☕ Daily Brief: Trump vs. Harris: Who's really the threat to democracy?

Also, Kamala’s plagiarism scandal intensifies

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Ron Paul: “Everyone Should Request This 401(k) Adjustment”

Dr. Ron Paul recently shocked his audience by revealing that “the worst financial disaster in history” is happening now. Worst of all, he says Americans with IRAs and 401(k)s will be hardest hit.

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

📖 Kamala Harris' plagiarism scandal deepens. New evidence shows Kamala Harris lifted large portions of a 2007 congressional testimony of hers from a Republican colleague. A Washington Free Beacon review revealed that this pattern of plagiarism extends beyond her 2009 book Smart on Crime and even includes instances where she presented a fictionalized human trafficking story as fact.

💰 Crypto-friendly lawmakers are on the rise. A $160 million spending blitz by a network of super PACs is set to flood Congress with pro-cryptocurrency allies. Up to 13 new House members and several senators, including Senate candidates Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and John Curtis (R-UT), are expected to join the ranks of crypto supporters.

👩‍💼 Trump’s team is jockeying for the chief of staff role. The race for chief of staff is already sparking fierce behind-the-scenes competition, with former Domestic Policy Council Director Brooke Rollins being floated as a contender. Meanwhile, Susie Wiles, Trump’s campaign manager, remains the frontrunner due to her long-standing loyalty.

💸 Rudy Giuliani was forced to surrender his Manhattan apartment. The former New York City mayor was ordered to surrender his Manhattan apartment, Mercedes, and rare Yankees memorabilia to two Georgia election workers. The ruling stems from a $150 million defamation lawsuit, where Giuliani claimed the election workers tried to cheat Donald Trump out of the 2020 election.

WHAT WE’RE HEARING
  • The director of the Harvard Youth Poll believes Kamala Harris could be losing too many young men to win the election.

  • President Biden said of Trump, “We gotta lock him up!” He then caught himself and said, “Politically lock him up.”

  • Tulsi Gabbard announced she is joining the Republican Party.

  • Dan Bongino said it’s “glorious to behold” Americans’ collapsing trust in the media.

IN THE LOOP
  • Donald Trump will appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast on Friday.

  • Tackle your credit card debt by paying 0% interest until 2026. If you have credit card debt, a 0% intro APR card can help. You can also earn up to 20,000 miles after spending $500 in 3 months with this popular low interest card.*

  • Chris Cuomo will host a town hall meeting with Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) tomorrow, which will be live-streamed exclusively on X.

  • The Los Angeles Times refused to make a presidential endorsement.

  • CNN’s Harry Enten broke down the “closest electoral polls we have ever seen” in a presidential election.

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MY THOUGHTS

Can the media save Kamala? Our response.

Good morning. Pick up any New York Times paper from the past two weeks — or months. Actually, don’t. Become an Upward News member instead.

But if you happen to stumble upon one without wasting your money, you’d notice they’re laser-focused on convincing voters that Kamala is leading on everything — from the border to foreign policy and other issues that defy common sense. The days for soft-criticism of their candidate are over until the day after the election.

In response to the media’s last-minute push, we’ll be publishing a series diving into key voter concerns and comparing Kamala and Trump on the issues — the details they aren’t covering.

We’ve got two weeks left, and this will take some serious research. Some of these articles will be available to premium members only, so please become a member and support us today.

And please share the newsletter with friends and family.

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WASHINGTON

Trump vs. Harris: Who's really the threat to democracy?

  • The narrative of Trump threatening democracy relies on multiple hoaxes or distortions

  • Harris’ support for court-packing and federalized election laws undermines democratic checks and balances

  • Harris indicates she would continue certain authoritarian habits of her current administration

Where Trump stands

Donald Trump has been relentlessly accused of undermining democracy, often dating back to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, though the accusations began when he entered the race in 2015. These accusations often ignore crucial facts and frequently involve far-reaching comparisons to 20th-century villains like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini.

Many on the political left are concerned with the state of American democracy, with a recent Gallup poll identifying 85 percent of voters who say that “Democracy in the US” is a very or extremely important issue to them.

The accusations of Donald Trump being a threat to democracy tend to center around his rhetoric, most recently involving his assertion that Haitian migrants in Ohio eat cats and dogs.

The media claims this rhetoric has led to bomb threats against schools in Springfield, and while threats were indeed made, Ohio’s governor confirmed that all of them were hoaxes originating from overseas.

Regarding Jan. 6, the overwhelming majority of elected Republicans acknowledge that the riot was unacceptable, and that the original protest got out of hand, including Trump. The former president told his supporters to protest “peacefully” and called for the riot to stop once it happened.

What many in the media downplay is that Trump had told the acting secretary of defense that there should be around 10,000 National Guard troops to be on standby on Jan. 6.

While the media has issued fact-checks to prove that Trump never made an official request for those troops, the Department of Defense never took the initiative to follow up on the president’s request.

Additionally, Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser had declined to deploy more than approximately 350 officers.

After the election, Donald Trump wanted the results challenged through legal means in Congress. If this represents a “threat to democracy,” then Democrats are guilty as well, since they challenged electoral outcomes in 2000, 2004, and 2016. Several high-ranking Democrats have not committed to certifying this year’s results if Trump wins.

In terms of accomplishments, Trump's administration strengthened the economy, lowered unemployment to historic lows, and reshaped the judiciary.

With over 230 federal judges and three Supreme Court justices appointed, Trump left an indelible mark on the country’s legal framework — with the pretense that courts would respect the Constitution rather than impose progressive interpretations.

Where Harris stands

During Kamala Harris’ tenure as vice president, the Department of Justice has frequently targeted not just the former president and Harris’ current political opposition, but have fiercely gone after pro-life and religious Americans. Meanwhile, the FBI under Biden-Harris has reportedly purged itself of conservative agents.

Under the current administration’s FBI, the definition of “extremism” has been changed to include those on the political right, mainly used to prosecute huge numbers of individuals around the Capitol on Jan. 6, many of whom have been prosecuted for nonviolent offenses.

As attorney general of California, Harris herself has gone after pro-lifers after they had exposed the illegal sale of aborted fetus parts by Planned Parenthood.

Harris’ support for radically overhauling the Supreme Court exposes her hypocrisy when it comes to "defending democracy." While she claims to protect democratic institutions, her backing of legislation that would allow the appointment of a new justice every two years has been criticized by conservatives as threatening the stability and independence of the judiciary.

The Biden-Harris’ administration also allowed ISIS — which was virtually entirely wiped out under Trump’s presidency — to resurface in the wake of its botched Afghanistan withdrawal. An ISIS-K terrorist in America was recently arrested for plotting an Election Day massacre.

When it comes to her future plans, Harris signals an even more leftward tilt if she ascends to the presidency. She has supported efforts to federalize election laws like the For the People Act, which critics argue would weaken state-level safeguards and lead to federal overreach in elections.

Moreover, Harris has stated time and time again that she would welcome censorship to combat online “misinformation” — often just a term used to identify right-wing speech.

The Biden-Harris administration has taken an unprecedented approach to regulating speech, especially on issues such as COVID-19, which have been challenged all the way to the Supreme Court.

Why it matters

The Biden-Harris administration pursued many policies seen as harmful to democracy. By advocating for court-packing, online censorship, and federal control over state election laws, Harris seeks to override many of the checks and balances that safeguard democratic institutions.

Meanwhile, the media’s portrayal of Trump as a fascist, while ignoring or excusing Harris’ authoritarian tendencies, has further eroded public trust in those institutions.

The constant drumbeat of media narratives framing Donald Trump and Republicans as threats to democracy has created an environment where normal conservative voices are labeled as extreme. Harris signals she would gladly double down on this when she takes the reigns.

Penny Nance is Rallying Women to Defend Their Future

Penny Nance is the CEO and President of Concerned Women for America (CWA), which promotes and advocates for Biblical values and Constitutional principles. CWA is the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization, with over half a million members.

On women’s role in healing the nation:

"We believe that our nation will be healed by women, by women being involved, by being the spokesperson on behalf of life, by being those that are guardians of their daughters' future."

On abortion

“If we’re going to talk about abortion, I’m going to talk about what it really is.

I’ve heard one too many starlets say something like, ‘Abortion is love. Abortion is mercy.’ No, it’s not merciful to dismember a baby in utero.”

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OUR QUESTION TO YOU

📊 What do you fear most if Kamala becomes president?

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POLL RESULTS FROM YESTERDAY

Will Republicans sweep the House, Senate, and White House?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 👍 Yes (449)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👎 No (82)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🤔 Unsure (306)

👍 Yes: “Everyone is tired of the same old same old with no change.” — Angeli

👎 No: “There was no red wave when last predicted.” — Mark

🤔 Unsure: “Depends if there is fraud.” — Rich

837 votes
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Today’s newsletter was written by Brandon Goldman and Ari David.