US Election diary: Cats, dogs, geese and conspiracy theories

Morning all, what a week it’s been in the United States. The first – and now quite likely last – presidential debate has happened, the final campaigning push has begun, and a small city in Ohio is now the most famous place on the planet.

Donald Trump perpetuating the online conspiracy that migrants were eating cats and dogs has taken the internet by storm. Here’s just a selection of the weird and wonderful reactions and memes.

I could go on and on, but while some people have taken a humorous take, there has been a darker reaction too.

The Springfield City Hall was evacuated and police deployed after a bomb threat was sent out to multiple organisations and media.

The mayor of Springfield told the Washington Post the emailed bomb threat “used hateful language towards immigrants and Haitians in our community”.

It appears the allegation originated from a social media post (as all good conspiracy theories start) where someone alleged a daughter’s friend saw a cat eaten by people they thought were migrants.

There was no proof provided. But soon other rumours started cropping up, including people claiming – again without proof -that geese from a pond had been seen beheaded and eaten.

And then, Trump’s Vice President pick, Ohio Senator JD Vance, posted this on Twitter.

Before long it was spreading like wildfire and reported verbatim as fact by officials in the Republican party.

Trump’s team also started creating AI images like this.

And this.

Again, there is no evidence of any of this happening. A weird way for us all to end the week.

It’s worth also noting that this would be second time cats have become a central part of the political rhetoric around the Republican party.

Remember when JD Vance called Democrat women “childless cat ladies”?

Well, he was trolled by the most famous childless cat lady of them all this week – Taylor Swift – when she posted on Instagram that she was endorsing Kamala Harris for president.

She signed off her post “With love and hope, Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady”, adding a picture of her holding her cat.

So, the big winner this week – cats.

When many people think of America, they think of the glitzy hotels and casinos of Las Vagas and Atlantic City. Throw in the size of mega state lotteries (I sadly didn’t win the $US521m California lottery I bought two tickets for when I was last over there), and the huge sports culture, and you can see why many people (for better or worse) love gambling here.

However, one thing has always been illegal to wager any money on - elections

Until now.

A judge in Washington has enabled a New York company called Kalshi to begin taking what are essentially bets online on the outcome of the November congressional elections (these are the elections for congress, not the presidency).

“For the first time in 100 years, Americans will have access to legal election markets at scale. Historic moment for financial markets,” said co-founder Tarek Mansour on X.

It’s not certain how long the company will be able to do this for though – the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (basically the watchdog for this kind of thing) have indicated they will appeal the ruling as fast as possible, apparently concerned that people may try to manipulate the election for their own financial gain.

While almost all the focus this week has been on the debate, Joe Biden made headlines after he put on a Donald Trump MAGA hat. Yup, you heard that right.

He was visiting firefighters in Pennsylvania on 9/11.

According to video on social media, Biden appeared to be sharing a laugh with a Trump supporter before they swapped hats, to applause from everyone in the room.

Trump’s campaign quickly responded, saying on social media, “Thanks for the support, Joe!”

Not everyone saw the funny side – American radio host and comedian Charlmagne tha God described Biden as the “Donkey of the Day”.

And just finally – I spent a while in the beating heart of this week debate, the ‘spin room’, and put together a ‘behind the scenes’ vid that’s up on TVNZ+.

I’ve never seen journalists run so fast when Donald Trump made a surprise appearance in the room.

Check out the craziness here.