Ted Cruz Desperately Dodges Major Abortion Question in Allred Debate

After spending weeks trying to run away from his anti-abortion stance on the campaign trail, Senator Ted Cruz was held accountable by his opponent and the moderators of Tuesday night’s Texas Senate debate.

During the debate against Democratic challenger Representative Colin Allred, Cruz tried to dodge a question on whether he supported the right to an abortion in cases of rape and incest.

In Texas, abortion care is not permitted, except to save the mother’s life. When initially asked if he supported exceptions to the state’s draconian abortion law, Cruz gave a nonanswer, simply saying that states should determine their own laws.

“Well, listen, abortion is an issue that many Texans, many Americans, care deeply about, and it’s an issue that people of good faith can disagree,” Cruz said.

“You did not directly answer the question,” said debate moderator Gromer Jeffers, who again tried to push Cruz to respond to the question. “Why is this an issue you won’t address, about saying whether you support or oppose exceptions for rape and incest?”

“Why do you keep asking me that?” asked an exasperated Cruz.

Cruz is clearly avoiding the question because he knows that abortion bans that don’t permit exceptions for rape and incest aren’t popular with voters, even in the state of Texas and even among Republicans.

He quickly tried to change the subject and accused Allred of allowing minors to get abortions without their parents’ permission. “He has voted in favor of striking down Texas law that gives parents the right to be notified and consent,” said Cruz. “He’s voted in favor of striking down Texas’ law and legalizing abortion up to and including the eighth and ninth month of pregnancy.”

“Senator Cruz just called himself pro-life. You’re not,” responded Allred. “It’s not pro-life to deny women care so long that they can’t have children anymore. It’s not pro-life to force a victim of rape to carry a their rapist baby. It’s not pro-life that our maternal mortality has skyrocketed up by 56 percent.

“When Ted Cruz says he’s pro-life, he doesn’t mean yours.”

Donald Trump babbled incoherently at a rally in Atlanta, Tuesday night, the latest in a series of untethered performances from the former president where his apparent cognitive decline showed on full display. 

“‘Thirty-two days, Mr. Congressman. Thirty-two,’ she goes. And the election will be in thirty-twoooooo daaaaaays. Thirty-two days,” Trump said to the audience, slurring his words. 

The former president was attempting to mock Kamala Harris for repeatedly announcing that she had only 32 days until the election during a rally speech. Trump claimed that she froze when the “teleprompter crashed.” 

And with that, Trump’s so-called “weave” carried him away.

“Ohhh, I would’ve loved to—you know, it kicked back in, it’s called a kickback. Like, some people know a lot about a kickback. It’s called a kickback. They know in this administration. But no, it’s a kickback, it kicks back in,” Trump garbled.  

Trump picking up on the minute details of Harris’s public speaking performances is particularly ironic considering the gibberish he was in the midst of delivering during his sleepy Tuesday night speech.

At one point, Trump complained about the “woke military,” playing an explicitly homophobic video that included clips from the antiwar film Full Metal Jacket (1987), and expressed his apparent love for world wars, a third of which he is constantly promising Americans is on the horizon. 

“So, we won two, BEAUTIFUL, biiiiiiiiiig, horrible—in many ways—we won two world wars with that attitude,” Trump said. 

This is only the latest scattered, strange performance that Trump has given this week, as his blitz of events seems to be catching up with him. 

Trump struggled to provide coherent answers to policy questions during an interview with the Economic Club of Chicago earlier Tuesday, and lashed out when faced with multiple fact-checks. 

During a town hall in Pennsylvania on Monday night, the Republican presidential nominee abruptly stopped taking questions, and instead had his team play music for 40 minutes while he silently swayed back and forth onstage. Occasionally, he even pretended to conduct.

Donald Trump is going to work at McDonald’s.

CNN reported Tuesday that the former president will visit one of the fast food restaurants in Pennsylvania on Sunday and “work the fry cooker,” a bizarre stunt after his repeated claims that Kamala Harris never worked at a McDonald’s.

Trump has always been a big fan of the fast food chain, even catering a White House event during a government shutdown in 2019 with some of McDonald’s offerings. The news that he would work there for a short time drew laughter on social media.

Harris has often spoken of her time working at McDonald’s while she was a student at Howard University in Washington, D.C., even telling the story in a campaign ad. Her running mate, Tim Walz, mocked Trump at a campaign event in August, questioning whether he’d be able to work there.

“Can you simply picture Donald Trump working at a McDonald’s, trying to make a McFlurry or something?” Walz said. “He couldn’t run that damn McFlurry machine if it cost him anything.”

On Sunday, Trump, a child of nepotism who has never worked a job outside of the Trump Organization, will presumably have his time cooking french fries. It remains to be seen how hands-on his role at the golden arches will be, or if the stunt will help his campaign at all, with recent polls showing him narrowly behind Harris in Pennsylvania.

A Georgia judge has ruled to block some of the recent changes to the state’s election regulations, deciding that a new rule by the Trumpian board—and its suspicious timing ahead of the November election—would only amount to bedlam for the swing state.

In his Tuesday night decision, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote that the initiative, driven by local MAGA politicos (whom Trump referred to as “pit bulls fighting for victory” before their August vote) was “too much, too late.”

The regulation would have mandated poll workers to hand-count ballots after they were electronically filed—an arduous order that local officials warned last week was making it that much harder to find people willing to do the job.

In his ruling, McBurney noted that although the strenuous regulation appeared, on its face, to be consistent with the intent and purpose of the State Election Board, the timing of the rule’s passage and its expedited implementation would only further destabilize the election and seed chaos.

“A rule that introduces a new and substantive role on the eve of election for more than 7,500 poll workers who will not have received any formal, cohesive, or consistent training and that allows for our paper ballots—the only tangible proof of who voted for whom—to be handled multiple times by multiple people following an exhausting Election Day all before they are securely transported to the official tabulation center does not contribute to lessening the tension or boosting the confidence of the public for this election,” McBurney emphasized.

“This election season is fraught; memories of January 6 have not faded away, regardless of one’s view of that date’s fame or infamy,” McBurney wrote. “Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public.”

It’s the second consecutive blow to the MAGA movement’s supposed success in the Peach State. On Monday, McBurney torched another component of the far-right overhaul, deciding that local election officials could not stand in the way of voting results and cannot refuse to certify election results. Instead, officials have a duty to certify the results by 5 p.m. on the Monday following Election Day, according to the judge.

“No election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance,” he ruled.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s massive grift was embarrassingly revealed during his debate against Representative Colin Allred Tuesday night.

Cruz has been seriously struggling in his Senate race against Allred, and on Tuesday, it seemed that Allred dealt several critical blows to the Texas Republican.

In his closing remarks, Allred didn’t hold back.

“We’re all Americans, and we’re all Texans. We need a leader who will bring us together around our shared values. That’s what I’m trying to do during my six years in Congress. That’s the exact opposite of what Senator Cruz has done,” Allred said.

“Whatever he says tonight, you’ve seen it for 12 years. He’s been one of the most divisive senators in the entire country. If you don’t like how things are going in Washington right now, well, you know what, he is singularly responsible for it.

“He has introduced this new kind of ‘angertaiment’ where you just get people upset and then you podcast about it, and you write a book about it, and you make some money on it, but you’re not actually there when people need you. Like when the lights went out, when 30 million Texans were relying on a senator to spring into action, he went to Cancun. That’s who he is,” Allred said.

Throughout the debate, Cruz appeared incapable of countering any of his opponent’s blows. As Allred launched attack after brutal attack, Cruz just awkwardly laughed.

Cruz has innovated a new way to scam podcast money back into his now flailing campaign. The Republican senator has been funneling the payout from his podcast, Verdict With Ted Cruz, straight into a pro-Cruz super-PAC called “Truth and Courage.” According to iHeartMedia and Cruz, the senator is simply “volunteering” his time, and the massive payouts are just “digital revenue.”

Cruz faces a tough election against Allred, especially considering that nearly 2.6 million people have registered to vote in the state since the midterm elections—the bulk of whom are from some of Texas’s most liberal territories, including the areas surrounding Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin.

At the Economic Club of Chicago Tuesday, Donald Trump took a shot at a voting bloc he definitely needs to win in November: auto industry workers.

While being interviewed by Bloomberg News editor in chief John Micklethwait, Trump spoke about how auto factories in the United States aren’t really building cars.

“Mercedes-Benz will start building in the United States, and they have a little bit. But do you know what they really are? Assembly, like in South Carolina. But they build everything in Germany and then they assemble it here,” Trump said. 

“They get away with murder because they say, ‘Oh yes, we’re building cars.’ They don’t build cars. They take ’em out of a box, and they assemble ’em. We could have our child do it,” Trump added.

Why would Trump belittle autoworkers when Michigan, a battleground state, is home to the American automobile industry? Even with foreign automakers, whose U.S. operations are typically located in less union-friendly Republican-leaning states, autoworkers’ jobs could not be done by a child.

The former president may have handed an easy campaign ad for the Harris campaign to use not only in Michigan but also in Ohio, which is home to several auto industry plants. Already, Kamala Harris’s campaign has seized on Trump’s remarks, posting video of the comments on X with the caption, “Trump belittles auto workers, saying they just assemble parts ‘out of a box’ and says children could do their jobs: ‘We could have our child do it.’”

Trump’s interview in Chicago Tuesday went quite poorly for him, as he struggled when Micklethwait fact-checked him and threw a fit when he was told his economic plans would wreck the economy. Right now, the former president probably regrets ever participating in the event, although with his cognitive decline, he might think that he nailed it.

Donald Trump made his most extreme proposal yet on tariffs while speaking on stage Tuesday at the Economic Club of Chicago: He would consider a 2,000 percent tariff on goods coming into the country.

“If I’m going to be president of this country I’m going to put a 100, 200, 2,000 percent tariff,” said Trump. “They’re not going to sell one car into the United States.”.

Trump has made promises to impose tariffs in the past, including a suggestion for tariffs higher than 200 percent on foreign-made vehicles. Though Trump may later claim that 2,000 percent was an obvious hyperbole, he really did say it on the stage.

During the rest of the interview with Bloomberg’s John Micklethwait, Trump outlined his horrible economic plan, claiming that companies will drop plans to build factories overseas when faced with his threat of high tariffs. “The higher the tariff, the more likely it is that the company will come into the United States,” he explained.

Despite being fact checked by Micklethwait about the economic harm that his tariff proposal will create, Trump declared that “to me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff.”

Economists estimate that Trump’s “America First” economic agenda of mass deportation and extreme tariffs will harm Americans by increasing inflation and shocking industries that rely on immigrant labor. “We find that ironically, despite his ‘make the foreigners pay’ rhetoric, this package of policies does more damage to the US economy than to any other in the world,” a recent devastating report read.

Donald Trump’s sit-down interview Tuesday with the Economic Club of Chicago went completely off the rails as the Republican presidential nominee struggled to offer concrete answers to a business-minded crowd, and miraculously performed even worse as he was fact-checked live onstage.

The Bloomberg News–sponsored event was intended to cover massive ground. Bloomberg’s top editor, John Micklethwait, pressed Trump on issues ranging from immigration, proposed tariffs, the dissolution of some of America’s biggest corporations, foreign policy with regard to Taiwan, and ultimately to the country’s fate post–Election Day. But Trump, seemingly, wasn’t prepared with answers.

The former president elicited groans from the crowd while dodging questions about his proposed foreign tariff plan, which includes a 200 percent tariff (which Trump insinuated could even be as high as 2,000 percent) on foreign cars.

Micklethwait then pointed out how a financial analysis of Trump’s economic policies estimated that they would add $7.5 trillion to the federal deficit—“more than twice the total for Vice President [Kamala] Harris.” But Trump failed to offer rational details in his defense.

“We’re going to bring the companies back, we’re going to lower the taxes still further for companies that are going to make their product in the USA. We’re going to protect those companies with strong tariffs, because I’m a believer in tariffs, I’m not sure that you are, I don’t think you are,” Trump said.

“Not particularly,” Micklethwait responded.

“But I want to congratulate you on your career,” Trump threw back, sparking a surprised laugh from the crowd. “To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff.”

“Tariffs—do you think that will bring in the revenues?” Micklethwait pressed. “They say it’ll only bring in $200 billion. That’s barely the cost of two of your promises.”

“Yeah, but that’s for like, what company are you talking about?” Trump said, before patting himself on the back for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, which he referred to as the “China virus.”

Later in the interview, Micklethwait noted that Trump’s policies would effectively stop trade with China, particularly since tariffs already exist on trade with the foreign power—a reality that Trump couldn’t accept. He baselessly denied Micklethwait’s data points.

But Micklethwait was undeterred: “You’re flooding the thing with giveaways. I was actually quite kind to you, I used $7 trillion,” he said, referring to the cost of Trump’s policies. “The upper estimate is $15 trillion. The Wall Street Journal, which is hardly a Communist organization, they have criticized you on this as well.

“You are running up enormous debts.”

Trump couldn’t handle the flipped tables.

“What does The Wall Street Journal know?” he said, crossing his arms. “I’m meeting with them tomorrow. What does The Wall Street Journal know? They’ve been wrong about everything. So have you, by the way.”

“You’re trying to turn this into a debate, as if there—” Micklethwait continued, before Trump interjected to say that Micklethwait “has been wrong all your life on this stuff.”

While discussing U.S. labor, Trump claimed that autoworkers at U.S. plants for foreign car companies such as Mercedes-Benz simply assemble parts “out of a box” and that children could do their jobs.

When asked about Google and whether the massive search-engine company should be broken up via antitrust laws, Trump opted to completely switch the topic, instead discussing voter rolls in Virginia and the Justice Department, exasperatedly adding that he “hasn’t gotten over that.”

“The question was about Google, President Trump,” Micklethwait said.

Donald Trump was asked about his economic plans during an appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago on Tuesday—and he lashed out when he couldn’t come up with a good answer.

Trump was being interviewed by John Micklethwait, Bloomberg News’s editor-in-chief, who pointed out that the former president’s economic promises, if enacted, would add $7.5 trillion to the national debt, or 150 percent of GDP, twice the total that Kamala Harris’s economic plans would add. Micklethwait then asked the former president why the audience should trust him.

Trump replied by discussing his plans to bring manufacturing companies back to America, and how he would protect those companies with tariffs. Micklethwait pointed out that those tariffs would only bring back $200 billion, recouping the costs from just two of Trump’s promises.

“But, that’s like, for what company you’re talking about,” Trump answered unintelligibly, before going off on a tangent about the Covid-19 pandemic.

Micklethwait continued to challenge Trump throughout the combative interview, citing the Wall Street Journal to note that costs of Trump’s economic promises were stratospheric.

“I was actually quite kind to you, I used $7 trillion, the upper estimate is $15 trillion. People like the Wall Street Journal, which is hardly a Communist organization, they have criticized you on this as well. You are running up enormous debt,” Micklethwait said, before Trump cut him off, clearly frustrated.

“What does the Wall Street Journal know? I’m meeting with them tomorrow, what does the Wall Street Journal know? They’ve been wrong about everything, so have you, by the way. You’ve been wrong about everything,” Trump replied, as the crowd, which seemed to support him, laughed.

“You’re trying to turn this into a debate, there are business people here,” Micklethwait said as Trump repeatedly tried to cut him off.

“You’ve been wrong all your life on this stuff,” Trump said, to more laughter from the audience.

Trump was clearly caught off guard at the event, not expecting an interview in which his grandiose promises would actually be examined since he has the Republican Party’s usual support from the business community. Most of his interviews during the presidential campaign, even for the media outlets that criticize him, haven’t directly confronted him on the specifics of his policies, particularly his economic plans.

Harris has been courting business leaders, hoping to peel them away from supporting Trump and the GOP. Trump’s answers during this interview may go a long way in helping her cause.

In a disaster of an interview on Tuesday, Donald Trump was happy to brag about his friendship with Vladmir Putin, admitting he continued the relationship with the Russian leader even after leaving the Oval Office.

Trump dodged and weaved throughout his interview at the Economic Club of Chicago. But interviewer John Micklethwait, Bloomberg’s editor in chief, attempted to get a direct answer from Trump about his relationship with the Russian president.

“Can you say, yes or no, whether you have talked to Vladimir Putin since you stopped being president?” asked Micklethwait.

“Well, I don’t comment on that, but I will tell you that, if I did, it’s a smart thing,” Trump responded. “If I’m friendly with people, if I have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”

“That sounds very much like you did talk to him,” Micklethwait replied.

His answer seems to be a confirmation of revelations last week that Trump has talked to the Russian autocrat at least seven times since leaving the White House. Trump’s team lashed out over that report, made in Bob Woodward’s book War, calling it a “made-up” story by “a truly demented and deranged man.”

However, in his speeches and interviews, including Monday night in Pennsylvania, Trump was happy to gloat, saying, “I get along very well with Putin.”