AoSHQ The Morning Report
September 20, 2024
While Donald Trump won with post-debate focus groups following the presidential "debate" on September 10, the same could not be said of his chief opponent, "moderator" David Muir. The ABC News news reader saw a decided turn away from him in the ratings.In Other News
Even his lefty viewers apparently thought that Muir's performance and that of his co-host, Kamala Harris's sorority sister, were so one-sided that they were embarrassed out of watching for the rest of the week.
It's not hard to see why 12% of his viewers said adios to his "World News Tonight" show following the debate. Fox News reports that for three nights after the debate, the audience tumbled from the usual 7.6 million viewers to an average "6.7 million viewers on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the three episodes following the debate."
At least nine people were killed and thousands of others were injured when handheld pagers exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday in an apparent targeting of Hezbollah members, according to Hezbollah officials.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency initially reported that "the handheld pagers system was detonated using advanced technology, and dozens of injuries were reported" in Beirut’s southern suburbs and other areas. Lebanon’s health minister later said at least nine people were killed and 2,750 wounded — 200 of them critically.
Among those injured when the pagers exploded included Iran's ambassador in Lebanon, Iranian state media reported.
A security source in Lebanon told Reuters that the pagers were carried by members of Hezbollah. A Hezbollah official, speaking to the outlet on condition of anonymity, described the incident as a detonation that was the "biggest security breach" during the nearly year-long war with Israel. It wasn't immediately clear who was responsible for the attack. While Hezbollah blamed Israel, the Israeli government has not commented.
Who really are the MAGA People? pic.twitter.com/Zk6rvijCge
— Nicole Shanahan (@NicoleShanahan) September 13, 2024
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump finally faced off in what will likely be their only debate, and it went more or less as expected. While this debate probably won’t change the overall trajectory of the race in a major way, it did have its key moments—and not all of them went in Trump’s favor. I predicted Trump needed to perform significantly better than he did against Joe Biden, and frankly, that didn’t happen.In Other News
Let’s start with the obvious: Kamala came in prepared, and Trump, as usual, took the bait more than once. Sure, he got in some good lines and managed to score points on the economy, crime, and border security, but Kamala’s strategy was clear: provoke Trump and let him hurt himself with his own aggression.
It worked more than it should have.
Trump’s debate with Biden in June was a different story. Biden essentially lost because of his own failures—his gaffes, freeze-ups, and the infamous mumbling did him in. Trump didn’t win that debate so much as Biden lost it. But Kamala didn’t have the same weaknesses as Biden. She wasn’t a great debater by any means, but she didn’t need to be. She just needed to appear competent and presidential enough to avoid the Biden-like self-destruction.