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      Senate Republicans strike down Democratic proposal to fully fund Snap

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      Senate Republicans shot down a Democratic-led attempt to fully fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits on Monday during the government shutdown – a move that heightens uncertainty for the 42 million Americans participating in the country’s biggest anti-hunger program.Jeff Merkley, a Democratic senator, and Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, attempted to pass a resolution via unanimous consent that would have forced the Department of Agriculture to fund Snap benefits for the month of November.But Republican senators objected, with John Barrasso, Senate majority whip, arguing that a solution toward ensuring those benefits lies in reopening the government.“This isn’t lawmaking. It’s a political stunt by the Democrats. The resolution they’re offering is empty,” Barrasso said. “Democrats knew their actions threatened food assistance. They were fully aware of it.”The move comes after the administration announced it will use money from an agriculture department contingency fund to restart Snap food benefits, but the money would only grant partial assistance. The administration said there’s only $4.65bn available in that fund to pay for Snap benefits, which would only cover about half of the $8bn in food assistance payments people receive every month.“Trump is using food as a weapon against children, families, and seniors to enact his ‘make Americans hungry agenda,’” said Merkley in a statement.“It’s unbelievably cruel, but Trump cares more about playing politics than making sure kids don’t starve. Kids and families are not poker chips or hostages. Trump must release the entirety of the Snap funds immediately.”The diminishing funds come as Senate Republican leaders continue their attempts to pass a bill to reopen the government, with 13 tries so far and a clear resolution nowhere in sight.Food banks and pantries across the country are already struggling amid the cuts to federal programs, scrambling to meet the increased demand driven by federal workers who have gone unpaid during the shutdown.Should the shutdown continue past Tuesday, it will be the longest one in history. The previous record was set in 2019, during Trump’s first term, when he demanded that Congress give him the funds to erect a border wall between the US and Mexico. More

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      Trump news at a glance: president endorses and threatens on eve of New York City mayoral election

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      Donald Trump has no qualms weighing in on local elections – especially in his native New York City.And on the eve of the mayoral election between Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, longtime Democrat-turned-independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, the US president had a message for Republican New Yorkers.“I would much rather see a Democrat, who has had a Record of Success, WIN, than a Communist with no experience and a Record of COMPLETE AND TOTAL FAILURE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.Before the uncanny endorsement, Trump also renewed threats to punish New Yorkers based on the election outcome, writing on his platform that it was “highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required” if Mamdani wins.Later on Monday, Mamdani responded publicly to Trump’s remarks at a campaign event in Astoria, Queens.“The Maga movement’s embrace of Andrew Cuomo is reflective of Donald Trump’s understanding that this would be the best mayor for him – not the best mayor for New York City, not the best mayor for New Yorkers, but the best mayor for Donald Trump and his administration,” he said, according to the New York Times.Trump threatens to cut funds if Mamdani wins mayoral electionOn the eve of New York’s well-watched mayoral election, Trump issued a threat to its voters: stop Zohran Mamdani or pay.“If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the Election for Mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “I don’t want to send, as President, good money after bad.”Trump urged NYC Republicans to vote for Cuomo, who has been a lifelong Democrat but ran in this year’s mayoral race as an independent to bypass the Democratic primary.The Trump administration is well on its way toward making good on this threat even before the votes have been counted. The White House began sparring with the state over New York’s plan to enforce congestion pricing for car traffic earlier this year, which Trump revisited in a separate Truth Social post on Monday evening. The White House withheld $18bn for a tunnel project as the government shutdown started. A federal judge ordered the federal government to reverse the rescission about $34m in counterterrorism funding for the New York City, ruling the move as “arbitrary, capricious and a blatant violation of the law”.Read the full storyTrump administration to halve usual funds to Snap recipients this monthAmid mounting uncertainty among the nearly 42 million people on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), the Department of Agriculture said it would use contingency funds to keep benefits going, albeit just 50% of the usual funds recipients receive on their cards.The announcement, in a court filing by the government at the US district court in Rhode Island, came after Donald Trump said the administration would comply with a court order to provide emergency funding after previous refusals to do so on purported legal grounds.Read the full storyFederal judge bars national guard troops in Portland, OregonA federal judge in Oregon on Sunday said she “found no credible evidence” that protests in the city grew out of control before the president federalized the troops earlier this fall.US district court judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, barred the administration from deploying the national guard to Portland, Oregon, until at least Friday.It is the latest development in weeks of legal back-and-forth in Portland, Chicago and other US cities as the Trump administration has moved to federalize and deploy the national guard in city streets to quell protests.Read the full storyAmericans ‘dumbfounded by cruelty’ of Trump officials slashing Snap benefitsThe Guardian wanted to know how important Snap was to the approximately 42 million people enrolled in the program. Many of those who responded to our callout were elderly, or out of the workforce because of significant mental of physical health issues, and worried that a cutoff of the benefit would send their lives into a tailspin.Steven of Wisconsin, 59, said he is recovering from surgeries, and has been unable to work for the past year because of his health. “I’ve already reduced my intake since before Snap was cut. Now it means no milk, no eggs, no vegetables, and definitely no meat,” he said, adding:“It’s like the siege of Stalingrad, but from your own government.”Read the full storyCBS News heavily edits Trump 60 Minutes interview, but the transcript reveals allTrump sat down with correspondent Norah O’Donnell for 90 minutes, but only about 28 minutes were broadcast. A full transcript of the interview was later published, along with a 73-minute-long extended version online.During the interview, in a clip that did not air on the broadcast, Trump needled CBS over the settlement and repeated his claims against the network.“Actually, 60 Minutes paid me a lotta money. And you don’t have to put this on, because I don’t wanna embarrass you, and I’m sure you’re not,” Trump said.Read the full storyTrump says he doesn’t know who crypto tycoon is, despite pardoning himThe president was asked in that 60 Minutes interview why he pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, for enabling money laundering despite him causing “significant harm to … national security” according to federal prosecutors.“OK, are you ready? I don’t know who he is,” Trump told CBS News’s Norah O’Donnell.In 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty to charges that he broke rules designed to stop money laundering – after Binance allegedly failed to report suspicious transactions with organizations including Hamas and al-Qaida.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      Why is Donald Trump threatening military intervention in Nigeria? The president’s remarks about alleged persecution of Christians is seemingly in response to pressure from his evangelical base.

      Trump said he feels “very badly” for the British royal family after King Charles stripped his brother, Andrew, of his titles over the former prince’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the late, convicted sex offender.

      Throwing a sandwich at a federal agent turned Sean Charles Dunn into a symbol of resistance against Trump’s law-enforcement surge in the country’s capital. This week, federal prosecutors are trying to persuade a jury of fellow Washington DC residents that Dunn simply broke the law.

      The head of the US Food and Drug Administration’s drug center abruptly resigned on Sunday after federal officials began reviewing “serious concerns about his personal conduct”, according to a government spokesperson.

      The collective wealth of the top 10 US billionaires has soared by $698bn in the past year, according to a new report from Oxfam America published on Monday on the growing wealth divide.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on 2 November. More

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      ‘In this ’til the end’: Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner on refusing to quit amid furor over ‘Nazi’ tattoo

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      On a recent Monday night, Graham Platner – oysterman, army veteran and Democratic hopeful for US Senate – took the stage in a small Maine town known for its oyster farming to assure voters that he was still in the game to win the Democratic primary, and ultimately unseat five-term Republican incumbent Susan Collins.He addressed a crowd of 700, the most that could fit into the school gymnasium in Damariscotta, Maine before organizers had to start turning people away. As is typical for his campaign events, the gruff, plain-talking, flannel-clad, local business owner and former marine dissected the “establishment political system that serves the interests of the ultra wealthy” in front of a captivated audience.Excitement around Platner snowballed after he announced his run for office in late August, with his campaign raising more than $3m in donations in a matter of weeks. He established himself as both a populist paragon, and a vessel for selling liberal policies that have been part of national Democrats’ ongoing autopsy since Donald Trump won back the White House in 2024.“People are sick and tired of politics as usual, and I am too,” Platner told the Guardian. “We’re just always being represented by people that come from wealth, people that come from backgrounds of power … Mainers, frankly, seem to be just champing at the bit to do something different.”But after multiple controversies from Platner’s past have come to light, he now finds himself embattled in a morass of damage control. Over the past few weeks, there has been a steady drip of reports featuring Platner’s unearthed racist, sexist and homophobic online comments. Then, Platner tried to get ahead of the story when he revealed, and then covered, a tattoo on his chest that closely resembles a Nazi symbol. Meanwhile, he’s had to justify staff turnover at the top level of his campaign while he addresses his past actions.Platner said there was a pronounced disconnect between the national media attention that his deleted posts and tattoo have received, and the impact they had on voters in his state. “It’s very surreal to have the kind of big, almost incomprehensibly huge political space be utterly convinced that this is all coming to an end, and I’m this horrifically controversial person,” he said. “And then, in Maine, everybody’s like ‘hey man, keep with it, we all make mistakes. People move through life, they learn, and we’re here for it.’”View image in fullscreenThe political outsider, who is making his first foray into public office, hasn’t shied away from talking about his past.“If you liked what I was saying three weeks ago, I’m still saying the exact same thing now,” Platner said, emphasizing that the disillusionment he felt while writing online was part of the “journey” that brought him to where he is today.“I’m still dedicated to rebuilding a politics that is more accessible for working people. I am still dedicated towards ending our horrific spending when it comes to foreign military conflicts and nothing for the American working class, those things all remain the same,” he added. “If I start walking back my commitments to the things that define me now, then absolutely begin to question and walk away from me, because I would deserve it.”The material impact of the controversy around Platner has yet to be seen. A recent poll by the University of New Hampshire (albeit before news of his tattoo broke) had him leading Mills by 34 points; his rallies and town halls across the state have attracted thousands; and his key backer, the independent senator Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, has continued to throw his weight behind the former marine. “There might be one or two more important issues,” Sanders told Axios.Various Democratic lawmakers and leaders have also come to Platner’s defense. Senator Ruben Gallego, of Arizona, told Semafor that “everyone has a right to grow and grow out of their stupidity.” The Democratic National Committee chair, Ken Martin, said that Platner’s past comments are “indefensible”, but didn’t think they were “disqualifying”. “Certainly they’re not right, and I’m glad that he apologized for them,” he added. Chris Murphy, the Democratic senator from Connecticut, said that the veteran “sounds like a human being” who “made mistakes”, when pressed about the news of Platner’s tattoo in an interview with CNN.Not everyone has been so forgiving.Platner’s troubles started with resurfaced Reddit posts spanning from 2013 to 2021, in which he claimed to be a “communist”, called police officers “bastards”, labelled white, rural Americans “stupid” and “racist”, made anti-LGBTQ+ jokes and remarks (including using slurs), questioned why “Black people didn’t tip”, and said that survivors and victims of sexual assault should “take some responsibility for themselves and not get so fucked up”.After the first tranche of revelations, his political director, Genevieve McDonald, a former Maine state representative, walked away from his campaign, and Platner issued a direct-to-camera mea culpa on Instagram, branding his past comments as inexcusable, but also a side-effect from the trauma he endured during his time in the military.Platner, now 41, has spoken candidly about the severe PTSD he battled after serving tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I witnessed violence and horror at a scale that I was not quite prepared for all in the service of something that I now believe was pointless,” he told the audience on Monday.Then, in an October interview with Pod Save America, in an attempt to get ahead of opposition research that could have beaten him to the punch, Platner admitted to getting inked with a tattoo of skull and crossbones. The illustration resembles the Totenkopf, an emblem that was used by the Nazi Schutzstaffel.The former marine said that he got the tattoo after a night drinking with military buddies in Croatia 18 years ago, but noted that, until recently, he was unaware of its meaning. “I can honestly say that if I was trying to hide it, I’ve not been doing a very good job for the past 18 years,” he told the podcast. He subsequently revealed his covered-up symbol in a local news interview.View image in fullscreenFor her part, McDonald wasn’t convinced, and wrote a scathing Facebook post undermining Platner. “He’s a military history buff,” she said. “Maybe he didn’t know when he got it, but he got it years ago, and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means.”Platner told the Guardian that McDonald’s claims were untrue. “She left using the stress of that week as her reason for leaving,” he said. “But she had had friction within the campaign for a little while, and that was kind of the culmination of it.”He also said that the resignation of his newly minted campaign manager and old friend, Kevin Brown, after just a few days on the job, was not to do with Platner’s recent political issues. “He and his wife just recently found out that they were pregnant and moving to Maine and taking this campaign on was just too much,” Platner said. “I’ll just be up front, he never was serving really as a campaign manager, everything happened within about a 24-hour period … he and I are still very close.”In the midst of it all, Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, officially launched her own long-awaited Senate bid, securing an endorsement from the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, and turning the primary race into a referendum on the populist versus establishment wings of the party in the process. At 77, Mills would also be the oldest freshman senator in Congress if elected.The state’s libertarian streak could work in Platner’s favor, as Maine voters can be “inconsistent” in their ideological positions, according to Michael Franz, a political science professor at Bowdoin College who focuses on voting behavior. “The long history of Maine politicians with national profiles and established reputations as being leaders in Washington who stand up, not only for principles, but have a deep sense of place here in the state, is sort of the special sauce,” he said.View image in fullscreenHowever, despite the seven-month runway to the June Democratic primary, Franz doesn’t see Platner’s controversies evaporating. “I still think it will be used pretty effectively and pretty consistently to point out that Platner doesn’t have a political foundation, doesn’t have a history of politics, and we don’t know much about him beyond you know what he tells us and what we’ve determined and found out from these social media posts.”This week, Mills issued a public rebuke of her primary challenger. “I obviously, vehemently disagree with the things he’s been quoted as saying and doing,” she said, stopping short of calling him to drop out of the race. “It’s up to him. It’s up to the people.”Another challenger, Jordan Wood, told the Guardian that Platner’s actions meant he was “disqualified for consideration in my mind”. Wood, who served as Congresswoman Katie Porter’s chief of staff, is the only out gay Senate candidate on the Democratic ballot in Maine. “It’s not politics,” he said. “It’s very personal. I’m a gay man and I’m married to a Jew. We have a child.” Wood did note that he would ultimately support whoever secures the nomination.In Damariscotta, at his second campaign event since he began wading through the molasses of political controversy, Platner made light of the last two weeks. “I am running as a Democrat, still, despite the fact my party is trying to destroy my life,” he said.When Platner was pressed by audience members about some of the recent revelations, including from a trans voter who wanted some reassurance that the harbormaster would fight for their community, Platner was forthright. “I have no patience for a politics that is willing to sell people out,” he said. “I also fully recognize that as a cis white man with a bunch of tattoos and a long combat record that I get to put myself out there in ways that other people don’t.”Still, Platner remains the riskier choice when compared with the “supremely vetted” and “supremely tested” Mills, according to Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine.Thirty years ago, Brewer adds, revelations like Platner’s might have rendered a Senate campaign dead in the water, but since Trump’s 2016 run – and the leaked Access Hollywood tape where the now-president is heard bragging about using his fame to have sex with women, and groping them without waiting for their consent – all bets are off.“If Platner is able to survive these kinds of things, maybe this is an area where Trump has changed the rules on what’s acceptable and what’s disqualifying,” Brewer said.Democrats remain on the hunt for congressional candidates that might offer a way out of the wilderness, and win back members of the tent – particularly disenchanted working-class men – that have since abandoned the party.Voters in the mid-coast region of the state who showed up to see Platner on Monday, cheered and applauded when he said that he had “no right” to step away from the Senate race, and held up signs that read “schuck the oligarchy”.View image in fullscreen“I thought he addressed it really well. My concerns on that are gone,” said Ann Scanlon, who lives in nearby Bristol. “I think we need somebody like him to re-energize and get it moving back in the right direction again.”Scanlon, 65, runs an art gallery and recently started receiving Medicare benefits. The future of the healthcare program for American seniors is top of mind for her. “I don’t want to see people locked out of nursing homes because they have nowhere to live,” Scanlon said.Stacie Brookes, 57, said that Platner felt “sincere”, “genuine” and unlike other politicians she’s used to hearing from. “I’m in this camp now, and I will stay in this camp as long as he grows and continues to grow.”Brookes, a waitress from Bremen, relies on Affordable Care Act subsidies to afford her monthly premiums. “It’s directly gonna impact me come January 1,” she said.Her son Sebastian Crocetti, 26, is focused on affordability, one of Platner’s key issues going into next year’s election. “I would love to buy property,” the construction worker and former carpenter said. “It just feels so hard to get ahead.”Platner often uses his own experiences to inform his economic agenda. “It is the healthcare that I get from the VA that not only gave me the treatment I needed to overcome the mental and physical scars of war, but it also gave me the freedom to build the life I wanted to build,” he told the audience at this week’s town hall. “It allowed me to start a business. It allowed me to take the risk of moving back to my home town and building a life on the sea.”While Platner says that Collins is the “charade of fake moderation”, he argues that Janet Mills is running the “same kind of old-fashioned campaign” that won’t be enough to offer lasting change.“The reason that I am in the race is because I don’t believe that the governor and I have the same politics,” he told the Guardian. “People go into power and then don’t try to do anything big. Everything is like playing around in the margins. I think that that is the kind of politics that comes out of someone who’s been in this system for as long as the governor has.”That, according to Platner, is not to say he’s averse to working in a bipartisan way with lawmakers who might disagree with him on certain issues, like Senator Josh Hawley, on getting the Senate and Congress to stop trading stocks and bonds. “I would be excited to work with him on that kind of thing again,” he said.While Platner continues to address the recent fallout over his past indiscretions, he remains resolute and undeterred. “I did not go looking for this opportunity in my life, but when it showed up, to say no to it, to not do it, would feel like an abdication of a responsibility,” he said. “I’m in this ’til the end.” More

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      Philadelphia’s progressive district attorney seeks third term as shootings decline. Critics contend he’s soft on criminals

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      This story was originally published bythe Trace, a non-profit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here.As Philadelphia’s district attorney, Larry Krasner, attempted to explain himself, a pensive scowl replaced the look of assured confidence usually etched on his face.With just weeks left before the 4 November general election, political rivals and community members were questioning a key decision. In May, his office dropped kidnapping and domestic violence charges against a man who, in October, was charged with another crime: the slaying of Kada Scott, a 23-year-old former Miss Pennsylvania USA beauty pageant contestant and recent college graduate. So on 20 October, Krasner floundered through a news conference he had called to announce that police had found Scott’s body in a shallow grave, and that Keon King, 21, had been charged with crimes related to her abduction.“The buck stops here, that is on me,” a sullen Krasner said. “But I also believe,” he continued, “it’s a tough situation, especially domestic cases, when you have a defendant out of custody who’s going to come in and out of the courthouse doors.”It was a convoluted explanation, one in which Krasner blamed others while also blaming himself. The moment showed uncommon vulnerability for a politician who has become one of the nation’s most prominent prosecutors, a progressive stalwart in the criminal legal reform movement.“I will acknowledge again that we could have done better with respect to … the decisions that were made,” he said. A few days later, the city medical examiner’s office said that Scott died from a single gunshot to the head.The revelation that Krasner failed to try King came to light just as it seemed he was cruising comfortably toward his third term. The case injected drama into an uneventful race between Krasner and Republican challenger Patrick Dugan, a retired municipal court judge who switched parties after losing the Democratic primary in May.But Krasner has outlasted peers in other cities, and political pundits expect he will weather this crisis, too. While Krasner has remained in his post, progressive prosecutors who rode into office on the racial reckoning wave unleashed by police killings of unarmed Black people have fallen out of favor with voters. Krasner has one key difference: attorneys nationwide took heat for the spike in violence that followed the Covid-19 pandemic. Krasner presided over a record decrease.“This tragedy and the way his office handled this is inexcusable,” said Larry Ceisler, a public relations executive and longtime Philadelphia political observer, referring to Scott’s slaying. “But it’s easy to look back on mistakes like this and criticize. It’s not going to make a difference in the campaign.”‘The DA dropped the ball’Scott’s death has stirred anger and emotion like few other crimes in recent years. More than 100 people gathered for a balloon release at the abandoned Germantown school where Scott’s remains were found. Most who spoke to the Trace there declined to discuss the political fallout, focusing instead on Scott. “Say her name, Kada Scott!” the group chanted. A man played Taps on a trumpet. Scott’s friends, and others who had never met her, gave emotional speeches and hugged before releasing white balloons into the sky.Catherine Daniel, 62, however, was in no mood to remain silent about Krasner. “The DA dropped the ball, because this guy should not have been walking the street,” she said. “We’ve got to kick him out of there, he has to go.View image in fullscreen“The whole office dropped the ball. He said things are going to change moving forward,” she continued. “Why did it take this young lady to lose her life to make changes?”Desiree Whitfield, who organized a vigil after Scott’s body was found, shared similar sentiments. “We need to blame the DA’s office because they let [King] out,” she said. “What are you going to do differently so that our beautiful, Black, educated women are not found in shallow graves?”Krasner’s staying powerLike many of his peer progressive prosecutors, critics have accused Krasner of being “soft on crime” and prioritizing reducing the prison population at the expense of locking up violent criminals. Also like his peers, he has aroused ire for convicting police who have killed people on the job.Many Philadelphians, though, credit Krasner for helping staunch the city’s bloodshed, which peaked at 562 homicides in 2021, but is projected to be far less than half that number by year’s end. As of the last week of October, there were 190 homicides, a 9.95% reduction from this time last year.That may help explain why Krasner remains popular, including among crime-fighting grassroots organizations, which his office and the city regularly provide with operating grants.“He’s on the ballot, he’s our candidate, everybody is supporting him,” said retired US representative Bob Brady, who has chaired Philadelphia’s Democratic party since 1986. “People like him; they think he’s doing a good job. I think he’s getting a bad rap from people saying he’s lenient.”View image in fullscreenDavid Kennedy, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, said that while it was impossible to know how much credit a prosecutor should receive for crime reduction, those who have remained popular, like Krasner and Brooklyn’s DA, Eric Gonzalez, have done so by moving beyond simply voicing what they oppose.“Krasner has, for example, been a really important part of violence prevention efforts in Philadelphia, including the group violence intervention that my office has supported,” Kennedy said. “Progressive prosecutors who have done well … have been important parts of those partnerships.”For his part, Krasner said his critics should give him some credit. “Do they want to go back to [former DA] Ron Castille’s 500 murders, which he had one year?” he said. “Or would they like to be in a place where we’re looking at the low 200s for homicides. Obviously, I’m not OK with 200 homicides. I wish it was zero.”Who is Larry Krasner?Before winning his first election in November 2017, Krasner, a father of two adult sons, spent decades as a civil rights and criminal defense attorney, during which time he sued Philly’s police department for misconduct 75 times.As DA, he has pursued what he calls a “reform agenda” that includes denouncing President Donald Trump; countering mass incarceration with alternative sentences; not seeking cash bail for some nonviolent crimes; prosecuting cops when there is evidence to do so; re-examining old cases to surface wrongful convictions; not charging for personal-use marijuana possession; not charging for most prostitution offenses; and charging minor retail thefts as summary offenses.Krasner’s approach has earned him supporters and detractors, including state Republican lawmakers who unsuccessfully attempted to impeach and remove him from office in 2022.That same year, San Francisco voters recalled their DA, Chesa Boudin. Portland, Oregon, DA Mike Schmidt received 76.6% of the vote when first elected in 2020, but was defeated during last year’s Democratic primary; Pamela Price, who in 2023 became the first Black female DA in Alameda county, which includes Oakland, California, was recalled by voters; the Los Angeles DA, George Gascón, lost last year’s election to former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman.Krasner rebuts the narrative that progressives are losing clout, noting that a handful of progressive prosecutors have recently won elections. As for his continued popularity, Krasner hypothesizes that the public prefers untraditional politicians.“That’s the only way that I can explain the phenomenon of people who supported Barack Obama and also supported Donald Trump. Some of them also supported Bernie Sanders,” he said. “If you try to find the common thread to their support, it’s that they were perceived in somewhat different ways as outsiders, as disrupters.”Krasner said the Democratic party had reached a point where, to stay competitive, it must “grow its tent” to hold on to young, middle-class, and Black and brown voters, some of whom he believes have been conned away by Trump.“We are in a moment when the public is looking for what feels to them like it’s not just traditional politics, like it’s speaking directly to the issues,” he said. “I intend to keep telling the truth until people listen.”The consequences of dropped chargesYears of progress on gun violence and general goodwill may not have prepared Krasner for the Scott case, which unleashed the type of chaos that took out his peers. Those who want to see him out of office are taking notice.“I believe Larry Krasner has enabled Keon King,” Dugan, Krasner’s opponent, said on Fox News. “I’m calling him a co-conspirator in her murder.”The case dates back to January, when King allegedly kidnapped and assaulted an ex-girlfriend. He was arrested in April. Krasner’s office withdrew the charges in May after the victim and a witness refused to cooperate with prosecutors, he said.View image in fullscreenWhile conceding that his office could have tried the case without the victim’s cooperation, Krasner blamed the judge who released King on a low bail, which the DA reasoned could have contributed to the victim deciding not to come to court out of fear for her safety.When asked why his office did not appeal against the bail ruling, Krasner said it was a strategic decision not to call a judge in the middle of the night, which could have antagonized the judge resulting in an even lower bail. Krasner’s critics pounced on that assertion.The city courts spokesperson, Marty O’Rourke, accused Krasner of attempting to scapegoat the judge. “With all due respect, the DA and his staff know there are assigned municipal and commons pleas court judges on call 24/7 and prepared at any hour to address emergency court matters,” he said. “The DA’s comments are appallingly disrespectful and a sad attempt on his part to find a scapegoat for his own failings.”King is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing for Scott’s killing on 10 November. Krasner’s office has refiled the charges it had dropped against him for the earlier case. More

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      It’s clear why Zohran Mamdani is leading in the New York mayoral race | Margaret Sullivan

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      For someone who exudes positive energy and seldom stops smiling, Zohran Mamdani certainly does provoke a lot of negative reactions.“He’s not who you think he is,” one TV ad glowered over gloomy images of the 34-year-old state assemblymember who is the clear frontrunner for New York City mayor. The ad doesn’t make clear precisely what the supposed disconnect is, but the tagline clearly is meant to give voters pause.“Never ran anything,” former New York state governor Andrew Cuomo charged, as he dissed his opponent on Fox News. “There’s no time for on-the-job training when any given morning, God forbid, you could have a mass murder or a terrorist attack.” Cuomo’s campaign yanked an ad that went further, using racist stereotypes to depict Mamdani supporters.And the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page has been on an anti-Mamdani run for many weeks, churning out opinion pieces like this one from conservative columnist Peggy Noonan: “New York, You’ve Been Warned.” Or this one from Journal editorial board member Joseph Sternberg: “Sorry Republicans, There’s No Silver Lining to a Mamdani Win.”Another Murdoch-controlled newspaper, the New York Post, has not confined its views to the opinion pages but rather shouted them on its tabloid front pages. “SCAMDANI”, read one cover story, with a subheading quoting Mayor Eric Adams calling the state assemblymember a “snake oil salesman”.The pro-Trump billionaire Bill Ackman has warned New Yorkers that Mamdani’s personality is a fraud. “The whole thing is an act,” Ackman posted on X after the mayoral debate last month. “After watching him recreate his fake smile, your skin will start to crawl.” Ackman gave $1m to the anti-Mamdani effort through the Super Pac Defend NYC, while former mayor Mike Bloomberg has contributed more than that to efforts to thwart Mamdani’s rise; Bloomberg gave $1.5m to a pro-Cuomo Super Pac, after spending millions to help Cuomo in June’s primary.But if you ignore the ads, the headlines and the social media posts, another story emerges, as researchers from the Harvard Institute of Politics found when they spoke to young people during the recent early-voting period.“I think my life could really improve if he wins,” enthused one young woman, quoted in an ABC News story about the Harvard focus group. Another respondent compared him in one respect to Donald Trump: “There’s no flip-flopping.”And another approvingly described Mamdani as “badass”.The democratic socialist holds a double-digit lead in the race and right now looks like a shoo-in.It certainly feels that way to this New Yorker. I live on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, an area that split its vote in the Democratic primary between Cuomo and Mamdani, and I also spend a lot of time on a university campus. What I’ve noticed is that Mamdani energizes people and while some of that reaction is skeptical, a lot of the people I encounter – from students to seniors – want to give the newcomer a chance.New York City, after all, is unaffordable for too many, so Mamdani’s relentless focus on the cost of rent and groceries has struck a nerve. Mamdani’s embrace of his Muslim faith, his advocacy for Gaza and his willingness to stand up for immigrants has solidified his appeal.There’s a clarity about it that stands in sharp contrast to most Democratic politicians, noted Astead Herndon, editorial director at Vox who wrote a recent New York Times magazine cover story titled The Improbable, Audacious and (So Far) Unstoppable Rise of Zohran Mamdani.“He works from the premise of his beliefs,” Herndon said on CNN. “A lot of Democrats … have mastered this triangulation dance … where it feels like sometimes, they’re trying to say nothing.” And what’s more, since the primary, his campaign has become more inclusive, as he reaches out to constituencies and powerful figures who have had serious doubts about him. He’s won at least some of them over.Others, of course, will never be won over, but are becoming resigned to the reality of a Mayor Mamdani.Governor Kathy Hochul, whose political instincts are well-honed and practical, endorsed Mamdani in mid-September despite significant policy differences. (At a rally in Queens, chants of “tax the rich” interrupted Hochul’s speech and the Times described the progressive crowd’s response to the centrist governor as “tepid”.)Hochul carried on, though, and got a better reaction when she praised the candidate for refusing to “get down in the gutter” with his many critics, especially those who try to weaponize his faith or ethnicity.Instead, Hochul said: “He rises up with grace and courage and grit.”Hochul is expected to run for re-election next year.She surely has calculated that it wouldn’t be a bad thing to have the Democratic mayor of New York City in her corner. And there is little doubt who that will be.

      Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist covering US media, politics and culture. More

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      Abigail Spanberger presents herself as bulwark against chaos and cruelty

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      She spoke of political turmoil coming out of Washington. Recklessness and heartlessness coming out of Washington. A careless, chaotic, reckless economic policy coming out of Washington. She did not mention Donald Trump.The Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia, Abigail Spanberger, pitched her closing argument on Saturday to more than 7,000 supporters at a campaign rally in Norfolk, home to the world’s biggest naval base.To the joy of the crowd she was joined on stage by former president Barack Obama, who eviscerated the Trump presidency with barbs, sarcasm and biting critiques. Spanberger, by contrast, is betting that the antidote to Trumpism is unflashy competence and a focus on the cost of living.The former CIA officer and three-term congresswoman has not attended any of the “No Kings” protests that featured millions of anti-Trump voters and seldom mentions him by name. “I feel like if I say it too much, it’s like Beetlejuice,” the 46-year-old joked recently to the Associated Press. “He’s gonna show up.”It is a different approach a year after Kamala Harris hammered a warning about stopping Trump to save democracy only for him to sweep back into power. On Tuesday Democrats hope to start hauling themselves up off the canvas by winning gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia.History will be made in Virginia where Spanberger and the Republican lieutenant-governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, are vying to become the state’s first female governor. The commonwealth, as it is known, is also seeking to reassert its claim to be the most progressive state in the south after four years under Republican Glenn Youngkin.Virginia is second only to California in the size of its federal workforce. Spanberger has vowed in stump speeches to stand up for the thousands of employees laid off by Trump’s department of government efficiency, or Doge.View image in fullscreen“We need a governor who will support the thousands upon thousands of Virginia families whose livelihoods have been disrupted or destroyed because of Doge and now this government shutdown,” she said in Norfolk, against a backdrop of a giant Stars and Stripes and supporters waving mini-US flags and campaign signs.“We do not need someone who has said that losing a job isn’t a ‘real issue’ when we have Virginians who have dedicated themselves to service to our country who have lost their jobs because of bad policies and a reckless administration.”The “someone” in question was Earle-Sears, 61, who has been criticised for not taking the government shutdown seriously. The Marine veteran has vowed to cut taxes, root out wasteful government spending and be tough on crime. A Jamaican-born immigrant, she has accused Democrats of playing “the race card”.Her campaign was boosted by an endorsement from Trump and a down-ticket scandal involving Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones, who reportedly sent violent text messages about a political rival in 2022.But polls show Earle-Sears trailing by about seven percentage points in a state that Obama won in 2008 – the first Democrat in 44 years to do so – and that Trump has lost three times. Indeed, Virginia had been moving left for years on issues such as reproductive rights, gun safety and the death penalty until Youngkin’s 2021 victory put a Republican back in the governor’s mansion.Earle-Sears has sought to emulate the Youngkin playbook with a focus on culture war issues such as abortion, parents’ rights and transgender athletes. She ran an ad that attacks Spanberger for voting “to let boys share locker rooms with little girls” and “let children change genders without telling their parents”.Echoing a spot from Trump’s campaign last year, a narrator says: “Spanberger is for they/them, not us.” But this time the messages appear to be falling flat.Brian Jones, a partner at Black Rock Group, told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington that Republicans “jumped right to where they thought they could replicate some of the success of President Trump on the trans issue. It’s my sense that it hasn’t broken through. I don’t know if people are tired of the message or it’s just not as effective.“My sense is that Winsome Sears has not been effective in driving a credible message on Spanberger, [who has] done a nice job on the bio front presenting herself as somebody who is this committed centrist.”Spanberger’s brand was reinforced on Saturday when Obama extolled her ability to reach across the aisle despite Washington’s deepening polarisation. He told the crowd: “Abigail is ranked as the most bipartisan member of Congress from the Commonwealth. She has had bills signed into law by both President Trump and President Biden. That is not easy to do.”View image in fullscreenAs Democrats continue to debate how to fight back, Spanberger has not been drawing the huge crowds that follow progressive Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont or Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. But those who did the rally in Norfolk took a pragmatic view of her candidacy in a purple state such as Virginia.Kacie Schappert, 46, a doctor’s assistant attending with her 14-year-old daughter, said: “Some things I agree with, some things I don’t but at this point regardless Democrats need to come together and fight the craziness that’s going on. We have to vote for the people that are most going to do that for us. She’s a woman; she’s in a state that can go either way; she has to be moderate.”The party that lost the White House is often the more energised in off-year elections and 2025 promises to be no different. A vendor outside the rally was selling merchandise with slogans such as “Anti Trump Grandmas Club”, “Are we great yet?”, “Cats against Trump”, “Elect a clown, expect a circus”, “Gulf of Mexico: est 1550”, “No Kings in America”, “No kings since 1776” and a silhouette of dog defecating on the word “Trump”.Standing in a queue outside the sports arena, June Ameika, 61, a pilates and yoga teacher whose husband served in the navy for 30 years, said: “What’s going on in our country at the moment is absolutely frightening and so it takes all of us to come out and show support and be visible.“Every election is about sending a message. We have to let Trump know that his behaviour is despicable, breaking the law is despicable, and we’re not going to stand for it. Donald Trump has basically no regard for the democracy of this country and that’s fundamental going forward.”Spanberger is currently embarked on her second statewide bus tour of the campaign. On Thursday, she spoke at a “Latinos for Spanberger” event at a Mexican restaurant in Alexandria, delivering her stump speech in both English and Spanish – a language she used to conduct arrests during her days as a federal agent working narcotics cases.She accused the Trump administration of terrorising communities with its hardline approach to immigration. “I am a law and order Democrat – I’m a former intel officer and a former federal agent – but it is not law and in order to have your citizens, your community members, live in fear,” she said.Some attendees were government workers who have been furloughed since the shutdown began a month ago. Anna, 45, a Latino single mother who did not wish to give her last name, said: “I try to save, but it’s not going to last long. Instead of going out and contributing to the global economy, now it’s more restricted. I cannot spend a lot of money on certain things. It’s hard.”Anna said she would vote for Spanberger because of immigration, abortion and LGBTQ rights and urged Latino voters, who swung towards the Republicans last year, to return to the Democratic fold. “I hope people are opening their eyes. Latinos have to unify. I hope those who were in the middle and went towards Trump will now switch.”Spanberger presented herself as a bulwark against the chaos and cruelty emanating from Washington. She promised to work tirelessly to lower costs in housing, energy and healthcare and to improve public schools. She did not dwell on Trump and his attacks on institutions.Lauren Spears, 55, who works part-time at a school, said: “I love her background: CIA, law enforcement, congresswoman. I love that she is reasonable, moderate, very smart. She is a wonky policy kind of person and is good at compromise, which is what our government desperately needs.”Republicans have poured late money into the race but Trump has given only tepid support for Earle-Sears and has not campaigned with her in person – a clue that he suspects she cannot win. She has struggled to pull off the Trump-lite approach that Youngkin mastered four years ago by nodding to Maga without fully embracing it.Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said: “The Republican candidate is a pleasant enough person but she’s far right. She is extreme. What worries me about Spanberger is she’s going to try and be bipartisan the way she’s advertising. She’s going to find the Democrats won’t put up with that either. This is not the time to be bipartisan.” More

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      The luxury gap: Trump builds his palace as Americans face going hungry

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      It was a feast fit for a king – and any billionaire willing to be his subject. From gold-rimmed plates on gold-patterned tablecloths decorated with gold candlestick holders, they gorged on heirloom tomato panzanella salad, beef wellington and a dessert of roasted Anjou pears, cinnamon crumble and butterscotch ice-cream.On 15 October, Donald Trump welcomed nearly 130 deep-pocketed donors, allies and representatives of major companies for a dinner at the White House to reward them for their pledged contributions to a vast new ballroom now expected to cost $300m. That the federal government had shut down two weeks earlier scarcely seemed to matter.But two weeks later, the shutdown is starting to bite – and throw Trump’s architectural folly into sharp relief. On Saturday, with Congress still locked in a legislative stalemate, a potential benefit freeze could leave tens of millions of low-income Americans without food aid. Democrats accuse Trump’s Republican party of “weaponising hunger” to pursue an extreme rightwing agenda.Images of wealthy monarchs or autocrats revelling in excess even as the masses struggle for bread are more commonly associated with the likes of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette of France, who spent lavishly at the court of Versailles, or Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos of the Philippines, who siphoned off billions while citizens endured deepening poverty.But now America has a jarring split-screen of its own, between an oligarch president bringing a Midas touch to the White House and families going hungry, workers losing pay and government services on the brink of collapse.View image in fullscreenView image in fullscreen“Are you fucking kidding me?” exclaimed Kamala Harris, the former vice-president, during an interview on Jon Stewart’s Comedy Central podcast The Weekly Show. “This guy wants to create a ballroom for his rich friends while completely turning a blind eye to the fact that babies are going to starve when the Snap benefits end in just hours from now.”For years Trump has cultivated the image of a “blue-collar billionaire” and, in last year’s presidential election, he beat Harris by 14 percentage points among non-college-educated voters – double his margin in 2016.Yet he grew up in an affluent neighbourhood of Queens, New York, and joined the family business as a property developer, receiving a $1m loan from his father for projects in Manhattan. He attached his name to luxury hotels and golf clubs and achieved celebrity through the New York tabloids and as host of the reality TV show The Apprentice.View image in fullscreenAs a politician, however, Trump has successfully branded himself as the voice of the left-behinds in towns hollowed out by industrialisation. His formula includes tapping into grievance, particularly white grievance, and into “Make America Great Again” nostalgia . His speeches are peppered with aspirational promises that his policies will guarantee his supporters a share of the nation’s wealth.This has apparently given him leeway with Trump voters who, despite their own struggles, turned a blind eye to the largesse of his first term and how it might benefit his family. But it was clear from his inauguration in January – when he was surrounded by the tech titans Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg – that part two would be different.Trump has made a personal profit of more than $1.8bn over the past year, according to a new financial tracker run by the Center for American Progress thinktank, which says the lion’s share came from launching his own crypto ventures while aggressively deregulating the industry. Other sources of income include gifts, legal settlements and income from a $40m Amazon documentary about the first lady, Melania Trump.There have been brazen “let them eat cake” moments. In May, Trump said he would accept a $400m luxury plane from Qatar and use it as Air Force One despite concerns that it could violate the US constitution’s emoluments clause. In October, it was reported he was demanding the justice department pay him about $230m in compensation over federal investigations he faced that he claims were politically motivated.View image in fullscreenLarry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: “There is a glaring gap between the life of Donald Trump, which is gold-plated and luxurious, and the life of so many Americans who are now being hit by the government shutdown.“You have to go back in history to examples in the 1920s or the Gilded Age in the late 19th century to find this kind of opulence that’s not just going on but being advertised. That goes along with all the other efforts to enrich Donald Trump and his family and his friends. It’s a shocking display of the use of public power for private gain.”It is hard to imagine a more resonant symbol than the ballroom. Last month, Trump left presidential historians and former White House staff aghast by demolishing the East Wing without seeking approval from the National Capital Planning Commission, which vets the construction of federal buildings. He also fired all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, an independent agency that had expected to review the project.He claimed the destruction was a necessary step towards building a long-needed ballroom which, at 90,000 sq ft, would be big enough to hold an inauguration and dwarf the executive mansion itself. It will be funded not by the taxpayer but the new masters of the universe.Among the companies represented at the 15 October dinner were Amazon, Apple, Booz Allen Hamilton, Coinbase, Comcast, Google, Lockheed Martin, Meta Platforms and T-Mobile. The Adelson Family Foundation, founded by the Republican mega-donors Miriam Adelson and her late husband Sheldon, also had a presence.The oil billionaire Harold Hamm, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, Small Business Administration chief Kelly Loeffler and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, and crypto entrepreneur twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss – who were portrayed by the actor Armie Hammer in the film The Social Network – were all on the guest list.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionEthics watchdogs condemned the dinner as a blatant case of selling access to the president with the potential for influence peddling and other forms of corruption. Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist, said: “It’s par for the course for Donald Trump. Millionaires and billionaires wine with him and dine with him and everything is fine with him. There’s a cost and there’s consequences.“They’re not donating this money because it’s a nice thing to do. Certainly there’s some sort of benefit to them and it could be the largest wealth transfer in American history with the big ugly bill [the Working Families Tax Cut Act] just a few months ago.”View image in fullscreenThat legislation delivers tax cuts for the rich while reducing food assistance and making health insurance more expensive for working families. The mood is only likely to darken as the second-longest government shutdown in history threatens to rip the social safety net away from millions of people. John Thune, the Republican majority leader in the Senate, warned on Wednesday: “It’s going to get ugly fast.”A number of essential public services are approaching the end of their available funds, a situation likely to be felt directly in households, schools and airports from this weekend.The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), also known as food stamps, is set to lapse for 42 million people, raising the spectre of long queues at food banks. On Friday, two federal judges ruled that the Trump administration must continue to fund the programme with contingency funds. But the decisions are likely to face appeals. It was also unclear how soon the debit cards that beneficiaries use to buy groceries could be reloaded.Schemes that provide early years’ education for low-income families and subsidised air travel to remote communities are also set to run aground. At the same time, thousands of federal employees will soon miss their first full paychecks since the shutdown began, raising the prospect of staffing shortages in areas such as airport security and air traffic control.The timing is awkward because Saturday also marks the start of open enrolment for health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act. Premiums are expected to soar, reflecting insurers’ doubts that Congress will renew enhanced tax credits before they lapse at year’s end – one of the key points of contention in the current standoff.Trump can often appear immune to political crises. But in a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos opinion poll released on Thursday, only 28% of Americans say they support the ballroom project, compared with 56% who oppose it. The same survey found that 45% blame Trump and Republicans for the government shutdown while 33% hold Democrats responsible. Notably, independents blame Trump and Republicans by a 2-1 margin – handing Democrats an opportunity.View image in fullscreenJohn Zogby, an author and pollster, said: “For the first time in a while, they have an opening with rural voters. Medicaid and Snap are infrastructural necessities in the poorest counties. Without programmes like this being funded, you’re not just talking about hurting poor people or rural people who are invisible; you’re talking about shutting down hospitals and clinics, and that matters to people. Democrats should be fanning out in rural areas and people should be telling their stories.”It is safe to assume that, had Barack Obama or Joe Biden built a ballroom during the crippling austerity of a government shutdown, Republicans and rightwing media would have gone scorched-earth against them. Trump’s ostentatious display of wealth and cronyism comes against a backdrop of widening social and economic inequality. Democrats, however, are often accused of lacking a killer instinct.Joe Walsh, a former Republican representative aligned with the conservative Tea Party who four months ago became a Democrat, said: “Democrats don’t know how to fight and I can see they’re already squirming on this ballroom issue. We’ve got a guy in the White House who every day is taking a blowtorch to this country and most Democrats don’t understand the moment. He ploughs ahead and tears down the East Wing because he knows he can get away with it.”Walsh believes that the next Democratic president should commit to demolishing Trump’s ballroom. “This is somebody who’s a tyrant who believes he can ignore all laws, rules, norms and processes,” he added. “You have to draw the line on that. No, he cannot unilaterally demolish the East Wing and build a big old ballroom. This guy has no clue what America is. We don’t have palaces in America.” More

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      As Barack Obama stumps for other Democrats, the party gets to see what it lost

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      “It’s not as if we didn’t see some of this coming,” said Barack Obama, a note of bleak humour in his voice. “I will admit it’s worse than even I expected, but I did warn y’all!”The crowd at a sports arena in Norfolk, Virginia, half-laughed and half-groaned. “I did,” Obama added. “You can run the tape.”He did. The former US president spent 2024 sounding the alarm about the horror show that awaited if Donald Trump ever got back to the Oval Office. Trump won the election anyway a year ago on Wednesday.Among the many unintended consequences is the return of Obama to the political stage. Former presidents used to slink away to running foundations or writing memoirs and avoid criticising their successors but that is one more norm that has bitten the dust.Obama has had 25 public engagements or remarks in the past six months, according to a list released by his office. He has tackled everything from USAID to redistricting to Tylenol. He is filling the vacuum left by Trump’s most immediate predecessor, Joe Biden, who turns 83 this month.Now Obama is back on the campaign trail, for Democrats running for governor in New Jersey and Virginia. It gives him a platform to deliver an alternative State of the Union address. And the gloves are off.To hear the expectant buzz of the 7,000-plus crowd in Norfolk as candidate Abigail Spanberger promised that Obama’s entrance was just moments away was to be reminded that Democrats did once have a president who could match Trump’s superstar charisma.“We love you!” someone shouted from the stands, just as they do at Trump rallies. “We miss you!”The backdrop was a giant stars and stripes and supporters waving mini-flags and signs. But whereas Trump is all big orange hair, dark blue suit, white shirt and red tie, Obama’s hair was short and grey and he wore a blue shirt open at the collar with sleeves rolled up. Trump often gets compared to a stand-up comedian but Obama has the sharper act.View image in fullscreenLiberated from the burden of seeking elected office for himself again, he clearly revelled in skewering the president with scathing and scorching lines, as if auditioning for late-night TV.“It’s hard to know where to start, because every day this White House offers up a fresh batch of lawlessness and recklessness and mean-spiritedness and just plain craziness,” Obama said, with the crowd cheering each word, wondering perhaps why Chuck Schumer and the rest of them can’t do plain talk like this.The former president ran through an exhausting but not exhaustive list of Trump’s offences: turning the justice department against his political opponents; replacing career prosecutors with loyalists; firing decorated officers because they might be more loyal to the constitution than to him; deploying the national guard to US cities to stop crime waves that don’t exist; ICE agents pulling up in unmarked vans and grabbing people, including US citizens; a health secretary who rejects proven science and promotes quack medicine; a top White House aide who calls Democrats domestic extremists; and a poor labour economist who got fired for reporting bad jobs numbers.“I mean, it’s like every day is Halloween,” Obama said, “except it’s all tricks and no treats.”He acknowledged that plenty of people voted for Trump because they were “understandably frustrated” with inflation and gas prices and the difficulty of affording a home and worried about their children’s children, saying: “So they were willing to take a chance.”It certainly worked out well for Trump and his family, with crypto ventures with hundreds of millions of dollars and for wealthy allies and corporations whose tax bills went down. But for ordinary people, Obama continued, life is harder than ever, with healthcare premiums set to double or triple and the government shut down.“As for the president,” Obama said, “he has been focused on critical issues like paving over the Rose Garden so folks don’t get mud on their shoes, and gold-plating the Oval Office, and building a $300m ballroom.“Virginia, here’s the good news. If you can’t visit a doctor, don’t worry, he will save you a dance. And if you don’t get an invitation to the next White House shindig, you can always watch the festivities and all the beautiful people on Truth Social.”The crowd lapped it up. Obama was on a roll. He lambasted Republicans for putting on “a big show of deporting people and targeting transgender folks. They never miss a chance to scapegoat minorities and DEI for every problem under the sun.“You got a flat tire? DEI.“Wife mad at you?”The audience rejoined: “DEI!”It was a reminder that humour is a potent political weapon. That is why Trump’s allies tried to oust TV host Jimmy Kimmel and why California governor Gavin Newsom gets under their skin.Obama turned to the artificial intelligence videos that Trump posts on his Truth Social account, including one showing himself wearing a crown, flying a fighter jet and dumping brown liquid on No Kings protesters.“All the nonsense we see on the news every day, the over-the-top rhetoric, the fabricated conspiracies, the weird videos of a US president with a crown on his head flying a fighter jet and dumping poop on protesting citizens, all of that is designed to distract you from the fact that your situation has not gotten better,” he said.There it was: the man who had inspired with his words – yes, we can; hope and change; there is not a liberal America and a conservative America, there is the United States of America – had been reduced to uttering the word “poop” from the stage. When they go low …Obama dutifully heaped praise on Spanberger and urged Virginians to vote for her. It was a performance of wit and wisdom that reminded America what it has lost – and Democrats what they have never been able to recreate. The party needs someone who will take the fight to Trump. But its best candidate for 2028 is the one who cannot run. More