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      There Is Still a Biden Scandal

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      One of the Biden White House’s greatest achievements, from the perspective of its staffers, if not necessarily the country, has been to deny the press the kind of juicy leaks that were constant under Donald Trump and frequent under his predecessors. Save for a very narrow period of time, that is, when there was a push to force an aging president toward the exits: Then and only then we got a drip-drip-drip of fascinating inside information.For instance, we learned that Biden hadn’t held a full cabinet meeting since last October and that his handlers expected scripted questions from his cabinet officials. We learned that his capacities peak between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and diminish outside that six-hour window. We learned that congressional Democrats, liberal donors and some journalists all had exposure to Biden’s decline that they didn’t discuss publicly until the debacle of the June debate. We learned that none other than Hunter Biden was acting as a close adviser to his father in the crucial days after that debate.We even learned that from early in his presidency, the first lady’s closest aides worked to shield her husband from the staff that serves the first family in its living quarters, even as the aides themselves were given unusual access to the residence — as though it were essential to create a cocoon of loyalty and silence around the nation’s chief executive even when he isn’t on the job.These are all interesting and pertinent facts about the man who officially leads the United States in a time of global danger — and they have not ceased to be pertinent because that president is no longer running for re-election.For a few weeks the media coverage of the Biden White House built up the idea that there was a major scandal here, implicating the inner circle that encouraged the president to run for re-election and practiced deception amid his obvious decline.The potential scale of that scandal has diminished now that the country is no longer being asked to entrust the Oval Office to Biden for another four years. And concerns about the capacities of Donald Trump, the aging candidate actually running for the White House, are naturally going to claim more attention now that they’re contrasted with a younger rival.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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      Defense Dept. Contractor Arrested With Dozens of Classified Documents

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      Investigators are still trying to determine why the contractor, Gokhan Gun, who became an American citizen in 2021, hoarded so many documents.A Defense Department contractor was arrested on Friday with dozens of highly classified documents he had obtained using his security clearance, as he prepared to depart for a trip to Mexico, according to prosecutors.The contractor, Gokhan Gun, an electrical engineer born in Turkey who now lives in a Virginia suburb of Washington, printed thousands of documents at his work for the Air Force. Many were unclassified, but some were “batches of documents from the top secret network,” according to an 11-page complaint unsealed in a Virginia federal court.Mr. Gun is charged with illegally obtaining and retaining national defense secrets.The case is one of several instances in recent years in which soldiers and civilians working for the military improperly retained military secrets. In March, a young Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, Jack Teixeira, accused of posting secret intelligence reports online, pleaded guilty in exchange for a 16-year sentence and an agreement to document his activities to the authorities.Investigators are still trying to determine why Mr. Gun, who became an American citizen in 2021, hoarded so many documents. He nonchalantly carried them out of his office in rolled-up wads in plastic shopping bags, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the case.Mr. Gun, who frequently travels overseas and owns homes in Virginia, Texas and Florida, was taken into custody early Friday by F.B.I. agents who arrived to execute a search warrant at his house in Falls Church, Va. He was preparing to leave for what he described as a fishing trip with friends, intending to board a flight to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, that left at 6:52 a.m.Agents confronted him in his driveway as he awaited a ride share driver. Among his luggage they found a black backpack that contained a document marked top secret and a listing of his security clearances.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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      Doug Emhoff Stresses a Personal Push Against Antisemitism

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      At an event in Paris to commemorate a 1982 attack on a Jewish deli there, Kamala Harris’s husband said, “Part of fighting hate is living openly and proudly as a Jew.”When Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, landed in Paris this week, the Summer Olympics were naturally on the schedule. He met with the champion sprinter Noah Lyles, watched the U.S. men’s basketball team rally against Serbia and is to lead the American presidential delegation at the closing ceremony on Sunday.But Mr. Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of an American vice president or president, also used his trip to focus on an issue that is far more sobering and also deeply personal: a surge of antisemitism in the United States and around the world since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October.“It is a poison coursing through the veins of democracy and democratic ideals,” Mr. Emhoff said on Friday at a commemoration of a deadly 1982 attack on a storied Jewish deli in Paris. Six people were killed in that attack, including two Americans, and 22 were wounded.“Part of fighting hate is living openly and proudly as a Jew and celebrating our faith and our culture,” Mr. Emhoff said as helicopters buzzed overhead, a reminder of the tight security that France has imposed during the Olympics. “I love being Jewish, and I love the joy that comes with being Jewish. And I’m not going to let anyone tell me how to be Jewish.”Mr. Emhoff has emerged as the Biden administration’s most visible face in the struggle against antisemitism. He has convened Jewish leaders at the White House, called former President Donald J. Trump “a known antisemite,” and drawn on his faith to offer comfort to Jewish Americans anguished by the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.He is also, of course, the spouse of a presidential candidate. And to that end, he attended a private fund-raiser in Paris for Ms. Harris’s campaign, though he made no direct mention of her presidential bid in his public statements — even to the scores of journalists who watched him grab lunch at L’As du Falafel, a celebrated falafel spot, on Friday.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 Isn’t Kamala Harris Giving Interviews or Holding News Conferences?

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      Critics say the vice president has been too cautious with the press. Her supporters think it’s the right strategy at the right time.The press has questions for Vice President Kamala Harris. She isn’t giving a whole lot of answers.In the nearly three weeks since President Biden withdrew his candidacy, catapulting Ms. Harris to the top of the Democratic ticket, the vice president has shown little eagerness to meet journalists in unscripted settings. She has not granted an interview or held a news conference. On Thursday, after a rally in Michigan, she held her first “gaggle” — an impromptu Q.-and-A. session — with reporters covering her campaign.It lasted 70 seconds.Ms. Harris replaced a Democratic nominee who has hosted fewer White House news conferences than any president since Ronald Reagan. Now she is taking a similarly cautious approach, relying on televised rallies and prepared statements amid a tightly controlled rollout of her candidacy.Asked on Thursday if she might sit for an interview anytime soon, Ms. Harris suggested that she would get through the convention first. “I want us to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month,” she said, as aides signaled to the scrum of journalists that question time was over.Ms. Harris’s lack of engagement with the media has become a constant rallying cry on the political right, with Republican critics and Fox News stars accusing the vice president of ducking scrutiny. The Harris campaign says it is being thoughtful about how best to deploy its message, and to introduce a new candidate to crucial voters in battleground states.David Axelrod, the architect of former President Barack Obama’s winning campaigns, believes that Ms. Harris — who on Thursday said she had agreed to a prime-time debate on Sept. 10 with her opponent, former President Donald J. Trump — was trying to strike a balance.“This has been a whirlwind few weeks, and right now, buoyant rally speeches are working really well, so she’s riding the wave,” Mr. Axelrod wrote in an email. “But I’m sure they know that, in addition, presidential races impose a series of tests, including debates and unscripted interactions with voters and media, by which people come to know you. There is time, and I’m sure she’ll get there.”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 y Harris acordaron debatir el 10 de septiembre, anunció ABC

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      David Muir y Linsey Davis son los presentadores de ABC que moderarán el primer cara a cara de los candidatos desde que Kamala Harris entró en la campaña.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]Habrá debate.La vicepresidenta Kamala Harris y el expresidente Donald Trump se enfrentarán en un debate televisado en horario de máxima audiencia el 10 de septiembre, según anunció ABC News el jueves, preparando el último momento crucial de una contienda presidencial de por sí impredecible.Se espera que el debate de 90 minutos se celebre en Filadelfia, según dos personas con conocimiento de los planes. Los presentadores de ABC David Muir y Linsey Davis serán los moderadores. Es probable que el debate se realice sin público en directo, pero el formato exacto y las reglas básicas aún están por determinarse, dijeron las personas.En cierto sentido, el anuncio mantiene el statu quo: hace meses, Trump acordó debatir con el presidente Joe Biden en ABC en esa misma fecha. Pero el candidato republicano titubeó sobre ese compromiso después de que Biden se retiró de la campaña y argumentó que no había acordado esos términos con Harris.El debate previo, en junio de este año, fue quizá el más importante en los 64 años de historia de los enfrentamientos televisados entre aspirantes presidenciales. La titubeante y mermada actuación de Biden desató el pánico entre los demócratas y provocó que el presidente cediera su puesto como líder de la candidatura de su partido.Más de 51 millones de estadounidenses vieron el debate en directo, el tipo de convocatoria masiva que cada vez es menos frecuente en una era de fragmentación de los medios de comunicación como la actual. La próxima emisión de ABC podría atraer a una audiencia aún mayor porque será la primera vez que Harris y Trump se vean cara a cara en el escenario de un debate.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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      Kamala Harris Responds to Pro-Palestinian Protesters at Michigan Rally

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      When protesters first interrupted Vice President Kamala Harris at a rally in Detroit on Wednesday evening, she smiled, with a gentle corrective. “I am speaking now.”But as the disruption continued, her patience ran thin. “You know what?” Ms. Harris said, with the sudden force and resolve of a parent in the driver’s seat who has had it. “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.”As the crowd roared, Ms. Harris stayed silent, jaw set, eyes fixed.The Detroit stare-down was the latest reminder of how Ms. Harris has been able, with an almost theatrical flair, to turn efforts to undermine and rattle her into her own political weapons.She also takes particular umbrage at being interrupted.Viewers might have recalled her 2020 debate with then-Vice President Mike Pence, when she objected to his repeated attempts to cut into her responses. Her left hand went up, palm facing Mr. Pence across the stage. “Mr. Vice President, I am speaking. I am speaking,” she said. When it happened again, she smiled at him: “Mr. Vice President, I am speaking.”Her reaction also suggested a new approach to dealing with the protests that in recent months had tripped up President Biden.In January, protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza interrupted President Biden’s speech at a church in Charleston, S.C. “That’s all right, that’s all right,” the president said, as they were escorted out. “Look, folks, I understand their passion.”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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      From Tips to TikTok, Trump Discards Policies With Aim to Please Voters

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      The former president’s economic agenda has made some notable reversals from the policies he pushed while in the White House.At his convention speech last month, former President Donald J. Trump declared that his new economic agenda would be built around a plan to eliminate taxes on tips, claiming that the idea would uplift the middle class and provide relief to hospitality workers around the country.“Everybody loves it,” Mr. Trump said to cheers. “Waitresses and caddies and drivers.”While the cost and feasibility of the idea has been questioned by economists and tax analysts, labor experts have noted another irony: As president, Mr. Trump tried to take tips away from workers and give the money to their employers.The reversal is one of many that Mr. Trump has made in his bid to return to the presidency and underscores his malleability in election-year policymaking. From TikTok to cryptocurrencies, the former president has been reinventing his platform on the fly as he aims to attract different swaths of voters. At times, Mr. Trump appears to be staking out new positions to differentiate himself from Ms. Harris or, perhaps, just to please crowds.To close observers of the machinations of Mr. Trump’s first term, the shift on tips, a policy that has become a regular part of his stump speech, has been particularly striking.“Trump is posing as a champion of tipped restaurant workers with his no-tax-on-tips proposal, but his actual record has been to slash protections for tipped workers at a time when they were struggling with a high cost of living,” said Paul Sonn, the director of National Employment Law Project Action, which promotes workers’ rights.In 2017, Mr. Trump’s Labor Department proposed changing federal regulations to allow employers to collect tips that their workers receive and use them for essentially any purpose as long as the workers were paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. In theory, the flexibility would make it possible for restaurant owners to ensure that cooks and dishwashers received part of a pool of tip money, but in practice employers could pocket the tips and spend them at their discretion.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