She got him. Credit: Chip Somodevilla / GETTY

The presidential debate: Following President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance in June, the nearly successful assassination attempt on Donald Trump, and the ecstatic ascendance of Kamala Harris, I expected a boring debate by comparison. But, like a bullfighter waving a red flag, Harris easily baited Trump on abortion, his crimes, his authoritarian tendencies, his rallies, the insurrection, and his racism. People will probably remember Harris laughing as Trump yelled, and perhaps forget her weak position on Israel’s killing of Palestinians and her commitment not to ban fracking.

Network pundits think she did well with voters: And so did a few voters. A CNN flash poll found that registered voters who watched the debate broadly agreed that Harris beat Trump. The Washington Post talked to 25 swing state voters, and they thought Harris did better, regardless of their voting plans this November. Even Fox News’ voter panel thought Harris won. Trump told Fox & Friends he won “by a lot,” and he won so hard that he was “less inclined” to face her again. These small snapshots are anything but conclusive. It’ll be a few days before we start to see the debate’s impact on polling, which currently shows a very tight race.

Taylor Swift is on board: In her endorsement posted to Instagram minutes after the debate, Swift said Harris was a “steady-handed, gifted leader” who fought for causes she believed in and smartly picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. “I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.” In reference to US Senator JD Vance’s jab at the “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives” supposedly running this country, Swift signed her endorsement, “Childless Cat Lady.”

That other debate: Washington gubernatorial candidates Bob Ferguson and Dave Reichert duked it out on KING 5. If you didn’t catch it, Ashley watched for you and offers a full report here.

Speaking of Ashley, here she is a with a brief council report: 

Conservatives lead Seattle: Yesterday, the Seattle City Council Public Safety Committee passed two bills out of committee. One created Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA) zones and another revived the City’s past prostitution loitering law and established a Stay Out of Area Prostitution (SOAP) zone. These zones effectively allow judges to banish people from certain parts of the City for being accused or convicted of having a substance abuse issue or for possible involvement in the sex trade, respectively. The committee amended the SODA bill to add additional areas around town, including one on Capitol Hill. The whole thing is a deeply NIMBY solution that even they admit will push people around, but beyond that it shows that the city council does not care to listen to leading experts on the topic. If Purpose Dignity Action (PDA), a nonprofit that runs nation-leading diversion programs, is PUBLICLY criticizing your idea, then you have a fucking problem. PDA isn’t ever trying to make waves. 

On the SOAP and prostitution loitering bill: As groups such as Stripper Are Workers, the ACLU of Washington, Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility, and Harborview’s Abuse & Trauma Center all stand against the bill, Council Member Cathy Moore has aligned herself with an outreach group called The More We Love, founded by Kristine Moreland, who supports Republican Dave Reichert for governor. In an initial draft of the bill, Moore tried to hook up the nonprofit with a city contract without going through a competitive bidding process. She later retracted that section of her amendment, but it showed how absolutely uninformed and out of her depth she is.  

Thank you, Ashley! Now back to me.

Word choice: This morning, Biden, Harris, Trump and Vance appeared at Ground Zero to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. When asked about his schedule yesterday, President Joe Biden said he was “going up to my granddaughter’s birthday in New York, then we’re gonna to watch the debate, and tomorrow I’m doing 9/11.” Hm.

He should consider adding a phone call to his schedule: President Biden still hasn’t called the family of UW graduate Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, the activist Israeli soldiers shot and killed last week. Her partner, Hamid Ali, said in a statement yesterday that they had waited days for Biden to “do the right thing: to call us, offer his condolences, and let us know that he is ordering an independent investigation” of her killing. “This was no accident, and her killers must be held accountable.”

Starbucks’ new head said the vibes are off: On his second day as CEO, Brian Niccol told employees and customers in a letter that he wants to make the online-driven company a real coffee house again, which invites customers to hang out and sit down in comfortable chairs that don’t hurt their asses. He also wants to “empower” baristas to make great drinks. Very cool, I can think of another way to “empower” them.

🙁 The US Department of Fish and Wildlife will implement a plan to manage invasive barred owls in Washington, Oregon, and California to save native spotted owls. As soon as this fall, trained specialists will begin to lure barred owls with recorded owl calls and then blow them away with shotguns. Gnarly work, but the department said it’s either kill and have both owls, or do nothing and let spotted owls die off. The strategy, based on years of study, is not without its critics. One conservationist told KING 5 that we’ve made barred owls the villain, when we’re the villains for destroying vital habitat.

Seattle Indian Health Board cuts ties with SPD: Board Executive Vice President Abigail Echo-Hawk said her organization broke the contract because the Seattle Police Department had repeatedly rejected its recommendations on how to improve tracking and handling cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people. SPD and the board signed the contract in 2021, after the city council directed the City to work with the Native organization on data collection and training. SPD told the Seattle Times the two agencies struggled to collaborate. 

Groan: JD Vance said on a podcast that he would have directed states to submit new electors instead of certifying the election results so the country could have had a “debate about what actually matters and what kind of an election we had.” Once again, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud and, crucially, the Constitution doesn’t permit the Vice President to reject the states’ electors. 

Dave Grohl has a confession to make: The Foo Fighters frontman announced on Instagram he fathered a baby girl with a woman who is not his wife. In his spare statement, Grohl said he was doing everything he could to be a loving and supportive parent to his new child while regaining the trust of his wife, Jordyn Blum, and their three children.

A trans woman could be elected to Congress: Sarah McBride, the country’s first transgender state senator, won the Democratic primary for Delaware’s sole seat in the House, making her the likely favorite to win the election and become the first transgender member of Congress. Delaware is dependably blue, and Democrats have held the House seat for 14 years. If she wins, transgender people would have a voice in a chamber debating their legitimacy and rights.

Vivian McCall is The Stranger's interim Editor-in-Chief. In her private life, she is a musician and Wii U apologist. If you’re reading this, you either love her or hate her.

36 replies on “Slog AM: Harris and Trump Debated, Taylor Swift Endorsed Harris, Seattle City Council Advances War on Drugs and Sex Workers”

  1. Looking forward to the debate review from our resident Trump concern troll nekrasova. Looking forward to hearing how the debate was a complete and utter disaster for Kamala Harris and will spell the demise of her campaign.

    Just remember, folks, nekrasova wants to tell us:

    * Democrats should be demoralized.

    * A second Trump term won’t be so bad.

    * I’m a Harris voter just ilke the rest of you. Otherwise, why would you bother listening to me?

  2. Business analysts have ruined the world. Why make Starbucks a nice place to be when you can sell blue energy drinks to high school kids, and not hurt for profits? Pay no attention to this apology tour, and find a better coffee shop.

  3. The Wall Street Journal’s take: “Republicans expressed frustration and offered second-guessing in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s televised showdown with Kamala Harris, complaining that the former president had faced more scrutiny, as Trump cast doubt on whether he would agree to another debate.” 🤣

  5. The Spotted Owls are probably fucked no matter how many Barred Owls get shot.

    JD Vance is such a massive tool it boggles the mind. I hate that he’ll be a fixture of the Senate like massive tools Johnson, Scott, Kennedy, Hawley and Cruz.

    Why the fuck is Harris being grilled about Fracking over and over? It’s too fucking late to ban it.

  6. @3 No one needs to watch the debate. Anyone who supports Trump the way Reichert does is unfit to be dog catcher, much less governor. There’s a reason Washington hasn’t had a Republican governor since John Spellman. Reichert is just way too far right to have a chance.

  7. Democrats and Harris are dumb about fracking. There is no majority for fracking in Pennsylvania andalmost all of those who are for it are already voting for Donald Trump. In the meantime, youth is opposed to fracking and would gladly commit even further to Harris if she didn’t flop around because pro-fossil fuel Democrats like Shapiro told her it was the way to go.

    Same reasoning hold regarding Palestine but the difference is there are overwhelming majorities of Democrats and independents who are for an arm embargo. It’s downright fucking incompetence just because I have hard time imagining it’s malicious.

  8. “Here’s the truth from someone who actually lives in Pennsylvania. Most folks, especially in areas like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and their suburbs where many voters reside, don’t really talk about fracking — certainly not as much as the big issues like the economy or abortion rights. And when we do discuss it, many Pennsylvanians — perhaps even a majority — oppose fracking, because we don’t want to prolong the climate destruction of fossil fuels, or because folks who live near these fracking pads are sick of the smell, the noise, and the threat to their health.

    A 2021 poll commissioned by the pro-sustainability Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI) found just 31% of Pennsylvanians support continued fracking here, and that a majority want the process to end either immediately (25%) or see it phased out over time (30%). Other surveys show the state more evenly divided, but unfettered support for unconventional gas drilling doesn’t top 50%.

    One reason for the split is that the economic benefits to Pennsylvania that are cited again and again by TV pundits just haven’t materialized outside of just one or two of the state’s 67 counties. A series of studies have shown that fracking is not a major job category here, that the number of new hires has never matched the industry’s overblown promises, and that counties with fracking activity have mostly underperformed the state and national economy.

    “I find the whole discussion” — around fracking — “pretty deeply frustrating,” Sean O’Leary, a senior researcher for ORVI, told me this week. “I think most Pennsylvanians are at best ambivalent about fracking as a technology.” And he thinks a fair amount of the public support for fracking is reinforced by politicians — including Democrats like Gov. Josh Shapiro — constantly overstating the economic rewards.

    This means that when it comes to the presidential race, the so-called experts are getting the issue completely bass-ackward. Think about it: The voters who see fossil fuels as a gift from God and nod along to Republicans’ “Drill, baby, drill” chants are in Trump’s back pocket already. But Harris’ resolute endorsement of fracking — minus a more concrete plan to end America’s addiction to oil and gas — could slow her momentum with young voters who rank climate change as a top issue and have been drifting back to the Democrats since Biden’s withdrawal.

    But the myth that fracking is overwhelmingly popular in Pennsylvania has become a feedback loop between politicians — some of them heavily funded by oil-and-gas campaign dollars, some of them seeking the endorsements of trade unions that have bought into the job-creation hype — and a lazy news media. Since fracking resurfaced as a campaign issue, reporters for outlets like CNN or the Washington Post have flocked to places like Washington County, where the ORVI found the economy has performed somewhat better than other heavily fracked counties — partly because of exurban Pittsburgh job growth unrelated to fossil fuels — and hunt down the local bar owner who’s slinging pitchers to parched well workers.”

    https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/kamala-harris-fracking-pennsylvania-20240905.html

  9. averagebob @9 @10, please forgive my nosiness. But would you be so kind as to let us know the username you previously posted on Slog as before your arrival as “averagebob” in May of this year?

    Maybe somebody else out there has some idea about averagebob the way some folks do about the user NotMyopic who has recently graced us with his presence.

  11. Averagebob dear, If any “youth” is going to stay home because of Kamala Harris’s position on fracking, they’re idiots, and they deserve every bad thing that would happen to them and the country.

    There’s one good thing to say about fracking: it killed coal as an electrical generation source (in part because of the lack of regulation). I fully expect that ten years from now, fracking and and the whole natural gas market will be going the way of coal due to technological advances in battery storage. (Hint: it doesn’t involve Lithium)

    I just don’t get the impulse in some to think that we are not going to see rapid and dramatic technological changes, especially since that’s been the case for the last couple of centuries.

    And anyone who stays home or votes third part because Harris’s position on Palestine doesn’t pass their purity test is doing their part to make sure that Gaza will become the land of seaside resorts that trump’s handlers and family want it to be – and the West Bank will be next.

  12. 13, exactly. Trump has outright said he’ll let Netanyahu “finish the job,” and we also know he’ll let Putin finish the job, which, as Kamala correctly pointed out, means he’ll move onto Poland next. I find it strange that young people who make Gaza their #1 issue seem to have no similar passion over the women being tortured by Republican policies in this country, or about the thousands of immigrant children who were kidnapped by the Trump Administration and taken from their families, many of whom are still lost because they never bothered to track them. Or the 40% of COVID deaths that were determined to have likely been preventable if the Trump administration hadn’t completely botched their response, or the millions of people who lost their health insurance under Trump, leading to thousands of deaths.

    I understand that Gaza is an important issue, but every time I hear a privileged young person obnoxiously declare that this is why they won’t vote for Harris, I want to scream.

  13. Ms Vel-DuRay is 100% correct that we have fracking to thank for the collapse of coal.

    The owl thing is a total fiasco. Spotted owls are vanishing due to loss of habitat. I imagine very few private landowners will let FWS owl hunters onto their property, so the barred owls have that going for them. Niche vacancies created by barred owl hunting will be filled by … more barred owls.

  17. @14: why would Putin go into Poland? It was a good debate line, but it doesn’t seem a likely target for a second Russian front.

    Poland is already in NATO, just like the Baltic states. There aren’t Soviet-imported Russian speakers there, which was his rationale for annexing Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk.

    And he’s already got the Kaliningrad/Konigsberg exclave, which Stalin took as a war spoil.

    He was probably planning on having Ukraine be a vassal state like Belarus or Tajikistan. He’ll likely settle for the annexed territories, as Ukraine reclaiming them militarily seems a remote possibility.

  18. @9, “overwhelming majorities of Democrats and independents who are for an arm embargo.”

    Citation that includes “embargo” or “ban all arms sales to Israel,” and numbers?

    Or is “overwhelming numbers” just your anecdotal sense based on talking to your bubble?

    How does the issue poll among the 100k swing voters in a few states that will pick our next President? How high does the issue rank in their list of priorities? If its 20 the on their list, it won’t influence their vote. Higher ranked issues will.

  19. If anyone, anyone at all no matter who they are or where they are from or what their personal situation is votes for Trump there is only one reason, they are exactly like him and/or fully support all of the sewage that flows out of his mouth.

  20. @10,

    “A 2021 poll commissioned by the pro-sustainability Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI) found just 31% of Pennsylvanians support continued fracking here, and that a majority want the process to end either immediately (25%) or see it phased out over time (30%).”

    How does it poll among truly undecided swing voters in PA that will hand the state to Harris or Trump? Knowing that would actually be meaningful. The data you provide from the general population, not so much.

  21. @19, Because Putin has said he will restore Russia’s 1917 borders.

    Everybody decided his statements about Ukraine were mere bluster, to play to his base within Russia. Care to roll the dice on bluster again?

    What makes you think NATO will exist in a Trump Administration? One of the reasons MAGA is so dangerous.

  22. “If CM Cathy Moore ignores the 55 orgs opposed to SOAP and prostitution loitering, including 44 that testified opposition today with only 4 or so testifying in favor, if she ignores that and passes this bill, it will be absolutely baffling”

    The only thing the Stranger likes more than giving clicks to Elon Musk’s Right-Wing Conspiracy-Theory Mill is declaring advocacy groups’ statements should count for more than actual citizens’ votes in real elections. (This goes double if those advocacy groups stand to get money from the government, if the government follows the advocacy groups’ advice.)

  23. Operation Frequent Wind @18, Professor Hizstory is a pretty good guess actually. Here’s the interesting thing about averagebob’s comments:

    https://www.thestranger.com/users/79529046/averagebob/comments

    They consistently come across as a caricature of a doctrinaire contemporary progressive who has no interest in engaging and persuading, only in enraging and provoking. It smells like a deliberate disinformation effort, albeit homegrown, like there’s no way this individual sincerely holds these beliefs.

    I’m reading Max Solomon’s comment @19. I wish I had time to respond in full because there’s a lot of misunderstanding baked in there–about the Baltics, about eastern Ukraine, about Putin’s intentions, about our own interests–so just one point. Regarding “Ukraine reclaiming (the annexed territories) militarily seems a remote possibility”–I think that’s entirely contingent on our presidential election. And even then, the Ukrainians don’t need to reclaim all the current annexed territories, and all in the next four years.

  24. A majority of Americans of any political persuasion support an arms embargo with Israel, and the numbers are higher for Biden voters, particularly younger voters who have been instrumental in winning elections for democrats. People in this country tend to quickly tire of the wars we wage, fund, and instigate and Gaza is no different.

    Regarding fracking, the majority of people experience it as an environmental nuisance that poisons the water supply, particularly in states where it’s common, but capital greases the gears of our politics and the interests of the industry will always win out over the common man. Harris would probably gain more votes than she lost by sticking to her guns but there is no reality where a lucrative industry is banned, even with supermajority support. There is not an artful way for a politician to say this even though everyone knows it’s true.

  25. CM Moore appears to be almost as dumb as she is emotional volatile. Her achieving this position after having been a judge is a real indictment of both our local political and legal systems. Hopefully a serious candidate runs against her next time so we can put a Stay Out of City Hall Area order on her.

  26. @13 Even idiots vote so you’d better be sure they vote for you because they’ll be no valid reason later to complain about idiots who voted wrong

    “coal versus natural gas (methane)”

    “Methane emissions are at new highs. It could put us on a dangerous climate path

    Human activities such as farming livestock, coal mining, extracting and handling natural gas, growing rice in paddies, and putting organic waste in landfills contribute about 65% of all methane emissions. Of this, agriculture (livestock and rice paddies) contributes 40%, fossil fuels 36%, and landfills and wastewater 17%.

    Methane emissions from fossil fuels are now comparable to livestock emissions. The fastest growing contributors are from landfill and fossil fuels (think natural gas escaping during extraction and processing).”

    https://phys.org/news/2024-09-methane-emissions-highs-dangerous-climate.html

    “technological changes,”

    There is no evidence that the energy transition is actually a transition. So far we are only adding clean energy to the existing energy mix. Historically we haven’t actually witnessed a transition either: for example our use of wood increased after the advent of coal energy. Coal use has decreased in Western nations but it has increased in Asia that produces most of the stuff we consume. Exporting our production is not equivalent to reducing our carbon footprint

    Failing to stop enabling a genocide is hardly failing a purity test. Your statement is pretty outrageous.

  27. averagebob @28, maybe we can make this multiple choice. Are you?

    A. Professor Hiztory

    B. Roger the Shrubber

    C. another former commenter

    D. none of the above (I’m new here)

  28. “The reality is that the public is far more in favor of stopping arms sales to Israel than opposed,” Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program at Arab Center Washington D.C., told The Intercept. He pointed to a June poll from CBS that showed 61 percent of all Americans said the U.S. should not send weapons to Israel, including 77 percent of Democrats and nearly 40 percent of Republicans.

    Poll results have been consistent for months.

    https://theintercept.com/2024/09/10/polls-arms-embargo-israel-weapons-gaza/

  29. @ 28, and how would Trump stop enabling the genocide? He said he’d do the exact opposite. Beyond that specific issue, Trump’s policies have already killed, tortured, and harmed millions of people in this country. Why would I risk him being elected over a single issue, when doing so would only worsen the issue I claim to care about?

  30. @32 I am not disagreeing with you and I encourage everyone in swing states to vote for Harris because she is the much better candidate but it would be a lot easier to generate enthusiasm for her candidacy among youth and Arab Americans if she did the right thing for Gaza. I’ll go even further it’s counterproductive for her not to twist Netanyahu’s arm really hard at this point in time.

  31. “[ab] who

    has no interest in

    engaging and persuading,

    only in enraging and provoking.”

    the reich wing is often

    Provoked. shall we

    be Sad?

    & why this fascination

    with ab’s identity?

    what’s the Up-

    side?

    if it’s

    the Perfessor

    he’s damn Good

    at Transformation

    (our dear Perfessor

    headed South for

    more Better

    Climes.).

  33. bibi appears

    treacherous af

    would he use the

    nukular option merely

    to stay the fuk outta Prison?

    does that mean

    Jesus might be

    coming back?

    good Luck,

    Jesus (you’re

    gonna Need it).

    20 or 30,000

    going straight

    to Heaven one way

    the 7 or 10 or however

    many Billions there are of us

    so

    What the Fuck

    happens to US?

    we without Caves

    good

    luck?

  35. @27

    Regardless of policy differences, it is pretty messed up to label Cathy Moore as “emotionally volatile”. That is an extremely sexist trope. The hypocrisy is strong with you, young jedi.

    Also, given your comment history, I am not sure you’re an arbiter on emotional stability. Glass houses and all.

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