August 8, 2024 | What A Day Newsletter

What A Day: U Up?

This combination of photos shows Vice President Kamala Harris, left, on Aug. 7, 2024 and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on July 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

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HIGHLY DEFLATABLE

Disgraced former President Trump said he’s willing to debate Vice President Harris three times in September. But his pitch looks an awful lot like a sneaky way to drag her into a matchup at his preferred venue, Fox News.

Trump laid out a three-debate plan during an hourlong, freewheeling, lie-infused, largely bullshit press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida on Thursday, suggesting Sept. 4th, Sept. 10th and Sept. 25th. So far, the Harris team has only agreed to one: Sept. 10th on ABC. Trump claimed: “We have spoken to the heads of the network and it’s all been confirmed, other than some fairly minor details.” But, as usual, that was nonsense.

After Trump spoke, Harris reaffirmed her plan to debate on Sept. 10th. But she brushed past a reporter’s questions about the other two. “We have a date on September 10,” Harris said, during a campaign stop in Wayne, MI. “I hear he’s finally committed to it, and I’m looking forward to it.” Later, she told reporters: “I am happy to have that conversation about an additional debate… after September 10th, for sure.”
Trump wants that first Sept. 4th showdown to be on Fox News, a detail that gives away his game. Democrats have recently been mocking Trump as a coward for backing out of their Sept. 10 matchup, while trying to switch the moderator to Fox News, evidently in hopes of gaining home-turf advantage at the conservative, MAGA-friendly network. Now, Trump seems to be trying to reframe the argument about the debates, by raising the suggestion that Harris is the one refusing to accept his offer of many debates if she won’t agree to change the original plan and meet him at Fox News first. If she does accept his plan, of course, there’s no reason to think Trump would keep his word about showing up at the next two debates.

Trump’s debate pitch is an outward sign that he’s feeling the pressure of Harris’ rise — and is scrambling to do something about it.

Harris now leads Trump in national polling averages and has continued to gain momentum. Trump, meanwhile, is grumbling to whoever will listen about having to run against Harris instead of President Biden, and going out of his way to lie about her crowd sizes. This week, Harris is barnstorming through swing states, with her veep pick, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), holding events in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona. Trump has just one campaign stop, in Montana, which will vote for him anyway.

Trump has been fuming behind closed doors about Harris’s surge in the polls and glowing coverage, according to the Washington Post. He had to do something! Apparently this rambling press conference, with a sneaky debate pitch, was the best he’s got! It’s not clear why he’s not on the campaign trail (though perhaps, at 78, he’s not as spry as he once was). Asked why he’s not holding more rallies, he claimed: “Because I’m leading by a lot.” Spoiler alert: he’s not.

A Trump-Harris debate promises to be a spectacle, no matter how many they ultimately hold. Biden’s dismal debate performance last month caused his presidential bid to immediately unravel. After that shocking scene, no one can ever again say: “debates don’t matter.”

Trump also claimed on Thursday that he draws bigger crowds than the one that heard Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech. And he wonders why that “weird” label is sticking?

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- Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), on the art of politics.

NEWS NEWS NEWS

The U.S. warned Iran of “serious risk” if it conducts an attack on Israel, according to a U.S. official who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. U.S. diplomats are scrambling to tamp down tensions between Israel, Iran and Lebanon. Iran has signaled that it plans to retaliate against Israel for the killing of a top Hamas leader in the Iranian capital of Tehran.

Ukrainian forces staged a significant surprise attack inside Russian territory, in what has become the biggest foray by the Ukrainian troops across the border since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The attack appears to have involved fighting vehicles donated by Western countries.

The stock market has been jumping up and down this week like a four-year-old after too much Halloween candy. On Thursday, the S&P 500 revved back up 2.3 percent after jobless claims fell less than expected. We’ll be keeping an eye on this as we continue to Google stuff like “How does the stock market work.”

Donald Trump’s attempts to distance himself from Project 2025 hit yet another snag with the revelation that he flew on a private jet with the former head of the Heritage Foundation and the architect of the whole damn thing back in 2022. You can’t even fly in the Heritage Foundation jet anymore, because of woke!

Biden said he’s worried about political violence if Trump loses in November. The president said he’s “not confident at all” that there will be a peaceful handoff of power in January if Harris wins. In fairness, most of us would be equally worried about political violence if Trump wins.

A new Republican majority on the Georgia Election Board voted Wednesday to reopen an investigation into Fulton County’s handling of the 2020 presidential recount vote, after Trump praised the board’s GOP members at a rally last weekend. Give it a rest, clowns

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