Trump’s Word Salad Debate Answer on Afghanistan Deserves a Fact-Check

During Tuesday night’s presidential debate, Donald Trump had a long-winded, barely coherent answer about his administration’s Afghanistan policy, where the U.S. was negotiating with the Taliban.

Trump claimed that the Taliban was killing a lot of U.S. soldiers with snipers, and that he spoke to “Abdul,” who he claimed was and is the head of the Taliban, warning him against continuing those murders. Trump said that “Abdul” asked, “Why do you send me a picture of my house?”

Trump, by his own account, purportedly responded, “You’re going to have to figure that out, Abdul,” and said that for 18 months, no U.S. soldiers were killed.

In reality, almost none of this is true. The head of the Taliban since 2016 has been a cleric named Hibatullah Akhundzada, although one of the Taliban’s negotiators with the United States was Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of Akhundzada’s deputies. A former Wall Street Journal reporter also notes that the Taliban didn’t use snipers often and was more effective at killing people with IEDs.

Nor did Trump oversee an 18-month stretch where no U.S. soldiers were killed. There was one such stretch where no U.S. service members were killed in combat, but it happened from March 2020 to August 2021, half of which was during Joe Biden’s presidency.

Last month, Trump’s former national security adviser, General H.R. McMaster, told CNN that Trump’s negotiations with the Taliban resulted in the U.S. forcing the Afghan government to release 5,000 members of the extremist organization, a fact that Kamala Harris was only too happy to point out during the debate in her takedown of his word salad.

Trump tried to claim Tuesday night that if he were president during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, it would have gone a lot differently and favorably, with no U.S. casualties. In reality, it would have likely gone as badly, if not worse, and Trump would have had the benefit of a compliant right-wing media backing him to the hilt.

It’s official: Childless Cat Lady Taylor Swift is voting for Kamala Harris.

The pop superstar managed to completely erase all buzz around the presidential debate Tuesday night by coming out in favor of the Democratic nominee. She shared a post on her Instagram, alongside a photo of herself with one of her cats.

“Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight. If you haven’t already, now is a great time to do your research on the issues at hand and the stances these candidates take on the topics that matter to you the most,” Swift wrote.

She slammed Donald Trump for creating a weird A.I. version of the singer and making the fake Swift endorse Trump. The real Swift cited this moment as one of the reasons she decided to be “very transparent” about her voting plans.

“The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth,” she said.

“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”

Swift urged her fans to register to vote and to vote early, and included information for how to do both in her Instagram story. She then cheekily signed her post,

With love and hope,
Taylor Swift
Childless Cat Lady

Harris (as well as her predecessor on the Democratic ticket, Joe Biden) and Trump have been vying for Swift’s endorsement. In addition to being a musical powerhouse and an elite NFL WAG (wife and girlfriend), Swift has proven herself to be an influential political voice in recent years. In October, Swift posted on Instagram for National Voter Registration Day, resulting in more than 35,000 new voter registrations—a 23 percent increase compared to the same day the year before.

Donald Trump tried to sidestep giving a policy position on health care, and walked straight off a rhetorical cliff.

During the presidential debate Tuesday night, Trump struggled to answer a question about his health care plan, accidentally revealing that he didn’t have one at all.

After his particularly lackluster response criticizing Obamacare but giving no alternatives, ABC moderate Linsey Davis asked Trump outright if he knew what he was talking about. “Yes or no, you still do not have a plan?” she said.

“I have concepts of a plan,” Trump replied. “I’m not president right now.”

“But if we come up with something, I would only change it if we come up with something that is better and less expensive. And there are concepts and options we have to do that. And you will be hearing about it in the not too distant future.”

On X, people immediately jumped on Trump’s pathetic response as being relatable … for being total bullshit.

Trump’s ridiculous nonanswer reminded users of the most pathetic characters television has to offer.

Donald Trump’s take on Kamala Harris’s racial identity somehow managed to get even worse.

During Tuesday night’s debate, the former president was probed about his controversial statements on Harris’s racial identity, including that the biracial Democrat had “turned Black.”

“I want to ask a bigger picture question tonight. Why do you think that it’s appropriate to weigh in on the racial identity of your opponent?” prompted ABC’s David Muir.

“I don’t. And I don’t care,” Trump said. “I don’t care what she is. I don’t care.”

“You make a big deal out of something, I couldn’t care less. Whatever she wants to be is OK with me,” he continued. “All I can say is that I read where she was not Black—that she put out, I’ll say that. And then I read that she was Black. And that’s OK. Either one is OK with me. That’s up to her.”

Trump’s outrageous claim first sprang up at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in early August, when the 78-year-old white candidate tried and failed to curry favor with the crowd by trash-talking Harris’s racial identity.

“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black,” Trump said at the convention, seemingly unable to grasp how a biracial person (multiracial people now make up more than 10 percent of the U.S. population, according to the 2020 census) could have two parents from different cultures but still manage to appreciate both.

Speaking on his foreign policy prowess during Tuesday’s debate, Donald Trump made sure to brag about his endorsement from a dictator.

“I have talked with military leaders, some of whom worked with you, and they say you’re a disgrace,” said Kamala Harris, telling Trump that his debate performance proves he does not have the “temperament” to lead the country.

In response, Donald Trump flaunted his relationship with authoritarian Hungarian leader Victor Orbán.

“Victor Orbán, one of the most respected men—they call him a ‘strongman’—he’s a tough person, smart,” Trump started off, then stating that Orbán told American leaders, “You need Trump back as president.”

Boasting about the support of a prime minister who has decried “mixed race nations,” called for “a Europe of nation states,” and helped demolish democratic guardrails in Hungary is certainly a choice.

“China was afraid of him, North Korea was afraid of him … Russia was afraid of him,” said Trump, speaking in the third person, trying to show his own strongman tendencies.

“These dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again,” Kamala Harris responded later in the debate. “You adore strongmen instead of caring about democracy.”

Trump smiled and nodded.

Donald Trump gave a weak answer when asked how he would end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during the presidential debate Tuesday night.

Trump took off on a winding answer, which seemed to attack President Joe Biden for not speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin at all.

“I’ll speak to one, I’ll speak to the other, I’ll get ’em together,” Trump said at one point.

When ABC’s moderator David Muir asked Trump to clarify whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war, Trump responded, “I want the war to stop.”

Muir then pushed Trump to say whether he believed it was in America’s best interest for Ukraine to win, he again refused to answer the question.

“I think it’s in the U.S.’s best interest to get this war finished and f—just get it done!” Trump said.

Donald Trump, when asked point-blank during Tuesday night’s presidential debate whether he had any regrets for his actions on January 6, 2021, could not name a single one.

ABC News moderator David Muir noted in his question that Trump waited more than two hours on January 6 before delivering a video message telling rioters at the Capitol building to go home.

“Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day?” Muir asked.

Trump’s response was defiant, claiming that during his message, he told demonstrators supporting him to act “peacefully and patriotically.”

Trump also claimed that “nobody on the other side was killed. Ashli Babbitt was shot by an out of control police officer that should have never, ever shot her. It’s a disgrace.” (He apparently forgot the Capitol police officers who died.)

Muir then asked the question again, and Trump again denied any responsibility.

“I had nothing to do with that, other than they asked me to make a speech. I showed up for a speech, I said, I think it’s going to be big,” Trump replied.

Kamala Harris did not mince words in her response, noting that Trump was indicted and impeached for his actions on January 6.

Trump’s thoughts on January 6 are disturbing, as he seems to be justifying the violent mob that sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election on his behalf. Invoking Ashli Babbitt is part of a years-long effort by conservatives to obscure their own responsibility for the Capitol insurrection. If Trump loses this November, his answer at Tuesday night’s debate could indicate that he’d be willing to incite another violent mob to overturn the results in his favor.

Donald Trump is trying to desperately backpedal his admission that he lost the 2020 presidential election, arguing that the game-changing statement amounted to simple sarcasm.

Last week, Trump finally admitted that he lost during an interview on the Lex Fridman podcast, where he shared that he lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden “by a whisker.” The announcement sent some of his base—including January 6 rioters—into a frenzy. Some of them, including white supremacist Nick Fuentes, questioned why Trump allowed his supporters to rush headlong into insurmountable legal troubles under the cover of a lie.

“No. I don’t acknowledge that at all. I said that sarcastically,” Trump said flippantly during Tuesday night’s debate when questioned directly about the eyebrow-raising language. “Look, there’s so much proof. All you have to do is look at it, and they should have sent it back to the legislatures for approval.”

Regardless of Trump’s sudden flip-flop, Trump’s words could still hold water in his federal election interference case, with legal experts believing that the admission could be used against him.

Donald Trump went on an outrageous rant spreading dangerous racist rumors that immigrants have begun eating pets.

During the presidential debate Tuesday night, Trump couldn’t quite walk off Kamala Harris’s comment criticizing his rallies as being chaotic and boring. Moments later, Trump was asked why he killed the bipartisan border bill earlier this year. Instead of actually answering the question, Trump tried desperately to hit back, and took the opportunity to parrot false right-wing rumors that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, had been killing and eating pets.

“People don’t leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics,” Trump said, clearly shaken.

Trump pivoted to a warning about World War III that soon pitched into a recitation of an outlandish and disproven theory.

“Look what’s happening to the towns,” Trump said. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating … they’re eating the pets of the people who live there. And this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”

When ABC moderator David Muir attempted to fact-check Trump, referring to a statement from Springfield City manager Ryan Heck denying the outrageous rumors. Heck said there were “no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”

“I’ve seen people on television!” Trump cried, interrupting Muir. “I’ve seen people on television say my dog was taken and used for food! So, maybe that’s a good thing to say if you’re a city manager—”

Trump continued on, and Muir repeated Heck’s statement. “We’ll see about that,” Trump replied.

“Um, talk about extreme,” Harris responded laughing.

Donald Trump got a fact-check live on air just minutes into the presidential debate on Tuesday.

Speaking on abortion, Trump spread lies for several minutes about reproductive care. The former president claimed that the governor of West Virginia allowed doctors to terminate a pregnancy not only after viability but after the baby was born.

In response to Trump’s claims, the ABC News anchor Linsey Davis gave him an embarrassing live correction.

“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it is born,” she said, before quickly pivoting to Kamala Harris.