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    Harris’s Closing Argument: Turn the Page on Trump, and Avert Chaos

    On Jan. 6, 2021, President Donald J. Trump stood onstage at the Ellipse, a park just south of the White House, and encouraged thousands of his supporters to fight to overturn an election he falsely claimed had been stolen.“We fight like hell,” Mr. Trump said. “And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Droves of his backers then marched away and attacked the U.S. Capitol.That angry image is exactly the one that Vice President Kamala Harris wants Americans to remember as she steps onstage at the Ellipse on Tuesday evening. There, with the White House in the backdrop behind her, she will deliver what her campaign is calling a closing argument that is meant to persuade still-undecided voters to consider what the future might look like if it holds another Trump term.“We know that there are still a lot of voters out there that are still trying to decide who to support or whether to vote at all,” Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, the campaign’s chair, told reporters on a call Tuesday morning previewing the remarks. She said that Ms. Harris’s speech would be designed to reach a slice of the electorate that may be “exhausted” by the politics of the Trump era.“She’s going to focus on talking about what her new generation of leadership really means,” Ms. O’Malley Dillon said, “and centering that around the American people.”Before leaving Joint Base Andrews for a campaign trip to Michigan on Monday, Ms. Harris offered a preview of sorts when she was asked by reporters to respond to what transpired at a Trump rally held at Madison Square Garden in New York City a day earlier. Over the course of several hours, speakers there targeted Black people, Puerto Ricans, Palestinians, Jews, Ms. Harris and other Democrats.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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    Trump’s Environmental Claims Ignore Decades of Climate Science

    The former president says he wants “clean air and clean water,” but he has rolled back environmental rules and dismissed the scientific consensus on climate change.In the final throes of the presidential campaign, Donald Trump is trying to cast himself as a protector of mother nature, even as he calls climate change a hoax.“I’m an environmentalist,” he said this month in Wisconsin. “I want clean air and clean water. Really clean water. Really clean air.”This past weekend, he falsely boasted about the quality of the environment when he was president.“We had the cleanest air for four years of any country by far,” he said on Saturday in Novi, Mich. “The cleanest water. That’s what I want. I want clean air, clean water, and jobs.”But as Trump talks of clean air and water, he regularly disputes basic facts underpinning contemporary climate science. His approach to the environment, which has been adopted across much of the Republican Party, would roll back regulations, expand oil and gas production and curtail the federal government’s regulatory powers.As Lisa Friedman reports today, the Environmental Protection Agency would be a particular focus of a new Trump administration, which would “tear down and rebuild” the structure of the agency, said Mandy Gunasekara, a leading candidate to run the agency if Trump is elected.These moves would come at a time when the consequences of man-made climate change are mounting. Last year was the hottest in recorded history by a wide margin. This year there have been 24 natural disasters that have inflicted at least $1 billion in damage in the United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.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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    Trump Attacks Michelle Obama, Days After She Criticized Him

    Former President Donald J. Trump said that Michelle Obama had made a “big mistake” by criticizing him, as he responded on Monday for the first time to her recent searing comments about his mental state.“I always tried to be so nice and respectful,” said Mr. Trump, who in 2011 spent weeks spreading the lie that Barack Obama, the country’s first Black president, was actually born in Kenya, with the insinuation being that he was therefore illegitimately in office. He added, “She opened up a little bit of a box.”Mr. Trump made the comments at a rally in Atlanta, in response to what Mrs. Obama, the former first lady, said about him while campaigning on Saturday for Vice President Kamala Harris in Michigan. At that event, Mrs. Obama said some voters were ignoring Mr. Trump’s “gross incompetence.” She said Mr. Trump had displayed “erratic behavior” and “obvious mental decline,” and noted that he had been found “liable for sexual abuse” in a civil case and that the former president was now a felon.“She was nasty,” Mr. Trump said, adding, “That was a big mistake that she made.”Michelle Obama spoke on Saturday at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Kalamazoo, Mich. She commented on what she said was Mr. Trump’s “obvious mental decline.”Erin Schaff/The New York TimesNot long after that line, Mr. Trump attacked Ms. Harris as a “hater.” The crowd at the McCamish Pavilion on the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta began chanting: “Lock her up! Lock her up!” Those chants have now become more frequent occurrences as both anti-Harris taunts at Trump rallies and as anti-Trump chants at Harris events. They were first used by crowds at Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign events in reference to Hillary Clinton, his Democratic presidential rival at the time.Mr. Trump encouraged those chants back then. But on Monday in Atlanta, Mr. Trump, who has been vowing to prosecute various political foes in recent weeks, listened for a few seconds before telling the crowd, “Be nice.” He said he simply wanted to win the election.An aide to Mrs. Obama did not respond to an email seeking comment.Mr. Trump has repeatedly visited Georgia, where early voting has been robust. Republicans say they believe the state is trending favorably for Mr. Trump. He has repaired a fractured relationship with the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, whom he had repeatedly attacked, and appeared in the state after a recent storm caused widespread damage.But Georgia has a large Black population, and the Obamas, who remain popular figures among Democrats, have been working to boost turnout there.Ms. Harris appeared with Mr. Obama and the rock star Bruce Springsteen at an event in Atlanta last week, and Mr. Obama and Mr. Springsteen appeared in Philadelphia on Monday night to drum up support for Ms. Harris. More

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    El equipo de Trump teme por los comentarios racistas en el mitin del Madison Square Garden

    La campaña del expresidente emitió un inusual comunicado distanciándose del chiste ofensivo de un cómico sobre Puerto Rico en su mitin del domingo, una señal de que le preocupa perder votos cruciales.Donald Trump y sus aliados presumen de sus posibilidades de victoria en los últimos días de la campaña de 2024. Pero hay indicios, públicos y privados, de que al expresidente y a su equipo les preocupa que las descripciones de sus oponentes, en las que lo presentan como racista y fascista, puedan estar calando en algunos segmentos de votantes.Esa ansiedad quedó clara tras el acto de seis horas de Trump en el Madison Square Garden de Nueva York, donde los incendiarios discursos del domingo incluyeron un acto de apertura a cargo de un cómico conocido por su historial de chistes racistas, quien se burló de Puerto Rico y calificó a la nación como “una isla flotante de basura” y habló de personas negras que tallan sandías.La reacción de las celebridades y los artistas puertorriqueños fue instantánea en las redes sociales, lo que llevó a la campaña de Trump a emitir una rara declaración defensiva en la que se distanciaba de los comentarios ofensivos. En una contienda tan reñida, cualquier electorado puede ser decisivo, y la considerable comunidad puertorriqueña del disputado estado de Pensilvania estaba en la mente de los aliados de Trump.Danielle Alvarez, asesora principal de la campaña de Trump, dijo en un comunicado que la broma sobre Puerto Rico “no refleja las opiniones del presidente Trump ni de la campaña”.El ethos de Trump ha sido, por lo general, no disculparse nunca, no admitir errores e intentar ignorar la controversia. La declaración de Alvarez fue una rara ruptura de esa práctica, que refleja la nueva preocupación de que Trump corra el riesgo de recordar a los votantes indecisos el oscuro tenor de su movimiento político en la fase final de la campaña de 2024.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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    Secret Files in Election Case Show How Judges Limited Trump’s Privilege

    The partly unsealed rulings, orders and transcripts open a window on a momentous battle over grand jury testimony that played out in secret, creating important precedents about executive privilege.Court documents unsealed on Monday shed new light on a legal battle over which of former President Donald J. Trump’s White House aides had to testify before a grand jury in Washington that charged him with plotting to overturn the 2020 election, showing how judges carved out limits on executive privilege.The trove — including motions, judicial orders and transcripts of hearings in Federal District Court in Washington — did not reveal significant new details about Mr. Trump’s efforts to cling to power. But it did open a window on important questions of presidential power and revealed how judges grew frustrated with Mr. Trump’s longstanding strategy of seeking to delay accountability for his attempts to overturn his defeat to Joseph R. Biden Jr.The documents also created important — if not binding — precedents about the scope of executive privilege that could influence criminal investigations in which a current or former president instructs subordinates not to testify before a grand jury based on his constitutional authority to keep certain internal executive branch communications secret.Starting in the summer of 2022, and continuing with the appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel later that year, the Justice Department undertook a wide-ranging and extraordinary effort to compel grand jury testimony from several close aides to Mr. Trump. Prosecutors believed the aides had critical information about the former president’s attempts to overturn the results of the election.The effort, which ended in the spring of the following year, was largely intended to obtain firsthand accounts from key figures who had used claims of executive privilege and other legal protections to avoid testifying to investigators on the House committee that examined the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and the events leading up to it.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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    As Gaza Talks Resume, Little Progress Is Expected Before the U.S. Election

    As the Biden administration makes a final diplomatic push in the Middle East before next week’s U.S. presidential election, little is expected to be achieved before the result is known, officials and analysts in the region said on Monday.Envoys from Israel, Egypt, the United States and Qatar renewed talks in Doha, the Qatari capital, on Monday over a cease-fire in Gaza. American mediators were also expected this week to continue to try to reach a truce between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.But few expect a conclusive result from either effort before the election next Tuesday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel waiting to see who will succeed President Biden before committing to a diplomatic trajectory, according to four officials briefed on Israel’s internal thinking. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive diplomacy.A senior official from Hamas has also already rejected the premise of a 48-hour cease-fire in Gaza, an idea proposed by Egypt over the weekend, during which Hamas would release a handful of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. Osama Hamdan, a Hamas leader, said on Sunday that the group would only agree to a permanent cessation of hostilities, dashing hopes that Israel’s recent killing of the group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, would bring about a swift change in its negotiating position.By contrast, Mr. Netanyahu has repeatedly said that he can only agree to a temporary arrangement that would allow Israeli forces to resume fighting. The prime minister’s coalition depends on several far-right lawmakers and ministers who have threatened to bring down the government if it allows Hamas to remain in power in Gaza.While Mr. Netanyahu could still compromise he is likely waiting to see whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald J. Trump will lead the United States for the next four years, in order to assess how much leeway he will have from Israel’s main benefactor and ally, officials and analysts said.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 Use Gas Station Kiosks to Say Trump Will Make Life More Expensive

    Americans bagging up their purchases at hundreds of gas stations and convenience stores across the Midwest will hear a message from Democrats that former President Donald J. Trump’s policies will increase the price of fuel and add thousands of dollars to the cost of raising a family.The Democratic National Committee is paying for short, 15-second video advertisements to play on digital kiosks at checkout counters in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska. The six-figure ad blitz, which starts on Monday, is meant to emphasize an argument that Vice President Kamala Harris has frequently made on the campaign trail: Mr. Trump is no ally of middle-class and working people, and his economic policies will badly hurt their wallets.“Trump’s Project 2025 agenda would spike gas prices by 75 cents a gallon, on top of the $7,600 more families could be paying each year,” the ad’s narrator says. “Billionaires like Trump can afford it.”With Election Day now just eight days away, political advertisements have become inescapable for voters in battleground states, with text messages pinging on phones and attacks reverberating across television, the radio and social media. The D.N.C. is hoping that catching voters as they pay for gas and snacks is a new way to break through. The ads will run at roughly 1,600 gas stations and convenience stores, it said, with many located in communities with a large number of union households or on or near college campuses. Union members and young people are key Democratic constituencies.The ad’s message is based on studies of the potential effect of Mr. Trump’s proposed tariffs on imported goods, including an analysis from the website GasBuddy and research by the Budget Lab at Yale, which found that households could see their costs rise between $1,900 and $7,600 per year. Inflation was a persistent problem for much of the Biden administration but has slowed significantly. Voters consistently rate the economy as their top concern of the 2024 election.The D.N.C. chose to air the ads in two of the top presidential battleground states, Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as in Nebraska, where Ms. Harris is leading in the race to pick up an electoral vote that is up for grabs in the state’s Second Congressional district. (Nebraska does not have a winner-take-all system like most states.) It is also investing in Minnesota, which is a light blue state, and Iowa, where there are competitive House races.“Donald Trump might’ve been handed a fortune on a silver platter by his daddy, but most of us have to work for a living,” Jaime Harrison, the chair of the D.N.C., said in a statement. “Vice President Harris is the only candidate in this race who understands the struggles working families face and will fight every day to make life more affordable.” More

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    Corporate America Braces for Trump 2.0

    The race for the White House is deadlocked, but business leaders aren’t taking chances, reaching out to the former president to rebuild relations.Are business leaders already banking on a second Trump presidency?Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesDo C.E.O.s think Donald Trump will win? As the presidential race nears its end next week, the most notable public sound from many C.E.O.s and businesses on the election has been silence — and Donald Trump’s camp is increasingly interpreting that as a sign that corporate America may be preparing for him to win.New reports show that top business leaders, including Silicon Valley heavyweights, have reached out to the former president, seemingly looking to rebuild relations and protect their businesses if Trump defeats Vice President Kamala Harris.Business leaders are privately discussing how to prepare for a Trump return. Attendees at a gathering last week of the Business Council, an invite-only association of C.E.O.s, talked about steps to take in case Trump goes after perceived enemies, according to The Washington Post.“I’ve told C.E.O.s to engage as fast as possible because the clock is ticking,” an unidentified Trump adviser told The Post. “If you’re somebody who has endorsed Harris, and we’ve never heard from you at any point until after the election, you’ve got an uphill battle.”Big Tech leaders are among those trying to reboot relations. In recent weeks, Trump has said that he has spoken with Tim Cook of Apple and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet. He has also heard from Mark Zuckerberg, and CNN adds that Andy Jassy of Amazon has reached out.The reason for such outreach is clear, Trump associates told CNN: Trump has gone after many of their companies and re-establishing relations is at the least a hedge in case he wins next week. (An unidentified source told CNN that Jassy’s call, made at the company’s request, was a general exchange of pleasantries.)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