time in three elections, 71.39 million to 66.45 million, according to the AP.

The once and future president did not wait for the AP to call Wisconsin and leap past the 270 electoral vote threshold when he made his victory speech in West Palm Beach, Florida, about 2:30 am EST. 

“Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason,” Trump told his crowd, referring to an assassination attempt last July in Butler, Pennsylvania, and another last September at Trump International Golf Club in Florida. 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was the first foreign leader to hail Trump’s victory, The Guardian reports, writing on social media: “The biggest comeback in US political history! Congratulations to President @realDonaldTrump on his enormous win. A much-needed victory for the world!”

It probably doesn’t need to be repeated that Orbán is the only European Union leader allied with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump’s “huge victory” a “powerful recommitment” to the US-Israeli alliance, according to Haaretz. 

Prior to the market’s opening Wednesday morning, stocks rallied and bitcoin soared, “with investors piling into trades that align with a second Trump presidency,” The Wall Street Journal reports. “The dollar and Treasury yields both jumped, reflecting bets that Trump’s policies could widen the budget deficit and stoke inflation, while tariffs would strain trading partners.”

Meanwhile, myriad media outlets report that exit polls indicate male Latino support for Trump nearly reached 50%; Evelyn Pérez-Verdía, founder of We Are Más, cited the gender gap and told NPR’s Morning Edition the president-elect’s support was up 13 points among Latinos from 2020.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
WEDNESDAY 11/6/24

WEDNESDAY 11/6/24

Not Even Close -- The Associated Press called Wisconsin for Donald J. Trump just before dawn Eastern time, to give the once and future president 277 electors to Vice President Kamala Harris' 224.

"This was a movement like nobody's ever seen before," Trump said at a victory gathering in West Palm Beach, Florida, before the AP call, "and frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time. There's never been anything like this in this country, and maybe beyond."

The Republican Party also took control of the Senate Tuesday night. The House of Representatives remains close.

•••

Nabs Georgia, North Carolina – Just after 1 am Eastern time Donald J. Trump led Kamala Harris 247 to 210 in the Electoral College vote count as called by the AP, with 270 needed to win. Trump is leading in Pennsylvania for its 19 electoral votes, at 51.2% to 47.8%, with 91% of the vote in.

Trump also is leading in the key swing states of Michigan, 51.4% to 46% with 59% in, and Wisconsin, 51.4% to 47.2% with 84% counted. Trump has a slight lead over Harris in Arizona, at 49.9% to 49.2%, with 51% in. Just 4% of the votes were counted in Nevada, where Trump was leading 71.5% to 26.8%.

--TL

_______________________________________________

ELECTION DAY 11/5/24

Scroll down one page with the trackbar on the far right to read …

<<<<<<<<<<Kamala Harris’ platform in the left column.

Donald J. Trump’s platform in the right column. >>>>>>>>>>

Shape of the Count to Come? -- First-in-the-nation-to-vote Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, finished counting its six ballots at 12:12 am Tuesday. The result, reports The New York Times: Three votes for Kamala Harris. Three votes for Donald J. Trump.

•••

Yet More Misinfo, Disinfo – Late Monday night as Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald J. Trump were wrapping up their presidential election campaigns, the Office of the Director of National Security, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI said in a joint statement, according to The New York Times, that foreign adversaries led by Russia were “conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of US elections and stoke division among Americans.”

Fight misinformation, disinformation … Confused over what you are reading about today’s election on Facebook and X-Twitter, or watching on TikTok and YouTube and the like? The Brennan Center for Justice has this handy guide to voter misinformation.

•••

Wait For It – As in 2020, swing states Pennsylvania and Michigan were not allowed to count early ballots until Tuesday, November 5. Wisconsin’s rules have changed and this year election workers have already begun tabulating the early ballots.

•••

Abortion on the Ballot – Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota have ballot measures to roll back bans on abortion, the AP reports. South Dakota, in fact, has two competing ballot initiatives, according to NPR. In addition, AP says, Colorado and Maryland have measures that would protect abortion rights via their state constitutions. Initiatives to maintain access are on the ballots in Montana and Nevada, and a New York law would ban discrimination against women on the basis of “pregnancy outcome, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”

•••

Trump’s Last Rally – Donald J. Trump began what he called his “last rally” after midnight Tuesday in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he got “kind of sentimental” NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

“But here’s the good news: All we were doing is putting ourself in a position where we could win tomorrow if you show up,” Trump said. 

Earlier, Trump held a rally in Pittsburgh with conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly, whom he once called “nasty” for her question during the first 2016 GOP primary debate on Fox News, of whether Trump has the temperament to be president. 

“He got mocked by the left by saying he would be a protector of women,” Kelly told the rally crowd Monday evening. “He will be a protector of women and it’s why I’m voting for him. He will close the border and he will keep the boys out of women’s sports where they don’t belong.”

•••

Harris on Rocky Steps – That’s the steady sort of rocky, as in the steps up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art Sylvester Stallone runs in his 1976 movie, Rocky.

Harris called the “famous steps, a tribute to those who start as the underdog, and climb to the victory.”

Celebrities speaking at Harris’ final push were Oprah Winfrey, Fat Joe and Philly native DJ Jazzy Jeff. Lady Gaga, The Roots and Ricky Martin performed. 

“We are done with it,” Harris said of the “most consequential” presidential election of our lifetime. “America is ready for a fresh new start, where we see our fellow Americans, not as an enemy but as a neighbor.”  

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
TUESDAY 11/5/24

The platform of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz is called “A New Way Forward” …

Taxes:

•Cut taxes for 100 million Americans, with no income tax increases for anyone earning less than $400,000 per year.

•Restore the expanded Child Tax Credit from the early years of the Biden administration, to as much as $3,600. 

•Expand the Child Tax Credit to provide up to $6,000 in tax relief for middle- and low-income families for the first year of a child’s life.

•Raise the corporate tax rate to 28%, “still well below the rate that was in place before the Trump tax cuts,” which expire in 2025.

Affordable housing: 

•Partner with the private sector to build 3 million additional homes, via the Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit.

•Launch a $40 billion Local Innovation Fund for housing expansion.

•Offer first-time homebuyers $25,000 in down-payment assistance.

•Expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit for private and non-profit developers to expand the affordable rental supply by more than 1.2 million new homes.

•Crack down on large corporate landlords using equity-backed price-setting tools via a proposed Preventing the Algorithmic Facilitation of Rental Housing Cartels Act and stop Wall Street investors from buying up homes in bulk.

•Create a new Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit to support new construction or rehabilitation of more than 400,000 owner-occupied homes.

‘Opportunity Economy’:

•Spur creation of 25 million new business applications by expanding the start-up expense deduction for new businesses to $50,000 from the current $5,000.

•Reduce obstacles and red tape that “make it harder to grow a small business.”

•Invest in workers, innovation and industry to revitalize American manufacturing, strengthen the US industrial base and maintain a lead in cutting-edge technologies.

Food/Grocery Costs:

•Invest in “building resilient food supply chains” by expanding production among new suppliers and small farms, growers and processors to create broad-based supply chains.

•Crack down on “unfair” mergers and acquisitions among big food corporations. Investigate and prosecute price-fixing. 

•Assure that the federal government has the resources to identify and take on anti-competitive food and grocery industry practices.

•Call on Congress to pass a federal ban on price gouging.

Health Care:

•Expand and make permanent tax credit enhancements for Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”) marketplace plans.

•Extend the $35 cap on insulin and $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket drug costs to all Americans.

•Accelerate the speed of Medicare prescription drug negotiations.

•“Crack down” on pharmaceutical companies that block competition and on abusive practices who “squeeze” small pharmacies’ profits and raise costs for consumers.

Energy Costs:

•Continue to invest in a clean energy economy and cut red tape so clean energy projects are “completed quickly and efficiently.” The Harris/Walz platform says the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act has made “more than $265 billion in clean energy investments creating more than 330,000 jobs.” 

•Continue home energy technology credits from the Inflation Reduction Act and secure more than $22 billion in financial assistance for households to maintain safe and healthy indoor temperatures.

Immigration:

•Harris plans to push Congress to pass through the bipartisan border security bill drafted earlier this year. The bill, which was supported by the National Border Patrol Council (union for border agents) would add thousands of border patrol and other immigration personnel, speed up immigration decisions and make it harder to claim asylum in the US (per Time). 

Foreign Policy

•Stand up against dictators and ”defend America’s interests and democracy,” and US interests in Ukraine, South Korea, Israel and elsewhere.

Abortion:

•Supports ending the filibuster, a procedural hurdle requiring 60 Senate votes, to make it possible to reinstate Roe v. Wade, which protects abortions up to the time of fetal viability – about 20 weeks -- as the law of the land. Democrats would likely need to retain their slim Senate majority after November 5 in order to have enough votes to remove the filibuster. The platform opposes allowing states from imposing restrictions on abortion (per The Washington Post). 

_____
MONDAY 11/4/24

Republican candidates Donald J. Trump and JD Vance say the nation has been in “serious decline” since the Biden/Harris administration took over nearly four years ago. Their proposed fixes…

Tariffs and Taxes

•Trump has called “tariff” the “most beautiful word” in the English language. His policy supports “baseline” tariffs on foreign-made goods and passage of the Trump Reciprocal Trade Act, which would impose a 10% tariff on imports from all countries and a 60% tariff on Chinese imports. 

•Make permanent provisions of the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which doubled the standard deduction and expanded the child tax credit (they expire in 2025). Eliminate taxes on tips for restaurant and hospitality workers, and “pursue additional tax cuts.”

Energy

•The platform claims the US became the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world under the Trump administration and will be number-one again by lifting restrictions on American energy production, including nuclear power, and by terminating the “Socialist” Green New Deal. 

•Trump claims lowering fuel costs for transportation of goods will bring down the inflation rate.

Affordable Housing

•Platform claims inflation-slashing will reduce mortgage rates and help new home buyers. The platform also calls for opening limited portions of federal lands for new home construction and promotes home ownership via tax incentives and support for first-time buyers. It would also cut “unnecessary” regulations that raise housing costs.

Deregulation

•Slash wasteful government spending and promote economic growth to stabilize the economy.

•Cut burdensome regulations by reinstating Trump administration deregulation policies, which the platform says saved Americans $11,000 per household.

•Lead the world in the emerging industries of crypto, artificial intelligence and space to “pave the way for future economic greatness.”

Healthcare

•Increase transparency, promote choice and competition and expand access to new affordable healthcare and prescription drug options. Also protect Medicare from the “Democrat plan to add tens of millions of new illegal immigrants” to its rolls. 

•Shift resources back to at-home senior care, overturn disincentives that lead to care worker shortages and support unpaid family caregivers through tax credits and reduced red tape.

Education

•Support universal school choice for every US state, support schools that focus on excellence and parental rights, end teacher tenure and adopt merit pay.

•Defund public schools that engage in “inappropriate” political indoctrination of our children of federal taxpayer dollars.

•Stand up to those who violate the religious freedom of American students. Champion the right to pray and read the bible in school.

Immigration

•Stop illegal immigration, secure the border, deport illegal aliens and reverse Democratic Party open border policies that the platform says have driven up the cost of housing, education and healthcare for American families. Trump has said publicly he intends to deport as much as 20 million illegal aliens.

•Complete the Trump administration’s border wall and shift “massive portions” of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement. “We will use all resources needed to stop the invasion – including moving thousands of troops currently stationed overseas to our own southern border.”

•Restore the Trump administration’s travel ban and use Title 42 to end the child trafficking crisis” by returning the children to their home countries.

•Use existing federal law to keep “foreign Christian-hating Communists, Marxists, and Socialists out of America. … We will use extreme vetting to ensure that jihadists and jihadist sympathizers are not admitted.”

•Cut federal funding to sanctuary cities that release “dangerous illegal alien criminals” rather than turn them over to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

•Make merit-based immigration a priority so those admitted to the US contribute positively to US society and economy.

Foreign Policy

•Stop wars by ending global chaos and restoring “peace through strength” via a buildup of the American military. Trump has said he will end the war in the Ukraine in a day by negotiating with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

•Stand with Israel and seek peace in the Middle East.

Abortion

•Trump claimed victory when the US Supreme Court, including his three appointees, overturned Roe v. Wade in their 6-3 ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. After the 2022 midterm elections indicated heavy voter opposition to the Dobbsruling, Trump changed his position on the issue and now says it is a state’s issue on whether and how to restrict abortion.

_____
MONDAY 11/4/24

Democratic Ticket

Kamala Harris rally Friday at the Wisconsin State Fair Exposition Center 6-10 pm CT in Milwaukee with musical artists Cardi B, DJ Gemeni Gilly, Flo Milli, Glo Rilla, The Isley Brothers and MC Lyte.

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff campaigns for Harris/Walz in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, time and location TBA.

Republican Ticket

JD Vance rally 1 pm ET Friday in Portage, Michigan.

Donald J. Trump rally 4:30 pm ET Friday at Macomb Community College, Warren, Michigan.

Vance rally 6 pm ET Friday at The Forum at 95, in Selma, North Carolina.

Trump rally 8 pm CT Friday at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, site of this year’s Republican National Convention and the first Harris/Walz rally last summer. 

Vance rally 10 am PT Saturday at the Whitney Recreation Center in Las Vegas.

Vance rally 12:30 pm PT Saturday at Dillon Precision, Scottsdale, Pennsylvania.

Trump rally 4 pm ET Saturday at Salem Civic Center, Salem, Virginia.

Trump rally 7:30 pm ET Saturday at First Horizon Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina.

Trump rally 10 am Sunday at Lancaster Airport, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Email COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

_____
FRIDAY 11/1/24

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE STEADY AT 4.1% -- The US economy added just 12,000 jobs in October in part because Hurricane Helene made landfall September 26 and Hurricane Milton hit on October 9, both before the Labor Department’s October reference period for household and establishment surveys. The unemployment rate remained unchanged from September’s 4.1%. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics]

Filters Off – If there seemed to be any limits remaining on what Donald J. Trump might say to win next Tuesday’s presidential election, they were pretty much off in his event with Putin-friendly ex-Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, Thursday in Glendale, Arizona (per NPR’s Morning Edition).

“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her,” Trump said of former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, of Wyoming. “You know, when the guns are trained at her face.

“They’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, ‘Oh, gee, well, let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.”

Cheney's response .... "This is how dictators destroy free nations," Liz Cheney said Friday (per USA Today).

Question … Was Trump’s speech motivated more by his isolationist philosophy or for his grievance against the ranking Republican from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6^th Attack on the United States Capitol, who has been campaigning for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris?

‘Protect women’ … Harris responded Thursday to Trump’s comment Wednesday at a rally near Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he would “protect” women, “whether the women like it or not.”

Harris’ response … “It actually is, I think, very offensive to women in terms of not understanding their agency, their authority, their right to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies,” Harris told reporters in Madison, Wisconsin (per The Washington Post).

•••

Crux of the Biscuit – It’s the apostrophe. The Associated Press reports that sources say White House officials altered a transcript by non-partisan stenographers of President Biden’s self-inflicted reversal of the Trump/Vance campaign’s self-inflicted “island of garbage” joke from Madison Square Garden last Sunday. 

The original Biden quote, as transcribed, read: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters – his—his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

Press official-edited: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s – his—his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
FRIDAY 11/1/24

President Biden's comments about Trump supporters -- or his Madison Square Garden comedian -- has taken a bit of the air out of Kamala Harris' "closing argument" Tuesday evening at the Ellipse, site of Donald J. Trump's January 6, 2021, speech to a mob that attacked the Capitol. Scroll down for Harris speech analysis.

THURSDAY 10/31/24

Sanitation in Green Bay – Donald J. Trump was driven to his rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Wednesday in a garbage truck with his name emblazoned on the side, NPR’s Morning Edition reports, as he parried the brouhaha over his Madison Square Garden comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe’s “joke” about Puerto Rico and an island of garbage. This won the campaign day for Trump, Politicosays, as Kamala Harris had to deal with President Biden’s counter-remark about MAGA supporters and garbage. 

Biden’s comments stepped on Harris’ own “closing arguments” speech at the Ellipse with the White House in the background, Tuesday evening.

“You know the thing is, they treated our whole country like garbage, intended or not,” Trump told the Wisconsin crowd. 

•••

Democratic Angst – Meanwhile, finger-pointing has begun among Democrats over “a string of factors” that have hobbled Kamala Harris’ campaign “from the outset,” The Hill reports. Whether Harris wins or loses the election next Tuesday, Democrats are disappointed with her messaging, especially on the economy, and with President Biden’s late withdrawal from the race. 

“People are nervous and they’re trying to cover their ass and get a little ahead of election day,” an unnamed Democratic strategist told The Hill. “It’s based on anxiety, stakes, and the unique nature of the cycle.”

•••

Anti-Vaxxer for HHS? – Former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now a key player in the Trump campaign, has told his supporters Donald J. Trump has promised him “control” over the Departments of Health and Human Services and of Agriculture, CQ Roll Call reports.

“I’m going to let him go wild on health,” Trump said. “I’m going to let him go wild on food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines.”

--TL

_______________________________________________

Harris at the Ellipse – For voters still undecided or, at least, unmotivated to go to the polls in the next six days, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris tried once again to define herself largely by defining Republican candidate Donald J. Trump. She is a conventional politician; one who seeks to work both sides of the aisle and for all voters. Trump, she reiterated, is in it only for himself.

“Look, we all know who Donald Trump is,” she said from the Ellipse, with the White House in the background. “He is the person who stood at this very spot nearly four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election he knew he lost.”

“He was told by the staff that the mob wanted to kill his vice president, and he responded with two words: ‘So what?’ And that’s who Donald Trump is.”

The one thing Harris’ “closing argument” had in common with Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally Sunday is that they each got out to the other’s voters in some measure. Fox News regulars who watched Harris’ speech live may have learned, or maybe re-learned, some facts from Trump’s January 6^th speech at the Ellipse in 2021 that have been lost in the pro-MAGA rhetoric about “tourists” holding a love-in that day, while Trump’s rally, especially his guest speakers have certainly got out to anyone who follows mainstream media in the last few days.

“He has an Enemies List of people he intends to prosecute,” Harris continued. “He says one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers on January 6^th.”

The vice president elaborated on some of her policy proposals, including a federal ban on price gouging in groceries, affordable housing for first-time home buyers, and of course legislation making abortions legal nationwide. Harris said she will “work with Democrats and Republicans to sign into law the border security bill that Donald Trump killed.”

On foreign policy, Harris said she will “Not surrender America’s global leadership. And I will stand with our friends,” she said, without specifically naming Ukraine or Israel. “Because I know that our alliances keep the American people safe and make America stronger and more secure. World leaders think that Donald Trump is an easy mark. Easy to manipulate with flattery and favor. And you can believe that autocrats like Putin or Kim Jong Un are rooting for him in this election.”

The Harris campaign estimates about 75,000 people attended her closing argument at the Ellipse, according to The Wall Street Journal. Prior to the speech, the National Park Service doubled its estimate of attendees expected to 40,000. 

Madison Square Garden has a concert capacity of 20,000, and some news reports say Trump’s crowd there started to thin out as the event stretched to about five hours Sunday. The Trump campaign says a large overflow of supporters who were not able to get in were on the streets outside the Garden that night.

•••

‘Deplorables’ Redux – President Biden sucked some of the air out of Vice President Kamala Harris’ “closing argument” at the Ellipse in Washington, Tuesday, when he addressed Latino supporters by video: “Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage,’” Biden said, referring to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s stand-up routine at Donald J. Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally Sunday evening.

Puerto Ricans are “good, decent, honorable people,” Biden continued. “The only garbage I see out there is his supporters and his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

The White House later released a transcript to show that Biden was referring to Hinchcliffe as the “garbage” Trump supporter, The New York Times reports. It’s unclear whether the president’s video to Latino supporters was recorded or released “live.” But if the former – even the latter – it shows Biden’s communication staff had slipped on the job to draw criticism from the Trump/Vance camp that detracted from Harris’ important speech at the Ellipse.

“This is disgusting,” Trump running mate JD Vance said. “Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half the country.”

(Earlier in the week, Vance defended the Garden rally language Biden was attacking, saying; “We have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America.”)

•••

Trump Responds – Donald J. Trump’s own response to the backlash over comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s “joke” about Puerto Rico at the Sunday evening rally came at a Tuesday campaign rally in heavily Hispanic-Latino Allentown, Pennsylvania. 

“I’m so proud that we’re getting support from Latinos like never before. We’re setting every record,” Trump said (per the Pennsylvania Capital Star). “Hispanics, Latinos, nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do. Nobody.”

Trump claimed “no one” has done more for Puerto Rico than him – eliciting memories of his paper towel-roll toss to victims of Hurricane Maria in 2018 – and he promised to deliver “the best future for Puerto Ricans and for Hispanic Americans.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 10/30/24