A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Of Course It Came To This
We’ve moved into the endgame stage of the 2024 campaign, and it’s now obvious that the pivot Donald Trump made when Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden was away from the bizarre, new-fangled Biden Crime Family conspiracies to the old tried and true racist and xenophobic attacks that have animated Trump’s national political presence since 2015.
The media coverage of the sustained Trump-Vance attacks on Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, has been remarkably clear-headed that the underlying claims around “eating pets” are baseless, fabricated, and continue to be disseminated in full knowledge of their falsity.
What remains a challenge to the media coverage and the national conversation is that Trump’s point isn’t about “eating pets,” or Haitian immigrants, or Springfield. It’s about othering entire segments of the population, largely based on skin color and national origin. It’s about stoking fear in white people about these “others.” And it all reverberates and echoes in the context of othering Harris herself, whose bi-racial identity Trump hasn’t hesitated to highlight in a disparaging way.
Debunking the underlying supposed factual basis for the claims, while important, doesn’t debunk the racism, the xenophobia, or the corrosive effects on American civic life. Those explicit racist messages – not dog whistles, not coded, not euphemized – come through loud and clear to all who are listening, from white nationalists on one extreme to Republican voters to immigrant communities now feeling isolated and under siege.
We’ve seen Trump play this game before with much-easier-to-substantiate claims of undocumented immigrants committing violent crimes, which was a consistent focus of his last two campaigns. The fact that that he picked a more outrageous falsehood to parade around is perhaps a sign of his growing desperation. His lead over Biden slipped away after Harris entered the race, and we should never let it drift too far from our awareness that Trump’s own personal liberty is dependent upon winning this election.
Down The Memory Hole!
CNN: JD Vance got a former professor to delete a blog post Vance wrote in 2012 attacking GOP over anti-immigrant rhetoric
More Incitement
JD Vance’s apparent logic – that the GOP ticket can only be blamed for actual bombs not bomb scares, and that any reporting on bomb threats is a lie and fake news – serves merely as pretext for attacking the messengers:
‘You Can’t Have That Microphone Again’
In an appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered this remarkable extended answer on the virulent racist attacks that have become the central theme of the Trump-Vance campaign:
Vice President Harris’ full response to Trump’s attacks on Springfield, Ohio and his lifelong history of racism pic.twitter.com/spyJxC1bx9
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) September 17, 2024
What Laura Loomer Represents To White Nationalists
Laura Loomer’s suddenly higher visibility with Donald Trump just happened to coincide with Trump-Vance unleashing their attacks on Haitian immigrants. It’s not a signal that’s lost on the extreme right:
White nationalist Nick Fuentes celebrates Trump’s close connection to Laura Loomer because “Laura Loomer supports white nationalists and white identitarians. She has been a friend of mine for years and she has talked about white genocide consistently.” pic.twitter.com/dyuAnzMvD5
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) September 17, 2024
It’s Not Just Trump-Vance
Your occasional reminder that the entire GOP has made xenophobic attacks on immigrants the centerpiece of the general election campaign, most comprehensively with its fixation on the fake problem of non-citizen voting in federal elections.
As TPM’s Khaya Himmelman reports, in addition to its racist appeal, the non-citizen voting canard also serves the GOP purposes of delegitimizing any election that Democrats wins. And it started months in advance of a single vote being counted.
Important Read
Over the last several years, the field [of disinformation research] has undergone a broadscale attack from politicians, right-wing media, and tech industry giants. As a result, research has been curtailed, people have been laid off, and academics working in the space even fear talking to one another, lest it leave them open to charges of “conspiring” by their adversaries.
Election Threat Watch
- A series of suspicious mailings, some including unknown foreign substances, were sent to election officials in at least 14 states: Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Tennessee, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Missouri, Mississippi, Massachusetts, Indiana, Rhode Island, Maryland, Colorado and Connecticut.
- Russia has retooled its election interference efforts to target the new Harris-Walz ticket, according to a new threat assessment report from Microsoft.
- Federal judge warns the judiciary that foreign actors could try to interfere in election-related cases.
Trying To Flip The Script
Since Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt against him, Donald Trump has been trying to leverage it into a political cudgel against Democrats, claiming that by calling him a threat to democracy they are inciting violence against him.
CNN queued up clips of Trump using similar (although baseless) language against Democrats:
CNN put together a rhetoric collection pic.twitter.com/BXQssMDDXh
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 18, 2024
GOP Still Targeting Childless Americans
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, at a Trump town hall event in Michigan yesterday, engaged in another pernicious way of othering Kamala Harris:
Sarah Huckabee Sanders starts the Trump town hall by taking a shot at Kamala Harris for not having biological children.
“So, my kids keep me humble. Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.” pic.twitter.com/URV9FZBqhv
— American Bridge 21st Century (@American_Bridge) September 17, 2024
The Grifting Never Stops
CNN: “Donald Trump and his children unveiled a new cryptocurrency business Monday in a virtual address from his Mar-a-Lago estate, the latest venture that stands to benefit the former president as he seeks another four years in the Oval Office.”
Senate Republicans Again Block Bill To Protect IVF
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) forced another election-year vote on a bill to protect IVF nationally, and again Senate Republicans blocked it.
Schumer’s maneuvering indirectly set up this bit of nationally televised screw-turning that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) had to endure:
GOP Gov’t Shutdown Watch
I’ve been reluctant to put House Speaker Mike Johnson’s flailing efforts to avoid a government shutdown on your radar, largely because it seems like such an insane self-own by Republicans to force the issue right before the election. Alas, insane self-owns remain a House GOP speciality.
Editor’s Note
Today’s news happens to be a little more video heavy than usual, and that often prompts complaints about Morning Memo’s use of video embeds from X/Twitter. Your concerns are noted and largely shared. It continues to be a challenge to survey the news for you in this fragmented media ecosystem. Between cartoon villain owners turning their platforms into right-wing propaganda machines, dubious privacy practices, paywalls, and other barriers, it’s a jungle out there. There are no easy answers or perfect solutions to navigating this complicated terrain. As the media ecosystem evolves, Morning Memo continues to look for new and innovative ways to bring you the news without making you go “Ick!” about the sources of the news (can’t promise how you’ll react to the news itself though). It’s a imperfect work in progress, but your concerns are heard.
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