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Donald Trump debated Vice President Kamala Harris last night (September 10) on ABC News, and is now speaking up regarding his showing and outside critique of the debate. In an appearance on a Fox News morning show, Donald Trump blasted two anchors from the network, stating he would not want them modering a potential second debate.
Donald Trump phoned into the Fox & Friends morning show on Wednesday (September 11), accusing moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis of heavily fact-checking his statements and not doing the same for his opponent.
Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy asked the former president if he would consider holding another debate after Fox News offered the opportunity for an undetermined October date. Trump used this moment to attack Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, based on their criticism of his debate showing against Vice President Harris.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to have Martha and Bret,” Trump said. “I’d love to have somebody else other than Martha and Bret. I’d love to have, frankly, Sean [Hannity] or Jesse [Watters] or Laura [Ingraham]. You know, somebody else. Let’s give let’s give other people a shot.”
Trump continued, “But I didn’t think Martha and Bret were so good last night. Yes, he was. Jesse was fantastic last night. What he said, Jesse. Really got it. Jesse said to Trump once that debate that was we won that debate by a lot. And I wouldn’t want Martha involved.”
When asked if he would accept the October debate offer from Fox News, Trump appeared to sidestep the offer and claimed victory on the debate stage over Harris.
“Well, I’d be less inclined to because we had a great night. We won the debate. We had a terrible, terrible network. I think they were terrible. They should be embarrassed,” Trump said of ABC News. “I mean, they kept correcting me and I said what I said was largely right or I hope it was right. But what they said was absolutely wrong.”
Vice President Harris has said she welcomes a second debate with Donald Trump.
Live on Fox, Trump insults the two Fox anchors who have been pitched as debate moderators – Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum – and says “I wouldn’t want to have” them. He says he would want Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters or Laura Ingraham to host instead. (An obvious non-starter.) pic.twitter.com/uXVJtnYn8L
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 11, 2024
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Photo: Getty
Former president Donald Trump said a lot of outlandish (and demonstrably untrue) things during his Tuesday night (Sept. 10) presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, from claiming people were aborting babies after they’re born to saying immigrants were eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, […]
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are making friendship bracelets, taking the moment and tasting it after earning Taylor Swift‘s endorsement.
Soon after the pop star finally broke her silence on the 2024 presidential election, throwing her support behind the Democratic ticket with an Instagram post signed “Childless Cat Lady” Tuesday night (Sept. 10), the VP and her running mate unveiled beaded bracelets spelling out “Harris-Walz” on their online store. The accessories have become a staple in Swiftie culture since the beginning of the Eras Tour, and now, American fans voting blue this year can show their support while adding a new token to their wrists.
“Are you ready for it? 🔥 Harris-Walz friendship bracelets have hit the store!” Team Kamala tweeted just after Swift gave her seal of approval.
At press time, the bracelets are already sold out. Listed at $20 for a pack of two, the accessories will help raise money for the Harris Victory Fund.
The new merchandise comes amid celebrations across the Democratic party over finally securing Swift’s public approval, with the “Karma” singer’s endorsement having arguably been the most highly anticipated of any celebrity. Swift ended up waiting to speak out until moments after Harris finished debating Republican opponent Donald Trump on ABC News, sharing an outtake from her 2023 TIME Person of the Year photoshoot — featuring her cat Benjamin Button — and writing that she was backing Harris “because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”
“I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” the 14-time Grammy winner continued in her message, racking up 8-million-plus “likes” in the span of 12 hours. “I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”
Since then, Harris has used Swift’s Lover single “The Man” at a post-debate appearance, and Walz has said that he’s “incredibly grateful” to the star. “I say that as a fellow cat owner,” he added in a post-debate interview with MSNBC. “That was eloquent and that was clear and that’s the type of courage we need in America to stand up.”
Trump also weighed in. “She’s a very liberal person, she seems to always endorse a Democrat and she’ll probably pay a price for it in the marketplace,” the twice-impeached ex-POTUS told Fox & Friends of the musician. “I like Brittany [Mahomes], I think Brittany’s great. Brittany got a lot of news last week she’s a big MAGA fan, that’s the one I like much better than Taylor Swift.”
See the Swift-inspired Harris-Walz friendship bracelets below.
When Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for president on Tuesday (Sept. 10), the singer said she was spurred to action by her fears about artificial intelligence — namely, an incident last month in which Donald Trump posted AI-generated images that falsely claimed the superstar’s support.
Swift’s endorsement, which landed on Instagram just minutes after the conclusion of the Harris-Trump debate, called the Democratic nominee a “steady-handed, gifted leader” who “fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.” But before those reasons, she pointed first to last month’s deepfake debacle.
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“It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” Swift wrote. “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”
Her fears are well-founded, as Swift has been one most prominent victims of AI deepfakes. At the start of 2024, a flood of fake, sexually explicit images of Swift were posted to the social media site X (formerly Twitter). Some were viewed millions of times before they were removed.
At the time, Woodrow Hartzog, a professor at Boston University School of Law who studies privacy and technology law, told Billboard that the Swift deepfakes highlighted a “particularly toxic cocktail” that was bubbling up on social media in 2024: “It’s an existing problem, mixed with these new generative AI tools and a broader backslide in industry commitments to trust and safety.”
Then last month, Trump posted several AI-generated images to social media falsely suggesting Swift had endorsed him. Several showed women in t-shirts with the slogan “Swifties for Trump”; another showed Swift herself, dressed up as Uncle Sam alongside the message, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.” Trump himself responded to the false endorsement: “I accept!”
At the time, experts told Billboard that Swift likely had grounds to file a lawsuit over Trump’s phony endorsement by citing her right of publicity — the legal power to control how your name, image and likeness are used by others.
But they also predicted — accurately, it turns out — that the star was better off fighting Trump’s fake endorsement with a legitimate endorsement of her own, broadcast across social media to her millions of die-hard fans: “I think Swift probably has more effective political rather than legal recourse here.”
Whether or not Swift’s endorsement has its intended effect, the next president will have a chance to shape federal policy on AI and deepfakes. Numerous bills aimed at regulating the cutting-edge tech are pending before Congress, including one that would create a federal right of publicity that would allow people like Swift to more easily sue over the unauthorized use of their likeness.
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Donald Trump went full racist old man in his debate with VP Kamala Harris last night (September 10). One particular moment that will live in infamy is when he tapped into a debunked lie that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
Seriously.
It started when Harris successfully baited Cheeto by clowning the dwindling crowd sizes of his rallies. While noting his use of movie characters (“You will see during the course of Trump‘s rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about how windmills cause cancer,” she said), she then lit him up with, “What you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early,” and that’s when his brain went on the fritz, allegedly.
To this (as the moderators tried to move on), Trump responded that no one attends her rallies (which is a lie) and then when he finally proceeded to “answer” the question that was posed about immigration, things got…weird. The former president invoked an already debunked, egregiously racist hoax that Haitian immigrants are eating pet dogs in Springfield, which was amplified by JD Vance.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs!” yelled Trump. “The people that come in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”
The moderators let him finish, and then fact-checked him—and it inadvertently was hilarious. Co-moderator David Muir said ABC News contacted the city manager of Springfield, who said there were “no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.” To this, Trump interjected that he “seen people on television.”
Oh well, if he saw it on TV…—that was sarcasm. Muir then closed the deal saying, “I’m not taking this from television, I’m taking it from the city manager.”
Is this your Orange King? Check out reactions to Trump’s wild accusations of pet homicide in the gallery.
“And then he said, ‘They’re eating the dogs! They’re eating the pets!’” pic.twitter.com/hwgDSejs1c
— Ellie Hall (@ellievhall) September 11, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris appeared to be feeling confident after Tuesday night’s (Sept. 10) first, and possibly only, debate with Republican candidate Donald Trump. In video from the Democratic presidential candidate’s watch party, Harris was seen addressing the crowd following what many pundits called was her commanding performance in the often tense 90-minute showdown with the twice-impeached former President, telling them, “Hard work is good work and we will win, we will win!”
But more pointedly, Harris then walked off the stage to a very apropos Taylor Swift song, shortly after the pop superstar gave her enthusiastic endorsement to the Democratic ticket of Harris and her VP pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. As the audience cheered, Harris exited the party with Swift’s 2019 female empowerment anthem “The Man” blasting through the speakers.
In the same way that Swift is fond of conjuring diamond-precise mic drop moments that speak for themselves, Harris’ choice of the Lover track said it all without her having to say anything else. “I’d be a fearless leader/ I’d be an alpha type/ When everyone believes ya/ What’s that like?” Swift sings on the tune about society’s chauvinistic double standards.
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“I’m so sick of running as fast as I can/ Wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man/ And I’m so sick of them coming at me again/ ‘Cause if I was a man/ Then I’d be the man,” goes the chorus to the song blasted out of the speakers at the party celebrating Harris, who is vying to become the nation’s first female President.
The Swift nod came after the singer threw her hat in the ring to endorse the Swift/Walz ticket. “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Swift wrote on Tuesday night just minutes after the end of the debate that marked the first-ever meeting between convicted felon Trump and former prosecutor Harris. “I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”
Swift’s endorsement also got the thumbs-up from Walz. “I am incredibly grateful to Taylor Swift and I say that as a fellow cat owner,” Walz told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow after she read him Swift’s lengthy, heartfelt Instagram statement that was signed “childless cat lady” in the feline-loving singer’s not-so-subtle dig at Trump VP pick JD Vance’s belittling description of what he described as the Democratic party’s voting base in a 2021 interview.
“That was eloquent and that was clear and that’s the type of courage we need in America to stand up,” Walz continued. “We’ve seen it out of those Republicans who were at the DNC. We’ve seen it out of women who would like to have their personal lives kept personal but are forced to go out there because they nearly died because they can’t get abortion services in a pregnancy. And now you have somebody like Taylor Swift coming out making that very clear. This would be the opportunity, Swifties: KamalaHarris.com, get on over there, get things going.”
Shortly after the Swift endorsement, Harris’ official X account reposted the singer’s statement, writing, “Ready for it,” along with a heart hands emoji.
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Entertainment mogul Oprah Winfrey is not done throwing her political support behind Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid to be the first Black woman — and woman in general — to serve as the president of the United States.
After showing up and showing out for Harris during the Democratic National Convention to honor Harris, who she called “the best of America,” Oprah will host a live-streamed event next week called “Unite for America” alongside political action group Win With Black Women and nearly 150 other groups that support the vice president.
“This ‘Unite for America’ call will be a powerful moment that demonstrates the urgency that we all feel in this moment and more importantly the impact of our collective activation to move our nation forward with Vice President Kamala Harris as our 47th President,” Jotaka Eaddy, social impact strategist and founder of WWBW, said in a statement, according to Deadline. “I cannot think of anyone better to host this event than Oprah Winfrey, who has brought Americans of different generations, backgrounds, and experiences together in conversation for decades.”
In July, on the same day President Joe Biden announced he would be stepping aside for Harris to run in November, WWBW launched an online event that nearly 100,000 attended, and the group raised more than $1.6 million within two hours. After that, damn near every demographic in America had its own group supporting Harris.
From Deadline:
After WWBW, more virtual meet-ups were soon in the mix with Win With Black Men, White Dudes for Harris, South Asians for Harris, Cat Ladies for Kamala, Comics for Kamala, White Women: Answer the Call and Show Up for Kamala Harris, Republicans for Harris, Latino Men for Kamala and of course, leaning in to a certain much desired endorsement, Swifties for Kamala. In the six weeks that the VP has been a candidate and now the Democrats’ official nominee for president, the Zoom call gatherings have raised over $20 million for her and running mate Gov. Tim Walz’ campaign.
(On a side note, the MAGA world has been extra salty about the “White Dudes for Harris” group. They don’t feel the same way about “Blacks for Trump” though.)
The virtual event kicks off on September 19 at 5 pm Pacific time and 8 pm Eastern time. Supporters who would like to view the shindig can RSVP for it here.
Donald Trump called into Fox & Friends before 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning (Sept. 11) to talk about Tuesday night’s (Sept. 10) debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, and while the hosts listened as he gave his spin on how he did in what may be the only time he faces off against his Democratic opponent, the most burning question was obvious.
What did Trump think of Taylor Swift‘s enthusiastic endorsement of Harris in the moments after the debate ended?
“Well, I actually like, uh… Mrs., uh [laughs] I actually like Mrs. Mahomes much better if you want to know the truth. She’s a big trump fan,” Trump said, in seeming reference to Brittany Mahomes, wife of Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Current co-owner and former soccer player who was swept into Swift’s orbit last year when the singer began dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
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“I was not a Taylor swift fan, it was just a question of time. She couldn’t, uh, you couldn’t possibly endorse Biden. You look at Biden you couldn’t possibly endorse him,” Trump continued during the interview in which he described Brittany as “the wife of the great quarterback.”
“But she’s [Swift] a very liberal person, she seems to always endorse a democrat and she’ll probably pay a price for it in the marketplace,” Trump continued of the star who is about to wrap up her sold-out Eras Tour, which is on track to be one of the highest-grossing tours in music history. “But no, I like Brittany, I think Brittany’s great. Brittany got a lot of news last week she’s a big MAGA fan, that’s the one I like much better than Taylor Swift.”
Up until last week, the women were frequently seen passionately cheering on their significant others from luxury boxes across the country on game day. However, it appeared they were at a distance from each other during last Thursday’s Chiefs season kick-off, a week after Brittany Mahomes drew criticism for appearing to like a Trump Instagram post outlining his party’s 2024 platform.
Convicted felon Trump quickly thanked Mahomes for her apparent support, writing on his Truth Social platform, “I want to thank beautiful Brittany Mahomes for so strongly defending me, and the fact that MAGA is the greatest and most powerful Political Movement in the History of our now Failing Country.”
Mahomes later responded to criticism of her like by saying in an Instagram Story, writing, “I mean honestly, To be a hater as an adult, you have to have some deep rooted issues you refuse to heal from childhood. There’s no reason your brain is fully developed and you hate to see others doing well.”
Despite what appeared to be a chill in the friendship, just days later, the two women were spotted hugging it out at the U.S. Open on Sunday, seemingly dousing rumors of a rift.
Trump, who insisted to the Fox & Friends crew that he decisively won the debate, calling it “my best debate, actually,” was widely criticized by media pundits for his often rambling, vague answers during the tense, 90-minute showdown in which he frequently talked over the moderators. While Harris repeatedly pushed back on what she described as Trump’s “same old tired playbook” of lies and obfuscations, many pundits zeroed in on the twice-impeached former President’s false claim that Haitian immigrants are “eating dogs.. eating the cats,” an internet rumor that that debate co-moderator David Muir swiftly fact-checked in real time.
The bizarre, debunked rumor had been amplified a day earlier by Trump’s VP pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who feline fan Swift took a playful swipe at in her Harris endorsement by signing off as a “childless cat lady.” The latter was a reference to one of Vance’s controversial 2021 claims that Democrats were promoting an “antifamily” agenda led by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
Before Tuesday night, Swift had not endorsed a candidate yet in the 2024 presidential election, despite backing the 2020 ticket of President Joe Biden and Harris after a career in which she largely avoided weighing in on politics until Trump entered the White House in 2016. In her statement, the singer said her endorsement was driven, in part, by a false AI-generated image purporting to show her endorsing Trump that the former one-term president shared on his social feeds last month.
“It really conjured up my fears around AI and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” she wrote. “The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth. I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”
During the Sept. 10 debate against Kamala Harris, Donald Trump stunned viewers with the baseless claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were “eating the dogs and cats” of local residents, referencing a viral Facebook post that circulated in the area.
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“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” Trump said. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country and it’s a shame.”
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Debate moderator David Muir swiftly debunked the claim, saying that the city manager of Springfield, Ohio, said there were “no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
Trump replied, “People on television say my dog was taken and used as food.” Muir reiterated, “Again the Springfield city manager says there’s no evidence of that.”
Understandably, the wild allegation quickly became the most talked-about moment of the night.
Flavor Flav wasted no time jumping into the conversation, quipping on X: “Pet Shop Boys better stay inside and lock the doors. You too, Snoop Dogg. And Pitbull.”
Other celebrities reacted with disbelief. Bette Midler called out the claim directly, tweeting, “Now he’s spreading that lie about eating cats,” while noting debate moderator David Muir had disproven Trump’s statement.
Pet Shop Boys better stay inside and lock the doors. You too Snoop Dogg. And Pitbull.— FLAVOR FLAV (@FlavorFlav) September 11, 2024
“People don’t leave my rallies.” Hahahahahaha. Now he’s spreading that lie about eating cats. Muir says NO PETS have been harmed.— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) September 11, 2024
Trump’s vice-presidential running mate J.D. Vance, who shared the viral post on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Sept. 9, later doubled down on the pet-eating story in the post-debate spin room.
“We just heard a 911 call from a citizen in Springfield earlier today that some of the immigrants were capturing geese at the local pond, slaughtering them and killing them,” Vance told reporters. When pressed about the claim that migrants were eating pets, he responded, “I don’t know what are the full spate of animals being consumed there, but I know the geese are certainly among them.”
In a statement, Springfield police further clarified, “There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
Reuters also fact-checked the claim, confirming there was no evidence to support widespread incidents of pet theft or harm by Haitian migrants.
The outlandish claim about pet-eating dominated social media, with many left shocked by the absurdity of the situation. Check out some of the best reactions below.
taylor swift heard people were eating cats & she stood tf up— bella (@a90strend) September 11, 2024
Wow, cats have had a hell of an election season huh?— Jasmine Wright (@JasJWright) September 11, 2024
Gov. Tim Walz has responded to Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as she runs for the office of President of the United States – and as a “fellow cat owner,” he’s happy. Walz, the Minnesota governor who is Harris’ VP pick on the Democratic ticket for the President of the United States, […]