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    • The wildest moments of a wild presidential campaign
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    The wildest moments of a wild presidential campaign

    Online Niel Posted on

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    What a wild four months it has been.

    From the first confused mumblings out of President Joe Biden’s mouth his June debate with Donald Trump at the racist and hateful Trump rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, October 27, the 2024 presidential campaign was weird at best, downright vile at worst. So many stories, so little time – how are we supposed to keep up?

    The deluge of information, misinformation and lies was so powerful and consuming a presidential candidate being shot it’s somehow just another title. Of course, that candidate has something to do with it. Remember how, before his speech at the Republican National Convention, he was supposed to be a changed man? Humbled by mortality or something?

    Yeah, that took about five minutes. Halfway through his speech it’s back to hate and lies and we’re back on the campaign treadmill.

    It all started when Joe Biden answered a debate question

    With that in mind, let’s hit the highlight reel, shall we? In the full knowledge that there will no doubt be enough bizarre things happening in the days leading up to the election that will make this all seem strange.

    It all started, of course, when Biden pushed for an early debate with Trump and laid out the ground rules. Then, 10 seconds after his first response, Democratic operatives were texting each other about the disaster unfolding before their (and our) eyes. There were stories about the debateof course, but also about whether reporters in Washington protected Biden’s mental state. The people made the decision whether they should drop out of the race. He’s too old! His first term proves that he deserves a second! All this with the usual civility reserved for a knife fight.

    Nothing could penetrate this wall of coverage, no story big enough to make it out of the headlines, no development so surprising. …

    Remember when Trump was shot?

    And then Trump was shot. It was July 13th, an otherwise slow Saturday, when reports started coming out of Pennsylvania that something was up. It was soon pretty clear: there was an assassination attempt on Trump. He was injured in the ear. Surely this would be the biggest story of the campaign.

    Then came the Republican conventionand talk about weird little artifacts of history remember when the delegates wore white bandages over their ears in, I don’t know, solidarity or something? It just doesn’t get any weirder than that.

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    Then Biden dropped out of the race

    Apart from waiting! Yes! One Sunday morning, not quite out of the blue, but something like this, Biden has announced that he will not run for re-electionand then a little later he endorsed Harris as the candidate.

    Likewise, the race has shifted in a seismic way, infuriating Trump, who built his campaign around running against Biden. (False claims that it was unconstitutional soon followed.)

    Harris sewed up Biden’s delegates and began his campaign. It was just weird.

    It’s been a crazy summer

    Wait, that word. “Strange.” do you remember Remember how calling Trump and JD Vance “weird” helped Tim Walz get the VP nomination? Remember how Harris was called “manly” by Charli XCXwho had turned the word (and the title of her album) into a description of an aesthetic?

    Then the democratic convention he also came Harris and Oprah Winfrey and man-oh-man Michelle Obama We blew the roof off with mind-blowing speeches that were sure to move the needle in the polls, except they didn’t and we’re back in the mud. (We’ll always have Gus Walz.)

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    “Eat dogs!”

    Do you remember Laura Loomer? The conspiracy theorist on the loose bending Trump’s ear (no pun intended) for a while there? She’s still around, just as rampantso much so that Trump aides are trying to keep her away. Her presence and influence were very important. Until it wasn’t.

    Because it existed the Trump-Harris debate to worry! Or cover, at least. Everyone knew that Harris was going to bait Trump and that he was going to lose. In a stunning development, Harris baited Trump and lost. Oh. Well, maybe not so amazing. However, if you want to sum it all up in three words, “They eat dogs!” is a pretty good way to do it. (Trump and Vance repeatedly, even though they knew it wasn’t true, repeated false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating pets.)

    What a mess.

    Then came Vance’s debate with Walz, who had everyone in the media loaded for the bear. It was going to be a crazy, all-out showdown between two candidates who mercilessly attacked each other on the campaign trail. And then they treated each other like guys arguing over a Packers game in a bar somewhere. “I don’t know, mate, that national abortion ban might ruffle some feathers.” “Yeah, man, it sure could.”

    Bret Baier conducted a non-interview

    Meanwhile, the national media lost their minds because Harris wasn’t doing interviews with the national media.

    Then she did some here and there. Then he did more. Walz apparently entered the witness protection program at some point. Vance was everywhere, all the time. Trump headed to Fox News’ warm embrace, especially Maria Bartiromo.

    Bret Baier of Fox News scored an interview with Harris and interrupted her so much she could not answer the questions. Trump and Joe Rogan shot the breeze for three hours, just a few guys talking about the properties of concrete and the danger of windmills.

    Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally makes the rest look like child’s play

    Then Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden, a hateful orgy offensive, racist rhetoric and attacks. For example, a comedian insulted the whole of Puerto Rico. One speaker called Harris the antichrist. Others called it worse. Hillary Clinton, a reliable target, was attacked, naturally, even though she hadn’t run for office in eight years. Just amazing stuff, some such terrible Republicans have distanced themselves from him.

    Well, not Fox News. Brian Kilmeade read the New York Times headline about the rally (“Trump in the garden: a closing carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism“) and said, “Only someone who worked for the Harris campaign and pretends to be a reporter for the New York Times would write something like that.”

    Then again, maybe only someone who worked for the Trump campaign would say something like that. Just saying. And we go. It’s tempting to say the fun never stops, but it never really started.

    Get to Goodykoontz at [email protected]. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. X: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movie newsletter.

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