A Viral Win for Harris

And proof of Trump's media diet.

A major viral moment from the debate was when Harris goaded Trump into this (transcription via ABC):

And look at what’s happening to the towns all over the United States. And a lot of towns don’t want to talk — not going to be Aurora or Springfield. A lot of towns don’t want to talk about it because they’re so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame. As far as rallies are concerned, as far — the reason they go is they like what I say. They want to bring our country back. They want to make America great again. It’s a very simple phrase. Make America great again. She’s destroying this country. And if she becomes president, this country doesn’t have a chance of success. Not only success. We’ll end up being Venezuela on steroids.

This is simply a slur and part of his overall attempt to degrade immigrants.

When the moderator tried to note the falsehood, Trump’s rebuttal was, well, weak, but telling.

DAVID MUIR: I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio. And ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community —

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I’ve seen people on television

Trump’s main source of information seems to be and always has been television. This directly comports with points that Matt Bernius was making the other day about Trump’s symbiotic relationship to right-wing media. It also demonstrates a man with no judgment and intellectual capacity.

BTW, I thought this was a telling response from Erick Erickson,

Well, Erick, he’s your guy.

Side note: I thought that Venezuela was a paradise now since all the criminals have been sent to the US! It is so hard to keep up. Asserted Trump last night: “Do you know that crime in Venezuela and crime in countries all over the world is way down? Because they’ve taken their criminals off the street and they’ve given them to her to put into our country.” No, I did not know that, because it isn’t true.

He probably saw that on TV as well.

FILED UNDER: Open Forum, , , , , , , , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Michael Reynolds says:

    So, is it red or white with cat?

    13
  2. Liberal Capitalist says:

    HA !!! You SLAY ME !!!

    (… only on Melmac did Trump do well last night.)

    4
  3. Liberal Capitalist says:

    PS: re Venezuela

    Let’s not forget WHY There are so many Venezuelan immigrants in the USA.

    That would be the Trump Executive Order. Go figure.

    https://www.nbcboston.com/news/politics/president-trump/trump-in-final-parting-shot-hits-venezuela-with-sanctions/2283368/

    4
  4. @Michael Reynolds: Reminds me of Carlin: “What wine goes with Cap’n Crunch?”

    6
  5. Modulo Myself says:

    The rumor is blood libel stuff and utterly disgusting. Conservatives are turning the dial to the crazy old man side rather than racist mob side, because they’re all part of the same racist mob.

    6
  6. Beth says:

    Ok, bear with my rambing bs for a second, cause I think this is wild and not a coincidence.

    In my work as a lawyer I occasionally have done some local zoning work. I’m talking small municipalities, like less than 20,000 people. I LOVE doing this work. It’s mostly simple paperwork and I get to showboat at board meetings AND because the residents that come out to zoning board meetings are INFUCKINGSANE.

    I once had a zoning board meeting where I was trying to fix an issue with an in ground pool in a set back. The municipality agreed that based on the circumstances they would grant a variance, but we had to do the paperwork and meetings. Perfect. Show up to the meeting and a little old lady totters to the microphone and kept us all rapt for half an hour about how local children would be “magnetized and fly though the air and drown in the pool”. I couldn’t make it up if I tried. It was wild. I got the variance for my client.

    In 2021 I had a chance to do a zoning matter for a client that needed a zoning variance to open a food pantry in an light industrial space. They were already operating out of a church in the area, but they needed to expand. We work well with the community and the municipality; I suspect things are going well, but I’ve been to that rodeo enough to know…

    We get to the hearing, I put on my dog and pony show. My client is excellent and does a phenomenal job. Then the near by residents show up and start freaking out. They first try and make an issue about parking and congestion. A legitimate issue, until the board points out that the residents preferred proposal would make the parking/congestion situation 100x worse that what we were proposing. Then a guy steps up and goes on a tear about how the food pantry’s clients were going to come to the area and eat everyone’s pets. Eat the dogs. Eat the cats. No one will have pets ever again cause the food pantry people, LOCAL RESIDENTS, we gonna eat everyone’s pets. After all the raucous laughter died down, I asked why people would eat pets when they could just get free food from the food pantry. He pivoted to the food pantry itself would steal the pets, butcher them, and then feed the pets to the poor. That man did a lot of heavy lifting for me. I got the variance and the food pantry has been happily helping people since. No pets are harmed.

    I’ve been telling this story for years thinking it was just some hilarious weirdo at a zoning board meeting. Now I’m realizing that this guy was a right-wing nut job. This whole eating pets thing didn’t just spring froth out of his mind in an attempt to derail a zoning board meeting. He was down in the right-wing fever swamp taking in all this nonsense about how poor people and immigrants eat pets. These people are absolutely convinced this is happening because their brains are rotted. Like it’s scary just how exactly that guys pet eating comments map on to the current pet eating nonsense.

    Like, you can’t have policy discussions with people that aren’t living in objective reality. How do you have a nuanced give and take over complex policy when your interlocutor starts screeching “YUR GONNA EAT MY PETS AND THEN TRANS MY SCHOOOLS GENDER!!!”

    21
  7. Franklin says:

    @Michael Reynolds: I’d suggest a meowscato.

    20
  8. Gavin says:

    Two days in a row now, prime time national TV has featured a washed-up conspiracy theorist from New York getting cooked by a superior opponent from San Francisco.

    For those of you who don’t follow sportsball, Monday evening’s game was Aaron Rodgers and the Jets losing to the 49ers.

    13
  9. Michael Reynolds says:

    @Franklin:
    Not a Catbernet?

    17
  10. drj says:

    @Beth:

    The “other” always has disgusting eating habits. It’s part of how people get dehumanized: these dirty **** eat filth – like the animals that they are.

    9
  11. MarkedMan says:

    @Franklin:

    I’d suggest a meowscato.

    God help us all, this discussion is about to go completely sideways…

    Mew-lot…

    9
  12. Mister Bluster says:

    Someone on the internet said they stole this from Facebook:

    “So what happened wuz…a sexually repressed right winger overheard some Haitian say: “I like eating pussy.”

    16
  13. Moosebreath says:

    @MarkedMan:

    I suggest a Purr-gundy.

    8
  14. Scott F. says:

    @MarkedMan:
    @Moosebreath:
    It’s gotta be a Mus-cat-o… d’uh.

    2
  15. Pylon says:

    @drj:

    Yup – any Asians, but particularly Chinese and Koreans about cats and dogs. https://www.voanews.com/a/asian-restaurant-in-us-battles-racist-stereotype-of-dog-eating-/7427589.html

    2
  16. Flat Earth Luddite says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    What wine goes with Cap’n Crunch?”

    Annie Green Springs, you barbarian.

    4
  17. Scott says:

    @Flat Earth Luddite: Annie Green Springs. Now that is a throwback to my childhood. Along with Boone’s Farm.

    5
  18. Scott says:

    Don’t know if David Frum or a headline writer came up with this headline but it made me laugh:

    How Harris Roped a Dope

    3
  19. Flat Earth Luddite says:

    @Scott:

    When Cracker was working nights throwing 100# sacks of spuds, I was working nights at the local 7/11. Younger types bought AGS or Boones, older drinkers bought Gallo hearty burgundy. Underage shoplifters boosted Mad Dog (mogan david 20/20). And then there were the bikers and the young ladies working at the body painting studios. Not always a good time, but as Artie used to say on Laugh-In, vvvverrryyy interesting.

    4
  20. steve says:

    A few years ago went to the state store to buy some cheap wines as a gag gift. Asked for Boones Farm or Ripple and they told us it’s not made anymore. However, they still had Mad Dog. I had forgotten its was sold by color. We bought all they had left and they were glad together rid of it.

    Steve

    2
  21. Mister Bluster says:

    @steve:..cheap wines

    What’s the word? Thunderbird!
    How’s it sold? Good and cold.
    What’s the jive? Bird’s alive.
    What’s the price? Thirty twice.
    —1957 radio jingle

    Source

    2
  22. BugManDan says:

    @steve: Boone’s is definitely still made. Or at least it was still made last summer, as a college friend brought some to a get together as a joke. I had forgot how sweet it is. More like a wine cooler.

  23. al Ameda says:

    @Flat Earth Luddite:
    @Steven L. Taylor:
    What wine goes with Cap’n Crunch?

    Annie Green Springs, you barbarian.

    You’re probably right, I’ll take your word for it.
    But I have one question:
    Is Ripple a wine? (I honestly forget what Fred Sanford had to say about this.)

  24. just nutha says:

    If I recall correctly, and I probably don’t, Ripple is made from grape pulp and has both water and alcohol added. So, no, I wouldn’t call it wine per se.

    1
  25. Pylon says:

    I’ve had Butterscotch Ripple but that’s a different, equally vile, animal.

  26. Pylon says:

    Vance is the gift that keeps on giving. Started the eating dogs and cats thing that wormed into Trump’s head and destroyed him, and now his childless cat lady was expressly mentioned in Taylor Swift’s endorsement. Which in turn was liked by Caitlin Clark (who MAGA had embraced BTW).

    4
  27. Neil Hudelson says:

    @al Ameda: @just nutha:

    I had never heard of ripple, and Google turned up some amusing “cocktails” popular in the 70s

    Flipple: sangria & Ripple

    Champipple: Champagne & Ripple. Or, Ginger Ale & Ripple.

    Manischipple: Manischewitz & Ripple.

    Beaujolipple: Beaujolais & Ripple.

    Cripple: Cream & Ripple.

    Stripple: Straight Ripple.

    Flapple: Flat Ripple. Or, Sangria.

    Muscatipple: Muscatel & Ripple.

    1
  28. JohnSF says:

    @Michael Reynolds:
    Cat-eaneuf du Pape, obvs.
    If serving up pooch, I suggest an Alsatian.
    🙂

    5
  29. Flat Earth Luddite says:

    @Pylon:

    Worst drink I remember ever drinking was (a) grapefruit pruno (prison wine for the uninitiated) and brandy made from said pruno. Uniquely piquent indeedy do.

    2
  30. anjin-san says:

    Now if you were a classy drinker back in the 70s – which I certainly was when I was 15 – you turned up your nose at Boone’s Farm and went directly to Mateus Rosé…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFg1NbSyWgg

    1