FACT CHECKS, GROUNDHOG DÉJÀ VU, TO THE LIFEBOAT!

What a couple of weeks! If Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Hulu aren’t already working on scripts to cover these events they are missing a bet. It would be a perfect opportunity for the old early 60s show, ‘That Was The Week That Was,’ the BBC satirical tv show that was Americanized and hosted by David Frost…for those of us who remember. Charges and accusations are still flying about the Harris-Trump debate held on Tuesday, September 10. Consensus is that Kamala cleaned Trump’s plow, setting him back on his heels for ninety minutes as she taunted him, causing him to completely lose his cool, coming up with his spur of the moment lies and defenses that held no water. His attacks on immigrants…all being criminally, mentally deranged druggies who have crossed the ‘open’ border to plague our country. Picking up on the fabrication of Haitians in Springfield, OH eating their neighbors’ pets or capturing water fowl from the city parks, he proceeded to look like the complete fool that he is. In a letter to the Fresno Bee, Fred Oakes wrote, “After listening to the guy who used to have the nuclear codes talk about Haitian immigrants eating our cats and dogs, two things occurred to me: First, I couldn’t stop laughing. And second, our three cats and one small dog who were all previously on the fence about who to vote for all immediately decided to vote for Kamala Harris.”

By now, we’ve all seen the cover page of the conservative Drudge Report which is headlined “THE END” below an AI photo of passenger Donald Trump sitting in a plane with a cat on his lap and a planeload of cats, ducks, and geese situated behind him. Founder Matt Drudge, promoted Trump in 2016 but has since backed away, and to emphasize “Trump’s worst performance of his career,” he points to other websites and their coverage, such as Mediaite, Deadline, and NBC news, which ran a story entitled, ‘The Night Trump Lost It All.’ A pro-Trumper, Scott Jennings, wrote to the LA Times with: “He’s actually in a better position to win at this point than he was in 2016 and 2020. Trump is Trump. We know him. We love him. We hate him. There’s nary a person in this country who doesn’t have an immediate and often visceral opinion of him. So a debate is unlikely to change his image.” The Times letter editor, Paul Thornton, writes that columnist Jackie Calmes says it’s time for the former Trump heavyweights, such as John Kelly, Dan Coats, and HR McMaster to come forward to tell voters that Trump is unfit to be president again.

Conservative Geraldo Rivera said, “He was childish, he was creepy, he was cringy,” and some Fox News talking heads said Harris made Trump “go down a few dog and cat holes,” biting into all the bait the VP threw out. Trump continues to ignore that he got his butt kicked by a woman, lying that he won the debate despite talk throughout his party that he performed poorly. He was warned by his coaching team that Kamala would bait him, but without self-control he just couldn’t help himself…and what about those nuclear codes he wants to ‘control?’ He couldn’t even keep his story straight on the first assassination attempt he endured, saying he got “shot in the head,” so look in the mirror again dummy; and by the way, nobody sees any external ear disfigurement, so maybe your head DID suffer damage? It’s a given that his brain was scrambled when Harris chased him down to shake his hand as they walked onto the debate stage, obvious that he meant to ignore her completely as he scowled his way to his station behind the podium…a “concept” plan, possibly? From that moment Harris knew where to aim and what his bullying backlash would be, resulting in his aged, haunted look as he exited the stage at the end. Harris had to remind her opponent at one point that she was his opponent, not Joe Biden, as she parried in a study in offense instead of being defensive of the president and the administration. Kamala’s barbs about world leaders “laughing” at him and US military leaders calling him a “disgrace” rattled him, but her coup de grâce was mocking his bored rally attendees leaving early when he started his spiels on Hannibal Lecter, sharks vs electric boats, and cancer-causing windmills.

The Vice President threw Trump off his game, avoiding vulnerabilities such as the US retreat from Afghanistan and the economy, while she pounded him on the volatile issue of abortion rights, where she is attempting to win over undecided women, despite Trump’s claim that “everybody wanted Roe overturned.” Many MAGAites throughout the day had downplayed Harris’s debating credentials, with Marco Rubio saying she would be lost without a Teleprompter. Post-debate critics claimed she wore earrings with radio capabilities to receive off-site coaching, or that she had viewed the moderator’s questions beforehand, or that ABC had skewed the debate with an unfair fix…such as doing fact-checking on Trump. It should have been apparent to all that Harris was well prepared with her rapid-fire performance of setting Trump’s hair ablaze. Jon Stewart on ‘The Daily Show’ said, “This is like one of those ‘Groundhog Day’ movies where you get to go back and fix the bad way something happened earlier to the good way.” Stewart also poked at Trump’s repetitious claim that Nancy Pelosi was responsible for the J6 Insurrection because “she didn’t do her job,” as he claims that he was simply “showing up for a requested speech,” on that fateful day. Jon reminded him, and us, that he spent two months riling up his base about a stolen election that was thrown out of every court that his MAGA team approached for a resolution in his favor. “Join me on January 6, it will be wild,” was shoved right back at him. Trump’s usual excuse, “I didn’t know anything about it,” disqualifies him from any office says Stewart…“he will always be the first one on the lifeboat as the ship goes down.”

Senator Lindsey Graham called Trump’s debate performance a “disaster,” and said his debate team should be fired, in an interview with Tim Miller on the Bulwark Podcast. Fox News host Jesse Watters felt that Trump had some chaotic moments, but “had some great knockouts, and so this race just got tighter,” with Laura Ingraham commenting that the former president “missed a few opportunities, even with ABC helping Harris.” Trump flag waver Sean Hannity determined ABC to be “the biggest loser in the debate” since they didn’t hit back at Harris on her past policies, whereby he learned nothing new to clarify who she really is with ABC-Disney giving her a pass…”an injustice to the American audience.” Right-wing podcaster Matt Walsh had to present a hard dose of reality to one of his responders who felt that Trump “rambled too much,” by asking, “Do you need me to lie to you and tell you this was a brilliant performance by Trump?” Podcaster Megyn Kelly and Arizona Senate candidate, Kari Lake, heaped blame on moderators Muir and Davis by accusing them of “running cover” for Harris, and making “bogus” corrections for Trump “after he makes a point,” – make that after he ‘tells a provable lie.’ Radio host Hugh Hewitt wrote on X, “It is laughable how ABC choreographed this to help VP Harris but it isn’t working because it is so obvious.” Muir and Davis were consistent in fact-checking the GOP candidate, once for belching out that parents in some states are allowed to kill a newborn, with a quick reminder that murder is not legal in any state. Brit Hume on Fox had to admit “she was not the complete dunderhead so many of us thought she was. She was composed, she was prepared, she kept her cool. She saw advantages, she took them. She baited him successfully, which is the story of the debate.”

Guest Dr. John Kruse, MD, PhD, who is a psychiatrist based in San Francisco, appeared on the ‘David Pakman Show’ on YouTube to offer his synopsis of Trump’s debate performance, saying that the former president was obviously on stimulants. In his thirty-year career, he has seen patients with preexisting conditions struggle with cohesiveness, instability, and rambling…as Trump did when he saw that time was left on the debate timer. Kruse speculates that The Don has ADHD and must take powerful stimulants, offering no specifics on what he uses, to control his behavior of body twitching, being unable to stay on track, and a lack of emotional regulation. The doctor believes Trump’s constant movement with 40-50 hand gestures per minute, and constant head movement saved his life in the Pennsylvania assassination attempt. His probable unwillingness to do sustained debate prep with his team was made evident in his meeting with Harris. Political consultant Philippe Reines, former State Department adviser to Hillary Clinton, studied seven previous debates in which Trump took part, and noted that in those Trump tried to drown out the other participants. Making the analogy of two people attempting to hold a conversation, while a third starts up a chainsaw, is how a chainsaw wielding Trump could win by blocking out any reasonable argument or discussion. His malfunction in the debate was giving Kamala space to talk as she wished, reminding people about the guy with a criminal record. Reines adds, “You’d never know it listening to him that he served for four years, and this whatever you want to call it, this amnesia that people are somehow having pleasant memories of his term is odd.” Observing Trump’s performances for almost a decade, Reines says The Don’s mental and physical fitness were clearly diminished, pointing out: “There is something going on with his language. He always digressed,” at earlier events. Talking about China tariffs, then talking about a Chinese bank ensconced in Trump Tower in the past, he now talks in staccato fashion, stopping short, not using proper nouns as much, and he is a different person. As reported by Raw Story, Reines says Trump looks generally the same, and he’s equally loud, and somehow being louder and tanner has been equated to health, and it’s just not there…what the former president did is “very unnerving.”

The Bulwark Podcast’s Tim Miller wrote: “The impotent Trump was too intimidated to even look Kamala’s direction…and now wusses out of the rematch. Cannot recall a more dramatic demonstration of beta weakness in a campaign setting.” Over 500 people assembled in Tucson, Arizona to hear Trump insist he had scored a “monumental victory” against Harris, he referred to Minnesota governor Tim Walz as the vice president, all while slurring his speech, with difficulty reading from the Teleprompter. Psychiatrist Richard A. Friedman writes in The Atlantic that the former president is displaying signs of cognitive decline, his tangents and inability to get to a point suggesting “a fundamental problem with an underlying cognitive process. If a patient presented to me with the verbal incoherence, tangential thinking, and repetitive speech demonstrated by Trump regularly, I would almost certainly refer them for a rigorous neuropsychiatric evaluation to rule out a cognitive illness.” Trump continues his attempt at domination in refusing to back off his outlandish assertions, doubling down on lies about immigrants eating pets and teachers giving students sex change operations to the consternation of unsuspecting parents. Clearly confused, he calls Kamala a “Marxist communist fascist socialist” as he strings words together that might have given him more mileage in a different era.

Wife Melania has been missing in action during the campaign, with Trump now linking up with right-wing provocateur and twice-failed congressional candidate, Laura Loomer, who has complete loyalty to him and has been seen with him on many of his latest appearances. Loomer is an advocate of any loose cannon conspiracies floating around, prompting many Trump supporters to urge him to keep her at arm’s length, one being Senator Lindsey Graham and, surprisingly, a jealous Marjorie Taylor Greene. Loomer has struck back at Graham, questioning his sexual identity, and referring to Greene as a “trailer trash Harpy,” a “miserable lying bitch,” and a “hooker” as she calls attention to her extramarital affair. John Marshall in a Talking Points Memo notes that the GOP is running two presidential campaigns…one being headed by Trump, based on his personal grievances and stories shared at his rallies that have little to do with reality, the campaign faltering as the unhinged Trump drifts away from fact to fiction. The other campaign, run by Chris LaCivita and Susie Weiss, who recognize Trump’s decline, yet attempt to run with a more conventional strategy, as they urge The Don to discuss the economy or immigration, while dialing back on the craziness to retain voters who are now doubting his stability.

Laura Loomer, an “invited guest” she claims, seems to still be in the picture, and as long as she strokes Trump’s ego and encourages his basest political instincts, she is likely to remain, spouting her 9/11 conspiracy theories, her Islamophobia, her pro-white nationalism, and outright racism. As a guest in Trump’s private box at the LIV Golf Tournament last year, Trump can be heard in the video she posted on X, telling her she is “very special.” And earlier this year, Trump pointed her out in a crowd at Mar-a-Lago, calling her a “woman with courage.” She compounded the cats and dogs story in saying, “Haitian immigrants aren’t just eating cats and dogs. They eat HUMANS. Remember their leader? Known as ‘Barbecue?’ Only Hannibal Lecter himself would want to bring more of them to the United States! Don’t let the media say that concerns about illegal immigration are ‘conspiracy theories.’ These aren’t rumors. It’s a FACT. When you import the third world, you become the third world, and we won’t allow it here in America. Donald Trump will stop our country from further becoming a third world nation. The media is obsessing over the Haitian migrants because even the most liberal voters are horrified over the animal abuse committed by so many of Kamala’s invaders.” A few day earlier, Trump claimed at one of his rallies that, “Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a representative of the people who are coming into this country.”

Republican US Senator Thom Tillis of critical swing state, North Carolina, decries Loomer as “a crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly utters disgusting garbage intended to divide Republicans. A (Democratic) plant couldn’t do a better job than she is doing to hurt President Trump’s chances of winning re-election.” “Enough,” he writes on X. Bill O’Reilly says Loomer doesn’t matter: “Does it matter to the American people that Laura Loomer exists? No, it doesn’t,” he told Leland Vittert on NewsNation’s ‘On Balance’ show. “I have no idea why Donald Trump does what he does,” was his response to Vittert’s suggestion that Loomer’s presence is “horribly detrimental to his campaign.” O’Reilly conceded that Loomer is “a bad look…it doesn’t matter to me as a voter. And I think a lot of voters feel the same way.” Miami New Times reporter, Naomi Feinstein wrote an article entitled, ‘Loomer and Trump Sitting in Tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G,’  as she notes that Melania was nowhere to be found at the debate, or at her husband’s side during the 9/11 ceremonies in New York and Pennsylvania. The Drudge Report ran a photo of Loomer and Trump with the headline, ‘Loomer MAGA Love,’ with the question, “Has Trump found his soulmate?” A co-host of MSNBC’s ‘The Weekend’ suggested it’s time for Melania to step up and get more involved before her husband’s campaign is completely derailed by his new far-right, gadfly companion. Former RNC chair Michael Steele thinks this interaction is not only hurting his fellow Republicans, but it is fueling rumors of an affair at a critical time following Trump’s washout at the debate. Jimmy Kimmel says watching the debate “was like a half nightmare, half hospice.”

And where is JD Vance? Spearheading the cats and dogs stories campaign, of course! Seth Meyers on Late Night says, “Maybe I’m being too hard on JD. I bet he’d be fun to have a beer with…let’s let him explain why,” as he runs a clip of Vance at a campaign stop. Asked by a reporter, “Why would the people in Wisconsin want to have a beer with you?” JD answers, “Well, I guess they’d want to have a beer with me because I actually do like to drink beer.” Meyers lowers the boom, joking, “Well, it’s official. JD Vance has done the impossible. He’s made Mike Pence the fun one! Vance answers simple questions like he’s in an episode of ‘Frasier’ where Niles accidentally joins a biker gang.” Jimmy Kimmel on his Live! show on ABC said, “There are a lot of things Trump isn’t good at…one being the picking of running mates. He made a huge mistake with JD Vance, who can’t stop stepping in it. For a guy who wears more eyeliner than Liza Minnelli, you’d think he’d have a better understanding of women.” Kimmel noted that DJT, Jr. reportedly pushed Vance’s selection, now one of the most unpopular VP picks in modern times. He speculates that if Trump loses the election, Papa Trump will sue his son to take the ‘junior’ off his name. On Vance’s veep opponent, Tim Walz, Kimmel says he doesn’t know where he’s been hiding all along, but, “His blood type is Corn Dog Batter…and he belongs to several Pickle of the Month clubs.” Mike Pence, make a note of this!