Comment: The evening was a litany of stumbles by Biden:

'Kids in cages'

Democratic nominee Joe Biden was put on his heels after attacking President Donald Trump's immigration policies, forced to acknowledge that former president Barack Obama's detention of children at the border was a "mistake."

"They used to say I built the cages. They had a picture in a certain newspaper... of these horrible cages. They used to say: 'Look at these cages, President Trump built them,'" he said, adding: "Then it was determined they were built in 2014 - that was him," pointing at Biden across the stage.

He had eight years to do what he said he was going to do. We got rid of catch-and-release, we got rid of a lot of horrible things that they put in and that they lived with... He did nothing except build cages to keep children in.

Mask wearing

Biden has floated the idea of a national mask mandate multiple times, though he's also said he isn't sure if the president has the authority to enact such an order. At Thursday's debate, moderator Kristen Welker did not follow up after Biden's "mask" comment about any potential mandates.

Lockdowns

Joe Biden's plans for fighting Covid-19 became a jumbled mess in his final debate face-off with Donald Trump, as he first pledged to stop the virus without a national lockdown, then reiterated that he won't rule out a shutdown.

Trump vowed to avoid any future shutdowns on a national basis, saying businesses and schools need to be kept open. "We have to open our country," he said. "We're not going to have a country. You can't keep this country closed. This is a massive country with a massive economy. You can't do this. People are losing their jobs. People are committing suicide."

Trump added: "The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself, and that's what's happening. And [Biden's] going to close down the country."

On being called out on Biden's record on criminal justice reforms

President Trump took a jab at his electoral challenger during the Thursday debate, asking, "Why didn't you get [criminal justice reform] done? ... You know why, Joe? Because you're all talk and no action."

Biden was quick to defend the former Democratic administration's supposed inaction on the issue, saying he and former president Barack Obama's "had a Republican Congress," which hindered any reform.

Online users were understandably giddy to point out such an obvious falsehood, and called Biden a liar.

And in his most glorious gaffe, Biden directly contradicted himself regard a policy statement that is on the record multiple times:

Biden has faced a lot of scrutiny when it comes to his views on the oil industry. He denied once again at Thursday's debate that he has ever said he is for banning fracking, despite multiple videos of him during the primaries saying just that. Edited clips of those moments were tweeted out by the president on Thursday night.

Comment: One of the emails Bobulinski shared, sent May 20, 2017, shows James Gillar, who originally approached him about the China deal, warning Bobulinski not to mention Joe Biden's involvement:

"Don't mention Joe being involved, it's only when u [sic] are face to face, I know u [sic] know that but they are paranoid," a screenshot of the message from Gilliar read.

Bobulinski said Gilliar and fellow partner Rob Walker were "paranoid about keeping Joe Biden's involvement secret."

Here's the press conference he held yesterday:


Breitbart has more quotes from the laptop from hell showing Hunter's associates viewed his direct 'pipeline' to the Obama-Biden administration as 'currency.'

Meanwhile, secret service travel records confirm the trips mention in Hunter's emails:

In one email reported by the Post, sent from Hunter Biden to his business partner Devon Archer dated Apr. 13, 2014, Hunter refers to a trip to Houston slated for "tmrw." Secret Service records released by Johnson and Grassley corroborate details of the trip with a travel entry from Hunter Biden for Apr. 13, 2014 to Apr. 14, 2014 to Houston.

In another email published by the Post, senior Burisma adviser Vadim Pozharski allegedly wrote on May 12, 2014 of a trip to Como Lake. Secret Service records reported a travel entry for Hunter Biden to Lake Como, Italy just more than a month earlier dated Apr. 3 to Apr. 6.

"Other reports indicate that, in May 2014, Mr. Biden and Mr. Archer may have been in Doha, Qatar," the senators wrote. "USSS records contain a travel entry for Hunter Biden to Doha, Qatar on May 11, 2014 - May 14, 2014."

But no worries. When in deep, just blame Russia:

Comment: Mother Jones's Ben Dreyfuss seems to back up Guliani's version. From Daily Caller:

...

Mother Jones's Ben Dreyfuss tweeted that Giuliani's reach into his pants was not sexual, but that the lawyer meant to tuck his shirt in after it had been loosened.

"I have now seen the scene with Rudy Giuliani," Dreyfuss tweeted. "He does not have his hands down his pants in a sexual way. He is tucking his shirt back in after she unticks it removing his mic."

Giuliani originally reported the incident to the New York police in July, saying that "this guy comes running in, wearing what I would say was a pink transgender outfit," according to The New York Post.

"This person comes in yelling or screaming, and I thought this must be a scam or a shakedown, so I reported it to the police. He then ran away," he said.

...

UPDATE: This from RT:

Conservatives accuse Twitter of selectively ignoring own policies on REVENGE PORN, misleading content in Borat prank on Giuliani
22 Oct, 2020 01:29

Conservatives blasted Twitter for ignoring and even promoting what they called a misleading revenge-porn attack on Rudy Giuliani after censoring reporting on alleged influence-peddling by Joe Biden's family.

At issue was a picture posted on Twitter on Wednesday showing Giuliani laying back on a bed with his hand reaching inside his pants while a woman stands nearby. The image was taken from the new 'Borat' sequel, in which Giuliani, a personal lawyer for President Donald Trump, believed himself to be doing an interview on the Covid-19 pandemic with a female Russian reporter. After the interview, Giuliani and the woman go to a bedroom at her suggestion.

As it turned out, Giuliani was being pranked and filmed with hidden cameras. The scene in the movie reportedly ends when the Borat character, played by actor Sacha Baron Cohen, runs into the bedroom and says, "She's 15, she's too old for you."

...

There's no indication that Giuliani, 76, believed the fictional Russian reporter to be underage. And the former New York mayor said on Wednesday that the scene was a "complete fabrication," as he was tucking his shirt in after removing a microphone and behaved appropriately with the young woman. He called the police to report the incident at the time it happened, in July.

...

But the scene was portrayed as scandalous by media outlets and supporters of Biden, the Democrat presidential candidate. For instance, an article in The Guardian said Giuliani was seen "reaching into his trousers and apparently touching his genitals." Other media outlets, such as the Washington Post, NBC News, The Hill and Huffington Post, also put a similar spin on the story.

Critics, however, alleged bias by the media, which was seemingly eager to interpret a still shot from the yet-to-be-released 'Borat' movie after largely casting a blind eye to reports in the past week on a trove of emails found on a hard drive of a laptop allegedly belonging to Biden's son, Hunter.

The hard drive was reportedly given to Giuliani, as well as the FBI, by a Delaware repair-shop owner after Hunter allegedly failed to pay for repairs to his laptop and never returned to retrieve the computer.

The emails reveal questionable business dealings between the Bidens and a Ukrainian energy firm, and indicated that the former VP's son wanted to enrich his family through his Chinese connections.

Journalist Robby Soave suggested that based on the reasoning Twitter gave for blocking the Biden stories, it also should have banned the Giuliani-Borat tweets because the material "contains personal information obtained in an underhanded way and without Giuliani's permission."

Conservative author Mike Cernovich said the 'Borat' scene would qualify as "revenge porn" against Giuliani under New York law, as well as under Twitter's guidelines banning such content. Twitter allowed thousands of accounts to share the photo and portray it misleadingly, he said, adding that "the bias isn't subtle." In fact, Twitter not only allowed the Giuliani posts to proliferate after censoring the New York Post's Hunter Biden stories; it even promoted the topic with its own trending link as part of an effort "to make high-quality information around the 2020 US elections more accessible."

The press was so eager for Giuliani-incriminating news on Wednesday that a hoax suggesting that the former mayor had been duped by a college student pretending to be Ivanka Trump was apparently believed and tweeted out by such media figures as MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and Politico editor David Freedlander. The student, Nick Roberts, pretended to trick Giuliani in a satirical exchange of fake text messages.

Comment: The personnel acting very slowly are helping to keep the myth of Russiagate alive while ensuring the truth is as contained as possible. Is this intentional and part of some directive from some group or individual who are acting against Trump, or is there a more mundane reason that this information that would help Trump and hurt Biden is not being shared with the people if in fact Trump did declassify the documents?

Comment: The FBI has also confirmed (as if it was necessary) that, despite claims from Schiff, that the laptop and emails are "not part of some Russian disinformation campaign." There is no actionable intelligence linking anything to Russia on this issue.

Multiple federal law enforcement officials have confirmed that the laptop is linked to an FBI money laundering probe. Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, claims that the laptop contains 'numerous pictures of underage girls,' including a 14yo related to Hunter:

According to Giuliani, a text message sent from Hunter Biden to his father complains about how Hunter's sister-in-law, who was once his lover, told his therapist that he had been "sexually inappropriate" with a 14-year-old girl.

His sister-in-law went on to say that "he had been sexually inappropriate with [redacted] when she says that I face time naked with her and the reason I can't have her out to see me is because I'll walk around naked smoking crack," the text message, read by Giuliani, allegedly said.

As the Bidens work on damage control, Joe Biden falsely claims that the "vast majority" of the intelligence community agrees there is "no basis at all" for the allegations of corruption against him and his son Hunter Biden and says that it's a last-ditch "smear campaign." Someone should tell Joe that the laptop is real, corruption is real, and if there is evidence of pedophilia and corruption in the laptop, perhaps jail will be very real for Hunter Biden.

Trump responded to the claims that this is a "Russian plot" by comparing it to Hillary Clinton's completely baseless lie that Jill Stein and Tulsi Gabbard were "Russian agents," with no evidence to back up her claims:

"This was like Tulsi Gabbard and Jill Stein, when Hillary Clinton said it about them... that they were agents of Russia," Trump noted, adding, "They were not agents of Russia, they never spoke to anybody from Russia."

Comment: Considering the tyrannical lockdown policies in New Zealand, this just goes to show that regardless of 'diversity' in politics, what's really missing in the upper echelons of power are people with a conscience: Man breaks out of quarantine using bedsheet, later detained by police, in Auckland, New Zealand

See also:

• New Zealand schools to teach pupils to avoid dairy and meat
• "Crisis point": New Zealand primary school teachers strike for first time in 24 years

Comment: Farther reaching than just this this particular issue, Twitter has no authority to deem what is true or false.

Comment: Dems are obviously holding out until after the election, hoping the odds (and big bucks) will be in their favor. They especially do not want a Trump win on this one. They have nothing to lose at this point except the public...and who cares about them.

See also:

• NBC actually calls out Dems for playing politics with virus relief
• Senate Democrats block mammoth coronavirus stimulus package
• House Dems' stimulus bill includes checks for illegal immigrants and protections from deportations and UPDATE
• Trump orders Mnuchin, Meadows and GOP leadership to stop negotiating coronavirus stimulus until after the election
• Trump hints he'll sign another $1,200 stimulus check bill, vows to halt lockdown relief talks with Democrats until after election