Trump’s Desperate Move Shows He’s Terrified of Kamala Harris Debate

Now that Joe Biden has withdrawn from the presidential race and endorsed Kamala Harris, Donald Trump wants to change the terms of the next debate.

The Trump and Biden campaigns had agreed to two presidential debates back in May: one on June 27 hosted by CNN and one on September 10 hosted by ABC News. Biden’s horrendous performance in the first debate created a groundswell of opposition that eventually led to his stepping down. But now, Trump is apparently worried enough about Harris to think things should change.

“My debate with Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the history of the United States, was slated to be broadcast on Fake News ABC, the home of George Slopadopolus, sometime in September,” Trump ranted on Truth Social Sunday night. “Now that Joe has, not surprisingly, has quit the race, I think the Debate, with whomever the Radical Left Democrats choose, should be held on FoxNews, rather than very biased ABC. Thank you! DJT”

Trump also complained about being “forced to spend time and money on fighting Crooked Joe Biden.”

“Shouldn’t the Republican Party be reimbursed for fraud in that everybody around Joe, including his doctors and the Fake News Media, knew he was not capable of running for, or being, President?  Just askin’?” Trump lamented.

It’s pretty clear that the former president and convicted felon is spooked by having to run against Harris, enough that he wants the next debate to be moved to his home turf, the conservative P.R. channel Fox News. It’s no secret that Trump and his campaign preferred Biden as their opponent, even creating legal plans to prevent Democrats from replacing him on the ticket.

But Trump and the GOP don’t have the “dementia patient,” as Republican operatives have described Biden, to kick around anymore. They’re scared enough of Harris to try to give Trump the advantage of a friendlier debate venue. And perhaps they should be scared: Harris has already given the Democratic Party its biggest fundraising day in years.

In the less than 24 hours since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, Vice President Kamala Harris has already begun bringing in the big bucks for the Democratic Party.

Biden announced Sunday that he would be withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race, after weeks of mounting concerns over his age and mental acuity from his fellow Democrats. Moments after he withdrew, he endorsed Harris to be the new Democratic nominee. And it appears that the prospect of a new nominee may have led people to open their wallets.

By the end of the day Sunday, ActBlue, a popular fundraising site for Democratic candidates and causes, posted a surprising update.

“As of 9pm ET, grassroots supporters have raised $46.7 million through ActBlue following Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign launch,” the post read. “This has been the biggest fundraising day of the 2024 cycle. Small-dollar donors are fired up and ready to take on this election.”

By the end of the day, ActBlue had raised more than $50 million dollars, according to an estimate from The New York Times, the third-biggest day for online fundraising in the site’s history.

While not all of that money might’ve gone to Harris, as ActBlue raises funds for the entire slate of Democratic candidates, it indicates a significant upswing in enthusiasm among donors after weeks of turmoil and reports of frozen cash flows into Biden’s campaign.

President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 race on Sunday, caving to increasing concerns over his age and ability to take on another four years in arguably the world’s most critical and tenuous position.

“Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a Nation,” Biden wrote in a statement, citing victories in lowering prescription drug costs, expanding affordable health care, helping veterans, passing “the first gun safety law in 30 years,” and appointing the first African American woman to the Supreme Court.

“I know none of this could have been done without you, the American people,” the statement read. “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

In a follow-up tweet, Biden announced he is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made,” he said. “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats—it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”

The president has effectively opened up the Democratic Party’s nominating process to a near-total free for all, just four months out from the presidential election.

Top Democratic contenders for the final leg of the race include Harris, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, all of whom outperformed Biden in polling match-ups against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Conversation around whether Biden would exit quickly overtook his campaign after a disastrous debate performance against Trump in June. During the match-up, the 81-year-old Biden shocked the nation by repeatedly losing his train of thought, forgetting the softball questions tossed to him, and utterly failing to challenge Trump by any measure of the word.

This story has been updated.

Senator Chris Coons, the national co-chair of Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, said on Friday that the president was “weighing” the viability of his candidacy as more and more elected Democrats call for him to step aside.

“This is an internal party matter and a matter of the campaign that is playing out very publicly,” Coons said at the Aspen Security Forum, an annual security and foreign policy conference, according to The Hill. “I think our president is weighing what he should weigh, which is: Who is the best candidate to win in November and to carry forward the Democratic Party’s values and priorities in this campaign?”

The Delaware Democrat was effusive about Biden’s “exceptional presidency,” and lauded him for his performance during last week’s NATO Summit. “He chaired … meeting after meeting, three days of the NATO summit—strongest NATO has ever been—did a press conference, did campaign events, did campaign rallies, and there are folks still saying he’s not strong enough or capable enough to be our next president. I disagree,” Coons said.

Shortly after speaking, Coons reaffirmed his support for Biden in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “I fully support the President. He’s told me he’s in it to win it,” Coons wrote. “I’m with him 100% because I know he can beat Trump just like he did last time.”

Biden, who remains in isolation after being diagnosed with Covid-19 earlier this week, has made no indication that he intends to withdraw. But he’s reportedly grown “more receptive” to concerns about his reelection chances and has begun some serious “soul searching.”

Meanwhile, on Friday alone, a whopping 11 congressional Democrats called for Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, including Representatives Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, Kathy Castor of Florida, Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, Greg Landsman of Ohio, Betty McCollum of Minnesota, Zoe Lofgren of California, Jared Huffman of California, Marc Veasey of Texas, Chuy Garcia of Illinois, Marc Pocan of Wisconsin, and Sean Casten of Illinois.

Also on Friday, New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich became the third senator to call for the president to withdraw.

The CrowdStrike-Microsoft outage has left countless disruptions across the world, including the cancellation of more than 2,500 U.S. flights, issues with 911 systems and government agencies, and countless headaches for IT workers.

Naturally, the right wing is blaming corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion principles, better known as DEI.

Early Friday morning, Twitter CEO Elon Musk found an old CrowdStrike post from 2022 highlighting diversity with a picture of a woman wearing a hijab and took a shot at DEI.

Steve Guest, a former staffer for Senator Ted Cruz, looked up the company’s statement on diversity, equity, and inclusion and blamed the company for grounding flights.

Conservative pundit Steven Crowder attacked one of the company’s posts about Pride Month from June.

Right-wing election fraud conspiracist and pardoned felon Dinesh D’Souza also took aim at the company’s statement.

And the right’s point man on tearing down America’s education system, Christopher Rufo, similarly saw something nefarious in the company’s DEI efforts.

American conservatives blame everything on DEI these days, whether it’s the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the rise in train derailments, or even Republican election losses. To them, every negative event somehow is because there are minorities, women, and queer people having jobs.

However, while the right might see all of the damning evidence on display, is CrowdStrike really committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion? The makeup of its board of directors suggests that it only goes so far.

A Massachusetts congressman who describes President Joe Biden as a “mentor and friend” says that Biden should step down. In an op-ed in The Boston Globe Friday, Representative Seth Moulton recounted how Biden appeared to not recognize him at an event last month.

Moulton came clean about the troubling interaction after previously calling for Biden to step down July 4. “I saw him in a small group at Normandy for the eightieth anniversary of D-Day. For the first time, he didn’t seem to recognize me,” wrote Moulton. “It was a crushing realization, and not because a person I care about had a rough night but because everything is riding on Biden’s ability to beat Donald Trump in November.”

On Friday, nine more lawmakers publicly called on Biden to drop out, including, notably, the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Marc Veasey.

But Moulton isn’t just a random House Democrat. The politician from Massachusetts’ 6th congressional district said his previous relationship with Biden was warm, with breakfasts, phone calls, and smiles from across the hall. “I have treasured him as a mentor and friend,” wrote Moulton.

Moulton warned that the change he has seen both interpersonally with Biden and on the national debate stage calls for action from his fellow politicians. “The harsh reality is that all the characteristics that have made Biden an irrepressible force—the energy, the vitality, the sharp, scrappy wit—are flickering.”

In order for Democrats to win the election, Moulton said, Biden must go. “Just as Republicans need to find the courage to speak out against Trump, my fellow Democrats need to find the courage to speak the truth about President Biden before it’s too late.”

It seems that nobody told Senator J.D. Vance about how privacy settings work on social media. Around the same time his Venmo account—with its friends list loaded with conservative elites—was uncovered, the Daily Dot reported that it discovered what appears to be his Spotify account.

Slate separately reached out to Vance’s office to confirm the authenticity of the account, but the outlet never heard back. But the Spotify account features the same photo as his private Facebook profile, which is common for users who sign up for the music streaming platform through Facebook.

While Vance’s friends list on Venmo included scholars who promote fascism and conservative think tank cronies, his Spotify account follows Imagine Dragons, Rage Against the Machine, and one woman who appears to have graduated from Yale law school the same year as the Ohio senator.

Another reason to believe it could be him is that one of the playlists, titled “Morning Has Broken,” contains what he once said was his favorite song: Merry Go ’Round by Kacey Musgraves.

He has several playlists that go back all the way to 2012, when he paired Justin Bieber with some Christmas songs on a playlist called “Making Dinner.” His most recent public playlist, put together in 2014, seems to have every song by Rockabye Baby! which produces lullaby covers of popular music by artists such as The White Stripes and Elton John, presumably for his kids, Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel, to jam out to.

Exactly why the Republican nominee for vice president has allowed his public digital footprint to grow so large is unclear. It could possibly be because he is a political novice, or perhaps he’s trying to seem like an average American. At least, that’s what the mellow tunes of his laid-back morning playlist would suggest. But to be clear, Vance is far from an everyman.

The bestselling author had his rise to power bankrolled by right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel and a network of tech billionaires in Silicon Valley. He has ties to the “new right,” a movement of autocratic populists, and Christian nationalists who pass themselves off as the intellectual vanguard of the conservative movement. Despite unleashing strong condemnations of Donald Trump, Vance has slowly grafted himself to the former president—and now he’s his right-hand man.

But hey, he can still put together a decent playlist, so that’s nice.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain isn’t taking Donald Trump’s attacks against him in silence.

During his speech at the Republican National Convention Thursday night, Trump blamed Fain for U.S. automakers building factories in other countries and called for Fain to be fired.

“The United Auto Workers ought to be ashamed for allowing this to happen, and the leader of the United Auto Workers should be fired immediately, and every single autoworker, union and nonunion, should be voting for Donald Trump, because we’re going to bring back car manufacturing and we’re going to bring it back fast,” Trump said.

Fain fired back on X (formerly Twitter) that same night.

“[Trump] is a scab and a billionaire and that’s who he represents,” Fain posted. “We know which side we’re on. Not his.”

The UAW endorsed Joe Biden in January, with Fain praising Biden and saying he “has always bet on the American worker and stood with the American worker.” In contrast, Fain said, Trump “has a history of serving himself and standing for the billionaire class.”

Back then, Trump called on UAW members to “get rid of this dope & vote for DJT. I will bring the Automobile Industry back to our Country.”

Fain’s tenure as UAW president brought the union a massive victory in negotiations with the three biggest U.S. automakers last year, and the UAW followed that by successfully organizing a Volkswagen auto plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, this April, the first such occurrence in the South. At the time, this rattled Republican leaders and received little GOP support, if any.

In both victories, the UAW made sure to include measures that took climate change into account, which also rankled Republicans. Maybe that drove Trump’s response, which showed that the RNC’s invite to the Teamsters president earlier this week wasn’t really a sign that the party will suddenly be friendly toward labor.

On Monday, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien spoke at the RNC, drawing criticism from Democrats and other labor advocates for joining a party with a reputation for hurting workers. O’Brien had reached out to the Democratic National Committee as well as the RNC, but only Republicans replied, appearing to give Republicans a momentary edge with unions.

But it was only just momentary, as Trump’s remarks against Fain revealed. The GOP still doesn’t support unions or improving the rights of workers, but will take a good PR image whenever they can get it.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg thought Donald Trump was “badass” when he raised his fist after a bullet grazed his ear.

“Seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life,” Zuckerberg said in an interview with Bloomberg Thursday.

“On some level as an American, it’s like hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight,” said Zuckerberg, “I think that that’s why a lot of people like the guy.”

The executive did not go so far as to endorse Trump outright, stating that he will not endorse either candidate and plans on “not playing a significant role in the election.”

Still, Zuckerberg calling Trump’s behavior inspiring is a new low given how the former president has attacked him over the years.

Just earlier this month, Trump openly threatened to jail Zuckerberg, writing on Truth Social, “We will pursue Election Fraudsters at levels never seen before, and they will be sent to prison for long periods of time. We already know who you are. DON’T DO IT!  ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!” That wasn’t even the first time that Trump has called for Zuckerberg to be criminally charged.

Truth Social itself was born out of Trump’s frustration with CEOs like Zuckerberg, and he blamed anti-conservative bias for why his Facebook posts were flagged as misinformation. Following the January 6 insurrection, Trump was suspended from Facebook and Instagram for two years. At the time, Zuckerberg said that Trump was trying to “undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power.”

Now in 2024, it seems like Zuckerberg is giving Trump the go-ahead. Meta has already limited political content, and Zuckerberg told Bloomberg, “I think you’re going to see our services play less of a role in this election than they have in the past.”

Trump has previously said he didn’t appreciate Zuckerberg sucking up to him. “Last week, the weirdo—he’s a weirdo—Mark Zuckerberg came to the White House, kissed my ass all night,” Trump said at a rally in 2022.

As Trump and Elon Musk continue to cozy up, perhaps frenemy Zuckerberg doesn’t want to be left out of the action. Or perhaps he’s just trying to save himself from getting thrown in jail.

A Florida Democrat issued a call to action Friday for House Speaker Mike Johnson to hold a vote on legislation that would ban assault weapons, suggesting that the Republican Party should reverse its yearslong course of enabling mass shootings in light of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

Representative Maxwell Frost, a Democrat who represents Florida’s 10th district, shared his letter to Johnson in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“This past weekend, we saw that the need to act against political violence is not a partisan issue; it is a matter of public safety and common sense,” Frost wrote. “That’s why [Representative Lucy McBath] and I are calling on House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring a vote on legislation that would ban assault weapons and protect the safety of every American.”

The full letter urged Johnson to bring H.R. 698, Assault Weapons Ban, and H.R. 8600, McBath’s bill that would ban gas-powered firearms like the one used by Trump’s assailant, to a vote. The Assault Weapons Ban was originally introduced in February 2023, and its primary sponsorship was taken over by McBath that June.

“What we saw on July 14, 2024, is that the need to act against political violence is not a partisan issue, it is a matter of public safety and common sense,” Frost and McBath wrote in the letter. “It should not take the attempted assassination of a former President for the Speaker of the House to act. A failure to respond in the face of a brazen attack almost certainly invites a future tragedy.”

As a former national organizing director for March for Our Lives, the gun control advocacy group, Frost helped to establish the first federal office focused on preventing gun violence.

While Frost’s push isn’t expressly tongue-in-cheek, it seems to be a checkmate for the Republican-led House, which has repeatedly torpedoed attempts to expand gun restrictions.