Election

I hate to use the Democratic Party’s favorite word against them, but the Harris-Walz tag-team interview on CNN was… well, weird. The two grinning progressives sat side by side and tried their best to handle Dana Bash’s steady stream of softballs. Unfortunately, the starlets' most recent experience answering questions is when they are asking them of each other for schmaltzy social media videos, so to say they were rusty is an understatement. Bash first asked Kamala what she would do on day one if elected. Harris, never one to divulge any concrete courses of action, instead waxed poetic about optimism, hope and a “new way forward.” Back it up. A new way forward?

With seventy days until the election, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment against former president Donald Trump on Tuesday. You know what they say: if at first you don't succeed... try, try again. “Smith simply re-indicted on same four criminal counts with less evidence,” legal scholar and George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley wrote on X. “He removed factual claims that clearly would trip the wire on the recent presidential immunity ruling of the Supreme Court…” In other words: meet the new indictment, same as the old indictment. But is anyone surprised? The Justice Department has been choosing quantity over quality in pursuit of their white whale Donald J. Trump for years.

This is one very strange presidential campaign.  That’s not just because it seems to go on forever. This one seemed to begin shortly after Eisenhower left office. It’s also because there have been two general election campaigns in a row. The first pitted Donald Trump against Joe Biden and ended with Trump’s decisive victory. The clincher was Biden’s humiliating debate performance, which showed the world what his aides, his party and a compliant media had been hiding: the president was suffering serious cognitive decline.  Once voters had peeked behind the curtain, they were convinced Biden could not serve another four years. Indeed, it was questionable whether he was competent to serve now. That question still hovers, unanswered, over the White House.

In his first outdoor rally since his July 13 near assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump spoke to a crowd in Asheboro, North Carolina, Wednesday, surrounded by panes of bulletproof glass. The rally was held between hangars at the North Carolina Aviation Museum. Storage boxes were stacked around the perimeter to create additional walls and to block sight lines, and snipers were positioned on all the roofs.  During the rally, Trump spoke of the Biden administration’s national security failures, notably the botched Afghanistan withdrawal and the Russia/Ukraine and Gaza wars. Trump said that if he wins the election, he will ask for the resignation of every senior military official involved with the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Chicago “Something wonderfully magical is in the air, isn’t it?” Michelle Obama told the DNC Tuesday night. “America, hope is making a comeback.” The former first lady’s remarks tied into a theme the party theme of the week: with Kamala Harris, 2024 is 2008 all over again. The chrysalis-like flowering of the Harris campaign happened virtually overnight, out of nowhere, as party bosses who had moved to oust President Biden swiftly fell in line behind the vice president to head of the prospect of a messy contested convention. And it worked: in recent purple-state polls: a round from New York Times/Siena College this weekend gave her the edge over Trump in Arizona and North Carolina.

As Democrats met in Chicago for their party convention, Trump made his latest podcast appearance on Theo Von’s This Past Weekend. The Republican nominee showcased his intention to make the election less about vibes and more about policy, while showing a side of himself that’s not often on display at his rallies or press conferences. One great part of the podcast focuses on Trump’s relationship with his family, which even Hillary Clinton once praised. He talked about his brother Fred, who passed away twenty-five years ago, explaining how his experiences — and advice — are the reasons for why he has never had a “drop of alcohol,” drugs or even a cigarette. “What’s something that you miss about him?” Von asked. “He was wise in a sense,” Trump responded.

From the moment Kamala Harris ascended to the status of 2024’s bringer of joy, the vice president has navigated a world where the media has been overwhelmingly positive about her presence at the top of the ticket. But if there’s one thing we know about the media, they dislike being ignored. It’s a sign of disrespect, you see — we helped Joe Biden off the slow ramp, we praise you to high heaven as and the deal is you sit down for an interview — quid pro quo, Kamala! Obviously, the Harris-Walz ticket hasn’t done this — and it’s starting to get under the media’s skin.