Basement Dispatches: Election 2024
Wednesday, Election Day Minus 55
Polls
Not much in the way of new polling. Perhaps by the weekend we will have polls out the cover the debate period.
Event Calendar
- 11 September: All candidates at 9/11 Remembrances
- 12 September: Harris rallies in Charlotte and Greensboro, NC
- 13 September: Harris campaign event in Pennsylvania
- 16 September: Early voting in Pennsylvania begins
- 16 September: Harris roundtable with Teamsters
- 1 October: VP debate on CBS
- 9 October: Early voting in Arizona begins
- 11 October: The film “The Apprentice” released to theaters
- 15 October: Early voting in Georgia begins
- 17 October: Early voting in North Carolina begins
- 19 October: Early voting in Nevada begins
- 22 October: Early voting in Wisconsin begins
- 27 October: Early voting in Michigan begins
Campaign News
Last night’s debate drew an audience of at least 57.5 million viewers. In the 2 hours after the debate, the Democratic funding raising platform processed over $20 million in donations and $46 million over all of Tuesday.
Members of Trump’s team are complaining the debate wasn’t fair because the ABC moderators fact-checked Trump four times and didn’t fact-check Harris. But when you make claims like “immigrants are eating your pets,” “foreign countries pay for the tariffs,” and “Democrats want to kill babies after they are born,” you should expect to be fact-checked. The truth is the moderators let Trump speak more frequently and longer than his opponent. Trump spoke for 39 times for 42 minutes and 52 seconds while Harris spoke 23 times for 37 minutes and 36 seconds. After the debate, Trump is suggesting ABC should lose their license.
“I think ABC took a big hit last night. To be honest, they are a news organization — they have to be licensed to do it — they ought to take away their license for the way they did that.” — Donald Trump post-debate
Maybe Trump is on to something. By letting him speak more, the moderators gave him more rope to hang himself. Nasty moderators.
Kamala Harris’ team is calling for a second debate. Trump says he doesn’t think it is necessary. bawk bawk bawk
Following Taylor Swift’s “Childess Cat Lady” endorsement of Kamala Harris, Trump fan boy and fellow misogynist, Elon Musk, threatened to inseminate Taylor Swift. Clearly this has created a major outpouring of anger from her fans, as well as the Democrats camp, who are claiming that this is a clear insult for the singer. Keep it up Elon, piss-off the Swiftees at your own peril.
As of 2 p.m. ET today, more than 300,000 people had visited the vote.gov voter registration site that Taylor Swift had shared on instagram last night.
Vance criticized Taylor Swift as a “billionaire celebrity” who is out of touch with most Americans. Is he talking about Taylor Swift or his boss?
CPI inflation numbers for August were released today. The CPI came in with a 0.2% increase in August and an annual inflation rate of 2.5%. The core CPI that excludes food and energy prices came it slightly hotter at 0.2% and 2.6% respectively. Wage growth over the year was above inflation at 3.8%. Oil prices have fallen significantly to under $67 a barrel.
Trump’s social media company stock was down over 15% this morning following Trump’s disastrous debate last night.
Speaker Johnson pulled the Continuing Resolution (CR) legislation from the floor of the House after realizing it couldn’t pass due to a growing number of GOP defectors. Sources claim there could have received as many as 15 GOP no votes and he can only afford to lose 4.
Fact Check
I won’t be fact-checking last night’s debate. There are plentiful fact-checking sources available. While there were falsehoods on both sides, the vast majority and egregious false statements were from the Trump side of the stage.
Sanity Check
“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 that live there,” “And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame.” — Donald Trump at the debate
Yes, I realize I wrote I wouldn’t be fact checking the debate but call this the exception that makes the rule. This is FALSE and has been debunked, but Trump, his running mate, and allies continue to spread this hoax. Its gotten to the point where it is putting people in danger. Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH are feeling fearful they could be attacked by people who believe the lies.
