Tuesday: Below the Fold
TIME glorifies Harris despite interview snub, RFK misses New York ballot, Brittney Griner’s newfound perspective, and more.
Politics
TIME glorifies Harris despite interview snub: On Monday, TIME magazine released its latest issue featuring Kamala Harris on the cover with the title, “Her Moment.” The accompanying puff piece not only fawns over her but claims the Democrat Party “underestimated” her and ridiculously asserts she hadn’t been given an opportunity as vice president to “showcase her talents.” Really? Try as Democrats might to whitewash it, Harris was assigned the role of border czar, after which she promptly disappeared, laughing off any need to visit the southern border. But even more telling is the fact that Harris never even “showcased her talents” to TIME. In fact, she rebuffed the magazine’s request for an interview. Instead, TIME was relegated to talking with the likes of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and anti-Second Amendment activist David Hogg, who opined, “Elections come down to vibes, and Kamala has got the vibes right now.” Wow. So much insight. Meanwhile, journalist Glenn Greenwald cogently observed, “The way the US corporate media transformed Kamala Harris from a national embarrassment to a transformative pioneer overnight — without even pretending to care about anything that she thinks or believes — is a powerful testament to how potent the science of propaganda is.”
Harris’s ABC News demand, explained: Last week, Donald Trump agreed to debate Kamala Harris on ABC News on September 10. Trump initially objected to debating Harris on ABC, accurately accusing the Leftmedia network of political bias. He’s also currently suing the outlet for defamation. Harris has so far refused to entertain other media outfits hosting the debate but says she’s “happy to have that conversation.” Her reason for insistence on only doing a debate on ABC looks to be more than mere political posturing in an effort to paint Trump as fearful of debating her. One of Harris’s longtime friends, Dana Walden, who has donated to her political campaigns since 2003, happens to be a top corporate executive at Disney, which owns ABC. This clearly presents a conflict of interest, which the network has sought to dismiss by asserting the only involvement Walden has pertains to budgets and staff size. Yet ABC is listed under Walden’s leadership, according to her official biography on Disney’s website. To make matters worse, overseeing ABC’s political coverage is Rick Klein, who reports to Debra OConnell, the president of News Group and Networks at Disney, who reports to Walden.
KJP word-salads Harris’s record: There is a scene in the iconic comedy “Office Space” in which the two Bobs interviewing an employee regarding the specifics of his job are seeking clarity and eventually ask, “What would you say you do here?” A similar scene played out yesterday in the White House press room when Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked to name a “specific policy” that Kamala Harris has achieved as vice president. KJP responded by saying that all of Joe Biden’s “historic, unprecedented achievements have been done together” with Harris. The reporter pressed again, asking, “There’s no specific policy; it’s a comprehensive whole?” To which KJP replied, “I would say it’s a comprehensive whole. The Biden-Harris accomplishments are the Biden-Harris accomplishments. She’s played a role, whether it is being on the floor of the Senate, getting really important legislation to pass through, or being in a room with the president and trying to figure out how to move forward strategically with a policy or how to make tough decisions on behalf of the American people, she’s been there.” So, does Harris own all of Biden’s failed record?
Satire: “I will fix things if you vote me into office,” says woman currently in office (Babylon Bee)
RFK Jr. misses NY ballot: A judge in New York has ordered that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. be removed from the state’s ballot. According to New York Supreme Court Justice Christina Ryba, a house that Kennedy had listed as his residence in New York was “a false statement requiring the invalidation” of his petition to appear on the ballot. The issue of Kennedy’s residence is tied to his choice of running mate, Nicole Shannahan, who is a resident of California. Kennedy also has a home in California, where he lives with his wife. The 12th Amendment bars a presidential candidate and running mate from being from the same state. Therefore, this ruling could have an impact for Kennedy in other states where he is on the ballot. RFK promised to appeal the ruling, stating, “The Democrats are showing contempt for democracy. They aren’t confident they can win at the ballot box, so they are trying to stop voters from having a choice. We will appeal and we will win.” The DNC raised this suit against Kennedy in an effort to keep him off the ballot.
Squadster faces a tough primary challenge: Will the Jew-hating congresswoman who pledged her allegiance to Somalia, and who married her own brother in order to skirt U.S. immigration laws, and whose campaign paid $2.8 million to a firm co-owned by her husband finally get shown the door by her constituents? We’ll know soon enough, as today is primary day in Minnesota, and Ilhan Omar is trying to keep from joining the ranks of fellow Squadsters Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, both of whom lost primary challenges this cycle. Omar is the favorite in her race, though, while polls showed each of her colleagues losing their respective races. Still, Omar’s challenger, Don Samuels, narrowly lost to her two years ago. And, as Fox News reports, “He’s seen a surge in his fundraising and in volunteers to his campaign in the week since Bush’s defeat.” If voters are unwilling to boot this blight from Congress, then they deserve every bit of disgrace and embarrassment that come their way.
Mar-a-Lago lawsuit: Donald Trump is poised to file a $100 million lawsuit against Joe Biden’s Department of Justice for its unprecedented raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate two summers ago. Trump’s legal team says that the raid was nothing more than political persecution and that it constitutes “tortious conduct by the United States against President Trump.” As the New York Post reports, Trump is “accusing Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray of having engaged in ‘malicious political prosecution aimed at affecting an electoral outcome to prevent President Trump from being re-elected,’” adding that “Garland and Wray applied ‘inconsistent standards’ and were guilty of a ‘clear dereliction of constitutional principles’” in the raid. The Justice Department has 180 days to respond.
Security
FBI investigating alleged hack of Trump campaign, JD Vance vetting documents (NY Post)
House task force investigating Trump assassination attempt demands briefings (The Hill)
The U.S. wages a hidden campaign against a resurgent Islamic State (WSJ)
Navy warship production flounders: ABC News reports that our Navy’s warship production has hit a 25-year low, and, “Combined with shifting defense priorities, last-minute design changes and cost overruns, it has put the U.S. behind China in the number of ships at its disposal — and the gap is widening.” Another major problem is labor, or the lack thereof, as the industry struggles to hire and retain new workers while an aging shipbuilding workforce moves into retirement and takes “decades of experience with them.” One longtime naval analyst says our nation’s shipbuilding efforts are in “a terrible state,” adding, “I don’t see a fast, easy way to get out of this problem. It’s taken us a long time to get into it.” Maybe it’s just us, but perhaps a new commander-in-chief could make a difference.
Economy
Wholesale inflation measure rose 0.1% in July, less than expected (CNBC)
Treasury Secretary Yellen says U.S. debt load is in “reasonable place” (!!!) if it remains at this level (CNBC)
$1 million starter homes are common in more than 100 towns in America (Yahoo Finance)
Culture
Arizona is latest state to add abortion measure to November ballot (CBS News)
International Olympic Committee president says chromosomes don’t determine sex (National Review)
Jewish man stabbed in chest in NYC as perp yells “Free Palestine” (Not the Bee)
Cornell University anti-Semite sentenced to prison for threatening to slaughter Jewish students (RedState)
American Spirit
- Brittney Griner’s newfound perspective: If you watched the women’s gold-medal-deciding basketball game between the U.S. and France, you saw a mostly bench-bound Brittney Griner watch as her teammates overcame a stiff challenge and some serious home cooking from the refs to extend their record Olympic basketball winning streak to 61 games. But afterward, during the medal ceremony, you saw something that you might not have expected: tears. They were streaming down Griner’s face as the national anthem played, and they marked yet another example of her remarkable evolution from a young woman who once seemed to disdain her country to a more contemplative one who here held her right hand over her heart in support of it. We suspect her nine-month incarceration in a Russian prison on marijuana charges might’ve had something to do with it.
Misc.
“To Save Conservatism From Itself, I Am Voting for Harris”: A “conservative” columnist endorses Kamala (PJ Media) | Satire: David French says to save masculinity, he will now transition to female (Babylon Bee)
Second Circuit rules legal gun ownership not probable cause for warrantless search (Bearing Arms)
Ukraine says it has seized 386 square miles of Russian territory (NBC News)
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