Right-wing media are reviving old smears pushed by political rivals of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz about his retirement from the military, accusing him of “stolen valor” and misleading their audience about the reality of his 24-year service record with the National Guard. Specifically, right-wing media are claiming that Walz resigned and “abandoned” his National Guard unit and resigned after the unit received deployment orders to go to Iraq when in reality, Walz resigned two months before the unit received orders, and Walz likely submitted his retirement papers even earlier.

We have officially reached that late period in a presidential campaign where the thoroughly leftist national newspapers turn into partisan rags that coo and gush, this time over Kamala Harris. Consider the July 31 “Style” section of The Washington Post.

It began with a large color photograph of a Harris impersonator on TikTok named Alison Reese. The headline was “On Harris’s laugh, a symphony of feedback.” A caption under Reese and her rainbow flag said Reese “says Harris’s laugh ‘feels more uninhibited…The laugh is truly coming from this place of inner joy.'”

Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner co-moderated a panel interviewing former President Donald Trump at the National Association of Black Journalists convention. The major headline coming out of the panel was Trump’s claim that Vice President Kamala Harris, his likely opponent in the 2024 election, “was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn, and she went — she became a Black person.” 

Faulkner went on Fox News following the panel to discuss the event, immediately going into spin mode for Trump. 

Joe Biden’s NATO presser wasn’t a total trainwreck, but it did come off the tracks, especially when he called Donald Trump his vice president. The presser, which lasted just under an hour, supposedly was well-received in Biden land. That’s not necessarily an achievement; all Biden had to do was not fall over. It has become a Rorschach test of sorts, with people on both ends of this in the Democratic Party seeing whatever they want to see.

Reaction to the much-ballyhooed Biden “big boy” press conference was mixed across the dial. Each of the major broadcast networks carried the presser. Each came away with their own unique spin on what was billed as a “make-or-break moment” for Biden.

ABC News reacted with despondence and doom, in a tone slightly less funereal than for President Joe Biden’s interview with George Stephanopoulos. ABC’s was the most overtly political coverage, with its focus on whether Biden did enough to remain on the ballot.

Roberts says that any “quibbles and differences of opinion” between Project 2025 and the GOP platform would be figured out once a new Trump “administration declares what their priorities are”

As the Democrats struggle among themselves over Biden’s declining mental state and his declining poll numbers, it did not have to end up at this impasse. The Democrats and all of their “mainstream” media enablers who claim they love democracy didn’t want any serious or rigorous primary challenge for Joe Biden.

Is it possible that Democrats are still haunted by Ted Kennedy challenging President Jimmy Carter in 1980? The parallels between Carter and Biden on foreign fecklessness and domestic inflation are obvious.

Fox anchor Julie Banderas claimed that her young daughters “speak more eloquently” than Harris and said, “I’m sorry, just being a minority does not make you fit for president.” Outnumbered co-host and former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany claimed that Harris’ speech “does not quite ring like commander-in-chief.” Outnumbered co-host Emily Compagno added, apparently addressing the press, “So the question of how did we get here — well, it's because all of you.

The New York Times appeared to quietly change a headline about a "flood of pro-Israel money" leading to Tuesday's lopsided primary defeat of Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y.

Bowman, an outspoken critic of Israel, suffered a double-digit primary defeat on Tuesday to Westchester County Executive George Latimer, a pro-Israel moderate Democrat. The race was defined in part by the bitter schism within the party over Israel and its war in Gaza since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack.