This has been the longest month in the history of weeks.
PHILADELPHIA — Kamala Harris planted traps. For much of Tuesday night, Donald Trump stepped on them.
She overstated how much money the former president had been loaned by his father. “I wasn’t given $400 million,” he said. “I wish I was.” She warned that Trump would implement the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025: “That’s out there, I haven’t read it, personally.”
She urged viewers to attend a Trump rally, so they could watch bored people stream out; Trump, obviously irritated, claimed no one attended Harris’s rallies, then meandered into a false, viral story of migrants devouring pets in southwest Ohio.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats,” he said.
“Talk about extreme!” said Harris, with a laugh.
The first debate between Trump and his unexpected opponent was, at times, the antithesis of Joe Biden’s meltdown in Atlanta. Harris was often the aggressor, getting in crisp talking points that landed as planned, and spending less time than Biden bogged down in the weeds of her record and “opportunity economy” agenda. Trump didn’t get trapped in his thoughts, as Biden had, or leave as obvious an opening for Harris to exploit, but he struggled to make his own case consistently.
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Trump continues making false claims about the 2020 election
As he has for the past three and a half years, Trump continued to push the lie that he actually won the 2020 election between him and current President Joe Biden, despite never producing any evidence to back that claim.
"Look, there's so much proof. All you have to do is look at it," Trump said. "And they should have sent it back to the legislatures for approval."
The debate moderators pointed out that after the 2020 election Trump and his supporters filed 60 lawsuits against state and local elections officials around the country claiming election fraud, but none of the judges in those cases found evidence of widespread fraud. Trump argued back that the cases were thrown out on technicalities, rather than a lack of evidence.
He also blamed immigrants, along with the willingness of Democrats to allow them in the country, for election fraud, but didn't provide any evidence of that happening, either.
"Our elections are bad," he said. "And a lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they're trying to get them to vote."
It's illegal for noncitizens to vote, and there's no evidence to show that this is happening on a widespread basis.
Harris said the outcome of the 2020 election was a clear one.
"Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people," she said. "But we cannot afford to have a president of the United States who attempts as he did in the past to upend the will of the voters in a free and fair election."
www.cnet.com/...
The 20 most humiliating right-wing excuses for Trump
7. After Trump took classified documents, was asked to return them, and lied that he had none, evangelist Franklin Graham said: “If they felt that he had something that belonged to the government, they certainly could have asked and he would’ve returned it.”
8. After classified documents stolen by Trump were found in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom, Rep. Byron Donalds said: “There are 33 bathrooms at Mar-a-Lago! So don't act like it’s in some random bathroom that the guests can go into.”
9. Asked whether Trump has ever lied to the American people, spokeswoman Kayleigh McInany said: “No. I don’t believe the president has lied.”
10. Former Trump administration official Ken Cuccinelli downplayed Trump’s vow to be a “Day 1” dictator: “He’s trying to needle everybody.”
11. Asked about jurors deciding in favor of E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexual assault, Sen. Tim Scott said: “Myself and all the voters that support Donald Trump support a return to normalcy as it relates to what affects their kitchen table. The average person in our country … they’re not talking about lawsuits.”
