BY MATT BERG
& CROOKED MEDIA

TUESDAY
OCTOBER 15, 2024

Hope he's okay.

- Kamala Harris on X, sending her well wishes to Donald Trump after his bizarre 39-minute dance routine

Hey there! A lot has changed in the decades since we launched this newsletter (okay, just a few years, but it feels like decades…). We figured it was high time to freshen up our look. This will still be the very same What A Day newsletter you’re used to, just with a new ‘fit from our good friends in the Crooked design team.

These next few weeks will be an especially tense time for all of us. But there’s no one I’d rather spend them with than the What A Day fam.

-Matt

MAGA RORSCHACH TEST

Donald Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric is growing increasingly unhinged as Election Day nears. His MAGA fanbase is leaning into a novel coping mechanism: They don’t believe him.

Former President Donald Trump has a long track record of using inflammatory rhetoric to rile up his far-right base and stoke outrage from Democrats. But things are taking a darker turn with just three weeks left (!!!) before Americans decide who should run this country. In recent days, Trump has vowed to deport thousands of Haitian migrants who are legally in the United States, mulled unleashing the military on “radical left lunatics” after the election, and suggested that he wants to outlaw political speech that threatens his grasp on power.
Trump’s mind works in mysterious and demented ways — and it’s often futile to search for logic among his half-baked bloviations. But with the election just a few short weeks away, he seems to be using this ramped-up extremist rhetoric and election denialism to solidify his far-right base, one Democratic strategist explained to What A Day. The plan: Boost the likelihood that MAGA voters will head to the polls in droves, rather than expand Trump’s broad appeal among voters.

The reaction from Trump’s supporters may be even more unsettling than the rhetoric itself. Many who don’t necessarily agree prefer to believe he doesn’t really mean it.

“I don’t think he’ll actually do those things,” my own Uber driver told me in a conversation that turned political during a ride around Washington D.C. last week. He expressed his undying love for Trump, citing the economy and immigration as his top issues. I asked about Trump promising the “largest deportation” in U.S. history and his plan to bomb cartels in Mexico, the United States’ top trading partner. He shrugged. “It’s just politics,” he said.
Lots of MAGA fans have adopted this mode of thinking — treating Trump like a Rorschach inkblot test, and seeing what they want to see. Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) as just the latest Republican ostrich to publicly bury his head as deep into the sand as it will fit. Last night, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked the governor about Trump’s comments about using the military on Americans who lean left. Youngkin said that Trump was referring to undocumented immigrants. “I’m literally reading his quotes,” Tapper fired back, noting that Trump specifically mentioned Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). It was futile. “I don’t believe that’s what he’s saying,” Youngkin replied.
Warnings about a second Trump administration from people who were once in his own camp are ramping up. Former Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley — who infamously walked beside Trump in his military fatigues after peaceful protestors were forcefully dispersed following George Floyd’s death — called Trump “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.” Gen. Michael Hayden, who led the CIA during the Bush administration, wrote on X that “you have to be f***** in the head to think this maniac is fit to be president.”

Imagine ending democracy with a 39-minute onstage dance by a 78-year-old former game show host and would-be American autocrat. To misquote poet TS Elliot: This is how the world ends; not with a bang, nor with a whimper, but with an LOL.

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'A SPECIAL PLACE IN HELL'

Election denier and MAGA fanatic Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) wants to lead the Senate if he wins re-election — a chilling thought, considering Scott makes Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) look almost reasonable. But Florida is a wild place. Scott is leading his challenger, Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-FL), by 7 points, according to the latest polls.

That’s after he pushed misinformation about relief efforts for the two hurricanes that ravaged Florida, skipped a vote on a spending bill that included disaster relief funds last month and spent years hunkered down in a climate change denialism as the state’s former governor (during which he even reportedly banned state employees from using the words “climate change") before conveniently attempting to soften up his public image on climate right after a pair of devastating hurricanes linked to climate change and just weeks before the election.

“There’s a special place in hell for people like that,” Mucarsel-Powell told Tommy Vietor on Pod Save America today. “I'm sorry to be so crude, but we are seeing people in pain, suffering.”

MEANWHILE ON
THE POD...

WHAT ELSE?

The Biden administration warned Israel today that it must ramp up aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip or risk losing U.S. funding for weapons. The U.S. gave Israel 30 days to do so, marking the first time Biden has threatened to withhold weapons from the country. But Israel’s leadership has routinely rebuffed the White House’s requests over the past year, so its TBD on how far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will respond to this stiff-arming.

Israel’s offensive in Lebanon has displaced more than 400,000 children in the past three weeks, according to the United Nations, as a top U.N. official warned of a “lost generation.” In Gaza today, Israel killed at least 50 Palestinians in airstrikes, according to local health officials.

A judge in Georgia ruled today that the state must certify election results no matter what. It’s the latest in an ongoing legal battle in Georgia about the election, where the Trump-allied State Election Board ruled that counties must hand-count votes — a mammoth undertaking that could delay the results for weeks or months. TBH I would love it if Georgia would get OFF my mind for once this election cycle.

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R-NC) is suing CNN over its bombshell report that he posted explicitly racist and sexual posts on a porn messaging board before entering politics. Robinson, who’s running for governor, has denied making the comments — which were posted by accounts reportedly tied to him — and called the article reckless and defamatory. And, he might have added, when this guy says you’re the one being reckless on the internet, you should listen!

LOOK NO FURTHER THAN CROOKED MEDIA

This fall, the election could reshape the Supreme Court for generations. The president holds the power to appoint justices, and those justices will make critical decisions on everything from reproductive rights to voting laws. Stay calm and stay informed by tuning into Strict Scrutiny. Armed with three law degrees and plenty of sharp opinions, Melissa Murray, Kate Shaw, and Leah Litman break down every case and decision, so you can head to the polls informed and confident. Listen to Strict Scrutiny every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts—and now on YouTube too!

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE EMAIL

All students at UC San Diego have to take a course on climate change before graduating to “prepare students for the future they really will encounter.” Cool, now let’s slap the same requirement on admissions to the U.S. Senate.

Georgia resident Jimmy Carter, who turned 100 years old earlier this month, reportedly wanted to live long enough to cast a vote for Kamala Harris. Well, early voting in the former president’s state began today and he’s still around! Peanut Farmers for Harris-Walz, unite!