DJT took the bait, but so did the media. The Lying King knew what he needed to do to take back the headlines after his train wreck of a performance in last Tuesday’s debate with VP Kamala Harris.
During the debate I got progressively apoplectic over ABC’s Debate Moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis for continuously addressing convicted felon Donald Trump as “President Trump.” Reason being, uh, the lying orange man is not the president.
Yet, almost all was forgiven once the two moderators started live fact-checking Trump’s false claims from the stage. Their real-time fact-checking on the high-stakes telecast was a welcomed and effective tool in bringing a measure of sanity to the nonsense that dribbled constantly out of the bloated gadfly’s maw every time he spoke.
So, here we were in Tuesday night’s face-off at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, the city famous for its Philly Cheesesteak sandwich, while crazed Uncle Donald reported that a brand new cookery was being introduced in the neighboring city of Springfield, Ohio.
The Überconman said migrants in Springfield were killing and eating dogs and cats, repeating a debunked claim that had been amplified recently by right-wing media figures and echoed by Republican leaders, including his feline-phobic VP pick, JD Vance.
What do you do when you’re called on the carpet for making misleading, statements or lying? You double down on the lie to grab a headline. A textbook example is this exchange with Muir in real-time correcting Trump on his absurd claim:
It did occur to me that perhaps the aging orange bluster ball was conflating two odious and fictional gastronomies on which he’s been fixated – the cannibalism of serial killer Hannibal Lecter with immigrants eating Springfield’s pets.
During his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last month, felon Trump, referring to immigrants, said, “Has anyone seen ‘The Silence of the Lambs?’ The late, great Hannibal Lecter. He’d love to have you for dinner.” Not hard to imagine the possibility of the mega-blowhard updating his hackneyed “immigrant trope” to include “drug dealers, criminals rapists…cannibals and dog-eaters.”
Profoundly absurd? Of course. Yet entirely predictable. The Lying King’s priority M/O has always been and continues to be grabbing the headline. No matter how bad it gets for him, a headline grab away from his opponent, he believes, is his winning strategy. Outrageous claims make the grab all that easier. Trump may have taken Harris’s bait, but the media has reliably taken the bait from Trump. Since the days following the debate, rather than staying with and amplifying the body shots Harris landed on Trump, the media has been fixated on the salacious story of migrants eating Springfields pets; a blatantly racist dog-whistle (no pun intended) and just what the big orange Übercon needed to pull the headlines away from his disastrous debate performance.
The Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade sparked the felon’s incomprehensible screed about Democrats supporting abortions in the ninth month of pregnancy or were in favor of “executing” babies “after birth.” Trump falsely claimed that Harris’s running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, has said “execution after birth is OK.” Moderator Linsey Davis immediately corrected the record. “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” she said. Bam! Gotcha!
The gadfly insisted, repeatedly, that “absolutely everyone in America was in favor of getting rid of Roe.” For the record, I am a member of “everyone in America” and with a little grassroot fact-checking of my own, about 65% of other Americans join me in not being in favor of getting rid of Roe.
Throughout the evening, the convicted felon kept doubling down on the crazy as the result of Harris baiting him and he taking the bait, hook, line and sinker.
Beyond felon Trump deriding Harris as a "Marxist" and "the worst
Vice-President in the history of our country," Harris spurred the criminal
to rant on about his pending court cases, doubling down on election
denialism, and crowing about how chummy he was with Putin. Suggesting that Harris “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison” was indeed also a memorable moment.
As Harris continued openly trolling Trump, she invited all Americans to attend one of his rallies, where they could hear him ramble on about Hannibal Lecter and carcinogenic windmills resulting in how many and how often Trumplicans left early from boredom. The big orange bluster ball predictably abandoned the topic of immigration, a Trump priority, to fend off Harris’s attack. The rallies are, he insisted, “the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.” Incredible, yes. Substantive, no.
Certifiably crazy doesn’t even begin to explain the gobsmacking moment of the evening, the gadfly ranting and raving to an international audience about immigrants eating people’s dogs and cats. This moment craves an award akin to something like “The International Unhinged Prize.”
Following the debate, CNN’s Daniel Dale reported the score: Trump made 33 false claims, compared with one from Harris.
Live fact-checking is the beginning of turning future debates into a more meaningful exchange, where difference of opinion and policy is embraced and valued rather than being a platform for glorified stump speeches.
Perhaps we could take it one step further and hold candidate/nominee’s feet to the fire to actually answer the questions asked – something along the lines of including a “debate referee,” interrupting debaters the moment they stray from answering the question. That debater is then given one more opportunity to answer the current question. If they don’t, their remaining time would be forfeited to their opponent for the opponent’s extended answer.
Even with a future debater as hyperbolic as scam-jockey DJT, both live fact-checking and an answer-the-question requirement could essentially turn a match of wits into some sort of substance. What a concept.
While responsibly considering what next to eat with fava beans and a nice chianti, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to my postings. If you keep reading, I’ll keep writing!
He baited us and we took a bite. Shame on us.
Well said!!!