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2024 October | Mary C. Curtis

Archives for October 2024

Closing with ‘values,’ Trump and Harris stand in contrast

The candidates for president of the United States and their surrogates are talking a lot about values, and demonstrating their very different interpretations of what exactly that word means.

It was a setting that recalled a horror many Americans have tried to forget, the place where former president Donald Trump incited a crowd that morphed into a mob to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In her closing argument in Washington on Tuesday night, Vice President Kamala Harris, flanked by the Stars and Stripes, instead ended her speech talking about the values instilled in her by “family by blood and family by love,” the values of “community, compassion and faith.”

The Democratic nominee repeated her belief that “the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us.”

Looking at the gulf that is the partisan divide in America, that may indeed take a leap of faith. However, it is a lot sunnier than the vision Trump, the Republican nominee, conjured up at his weekend Madison Square Garden rally in New York City.

When Trump said early in his first campaign for the presidency that he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters,” it turns out he was right. It was appropriate those remarks were made at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, a Christian college, since Trump’s most loyal constituency has been white evangelicals, who’ve stuck with him since then, no matter what.

“Compassionate conservatism” is so George W. Bush, a former president effectively banished from Trump’s GOP and replaced with a new brand of retribution and revenge.

It’s just proof that having religion does not necessarily equate to caring about your fellow man.

The nightmarish lineup at Trump’s New York rally offered insults toward Puerto Ricans, Jews, Musli

How a battle for locker-room access was about so much more

Sports and politics don’t mix. In truth, that has never been the case. Sports, in fact, reflect every issue, every conflict in society from civil rights to equal justice.

Melissa Ludtke knows this from experience. In the 1970s, when she was trying to cover Major League Baseball for Sports Illustrated, her path to doing the job — which required equal access to the players — was blocked by a powerful and inflexible commissioner. The battle mirrored America’s burgeoning women’s movement, and ultimately ended up in federal court, presided over by a judge with her own civil rights experience. Ludtke tells the story in “Locker Room Talk: A Woman’s Struggle to Get Inside,” and on this episode of Equal Time.

U.S. Elections and Female Voters

On a tour of swing states, the BBC traveled to Charlotte, NC, to talk with several women on Team Harris or Team Trump — and one undecided. How could that be? I joined Mary Ramsey as a journalist/NC expert. Thanks to our Plaza Midwood hosts and the BBC’s Matt Chorley and Richard Lawson. Have a listen to our ‘brilliant’ chat.

Local News Roundup: Campaigns ramp up; Early voting in NC and SC; Charlotte FC begins postseason play

Former President Donald Trump makes stops across North Carolina, including in the western part of the state where he repeated false claims about the federal response to Helene.

Meanwhile, early voting numbers are coming as polls are open in both North and South Carolina. What is the early data telling us? And how does it compare to 2020?

Mark Robinson has amended his defamation lawsuit against CNN. Robinson, who was seeking $50 million in damages, is now asking for $25,000. Robinson has denied the report that alleges he made racist and misogynistic comments on a pornographic website. All of this comes as Democrats continue to spend money attacking Robinson and linking other Republican candidates to him.

And Charlotte FC is back in the postseason for the second straight year. The team starts a best-of-three series at Orlando on Sunday.

Those stories and more on the Charlotte Talks Local News Roundup.

GUESTS:

Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time”
Steve Harrison, WFAE political reporter
Nick Ochsner, WBTV chief investigative reporter
Alexandria Sands, reporter with Axios Charlotte

An election that’s bigger than one country

During trips to Europe when Barack Obama was president of the United States, I felt like a rock star because, well, he was one, and some of that sheen couldn’t help but rub off on any random American. It was a point his Republican antagonists used to attack him, as though possessing celebrity-style charisma was a bad thing. (If only members of the GOP could have predicted the future, when their own candidate was best known for listing the TV show “The Apprentice” on his thin political resume.)

I fondly remember those trips, when I got a few free drinks and lots of conversation. Those Europeans admired that America, a country with a history of racial segregation and racist violence, could progress enough to elect an African American as its president. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Obama was a man with extraordinary political and personal gifts, and had a picture-perfect family to match.

While neither I nor any Black American I knew bought into the fantasy of a post-racial America — our own experiences and U.S. history taught us better — I felt very protective and proud of my country. I knew their own countries could not claim a parallel achievement and didn’t hesitate to tell them so, even

Local News Roundup: Helene cleanup, politics and misinformation; Charlotte transit questions; NC musicians plan benefit concert

On the Charlotte Talks local news roundup, the fallout from Helene continues. Where does the cleanup effort stand? What is the status of the infrastructure in the region?

Meanwhile, Election Day is just a few weeks away and early voting begins next week. How do state and local officials plan to make voting accessible to those impacted by the storm? How is misinformation throwing a wrench in those plans?

Elsewhere, the drama over a regional transit proposal continues with Charlotte city officials split on whether to participate in a transit summit organized by John Higdon, mayor of Matthews. We breakdown the latest in this ongoing saga.

Finally, three North Carolina musicians are joining forces to play a benefit concert at Bank of America Stadium for those impacted by Helene. Luke Combs, Eric Church and James Taylor will all take part in “Concert for Carolina” on Oct. 26.

GUESTS:

Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time”
Steve Harrison, WFAE political reporter
Mary Ramsey, local government accountability reporter for the Charlotte Observer
Alexandria Sands, reporter with Axios Charlotte

Stoking division may be a winning campaign strategy, but it comes at a cost

One Republican president, George W. Bush, honored Dikembe Mutombo at his 2007 State of the Union address at the Capitol, saying, “Dikembe became a star in the NBA and a citizen of the United States, but he never forgot the land of his birth, or his duty to share his blessings with others.”

It wasn’t just the sports world that mourned the death of Mutombo this week at the age of 58. Mutombo, who had become a U.S. citizen the year before Bush’s public praise, was known for both his unique basketball skills and his humanitarian and philanthropic efforts in this country, and especially in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo. Through the efforts of the NBA’s first global ambassador, a hospital and school were built there.

His obituary in The New York Times recounted that moment when a president recognized the sports star. Mutombo was awarded an academic scholarship to Georgetown, where he double majored in linguistics and diplomacy instead of his original pre-med dream; he spoke French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and five African languages.

What a full life, in just 58 years.

I wonder, though, if another former Republican president gave that stellar American’s death a second thought.

Instead, the current GOP nominee for the office was using Mutombo’s birthplace and the people who hail from that African country as villains at campaign stops on the Donald Trump hate tour. I doubt Trump knows much about any country in Africa, but he’s canny enough to realize conjuring up lurid images he seems to have gleaned from a Tarzan movie would scare up a few votes by stoking fear of the other, particularly if that other consists of nameless hordes of Black people, invading a white, suburban haven.

“They come from, from the Congo in Africa,” Trump said at a campaign stop in Wisconsin this week, repeating what has become a familiar refrain. “Many people from the Congo. I don’t know what that is.” It’s always Scandinavian countries such as Norway and Denmark that draw his admiration, while he heaps insults on the Middle East, Asia, Central and South America and Africa.

Equal Time: Has grift hijacked American conservatism?

In the middle of a contentious election season, it might be the perfect time to look back and try to figure out how we got here. In “The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism,” best-selling author and Equal Time guest Joe Conason investigates how lofty rhetoric can sometimes hide moneymaking motives. Who benefits, who is left to pay the bill and how does anyone get away with it?

Local News Roundup: Robinson fallout; Trump campaigns in Mint Hill; CMS assignments; Hurricane Helene latest

On the Charlotte Talks local news roundup, the fallout continues after a CNN report accused North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson of making racist and misogynistic comments on an online porn forum.

Both presidential candidates continue to emphasize North Carolina with high profile visits this week, including a stop in Mint Hill by former President Donald Trump.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education votes to make several changes to student assignments, but it avoids some controversial assignments, at least for now.

And, as Hurricane Helene makes its way toward the southeast, we discuss the impact on Charlotte and the Carolinas.

GUESTS:

Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time”
Mary Ramsey, local government accountability reporter for the Charlotte Observer
Hunter Sáenz, WSOC-TV reporter
Lisa Worf, senior editor for news and features at WFAE