Trump Blames Everybody but Himself

He can�t face the truth about his performance at the debate.

This 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.
History should note that the former president spent part of the day of
the debate hanging out with a notoriously bigoted conspiracy theorist and
posting memes referencing a false claim about Haitian immigrants eating
pets in Ohio. Even after the story of the pet-eating immigrants was
debunked, Trump and his running mate, J. D. Vance, continued to push the
racist idea, which led to the debate�s most memorable moment. �In
Springfield, they�re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they�re
eating the cats,� Trump declared. �They�re eating the pets of the people
that live there, and this is what�s happening in our country.�
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Actually, it�s not happening, as the debate moderator David Muir pointed
out, noting that ABC had reached out to the Springfield city manager to
confirm this. Trump and his supporters were incensed that the ABC
moderators, who fact-checked some of Trump�s statements in the debate
live, corrected this and a few of his other egregious lies�for example,
pointing out that killing newborn babies is illegal, contra Trump�s claim
that in some states, doctors can �execute� babies after birth.
Attacking debate moderators and the media in general is nothing new for
Trump. He makes no secret of his loathing for the press and for anyone
who holds him to account. Indeed, he tried to inoculate himself against a
poor debate performance by pre-attacking ABC, accusing it of liberal
bias. But it wasn�t the moderators or the network, or even Harris, who
forced Trump to begin ranting that �they�re eating the dogs!� That was
all Trump. Ever the showman, he may understand just how awful last
night�s show was for him�which is why he�s pointing the finger at
everyone else.
Related:

�What was Trump even talking about?
�Kamala Harris�s most successful power play

Here are four new stories from The Atlantic:

�Peter Wehner: Kamala Harris broke Donald Trump.
�Trump again disgraces a sacred American space.
�The post-debate challenge for Harris
�How Joe Rogan remade Austin

Today�s News

1. Speaker Mike Johnson pulled a stopgap government-funding bill
hours before the House was set to vote on it because more Republicans
withdrew their support. Congress has until September 30 to come to an
agreement on government funding in order to avert a government shutdown.
2. Mexico�s Senate narrowly passed a controversial and sweeping
judicial-reform measure that would allow voters to elect judges at all
levels, including the Supreme Court.
3. Officials arrested a Southern California man yesterday for
allegedly starting the Line Fire that has burned more than 34,000 acres
in the state.

On the evening of September 4, 2021, one week before the 20th
anniversary of 9/11, Glenn Vogt stood at the footprint of the North Tower
and gazed at the names stamped in bronze. The sun was diving below the
buildings across the Hudson River in New Jersey, and though we didn�t
realize it, the memorial was shut off to the public. Tourists had been
herded behind a rope line some 20 feet away, but we�d walked right past
them. As we looked on silently, a security guard approached. �I�m sorry,
but the site is closed for tonight,� the man said.
Glenn studied the guard. Then he folded his hands as if in prayer.
�Please,� he said. �I was the general manager of Windows on the World,
the restaurant that was at the top of this building. These were my
employees.�

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