DNC Trolls Trump With Photos of Him as a Chicken After Debate Refusal

Kamala Harris’s campaign doesn’t intend to let Donald Trump simply walk away from his second debate with the vice president. They plan to humiliate him over it. 

The Democratic National Committee has planned a series of static and mobile billboards to follow Trump around the country that attack him for his cowardly behavior, NBC News reported Monday. The billboards depict the former president in a chicken suit beside the words, “There’s no debate: Donald Trump’s a chicken.”

The first billboard is set to appear outside of Trump’s rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Monday. A pro-Harris study group at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where Trump is scheduled to speak, will send inflatable chickens, according to NBC News.  

The DNC’s foray into psychological warfare comes after Harris accepted CNN’s invitation to  appear in another presidential debate on October 23. Trump claimed on Saturday that it was “too late” for another presidential debate because early voting had already begun in some states. 

At a Democratic fundraiser in Manhattan on Sunday, where Harris raised $27 million according to her campaign, the Democratic nominee taunted Trump for avoiding another face-off. 

“My opponent seems to be looking for an excuse to avoid when he should accept,” said Harris. “I feel very strongly that we owe it to the American people and to the voters to meet once more before Election Day and continue the conversation.”

According to polling from the The Washington Post, Harris saw a slight improvement compared to Trump following the debate on September 10. 

In an 2023 interview with The New Republic, George Conway suggested that this kind of localized ad campaign would be the perfect way to make Trump go crazy. “The more he gets attacked the more he will talk about things he shouldn’t be talking about,” Conway said. “I think you could even get him thrown into jail, by running the right ad.”

Donald Trump’s cozy relations with Middle Eastern leaders are causing him to bleed support.

The backlash began after the Republican presidential nominee took to Truth Social Sunday to share some of the details of his recent caucus with foreign heads of state at Mar-a-Lago, reported RawStory.

“It was great seeing my friends His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Amir of Qatar and His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Prime Minister of Qatar at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida,” Trump wrote.

“The Amir has proven to be a great and powerful leader of his country, advancing on all levels at record speed,” he continued. “He is someone also who strongly wants peace in the Middle East, and all over the world. We had a great relationship during my years in the White House, and it will be even stronger this time around!”

But Trump’s MAGA followers weren’t appreciative of his buddy-buddy relations with the Middle Eastern rulers, whom some critics pinned as antisemitic for their country’s positions against Israel.

“Come on President Trump. We luv ya, but I don’t think the hostages and families are thrilled about Qatar hosting the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist freaks!” wrote one user who identified as a “constitutional conservative.”

Other users questioned why Trump would be spending one-on-one time with supposed opponents to the Jewish state when there were still hostages in Gaza. Qatar has been hosting the unsuccessful negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a cease-fire in Gaza.

“Qatar? Are funding and housing Hamas leaders, WTF are you doing,” wrote another Truth Social user. “You can meet with the devil, but you don’t bargain with him in your home!”

But other users saw the far-right revelation as an early predictor for November, suggesting that such relationships could cost Trump the race.

“Hey Don. You should really start watching your mouth. It’s going to cost you the presidency,” wrote another user on Sunday.

Representative Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, was attacked Monday for supposedly claiming that Michigan’s attorney general is going after pro-Palestinian protesters solely because she’s Jewish. The only problem is, Tlaib never said anything of the sort.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, posted on X Monday addressing Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer while alleging that Tlaib had made an antisemitic statement about Attorney General Dana Nessel. Nessel is pursuing charges against pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Michigan, alleging some had assaulted police officers and engaged in ethnic intimidation.

Greenblatt wrote, “When your attorney general prosecutes people for violating the law, harassing Jews, and attacking police officers, it’s in the interest of public safety. When a congresswoman accuses the attorney general of prosecuting protestors simply because she’s Jewish, it’s bias.”

In his post, Greenblatt linked an article published by Jewish Insider Sunday, which discussed an interview of Whitmer earlier that day on CNN. Host Jake Tapper had asked Whitmer to respond to Tlaib’s so-called argument that Nessel was “only doing it because she’s Jewish.” It’s unclear what Tapper’s source was for such a claim.

Whitmer declined to respond, saying, “I’m not going to get in the middle of this argument that they’re having.”

The Jewish Insider article stated that Tlaib “has also claimed that Nessel is only charging the protesters because she’s Jewish.” As evidence, that article repeatedly linked to yet another article, this one from the Detroit MetroTimes—which included no quote from Tlaib referring to Nessel’s Jewishness at all.

Nessel’s religious background was only mentioned as part of the description from the article’s author, who wrote, “Tlaib also criticized Nessel, who is the first Jewish person elected Attorney General of Michigan, for what she believes is a biased approach to the protest.”

A closer look reveals that Tlaib’s statement was not about Nessel being Jewish but about systemic anti-Palestinian bigotry.

“We’ve had the right to dissent, the right to protest,” Tlaib said, according to the MetroTimes. “We’ve done it for climate, the immigrant rights movement, for Black lives, and even around issues of injustice among water shutoffs. But it seems that the attorney general decided if the issue was Palestine, she was going to treat it differently, and that alone speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs.”

It should surprise no one that Greenblatt is attempting to blur the lines here. The ADL has reportedly held that all pro-Palestinian demonstrating is equivalent to antisemitism, even though it is often carried out by Jewish protesters and usually serves as a condemnation of the policy decisions of Israel, rather than the personhood of its Jewish citizens.

Speaker Mike Johnson has gone against Donald Trump and MAGA by dropping the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act from his proposal to fund the government.

On Sunday, Johnson announced the short-term spending bill to keep the government funded until December 20 will not include the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship when people register to vote. In a letter to his House colleagues, Johnson said the bill would be a “very narrow, bare-bones [continuing resolution] including only the extensions that are absolutely necessary.”

A previous government funding bill with the SAVE Act was voted down by House Democrats along with 14 Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that a government shutdown before November’s election would be “politically beyond stupid.”

The House plans to vote on Johnson’s new proposal this week, which is the result of a deal the speaker made with President Biden and top Democrats. If the bill doesn’t pass by 12:01 a.m. on October 1, the government will shut down. Last week, Trump called for a government shutdown if the SAVE Act wasn’t part of a government funding bill, setting up a showdown between Johnson and the former president.

Trump has yet to weigh in on Johnson’s new bill, but MAGA personalities have already started attacking the speaker. On Sunday, Trump gadfly Laura Loomer lamented the SAVE Act’s exclusion from the funding bill, posting on X that “it’s so pathetic how inept these people are.”

Johnson also faces opposition from some of the far-right members of the House Republican caucus. Representative Warren Davidson called the resolution “disappointing,” adding that “unfortunately the surrender caucus came together to make sure we keep the status-quo plays going.”

If Trump decides to speak up and possibly tank this government funding bill, it could hurt Republican chances to keep the House and Senate in November, and come back to bite Trump’s presidential chances as well. Earlier this year, Republicans on two separate occasions killed a bipartisan border security bill in order to appease the former president and convicted felon.

The logic back then was that a successful border bill would help President Biden ahead of November’s election. This time, Trump and his Republican supporters could end up hurting themselves as well as the economy just over a month before November.

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta called Israel’s pager attack in Lebanon “terrorism.”

Last week, pagers, walkie-talkies, and solar panels exploded across Lebanon, as well as Syria, in a series of deadly attacks reportedly carried out by Israel. On Tuesday, a wave of attacks, supposedly targeting pagers held by members of Hezbollah, killed at least 12 people including two young children and injured thousands more. A second wave of detonations on Wednesday killed another 20 people and injured more than 450 people, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

During an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Panetta warned that Israel was conducting a “war of terror.”

“The ability to be able to place an explosive in technology that is very prevalent these days, and turn it into a war of terror, really, a war of terror—this is something new,” Panetta said.

When asked whether Israel’s attack constituted terrorism, Panetta was unequivocal. “I don’t think there’s any question that it’s a form of terrorism,” he said.

Panetta served as the secretary of defense from 2011 to 2013 and director of the CIA from 2009 to 2011, both under President Barack Obama.

Panetta was then asked if he believed members of the international community, including the United States, should condemn Israel’s actions.

“I think it’s going to be very important for the nations of the world to have a serious discussion about whether or not this is an area that everybody has to focus on, because if they don’t try to deal with it now. Mark my word, it is the battlefield of the future,” he replied.

Israel’s deadly tactics in Lebanon have been condemned by Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, for violating international law by weaponizing ordinary devices. Türk explained that international law prohibits the use of booby-trapped items used in daily life, and “it is a war crime to commit violence intended to spread terror among civilians.”

Israel has continued to target Lebanon with impunity, firing off a series of airstrikes Monday that have killed more than 274 people and wounded more than 1,000 more. Israel’s illegal attacks are a blatant attempt to broaden a regional war and draw U.S. forces into a fight against Iran.