Washington DC

Subterms

    More stories

    • 163 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Promise and excitement turn to jitters and dread at Kamala Harris’s watch party

      by

      In the end, Kamala Harris never took the stage at her election night watch party on the Howard University campus in Washington DC. As Americans appeared poised to return Donald Trump to power, it was her campaign co-chair, Cedric Richmond, who appeared instead.He tried to strike a note of optimism – there were still votes to be counted. But the scene had echoes of Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016, when her campaign chairman, not the candidate, came out to address her election night supporters – women and girls awaiting a result that many hoped would finally shatter the “hardest, highest” glass ceiling. Eight years later, they are still waiting.Richmond told a dispersing crowd that they would not be hearing from the vice-president on election night after all. But he pledged she would return to campus to address supporter – and the nation – on Wednesday.“We still have votes to count,” he said. “We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted, that every voice has spoken.”The evening had begun with promise. Doreen Hogans, 50, arrived at Harris’s election night watch party at Howard University on Tuesday evening filled with cautious optimism. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled a string of pearls that had belonged to her late mother. She considered how her mother might feel that the nation’s first female and first Black female vice-president was on the cusp of history.“She would have been so proud,” Hogans said, her eyes glistening, letting herself imagine Harris, and her signature pearls, ascend to the presidency. She took a deep breath, pocketed the necklace and merged into the crowd of Democrats assembled on the Yard.View image in fullscreenHarris’s supporters were hopeful. The music pulsed. Members of Harris’s AKA sorority, wearing pink and green, danced together. Michele Fuller, who attended Howard at the same time as Harris, rushed into the event with a friend. “It feels unbelievable,” she said, who helped canvas for Harris in Pennsylvania.“She’s just done so great,” she said. “And she’s more than qualified. I’m just so excited.”All around her, students and supporters filled the lawn around the stage set for Harris to speak. Supporters danced as the music pulsed. “If you’re ready to make Black history, talk to me,” the DJ called out.For the past 108 days since Harris’s sudden ascent to the top of the Democratic ticket, she has carried the fears of tens of millions of Americans deeply afraid of a second Trump presidency. The stakes were high, she acknowledged, agreeing at one point that her opponent met the definition of a fascist, but she promised a future unbound by the fear and anxiety of the Trump era. “It doesn’t have to be this way,” Harris said, in her closing argument last week.Her audaciously joyful campaign unleashed a wave of pent-up excitement among Democratic-leaning voters, especially women. She had raised a billion dollars. She has centered abortion rights, framing it as a matter of bodily autonomy. She attracted high-energy crowds and endorsements from the planet’s biggest stars. And yet the race remained exceedingly, nail-bitingly close.As Donald Trump began to carve out an expected early lead on Tuesday evening, jitters set in. But this was a crowd predisposed to anxiety.View image in fullscreenIn the shadow of Clinton’s 2016 loss – an upset that stunned the scores of women who had assembled at her glass-ceilinged election night party in New York and covered the grave of Susan B Anthony in “I Voted” stickers – few Democrats allowed themselves to feel anything more than “nauseously optimistic” about Harris’s prospects.Rhonda Greene, 55, of Virginia, said she woke up on the Wednesday morning after the 2016 election confident the US had elected Hillary Clinton. “Then I looked at the TV and I was in a state of shock – for at least a week,” she said. “I can’t even imagine. I won’t even allow my mind to go there.”After all, so much has changed since then. Trump’s presidency sparked an extraordinary backlash and women marched en masse across the country. Democratic-leaning women ran for office in record numbers – and many of them won. And then the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, igniting women of all ideological persuasions. Fury over the loss of federal abortion rights again helped power Democrats fend off a red wave in 2022, and saw conservative states act to protect access. Harris’s candidacy, while unexpected, seemed like the natural progression.“To see a woman become president, I’m like, I can do anything after that,” said Chelsea Chambers, a sophomore at Howard, arriving at the Yard, where the Frederick Douglas Memorial Hall was illuminated and the stage set for the vice president to speak.But perhaps a lesson from 2016: there were no flashy displays of confidence at Harris’s election night party. No glass ceiling – it was outdoors at her alma mater, the place where she won her first election, freshman class representative of the Liberal Arts Student Council. Many Howard students and alumni were in attendance to support Harris, who would be the first president to have graduated from an HBCU – Historically Black Colleges and Universities.As the evening wore on, the crowd celebrated the handful of bright spots. Angela Alsobrooks was elected to be the first Black woman senator to represent Maryland. Cheers rang out when Harris won her home state of California, hardly a surprise, but it raised her electoral vote tally, 145 to Trump’s 211.But the night quickly swung from celebration to dread. Attendees began refreshing their phones, staring at a probability needle that increasingly pointed toward a Trump victory.The loss of North Carolina – the first of the seven battleground states to be called for Trump – stung, but there was hardly any reaction from the crowd – just nervous sighs and scattered groans.As the mood darkened and the campaign eventually switched the sound of the TVs off and music began to play, 2Pac’s California Love came on. But the vibes were off. Many attendees began to leave, while others debated whether to stay and hear from the vice-president herself.In the rush toward the exit, Janay Smith, 55 and an alumna of Howard who flew in from Atlanta, said she had not yet given up hope. The blue wall states had not been called yet and that was always what the Harris campaign saw as its clearest path to victory.But Harris had framed the election as an existential choice for the future of the country. And in the choice between electing the first female president and returning to power the former president, whose attempts to cling to power in 2020 led to an insurrection at the US Capitol and who would be the first convicted felon commander in chief, American chose him, again.“I am a bit let down by my nation that is even this close,” Smith said.Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage

      Trump wins key swing states

      Abortion ballot measure results by state

      Republicans retake control of the Senate

      Senate, House and governor results More

    • 163 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      Black voters gather at DC hotspots to await results: ‘It’s a historic moment’

      by

      On Tuesday evening, Black voters milled about Washington DC as they awaited election results. Most voters had cast ballots for Kamala Harris and were excited that a Black woman might become president for the first time. It was a milestone that some didn’t believe that they would witness in their lifetimes.At a watch party at Busboys and Poets, a cultural hub and restaurant, the mood was similar to a New Year’s Eve celebration, with people listening to television pundits discuss the election and socializing with family and friends.View image in fullscreenFor Latoiya Bates, a 49-year-old Georgia resident, it was important to be among Black community on election night. Casting her ballot for Harris was an emotional moment for her. She voted with tears in her eyes and said she was excited due to Harris’s support of reproductive rights and democracy. “It’s a historic moment.”“There’s been so much change in the world,” Bates said, acknowledging the political power of Black women who she said had started a movement. “When she wins, part of her speech should be: ‘We did it. We made America great again.’”Others around the city said that they were concerned about the potential for political violence if Donald Trump loses the election, referencing the January 6 insurrection. “I don’t think that people are going quietly into the night and I also don’t think that it will be a smooth transition,” Dionna La’Fay said outside the White House at Lafayette Square. A 36-year-old Michigan resident who is moving to DC, La’Fay said that she went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture and tried to ground herself in the knowledge of Black resilience throughout the day. While she expects violence, she didn’t see it as any different than other tribulations that Black Americans have endured throughout history: “I am not afraid.”View image in fullscreenBlack voters, who account for 14% of the electorate, are expected to vote for Harris in droves. In a survey of Black Americans in all 50 states by the thinktank Black Futures Lab, 71% of respondents said that they trusted Harris and distrusted Trump, compared with 5% who said the opposite. According to a Black Voter Project survey of more than 1,000 Black Americans, Black support for Harris is at 84%, compared with 13% for Trump.The scene outside Lafayette Square in the early evening was cacophonous, with people blasting music and making speeches. One person strummed an acoustic guitar behind pro-Harris signs, while another person biked around blaring rock music as they hauled a small trailer with Trump signs behind them. Metal fencing surrounded the square in anticipation of post-election unrest.View image in fullscreenMamadou, a 31-year-old Washington DC resident from Guinea, walked around the square with friends. He said that he didn’t vote at all because “I don’t know much about that lady and I didn’t want to vote for someone I don’t know at all”. He also didn’t want to vote for Trump for fear of his draconian immigration policies. Otherwise, Mamadou said, he was supportive of Trump while he was in office, because he believes that Trump “loves the country”.Samson Meche, a 35-year-old biotech research associate, traveled to DC from San Diego to watch the election results. He had cast a mail-in ballot for Harris several weeks ago because he believes that she’s more empathetic than Trump, whom he called a “salesman”. Meche is hopeful that Harris will fight for Palestinian liberation in the future and will soon help end Israel’s war on Gaza, he said. “She’s looking out for me,” Meche said. “Since she is one of us, she’s more of the normal social status. She went from the middle class to a more educated person and she can relate to us better than someone who thinks of himself as an elite.”View image in fullscreenLater in the evening, at the Busboys and Poets watch party, Josh Johnson, a Howard alumnus, felt confident that Harris, a fellow alumna, would win. “It’s exciting to see how far she’s come,” Johnson said. He said that he cast a ballot for Harris because “I’m standing up for my rights as an American. It’s not just about me, it’s about the people I care about.”View image in fullscreenJohnson’s partner, Jackson Burnett, also voted for Harris because he supports her policies and is excited to see what she does for the country. “She’s very much for the people, and for the American population, no matter what race, gender,” Burnett said. He also wanted to be among community on election night to celebrate with everyone, Burnett added, “whether good or bad, just making sure that we come together … and figure out next steps”.“I really hope that after this election,” Johnson said, “that we can move forward to not have the same type of [hateful] rhetoric.”Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage

      When will we know the result?

      Abortion ballot measure results by state

      Senate, House and governor results

      Everything you need to know More

    • 150 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      Brian Bingham, a Veteran, Is Convicted of Assaulting Officer at Capitol Riot

      by

      Brian Glenn Bingham, of New Jersey, hit an officer in the face as the police tried to clear rioters from the building on Jan. 6, 2021, a jury found.On Monday, the eve of this year’s presidential election, a New Jersey man was convicted of assaulting a law enforcement officer as part of the mob of Donald J. Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.A jury in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., found the man, Brian Glenn Bingham, of Pennsville, N.J., guilty of the felony offenses of assaulting, resisting or impeding a police officer and civil disorder, and several misdemeanors, prosecutors said.As part of his defense, court records show, Mr. Bingham argued that his actions were colored by the fact that he had been nearby around the time that a Capitol Police lieutenant fatally shot a woman named Ashli Babbitt as she tried to vault through a window near the House Chamber at the Capitol.Mr. Bingham, a 36-year-old Army veteran, is scheduled to be sentenced in February. Kevin A. Tate, a federal public defender representing him, said Mr. Bingham was “disappointed by the verdict and intends to appeal.”Mr. Bingham is among more than 1,532 people who have been criminally charged in connection with the riot, and among more than 571 who have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement officers, according to the Justice Department. He and other supporters of Mr. Trump stormed the Capitol in a bid to prevent the certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. The investigation into the day’s events is continuing.Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee in this year’s presidential election, was charged with three conspiracy counts arising from the riot. He has pleaded not guilty, and a federal judge will ultimately determine which parts of the indictment should survive under a landmark Supreme Court ruling from July that gives presidents immunity from prosecution for certain official acts while in office.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

    • 150 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

      At Women’s March in Washington, Hope That They Will Hold Off Trump

      by

      Nearly eight years after the first Women’s March in Washington demonstrated a furious backlash to the election of Donald J. Trump, thousands of women gathered again in the capital and across the country on Saturday, this time with the hope that Vice President Kamala Harris would triumph at the polls and prevent his return to the White House.The rally and march, taking place three days before the election, was much smaller than the original in 2017 that drew at least 470,000 people — three times the number of people who had attended Mr. Trump’s inauguration the day before. But the mood was far more optimistic, if also somewhat combative.The rally at Freedom Plaza was primarily focused on threats to women’s reproductive rights and other liberties.Cheriss May for The New York Times“We will not go back!” was the rallying cry on Saturday, echoing what has become a signature line for Ms. Harris on the campaign trail. While the march was primarily focused on threats to women’s reproductive rights and other liberties, speakers and signs expressed support for a wide array of Democratic and progressive policy positions. Those included gun control, transgender rights and support for Palestinians. The speakers also urged people to vote, and to take others to vote, although many people in the crowd said they had already cast a ballot for Ms. Harris.“I just hope that all these people — not just women, but men — convince a few people to vote and vote the way we want them. Vote for democracy and our rights, reproductive rights,” said Janice Wolbrink, 69.Ms. Wolbrink was joined by her two sisters, each carrying a bright pink sign that read, “Now you’ve pissed-off Grandma.” Together, the three of them had 24 grandchildren.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

    • 138 Shares129 Views

      in Elections

      North Korea, in the Spotlight Over Ukraine, Launches a Long-Range Missile

      by

      The launch, into waters west of Japan, came shortly after the United States and South Korea criticized the North for sending troops to join Russia’s war. North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile off its east coast on Thursday, South Korean defense officials said, shortly after the United States and South Korea condemned the country for deploying troops near Ukraine to join Russia’s war effort.The missile was fired from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, at a deliberately steep angle so that it reached an unusually high altitude but did not fly over Japan, the South Korean military said in a brief statement. The missile landed in waters between North Korea and Japan.The military said it was analyzing data to learn more about the missile, but that it believed it was an ICBM. North Korea last tested a long-range missile​ in December, when it test-fired its solid-fueled Hwasong-18 ICBM.The launch on Thursday was the North’s first major weapons test since September, when it fired a new type of Hwasong-11 short-range ballistic missile, which it said could carry a “super-large” conventional warhead weighing 4.5 tons.On Wednesday, South Korean defense intelligence officials told lawmakers that North Korea might conduct long-range missile tests before the American presidential election next week. They also said that the North was preparing to conduct its seventh underground nuclear test, in a bid to raise tensions and gain diplomatic leverage with the next U.S. president. North Korea conducted its last nuclear test in 2017.In recent weeks, North Korea has posed a fresh security challenge to Washington and its allies by sending an estimated 11,000 troops to Russia to fight in its war against Ukraine. Thousands of them, outfitted with Russian uniforms and equipment, have moved closer to the front lines, preparing themselves for possible battle against Ukrainian troops, South Korean and American officials 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

    • 150 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      The change agent v the tyrant: Harris’s big speech focuses on Trump

      by

      Whither the politics of joy? Kamala Harris’s solid if unspectacular closing argument for why she should be elected US president was not about Kamala Harris. It was first and foremost about Donald Trump.The Democratic nominee’s big speech in Washington mentioned Trump by name 24 times and Joe Biden only once. It confirmed that, even when Trump is not commander-in-chief, he still commands the American psyche.A week before election day, Harris chose her venue carefully: the Ellipse, a park just south of the White House. Trump “stood at this very spot nearly four years ago”, she noted, adding that he sent an armed mob to the US Capitol to overturn his 2020 election defeat.A very different, more diverse, larger crowd – some estimated 75,000 – gathered here on Tuesday, basking in unseasonal afternoon heat, wrapping against an evening chill. They waved “USA” signs and the stars and stripes and wore wristbands glowing blue or red. They chanted “Kamala! Kamala!” and “We’re not going back!” They were surrounded by great symbols of the republic: the Washington monument, the Jefferson memorial, the White House itself.Speaking at a lectern behind protective glass, Harris went on to warn of Trump’s enemies list and intention to turn the military against those who disagree with him. “This is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better,” she said. “This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and out for unchecked power.”The vice-president went on to sketch out some of her own biography as a prosecutor and law enforcement officer fighting for the people. Yet somehow the argument again came back to the Republican nominee. “On day one, if elected, Donald Trump would walk into that office with an enemies list,” she said. “When elected, I will walk in with a to-do list.”It was a far cry from the start of the Harris candidacy, which launched with joyous euphoria and her running mate Tim Walz branding Trump and his allies “weird”. That felt like a refreshing tonic after years of anxiety and misery in the Trump era. At the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia, speaker after speaker mocked Trump and made him seem small (Barack Obama even parodied his manhood).View image in fullscreenNotably, even then, Harris began to adopt a more serious tone about the threat he poses, and in recent weeks she embraced former Trump officials’ use of “fascist” to underline his authoritarian ambitions, though she did not deploy that word here. His rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday, and its echoes of a pro-Nazi rally that took place there in 1939, provided more fodder.There is some political logic to this choice: make the election a referendum on Trump rather than Harris; make him seem like the incumbent and Harris the change agent. “It is time to turn the page on the drama and conflict, the fear and division,” she said. “It is time for a new generation of leadership in America.”That would explain why she has sought to distance herself from Biden and is reportedly brushing off his offers to campaign for her. Although her Tuesday rally in Washington was Bidenesque in its dire warnings about the Trump threat, it used the president’s favoured word, “democracy”, only once. Instead, the word “freedom” was spelled out on three giant blue banners, along with “USA”.Some Democrats are also eager for Harris to separate herself from Biden on the issue of the war in Gaza. A protester was led away shouting: “Stop arming Israel! Arms embargo now!” But Harris did not throw a bone to the peace movement during her remarks.Whereas Biden used to tout job growth and economic good news, Harris again offered some practical promises: tax cuts for working people and the middle class, the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on groceries, a cap on the price of insulin and help for first-time home buyers.These were important things that ought to win votes. But they were not accompanied by a grand vision. Mario Cuomo’s old adage was campaign in poetry, govern in prose, but there was not a great deal of soaring rhetoric in Harris’s address. A decade of Trump had been bad for the soul.The vice-president did deliver a memorable image towards the end, however, recalling how, nearly 250 years, America wrested itself free from a petty tyrant (British monarch George III) and how generations of Americans have preserved that freedom. “They did not struggle, sacrifice and lay down their lives, only to see us cede our fundamental freedoms, only to see us submit to the will of another petty tyrant,” she said. “The United States of America is not a vessel for the schemes of wannabe dictators.”Then, from fear, a pivot to hope: “The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised. A nation big enough to encompass all our dreams. Strong enough to withstand any fracture or fissure between us. And fearless enough to imagine a future of possibilities.”Doug Emhoff joined Harris on stage with a hug and a kiss as the crowd cheered. Next Tuesday, they will be back in Washington for the most nail-biting presidential election since George W Bush v Al Gore in 2000. They will be hoping this Democratic vice-president fares better than Gore did. A wafer-thin margin of a few thousand votes in a swing state or two may determine whether Harris’s closing argument looks like strategic genius or a catastrophic miscalculation.She told the crowd: “Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That’s who he is. But America, I am here tonight to say: that’s not who we are.”The phrase “this is not who we are” has been used often in the Trump era. Sometimes the evidence says otherwise. Next week, the country will find out who we really are. More