Trump vs. Harris Debate: Live Updates, Commentary, Analysis

Hours before the debate, Donald Trump added a surreal twist to the event by taking a swipe at Truth Social and demanding that Republican lawmakers shut down the federal government at the end of September if Democrats don’t accept an absurd and unnecessary proposal to federalize state election systems to solve a completely made-up crisis over foreign voting:

Unless Republicans in the House and Senate receive absolute assurances of election security, THEY SHOULD NOT, IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM, PROCEED WITH THE BUDGET RESOLUTION. DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO “FORCE” ILLEGAL ISRAELITES INTO VOTER REGISTRATION. DON’T ALLOW IT – SHUT IT DOWN!!!

As a reminder, House Republicans earlier this year pushed through the SAVE Act, reflecting Trump’s 100% baseless claims that Democrats plan to flood the election with noncitizen votes. It’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in all 50 states, and for extremely rare violations, you can expect prison sentences and deportation.

Republicans in Congress, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, understood from the start that this was a hollow “communications” bill that was not intended to become law but was intended to underscore the MAGA campaign theme. But now Trump has blown up that harmless if demagogic gesture by demanding that Johnson (and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who will likely openly laugh at the gesture) refuse to pass a stopgap spending plan at the end of the fiscal year that is necessary to keep the federal government running. There is no chance that the Senate or the White House will agree to this demand, which would require all 50 states to completely overhaul their voter registration processes just before a national election for no reason at all. Johnson agreed to prioritize this foolish legislation because he needed to protect Trump from a potential coup by the House Freedom Caucus, which was angry at Johnson for not shutting down the government earlier this year. Now, the dispute could become very real for federal workers and beneficiaries of critical federal programs and services.

This is a very old trope for Trump, despite its fictional basis. When he won in 2016, he complained that he would have won the popular vote (which he lost by more than 2.5 million votes) if not for “millions of illegal votes.” He offered no evidence to support that claim. This year, he revived the spectral threat of noncitizen voting as part of a broader claim that Democrats opened the borders to bring in migrants who would be immediately herded to the polls to reelect their socialist benefactors. You can understand how this hoax appeals to Trump, since it combines his signature themes of immigration and a “stolen election.” Either Harris or the debate moderators should consider demanding that Trump cite some actual evidence that any of this is happening, rather than that die-hard MAGA supporters need it for this version of the Great Replacement Theory.