The Stream

The Brew: Handshakes and Trump Hats Make for a Strange Couple of Days

By Al Perrotta Published on September 12, 2024 •

Al Perrotta

Happy Thursday!

Yeah, we’ve got to gulp down a bit more of Tuesday night’s presidential debate. Plus, I liked the picture of the candidates’ handshake.

But first, today’s Brew starts with a spit take.

This Is Real: Biden Wears MAGA Hat

As part of his “doing 9/11” yesterday, Joe Biden swung by a fire station and was handed a hat. He gladly put it on. It was a MAGA hat, a Trump 2024 ball cap.

Surely, you say, this is photoshopped or AI generated.

Let’s go to the tape.

Yesterday was an odd day for election 2024, thanks to the 9/11 commemorations. It started with Donald Trump giving Kamala Harris a handshake and a smile like she was about to drop $10 million on a two-bedroom unit in Trump Tower.

And it ended with Joe Biden in a Trump hat.

Debate: Yes, Kamala, Our Troops Are In Harm’s Way

The Federalist drew up a list of 25 lies Kamala Harris told at Tuesday night’s debate.

A couple bear additional mention. When asked what restrictions she would have on abortion, she gave the dodgy answer that she “absolutely support[s] reinstating the protections of Roe v Wade.” Except that, as The Federalist points out, Harris had just finished saying she supported the so-called “Women’s Health Protection Act,” which would codify abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.

Harris also pulled a Biden when it comes to our troops. Where Biden in his debate against Trump falsely claimed no troops had been killed under his watch, Harris took that even further, claiming that “there is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world [for] the first time this century.”

Tell that to the Marines, as the saying goes.

Right now, we have troops in Iraq and Syria routinely under attack from Iran-backed militias. Our Navy ships face barrages from Houthi rebels and have been actively engaged in defending Israel from Iranian missiles. U.S. special forces have been assisting Israel in Gaza. In fact, who was it that built that ill-fated pier in Gaza for humanitarian aid to be delivered? Because it sure wasn’t Chip and Joanna Gaines. And it’s cute of Harris to use the phrase “active duty.” Does she include our military advisors helping with weaponry and logistics in Ukraine when she thinks of “active duty”?

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And then there are guns.

Harris denied having any interest in taking anyone’s guns. Yet, in 2019, she told the very same David Muir who “moderated” the debate that she would use executive orders to seize people’s guns.

The fact that Muir did not have the honesty, professional integrity, or even the curiosity to say, “Wait a sec, a couple of years ago you told me the exact opposite. And laughed at me when I questioned the constitutionality of that idea.”

The extent to which Muir and Linsey Davis, as well as their ABC News bosses, went to fix the debate for Harris is exemplified in this amazing two-minute sequence from it.

Reuters: Undecideds Head Toward Trump After Debate

The media is running with the Harris-tromped-Trump narrative. But is it true? What did undecided voters think?

Reuters asked ten undecided voters their thoughts after the debate. Six said they were now either voting for or leaning toward Trump. Three said they were voting for or leaning toward Harris. It’s not exactly a victory for Harris if twice as many undecideds head Trump’s way. Of course, 10 people is not a large sample. But it does signal that real people may have seen the debate differently than the political and media classes did.

An interesting poll from the Democracy Institute published by Daily Express U.S. indicates 45% believed Trump won the debate, 34% believed Harris won, and 21% thought it was a draw.

The New York Times had a similar finding, with undecideds seeing it differently than the pundits. Many were simply underwhelmed by Harris, given the damage done to the economy and the border during her tenure. (The New York Times story is behind a paywall, but The Blaze has the details.)

CNN asked voters before and after the debate which candidate they thought would be better for the economy. If Harris really was the big winner, wouldn’t she have gained support? But rather, she lost ground.

Before the debate: Trump was ahead 53% to 37%. After the debate: Trump ahead 55% to 35%.

Why U.S. Scuttled Early Peace Deal in Ukraine

Question: What if the Russia-Ukraine war could have been brought to a quick close within months of starting, saving hundreds of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of our tax dollars?

What if I told you that Russia and Ukraine had a deal worked out in April 2022, but the Biden-Harris administration helped scuttle it? Longtime diplomat and war hawk Victoria Nuland admitted in a new interview with exiled Russian journalist Mikhail Zighar that the U.S. played a role in torpedoing the long-rumored plan.

Basically, according to Nuland, the U.S. didn’t like the fact that the deal did not include Russia cutting back on its military. “Russia wasn’t required to pull back,” she said. “Russia wasn’t required to have a buffer zone from the Ukrainian border, wasn’t required to have the same constraints on its military facing Ukraine.”

Emphasis from Zero Hedge zeroes in on what the Biden-Harris administration was really aiming at.

This constitutes significant confirmation that ultimately the US’s prime concern was not for the Ukrainian people, or for achieving peace any way possible. Instead, Washington and NATO’s ultimate goal was to ensure a weakened Russia. What Nuland is essentially saying is that if a deal didn’t ensure a weakened or limited Russian military, then they were willing to crumple it up and go home, while watching Ukraine go up in flames, which is sadly exactly what has happened.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced he’s tossing another $700 million of your tax dollars to Ukraine. They’re calling it “humanitarian aid” to help fortify Ukraine’s electricity grid before winter.

Cool Moment for Humanity: We Have the Most People in Orbit at One Time in History

Congrats, earthlings. You’ve just set a new world record. Or a new out-of-this-world record, to be more accurate. There are now 19 people currently in orbit above the earth, between the International Space Station, a Russian craft heading there, the Tiangong Space Station, and Elon Musk’s Dragon Resilience, free-flying Polaris Dawn mission.

That’s 19 people in space. Good. When do we send the lawyers and debate moderators to join them?

Along The Stream

Dr. Michael Brown’s latest is up: “Never Forget: Our Most Powerful Weapons Are Spiritual.”

Shane Idleman is back with “Is 2024 The Great Reset of the Church?”

 

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.

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