Couldn’t agree more. https://t.co/JAENVM3NhT
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 28, 2023
Stop calling it #GOPDebate.
Call it what Trump calls it: Henchmen-Con. pic.twitter.com/2LtWOatStl— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) September 28, 2023
Damn Joy Reid didn't just say the #GOPDebate felt like a Student Council Debate 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/FphK7eOSaS
— I Plead the GIF 🖐🏾 (@lilwaltjr305) September 28, 2023
The clip I’m betting will define the evening:
Ron DeSantis shuts down Fox's #GOPdebate gimmick about voting someone off the island:
"I'll decline to do that… We're happy to debate. I think that that's disrespectful to my fellow competitors… Let's talk about the future of the country!" pic.twitter.com/PJrQQfXHzI
— Never Back Down (@NvrBackDown24) September 28, 2023
Dead candidate walking…
Pretty sure he made it a felony for men in Florida to wear that much makeup. pic.twitter.com/HaRAZ376Gs
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 28, 2023
Chris Christie, running to increase his bookings as the Anti-TFG:
“You’re not here tonight because you're afraid to defend your record. You’re ducking…We’re going to call you Donald Duck.” #GOPDebate #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/yed9vozOwU
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) September 28, 2023
Nikki Haley, (still) running for the 2028 Did I Not Warn Y’All? candidacy:
“Honestly, every time I hear you I feel a little bit dumber from what you say.” 😂 #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/jsODUHFpM4
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) September 28, 2023
There’s something fascinating about two people yelling at each other to become the leader of a party that doesn’t care about either of their demographics at all..#GOPDebate #RepublicanDebate pic.twitter.com/LNmC4q7xgK
— jordan hanhil (@jordanhanhil) September 28, 2023
considering who she was talking to, she was admirably restrained https://t.co/QWEVIKYL3R
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) September 28, 2023
Makes you wonder where Haley would stand today in this race if she hadn’t decided to sell out and be in the Trump administration in the first place https://t.co/l03PSxFU37
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) September 28, 2023
(Makes *me* wonder if, before the end of this campaign, she’s gonna stomp across the stage and actually punch another candidate — preferably Ramaswarmy, IMO.)
Vivek Ramaswamy, reputed anchor baby:
“I favor ending birthright citizenship for the kids of illegal immigrants in this country.”
“Now, the left will howl about the Constitution and the 14th Amendment. The difference between me and them is I've actually read the 14th Amendment. #VivekRamaswamy #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/h1bYatwEMb
— Creativelyai (@creativelyai) September 28, 2023
He’s decided to run full-throat for the TFG vice-presidency…
Vivek Ramaswamy: "I will respect Donald Trump and his legacy because it's the right thing to do."#GOPDebate #VivekRamaswamy #Trump pic.twitter.com/1zrPyaKOOX
— ThePressBeat (@thepressbeat) September 28, 2023
So, it’s not just me thinking this…
someone must be running a book and who on the stage is going to walk over and punch vivek in the face first
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 28, 2023
OPINION | So much for killing them with kindness. In the first debate, Vivek Ramaswamy came looking for a fight. He found it. This time around, he thought he could use his charm to calm things down. But his rivals simply refused to cooperate. https://t.co/qdR3K3iH9j
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) September 28, 2023
We are 90 minutes into this GOP primary debate, and not one question about abortion.
But they did spend a whole segment about the made-up epidemic of kids surgically transitioning without their parent's consent or knowledge.
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) September 28, 2023
I don't doubt the reporting. But it shows the level of denial GOP operatives, donors are in about this. https://t.co/DOjE7SSGUS
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 28, 2023
Baud
From the tweets, the debate sounds kind of boring.
Your telling me not a single one of them proposed killing another human being?
Baud
A couple of good reddit comments listings the myriad ways Trump disrespects the military.
First list
Second list with sources
Layer8Problem
Given Marshall’s and Costa’s comments, I am so very much hoping Republican operatives and donors are collectively having a Kevin Bacon at the end of Animal House meltdown.
From Sunny Lisbon, where we’re recovering from the jet lag. This is the first big trip for us since the Covid business and damnit, we’ve earned it.
Ksmiami
God I hate the fucking Republican Party.
Villago Delenda Est
@Layer8Problem: “Remain calm! All is well!”
Baud
Agree, Rich. She should smile more.
balconesfault
@Baud: well, Pence is convinced that instantaneous death penalty sentences for anyone who shoots up a school will deter crazy people from shooting up schools.
Because, I guess, school shooters go in figuring some liberal DA will eventually give them probation.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I’m glad that I was asleep for this one – although I have to admit that nine PM Eastern time is stupid o’clock in the Eastern European Time Zone.
Actually, that’d make for good truth-in-advertising copy for whoever televises the next debate:
“Republican Presidential candidates debate live, tonight at stupid o’clock!”
Layer8Problem
@Villago Delenda Est: That’s the kind of Republican spirit we’re all hoping for!
Betty Cracker
AL, I hope you’re wrong about the DeSantis clip being the defining moment because he came as close to having a statesman-like moment there as he ever has on any topic, ever. The Survivor vote was a dumb gimmick, and he was right to say so.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Agree. I was wondering what the catch was.
Luckily for you, GOP voters love dumb gimmicks so this will hurt him.
Baud
@balconesfault:
I wonder if he feels the same way about people who try to overthrow democracy.
Betty Cracker
This is weirdly specific:
DeSantis loves political stunts, is utterly indifferent to their effect on human beings involuntarily dragged into his set pieces and has an entire state budget to fund them. Am I paranoid for thinking he might be cooking something up?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Nothing is beyond them.
Tony Jay
@Baud:
“I’m not a.. (insert situational noun that I shall now embody)”
“but I wonder.. (no, you really don’t)”
“if Nikki… (over-familiar method of demeaning estrogen-positive targets)”
“seemed… (evidentiary requirements minimal)”
“too angry… (hysterically over-emotional bitches be all crazy and shit, can I get a bass Oh Yeah?)”
“and personal… (unserious, not policy related, probably in love with him or jealous of younger rival)”
“in her attacks…” (you just can’t talk to them when they’re being like that, always finding fault. Women!)
Gee. Rich Lowry isn’t a very complicated person, is he?
P Thomas
Waste of time. Deserves no coverage at all. Embarrasses everyone involved.
OzarkHillbilly
He must be thinking of a different 14th Amendment. Maybe the 14th Amendment to the Somalian constitution?
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
He is probably right you know, except the perpetrators are already here and we all know them as right wing nutjob Americans with small arsenals hidden in the walls of their homes.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
He said terrorist attack, not patriot attack.
MattF
Something about Donald Duck.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Haysoos Chrispo, those are exhausting reads.
BellyCat
Thought bubble above all GOP debate participants’ heads:
“To campaign for Preznit in case Trump is jailed or dies, OR to campaign to be Trump’s VP in case neither happens? Hmmm… ”
😂
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Oh, right, my bad.
JMG
Those “GOP donors” Costa talked about have no objection to Trump being President, or dictator if it came to that. None at all. They just don’t want to give him their money because they know he’ll steal it.
jimmiraybob
Who’s writing the script for Idiocracy II: The Holy Shittening?
Tony Jay
@BellyCat:
Needs a polish, but it should do at a push.
jimmiraybob
He’s probably referring to the rewrite that he’s got tucked away.
evodevo
@Tony Jay:
He forgot “shrill” lol
RSA
That DeSantis make-up clip… Did anyone else think, watching the first few seconds, that he was doing something weird to Haley? It looked bizarre but not out of character. Thanks, forced perspective!
Tony Jay
@evodevo:
Oh, no. ‘Shrill’ is reserved for Democrats or Never Trumpers, isn’t it? When it’s within the GOP Big Tent collapsed kids’ tipi it’s all about the snide insinuation to remind the wo-menz of their place.
Yarrow
@Betty Cracker: I saw the debate coverage on the Today Show. That bit from DeSantis didn’t make the coverage. Christie calling TFG Donald Duck did. Also some Haley v Vivek stuff.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Sounds like it wasn’t even worth rooting for injuries. 😴😴😴
cmorenc
@OzarkHillbilly:
So where is the loophole in “all persons born in the United States…are citizens” that Ramaswamy claims to have “actually read”? Is he claiming some truly novel spin on “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” (which was intended to exclude children of foreign diplomats), or is he claiming that because that 14A provision was intended to address black slaves born in the US, but not people of Hispanic parentage, the literal words need to be interpreted narrowly?
In the next GOP candidate debate (ugh!) some moderator needs to press Ramaswamy on exactly why there’s some exception in the wording “all persons born in the United States…”. But they probably won’t.
Baud
@cmorenc:
I read somewhere he’s making the first argument.
Yarrow
@Tony Jay: Rich Lowry? The one who got a boner from Sarah Palin’s “debate” performance?
Another Scott
@JMG: +1
Costa let the cat out of the bag in the “breakout moment” quip.
The whole point of these “debates” is to generate the soundbite to get attention – enough attention to overcome the horror of the rest of their personal qualities and policies. Christie tries, but “everyone knows” he’s a loser.
Meanwhile, the true believers won’t watch; the normies don’t care; and the actual GQP people in office continue to destroy the government and the commonweal, but the political press cannot discuss anything but the horserace and colors the horses are wearing…
Grr…,
Scott.
TS
@Baud:
Nikki mustn’t have been able to send little starbursts through the screen making Rich sit up a little straighter on the couch
OverTwistWillie
That pile of nut sack hair on top of Vivek is… a look.
Ron for sure got yelled at by Casey. He was supposed to shed his human skin, consume Tim Scott whole, and deliver a pithy Vilanch one liner.
OverTwistWillie
Ken Griffin is the only GOP donor with any shame.
The rest are psychopaths who are mad they’re going to have to kick up to Trump… again.
“Unintelligible” “Hot mess”
jimmiraybob
@cmorenc:
The key loophole is defining who deserves to be considered a “person.”
TriassicSands
@jimmiraybob:
He’s referring to the Thomas/Alito annotated edition.
TriassicSands
@Yarrow:
Yeah, she had it. It stood in for having a brain.
Tony Jay
@Yarrow:
That’s the guy. Palin (not ‘Sarah’, he wasn’t trying to belittle her) was the candidate he wanted so received the firm rasp of a willing tongue. Haley, not so much.
sdhays
@jimmiraybob: No, I think he just misspoke:
After all, it’s much easier to pretend things when you don’t know anything about them. It’s like finding it easier to enjoy Star Wars if you have no idea what a parsec is.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly:
Oh my god, even though I am no longer a practicing catholic, no matter how much I want to say “JFC” or even “Jesus Christ” I cannot bring myself to do it because the nuns very successfully drummed into my head that we can not say that!
You may have just solved my decades-long problem!
Sherparick
@Baud: I thought they all went on board for invading Mexico & hunting the cartels with drones.
Vivek may have read the 14th Amendment, but he sure seems to have a problem with reading comprehension (if he is typical the Hedge Fund managers & Private Equity types, no wonder the financial system is just a nanosecond from cratering all the time).
Sherparick
@OzarkHillbilly: He did not say he comprehended or understood the words in the Section 1, 14th Amendment, just that he “read” them.
Pink Tie
What a collection of clowns. The ones I’d like to try and respect are at best cynical opportunists — Nikki Haley seems like she could have been a reasonable, moderate centrist Democrat in another life. And Christie obviously knows better and is just mouthing the words except when he goes after Trump in better moments. I was thinking Ramaswamy was just another cynic who calculated that his best play was to do the reactionary, revanchist bro thing, but now it looks like he is just a person who needs inpatient psychiatric treatment, or some kind of deprogramming. *These* are the people the Republican party has put forward as potential leaders? I am old enough that it shouldn’t be surprising, and yet it still is.
Ruckus
Damn Joy Reid didn’t just say the #GOPDebate felt like a Student Council Debate of the members of the sixth grade class that failed PE.
Well maybe not exactly like that……
Bill Arnold
@cmorenc:
Mr. Ramaswamy has not actually read the 14th amendment. He may have read the words, but he does not understand them, or at least pretends not to understand them. He also has not read any of the 150 years of legal reasoning about that part of the 14th amendment or even a summary of it.
He’s just a dishonest, arrogant con-man, who uses talking points that are a deliberately constructed distillation of right-wing narratives, and he should be treated as such. He’s probably not a direct threat, since the GOP wouldn’t vote for him and Trump doesn’t want a (competing) con-man VP, but his nonsense needs to be rejected more vigorously.
Yutsano
@Bill Arnold: “I have read the Constitution.”
“APES CAN READ THE CONSTITUTION VIVEK BUT THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND IT!”
Paul in KY
@Baud: That’s not gonna get them that VP slot.
Paul in KY
@Baud: There’s only room in this here debate for one Desi…
Paul in KY
@balconesfault: Any non-bugfuck crazy one should get the death penalty, IMO.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: I wouldn’t put it past him. TFG needs to have a food taster, as DeSatanis & his bride would poison him in a second if they thought they could get away with it.
dnfree
@WaterGirl: One of my daughters had a high school friend who used to say “Cheese and rice!”