Column: Immigrants, kittens and a clear debate winner

Hello, and happy Thursday. There are 53 days until the election and like former President Trump, I have concepts of a plan for this newsletter.

Let’s start with Elon Musk, who has reached new levels of creepy. Impressive, considering where he started.

Just after the debate Tuesday night (which we’ll get to in a moment) Taylor Swift posted an endorsement of Kamala Harris.

“I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” Tay Tay said on Instagram. The post contained a now-famous shot of the singer with her cat, Benjamin Buttons, a fine-looking feline with piercing blue eyes.

Also, it was signed, “Childless Cat Lady,” a dig at JD Vance, who has apparently become so bitter that this catchphrase is stuck to him like fur to corduroy that he’s started daydreaming about migrants eating kittens, maybe to get rid of them all. Migrants and kittens.

Of course, the internet went wild with the endorsement news. And for no reason, because this had nothing to do with him, Musk tweeted this disturbing reply:

“Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.”

So, OK — dude with 12 kids by three women sexually harasses megastar online for voicing political opinions. Yuck.

But also, there’s that last bit about guarding the cats. Is that a dog whistle back to Vance’s racist falsehoods that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people’s pets — which Trump also brought up at the debate?

Vance doubled down on that Wednesday by saying, “What do I think is a bigger problem, insulting 20,000 people or the fact that my constituents can’t live a good life because Kamala Harris opened the border?”

The Haitian immigrants (the 20,000 in question at least) are also his constituents because they are legally living and working in Ohio under the Temporary Protected Status program.

That makes it seem like the problem for Vance and Musk isn’t really how the Haitians arrived, or what they eat.

It’s that they are Black, and not-so-subtle racism is a staple of the MAGA diet.

(Los Angeles Times / Photos by Robert Gauthier; Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

We have a winner!

The Bingo card worked! You may recall in our last newsletter, Times designer Jim Cooke offered up this most-excellent card and/or drinking game for your debate-watching fun. We’ve heard reports from as far away as Point Reyes, Calif., that it was used, maybe too eagerly, and could be responsible for more than one hangover.

But it’s a good hangover, not an emotional one like the last debate. Harris held her own and by most non-Trumpian standards was the clear winner. A YouGov poll put her as the winner among registered voters 54% to 31%. A CNN poll of debate watchers rated her performance the better one, 63% to 37%.

Her zingers and punches on topics including abortion hit their targets, but some of her lesser lines deserve note as well. One that struck me was a bid for the kind of niche-pocket voters in swing states that will probably decide this election.

Speaking of her support of Ukraine — and Trump’s seeming preference for Vladimir Putin, Harris said that under Trump, “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe. Starting with Poland.”

“And why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch?” she added.

Harris seemed prepared, way beyond the basics. She knew just how she wanted to come across — but maybe more importantly, how she wanted us to see Trump.

Tired old man

What struck me most about Trump was how tired he looked — and acted. Seriously. Not being snarky here. I’ve been noticing this when watching his campaign stops.

Something of the raging fire that helped ignite the Jan. 6 insurrection is just gone. Yes, he’s got his well-worked lines and his delivery retains his huckster polish. But he seems deflated, almost like he’s bored with it. Like the only time he really cared was when it turned personal.

Tuesday night, he was hunched over, scowling, easily led into traps by Harris that devolved into rants when he felt slighted.

At one point, after she baited him that world leaders were laughing at him, he came back with Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban (who has cracked down on freedom of the press, LGBTQ+ rights and immigration) as proof that wasn’t true.

“Look, Viktor Orban said it. He said, ‘The most respected, the most feared person is Donald Trump. We had no problems when Trump was president,’” Trump said.

It wasn’t a dumpster fire performance. But it seemed sad, a refreshing change from scary.

What else you should be reading

The must-read: How resounding was Kamala Harris’ debate win? Let’s look at the polls.
The “Be careful what you wish for”: It Was Donald Trump’s Night — in the Worst Possible Way
The L.A. Times Special: On a night of fierce exchanges, Harris sets the tone

Stay Golden,
Anita Chabria

P.S.: Melania Trump makes an appearance to hawk her new book. In a social media post, the former first lady hints that there was a law enforcement conspiracy involved in the Trump assassination attempt. And somehow buying her new book could help expose it.

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