Friday, September 27, 2024 BY MATT BERG & CROOKED MEDIA

- Donald Trump at a recent rally, after referencing Kamala Harris’s experience working at the fast food chain

Dan Osborn was talking to voters in a Nebraska bar when an ad came on the TV, accusing the Independent candidate for Senate of being a “dangerous Trojan horse” for Kamala Harris’s policies. Everyone in the bar laughed, Osborn recalled.

Democrats are fighting tooth-and-nail to keep control of the Senate, but Nebraska isn’t one of the states they ever thought would be in play. And it’s not — for the left. Independent candidate Dan Osborn, a mechanic, Navy veteran, and labor organizer, turned down an endorsement from the state’s Democratic Party, pissing them off. But there are signs that Osborn is giving the incumbent, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE), a closer race than anyone was expecting: A recent poll shows him barely ahead of Fischer, several internal polls from the Independent’s campaign have him within the margin of error. Republicans are beginning to panic, evidenced by a GOP super PAC devoting nearly $480,000 to running ads against Osborn. Fischer’s ads try to paint the first-time politician — who spearheaded a two-month strike against Kellogg’s in 2021 — as nothing more than a left-wing hack.

When the “Trojan horse” ad came on, “I'm standing right there in front of them, and they can see two with their own eyes that it's false. Especially claiming that I support abortion up to nine months. Nobody does, I’ve never met one single person that does,” Osborn told What A Day. As for why he turned down the Democratic endorsement: “I'm not going to be beholden to a party boss. I'm not going to be beholden to a corporation. I want to be beholden to the people of Nebraska the way the framers of the Constitution set this whole thing up. It's pretty simple.”

That is a pretty simple way of putting it, but there’s more strategy than Osborn lets on. In Nebraska, there are no elected Democrats in Congress or in statewide office, so keeping his distance from the left could be his best chance at a major upset. That, and running NASCAR-themed ads painting Fischer as a wealthy politician who doesn’t give her constituents the time of day, accompanied by twangy blues rock tunes.

Several of Osborn’s policies could be characterized as progressive, but they’re rooted in a belief that the government should play a small role in people’s everyday lives.

On the economy, Osborn aligns with Harris’s rhetoric: “The middle-class and small businesses shoulder our tax burden. That’s not right. We can cut middle-class and small business tax rates,” his website reads. He wants to legalize weed, stop giving subsidies to pharmaceutical companies, and raise the federal minimum wage to $12 per hour to match Nebraska’s. One of his core policy proposals is imposing term limits in Congress. He’s also in favor of keeping the government out of citizens’ private lives: Osborn believes abortion should be a decision between a woman and her doctor. He’s also a gun rights advocate.

Asked how he differs from Democrats: “We need to do something on the border. I'm all about protecting individual liberty, stopping government overreach, [I’m] for the Second Amendment,” Osborn said. “I suppose you could blame both sides for the border. This is not a new issue, but the fact still remains that a tremendous amount of drugs and undocumented workers are flowing through the ports of entry, and we’ve got to secure that.”

Fischer, who is running for a third term, has already received a coveted endorsement from former President Donald Trump. That holds tremendous weight in the state, where all but two counties voted for Trump (beating Biden by nearly 200,000 votes) in 2020. Spokespeople for Fischer didn’t respond to What A Day’s request for comment.

No matter how close some of the polls are, Osborn faces a tough fight. But his campaign — win or lose — is an example of how MAGA candidates can be challenged, even in the most conservative strongholds in America.

Sen. JD Vance’s (R-OH) past criticism of his new boss is well-documented, but he would always defend it by saying that he was impressed by Trump’s work as president. Well… newly unearthed Twitter DMs from 2020 are making that argument void.

“Trump has just so thoroughly failed to deliver on his economic populism (excepting a disjointed China policy),” Vance wrote in February of that year, per the Washington Post. In June, he predicted that “Trump will probably lose.” Well, he was right about that! Vance’s campaign is claiming that the senator was blaming Republicans in Congress for thwarting Trump’s agenda.

It’s the latest example of the Trump campaign either failing to vet their veep candidate or not believing his comments would be detrimental to the ticket if made public.

On Thursday, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein published a Trump campaign memo, allegedly leaked by Iranian hackers, showing the campaign’s vetting of Vance. As the xxxxxx points out, Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comment — which enraged scores of American women including Taylor Swift — wasn’t flagged in the document. Great work, guys!

In partnership with Crooked Ideas’s Anti-Doom Initiative: a conversation about the climate crisis that centers on progress, not panic.

Summer officially ended this week. But don’t let fall temperatures fool you. The Earth just passed a critical climate milestone: Twelve consecutive months of global average temperatures 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. That means the global warming future the Paris Agreement — and climate scientists — are trying to avoid may already be here.

The Inflation Reduction Act rang up the largest-ever U.S. investment in climate change when President Joe Biden signed it into law in August 2022. It included nearly $400 billion in spending and incentives on everything from renewable energy technology to cleaner farming to credits when you buy an electric car or install solar panels on your roof. The idea, according to supporters, was to embed carbon-reduction into the U.S. economy so that combatting soaring temperatures translates to jobs and economic growth.

But big bills become big laws that can take a long time to implement. And most of that $400 billion hasn’t been spent yet. That means the 2024 election could have a huge impact on how the IRA’s record climate provisions fare. So what could the IRA’s future be in administrations led by Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump?

Harris has changed some of her environmental positions from when she first ran for president in 2020. The one that made the most news is that she no longer supports a ban on fracking, a method of drilling for natural gas. But Harris is unambiguous about claiming the IRA, regularly pointing out that she cast the tie-breaking Senate vote that passed the bill through Congress.

Harris is pledging to continue or expand the IRA’s credits and incentives for clean energy infrastructure and home energy production. She also promises to speed up permitting for construction of energy-efficient buildings and higher-efficiency electrical grid infrastructure.

Trump has attacked the IRA’s climate policies as a “Green New scam” and pledged to rescind the law’s estimated $145 billion in unspent direct climate funds in favor of new domestic fossil fuel production. That could be easier if Trump makes good on a plan to take more direct presidential control under spending passed by Congress.

Rescinding or altering the IRA’s tax credits would require authorization from Congress, and that could inhibit Trump’s ability to go after the incentives, according to analysts. That’s mostly because the IRA’s benefits and projects have spread to Republican districts that lawmakers would likely be reluctant to part with. Trump regularly attacks wind and and solar power projects and has pledged to scrap off-shore wind projects incentivized through the IRA “on day one” of his presidency. He’s regularly referred to climate change as “a hoax” and pledged to again pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accords.

One last fact to keep in mind: It’s not just the presidential race that matters. Any effort to expand the IRA would likely meet stiff resistance from a Republican-led Congress. One controlled by Democrats would probably block any attempt by Trump to rescind or repeal the law. That means that down-ballot races for House and Senate will also be critical to the future of the IRA.

Philadelphia temporarily fixed I-95 in 12 days. Pod Save America permanently fixed democracy in about, oh, around 90 minutes, give or take an audience game? That’s what they’ll say after their live show Sunday, October 6 at the Met Philadelphia, where they'll be joined by guest host, MSNBC’s Symone Sanders Townsend, and guest Senator Bob Casey. This is the biggest venue they’ve had, and tickets are selling FAST. You don’t want to miss it! So get your tickets now at crooked.com/events, and, as a special little kiss on the head, we’re giving you 15% off all non-VIP tickets with code PODSAVE15, but only for a limited time!

At least 40 people were killed in three states as Category 4 Hurricane Helene ripped through the southeastern United States. More than four million people were also left without power, while winds reached up to 140mph.

In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly this morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue striking Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. His remarks came hours after he also said Israel “shares the aims” of the U.S. and allies, which want Israel and Hezbollah to reach a ceasefire to negotiate peace. But the conflict is escalating, and Israel targeted Hezbollah’s leader in a major bombing on Friday.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams pleaded not guilty to federal bribery charges on Friday. You can always count on the New York Post to come up with a good/bad pun and, boy, did they deliver with Friday’s cover that read “Grand Theft Ottoman.”

Actress Maggie Smith, known for her roles in “Downton Abbey” and as Professor McGonagall in the “Harry Potter” movies, died at 89 years old.

Lumen is the world’s first handheld metabolic coach. It’s a device that measures your metabolism through your breath.

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Actress Jean Smart is hosting SNL this weekend, fresh off of her third Emmy win for "Hacks." Smart and "Beetlejuice" actor Michael Keaton, who are both 73, will be the oldest hosts this season, and they’re both national treasures. Sometimes Boomers are good, okay???

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