State of play
Harris and Minnesota governor Tim Walz will cross southern Georgia by bus next week to build on the momentum of the convention, working with the 35,000 volunteers, 174 staffers, and 24 campaign offices across the state.
Trump and the MAGA Republicans have not taken the Democrats’ momentum quietly. Trump has been frantically posting.
On Thursday morning he assured readers on his social media channel that “My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights,” although he has boasted about ending the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that protected women’s access to abortion and suggested that women who obtain abortions should be punished. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times wrote that his posts “were too ridiculous even for Trump,” and she wondered if his account had been hacked by Iranians.
Or Martians? Or the Loch Ness Monster?
Harris’s acceptance speech had Trump apparently beside himself. During her 38-minute speech he posted 59 times on his social media platform, saying, among other things, “WHERE’S HUNTER?” referring to President Joe Biden’s son. After the speech ended, he called in to the Fox News Channel to rant, in what Dowd called a “scream-of-consciousness,” in which he insisted he is “doing very well in the polls,” until host Bret Baier cut him off. So he turned to right-wing media outlet Newsmax, where he continued his diatribe.
That night, apparently increasingly concerned about his chances of election, Trump—or his team, because it didn’t really sound like him—reached out on social media to Georgia governor Brian Kemp, whom he has lambasted since 2021 for refusing to help him steal the 2020 election. As recently as August 3, Trump went after Kemp, but on Thursday he thanked the governor “for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a win is so important to the success of our Party and, most importantly, our Country. I look forward to working with you, your team, and all of my friends in Georgia to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo commented: “Nothing tells you Trump is in full panic more than seeing him crawl back to nemesis Brian Kemp begging for help in Georgia.” “Kemp wanted a public groveling,” Ron Filipkowski wrote, “and that’s what Trump did tonight.”
It wasn’t just Trump who was concerned about the Democratic National Convention. A number of prominent Republicans who will be voting for Harris spoke there, providing a permission structure for other Republicans to shift their support to Harris and Walz. But that message did not make it through to viewers of the Fox News Channel. Media Matters, which monitors right-wing media, reported that the Fox News Channel did not air any of the Republicans’ DNC speeches.
It’s the Trump-Fox Party.
Friday brought more bad news for the Trump campaign when twelve Republican lawyers who served in the administrations of presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush wrote an open letter endorsing Harris because they believe Trump is a threat to American democracy and the rule of law. They continued: “[W]e urge all patriotic Republicans, former Republicans, conservative and center-right citizens, and independent voters to place love of country above party and ideology and join us in supporting Kamala Harris.”
They join conservative jurist J. Michael Luttig, who endorsed Harris on Wednesday and wrote: “In voting for Vice President Harris, I assume that her public policy views are vastly different from my own, but I am indifferent in this election on any issues other than America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law, as I believe all Americans should be.”
That, but also, even more basic, the person. The character or morality or approach to life or whatever you want to call it. Trump is all insults and cruelty and self-promotion. He has not one decent quality – not one. He’s conspicuously bad all the way through. I find that intolerable in a president.
And he doesn’t care one whit about his voters, only that they worship him. I’m not sure if any of them realize that, or that it would make any difference if they do. They seem ready to give him a pass on a lot of things, including the fact that most of his policy decisions would be bad for them in a way Harris’ will not. Not to say I think Harris will do everything right, or well, but I don’t think she’ll make the same sort of moves we’ll see from her opponent.
I’m actually kind of amazed by this particular lie. It is surely one of the most obviously untrue statements ever made, yet he went ahead with it anyway. He just doesn’t have any interest in truth even as a notional concept, nor any awareness that other people can think.
I don’t think Kemp is that petty. Kemp’s problem is that he is obligated to support a Republican presidential nominee no matter who it is. It’s the same problem Congress has. These politicians are so fiercely partisan that not being in party alignment makes them fear they will lose party support. You can bet Kemp doesn’t want to support Trump and doesn’t approve of him personally (Kemp’s support hasn’t been what you would call enthusiastic), but in line with almost all politicians both R and D, he has no choice.
Harris has some endorsements from former Republican governors, but to have a sitting Republican governor endorse a Democratic nominee would be extraordinary. The fact that Trump, being who and how he is, has this partisan support highlights how extremely partisan the system has become. Sadly, Kemp is not extraordinary. This was Trump or (more likely) his ‘team’ realizing how stupid it was to insult Kemp in his own state, and that Georgia will not be inconsequential this coming election, which has been obvious. It’s merely another attempt at damage control necessitated by Trump’s obnoxiousness (per usual). Trump has not supported Kemp, made clear time and again, and I’m sure Kemp doesn’t believe any of this phony backpedaling either, nor did he demand it. Actually, Kemp requested Trump leave he and his family out of it.