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Early voting has started and the efforts to sway undecided voters are growing more unorthodox as we head toward Election Day. Donald Trump deconstructed the art of the dismissive nickname on Andrew Schulz’s podcast; Kamala Harris likewise partook in a much-vaunted “media blitz” through the friendly studios of The View, Call Her Daddy, Stephen Colbert — and the slightly more testing environs of 60 Minutes. Dem VP pick Tim Walz is also kicking off what Politico bills as a “man-focused media blitz,” which comes across a bit Harvey Fierstein.
As for high-profile Harris backers? Well, Bill Clinton is set to swing through the southern states to toot his horn for her; Barack Obama adopted a unique approach to persuading black male voters in Pennsylvania — accusing them of sexism, never fails, thanks queen — and then there’s Gretchen Whitmer.
Big Gretch co-starred in a strangely sexually charged Instagram reel with thirty-seven-year-old Canadian journalist Liz Plank yesterday. Plank kneels on the floor as she is fed Doritos by the Michigan governor to a soundtrack of “Dilemma”; Whitmer, wearing a Harris-Walz camo hat, stares dead into the camera.
Conservatives on Twitter absolutely lost it. “Utterly bizarre,” said Senator Ted Cruz. “What is happening here. What is Gretchen doing. I have so many questions,” wondered LibsofTikTok. “Gretchen Whitmer is doing soft lesbian porn for the Harris campaign,” claimed Bad Hombre.
“Let’s be clear what’s happening in this video,” tweeted former Trump comms director Tim Murtaugh. “Gov. Whitmer of Michigan is pretending to give communion to an leftist podcaster on her knees, using a Dorito as the Eucharist while wearing a Harris-Walz hat… Do they want ZERO Catholic votes for Harris?”
Though Cockburn sees God in all of his creations, let’s actually be clear about what’s happening, Tim: Whitmer and Plank are riffing on this TikTok from Stephen Colbert and The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White in a swing-and-a-miss attempt to discuss the CHIPS Act. Whitmer’s extremely-online staffers have managed to pull focus from the core mission of the Harris campaign, which is to articulate a clear message of… uh… well…
Anyway — Cockburn heartily endorses the Democratic Party getting its middle-aged women to do these videos more often. 👏 Win 👏 the 👏 argument.
DeAngelis gets his wings
Heartening employment news this week as school-choice advocate Corey DeAngelis landed on his feet with a new role. “I’m thrilled that @DeAngelisCorey will be joining the American Culture Project as a senior fellow, where he will continue to advance education freedom for all children, no matter their ZIP code or background,” tweeted John Tillman, the organization’s chairman and CEO.
DeAngelis, for those unaware, was a top activist at the American Federation for Children, a group which advocates for school choice. Prior to that, it was revealed last month, he performed under the pseudonym Seth Rose in a smattering of adult films, most notably one titled, ahem, Jerk-Off Race, which he won.
“That was quick,” said both viewers of the scene and observers of DeAngelis’s new career development. Cockburn is encouraged by DeAngelis’s resistance to the effort to cancel him. Shoot for the moon!
Mailing it in with the Osborns
Regular readers of this column will have no doubt been surprised last week to see DailyMail.com’s rather generous interpretation of the word “exclusive,” as the British tabloid recycled Cockburn’s May 3 scoop about Dan Osborn, Independent candidate for US Senate in Nebraska, and his penchant for hardcore gay pornography and presence in the Ashley Madison database.
“An email directly connected to Osborn was used to sign up for the infamous affair website Ashley Madison, DailyMail.com has learned,” their story reads. “He had access to a Twitter account that was previously caught liking explicit gay porn and pictures of naked girls on X, screenshots obtained by DailyMail.com show.” The Mail could have “learned” and “obtained” said screenshots by reading The Spectator five months ago. The tabloid, noted for its sidebar of shame and rarely squeamish, declares the images “too graphic to be posted in full” — Cockburn agrees, but posted fuller versions back in the spring, to allow his adult audience to form their own judgments.
The single piece of original reporting in Jon Michael Raasch’s October 1 exclusive concerns Osborn’s twenty-one-year-old daughter Georgia. Raasch euphemistically brands her a “gothic exotic dancer daughter” — as if to infer Osborn fille is a stripper. Cockburn, frankly, detects stolen valor: an exhaustive review of Georgia’s social profiles reveals that while she is, yes, “gothic,” her work as a dancer involves work in music videos and accompanying live bands in Los Angeles. Apparently the Mail’s definition of the word “exotic” is as broad as its use of “exclusive…”
Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point
Journalist Matt Yglesias was confronted by climate protesters at a luncheon this week, but his nonchalant response to their doomer predictions about his role in the demise of the planet earned him the upper hand in the exchange. The group Climate Defiance showed up at Yglesias’s speech — which they falsely claimed was a luncheon “honoring” him — and chanted angrily about Yglesias’s support for fracking (where can Cockburn get a “Yglesias Lies, The Planet Dies!” T-shirt?)
Yglesias and the crowd just smiled along, with Yglesias sarcastically responding, “Oooo, no!” When a protester asked Yglesias why he supports fracking, he quipped, “What, do you, like, want to read an article?” Amazingly, Climate Defiance included the captions of Yglesias repeatedly owning them in their uploaded video of the event. Next time, maybe try a can of soup?
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