Should the press be doing more to scrutinize Donald Trump's age? If so, how exactly?
Critics say Tuesday's debate where Trump confused Virginia and West Virginia, promoted racist internet rumors and repeatedly lost his train of thought is the latest on-camera evidence of his deterioration. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries asked reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday, "Can someone give this guy a cognitive test? It's not clear to me that he's actually mentally fit to do the job."
Some of you have written to me in recent days observing a double standard between coverage of Trump and President Biden, specifically with regard to age. The biggest difference I see is the reaction from Democrats and Republicans. After Biden fumbled his June debate, the calls came from inside the house. Criticism and concern from members of Biden's own party drove the ensuing news coverage. There are no equivalent calls coming from Trump's party. (Just anonymous GOP sources griping that Trump couldn't resist taking the bait from Kamala Harris.)
As a result, questions about Trump's mental acuity mostly come from his political opponents, making a bipartisan concern (solid majorities of Americans doubt his mental and physical fitness) sound, well, partisan. "He's decompensating – his language, how he thinks, how he speaks," Philippe Reines, who played Trump in Harris debate prep, told Kaitlan Collins last night. Reines likened Trump to a "malfunctioning appliance" or a broken laptop computer with a drained battery.
Trump is like "one of those big balloons when you stick a pin in and it swirls around the room until it comes down to nothing," Nancy Pelosi told Anderson Cooper last night. She said "he's just greatly diminished."
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Tuesday's debate was the most-watched TV show in the United States since the Super Bowl in February. The telecast drew an estimated 67.1 million viewers across 17 television networks in the U.S. – and that's not even counting other streaming platforms, radio networks, and international outlets.
>> Hadas Gold's story notes that "ABC, which hosted the debate, drew the most viewers with more than 19 million people tuning in, followed by NBC with more than 10 million, and Fox News with more than 9 million."
>> Yesterday we asked: Will they meet again? Today there is still no answer. Trump remains noncommittal about a rematch.
>> The aforementioned Philippe Reines predicted last night, "He is going to do another one. He can't leave it like this."
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>> CNN.com's lead story right now: "Allies left doing post-debate cleanup for Trump"
>> On "The Lead," Jake Tapper said Trump's "more than a little bit racist lie about Haitians" eating pets in Springfield, Ohio "must be the craziest subject to ever rear its head in American presidential debate."
>> Allison Morrow's analysis for CNN: "Trump is drowning in the misinformation swamp he helped create."
>> Shares in $DJT are down about 2% in pre-market trading this morning, after falling 10% to a new record low following Trump's debate performance.
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Now that Harris's first debate is in the rearview mirror, Harris campaign advisers have "made clear she will be doing more media interviews, including with unconventional outlets," Politico reports, "even as some around her bristle at what they view as an unhealthy obsession with the issue by Republican rivals and the Beltway media."
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Noam Galai/Getty Images for MTV |
Taylor Swift took home the top award at last night's MTV VMAs, winning video of the year for her track "Fortnight" with Post Malone. Accepting the award, Swift encouraged fans to vote in the November election. "Please register to vote for something else that’s very important," the pop superstar said less than 24 hours after endorsing Harris. Meanwhile, Chappell Roan also made her VMA debut and won best new artist.
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Elizabeth Wagmeister and Betsy Klein write: Swift's endorsement – now with more than 10 million likes on Instagram – doubled as an encouragement to register to vote, and she may already be having an impact, according to the General Services Administration. In the first 15 hours after Swift's post, there were about 338,000 visitors to Vote.gov "referred from the custom URL created and shared by Ms. Swift," the federal agency said. The group Vote.org also said it saw a 585% spike in engagement around the debate and Swift’s endorsement. "Swift's impact on voter engagement is undeniable," Vote.org CEO Andrea Hailey said in a statement.
>> Reality check: Ultimately we'll never know exactly how many people vote this fall due to Swift's post.
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Five more notes about the Swift news:
>> Swift's Instagram post has now surpassed 10 million "likes."
>> Terrific line in the NYT's analysis: "Swift, who knows all too well what it is like to have men try to claim what is hers, seemed eager to assert control as she spoke directly to her 283-million-strong Instagram following."
>> "Brat Summer" is over, but the Harris campaign is leaning into "Fall, Taylor’s Version:" As The Wrap's Ross A. Lincoln reports here, the campaign played Swift's "The Man" during a post-debate rally on Tuesday night, and sold Swift-style friendship bracelets that swiftly (get it?) sold out.
>> Peter Kafka noticed that Swift opted not to post her Harris support on Elon Musk's X.
>> Thank you to every reader who wrote in to flag my Harris/Swift typo yesterday 😊
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Murdoch's secret succession drama |
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images |
The Murdoch family is about to travel to the Nevada desert for a secret battle over succession in an obscure Reno courtroom. We know it's listed on the docket as "The Matter of the Doe 1 Trust, PR23-00813" – but "nearly everything else related to the case remains sealed," Hadas Gold reports.
The court is scheduled to hold evidentiary hearings next week. CNN and other news outlets are petitioning to unseal the proceedings, and a decision from the court on media access could come at any time...
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"Sean Hannity's opening monologue Wednesday about 'illegals' was interrupted when the show’s feed abruptly cut to black. As a graphic blared about 'terror at the border,' Hannity began talking about how Democrats 'will have blood on their hands,'" and then the feed went dark for two minutes, The Daily Beast reports. After it was fixed, "Hannity returned to jokingly blame a 'left-wing radical, liberal conspiracy,'" then added, "I don’t really believe that, for you idiots in the media that will print that tomorrow."
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Altman at the White House today |
Matt Egan reports: Open AI CEO Sam Altman, Google senior executive Ruth Porat, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and other tech execs are set to meet with top US officials at the White House today. The meeting, which hasn’t been previously reported, is the first time senior W.H. officials will sit down with tech leadership to discuss how to quench AI’s insatiable thirst for energy. Egan has more here.
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>> Voice actors are divided on the use of A.I. to posthumously keep James Earl Jones’ Darth Vader voice alive. (AP)
>> ESPN is pushing out A.I. summaries of women’s soccer games, but the "very bland, basic write-ups" are "already missing the point," Wes Davis writes. (The Verge)
>> The Garden Island, a Hawaii-based newspaper, is using a low-quality A.I. to produce video newscasts "against the wishes" of the parent company's unionized journalists. A union rep is likening it to "digital colonialism." (404 Media)
>> Adobe is previewing Firefly, "the generative AI video model it plans to release later this year," trained "exclusively on licensed content." (Axios)
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Amanda Hoover has joined Business Insider... Victoria Kim is the NYT's next Australia correspondent... Adrián Blanco is Wash Post's new graphics assignment editor based in Europe...
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Sandra Gonzalez and Elizabeth Wagmeister write: A complaint against Sean “Diddy” Combs filed Tuesday in New York federal court is the tenth against the producer since last November and the ninth overall accusing him of sexual assault. In the new filing, Dawn Richard, a former member of Danity Kane, accused Combs of sexual battery, sexual harassment and false imprisonment, among other allegations. Richard also alleges that then-Interscope Records chief Jimmy Iovine witnessed one instance of Combs’ abusive behavior.
Iovine is not named as a defendant in the suit. Reps for Iovine and Interscope, didn't respond to requests for comment. More here...
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>> Warner Bros' "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" is set to top the box office once again with $40 to 60 million on its second weekend. (Boxoffice Pro)
>> "Police in Nashville are crediting rock legend Jon Bon Jovi with coming to a woman’s aid on the Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge on Tuesday night." (CNN)
>> "Neil Gaiman is understood to have offered to step back from the third and final season of Prime Video‘s fantasy drama 'Good Omens'" after four women accused him of sexual assault – allegations that he has denied. (Deadline)
>> Rachel Williams, a friend of Anna Sorokin who last year sued Netflix, is looking to obtain the confidential notes of Jessica Pressler, the author of the article that inspired the show. (Business Insider)
>> Josh Brolin opted to not star in HBO’s “Green Lantern” series. (THR)
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