Government & Politics

• Debate viewership and post-debate polling: If viewership equates to interest, then the American electorate is far more engaged than it was two months ago. Tuesday’s debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump drew an estimated 67.1 million viewers, a number that far eclipses the roughly 51.3 million who tuned in to watch Trump vs. Biden in late June. But as NBC News reports, “Tuesday’s ratings fell short of the record set in 2016, when roughly 84 million people watched Trump square off against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while the first debate between Trump and Biden in 2020 drew 73.1 million people.” As for the state of the race, Harris narrowly leads Trump in the RealClearPolitics average, 48.5 to 47.2. But a bit of perspective is in order: On this day in history, Trump trailed Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 2.8 points, and he trailed Joe Biden in 2020 by 7.8 points. So, while those on the Left might be high-fiving each other after Harris’s debate performance, the reality is that her polling position is far from strong.

• Unity Biden dons vile MAGA hat: Yesterday was a somber day, a day we must never forget, but there was also an interesting political moment within it, after Joe Biden laid a wreath at the 9/11 Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and he and VP Kamala Harris visited a local fire department. With first responders looking on, Biden grabbed a Trump 2024 hat, grinned widely, and put it on his head. As the Washington Examiner reports, “A White House spokesman explained the president’s surprising act as a ‘bipartisan’ gesture meant to show the country’s ‘unity’ after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City 23 years ago.” Said spokesman Andrew Bates: “At the Shanksville Fire Station, POTUS spoke about the country’s bipartisan unity after 9/11 and said we needed to get back to that.” Fair enough, but it must’ve been jarring to Harris and to everyone else who’s heard Biden smear and demonize Trump for the past four years.

• DOJ isn’t prosecuting thousands of illegals who’ve registered to vote: If the Democrats really don’t think illegal immigrants should be allowed to vote in our nation’s elections, they sure have a funny way of showing it. As The Federalist reports, “According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the federal government decided to only go after 35 criminal cases of aliens voting in American elections from 2001 to 2021 — the latest year for which data is available.” Thirty-five cases, eh? Attorney General Merrick Garland must still be busy hammering all those nonviolent January 6 tourists. The Federalist continues, “The suspiciously low number of prosecutions contrasts with thousands of aliens having been registered to vote in recent years, and at least hundreds being flagged to the Justice Department as having actually cast a ballot.” And then this understatement for the ages: “This calls into question the political motivations of those responsible for upholding federal election laws.” You’re telling us. A browner America is a more Democrat America — or at least that’s the thinking on the open-borders Left.

• Stopgap bill yanked: Failing to secure enough Republican lawmakers’ votes to ensure the passage of a stopgap spending bill, House Speaker Mike Johnson pulled the continuing resolution from a floor vote on Wednesday. Johnson is struggling to build a consensus among Republicans to get the short-term government funding bill passed by September 30 to avoid a government shutdown. Johnson is seeking to pass the measure by combining it with the SAVE Act, which would require voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote. After pulling the bill, Johnson stated, “No vote today because we’re in the consensus-building business here in Congress. With small majorities, that’s what you do. … We’re having thoughtful conversations, family conversations, within the Republican conference, and I believe we’ll get there.” Republican fiscal hawks have remained the sticking point on spending, whereas Democrats object to including the SAVE Act because they’re all about “saving democracy” or something. We’ll see if Johnson has any success in convincing holdout Republicans.

• JD Vance schools CNN on pet-eating migrants: Following the presidential debate in which Donald Trump relayed the claim of Haitian migrants eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio, CNN confronted his running mate, JD Vance. Vance first pointed out that the assertion that they are “false claims” is itself misleading as “city officials have not said it’s not true; they just said they don’t have all the evidence.” Vance further chastised the mainstream media for not putting journalists on the ground in Springfield to actually investigate these claims and interview the residents. He pivoted to the real issue, noting that Springfield, a city of roughly 60,000 residents, has “been ravaged by 20,000 migrants coming in.” That affects health and healthcare, housing, and other things. Vance added, “The media didn’t care about the carnage wrought by these policies until we turned it into a meme about cats. … If we have to meme about it to get the media to care, we’re going to keep on doing it because the media should care about what’s going on.” Exactly.

• Who knew? Widespread problems with U.S. mail system could disrupt voting, election officials warn (More)

• Biden DOJ has dropped nearly half of pending obstruction charges for J6 defendants after Supreme Court ruling (More)

Security

• Department of Homeland Security designates January 6, 2025, a “National Special Security Event” (More)

• Blinken signals U.S. is weighing loosening Ukraine missile restrictions (More)

• U.S. and Chinese commanders hold rare talks to dial down risk of “miscalculation” (More)

• Melania Trump wants answers about the assassination attempt: Earlier this week, when we reported that former First Lady Melania Trump had taken to X to post a brief video and offer a gentle critique of the real-world consequences of the 2020 election, we assumed that she simply wanted to plug her memoir, Melania, which is due out next month. Now, however, we’re not so sure. On Tuesday, Mrs. Trump posted another video — this one calling into question the Biden administration’s efforts to get to the bottom of the recent assassination attempt on her husband. “The attempt to end my husband’s life was a horrible, distressing experience,” she says. “Now the silence around it feels heavy. I can’t help but wonder, why didn’t law enforcement officials arrest the shooter before the speech? There is definitely more to this story, and we need to uncover the truth.” It’s hard to disagree. And we’ve said as much.

Economy & Tech

• IBM shuts down operations in China: China is no good for business, at least not for Big Tech’s IBM, which recently announced it will shut down its operations in China. The supposed rationale is the current state of the Chinese economy. IBM is moving its research and development functions to other countries, primarily India. This move effectively ends IBM’s four-decade-long business presence in China. While the cost of doing business in China has risen significantly compared to other Asian countries like India, there is also the problem of Beijing’s concerted efforts to “delete America” from within China by intentionally pushing state-owned firms and equipment. With this decision, IBM joins a growing number of American companies, like Black & Decker and Nike, that are shutting down their Chinese operations and moving to other countries.

• Billionaire takes first-ever private spacewalk: Earlier today, Jared Isaacman became the first private individual to take a spacewalk. Orbiting hundreds of miles above Earth, the tech billionaire exited a SpaceX capsule to walk for just under two hours. While numerous astronauts have conducted spacewalks, Isaacman has made history by taking the next step in the burgeoning privately owned space programs headlined by the Elon Musk-owned SpaceX. This represents the successful beginning of a plan for commercializing space, with the long-term goal being a trip to Mars. During his spacewalk, Isaacman stated, “Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do. But from here, it sure looks like a perfect world.”

Misc.

• Nadler pictured with head down, eyes closed during testimony from mothers of migrant crime victims (More)

• Senate’s most vulnerable list still dominated by Democrats (More)

• Harris’s tax plan would pulverize nearly one million full-time jobs, study finds (More)

• South Carolina Supreme Court delivers crushing blow to school choice program (More)

• Man arrested on arson charges for allegedly igniting 34,000-acre wildfire in California (More)

• Molson Coors drops woke policies, ends hiring goals based on diverse “representation” (More)

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