HateFest 2024

Trump helps Harris make her closing argument

Campaigns do not want to wake up to headlines like the one on CNN’s website Monday morning: “Trump Unveils the Most Extreme Closing Argument in Modern Presidential History.”

The story began:

Donald Trump anchored his bid to win a second White House term next week on searing anti-migrant fear at a rally at Madison Square Garden, doubling down on his promise for a massive deportation program on Day 1 to reverse an “immigrant invasion.” As the ex-president’s allies defend him against Democratic claims he is a “fascist” and an authoritarian in waiting, based in part on warnings by his ex-chief of staff John Kelly, Trump on Sunday delivered a screed that may augur the most extreme presidency in modern history if he beats Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on November 5.

This is exactly the message the campaign wants to get to voters. The Harris campaign that is.

On Monday, I wrote about the stark contrasts between the Harris and Trump messages in these final days, juxtaposing the serious but joyful Harris rally in Houston with the dark and deranged interview Trump gave to Joe Rogan at the same time. Then Trump held his nouveau-Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden and something remarkable happened.

People noticed.

The press noticed. Social media noticed.

For perhaps the first time in this campaign, the bile and hatred broke through.

The catalyst for this was a racist joke about Puerto Ricans told by a self-described comedian at the rally prior to Trump’s speech that instantly blew up social media sites.

The most high-profile Puerto Rican entertainers on earth—J-Lo, Bad Bunny, Ricky Martin—immediately condemned the comments to their hundreds of millions of followers and expressed their support for Harris. By Monday morning, every prominent news outlet was calling out what happened at the Garden in the most direct terms we’ve seen this year:

The New York Times: “Trump at the Garden: A Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism”

The Washington Post: “Trump Rally Speakers Invoke Racist Tropes in Denouncing Harris”

Politico: “Fallout Spreads From Racist Rhetoric at Trump’s MSG Rally”

Associated Press: “Trump’s Madison Square Garden Event Features Crude and Racist Insults”

Reuters: “Trump Headlines Madison Square Garden Rally After Vulgar, Racist Remarks From Allies”

Racist. Racism. Even the New York Times said it. Finally.

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Now contrast this display with yesterday’s event on the National Mall, where Kamala Harris made her closing argument to the country.

Standing in the place where Donald Trump whipped up his supporters with lies about a stolen election and directed them toward the Capitol, surrounded by a crowd estimated at 75,000, she expertly drew contrasts in content, tone and temperament with what the country saw from Trump in New York.

Harris covered a lot of ground in half an hour. She reminded the country about what happened in that place four years ago as she prosecuted the case that Donald Trump is too dangerous to return to power. She introduced herself to people who may be paying attention to the election for the first time or who may just not know much about her.

She spoke about her agenda—covering topics ranging from abortion to health care to housing to immigration to taxes—contrasting her “to do” list with Trump’s enemies list, distinguishing Trump’s thirst for vengeance and pathological self-absorption with her impulse to work for and elevate others.

She promised moderation, bipartisanship and the willingness to listen to different opinions. She established herself as the candidate of freedom who has lived “the promise of America” and offered the country a chance to move past the politics of division.

She looked forward.

And she ended with this:

Nearly 250 years ago, America was born when we wrested freedom from a petty tyrant. Across the generations, Americans have preserved that freedom, expanded it, and in so doing, proved to the world that a government of, by, and for the people is strong and can endure. And those who came before us—the patriots at Normandy and Selma, Seneca Falls and Stonewall, on farmlands and factory floors—they did not struggle, sacrifice, and lay down their lives only to see us cede our fundamental freedoms. They didn’t do that only to see us submit to the will of another petty tyrant.

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In my write-up of the 2023 election, where Democrats outperformed polls in races across the country, I noted that the reason for their success was that once voters really locked into their choice they rejected what MAGA has to offer. And I predicted that as the presidential election came into focus—which for many voters is just happening now—the same dynamic will apply. I anticipated that MAGA would continue to be MAGA, and that “the louder they get the more extreme they will look once voters start thinking about the election through a normal-versus-extreme frame.”

That frame has become paramount during these closing days of the campaign. The vision of the future that Kamala Harris offered at the Ellipse is sane and reassuring. We know what happened at Madison Square Garden.

The timing couldn’t be better.

My theory of the case has always been that Donald Trump will lose this election if people go to the polls thinking about his extremism, the way Trump and his MAGA allies have been losing elections since he snuck into the White House through the back door eight years ago.

As HateFest was infesting the Garden, my mind wandered to another location in Manhattan a few miles away and to another Tuesday in November. That would be Tuesday November 26, when Donald Trump is due in court to face sentencing for those 34 felony convictions.

And that’s when the true difference between the two campaigns snapped into focus for me. Trump’s toxicity is empowered by the terrifying prospect that he could again become the most powerful person on earth. But if he doesn’t, a few weeks later he will be just an ordinary felon in a criminal courtroom.

Against the contrasting backdrops of hate and hope, this crystallized perhaps more than anything else the difference between the two candidates.

Donald Trump is running to protect his freedom. Kamala Harris is running to protect ours.