◼ Donald Trump didn’t have a great debate against Joe Biden, but it didn’t matter. He had a poor debate against Kamala Harris; will it matter? Trump’s lack of self-control was on full display as he took all bait offered, from letting Harris get his goat with taunts about people leaving his rallies to digging his heels in excusing January 6 rioters. But then, few minds were likely to be changed about Trump. While Trump may regret failing to define her, Harris did herself no favors by failing entirely to separate herself from Biden’s record even when both Trump and the moderators pressed her to do so. For their part, ABC’s moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, further discredited the notion that the networks can be trusted to be evenhanded. Muir and Davis repeatedly fact-checked Trump—even, sometimes, when he was right—while never doing so to Harris. It is not clear whether there will be another debate. Given the late entry of Harris into the race, voters deserve one, however unpleasant it would be to watch.

◼ While attempting to defend the Biden-Harris Afghanistan withdrawal disaster, Harris told the American people that “as of today, 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, the first time this century.” It’s possible that no one has told the vice president that American naval forces are fighting an intense, ongoing shooting war against the Iranian-backed Houthis in the Red Sea, and have been for almost a year; that Iranian-backed militants killed three American soldiers this January in Jordan; that Americans coordinated a huge operation to shoot down hundreds of Iranian rockets and drones targeting Israel in April; and that hundreds of Americans are deployed to Syria and Iraq fighting ISIS and other Islamist groups. What’s more likely is that Harris doesn’t think that Americans will be much bothered by her intentional obfuscation on matters of war and peace in pursuit of a debating point.

◼ “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.” This remarkable and crazy-sounding accusation made by Trump at the debate thrust a story percolating online about the travails of the town of Springfield, Ohio, into the national media spotlight. Trump went way beyond any verified facts, but it’s true that over the last few years of the Biden administration, nearly 20,000 immigrants from Haiti have moved to Springfield, a small town of 60,000, drawn there at first by the prospect of factory work and now by the presence of an enormous Haitian community. That’s a real issue, even if Trump is exploiting it with typical (and self-defeating) carelessness.

◼ Kamala Harris circulated a post with a girlhood memory—of visiting her grandparents in India. Laura Loomer commented above it. Loomer is a right-wing “influencer” who is part of Donald Trump’s entourage. She flew with him to the debate against Harris in Philadelphia. The next day, she flew with him to New York and Pennsylvania for 9/11 commemorations. The thing is: She has promoted the conspiracy theory that 9/11 was “an inside job.” Above Harris’s India post, Loomer wrote, “If Kamala Harris wins, the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center,” etc. Conservatives are accustomed to false accusations of racism, bigotry, and kookery. That does not mean that all such accusations are false.

◼ J. D. Vance is in a tricky spot. His current role as the GOP vice-presidential nominee came conditional on his willingness to go along with the lie about the 2020 election. But he knows the vice president had no power to change its results on January 6, 2021. So he has been workshopping his position for three years. It still makes no sense. At a live event for the All-In Podcast, Vance said that Mike Pence wasn’t really asked to overturn the 2020 election (he really was, several times) and that, had he been vice president, he would have “asked the states to submit alternative slates of electors” so the country could have a “rational conversation” about the election. The vice president has no such power, and whatever would have followed an attempt to exercise such power would not have been rational. Vance said Pence doesn’t really oppose Trump because of January 6, and “if Donald Trump wanted to start a nuclear war with Russia, Mike Pence would be at the front of the line endorsing him right now.” Even the compromised position Vance has chosen to operate in does not require him to say that; perhaps it’s the tell of a guilty conscience.

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◼ Judge Juan Merchan postponed Trump’s sentencing until after the election. Legally, it was the right call—even Trump’s tormentor, Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, declined to oppose Trump’s motion for a delay. But Merchan’s reasoning was bogus: The same judge who had scheduled sentencing for September 18—two days after early voting begins in Pennsylvania—suddenly claimed that date was too close to the election. Left unmentioned was the fact that Merchan, a cat’s-paw for Bragg throughout the proceedings, had allowed prosecutors to introduce evidence of Trump’s official acts as president—evidence that Bragg didn’t need to prove the case and that the Supreme Court had signaled it would hold immune and inadmissible. When the justices issued their immunity ruling a month after the Manhattan trial, Trump immediately moved to vacate the guilty verdicts; because immunity issues are supposed to be resolved before other proceedings in a case ensue, an appeal is certain once Merchan rules on (and surely against) Trump’s motion. Hence the unavoidable sentencing postponement.

◼ Democrats wanted to raise $200 billion of revenue over ten years from their $80 billion expansion of the IRS. Earlier in the legislative process, the White House was hoping for $400 billion. A Treasury analysis from May 2021 determined that $700 billion was possible. A Treasury analysis from this year of what actually passed thought that, if expanded and implemented better, $851 billion was doable. Back during the Build Back Better debate, some congressional Democrats thought they could get $1 trillion. Two years after the so-called Inflation Reduction Act gave the IRS the $80 billion, the Treasury announced with great satisfaction that by targeting wealthy taxpayers it has so far recovered a little over $1 billion in unpaid taxes. Only $199 billion–$999 billion to go!

◼ The chief petty officers aboard the USS Manchester (LCS-14) were caught illicitly placing and using a Starlink satellite-internet antenna while the ship was under way. The conspiracy, involving all senior enlisted sailors attached to the littoral combat ship, came to light after months of use, when a civilian contractor came aboard and stumbled upon the bootleg setup. The ship’s command senior chief and ringleader of the operation was convicted at court-martial and reduced in rank from E-8 to E-7: an outrageously light penalty considering her repeated lies to her commanding officer, her background in Navy IT that ensures she was absolutely aware of her transgression, and the cover-up campaign that involved the intimidation and silencing of those below her. This betrayal of the ship’s whereabouts in service to movie-streaming, texting, and other forms of personal entertainment is especially egregious because of the role that chiefs have in preserving good order and discipline among the ranks while upholding Navy traditions. A bad chief is the ruin of a ship and its crew, and the legal equivalent of keelhauling the only correct recourse.

◼ For years, New York governor Kathy Hochul (D.) failed to recognize that she was being manipulated by an aide who took directions from the Chinese consulate general in New York City. After the federal government brought charges against the former aide, Linda Sun, last week, Hochul did one thing right: She called on the State Department to expel China’s consul general, Huang Ping, from the U.S. After a few vague comments from State, the dust settled. It now appears that Huang is expected to return to China shortly, but only because his term in this post wrapped up, State and the Chinese claim. But he should have faced expulsion. Court filings by the Justice Department indicate that Huang personally coordinated Sun’s activities and, through her, got Hochul and former governor Andrew Cuomo to back Beijing on a number of issues. In 2023, the diplomatic office was also named in the indictment of individuals who set up an illegal Chinese-government police station in Manhattan and in the case of a Massachusetts man who harassed pro-democracy advocates. State Department officials twiddled their thumbs as their colleagues at Justice moved to protect Americans facing Communist China’s repression. Once again, Foggy Bottom has met our low expectations.

◼ One of the outstanding voices of our age did not speak at all, for a time. James Earl Jones was born in Mississippi in 1931. Abandoned first by his father and then by his mother, he was raised by his grandparents on a Michigan farm. He stammered and stuttered for a while and then went mute altogether. As an actor, he would become one of the most famous of voices. He was the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars series, and of Mufasa in The Lion King. He acted onstage and on-screen in a huge range of roles, from Shakespeare on down. He was a man of grace: When confused with James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., he was understanding and forgiving. The great James Earl Jones has died at 93. R.I.P.