August 29, 2024

• What Did He Just Say? Both former President Donald Trump and running mate Senator J.D. Vance seem to have, erm, expanded the use of some forms of language in this year’s election contest. First up, Vance, who was trying to underplay his boss’s confrontation at Arlington National Cemetery, blamed Harris for the deaths of U.S. service members in Afghanistan. He said, “Three years ago, 13 brave, innocent Americans died, and they died because Kamala Harris refused to do her job,” [fact check: this is demonstrably false]. He then followed that up by saying that if Harris wanted to yell at Trump for showing up, then “she can go to hell.” It should be noted that Harris has not issued any sort of critique or statement against Trump’s visit to Arlington, so his criticism is rather specious. (LINK) On Trump’s part, he re-posted a comment on his Truth Social website that made a lewd remark regarding Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. I’ve chosen not to repeat the remark here; you can go to the link below if you want to see it for yourself, but it continues the Republican candidates’ seeming (weird?) inability to see women in positions of power without suspecting some form of sexual favor was involved. LINK
• Who Is at Fault Here? President Joe Biden has made multiple attempts at student loan cancellations over the past three years, with the conservative wing of the Supreme Court invariably swatting away his plans. So it looks like it’s happening again: Biden’s SAVE plan, which would have reduced monthly income-based repayments from 10% to 5% of a borrower’s discretionary income (along with other provisions), was blocked by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Biden administration asked SCOTUS to review the order, and in the meantime, put most of the plan back into effect. An unsigned order from the court essentially said, “Nope,” throwing the ball back to the 8th Circuit. This leaves the eight million people already enrolled in the SAVE program in financial limbo until a fuller ruling is issued. LINK
• Where in the World? As a native Pennsylvanian, I do tend to focus a bit on Keystone State political stories. In that vein, here’s one involving some confusion by U.S. Senate hopeful David McCormick. There was a recent shooting involving an alleged MS-13 gang member in a small Mississippi city, which was reported by a local news station. The city’s name is Philadelphia — named in honor of the Pennsylvanian metropolis — and you might be able to guess where this is going. McCormick’s eX-Twitter social media account reposted the news report, and blamed his opponent, Pennsylvanian Senator Bob Casey (plus VP Harris to boot) for so-called “open border policies” on allowing Philadelphians to be terrorized. The post was taken down several minutes after Casey’s communications director pointed out the story did not involve the City of Brotherly Love. A subsequent post further mocked McCormick’s residential status; he was born and raised in Pennsylvania, but had primarily been living in Westport, Connecticut — at least until his first failed Senate bid in 2022. While this isn’t quite to the level of Rudy Giuliani’s Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference, it’s at least in the neighborhood. LINK
• When Will They Be On? As a reminder, Harris, along with running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, is due to have her first major televised interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee. The interview is being filmed earlier today, and will air across CNN’s major platforms at 9 PM, EDT, tonight. It will be conducted by CNN anchor/correspondent Dana Bash, who co-hosted the June debate between Biden and Trump. LINK