Trump campaign melts down over Harris having beer with Colbert amid deadline to commit to final debate: Live

The same book finds the 46th president on angry form, frequently cursing out his various enemies.

In one incredibly gangsta excerpt spotted by CNN, Woodward quotes Biden complaining to an unnamed friend that Barack Obama failed to take the threat posed by Putin seriously, even when Russia annexed Crimea and the Kremlin’s “little green men” began appearing in the Donbas, and declares:

“They f***d up in 2014. That’s why we are here. We f***ed it up. Barack never took Putin seriously.

“We did nothing. We gave Putin a license to continue!

“Well, I’m revoking his f***ing license!”

Veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s new book War alleges that Trump has had “at least seven” phone calls with Russia’s pariah president Vladimir Putin since leaving the White House and even sent him “a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines” for his personal use during the pandemic when they were in short supply.

Both the Trump campaign and the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov have now denied those claims, with the aforementioned Steven Cheung dismissing the Watergate hero’s work accordingly:

“None of these made-up stories by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump derangement syndrome.

“Woodward is an angry little man and is clearly upset because President Trump is successfully suing him because of the unauthorized publishing of recordings he made previously.

“President Trump gave him absolutely no access for this trash book that either belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section of a discount bookstore or is used as toilet tissue.

“Woodward is a total sleazebag who has lost it mentally, and he’s slow, lethargic, incompetent, and overall a boring person with no personality.”

Another interesting line on Trump from Woodward, sleazebag or not, comes from South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsey Graham, who is quoted as saying: “Trump is becoming more erratic. These court cases. I think they would rattle anybody.”

Kamala Harris attacked Trump for his admiration of “strongmen” dictators like Putin during her interview with Colbert last night, saying of Woodward’s Covid allegation:

“You remember how many people did not have tests and were trying to scramble to get them?

“You remember how rare it was to have one? You remember people by the hundreds were dying every day? We would watch the number every day being reported of people who were dying, people who were in hospitals without their family, where the only touch that they had was of a nurse that they hadn’t met because the family could not get there.

“And this man is giving Covid test kits to Vladimir Putin. Think about what this means. On top of him sending love letters to Kim Jong-un. No, think about it. He thinks Vladimir Putin is his friend. What about the American people? They should be your first friend.”

Here’s more from Alex Woodward (no relation!)

The Republican nominee is meanwhile running out of time if he plans to accept CNN’s offer to host a final presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 23, which Harris has already accepted.

The network has stepped up the pressure on Trump, giving him until Thursday to make up his mind.

“CNN sent invitations on September 21 to both Vice President Harris and former President Trump’s campaigns to participate in a CNN debate this fall as we believe the American people would benefit from a second debate between the two candidates for President of the United States,” it said in a statement.

“With less than 30 days to Election Day, we are placing a deadline for a formal response from both campaigns for this Thursday, October 10 at 12pm ET to participate.”

It was a CNN debate in that same city on June 27 that led to the demise of Joe Biden’s candidacy but Trump has since been bested on stage by Harris in Philadelphia, inadvertently going viral on September 10 for elevating an insane internet conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants eating pet cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.

Trump has so far insisted it is “too late” to have another debate before Election Day on November 5, although doing so would actually be entirely consistent with recent election cycles, suggesting he might be chicken.

Kamala Harris cracked open a beer on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday and took the opportunity to lash out at election rival Donald Trump, calling him a “loser” and joking: “This is what happens when I drink!”

The Democratic presidential nominee sipped a Miller High Life with the late-night host as she discussed Trump’s politicization of federal hurricane relief efforts, her plans for the economy, the prospects for peace in the Middle East and her opponent’s admiration for “strongman” dictators like Vladimir Putin.

The drink in particular attracted an angry response from Trump’s campaign spokesman Steven Cheung, who posted on X: “Kamala drinks a beer to show Americans how relatable she is, but she ends up looking like an out-of-touch elitist trying to gaslight everyone into thinking she’s one of them.”

Harris has ramped up her media appearances in recent days, guesting on the Call Her Daddy podcast, CBS’s 60 Minutes, ABC’s The View and Howard Stern’s Sirius XM radio show.

Forty-two percent of people convicted of falsifying business records in New York in the last decade were sentenced to time in jail or prison, a new study from The New York Times found. In Manhattan specifically, that number is closer to one-third, the outlet’s analysis showed.

Ariana Baio takes a look at what’s happening.

She told all those stories, or didn’t, in under 200 pages.

She adds that she is “not the only person who questions the results.”

Stephen Colbert said elections are “all about vibes” because “One of the old saws is: ‘They just want someone they can have a beer with.’”

So Vice President Kamala Harris cracked open a beer — a Miller High Life — with the late night host. “The champagne of beers!” she joked.

But the Democratic nominee also delved into heavier subjects, including the war in Gaza.

“We cannot lose some belief in the possibility” of a ceasefire, Harris said according to the New York Times. “The United States must work and not lose hope and not throw up our hands.”

Harris also addressed the latest claim about her GOP rival: Donald Trump secretly gave Russian President Vladimir Putin Covid tests, according to a new Bob Woodward book.

“I ask everyone here and everyone who is watching: Do you remember what those days were like?” she asked. “You remember how many people did not have tests and were trying to scramble to get them?”

The Late Show appearance is just the latest in the vice president’s media blitz just 27 days out from the presidential election.

Weeks after making it clear that she’s fully capable of defending her home against intruders, Vice President Kamala Harris has provided more information on exactly what sort of weapon a would-be burglar would face if they were foolish enough to break into her house.

In an interview that aired Monday evening, the vice president told 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker she owns a pistol made by Glock, the Austrian gunmaker whose polymer-framed, striker-fired, semi-automatic handguns are popular with law enforcement agencies across the United States and beyond.“