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      Walz Says He ‘Misspoke’ About Being in Hong Kong During Tiananmen Square Protests

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      Asked by a debate moderator on Tuesday why Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota had said that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre in June of 1989, when he had in reality been in his home state of Nebraska, Mr. Walz said he was “a knucklehead at times.”“All I said on this was, I got there that summer, and misspoke on this,” Mr. Walz added, when pressed to explain why he has maintained, for years, that he was in Hong Kong during the anti-government demonstration and entered China shortly afterward.Mr. Walz tried to dismiss the misstatement as insignificant, saying he sometimes gets “caught up in the rhetoric.” He then pivoted to assert that his work as a teacher, congressman and governor was evidence that his community trusted his record despite his missteps.Mr. Walz has long said that he was in Hong Kong on June 4, 1989, the day that Chinese soldiers killed hundreds of protesters in Tiananmen Square. He has said that he entered mainland China shortly after, even as others chose not to travel there, because he wanted to forge ahead with his yearlong teaching stint in the country — framing it as a courageous act.“My thinking at the time was, what a golden opportunity to go tell, you know, how it was,” Mr. Walz told the podcast “Pod Save America” in February. “And I did have a lot of freedom to do that. Taught American history and could tell the story.”But Mr. Walz was not in Hong Kong. He was in Nebraska until that August, when he left for China, according to news reports from the time. The timeline of his trip was first questioned by Minnesota Public Radio on Monday. His campaign did not provide an explanation.Republicans have pounced on the news, pointing to it as another of a series of exaggerations and misstatements Mr. Walz has made, both large and small, that have surfaced since he was named Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate.Those include a comment he made in 2018 about “weapons of war that I carried in war” as a member of the National Guard, when he never served in combat. He has also implied that he and his wife used in vitro fertilization to start their family. In fact, the couple used a different treatment, intrauterine insemination. More

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      Exchange on Climate Change Shows Gulf Between Vance and Walz

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      The devastation that Hurricane Helene wreaked across the South last week thrust the issue of climate change to the forefront of the vice-presidential debate early in its first hour, quickly demonstrating how the two major parties diverge when it comes to the threat posed by climate change.Senator JD Vance of Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate, said that people were “justifiably worried about all these crazy weather patterns,” a position that might seem at odds with his running mate, who recently called the focus on the environment “one of the greatest scams.” But Mr. Vance dismissed as “weird science” those who say that carbon emissions are causing climate change.He added that he and Mr. Trump wanted “the environment to be cleaner and safer.” And he said the climate crisis would be solved by growing American manufacturing.“You’d want to reassure as much American manufacturing as possible, and you’d want to produce as much energy as possible in the United States of America, because we’re the cleanest economy in the entire world,” Mr. Vance said, asserting that overseas manufacturing and energy production had a greater carbon footprint.The United Nations has said that “the manufacturing industry is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.”Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, responded by noting that in the past Mr. Trump had called climate change a “hoax,” before pivoting to policies passed by the Biden administration.Mr. Walz called Mr. Vance’s depiction of manufacturing a “false choice” and pointed to the Inflation Reduction Act, saying that investments in electric vehicles and solar energy had resulted in new U.S. jobs.“We are seeing us becoming an energy superpower for the future, not just the current,” Mr. Walz said. “And that’s what absolutely makes sense.”At the end of the exchange, Norah O’Donnell, one of the moderators, offered a closing comment: “The overwhelming consensus among scientists is that the Earth’s climate is warming at an unprecedented rate.” More

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      Vance’s Dominant Debate Performance Shows Why He’s Trump’s Running Mate

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      The first half of the vice-presidential debate has been the strongest illustration in this campaign so far of why it made sense for Donald Trump to pick JD Vance as his running mate. The Ohio senator is delivering one of the best debating performances by a Republican nominee for president or vice president in recent memory and making a case for Trump’s record far more effectively than Trump has ever been capable of doing.Vance’s performance has included a dose of self-conscious humanization, an attempted reintroduction to his blue-collar background and striking personal biography after weeks of effective Democratic attacks on his right-wing podcast commentary. It’s included some careful rhetorical tap dancing and policy jujitsu on issues like climate change and abortion. But mostly it’s just been an effective prosecution of the case against the Biden-Harris administration, focusing relentlessly on encouraging viewers to be nostalgic for the economy, the immigration landscape and the relative foreign-policy calm of Trump’s term.Tim Walz, on the other hand, seems affable, well meaning and, relative to Vance, largely out of his depth. He’s spending too much time partly agreeing with his rival while making a much more haphazard case against Trump than Vance is making against Kamala Harris.I think one question raised by this performance so far is why the Harris campaign has basically kept Walz away from one-on-one interviews while Vance has been out there dealing with hostile questions from Day 1 of his candidacy. It feels as though the Minnesota governor would have benefited immensely from spending some more time being grilled on the Sunday shows before he was sent out to do battle with a Republican vice-presidential nominee, who, whatever his other weaknesses, clearly knows how to debate. More

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      Jimmy Carter cumple 100 años

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      Diecinueve meses después de ingresar en cuidados paliativos, el presidente número 39 llega al siglo de vida el martes. ¿Su deseo de cumpleaños? Votar una vez más por el Partido Demócrata.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]Cuando Jimmy Carter ingresó en cuidados paliativos en su casa de Georgia el año pasado, su familia y amigos pensaron que solo le quedaban unos días de vida. Más de 19 meses después, el martes cumple 100 años y es el primer presidente de la historia de Estados Unidos que alcanza el centenario.El último capítulo de la ya extraordinaria historia de Carter está resultando ser uno de asombrosa resistencia. Este agricultor de maníes convertido en estadista mundial ha superado a lo largo de los años un cáncer cerebral, se ha recuperado de una fractura de cadera y ha sobrevivido a sus adversarios políticos. Y ahora está estableciendo un récord de durabilidad presidencial que puede ser difícil de batir.Aunque frágil y generalmente confinado en su modesta casa de Plains, Georgia, Carter no solo se ha negado a rendirse a la inevitabilidad del tiempo, sino que se ha animado en los últimos meses, según sus familiares. Ha vuelto a fijar su atención un poco más, diciendo a sus hijos y nietos que tiene un nuevo hito que quiere alcanzar: no su cumpleaños, que profesa no importarle mucho, sino el día de las elecciones, para poder votar por la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris.“Es un regalo”, dijo Josh Carter, uno de sus nietos, hablando de los últimos meses. “Es un regalo que no sabía que íbamos a recibir”.Carter ya había superado a todos sus predecesores para convertirse en el presidente más longevo, pero algunos de quienes han experimentado su terca irascibilidad a lo largo de las décadas dijeron que no les sorprendía que se acercara a su segundo siglo.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 es la única opción patriótica para la presidencia de Estados Unidos

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      Es difícil imaginar un candidato menos digno de servir como presidente de Estados Unidos que Donald Trump. Él ha demostrado ser moralmente inadecuado para un cargo que exige a su ocupante poner el bien de la nación por encima del interés propio. Ha demostrado ser temperamentalmente inadecuado para un cargo que requiere precisamente de las cualidades —sabiduría, honestidad, empatía, valentía, moderación, humildad, disciplina— de las que él más carece.Esas características descalificadoras están agravadas por todo lo demás que limita su capacidad para desempeñar las funciones de la presidencia: sus numerosos cargos penales, su edad avanzada, su fundamental falta de interés por las políticas públicas y su cada vez más extraña lista de asociados.Esta verdad inequívoca y desalentadora —que Donald Trump no es apto para ser presidente— debería bastar para que cualquier votante a quien le importe la salud de nuestro país y la estabilidad de nuestra democracia le niegue la reelección.Por esta razón, independientemente de cualquier desacuerdo político que los votantes puedan tener con ella, Kamala Harris es la única opción patriótica para la presidencia.En su nivel más básico, la mayoría de las elecciones presidenciales giran en torno a dos visiones diferentes de Estados Unidos que surgen de políticas y principios contrapuestos. En esta ocasión se trata de algo más fundamental. Se trata de si invitamos al cargo más alto del país a quien ha revelado, de forma inequívoca, que degradará los valores, desafiará las normas y desmantelará las instituciones que han hecho fuerte a nuestro país. More

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      Newsom Tacks to the Middle With California in the Spotlight

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      While Donald J. Trump has attacked California as too liberal for the nation, Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed several bills that could have become political fodder.For much of the past year, conservatives have considered Gov. Gavin Newsom of California a perfect symbol of liberal excess, a well-coifed coastal governor with national aspirations whose state seemed to embrace undocumented immigrants while homeless encampments proliferated on the streets.It was Mr. Newsom who was invited to debate Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Fox News last November. It was Mr. Newsom whose political action committee ran ads in Republican states to criticize their policies on abortion rights.But Mr. Newsom, a business owner, often governs more from the middle than his critics acknowledge. And over the past month, as he has sifted through hundreds of bills that the heavily Democratic Legislature sent his way to sign or veto by this Monday, his decisions indicate a more centrist shift than usual.With Vice President Kamala Harris, a former senator from California, in a hotly contested race for the White House, Republicans have aimed a spotlight on her and Mr. Newsom’s home state. As such, the governor has been under pressure to make sure that California’s lawmakers don’t give them more ammunition for political attacks.The national political stakes are highMr. Newsom approved many measures that were in keeping with what most Americans would expect in California. There were big bills to address the state’s ongoing housing crisis; labor bills to protect the earnings of child influencers and the likenesses of Hollywood performers; and an outright ban on all plastic bags at retail stores.There was legislation to name the Dungeness crab as the official state crustacean, the banana slug as the official slug, and the black abalone as the official seashell. There was a bill pushed by celebrities like Woody Harrelson and Whoopi Goldberg that will allow Amsterdam-style “cannabis cafes” to open.There was a measure that will require health insurers to cover infertility treatment, including in vitro fertilization, as Democrats have attacked Republicans nationally for restricting access to fertility services.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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      Inside a Kamala Harris Ad That Draws an Implicit Contrast on Character

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      Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign is running this 30-second ad on television stations in at least four battleground states and has spent more than $5 million since first airing it in mid-September, according to AdImpact.Here’s a look at the ad, its accuracy and its main takeaway.On the ScreenThe first few seconds of this ad are pulled directly from Ms. Harris’s appearance on Sept. 10 in a presidential debate against former President Donald J. Trump. Viewers see a composed vice president who leans on her career as a prosecutor to argue that she will represent Americans across political parties if she wins in November.Photos show Ms. Harris as a prosecutor and then as vice president. Video clips show her alongside her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, as she greets supporters at a market in Wisconsin and a campaign office in Phoenix. They show her speaking expressively to construction workers in Philadelphia and with volunteers at a Planned Parenthood in Minnesota. And they see her smiling, hugging or shaking hands with workers in a record shop and a nursery in Washington, D.C., a Georgia solar-cell factory, and a Wisconsin union hall.Harris for PresidentThe ScriptHarris“As a prosecutor, I never asked a victim or a witness, ‘Are you a Republican or a Democrat?’ The only thing I ever asked them: ‘Are you OK?’ And that’s the kind of president we need right now. Someone who cares about you and is not putting themselves first. I intend to be a president for all Americans and focus on investing right now in you, the American people. And we can chart a new way forward.”AccuracyThere are no verifiable claims.The TakeawayThis ad is meant to portray Ms. Harris as more presidential than partisan. The promise of governing for all Americans has become a bit of a rote message — and Mr. Trump has promised to do the same — but her campaign is putting serious money behind the idea that voters still want to hear it.The ad showcases Ms. Harris’s qualifications and does not make explicit mention of Mr. Trump. Yet it draws an unmistakable contrast between her behavior and that of the person who was standing just several feet to her right at the debate.And it foregrounds what Ms. Harris has long considered one of her best career attributes: her years as a prosecutor who protected victims and cracked down on violent offenders.Voters have signaled that they want to know more about Ms. Harris, and that the character of both candidates is a significant concern to them. The ad frames their choice as between a candidate who is empathetic, pragmatic and focused on moving past the political divisions of the past decade, and an opponent whose character is so well known that it needs no explicit description here. More

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      Trump Twists Harris’s Position on Fentanyl After She Called for a Border Crackdown

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      When Vice President Kamala Harris visited the southern border on Friday, she called fentanyl a “scourge on our country” and said that as president she would “make it a top priority to disrupt the flow of fentanyl coming into the United States.”Ms. Harris pledged to give more resources to law enforcement officials on the front lines, including additional personnel and machines that can detect fentanyl in vehicles. And she said she would take aim at the “global fentanyl supply chain,” vowing to “double the resources for the Department of Justice to extradite and prosecute transnational criminal organizations and the cartels.”But that was not how her opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, characterized her position on Sunday at a rally in Erie, Pa., where he made a false accusation against Ms. Harris that seemed intended to play on the fears and traumas of voters in communities that have been ravaged by fentanyl.“She even wants to legalize fentanyl,” Mr. Trump said during a speech that stretched for 109 minutes. It was the second straight day that Mr. Trump had amplified the same false claim about Ms. Harris; he did so on Saturday in Wisconsin.The former president did not offer context for his remarks, but his campaign pointed to an American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire that Ms. Harris had filled out in 2019 during her unsuccessful candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.A question asking if Ms. Harris supported the decriminalization at the federal level of all drug possession for personal use appeared to be checked “yes.” Ms. Harris wrote that it was “long past time that we changed our outdated and discriminatory criminalization of marijuana” and said that she favored treating drug addiction as a public health issue, focusing on rehabilitation instead of incarceration.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