The Daily Populous Tuesday September 10th, 2024 morning edition
Authored by vanityfair.com and submitted by vanityfairmagazine

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will face off tomorrow night in Philadelphia for the only debate scheduled between the two candidates before the 2024 election. Unable to claim, as he did prior to debating Joe Biden, that his opponent will be on performance-enhancing drugs, Trump has spent the days leading up to the event complaining that it has been rigged against him. But within the Trump campaign, there is apparently a much bigger fear: that the ex-president will spend his allotted time waging misogynistic, raced-based, ad hominem attacks on Harris. Or, in other words, that he’ll be himself.

The Guardian reports that Team Trump “is most concerned going into the debate against Kamala Harris with the former president’s mood, afraid that the mercurial Trump could engage in the kind of self-sabotage that turned off voters in the 2020 presidential election, according to people familiar with the situation.” Worried that Trump will become frustrated and angry, advisers to the ex-president are said to fear “his worst instincts to make ad hominem insults in the vein of recent attacks on Harris that have turned increasingly personal and extreme” will come out. Trump, The Guardian notes, has “struggled historically with Black women in positions of power, and the campaign is bracing for him not to repeat recent comments that questioned Harris’s race or openly misogynistic comments, and more broadly, if he launches into lengthy and rambling diatribes that have become a feature of his rallies.”

Obviously, it’s not hard to understand why people around Trump are worried about what he might say on the debate stage. Since Harris became the Democratic nominee, he has:

Claimed she only recently became Black

Repeatedly insulted Harris’s intelligence, called her “barely competent,” said that she “can’t do a news conference” because “she’s not smart enough,” and claimed that she’s “not as smart” as Joe Biden

Falsely claimed that Harris “couldn’t pass her bar exam” (she did, on the second try, and was admitted to the California bar the year after she graduated law school)

Shared another Truth Social user’s post that included a photo of Harris with Hillary Clinton and a caption that read, “Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently…”

and a caption that read, “Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently…” Shared a video that parodied the Alanis Morissette song “Ironic” and called Harris “moronic.” Another lyric said Harris “spent her whole damn life down on her knees,” as an image of former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, who Harris dated in the ’90s, flashed onscreen

The one thing that Trump has going for him? The two candidates’ mics will be muted when it’s not their turn to speak, potentially curtailing some of the worst things he might have to say.

citizenjones on September 9th, 2024 at 22:11 UTC »

Guess what, I don't believe a damn word of whatever the Trump campaign says. There's misdirection on top of misinformation at the moment. The debate is going to be what it is, the speculation game, even "worries from Trump's advisors, allies, inner-circle" is absolutely unreliable in every way

Bullshit is on parade.

wishiwereagoonie on September 9th, 2024 at 21:43 UTC »

This is them setting the expectation so when he doesn’t do these things, it’s considered a resounding victory for him.

Dianneis on September 9th, 2024 at 21:29 UTC »

That's the only reason Trump’s handlers backpedaled on the hot mics issue. They honestly don’t believe their candidate can handle himself for 90 minutes without the benefit of a mute button to keep him in check.