'The entire electoral pool has changed': 

Top GOP pollster says Harris may deliver Dem trifecta

Image via screengrab / X

Carl Gibson

August 14, 2024

One Republican polling and messaging expert is warning his party that if current trends hold, Vice President Kamala Harris may end up not only winning the White House, but also delivering majorities for Democrats in both chambers of Congress.

In a recent CNBC interview with Squawk Box, pollster Frank Luntz — who NJ.com regarded as "the Nostradamus of pollsters" — remarked on the jarring shift in momentum for Democrats between President Joe Biden's late June debate with former President Donald Trump and the emergence of Harris as the Democratic Party's standard-bearer in November. Luntz, who routinely conducts focus groups of swing voters in battleground states, noted that Harris is particularly strong with so-called "double haters" who were not excited about the prospect of a 2020 rematch.

"She’s bringing out people who are not interested in voting for either Trump or Biden, so the entire electoral pool has changed and if it continues in this direction you have to start to consider Democrats winning the Senate and Democrats winning the House," Luntz said.

READ MORE: McConnell shares GOP's 'worst nightmare' scenario of a Harris-Walz White House

"She’s got intensity now. She’s got an intensity advantage. She’s got a demographic advantage and I haven’t seen anything like this happen in 30 days in my lifetime,” he added. “Now my groups are broken up by young women saying, ‘I’m not voting for [Trump] anymore.’"

Luntz's predictions of a Harris-Walz ticket paying off big for Democrats in down-ballot races were similar to those of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who urged Republicans to take the prospect of a crushing defeat in November more seriously. The Kentucky Republican told state lawmakers in his home city of Louisville that if Democrats take the White House, flip the House of Representatives and maintain their majority in the U.S. Senate, they could kill the filibuster and grant statehood to Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

"That's four new Democratic senators in perpetuity," McConnell said. "If they get those two new states and pack the Supreme Court, they'll get what they want."

In his Squawk Box interview, Luntz said the momentum shift in Harris' favor could be enough to give her the advantage in close contests.

READ MORE: 'Out for blood': Undecided voters offer surprising reactions to Trump's Manhattan trial

"The people who are undecided have all collapsed towards Harris. The people who are ‘weak’ Trump have all collapsed towards undecided," he said. "There are issues, attributes and the condition of the country. The issues and the conditions favor Donald Trump. He should be winning this election. But the attributes are so much in Harris’ favor that he’s not."

Despite his personal preference for Republicans, Luntz has not held back when forecasting losses for the GOP. In early 2021, he correctly predicted that both of Georgia's Republican U.S. senators would lose their respective runoff elections on January 5 after noticing billboards attacking them in deep-red Georgia counties. Both Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia) and Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia) went on to be sworn in as Georgia's first unified Democratic U.S. Senate delegation in three decades.


Watch Luntz's segment below, or by clicking this link.



READ MORE: GOP strategist Frank Luntz confronts election denier: 'You're unwilling to see the evidence'

Ex-Bush strategist warns against top GOP pollster’s data: 'Wrong in nearly every election'

Maya Boddie, Alternet
August 25, 2024 

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the New York Young Republican Club Gala at Cipriani Wall Street on December 09, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Former President George W. Bush chief strategist Matthew Dowd issued an Americans a warning against any election 2024 data presented by longtime GOP pollster Frank Luntz after the ex-Fox News contributor predicted that Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr. can help win the White House for Donald Trump.

Dowd on Saturday night wrote in a post published to X: "Please, please ignore anything Frank Luntz says... no matter if it is good or bad. he is a grifter who makes up most of his data. and has been wrong in nearly every election."

According to The Hill, Luntz told NewsNation's Leland Vittart this weekend "that while Kennedy’s poll numbers have dropped since Vice President Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic Party presidential ticket, his remaining supporters could provide enough backing to tip some swing-state results in Trump’s favor."

READ MORE: 'Trump should be quaking': Pollster’s inability to find women for focus group spells trouble for GOP

Kennedy, who ended his election bid Friday, followed the announcement with an endorsement for Trump.

“It’s probably worth about 1% for Trump and that 1% could be everything if it’s in the swing states," Luntz said. "In the end, the reason why Kennedy was drawing 10, 12, even as high as 14% is because he was taking votes away from Joe Biden. Joe Biden’s gone. Kamala Harris has replaced him, and [RFK’s] vote collapsed down to about 4 or 5% and what’s left is a Trump vote."

Earlier this month, CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten reported that Harris is starting to win over Trump voters in battlegrouund states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Can Harris win back Michigan's crucial Muslim vote?

Agence France-Presse
August 25, 2024 

"We are in listening mode right now," said Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News. (Jeff Kowalsky / AFP)

In key swing state Michigan, Democratic voters of Arab and Middle Eastern heritage say Kamala Harris is going to have to win them back, after they were alienated by President Joe Biden's handling of Israel's military offensive in Gaza.

The town of Dearborn, home to 110,000 people and a cultural hub for Arab Americans, could play a decisive role in deciding the fate of the battleground state in November's presidential election.

Members of the community interviewed by AFP said they were willing to hear what the vice president had to say and weigh their options — a marked change from the outright hostility towards Biden.

"We are in listening mode right now," said Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News.Accepting the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention on Thursday, Harris pledged to get a Gaza ceasefire "done" and ensure Palestinians realize their right to "dignity, security, freedom and self-determination."

But there was outrage among pro-Palestinian delegates that their request for a speaker spot at the convention was rejected. The group Muslim Women for Harris-Walz said the decision sent a "terrible message" and announced it was disbanding and withdrawing its support from the campaign.

Harris, who has vowed "not to be silent" about the suffering of Palestinians, recently met with members of the national "Uncommitted" movement that led the charge against Biden during the Democratic primary process.

Although she made no firm promises, leaders said she impressed them with a show of empathy.

At the forefront of concerns are Israel's 10 months of military operations in Gaza, which have devastated the Palestinian enclave since the war began in response to Hamas's attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Growing influence


Michigan, home to the "big three" automakers — Ford, General Motors and Chrysler — has long been an essential stop for White House aspirants.Economic downturns in the 1970s led many to leave the so-called "Rust Belt" state, just as unrest in the Middle East brought new waves of Lebanese, Iraqi, Yemeni, and Palestinian immigrants.

"We're a global city, where nearly 55 percent of our residents are of Arab background," said Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud in a recent interview. "For many of us, when you talk about what's happening in Gaza, these are our family and our friends.

"Famous as the birthplace of Henry Ford, Dearborn appears at first glance just like any small US city, with its wide thoroughfares and strip malls. But it is also home to the Islamic Center of America — the largest mosque in the country -- and countless Middle Eastern supermarkets, eateries, and coffee shops.

When Siblani first started his newspaper in the mid-1980s, he remembers the then-mayor campaigned on a platform to address the "Arab problem." But as the community's numbers grew, and the children of blue-collar factory workers took up positions as lawyers, doctors, and businesspeople, so too did their political influence.
'Lesser of two evils'

Historically socially conservative, Arab and Muslim Americans heavily favored George W. Bush in the 2000 election. Years of the US "War on Terror" — which saw wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan, and Muslim American communities put under stricter law enforcement scrutiny — swung them firmly to the Democratic camp.

In 2018, southeast Michiganders elected Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress — a milestone for the community.

Three Arab-American mayors have also recently been elected in suburbs known for historic racism towards non-whites.

Angered by former president Donald Trump's travel ban on Muslim countries, support for Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and more, Dearborn voters overwhelmingly backed Biden in 2020, helping secure Michigan for the Democrats by a slim margin.

Residents here are tired, however, of being asked to vote for the "lesser of two evils" and instead want candidates who will deliver on demands, such as a permanent ceasefire and an end to the supply of weapons to Israel.

"I think VP Harris has a window of opportunity," said Faye Nemer, a community activist and CEO of the MENA American Chamber of Commerce. "She can either continue President Biden's legacy or set her own agenda."

Arab Americans in Dearborn have been impressed by Harris's pick of Tim Walz as her running mate. Walz has taken a conciliatory approach to opponents of the war, unlike Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who took a hard line against college protesters.

But demands are hardening."We don't want crumbs anymore," declared Soujoud Hamade, a business lawyer and long-time Democrat, who vowed to vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein if Harris did not deliver on the campaign trail.

Pastor says Harris could get 'the highest level of evangelical support since Carter'

Maya Boddie, Alternet
August 25, 2024 

U.S. Vice President and Democratic presumptive presidential nominee Kamala Harris (AFP)

Donald Trump has long been backed by evangelical Christian voters, and as of May, the Associated Press reported that the ex-president's "support is as strong as ever among evangelicals and other conservative Christians."

In an op-ed published by MSNBC Sunday, Minneapolis pastor Doug Pagitt — who also heads the nonprofit organization Vote Common Good — explains how Vice President Kamala Harris can win the evangelical vote this time around – and why it's possible.

"On the trail in 2020, 2022 and this year, I’ve gleaned the reason many evangelical and Christian voters ultimately leave Trump: his obvious lack of kindness," Pagitt writes. "A poll that my organization Vote Common Good commissioned in 2020 showed that in swing states, Trump’s lack of kindness was driving evangelical and Catholic voters away in large enough numbers to potentially affect the outcome of the election."

READ MORE: More Americans 'view Christianity negatively' — and it may be Trump's fault

The Minneapolis pastor emphasizes that "Democrats more broadly need to embrace the idea that evangelicals, and especially white male evangelicals, are worth winning and can be won without the party compromising its values."

One way to do that, Pagitt suggests, is by implementing a strategy similar to one Vote Common Good made ahead of the 2020 presidential election in Kent County, Michigan.

"We held voter rallies and roundtables; put up billboards juxtaposing the words of Jesus Christ with those of Trump; sent thousands of postcards to evangelical voters; and trained multiple local Democratic candidates on how to engage with faith voters," Pagitt writes. "Our message to the 25% of the Kent County electorate that identified as evangelical was simple: Trump lacks kindness and it’s OK not to vote for the Republican."

Pagitt notes "Trump beat Clinton by 3 points in Kent County in 2016," but due to Vote Common Good's election efforts, "In 2020, he lost to Biden there by 6 points, a 9-point swing."

READ MORE: Christianity Today editor laments evangelicals defending Trump like 'the left in the Clinton era'

Furthermore, if Democrats want to win evangelical support, the Party must take a "concerted, grassroots effort to reach these voters," Paggit says, "listen to them and bring them along on a journey to help them understand it’s OK for them to let concern for the common good, and not allegiance to a political party, determine how they vote."

With a recent endorsement from a group called Christians for Kamala, Pagitt emphasizes: "I think it’s possible for Harris to receive the highest level of evangelical support since Carter."

READ MORE: The nation’s future will be 'decided in the pulpits and sanctuaries of American churches': columnist

Pagitt's full op-ed is available here.

Watch: Scott Jennings laughed at on CNN for claiming 'People don't want to feel joy'

Tom Boggioni
August 25, 2024

Kate Bedingfield, Scott Jennings (CNN screenshot)

It did not take long on Sunday morning for conservative CNN political commentator Scott Jennings to realize he had stepped in it when he claimed, "People don't want to feel joy" during his appearance on "State of the Union."

During the panel discussion moderated by host Jake Tapper, CNN analyst Kate Bedingfield described the just concluded Democratic National Convention as joyful, telling her fellow panelists, "She [Kamala Harris] is proving herself outside of her comfort zone. She has spent the last month since it was thrust upon her this moment where she had to rise to the occasion to take on the mantle of being the Democratic nominee, which is a huge moment and she's done it successfully."

"You've seen — you see momentum, you see people excited," she continued. "So this notion like joy isn't a strategy; joy is actually what people want. This is what they want to feel right now and they're feeling it from her. She's also laying out substantive policy proposals which she did in her nominating speech. And the idea that these two things are somehow mutually exclusive, I don't think that's true."

"The joy will continue until morale improves," conservative analyst Jennings quipped before adding, "People don't want to feel joy, they want to feel relief," which made Bedingfield laugh.

"The economic anxiety is real and it is — and you can say inflation is down and I know that's what the Democrats are going to argue," he persisted as Bedingfield looked on incredulously.

"Not a single person who was bought a single thing in the last four years or in the last four minutes, believes that and I think you get in trouble in politics when you tell people something that does not match their lived experience," he concluded.

"So a Republican strategist says people do not want to feel joy," a laughing Bedingfield repeated before adding, "That's quite a message."

Watch below or at the link.

  

Maria Bartiromo and Byron Donalds think Obama's controlling country through 'earpiece'

David Edwards
August 25, 2024 

Fox News/screen grab

Fox News host Maria Bartiromo and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) argued that former President Barack Obama was controlling Democratic officials through an earpiece.

During a Sunday interview on Fox News, Bartiromo wondered who was "running the country while Kamala Harris is out campaigning."

"I'm not quite sure who's running the place," Donalds replied. "Maybe Susan Rice is still in charge for all we know. I have no idea."

"It raises the issue of who's been running the country these past four years and who is expecting to do so in the next four years," Bartiromo opined.

The Fox News host said she "heard" Michelle and Barack Obama were planning to "help" Kamala Harris run the country.

Bartiromo then pointed to a 2020 interview in which Stephen Colbert asked Obama if he would be willing to serve a third term as president.

"And I used to say, you know what, if I could make an arrangement where I had a stand in a front man or front woman, and they had an earpiece in, and I was just in my basement in my sweats, looking through the stuff, and then I could sort of deliver the lines," Obama said at the time. "But somebody else was doing all the talking and ceremony. I'd be fine with that."

"Is that the plan?" Bartiromo asked Donalds.

"It very well might be," the lawmaker agreed. "Even if you look at the Biden-Harris administration, a lot of the staff are Obama holdovers from the Obama-Biden administration."

"Now you're looking at Kamala Harris," he added. "The rumors are already circulating that she's looking at people to hold over from the current administration now."

Watch the video below from Fox News or at the link.

'Growing GOP support' of Dem law intensifies Republican Party 'division': report

Maya Boddie, Alternet
August 25, 2024

A Democrat-backed 2022 climate law is "drawing growing GOP support," causing friction among Republican lawmakers, according to a Sunday, August 25 Politico report.

While the Inflation Reduction Act "is undeniably bringing federal money, private investments and jobs into communities around the country overwhelmingly represented by Republicans," Politico notes that no GOP lawmakers voted for the bill in 2022, "and conservatives consistently charge that its hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for electric vehicles, wind, solar and other technologies will drive up prices, distort the markets and benefit China."

Per the report, earlier this month, 18 House Republicans signed onto a letter asking Speaker Mike Johnson to spare the energy tax credits from efforts to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, with many of them seeing the incentives as both good for the planet and extremely beneficial for local economic development."

However, some far-right Republicans, like Rep. Chip Roy (TX), are calling some colleagues who signed the letter hypocritical.

Noting that the "18 Republicans voted last year to repeal the IRA climate subsidies," Roy claimed via X, "Now, [they] want to preserve so-called ‘green’ handouts to Democrats’ corporate cronies."

Politico reports that Nick Loris, vice president of public policy at the Republican-aligned firm C3 Solutions, predicts GOP members will "treat the tax credits as something of a buffet, with Republicans picking and choosing what they like and what they don’t."

He emphasized, "There’s going to be some division for sure, but it’s not going to be black and white, either."

READ MORE: Conservative admits Trump’s policies 'would result in price spikes' for most Americans

The possible party showdown, Politico adds, is "all part of an intensifying debate within the Republican Party about how to respond to climate change, a rising priority for many young voters. And while more GOP lawmakers say they want to be active on the issue, many conservatives — including Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump — still don’t buy the reality of human-caused global warming and the impact of fossil fuels."

Politico's full report is available here.

Former GOP lawyer describes J.D. Vance's 'awkward darkness' after donut shop visit

David McAfee
August 25, 2024 

C-SPAN/screen grab

Donald Trump's pick for vice president, J.D. Vance, represents an "awkward darkness," according to former House Republican Congressional Committee Investigative Counsel Sophia Nelson, a lawyer who formerly worked on legal and advisory teams for several prominent Republicans.

Appearing on CNN on Sunday, Nelson was asked about Vance's recent "awkward interaction" at a donut shop. Vance is also currently in hot water with his neighbors.

"Retail politics is really important," the host says. The host then asks Nelson how Vice President Kamala Harris can do better on her upcoming bus tour.

Nelson replied, "I wish you had shown the clip with Vice President nominee Walz and his wife walking into a donut shop outside of Chicago after the convention and the reception was entirely different."

"The energy was entirely different. To my point, J.D. Vance has this kind of awkward darkness about him," she added. "This kind of like roughness. It's not a warm energy, it's like when you saw the dog at the firehouse, when Vice President Harris walked in into dog's just laying down and rolling around all over her. Animals have good instincts and people have good instincts."

Watch below or click the link.

'He should probably move': J.D. Vance's neighbors reportedly lashing out at V.P. candidate

David McAfee

August 25, 2024 

Donald Trump's pick for vice president, J.D. Vance, is in hot water with those in his community, according to a news report.

According to the Daily Beast, "JD Vance’s neighbors have slammed the vice presidential candidate after the Secret Service closed and [barricaded] a park near his home in Alexandria, Virginia."

The report states that the outrage came after "the city announced that it would be closing the Judy Lowe Neighborhood Park on Sunday and an adjacent block would be restricted to residents only after the Secret Service ramped up measures for Donald Trump’s running mate."

The report continues:

“'Beginning Sunday, August 25, and in response to a request from the United States Secret Service (USSS), the Judy Lowe Neighborhood Park, located at 1 & 7 E. Del Ray Ave., will be temporarily closed until further notice,' a city notice read, reported the local news website ALXnow."

ALXnow also cited backlash from the locals:

“I am all for protecting people, but if that park is such a danger, he should probably move,” someone identified as Thomas Blackwood reportedly said. “The park belongs to the city and the people of Alexandria not his protection staff. And to be perfectly honest, a true Republican would not want the government infringing on other people’s rights.”

The report also says, "Another commentator added that the park belongs to the residents of Alexandria, therefore, 'they should be able to freely use the City resources regardless who lives adjacent to the park. Let the Secret Service figure it out. What happens if some other high level protectee move in adjacent to some other park?'"

Another commentator on ALXnow, the report says, "attempted to add some levity to the situation. 'Oh for goodness sakes. Enough. The man is running for VP of the United States. No matter your political affiliation you should be proud your neighbor is willing to run for office,' they wrote. 'Shame on you for being so ugly.'"

Read the Daily Beast report here (subscription may be required).

Rep. John Lewis statue replaces Confederate memorial in Georgia


Democratic Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries D-N.Y., speaks during the unveiling of a new stamp honoring the late Rep. John Lewis in the Statuary Hall on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on June 21, 2023, and Lewis now has a bronze statue honoring his civil rights efforts in front of the DeKalb Courthouse in Decatur, Ga. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 24 (UPI) -- A 12-foot bronze statue of the late civil rights activist and U.S. Rep. John Lewis was unveiled Saturday in Decatur, Ga.

Lewis represented Georgia's Fifth Congressional District, which includes most of Atlanta, from 1987 until his death in 2020.

Sculptor Basil Watson of Jamaica created the statue, which depicts Lewis holding his hands across his heart and is situated atop a stone pedestal.

The statue was installed in Decatur Square on Aug. 16 and unveiled Saturday.

Lewis was a civil rights leader and a Democrat who was among the first "freedom riders" who rode on segregated buses during the 1960s to protest racial discrimination and segregation in the South.

Lewis formerly chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was a member of the "big six" civil rights leaders who organized the history "march on Washington," during which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Alabama state troopers and local police in 1965 physically beat Lewis, which triggered the inaugural Selma to Montgomery march.

President Barack Obama in 2011 bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom upon Lewis for his efforts on behalf of equality and civil rights.

The statue replaces a stone obelisk standing 30 feet high and erected in 1908 outside the DeKalb County Courthouse.

It was placed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and honored the "memory of the soldiers and sailors of the Confederacy, of whose virtues in peace and in war are witnesses to the end that justice may be done and that the truth perish not."

The obelisk contained inscriptions on all four sides that referenced the underlying principles of the Confederacy.

The obelisk became a point of contention during the civil unrest that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.

WEIRDO AND KOOK X 2

RFK Jr. blames 'media censorship,' plans to campaign for Trump   DO IT!

By Mark Moran & Allen Cone

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced he is suspending his campaign for the presidency while in in Phoenix on Friday. Kennedy went on to endorse Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and blamed attacks from the Democrats for his moves. Photo by David Blakeman/EPA-EFE

Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Robert F. Kennedy Jr., blaming media censorship for driving him from the 2024 race, said Sunday he plans to campaign for Republican resident nominee Donald Trump.

"I'm going to be campaigning actively," he said on Fox News on Sunday. "I think President Trump is going to make a series of announcements about other Democrats who are joining his campaign. And ... I want to make America healthy again, and so does President Trump,"

On Friday, Kennedy suspended his campaign, announced his endorsement of Trump and then appeared at a rally with the former president in Glendale, Ariz.

Kennedy said he thought he could have gotten more media coverage.

Related

RFK Jr. suspends presidential campaign, endorses GOP nominee Donald Trump
Reports: RFK Jr. to exit presidential race this week, possibly will endorse Trump
RFK Jr. campaign considering whether to drop out, 'join forces' with Trump

"When Ross Perot ran, in the 10 months that he ran, he had 34 appearances on the networks," Kennedy said on Fox News. "I had two appearances in 16 months, so I was blocked out of the networks, and I was blocked out of the debate. I had no path to victory."

Perot was a third-party candidate in 1992, appearing in the debates between Bill Clinton and President George H. W. Bush. Clinton won and Perot earned 18.9% of the popular vote.

Kennedy said when he suspended his campaign that he could no longer ask his staff to put time and effort into his bid for the White House.

"I cannot in good conscience ask my staff and volunteers to keep working their long hours or ask my donors to keep giving when I cannot honestly tell them that I have a real path to the White House," he said Friday.

Kennedy said supporting Trump would be a difficult sacrifice but one that would be worth it if any of his goals could be accomplished.

Kennedy said Trump had been talking to him about a possible role in a Trump administration and that the GOP presidential nominee had been talking about creating a unity government, specifically saying the pair talked about the war in Ukraine, preventing censorship and promoting children's' health.

His wife, actress Cheryl Hines, isn't pleased with his decision, Kennedy said on X. He said he was not "terminating" his campaign, merely suspending it, meaning he will remain on the ballot in some noncompetitive states.

Kennedy is the son of Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of John F. Kennedy, Jr.

His announcement was met with disapproval by other members of his politically famous family, who in a statement called it "a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear."

RFK Jr. said: "My family is -- I understand that they're troubled by my decisions. I love my family. I feel like we were raised in a milieu where we were encouraged to debate each other and debate ferociously and passionately about things and still love each other.

"They're free to take their positions on these issues. There are many, many members of my family working at my campaign and who are supporting me."

Trump has said he welcomes Kennedy's support.

In one key issue, Kennedy says "abortion should be legal up until a certain number of weeks, and restricted thereafter."

Trump said it is up to the states to decide legality of abortions.

Vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, an Ohio senator, said during a campaign stop Saturday that Trump would veto a federal abortion ban if Congress passes a bill. The former president's stance on abortion has changed over the years.

Polls show that the race has tightened substantially in key battle ground states since President Joe Biden stepped down and was replaced with Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate.

Trump has campaign appearances scheduled in Wisconsin on Tuesday and in Pennsylvania on Friday with Vance in Michigan on Tuesday.

Harris and running mate Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota resume their campaign bus tour Wednesday in southern Georgia with a rally planned Thursday in Savanah.

Watch: Trump impersonator defends RFK Jr.'s 'brain worm' on right-wing Newsmax

David McAfee
August 25, 2024 

Screenshot

A comedian with an incredible Donald Trump impersonation was asked on Sunday to defend from attacks on Robert F. Kennedy's alleged "brain worm."

One panelist questioned whether Kennedy could actually help Trump convince more independent voters, given the fact that Kennedy himself is known as an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist with several other pieces of political baggage.

Kennedy has previously claimed that a worm ate part of his brain and then died.

After the panelist slammed Kennedy and mentioned the alleged brain worm, the host asked comedian Shawn Farash to respond as Trump, and he did.

Watch below or click the link.

 

Nate Silver's new election model shows RFK Jr. withdrawal 'didn't hurt Kamala'

Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. speaks at the Libertarian National Convention   (Kevin Dietsch/AFP)

IRONICALLY THE DEMOCRATS ARE MORE LIBERTARIAN THAN THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY (C)(R)(TM)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently announced he would suspend his campaign and endorse Donald Trump, but a new model released by pollster Nate Silver shows it "barely made any difference."

Kennedy, who endorsed Trump after reportedly reaching out to Vice President Kamala Harris about a potential cabinet position, was polling at around 5% when he dropped his run. Pundits have since questioned what the move might mean for the election in November.

Election forecaster Nate Silver, who recently told Fox News the election has "shifted" in favor of Harris, Saturday explained what he found in his latest analysis.

"The RFK-less version of the model is ready!" Silver announced over the weekend. He added, "But it barely made any difference."

"Here's an explanation of the simple fix we made, and why it hasn’t yet moved the topline numbers," Silver added, sharing his own article entitled, "We removed RFK Jr. from our model. But it didn't hurt Kamala."

"Like everything else about his presidential campaign, Robert F. Kennedy’s withdrawal from the presidential race was weird," Silver's article states. "Both Trump and Kamala Harris have gained ground versus yesterday’s model run, the last one to include Kennedy. Harris’s polling average has improved from 48.0 percent yesterday to 48.8 percent today (+0.8), while Trump’s has increased from 43.7 to 44.8 (+1.1)."

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) picked up on the new election model, writing, "Translation: RFK Jr. is irrelevant. And weird."

Read the article right here.

She didn’t see her Black heritage in crossword puzzles. So she started publishing her own


Juliana Pache poses for a photo in Washington Square Park in New York, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

BY DEEPTI HAJELA
Updated 10:05 PM MDT, August 20, 2024Share


NEW YORK (AP) — It started a couple of years ago when Juliana Pache was doing a crossword puzzle and got stuck.

She was unfamiliar with the reference that the clue made. It made her think about what a crossword puzzle would look like if the clues and answers included more of some subjects that she WAS familiar with, thanks to her own identity and interests — Black history and Black popular culture.

When she couldn’t find such a thing, Pache decided to do it herself. In January 2023, she created blackcrossword.com, a site that offers a free mini-crossword puzzle every day. And Tuesday marked the release of her first book, “Black Crossword: 100 Mini Puzzles Celebrating the African Diaspora.”

It’s a good moment for it, nearly 111 years after the first crossword appeared in a New York newspaper. Recent years have seen an increasing amount of conversation around representation in crossword puzzles, from who’s constructing them to what words can be used for answers and how the clues are framed. There’s been a push to expand the idea of the kinds of “common knowledge” players would have to fill them out.

“I had never made a crossword puzzle before,” Pache, 32, said with a laugh. “But I was like, I can figure it out.”

And she did.

Made ‘with Black people in mind’

Each puzzle on Pache’s site includes at least a few clues and answers connecting to Black culture. The tagline on the site: “If you know, you know.”

The book is brimming with the kinds of puzzles that she estimates about 2,200 people play daily on her site — squares made up of five lines, each with five spaces. She aims for at least three of the clues to be references to aspects of Black cultures from around the world.

Pache, a native of the New York City borough of Queens with family ties to Cuba and the Dominican Republic, had a couple of goals in mind when she started. Primarily, she wanted to create something that Black people would enjoy.

I’m “making it with Black people in mind,” she said. “And then if anyone else enjoys it, they learn things from it, that’s a bonus but it’s not my focus.”

She’s also trying to show the diversity in Black communities and cultures with the clues and words she uses, and to encourage people from different parts of the African diaspora to learn about each other.

“I also want to make it challenging, not just for people who might be interested in Black culture, but people within Black culture who might be interested in other regions,” she said. “Part of my mission with this is to highlight Black people from all over, Black culture from all over. And I think ... that keeps us learning about each other.”
What, really, is ‘general knowlege’?

While on the surface if might just seem like a game, the knowledge base required for crosswords does say something about what kind of knowledge is considered “general” and “universal” and what isn’t, said Michelle Pera-McGhee, a data journalist at The Pudding, a site that focuses on data-driven stories.

In 2020, Pera-McGhee undertook a data project analyzing crossword puzzles through the decades from a handful of the most well-known media outlets. The project assessed clues and answers that used the names of real people to determine a breakdown along gender and race categories.

Unsurprisingly, the data indicated that for the most part, men were disproportionately more likely than women to be featured, as well as white people compared to racial and ethnic minorities.

It’s “interesting because it’s supposed to be easy,” Pera-McGhee said. “You want ... ideally to reference things that people, everybody knows about because everyone learns about them in school or whatever. ... What are the things that we decide we all should know?”

There are efforts to make crosswords more accessible and representative, including the recently started fellowship for puzzle constructors from underrepresented groups at The New York Times, among the most high-profile crossword puzzles around. Puzzle creators have made puzzles aimed at LGBTQ+ communities, at women, using a wider array of references as Pache is doing.

Bottom line, “it is really cool to see our culture reflected in this medium,” Pache said.

And, Pera-McGhee said, it can be cool to learn new things.

“It’s kind of enriching to have things in the puzzle that you don’t know about,” she said. “It’s not that the experience of not knowing is bad. It’s just that it should maybe be spread out along with the experience of knowing. Both are kind of good in the crossword-solving experience.”

DEEPTI HAJELA
Hajela writes about the ways in which America is changing as part of the AP’s Trends+Culture team. She is based in New York City.