He’s projecting again: Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed Wednesday that his Democratic opponent in the presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin just days before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Trump said in a speech in North Carolina: “Remember when Biden sent Kamala to Europe to stop the war in Ukraine. She met with Putin, and then three days later, he attacked. How did she do? Do you think she did a good job? She met with Putin to tell him, ‘Don’t do it.’ And three days later, he attacked; that’s when the attack started. Did you know that, General?” (Retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg was at the North Carolina event.) Facts First: Trump’s claim is false. Harris has never met with Putin. In reality, she met with US allies, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, at the Munich Security Conference in the days before Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Putin was not at the conference. “Frankly speaking, I cannot recall a single contact between President Putin and Mrs.
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I’m not sure how much longer I can take this fatuous nonsense. The Democrats have to put him away once and for all. David Frum compiled some of Trump’s foreign policy “achievements” He accepted the help of Russian spy agencies to win the presidency in 2016 … directed tens of millions of taxpayer and foreign government $ to his own businesses … https://axios.com/2024/01/04/report-trump-received-at-least-78m-in-foreign-payments-during-presidency… ordered a religious test on immigrants and visitors to the United States – rewrote it three times until a friendly Supreme Court disgraced the country by inscribing the rewritten ban into law … https://npr.org/2018/06/26/606481548/supreme-court-upholds-trump-travel-ban…. started trade wars not only with China, but against friends like the European Union, Canada, Japan, and South Korea.
From Meidas Touch: Trump will be hosting a “J6 Awards Gala” at Trump Nation Golf Club Bedminster on September 5th. Attendees have a chance to win a plaque commemorating the fact that MAGA folks bought a bunch of copies of his J6 “song” called Justice for All earning him a fleeting spot on the Billboard music chart. A flyer for the “J6 Awards Gala” shows Trump has been invited to speak and also shows indicted co-defendant Rudy Giuliani will be there. Trump is not only hosting the event at his property, but there is a good chance he will be speaking at it too. A promotional video for the event shows Trump calling J6 rioters, “peaceful,” and “J6 hostages,” promising pardons, and calling for them to be released. The video has audio of Trump claiming, “There has never been a group of people treated so harshly or unfairly.” It’s possible Trump won’t speak at this event. It’s a fundraiser and he may not have to be there. But it’s at Bedminster and it has his imprimatur. Remember:
Many thanks to Tom Sullivan for representing! We are seen!
Trump attempted to live tweet Harris’s speech last night. Here are some ofhe highlights: He called in to Fox immediately after the speech. Sad! After Fox hustled him off he called Newsmax: He’s fine. Nothing to see here.
It’s overdue A big revision from the BLS today: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday revised down its estimate of total employment in March 2024 by a whopping 818,000, the largest such downgrade in 15 years. That effectively means there were 818,000 fewer job gains than first believed from April 2023 through March 2024. So, instead of adding a robust average of 242,000 jobs a month during that 12-month period, the nation gained a still solid 174,000 jobs monthly, according to the latest estimate. The revision is based on the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, which draws from state unemployment insurance records that reflect actual payrolls, while the prior estimates come from monthly surveys. However, the estimate is preliminary and a final figure will be released early next year. These numbers might not be exactly right, however: Some economists, however, are questioning the fresh figures. Goldman Sachs said the revision was likely overstated by as much as 400,000 to 600,000 because unemployment insurance records don’t include unauthorized immigrants, who have contributed dramatically to job growth the past couple of years.
I’ve told the story before, but it bears repeating in the context of the 2024 Democratic National Convention. I attended the 2008 convention in 2008 and it was a pretty ecstatic atmosphere. The Democrats were about to nominate their first Black candidate for president and his very close primary competitor, Hillary Clinton was the first woman to make a serious run for it. There had been plenty of bad blood during the primary and there were still some raw feelings that needed to be dealt with before the full celebration could begin. It was up to Clinton to heal the breach and it wasn’t going to be easy. On the night Hillary was to give her big endorsement speech, I stood next to a group of young Black women who were clearly skeptical of her and were big fans of Barack Obama. They were not expecting much.
In case you missed the full roll call last night: For those of you who wanted that playlist here it is!
And it was spectacular It went viral in a hurry Thank you Barack. We needed that. David Kurtz at TPM has a nice wrap up of the Obamas’ speeches last night: Barack and Michelle Obama welcomed the Democratic convention to their hometown of Chicago, with sterling back-to-back speeches that harkened to the brighter pre-Trump days. Neither has lost a step as orators, with precision timing and panache that very few politicians have ever mustered, except that Michelle is not a politician and this was never her day job. While he struck familiar themes from his two-terms as president and wove them into the Harris-Walz campaign messaging in a way designed to make her a natural successor to his legacy, it was that pantomimed dart at the manhood of the man who did succeed him that brought down the house. He was great as always. But in spite of his usual rave up Red state, Blue state stuff toward the end, it was much harder hitting against the opposition than I remember, even aside from the comedy. A lot of silly analysis overnight about Michelle eschewing her motto – “When they go low, we go high” – as if calling out racism and misogyny is going low.