The Wrath of Concepts

Donald Trump imploding and leaving nothing but a greasy, orange streak on the stage at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center is about the only way the presidential debate could have gone worse for him. And even that’s debatable. After nine years of attacking the highly effective Affordable Care Act, Trump was pressed to describe his health care plan. He responded, “I have concepts of a plan.” Like many Americans (and most of the Internet), I burst out laughing. But this was not Trump’s worst moment of the night. Not even close. He was angry. He was confused. He fear-mongered. He race-baited. He played the greatest hits of his worst takes. He said he won the 2020 election. He repeated the insane lie that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio are “eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” He explained that some states allow mothers to kill their babies after birth. (Harris by contrast had her best moments talking about the abortion issue.) He claimed that Kamala Harris “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.” He took no responsibility for his failure on Jan 6. He wouldn’t say he wanted Ukraine to win the war. He bragged about an endorsement from Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban. He argued that America is “a failing nation … a nation being laughed at … we’re gonna end up in a third world war.” There was one topic on which Trump had a clear advantage going in: The Afghanistan pullout. And he even lost on that exchange with a bizarre word salad about some dude named Abdul. (I wouldn’t be surprised if Abdul just endorsed Kamala.) From the opening handshake to the closing statements, Harris was more presidential, more commanding, more cogent, more prepared, and more human. She could have won the debate on facial expressions alone. The refrain among pundits is that Harris effectively baited Trump into his poor performance. And I suppose she did. But essentially, Kamala Harris baited Donald Trump into being who he always is. Donald is as Donald Does. He was exactly the lunatic we’ve seen at rallies, on social media, calling in to Fox News, and for four endless years in the White House. And still, there we all were, sitting in front of our televisions being forced to stomach another chapter of the Donald Trump unreality show, one we’ve been forced to suffer through for nine f-cking years. Last night, I was euphorically thinking that there are only 55 days until we can be rid of Trump and go back to eating our neighbor’s pets in peace. But this morning, like so many before it, I’m left wondering how the hell we’re still dealing with a lying, misogynist, racist, conspiracy-spewing, dictator-loving, mentally ill monster who threatens the very future of American democracy. We should be reporting on his convictions, not his campaign. And worse, after all it, even last night’s historic beatdown, this is still a close race.

+ “As he lost control of events, Trump became enraged, his voice bellowing into an empty room, his face not just orange but nearly fluorescent. Trump realized that his opponent—and not just any opponent, but a woman of color—was dominating him. And so even as Trump exploded, he was, like a dying supernova, shrinking before our eyes.” Peter Wehner in The Atlantic: Kamala Harris Broke Donald Trump.

+ “Harris’s bet was that Trump would say a lot of crazy and unhinged stuff if she got him going. It was a safe bet. I’ve watched every Presidential debate for the past two decades, and I can’t think of anything that ranks higher in pure stupidity than Trump ranting and raving to a national audience about immigrants supposedly eating people’s cats and dogs.” Susan Glasser in The New Yorker: Donald Trump Had a Really, Really Bad Debate.

+ “This was the biggest moment of the campaign, and Kamala Harris just knocked it out of the park. From the moment that she strode across the stage and shook Trump’s hand, Harris dominated the debate.” Dan Pfeiffer with a typically incisive look at what the debate means moving forward. How Kamala Harris’s Dominant Debate Will Affect the Race. “The persuadable voters who will decide the election did not tune in. They will consume the debate but do it after the fact through clips posted on Instagram and TikTok.”

+ Unike Joe Biden who took full responsibility for his poor debate performance, Trump and his minions are going into full MAGA victimization blame game mode. He’s claiming he won the debate (even though everyone from Fox viewers to WSJ editors has said he was walloped) and of course blaming ABC for giving Kamala an advantage (even though he was allowed to monologue endlessly and spoke for 10 more minutes than Harris). And nothing could more perfectly encapsulate MAGA than its leaders attacking ABC News for … fact checking. The blame the media thing is getting a little tired so they’re rolling out some fresh conspiracy theories, which, inevitably, has brought us to headlines like this: No, Kamala Harris wasn’t wearing these audio earrings. Kamala Harris is a hero for being able to listen to all that garbage for an hour and a half without wearing noise cancellation headphones.

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