“The Dems got what they wanted tonight. The Progressive Axis — Harris and her ABC News foils — got under Trump’s skin and stayed there…”
Stephen Green, aka Vodkapundit, on last night’s debate.
Finally. This is the first time I’ve seen anyone adopt the Ethics Alarms description of the anti-democratic cabal as “the Axis.” I did a search just now: I may have missed one somewhere, but Green’s is the first I can find. Good. Ethics Alarms has been using the term “Axis of Unethical Conduct” for years. It is fair, descriptive, and appropriate.
The coordination last night between Harris and the unabashedly biased ABC moderators during the debate was one of the more obvious examples of the Axis at work.
Added: I bailed out when the ABC hacks let Harris’s Big Lie about Trump calling white supremacists “fine people” go with being “factchecked” after the Axis pair had repeatedly challenged Trump. Presumably I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
Ethics Alarms 
Once again, the Democratic candidate exceeded my expectations in the debate, and I think I agree with many others (Stephen Kruiser, Nate Silver, et al) that Kamala won the debate. Trump spent too much time defending his vanity, and not near enough time on pressing the attack. I think his two biggest misses were getting bogged down in speculation over Obamacare, which came across as very weak, and failing to strike back at Kamala by noting the 90% turnover among her staff.
I also noticed that Trump was permitted to speak a bit longer than Harris, and CNN tracked the disparity to a total of 5 minutes more for Trump. I would have guessed much more than that. It seemed that the moderators were seeking to give Trump every chance to hang himself, while covering for Harris not having much actually to say.
Trump was at his best pushing the border problems, and was fantastic with pointing out that Putin invaded Ukraine three days after Kamala toured Eastern Europe trying to keep war from breaking out. His best moment, in my opinion, was when Kamala was trying to interrupt him towards the end, and he just said, “Quiet, you,” and kept going. I’m sure liberals will be beside themselves over the rudeness, the misogyny, or whatever they’re going to call it. But that little smackdown certainly told me of just how strong Kamala isn’t on the world stage.
Why was she talking while he was answering a question? Wasn’t the mic supposed to be muted?
She can still talk even if the mic is muted. But it wouldn’t surprise me if her mic wasn’t and his was.
Her mic was muted but the camera panned to her Couldn’t hear what she was saying her but she was definitely speaking to him with her mic off.
my queendom for an edit button.
There were several instances of cross-talk during the debate, but most passed quickly without really being an interruption. Trump turned on Kamala twice for interrupting. The first he said, “I’m talking here.” And then he made a big todo of whether or not she remembered that line from her previous debate.
I think Trump overrode the moderators a decent number of times, too, which didn’t make them look particularly strong.
His line about sending her a MAGA hat was pretty good.
jvb
I liked when he told her “I’m speaking”
Glenn Greenwald noticed this too.
Worst-moderated debate ever.
https://x.com/RealSaavedra/status/1833758511542526276
I came in late. Listened. I counted lied Kalama Harris told while not being factchecked. When I got to 10, I just left the room. I was there less than 3 minutes. So, she ‘won’ based on the judgement of an incredibly biased ABC. If you were wondering what I was counting as ‘lies’, the ‘Trump banned IVF in several states’ was one. When she talked about Trump rallies and she said he never discussed his policy positions, that was a blatant lie. I have watched several Trump rallies and the guy won’t shut up about them. Harris and Walz have been caught busing people into venues, busing people into ‘impromtu restaurant meetups’, and having rallies where fewer than 100 people showed up. Trump rallies tend to be in the 10’s of thousands. None of this was factchecked. Some truths by Trump were factchecked as false, as in the previous interview when CNN called his assertion that he fixed the insulin price problem false, when it was in fact true.
This is why I thought Trump doing 2 debates on official Democratic Party media sites was wrong. He should have insisted the debate be on NewsMax. Fox is not equivalent. NewsMax would have done to Harris what ABC did to Trump except at the end, they would have admitted it and laughed about it.
He should have insisted the debate be on NewsMax.
I cant take anything you say seriously after reading this.
…and you haven’t written anything to take seriously yet. Even the “Trump is dislikable”, while correct, is pretty Captain Obvious. Michael R has a substantial lead on you.
Anyone who says “the debate should have taken place on Newsmax” drops out of the race and has no lead at all.
Newsmax is like Weekly World News
Newsmax is as absurdly and dishonestly right-wing as MSNBC is absurdly and dishonestly left-wing, but with less flashy talent and about 1/10 the budget. My favorite recent development is NewsNation trying to brand itself as the objective, trustworthy news source and hiring Chris Cuomo, who secretly helped his brother as Governor of New York while posing as a journalist, and did two suck up interviews with Andrew as well.
Agreed! MSNBC is a better comparison.
I do Agree with should also fact check Harris.
Why? If you are looking for a partisan news channel on the right that is analogous to ABC/CNN/MSNBC etc, NewsMax is it. I don’t understand your objection. Are you suggesting that NewsMax is NOT a very right leaning network that would rig the debate to favor the candidate they like?
I suspect that you just had a knee-jerk reaction to ‘NewsMax’ and your programming kicked in.
Bleep boop bleep
[Not an acceptable comment here.]
Still don’t know why Trump didn’t insist on one debate being hosted by Fox. He had already done one on a DNC-friendly venue, and Vance-Walz is scheduled for another, CBS. I’ll bet Kackles won’t agree to a second one, especially if on Fox.
If I were Trump, I would have suggested NewsMax so that I could ‘compromise’ on Fox.
The reason they don’t do one on Fox is that the Democrats will never agree to it. Without the 3 on 1 advantage and (probably) getting the questions in advance, they don’t have the courage. I don’t understand why the Republicans don’t demand one anyway.
I am at point where I hope the American people get exactly what is coming to them. If she wins and announces a plan to reign in prices every seller will instantaneously raise prices to lock in at a higher price. Then, after the prices are raised the shortages will begin to materialize. The young never experienced seller behavior during the Nixon era price controls. If the people don’t storm the White House as the did during Trumps term then they are the sheep willing to be led to the slaughterhouse of authoritarianism
Her claim that she is giving a 50k tax deduction for starting a business is another case of smoke and mirrors. What startup except perhaps cannibus retailers will experience profits in the first year or two. Then of course the actual cash savings from a tax deduction on profits will only be a fraction of that 50k. So if I deduct 50k from my profits I only save the amount I would have paid in taxes. This is not a refundable tax credit she is offering.
She believes access to health care is a right. It is a right under public accommodations law. She is conflating a right with an entitlement program in which everyone gets the same benefit.
Had I advised Trump on the Dobbs case I would have told him to simply say Dobbs did not ban abortion and more black brown and white babies have been terminated since the decision came down than in prior periods. Secondly we are a republic and a representative democracy. Giving the decision back to the states promotes democracy because its citizens decide what is best for them without interference from external citizens. Then let the issue drop.
I am most annoyed at Trump and his handlers for getting cocky and letting her shine.
I wouldn’t say she shone. She still comes off as obnoxious and dislikable, even more so than Hillary. Trump is and will always be Trump.
Trump is and will always be Trump
Obnoxious and dislikable!
You won’t get an argument from me on that.
And Kacklin’ Kamala will always be Kacklin’ Kamala; dislikable, nowhere near as smart as she thinks she is AND forever a talentless Didn’t Earn It hire who never got anywhere without someone’s ham fist on the scale while guilt-inundated white Lefties gently guide her on a downhill trajectory with a gale force tailwind.
PWS
“Trump is and will always be Trump.” Agreed.
He is a known commodity and his word salads are legendary but reasons other than The Big Lies he always seems to tell. He talks off the cuff, stream of Trumpsciouness. People like Trump because he isn’t polished and erudite. There is little filter between what he thinks and what he says. That is his worst/biggest enemy but, oddly, one of his better qualities.
jvb
All she did was spout Dem talking points, as did the “moderators.” It was three against one.
I coached the debate team when I was teaching high school English. I don’t remember a debate where, if an opponent fell on his face, the opponent’s coach got a mulligan and was able to replace the failed debater with another and start over. As the “moderators” so incessantly and stupidly said last night, the debate really was “historic” in that sense.
I watched on Peacock (NBC) and noticed that in split screen, Harris was noticeably higher up in the frame (taller) than Trump which gave her more visual gravitas. This was not by accident.
Did she answer even one question? At least now we all know how the humble little darling grew up.
Trump should spend the next 7-10 days doing interviews to expose Harris’ flip flopping. People do not like flip floppers. Trump is a poor debater but a decent Prez and the man for the hour. His second term could be a beachhead on the war to dismantle the Deep State.
OMG – that voice. I double-dog dare you to imagine four years of that without experiencing tinges of nausea…🤠