Editorial cartoons for Sept. 15, 2024: Trump-Harris debate, Taylor Swift endorsement, 9/11 anniversary

Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris faced off in their first, and probably only, national TV debate on Tuesday. Harris was the consensus winner for keeping Trump on the defensive and deflecting questions from the moderators. Trump’s baseless assertion that migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were abducting and eating pets launched a thousand memes — and a few editorial cartoons, too.

In the editorial cartoon gallery’s lead image, David Horsey quotes Harris as saying, “The only way this night could get better would be if I got endorsed by Taylor Swift.” Moments after the debate ended, the pop music star complied. Swift posted her endorsement on Instagram, signing it “Childless Cat Lady,” a reference to Trump running mate JD Vance’s criticism of Democratic women.

Dana Summers takes up the Trump campaign’s complaint that ABC debate moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis aggressively fact-checked the former president while not pressing the vice president on her vague answers.

Editorial cartoonists also took note of former Vice President Dick Cheney’s endorsement of Harris over Trump, his fellow Republican. Summers mocks Democrats who once called Cheney a war criminal for his role in the George W. Bush administration’s war in Iraq. “Yeah, but now he’s our war criminal,” one says to the other. Nick Anderson depicts Cheney as Darth Vader throwing Emperor Trump into the void.

Other topics in the gallery include the civilian Space X mission to high Earth orbit; remembrances of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks 23 years on; and the death of actor James Earl Jones, who lent his booming voice to Darth Vader in the “Star Wars” movies and Mufasa in “The Lion King.”

Cartoons were drawn by Jack Ohman, Nick Anderson, Bill Bramhall, Dana Summers, Drew Sheneman, Scott Stantis, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey, Phil Hands, Joel Pett and Joey Weatherford of Tribune Content Agency; and Steve Breen and Michael Ramirez of Creators Syndicate.