Donald Trump is using an “old playbook” against Vice President Harris, says former Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett. She tells MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart why Trump’s “birtherist nonsense” won’t slow Harris’ momentum.
Clinton warns of October surprise that will ‘distort and pervert’ Harris
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned of an October surprise that will “distort and pervert” Vice President Harris.
“There will be concerted efforts to distort and pervert Kamala Harris, who she is, what she stands for, what she’s done,” Clinton said during an interview with “Firing Line” host Margaret Hoover.
She pointed to the 2016 “pizzagate” conspiracy theory that surrounded the end of her presidential campaign against Donald Trump.
“I mean, look, I mean, the crazy story about me running a child trafficking operation out of a basement of a pizzeria,” Clinton said.
The comment evoked laughter from the crowd. “Pizzagate,” as the child sex trafficking conspiracy became known, resulted in a North Carolina man opening fire on a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor in 2016.
“Don’t laugh,” Clinton told the crowd. “It was a huge story. And it got one young man in North Carolina to get in his car with his, you know, assault rifle and drove up to liberate these nonexistent children and shoot up a pizzeria in Washington, D.C.”
“This is dangerous stuff. It starts online often on the dark web. It migrates. It’s picked up by the pro-Trump media. It’s then reported on by everybody else, which makes sure it has about 100 percent coverage, and people believe it,” Clinton said.
She warned that ahead of this year’s election, “the digital airwaves” will be filled with misinformation that can take on a life of its own.
Clinton argued that the press needs a “consistent narrative” about the danger that Trump poses to the country in the coming weeks. She warned that foreign actors like Russia, Iran and China may fuel disinformation on social media, seeking to influence the election.
She said she believes a story about Harris is coming. “So, I don’t know what it’s going to be,” she said of the October surprise. “But it will be something, and we’ll have to work very, very hard to make sure that it is exposed as the lie that it is.”
Lindsey Graham’s Body Language Over Offensive Donald Trump Remark Says It All
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday made light of former president and current GOP nominee Donald Trump’s offensive claim that his Democratic rival in the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris, is “mentally disabled.”
Trump, at a rally this weekend, falsely claimed “Kamala is mentally impaired,” that President Joe Biden “became mentally impaired, Kamala was born that way,” and that “if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper quizzed Graham over the moment, telling the Trump loyalist: “So, first of all, there are actual people out there with mental impairments, and that’s insulting to them. Second of all, Vice President Kamala Harris is not mentally impaired.”
“No,” agreed Graham, adding: “I just think she’s crazy liberal.”
Tapper asked Graham about Trump’s rhetoric.
Graham threw up his hands, shrugged and replied: “I just think the better course to take is to prosecute the case that her policies are destroying the country. They’re crazy liberal.”
Graham later said of Harris, “I’m not saying she’s crazy. I’m saying your party, your policies are batshit crazy.”
Tapper clarified, “Well, they’re not my policies.”
‘Not normal’: Social media reacts after Trump makes bizarre comments about a fly he’s bothered by on stage
Former President Donald Trump expressed his frustration over a fly that approached his lectern in a bizarre moment during a rally speech.
Trump was on stage at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, making a point about a hat, when he appeared to get distracted by the creature.
“Oh there’s a fly,” the former president said. “I wonder where the fly came from?”
One audience member shouted out “Kamala.”
Trump continued: “See, two years ago, I wouldn’t have had a fly up here. You’re changing rapidly. We can’t take it any longer.” It wasn’t clear who or what the president was referring to before he changed the subject.
The internet was quick to react to Trump’s unexpected outburst, with MSNBC host and legal analyst Katie Phang saying “this is not normal.”
Meanwhile, American Bridge 21st Century, who describe themselves an a Republican accountability group, said: “Trump is exhausted and struggling to stay on track. He begins a story about a hat, but gets distracted by a fly and never finishes. He starts a entirely new story and struggles with the word “unique.”
Many others drew the comparison between Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence, after a fly landed on the latter’s head and remained there for almost two minutes during his 2020 debate with Kamala Harris.
In separate remarks made during his speech, Trump again dialed up his rhetoric against Harris, calling her “mentally disabled” and “mentally impaired.” Harris visited the US-Mexico border earlier this week and most of Trump’s speech took aim at migrants who have entered the US illegally.
Posters of migrants who have been charged with murder and other violent crimes surrounded Trump on stage. Some of them read: “End Migrant Crime” and “Deport Illegals Now.” He referred to those who had been charged as “monsters,” “stone-cold killers” and “vile animals.”
He continued to blame Harris and President Joe Biden for the influx of migrants coming into the country, and claimed some of them wanted to “rape, pillage, thieve, plunder and kill the people of the United States of America.” In fact, a 2024 study conducted by researchers at Northwestern University found immigrants have never been incarcerated at a greater rate than people born in the United States over an 150-year period.
While speaking at her own news conference from the border, Harris vowed to fix the country’s “broken immigration system” and accused the former president of “fanning the flames of fear and division”.
