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COMMENTARY THE COFFEE KLATCH ... SEPTEMBER 7th 2024 Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse: The Upcoming Great Debate PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDHoyNHM0Ww Peter Burgess COMMENTARY The upcoming debate between Trump and Harris will be a consequential TV event. My hope is that Kamala Harris will 'win' the debate by a huge margin and go on to win the Presidential election by a wide margin, but that might be wishful thinking. The American electorate is not particularly rational and that could be a problem. I am reminded that Germany supported Adolph Hitler in the run-up to the Second World War in the 1930s ... and Trump has some of the same strengths as that awful man. I am reminded that the United States sat out WWII until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor almost 2 years after Germany first launched its offensive in Europe! Hitler had the support of the German populace in the 1930s. Trump has a lot of support from the American populace 90 years later! It makes no sense, but it happened with Hitler and it could happen with Trump! There are glimmers of hope. One is that Kamala Harris has a 'prosecutor's' mindset and thus the potential to 'outsmart' Trump in a debate. Another is that more and more prominent Republicans are speaking out against Trump inluding former Republican VP Dick Cheney and his daughter former Representative Liz Cheney. The problem is that a huge proportion of the American public has only a very superficial interest and understanding of politics ... and Trump has done well over the years in 'conning' people with 'entertainment' and this remains his continuing attraction. Peter Burgess
The Upcoming Great Debate \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich 790K subscribers ... 120,071 views ... 7.5K likes September 7th 2024 The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Today, Heather and I examine the upcoming Tuesday night debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. The American public knows Trump. He has forced himself into our minds for the last decade in every possible way. Yet much of the public doesn’t yet know Harris. Before Biden bowed out on July 21, she was a vice president who, like every vice president before her, was almost invisible. Heather and I discuss what’s most important for her to do in the debate — define herself as strong and competent or define Trump as weak and incompetent? Emphasize law and order, while suggesting Trump is unlawful and disordered? Bait Trump into losing control? We also discuss the Trump trials, the U.S. economy, and other issues that have a bearing. Please pull up a chair, grab a cup, take our poll, AND make a note on your calendars. that Heather and I will host a watch-along of Tuesday’s debate, which you’ll find right here on this substack. Transcript 0:00 and it is the Saturday coffee clutch with Heather loft house and yours truly Robert R and Heather what do we have today what's on our agenda we have the upcoming presidential debate we have where does the presidential election stand the economy let's go let's do it let's do it the the presidential debate is on everybody's mind this is actually a Hu this is the biggest and most important debate I think since John F Kennedy uh confronted Richard Nixon and vice versa uh because you see everybody knows who Trump is that's not the issue I mean Trump has been in our he's forced himself into our minds over the last eight nine 10 years uh but a lot of Americans still don't know who KLA Harris is this is her introduction in many ways uh to a lot of America and so it's a very very very big deal in terms of how she introduces herself and I am excited to see this prosecutor up there and I think think we have to think back 1:00 to the first debate if we can remember that far um and I know we obviously all of us focused and you know the Press included on how poorly Biden did in terms of what we needed him to do we needed him to knock it out of the park we needed him to trample Trump but we have to also remember that Trump was awful at that debate he was rambling he didn't make sense so there's a distorted sense because he was bad here but we needed Biden to be up here and he was down here so let's hope that he's just as bad if not worse well I I agree I agree with you Heather but you know the uh the kamla Harris's campaign has already agreed that Trump's microphone will be muted when she's talking and obviously her microphone will muted when he's when he's talking but the the battle of the mutes the battle of the mutations of the microphone uh actually um was very important and unfortunately 2:00 KLA Harris gave in uh because when when the microphone is not muted when When Donald Trump's microphone really can reveal everything that he is and what he says and how uncontrolled he is that's the ball grain I I think the the most important thing that kin Harris can do on Tuesday night is to come across as strong and competent and really in command and not not allowing anybody I.E Donald Trump to take control uh that is here is a woman who is going to be the quintessence of excuse the expression Law and Order right uh she is really going to be Law and Order one thing it's not a woman it's just a person I mean that's what's so interesting I think we're not focused on her gender and her sex and her identity we it doesn't matter we aren't but most of America or 3:00 a big big chunk of America is so that's why she needs to um make sure that America understands that notwithstanding her gender she is tough and she is a prosecutor uh and she can go even one step further in this kind of Law and Order theme uh and make sure people understand that she's confronting somebody who is Lawless and disordered well that's that's that's really the contrast that she's going to have to seek what I'm hoping is that she pushes him on some of these things because I don't trust the moderators to do it right I mean I don't even remember the moderators in the first debate I were they even did they attend I think their mics were on mute but I do know that Dana Bash pushed her the other day you know in that Thursday night CNN interview so I'm hoping some moderators show up and really push these candidates but if the moderators don't I hope kamla pushes Trump including on abortion which is so important and it's so chaotic and 4:01 he's here and he's there and so I'm hoping some of these issues where she's rambling so much these days she can get to him I hope so I mean the theme of Freedom which he also uses uh the Law and Order theme is kind of submerged and I think it's very very important she's not going to State it as Law and Order but that's who she represents uh but the freedom theme has been connected she has connected it to Freedom over one's body fre freedom from interference by the federal government in the most intimate kind of decisions anybody has to make about whether to keep a b you know keep stay pregnant and and have an abortion and all of that and I think that she does have to really push hard to make Donald Trump have a position because as you said he's been all over the place on this and he's responsible ultimately for those three members of the Supreme Court who uh joined the majority joined AO in 5:02 overturning roie Wade and this is this is why we have the problem this is why one out of three American women in this country no longer have the freedom to have an abortion but it'll also be the battle of the freedoms because he also loves to use that term and I think he's using it fallaciously and not genuinely but also he's trying to usurp it from her so we'll see who can Define freedom and be the most compelling it's going to be like a tennis match or pickle ball pick your pleasure back and forth with the freedoms he's not going to really be defining anything I mean but you know he he doesn't he doesn't get into any policy he doesn't get into any detail it's an impossible thing to follow him he creates what he calls now the weave which is just basically anything that comes into his head uh and that's going to be very hard for not only the moderators but it's going to be very very difficult for kamla Harris I think 6:01 kamla Harris needs not to pay too much attention to the word salads that come out of Trump's mouth except to pin him down on abortion and a couple of other things that maybe he needs to be pinned down on but she needs to spend most of her time making her case and being very clear and strong about who she is I agree and the great news is you and I are going to be watching the debate with everyone else right we're going to do a live watch along we are here we are here as your companions uh and I remember the June debate a lot of that was I mean that was so depressing Heather and I remember you and I trying to make the best of what was really kind of a teeth clenching kind of awful evening uh but a lot of people appreciated the fact that we were there with them in effect effectively figuratively holding their hands and will'll be doing the same thing again and giving a lot a lot of commentary too 7:01 and Michael on our team said why don't we do a live where you're watching it and we're all we're going to watch it anyway and I think the you know listeners and viewers would like to do that and we did that holding our teeth as you said so this time we'll do it again because you all asked us to do it again and we'll put the link down in the description so you all can have the link ready and bookmarked but let's get back to it okay the presidential election are you feeling hopeful what have you been paying attention to are you looking at polls where do you stand Bob uh well I'm I'm hopeful mainly because of enthusiasm and excitement on kamla Harris's side and tib wal side uh I'm I'm worried though because the forces of well Trump Darkness evil Vance I mean those forces are very very profound very big uh they are not going away uh and those forces are are organizing themselves uh also a bunch of i' I've been speaking to pollsters recently 8:00 uh it's not something that's very interesting or exciting they're not great conversations Heather I don't urge you going out and finding a poster to sit down and have coffee with uh but these pollers I talk with I'm curious about their techniques because the polling has changed a lot since 2016 when you remember Hillary Clinton was everybody every every poller said she was a a shoe in for president uh so what I'm finding is a lot of pollsters say we cannot control for one very important variable and that is how many people are reluctant to tell us they are going to vote for Trump because it's not the kind of thing that they think professionals like us pollsters want to hear or approve of so that X Factor worries me quite frankly yes exactly and that is um there's a word for it but I forget it's not is it confirmation bias or it's a kind of bias when you do the thing that you think the pollster wants to hear um and so that we do obviously have to 9:00 control for that I am still hopeful I mean the Electoral College is terrifying and so many people I mean if you scroll Twitter I refuse to call it X um if you scroll I mean everyone's talking about what's the latest in Pennsylvania the latest you know this second and this second and this second and it is scary but you know what's actually nice I've been enjoying watching a traditional presidential campaign I've been liking I mean we had the pandemic do we remember this four years ago it was yes right and you mentioned that um Hillary Clinton that feels like 200 years ago but it's nice to watch Harris and walls travel around the country put out policies have interesting conversations showing up at rallies saying things it feels good to watch what I would call a non-weird presidential campaign un exactly unlike unlike the other side well you know Harris WS even has a bus I mean 10:00 buses U yes it does feel a little bit like oldfashioned campaigning uh here's a big a big thing in August uh the Harris campaign pulled in 3551 million in contributions which was three times what the Trump campaign pulled in in contributions uh now these are mostly small contributions another contrast between the two campaigns is that Trump continues to rely primarily on big money uh and the Harris walls campaign a lot of a huge proportion is small contributions and the small donations really are putting her and well over the top big deal I feel like every time we clotch we have a coffee together we're saying she said a new record in terms of fundraising they set a new record it's so terrific and they're spending a lot of the money on online ads um and speaking of online it's been so interesting to watch the latest around Russian interference in the election and 11:02 the fact that allegedly um Russians are paying influencers right to come out it it it is interesting Heather because the influencers instead of the Russian Bots you remember the Russian bots of course there's still probably Russian Bots around but uh the influencers people who are being paid by Russia to essentially say the things that Russia want them to say uh primarily in favor of Donald Trump and the Trump Vance ad campaign it it is uh it puts people those people who are taking money from Russia uh to support publicly support Trump Vance I I mean I I think that those people are putting themselves in real legal Jeopardy down the line I would imagine but I don't know if the laws have caught up and it's so interesting because you probably saw Marco Rubio say but I mean this was their opinion anyway so they take some 12:01 money to say it louder but that's propaganda I mean that's it's not okay in an election to do that yeah the law you're absolutely the law is not entirely clear but uh there is legal Jeopardy and these people are uh skating on very very thin ice uh in terms of doing this in terms of the presidential election the DC trial there's been some news on that what are we thinking uh judge chucken uh actually uh moved the trial dates uh has a a schedule out for the trial which is almost certainly going to put the trial remember this is the big trial this is this is Trump trying to overthrow the election results 2025 uh which is well obviously I mean the it's going to have no impact on the election however Jack Smith the special Council has until September 26th to 13:00 present his arguments as to why the case should continue notwithstanding the Supreme Court's immunity decision and in his presentation of all of his evidence as to why the case should continue he might be able to put all the all the all the evidence all the allegations all the explosive stuff in uh before the 26th of September or around the 26th of September so this is a a kind of a hidden uh September surprise I love that so it's I mean in the next 19 days we know a lot of what he's going to say but it will be so powerful to hear how he's saying it how he's laying it out any new information we might hear right exactly this is this is the equivalent of the houses uh committee on January 6th having a kind of a a a one performance where Liz Cheney Stars uh and Liz Cheney 14:03 by the way is my hero of the week uh I mean her endorsement of uh of of Harris and walls uh it could not be better timed uh I don't want her to be I don't think I want to be her to be in the in the administ yeah in the administration because I disagree with her on every substantive issue uh but she is courageous she should get a president medal of freedom Bob that is wow that's big but agreed her policy not a big fan of but this endorsement and the way she's stuck to the truth God forbid well I mean remember the presidential medal of freedom has been denigrated I mean Trump thinks it's more important than any military medal uh because that's it he gave it to Marin Ed Edon uh for her big contribution to his campaign uh but where's the where's the Trump University 15:00 diploma on that on that list right next to Trump stakes and uh and Trump sneakers and Trump was just such a rambler this week I mean the whole Child Care thing a few couple days ago was just when he was asked very directly what will you do federally as it relates to child care and he just went off on Ivanka and child care and my tariffs are going to bring in so much money that dwarfs the other money I mean the other money is nothing actually this is very important he is using his proposed tariffs which are going to be very very high as a source of money to pay for everything that he is promising like this vague promise that he hasn't specified of child care but the tariffs are a tax let's be be very clear uh the tax on Americans who are importing everything from the rest of the world that's a real tax that means it is spurring in it would spur 16:00 inflation it would cost people it would reduce living standards uh Trump has the Tariff issue exactly backwards I know and the middle class specifically which he is pretending he cares so much about workers in the middle class um yeah so that's that what else can we talk about I mean so the economic how about how about when he spoke to the economic group in New York the club the club that I'm dying to get into economic Club of New York I I can get you a membership hea would you really like to get I think I'll pass it's really dull I mean really dull of all the clubs you could get you could also get into the club of all the people who are pollers I think which would you like the poster club or the economic Club of nework I would like the poster Club that's easy Trump talked at the economic Club he talked about his tariffs he said that for every regulation the Trump Administration the next Trump Administration if there is one would put into effect regulations 17:00 would be eviscerated he take away the the other regulations he was talking about a new efficiency commission a new efficiency commission the idea uh by Elon Musk headed up by Elon Musk can may I interrupt you for one second how about this past week when Elon Musk went after you on Twitter and called you names can I even say these names online live not live online well what what names you know sticks and stones and names will never hurt me you're incredible I know you don't but miniature wanker is not a lovely phrase listen but coming from Elon Musk calling me a miniature wanker hey that's that's an you have a I'm going to put it on my tun spone you know miniature wanker quote unquote Elon Musk oh merch let's do merch oh my gosh I don't know it was a lot but you're exactly an efficiency committee I mean this is and we're going to have the guy 18:00 who does SpaceX who has the contracts for the government on the efficiency committee no he couldn't he actually couldn't do it he can't work for uh Donald Trump even if Trump is elected I mean because the conflicts of interest would be huge the government does contract with space SpaceX in fact one of the things that I wrote that got him so upset is I said one of the way one of the ways of controlling Elon Musk is to take away all these government contracts uh starlink and SpaceX I mean they have SP is on a way to becoming and starlink is too of becoming a monopoly the government should not be contributing to a monopoly let alone to Elon Musk uh so I think he'd got him sort of riled up now I liked your substack yesterday um about the jobs numbers which were lower than we'd hoped but I love that you said okay this was lower but then this was good but then this was less good and you kind of took us on this on this pinball um route tell us about it the bottom 19:00 line is that the job numbers are slowing down slightly uh the economy is slowing slightly uh this is what the FED wanted all along in terms of a soft Landing the way you fight inflation is to slow the economy down but you don't want to slow it down so much that you risk a recession uh now what's going to happen at the next fed meeting on September 18th a lot of a lot of people on Wall Street are one wondering a lot of other Americans obviously are wondering too uh I think that instead of reducing interest rates by a half a percentage Point uh 50 basis points in Wall Street lingo uh they're probably going to reduce interest rates by a quarter point now it's not going to make a huge bit of difference but it does signal how fast the FED wants to get the economy moving again uh back toward a full employment it is almost a full employment economy 20:00 but back to an even more uh you know stronger economy right uh and I think the FED is kept interest rates up the prime interest rate up at 5.3% for so long uh it it really does hurt particularly and I'm going to emphasize this because it's not being emphasized enough Heather it hurts that with 5.3% interest rates it hurts all of these particularly lower income Americans who have rent credit card fees that go up uh and auto loans uh that are very very have a very high cost to them and even filters through even if they're renters the mortgage rates filter through to rents uh so these high interest rates are very bad for lower income Americans that's it the the sooner the FED reduces them the better right and we know that there are some strikes going on right now we have hotel workers who are on strike in various cities and then I know the United Airlines flight attendants just just announced that they'll be going on strike well these strikes are 21:02 are important but it's also important to keep in mind that in the private sector of the United States where we used to have over a third of Americans unionized and gave them a lot of bargaining power that's one of the reasons because that's one of the reasons uh that in the 50s and 60s and early 70s you had wage gains that corresponded to the gains of productivity and corporate profits now fewer than 6% of private sector workers are unionized which means that you have record corporate profits and yet uh most workers are seeing very little in terms of wage gains I know but we are hoping that this is shifting a little bit right well it it needs to shift a little bit but the major reason that this has happened is got corporations uh beginning with Ronald Reagan when he fired the air traffic controllers uh you know corporations say well I it's fine 22:00 I'm going to just fire anybody who is trying to form a union the fair labor standards Act of 1935 made it illegal to fire people for forming a union but a lot of companies say it's okay it's just a cost of doing business the worst that can happen is we get a wrap on our Knuckles and we have to pay back pay to the particular worker who we fired and maybe reinstate that worker but it's been 2 years or 3 years and it doesn't matter but meanwhile we have deterred unionization that's the thing that has to be fixed right and they just move it into legal Purgatory I know the one thing I took issue with in your piece in subsq about jobs is that the prime working years I hate this phrase the prime working years of 25 to 54 years old 25 well you you're you take issue with it how do you think I feel I mean I'm 7 78 years old Heather you're you're half of my age well I mean 23:00 I think two third but no this is the conventional definition I know but I still every time I read it I'm like oh I have I only have you know five more good years left six six more good years left of working but from the standpoint of the economy the good news is that these Prime working age years uh the actual numbers of people percentage of people in the United States who are in this Prime area um who are working uh is at a near record level yes I know exactly and we're all working longer let's be real um the other thing that I liked in your substack was this story about you going to England on a particular ship which has been around for a long time and is important and is on its deathbed and about to be sunk tell us about it this is the SS United States this is a different substack from the economic sub there are a lot of substacks no they're very very different now this was my my story uh from 24:00 1968 when I went across on the esss United States along with 30 other young men who were all Road Scholars this is before women were permitted to compete for ro road scholarship a cesil roads uh the uh the imperialist who started all of this he did not in his will uh include women they had to they had Parliament had to change the will uh but um I went over there in 19 68 uh and um I met Bill Clinton and Michael on our team has found a clip of you talking about this on Jay Leno can we please cut to it we've been very he met him what in college or something met him on the wage we both have uh fellowships to Oxford after we were after we were undergraduates and we both went over on the boat together in fact I went I went over the I went over on the boat and I was uh I I I didn't have sea legs at all in fact I really did I discovered you know how have you been seasick it's 25:01 the worst yeah I'm not I didn't realize I thought they had air travel 25 years ago the we went we went over a boat it was a tradition they gave me we all and I I got very seasick and I went down to my little cabin and he I had met this fellow on the dock just before we went off and there was a knock on my door and here was this tall gangly Southerner uh and he had chicken soup in one hand and he had uh crackers in the other and he said I I hear you don't feel well and I I'd like to just help you oh that that was big really oh that was it it was very yes you were there in Oxford England in the 70s I was in Oxford did you [Laughter] [Applause] inhale it just you get that on me the Press so do you remember tell us well I well I 26:01 didn't inhale I did not inhale I did not inhale with Bill Clinton now I'm not going to talk about whether I inhaled without billinton but I didn't inhale that was Dana Carvey way sitting next to me I miss him from Saturday Night Live he was a great that was very fun thanks for letting thanks for letting us do that okay so how about remember last week we did a SE segment of Rapid Fire questions so I have a dear are you going to do you have rapid fire questions up with them are you ready what's your what's what's your favorite day of the week Monday what's your favorite book do you want to know why no why of course no tell me why no because because I like the way you know the week begins there's sort of energy and people are excited I mean you know not everybody loves M but I kind of like I like to get to work again I'm a little little bit of a workolic wow that's speaking of pollsters I feel like few people love a Monday best I feel like 27:00 that's the least favorite day what's your favorite day what's your favorite day Heather I guess my favorite day I mean Friday which is such a cliche to answer but Fridays such a Friday but it's only because I'm so excited to do the clotch with you on Saturdays I thought you loved your work you're you're executive director of inequality media Civic action doing a fabulous job we all love you I mean how what's there not to love about very kind I love working I work on Fridays I don't not I didn't say Saturday or Sunday um okay I guess that's enough rapid fire questions I'm excited to to watch the debate with you and everyone else we'll start we'll do a little bit of a prep before we'll watch the debate with a few Chimes we'll chime in a little bit if there are you know egregious lies or things we want to talk about briefly and then at the end we'll wrap it up I think KLA Harris is going to eat Trump alive that's my prediction I love 28:02 it so listen everybody we'll see you Saturday thank you for joining us Heather thank you Michael thank you for your technical support and uh everybody had a very good safe weekend we'll see you Tuesday [Music]

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