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      Chuck Schumer: Trump and Musk Would Love a Shutdown. We Must Not Give Them One.

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      Over the past two months, the United States has confronted a bitter truth: The federal government has been taken over by a nihilist.President Trump has taken a blowtorch to our country and wielded chaos like a weapon. Most Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, have caved to his every whim. The Grand Old Party has devolved into a crowd of Trump sycophants and MAGA radicals who seem to want to burn everything to the ground.Now, Republicans’ nihilism has brought us to a new brink of disaster: Unless Congress acts, the federal government will shut down Friday at midnight.As I have said many times, there are no winners in a government shutdown. But there are certainly victims: the most vulnerable Americans, those who rely on federal programs to feed their families, get medical care and stay financially afloat. Communities that depend on government services to function will suffer.This week Democrats offered a way out: Fund the government for another month to give appropriators more time to do their jobs. Republicans rejected this proposal.Why? Because Mr. Trump doesn’t want the appropriators to do their job. He wants full control over government spending.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      New Yorkers Protest as White House Defends Arrest of Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia

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      Hundreds of demonstrators marched downtown while a spokeswoman for President Trump said the president had the authority to detain Mahmoud Khalil.As hundreds of demonstrators made their way through Lower Manhattan on Tuesday to protest the detention of a prominent pro-Palestinian activist at Columbia University, the White House defended the arrest and rebuked the school for what it called lack of cooperation.The activist, Mahmoud Khalil, was a leader of student protests on Columbia’s campus and often served as a negotiator and spokesman. Mr. Khalil, 30, who is Palestinian and was born and raised in Syria, is a legal permanent resident of the United States and is married to an American citizen.He was arrested on Saturday and transferred to detention in Louisiana.A spokeswoman for President Trump, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters on Tuesday that the government had the authority to revoke Mr. Khalil’s green card under the Immigration and Nationality Act.“This is an individual who organized group protests that not only disrupted college campus classes and harassed Jewish American students and made them feel unsafe on their own college campus, but also distributed pro-Hamas propaganda fliers with the logo of Hamas,” she said.Her remarks came a day after Mr. Trump vowed that the apprehension of Mr. Khalil was “the first arrest of many to come.”Some free speech groups and civil rights activists have questioned the legality of Mr. Khalil’s detention, which his lawyers have challenged in court. On Tuesday, some New York Democrats expressed concern about the arrest. But Mayor Eric Adams shrugged off questions about it at a City Hall news conference, saying that the federal government, not the city, had authority over the matter.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      U.S. Attorney Rebuffed by Justice Dept. in Push to Escalate Inquiry into Schumer

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      Ed Martin, the acting U.S. attorney in Washington, has been blocked so far in seeking a grand jury investigation into remarks made by Senator Chuck Schumer about Supreme Court justices.Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, has been quietly pushing to present evidence against Senator Charles Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, to a federal grand jury over comments he made about Supreme Court justices in 2020, according to people with knowledge of the situation.Justice Department officials have thus far rebuffed the unusual request by Mr. Martin, a partisan ally of President Trump with no previous prosecutorial experience, one of those people said.Mr. Martin has made clear his hopes of investigating whether the remarks made five years ago by Mr. Schumer amounted to threats against Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch. Bringing such a case is highly unusual and winning a conviction would be difficult, according to current and former prosecutors.Last month, Mr. Martin signaled his intention to take an aggressive approach, writing Mr. Schumer a letter demanding “information and clarification” of remarks he made at a rally on March 4, 2020.“You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price!” Mr. Schumer said at the rally, addressing his remarks to Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. Mr. Schumer’s staff retracted his statement and the senator apologized a day later, taking to the floor of the Senate to say, “I should not have used the words I used.”Mr. Schumer added that he had been referring to “political consequences” rather than violent retribution, chalking up his phrasing to his upbringing in Brooklyn.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      DOGE Cuts 9/11 Survivors’ Fund, and Republicans Join Democrats in Rebuke

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      After 20 percent of the World Trade Center Health Program staff was terminated last week, Democratic lawmakers were outraged. On Wednesday, Republican lawmakers joined them.In a rare pushback against President Donald J. Trump, a coalition of congressional Republicans from the New York area rebuked the president for cuts to a federal program that administers aid to emergency workers and others suffering from toxins related to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.In a letter to Mr. Trump, seven Republicans urged Mr. Trump “as a native New Yorker who lived in New York City as it recovered from the 9/11 terrorist attacks” to reverse the cuts to the World Trade Center Health Program and rehire staff members who were fired several days ago.They echoed the immediate outcry from Democratic lawmakers and advocates when the cuts were made beginning late last week, as part of Elon Musk’s so-called department of government efficiency, or DOGE, which is cutting spending and eliminating jobs across a wide swath of federal agencies. On Monday, New York’s Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, issued a letter demanding the cuts be restored.The initial reaction from Republicans was more muted, but by Wednesday, as it became clearer that the blowback to the firings was widespread, the Republican resistance grew more vocal, especially from districts in and around New York City, where the memory of 9/11 still resonates powerfully.“This staff reduction will only make it more difficult for the program to supervise its contracts and to care for its members who are comprised of the brave men and women who ran towards danger and helped in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” the congressional members wrote in the letter.It was largely written by Representative Andrew R. Garbarino, a Republican from Long Island, and co-signed by five other Republican congressional colleagues from New York and Representative Chris Smith from New Jersey. The other congressional co-signers were Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Claudia Tenney, Nicole Malliotakis and Nick Langworthy, all supporters of Mr. Trump.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Democrats Don’t Need a Perfect Message Against Trump, They Need to Show Some Fight

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      I asked Senator Chuck Schumer what Americans want from Democrats right now.“They want us to beat Trump and stop this shit,” he told me. “And that’s what we’re doing.”It was a welcome sign of life. For three weeks now, President Trump and the world’s richest man have ransacked from within a democracy that took 250 years to build. The country faces a second crisis: an opposition party that doesn’t seem to know how to respond.With no obvious party standard-bearer, the job of leading Washington Democrats in the second Trump era has fallen largely to Mr. Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leaders of the Senate and the House. It’s been a rocky start.Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries are seasoned dealmakers. But in the minority and facing a president bent on laying waste to the very meaning of the U.S. Congress, both men have struggled to shed the familiar rhythms of business as usual.On Monday, they sent letters to congressional Democrats about using litigation and oversight inquiries to fight Mr. Trump’s agenda. There was some substance. But it’s hard to convey that America is in peril through a letter.Last week they touted a bill from House Democrats aimed at barring Elon Musk from having access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, even though it was clear — at least to state attorneys general who have sued — that Mr. Musk’s access violated the Constitution as well as existing laws, including the Privacy Act of 1974. At times, Mr. Jeffries has sounded like someone who has given up. “What leverage do we have?” he told reporters at his weekly news conference on Friday. “They control the House, the Senate and the presidency. It’s their government.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Convention Insider: Chuck Schumer Takes Chicago

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      Standing in the middle of an outdoor bar in an alleyway in Chicago, Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, looked around and remarked: “Nice city. It’s not New York, but it’s a nice city.”It was the second night of the Democratic National Convention, and Mr. Schumer was getting ready to give his eight-minute speech at 8 p.m. But first he stopped by a party where the crowd was made up almost entirely of New Yorkers: a mix of businesspeople, state senators and Assembly members. Mr. Schumer, an old-school party boss who loves nothing more than retail politics, was in his element.He began pointing out familiar faces in the crowd.“You’ve got a great daughter,” he told one woman. “I love her.”“I was at your swearing-in,” he boomed as a state senator from the Bronx approached.“Everything this lady does is a success!”“He’s the best.”“Love her!”He had started his day by having breakfast with convention delegates from New York, and then spent the afternoon prepping for his speech and chatting on the phone with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, applying pressure to get some help to Long Island, which had been battered by a storm.So he was feeling good and ready by that point to do a little schmoozing. Peering around, he recognized a number of former aides who had made it out to the happy hour to give him a pat on the back. “He was a Schumer worker,” Mr. Schumer said, pointing one out. “She was a Schumer worker. We’re everywhere.”The Democratic strategist Stu Loeser came over to say hello, and Mr. Schumer bellowed, “Another former Schumer worker!”He next spotted a tall, boyish-looking New York City Council member named Erik Bottcher and exclaimed, “We ate at his parents’ restaurant in the Adirondacks!”“The Hungry Trout,” replied Mr. Bottcher.The party was thrown by Julie Samuels, the chief executive of Tech:NYC, a nonprofit representing tech companies in New York. And even though he found himself surrounded by a bunch of techies, Mr. Schumer proudly waved around his LG flip phone. It is the only one he uses. He likes it for its utility, and because he figures Russia cannot hack it. “This is my secret,” he said. “No text. Just tawk.”When he spotted the platter of black-and-white cookies, Mr. Schumer reminded the crowd that they were “a Brooklyn specialty,” but he added, “Now that I’m gluten-free, I can’t eat them.”It was time to head to the arena. As he turned to go, he collided with the bar’s owner. They spoke for a moment, and then Mr. Schumer announced: “This guy’s going to move his next restaurant to New York!” More

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      Biden Is Out, and Democrats Have a Whole New Set of Questions

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      An earthshaking political moment finally arrived, and the transformation of the campaign starts now.It’s over.At 1:46 p.m., with the minute hand of the clock pointed to the number of his presidency, President Biden somberly ended his untenable re-election campaign and sought to give his downtrodden party something he could no longer provide: a sense of hope.“It is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down,” he wrote in a letter posted to X, “and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”It was an earthshaking political moment many Democrats had been clamoring for — so I’m struck by how quietly it came, and with how little fanfare. Biden’s choice, made while he is at his Delaware beach house after testing positive for Covid-19, did not leak. He told some of his senior staff only a minute before he told the world, my colleague Katie Rogers reported. He did not make a speech to the public, though he said he will later this week.His campaign’s transformation, though, starts now.About half an hour after he withdrew, Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris. A little after 4 p.m., she made it official herself.“My intention,” Harris said in a statement distributed by the Biden for President campaign, “is to earn and win this nomination.”In an all-staff call, the campaign’s leaders said they were now all working for Harris for President, according to my colleague Reid Epstein.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Why MAGA Nation Embraces Donald Trump

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      More from our inbox:Exit Menendez?Joe, Keep Your DignitySpirituality in America Scott McIntyre for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “The Deep Source of Trump’s Appeal,” by David Brooks (column, July 12):I’ve always believed that the mass of Donald Trump supporters were fundamentally just working-class Americans who, as the country’s wealth increasingly skewed to the 1 percent ever since President Ronald Reagan, found themselves running faster and faster to stay in the same place, and finally (and justifiably) started to fume about it.While Mr. Brooks doesn’t flat out say it, I take away from his article that, rather than viewing their plight as old-fashioned liberals used to — as plain and simple economic class exploitation — the white working class has been conned by demagogues like Mr. Trump into seeing it as existential, zero-sum identity politics.If Mr. Brooks’s suggestion is that religious leaders guide Americans back to some form of enlightened democratic civility, they’re going to have to drop a bit more wealth redistribution into their message to the congregation.Steven DoloffNew YorkTo the Editor:Having been dismissed as “deplorables,” sniffed at as people who “cling to guns or religion,” and generally considered less worthy, it was only a matter of time before the voters who have become MAGA nation would decide to stand up for themselves and say, We matter, too, and as much as you do.For all his many shortcomings, Donald Trump does have a keen eye for a marketing opportunity, and he was happy to swoop in and exploit the concerns of this group.Democrats may prefer to fault President Biden’s frailty, but they have no one but themselves to blame or the burgeoning strength of the adversary they face.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More