346 Comments

Here's what concerns me about what Eggers wrote about Posobiec's and Kirk's warnings: Just about everything Trump and his defenders say is either projection or confession. And that means we're about to see deep fakes of VP Harris and Gov Walz doing something like eating a human baby at Comet PingPong while Hillary and Bill Clinton and a group of Haitians cheer them on. And people will fall for it. And Dipshit Musk will push it.

Expand full comment

It isn't soft and it isn't bigotry. It is a complete failure of media leaders be it print or electronic to deal with Trump's increasingly paranoid rhetoric. NBC and it's various cable networks are as complicit on the one side as are Fox News and its relatives on the other. There are no words that I would use publicly to describe how I feel about The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Expand full comment

Dear David Axelrod and every other goddam pundit: it's the stakes, not the race. (With thanks to Sarah!)

Expand full comment

Did we really have to learn what kind of porn Tucker likes to watch?

Expand full comment

Re: Tucker Carlson's speech to Turning Point Action. That contained some of the strangest argument I've ever heard. Somewhere along the way his psyche got warped. But as always, I'm even more shocked at the audience's cheering in support of his words. Were there women in that crowd? Why are these people inflicting their psychological damage on the rest of the country?

Expand full comment

I finally just saw on MSNBC that Tucker Carlson clip. And I'm . . . sickened, feel nauseous, disgusted, horrified. If I had a daughter - I'd run out of that gathering as if the Hounds of Hell were after me. Because that's exactly what Tucker was. He's promoting child abuse, and sadism and God knows what else. How can any woman sit there and listen to that garbage? Or anyone who has a wife, a daughter, a mother? I feel sick.

Expand full comment

He can leave Trump out of it but he has the right to protect us from violence and hate mongering on the right and defend the poor migrants. He should have had regular briefings over the years about his achievements. It is pathetic that millions of people believe that Trump is better for the economy . Trump inherited Obama's economy and added 8 trillion to our National debt, he screwed up Covid and 1 million died. This not about campaigning for Harris.

Expand full comment

| There is something deeply pernicious to this routine.

But easily explained if not bloody obvious: one can live with the Big Lie when one believes it'll bring one what one wants.

Terser, Republicans have discovered that their ends can indeed justify Trumpian means.

Expand full comment

With apologies to Tim, Sara, JVL, Bill, et al, Mona Charen is my favorite Bulwarkian.

Her article was the balm i needed today. She seconded my own experience at early voting, where absolutely everyone was courteous, respectful, and simply celebratory of the voting process. Partisan rancor was absent. Little old ladies decked out in goofy patriotic costume directed me to each station and presented my "I Voted" sticker as if i'd just won an Olympic medal.

I also thanked every poll worker with whom i interacted, for providing me with such a pleasantly American experience. I was also cognizant of how unpleasant things could get for these very same selfless volunteers, but on that day and in that moment, everyone was a happy patriot. All due, in large part, to a persistent spirit of celebrating this country rather than tearing it down.

Trump would wreck this glorious, happy hell-hole simply to make us all as miserable as he is.

Expand full comment

A few comments...

1) All I can say after reading the “Different Planets” segment is “Amen, brother”. It’s been clear for some time that Trump is judged on a different scale. And I think the title of today’s Morning Shots (“The Soft Bigotry of Our Trump Expectations”) explains a good part of the reason. Those not in the cult but are still willing to vote for Trump don’t expect him to say anything that makes sense. So when he (occasionally) does, they store that away for future use. Then they can feel justified in ignoring the mountain of other mean, nasty, untruthful, and basically incoherent things that he says.

The rest of it is explained by those that are in the cult for which nothing Trump says matters to them as long as they view it as bombastic and, therefore, entertaining. They aren’t going to spend any time parsing it for any deeper meaning. But if someone in the media asks Trump to try to explain what he just said or points out that it contradicts something that he said earlier, they don’t get mad at Trump, the source of the lie/incoherency. They get mad at whoever points it out. They’re just being mean to him.

2) I would humbly submit to Mr. Kelly that if he’s worried about Hitler and he’s worried about fascism, he ought to pick up the newspaper. There’s thousands of Hitlers running around this country right now, running around college campuses, running around New York City chasing Jewish people around, blocking their access on college campuses” – OK, Scott Jennings you’ve convinced me. I’m not voting for any of those folks to be President. Happy now?

3) How many times in the early days of Trump did we hear “maybe this is the thing that will separate Trump from his base? I was fooled into thinking that something would do it back then. But after the Access Hollywood tapes didn’t permanently tank Trump’s candidacy, anyone who continued to think that just didn’t want to face reality.

4) David Frum’s quote is priceless.

Expand full comment

Eff tucker Carlson. I mean, I can't even begin to count the ways that comment was gross and sexist and demeaning. WHAT is wrong with people that they support this?

Expand full comment

I can’t imagine what October surprise could change MAGA minds but I’ve been wondering why the Republicans are now encouraged to vote early.

Expand full comment

To follow up on my last post, the Nikki Haley voters are also most likely more National defense oriented as well. Kamala, please tell them what they want & need to hear!

Expand full comment

This is something the Generals & former security advisers need to be more specific about. We all know Trump is nuts & unfit. Now tell us why this matters to our National Defense. This should be mentioned every day going forward. This may shake up the last of the Republican undecided. As much as Putin tried to get Trump to destroy NATO, we can’t let him have a second try. The Russian Army proved to be a paper tiger. I don’t think that can said of North Korea, Iran or China. I certainly don’t want to find out the hard way!

Expand full comment

It's called misogyny and it's the one area that truly exemplifies America's exceptionalism. We are very very good at it

Expand full comment