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    Hunter Biden’s Conviction, and a Family’s Pain

    Readers discuss addiction, call for compassion and praise how the president has supported his son.To the Editor:Re “President’s Son Is Found Guilty on Gun Charges” (front page, June 12):President Biden lost his first wife and daughter in a car accident. He lost his son Beau to brain cancer. Hunter Biden, his other son, has just been found guilty of felony charges involving gun possession.We live in a painfully polarized time. But I would argue that, regardless of party affiliation, compassion and empathy are warranted in acknowledging our shared humanity. While pundits will no doubt turn their focus to political fallout, we should not lose sight of the big picture: These are real people, with real lives, and real suffering.Larry S. SandbergNew YorkThe writer is a psychiatrist.To the Editor:Re “One Thing Everyone Has Missed About Hunter Biden’s Case,” by Patti Davis (Opinion guest essay, June 12):Addiction is a disease, and neither intelligence, education or great family support can prevent it. Such things also do not prevent cancer, mental illness, Parkinson’s or any other disease.Hunter Biden fell prey to addiction, and as a result made bad choices that got him into trouble and have troubled his loving family to this day, even though he has been sober for a while, and hopefully will continue to be — although prison is not a good environment for an addict trying to stay sober!If Hunter Biden weren’t the president’s son, he likely would not have even been on trial for something he did that thousands of addicts do in our gun-loving society, and get away with.Can we ever get away from politicizing everything? Not in the current divisive climate.Patti Davis’s article is right on! And beautifully written.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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    Hunter Biden’s Laptop, Revealed by New York Post, Comes Back to Haunt Him

    Many claims about the laptop’s contents have not been proved, but it played a role in the prosecution of Mr. Biden over a firearm purchase.When The New York Post first reported in 2020 about a laptop once used by Hunter Biden — which the paper said contained incriminating evidence against him and his father, Joseph R. Biden Jr., who was running for president — it set off a firestorm.Many national news outlets raised questions about the existence of the laptop and the claims about its contents, while major social media platforms limited posts about The Post’s coverage. Conservatives said those reactions were evidence of liberal censorship.Many of the claims made by The Post in its coverage of the laptop, in which the publication sought to link President Biden to corrupt business dealings, have not been proved. But the laptop had enough incriminating evidence to continue to haunt Hunter Biden.The laptop and some of its contents played a visible role in federal prosecutors’ case against the president’s son, who was charged with lying on a firearm application in 2018 by not disclosing his drug use. A prosecutor briefly held up the laptop before the jury in Delaware, and an F.B.I. agent later testified that messages and photos on it and in personal data that Mr. Biden had saved in cloud computing servers had made his drug use clear.On Tuesday, the jury found Mr. Biden, 54, guilty of three felony charges. He will be sentenced at later date.Mr. Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, arriving at federal court in Wilmington, Del., for a verdict in his trial on Tuesday.Haiyun Jiang for The New York TimesWe 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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    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is Polling Surprisingly Well Among Latino Voters

    When Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Donald J. Trump faced off in the 2020 presidential election, Alexis Figueroa, a hospital worker in Phoenix, would have voted for Mr. Biden, he said, because he seemed like the least controversial of the two candidates.But with those men back on the ballot in November, Mr. Figueroa is considering a third option: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.“He’s going after those who are new to voting, the younger generation not being heard,” Mr. Figueroa, now 20, said of Mr. Kennedy, adding that he did not want to vote for Mr. Biden because he did not believe that the president had fulfilled many of his promises.In a race in which enthusiasm for the top two contenders is low, more Latino voters like Mr. Figueroa are leaning toward third-party candidates, recent surveys show. Mr. Kennedy, who is running a long-shot independent presidential bid, is polling surprisingly well among Hispanic voters in battleground states, though so far he is officially on the ballot only in California, Utah, Michigan, Oklahoma, Hawaii and Delaware.Polls show Mr. Kennedy drawing support away from both the Trump and Biden campaigns, but when it comes to Latinos, who overwhelmingly vote Democratic, he may pose a bigger threat to Mr. Biden.“It’s a trend we see over and over — in a forced choice between Trump and Biden, Biden does better than on a ballot where there are other options,” said David Byler, the chief of research at Noble Predictive Insights, a national polling firm that works in Arizona and Nevada. “For most of this election, his support has simply been softer than Trump’s.”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 to Meet With Republican Lawmakers in Washington

    Former President Donald J. Trump is expected to meet with a group of Republican senators and House members this week in Washington, where he will also sit down with business leaders, according to two people familiar with the matter.The meetings between Mr. Trump and lawmakers will take place on Thursday, a few weeks before Mr. Trump is to be formally nominated for the third time as the Republican presidential nominee. The meeting was first reported by NBC News, and confirmed by two people briefed on the matter, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the Trump campaign’s plans.A Trump campaign official who confirmed the meetings said they would be forward looking, on plans like border security and economic policy.Mr. Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill have been discussing plans for a governing agenda in 2025 for several weeks. The former president has released policy proposals on issues such as immigration, trade and more over the many months of his third presidential campaign.But those proposals have been largely drowned out by his legal troubles. Mr. Trump faced three civil trials in the last 18 months, and was criminally indicted four times in roughly the same period. He was convicted last month on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, which prosecutors said was done to conceal a hush-money payment to a porn star during the 2016 campaign. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just days before the start of the Republican National Convention.The meeting could give lawmakers a chance to hear more about Mr. Trump’s plans for a second administration directly from him.On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump has talked broadly about a sweeping plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, as well as lowering energy costs and imposing new tariffs on imports.But Mr. Trump has also been eager to see retributive investigations into those who have prosecuted him, and some House members have taken up that call in recent days, calling the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, to testify before Congress. More

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    EE. UU. estudia proteger a cónyuges indocumentados de ciudadanos

    Entre las medidas que se estudian figuran proteger a los cónyuges de la deportación y facilitarles el acceso a permisos de trabajo, según funcionarios con conocimiento de las conversaciones.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]El gobierno de Joe Biden está estudiando una propuesta para proteger de la deportación a los cónyuges indocumentados de ciudadanos estadounidenses y permitirles trabajar de manera legal en el país, según cuatro funcionarios que conocen las conversaciones al respecto.Los funcionarios, que hablaron con la condición de mantener su anonimato para poder discutir el asunto, dijeron que no se había tomado una decisión final y que la forma que adoptaría esa política aún no ha sido definida. Un programa de este tipo podría facilitar que algunos cónyuges obtengan la nacionalidad estadounidense.Esta propuesta surge mientras el presidente Biden ha tratado de enfrentar los problemas políticos de su estrategia migratoria en los últimos días.La semana pasada propuso prohibir el asilo a los inmigrantes que cruzan hacia Estados Unidos como parte de un esfuerzo por endurecer el control fronterizo, lo que suscitó las críticas de miembros de su propio partido. Y ahora, una medida para proteger a los inmigrantes indocumentados en el país podría ayudarlo a enfrentar algo de la feroz resistencia que suscitó esa orden y cimentar el apoyo entre los defensores de los inmigrantes, los votantes latinos y su base progresista.El programa que se está considerando se conoce como “permiso de permanencia temporal en el lugar”, que se ha utilizado en el pasado para otras poblaciones, como las familias de los miembros de las fuerzas armadas. Eso le ofrece a los inmigrantes indocumentados en Estados Unidos una protección frente a la deportación durante un determinado periodo de tiempo y acceso a un permiso de trabajo.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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    Teamsters President Asks for Speaking Slot at Both Parties’ Conventions

    The president of the Teamsters union has asked for speaking slots at both the Republican and Democratic national conventions, at a time when President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump have pressed for support from rank-and-file members of organized labor.The move by Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, underscores the fact that his group, unlike other influential umbrella unions that have backed Mr. Biden in the 2024 election, has yet to endorse in the presidential race. Mr. O’Brien has made clear he is delaying a decision until later this year.Kara Deniz, a spokeswoman for the Teamsters union, confirmed that Mr. O’Brien, through aides, has told officials working on both conventions that he would be interested in speaking at their dayslong nomination events. The Republicans will hold their convention in Milwaukee in July, and the Democrats will hold theirs in Chicago in August.It would be unusual in the current fractious political climate for someone to speak at both conventions.Over the course of the year, Mr. O’Brien has invited several presidential candidates, including Mr. Biden, Mr. Trump and independent candidates like Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to speak before his group. But Mr. O’Brien has what people close to Mr. Trump believe is a developing relationship with the former president.The Teamsters is one of the country’s largest labor unions, with 1.3 million members in sectors like trucking and manufacturing. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the United Automobile Workers have backed Mr. Biden, and Shawn Fain, the president of the U.A.W., has been harshly critical 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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    Trump Endorses Sam Brown in Nevada’s Key Senate Race

    Mr. Brown, a former Army captain, is the leading candidate in a crowded field of Republicans vying to take on Senator Jacky Rosen, a vulnerable Democratic incumbent in a presidential battleground.Former President Donald J. Trump on Sunday said he was endorsing Sam Brown, the Army veteran who is leading the crowded Republican primary field in Nevada’s U.S. Senate race.“Sam Brown is a fearless American patriot,” Mr. Trump wrote in a post on his social media site, Truth Social, adding that Mr. Brown would “fight tirelessly” to protect the border and improve the economy.The endorsement, though belated — the primary is on June 11 and early voting has already ended — solidifies Mr. Brown’s standing as the front-runner and heavy favorite to advance to November’s general election against Senator Jacky Rosen, the Democratic incumbent. He has raised more money than his primary rivals, received the endorsement of the state’s Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, and led by double-digits in every recent poll of the race, though most were commissioned by his own campaign.Mr. Trump’s opinion was the sole remaining question mark. Though he is campaigning as a strong supporter of the former president, Mr. Brown was late to formally back Mr. Trump’s bid for a second term, and his primary rivals sought to capitalize from the right. Jeff Gunter, a wealthy dermatologist and Mr. Trump’s ambassador to Iceland, staked out a position as a MAGA candidate, slamming Mr. Brown in television advertisements as he angled for a possible endorsement from Mr. Trump.Mr. Trump has shared images promoting Mr. Brown’s dominance in Nevada polls on Truth Social, and he praised both Mr. Brown and Jim Marchant, a former state assemblyman and prominent election denier who is also running for Senate, in an interview with a local television station in late May.In a post on X, Mr. Brown said he was “honored” to have Mr. Trump’s endorsement. “I look forward to working with you to bring a better future to every Nevadan and American when we both win in November,” Mr. Brown 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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    In Las Vegas, Trump Appeals to Local Workers and Avoids Talk of Conviction

    Former President Donald J. Trump stood in blazing heat in a Las Vegas park on Sunday and directly appealed to working-class voters by promising to eliminate taxes on tips for hospitality workers.But beyond that proposal, little at Mr. Trump’s campaign rally suggested that his new status as a felon had changed his message. And when Mr. Trump’s teleprompter apparently stopped working, his speech — which his campaign advisers had billed as focused on issues of local concern to Nevada voters — devolved into familiar stories and riffs.“I got no teleprompters, and I haven’t from the beginning,” Mr. Trump said after speaking for roughly 15 minutes, though his speech included excerpts from prepared remarks that his campaign had provided to reporters. “That probably means we’ll make a better speech now.”Mr. Trump repeatedly voiced his frustration with the lack of a teleprompter, even though he has often boasted of his ability to give long speeches without one.His remarks, which lasted roughly an hour, felt unfocused as he cycled through well-worn territory, railing against electric vehicles, immigration, the four criminal cases brought against him and President Biden’s physical and mental condition.Once again, Mr. Trump broadly depicted migrants crossing the border illegally as violent criminals or mentally ill people, and then recited “The Snake,” a standby poem he has used since 2016 to expound on the threat that he believes undocumented immigrants pose to the country.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