Barack Obama Blows the Roof Off at a Detroit Rally for Kamala Harris

There’s a lot to get to this morning, but I’ll tell you what: I went to bed feeling pretty good, a rarity these last few weeks, because Eminem introduced Barack Obama in Detroit, and this is how Barack Obama made his entrance.

This man is so good at this.

Meanwhile, early voting is setting records in swing states, and I know there is a desire to read into the voting patterns in an effort to assuage our anxieties, but I have read every stupid piece about turnout and the composition of that turnout, and I can use those numbers to talk myself into a very good mood or use the very same numbers to convince myself that the sky is falling. A lot more people are early voting this year, and that includes Republicans, who are no longer being discouraged from doing so by Donald Trump, so the comparisons between this year and 2020 are absolutely useless. And no, I don’t understand why there might be a massive turnout advantage for one party in one state and a different party in another state. The only thing I can say is that there will be a lot fewer votes coming in on election day this year, so the “red mirage” won’t be as “mirage-y,” and we won’t be able to rely on a huge mail-in ballot differential to overcome election day voting. It’s good to see Democracy in action, even if half the voters are turning out to vote for a man who wants to end it.

That’s not hyperbole, either. Just ask John Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving Chief of Staff, who told the NYTimes yesterday that Trump fits “into the general definition of fascist” and wanted the “kind of generals Hitler had.” Kelly also spoke to The Atlantic, saying:

“‘Do you mean Bismarck’s generals?’” Kelly told The Atlantic he’d asked Trump. He added, “I mean, I knew he didn’t know who Bismarck was, or about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, ‘Do you mean the kaiser’s generals? Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’ I explained to him that Rommel had to commit suicide after taking part in a plot against Hitler.”

Among the other details in The Atlantic story is Trump offering to pay for a murdered soldier’s funeral, but when the bill came in, he raged, “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican! … Don’t pay it!”… “Fucking people, trying to rip me off.” (One of yesterday’s news highlights was hearing MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace read those quotes on air verbatim.)

Other quotes attributed to Trump just yesterday were more personal insults of Kamala Harris. He is now claiming at rallies that she’s “lazy,” and has a “drinking problem” or a problem with drugs. This is from a man who keeps canceling interviews because of exhaustion. I mean, he is 78 now, which is very close to 80, even though Trump denies that he’s close to 80 years old. A couple of days ago, he also called her a “shitty Vice President.”

I also find this insanely ironic: He has the richest man in the world giving away $1 million a day to register Trump voters in swing states, and he’s suing … suing … the Labour Party in the UK because a few of their members, on their own time, have comes to the United States to campaign for Harris. He’s suing for election interference. You can’t make this shit up.

I don’t know if this matters — I doubt it — but Bill Gates and Jamie Dimon are privately supporting Kamala Harris (Gates’ support is less private, as he’s donated $50 million to a SuperPac supporting Harris).

It might also be worth noting that one prominent Republican retweeted a number of other Republicans after January 6th harshly criticizing Donald Trump, including a call to trigger the 25th Amendment to have him removed from office. That Republican’s name was Chris LaCivita, a name that might be familiar to some: He’s Donald Trump’s campaign manager.

Finally, the owner of the Los Angeles Times has directed the newspaper to not deliver an endorsement this year. But you should know that the Los Angeles Times editorial board wanted to endorse Kamala Harris.