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  • Five things to know about the Affordable Care Act enhanced subsidies

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    The cost of health insurance is set to surge for millions of Americans under the Affordable Care Act at the start of the new year without the extension of expanded tax credits.The expanded subsidies were at the center of the 42-day government shutdown that ended in November. Now just days away from the new year, premiums are set to increase without an extension or resolution from Congress.The Get the Facts Data Team analyzed and aggregated statistics to know ahead of the rise in premiums in the new year.Premiums could rise on average 114%Premiums would more than double if the tax subsidies were to expire, according to an analysis from KFF. In addition to the potential ending of the subsidies, insurance rates are projected to rise across marketplace plans and employer-provided insurance.A one-person household with an annual income of $25,000 – a little more than 1.5 times the federal poverty level – is estimated to go from paying a maximum $100 out of pocket annually to $1,168.They would pay a maximum of less than $98 a month — 10 times more than the previous payment of less than $9 a month.The interactive below shows how the maximum out-of-pocket rates for benchmark plans may change if expanded subsidies expire for one, two and four-person households at various incomes. Estimates were calculated using maximum out-of-pocket rates from KFF published by the IRS, along with 2025 federal poverty level data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the 48 contiguous states plus D.C.The tool is not intended to calculate an individual’s actual payments. Healthcare.gov and other state marketplaces are the best source for specific premium costs.People closer to retirement age or with higher incomes could see the largest impactOnce the expanded tax credits expire at the end of this year, the out-of-pocket maximums will increase across the board, and people making above four times the poverty level will become ineligible for any tax credits.More than 6.7% of those who were enrolled in ACA plans earned more than 400% of the federal poverty level, accounting for 1.6 million people. Once the subsidies expire, these enrollees would no longer qualify for the subsidies under the ACA.Also heavily impacted are people approaching retirement age. The age group with the highest enrollment in marketplace plans is ages 55 to 64, data shows.KFF estimated in March that about half the enrollees who would lose the tax credit upon expiration are between 50 and 64.Premiums for individuals closer to retirement age and making more than 400% of the federal poverty level would also increase more compared to younger enrollees. Take a 30-year-old, a 45-year-old, and a 60-year-old earning $62,756 in a single household – 401% of the poverty level.Without the tax credits, the 30-year-old would see a $110 jump in the monthly premium for a silver plan, according to KFF’s ACA Enhanced Premium Tax Credit calculator. The 60-year-old would see an $881-per-month increase without the enhanced subsidies.24 million people are enrolled in plans under the Affordable Care ActThe subsidies are utilized by about 92% of the 24 million people enrolled in marketplace plans under the ACA, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.These expanded credits allow households of different sizes and income levels to be capped with maximum out-of-pocket costs.From 2020 to 2025, enrollment more than doubled as a result of expanded tax credits in the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, which increased the subsidies and lifted a cap that disqualified people making four times the poverty level or more from being eligible for the subsidies.Under 2025 guidelines for the 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the federal poverty level is $15,650 for a one-person household. At 400%, it’s $62,600.Six states have more than tripled in ACA enrollees since 2020There was a widespread increase in enrollment across states in the past five years.The six states that have more than tripled in enrollees since 2020 are Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. There were 14 states that more than doubled in enrollment. Just three places — including Washington, D.C. — declined in enrollment, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.Expired subsidies take effect Jan. 1Even though new insurance premiums would take effect in the new year, a retroactive extension could be passed in 2026.However, it would be complicated and would continue to grow more complicated over time, according to KFF. More enrollees may drop insurance in the meantime. In a KFF survey, a quarter of enrollees indicated they would go without health insurance if the cost of current coverage doubled. About a third said they’d look for a lower premium plan.PHNjcmlwdCB0eXBlPSJ0ZXh0L2phdmFzY3JpcHQiPiFmdW5jdGlvbigpeyJ1c2Ugc3RyaWN0Ijt3aW5kb3cuYWRkRXZlbnRMaXN0ZW5lcigibWVzc2FnZSIsKGZ1bmN0aW9uKGUpe2lmKHZvaWQgMCE9PWUuZGF0YVsiZGF0YXdyYXBwZXItaGVpZ2h0Il0pe3ZhciB0PWRvY3VtZW50LnF1ZXJ5U2VsZWN0b3JBbGwoImlmcmFtZSIpO2Zvcih2YXIgYSBpbiBlLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdKWZvcih2YXIgcj0wO3I8dC5sZW5ndGg7cisrKXtpZih0W3JdLmNvbnRlbnRXaW5kb3c9PT1lLnNvdXJjZSl0W3JdLnN0eWxlLmhlaWdodD1lLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdW2FdKyJweCJ9fX0pKX0oKTs8L3NjcmlwdD4=

    WASHINGTON —

    The cost of health insurance is set to surge for millions of Americans under the Affordable Care Act at the start of the new year without the extension of expanded tax credits.

    The expanded subsidies were at the center of the 42-day government shutdown that ended in November. Now just days away from the new year, premiums are set to increase without an extension or resolution from Congress.

    The Get the Facts Data Team analyzed and aggregated statistics to know ahead of the rise in premiums in the new year.

    Premiums could rise on average 114%

    Premiums would more than double if the tax subsidies were to expire, according to an analysis from KFF.

    In addition to the potential ending of the subsidies, insurance rates are projected to rise across marketplace plans and employer-provided insurance.

    A one-person household with an annual income of $25,000 – a little more than 1.5 times the federal poverty level – is estimated to go from paying a maximum $100 out of pocket annually to $1,168.

    They would pay a maximum of less than $98 a month — 10 times more than the previous payment of less than $9 a month.

    The interactive below shows how the maximum out-of-pocket rates for benchmark plans may change if expanded subsidies expire for one, two and four-person households at various incomes. Estimates were calculated using maximum out-of-pocket rates from KFF published by the IRS, along with 2025 federal poverty level data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the 48 contiguous states plus D.C.

    The tool is not intended to calculate an individual’s actual payments. Healthcare.gov and other state marketplaces are the best source for specific premium costs.

    People closer to retirement age or with higher incomes could see the largest impact

    Once the expanded tax credits expire at the end of this year, the out-of-pocket maximums will increase across the board, and people making above four times the poverty level will become ineligible for any tax credits.

    More than 6.7% of those who were enrolled in ACA plans earned more than 400% of the federal poverty level, accounting for 1.6 million people. Once the subsidies expire, these enrollees would no longer qualify for the subsidies under the ACA.

    Also heavily impacted are people approaching retirement age. The age group with the highest enrollment in marketplace plans is ages 55 to 64, data shows.

    KFF estimated in March that about half the enrollees who would lose the tax credit upon expiration are between 50 and 64.

    Premiums for individuals closer to retirement age and making more than 400% of the federal poverty level would also increase more compared to younger enrollees. Take a 30-year-old, a 45-year-old, and a 60-year-old earning $62,756 in a single household – 401% of the poverty level.

    Without the tax credits, the 30-year-old would see a $110 jump in the monthly premium for a silver plan, according to KFF’s ACA Enhanced Premium Tax Credit calculator.

    The 60-year-old would see an $881-per-month increase without the enhanced subsidies.

    24 million people are enrolled in plans under the Affordable Care Act

    The subsidies are utilized by about 92% of the 24 million people enrolled in marketplace plans under the ACA, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

    These expanded credits allow households of different sizes and income levels to be capped with maximum out-of-pocket costs.

    From 2020 to 2025, enrollment more than doubled as a result of expanded tax credits in the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, which increased the subsidies and lifted a cap that disqualified people making four times the poverty level or more from being eligible for the subsidies.

    Under 2025 guidelines for the 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the federal poverty level is $15,650 for a one-person household. At 400%, it’s $62,600.

    Six states have more than tripled in ACA enrollees since 2020

    There was a widespread increase in enrollment across states in the past five years.

    The six states that have more than tripled in enrollees since 2020 are Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. There were 14 states that more than doubled in enrollment.

    Just three places — including Washington, D.C. — declined in enrollment, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

    Expired subsidies take effect Jan. 1

    Even though new insurance premiums would take effect in the new year, a retroactive extension could be passed in 2026.

    However, it would be complicated and would continue to grow more complicated over time, according to KFF.

    More enrollees may drop insurance in the meantime. In a KFF survey, a quarter of enrollees indicated they would go without health insurance if the cost of current coverage doubled. About a third said they’d look for a lower premium plan.

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  • Democrats Hand The Administration Another Win With Cannabis

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    Democrats hand the administration a huge cannabis win due to their inability to understand voters 

    For more than a decade, cannabis reform has stood out as one of the few political issues with overwhelming bipartisan support. Recent surveys show nearly 88% of Americans are open to expanded legalization or meaningful reform, including rescheduling marijuana under federal law. Yet despite controlling the White House during critical moments, it seems the Democrats hand the administration another win with cannabis, allowing the current President to have another landmark victory. That failure now risks becoming another durable point of contrast credited to this administration, while reinforcing a broader pattern of Democratic miscalculation.

    RELATED: What Does Cannabis Rescheduling Mean

    Cannabis reform once appeared to be an inevitable Democratic victory. Under President Barack Obama, federal enforcement softened in tone, but marijuana remained classified as a Schedule I drug—grouped alongside heroin and defined as having “no accepted medical use.” While states rapidly legalized medical and adult-use cannabis, the Obama administration chose to manage the contradiction rather than resolve it. Executive authority existed, but it went unused.

    The same hesitation carried into the Biden era. President Joe Biden campaigned on acknowledging the failures of the drug war and the need for reform, yet once in office, decisive action stalled. Reviews were ordered, agencies were consulted, and timelines stretched. What could have been a clear, popular, legacy-defining achievement—rescheduling cannabis—was instead delayed into political limbo. The moment narrowed, then passed. This lead some in the industry to see it was just an election tool with no real support, despite public opinion.

    The cost of the delay is not merely policy-based; it is political. In today’s environment, contrast matters. By failing to deliver a concrete, broadly supported reform, Democrats allowed Trump to position himself again—however imperfectly—as more open to change through a states’ rights framework. Even symbolic momentum can define a win, and Democrats surrendered the narrative space.

    This failure mirrors a recurring pattern within the Democratic National Committee. Time and again, leadership has struggled to translate clear public opinion into federal action, particularly on issues where Washington caution collides with voter urgency.  Often ignoring mainstream businesses, issues and concerns, the DNC focuses on “beltway buzz” rather than voters. The collapse of support from rural areas so how far away DNC leadership is away from the electorate. Cannabis reform, supported across age groups, regions, and party lines, should have been an exception. Instead, it became another example of internal hesitation and indifference overriding external consensus and popular support.

    That disconnect is now reflected in the numbers: the DNC and congressional Democrats are registering historically low approval ratings in the most recent Quinnipiac poll, underscoring growing voter frustration with inaction on widely supported issues.

    The disconnect is further underscored by the actions of party leaders, especially Senator Chuck Schumer and Cory Booker. Both have spent years presenting themselves as champions of cannabis reform, unveiling sweeping legalization proposals and high-profile press events meant to demonstrate urgency and moral clarity. Yet with rescheduling still unresolved, those efforts now risk appearing performative rather than effective.

    RELATED: Who Is Rep. Andy Harris And Why Does He Hate Cannabis

    By attempting to lead with comprehensive, all-or-nothing legislation, Schumer and Booker arguably misread the political moment. While full legalization remains a worthy goal, rescheduling was achievable, popular, and immediately meaningful. Securing that step first would have delivered tangible relief to businesses, patients, and workers. Instead, the emphasis on symbolism over sequencing allowed momentum to dissipate.

    For everyday Americans and the thousands of mom and pop industry businesses, the consequences remain concrete. Legal cannabis businesses are still locked out of banking. Patients face conflicting laws. Workers remain vulnerable to outdated federal classifications. These are not failures of public will, but of political execution.

    In the end, cannabis rescheduling stands as a cautionary tale. Democrats had public support, executive authority, and time. By inaction, they lost a clear win—and reinforced a growing perception the party too often listens last to voters who are increasingly disenfranchised with the party.

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    Terry Hacienda

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  • Trump pushes hard against Mamdani as New Yorkers select a mayor

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    NEW YORK — Voters were casting ballots in high-stakes elections on both coasts Tuesday, including for mayor of New York, new congressional maps in California and governor in both New Jersey and Virginia, states whose shifting electorates could signal the direction of the nation’s political winds.

    For voters and political watchers alike, the races have taken on huge importance at a time of tense political division, when Democrats and Republicans are sharply divided over the direction of the nation. Despite President Trump not appearing on any ballots, some viewed Tuesday’s races as a referendum on him and his volatile second term in the White House.

    In New York, self-described democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, 34, was favored to win the mayoral race after winning the Democratic ranked-choice mayoral primary in June. Such a result would shake up the Democratic establishment and rile Republicans in near equal measure, serving as a rejection of both former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a more establishment Democrat and Mamdani’s leading opponent, and Trump, who has warned that a Mamdani win would destroy the city.

    On election eve, Trump warned that a Mamdani win would disrupt the flow of federal dollars to the city and took the dramatic step of endorsing Cuomo over Curtis Sliwa, the Republican in the race.

    “If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the Election for Mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home, because of the fact that, as a Communist, this once great City has ZERO chance of success, or even survival!” Trump wrote Monday on his social media platform.

    A vote for Sliwa “is a vote for Mamdani,” the president added. “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!”

    Mamdani, a Ugandan-born naturalized U.S. citizen and New York state assemblyman who defeated Cuomo in the primary, has promised a brighter day for New Yorkers with better public transportation, more affordable housing and high-quality child care if he wins. He has slammed billionaires and some of the city’s monied interests, which have lined up against him, and rejected the “grave political darkness” that he said is threatening the country under Trump.

    He also mocked Trump’s endorsement of Cuomo — calling the former governor Trump’s “puppet” and “parrot.”

    Samantha Marrero, a 35-year-old lifelong New Yorker, lined up with more than a dozen people Tuesday morning at her polling site in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood to cast her vote for Mamdani, whom she praised for embracing people of color, queer people and other communities marginalized by mainstream politicians.

    Marrero said that she cares deeply about housing insecurity and affordability in the city, but that it was also “really meaningful to have someone who is brown and who looks like us and who eats like us and who lives more like us than anyone we’ve ever seen before” on the ballot. “That representation is really important.”

    New York mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo speaks to reporters as he marks his ballot in New York on Nov. 4, 2025.

    (Richard Drew / Associated Press)

    And she said that’s a big part of why people across the country are watching the New York race.

    “We’re definitely a beacon in this kind of fascist takeover that is very clearly happening across the country,” she said. “People in other states and other cities and other countries have their eyes on what’s happening here. Obviously Mamdani is doing something right. And together we can do something right. But it has to be together.”

    Elsewhere on the East Coast, voters were electing governors in Virginia and New Jersey, races that have also drawn the president’s attention.

    In the New Jersey race, Trump has backed the Republican candidate, former state Rep. Jack Ciattarelli, over the Democratic candidate, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, whom former President Obama recently stumped for. Long a blue state, New Jersey has been shifting to the right, and polls have shown a tight race.

    In the Virginia race, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a 46-year-old former CIA officer, defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, according to an Associated Press projection.

    Trump had not endorsed Earle-Sears by name, but called on Virginians to “vote Republican” and to reject Democratic candidate Spanberger, whom Obama has also supported.

    “Why would anyone vote for New Jersey and Virginia Gubernatorial Candidates, Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, when they want transgender for everybody, men playing in women’s sports, High Crime, and the most expensive Energy prices almost anywhere in the World?” Trump recently wrote on his social media site, repeating some of his favorite partisan attacks on Democrats from the presidential campaign trail last year.

    At a rally for Spanberger in Norfolk, Va., over the weekend, Obama put the race in equally stark terms: as part of a battle for American democracy.

    “We don’t need to speculate about the dangers to our democracy. We don’t need to wonder about whether vulnerable people are going to be hurt, or ask ourselves how much more coarse and mean our culture can become. We’ve witnessed it. Elections do matter,” Obama said. “We all have more power than we think. We just have to use it.”

    Voting was underway in the states, but with some disruptions. Bomb threats disrupted voting in parts of New Jersey early Tuesday, temporarily shutting down a string of polling locations across the state before law enforcement determined they were hoaxes.

    In California, voters were being asked to change the state Constitution to allow Democrats to redraw congressional maps in their favor through 2030, in order to counter similar moves by Republicans in red states such as Texas.

    Leading Democrats, including Obama and Gov. Gavin Newsom, have described the measure as an effort to safeguard American democracy against a power grab by Trump, who had encouraged the red states to act, while opponents of the measure have derided it as an antidemocratic power grab by state Democrats.

    Trump has urged California voters against casting ballots by mail or voting early, arguing such practices are somehow “dishonest,” and on Tuesday morning suggested on his social media site that Proposition 50 was unconstitutional.

    “The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED,” Trump wrote, without providing evidence of problems. “All ‘Mail-In’ Ballots, where the Republicans in that State are ‘Shut Out,’ is under very serious legal and criminal review. STAY TUNED!”

    Both individually and collectively, the races are being closely watched as potential indicators of political sentiment and enthusiasm going into next year’s midterm elections, and of Democrats’ ability to get voters back to the polls after Trump’s decisive win over former Vice President Kamala Harris last year.

    Voters too saw the races as having particularly large stakes at a pivotal moment for the country.

    Michelle Kim, 32, who has lived in the Greenpoint neighborhood for three years, stood in line at a polling site early Tuesday morning, waiting to cast her vote for Mamdani.

    Kim said she cares about transportation, land use and the rising cost of living in New York and appreciated Mamdani’s broader message that solutions are possible, even if not guaranteed.

    “My hope is not, like, ‘Oh, he’s gonna solve, like, all of our issues,’” she said. “But I think for him to be able to represent people and give hope, that’s also part of it.”

    Lin reported from New York and Rector from San Francisco. Times staff writer Jenny Jarvie in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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    Kevin Rector, Summer Lin

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  • Obama offers support to Mamdani: report

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    Former President Barack Obama told Zohran Mamdani that he was invested in the New York mayoral candidate’s success during a phone call Saturday, according to a report from The New York Times.

    Obama called Mamdani and they spoke for about 30 minutes, two people who were either on the call or were briefed about it told the outlet.

    Mamdani is leading in the polls over his rivals, former New York governor and independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

    During the call, Obama praised Mamdani’s campaign and offered to be a “sounding board” for the Democratic candidate. The pair also discussed Mamdani’s affordability agenda as well as hiring a new administration, according to the report.

    Newsweek has reached out to Mamdani’s press team and the Obama Foundation on behalf of the former president for comment via email on Saturday. 

    This is a breaking news story. Updates to come.

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  • Are the White House projects under Trump and Obama similar?

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    President Donald Trump demolished the White House’s East Wing, startling historic preservationists and drawing national ire on his way to building what he says will be a new 90,000-square-foot ballroom.

    Amid criticism of this projected $300 million project, Trump’s defenders are pointing to another White House renovation in recent memory to suggest the current outrage is unwarranted.

    “A CNN report from 2010: $376 million White House renovation during the Obama Administration,” read an Oct. 22 X post that shared a 25-second clip of a CNN news story. “Where was the Democrat outrage then?”

    “BREAKING,” read another X post that reshared the same video clip. “People are digging up a 2010 CNN clip showing Obama’s $376M White House makeover — all paid for by taxpayers. Meanwhile President Trump’s $250M ballroom is coming out of his own pocket.”

    Obama was president during a White House renovation. But differences between that project and Trump’s project are significant.

    Congress in 2008 approved funding for White House work after a government report produced  during President George W. Bush’s second term found the building needed upgrades to its water pipes and electrical systems, CNN reported in 2010. The changes improved heating, cooling, and fire alarm systems that hadn’t been updated since 1902 or 1934. 

    Bob Peck, then commissioner of the U.S. General Services Administration’s Public Buildings Service, told CNN in 2010 that the White House sometimes experienced power outages and leaky pipes. 

    Obama’s underground renovations affected mainly the building’s interior. 

    Separately, the Obamas in 2009 updated and redecorated the White House’s interior without using taxpayer money. The New York Times reported in 2020 that the White House’s new furnishings were paid for largely with Obama’s book royalties and donations. Obama also adapted the White House tennis court so it could be used as a basketball court. 

    Trump’s East Wing demolition and ballroom addition have not been approved by the federal agency that oversees federal building construction and renovations. Trump said the project aims to expand the East Wing’s seating capacity from 200 people to 999. 

    The White House originally said the project would cost $200 million, but Trump has since said it will be $300 million, funded by donations. Donors include individuals and corporations such as Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, The Washington Post reported.

    “It’s unprecedented, in all the wrong ways, including that the American public has been kept totally in the dark about the President’s plans,” said Sara Bronin, Freda H. Alverson professor of law at the George Washington University Law School.

    Priya Jain, chair of the Society of Architectural Historians’ Heritage Conservation Committee, pushed back against calling Trump’s project a renovation: “This project involves total destruction of a large part of the building,” she said.

    Obama’s era project covered renovations, Trump’s knocked down a whole wing

    The Obama-era renovation started in 2010 with an estimated $376 million cost to improve the East and West Wings’ infrastructure, CNN reported in 2010.

    Peck described the project as largely underground utility work. “It doesn’t do a whole lot of good to have a building that’s the sort of the image of the free world standing up there and not functioning well,” Peck told CNN when questioned about the cost. 

    Bloomberg News reported in 2010 that the Obama renovation was the biggest White House upgrade since President Harry Truman was in office. From 1948 to 1952, Truman oversaw the White House’s historic gutting, renovation and expansion in response to significant structural issues that at one point resulted in the leg of his daughter’s piano breaking through the floor.

    Trump’s project will be the first major exterior change of the White House in 83 years, historic preservationists say. 

    “Such a significant change to a historic building of this import should follow a rigorous and deliberate design and review process,” the Society of Architectural Historians said in an Oct. 16 statement.

    Since taking office a second time, Trump has also added gold highlights inside the Oval Office and paved over the Rose Garden lawn. The National Park Service oversaw the Rose Garden project.

    The presidents’ projects differ in federal agency approval

    At a September meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission —  the federal agency that oversees federal building construction and renovations — the Trump-appointed commission chair Will Scharf said the agency has no jurisdiction over “demolition and site preparation work,” only over construction and “vertical build.” The commission was expected to meet Nov. 6, but it’s unclear whether that will happen if the federal government shutdown continues. 

    PolitiFact looked at National Planning Commission’s Project Search for approval records of the Obama renovations, but the database doesn’t have records before Jan. 2012. We reached out to the commission to ask if they approved the 2010 renovations, but received no response because of their closure.

    The White House is exempt from Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, which says that each federal agency must consider public views and concerns about historic preservation when making final project decisions. Michael Spencer, an associate professor in the University of Mary Washington’s historic preservation department said presidents have nevertheless typically undertaken White House projects in the spirit of public transparency. The National Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts approved Trump’s first-term term tennis facility alterations, for example.

    “Most importantly none of these projects involved demolition of existing historic buildings,” Jain said.

    The East Colonnade and East Wing were built in 1902 and 1942, respectively, and, under National Park Service guidelines, should have been assessed for historic significance before being demolished, she said.

    PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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  • Justice Department Strips Jan. 6 References From Court Paper And Punishes Prosecutors Who Filed It – KXL

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has stripped references to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack from court papers and punished two federal prosecutors who filed the document seeking prison time at sentencing Thursday for a man arrested with guns and ammunition near former President Barack Obama’s home.

    The prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia were locked out of their government devices and told they were being put on leave Wednesday morning shortly after they filed a sentencing memorandum describing the crowd of President Donald Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol as a “mob of rioters,” according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel issues.

    Later Wednesday, the Justice Department replaced the court filing with an updated version that stripped references to the Jan. 6 riot. The new filing also no longer included a reference to the fact that Trump posted on social media what he claimed was Obama’s address on the same day that the defendant, Taylor Taranto, was arrested in the former president’s neighborhood.

    It’s the latest move by the Justice Department to discipline attorneys tied to the massive Jan. 6 prosecution and represents an extraordinary effort by the government to erase the history of the riot that left more than 100 police officers injured.

    Trump himself for years has worked to downplay the violence and paint as victims the rioters who stormed the Capitol and sent lawmakers running into hiding as they met to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory. Since Trump’s sweeping Jan. 6 pardons in January, his administration has fired or demoted numerous attorneys involved in the largest investigation in Justice Department history.

    The Justice Department declined to comment on Thursday.

    Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said her office would not comment on personnel decisions, but added: “We have and will continue to vigorously pursue justice against those who commit or threaten violence without regard to the political party of the offender or the target.”

    Judge praises punished prosecutors
    U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, praised the two prosecutors who were replaced on the case before he sentenced Taranto to the time he already has served in jail. Nichols said the prosecutors, Samuel White and Carlos Valdivia, did a “truly excellent job” and “upheld the highest standards of professionalism.” But neither the judge nor the new prosecutors addressed any reason for placing them on leave.

    The judge also said he intends to unseal prosecutors’ original sentencing memo unless they can justify in writing why it shouldn’t be made public again.

    Taranto served over 22 months in pretrial detention before he was released after the trial. Nichols sentenced him to 21 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

    Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of two years and three months. He was convicted in May for illegally possessing two guns and roughly 500 rounds of ammunition in Obama’s neighborhood in June 2023. Nichols also convicted Taranto of recording himself making a hoax threat to bomb a government building in Maryland.

    Riot defendant rejected plea deal
    The defense argued at trial that the video showed Taranto was merely joking in an “avant-garde” manner, and that he believes he is a “journalist and, to some extent, a comedian.” Defense attorney Carmen Hernandez said prosecutors charged him with a felony in the hoax case only after he rejected their offer to resolve the Jan. 6 charges with a guilty plea.

    Hernandez said Taranto believed he was expressing his First Amendment-protected rights to free speech when he was livestreaming his remarks about the government building in Maryland.

    “He believed he was expressing his dark sense of humor,” she added.

    Taranto, a Navy veteran from Pasco, Washington, was separately charged with four misdemeanors related to the Capitol attack before Trump’s sweeping clemency order erased his case. He was captured on video at the entrance of the Speaker’s Lobby in the House around the time that a rioter, Ashli Babbitt, was fatally shot by an officer as she tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door.

    No reason given for the punishment
    The prosecutors overseeing Taranto’s case were not told why they were being put on leave, the person familiar with the matter said. Two new prosecutors, including the office’s head of the criminal division, Jonthan Hornok, entered the case and submitted the new brief on Wednesday. ABC News first reported that the prosecutors had been placed on leave.

    After the sentencing, Hornock declined to explain why his office scrubbed any mention of Jan. 6 from its memo.

    Trump’s pardons in January released from prison people caught on camera viciously attacking police as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after his 2020 election loss. Those pardoned include more than 250 people who were convicted of assault charges, some having attacked police with makeshift weapons such as flagpoles, a hockey stick and a crutch.

    In January, then-acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the firings of about two dozen prosecutors who had been hired for temporary assignments to support the Jan. 6 cases, but were moved into permanent roles after Trump’s presidential win in November.

    And in June, the department fired two attorneys who worked as supervisors overseeing the Jan. 6 prosecutions in the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia, as well as a line attorney who prosecuted cases stemming from the Capitol attack.

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    Jordan Vawter

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  • ‘Democracy is on the ballot,’ Obama says, urging Californians to pass Prop. 50 in new ad

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    As Californians start voting on Democrats’ effort to boost their ranks in Congress, former President Barack Obama warned that democracy is in peril as he urged voters to support Proposition 50 in a television ad that started airing Tuesday.

    “California, the whole nation is counting on you,” Obama says in the 30-second ad, which the main pro-Proposition 50 campaign began broadcasting Tuesday across the state. The spot is part of a multimillion-dollar ad buy promoting the congressional redistricting ballot measure through the Nov. 4 election.

    Proposition 50 was spearheaded by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other California Democratic leaders this summer after President Trump urged GOP-led states, notably Texas, to redraw their congressional districts to boost the number of Republicans elected to the House in next year’s midterm election, in an effort to continue enacting his agenda during his final years in office.

    “Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years,” Obama says in the ad, which includes footage of ICE raids. “With Prop. 50, you can stop Republicans in their tracks. Prop. 50 puts our elections back on a level playing field, preserves independent redistricting over the long term, and lets the people decide. Return your ballot today.”

    Congressional districts were long drawn in smoke-filled chambers by partisans focused on protecting their parties’ power and incumbents. But good-government groups and elected officials, notably former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, have fought to take the drawing of congressional boundaries out of the hands of politicians to end gerrymandering and create more competitive districts.

    Obama, long a supporter of ending gerrymandering, had already endorsed the ballot measure.

    In California, these districts have been drawn by an independent commission created by voters in 2010, which is why state Democrats have to go to the ballot box to seek a mid-decade partisan redistricting that could improve their party’s chances in five of the state’s 52 congressional districts.

    The ad featuring Obama, who spoke Monday on comedian Marc Maron’s final podcast about Trump’s policies testing the nation’s values, appears on Californians’ televisions after mail ballots were sent to the state’s 23 million registered voters last week.

    The proposition’s prospects are uncertain — it’s about an obscure topic that few Californians know about, and off-year elections traditionally have low voter turnout. Still, more than $150 million has been contributed to the three main committees supporting and opposing the proposition, in addition to millions more funding other efforts.

    Obama is not the only famous person to appear in ads about Proposition 50.

    In September, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who championed the creation of the independent redistricting commission while in office and has campaigned for similar reforms across the nation since then, was featured in ads opposing the November ballot measure.

    He described Proposition 50 as favoring entrenched politicians instead of voters.

    “That’s what they want to do, is take us backwards. This is why it is important for you to vote no on Proposition 50,” the Hollywood celebrity and former governor says in the ad, which was filmed last month when he spoke to USC students. “The Constitution does not start with ‘We, the politicians.’ It starts with ‘We, the people.’ … Democracy — we’ve got to protect it, and we’ve got to go and fight for it.”

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  • ‘Disgusting, vile’: Leaders across the political spectrum react to fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk

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    Politicians and leaders are reacting to the fatal shooting of political activist Charlie Kirk during a speaking event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.Kirk, the 31-year-old co-founder and CEO of the youth organization Turning Point USA, is the latest victim of political violence across the United States.”The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” President Donald Trump posted on social media platform Truth Social. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”On X, Vice President JD Vance posted a screenshot of Trump’s post and added, “Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.”Former President Barack Obama responded on X as well, saying, “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said on X that he was being briefed. He later posted a tribute to Kirk, saying, “This murder was a cowardly act of violence, an attack on champions of freedom like Charlie, the students who gathered for civil debate, and all Americans who peacefully strive to save our nation.””The terrorists will not win. Charlie will,” he added.During a press conference at 6:30 p.m., he called it a “political assassination,” saying it is a “tragic day for our nation.”In Washington, Utah Sen. John Curtis told reporters, “This is my backyard. This is very, very personal because of that, and leaves a scar.”Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote on social media, “Once again, a bullet has silenced the most eloquent truth teller of an era.” He called Kirk a “relentless and courageous crusader for free speech.”Democratic politicians reactAfter the shooting but before Kirk’s death was confirmed, California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X, “The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.”On the same platform, Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wrote that political violence “should never become the norm.” Also among the leaders reacting was Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker whose husband was seriously injured at their California home in 2022 by a man wielding a hammer, who authorities said was a believer in conspiracy theories.Pelosi, a Democrat, posted that “the horrific shooting today at Utah Valley University is reprehensible. Political violence has absolutely no place in our nation.”Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat and potential national candidate, has firsthand experience with political violence. He and his family were evacuated from the governor’s mansion earlier this year after a man broke into the building and set a fire that caused significant damage.“We must speak with moral clarity,” Shapiro wrote on X. “The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrifying and this growing type of unconscionable violence cannot be allowed in our society.”Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey wrote on X, “Violence has no place in our politics — ever. What happened to Charlie Kirk is horrific and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms. The growth of political violence in our country must be stopped.”State politicians across the country have condemned the killing and the rise of political violence.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Politicians and leaders are reacting to the fatal shooting of political activist Charlie Kirk during a speaking event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

    Kirk, the 31-year-old co-founder and CEO of the youth organization Turning Point USA, is the latest victim of political violence across the United States.

    “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” President Donald Trump posted on social media platform Truth Social. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”

    On X, Vice President JD Vance posted a screenshot of Trump’s post and added, “Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.”

    Former President Barack Obama responded on X as well, saying, “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”

    Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said on X that he was being briefed. He later posted a tribute to Kirk, saying, “This murder was a cowardly act of violence, an attack on champions of freedom like Charlie, the students who gathered for civil debate, and all Americans who peacefully strive to save our nation.”

    “The terrorists will not win. Charlie will,” he added.

    During a press conference at 6:30 p.m., he called it a “political assassination,” saying it is a “tragic day for our nation.”

    In Washington, Utah Sen. John Curtis told reporters, “This is my backyard. This is very, very personal because of that, and leaves a scar.”

    Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote on social media, “Once again, a bullet has silenced the most eloquent truth teller of an era.” He called Kirk a “relentless and courageous crusader for free speech.”

    Democratic politicians react

    After the shooting but before Kirk’s death was confirmed, California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X, “The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.”

    On the same platform, Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wrote that political violence “should never become the norm.”

    Also among the leaders reacting was Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker whose husband was seriously injured at their California home in 2022 by a man wielding a hammer, who authorities said was a believer in conspiracy theories.

    Pelosi, a Democrat, posted that “the horrific shooting today at Utah Valley University is reprehensible. Political violence has absolutely no place in our nation.”

    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat and potential national candidate, has firsthand experience with political violence. He and his family were evacuated from the governor’s mansion earlier this year after a man broke into the building and set a fire that caused significant damage.

    “We must speak with moral clarity,” Shapiro wrote on X. “The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrifying and this growing type of unconscionable violence cannot be allowed in our society.”

    Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey wrote on X, “Violence has no place in our politics — ever. What happened to Charlie Kirk is horrific and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms. The growth of political violence in our country must be stopped.”

    State politicians across the country have condemned the killing and the rise of political violence.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • From Bernie Sanders to Theo Von: These Democratic Kingmakers Will Anoint the Next Obama

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    In some particularly tortured living rooms across America, people are playing a parlor game called Who Is the Next Democratic Leader? Its central premise is that someone will save Democrats specifically and democracy more generally. Maybe that’s true, maybe another Obama will spring from the head of Zeus fully formed and serving in the Senate, or maybe it will be a big messy primary à la 2016 or 2020.

    But before asking who the next leader of the party is or will be, it helps to ask who are today’s Democratic kingmakers who can anoint an upstart with legitimacy, who can help shepherd a chaotic Democratic Party apparatus behind a rising star. Some of the faces are familiar, some are newcomers wielding tremendous power.

    When I asked Dan Pfeiffer, my favorite of the Pod Save America guys, he essentially rejected the premise of my question. “Given how most Democrats feel about the party these days, endorsements from establishment leaders are likely to be net negatives, and people will be clamoring for the support of party outsiders.”

    I heard something similar from Bradley Tusk, a venture capitalist who previously served as a deputy governor of Illinois and as a campaign manager for Mike Bloomberg’s 2009 mayoral campaign. “I feel like that world doesn’t exist anymore. Party machines are mainly dead,” Tusk wrote to me. “Endorsements typically don’t matter much because people have so little faith in institutions. The candidate with the most money doesn’t necessarily win so having rich donors isn’t enough. I think now it’s a cult of personality rather than being blessed by a kingmaker.”

    These responses capture the wider frustration with the Democratic Party, but I don’t necessarily agree that this sentiment negates the influence that powerful figures could potentially wield.

    I got much more fulsome responses when I granted sources anonymity. “I think Nancy Pelosi still plays a big role,” one young congressional staffer told me. “Mike Bloomberg and Bill and Melinda Gates. Donors: George Soros, Laurene Powell Jobs, and Future Forward PAC. Rachel Maddow.” She added that Obama is still very much a kingmaker in the party, and that his endorsement was helpful to Kamala Harris’s campaign. Similarly, a famous writer told me that “despite being old and tired, you gotta say that [Chuck] Schumer and [Hakeem] Jeffries are still kingmakers—helps to have their support.”

    It also seems inevitable that the next Obama will almost certainly need the support of a broad podcast coalition. In the 2024 election, Kamala Harris’s campaign didn’t end up doing Joe Rogan’s show. “There was a backlash with some of our progressive staff that didn’t want her to be on it, and how there would be a backlash,” campaign adviser Jennifer Palmieri said, according to the reporting by the Financial Times. But next time, the young congressional staffer told me, things will be different. “In an upcoming election, a Joe Rogan endorsement could mean almost as much as an Obama endorsement.”

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  • No, Obama didn’t remove census citizenship question

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    Before Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed James Uthmeier, his former chief of staff, as attorney general, Uthmeier worked in the first Trump administration in the Department of Commerce, which oversees the U.S. Census Bureau.

    Now Uthmeier’s past is present after President Donald Trump called for a rare, mid-decade census to exclude immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

    “During my time working in the first Trump Admin, the Supreme Ct (5-4 decision) blocked us from asking in the Census whether someone is a U.S. citizen (though it was asked for over 150 years, prior to Obama admin),” Uthmeier posted Aug. 24 on X. “Illegals shouldn’t be included in apportionment.” 

    Apportionment is how the federal government determines how many seats each state receives in the U.S. House of Representatives. It’s based on population figures reported in the census, including people who are not U.S. citizens.

    Uthmeier is right that the U.S. Supreme Court blocked Trump’s 2019 attempt to add a citizenship question in the 2020 census. But he’s wrong that the census asked the question for 150 years before President Barack Obama came along.

    The 2010 census broke from tradition, but the change was in the works before Obama took office, and the Census Bureau continues to ask about citizenship in an annual survey.

    “The Obama administration did not change the census question related to citizenship,” said Terri Lowenthal, a former congressional staffer and census expert. Instead, the question was  included in the annual American Community Survey, which replaced a long-form census questionnaire. Not everyone who received a census form received the question.  

    Joining other states jockeying for congressional seats ahead of the 2026 midterms, Florida Republican legislators convened a select committee on congressional redistricting to look at the state’s map.

    Sign up for PolitiFact texts

    PolitiFact contacted Uthmeier’s office for comment but did not hear back by publication.

    What’s the history of census citizenship questions?

    Uthmeier said a citizenship question was asked in the census “for over 150 years,” but it has not been part of the decennial census for all U.S. households that entire time.  

    The earliest U.S. census in 1790 asked for the head of the family’s name and number of people in the household, including enslaved people.

    The first version of a census citizenship question appeared in 1820, asking each household “the number of foreigners not naturalized.” Until 1920, it was asked only of adult men — women and children automatically had the same citizenship status as their husbands or fathers.

    Some form of the citizenship question has been included as a general question every decade since 1890 (but not asked of all households), with the exception of 1960, which focused on place of birth.

    The last time the Census Bureau came close to asking every household about citizenship status was in 1950, when census workers knocked on doors and interviewed residents. They asked where each person was born and, in a follow-up question for those born outside the U.S., asked if they were a naturalized citizen.

    In 1970, the Census Bureau started distributing two different questionnaires: a short form sent to most households and a long form sent to about 1 in 6 households. Only the long version asked about citizenship. 

    In 2000, for example, the long-form questionnaire asked respondents, “Is this person a CITIZEN of the United States?” 

    The short form asked for the basics, such as name, date of birth, sex and race. It continued not to ask about citizenship in 1980, 1990 and 2000.

    What happened under Obama?

    In 2010, the census eliminated the long-form questionnaire in favor of a 10-question short-form questionnaire that didn’t ask about citizenship.

    The census bureau had started collecting demographic and socioeconomic information through an alternative questionnaire — the American Community Survey, or ACS, in 2005. The annual survey is sent to about 3.5 million households and continues to ask about citizenship, among other topics.

    Plans to stop using the long-form census started years before Obama took office, during former President George W. Bush’s administration.

    “To deal with some of these challenges at the beginning of the decade, the 2010 census was re-engineered to build a better, faster and simpler census. The plan was to leverage technology, eliminate the long form and conduct a short-form-only decennial census,” Carlos Gutierrez, the commerce secretary under Bush, testified to Congress in 2008, according to The New York Times.

    Several government reports from the early 2000s concluded that the American Community Survey produced the same estimates as the long-form census.

    “The ACS includes a question on citizenship, as the long-form did. Therefore, President Obama did not change the content of the 2010 Census,” Lowenthal said. “Besides, Obama did not take office until 2009 — too late to change the content of the census without risking significant adverse consequences for census operations and, therefore, accuracy.”

    The questions on the decennial census “have never been political until now,” said Misty Lee Heggeness, a University of Kansas associate professor and former U.S. Census Bureau economist. “Changes made to previous census forms had to do with innovations related to survey implementation and data collection and costs.”

    Census directors appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents have previously agreed that a question on citizenship would discourage responses and undermine census accuracy. Heggeness co-authored a March 2025 peer-reviewed study that supports that perspective.

    Heggeness said the point of the census is to get an accurate count “of all the people in the United States’ borders,” as mandated by the U.S. Constitution.

    “It’s about getting as many people as possible to respond because an undercount can cause a lot of complications in the following decade,” she said.

    Our ruling

    Uthmeier said citizenship status was asked in the U.S. Census “for over 150 years” prior to the Obama administration.

    The last time the decennial census came close to asking every household about citizenship status was in 1950, when it was a follow-up question for foreign-born respondents. Subsequent censuses have asked the question only of a sample of households.

    In 2010, the Census Bureau took the citizenship question out of the long-form questionnaire as part of changes planned under the Bush administration. The Census Bureau still asks the question of 3.5 million households each year through the American Community Survey.

    We rate this claim False.

    PolitiFact Staff Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. 

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  • Obama endorses redrawing California congressional districts to counter Trump

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    Former President Obama endorsed California Democrats’ plans to redraw congressional districts if Texas or another Republican-led state does so to increase the GOP’s chances of maintaining control of Congress after next year’s midterm election.

    Obama said that while he opposes partisan gerrymandering, Republicans in Texas acting at President Trump’s behest have forced Democrats’ hand.

    If Democrats “don’t respond effectively, then this White House and Republican-controlled state governments all across the country, they will not stop, because they do not appear to believe in this idea of an inclusive, expansive democracy,” he said at a fundraiser Tuesday in Martha’s Vineyard that was first reported by the Associated Press on Wednesday.

    “I wanted just a fair fight between Republicans and Democrats based on who’s got better ideas, and take it to the voters and see what happens,” Obama said, “… but we cannot unilaterally allow one of the two major parties to rig the game. And California is one of the states that has the capacity to offset a large state like Texas.”

    Redistricting typically only occurs once a decade, after the census, to account for population shifts. In 2010, Californians voted to create an independent redistricting commission to end partisan gerrymandering. California’s 52 congressional districts were last redrawn in 2021.

    Earlier this summer, Trump urged Texas leaders to redraw its congressional boundaries to increase the number of Republicans in Congress. Led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, California Democrats responded and proposed redrawing the state’s district lines and putting the matter before voters in a special election in November.

    The issue came to a head this week, with Texas lawmakers expected to vote on their new districts on Wednesday, and California legislators expected to vote on Thursday to call the special election.

    Obama called Newsom’s approach “responsible,” because the matter will ultimately be decided by voters, and if approved, would only go into effect if Texas or another state embarks on a mid-decade redistricting, and line-drawing would revert to the independent commission after the 2030 census.

    “I think that approach is a smart, measured approach, designed to address a very particular problem in a very particular moment in time,” Obama said.

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    Seema Mehta

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  • Obama applauds Newsom’s California redistricting plan as ‘responsible’ as Texas GOP pushes new maps

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    Former President Barack Obama has waded into states’ efforts at rare mid-decade redistricting efforts, saying he agrees with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s response to alter his state’s congressional maps, in the wake of Texas redistricting efforts promoted by President Donald Trump aimed at shoring up Republicans’ position in next year’s elections. “I believe that Gov. Newsom’s approach is a responsible approach. He said this is going to be responsible. We’re not going to try to completely maximize it,” Obama said at a Tuesday fundraiser on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, according to excerpts obtained by The Associated Press. “We’re only going to do it if and when Texas and/or other Republican states begin to pull these maneuvers. Otherwise, this doesn’t go into effect.”While noting that “political gerrymandering” is not his “preference,” Obama said that, if Democrats “don’t respond effectively, then this White House and Republican-controlled state governments all across the country, they will not stop, because they do not appear to believe in this idea of an inclusive, expansive democracy.”According to organizers, the event raised $2 million for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and its affiliates, one of which has filed and supported litigation in several states over GOP-drawn districts. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Eric Holder, who served as Obama’s attorney general and heads up the group, also appeared.The former president’s comments come as Texas lawmakers return to Austin this week, renewing a heated debate over a new congressional map creating five new potential GOP seats. The plan is the result of prodding by President Donald Trump, eager to stave off a midterm defeat that would deprive his party of control of the House of Representatives. Texas Democratic lawmakers delayed a vote for 15 days by leaving the state in protest, depriving the House of enough members to do business.Spurred on by the Texas situation, Democratic governors, including Newsom, have pondered ways to possibly strengthen their party’s position by way of redrawing U.S. House district lines, five years out from the Census count that typically leads into such procedures.In California — where voters in 2010 gave the power to draw congressional maps to an independent commission, with the goal of making the process less partisan — Democrats have unveiled a proposal that could give that state’s dominant political party an additional five U.S. House seats in a bid to win the fight for control of Congress next year. If approved by voters in November, the blueprint could nearly erase Republican House members in the nation’s most populous state, with Democrats intending to win the party 48 of its 52 U.S. House seats, up from 43.A hearing over that measure devolved into a shouting match Tuesday as a Republican lawmaker clashed with Democrats, and a committee voted along party lines to advance the new congressional map. California Democrats do not need any Republican votes to move ahead, and legislators are expected to approve a proposed congressional map and declare a Nov. 4 special election by Thursday to get required voter approval.Newsom and Democratic leaders say they’ll ask voters to approve their new maps only for the next few elections, returning map-drawing power to the commission following the 2030 census — and only if a Republican state moves forward with new maps. Obama applauded that temporary timeline.”And we’re going to do it in a temporary basis because we’re keeping our eye on where we want to be long term,” Obama said, referencing Newsom’s take on the California plan. “I think that approach is a smart, measured approach, designed to address a very particular problem in a very particular moment in time.”___Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAPSee more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

    Former President Barack Obama has waded into states’ efforts at rare mid-decade redistricting efforts, saying he agrees with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s response to alter his state’s congressional maps, in the wake of Texas redistricting efforts promoted by President Donald Trump aimed at shoring up Republicans’ position in next year’s elections.

    “I believe that Gov. Newsom’s approach is a responsible approach. He said this is going to be responsible. We’re not going to try to completely maximize it,” Obama said at a Tuesday fundraiser on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, according to excerpts obtained by The Associated Press. “We’re only going to do it if and when Texas and/or other Republican states begin to pull these maneuvers. Otherwise, this doesn’t go into effect.”

    While noting that “political gerrymandering” is not his “preference,” Obama said that, if Democrats “don’t respond effectively, then this White House and Republican-controlled state governments all across the country, they will not stop, because they do not appear to believe in this idea of an inclusive, expansive democracy.”

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    According to organizers, the event raised $2 million for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and its affiliates, one of which has filed and supported litigation in several states over GOP-drawn districts. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Eric Holder, who served as Obama’s attorney general and heads up the group, also appeared.

    The former president’s comments come as Texas lawmakers return to Austin this week, renewing a heated debate over a new congressional map creating five new potential GOP seats. The plan is the result of prodding by President Donald Trump, eager to stave off a midterm defeat that would deprive his party of control of the House of Representatives. Texas Democratic lawmakers delayed a vote for 15 days by leaving the state in protest, depriving the House of enough members to do business.

    Spurred on by the Texas situation, Democratic governors, including Newsom, have pondered ways to possibly strengthen their party’s position by way of redrawing U.S. House district lines, five years out from the Census count that typically leads into such procedures.

    In California — where voters in 2010 gave the power to draw congressional maps to an independent commission, with the goal of making the process less partisan — Democrats have unveiled a proposal that could give that state’s dominant political party an additional five U.S. House seats in a bid to win the fight for control of Congress next year. If approved by voters in November, the blueprint could nearly erase Republican House members in the nation’s most populous state, with Democrats intending to win the party 48 of its 52 U.S. House seats, up from 43.

    A hearing over that measure devolved into a shouting match Tuesday as a Republican lawmaker clashed with Democrats, and a committee voted along party lines to advance the new congressional map. California Democrats do not need any Republican votes to move ahead, and legislators are expected to approve a proposed congressional map and declare a Nov. 4 special election by Thursday to get required voter approval.

    Newsom and Democratic leaders say they’ll ask voters to approve their new maps only for the next few elections, returning map-drawing power to the commission following the 2030 census — and only if a Republican state moves forward with new maps. Obama applauded that temporary timeline.

    “And we’re going to do it in a temporary basis because we’re keeping our eye on where we want to be long term,” Obama said, referencing Newsom’s take on the California plan. “I think that approach is a smart, measured approach, designed to address a very particular problem in a very particular moment in time.”

    ___

    Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

    See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

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  • Harris and Trump campaigns appeal to right-leaning, religious voters

    Harris and Trump campaigns appeal to right-leaning, religious voters

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    Both the Harris and Trump campaigns are intensifying their efforts in battleground states with just two weeks left until Election Day.Former President Donald Trump will campaign for a second straight day in North Carolina after making his pitch to Christian voters a day prior. He postponed a speech at a gun rights conference in Georgia and scheduled a last-minute rally in the Tar Heel state Tuesday as some polling suggests Harris is gaining support there.In a rally before faith leaders in the battleground state, Trump touched on culture war issues, including transgender and parental rights.”Christians will not be safe with Kamala Harris as president,” Trump warned. “Your religious liberty will be gone. Your free speech will be gone, your Second Amendment will be gone, and parental rights will be gone forever.”Earlier, Trump surveyed storm damage and repeated false claims about FEMA misusing taxpayer money.”They spent a lot of money on having illegal people come into our country,” Trump said.Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris made her pitch to Trump-hesitant voters in three “Blue wall” states Monday.In separate events in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, she campaigned alongside a familiar but unlikely ally, former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, (R) Wyoming. Both aimed their messages at Trump-wary voters in counties that could decide the election.”We might not agree on every issue but she is somebody you can trust,” Cheney said. “You can vote your conscience and never have to say a word to anybody. There will be millions of Republicans who do that on November 5th.”While Harris will not hold public events, she will sit for an interview that will air Tuesday night on NBC Nightly News.In her place, former President Barack Obama and running mate Tim Walz will host a rally in Wisconsin where in-person, early voting kicks off.Republicans are also holding events to encourage early voting in favor of Trump. His campaign is pushing for all forms of voting, including by mail and in-person, to maximize votes. Trump lost Wisconsin by just under 21,000 votes in the 2020 election.

    WASHINGTON —

    Both the Harris and Trump campaigns are intensifying their efforts in battleground states with just two weeks left until Election Day.

    Former President Donald Trump will campaign for a second straight day in North Carolina after making his pitch to Christian voters a day prior. He postponed a speech at a gun rights conference in Georgia and scheduled a last-minute rally in the Tar Heel state Tuesday as some polling suggests Harris is gaining support there.

    In a rally before faith leaders in the battleground state, Trump touched on culture war issues, including transgender and parental rights.

    “Christians will not be safe with Kamala Harris as president,” Trump warned. “Your religious liberty will be gone. Your free speech will be gone, your Second Amendment will be gone, and parental rights will be gone forever.”

    Earlier, Trump surveyed storm damage and repeated false claims about FEMA misusing taxpayer money.

    “They spent a lot of money on having illegal people come into our country,” Trump said.

    Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris made her pitch to Trump-hesitant voters in three “Blue wall” states Monday.

    In separate events in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, she campaigned alongside a familiar but unlikely ally, former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, (R) Wyoming. Both aimed their messages at Trump-wary voters in counties that could decide the election.

    “We might not agree on every issue but she is somebody you can trust,” Cheney said. “You can vote your conscience and never have to say a word to anybody. There will be millions of Republicans who do that on November 5th.”

    While Harris will not hold public events, she will sit for an interview that will air Tuesday night on NBC Nightly News.

    In her place, former President Barack Obama and running mate Tim Walz will host a rally in Wisconsin where in-person, early voting kicks off.

    Republicans are also holding events to encourage early voting in favor of Trump. His campaign is pushing for all forms of voting, including by mail and in-person, to maximize votes. Trump lost Wisconsin by just under 21,000 votes in the 2020 election.

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  • Obama Talks to the Brothas, Plus Chris Spencer and Lynnette Grey Bull Join the Show

    Obama Talks to the Brothas, Plus Chris Spencer and Lynnette Grey Bull Join the Show

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    Van and Rachel discuss Liam Payne’s death and graphic photos posted by TMZ (5:25), react to Barack Obama addressing Black male voters’ lack of support for Kamala Harris (25:58), and discuss Harris’s contentious interview on Fox News (46:52). Later, actor, writer, and producer Chris Spencer joins to discuss the Vice TV series Black Comedy in America (54:26). Plus, Lynette Grey Bull, founder of Not Our Native Daughters, joins to talk about her mixed emotions concerning Indigenous Peoples’ Day (1:26:04).

    Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay
    Guests: Chris Spencer and Lynnette Grey Bull
    Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith

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  • Barack Obama voices emphatic endorsement of Kamala Harris, two decades after DNC debut

    Barack Obama voices emphatic endorsement of Kamala Harris, two decades after DNC debut

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    Barack Obama voices emphatic endorsement of Kamala Harris, two decades after DNC debut

    And thinks about what’s best for this country. Please welcome America’s 44th president and the love of my life Obama. Hello. Oh oh three. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Alright. Alright, that’s enough. Thank you. Thank you, Chicago. It’s good to be on. It is good to be home and I I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling fired up. II I am feeling ready to go even if, even if I am the only person stupid enough to speak after Michelle Obama, I am feeling hopeful because this convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in *** country where anything is possible because we have *** chance to elect someone who has spent her entire life trying to give people the same chances. America gave her someone who sees you and here is you and we’ll get up every single day and fight for you. The next president of the United States of America, Kamala Harris. It’s been 16 years since I had the honor of accepting this party’s nomination for president. And I know that’s hard to believe because I have not aged *** bit. Ok. But it’s true and, and looking back, I can say without question that my first big decision as your nominee turned out to be one of my best. And I was asking Joe Biden to serve by my side as vice president. Uh oo other, other than some common Irish blood, Joe and I come from different backgrounds when we became brothers. And as we work together for eight, sometimes pretty tough years, what I came to admire most about Joe wasn’t just as smarts, his experience, it was his empathy and his decency and it’s hard earned resilience, his unshakeable belief that everyone in this country deserves *** fair shot. And over the last four years, those are the values America has needed most at *** time when millions of our fellow citizens were sick and dying, we needed *** leader with the character to put politics aside and do what was right at *** time when our economy was reeling, we needed *** leader with the determination to drive what would become the world’s strongest recovery. 15 million jobs, higher wages, lower health care costs. At *** time when the other party had turned into *** cult of personality, we needed *** leader who was steady and brought people together and was selfless enough to do. The rarest thing there is in politics, putting his own ambition aside for the sake of the country history will remember Joe Biden as an outstanding president who defended democracy at *** moment of great danger. And I am proud to call him my president, but I am even prouder to call him my friend. Ok. Now, the torch has been passed. Now, it is up to all of us to fight for the America we believe in and make no mistake. It will be *** fight for all the incredible energy we’ve been able to generate over the last few weeks for all the rallies and the memes. Huh? This will still be *** tight race in *** closely divided country, *** country where too many Americans are still struggling where *** lot of Americans don’t believe government can help. And as we gather here tonight, the people who will decide this election are asking *** very simple question. Who will fight for me, who’s thinking about my future about my children’s future, about our future together. One thing is for certain Donald Trump is not losing sleep over that question. Here’s *** 78 year old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he wrote down his golden escalator nine years ago. It has been *** constant stream of, of gripes and grievances that that’s actually been getting worse now that he’s afraid of losing the Ka. There’s the childish nicknames the crazy conspiracy theories. This weird obsession with crowd sizes. Yep, it just goes on and on and on the other day, I heard someone compare Trump to the neighbor who keeps running his leaf blower outside your window every minute of every day. Now, from *** neighbor that’s exhausting from *** president, it’s just dangerous. The truth is Donald Trump sees power as nothing more than it means to his ends. He wants the middle class to pay the price for another huge tax cut that would mostly help him and his rich friends. He killed *** bipartisan immigration deal written in part by one of the most conservative republicans in Congress that would have helped secure our southern border because he thought trying to actually solve the problem would hurt his campaign. He doesn’t do not vote, vote. He doesn’t seem to care if more women lose their reproductive freedom since it won’t affect his life. And most of all, Donald Trump wants us to think that this country is hopelessly divided between us and them, between the real Americans who of course, support him and the outsiders who don’t. And he wants you to think that you’ll be richer and safer if you will just give him the power to put those other people back in their place. It is one of the oldest tricks in politics from *** guy who’s act has let’s face it gotten pretty stale. We do not need four more years of bluster and bumbling and chaos. We have seen that movie before and we all know that the sequel is usually worse. America’s ready for *** new chapter. America’s ready for *** better story. We are ready for *** president, Kamala Harris and Kamala Harris is ready for the job. This is *** person who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need *** voice and *** champion. As you heard from Michelle Kamala was not born into privilege. She had to work for what she’s got and she actually cares about what other people are going through. She’s not the neighbor running the leaf blower. She’s the neighbor rushing over to help when you need *** hand. As *** prosecutor, Kamala stood up for Children who had been victims of sexual abuse. As an attorney general of the most populous state in the country, she fought big banks and for profit colleges, securing billions of dollars for the people. They had scammed after the whole mortgage crisis. She pushed me and my administration hard to make sure homeowners got *** fair settlement. It didn’t matter that I was *** Democrat. It didn’t matter that she had knocked on doors for my campaign and I was, she was going to fight to get as much relief as possible for the families who deserved it. As vice president, she helped take on the drug companies to cap the cost of insulin, lower the cost of health care, give families with kids *** tax cut and she is running for president with real plans to lower costs even more and protect Medicare and Medicaid and sign *** law to guarantee every woman’s right to make her own health care decisions. In other words, Kamala Harris won’t be focused on her problems. She will be focused on yours as president, she won’t just cater to her own supporters and punish those who refuse to kiss the ring or bend the knee show work on behalf of every American. That’s who Kamala is. And in the White House, she will have an outstanding partner and Governor Tim Waltz Le le let me tell you something. Let me, uh, let, let, let, let, let me tell you something. I love this guy. Tim is the kind of person who should be in politics. Born in *** small town served his country, taught, kids, coached football, took care of his neighbors. He knows who he is and he knows what’s important. You can tell those, those flannel shirts he wears don’t come from some political consultant. They come from his closet and they have been through some stuff. Ok. Yeah, I’ve been through some stuff that’s right together. Kamala and Tim have kept faith with America’s central story. *** story that says we are all created equal, all of us endowed with certain inalienable rights that everyone deserves *** chance that even when we don’t agree with each other, we can find *** way to live with each other. That’s Kamala’s vision, that’s Tim’s vision. That’s the Democratic Party’s vision. And our job over the next 11 weeks is to convince as many people as possible to vote for that vision. No, it won’t be easy. The other side knows it’s easier to play on people’s fears and cynicism always has been. They will tell you that government is inherently corrupt, that, that sacrifice and generosity are for suckers. And since the game is rigged, it’s ok to take what you want and just look after your own. That’s the easy path. We have *** different task. Our job is to convince people that democracy can actually deliver. And, and in doing that, we can’t just point to what we’ve already accomplished. We can’t just rely on the ideas of the past. We need to chart *** new way forward to meet the challenges of today. And Kamala understands this, she knows for example that if we want to make it easier for more young people to buy *** home, we need to build more units and clear away some of the outdated laws and regulations that made it harder to build homes for working people in this country. That is *** priority and she’s put out *** bold new plan to do just that on health care. We should all be proud of the enormous progress that we’ve made through the Affordable Care Act, providing millions of people access to affordable coverage, protecting millions more from unscrupulous insurance practices. And I noticed by the way that since it’s become popular, they don’t call it Obamacare no more. But Kamala knows we can’t stop there, which is why she’ll keep working to limit out of pocket costs. Kamala knows that if we want to help people get ahead, we need to put *** college degree within reach of more Americans but, but she also knows college shouldn’t be the only ticket to the middle class. We need to follow the lead of governors like Tim walls. Who said if you’ve got the skills and the drive, you shouldn’t need *** degree to work for state government. And in this new economy, we need *** president who actually cares about the millions of people all across this country who wake up every single day to do the essential, often thankless work to care for our sick, to clean our streets, to deliver our packages. We need *** president who will stand up for their right to bargain for better wages and working conditions. And Kamala will be that president. Yes, she can. Ok. Yes, you can. Uh Harris Walt administration can help us move past some of the tired old debates that keep stifling progress because at their core, Kamala and Tim understand that when everybody gets *** fair shot, we are all better off. They understand that when every child gets *** good education, the whole economy gets stronger. When women are paid the same as men for doing the same job, all families benefit. They understand that we can secure our borders without tearing kids away from their parents just like we can keep our streets safe while also building trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve and eliminating bias that will make it better for everybody. Donald Trump and his well heeled donors, they don’t see the world that way for them. One group’s gains is necessarily another group’s loss for them. Freedom means that the powerful can do pretty much what they please, whether it’s fire workers trying to organize *** union or put poison in our rivers or avoid paying taxes like everybody else has to do. Well, we have *** broader idea of freedom. We believe in the freedom to provide for your family. If you’re willing to work hard, the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water and send your kids to school without worrying if they’ll come home. We believe that true freedom gives each of us the right to make decisions about our own life, how we worship what our family looks like, how many kids we have, who we marry and we believe that freedom requires us to recognize that other people have the freedom to make choices that are different than ours. That’s OK. That’s the America Kamala Harris and Tim walls. Believe in an America where we the people includes everyone because that’s the only way this American experiment works. And despite what our politics might suggest, I think most Americans understand that democracy isn’t just *** bunch of abstract principles and, and, and dusty laws and, and some book somewhere. It’s the values we live by. It’s the way we treat each other, including those who don’t look like us or pray like us or see the world. Exactly like we do that, that sense of mutual respect has to be part of our message. Our politics have become so polarized these days that all of us across the political spectrum seem so quick to assume the worst in others. Unless they agree with us on every single issue, we start thinking that the only way to win is to scold and shame and out, yell the other side and after *** while, regular folks just tune out or they don’t bother to vote. Now, that approach may work for the politicians who just want attention and thrive on division, but it won’t work for us to make progress on the things we care about, the things that really affect people’s lives. We, we need to remember that we’ve all got our blind spots and, and contradictions and, and prejudices and that if we want to win over those who aren’t yet ready to support our candidates, we need to listen to their concerns and maybe learn something in the process. *** after all, if *** parent or grandparent occasionally says something that makes us cringe. We, we don’t automatically assume they’re bad people. We recognize that the world is moving fast that they need time and maybe *** little encouragement to catch up. Our fellow citizens deserve the same grace we hope they’ll extend to us. That’s how we can build *** true democratic majority. One that can get things done. And by the way, that does not just matter to the people in this country, the rest of the world is watching to see if we can actually pull this off. No nation, no society has ever tried to build *** democracy as big and as diverse as ours before. One that includes people that over decades have come from every corner of the globe. One where our allegiances and our community are defined not by race or blood, but by *** common creed. And that’s why when we uphold our values, the world is *** little brighter when we don’t, the world is *** little dimmer and dictators and autocrats feel emboldened and over time we become less safe. We shouldn’t be the world’s policemen and we can’t eradicate every cruelty and injustice in the world. But America can be and must be *** force for good, discouraging conflict, fighting disease, promoting human rights, protecting the planet from climate change, defending freedom, brokering peace. That’s what Kamala Harris believes. And so do most Americans. Yeah, I hi Iiii. I know these ideas can feel pretty naive right now. We live in *** time of such confusion and rancor with *** culture that puts *** premium on things that don’t last money, fame status likes. We chased the approval of strangers on our phones. We build all manner of walls and fences around ourselves. And then we wonder why we feel so alone. We don’t trust each other as much because we don’t take the time to know each other. And in that space between us, politicians and algorithms teach us to caricature each other and troll each other and fear each other. But here’s the good news, Chicago all across America in big cities and small towns away from all the noise. The ties that bind us together are still there. We still coach Little League and look out for our elderly neighbors. We still feed the hungry in churches and mosques and synagogues and temples. We share the same pride when our Olympic athletes compete for the gold because because the vast majority of us do not want to live in *** country that’s bitter and divided. We want something better. We want to be better and the joy and the excitement that we’re seeing around this campaign tells us we’re not alone. You know, I’ve spent *** lot of time thinking about this these past few months because as Michelle mentioned, uh this summer, we lost her mom, MS Marian Robinson. And I don’t know that anybody has ever loved their mother in law any more than I love mine. Uh Mostly it’s because she was funny and wise and the least pretentious person I knew that. And she always defended me with Michelle when I messed up. I’d hide behind her. So awesome. But I also think one of the reasons Mary and I became so close was she reminded me of my grandmother, the woman who helped raise me as *** child. And on the surface, the two of them did not have *** lot in common. One was *** black woman from right here, south side of Chicago. Right down the way, went to Englewood High School. The other was *** little old white lady born in *** tiny town called Piu Kansas. I know there aren’t that many people from pu and yet they shared *** basic outlook on life. There were strong, smart, resourceful women full of common sense who, regardless of the barriers they encountered. And women growing up in the forties and fifties and six, they, they encountered barriers. They still went about their business without fuss or complaint and provided an unshakeable foundation of love for their Children and their grandchildren. In that sense, they both represented an entire generation of working people who through war and depression discrimination and limited opportunity helped build this country. *** lot of them toiled every day at jobs. They were often too small for them and didn’t pay *** lot. They willingly went without just to keep *** roof over the family’s heads just to give their Children something better. But they knew what was true. They knew what mattered, things like honesty and integrity, kindness and hard work. They weren’t, they weren’t impressed with Braggarts or bullies. They, they, they they, they, they didn’t think putting other people down, lifted you up or made you strong. They didn’t spend *** lot of time obsessing about what they didn’t have. Instead they appreciated what they did. They, they, they, they, they found pleasure in simple things. *** card game with friends. *** good meal and laughter around the kitchen table, helping others and most of all seeing their Children do things and go places that they would have never imagined for themselves, whether you are *** Democrat or *** Republican or somewhere in between. We have all had people like that in our lives. People like Kamala’s parents who crossed oceans because they believed in the promise of America. People like Tim’s parents who taught him about the importance of service, good, hard working people who weren’t famous or powerful, but who managed in countless ways to lead this country just *** little bit better than they found it as much. Is there any policy or program? I believe that’s what we yearn for *** return to an America where we work together and look out for each other. *** restoration of what Lincoln called on the eve of civil war are bonds of affection. An America that taps what he called the better angels of our nature. That is what this election is about. And I believe that’s why if we each do our part over the next 77 days, if we knock on doors, if we make phone calls. If we talk to our friends, if we listen to our neighbors, if we work, like we’ve never worked before. If we hold firm to our convictions, we will elect Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States and Tim Ha as the next vice president of the United States, we will elect leaders up and down the ballot who will fight for the hopeful, forward-looking America. We all believe in and together, we too will build *** country that is more secure and more, just more equal and more free. So let’s get to work. God bless you and God bless the United States of America, James.

    Barack Obama voices emphatic endorsement of Kamala Harris, two decades after DNC debut

    Former President Barack Obama delivered an emphatic endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) Tuesday, two decades after his career-catapulting convention debut.Watch Obama’s full speech in the player above.Seeking to recapture the energy of not only his famous 2004 speech — which shot him into the national spotlight — but also his subsequent 2008 run for office, Obama laid out why he thought Harris was the right person to carry the party’s torch.“I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling fired up! I’m feeling ready to go,” Obama said. “I’m feeling hopeful because this convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in a country where anything is possible.”Obama encouraged Democrats to listen to those who disagree with them and fight for the votes of those who have differences with them.“We start thinking that the only way to win is to scold and shame and out yell the other side,” Obama said. “That approach may work for the politicians who just want attention and thrive on division. But it won’t work for us.”Obama urged his party not to rush to pass judgment on those with values that are different from theirs, saying, “That’s how we can build a true Democratic majority.”He added: “Our fellow citizens deserve the same grace we hope they’ll extend to us.”The former president warned the crowd at the DNC that even though “the torch has been passed” to Harris, the work for Democrats is not yet done.“For all the incredible energy we’ve been able to generate over the last few weeks, this will still be a tight race in a closely divided country — a country where too many Americans are still struggling and don’t believe government can help,” he said.“Make no mistake, it will be a fight,” Obama said. For all the energy and memes and rallies, he said, “this will still be a tight race in a closely divided country.”The last election was decided by 40,000 votes across three states.

    Former President Barack Obama delivered an emphatic endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) Tuesday, two decades after his career-catapulting convention debut.

    Watch Obama’s full speech in the player above.

    Seeking to recapture the energy of not only his famous 2004 speech — which shot him into the national spotlight — but also his subsequent 2008 run for office, Obama laid out why he thought Harris was the right person to carry the party’s torch.

    “I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling fired up! I’m feeling ready to go,” Obama said. “I’m feeling hopeful because this convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in a country where anything is possible.”

    Obama encouraged Democrats to listen to those who disagree with them and fight for the votes of those who have differences with them.

    “We start thinking that the only way to win is to scold and shame and out yell the other side,” Obama said. “That approach may work for the politicians who just want attention and thrive on division. But it won’t work for us.”

    Obama urged his party not to rush to pass judgment on those with values that are different from theirs, saying, “That’s how we can build a true Democratic majority.”

    He added: “Our fellow citizens deserve the same grace we hope they’ll extend to us.”

    The former president warned the crowd at the DNC that even though “the torch has been passed” to Harris, the work for Democrats is not yet done.

    “For all the incredible energy we’ve been able to generate over the last few weeks, this will still be a tight race in a closely divided country — a country where too many Americans are still struggling and don’t believe government can help,” he said.

    “Make no mistake, it will be a fight,” Obama said. For all the energy and memes and rallies, he said, “this will still be a tight race in a closely divided country.”

    The last election was decided by 40,000 votes across three states.

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  • DNC Day 2: Delegates nominate Harris in ceremonial roll call; Obamas to deliver primetime speeches

    DNC Day 2: Delegates nominate Harris in ceremonial roll call; Obamas to deliver primetime speeches

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    The Democratic National Convention heads into its second day Tuesday.Former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will speak at the DNC, a day after the unofficial farewell for President Joe Biden, who served eight years as Obama’s vice president. Biden won’t be in the hall to see his former running mate speak, as he departed Chicago Monday after delivering his own speech.With President Biden having addressed delegates, the week’s full focus now turns to Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov Tim Walz.Read live updates from Day 2 of the DNC below.Harris makes surprise video appearance as roll call wrapsIt was never really in doubt, but after the celebratory roll call, Rea confirmed Harris’ nomination as Democrats’ top-of-the-ticket pick. Harris was officially nominated earlier this month in a virtual roll call of delegates.Following the roll call, Rea tossed to incoming video from Harris’ and Walz’s campaign appearance in Milwaukee, where the two are on stage in the same arena that hosted Republicans last month for their convention. They entered the stage to Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” which has become an anthem for the campaign.“I thank everyone there and here for believing in what we can do together,” Harris said.That split screen moment created a powerful visual for Harris: two arenas simultaneously full of her supporters.Green Bay Packers shoutout met with boos in ChicagoWhen Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers took his turn at the mic during Democrats roll call vote Tuesday, he name-checked the Green Bay Packers football team.That did not sit well in Chicago, the DNC’s host city, where utterances of support for the Packers are often taken as fighting words by long-suffering Chicago Bears fans.Evers was showered with boos after name-checking the Packers.In their long-running Midwestern rivalry, the Packers routinely best the Bears, winning 107 games to the Bears’ 95.Delegates nominate Harris, WalzDelegates from all 50 states have voted to make Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz the Democratic presidential ticket in a ceremonial roll call.Harris to talk about Roe v. Wade in MilwaukeeHarris plans to draw attention to Trump saying Monday he had “no regrets” about appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to abortion, according to an excerpt of the speech she plans to give in Milwaukee.“That’s because he hasn’t had to face the consequences,” Harris plans to say. “Women and families have. Well, we will make sure he does face the consequence at the ballot box this November.”As they awaited Harris’ speech, her supporters listened to the Chicago convention’s roll call blasting from the arena speakers.Video below: Hadley Duvall speaks about abortion rights at DNCThe odd coupleThey may be a somewhat unlikely pair, but DNC Secretary Jason Rae and DJ Cassidy are tag-teaming the celebratory roll call of states.Rae calls out the states and territories as they come up in the voting order, and Cassidy chimes in with occasional commentary as he flips from track to track for each batch of delegates.Why California and Minnesota passed during the roll callCalifornia and Minnesota, the home states of Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, have passed during the convention roll call — letting the party roll on.This year’s roll call has been unlike any in political history. But one tradition held, the one mandating that the home state of the nominee generally passes, then goes near the end to pass the deciding vote to formally clinch the nomination.This year, Minnesota, where Walz is governor, could get the count close and let Harris’ California and its motherlode of delegates put her over the top as the Democratic nominee.Sean Astin joins Indiana delegationActor Sean Astin, best known for playing the titular Notre Dame football player in “Rudy,” joined the Indiana delegation to help cast its 86 delegates for Harris and Walz.“I want what’s best for Indiana and that means electing Kamala Harris the first woman president of the United States of America,” Astin said. Delegates show off their home-state tunesDecked out in blue satin, DJ Cassidy is spinning a special song for each state in the roll call at the Democratic Convention.Alabama, obviously, got “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Alaska announced their backing of Vice President Harris to “Feel It Still” by Portugal. The Man, a band from Wasilla. Florida committed its delegates to “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty, who was born in Gainesville. The rapper Lil Jon appeared over the music of DJ Snake’s “Turn Down for What” ahead of Georgia awarding its delegates to Harris.Lil Jon makes a surprise appearance during Harris roll callIn a surprise appearance, rapper Lil Jon joined the Georgia delegation to help deliver its 123 votes for Harris. The rapper’s hit song ‘Get Low’ has became a sort of rally cry for the Harris-Walz campaign in the last few weeks.‘Present’Under Democratic Party rules, only Harris garnered enough signatures to be entered into nomination. Votes for any other person or uncommitted votes were tallied as “present” during the virtual roll call earlier this month. Tuesday night’s “celebratory” vote is following that earlier’s roll calls vote total.The roll call beginsDemocrats are holding a “celebratory” roll call vote to nominate Harris on the second night of their convention in Chicago. The party held a virtual vote on Aug. 6 that made her the party’s official nominee. Tuesday’s vote is taking place with a DJ and light show in the United Center arena.Teamsters members make DNC appearance absent President Sean O’BrienWhile Teamsters President Sean O’Brien chose to speak at the Republican convention at Trump’s invite, members of his union decided to appear at the Democratic convention to say they’re with Vice President Harris. It was another jab at Trump for claiming to back workers even as his administration tried to restrict the power of organized labor, a sign of how Harris hopes to diminish his backing from blue-collar voters.“If they win, working people like my friends here from the Teamsters will pay the price,” said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., with several Teamsters by his side.Kenneth Stribling, a retired Teamster, then explained how the Biden administration had helped rescue the financially troubled pensions of union members like himself as part of its pandemic aid.“They got it done without one single Republican vote in Congress,” Stribling said. “They saved over 1 million pensions.”Democrats highlight former Trump voters who switched to supporting HarrisFor the second in as many nights, the Democratic convention has frequently featured stories from ordinary voters, who talked about voting for Trump in 2016 or 2020 or both, but said they wouldn’t do so again.The voters, filmed in what to be in their homes in states around the country, described being fed up with Trump’s criminal conviction, his frequent lying for political gain and his leading a mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol in January 2021.The effort recalled Republicans, who during their convention featured frequent videos of “everyday Americans” to fire up their own crowd last month in Milwaukee.Trump’s former press secretary backs HarrisTrump’s former White House press secretary says she used to be a “true believer” who spent holidays with the Trump family, but now she’s backing Harris.Stephanie Grisham told Democratic delegates that Trump “mocks” his supporters behind closed doors and “has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth.”This fall, Grisham said she’s backing Harris because the Democrat “tells the truth, she respects the American people and she has my vote.”Grisham resigned from her White House post following the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, the first senior staffer to do so that day.She held no press briefings as Trump’s press secretary, explaining “unlike my boss, I never wanted to stand behind that podium and lie.”Common feels ‘fortunate’ to have Kamala HarrisRapper Common performed his hit song “Fortunate.” In the second verse, he changed the lyrics to say, “Fortunate, yo, we got the gold in Paris, we fortunate, y’all, for Kamala Harris.” The Chicago native also added in several ad-libs about “Chi Town” as the host city of the DNC.“I thank God for this moment in time where Kamala Harris will change the world for the better with love, hope and grace,” he said as he introduced the song. Grammy-winning gospel singer Jonathan McReynolds joined Common on stage, singing some of his song “God is God” between verses and vocalizing to “Fortunate.”Common, a Grammy and Oscar-winning musician and actor, is no stranger to political advocacy. He endorsed Biden in 2020 and performed at his rallies and had previously supported Obama’s campaigns. He also performed poetry at an event at the White House in 2011 at Obama’s invitation.The performance, which was followed by a funky instrumental rendition of “Tell Me Something Good,” signaled the convention’s shift out of its country music moment Monday into a focus on R&B and hip-hop.Democrats throw the book at Trump (again)One of Democrats’ favorite new political props, a massive book labeled Project 2025, made a repeat appearance at the second night of the DNC.On Tuesday, Malcolm Kenyatta, a Pennsylvania state representative and rising Democratic star, totted the book out onto the convention stage before roasting Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance.“Usually Republicans want to ban books, but now they are trying to shove this down our throats,” Kenyatta said.In a sign of how unpopular Project 20205 is with the public, Trump has disavowed the effort. Still, it was crafted by many leading conservatives who would likely hold influential positions in a future Trump administration.The book made its first appearance on Monday when Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow walked on stage and dropped the hefty tome on the top of the speaking lectern.Presidential grandsons stump for HarrisGrandsons of former Presidents Jimmy Carter and John F. Kennedy cast Vice President Haris in the same image as their famous family members.“Kamala Harris carries my grandfather’s legacy,” said Jason Carter. “She knows what is right.”He said the 99-year-old former president wishes he could be in attendance. “His body may be weak tonight, but his spirit is stronger than ever,” Carter said. “My grandfather can’t wait to vote for Kamala Harris.”Jack Schlossberg, Kennedy’s grandson, said like when his grandfather was elected in 1960, “Once again, the torch has been passed to a new generation,” he said. “She believes in America like my grandfather did — that we do things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”Patti LaBelle performs ‘You Are My Friend’The DNC crowd didn’t get James Taylor singing “You’ve Got a Friend” but they did get another music legend — R&B star Patti LaBelle — singing “You Are My Friend.”LaBelle sang the stirring number during a memorial segment as the proceedings began for the evening. “God bless America, Kamala Harris!” she called out at the end.This isn’t the first time at the DNC for LaBelle — she wowed the crowd two decades ago at the 2004 convention with her rendition of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.”Last month, LaBelle kicked off her 8065 Tour at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles — “80 years of life, 65 years in music.” And in June, she sang “Oh, People” on the White House lawn for President Joe Biden’s Juneteenth concert, joined by Gladys Knight among other artists.Day 2 of the DNC has begunThe second day of the convention has officially been gaveled in.Obama will make the case for Harris during his DNC addressFormer President Barack Obama will use his remarks tonight to make the case for Harris’ election and lay out the task before Democrats in the coming 10 weeks.That’s according to an Obama aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss his speech in advance. Obama will also make the case for the values of the party and nation he believes are at stake in the race against Trump.The speech comes as Obama plans to increase his political activity this fall to support Democrats up and down the ticket. No credible danger following bomb threat, Secret Service and Chicago PD reportThe U.S. Secret Service and Chicago Police Department found no credible dangers after checking into bomb threats made Tuesday at “a number of locations” in downtown Chicago where the Democratic National Convention is taking place.Law enforcement cleared the affected areas and are continuing to assess any reported threats.Day 2 speakers:Jason Carter, grandson of former President Jimmy CarterJack Schlossberg, grandson of former President John F. KennedyState Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, of PennsylvaniaKyle Sweetser, former Trump voterStephanie Grisham, former Trump White House press secretaryNabela Noor, content creatorSen. Gary Peters, of MichiganKenneth Stribling, retired TeamsterAna Navarro, television personality and political strategist Sen. Chuck Schumer, of New YorkSen. Bernie Sanders, of VermontGov. JB Pritzker, of IllinoisKen Chenault, business executiveGov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, of New MexicoAngela Alsobrooks, U.S. Senate nominee in MarylandMayor John Giles, of Mesa, ArizonaDouglas Emhoff, second gentleman of the United StatesMichelle Obama, former first lady of the United StatesFormer President Barack Obama

    CHICAGO —

    The Democratic National Convention heads into its second day Tuesday.

    Former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will speak at the DNC, a day after the unofficial farewell for President Joe Biden, who served eight years as Obama’s vice president. Biden won’t be in the hall to see his former running mate speak, as he departed Chicago Monday after delivering his own speech.

    With President Biden having addressed delegates, the week’s full focus now turns to Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov Tim Walz.

    Read live updates from Day 2 of the DNC below.

    Harris makes surprise video appearance as roll call wraps

    It was never really in doubt, but after the celebratory roll call, Rea confirmed Harris’ nomination as Democrats’ top-of-the-ticket pick. Harris was officially nominated earlier this month in a virtual roll call of delegates.

    Following the roll call, Rea tossed to incoming video from Harris’ and Walz’s campaign appearance in Milwaukee, where the two are on stage in the same arena that hosted Republicans last month for their convention. They entered the stage to Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” which has become an anthem for the campaign.

    “I thank everyone there and here for believing in what we can do together,” Harris said.

    That split screen moment created a powerful visual for Harris: two arenas simultaneously full of her supporters.

    Green Bay Packers shoutout met with boos in Chicago

    When Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers took his turn at the mic during Democrats roll call vote Tuesday, he name-checked the Green Bay Packers football team.

    That did not sit well in Chicago, the DNC’s host city, where utterances of support for the Packers are often taken as fighting words by long-suffering Chicago Bears fans.

    CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images

    Wisconsin delegates cast their vote during the ceremonial roll call vote on the second day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on Aug. 20, 2024.

    Evers was showered with boos after name-checking the Packers.

    In their long-running Midwestern rivalry, the Packers routinely best the Bears, winning 107 games to the Bears’ 95.

    Delegates nominate Harris, Walz

    Delegates from all 50 states have voted to make Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz the Democratic presidential ticket in a ceremonial roll call.

    Harris to talk about Roe v. Wade in Milwaukee

    Harris plans to draw attention to Trump saying Monday he had “no regrets” about appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to abortion, according to an excerpt of the speech she plans to give in Milwaukee.

    “That’s because he hasn’t had to face the consequences,” Harris plans to say. “Women and families have. Well, we will make sure he does face the consequence at the ballot box this November.”

    As they awaited Harris’ speech, her supporters listened to the Chicago convention’s roll call blasting from the arena speakers.

    Video below: Hadley Duvall speaks about abortion rights at DNC

    The odd couple

    They may be a somewhat unlikely pair, but DNC Secretary Jason Rae and DJ Cassidy are tag-teaming the celebratory roll call of states.

    Rae calls out the states and territories as they come up in the voting order, and Cassidy chimes in with occasional commentary as he flips from track to track for each batch of delegates.

    Why California and Minnesota passed during the roll call

    California and Minnesota, the home states of Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, have passed during the convention roll call — letting the party roll on.

    This year’s roll call has been unlike any in political history. But one tradition held, the one mandating that the home state of the nominee generally passes, then goes near the end to pass the deciding vote to formally clinch the nomination.

    This year, Minnesota, where Walz is governor, could get the count close and let Harris’ California and its motherlode of delegates put her over the top as the Democratic nominee.

    Sean Astin joins Indiana delegation

    Actor Sean Astin, best known for playing the titular Notre Dame football player in “Rudy,” joined the Indiana delegation to help cast its 86 delegates for Harris and Walz.

    “I want what’s best for Indiana and that means electing Kamala Harris the first woman president of the United States of America,” Astin said.

    Delegates show off their home-state tunes

    Decked out in blue satin, DJ Cassidy is spinning a special song for each state in the roll call at the Democratic Convention.

    Alabama, obviously, got “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Alaska announced their backing of Vice President Harris to “Feel It Still” by Portugal. The Man, a band from Wasilla. Florida committed its delegates to “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty, who was born in Gainesville. The rapper Lil Jon appeared over the music of DJ Snake’s “Turn Down for What” ahead of Georgia awarding its delegates to Harris.

    Lil Jon makes a surprise appearance during Harris roll call

    In a surprise appearance, rapper Lil Jon joined the Georgia delegation to help deliver its 123 votes for Harris. The rapper’s hit song ‘Get Low’ has became a sort of rally cry for the Harris-Walz campaign in the last few weeks.

    CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - AUGUST 20: Rapper Lil Jon (R) performs with the Georgia delegation during the Ceremonial Roll Call of States on the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 20, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. Delegates, politicians, and Democratic Party supporters are gathering in Chicago, as current Vice President Kamala Harris is named her party's presidential nominee. The DNC takes place from August 19-22. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

    Chip Somodevilla

    Rapper Lil Jon (R) performs with the Georgia delegation during the Ceremonial Roll Call of States on the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on Aug. 20, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois.

    ‘Present’

    Under Democratic Party rules, only Harris garnered enough signatures to be entered into nomination. Votes for any other person or uncommitted votes were tallied as “present” during the virtual roll call earlier this month. Tuesday night’s “celebratory” vote is following that earlier’s roll calls vote total.

    The roll call begins

    Democrats are holding a “celebratory” roll call vote to nominate Harris on the second night of their convention in Chicago. The party held a virtual vote on Aug. 6 that made her the party’s official nominee. Tuesday’s vote is taking place with a DJ and light show in the United Center arena.

    Teamsters members make DNC appearance absent President Sean O’Brien

    While Teamsters President Sean O’Brien chose to speak at the Republican convention at Trump’s invite, members of his union decided to appear at the Democratic convention to say they’re with Vice President Harris. It was another jab at Trump for claiming to back workers even as his administration tried to restrict the power of organized labor, a sign of how Harris hopes to diminish his backing from blue-collar voters.

    “If they win, working people like my friends here from the Teamsters will pay the price,” said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., with several Teamsters by his side.

    US Senator from Michigan Gary Peters (L) speaks alongside retired teamsters on the second day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 20, 2024. Vice President Kamala Harris will formally accept the party's nomination for president at the DNC which runs from August 19-22 in Chicago. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

    (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

    US Senator from Michigan Gary Peters (L) speaks alongside retired teamsters on the second day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on Aug. 20, 2024.

    Kenneth Stribling, a retired Teamster, then explained how the Biden administration had helped rescue the financially troubled pensions of union members like himself as part of its pandemic aid.

    “They got it done without one single Republican vote in Congress,” Stribling said. “They saved over 1 million pensions.”

    Democrats highlight former Trump voters who switched to supporting Harris

    For the second in as many nights, the Democratic convention has frequently featured stories from ordinary voters, who talked about voting for Trump in 2016 or 2020 or both, but said they wouldn’t do so again.

    The voters, filmed in what to be in their homes in states around the country, described being fed up with Trump’s criminal conviction, his frequent lying for political gain and his leading a mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol in January 2021.

    The effort recalled Republicans, who during their convention featured frequent videos of “everyday Americans” to fire up their own crowd last month in Milwaukee.

    Trump’s former press secretary backs Harris

    Trump’s former White House press secretary says she used to be a “true believer” who spent holidays with the Trump family, but now she’s backing Harris.

    Stephanie Grisham told Democratic delegates that Trump “mocks” his supporters behind closed doors and “has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth.”

    This fall, Grisham said she’s backing Harris because the Democrat “tells the truth, she respects the American people and she has my vote.”

    CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - AUGUST 20: Former Trump White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham speaks on stage during the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 20, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. Delegates, politicians, and Democratic Party supporters are gathering in Chicago, as current Vice President Kamala Harris is named her party's presidential nominee. The DNC takes place from August 19-22. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

    Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

    Former Trump White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham speaks on stage during the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on Aug. 20, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.

    Grisham resigned from her White House post following the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, the first senior staffer to do so that day.

    She held no press briefings as Trump’s press secretary, explaining “unlike my boss, I never wanted to stand behind that podium and lie.”

    Common feels ‘fortunate’ to have Kamala Harris

    Rapper Common performed his hit song “Fortunate.” In the second verse, he changed the lyrics to say, “Fortunate, yo, we got the gold in Paris, we fortunate, y’all, for Kamala Harris.” The Chicago native also added in several ad-libs about “Chi Town” as the host city of the DNC.

    “I thank God for this moment in time where Kamala Harris will change the world for the better with love, hope and grace,” he said as he introduced the song. Grammy-winning gospel singer Jonathan McReynolds joined Common on stage, singing some of his song “God is God” between verses and vocalizing to “Fortunate.”

    Common, a Grammy and Oscar-winning musician and actor, is no stranger to political advocacy. He endorsed Biden in 2020 and performed at his rallies and had previously supported Obama’s campaigns. He also performed poetry at an event at the White House in 2011 at Obama’s invitation.

    The performance, which was followed by a funky instrumental rendition of “Tell Me Something Good,” signaled the convention’s shift out of its country music moment Monday into a focus on R&B and hip-hop.

    Democrats throw the book at Trump (again)

    One of Democrats’ favorite new political props, a massive book labeled Project 2025, made a repeat appearance at the second night of the DNC.

    On Tuesday, Malcolm Kenyatta, a Pennsylvania state representative and rising Democratic star, totted the book out onto the convention stage before roasting Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance.

    “Usually Republicans want to ban books, but now they are trying to shove this down our throats,” Kenyatta said.

    In a sign of how unpopular Project 20205 is with the public, Trump has disavowed the effort. Still, it was crafted by many leading conservatives who would likely hold influential positions in a future Trump administration.

    The book made its first appearance on Monday when Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow walked on stage and dropped the hefty tome on the top of the speaking lectern.

    Presidential grandsons stump for Harris

    Grandsons of former Presidents Jimmy Carter and John F. Kennedy cast Vice President Haris in the same image as their famous family members.

    “Kamala Harris carries my grandfather’s legacy,” said Jason Carter. “She knows what is right.”

    He said the 99-year-old former president wishes he could be in attendance. “His body may be weak tonight, but his spirit is stronger than ever,” Carter said. “My grandfather can’t wait to vote for Kamala Harris.”

    Jack Schlossberg, Kennedy’s grandson, said like when his grandfather was elected in 1960, “Once again, the torch has been passed to a new generation,” he said. “She believes in America like my grandfather did — that we do things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

    Patti LaBelle performs ‘You Are My Friend’

    The DNC crowd didn’t get James Taylor singing “You’ve Got a Friend” but they did get another music legend — R&B star Patti LaBelle — singing “You Are My Friend.”

    LaBelle sang the stirring number during a memorial segment as the proceedings began for the evening. “God bless America, Kamala Harris!” she called out at the end.

    This isn’t the first time at the DNC for LaBelle — she wowed the crowd two decades ago at the 2004 convention with her rendition of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.”

    Last month, LaBelle kicked off her 8065 Tour at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles — “80 years of life, 65 years in music.” And in June, she sang “Oh, People” on the White House lawn for President Joe Biden’s Juneteenth concert, joined by Gladys Knight among other artists.

    US singer and actress Patti LaBelle performs on the second day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 20, 2024. Vice President Kamala Harris will formally accept the party's nomination for president at the DNC which runs from August 19-22 in Chicago. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

    (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

    US singer and actress Patti LaBelle performs on the second day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on Aug. 20, 2024.

    Day 2 of the DNC has begun

    The second day of the convention has officially been gaveled in.

    Obama will make the case for Harris during his DNC address

    Former President Barack Obama will use his remarks tonight to make the case for Harris’ election and lay out the task before Democrats in the coming 10 weeks.

    That’s according to an Obama aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss his speech in advance. Obama will also make the case for the values of the party and nation he believes are at stake in the race against Trump.

    The speech comes as Obama plans to increase his political activity this fall to support Democrats up and down the ticket.

    No credible danger following bomb threat, Secret Service and Chicago PD report

    The U.S. Secret Service and Chicago Police Department found no credible dangers after checking into bomb threats made Tuesday at “a number of locations” in downtown Chicago where the Democratic National Convention is taking place.

    Law enforcement cleared the affected areas and are continuing to assess any reported threats.

    Day 2 speakers:

    • Jason Carter, grandson of former President Jimmy Carter
    • Jack Schlossberg, grandson of former President John F. Kennedy
    • State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, of Pennsylvania
    • Kyle Sweetser, former Trump voter
    • Stephanie Grisham, former Trump White House press secretary
    • Nabela Noor, content creator
    • Sen. Gary Peters, of Michigan
    • Kenneth Stribling, retired Teamster
    • Ana Navarro, television personality and political strategist
    • Sen. Chuck Schumer, of New York
    • Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont
    • Gov. JB Pritzker, of Illinois
    • Ken Chenault, business executive
    • Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, of New Mexico
    • Angela Alsobrooks, U.S. Senate nominee in Maryland
    • Mayor John Giles, of Mesa, Arizona
    • Douglas Emhoff, second gentleman of the United States
    • Michelle Obama, former first lady of the United States
    • Former President Barack Obama

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  • Tuesday DNC speakers: Obamas, Doug Emhoff to take the stage as Democratic Convention enters 2nd day

    Tuesday DNC speakers: Obamas, Doug Emhoff to take the stage as Democratic Convention enters 2nd day

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    CHICAGO — Former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michele Obama and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff are all expected primetime speakers for the second day of the 2024 DNC in Chicago Tuesday.

    With President Joe Biden having addressed delegates, the week’s full focus now turns to Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as the party and its leaders aim to argue why their new nominee is best suited to be in the White House over the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.

    Programming will begin 30 minutes earlier than originally planned, at 5:30 p.m. CDT, after Monday’s program had a delayed start.

    Here’s what to watch on the second day:

    Who is speaking on DNC night 2?

    The second night of the DNC brings another slate of party stars onto the primetime stage.

    Illinois Governor JB Pritzker will address the convention much as Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson did on Monday, welcoming the delegates to his home state and stumping for Harris. Pritzker was on the short list of possible vice presidential candidates, and has praised Harris’ choice of Walz as her running mate, calling him a “good friend.”

    Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham, Mesa, Ariz., Republican mayoral candidate John Giles, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will also take the stage.

    The most high profile speeches will come from Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, and the Obamas.

    The Obamas are returning to the city they once called home to take the stage in support of Harris’ nomination.

    The Obamas are expected to headline the convention’s second night, a day after the unofficial farewell for Biden, who served eight years as Obama’s vice president. Biden won’t be in the hall to see his former running mate speak, having departed Chicago after his own speech.

    According to the Harris campaign, Michelle Obama is expected to argue how Harris’ experiences and values make her qualified to serve as president. Her husband, Harris campaign officials said, will focus on what Democrats need to do in order to defeat Trump in the general election.

    In addition to the Obamas, Harris’ husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, is also scheduled to give his speech on Tuesday night. Emhoff, the nation’s first second gentleman, would also be the first man to be first gentleman if Harris is elected president.

    ‘A bold vision for America’s future’

    According to convention organizers, the theme for Tuesday’s events is “A bold vision for America’s future,” a defined pivot toward a new generation for Democrats and their leadership. After a Monday night that flicked at Harris’ possibility but also lauded the legacy of Biden and his decades of accomplishment, convention organizers now appear ready to shift toward the next stage of their journey.

    In laying out their plans for the week, convention organizers described Tuesday night as a way to contrast what they characterized as Harris’ forward-looking strategy with Trump’s less positive outlook on America’s future.

    As they did on Monday, Democrats also plan to showcase “everyday Americans” and some performers during each night, in addition to the elected officials and party leaders.

    A roll call is also expected.

    More protests are planned near the DNC

    More protests are planned near the site of the DNC, where on Monday, a few dozen who broke away from a larger group voicing their opposition to the war in Gaza tore down pieces of the security fence up in several areas near convention venues. Some protesters, dressed in black with their faces covered, dragged pieces of the fence back to a park near the United Center, where the convention is being held.

    Several protesters who managed to get through the fence were detained and handcuffed by the police.

    Thousands of activists have been expected to converge on Chicago, hoping to call attention to abortion rights, economic injustice and the war in Gaza. Demonstrations are expected every day of the convention and, while their agendas vary, many activists agree an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war is the priority.

    Trump’s counterprogramming continues

    As he did on Monday, Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, are continuing on their separate trips across battleground states to keep Democrats from having the political spotlight all to themselves.

    Trump heads to Howell, Michigan, for a crime and safety event, while Vance hosts something similar in Kenosha, Wisconsin. As they did Monday, Trump’s campaign and surrogates – including Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida – plan a media briefing on the sidelines of the DNC in Chicago, with the daily theme of “Make America Safe Again.”

    ABC News contributed to this report.

    Copyright © 2024 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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    AP

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  • Obama, AFT, endorse Kamala Harris for president….By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio’s Black digital news leader

    Obama, AFT, endorse Kamala Harris for president….By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio’s Black digital news leader

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    Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

    By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher-

    CLEVELAND, Ohio-The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and former President Barack Obama have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, increasing her chances of beating former President Donald Trump and winning the White House in November as the contentious race for president of the United States continues.

    The presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party following President Joe Biden’s exit on Sunday from the race, Harris, 59 and also a former California state attorney general and U.S. senator, has become America’s Democratic darling overnight and said Thursday that she appreciates Obama’s coveted endorsement and that of former first lady Michelle O’bama, a power couple.

    “We called to say Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” Obama tells Harris over the phone per a video of the conversation posted online. And Michelle Obama tells Harris, “I am proud of you. This is going to be historic.”

    The endorsement from the Obama’s, who called the upcoming November 5 presidential election historic,  comes a day after Harris secured the endorsement from the prominent AFT.

    Addressing members of the AFT, the second largest teacher’s union in America, at a rally on Thursday, Harris said she has always supported teachers unions and that she is a byproduct of public education.

    She told rally participants that “I am a proud graduate of public education.” And she urged unity among Democrats against Trump, saying Trump, the nominee for the Republican Party, and his allies are trying to take the country backwards.

    “We are fighting for the future,” Harris said after praising the work of the Biden-Harris administration and the president himself.

    Whether the national excitement behind Harris stepping up to replace President Biden in the run for president will continue, especially among Democrats, both Black and White alike, remains to be seen with the presidential election nearly three months away.

    WHAT HAPPEN TO BIDEN RUNNING FOR REELECTION?

    Amid health concerns, low poll numbers, and pressure from key congressional Democrats, Biden, 81, withdrew on Sunday as the presumptive nominee for president for the Democratic Party and urged Democrats to support Vice President Harris in his place, changing the political landscape as the Nov. 5, 2024 presidential election nears. In doing so he handed former President Donald Trump a vibrant and credential Black woman to compete against for the country’s top executive job.

    The nominee for the Republican Party as of Thursday night, Trump,78, lost reelection to Biden, 81, in 2020 and hopes to wiggle his way back into the White House in November with the support of voters and Republican operatives. He immediately began slinging rhetoric and dogging Harris at campaign rallies, much like he did Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential race.

    If she wins in November Harris will become the nation’s first Black and first female president.

    The Democratic National Convention is set for Aug.19-22 in Chicago, Illinois, and a host of celebrities are expected to participate and join Democrats in saluting and promoting Harris as America’s best choice for president.

    If she wins in November Harris will become the nation’s first Black and first female president.

    The Democratic National Convention is set for Aug.19-22 in Chicago, Illinois, and a host of celebrities are expected to participate and join Democrats in supporting Harris.

    Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWs.COM

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    editor@clevelandurbannews.com (Kathy)

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  • We Compared HBO’s House of the Dragon To Game Of Thrones To Determine The Worst Ways To Die

    We Compared HBO’s House of the Dragon To Game Of Thrones To Determine The Worst Ways To Die

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    Photo: HBO

    Of all the deaths in the Game of Thrones pantheon—the beheadings, stabbings, poisonings, drownings, suffocations, flayings, suicides, burnings, beatings, explosions, and zombie attacks—very little beats the intensely traumatic, harrowing childbirth of Aemma Arryn, wife of King Viserys, in the series premiere of HoD. It is the most realistic of any Game of Thrones death, an unforgettable depiction of the brutalities of childbirth. Aemma’s labor becomes complicated, and it quickly becomes evident that both her life and that of the unborn child are in grave danger. King Viserys, desperate for a male heir to secure the Targaryen succession, faces an excruciating decision when he is informed that the only way to potentially save the baby is through a risky and primitive cesarean section, which would almost certainly result in Aemma’s death. Torn between his love for his wife and his duty as king, Viserys decides to proceed with the procedure. Needless to say, you won’t soon shake the grim sights and sounds of it all.

    Depicted with graphic detail and emotional intensity, Aemma is forcibly held down as the maester makes the incision without anesthesia. She dies in agony, begging for her life, grimly aware of the fate that’s been chosen for her. That the baby doesn’t survive is almost beside the point (though it sets in motion the internecine war within House Targaryen). Both GoT and HoD are, if nothing else, odes to the horrors humans inflict on one another. But very little compares to the brutalities inherent in simply living.

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    Lea Goldman

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  • Satan-Controlled Celebrities, Malia Scorsese, And More: This Week In Entertainment News: February 24, 2024

    Satan-Controlled Celebrities, Malia Scorsese, And More: This Week In Entertainment News: February 24, 2024

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    Entertainment

    A collection of the most important entertainment posts of the week

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