Item one: The Washington Post led with his incoherent comments about childcare in a Thursday speech. In the Times’ account? Barely a word.
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For months, Donald Trump’s frequent lapses into incoherence—the half-sentences that suddenly veer off toward a distant galaxy, the asides that limn the virtues of Hannibal Lecter—have been mostly fodder for late-night TV hosts. Morning Joe has covered them consistently, but for the most part, the mainstream press has ignored them, either cleaning up Trump’s actual words so they made more sense on the printed
or pixelated page, or just not printing them at all.
This was easier to do when Trump was running against Joe Biden, who sometimes also lost the rhetorical thread, and whose age was a constant news story (not without justification). But now that Trump is running against a younger and more energetic opponent who tends to speak in full, logical sentences and who doesn’t go on rants about bacon and wind power, his mental state is rightly becoming more of a story. As my colleague Greg Sargent put it yesterday: "Trump’s mental fitness for the presidency deserves sustained journalistic scrutiny as a stand-alone topic with its own intrinsic
importance and newsworthiness."
Which brings us to Trump’s appearance Thursday before the Economic Club of New York. I watched some of it. In fairness, reading from his prepared remarks, he was coherent. He rattled off a string of economic statistics about the economy under his presidency, many of which were actually true, or close enough; when he got around to describing the horrors "Marxist" Kamala Harris had visited upon America, his claims were a lot less true. (He said, "Crime is rampant, and fleeing is the number one occupation" in California, but crime is trending down in the state this year, and the recent population declines have been turned around too—not that Harris has control over these issues one way or another.)
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Join us on Tuesday, September 10, to watch the Harris vs. Trump face-off with editor Michael Tomasky and staff writer Greg Sargent providing interactive commentary and analysis.
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Then came the question-and-answer period. A woman among the handful assembled on stage asked Trump if he would commit to passing childcare legislation, and if so what his specific proposal would be. Here’s the answer in part, as put out in a tweet by the Harris campaign:
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Well, I would do that and we’re sitting down, you know, I was, somebody, we had Senator Marco Rubio and my daughter, Ivanka, who was so impactful on that issue.… But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about that because the childcare is childcare, couldn’t, you know, there’s something you have to have it, in this country you have to have it.
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Trump’s answer was longer than that, but when he got around to something resembling a response, it was that his tariffs on China are going to pay for everything, no problem. Just like deporting people is going to solve the housing crisis.
A few quick facts. In the nineteenth century, before the individual income tax became a permanent fixture of life, tariffs accounted for most of the government’s revenue (at a time when the government did very little—stood up an army, ran a postal service, etc.). But today, according to the Council of Economic Advisers, import duties bring in only around 2 percent of the federal government’s total revenues. If you want to lower taxes on corporations and the rich, as Trump does, tariffs would need to be substantially jacked up to make up for the lost revenue (although of course in the Candyland in which Republicans and their economists live, reducing tax rates does not reduce revenue, which is probably the single biggest and most
insidious policy lie of the last 50 years). And of course, as the CEA and many others argue, much higher import levies are "likely to spark retaliatory tariffs that reduce U.S. exports and subsequently induce transfers of collected duties to impacted U.S. businesses."
Now let’s get to the point here: the media. Specifically, The New York Times.
I looked Friday morning at the way the Times and The Washington Post covered the speech. The Post’s article, to my astonishment, was mostly about the childcare word salad. "Trump offers confusing plan to pay for U.S. child care with foreign tariffs," ran the Post’s headline.
The Times’ story was by no means favorable. Under the headline "Trump Praises Tariffs, and William McKinley, to Power Brokers," the article adopted a gently skeptical tone toward Trump’s promise that tariffs would solve everything. It even mentioned the words "child care," once.
But the article didn’t bother to quote him on the topic. Why? It could be that the reporter didn’t think it was newsworthy. But this is exactly the point Sargent and others are trying to make: that Trump’s frequent incoherence is in and of itself news. It should be reported on. He should be quoted verbatim, not in a partial way that sanitizes his words and cleans them up.
Why? Because his mental fitness at age 78 to be president for the next four years is a legitimate issue. I’ve covered, and simply watched as an interested citizen, a lot of presidential candidates. Dozens, maybe hundreds, if you count Democrats and Republicans who ran in primaries. I’ve watched hours of debates and attended events like the once-famous Iowa Straw Poll in 1999, at which 11 Republican candidates spoke. I’ve never heard a candidate who talks in such a dissociative, rambling, confused way; never heard a candidate so obviously bluffing his way through certain policy questions.
The conventions of objective journalism are such that reporters tend to use "good" quotes. Reporters favor politicians’ pithiest and most succinct quotes, because reporters themselves are trying to be pithy and succinct, and ergo logorrheic and nonsensical just doesn’t fit the plan. I’ve been there, I’ve done that. Guilty.
But here’s what’s different. Until Trump, using the pithiest and most succinct quote never amounted to a quasi-conspiracy against reality. Now, it does. Maybe the voters will decide that Trump’s incoherence doesn’t matter. But they at least need to be presented with the evidence to decide for themselves.
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For this Inside Story, editor Michael Tomasky talks with Bill Kristol about Republican support for Kamala Harris, from regular voters to the big names.
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Item two: Vance and the facts of life
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The tragic shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia reminds us that presidential campaigns are wildly uncontrolled environments. Campaigns try to control everything; then something happens, whose political implications either aren’t immediately clear or may benefit one side or the other provided they handle it properly.
J.D. Vance did pretty much the polar opposite of that Thursday when, at a rally in Phoenix, he said of the shooting: "I don’t like to admit this. I don’t like that this is a fact of life. But if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets and we have got to bolster security at our schools."
Looked at one way, that’s an unobjectionable comment. These mass shootings are certainly a fact of life in these United States. Not much doubt about that.
The big problem came with what he didn’t go on to say. Some facts of life are just there, and we need to live with them. But other facts of life, well, we ought to try to work to change. But for Vance, this shooting, and all mass shootings, are firmly in the former category. Vance’s comments, that any attempt at gun regulation wouldn’t solve the problem, amount to acceptance of the deaths of innocent children as the price of liberty. I hope that when Tim Walz gets on a debate stage with Vance, Walz will make him admit that outright.
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Item three: Something I’ve started watching
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Finally, I wish quickly to direct your attention to FiveThirtyEight’s election forecast simulator, which you can find here. This is where they run a range of simulated Electoral College outcomes and publish results showing how many times out of 100 each candidate would win the presidential race. Right now, the news is good: Kamala Harris wins 57 times out of 100, and Donald Trump just 42 times.
Meanwhile: I’m just gonna toss this out there, but Trump’s lead over Harris in Texas is around five, maybe six points. FiveThirtyEight has it at 6 percent. Nate Silver puts it at 5.3 percent. And Trump is under 50 percent.
Five or six points isn’t quite close. But three or four points is close—that’s margin of error territory. So Texas is close to being close. Even making the Republicans worry a little about Texas, and spend money and time there, would be kind of a victory, and it sure looks like Harris has enough money to throw caution to the wind and advertise there.
And increased Democratic activity there could help Senate candidate Colin Allred against Ted Cruz. Cruz leads in the polls, but one recent survey had Allred just two points behind. I’m not saying be hopeful about Texas. I’m just saying that for now, as you scroll through statewide polls rather than national ones, it’s worth giving Texas the occasional peek.
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TNR Presents: The Best Political Trivia Night in D.C.!
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Test your useless knowledge about politics over adult beverages with a roomful of like-minded people. Participants can win drinks, food, and even REAL CASH PRIZES!
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Last week’s quiz: ,-La: fun facts about the Democratic presidential nominee.
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1. According to a video that went viral this week, what can Kamala Harris do adeptly with one hand that it takes most of us two to do?
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A. Crochet
B. Play jacks
C. Crack an egg
D. Shuffle a deck of cards
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Answer: C, crack an egg. See here. Hey, I can’t do it!
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2. Harris has a large collection of what kind of sneakers?
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A. Adidas Superstars
B. Nike Air Jordan 34s
C. Puma Clydes
D. Converse Chuck Taylors
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3. Harris grew up mostly in California but spent her formative teenage years in what Canadian city?
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A. Moose Jaw
B. Vancouver
C. Winnipeg
D. Montreal
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Answer: D, Montreal. And yep, she went to the same high school as the only other famous Montrealer you know, Leonard Cohen. I’m surprised the R’s haven’t made this an issue yet. Not Cohen, just that she’s a furriner etc.
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4. What was the name of her Senate office’s softball team?
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A. The Kamala-La-Las
B. The Oxford Kamalas
C. The Harris Tweeters
D. The Kamalots
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Answer: B, the Oxford Kamalas. As an editor friend of mine quipped, "Well, she’s locked up the copy editor vote."
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5. Which of these is not among her favorite books, according to Politico?
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A. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis
B. The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan
C. Dreams From My Father, by Barack Obama
D. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
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Answer: Actually, I got this wrong. I intended the answer to be C, and I was working off a list that excluded it, but then I saw this list, to which it is added. Kinda wild that of all the books I chose as a fake answer, this one ended up being on another list!
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A. 5'4"
B. 5'6"
C. 5'8"
D. 5'9"
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Answer: A, 5'4". Looks taller to me. That’s television for you. I’ve never met her.
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TNR Travel: New December Dates Added
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Join a special group of readers and supporters on a lovingly designed, all-inclusive tour of one of the most amazing places in the world. Drawing on The New Republic’s special contacts among local historians, artists, and chefs, we’ve created a first-class experience that will immerse you in Cuba’s colorful and unique history, politics, and culture.
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This week’s quiz: "Raymond Shaw was the …" About movies and politics in honor of the fact that "Making Change: The Most Significant Political Films of All Time" debuts on Turner Classic Movies tonight. It’s their limited series on the great political films of all time, and it was inspired (yes, this is true) by The New Republic’s special issue from last year, "The 100 Most Significant Political Films of
All Time." I wish to extend my, and TNR’s, gratitude to the great TCM host Ben Mankiewicz for coming up with this idea and for including me in this project. (I’ll be on air tonight at 8 p.m. with Ben to help introduce the series and the film The Battle of Algiers, which won our critics’ poll and will air on TCM tonight.) The series runs every Friday night until the election and will feature a slew of fantastic movies along with commentary from people from both the film and politics/political journalism worlds (Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Maureen Dowd, Jamelle Bouie, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates). Please check it out!
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1. My personal favorite political film is The Manchurian Candidate (1962), which finished second in our poll. What is the correct order of the adjectives in the quote about Raymond Shaw that his battalion members are brainwashed by the North Koreans to repeat?
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A. "warmest, most wonderful, kindest, bravest"
B. "most wonderful, warmest, bravest, kindest"
C. "kindest, warmest, bravest, most wonderful"
D. "kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful"
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2. A Face in the Crowd (1957) finished tenth in our survey. What famous twentieth-century newsman made a cameo in the film? At the time, as was not unusual, he hosted some game shows in addition to reporting news.
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A. Walter Cronkite
B. Mike Wallace
C. Peter Jennings
D. David Brinkley
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3. Election (1999) placed sixteenth in our poll. In a short coda scene toward the end, where does the film tell us Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) went to college?
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A. Notre Dame
B. Georgetown
C. Northwestern
D. Wheaton College
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4. The drama Advise & Consent (which finished twenty-third) showed what kind of scene, amazingly frank for its day and undoubtedly bewildering to 1962 audiences?
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A. An interracial love scene
B. A scene in which a cute dog dies
C. A scene inside a Greenwich Village gay bar
D. A female CEO of a military equipment company
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5. Another list from this summer, at goldderby.com, declared this drama, which revolves around whether the U.S. Senate can rise to the occasion, the best American political film of all time (it was eleventh in our survey).
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A. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
B. The Best Man
C. The Candidate
D. Lincoln
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6. Match the president to his (purported) favorite film.
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Richard Nixon
Bill Clinton
Barack Obama
Joe Biden
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High Noon
The Godfather
Chariots of Fire
Patton
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Incidentally, Google tells me FDR’s favorite "movie" was Steamboat Willie (!?). Answers next week. Feedback to fightingwords@tnr.com.
—Michael Tomasky, editor
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