Kamala Harris is closing in, or wiping out, Donald Trump's leads in seven swing states, and it did not take long to do it, according to a report from Raw Story/Alternet. That might help explain Trump's sour mood in recent days, and that includes a tantrum directed at Fox News simply for reporting on a number of positive developments related to the Harris campaign. Does that suggest his dictatorial plans for a possible second term as president includes imposition of state-run media, sort of like Pravda in Russia, with Trump and his hatchet men serving as right-wing censors. Trump already has threatened to arrest journalists, so I don't think it's a stretch to see the death of a free press in the United States if he gets a second crack at the White House.
How bad do the polls look for Trump at the moment? They have taken a dramatically grim turn in just a few days, reports Maya Boddie of Alternet. Under the headline "Trump loses lead in 7 battleground states: 'Kamala moves the needle', Boddie writes:
Just two weeks after President Joe Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the presidency, the new 2024 Democratic nominee is taking the lead over former President Donald Trump in several states, Bloomberg reports this week.
Per the news outlet's latest poll, in collaboration with Morning Consult, the vice president "has wiped out Donald Trump’s lead across seven battleground states."
Among all seven swing states Bloomberg polled, Harris leads Trump, 48 to 47 percent. The poll has her ahead but within the margin of error in Arizona (49-47); Nevada (47-45 percent); Wisconsin (49 to 47 percent); and tied in Georgia (47 to 47 percent). Biden was not leading in Georgia, Arizona or Nevada when he dropped out.
What do all of these numbers mean? Boddie puts them in perspective:
Harris is solidly ahead in Michigan, leading Trump 53 to 42 percent. But Trump remains in the lead in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania (50 to 46 percent) and is ahead in North Carolina (48 to 46 percent).
"Since last month’s survey, our swing state tracking revealed many self-identified Democrats coming home to support their party’s candidate," Morning Consult's senior director of research, Alexander Podkul, said. "Harris’ switch to the top of the ticket appears to have excited her base."
Bloomberg noted that while "the numbers suggest Harris has a shot at reassembling the voter coalition that propelled President Barack Obama to the White House" in 2008, "The race remains a toss-up."
However, the news outlet emphasizes Harris' newness to the race and that the poll "shows newfound enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket under the 59-year-old Harris. The switch-up in candidates looks set to boost the turnout in swing states, where there’s evidence that key constituencies for the party have been energized by her candidacy."
Georgia voter Robert Banks told Bloomberg, "Kamala moves the needle. People are excited."
As for Trump's harsh words toward Fox News, he came unglued at the network for simply doing what it is supposed to do. From a report at The New Republic (TNR), under the title "Trump Melts Down Over Fox News’s Kamala Coverage; Donald Trump is furious that Fox News dared to cover actual news." Paige Oamek reports:
Donald Trump is getting fed up with Fox News over the network simply doing its job.
“Why is Fox News putting on Crazy Kamala Harris Rallies?” wrote Trump on Truth Social Monday afternoon.
Amid articles about Ted Cruz “safeguarding” schools from the Chinese Communist Party and Whoopi Goldberg reacting to “drag queens” at the Olympics, Trump couldn’t find enough Fox News articles sucking up to him. Earlier this month, Trump issued a similar complaint that the network wasn’t doing enough to help him, writing “STOP PUTTING ON THE ENEMY!”
In the past, Fox has done plenty to boost Trump, especially around his false claims of 2020 election fraud. That support cost them nearly $800 million to settle a lawsuit.
“Why do they allow the perverts at the failed and disgraced Lincoln Project to advertise on FoxNews? Even Mr. Kellyanne Conway, a man so badly hurt and humiliated by his wife (she must have done some really NASTY things to him, because he is CRAZY!), is advertising on FoxNews,” Trump continued Monday, referring to his former adviser Kellyanne Conway’s ex-husband, George Conway.
Trump seems to be playing willfully ignorant that Fox News has been the most-watched news network for more than 20 years, making it desirable for well-funded advertisers, in order to make the point that he’s frustrated about its supposed disloyalty.
It’s more likely that Trump is annoyed that Fox aired a favorability poll over the weekend that showed Harris leading over him in swing states.
“We have to WIN WITHOUT FOX!” wrote Trump.
This highlights Trump's greatest flaw as a political candidate: He's not very smart to begin with, at least in ways that would help run the country and improve the lives of everyday Americans. But Trump does possess a certain kind of "genius" -- using the term broadly -- when it comes to cutting deals that will use public resources to enrich him personally. As for issues related to actual governance -- the economy, public health, foreign affairs, justice, law enforcement, energy, taxes -- Trump has shown over and over that he does not know what he's doing.
Consider the COVID pandemic: Health experts knew a deadly pathogen was likely to originate in China during the Trump presidency and could spread around the world if not handled properly. Trump even was provided a "playbook," developed under the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, that gave Trump step-by-step instructions on how to handle such a public-health crisis. But Trump apparently could not be bothered to read the playbook -- or read his daily briefings, which included warnings from military leaders that the virus was becoming a threat to U.S. personnel and operations.The result was more than 1.2 million American deaths, many of which could have been prevented, plus an economy that was on the verge of recession, or worse, when Trump left office.
The Fox News episode shows that Trump does not even know how the media works. If he is displeased with the network's journalism, he should put in an application and try to help out. But to whine when the network is simply doing its job, makes Trump look small, clueless, petty, and wildly unfit to serve as president.
