Coach Walz is actually…mean? "Elon's on that stage jumping around, skipping like a dipshit," Democratic vice presidential contender Tim Walz said Tuesday, referring to how Musk assumed the stage during a campaign appearance with Trump at a recent rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. "Seriously, that guy is literally the richest man in the world, spending millions of dollars to help Donald Trump buy an election."
This is par for the course from the Democratic presidential campaign, which appears to have initially gone with "joy" themes but has, at times, pivoted to sort of schoolyard taunts (which, to be sure, are a Trump campaign mainstay). They also seemingly haven't really known how to use Walz in particular, initially picking him for his cable news ingenuity (repeatedly calling Trump running mate J.D. Vance "weird") versus his swing-state appeal (when compared with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, whom Harris had seriously considered). Walz has, instead of steering into his developing reputation as a cable news attack dog, been sort of media-sidelined for a decent chunk of this campaign. Now he's seemingly being trotted out again to…dunk on Elon Musk? It's just all fairly bizarre and incomprehensible.
"Donald Trump in front of the eye of the American public is promising corruption," continued Walz, since Trump "already promised" to put Musk in charge of government regulations that would impact Tesla and SpaceX.
It's true that Musk, if appointed to a Trump administration—to serve as "secretary of cost-cutting"—would stand to benefit from his influence and, specifically, from government contracts doled out to his companies. But let's be very clear: He already has these contracts! If Walz and Harris oppose this, as well as the myriad tax breaks and government incentives from which Musk benefits, they ought to roll such things back not out of political retribution but out of a sense that companies should succeed or fail on their own merit. And appointing a secretary of cost-cutting (if that actually happens) is a whole helluva lot better than whatever presidential administrations have been doing for the last couple of decades (mostly, blowing up the federal debt and deficit via an enduring belief that the big-government bill will never come due).
As for Harris? Democratic contender Kamala Harris got a question thrown her way—from NBC's Hallie Jackson—that more journalists should have been asking from the start: How culpable was she really in the Joe Biden cognitive-ability cover-up?
Here's the exchange:
Harris: "It was a bad debate. People have bad debates."
Jackson: "Should —"
Harris: "He is absolutely —"
Jackson: "— but that's the reason why you're here and he's not running for the top of the ticket."
Harris: "Well, you'd have to ask him if that's the only reason why."
Jackson: "What do you think?"
Harris: "I'm running for president of the United States. Joe Biden is not. And my presidency will be about bringing a new generation of leadership to America that is focused on the work we need to do to invest in the ambitions and aspirations of the American people."
Jackson: "It's a judgment question. That's why I ask. Can the American people trust you in these moments even when it's maybe uncomfortable for Americans to—to have—to level with Americans in that way?"
Harris: "I have worked with Joe Biden, whether—hours and hours and hours over these four years, whether it be in The Situation Room or the Oval Office. Joe Biden is the one who was able to bring NATO together during a crisis where for the first time in 70 years, Europe saw and has seen war. Joe Biden has done the work that has been about being a leader on what we have done to fix so much of what has been broken in terms of the economy because of Donald Trump's mismanagement. I speak with not only sincerity, but with a real firsthand account of watching him do this work. I have no reluctance in saying that. No, of course I don't."
Middle East update: Hashem Safieddine, a cleric who was expected to take over as Hezbollah leader following the killing Hassan Nasrallah, was believed to be killed by the Israeli military in early October. Yesterday, Israeli authorities confirmed that it was in fact Safieddine, marking another huge blow to Hezbollah's power structure.
"The Beirut suburb where Safieddine was killed was pummeled by a series of fresh airstrikes on Tuesday, including one that leveled a building it said housed Hezbollah facilities," reports the Associated Press.
Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders as part of his 11th visit to the region since the war's outbreak. Following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Blinken has revived efforts to pursue a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Scenes from New York: "Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran and three other men connected to the country's government with participating in a failed plot to assassinate [Masih Alinejad] in Brooklyn in 2022, according to a new indictment made public on Tuesday," reports The New York Times.
QUICK HITS
- Spooky content from The Wall Street Journal: "The 2025 Tax Brackets Are Here. See Where You Land."
- "Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries, his romantic partner and a third man were arrested Tuesday on charges of luring men into drug-laced, outlandish and coercive sex parties held around the world by dangling the promise of modeling for the retailer's once-defining beefcake ads," reports the Associated Press. "For almost 20 years, Jeffries, his partner Matthew Smith and their employee James Jacobson used Jeffries' status, wealth and a web of household staffers to fulfill the couple's sexual desires in what amounted to an international sex trafficking and prostitution business protected by secrecy, according to an indictment unsealed in federal court in New York."
- Wild revelations have been circulating for a bit now:
EXCLUSIVE: In 2007, Kamala Harris plagiarized pages of Congressional testimony from a Republican colleague.
And in 2012, she plagiarized a fictionalized story about sex trafficking—but presented it as a real case.
It's not just one book; it's a career-long pattern.???? pic.twitter.com/ZiHkzxTg4r
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 22, 2024
- Yes:
My biggest gripe with "gentle parenting" is that it over-emphasizes "validating" a child's feelings in a way that I believe is actively harmful. Children should learn feelings are important, but so is self-control and agency apart from passing emotions. https://t.co/QDOKahiKSd
— Ivana Greco (@IvanaDGreco) October 22, 2024
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