ATT 100824

Welcome back in for Al’s Afternoon Tea, our chance to connect and share the latest news.

Hurricane Milton is already causing havoc in Florida, western North Carolina remains in dire straits from Hurricane Helene, and the world is still awaiting Israel’s response to Iran’s attack. But in our top story, Taylor Swift went to last night’s Kansas City Chiefs game to dispel rumors that she and Chiefs star Travis Kelce are having relationship problems. 

Sorry. Could not resist. But it will be interesting to see if the Media Research Center determines the networks gave more attention to Swift than to the Helene recovery effort.

#PrayforFlorida as Milton Takes Dead Aim at Tampa

The prayers for Hurricane Milton to weaken before making landfall have worked. Milton has been downgraded to a Category 4. The bad news? It’s still a Category 4, posing an “extremely dangerous threat,” and even if it weakens further to a Category 3 by landfall, Milton’s still going to give Florida a pounding all the way from Tampa area to Orlando and beyond.

If Milton stays on its present course, it’ll be the first major hurricane to score a direct hit on Tampa since 1921. Massive evacuations are underway, but Gov. Ron DeSantis warns that “time is running out.” DeSantis said Tuesday morning the state is stocking up on fuel, 8,000 National Guard are being activated, and tens of thousands of line workers, some from as far away as California, will be ready to pounce to restore power.

The hurricane course does offer a glimmer of good news: Milton will pass across Florida and out into the Atlantic, thus sparing the areas that were wrecked by Helene.

Meanwhile, FEMA may also want to send a couple of agents over to Kamala Harris’s house. Yesterday, she was complaining that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wasn’t taking her calls. DeSantis said he didn’t know anything about Harris calling, and in a later appearance on Hannity, obliterated the vice president.

🚨WOW: Gov. DeSantis NUKES Kamala after she FREAKED today & attacked him for ignoring her phone calls:

“She’s delusional. She has no role here. She’s been VP for 3 years and never contributed anything to these storm efforts. She politicizing the storm to save a failing campaign” pic.twitter.com/GZQ5gGSThI

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 8, 2024

Incidentally, after the hubbub between Harris and DeSantis, Joe Biden made a point of tweeting that he had spoken to DeSantis about preparations for Milton.

Tonight, I spoke with Florida Governor DeSantis and Tampa Mayor Castor for firsthand reports on Hurricane Helene recovery and preparations for Hurricane Milton.

My Administration is ready to support both leaders and the people of Florida with any further resources they may need. pic.twitter.com/imXXVXQnoD

— President Biden (@POTUS) October 8, 2024

Standard issue tweet … or another dig at Harris?

Also Keeping an Eye on the Ground in California

While we’re at praying for those in Milton’s path and those recovering from Helene, we might want to toss in a prayer for California. A magnitude 4.0 tremblor centered in Ontario (in the Inland Empire region east of Los Angeles) hit Southern California on Sunday. While Californians generally flick off 4.0 quakes like pieces of lint, this one came just five days after a 3.1 quake in the region and a swarm of small quakes in the area on September 7.  Malibu also experienced a 4.7 quake September 12.

Are these just a sign of stress being released along the fault lines, or a precursor of something worse?

The GOAT of the California earthquake business, Dr. Lucy Jones, wasn’t sweating the September swarm.

Today we are having a small swarm in the Fontana Seismicity Lineation, a northeast-striking line of many small quakes. Today we have so far M3.9, M3.5 and many M1s and M2s. I've seen this tyoe of cluster in Fontana dozens of times in my decades watching SoCal quakes.

— Dr. Lucy Jones (@DrLucyJones) September 7, 2024

After the Malibu earthquake, Jones told KTLA there have been more 4.0 or greater quakes in Southern California this year than usual, but that doesn’t mean the “Big One” is imminent.  

But do her computer models factor in the fact that this is 2024? Also, seismologists believe Southern California has about a 75% chance of experiencing a 7.0 quake in the next 20 years.

Harris Fumbles 60 Minutes Interview

Kudos to 60 Minutes and Bill Whitaker for returning to the show’s roots and actually pressing Kamala Harris a bit — particularly in questions about the border — in the interview that aired last night. Three times Whitaker pushed her on whether it was a mistake to let millions of illegal immigrants into the nation. Three times she dodged.

60 Minutes repeatedly asks Harris why the Biden/Harris admin waited 3 years to take executive action to curb illegal crossings. She says they introduced a bill upon taking office (that bill would’ve given given an 8 year path to amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants) then… https://t.co/E3enPl3aTT

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) October 8, 2024

Also, 60 Minutes pressed Harris on the fact she didn’t actually earn the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

CBS: You were basically handed the nomination. No primary process. No votes. That's not how our system was intended to work.

KAMALA: "I am proud to have earned the support."

CBS: People don't even know who you are.

KAMALA: "I've been in this race for 70 days!" pic.twitter.com/j0U3hiPExv

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 8, 2024

Harris made a mess of her response, which is another reason she’s not equipped to sit behind the Resolute Desk. Think of it: How would Bill Clinton have handled that question if he had been in the situation in which Harris finds herself? Clinton would have leaned back in the chair, casually throwing his hands up with a big grin. “Look, Bill. I was fixin’ all year to be Joe Biden’s running mate. Proudly. Nobody expecting otherwise. He decided to step down, so I stepped up. I was the only one to step up.” Hands again thrown up, another big grin as if to say, “What else was I supposed to do?”

How about Obama? He would go professorial on Whitaker, noting the unique circumstance of a nominee dropping out, how unfortunate it was that his party couldn’t hold another primary. Then he would have pointed out that the nation didn’t hold primaries for about 150 years, during which time nominees were directly selected by party delegates “just like I was. And the nation survived just fine.”

Hillary Clinton would have just stared at Whitaker like a Mafia Don and said, “So? What difference now does it make?”

Meanwhile, Harris’s running mate Tim Walz, in that same 60 Minutes interview, would have doubled down on being (to use his word) a “knucklehead.” Even CBS News thinks blaming his blatant lies about why he spent so much time in China on being “a knucklehead” is a weak strategy.  

“Is that kind of misrepresentation, isn't that more than just being a knucklehead?” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has faced criticism for making false claims about his travels to Asia in the 1980s. Walz brushed it off as being a “knucklehead” in the VP debate. https://t.co/zZONUCBaSI pic.twitter.com/XsxsKlpl0G

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 8, 2024

Think of this man in the Oval Office, where both the Great Emancipator and the Great Communicator have sat. Do we really want the Great Knucklehead? Yeah … it doesn’t quite work, does it?

Woodward: Biden Blames Obama for Ukraine Invasion

Washington muckraker Bob Woodward has a new book coming out called War, detailing the wartime experiences of Joe Biden, with some Donald Trump thrown in for good measure. (Likely because he wants to actually sell the book.)

However, all the social media buzz this morning concerns Woodward’s allegation that Trump has spoken with Vladimir Putin seven times since leaving office. Here we go with the “TRUMP’S A PUTIN STOOGE” retread. That’s soooo 2016. Sure, the duo probably weren’t talking about setting up tee times at Doral. But former presidents talking to world leaders isn’t exactly newsworthy. And given how much Trump likes to talk, seven times seems rather sparse. Twice a year?

Getting less attention, as one would expect, is another Woodward revelation: that Joe Biden blames Barack Obama for Russia invading Ukraine. It started in 2014 with Obama letting Putin take Crimea.

Ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden complained that Obama didn’t do enough to stop Putin in 2014, when the Russian leader invaded Crimea. “They f***** up in 2014,” Biden said to a friend. “That’s why we are here. We f***** it up. Barack never took Putin seriously.” Biden added, “We did nothing. We gave Putin a license to continue!”

Bad moves involving Russia, take two …

Bad Trade Could Get Our Service Members Killed

In 2022, the Cleveland Browns traded three first-round picks, two fourth-round picks, and a third-round pick to the Houston Texans for quarterback Deshawn Watson. On Sunday, there was talk of Watson being benched.

But here’s the good news for the Browns. That trade was not the worst for an athlete in 2022. That honor goes to Biden and Harris for trading the Merchant of Death, Viktor Bout, to Russia for WNBA star Brittney Griner.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Bout is back in the weapons business, brokering the sale of small arms to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The article is behind a paywall, but National Review quotes WSJ as saying the small arms deals look like they’re only the start. Houthi representatives also discussed other weapons the Russian side might potentially sell, including Kornet antitank missiles and antiaircraft weapons, according to the European official and other people familiar with the matter.

Just three days ago, U.S. planes attacked Houthi targets in Yemen. What happens the next time our pilots engage in Yemen, if Bout is able to get more antiaircraft weapons into Houthi hands?

This is another example of the way this administration puts Americans at risk through bad deals and decisions.

On the Stream Menu

Stream contributor Chenyuan Snider has penned a powerful “Letter to My Democratic Friends: Truth Outweighs Party Identity.”

And Jules Gomes is back with the latest news about the Catholic Church: “Pope Francis Seals Succession by Picking New Pro-LGBT, Marxist Cardinal-Electors.”

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.