By Ken Zino

While I’m not a big fan of covering politics as if it were a sport, Vice President Harris and team had an all-star performance last night against Team Trump on my scorecard. They are clearly the favorites to win the World Series of American politics this November. 

Well prepared from scrutinizing Trump game film, the Democratic game plan shut down all the usual Trump plays of bluster, lies and apoplectic rage. Harris was ready to be thrown at, which Trump did multiple times, but he wildly missed her because he couldn’t hit the strike zone with his increasingly wilder pitches. 

Moreover, the loser Trump couldn’t make adjustments during the game and was so flustered that he committed babbling and ranting error after error allowing multiple runs for Harris. From the first inning fastball of the aggressive Harris handshake, Trump demonstrated he couldn’t recognize, let alone hit a curve, so to speak, or any other Democratic pitches as he was shut out enduring a humiliating no-hitter. What could you expect from a loser who boasted about his coaches – autocrats Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban. Harris crushed the ball, noting both wanted him in power because they know “they can flatter you and manipulate you.”

Yes previous game film shows Trump said he would let Russia “do whatever the hell they want” to our NATO allies. And he calls soldiers who gave their lives in defense of American democracy “suckers” and “losers.” Top American military generals and national security officials – including those who worked for Trump – have warned that he is “dangerous” and “unfit” to lead, and now he is surrounded by ultra-loyalists who enable his worst impulses.

When Trump lied about “migrant crime” in cities: “Well, I think this is so rich,” Harris said. “Coming from someone who has been prosecuted for national security crimes, economic crimes, election interference, has been found liable for sexual assault and his next big court appearance is in November at his own criminal sentencing.”

Harris meanwhile kept adding to her score in what was a rout of Trump. She spit on his wild pitches while laughing. She was a joyful player with positive moves – in the tradition of “let’s play two,” which will be the second debate. Here, I wouldn’t “Bank” on it because Harris has sunshine, fresh air and the team behind us, as the great Hall of Famer Ernie Banks observed. 

Trump’s rally crowd was leaving the stadium because he wasn’t talking about doing anything for their problems. “You will see during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter, he will talk about windmills cause cancer,” she said. “What you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And I will tell you, the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you. You will not hear him talk about your needs, your dreams, and your desires.”

The result was a convincing win for the Democratic candidate in the first game of a double header who used her experience from years in minor league politics to show that Team Harris is ready for, and can win and stay in The Show. 

“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people,” Harris said. “Clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that.” Trump will be sent down to the minors. 

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

By Stephen Macaulay

There is one simple reason why Donald Trump should not be elected. Arguably, he ought not be the Republican nominee because of this.

He still thinks he won the 2020 election. He has no evidence for it. He make claims that he has it, but if he did, if he had the honest-to-god-fact-checked proof, then wouldn’t he have blasted it out, oh, say, January 6, 2021?

The man does not have a grasp of what is generally considered to be accepted reality.

You know, that stuff that’s based on facts, not grievance.

“Everyone” this, “everyone” that.

Yet no substance. Nothing tangible.

And this is the guy who should be running the country?

He claims that he did everything great during his term. He claims that the country is in the shitter since.

When it is pointed out that there have been improvements in things like employment, he says that’s because of what he did.

So could we take it a step further and say everything good that happened on his watch was a consequence of what Obama put in motion?

He can repeat and amplify stories about illegal aliens eating pets. He can claim — with no backup information — that crime rates in other countries are down because all of the bad, very bad, very, very bad . . . insane criminals who have been sent to the U.S.

But if he still thinks that he won the last election, then there is a serious problem — not just for him, but for us if he gets reelected.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

By Hugh Hansen

It could have been much, much worse. It could have been a little bit better. 

I continue to have a hard time wrapping any part of myself around the idea there are 1.) genuinely undecided voters who 2.) sought to make their decision based on watching the debate (I felt that way about the conventions too).

So, what was there for them to see and hear? Trump told many more lies than Harris did, though the moderators only spoke to a few of them. Both candidates sidestepped questions, though in my biased opinion Trump did more of it, and sidestepped into wackier territories. 

Harris missed a rhetorical opportunity when asked whether they should have acted earlier or differently on the border; that was the moment to tie it to Trump's torpedoing the Congressional border deal, e.g. "We thought we'd dealt with it more comprehensively and six months earlier, until he meddled." 

I was glad she got it in a minute later. Trump gave the Blue side a gift with the criminal immigrants eating pets thing, and with "performing transgender operations on illegal immigrants in prison," things that only the most MAGAfied didn't laugh at. Those will translate better into social media clips, too.

Eight weeks.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

By Rich Corbett

Like it or not, last night’s debate on ABC demonstrated why politicians are often trained attorneys. I’m reminded of a high-profile lawyer, turned law professor, telling me that a prosecutor can convince nearly any jury to convict, if the court has favorable judge, or two. 

Last night Kamala Harris, the prosecutor, came well-rehearsed and had two favorable moderators; they all spent 90 minutes focused on prosecuting Donald Trump. If voting was scored like boxing, very few punches wielded by Trump connected with Vice President Harris. Trump was not successful in this round in exposing Harris’ failed record and far-left radical “values.” She sustained only a few body blows, so this round goes to Harris.

The problem for Kamala Harris is that the fight isn’t just one round. Trump has time to recover while the Harris campaign, and their propaganda arm -- mainstream media, has been clearly exposed. They can’t hide their candidate, her record and flip-flop positions for another two months … or can they? 

Americans know what to expect from a Trump administration. The first Trump administration’s “no wars” kind of strong foreign policy leadership, closed southern border, tough on crime pro-law enforcement positions and lowered taxes to promote a pro-domestic manufacturing economy was impressive. All Americans were doing better prior to the Biden/Harris inflation and world on fire. 

A thoughtful voter should be able to see the difference between one artful debate performance by Harris and a lifetime executive manager such as Trump when it comes to being POTUS.  It is one thing selling platitudes such as "opportunity economy," but eventually her lifetime of progressive and radical California values will be clear for all to see. Will the real Kamala Harris be exposed? 

Hats off to a debate prepared Kamala Harris last night … let’s see if the repackaging and marketing can continue. 

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Vice President Kamala Harris meets former President Donald J. Trump for the first time, at the National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia Tuesday night for what looks like their only debate before the November 5 presidential election.

The debate begins 9 pm Eastern/6 pm Pacific time on ABC TV with moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir, and NPR will simulcast the debate on radio.

An NPR/Marist poll says 70% of all Americans say they'll watch all or most of the debate, Morning Edition reports Tuesday. The poll results break down 72% of Democrats, 74% of Republicans and 67% of independents.

You know what’s coming. We would like you to participate in a civil discussion about the debate. Who won the night? Did either candidate convince you, or change your mind, about who to vote for? 

Whether you are progressive or pro-MAGA, center-left or center-right, we want to foster fair and civil discourse in these columns. 

To submit your comments, use the Comment section in this column or the column on the right, or email editors@thehustings.newsand please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

And don’t forget our FREE Substack newsletter.

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By Stephen Macaulay

It is somewhat like the dog in the Sherlock Holmes story Silver Blaze: it doesn’t bark.

The absence brings up presence. What should have happened doesn’t.

Which brings us to Mitch McConnell, who is still the leader of the Republicans in the Senate.

Back in February McConnell pushed a bipartisan immigration and foreign aid bill. 

Donald Trump had posted this on Truth Social about the bill that was to both tighten asylum standards and shut down the border if there was an influx of an unmanageable number of illegal crossings, both the sort of thing that would provide the “border security” that so many Trump and Trump-PAC ads are now shrieking about: “Only a fool, or a Radical Left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous Border Bill, which only gives Shutdown Authority after 5000 Encounters a day, when we already have the right to CLOSE THE BORDER NOW, which must be done.”

The bill was written, in part, by Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), not a fool nor a “Radical Left Democrat.”

Lankford wrote of the bill, “Americans are not opposed to legal and orderly immigration, but they are tired of the chaos and abuse at our border.”

No one should argue against that. Or maybe people need to be reminded that we are a nation of immigrants.

Lankford went on to write:

“The border security bill will put a huge number of new enforcement tools in the hands of a future administration and push the current Administration to finally stop the illegal flow. The bill provides funding to build the wall, increase technology at the border, and add more detention beds, more agents, and more deportation flights. The border security bill ends the abuse of parole on our southwest border that has waived in over a million people. It dramatically changes our ambiguous asylum laws by conducting fast screenings at a higher standard of evidence, limited appeals, and fast deportation. 

“New bars to asylum eligibility will stop the criminal cartels from exploiting our currently weak immigration laws. The bill also has new emergency authorities to shut down the border when the border is overrun, new hiring authorities to quickly increase officers, and new hearing authorities to quickly apply consequences for illegal crossings. It changes our border from catch and release to detain and deport.” 

Remember: this is a conservative Republican (a real conservative, not the kind that have co-opted the ideology).

What’s not to like about that?

But Trump spoke, his acolytes listened, and McConnell, who had once been a force in the Senate — and in his party — wandered off in silence. Even though he is not running for reelection, even though he would have no political capital to lose by strongly voicing first his support then his concern, McConnell folded.

The reason Trump was against the bill was because if the border was at least somewhat “fixed,” he wouldn’t have one of his primary issues to rant, rave and inexplicably riff about.

So people fell into line and supported their liege.

Now arguably the bill has things in it that people don’t like, but the nature of developing legislation is — or it used to be — one of give-and-take and compromise. It is working to get the most of what you can get and to minimize the amount of what you don’t want, knowing full well that there are opposite numbers to your position trying to do the same thing from their points of view.

But at the end something — not nothing — results.

Or at least that used to be the way things worked before the House became not much more than something you might find on the grounds of a carnival and the Senate has gone from a “deliberative body” to one where people thinks the word “debate” is something that Herve Villechaize might have referenced in relation to fishing on Fantasy Island.

Now Trump has returned to directing Congress by saying that if the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act isn’t signed into law (it is essentially a law that says illegal aliens can’t vote in federal elections, which is actually something that noncitizens can’t do anyway, so if you’re all about reducing regulations and the size of government, enacting something that essentially repeats what’s already there is nothing but waste), then:

“I would shut down the government in a heartbeat if they don’t get it.”

Congress is going to have to actually do some work, or the government will be largely shut down on September 30. 

What Trump is saying, in effect, is that if the SAVE Act isn’t passed, then Congress shouldn’t do its job to keep the government running.

Here is the man who wants to lead the government who is saying that it should be shut down.

How does that make any sense?

It is all about him and what he wants. Never mind the rest of the people in the country he wants to represent. If he doesn’t get his way, then it is no way.

And there is either silence (McConnell) or fist-pumping support (Hawley, Jordan).

Trump clearly doesn’t understand that it isn’t about him, in large part because there are so many who either keep quiet or tell him that it is and pretend that it has something to do with making America great again.

It isn’t. It is simply giving him what he wants.

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Editors:

As a girl from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, I am deeply sad about this. Tragedy just keeps on giving with this family.

--Kate McLeod

From Substack, re: https://thehustings.substack.com/p/of-fluoride-precious-bodily-fluids

Be sure to sign up for our free newsletter at https://thehustings.substack.com.

Countdown to Debate -- One week from now, Tuesday, September 10, Vice President Kamala Harris debates ex-President Donald J. Trump for 90 minutes beginning 9 pm Eastern/6 pm Pacific time, on ABC TV. There will be no studio audience and microphones will be shut off when it is the other candidate's turn to speak. Look for center-column analysis here on Wednesday, September 11 and send us your comments on the debate.

To submit your comments, use the Comment section in this column or the column on the right, or email editors@thehustings.newsand please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

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By Stephen Macaulay

On August 25, Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance appeared on NBC News’ Meet the Press. Kristen Welker, the interviewer, asked him about his comment about “childless cat ladies.” He’d made the quote during an interview in 2021 with Tucker Carlson on Fox News. As you may recall, Carlson was fired from his gig in 2023 after Fox settled a defamation lawsuit with voting machine company Dominion. The suit was brought because Dominion maintained that some folks at Fox were spreading false claims about the 2020 election being rigged. It cost Fox $787 million. Fair and balanced, right? Lying didn’t seem to matter much until it cost them.

The quote was a description of who Vance considered to be running the U.S., including “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

Welker pointed out, “The Census Bureau estimates there are 22 million women between the ages of 20 and 40 who for whatever reason do not have children. What do you say to those women who hear some of your comments, including the childless cat lady comments, which you’ve been asked about, but who feel as though you won’t represent them?’

He, of course, answered that he wants to be the “vice president for the whole country” and “represent everybody.” Not respect everybody.

Vance claimed it was a “sarcastic comment [made] years ago that I think a lot of Democrats have willfully misinterpreted.” There are probably more Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and other people who have a grasp of the English language who can read what he said without any misinterpretation.

It is flat out mean.

Welker asked if he regretted making the comment.

“Look, I regret certainly that a lot of people took it the wrong way, and I certainly regret that the DNC and Kamala Harris lied about it.”

What’s the lie, Vance? Didn’t you say these women are miserable with their lives because of choices they’ve made? What choices might they be? That they, for whatever reason, didn’t have children? What about all of the women who for medical reasons are childless? They need to be characterized by a smarmy politician who wants to “represent them”?

Welker pressed him again about whether he has any regret.

“Look, Kristen, I’m going to say things from time to time that people would disagree with. I’m a real person. I’m going to make jokes.”

And there it is: “I’m going to make jokes.”

In other words, he can say things that are mean, despicable and otherwise beneath someone who wants to be the person who is a heartbeat away from the presidency who can sluff off any decency by saying it was just a joke. 

That’s the sort of dodge most people left behind when they graduated high school.

Then The New York Times reported August 31 on another Vance attack on women.

In 2007 there was a teen beauty pageant. A young woman was asked a question and she totally flubbed it to a painfully embarrassing degree.

A video of it went viral. The young woman became depressed and considered suicide.

Presumably, as those things go, its virality had a half-life of days, to be replaced by some other epic fail.

But Vance, having spent time in Silicon Valley, proved himself not merely a tech bro but a bro bro and pulled it out from the pits of the internet and posted it on X prior to Kamala Harris’ CNN interview. It was captioned: “BREAKING: I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview.”

That’s right Vance, the man who seems exceedingly concerned about family values when it comes to things like procreation and what books should and shouldn’t be read in schools, shamed a person who was then a teenager, to make fun of a political opponent. Epic, bro.

And Donald Trump Jr. chimed in by posting “This is total Fake News from JD. We all know that Kamala isn’t that articulate.”

Again, victimize a young woman for some laffs.

Has he listened to one of his father’s public presentations lately?

According to Times, when Vance was asked if he had been aware of the fact that the young woman in the post had considered suicide he answered he hadn’t. And he said, “My heart goes out to her, and I hope that she’s doing well.”

A bit of contrition.

Then he was asked to apologize.

Oh, but the decent thing would be far too much for the man who wants “represent everyone.”

He is quoted:

“Politics has gotten way too lame,” he said, adding, “I’m not going to apologize for posting a joke, but I wish the best for Caitlin.”

Did Caitlin consider this to be a joke?

Is his approach to politics one where he is cruel and then just passes it off as a joke?

Vance told Kristen Welker that he was raised by two grandparents who “believed in some fundamental American values.”

Those values probably don’t include spite, meanness, callousness, and brutishness.

And they probably wouldn’t find these so-called “jokes” funny.

American leaders shouldn’t make fun of other Americans.

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Reader Comments on the Right

Editors:

Stephen Macaulay’s “Warm Spit & Standards” happened to trigger thoughts of Harry Truman as VP under President Franklin Roosevelt. Having recently read about Truman, it was surprising to me that he only had two in-person meetings with life-long philanderer FDR before the president died in the presence of his mistress (Eleanor’s social secretary). It just goes to show the significance of the passage of time in how history records American presidents, and footnotes their vice presidents. Perhaps little has really changed when it comes to presidents, politics and the power hungry?

--Rich Corbett

Countdown to Debate -- One week from now, Tuesday, September 10, ex-President Donald J. Trump debates Vice President Kamala Harris for 90 minutes beginning 9 pm Eastern/6 pm Pacific time, on ABC TV. There will be no studio audience and microphones will be shut off when it is the other candidate's turn to speak. Look for center-column analysis here on Wednesday, September 11 and send us your comments on the debate.

Be sure to sign up for our free newsletter at https://thehustings.substack.com.

To submit your comments, use the Comment section in this column or the column on the right, or email editors@thehustings.newsand please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

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Whether you’re left or right, conservative or liberal, progressive or pro-Trump, your civil comments on Thursday night’s CNN interview with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are welcome here. We treat readers’ comments in the same manner that traditional newspapers handle letters to the editor, which means no false facts or personal attacks and none of the conspiracy theories or extremism that social media sites like X-Twitter, Telegraph and Facebook allow while hiding behind Section 230.

We are your safe space for civil discussion among conservatives and liberals. 

To submit your comments, use the Comment section in this column or the column on the right, or email editors@thehustings.newsand please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

And please be sure to sign up for our free newsletter at https://thehustings.substack.com.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

By Stephen Macaulay

What did Mike Pence do while serving as vice president? There was the important act of obeying the law on January 6, 2021. But other than that?

[PLEASE SCROLL DOWN this column for reader comments on the interview --Ed.]

What did Joe Biden do except make a remark that resulted in President Obama having to come out an announce his support of same-sex marriage?

Arguably Dick Cheney did more while in office than even he would probably admit to.

Al Gore, of course, invented the Internet, but that was before he moved into Number One Observatory Circle.

And Dan Quayle’s contribution to the polity was making it clear that there needs to be greater support for elementary education, particularly when it comes to spelling skills.

The point is, vice presidents don’t do a whole lot outside of ceremonial activities. Yes, the Constitution has it that the vice president is the president of the Senate, “but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.” A tie-breaker. Swell. 

Then there is the 25^th Amendment. Section 1 puts it tersely: “In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.”

Section 4 is a bit more robust as it says, in part, “Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”

While we’ve seen Section 1 in action since 1963, with Johnson succeeding Kennedy after the assassination, and in 1974, when Nixon resigned and Ford assumed the office, Section 4 hasn’t happened. Which is probably a good thing.

Which brings me to the Kamala Harris CNN interview. The observation about the vice presidency and warm spit comes to mind.

There are those who tie Biden’s policy to her, as though she had something to do with them. 

In the early 1920s, when Warren Harding was president, there was a bit of a change for the vice president. As the White House Historical Association puts it: “As vice president to President Warren G. Harding, Coolidge had little to do aside from presiding over the Senate, although the gracious Harding invited him to regularly attend cabinet meetings.”

Presumably the vice president’s role in the cabinet is not unlike that of a tourist.

There are those who seem to think that Harris should break with Biden in a big way. But realize that she has to work with the man until noon on January 20, 2025 no matter who wins the 2024 election, so it is probably better to be civil.

Did she do well during the interview with Dana Bash. Yes.

But what is probably more to the point is to make a comparison between that press conference and, say, Donald Trump’s at Mar-a-Lago on August 12.

He opened, “Hello, everybody. Well, thank you very much. Appreciate your being here. Just a statement before I talk about debates.”

Then rolled into things including, “I think that our country is right now in the most dangerous position it’s ever been in from an economic standpoint, from a safety standpoint. Both gangs on the street and frankly gangs outside of our country in the form of other countries that are frankly very powerful. They’re very powerful countries and we don’t know what we’re doing.”

Gangs that are very powerful countries?

And: “We have a very, very sick country right now. You saw the other day with the stock market crash. That was just the beginning. That was just the beginning. It’s going to get worse. It’s going to get a lot worse in my opinion. . . .”

On the day of that press conference the Dow closed at 41,086.81. On the day of Harris’ press conference it closed at 41,577.97.

While past performance is not indicative of future results, a Dow that’s been over 40,000 since mid-May doesn’t seem sick.

He went on and on until he got to the debates.

“With all of that being said, I think it’s very important to have debates and we’ve agreed with Fox on a date of September 4th. We’ve agreed with NBC, fairly full agreement subject to them on September 10th, and we’ve agreed with ABC on September 25th.”

Turns out that the September 4 Fox debate was, for example, something that the “we” he used was inclusive of him and only him.

The point it, Trump gives a press conference and pretty much makes a whole lot of stuff up and the general response is a shrug and a “that’s just Trump.”

If we think press conferences from presidential candidates are important, shouldn’t we hold them to some standards?

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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On the Harris/Walz CNN Interview

In a country like ours, it is difficult to believe that the best and brightest that Democrats have to offer in 2024 is Kamala Harris. What happened to the party who produced presidents like Kennedy, Clinton, Obama and frankly even Joe Biden? A couple of them never missed a chance to talk to the press or explain their political positions and policies. As a Reagan conservative, I disagreed politically with the last three, but I never doubted their ability to serve as POTUS. Donald Trump and JD Vance face the media every day and are clear about their positions and policies. Like them or not, Americans know where they stand, and voters can at least be confident that Donald Trump knows how to serve as president at home and abroad. 

After watching Kamala Harris uncomfortably struggle her way through “The First Interview” with Tim Walz filling in the gaps, there is little reason to be confident that she has a “clear” plan or positions that Americans can confidently believe. Just because Harris tells us that “she’s been very clear” … she has clearly flip-flopped on several positions. I’m left thinking it was just another word salad and filled with way too much chit-chat that covered little substance of importance to Americans.

--Rich Corbett

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news