his morning found the former apex predator of American politics looking for some
hand-holding. Donald Trump said on Fox & Friends that he is “not inclined” to do
any more debates, but that if he does, he wants only the friendliest possible
moderators—his suggestions were the Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters,
or Laura Ingraham.

Trump’s comment came during a morning spent complaining about last night’s ABC
moderators and arguing that the network should lose its broadcasting license. He
was trying to pick up the pieces from a shambolic performance. “Trump lost his
cool over and over,” David Frum wrote in The Atlantic. “Goaded by predictable
provocations, he succumbed again and again.” Kamala Harris baited him with
surgical precision, triggering his insecurities while giving him full freedom to
openly wallow in his delusions.

Even some of Trump’s most reliable sycophants had to recognize that the fault
lay neither in the stars nor in the moderators but rather in the candidate
himself. Others in the former president’s universe, though, have refused to
acknowledge that truth. During the debate, the conservative activist and Turning
Point USA founder Charlie Kirk posted on X: “Did you really think they were
going to give Trump a fair debate? Trump got shot on July 13th, and now a drive
by shooting on September 10th.” Megyn Kelly posted: “These moderators are a
disgraceful failure and this is one of the most biased, unfair debates I have
ever seen. Shame on you @ABC.” Other reactions were even more hysterical. Sean
Davis, a co-founder of The Federalist, suggested not only that ABC lose its
license but that the moderators and network executives be charged with “criminal
election fraud and interference.” “What you saw last night from ABC has never
happened before in American history,” the former Trump aide Stephen Miller
complained in a post on X. “We’ve always had leftwing bias from establishment
corporate press. This was something else entirely: this was aggressively working
to sabotage and undermine the democratic process.”

As soon as he got offstage, Trump grasped onto his supporters’ line of defense.
“I thought that was my best Debate, EVER, especially since it was THREE ON ONE!”
Trump wrote on Truth Social, echoing phrasing used online during the debate.
Trump must be aware on some level that last night, tens of millions of voters
watched a bitter, confused, and diminished elderly man fall apart in front of
their eyes. At his rallies, Trump can get away with his signature lies and
tantrums of grievance—and with not saying much at all about actual policy plans.
In his softball interviews with fawning right-wing hosts, he can ramble and lie
without fear of being challenged. At the presidential debate, though, it didn’t
work. So he has decided to blame everybody but himself.

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2024/09/trump-blames-everybody-but-himself/679797/

"criminal election fraud and interference"..."aggressively working to sabotage
and undermine the democratic process" Oh-my-fucking-GAWD! We need to build an
ark *now* to survive this great deluge of irony.