Hot dish 09.11.24

By Ryan Faircloth

How about that debate? The primetime showdown between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris delivered plenty of standout moments. Harris needled Trump throughout the night with taunts and one-liners, goading him to go off script and lose his cool. She reminded him how he lost the 2020 election, which he still denies, laid the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade at his feet, and told him that world leaders laugh at him.

‘’Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people,” Harris said. “So let’s be clear about that. And clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that.”

Trump labeled Harris as too liberal and questioned why she hadn’t acted on her policy proposals while serving as vice president for the past three and a half years. He said she has failed to address illegal immigration at the southern border and abandoned her more liberal positions in order to get elected.

“She’s going to my philosophy now. In fact, I was going to send her a MAGA hat,” Trump said.

Trump launched into some puzzling tirades at times. As he railed against illegal immigration, he claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating people’s pets. The debate moderators interjected to note that local officials have found no evidence to support that claim.

“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country,” Trump said.

Harris laughed in disbelief and quipped back: “Talk about extreme,” she said.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, told ABC News after the debate that Trump was “unhinged” and “reminds you of an old man yelling at the clouds.”

We’re following up with some of our voter panelists on what they thought about the debate, check startribune.com this afternoon.

SWIFT: After the debate ended, music industry megastar Taylor Swift gave her long-awaited endorsement to the Harris-Walz campaign.

‘’I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,’’ Swift said of Harris in an Instagram post.

Swift also had praise for Walz: “I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”

She signed her post as “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady,” in a dig at Trump’s running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance, who’s said women without children don’t have as much of a stake in the country’s future.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow broke the news of Swift’s endorsement to Walz during a live interview.

“I am incredibly grateful, first of all, to Taylor Swift. I say that also as a cat owner,” Walz told Maddow. “That was eloquent and it was clear, and that’s the type of courage we need in America to stand up.”

“This will be the opportunity, Swifties,” Walz said. “KamalaHarris.com, get on over there, give us a hand, get things going.”

NEW HIRE: The Harris-Walz campaign has made a new hire in Minnesota. Kendall Witmer will be the campaign’s senior communications advisor in Minnesota. Witmer previously served as communications director for Walz’s 2022 re-election campaign. She also once served as New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s communications director, and was the deputy research director for Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s 2020 presidential campaign.

NEIGHBORS: My colleague Elliot Hughes has a story about Walz’s neighborhood and what it’s like to live near a vice presidential candidate. With added security, the neighborhood has actually grown quieter since Walz was elevated to the presidential ticket, neighbors said.

“It’s kind of nice,” said Jim Sander, who lives within a block of the Eastcliff mansion, where Walz and his family are staying while the governor’s residence undergoes renovations. “It’s neat. It added a little something to the neighborhood.”

EVENT WATCH: Former Minnesota GOP Attorney General candidate Jim Schultz will testify before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday during a hearing about “The Consequences of Soft-On-Crime Policies.”

Schultz, who’s now president of the Minnesota Private Business Council, will fault Walz for his response to the Minneapolis riots in 2020 and subsequent increases in crime, according to a news release that shared excerpts of his prepared testimony.

“Under Tim Walz, the streets of Minneapolis went from a place to walk your dog to a place to dodge gunfire,” read one excerpt of Schultz’s prepared remarks.

WHERE’S WALZ: Walz will attend an event in Minnesota on Wednesday recognizing the anniversary of 9/11. He’ll also interview candidates for four judicial vacancies.

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