Federal Reserve interest rate cut, here we come. The US economy added just 142,000 jobs in August according to the Labor Department, with the biggest gains in construction and health care, as the unemployment rate inched down by 0.1 points to 4.2%. The Fed, whose chairman Jerome Powell, recently said “we do not seek or welcome further cooling” of the economy, is expected to lower interest rates later this month. [Chart: Bureau of Labor Statistics]
FRIDAY 9/6/24
Trump Sentencing After Election -- New York Judge Juan Merchan has delayed sentencing of Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump for his conviction of falsified business records -- the "hush money case" -- to November 12, one week after the presidential election (per NPR's All Things Considered). The sentencing hearing was to be held September 18, eight days after the Harris-Trump debate on ABC TV.
This represents a double-edged sword for Trump, whose attorneys asked for the delay and yet could have grown his popularity over having to campaign from jail or while under probation. It's was a damned if you do/don't proposition for Merchan, who would have been accused of election interference with a jail sentence or probation ahead of the election, and is still accused of such with a sentencing date (hopefully) after we know who has won and before Trump or Vice President Harris will take the White House.
•••
Arlington Altercation Update – NPR’s Morning Edition has identified Trump campaign officials accused by an Arlington National Cemetery employee of shoving or pushing her aside when she tried to prevent the campaign from filming the ex-president’s appearance there with Gold Star families. The two involved in the altercation are Justin Caporale, deputy campaign manager, and Michael Picard, a member of Trump’s advance team, a source has told NPR.
Trump this week insisted on his Truth Social website the incident did not happen even after the campaign posted video of the event with families of soldiers killed at the Abby Gate of Kabul International Airport during the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The Army in a rare rebuke issued a statement that the Trump campaign violated cemetery rules and federal law by taking photos and video at Section 60, where soldiers who served in Afghanistan and Iraq are buried. The cemetery employee who says she was shoved in the incident reportedly does not want to press charges for fear of retaliation by Trump supporters.
•••
Is it the Stupid Economy? – Donald J. Trump did not fare much better at the Economic Club of New York, where he was to reveal his “big policy agenda” for the nation’s finances, according to New York.
The magazine’s Intelligencer called the speech before the Trump-friendly group “a bomb of a speech a day after Kamala Harris unveiled a major tax-policy proposal and a pledge to support 25 million new small businesses.”
“We delivered an economic miracle that Kamala and Joe turned into an economic disaster,” Trump said.
The single bit of news, according to Intelligencer is that Tesla/X/SpaceX chief Elon Musk has agreed to lead a commission on government fraud and abuse for a second Trump administration. The Government Accountability Office estimates such fraud and abuse totals more than half a trillion dollars a year, the magazine notes, and the plan to put Musk in the driver’s seat would save “trillions” of dollars over an unspecified period, Trump told the Economic Club.
Note…Trump’s plan is “similar to the GAO’s Biden-era approach for rooting it out,” Intelligencer reports. Also notable is that Musk, who has said he’d take the role for zero compensation, has over the years fought federal probes ranging from his comments about Tesla stock to the automaker’s self-driving technology.
At the Democratic National Convention, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain announced his union had filed a National Labor Relations board complaint against Musk and Trump over their comments regarding Musk’s alleged worker intimidation at Tesla.
•••
President’s Son Pleads Guilty – Hunter Biden entered a surprise guilty plea in Los Angeles Thursday over federal tax charges, to avoid a trial that was expected to reveal details about past business deals. Prosecutors were expected to argue “he spent freely” on illicit drugs and escorts while neglecting tax obligations, says The Wall Street Journal. Speaking with reporters on Air Force One Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeated President Biden’s pledge he would not use his clemency powers to pardon his son, or commute potential sentences.
--TL
________________________________________________
THURSDAY 9/5/24
Trump’s Town Hall with Hannity – It was no debate, as originally proposed for Fox News September 17 to have been moderated by Martha McCollum and Brett Baier. Instead, the hour-long “town hall-style” interview (conversation?) with Sean Hannity was a taped and edited interview with ex-President Trump, held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The editing left in Trump’s argument that a Harris presidency would lead to another Great Depression and illegal immigrants would be eating up Social Security and Medicaid.
There was no mention of Hannibal Lecter or electric boats v. sharks, though there were high school-style nicknames like “Comrade Kamala” (with accent on the second syllable of Harris’ name) and projection of Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz’s high school criticism of the Trump/Vance ticket.
“There’s something weird about that guy,” Trump said of Walz. “I’m solid as a rock.”
Oh, the Orbánity… Trump began the interview quoting Hungary’s authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, “Bring Trump back and we won’t have these problems.”
We do it all for you… Apparently an issue on Fox News and perhaps other conservative news outlets is they can find no evidence Vice President Kamala Harris ever worked at a McDonald’s fast-food restaurant, an issue Hannity raised Wednesday night.
•••
Cheney to Vote for Harris – Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who lost her seat after voting to impeach then-President Trump over the January 6 attack on the US Capitol said at an event at Duke University Wednesday she will vote for the Democratic presidential ticket.
“Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris,” she said (per The New York Times). She went on; “I don’t believe we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states.”
•••
Economy v. Economy – Goldman Sachs, the second-largest investment bank in the world according to Wikipedia, says US economic growth would get a bigger boost from a Harris presidency than with a Trump presidency.
Why? Mostly the return of Trump tariffs and more strict immigration policies, the bank said in a release late Tuesday (per Reuters).
Job growth also would be greater under a Democratic sweep – meaning, House and Senate (unlikely) as well as White House. New spending and expanded middle-income tax credits would “slightly more than offset” the lower investment that higher corporate taxes would cause.
“We estimate that if Trump wins in a sweep or with divided government, the hit to growth from tariffs and tighter immigration policy would outweigh the positive fiscal impulse,” Goldman Sachs said, which would result in an 0.5% decline in GDP in the second half of 2025 that would abate in 2026.
•••
Headline Redux – Wednesday’s tragic school shooting in Winder, Georgia, where two students and two teachers were killed has activated The Onion’s boilerplate headline, “No Way to Prevent This’ Says Only Nation Where this Regularly Happens.”
--TL
_____________________________________________
Campaign Season Notes – Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump tapes a “town-hall-style” event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with Sean Hannity of Fox News set for broadcast at 9 pm Wednesday night. …
Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is in North Hampton, New Hampshire to tout her small business plan, which includes a tenfold tax credit for new businesses, from $5,000 currently to $50,000 (NPR). She hopes to cull a record 25 million new small business applications over four years of a presidential term. …
The youngest son of the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, Army 1st Lt. Jimmy McCain has changed his registration from independent to Democratic and says he will vote for Harris/Walz in November. He made the announcement in a press release and on social media Tuesday. McCain also expressed “outrage” over the Trump video altercation at Arlington National Cemetary, calling it a “violation” and a “painful experience.” …
George Conway, the conservative attorney, Trump critic and ex-husband of Kellyanne Conway last July launched the Anti-Psychotic PAC with plans to spend more than $100,000 on anti-Trump ads. Conway has launched the PAC’s first 60-second ad featuring clips of Republicans bashing Trump.
--TL
_____________________________________________
Russia Strikes Central Ukraine – At least 41 were killed and more than 180 injured by two Russian ballistic missiles in a strike on Poltava Tuesday, an otherwise quiet city in central Ukraine, according to NPR. The strike prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to call for more Western air defenses and to allow his country to strike deeper into Russian territory with long-range missiles, The Guardian reports.
“We keep telling everyone in the world who has the power to stop this terror: Air defense systems and missiles are needed for Ukraine, not in a warehouse somewhere,” Zelenskyy said.
•••
Netanyahu Remains Defiant After Protests – In retrospect, it was inevitable that the latest round of ceasefire talks with Israel over its war on Gaza and Hamas would stall. This time, it was over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intransigence in giving up Israeli control of Philadelphi, a narrow strip of land along Gaza’s border with Egypt that Netanyahu’s government says Hamas uses to smuggle weapons into Gaza and which Egypt and Hamas deny.
Even after Israeli protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv by the “hundreds of thousands” last weekend according to The Associated Press, to protest the killing of six Israeli hostages, demanding a ceasefire deal and immediate release of hostages, Netanyahu pushed back, saying “No one will preach to me.”
The UK Tuesday, led by its first liberal leader in 14 years Tuesday morning said it is suspending certain arm sales to Israel, NPR’s Morning Edition reports, though it will have little effect on Israel’s military capability, as the US and Germany are its two biggest arm suppliers.
•••
U.S. Steel should remain domestically owned, Vice President Kamala Harris said in Pittsburgh in her first joint campaign rally with President Biden, the AP reports. Harris and Biden opposition to the $14 billion sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel of Japan is echoed by Harris’ opponent in the presidential race, former President Donald J. Trump.
“U.S. Steel should remain American-owned and American-operated, and I will always have the backs of America’s steelworkers,” Harris said at a Labor Day rally before cheering union members.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news