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2024 Presidential Election Thread - Let's keep the party going.


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McConnell's shit-talking about Trump isn't really "news," and neither is the endorsement, but the punchline is still devastating.

This represents the epitome of party-over-country bullshit that enabled a fucking idiot to take over an entire party. Read it, digest it, and weep. Then, get enraged and go vote out every one of one these pathetic, simpering shitbags.

If you're a former Republican or even a current conservative who has turned away from this farce, take comfort in knowing you're a better person than any of your fellow party members. I commend you for putting your country over your party.

The punchline: “It was the price he paid for power,” says McConnell's biographer.

 

McConnell called Trump ‘stupid’ and ‘despicable’ in private after the 2020 election, a new book says
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitch McConnell said after the 2020 election that then-President Donald Trump was “stupid as well as being ill-tempered,” a “despicable human being” and a “narcissist,” according to excerpts from a new biography of the Senate Republican leader that will be released this month.

McConnell made the remarks in private as part of a series of personal oral histories that he made available to Michael Tackett, deputy Washington bureau chief of The Associated Press. Tackett’s book, “The Price of Power,” draws from almost three decades of McConnell’s recorded diaries and from years of interviews with the normally reticent Kentucky Republican.

The animosity between Trump and McConnell is well known — Trump once called McConnell " a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack.” But McConnell’s private comments are by far his most brutal assessment of the former president and could be seized on by Democrats before the Nov. 5 election. The biography will be released Oct. 29, one week before Election Day that will decide if Trump returns to the White House.

Despite those strong words, McConnell has endorsed Trump’s 2024 run, saying earlier this year “it should come as no surprise” that he would support the Republican party’s nominee. He shook Trump’s hand in June when Trump visited GOP senators on Capitol Hill.

McConnell, 82, announced this year that he will step aside as Republican leader after the election but stay in the Senate through the end of his term in 2026

McConnell was ‘counting the days’ until Trump left office
The comments about Trump quoted in the book came in the weeks before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Trump was then actively trying to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. McConnell feared this would hurt Republicans in two Georgia runoffs and cost them the Senate majority. Democrats won both races.

Publicly, McConnell had congratulated Biden after the Electoral College certified the presidential vote and the senator warned his fellow Republicans not to challenge the results. But he did not say much else. Privately, he said in his oral history that “it’s not just the Democrats who are counting the days” until Trump left office, and that Trump’s behavior “only underscores the good judgment of the American people. They’ve had just enough of the misrepresentations, the outright lies almost on a daily basis, and they fired him.”

“And for a narcissist like him,” McConnell continued, “that’s been really hard to take, and so his behavior since the election has been even worse, by far, than it was before, because he has no filter now at all.”

Before those Georgia runoffs, McConnell said Trump is “stupid as well as being ill-tempered and can’t even figure out where his own best interests lie.”

Trump was also holding up a coronavirus aid package at the time, despite bipartisan support. “This despicable human being,” McConnell said in his oral history, “is sitting on this package of relief that the American people desperately need.”

On Jan. 6, soon after he made those comments, McConnell was holed up in a secure location with other congressional leaders, calling Vice President Mike Pence and military officials for reinforcements as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. Once the Senate resumed debate over the certification of Biden’s victory, McConnell said in a speech on the floor that “this failed attempt to obstruct the Congress, this failed insurrection, only underscores how crucial the task before us is for our republic.”

McConnell then went to his office to address his staff, some of whom had barricaded themselves in the office as rioters banged on their doors. He started to sob softly as he thanked them, Tackett writes.

“You are my family, and I hate the fact that you had to go through this,” he told them.

The next month, McConnell gave his harshest public criticism of Trump on the Senate floor, saying he was “ practically and morally responsible ” for the Jan. 6 attack. Still, McConnell voted to acquit Trump after House Democrats impeached him for inciting the riot.

Years of doubts and criticism
In a statement to the AP on Thursday, McConnell referenced two fellow Republican senators — JD Vance of Ohio, the vice presidential nominee, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both of whom are strong Trump allies after harshly criticizing him during his first run in 2016.

“Whatever I may have said about President Trump pales in comparison to what JD Vance, Lindsey Graham, and others have said about him, but we are all on the same team now,” McConnell said.

McConnell also had doubts about Trump from the start. Just after Trump was elected in 2016, as Congress was certifying the election, McConnell told Biden, then the outgoing vice president, that he thought Trump could be trouble, Tackett writes.

The book channels McConnell’s inner thoughts during some of the biggest moments after Trump took office, as McConnell held his tongue and as the two men repeatedly fought and made up.

In 2017, as Trump publicly criticized McConnell for the Senate’s failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Trump and McConnell had a heated argument on the phone. Weeks went by with no contact. Then Trump invited McConnell to the White House and called a joint news conference without telling him first. McConnell said the event went fine, and “it’s not hard to look more knowledgeable than Donald Trump at a press conference.”

After the passage of a $1.5 trillion tax overhaul that same year, McConnell said, “All of a sudden, I’m Trump’s new best friend.”

He blamed Trump after House Republicans lost their majority in the 2018 midterm elections, Tackett writes. Trump ”has every characteristic you would not want a president to have,” McConnell said in an oral history at the time, and was “not very smart, irascible, nasty.”

In 2022, as Trump continued to criticize McConnell and made racist comments about his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, McConnell told Tackett that “I can’t think of anybody I’d rather be criticized by than this sleazeball.”

“Every time he takes a shot at me, I think it’s good for my reputation,” McConnell said.

Also in 2022, McConnell said in his oral history that Trump’s behavior since losing the election had been “beyond erratic” as he kept pushing false allegations of voter fraud. “Unfortunately, about half the Republicans in the country believe whatever he says,” McConnell said.

By 2024, McConnell had again endorsed Trump. He felt he had to if he were to continue to play a role in shaping the nation’s agenda.

“It was the price he paid for power,” Tackett writes.

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15 minutes ago, Clintonaldo said:

I voted Trump the first time, voted Biden second time and will absolutely be voting for Kamala. I laugh at myself sometimes how much I have changed and a lot of it is getting older and having a kid. I don’t see myself ever going back republican but I always try to keep an open mind plus it shows what one shitty candidate can do to a party. 

Can I ask, did you vote for Trump because you wanted an "outsider"? If so, how much does that play into your decision to vote for Kamala, given she's now the most outside candidate out of the big 3 (Her, Trump, and Biden)?

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Can I ask, did you vote for Trump because you wanted an "outsider"? If so, how much does that play into your decision to vote for Kamala, given she's now the most outside candidate out of the big 3 (Her, Trump, and Biden)?

I think at the time I was anyone but Hillary.
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3 hours ago, Js1 said:

Snoop in January:

 

“Donald Trump?” Snoop Dogg said. “He ain’t done nothing wrong to me. He has done only great things for me. He pardoned Michael Harris.”

Knight, alongside Harris and Dr. Dre, co-founded the Death Row Records record label in the 1990s, which signed Snoop Dogg early in his career. Harris was convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder but was pardoned by Trump in 2021 after serving 30 years of a 25-year-to-life sentence, according to USA Today. Before leaving office, Trump pardoned Harris, along with 69 others.

“I have nothing but love and respect for Donald Trump,” Snoop added.

Snoop also said he was giving up the reefer, so...

3 hours ago, HenryJames said:

79fbd95e-6d4d-4096-ae36-f74799de10c7.png

It amazes me how these self proclaimed alpha males care so damned much about if other alpha males think you look cool when using a gun.  It really is the most important thing to them.  I hate tacticool barbies.

3 hours ago, HenryJames said:

Is Ice Cube still considered a rapper?

Only around christmas time

1 hour ago, Celery Man said:

Wait Rocco was old? Hahahahaha

Wait 50s is old?  FUCK

49 minutes ago, pantone159 said:

My favorite is this sculpture:

cols_daytrips-2.jpg

Perfectly capture the Gata tackling technique.  It's called "Please Trip"

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24 minutes ago, Clintonaldo said:


I think at the time I was anyone but Hillary.

I didn't like HIllary clinton but I definitely thought she was better than Trump. Oh well, water on the bridge, I'm at least happy you're voting for the good guy this time. I'll welcome any resistance against Trump.

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3 hours ago, SubliminalHorn said:

A very good friend who is originally from North Carolina just texted me that her parents just texted her that votes today and they voted for Kamala. This is a HUGE fucking deal because her dad has never voted republican and was a die hard trumper until recently. My friend has been working on him for years sending him articles and talking with him. He has been wearing the camp Harris/Walz hat recently too. 
 

Keep the faith yall. If he can be turned, others can too. LFG!

Forgot to mention he’s a veteran. It’s happening 

Nice. And yeah, I 100% buy that veterans are swinging to Harris as well. IMHO this move is widespread and its scope won't be fully appreciated until election day.

Edited by wood
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I didn't like HIllary clinton but I definitely thought she was better than Trump. Oh well, water on the bridge, I'm at least happy you're voting for the good guy this time. I'll welcome any resistance against Trump.

I gladly admit I fucked up and I started feeling that way within the first year. Lesson learned. We are in this together.
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1 hour ago, The Original Greaser Bob said:

Not sure why I thought he was the guy who showed up to his neighbors with a bottle of wine -- but that was someone else, correct?

"grover" isn't right, but something like that 

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21 minutes ago, Haphap said:

 

Kamala made a point to indicate that she doesn't care whether or not you're a republican or democrat, she's gonna help, even though the guy didn't specifically ask her about political division. He asked Trump directly about why January 6th happened and what can be done to prevent it again, and Trump used the opportunity to say "Republicans good, democrats bad."

God trump is such a dumbass. I really want someone to follow up on this guy and see who he votes for. If he votes for Trump after these two exchanges, then there is no hope for this country.

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1 hour ago, Clintonaldo said:

I voted Trump the first time, voted Biden second time and will absolutely be voting for Kamala. I laugh at myself sometimes how much I have changed and a lot of it is getting older and having a kid. I don’t see myself ever going back republican but I always try to keep an open mind plus it shows what one shitty candidate can do to a party. 

If people would stick to values and principles instead of a party then "going back Republican" shouldn't even be an idea in anyone's head. If something really weird happens and Democrats become the insane shitheads and Republicans become the party actually trying to be sane and govern then I'd have no issue voting for them. 

 

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Just now, Huckleberry said:

If people would stick to values and principles instead of a party then "going back Republican" shouldn't even be an idea in anyone's head. If something really weird happens and Democrats become the insane shitheads and Republicans become the party actually trying to be sane and govern then I'd have no issue voting for them. 

 

History tells us this will absolutely happen unfortunately. 

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6 minutes ago, WelfareBuysMyWeed said:

Kamala made a point to indicate that she doesn't care whether or not you're a republican or democrat, she's gonna help, even though the guy didn't specifically ask her about political division. He asked Trump directly about why January 6th happened and what can be done to prevent it again, and Trump used the opportunity to say "Republicans good, democrats bad."

God trump is such a dumbass. I really want someone to follow up on this guy and see who he votes for. If he votes for Trump after these two exchanges, then there is no hope for this country.

Hey, 3Putt, why don't you scroll up a few posts to about a half hour ago and check out the followup on that guy. 

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4 hours ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

There have been numerous reports that the really old olds are moving more blue - maybe having their social security threatened and being told to die in order to save the economy isn't a great campaign strategy?  It's the "younger" boomers and older Gen-X that are the real shitheels.

https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-2024/harris-trump-election-issues.html
 

AARP: The Social Security trust fund is expected to see a shortfall in about 10 years. If Congress doesn’t act, millions of Americans who are counting on Social Security may see cuts to the money they’ve earned. If elected, how will you protect Social Security for the future?

TRUMP: We’ll protect it with growth. I don’t want to do anything having to do with increasing age. I won’t do that. As you know, I was there for four years and never even thought about doing it. I’m going to do nothing to Social Security. We’re going to protect it through strengthening our country. We’re going to protect it through growth. We’re going to have tremendous growth in our country with all of the things that we’re doing from a business standpoint and from a commonsense standpoint, and we’ll be protecting it through growth.

HARRIS: I believe Social Security is a sacred social contract that we have made with the seniors of America. I will always — as I always have in my career — fight to ensure that seniors have the dignity they deserve, have the protections they deserve, including the benefits that they’ve earned and paid for. The way that we’re going to deal with it to make sure that the resources and therefore the benefits in the Social Security program are there for seniors is by making billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share in taxes and use that money to protect and strengthen Social Security for the long haul.

AARP: Our own AARP research shows that 48 million American ­family caregivers provide $600 billion in unpaid care each year, helping loved ones live independently in their homes rather than in costly nursing homes. If elected, how will you support family caregivers, many of whom are juggling work and family?

HARRIS: First of all, it’s personal for me. I helped care for my mother when she was battling cancer. I have learned over many, many years of experience to deeply admire and respect the work that caregivers do. Their work is physical. It is mental. It is emotional. Frankly, I think caregivers really do God’s work. We need to make sure that they receive the dignity in the workplace and in their wages that they deserve because this is essential, critical work. I’m proud that our administration took action to support family caregivers, including offering short-term help to give a primary family caregiver a break — again, I know what that means — and also providing a better hospital discharge process. As president, I will build on these efforts.

TRUMP: These are really unrecognized people that have done such a good job, and frankly, if you didn’t have these people doing what they’re doing, the government would be in worse shape than it is even now. We’re going to recognize that. It’s something that has long been on my mind. I started focusing on it very, very substantially, and we’re going to do something. These people have been unbelievable. In many ways, they’re angels. They’re just extra­ordinary people. They give up so much, and they get so ­little other than they want to take care of their loved ones, which is a very powerful incentive. We’re going to do something to help them out financially, and we have various plans coming in, and you’re going to be the first to hear the plans. It’s very unfair to ­people, very unfair

AARP: Millions of American workers have no way to save for retirement through their employers. If elected, what steps will you take to help American workers save for retirement?

TRUMP: The sad part is with Biden, inflation has been so devastating that where people were saving with me because they had low interest rates and no inflation — don’t forget, I had low interest rates, and I had essentially no inflation — they have high interest rates and the worst inflation we’ve ever had. That is a killer for people who have done it the right way. And the right way is to go out, save your money and you’re going to have money and you’re going to make interest on your money and make investments with your money. Those people have been absolutely destroyed by inflation and what’s happened. The people that saved money, that was supposed to be the American dream except the American dream turned out to be the American nightmare for the people that did it right. The people that saved — you’re supposed to save in this country; it’s always been that way — the people that saved got killed by inflation. They were actually taking money out of their accounts instead of putting money back into their accounts.

HARRIS: Well, it starts with making sure that we protect Social Security, knowing that for our seniors that is their only source of income.The work that I’ve done over my career has also been to protect pensions. Both the president and I and in my long-standing work understand the need to make sure that people who have earned those benefits are secure and that they are guaranteed

AARP: Moving on to Medicare for a moment, Medicare provides critical health coverage for older Americans. If elected, how will you protect Medicare from benefit cuts, and how might you improve the program?

TRUMP: What we have to do is make our country successful again. This has to do with Medicare and Social Security and other things. We have to let our country become successful, make our country successful again, and we’ll be able to do that. We have tremendous opportunities like as an example, with what I call the “liquid gold” under our feet. We have more oil and gas than any other country in the world by far, and we don’t use it. We use a very small portion of it. We will be bigger than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined, and we will be able to make our country so successful that these questions will not — they’ll really just not come to the fore. Growth is a very big factor in everything I say. We can grow our country. Our country hasn’t been growing. We can grow our country at the bottom line.

HARRIS: I will always fight to protect and strengthen Medicare for this and future generations. That includes securing the Medicare trust fund and making sure that big corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes, which, by the way, they can afford to pay. Also, if [my opponent] had succeeded in repealing the ACA [Affordable Care Act], which he tried 60 times to do when in office, he would have brought back the Medicare “donut hole” gap. AARP was an incredible leader on the donut hole issue. That gap for prescription drugs would be put back in place without the protection of the ACA, not to mention taking away pre­cancer and diabetes screenings, what we fought so successfully for; to get Medicare to make sure that every senior gets a free ­annual wellness checkup. I pledge to fight to protect it.

AARP: Americans over the age of 50 continue to pay the highest health care costs. If elected, how would you ensure that older Americans have access to affordable health care?

HARRIS: A big part of access is affordability; so is bringing down the cost of prescription drugs for everyone, including seniors. We fought to do that but ran into some roadblocks in Congress. My plan in terms of helping seniors under the age of 65 includes what we would do to save on average as much as $800 a year on premiums. Also, medical debt has been a big area of focus for me and eliminating medical debt from credit scores, which can be all the difference whether a senior or anyone could get a lease on an apartment, much less all the other things that they need access to.

TRUMP: We’re going to make sure that Americans are able to work [to access health care]. But we’re going to make sure that they’re not going to have to work. We’re going to take care of them. But if they want [to work], that would be a great asset. You know, we lose some of the best people we have because they think they’re going to retire at a certain age, and the fact is, they really don’t want to retire. So we’re going to incentivize people if they want to go out into the workforce. But [if not], we’re going to take care of them. We’re going to make all of our programs strong, and we’re going to make our country strong

AARP: If elected, what is the most important thing that you could do to help improve the lives of older Americans?

HARRIS: There are many things, to be honest. My day one priority is to make sure that people are able to live with dignity and have the care that they deserve.I think that over the last decade, and frankly since my opponent hit the scene in this way, there is a perverse notion that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down instead of who [you] lift up. That means doing the work that I’ve done my whole career to stand up for the rights of older Americans, to deal with cases of elder abuse as well as lifting up their ability to have a good quality of life, including bringing down the cost of prescription drugs. I will be paying attention to affordable housing. Part of my plan is to build 3 million more housing units before the end of my term. I have many priorities on day one to help our seniors and their children and grandchildren.

TRUMP: The biggest thing I can tell you is we’re going to let people know loud and clear that Social Security is not changing. But what I’m going to do is we’re going to create energy like nobody has ever had in this country. With me, we were energy independent, but we are going to become energy dominant. We’re going to make a tremendous amount of money. We’re going to pay down debt. We’re going to reduce taxes. I mean the taxes that we’ve been able to cut — it’s the largest tax cut in the history of our country, and we still have a ways to go with that. That’s going to be very helpful. We’re going to make sure our seniors are taken care of 100 percent. Don’t forget, I’m a senior. We’re going to make our seniors happy, healthy and strong.

 

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38 minutes ago, Clintonaldo said:


I gladly admit I fucked up and I started feeling that way within the first year. Lesson learned. We are in this together.

Este. And I, like you, voted for Trump because I viewed him as the lesser of two evils. I was wrong, and I feel bad. I won't make that mistake again.

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1 minute ago, wood said:

Este. And I, like you, voted for Trump because I viewed him as the lesser of two evils. I was wrong, and I feel bad. I won't make that mistake again.

The key to being a decent person is admitting you fucked up. Just curious but how old are you. I am in the 40-45 age range b

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Just now, WelfareBuysMyWeed said:

I legitimately have no idea what this posts means (nor am I 3putt?), but I keep scrolling in this topic and I don't see any update

He said he is NOT voting for Trump 

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