Who did Trump really beat – Harris . . . or Joe Biden? | From the editor

Hi Neighbor,

It’s reaching the point where we’ll be saying, “As Staten Island goes, so goes the nation.”

Staten Island backed Donald Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024. Two out of three. Not bad. (Three out of three for those who believe 2020 was stolen.)

It’s no surprise. Most of our neighbors are more mid-America than they are mid-Manhattan.

Headlines across the world will read, “Trump beats Harris.”

Perhaps they should more accurately read, “Trump beats Biden.”

Kamala Harris simply could not outrun Joe Biden’s dreadful handling of border security. She could not outrun Americans paying a buck-and-a-half for a dozen eggs when Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office, and six bucks for the same dozen after Joe Biden got the keys to the office.

Inflation. Inflation. Inflation.

Trump and his loyalists couldn’t say it enough.

Did the pandemic have anything to do with it? Supply chain shortages? People laid off because of Covid strangling their businesses?

Nah. It was all Sleepy Joe’s fault. The pandemic? Forgotten.

Trump did a magnificent job tying Harris to every single Biden policy, convincing America that “murderers and rapists” are roaming our streets after sneaking across the border, while the price of everything from ground beef to gasoline spiked.

Whose fault? Biden-Harris, of course. They opened the border wide, shut down pipelines and banned fossil fuel drilling.

It’s wearisome hearing that Harris was equally responsible for Biden polices, no matter what she said on “The View.”

But America bought it. Harris wouldn’t counter it. She refused to throw her boss under the bus.

It’s hard to figure out what she was thinking when she sat for an interview on “The View.” Just a month ago, with the handwriting on the wall that Biden was the guy Americans believed got us in the mess, Harris appeared on the friendly daytime TV talk show.

What would you have handled differently from Biden, she was asked.

Wow. A chance to hit it out of the park.

“There is not a thing that comes to mind. I’ve been part of most of the decisions that have had an impact.”

Admirable, I suppose. Loyal? I guess.

Smart? Not so much.

CNN could have called the election for Trump right there.

She spent way too much time talking about reproductive rights, abortion, and fertility treatment. Not enough time talking about how people were hurting.

Left-leaning media didn’t help. The talking heads spent hour-after-hour slamming Trump, turning off swing voters.

Recounting horror stories of pregnant women nearly dying in hospital parking lots when doctors feared treating them because of restrictive abortion laws, tragic as they were, might have made people cringe.

But blame Donald Trump? That, I think, was too much of a stretch.

The Harris solution to sticker shock at the supermarket? End “price gouging.”

Huh? Is Kellogg “price gouging” when the price of a box of Frosted Flakes goes up because it’s costing their truckers more to get it cross-country? Shoppers aren’t thinking Nathan’s is “price gouging” when they shell out an extra three bucks for a dozen hot dogs.

“The damn price went up again!” That’s all they’re thinking.

She spent way too much time telling America that Trump is “unhinged” and “unstable,” while Trump hit Harris where it hurt, over and over . . .

Inflation. The border. Inflation. The border.

Donald Trump is mean-spirited. Donald Trump is crude. Donald Trump is vulgar.

Americans know that. A lot of Americans obviously don’t care. In fact, there is a large swath of Americans who love it.

They don’t care he is a convicted felon. They don’t care he sees women like it’s 1954, not 2024, and he has to “protect” them. Heck, a ton of suburban women voted for him.

They do care about how much is in their 401k’s. They care that “illegals” are in their neighborhoods, getting free lodging, free food and free medical care – all the while as they struggle to keep their heads above water. They care they can’t fill up their gas tanks, and go out to dinner in the same week. They care if a transgender girl plays against their daughters on the basketball court.

If Harris realized any of this, she didn’t spend a lot of time letting America know.

Harris’ message: “Let’s turn the page.” OK, turn the page. Then what?

Trump’s message: “I’ll fix it.”

Harris was more about the mood of America. Trump was more about the issues, even though his “policies” were so vague and hollow, often lost in his endless rhetoric, on display again this morning, by the way, as he gave a semi-victory-speech at his headquarters in Florida.

There are a lot of people across America waking up scared this morning. Afraid of what Donald Trump might do after he takes the Oath of Office in January.

There was a time when people on the losing side of an election said, “I disagree with him, but he’s now the president and I’ll support him because I want to see America succeed.”

In this divided country, neighbors, I doubt we will ever hear that again.

Brian

Oh by the way: We didn’t even get to Republicans taking control of the Senate, and Republicans in control of the House. A Republican President Trump will have no checks-and-balances, starting with his choice of Cabinet members. Honestly, Republicans, do you really want Robert Kennedy Jr. making health decisions for you? And one last thing -- Harris picked the wrong guy for her vice president. JD Vance ran him in circles.