THE DEBATE RATINGS ARE IN While the ratings for Trump’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris represent a massive increase over the 51 million who tuned in for June’s Joe Biden-Trump face-off, the numbers are still much lower than some of the peak debate showdowns in recent political history. [HuffPost]
TRUMP CALLS FOR PUNISHING ABC NEWS OVER THE DEBATE Trump said ABC News should face repercussions because of how the two moderators behaved in his televised showdown against Harris. [HuffPost]
A NONPROFIT JUST FLOUTED IRS RULES TO TAKE A SIDE IN THE ELECTION A fringe property rights organization has become increasingly brazen in flouting its tax-exempt nonprofit status, openly opposing Harris and attacking her as a “Marxist” and a socialist, HuffPost’s Chris D’Angelo reports. [HuffPost]
LAURA LOOMER, WHO PROMOTED 9/11 CONSPIRACY THEORY, JOINS TRUMP FOR EVENTS MARKING THE ATTACKS Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist who posted last year that 9/11 was an “inside job,” joined Trump in events commemorating the anniversary of the attacks. [AP]
TRUMP’S CONFUSING DEBATE COMMENT ABOUT ‘ABDUL’ HAS A STRANGE BACKSTORY The former president has a story about threatening a Taliban leader — and it’s changed over the years. [HuffPost]
REPUBLICANS DIDN’T LOVE TRUMP’S DEBATE FLOP, BUT THEY’RE NOT FREAKING OUT — YET Having seen the former president lose debates in the past without sinking his electoral hopes, leading GOP figures are mostly in “grin and bear it” mode, trying to take comfort in Donald Trump’s still-existing advantages on immigration and economic issues. [HuffPost]
THE 2024 ELECTION IS ALL ABOUT CATS Politics can often be a dog-eat-dog world, but cats have become the purrfect avatar for this election cycle’s discourse on gender, immigration and absurdity. [HuffPost]
BEREAVED FATHER SLAMS TRUMP, VANCE The father of an 11-year-old Ohio boy killed last year in a bus crash involving a Haitian immigrant driver called on Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, to stop using his son’s name “as a political tool” to fuel racist attacks. [HuffPost]
