The 24 Seven: Politics Burnout
The top seven stories shaping the race for the White House
The 24 Seven is back for the homestretch. Let’s get down to it.
1. Hard Endorse
Behold, the October Surprise.
I don’t think anyone was expecting it would be a newspaper endorsement making huge waves. And I am actually surprised, here’s what that un-published endorsement was competing with in this historic race for the White House:
A Republican nominee and former president, Donald Trump, almost murdered in an assassination attempt, convicted on 34 felony counts, securing new protections form the Supreme Court for his inciting of the January 6th insurrection, campaigning as a neo-authoritarian with promises he will attack elected officials, immigrants and reporters, struggling to speak coherently and forming historic alliances with America’s Big Tech billionaires — through charm and threats.
The sitting president, Joe Biden, dropping his re-election bid (the first since Lyndon Baines Johnson) after crippling concerns about his ability to win (and fear that the U.S. fall into autocracy if Biden lost to Trump) led to the nomination of the first Black and Asian-American woman for Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Two back-to-back hypercharged hurricanes gutting swaths of the South, the Israel/Hamas War stretching past its one-year anniversary and expanding across the region, Russia, China, North Korea and Iran working in concert against the Western democracies, the continuing War in Ukraine, the fallout from the end of federal abortion protections
The fracturing of traditional news outlets and the rise of error-ridden, partisan TikTok and YouTube stars as the new media powerbrokers.
And more.
Amazon billionaire and longtime owner of The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, cut through all of that by spiking his newspaper’s planned endorsement of Harris. The fallout, from high-profile resignations to an exodus of subscribers (you’re all welcome here at 24sight News) has been sustained.
I highly recommend reading Jonathan V. Last The Bulwark who has been very clear-eyed throughout this election. His latest here.
2. Election Memo later today
I’ll be out with my latest read on the state of the race later today, after a fruitful roadtrip meeting some very sharp folks (and talking about what comes next after the election.)
Paying subscribers to 24sight News get the first look at it, I’ll unlock it for everyone else 24 hours later.
In case you missed my first readout, published last Sunday, read it here.
3. Musk Legal Jeopardy
Philadelphia’s district attorney, Larry Krasner, is suing Elon Musk’s super PAC to stop what critics and election law experts have deemed a vote-buying scheme, offering $1 million a day to registered voters in
(The Justice Department declined comment Monday, when asked for an update on its warning letter sent to Musk’s super PAC last week.)
Musk’s super PAC seemed to pause awarding the $1 million to voters after 24sight News broke the news of the Justice Department’s warning letter to Musk’s PAC. But then the PAC resumed making the awards, saying via an official that it had trouble finding its winner last Wednesday to deliver the check.
4. The Level of Crazy
The amount of crazy — and violent — political rhetoric it takes to break through the din of constant information flow is getting greater and greater (if your goal is reaching massive national audiences.)
To wit: the former president, who donned the colors a white nationalist militia group in a rare break from his standard uniform, was upstaged at his own New York rally, election-closing rally by a random comedian who called Puerto Rico “garbage.” This resulted in Trump’s team and numerous other Republicans, saying they don’t know the man onstage insulting Puerto Ricans.
More on the Latino dynamics from The Ground Game Pod with Mike Madrid last week — sign up, subscribe.
5. Rogan 33M
Trump’s interview with podcasting king Joe Rogan (which included some clear dings from Rogan and speaking trouble by an exhausted looking Trump) scored 33 million viewers — almost five times as many as those who watched Vice President Kamala Harris on Fox News, and about half as many as watched their lone debate.
6. Betting Market Mania
A lot of people seem to be bought in on the idea that betting markets are good at predicting U.S. elections.
I’m not.
As someone who relies on good, vetted information, the betting markets — like the polling aggregators, are easily gamed. And with the global crypto industry heavily favoring Trump, while investing in said betting markets, I consider their public predictions the equivalent of campaign spin.
7. Support Independent Journalism
As Axios founders Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen noted this morning, the media ecosphere has shattered — choose your news (and reality) is now the norm, as reflected in the race for the White House.
I started the year at a big media outlet, which promptly folded. So I started my own thing here on Substack, 24sight News. Along the way, I’ve had a lot of friends, old and new, tell me how much they appreciate sober, clear-eyed and nuanced journalism in this new fractured environment. News is about understanding the world around us.
How do I do it? Well, I’ve been at this a hot minute (about two decades) and keep my wits about me (even when my chosen beat, American politics, loses its bearings.) And I do it with your support and belief in this mission of objective, neutral, informed independent journalism.
There is no Big Tech billionaire putting his thumb on my publication, thanks to you, the 24sight News community. (If you’re a former Washington Post subscriber, welcome — though I’d note your protest is probably better spent canceling Amazon Prime than the Post, which is filled with incredible journalists who we need in the field.)
Good advice. Keep the subscription. I read that WaPo lost 100 million last year. A few thousand scrip cancellations won’t make a difference.