October 1, 2024

Face/Off

Tonight, vice presidential candidates Ohio Senator J.D. Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will come face to face in New York City to discuss their bosses’ visions for the future. Both have a similar job to accomplish tonight: Make an appeal to working-class voters, particularly in places like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and/or serve as an attack dog for the person at the top of the ticket.

CBS News will be hosting the 90-minute debate, starting at 9 P.M. ET, but it will be simulcast on most other major networks. The organization has announced that, like the previous debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, there will not be no audience. However, for tonight’s event, microphones will not be muted, which will allow the two men to more freely interrupt each other, and more significantly, moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan will not be engaging in any live fact-checking. CBS News has stated that the onus for pointing out “misstatements” is on the candidates themselves, although the moderators may “facilitate those opportunities”. CBS is also planning on showing an on-screen QR code (just on CBS and their direct affiliates; this will not be shown on other networks) that will direct viewers to a CBSNews.com blog that will offer live, real-time fact checking. (Editorial note: So they know the importance of calling out misinformation, they just won’t do it live, on-air. Huh.)

This is likely the last direct contest between the two camps before Election Day on November 5. Harris has challenged Trump to one more debate, but he has declined, saying that it’s “too late”.

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But Wait, There’s More!

On a similar, brief note of interest to my Pennsylvania readers, Senator Bob Casey will debate Republican challenger David McCormick at 8 P.M. on Thursday evening, hosted by abc27 in Harrisburg. LINK

Tragic Projections

Hurricane Helene, which struck the southern U.S., has resulted in a confirmed death toll of over 130 people as of this writing, with hundreds more still missing. Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland has called for the Senate to return from a recess to pass a disaster aid package. President Joe Biden has declared states of emergencies for all seven states hardest hit by the storm, but more could certainly be done. Yesterday, Vice President Harris cut short a campaign swing out to the west coast to be briefed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on the impact of the storm, and updates on the federal response.

For his part, former President Trump visited Valdosta, GA, bringing along with him some supplies for those hardest hit. He also chose to hold a press conference in the parking lot of a semi-destroyed furniture store, criticizing the federal response, as well as that of the Democratic governor of North Carolina. Trump claimed that Georgia governor Brian Kemp (R) couldn’t get a hold of President Biden, and that NC governor Roy Cooper has refused to help people in “Republican areas” of the state. Neither claim is true, and in fact, Kemp has praised the Biden administration for its response. The part about not helping Republican areas seems to be a bit of projection, akin to when Trump himself, while President in 2018, refused to declare California a disaster area after that year’s devastating wildfires. Trump also criticized both Biden and Harris for not visiting the disaster sites, but it should be noted that both have stated that they would be visiting later in the week, once both federal and state officials have had a chance to work through the immediate crises. LINK

Georgia On My Mind

Speaking of Georgia, it should also be noted that today is the 100th birthday of Georgian native President Jimmy Carter. While his single term in the White House in the late ’70s is largely seen by historians as middling, there’s been no end of praise for what the former Commander-in-Chief has done with his lengthy life since leaving politics. He and his wife Rosalynn visited a Habitat for Humanity site in New York City in 1984, which had a profound effect on the couple, as they went on to assist in building homes annually for the next 35 years. A benefit concert for The Carter Center will be aired tonight, while country music stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood — both of whom worked with the Carters in the past — gathered yesterday in St. Paul, Minnesota, to help thousands of Habitat for Humanity volunteers build 30 new homes over the course of this week.

Sadly, Rosalynn Carter passed away last year, and the 39th POTUS himself has been in hospice care since February, 2023. Reportedly, he has expressed the wish to hang on long enough that he would be able to cast a vote for Kamala Harris to take over his old job. (Absentee ballots for Georgians will be available on October 7, so he has less than a week to go for that.)

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