Unhinged

Photo is from Newsweek

 Unhinged. That was the word that kept coming to mind as I watched Donald Trump try to debate Kamala Harris on Tuesday night. He sounded nuts. Crazy. Out of his mind. He kept saying stupid, lunatic things, one after another, millions of them, the worst series of stupid things in the history of the world...

Something like that.

I will try to read through a transcript of the debate and list out some of the most ridiculous, disqualifying things that he said, although I started doing this and found that there are a lot of words in the transcript, so I will have to do a lot of paraphrasing and condensing. Let's try, question by question, focusing on Trump's answers rather than Harris's wherever possible.

First question is about the economy. Are you better off than you were four years ago?

First Trump talks about tariffs, how other countries are going to pay them.

Foreign companies don't pay tariffs. Importers do. At least some of the extra cost is passed to consumers. Trump seems to not understand how tariffs work.

"We've had a terrible economy..."

No. Opposite of the truth.

Inflation. "...which is really known as a country buster. It breaks up countries."

No...what?? A country buster? Never heard that before.

Probably the worst inflation in our history.

Probably? You're not sure? Well no, it isn't.

We were at 21%.

No.

Millions of people are coming into the US from prisons and insane asylums.... They are taking over towns.... They're going in violently.... And they're destroying our country.... They're at the highest level of criminality....

The highest level of criminality. You're just tossing words together here, aren't you?

"I have nothing to do with Project 2025."

The people who worked for you, the people who worship you, who wrote Project 2025 - who did they think might be president in 2025? Why did they call it Project 2025?

"I went to Wharton School of Finance, and many of those professors, the top professors [of course the top ones] think my plan is a brilliant plan..."

Did you just make that up? I think you did. Any other candidate would be pressed hard to supply the names of those professors. I don't think Trump will be asked. Everyone knows he's lying.

Second question is about whether Americans can afford to pay tariffs.

"People can't buy cereal, bacon, or eggs or anything else....the people of our country are absolutely dying with what they've done. The destroyed the economy and all you have to do is look at a poll."

You want to know how the economy is doing, so you point to a poll? Is there no better way to assess the economy?

"The polls say 80 and 85 and even 90% that the Trump economy was great and their economy was terrible"

I'm going to say that these are bullshit imaginary numbers, without even checking. It would be kind of sad if, just off the top of my head, I was more accurate than a candidate for president.

"She's going to my philosophy now. In fact, I was going to send her a MAGA hat. She's gone to my philosophy. But if she ever got elected, she'd change it. And it will be the end of our country. She's a Marxist. Everybody knows she's a Marxist. Her father's a Marxist professor in economics. He taught her well."

Will there ever come a time when we can all agree that this guy is just Looney Tunes, batshit crazy, a rambling nutjob? Is that time now? If I ever said anything so stupid in public, I would be humiliated for the rest of time. And you're going to vote for him for president of the United States? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

"...millions and millions of people that are pouring into our country monthly..."

Sigh. Millions and millions monthly? Or is it billions and billions? Apparently, part of the strategy was that immigration is the answer to every question.

Third question is about abortion.

Trump says that Democrats favor abortion in the ninth month, or even after birth, and particularly Tim Walz is in favor of executing babies after birth.

How can anyone, let alone a presidential candidate, be that stupid?

"Every legal scholar, every Democrat, every Republican, liberal, conservative..." wanted Roe v. Wade overturned. Apparently everyone everywhere wanted that.

Why say something everyone knows is not true? As Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out, this is Trump lying to the voters about what the voters wanted. It's unhinged.

In response to a question about abortion, Trump then talks about student loans.

When he first started answering the abortion question, he referenced the governor of West Virginia. Now he switches to the governor of Virginia. I have no idea which one he meant.

I will stop there, for now, because I am less than halfway through the transcript, and I don't like for my posts to be too long. But I will get back to the rest.

One little preview: It's the next question that really gets him going off the rails...