Crooked Media - Tragic mic

Monday, August 26, 2024 BY CROOKED MEDIA

- Trump’s ludicrous plan to fight the war on drugs in Mexico, according to his own former National Security Advisor, Gen. H.R. McMaster.

Donald Trump is threatening to pull out of the next presidential debate, as his campaign squabbles over the rules. His own team seems nervous about what he might say if his mic is left on.

Disgraced former President Donald Trump warned he may ditch the September 10th debate, the only one both campaigns have currently agreed to, in a post on Truth Social Sunday evening. “I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?,” he wrote, referring to ABC, which he accused of bias. By Monday, the real substance of the dispute between the two camps emerged into view — and it’s all about hot mics. Vice President Kamala Harris wants the microphones left on for the entire debate, so the two candidates can get into it on stage. Trump’s team wants them turned off between responses, as they were when Trump debated President Biden in July on CNN.

“We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast,” said Brian Fallon, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign. “Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own.”

Trump campaign spokesperson Jason Miller fired back: “ABC offered the exact same debate rules as CNN, and we accepted.” But then Trump (of course) stepped on his own team’s message by insisting, in public, that he’d rather have the microphones turned on. “Doesn't matter to me,” Trump said. “I'd rather have it, probably, on. But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time.”

The implication here, of course, is that Trump’s own people think their best shot at defeating Harris in a debate is to keep their guy from mouthing off and saying something regrettable.

Trump’s team is scrambling to find a way to counter Harris’ surging poll numbers. Trump’s own campaign pollster, Tony Fabrizio, warned over the weekend that Harris will likely increase her lead over Trump in the wake of the Democratic National Convention, in what he’s now calling an “extended honeymoon” for Harris. Trump is planning more swing-state appearances, although even some of his supporters are openly wondering if those appearances still work the way they used to.

What this emerging debate debacle shows is that Trump lacks a coherent plan, for now, to turn this campaign around. After all, curbing how much voters can hear of your candidate is a defensive strategy meant to limit fallout, not a plan of attack aimed at overtaking a surging opponent. A debate remains the pivotal moment of the final two months to change the narrative. Yet Trumps’ team seems anxious about how voters will react to hearing more of their candidate in prime time, rather than eager to seize the opportunity.

If Biden’s withdrawal in July taught us anything, it’s that debates really do matter. Perhaps it’s hard to blame Trump’s people for being anxious about the next one.

The police tell us they are here to protect us. But what if their original purpose was something else altogether? In Crooked Media, Wondery and PushBlack’s newest limited series Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD, Peabody Award-winning host Chenjerai Kumanyika takes you deep into the hidden history of the NYPD - From its origins rooted in slavery, to rival police gangs battling across the city, to the everyday people who resisted every step of the way. As the debate around policing rages on, Empire City uncovers the truths about where it all began.

Empire City is an official Tribeca selection. Listen to the trailer, out now wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Empire City on your favorite podcast platform to hear full episodes starting September 9th.

Fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah resumed on Monday after a massive exchange of strikes over the weekend. The escalating conflict is raising fears of a possible all-out war on Israel’s northern border.

The billionaire CEO of encrypted messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, 39, was arrested in France over the weekend, over what French police described as a broad investigation into child pornography, drug sales, fraud and other criminal activity on the platform. Interesting how any kind of public accountability for tech gazillionaires always seems to catch them by total surprise.

Special Counsel Jack Smith urged an appeals court to reinstate Donald Trump’s classified documents prosecution, which was tossed out by the Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon last month. Again, the fact that a judge can preside over a case of the person who appointed them continues to be batshit.

Jill Stein, Green Party candidate, will be on the ballot in Wisconsin for the 2024 presidential race after the state Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge from Democrats to boot her from the ballot. Hey, Jill, if you were serious about the issues in your platform and making real change, maybe you should do more than run a vanity presidential campaign every four years. Just a thought!

Amazon is gearing up to launch a new AI-powered version of its personal voice assistant Alexa, which will also generate personalized news briefings, just a few weeks before the November election. Hard to see how this could go wrong, after AI-bots previously told people to put glue on their pizza and eat rocks.

Heat-related deaths have surged 117 percent over 25 years, according to new U.S. government data, claiming 21,500 lives since 1999 in just the latest signal of the fatal damage climate change is already wreaking. But don’t worry, Republicans believe we're just not ignoring it hard enough.

Dr. Anthony Fauci was recently hospitalized with a case of West Nile virus, the leading cause of mosquito-borne illness in the U.S. The 83-year-old former government scientist is expected to make a full recovery.

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The Biden-Harris administration is suing to stop a merger between two of the country’s largest grocery store chains, Kroger and Albertsons, arguing the deal would lead to higher prices for consumers and worse jobs for unionized workers. Antitrust laws are finally getting the workout they deserve!

Kamala Harris’ campaign and its allied groups have raised $540 million since President Biden announced he would step aside, pushing past the half-billion dollar mark during the Democratic national Convention. And you know what they say… the first half-billion is the hardest!

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