Trump accuses Harris of hiding from media and revives election fraud narrative ahead of crucial debate: Live

Republican attempts to land early blows ahead of Tuesday’s encounter on the debate stage

Donald Trump mistakenly calls Elon Musk ‘Leon’ at Wisconsin rally

Donald Trump has accused Democratic rival Kamala Harris of hiding from the media ahead of their all-important first presidential debate on ABC News on Tuesday evening.

“The last thing we need for our Nation in Decline is another President who is not smart enough to answer reporters [sic] questions,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform, also promoting a spurious warning from Tucker Carlson about voter fraud in Pennsylvania, seemingly preparing the ground for contesting his ultimate defeat in November’s election.

Trump and Harris are currently neck-and-neck in the polls, according to a new New York Times/Siena College survey that puts the former president a single point ahead of the current vice president on 48 per cent to 47 per cent.

The Republican spent the weekend rallying his supporters in Mosinee, Wisconsin, his first visit to a deep red, mostly rural region of a swing state that could play a major role in determining the next occupant of the White House.

Trump used the event to tease the idea of expanding the 25th Amendment to include the possibility of removing a vice president, lied about transgender surgery and warned the mass deporation of illegal immigrants would be “bloody”.

Key Points

• Donald Trump accuses Kamala Harris of hiding from media and revives election fraud narrative
• Harris hits out at Trump’s Taliban deal as Republicans release damning report on Afghanistan withdrawal
• Trump and Harris ‘neck-and-neck’ in latest poll
• Republican says press will give Harris debate win even if he ‘destroys’ her
• Liz Cheney torches Nikki Haley over support for Trump

[9 September 2024 10:25 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump falsely claims children are being forced into gender transition surgery

Speaking in Mosinee, Trump teased the idea of expanding the 25th Amendment to include the possibility of removing a vice president and warned that the mass deporation of illegal immigrants on his watch would be “a bloody story”, a particularly disturbing turn of phrase to throw around so casually.

Even more absurdly, he suggested that children in American schools are being forced to undergo “brutal” gender transition surgery against their will, an utterly hysterical claim for which his own campaign team could provide no evidence whatsoever because it is not actually happening.

Here’s Gustaf Kilander on that particular lie.

[9 September 2024 10:05 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump says media will give Harris debate win even if he ‘destroys’ her

The Republican spent the weekend rallying his supporters in Mosinee, Wisconsin, his first visit to a deep red, mostly rural region of a swing state that could play a major role in determining the next occupant of the White House.

Trump used the event to get his excuses in early regarding the debate, claiming the media will proclaim Harris the winner however it actually plays out.

Graig Graziosi has this report.

[9 September 2024 09:45 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump and Harris ‘neck-and-neck’ heading into crucial debate, new poll finds

The candidates are currently neck-and-neck in the polls, according to a new New York Times/Siena College survey that puts the former president a single point ahead of the current vice president on 48 per cent to 47 per cent.

Here’s Graeme Massie’s report and analysis.

[9 September 2024 09:25 · Joe Sommerlad]

Truth Social: Trump accuses Harris of hiding from media and revives election fraud narrative

Good morning!

Donald Trump has accused Democratic rival Kamala Harris of hiding from the media ahead of their all-important first presidential debate on ABC News on Tuesday evening.

“The last thing we need for our Nation in Decline is another President who is not smart enough to answer reporters [sic] questions,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Trump has also been busy promoting a spurious warning from Tucker Carlson about voter fraud in Pennsylvania, seemingly preparing the ground for contesting his ultimate defeat in November’s election.

“The 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,” he froths in another post.

“We cannot let our Country further devolve into a Third World Nation, AND WE WON’T!”

He has further been announcing his support for the legalization of marijuana as a means to ending “needless arrests and incarcerations”, which sounds almost like an honest to goodness policy.

[9 September 2024 09:00 · Ariana Baio]

The Gossip Girl-like dynamics of the Supreme Court

There is perhaps no branch of government that fosters secrecy or harbors sneaky resentment to a degree even Gossip Girl herself would be astonished with, than the Supreme Court.

The highest court in the land has purposefully cast an opaque fog over its internal workings for decades, but in this past term, it was clear from their opinions that there was drama behind the scenes.

At the center of that is Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

If the court itself is Gossip Girl then Barrett is season two Jenny Humphrey. That’s to say, she’s breaking ranks with her OG squad and finding her own voice – although with less goth eyeliner.

[9 September 2024 08:00 · Gustaf Kilander]

Kimberly Guilfoyle forced to ask audience to clap as awkward speech falls flat

Kimberly Guilfoyle eventually had to ask her audience at the Florida Republican Party annual dinner to clap for her as her awkward speech fell flat in front of an audience of allies.

It was a moment reminiscent of Jeb Bush’s “please clap” moment during the 2016 campaign.

Guilfoyle, the fiancé of Donald Trump Jr, was speaking at the dinner in Hollywood, Florida when she shared her hope that Democrats would lose seats in Congress and be forced to give up control of the White House.

[9 September 2024 07:00 · John Bowden]

Warnock responds to JD Vance’s comments on Georgia shooting: Guns make us all ‘sitting ducks’

One of Georgia’s senators has responded to Republican vice presidential contender JD Vance after he referred to school shootings as a regrettable “fact of life” in modern society.

Raphael Warnock, who won a six-year term in 2022 after defeating a Republican challenger to secure his first full term in office, appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday after a shooting in his state claimed the lives of two students and two teachers at a high school. Nine others were injured.

He was asked about the comments by Vance, which ignited a media firestorm and were seized upon by Kamala Harris’s campaign as the latest sign of Republicans’ refusal to address such horrific attacks in American schools. The Ohio senator, speaking at a rally in Arizona, lamented, “I don’t like that this is a fact of life” after the shooting took place last week.

[9 September 2024 06:00 · Gustaf Kilander]

Trump’s psychologist niece says he’s ‘dementing’ in wake of ‘gibberish’ answer on childcare question

Mary Trump, the niece of Donald Trump, has shared her analysis that the former president’s mental health is deteriorating after he struggled to answer a question on childcare.

In a piece on Substack on Sunday, the psychologist argued that Trump is “dementing,” citing his appearance at the Economic Club of New York last week, where he was asked what type of legislation he would push to make childcare affordable.

“Well, I would do that, and we’re sitting down, I was somebody, we had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue,” Trump began his long, rambling answer. “It’s a very important issue, but I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about that because look, childcare is childcare. There’s something, you have to have it in this country, you have to have it.”

He went on to say that his proposed tariffs on imports would generate more than enough money to pay for childcare, but he did not explain what his actual policy would look like.

[9 September 2024 05:00 · Gustaf Kilander]

Nikki Haley says JD Vance’s ‘childless cat ladies’ slur is ‘not helpful’

Former Trump UN Ambassador Nikki Haley acknowledged during a Sunday interview that JD Vance’s comments about “childless cat ladies” are not “helpful.”

Vance has faced criticism for a number of unearthed comments from his past, most notably for telling Fox News host Tucker Carlson in 2021 that the US was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

“It’s just a basic fact — you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC [Alexandria Ocasio Cortez] — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” he said. “And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”

Harris has two stepchildren and Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, adopted twins in August 2021.

[9 September 2024 04:00 · Gustaf Kilander]

Trump falsely claims children being forced into gender transition ops at school in rambling fantasy-filled rally speech

Donald Trump falsely claimed yet again that children are the subject of “brutal” gender operations at schools across the US.

“Kamala supports states being able to take minor children and perform sex change operations, take them away from their parents, perform sex change operations, and send them back home,” Trump said in Mosinee, Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon.

“Can you imagine you’re a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, ‘Jimmy, I love you so much. Go have a good day in school’ and your son comes back with a brutal operation,” he added. “Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?”

There’s no evidence this has ever happened or been planned. In states where gender-affirming surgery is legal for people under the age of 18, parental consent is required.