Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

T R E 4 5 O N

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

When we show up, we win.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

All hail the time of the bunny!

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

You are here: Home / Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Biden Townhall Live

Biden Townhall Live

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A little late, but you can stream it live here: NBCNews Now    It’s a free stream. I double-checked you can rewind to the beginning.

Open thread

Reader Interactions

204Comments

  1. 1.

    lamh36

    I saw NBC say it’s all “undecided” voters at this townhall.

    IMHO there are no true “undecided” voters at this point. Only folks who are looking for excuses to vote for Chump over Biden…I mean the choice is so clear.

    I think, anyone who claims to still be undecided less than 30 days til an election is just doing it for attention.

  3. 3.

    Elizabelle

    @lamh36:   Also people who want their moment at the mike, at the event, in the sun.

    Re current questioner:  some of the earliest deaths were flight attendants.  Within the first months … and maybe earlier than we know.

  4. 4.

    aliasofwestgate

    He’s been batting away gotcha questions about Lord Dampnut’s present conditions.

  5. 5.

    MisterForkbeard

    @lamh36: I do think there’s some people who were originally planning on voting for Trump but are now looking longingly at Biden – partially because Trump is such a shitstain, but also because people want to vote for winners – and Biden is looking like the heavy favorite.

  6. 6.

    Elizabelle

    @lamh36:   Good luck to you with the new job.  You are the kid in the first week of school.  You’ll do fine.  It is exhausting, though, learning and adjusting to all the new.

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    undecided voters do not impress me with their thoughtfulness and general awareness of political reality

     

    oh, here comes Lester with some Concern about civility

  8. 8.

    MisterForkbeard

    @aliasofwestgate: Good for him. The most I would say is “I wish him well, and I hope he’s listening to his medical staff and following CDC guidelines on isolation and masking.”

  10. 10.

    Elizabelle

    Biden is doing great.  No worries about his temperament.

    Why do we need to pretend that Trump was ever up to the job?

  11. 11.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @lamh36:

    After the unprecedented incompetence, corruption, and cruelty of Trump’s administration I question the sanity of any person who claims to be undecided at this late date.

  13. 13.

    jl

    From what I’ve seen, Biden doing great job. Some might say ‘low bar’, but he is far exceeding that.

  14. 14.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    he’s handling the police question well

    after all this time, that silly slogan winds up being something he can swat away

  15. 15.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m not able to watch this in real time, but again – I hope the answer is something like “It’s important for civil discussion to take place. And unfortunately, that can break down when one participant keeps breaking the rules. At a certain point, you can’t just have one person following an agreement and the other person is just doing whatever they want. I’d like to note that I’ve pulled negative ads against my opponent, while he decidedly has not.”

  16. 16.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: Let me try again.  “Lester, please, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, could you go fuck yourself?”

  17. 17.

    hueyplong

    Many of the kids in cages were much too young to use four syllable words like “civility, ” Lester, you fuck.

  18. 18.

    Elizabelle

    Headline from the Richmond Times Dispatch, this a paper whose egregious editorial page endorses 90% of GOP candidates.  (Trump was too far a bridge for them; they were delirious with how frisky they were being with endorsing Gary Johnson.  Fuck ’em.)

    President Trump, still infectious, leaves hospital and enters White House without mask

  19. 19.

    johnnybuck

    I like Joe’s unvarnished style. country need a little Harry Truman right now. It’s comforting.

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    I think Biden is doing great, not scaring non-insane Republicans, and probably increasing his vote share tonight.

    He gets it.  He can discuss issues coherently and realistically.

    Now talking about a dog whistle out there.

    Republicans:  do you want to be on the side of the Tiki torch bearers in Charlottesville, or do you want into the lifeboat?

  24. 24.

    Baud

    I’m not impressed with a person who’s concerned about white supremacy and is an undecided voter.

  28. 28.

    jl

    Great push back against Holt’s responsible journalistic probing on policing and race,  or desperate and transparent bothsiding one of the most inexcusable sides of Trump, depending no your viewpoint.

    I don’t understand how there could be any undecided voters. After Trump bullhorned his support for racism, vote suppression through vigilantism, and said he wouldn’t accept the result of a democratic election, that should be three strikes for anybody.

  29. 29.

    Nicole

    Ugh. Lester Holt: “You’ve been in government for 47 years, Mr. Vice President, WHY HAVEN’T YOU CURED RACISM? HUH?  HUH?”

  33. 33.

    Keith P.

    @lamh36: A “town hall for undecided 2020 voters” sounds like a group-wide intervention scam – gets a bunch of them together in the same room before asking them how on earth can they be undecided about this election.

  34. 34.

    jl

    @Nicole: I think that was less than a minute after Biden said hate couldn’t be destroyed completely, there is no permanent ‘cure.  Biden did a good job of explaining it further to Holt.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud:   It’s NBC, Jake.

    Seriously.  NBC sucks.  I like Lester Holt, but that network hid Matt Lauer for years.  Something is really wrong in the corporate culture. Emphasis on “corporate.”

  43. 43.

    Nicole

    @jl: Right?  Holt’s bringing up the “47 years in government” made me see red because it’s an attack point taken directly from Trump on Tuesday.  FUCK YOU HOLT; STOP CARRYING THEIR WATER FOR THEM.

  45. 45.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: Biden did call Trump a clown, didn’t he?  That wasn’t very civil and how can Biden meet with foreign leaders if he is mean?

  46. 46.

    clay

    Very good answer on opening classrooms. As a teacher, I’m impressed, and I wish we were doing that.

  47. 47.

    Kay

    @jl:

    I don’t understand how there could be any undecided voters.

    Let’s just call them “indecisive voters”. Come on. These people are ninnies.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    Good simple answer on Roe.

    ETA: I also don’t respect people who care about Roe and are undecided.

  50. 50.

    Nicole

    @dmsilev: Yes!  It’s infuriating.  It’s a stupid attack, too.  Biden’s been in government almost as long as I’ve been alive, and I can assure Mr. Holt, US society is a lot different than it was when I was a wee bairn.  I can, for example, have a credit card in my own name now.  Good government has accomplished a lot in 47 years.

  54. 54.

    Gin & Tonic

    Open thread? Things are really heating up post-election in Kyrgyzstan. Protesters appear to have taken over the Parliament building in Bishkek.

  55. 55.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost breaking news: Supreme Court sides with S.C. Republicans, orders reinstatement of witness requirement for mail-in ballots

    The Supreme Court Monday night agreed with South Carolina Republicans and reinstated a requirement that mail-in ballots have a witness’s signature, something federal courts had said was not needed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

    The court made one concession, saying those ballots already sent in without a witness should be counted. Tens of thousands of ballots have been sent to voters across the state.

    The court’s brief order did not list any objecting justices. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch said they would have granted the request in full, without making exceptions for the ballots already cast.

    Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said the “state legislature’s decision either to keep or to make changes to election rules to address covid-19 — 19” should not be subject to second-guessing by the judiciary, reflecting an earlier decision by the court regarding restrictions on worship services.

  57. 57.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Nicole: I can, for example, have a credit card in my own name now.

    You did ask your husband or father for permission before you did so, right?

  61. 61.

    germy

    @Elizabelle:  NBC sucks.  I like Lester Holt, but that network hid Matt Lauer for years.  Something is really wrong in the corporate culture. Emphasis on “corporate.”

    Something’s rotten there:

    This morning @MeetThePress gave Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller a platform for 10 minutes

    NO DEMOCRAT was allowed on the show afterward to counter him

    I’m told a senior Democrat was booked—but Meet the Press canceled them AT THE LAST MINUTE

    This is open Republican bias pic.twitter.com/eXRf0mb67P

    — Matt Negrin, HOST OF HARDBALL AT 7PM ON MSNBC (@MattNegrin) October 4, 2020

  66. 66.

    JMG

    Comcast Corp., which owns NBC, is controlled by very right-wing owners (controlling stockholders). They are deathly afraid of actual anti-trust enforcement and of a la carte cable bills, proposed by that noted Spartacist John McCain, in which the consumers would choose which individual channels they’d pay for, not bundles. Cut company revenue by a third right off the top. Be the end of cable news, too. A total win-win.

  67. 67.

    jl

    @germy: Biden is very sharp tonight, and Holt is unusually lame in his trolling. So far Holt is just giving Biden chances to shine and very effectively reinforce and explain his points.

    Edit: to be fair to Holt, Trump makes effective bothsiding hard.

  68. 68.

    Elizabelle

    This guy looks like a rightwing radio host.

    Biden points out he ran against a socialist and won.

  70. 70.

    Nicole

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    You did ask your husband or father for permission before you did so, right?

    Of course.  They were glad to do so; it meant they could stop handing me their card and telling me to go buy myself something pretty.

  71. 71.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    ActBlue is racing toward $7 billion. I’m going to watch that instead of stupid people asking patient Uncle Joe stupid questions, because it’s kind of soothing and exciting at the same time and doesn’t raise my blood pressure.

  72. 72.

    germy

    @jl:  Holt’s job is to repeat republican talking points, but his heart doesn’t seem to be in it.

    He doesn’t display the mad glee that Matt Lauer did during the HRC town hall.

  77. 77.

    jl

    @Baud: Biden’s answer on yougins versus old farts was great, great ending.

    Still an opening for middle ground. A Baud proposal for free super strong hefty bags and a handy-dandy trash picker for the kids to lift themselves up by their bootstraps would be a nice compromise between callous Trumpism, and Stalinist Bidenism.

  79. 79.

    TS (the original)

    @Nicole:

    And I can now go on my property deeds as myself – not as “wife of …”

    That was a long time coming where I live.

  83. 83.

    Elizabelle

    @TS (the original):  Why should South Carolina voters bear a burden that Virginia voters need not share?

    I hope some sharp lawyers fight back again on that demented ruling.

    Fuck Thomas, Alito, whoever else voted for that travesty.

    This comes down to John Roberts, though.  He abetted gutting the Voting Rights Act.  21st Century Roger B. Taney.

  84. 84.

    TS (the original)

    @Baud:

    Yea – should have left out the gerrymander for state wide event. I’m just so used to using it in conjunction with voter suppression/court rulings

    But then again …. Senate elections are in the main, a country wide gerrymander.

  86. 86.

    Kay

    Nate Silver
    @NateSilver538
    ·1h
    While we’ve all been focusing on the presidency, the Senate has moved out of toss-up range and Democrats are now nearly 2:1 favorites. A long way from a sure thing, but trending poorly for the GOP.

  87. 87.

    PsiFighter37

    @Elizabelle: Anything to save Lady G’s seat. I am convinced, after watching clips from that debate, that Jaime Harrison is gonna pull it off and shock everyone. I think some of those Lincoln Project ads have really done damage as well, particularly that one about parasites.

  89. 89.

    Nicole

    @TS (the original):

    That was a long time coming where I live.

    I think perhaps straight men have less perspective than other groups about where we are now vs 47 years ago.  And have a shit ton less to lose if we go backwards.

    (Yeah, yeah #notallstraightmen don’t @ me.)

  91. 91.

    zhena gogolia

    @Elizabelle:

    Yeah, I saw a few seconds on Tom Nichols’s feed and I take back what I said about Trump not really having it. He’s a sick man. (physically this time)

  93. 93.

    WaterGirl

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:

    OT now that the event is over…

    You mentioned in the first 2021 Pet Calendar thread that you wanted to send in pics.  If you send email to watergirl or to pet-calendar, I will send you the link to upload your files.

    This is true for anyone who wants to submit pet pics, not just Comrade…

    (Contact Us gives more information about the exact address)

  94. 94.

    Baud

    @mali muso:

    It was a good town hall.  I almost hope we get to see Biden and Trump at the next debate which is a town hall.  The contrast would be amazing.  My money is in it not happening though.

  95. 95.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Baud: Well, between now and the US election, there are elections upcoming in Moldova and Tajikistan. The Moldovan one, in particular, looks like it will be more contentious than Belarus.

  99. 99.

    geg6

    You all know Lester Holt identified as a Republican until 2018, right?  We never used to have network news anchors who publicly disclosed their political affiliations.  Another good tradition that FOX News murdered.

  100. 100.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Elizabelle:

    This comes down to John Roberts, though.  He abetted gutting the Voting Rights Act.  21st Century Roger B. Taney.

    Yup. One of the things that most frustrated me about the recent article in Vox that got a lot of attention (Chief Justice Roberts’s lifelong crusade against voting rights, explained), like earlier ones in Politico, Mother Jones, and the Atlantic, is that it explained the how and when and what of Roberts’ career-long campaign to take the vote away from “some” people, but wouldn’t say why – at least out loud. The closest it got was citing his idol Scalia’s cynical grumble about the VRA being a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.” Wink, wink.

  103. 103.

    mali muso

    @Baud: Agree that the contrast would be striking. Maybe have T come wrapped in a bubble suit so that he doesn’t contaminate the joint.

    $7 billion!

  104. 104.

    Baud

    @geg6:

    I did not.  Didn’t he get Trump to admit the real reason for firing Comey?  That’s the last notable thing I remember about him.

  108. 108.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    the dumbest person (currently, Tuberville coming) in the US Senate speaks

    Sen. Marsha Blackburn @MarshaBlackburn· 56m
    President Trump has once again defeated China. Welcome home, @realDonaldTrump.

  109. 109.

    jl

    @geg6: I think just as well any personal political affiliations are out in the open, so I don’t care that much which Holt was, or is, if he is willing to say it out loud.

    Edit: probably ‘fess up’ is better than ‘say it out loud’.

  110. 110.

    TS (the original)

    Just shot past $7 billion. So much money to get rid of  one man & his sycophants.

  114. 114.

    Elizabelle

    @Uncle Cosmo:   Coprolite.  Is the right word.  An elegant word.  Sounds vaguely gemlike.  But which describes something … quite less than elegant.

  118. 118.

    TS (the original)

    @Baud:

    I’m getting worried about my mental state at this point time! I blame trump & his sycophants. Who knows what I might say if he gets another 4 years.

  119. 119.

    jl

    @Mary G: Sad to say, but if irresponsible GOP stunts have infected enough high profile people, there will almost certainly be some high profile deaths before the election.

    I don’t want any, not one. A lot of innocent people would be alive today if the Trump/GOP complex had been more responsible. So, that is not me wishing for anything. That is just the science, historical data and some simple statistics talking.

    Hope Giuliani is just coughing because he aspirated his usual beverage of choice before his TV appearances… whatever that may be. Hope it’s not the same as Kudlow’s, for Rudy’s sake.

  121. 121.

    Patricia Kayden

    It is very difficult for people to understand these behaviors because they go so far beyond what we know as normal. I need you to grasp this is exactly how narcissism behaves. It doesn’t self correct. We can decide to be out of this relationship in 4 weeks. Who’s ready?— Nelba Márquez-Greene (@Nelba_MG) October 6, 2020

  129. 129.

    Ken

    @Elizabelle: This comes down to John Roberts, though. He abetted gutting the Voting Rights Act.

    Yeah, I was thinking the John Lewis Restore Voting Rights Act should just start with a pointed reference to Amendment 15 Section 2: “The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

    But now I’m really leaning toward invoking Article III Section 2 Paragraph 2:  “The supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.”

    Why should South Carolina voters bear a burden that Virginia voters need not share?

    Careful, these clowns will rule like they did for credit card companies, and we’ll all have to live under the voting laws of the reddest of red counties.

  130. 130.

    Kent

    Saw this on FB.  Don’t know if it is true or not but sounds about right

    COVID-19 infections over the past week:
    Mainland China: 0
    Cayman Islands: 3
    Taiwan: 7
    Monaco: 12
    New Zealand: 22
    Vietnam: 22
    The White House: 27

  134. 134.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mary G: does this qualify as “there is always a tweet”?

    Michiko Kakutani @michikokakutani · 1h
    In his 2004 book “Think like a Billionaire,” Trump said: “My favorite Broadway show is Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber, starring Patti LuPone. I saw it six times, mostly with Ivana. Evita is not on Broadway right now, but I’m hopeful that they’ll bring it back.”

  136. 136.

    Ruckus

    In the half hour since Act Blue went over 7 billion it’s raised another $600,000 and going just as fast.

  139. 139.

    Jay

    There is always a tweet,……

    The Ebola patient who came into our country knew exactly what he was doing. Came into contact with over 100 people.Here we go-I told you so!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2014

  141. 141.

    trnc

    @Elizabelle: The court’s brief order did not list any objecting justices. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch said they would have granted the request in full, without making exceptions for the ballots already cast.

    If there is a more explicit display of being full on flaming assholes without actually holding a murder weapon, I would love to know what it is.

  143. 143.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Baud: Yes he was!  I caught only the last 40 minutes of it because I didn’t realize there was a Townhall tonight, but I was impressed.  He just comes across as a fundamentally decent human being and right now, that counts for so much.

  144. 144.

    Martin

    @Patricia Kayden: Yep. What’s more, this isn’t a ‘macho’ thing. It’s a dictator thing. The whole recipe for getting installed as a dictator is convincing the public that you, and you alone, can govern and solve these problems. As such, you cannot, ever, give up power, or the appearance of power.

    Mind you, that’s just a magnified version of conservatism, centered on the self instead of the in-group, but it all functions  the same way.

    But Trump has been like this for 60+ years. If it was going to self correct, it would have decades ago. For most people, self-correcting never happens, instead homelessness happens. It’s not that they change their behavior, it’s that we remove them from society and ignore them, rather than treat them. Trump has always been wealthy enough to avoid that, and the enablers around him aren’t going to stop now. That’s always been part of the problem of being rich/famous – the people around him are dependent on him, and they can’t self-correct any more than he can.

  148. 148.

    randy khan

    @JMG:

    I work in the communications business.  A la carte has been dead for 10 years and nobody is going to bring it back.  Nobody in the industry is worried about it.  Cable operators are worried about streaming services these days.  (And, honestly, once the big programmers started forcing cable operators to buy all of their channels to get the popular ones, the operators began to think that a la carte isn’t such a terrible idea.)

    Not to mention that Brian Roberts actually is a big donor to the Dems – in one recent year he contributed 5 times as much to Dems as to Republicans, which for a top executive of a big company is much tilted to the Dems than usual.

  149. 149.

    Martin

    @jl: Guessing that all of NZ and VNs cases are foreign originated. IOW, they weren’t domestic transmission but people who flew in and tested positive during the mandatory quarantine period.

    I don’t think either nation has had a domestic origination case in weeks/months.

  150. 150.

    jl

    @Martin: I don’t know for sure, but those countries probably ID and trace almost every case, like over a dozen other countries. only thing that matters is if they can handle what they find. Good bet the WH outbreak is, or soon will be, larger than the emergent cases over there. We’ll get an idea as WH staffers and high profile GOPer pols hit the news.

  152. 152.

    trnc

    I didn’t get to watch the town hall, so I haven’t seen it yet and I don’t have any context for how Holt did, but it’s clear most here didn’t like the questions. I don’t have a particular problem with Biden being asked questions that are tough, stupid or basically republican talking points because I think Biden usually has pretty good answers (and I see he’s getting positive reviews here). So I think that can actually be a good thing, especially when contrasted with the gish gallop of crap last week.

    Then again, maybe I’ll feel like Holt was a dick after I watch it.

  153. 153.

    jl

    @trnc: Too many of Holt’s follow-ups and objections that Biden hadn’t really answered the questions were just barfed up Trumpster talking points.

    In the end, didn’t make much difference, IMHO, since Biden did great at responding. Holt has a normally functioning brain, and some shame, apparently, so not as bad as, say, Todd probably would have done.

    Edit: for one thing, after Biden responded to Holt’s follow-ups, Holt let it be. Rather than pursue opaque nonsensical cavils past the point of hilarious nausea, as Todd has done with some Dems over the past several weeks.

  154. 154.

    WaterGirl

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: There’s a difference between mostly sitting or lying down in a hospital, as compared to walking around upright.

    I remember picking my Dad up from the hospital one time, where he thought he was doing pretty good and could not wait to get out of the hospital.  By the time we got him home (30 minute car ride, walking in the building, riding the elevator to his room) he was exhausted and wasn’t doing nearly as well as he thought he was.

    Looking at Trump on that balcony, I can only imagine that something similar is going on.  He really looks scared, which I am sorry about, even though he’s a lying cheating heartless sociopath.

    I still feel bad at the thought of any human being scared like that, possibly facing death.  It looks like he is panicked and barely holding it together.  And yes, having trouble breathing.

  156. 156.

    Jinchi

    @jl: I don’t understand how there could be any undecided voters.

    I don’t understand anyone who plans to vote for Trump, but there are millions of them.

    I find it much easier to believe in undecided voters. Or people who are weighing whether to vote at all. Anyone who contributes to the Biden campaign or writes GOTV postcards or makes cold calls to gettable voters has to believe in them on some level, too. We’ve seen polls swing several percentage points in the last week. It’s worth believing in undecided voters, if only because the difference between getting them to the polls and voting for Democrats or not is the difference between a squeaker with majority leader McConnell still in place or a blowout with Democrats swinging control of the Senate as well as several red state legislatures the year before redistricting gets decided.

  158. 158.

    jl

    @Jinchi: If you work two or three jobs and have kids or oldsters to take care and just too stressed and pressed to pay much attention until now, I guess. Probably a few been struggling to get out of, say, a family Trumpster misinformation bubble, and just emerging now. Anything else? I can’t think of anything.

  159. 159.

    jl

    @Patricia Kayden: Well, that’s true! If you are going to drive drunk at night, you have better odds if you make sure your turn signals are working. Give ol’ Tuck some credit.

  160. 160.

    Brachiator

    @jl:

    I don’t understand how there could be any undecided voters. After Trump bullhorned his support for racism, vote suppression through vigilantism, and said he wouldn’t accept the result of a democratic election, that should be three strikes for anybody.

    Coming late to the thread and was working, so missed the town hall, but wanted to note that this is a great point, and well stated. I think it applies to anyone not voting for Biden, not just undecided voters.

  161. 161.

    Jinchi

    @jl: I had a close friend in college who was passionate about social justice, marched in protests, lived a life centered on politics and it was like pulling teeth to convince her to vote because “My vote won’t make a difference”.

    That was incomprehensible to me since getting to the polls was easily the simplest thing she could do. As a Latina from rural Texas it was hard to argue she was wrong.

  162. 162.

    Kent

    @Brachiator: I frankly don’t know how there could be may voters left who have been undecided about Trump since 2016.  In other words, “independents” who are true independents and not stealth Republicans.

    However, I do expect there are probably a lot of normally loyal Republicans who are growing undecided about their continued support for Trump.

    I’m not sure if you can really call them “undecided” so much as disgusted Republicans.

  163. 163.

    columbusqueen

    So am I the only one in love with Joe’s dog ad? Gave me the best smile I’ve had in a week or so.

  164. 164.

    Patricia Kayden

    Gets a full TEAM of doctors, access to the best medicine in the world, can go into the hospital as a precautionary measure (we can’t do that), and gets experimental drugs to fight it. Then tells all of you to not be scared and it’s OK.— Frank McGovern (@FrankMcG) October 5, 2020

  166. 166.

    Matt McIrvin

    @jl:

    I don’t understand how there could be any undecided voters. After Trump bullhorned his support for racism, vote suppression through vigilantism, and said he wouldn’t accept the result of a democratic election, that should be three strikes for anybody.

    Unless you like all of those things a lot, but are worried that Trump might be too incompetent to really deliver them.

  168. 168.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jinchi: There are a lot of activist leftists who reject “electoralism” as a mug’s game. If they’re from places where their vote genuinely doesn’t determine much I can understand it to some degree.

  169. 169.

    cain

    @WaterGirl:

    There might be a chance that I will have two cutey black kitten pairs coming in to life with me. I hope to take a look at them this Friday. We had initially thought that it might be pre-mature because of my remodel plans and having to knock a wall in my house – but thsi stupid thing is taking longer and longer and if I get them now they will probably get acclimated by the time all that happens.

  171. 171.

    cain

    @Jackie:

    It would be a tragedy if unlike during Nixon times a lot of the Trump administration did not manage to stay but instead found a path to another plane. Very sad.

  172. 172.

    Aleta

    (Post)   In July, the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO called for a federal mandate making one safety measure — mask-wearing — mandatory.

    The group’s petition requested that the Transportation Department temporarily require mask usage on airlines, passenger vessels, subways and commuter trains, school buses, motor coaches, and at stations and airports.

    Efforts to protect transportation workers “from inherently hazardous workplaces and the threat of deadly communicable disease have been limited to a patchwork of state or local mandates, and a deeply inadequate federal response consisting of non-mandatory guidance,” according to the petition.

    But the Transportation Department’s general counsel, Steven G. Bradbury, wrote Friday, in denying the petition, that “most State, local, and private sector transportation entities have adopted policies requiring face mask usage.”  Such efforts, along with the “continual reassessment of existing regulations,” are adequate, he wrote.
    …
    “The decision by the administration here is both tone deaf and stubborn,” said Larry Willis, president of the Transportation Trades Department, whose 33 affiliated unions include those representing pilots, flight attendants, transit workers, sailors and others. And for it to be announced “on the day the president himself announced that he tested positive for the coronavirus is absolutely ridiculous.”
    …
    (At an online forum) Biden said, “We need a nationwide mask guidance so that no one gets on a public transportation unit without a mask. When they turned that request down, the Department of Transportation, they made a gigantic mistake.”

  173. 173.

    Nicole

    @Matt McIrvin:

    There are a lot of activist leftists who reject “electoralism” as a mug’s game. If they’re from places where their vote genuinely doesn’t determine much I can understand it to some degree.

    My AP American History teacher, Brother Hess (Mr. Hess, but he insisted we call him “Brother”), would have had words with them.  He was clearly liberal (I grew up in the Alabama section of Pennsylvania), and yet, one class period, a guy asked him his political registration and he told us he was registered Republican.  We all gaped, and then he went on to explain that in our area, there was no Democratic Party to speak of, and if he wanted to have a voice in the local elections, which, he stressed to us, were the ones that were most important in our day-to-day lives, that he needed to be able to vote in the primaries, and that required being a registered Republican.  And votes do very much determine a lot in local elections.

    It was one of the smartest things any teacher ever told me in high school, and I never forgot it.  His party affiliation had nothing to do with his values; it had everything to do with making sure his voice was heard on a local level.  Because voting is that important, and even more so on a local level.   Gads, he was a good teacher.

  175. 175.

    rikyrah

    @Patricia Kayden:

     

    Been six months wearing a mask.

    I’ll go another 6 months.

     

    I’ll watch MAGA Red State Sychophants take the vaccine first.

    THen, I’ll wait 6-9 months to see how that turned out for them.

  176. 176.

    Peale

    @Patricia Kayden: Just a guess – while it is their hail mary electioneering win for sure – Meadows is probably acting alone because he’s got a few dozen angry billionaires who attended Trump’s bedminster event who are demanding access to a vaccine – as if the vaccine does the already sick any good. They probably think getting that shot now will save them.

  177. 177.

    cain

    @randy khan:

    ala carte is the streaming services. I am more than happy with just Prime Video and Netflix. I don’t need anything else. I think eventually Disney is going to fail because it’s an ala-carte option with only one studio. Bleah. Just because they have GenX era movie properties doesn’t mean squat.

  178. 178.

    Ken

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I think the biggest story of the night by far is Trump overruling the FDA scientists to rush a vaccine

    It might have been a week ago.  Now, upward of 60% of the US population will assume any vaccine announcement before the election is a lie, as they do for everything else coming from Trump.  That is very bad for eventual adoption, but even worse for his electoral prospects.

  179. 179.

    hueyplong

    @Peale: They made a deal with the devil and he killed them.

    Almost as poetic as Trump’s last words being “I can’t breathe.”

  180. 180.

    Brachiator

    @Kent:

    I frankly don’t know how there could be may voters left who have been undecided about Trump since 2016.  In other words, “independents” who are true independents and not stealth Republicans.

    There are people who believe that the world is flat or who believe in little green men riding Bigfoot. I don’t know how these people exist, but they do, so I just have to accept this fact.

    Similarly, some people are or claim to be undecided. I DO know people who are not totally in love with Trump, but who absolutely deny that he is a racist or a danger to democracy. In fact, until Covid-19 came along, they presumed that their lives would pretty much be unchanged no matter who was in power.

    In addition to undecided voters, there are a good chunk of people who don’t vote and don’t care. I would like to think that some of these people have been roused to support Biden. We will see what the exit polls show.

    ETA. Survey after survey shows that many Independents are just that. They are not stealth Republicans. In California, there are more Independents, I think, than registered Republicans. Also in California, these voters tend to vote for Democratic Party candidates. And yet for some reason, a lot of people cannot accept this easily verifiable fact.

  181. 181.

    Punchy

    @Patricia Kayden: Disgusting but predictable since June.  It did not matter IF one was ready; he was going to say one was regardless.  Lets hope the pharma developing it comes out forcefully and says GTFOH.

  183. 183.

    Patricia Kayden

    Amen

    They’re putting plexiglass in between Harris and Pence for the debate. Pence’s folks criticized the move, because they don’t want a constant visual reminder that coronavirus exists. Well, then maybe you should’ve done your damn job. We wouldn’t be in this mess. Vote Biden-Harris.— Scott Dworkin (@funder) October 5, 2020

  184. 184.

    Ken

    @rikyrah: I’ll watch MAGA Red State Sychophants take the vaccine first. THen, I’ll wait 6-9 months to see how that turned out for them.

    Oh, it won’t take that long.  Both the Biotrial and Tegenero failures showed up within the first few days.

    Now, those were both Phase I trials, and most of the candidate vaccines are in II or III now, so you wouldn’t get the same failure rate. Instead of 100% of patients suffering irreversible organ damage, it might be only, oh, 0.1%. That would still kill any interest in using that vaccine.

  185. 185.

    mac8

    @Nicole:  Your AP History teacher sounds like my high school Government / Gym teacher.  When he passed out voter registration forms in our senior class he flat out told us all to register as Democrats because the area I grew up in had no Republican presence at the time and registering as Democrats would give us more options.

  186. 186.

    rikyrah

    I know that’s right ???

     

     

    From @DanaBashCNN: Source says Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin asked Speaker Pelosi if he could come to the Hill Friday for stimulus talks & she said no. She said she can’t trust anyone in the WH on Covid. “The way they treat people – I don’t want them here.”— Kristin Wilson (@kristin__wilson) October 5, 2020

  188. 188.

    BruceFromOhio

    Watching the ATL-GB game, and here come ads for OH state Republicans (house and senate). Have never seen such ever since living here. Someone is feeling the heat.

  192. 192.

    Brachiator

    @rikyrah:

    BREAKING: The EPA has stripped Oklahoma’s tribes of regulatory sovereignty over environmental matters and handed it to the state’s governor.This is a huge deal

    Damn. Look for Trump to claim that he has done more for Native Americans than any other president in history.

  196. 196.

    Ken

    @Ruckus: Act Blue is up 2 million in 2 hrs and 10 min.

    Someone tell Trump, it’s a double blow – that they’re raising that money to get rid of him, and that he’s not getting a taste of it.

  199. 199.

    lofgren

    The note from Biden is not mincing words. I feel like Biden is clear-eyed about what Trump is and what he represents. This gives me hope that there will be prosecutions.

  201. 201.

    Gvg

    @cain: I know a lot of people who tend to only watch Disney movies. Some just because they have young children, but also quite a few women who just love Disney. Some of it is escapism, but some of it is just personality fit. I can’t really explain it, I’ve just noticed it….several really hard working women managers I’ve known plus an aunt. The last few years I have hit a bunch of estate sales for furniture and there are quite a few lifelong Disney obsessed.

    i watch a lot of Disney myself but not exclusively.

  202. 202.

    Sloane Ranger

    @WaterGirl: 

    I still feel bad at the thought of any human being scared like that, possibly facing death. It looks like he is panicked and barely holding it together. And yes, having trouble breathing.

    Don’t be. According to CNN he wasn’t certain that the shots of his Mussolini moment on the balcony caught his best side and insisted on a re-shoot.

    Also, I’d like to believe his breathing issues are signs of COVID-19 or pneumonia but, he’s never been really fit. Remember when he took a golf cart instead of walking like the other world leaders, he’d probably be out of breath walking up those stairs even Pre-COVID.

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