Split Screens

Extreme Distancing: After Trump rejected the Commission on Presidential Debate’s virtual debate plan, pulling out of the townhall style debate that was scheduled to take place last night, Joe Biden accepted an invitation to appear on his own in a townhall moderated by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.  Not to be outdone, the miraculously healed Trump accepted an invitation from NBC to appear solo in one moderated by Savannah Guthrie.  NBC took a lot of heat for agreeing to schedule their townhall in the same time slot as the ABC/Biden one.  That may partially explain why Savannah Guthrie came out armed for bear, although to be fair to Guthrie it doesn’t explain why Trump took her bait.  He was antagonistic and deceptive, in other words he stuck to his usual behavior and it wasn’t pretty. On the coronavirus front, Trump hemmed and hawed when asked if he had taken the mandated COVID test before the first debate, pretty much confirming that he’d skipped it proving that the Debate Commission’s decision to rely on the honor system was dangerously foolish.  As to his health, he insists he didn’t start to feel unwell until after the debate and admitted that the doctors told him he had gunk in lungs, also known as COVID pneumonia. Likewise he confessed that despite earlier assertions by his press secretary he doesn’t get tested every day.  When asked about herd immunity, he hemmed and hawed but refused to disavow the approach that would likely lead to millions more of us kicking the bucket. He insisted that he was pro-facemask but then claimed that 85% of people who wear masks get COVID, a  perverted misinterpretation of a recent CDC study that did not reach that conclusion.  Sadly that assertion appears to be a new entry in his repertoire, he tried it out at the super spreader rally full of gullible fans he’d held earlier in the day in North Carolina. He also insisted once again that US COVID mortality rates were the best; spoiler alert, they’re not. He admitted to having more than $400 million of personal debt, saying that was mere peanuts for a billionaire like him and he admitted that some, if not all of that debt, was probably held by foreigners.  He didn’t name them instead saying he’d get back to Savannah, probably in two weeks when he provides her with details of his new health and  DACA plans because no one cares about Dreamers more than him.  Trump finally condemned white supremacism though you got the distinct feeling that he had his fingers crossed behind his back while he did so. However, he couldn’t do the same when Savannah asked him about QAnon, the dangerous hatemongers who believe that Democrats are running a pedophile ring out of pizza parlors or something like that.  First he said that he didn’t know who they were, then when pressed he said that all he knew was that they were against pedophilia and isn’t that a good thing?  That the FBI labels QAnon as domestic terrorists didn’t seem to concern him one iota.  And because being pro-QAnon wasn’t enough, he also defended his retweeting of a tweet claiming that Osama bin Laden was still alive, that Obama and presumably Biden had conspired with him to fake his death by killing Seal Team Six.  Our commander in chief everyone. 

The Other Guy: By contrast Biden’s townhall was exceedingly normal, that’s not to say that Biden was perfect, he did his meandering thing and sometimes wrestled with words, but his answers were chock full of substance and at least so far, the media fact checkers haven’t come up with a list of prevarications.  Once again he was asked about court packing, an issue that may rile up the right who are all in on getting their uber conservative court in place for the next few decades but one that doesn’t seem to generate much vote swaying interest from the rest of us.  Biden responded by saying he’ll get back with an answer after Judge Amy’s confirmation process is over.  Whether he means that or whether it’s a rolling Trumpy two weeks deferral is debatable but it’s hard to miss that the press is only hammering him on that point because there’s so little else to hit him with.  And though one can quibble as to whether Senate Leader McConnell’s relentless push to get conservatives on all the courts of the land is technically packing, it certainly is ominous and worthy of a counter offensive. With plenty of his trademark compassion left to share,  Biden stuck around to answer more questions off camera after the townhall clock ran down, in the past that would probably have involved a few hugs but it’s 2020 so he couldn’t even pat any backs, a good thing because we learned yesterday that Kamala Harris’ communications director, a member of her flight crew and a representative of the flight company used by the Biden team tested COVID positive.  Harris, who didn’t have much exposure to any of them, is now off the campaign trail through the weekend, awaiting a few more days of hopefully negative test results.  Though the flight company representative flew on Biden’s plane, he never got within 50 feet of the former VP so Joe, who like Kamala always wears a super protective N 95 mask while flying, has tested negative and is and will be tested daily, has been advised that he doesn’t need to change any of his plans.  Great transparency from the Biden team but oy, double oy, that virus is scarily persistent.    

Politics Unusual:  We’re at the point in the election process where some of the pundits and most of the news stations warn us that the election is really much closer than the polls indicate.  That may or may not be an accurate assessment of the current situation, only time will tell, but one thing is certain, some Republicans are doing distancing jigs.  Yesterday, a tape of Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse throwing volumes of shade at Trump during a call with thousands of constituents was released and, notably Sasse, who is up for reelection but held back his open criticism until after the primary season, didn’t deny saying that Trump flirts with white supremacists, kisses dictators’ butts and sells out our allies and that someday Republicans will have to explain why they supported that awful reality TV show host.  Less scathing, but also unhappy, former NJ Governor/Trump debate coach Chris Christie is back from his stay in intensive care.  He too was a beneficiary of the anti-viral Remdesivir and some monoclonal antibodies, the Eli Lily ones that are now subject to a study hold over another patient’s bad reaction.  He expressed regret for not taking virus protection protocols more seriously while also making it clear that he thinks Trump has been and continues to deliver the wrong coronavirus message, saying he has not “treated Americans as adults, who understand truth, sacrifice and responsibility,” essentially confirming that we’ve been lied to and are still being lied to by Trump.  Christie is now fully on #TeamMask.  Not all that surprising given her long term estrangement from her father, Caroline Giuliani endorsed the Biden/Harris team yesterday, slamming her father Rudy as a “sycophant” who feeds Trump’s “mob mentality.”  As to Rudy, Trump was warned by his intelligence chief earlier this year that his “bulldog” lawyer was being manipulated by the Russians who were using him to funnel disinformation.  That’s the same Rudy who wants us to believe that the Hunter Biden implicating emails that he uncovered on a laptop from Delaware are legitimate.  Getting back to Trump, yesterday during his North Carolina rally, he appears to have admitted to authorizing an extra judicial killing by boasting about federal agents killing an antifa activist suspected of murdering one of his supporters in Portland, Oregon this summer, calling the suspect’s death without trial an example of his leadership.  

Eighteen days.