Sept 13, 2024
Dear Patriot,
Another wild week in the mad dash to the finish line.
The debate season appears to be over. President Trump announced on Thursday he is finished debating. We can not blame him as it appears to be a waste of his precious time.
While the debate was not as strong as it could have been for Trump, all the polling seems to indicate that Kamala did not convince anyone she would be better.
Much can happen in the next weeks. It will be up and down emotionally. We ask you to pray and remain steady. Push out as much information as you can. Get ready to vote and to drag everyone you know along!
Enjoy the funny and good news.
1- This is a good summation of the debate on Tuesday.
Harris survived the debate (with a huge assist from the moderators) but Trump scored crucial points
QUOTE: Donald Trump got to Kamala Harris’ core problem in his debate close, waving off all her promises about what she’d do in office: “Why hasn’t she done it already?”
Hard to think of a better riposte to her “We won’t go back” slogan — which aims to appeal to Americans’ desperate desire for change from the Biden policies she shares. Harris had a pretty smooth night: She did her homework for once, including prepping lines guaranteed to get under Trump’s skin — some of which plainly did put him off-balance.
And of course she had backup from the moderators, ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis — who targeted far more tough questions at Trump than at Harris, and all of their “fact-checking.”
Worse: Whenever she started to babble in trying to defend her own record, they rescued her by changing the subject.
And by changing it again whenever Trump was truly on a roll.
Still: Whenever she talked about having “a plan,” it was more of what she and Joe Biden have pushed these last four years — even when it came to the border. Offered multiple chances to say what she’d do differently than Joe, she dodged every time.
She even fell back on the same seemingly strong support for Israel to defeat Hamas, with the same caveats that “how it does so matters” — a passive-aggressive ratification of Hamas propaganda smearing the IDF’s incredible restraint, sacrificing hundreds of Israeli lives to minimize civilian casualties.
Answering a question about how she’d get a cease-fire, she went on a meandering review of the war before saying it had to end with a cease-fire that releases the hostages — without a hint of how to get one. And of course she followed by demanding the same old “two-state solution” that Hamas and its allies don’t want, and is a clear impossibility for the foreseeable future.
Crucially, she also wouldn’t call for Ukraine’s victory in its defense against Vladimir Putin’s invasion, but only brag about how she’d met with Volodomyr Zelensky right before the war began, and isn’t it a wonderful alliance we have helping him now.
Trump at least was honest: He wants the war ended ASAP.
But he also made a powerful point that Putin didn’t do any invading on his watch, and later connected the dots — quite correctly — from the feckless Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the weakness it signaled, to Russia’s invasion.
Harris actually praised Biden’s Afghan bugout, then talked up the importance of “stability,” when Europe and the Middle East are aflame in this administration.
Trump was erratic — notably taking her bait when she claimed people walked out of his rallies and when she fictionalized his remarkable business success.
Yet he could also be fast on his feet, as when he countered her brag that 200 Republicans have endorsed her by noting they were mostly people he’d fired — and that Biden-Harris have fired no one, not even for the Afghan debacle or the disastrous inflation. He scored again on inflation when she insisted his tariffs would raise prices, by noting his presidency was inflation-free — and that Biden-Harris “never took the tariffs off.”
On the economy, the No. 1 issue for voters, all she really had to offer was her empty “Opportunity Economy” label; he pointed to his record of achievement.
With a huge assist from the moderators, Harris got through the debate without repeating Biden’s June disaster.
We’re glad to see she’s now asked for another debate, and hope that encourages her to also finally do press conferences and long interviews.
Trump’s been edging up in the polls as voters say they don’t know enough about Harris: She needs to take more risks, and on less friendly ground, or she’s still headed for defeat.
2- We continue to be impressed with J.D. Vance as he man-handles every fake news reporter he encounters. No reporter in the DC/NY media bubble cared two hoots about a small town in Ohio, until there were cat memes!
How JD Vance Responded to the Media's Meltdown Over the Haitians Eating Pets Story in Ohio Was Masterful
QUOTE: Tuesday night, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked the 2024 vice presidential nominee about the Ohio Haitians ravaging the town of Springfield, where there are rumors of pets being eaten by these people. Ducks and geese are also being consumed, and we have police reports to that effect. The media has dismissed the claims, calling them myths, but we’ll have to wait and see. If geese are being chopped up, so can dogs and cats—it’s not that big of a stretch.
Vance sent this story into overdrive when he mentioned it before the ABC News debate. Trump also mentioned the claim on Tuesday night, but the Ohio Republican has conceded that the story might not be accurate. Regardless, he did a masterful pivot, putting the onus on the media to verify these claims, of which there are many, and then highlighting how immigration policy under Joe Biden has spiraled out of control. Springfield is awash with tens of thousands of Haitians who are wrecking the community.
“Health care costs are up, housing costs are up, communicable diseases, like HIV and TB, have skyrocketed in this small Ohio town—this is what Kamala Harris’ border policies have done,” he said.
He added how the media didn’t care about the carnage of the Biden-Harris immigration agenda until there were cat memes.
3- Well, looky here. It appears that if you need help for your town’s people, you just have to appeal to dog, cat and duck lovers.
Ohio Sending Troopers, Funding to Springfield Over Haitian Influx
QUOTE: Ohio’s governor says he is sending law enforcement officials and millions of dollars in health care resources to Springfield, a city at the center of a national spotlight on Haitian illegal immigrants.
Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said he doesn’t oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which some 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020. However, he said, the federal government must do more to help impacted communities.
In a news conference on Sept. 10, DeWine said that “dramatic surges” in illegal immigrants “impact every citizen of the community,” adding that the small Ohio cities of Lima and Findlay also have had influxes.
“The federal government simply has to be part of the solution,” the governor said. “They have to step up. It’s their policies that have created these surges.”
He said the influx affects “moms who have to wait hours in a waiting room with a sick child, everyone who drives on the streets, and it affects children who go to school in more-crowded classrooms.”
On Sept. 11, the Ohio State Highway Patrol is being dispatched to help local police with traffic issues in Springfield.
City officials and social media posts have indicated that Haitian drivers are frequently involved in accidents and crashes, the governor said.
“The goal, of course, is to reduce dangerous driving regardless of who the driver is,” he said.
DeWine said he is also earmarking $2.5 million over two years for more primary health care through the county health department and private health care institutions.
Controversy over migrants in Springfield erupted earlier this month after some social media users said that Haitian immigrants were eating people’s pets, as well as ducks from a park.
4- We always warn about polling. Look for trends. This poll result does seem to be the overall trend post debate.
Post-Debate Poll: Donald Trump Opens Up Clear Lead Across Battleground States
QUOTE: Donald Trump received a two-point bump in battleground state polling after Tuesday’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, a Tony Fabrizio poll released Thursday shows.
The polling memo obtained by Breitbart News shows Trump leading Harris by three points, 50%-47%, in a head-to-head ballot.
According to the memo:
Despite the best efforts of Kamala Harris and media to portray the debate as some kind of overwhelming victory for her, voters did not see it this way as support for her remained flat. That only change we saw was a 2-point bump for President Trump in both ballot configurations.
The surveys were conducted across seven target states.
5- Another trend to keep an eye on is where the Harris campaign is spending time and money.
Democrats Not Spending in Florida, Surrender State to Republicans
QUOTE: Democrat campaigners have all but abandoned Florida, spending very little money on advertising Vice President Kamala Harris in the nation’s largest swing state, where polls show a significant advantage for former President Donald Trump.
NBC’s Matt Dixon referred to this phenomenon “as the first time in recent political memory” that Democrats have “left Florida as a comparative afterthought.”
With the obvious lack of financial support from Democrats at a national level, some state party operatives have voiced concerns about not having “real investment.”
Various recent polls have indicated that Trump is maintaining a strong lead over Harris in the state, including a McLaughlin & Associates survey conducted August 6-8 among 800 voters that showed the former president with an eight-point advantage over his Democrat opponent.
6- Wait! What! You mean Kamala was just…pretending to be a Presidential nominee in the debate? She was acting a part?
Tulsi Gabbard: Kamala Harris Took ‘Acting Lessons’ with ‘Hollywood Advisors’ Before ABC Debate
QUOTE: The Kabuki-worthy facial expressions modeled by Kamala Harris during Tuesday’s presidential debate had many viewers alternately perplexed and rolling in the aisles as the Democratic nominee sought to steal ABC News’ split screen from former President Donald Trump.
Now former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has revealed Kamala Harris received acting lessons ahead of the debate and was coached by Hollywood advisers. Kamala’s goal? To “act her way through this election,” she said.
“That’s why she has locked herself in a hotel room, taking extreme acting lessons,” Gabbard said in a Fox News interview just ahead of Tuesday’s debate.
“She’s got Hollywood advisers, stages, the Hollywood lights in the hopes that her friends in ABC and propaganda media declare her the winner. And that may be enough to trick the voters to vote for her. But I don’t think American people are going to fall for this.”
7- It is so rare to see the leftist/corporate/fake news do actual journalism that we had to share it!
What's Going on With CNN? Jake Tapper Rips Into Kamala Harris' Debate Performance
QUOTE: What's going on with CNN lately? We saw CNN's Erin Burnett highlight Andrew Kaczynski's deep dive on some of the bad, far-left things that Kamala Harris said she was for in that 2019 ACLU questionnaire, including paying for gender transition surgeries for detained illegal aliens.
That's exactly what journalists should be doing when she's flip-flopping all over the place and you can't figure out what her current positions are, especially when it's critical to such an important election for the American people.
Now, in another surprising moment, Jake Tapper has also committed some journalism. He explained Harris was avoiding questions during the debate. She began by "punting" the first question about the economy, Tapper said.
When she was asked if Americans were better off, she went into a riff about how she was raised as a "middle-class kid" and she claimed she was the only one on the stage who had a plan that was about lifting up the middle class. So what was it? She wouldn't say. You mean like Joe Biden was always talking about lifting up the middle class while crushing them with the inflation and the border influx?
"It went on from there," Tapper scolded.
"Despite the economy being the number one issue facing the country," Tapper said, Harris "generally reverted to talking points about a few of her policy proposals. Even Harris allies today are saying that she needs to talk more about what she will do for Americans, if elected."
"On the border, she also dodged," he declared.
Moderator David Muir asked what she would do differently than Joe Biden about the border. She just pulled out a canned answer, saying she was the only one who prosecuted transnational criminals.
"Ok," Tapper said skeptically. "That wasn't the question."
Tapper also brought up her answer on the Israel-Hamas question. Her response was that she would continue to work "around the clock" for a ceasefire deal that would get the hostages out.
"Again, how?" Tapper asked.
Tapper was one of the moderators in the first debate where Joe Biden imploded. CNN's debate was fair, certainly more so compared to the biased mess of the ABC debate. But as we wrote, even ABC reporters said Harris didn't answer what she needed to, and as we reported, independent voters weren't satisfied.
So what's going on with this reporting from CNN? Some of them do seem like they have issues with Harris. Everyone should, but it's so rare to see mainstream media honestly reporting like this. Unfortunately, they usually just fall back into being the defense team for the Democrats.
8- We have not had much from Salena Zito lately so we are sharing her wonderful reporting on her speciality, the state of Pennsylvania.
Side Note: we just love the odd and interesting differences of places in America!
Access to the Oval Office runs through a Dinor
QUOTE: A favorite of my family on trips to Lake Erie was a backroad visit to Betty’s Dinor. Yes, it was spelled “dinor.” Here in northwestern Pennsylvania, diners are almost always spelled “dinor.” Why? Well, no one knows exactly why. The Erie Times speculated several years ago it might be a unique translation of “diner” or an advertising ploy to lure passersby.
Either way, it is a very, very Erie County thing, sort of like ox roast and pepperoni balls, that caught on generations ago and remained a local point of pride despite chiding from outsiders for spelling it wrong.
If you had to place in a nutshell the challenge for visiting reporters, analysts, pollsters, and strategists on both sides of the aisle, the spelling of “dinor,” or even frequenting one on a regular basis, is the baseline where almost all of them either don’t get who they are covering or how to earn their vote.
That is because they rarely know anyone from Erie. They rarely know what an Erie resident’s life experience has been or how many times those residents have seen a family member or a friend move away because of lack of opportunity.
They certainly don’t know that the city of Erie is the home of 17 miles of beautiful beaches, trails, and hiking, nor do they know that Erie is the home of the largest refugee population in the state and ninth in the country, most migrating and assimilating here from Kenya, Bosnia, the Congo, and Iraq, comprising roughly 20% of the city’s population.
The media also missed that this is an important wine county. Yes, wine. And other kinds of farming as well, and Erie was once a booming port city for industry that has slowly, painfully slipped away.
But when reporters come here many of those stories are missed. The people are misunderstood. Their connection to place is mischaracterized as unwilling to let go of the past, including by continuing to use the word “dinor” long after anyone knows why it was used.
Erie is one of 57 counties nationwide that voted for Donald Trump narrowly in the 2016 presidential election but Joe Biden narrowly in 2020. It is also one of only 25 counties that voted for Barack Obama twice, handily, then voted for Trump in 2016.
As I have written dozens of times before, it is not just the most important county in Pennsylvania in terms of election results in November; it is the most important county in the country.
Located just a short drive — in the Appalachian midwest, a short drive is just around two hours — from Pittsburgh, the county is breathtaking, but the city is struggling. Sadly, it is the poorest ZIP code in the state, but the people and the traditions are worth listening to.
They might give you some sponge candy, if you are wise to enjoy it, and they may also take you to a dinor, not because it is a novelty but because the food is good and the people are equally wonderful. And you might learn why it is not the people who run the media or corporations or academia or government who will decide who the next president will be but instead the people who live here who hold the keys to the White House.
9- Continue to avoid all things Disney, which, of course, owns dastardly ABC News.
Desperate Disney Offers 80% off Faltering Streaming Service
QUOTE: The Disney Grooming Syndicate is so desperate to attract new subscribers to its Disney+ streaming service (a service that sexualizes four-year-olds) that the price has been slashed to just $1.99 a month.
“The streaming service will offer new and returning subscribers three months of the ad tier for $1.99 per month,” reports the far-left Hollywood Reporter. That’s 80 percent off the usual $9.99 per month charge for that same tier. The offer is available for a couple of weeks and is all geared toward boosting Disney’s fourth-quarter subscriber numbers.
Of course, there’s a catch. The $1.99 offer expires after three months. Then, you will be lucky only to be charged the current price of $9.99 per month because Disney+ prices are expected to increase in October.
On top of its faltering streaming service, Disney is also dealing with a potentially devastating dispute with DirecTV. The pay-TV company no longer offers Disney networks (ABC, ESPN, NatGEO, Disney Channel, A&E, etc.) to its 11 million subscribers and has filed an FCC complaint that could have huge ramifications.
Disney is currently losing the monthly carriage fees on those 11 million DirecTV subscribers, which probably amounts to a hundred million dollars or so monthly loss. If DirecTV prevails, the whole thing comes crashing down.
10- This is about the best video we saw all week. And that is taking into consideration the one with Biden wearing a Trump hat!
You know the joke: Two presidents walk into a room of hardworking, middle class firefighters…..what happens?
Yes, it's real!
PRAY for the divine intervention to open the hearts and minds of all voters.
PRAY for our dear children everywhere.
PRAY for all of our brave warriors.
SHARE the truth with those in your orbit.
Only $5 / Month …. For Acccess To Every Article in DTR Newsletters
Hold Fast,
Defending The Republic
Read the five part series truthfully explaining the unprecedented lawfare used by the left to remove Sidney Powell’s right to free speech.
This will be permanently available for all at Defending The Republic.