The Week Ahead

October 20, 2024

This is not going to be one of those ho-hum, just like any other week kind of weeks. Over the weekend, Donald Trump talked about the size of Arnold Palmer's penis and called Kamala Harris a “shit vice president” while an adoring crowd cheered.

Harris’ response? She told MSNBC’s Al Sharpton, “the American people deserve so much better … What you see in my opponent … really is—it demeans the office and I have said—and I am very clear about this—Donald Trump should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States.”

Trump’s acolyte Elon Musk continues to try and throw money at people to get them to vote for Trump. This weekend, he upped the ante, saying he would award a million dollars a day, or rather, that America PAC would, to a Pennsylvania voter who has signed his petition of support for the First and Second Amendments. Pennsylvania, of course, is one of, if not the key state for Trump’s path to the 270 votes necessary to win the Electoral college.

Legal experts are debating whether this is an outright violation of the law, or merely “lawful but awful.” But it’s a tough mouthful to chew, considering that it comes from the party that passed a law prohibiting people from passing out food and water bottles to voters waiting in long lines in Georgia. The concern articulated by Georgia Republicans who passed that law was that a little snack might change how people, those who were so intent on casting a ballot that they were willing to stand in an hours-long line to do it, ended up voting. DOJ’s view historically has been that you can give people assistance or aid them with something that makes it easier to vote—like giving someone water so they don’t pass out while waiting in a long line after a long day at work. But you can’t pay someone to vote the way you want them to.

So far, no word on whether the Justice Department, state officials, or private parties will try to take legal action to rein him in. I’m told Musk gave out a second million dollar check today.

Nothing is normal about this campaign. I’m sure that most of you, like me, have long since abandoned any pretense that it is. The press needs to do that too and dispense with the so-called sane washing where people try to come up with a rational explanation for what Trump does. The bottom line is simple: Donald Trump has no business running for the presidency. It’s increasingly difficult to dismiss the notion that Republican kingmakers are well aware of his incapacity but are intent on using his popularity to take the election and then quickly transitioning to a JD Vance presidency.

That’s the same JD Vance who, like Trump, has tried to distance himself from Project 2025 on the campaign trail. But Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts delayed the publication of his book in early August after the whole controversy over Project 2025 went public and it surfaced that Vance had written the forward for Roberts’ book.

Vance has a different vision about the future of American women than Kamala Harris does. Whether it's reducing his brilliant mother-in-law to cheap childcare or denigrating childless women as cat ladies—prompting Taylor Swift to endorse Harris—it's clear that if JD Vance becomes president we would, in fact, be going back. I don't know about you, but I have no plans to let that happen, and certainly not to my daughter. Vance, who implied during a 2021 interview that a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest may be “inconvenient” but should be carried to term, should have no role in deciding the course of women’s lives and should certainly not be allowed in our bedrooms.

Trump supporters are also circulating a huge lie about Kamala Harris. They’re claiming that Harris told people who said “Jesus is lord” at her Wisconsin rally last week that they were in the wrong place. In reality, she was responding, rather good-naturedly and off the cuff, to hecklers who were yelling "lies, lies, lies" at her as she spoke, telling them they were “at the wrong rally.” She added “I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street.”

What does it say that the only response they have is to lie in order to try and erase the gracious, effective way she handled the interruption? In a moment where she looked presidential, Trump’s supporters were forced to resort to lies to push back. But of course, in the age of Trump, it's permissible to lie and even to do so outrageously and blatantly about an opponent. So, here we are.

That’s how we start this week, with just over two weeks to go before election day. We can expect to hear more lies from the former president this week, on the campaign trail and perhaps in court too.

On Friday, Donald Trump’s response to Jack Smith’s appeal to the Eleventh Circuit is due. This is Smith's request that the court overturn Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to dismiss the prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents and obstructing the government’s investigation into his conduct. Judge Cannon ruled that the Special Counsel was improperly appointed, death spiraling the proceedings she had delayed at every possible point.

Smith has up to 21 days to reply after Trump files. Then, the Eleventh Circuit will have its chance to weigh in. Smith has asked the court to set oral argument in the case. Although the Eleventh Circuit hears far fewer cases than most of the other Circuits do, deciding most of its docket on the brief, it’s extremely likely that they will take this one. Although there are no cameras in the courtroom, the Eleventh Circuit live streams its oral arguments, so everyone will be able to listen in.

Earlier today, I was thinking about the moment back in July when President Biden was still the presumptive nominee, but there was talk of replacing him. MAGA was hitting him from all sides, while Trump’s diminished capacity went largely ignored. A narrative was circulating that Biden was going to lose and that there wasn’t any point in voting, that Trump was inevitable.

I recognized that narrative immediately for what it was: voter suppression. It’s more subtle than forcing you to get a form of ID you can’t afford or to get to a polling place you don’t have transportation to. But it’s suppression just the same. I wrote about that in The Week Ahead on July 7 and encouraged people to refuse to give into it.

I’m flagging that old column for you tonight because I’m starting to hear some of the same lines again. Whether it’s well-intentioned people talking about the ways Trump might try to steal the election or Republican claims that Trump is up in the polls, just set it aside. Remember that polls don’t vote, people do. And that’s what many of us are doing right now! Instead of listening to Trump’s narrative, let’s tell our own stories. Tell me about how you voted or what your plans to vote are. Tell me about writing postcards or working in your local polling place. What are you doing this week to save the Republic?

We’re in this together,

Joyce