Presidential Election of 2024

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    Robert Kennedy Jr., With Musk, Pushes Right-Wing Ideas and Misinformation

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    Mr. Kennedy, a long-shot Democratic presidential candidate with surprisingly high polling numbers, said he wanted to close the Mexican border and attributed the rise of mass shootings to pharmaceutical drugs.Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a scion of one of the country’s most famous Democratic families, on Monday dived into the full embrace of a host of conservative figures who eagerly promoted his long-shot primary challenge to President Biden.For more than two hours, Mr. Kennedy participated in an online audio chat on Twitter with the platform’s increasingly rightward-leaning chief executive, Elon Musk. They engaged in a friendly back-and-forth with the likes of Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman turned right-wing commentator; a top donor to Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida; and a professional surfer who became a prominent voice casting doubt on coronavirus vaccines.Mr. Kennedy, who announced his 2024 presidential campaign in April, is himself a leading vaccine skeptic, and has promoted other conspiracy theories. Yet he has consistently hovered around 20 percent in polling of the Democratic primary, which the party has otherwise ceded to Mr. Biden.On Monday, he sounded like a candidate far more at ease in the mushrooming Republican presidential contest.He said he planned to travel to the Mexican border this week to “try to formulate policies that will seal the border permanently,” called for the federal government to consider the war in Ukraine from the perspective of Russians and said pharmaceutical drugs were responsible for the rise of mass shootings in America.“Prior to the introduction of Prozac, we had almost none of these events in our country and we’ve never seen them in human history, where people walk into a schoolroom of children or strangers and start shooting people,” said Mr. Kennedy, who noted that both his father and uncle were killed by guns.Mr. Kennedy said he now had “about 50 people” working for his campaign. Unlike Marianne Williamson, the other announced Democratic challenger to Mr. Biden, he does not appear to be aiming to appeal to Democrats who are ideologically opposed to the moderate president or are otherwise uneasy with renominating him. Instead, he has used his campaign platform — and his famous name — to promote misinformation and ideas that have little traction in his party.Asked during the discussion by David Sacks, a top DeSantis donor who is also close to Mr. Musk, “what happened to the Democratic Party,” Mr. Kennedy spent nine uninterrupted minutes attacking Mr. Biden as a warmonger and claimed that their party was under the control of the pharmaceutical industry.“I think the Democratic Party became the party of war,” Mr. Kennedy said. “I attribute that directly to President Biden.” He added, “He has always been in favor of very bellicose, pugnacious and aggressive foreign policy, and he believes that violence is a legitimate political tool for achieving America’s objectives abroad.”The Democratic National Committee and Mr. Biden’s campaign declined to comment about Mr. Kennedy.The event, which at its peak had more than 60,000 listeners, according to Twitter, at times felt as if Mr. Kennedy were interviewing Mr. Musk about his stewardship of Twitter, a platform that has lost more than half of its advertising revenue since the billionaire acquired it in October. For more than 30 minutes at the event’s start, the presidential candidate interrogated the tech mogul about releasing the so-called Twitter files, self-driving cars and artificial intelligence.“These are really interesting topics for people, but I think a lot of the public would like to hear about your presidential run,” Mr. Musk said to Mr. Kennedy.Mr. Kennedy, 69, is a longtime amplifier and propagator of baseless theories, beginning nearly two decades ago with his skepticism about the result of the 2004 presidential election as well as common childhood vaccines. His audience for such misinformation ballooned during the coronavirus pandemic.On Monday, Mr. Kennedy repeated a host of false statements, among them:He said that after the Affordable Care Act of 2010, “Democrats were getting more money from pharma than Republicans.” An analysis by STAT News found that political action committees with ties to pharmaceutical companies gave more money to Republicans than Democrats in 14 out of 16 election years since 1990.He claimed, without evidence, that “Covid was clearly a bioweapons problem.” American intelligence agencies do not believe there is any evidence indicating that is the case.And as he blamed psychiatric drug use for the rise of gun violence in the United States, he contended that the gun ownership rate in the U.S. was similar to that of Switzerland. The United States had the highest civilian gun ownership rate in the world, at an estimated 120.5 firearms per 100 people, according the latest international Small Arms Survey. That was more than double the rate of the second-highest country, Yemen at 52.8, and much higher than Switzerland’s 27.6. More

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      Can Christie Succeed as ‘Trump Slayer’? New Jersey Has Thoughts.

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      The former governor, with his ready wit and considerable baggage, intends to jump into the Republican presidential primary on Tuesday.Chris Christie left office in New Jersey with abysmal popularity ratings. His 2016 presidential run was a short-lived flop. He has a reputation as a bully and is perhaps best known for a notorious political retribution scheme called Bridgegate.But as Mr. Christie, a two-term governor and former federal prosecutor, prepares to wade into the 2024 Republican presidential primary on Tuesday, voters who know him best appear open to his underdog rematch with former President Donald J. Trump, if only for its potential as a grab-the-popcorn thriller.A one-on-one debate between Mr. Trump and Mr. Christie “would have more viewers than the Super Bowl,” said Jon Bramnick, a Republican state senator who moonlights as a standup comic.“Trump may be able to call you a name,” he said. “But Christie will take that name, twist it and come back with three or four things that will leave Trump lying down waiting for the count.”Any race that pits Mr. Christie against Mr. Trump is bound to be especially personal. Mr. Trump seemed to find joy in belittling Mr. Christie from the White House; Mr. Christie blamed Mr. Trump for giving him a bout of Covid that left him gravely ill and hospitalized.In interviews with New Jersey voters, Mr. Christie’s assets and liabilities were repeatedly described as two sides of the same coin.To moderates thirsty for a centrist voice: He is not Mr. Trump.And to Trump loyalists who might prefer that Mr. Christie retreat permanently to his beach house in Bay Head, it was much the same refrain: He is not Mr. Trump.“Anybody in the mix who’s not Trump is good,” David Philips, 64, said Friday during his lunch break in Trenton, the capital, where he has worked as a state construction official for 20 years. He said he tended to vote for Democrats and was never a big fan of Mr. Christie.“But he’s a reasonable guy compared to Trump,” Mr. Philips said.After dropping out of the 2016 presidential contest, Mr. Christie became one of Mr. Trump’s biggest boosters. But he is now positioning himself as the teller of hard Trump truths — a perhaps unlikely messenger with a message that will be challenging to sell to a party full of Trump supporters.Mr. Christie’s entry into the race comes less than six years after he left Trenton with an approval rating of just 15 percent, according to two polls taken during his last summer in office. At the time, it was the worst rating of any governor in any state surveyed by Quinnipiac University in more than 20 years.Last month, a Monmouth University poll of 655 Republican-leaning voters nationwide showed Mr. Christie with unfavorable ratings of 47 percent, higher than any other official or likely Republican presidential candidate.Jeanette Hoffman, a New Jersey Republican strategist, predicted that Mr. Christie would cast himself as the candidate best positioned to be “the Trump slayer.”“This whole tell-it-like-it-is strategy — he’s going to double down on that,” she said.Still, she acknowledged that the odds against him were long.Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Christie, 60, is famously combative. And many of his most memorable clashes are well documented.There was the time he was filmed shouting down a heckler on a Jersey Shore boardwalk while holding an ice cream cone.Memes linger from 2017, when he was photographed lounging with his family on a state-run beach closed to the general public over Fourth of July weekend because he and the Legislature had failed to approve a spending plan for the fiscal year.Mr. Christie, far right, was photographed at Island Beach State Park in 2017 while it was closed to the public.Andrew Mills/NJ Advance Media, via Associated PressAnd it was clear that his baseball days were behind him in 2015 when he took the field at Yankee Stadium for a charity game wearing a Mets uniform during his second term as governor. But he also earned widespread kudos that night, and an M.V.P. award, for having the guts to step into the batter’s box in the first place.For those in New Jersey cheering on his presidential run, that in-your-face chutzpah remains a key selling point.Even detractors express grudging respect for the former governor’s willingness to flex his political and rhetorical muscles.“He’s an audacious guy,” said Mark Sokolich, the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, N.J., where two of the George Washington Bridge’s three lanes were closed down for four days in 2013 as part of a plot that endangered public safety and became known as Bridgegate. “He’s a man who speaks his mind, and I think in today’s day and age you do need that.”The 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal remains well known to voters. Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesStill, Mr. Sokolich said there was no way he would ever vote for Mr. Christie.“If he was ever to reach the office of the presidency, I just hope his talents for selecting people for high-level positions have improved,” Mr. Sokolich said, referring to a Christie aide who unleashed havoc on the borough’s roadways with an email: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”Mr. Christie was never accused of criminal wrongdoing, and the convictions of two aides were overturned in 2020 by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the plot, designed to punish a political opponent, was an abuse of power but not a federal crime.David Wildstein, who admitted to being an architect of the traffic gridlock while working at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, has known Mr. Christie since the two attended Livingston High School. He was the star witness at the trial, testifying that Mr. Christie was told about the bridge plan two days after the lane closures began and that he laughed approvingly. Mr. Christie has maintained that he had nothing to do with the closings.Mr. Wildstein, in an interview, characterized his onetime ally as a cartoonlike character.“He’s the guy who stands on the sidelines at a Little League game and yells at the umpire,” said Mr. Wildstein, 61, whose guilty plea was vacated in 2020 after the Supreme Court ruling and who now runs the New Jersey Globe, a popular political news site in New Jersey.But, he added, “It would be crazy for anybody to definitively say somebody can’t win.”Mr. Christie appeared with Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia at an election rally in Atlanta in 2022.Audra Melton for The New York Times More

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      Cornel West Announces Third-Party Bid for President

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      Dr. West said he would run as part of the People’s Party, which was founded by a former campaign staff member for Senator Bernie Sanders.Cornel West, the progressive activist and professor, announced a presidential campaign on Monday with the People’s Party, a third party led by a former campaign staff member for Senator Bernie Sanders.“I enter in the quest for truth, I enter in the quest for justice, and the presidency is just one vehicle to pursue that truth and justice — what I’ve been trying to do all of my life,” Dr. West said in a campaign video posted on Twitter.In the video, Dr. West said he had decided to run as a third-party candidate because “neither political party wants to tell the truth about Wall Street, about Ukraine, about the Pentagon, about Big Tech.” He called former President Donald J. Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, a “neo-fascist,” and President Biden a “milquetoast neoliberal.”Dr. West has taught at Yale, Princeton and Harvard and is currently a professor of philosophy at Union Theological Seminary. He is known for his progressive activism, including his sharp criticism of former President Barack Obama.His campaign video emphasized a list of issues, including wages, affordable housing, abortion rights, universal health care, climate change and “the destruction of American democracy.”The People’s Party was founded by Nick Brana, who worked on Mr. Sanders’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, but later broke away. The party tried to recruit Mr. Sanders after his 2016 campaign, but he declined to get involved and again sought the Democratic nomination in 2020.“Do we have what it takes? We shall see. But some of us are going to go down fighting,” Dr. West said in his announcement video, leaning into the camera and exaggeratedly enunciating the syllables of “fighting.” “Go down swinging with style and a smile.” More

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      Tim Scott Defends Remarks on Race on ‘The View’

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      The presidential candidate went on the daytime talk show to debate his views about systemic racism. But it was his comments about L.G.B.T.Q. rights that got boos from the audience.The chatty daytime talk show “The View” might seem like an unlikely platform for Tim Scott, a senator from South Carolina and a presidential candidate, to get his footing with Republican primary voters, but he saw an opening on Monday and tried to make the most of it.Mr. Scott, the first Black Republican from the South elected to the Senate since Reconstruction, had asked for an audience on the show after a co-host, Joy Behar, said Mr. Scott “doesn’t get it” when he denies the existence of systemic racism, which is why, she said, he is a Republican.Before a largely white, partisan crowd in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, Mr. Scott had promised his appearance would make sparks fly, but in the end, the senator and the co-hosts largely spoke past one another.He said that suggesting that Black professionals and leaders are exceptions to the Black experience, not the rule, is “a dangerous, offensive, disgusting message to send to our young people today.”“The fact of the matter is we’ve had an African American president, African American vice president, we’ve had two African Americans to be secretaries of state,” Mr. Scott said. “In my home city, the police chief is African American who’s now running for mayor.”At one point, he defended Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida in his fight against Disney, saying that legislation that limits what teachers can say about gender and sexuality in the classroom “was the right issue as relates to our young kids and what they’re being indoctrinated with.”The comment prompted boos from the studio audience. Whoopi Goldberg, another co-host, loudly scolded the crowd and said that at “The View,” audience members “do not boo.”The field of candidates running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 includes Mr. Scott and Larry Elder, a Black conservative commentator, and two Indian American children of immigrants, Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, and Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur and author.All four have put personal stories of isolation and struggle at the center of their campaigns, while saying that family stories of discrimination and racism are relics of the past and do not reflect a form of prejudice still embedded in American society.On “The View,” Mr. Scott spoke again of his grandfather, who could not make eye contact with a white pedestrian in his small South Carolina town, Salley, and had to step off the sidewalk to let the white man pass by.“Progress in America is palpable,” he said. “It can be measured in generations.”Such talk goes over well with the largely white audiences that Republican presidential candidates speak to in the primary season. But on “The View,” the liberal hosts protested. Sunny Hostin, a co-host who is Black, said she was an exception in the story of Black achievement, as is Mr. Scott and the show’s most famous co-host, Whoopi Goldberg.“When it comes to racial inequality, it persists in five core aspects of life in the U.S. — economics, education, health care, criminal justice and housing,” she said. “At nearly every turn, these achievements were fought, threatened and erased, most often by white violence.”For Republican candidates, such appearances have multiple benefits. They can use them to appeal to audiences beyond the Republican base, and to say they are willing to step out of the bubble of the primary electorate. They can then amplify the jousting before Republican voters, as Donald J. Trump has done with his CNN town hall last month and as Mr. Ramaswamy does when he tells Republican audiences that his appearance on CNN cost the anchor Don Lemon his job. More

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      Mike Pence Files Paperwork to Enter 2024 Race, Challenging Trump

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      Mr. Pence, who filed paperwork declaring his candidacy, was once a stalwart supporter and defender of Donald J. Trump, but split with his former boss after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.Former Vice President Mike Pence filed paperwork on Monday declaring his presidential candidacy, embarking on a long-shot campaign against the former president he served under, Donald J. Trump.Mr. Pence, who filed the necessary papers to run with the Federal Election Commission, has polled in the single digits in every public survey taken so far, well behind Mr. Trump, who has reshaped the Republican Party over the last seven years.The former vice president is expected to formally announce his campaign at a rally outside Des Moines on Wednesday, a day after former Gov. Chris Christie is expected to enter the race and the same day Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota is set to join.Mr. Pence is planning to campaign extensively in Iowa, the first nominating state and a place where his hard-line conservative positions on issues like abortion could appeal to evangelical voters.Advisers to Mr. Pence, a former governor of Indiana, see Iowa as geographically hospitable to the brand of conservatism he practiced before the Trump era. And he is making the bet that enough vestiges of the old Republican Party remain to give his message broad appeal.Mr. Pence, whom the celebrity-obsessed Mr. Trump used to refer to as “out of central casting,” was a stalwart supporter and defender of Mr. Trump over the latter half of the 2016 presidential campaign as his running mate, at a time when Mr. Pence was facing a difficult re-election effort in Indiana.He was Mr. Trump’s most loyal advocate throughout their time in office together.But Mr. Trump began a pressure campaign on Mr. Pence to thwart Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Electoral College victory from being certified after Mr. Trump lost the 2020 election. Mr. Pence refused to use his ceremonial role overseeing the certification at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to advance Mr. Trump’s aims.That day, a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol, with some of Mr. Trump’s supporters chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!” Since then, the split between the two has become irrevocable. More

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      Chris Sununu Says He Won’t Run for President

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      Mr. Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire, is more moderate than many members of his party and would have tested Republican voters’ appetite for a self-described “normal” candidate.Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire will not enter the Republican presidential race, he said on Monday, forgoing a campaign that would have tested the appetite of his party’s voters for a self-described “normal” candidate.He bowed out in an interview on CNN, saying he wanted to be able to have a more “candid, a little more unleashed voice” in the primary than he would be able to as a candidate — particularly in moving the party away from former President Donald J. Trump.“I want more independents on the Republican Party team. I want more young voters on the Republican Party team,” he said, adding, “I think more folks in the Republican Party have to have that kind of voice, that kind of emphasis of message, in making sure this is about the Republican Party, not just about the former president.”Mr. Sununu, 48, whose political mantra is “be normal,” is generally considered a moderate. Compared with other Republicans, he is — though he is in line with the rest of his party on many issues, including fiscal policy.He describes himself as a supporter of abortion rights, though he did sign a ban in 2021 on most abortions after 24 weeks’ gestation; he opposed a bill last year that could have required schools to out gay and transgender students to their parents; and he has been critical of former President Donald J. Trump, though he has said he would support Mr. Trump in a general election.“I’m conservative,” he said in February. “I’m just not an extremist.”Mr. Sununu has long been seen as a prime candidate for higher office. He is popular in New Hampshire, where voters have elected him four times — most recently by more than 15 percentage points — despite the state’s Democratic tilt. When he declined to run for Senate last year, he disappointed party leaders who considered him their best shot to unseat a Democratic incumbent, Maggie Hassan. (Ms. Hassan handily defeated the far-right Republican, Don Bolduc, who was nominated instead.)But the sort of Republican who can win in an independent-minded, blue-leaning state like New Hampshire is not the sort of Republican whom national primary voters have indicated they want. The party’s primary field has so far been dominated by Mr. Trump, and even the candidates running against him have tended not to criticize him too harshly lest they anger his base.Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is seen as Mr. Trump’s top Republican rival, has stepped up his attacks on Mr. Trump since entering the race last month. But to the extent that other Republicans — including Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina — have distanced themselves from Mr. Trump, they have mostly done so in style rather than in substance. More

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      Biden-Trump, the Sequel, Has Quite a Few Plot Twists

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      Bret Stephens: Hi, Gail. A recent CNN poll shows that 20 percent of Democrats favor Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for the party’s nomination, 8 percent want Marianne Williamson and another 8 percent want someone else. That’s 36 percent saying they aren’t thrilled with the presumptive nominee. Do you think this is some kind of polling fluke or an ominous political sign for Joe Biden?Gail Collins: Bret, it’s more than a year until the presidential conventions. All the Democrats know that Joe Biden is going to be their nominee. Some, like me, think he’s been doing a terrific job. Others find him pretty boring.Bret: Or “walking the trail of so-so,” as my youngest likes to say.Gail: I am absolutely sure that a lot of the people raising their hands for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or Marianne Williamson have no idea who either of them actually is. Obviously, they recognize the Kennedy name, but I’ll bet most don’t know about his new career as an anti-vaxxer.Do you disagree?Bret: I do. Neither of them is an unknown quantity. R.F.K. Jr. has been a public figure for decades, and there are plenty of dark corners of America where his anti-vax views and penchant for conspiracy theories resonate. Williamson touched a nerve — or summoned a spirit — as the “dark psychic force” lady from the last Democratic primary.Gail: By the fall, Democrats may be bored enough to want a conversation about dark psychic forces, but I think we deserve a summer break.Bret: Only 60 percent of Democrats say they support Biden. By contrast, well over 86 percent of Republicans supported Donald Trump in June of 2019, according to an earlier CNN poll. And the RealClearPolitics average of polls gives both Trump and Ron DeSantis an edge over the president, which is bad now when the economy is relatively strong but will be politically catastrophic for him if the economy dips into recession. Democrats are placing a very big bet on a stumbling incumbent; that sound you hear is me paging Roy Cooper, Jared Polis and Gretchen Whitmer.Gail: Sigh. Bret, we both agreed long ago that we hoped Biden wouldn’t run for another term, leaving the door open for all the interesting Democratic prospects to get in the race.But it didn’t happen and it isn’t going to happen. And we’re stuck with a choice between Joe Biden and a bunch of terrible Republicans.Bret: I’m still not convinced that that’s the choice we are — or need to be — stuck with: Lyndon Johnson didn’t drop out of the race until March 1968. Where is Eugene McCarthy when you need him?Gail: Biden’s doing very well — got a bunch of big initiatives passed this term, worked out a budget deal last week.Bret: Gail, who do you think gained — or suffered — the most, politically speaking, from the budget deal, Biden or Kevin McCarthy, the House speaker?Gail: Well. Biden is really having a stellar run. McCarthy was in serious danger of being tossed out of his job by members of his own party. So at least in terms of averting personal disaster, McCarthy had a pretty big win.Bret: True, and he managed to bring most of his caucus along with him. Then again, most of the “savings” McCarthy claims to have achieved with the deal achieved were basically notional.Gail: In terms of overall results, the Democrats did best. Even though I am very, very irritated about the cut in funding to the I.R.S.Bret, doesn’t it bother you that the Republicans just don’t want the tax collectors to have enough money to do their jobs?Bret: The best solution for the I.R.S. would be something like a universal 18 percent income tax for everyone, calculable on a single sheet of paper, with zero deductions or exemptions. Throwing money at the agency will do more to compound its problems than solve them.Gail: Interesting theory that’s not gonna happen. Right now, when you have folks at an agency that’s long been underfunded, trying to ride herd on businesses and wealthy individuals who have ever-more-complicated strategies for thwarting them, I don’t think the answer is to sniff and say, “Try harder.” The only thing we can be sure that the I.R.S. cut will give us is lower federal revenue from people who like avoiding taxes.Bret: Which sorta makes my point for a simplified tax code, not another $80 billion for the agency.In the meantime, Gail, the Trump-DeSantis battle of the put-downs is heating up. And Chris Christie may be getting in the race. Your thoughts on the G.O.P.’s Palio di Siena?Gail: Palio di Siena is an Italian horse race that’s known for being very crowded and very colorful, right?Bret: Also, loud, insane, scary and deadly for horses. Though maybe the better analogy for the way the Republican primary campaign is shaping up is Pamplona’s running of the bulls.Gail: Well, the Republican field is definitely getting … bigger. Colorful may take a little more work. (This week it looks like we will also be welcoming Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota to the field!)Bret: I’m probably going to destroy my credibility right now by confessing that I neither knew of the announcement nor the man until you just mentioned him. Sorry, Bismarck!Gail: I say, the more the merrier. Chris Christie would be a fine addition when it comes to making things more interesting, and I’d really love to hear him in a debate with, say, DeSantis. On the down side, he has about as much chance of winning the nomination as I would of winning that Siena horse race.Bret: Hehe.Gail: You’re in charge of the Republicans here — give me a rundown of where we are.Bret: Well, to your point about “the more the merrier,” my fear is that as more Republicans jump into the race, it just makes it easier for Trump to clear the field.On the other hand, I think that Christie has a very clear idea of what he wants to do in the race: namely, to be a torpedo aimed straight at the S.S. Trump — maybe as a form of penance for his endorsement of Trump seven years ago. Christie helped sink Marco Rubio’s candidacy at the New Hampshire debate in 2016 and he wants to do the same to The Donald in this election cycle. The former New Jersey governor is a gifted speaker, so I can only hope he succeeds.Gail: Blessings to you, Chris Christie. Unless that means pushing DeSantis permanently to the top. I know it’s weird but I’ve admitted to you I’d actually prefer Trump if that awful option is the choice.Bret: We’ve argued about this before. I can only refer you to a point made by Frank Bruni in his terrific column on this point: “I’d be distraught during a DeSantis presidency and depressed during a Pence one. But at least I might recognize the America on the far side of it.”Gail: Frank is of course great. Now about the current field — you’d like Chris Christie as a debater, but how about as an actual nominee. Your favorite of the week?Bret: Christie is everything a Democrat could reasonably want in a Republican: gregarious, pragmatic, competent, highly intelligent, capable of reaching across the aisle and most definitely not a hater. I doubt he has any kind of realistic shot at the nomination, but I also know that he’s too much of a realist to think he has a realistic shot, either. His job is to demolish Trump so that Republicans can finally get past the former president. My guess is he’d like the job of attorney general in a DeSantis administration.Enough about Republicans, Gail. What else is tickling your mind these days?Gail: Don’t suppose you want to talk about basketball playoffs, huh?Bret: Shame about the Celtics.Gail: Sigh. Well, I’ve been interested in watching the evolution of the abortion debate — even DeSantis seems to be a little wary about waving his dreadful six-week ban around.Bret: Too little too late, but yes: Even he seems to realize that the ban doesn’t go over too well with a lot of people who might lean Republican, including otherwise conservative women. The most I can say about it is that it’s very on brand for the Florida governor: abrasive, abusive and arrogant.Gail: Hey, we really can’t get away from the Republicans, can we? And the Democrats keep disappearing. Bret, did anybody besides the immediate Biden family notice that the president gave a speech to the nation on the budget deal?Bret: In 100 years, historians might be calling this the Rodney Dangerfield presidency: “I don’t get no respect!” But, honestly, I find it a little painful to watch Biden speak and I suspect a lot of people feel the same way.Gail: Painful like listening to a favorite uncle put the guests to sleep at Thanksgiving. Which is not like listening to a dreadful first cousin once removed terrify all the other relatives with a rant about family members he hates.Bret: Fair point!Gail: Bret, since we’re closing on the topic of unfortunate speeches, let me cheer you up by mentioning a really fine one. This is the part of our conversation when you usually wrap things up by describing something you’ve just read that you want to recommend. But today I get to do the finale — ha-ha — and my choice is your address to the graduates at the University of Chicago about freedom of expression. It was terrific.And the focus on civilized disagreement reminded me of how lucky I am to get to have a discussion like this with you every week.Bret: I feel just the same way. It was good to have a chance to go back to my alma mater and pay tribute to Robert Zimmer, its former president, who died last month — a role model as a leader, thinker, friend and man.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

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      Takeaways From Nikki Haley’s CNN Town Hall

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      The former South Carolina governor, who also served as United Nations ambassador under Donald Trump, emphasized her experience and vision. Will it be enough for her to stand out?Nikki Haley, who was the first prominent Republican to announce a challenge to former President Donald J. Trump in the 2024 race, has yet to see her presidential campaign catch fire. On Sunday night, she had a fresh opportunity to make the case for her candidacy during a 90-minute CNN town hall in prime time, in an effort to emerge from the low single digits in polls where she has been mired.Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and United Nations ambassador under Mr. Trump, was well versed on policy issues, consistently upbeat and evenly tempered. Although she drew contrasts with Mr. Trump, she dodged opportunities to make him — or even President Biden — into a political punching bag.At the end of the night, an audience member praised her demeanor as “a breath of fresh air,” earning applause from the house full of Iowa Republicans. But that also meant that there were few shoot-out-the-lights moments that could win Ms. Haley headlines and a new look from primary voters, who now face a growing field of Republicans who are in — or soon to enter — the race.On policies both foreign (like Ukraine) and domestic (such as Social Security), Ms. Haley’s positions were a throwback to typical Republican Party stances before its populist takeover by Mr. Trump. Her reasoned manner was also an anomaly in a race where Mr. Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida compete with displays of dominance. Both factors have made Ms. Haley, the only woman in the Republican race, an also-ran so far.Here are some takeaways from the event on Sunday night.“I think it’s important to be honest with the American people,” Nikki Haley said on Sunday night.Jordan Gale for The New York TimesIt was very different from the Trump town hall.Compared with CNN’s explosive, much-criticized town-hall-style event with Mr. Trump last month, this one was a throwback to earlier, less combative times. There was no audience jeers whipped up from the stage and no forceful interrogation of the candidate. Jake Tapper, the anchor who moderated, asked Ms. Haley follow-up questions and added occasional clarifications to her statements, but he did not veer into fact-checking.Trump and DeSantis continue to be the focus.The two big red elephants in the room, Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis, were mostly mentioned indirectly, but those two Republican presidential contenders were present nonetheless. Ms. Haley repeated her position that in order to save Social Security and Medicare, it would be necessary to raise the retirement age for young workers and to limit benefits for the wealthy. Both Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis, who once supported similar changes, now say they won’t touch the programs.“I think it’s important to be honest with the American people,” Ms. Haley said. “We are in this situation. Don’t lie to them and say, ‘Oh, we don’t have to deal with entitlement reform.’ Yes, we do.”Ms. Haley also criticized Mr. DeSantis for his attacks on Disney as a “woke” company. She had no beef with the Florida governor’s criticism of Disney’s opposition to what critics call his “Don’t Say Gay” law, and even said she would have gone further than that law to prevent talk of gender and sexuality in schools. But she called Mr. DeSantis “hypocritical” for accepting tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions from Disney before turning on the company, and for using taxpayer dollars to sue it. “Pick up the phone deal with it,” she said. “Settle it the way you should, and I just think he’s being hypocritical.”Haley sought to find the sweet spot for Republicans on social issues.On social issues including abortion, gun restrictions and transgender rights, which animate much of the Republican voting base, Ms. Haley toed a conservative line. She defended, for example, leading the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord while at the United Nations. (President Biden rejoined the accord in 2021.) But she displayed less of the punitive rhetoric on the issues that Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis have made crucial to their messages.Ms. Haley deflected on whether she supported a federal six-week abortion ban such as the one her home state of South Carolina recently passed. Any national restrictions, she said, would require 60 senators to approve, which she said was so remote that the question barely merited consideration.In the most stirring moment of the night, Ms. Haley described persuading reluctant Republican lawmakers in South Carolina to remove the Confederate battle flag from the State Capitol after the massacre by a white supremacist of Black worshipers at the Mother Emanuel church in Charleston in 2015.She agreed with barring transgender girls from school sports and even seemed to suggest that allowing “biological boys” in girls’ locker rooms was connected with the high rate of teenage girls who have considered suicide.At the same time, she acknowledged that “we do need to be humane” about transgender children. In South Carolina schools when she was governor, Ms. Haley said, principals made private bathroom accommodations for them. “They were safe, and the majority of the student body didn’t even have to deal with it,” she said.Haley made a strong contrast with Trump and DeSantis on foreign policy.Ms. Haley also carved out differences with Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis on foreign policy issues, as she has in the past. The former U.N. ambassador disputed Mr. DeSantis, who has called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “territorial dispute” — a characterization he has since walked back — and she dismissed Mr. Trump’s refusal to say whether Ukraine should win the war.She said both positions represented a naïve trust in Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin. “If Ukraine pulls out,” Ms. Haley said, “then we’re all looking at a world war.”Asked by Mr. Tapper about Mr. Trump’s congratulating North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, for recently ascending to a leadership role in the World Health Organization, Ms. Haley called Mr. Kim, whose flattering letters Mr. Trump once praised, a “thug.”“There is no reason we should ever congratulate the fact that they are now vice chair of the World Health Organization,” Ms. Haley said. More

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      Chris Christie, Mike Pence and Doug Burgum to Announce for 2024 This Week

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      Chris Christie, Mike Pence and Doug Burgum are set to announce their presidential campaigns this week, the latest entrants in a rapidly growing Republican primary.The growing field of Republicans running for president is set to expand by three this week, with the entry of former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, former Vice President Mike Pence and Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota. The field continues to expand in part because hopefuls see opportunity in the struggle of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida to become the undisputed challenger to former President Donald J. Trump.Mr. DeSantis trails Mr. Trump by about 30 points in national polls of Republican voters. No one else is within hailing distance, but with one in four Republicans still looking for an alternative to the two front-runners, a fierce competition to be that other option is emerging.All three of the latest entrants have to be considered long shots, at least for now.But each will get a momentary burst of attention when declaring his candidacy, with the hope that from small sparks a brush fire will spread.Chris ChristieWhen: Tuesday, June 6Where: A town-hall-style event at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics outside Manchester.The strategy: Mr. Christie, who dropped out of the 2016 primary early and became a supporter of Mr. Trump’s, has cast himself as the former president’s harshest critic in the Republican field. He says Mr. Trump is unfit to serve after inciting the attack on the Capitol. Mr. Christie’s team recently said that he would run a campaign focused on “mixing it up in the news cycle and engaging Trump.”But being an outspoken Trump critic has so far paid little dividends. Among 10 declared or potential 2024 candidates tested in a Monmouth poll last week, Mr. Christie was viewed the most negatively by Republican voters (21 percent viewed him favorably and 47 percent unfavorably). His strategy is to make it onto a debate stage, where his trademark pugilism, he has promised, will be aimed at Mr. Trump.Mr. Christie is likely to campaign heavily in New Hampshire, where a large number of independents are expected to vote in the primary next year, offering Mr. Christie his best opportunity to damage Mr. Trump.Mike PenceWhen: Wednesday, June 7Where: A rally with voters in Des Moines, followed by a CNN town hall at 9 p.m. Eastern.The strategy: The former vice president brought credibility with social conservatives to the 2016 ticket, but his star faded with the party base after he refused to comply with Mr. Trump’s efforts to block President Biden’s victory. As an evangelical Christian and former Indiana governor, Mr. Pence is a natural fit with Iowa conservatives, and he is likely to focus much of his campaigning there in the hope of a strong showing in the first nominating contest next year. His campaign intends to reintroduce him to voters as his own man, not just Mr. Trump’s No. 2.But Mr. Pence, who espouses traditional Regeanesque views on economic and foreign policy — he supports aid to Ukraine — finds himself at odds with the current populist thrust of the party. In the Monmouth poll, he had the second highest unfavorable number (35 percent, versus 46 percent favorable). When Sean Hannity of Fox News mentioned at a town hall with Mr. Trump on Thursday that Mr. Pence would soon join the race, there were boos.Doug BurgumWhen: Wednesday, June 7Where: Fargo, N.D.The strategy: North Dakota’s governor, who is little-known outside his home state, made a large fortune in computer software, and is in a position to self-fund his longer-than-long-shot campaign. He has said he believes that 60 percent of American voters constitute a “silent majority” that feels ignored by intense ideological debates that dominate politics. “There’s definitely a yearning for some alternatives right now,’’ Mr. Burgum told a Fargo news site.Energy policy is central to his message: As governor, Mr. Burgum set a goal of reaching carbon neutrality in North Dakota by 2030. He aimed to do so not by diminishing dependence on fossil fuels, a key part of the state’s economy, but by accelerating technology to capture carbon emissions in the ground.The governor is low-key and notably not aligned with Trump-style populism. That means that, in addition to being little known, he will be paddling against the current in today’s Republican rapids. More