A carousel of CEOs has paraded through the White House since President Trump was elected a little over a year ago—they even made up a front-row bench at his inauguration. This isn’t unusual; in fact, it’s entirely expected that the president might want to engage with the private sector.
But when does that relationship get too close for comfort?
The nature of the relationships between top brass at America’s largest business and the Oval Office is beginning to make some people uncomfortable: As Citadel CEO Ken Griffin warned this week, “when the U.S. government starts to engage in corporate America in a way that tastes of favoritism, I know for most CEOs that I’m friends with, they find it incredibly distasteful.”
Trading conditions under Trump 2.0 have been markedly different than the previous decade, throwing markets and executives into disarray. In the volatility following Trump’s Liberation Day announcement in April, Griffin said the sight of business leaders lining up at the Oval Office door to request exceptions to the new duties was “nauseating,” and that the White House showing favor to certain companies undermines the American Dream.
An environment addled by politics isn’t one most CEOs relish, Griffin, 57, told the Wall Street Journal’sInvest Live conference yesterday. He said founders and leaders “want to go run our businesses and win on the merits of providing a better customer to our products at a lower price. Like that’s how we win.”
Griffin warned executives are thinking, ‘I’m close to this administration, but does that mean the next administration is going to grant a favor to one of my competitors, or take a favor away from me, because I don’t support them publicly?’
This second-guessing isn’t conducive to decision-making, Griffin added: “Most CEOs just don’t want to find themselves in the business of having to, in some sense, suck up to one administration after another to succeed in running their business.”
Griffin, himself a top GOP donor, has been something of a critical friend to the White House. He has been candid in his warnings, but has also highlighted Trump’s return to the Oval Office was a welcome relief from the “regulatory onslaught” companies faced under Biden.
Speaking to Fox Business weeks ago, Griffin (a native Floridian who has shifted his operations away from New York and in the direction of the Sunshine State) said to have that “literally end on one day—Election Day—just gives you so much energy as an entrepreneur to go back and build your damn business.”
That said, the man worth $51.2 billion, per Forbes, also highlighted the individual gains extended to the families of the Trump administration. “One of one of the things that you want to believe is that those who serve the public interest have the public interest at heart in everything they do,” he said. “And I think that that this administration has definitely made missteps in choosing decisions or courses that have been very, very enriching to the families of those in the administration.”
‘Extinguished’ voice of corporate America
While Griffin was critical of CEOs using their position for individual benefit, he made it clear the opinions of corporate leaders should still bear weight in national conversation.
Companies caught in “the whole woke movement” served as a lesson to corporate leaders that consumers could make or break their business overnight, said Griffin, claiming it had “created a level of fear and apprehension amongst the corporate CEO class to insert themselves in any publicly facing issues these days.”
Griffin pointed to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who served a brief stint in the White House, leading the highly controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE’s work was heavily criticised, as it included slashing billions from foreign aid budgets, which philanthropists like Bill Gates warned would lead to the deaths of millions of children.
While Griffin admitted “we can do more than quibble about some of the choices or things that [Musk] said,” he added, “we should admire that willingness to give up oneself to make our country better.”
“We need the voices of America’s corporate leadership in the halls of Washington, in the front page of papers to talk about the issues that we need to have for domestic prosperity,” Griffin continued.
The government shutdown is poised to become the longest ever this week as the impasse between Democrats and Republicans has dragged into a new month. Millions of people stand to lose food aid benefits, health care subsidies are set to expire and there are few real talks between the parties over how to end it.
President Donald Trump said in an interview aired on Sunday that he “won’t be extorted” by Democrats who are demanding negotiations to extend the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies. Echoing congressional Republicans, the president said on CBS’ “60 Minutes” he’ll negotiate only when the government is reopened.
Trump said Democrats “have lost their way” and predicted they’ll capitulate to Republicans.
“I think they have to,” Trump said. “And if they don’t vote, it’s their problem.”
Trump’s comments signal the shutdown could drag on for some time as federal workers, including air traffic controllers, are set to miss additional paychecks and there’s uncertainty over whether 42 million Americans who receive federal food aid will be able to access the assistance. Senate Democrats have voted 13 times against reopening the government, insisting they need Trump and Republicans to negotiate with them first.
The president also reiterated his pleas to Republican leaders to change Senate rules and scrap the filibuster. Senate Republicans have repeatedly rejected that idea since Trump’s first term, arguing the rule requiring 60 votes to overcome any objections in the Senate is vital to the institution and has allowed them to stop Democratic policies when they’re in the minority.
Trump said that’s true, but “we’re here right now.”
“Republicans have to get tougher,” Trump told CBS. “If we end the filibuster, we can do exactly what we want.”
With the two parties at a standstill, the shutdown, now in its 34th day and approaching its sixth week, appears likely to become the longest in history. The previous record was set in 2019, when Trump demanded Congress give him money for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. A potentially decisive week
Trump’s push on the filibuster could prove a distraction for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Republican senators who’ve opted instead to stay the course as the consequences of the shutdown become more acute.
Republicans are hoping at least some Democrats will eventually switch their votes as moderates have been in weekslong talks with rank-and-file Republicans about potential compromises that could guarantee votes on health care in exchange for reopening the government. Republicans need five additional Democrats to pass their bill.
“We need five with a backbone to say we care more about the lives of the American people than about gaining some political leverage,” Thune said on the Senate floor as the Senate left Washington for the weekend on Thursday.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday there’s a group of people talking about ”a path to fix the health care debacle” and a commitment from Republicans not to fire more federal workers. But it’s unclear if those talks could produce a meaningful compromise. Far apart on health care subsidies
Trump said in the “60 Minutes” interview that the Affordable Care Act — often known as Obamacare because it was signed and championed by then-President Barack Obama — is “terrible” and if the Democrats vote to reopen the government, “we will work on fixing the bad health care that we have right now.”
Democrats feel differently, arguing that the marketplaces set up by the ACA are working as record numbers of Americans have signed up for the coverage. But they want to extend subsidies first enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic so premiums won’t go up for millions of people on Jan. 1.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said last week that “we want to sit down with Thune, with (House Speaker Mike) Johnson, with Trump, and negotiate a way to address this horrible health care crisis.” No appetite for bipartisanship
As Democrats have pushed Trump and Republicans to negotiate, Trump has showed little interest in doing so. He called for an end to the Senate filibuster after a trip to Asia while the government was shut down.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that the president has spoken directly to Thune and Johnson about the filibuster. But a spokesman for Thune said Friday that his position hasn’t changed, and Johnson said Sunday that he believes the filibuster has traditionally been a “safeguard” from far-left policies.
Trump said on “60 Minutes” that he likes Thune but “I disagree with him on this point.”
The president has spent much of the shutdown mocking Democrats, posting videos of House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries in a Mexican sombrero. The White House website is now featuring a satirical “My Space” page for Democrats, a parody based on the social media site that was popular in the early 2000s. “We just love playing politics with people’s livelihoods,” the page reads.
Democrats have repeatedly said that they need Trump to get serious and weigh in. Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said that he hopes the shutdown could end “this week” because Trump is back in Washington.
Republicans “can’t move on anything without a Trump sign off,” Warner said on “Face the Nation” on CBS. Record-breaking shutdown
The 35-day shutdown that lasted from December 2018 to January 2019 ended when Trump retreated from his demands over a border wall. That came amid intensifying delays at the nation’s airports and multiple missed paydays for hundreds of thousands of federal workers.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on ABC’s “This Week” that there have already been delays at several airports “and it’s only going to get worse.”
Many of the workers are “confronted with a decision,” he said. “Do I put food on my kids‘ table, do I put gas in the car, do I pay my rent or do I go to work and not get paid?”
As flight delays around the country increased, New York City’s emergency management department posted on Sunday that Newark Airport was under a ground delay because of “staffing shortages in the control tower” and that they were limiting arrivals to the airport.
“The average delay is about 2 hours, and some flights are more than 3 hours late,” the account posted. SNAP crisis
Also in the crossfire are the 42 million Americans who receive SNAP benefits. The Department of Agriculture planned to withhold $8 billion needed for payments to the food program starting on Saturday until two federal judges ordered the administration to fund it.
The Trump administration indicated in court Monday that it will only partially fund SNAP this month by using a $4.65 billion emergency fund. That left the program in uncertainty with no clear indication of how much beneficiaries will receive or when their cards will be loaded to buy groceries.
House Democratic leader Jeffries, D-N.Y., accused Trump and Republicans of attempting to “weaponize hunger.” He said that the administration has managed to find ways for funding other priorities during the shutdown, but is slow-walking pushing out SNAP benefits despite the court orders.
“But somehow they can’t find money to make sure that Americans don’t go hungry,” Jeffries said in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The U.S. immigration crackdown will cause net job losses in the millions and will lower the annual rate of economic growth by almost one-third over the next decade, a new study estimates.
The Trump administration’s policies aimed at legal and illegal immigration would reduce the projected number of workers by 6.8 million by 2028 and 15.7 million by 2035, the National Foundation for American Policy’s study released Friday found. People entering the workforce won’t fully make up for the job losses, leading to a net reduction in the labor force by a projected 4 million workers by 2028 and 11 million in 2035.
“With the U.S.-born population aging and growing at a slower rate, immigrants have become an essential part of American labor force growth,” the think tank, which focuses on trade and immigration, said.
In fact, immigrant workers were responsible for 84.7% of the labor force growth in America between 2019 and 2024, according to the report.
The study takes into account many of Trump’s far-reaching immigration policies for those eligible to work in the country, including reducing and suspending refugee admissions, a travel ban on 19 countries, ending Temporary Protected Status, and prohibiting international students from working on Optional Practical Training and STEM OPT after completing their coursework. The analysis does not account for a new policy that requires U.S. companies to shell out $100,000 in one-time fees for new H-1B visas.
Labor reduction
Trump’s immigration crackdown is already having an impact on the labor force.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics household survey shows a decline of 1.1 million foreign-born workers since the start of the Trump administration in January through August, according to the report.
And of the 6.8 million fewer projected workers in the U.S. labor force by 2028, 2.8 million would be due to changes in legal immigration policies, while 4 million would result from policies on illegal immigration, the study said
At the same time, it doesn’t look as though U.S.-born workers are entering the workforce en masse as foreign-born workers exit, the report said. Instead, the labor force participation rate for U.S.-born workers aged 16 and older has ticked lower to 61.6% in August from 61.7% last year, according to the report.
Labor economist and senior fellow at NFAP Mark Regets, said in the report it’s “wrong” to assume a decline in immigration helps U.S. workers when job growth slows.
“Immigrants both create demand for the goods and services produced by U.S.-born workers and work alongside them in ways that increase productivity for both groups,” Regrets said. “While it is just one factor, we shouldn’t be surprised that opportunities for U.S.-born workers are falling at the same time an estimated one million fewer immigrants may be in the labor force.”
But the White House says there’s a large pool of available U.S.-born workers.
“Over one in ten young adults in America are neither employed, in higher education, nor pursuing some sort of vocational training.” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fortune in a statement, referencing a July 2024 CNBC article. “There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force, and President Trump’s agenda to create jobs for American workers represents this Administration’s commitment to capitalizing on that untapped potential while delivering on our mandate to enforce our immigration laws.”
Economic fallout
Previous reports have warned Trumps’ immigration policies also threaten negative economic consequences.
In September, the Congressional Budget Office projected 290,000 immigrants will be removed from the country between 2026 and 2029, which may create a labor shortage and drive up inflation.
And according to the NFAP study, Trump’s immigration policies will lower the projected average annual economic growth rate to 1.3% from 1.8% between fiscal year 2025 to fiscal year 2035.
There are also ramifications for the agriculture industry and food production. The Labor Department admitted earlier this month in a filing in the Federal Register that Trump’s immigration crackdown risked a “labor shortage exacerbated by the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens.”
That’s not the only sector feeling the talent squeeze.
The $100,000 one-time fee for workers applying for new H-1B visas is expected to disrupt companies including Amazon, Microsoft and Meta, since they heavily recruit workers under this status.
And the policies are projected to have far-ranging effects on most areas of business, including a potential loss of hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers in sectors like information and educational and health services.
In addition, individuals affected by Trump’s travel ban on 19 different countries represent a significant part of the economy, the American Immigration Council, a nonprofit research organization and advocacy group, has estimated.
Households led by the recent arrivals from the countries earned $3.2 billion in household income, paid $715.6 million in federal, state and local taxes and held $2.5 billion in spending power, according to AIC.
“These nationals made important contributions in U.S. industries that are facing labor shortages and rely on foreign-born workers,” like hospitality, construction, retail trade and manufacturing, the report said.
But the White House said Trump will continue “growing our economy, creating opportunity for American workers, and ensuring all sectors have the workforce they need to be successful.”
Nan Wu, research director at AIC told Fortune the recent NFAP study may not even fully capture the broader impact of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.
“Given the unprecedented scale of these actions, it’s difficult to quantify the chilling effect they may have on immigrants who might otherwise choose to move to or remain in the United States,” Wu said. “For instance, international students—who are a critical source of high-skilled talent—may increasingly opt to pursue education or career opportunities in other countries. This shift could significantly disrupt the U.S. talent pipeline, particularly in sectors that rely heavily on STEM expertise and innovation.”
Freed from the prison where he had been serving time for ripping off his campaign donors, former U.S. Rep. George Santos says he’s humbled by his experience behind bars but unconcerned about the “pearl clutching” of critics upset that President Donald Trump granted him clemency.
“I’m pretty confident if President Trump had pardoned Jesus Christ off the cross, he would have had critics,” Santos said Sunday in an interview on CNN.
Santos, who won office after inventing a bogus persona as a Wall Street dealmaker, pleaded guilty to fraud and identity theft last year and began serving a 7-year sentence in July at a prison in New Jersey. But Trump ordered him released him Friday after he’d served just 84 days. Trump called Santos a “rogue,” but said he didn’t deserve a harsh sentence and should get credit for voting Republican.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Santos said he had “learned a great deal” and had “a very large slice of humble pie, if not the whole pie” while in prison.
He also apologized to former constituents in his New York congressional district, saying he was “in a chaotic ball of flame” when he committed his crimes. Santos admitted last year to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of 11 people — including his own family members.
But when asked about fellow Republicans unhappy that Trump freed him so soon, Santos said other presidential acts of clemency had been worse, citing President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter, for gun and tax crimes.
“So pardon me if I’m not paying too much attention to the pearl-clutching of the outrage of my critics,” Santos said.
As part of his guilty plea, Santos had agreed to pay restitution of $373,750 and forfeiture of $205,003. But Trump’s clemency order appeared to clear him of paying any further fines or restitution.
Santos said he has been granted a second chance and intended to “make amends,” but when asked if he intended to pay back the campaign donors he had defrauded, he said only if he had to.
“If it’s required of me by the law, yes. If it’s not, then no,” Santos said.
Santos had appealed to Trump directly for help, citing his loyalty to the president’s agenda and to the Republican Party in a letter published Oct. 13 in The South Shore Press. But he said Sunday that he had no expectations and learned of his commutation from fellow inmates who saw the news on television.
Revelations that Santos invented much of his life story surfaced just weeks after he became the first openly gay Republican to elected to Congress in 2022.
Santos had said while campaigning that he was a successful business consultant with a sizable real estate portfolio. But he ultimately admitted to embellishing his biography. He had never graduated from Baruch College, where he had claimed to be a standout player on the Manhattan college’s volleyball team. He had never worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. He didn’t own property.
In truth, he struggled financially, had drifted through several jobs, including one for a company accused of running a Ponzi scheme, and even faced eviction.
After becoming just the sixth person to be expelled from Congress, Santos made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling personalized videos to the public on Cameo. He returned to the service Sunday.
Long known for its massive scale and bureaucratic complexity, the Pentagon is slowly transforming itself into a more streamlined organization, much like a Silicon Valley company.
The “fail fast” mentality, once confined to startups, is taking root in the Department of War, previously known as the Department of Defense, thanks to AI and other systems that are revolutionizing the way the U.S. approaches global conflicts, speakers at the Fortune Most Powerful Women conference said on Tuesday.
Radha Iyengar Plumb, a former chief digital and AI intelligence officer at the Pentagon who is now the vice president of AI-first transformation at IBM said the Pentagon is in some ways similar to a $1 trillion business. It has about three million employees, more ground vehicles than FedEx, and a supply chain three times larger than that of Walmart. Yet, for years, the massive amount of data linked to its operations was handled manually and inefficiently.
Analysts would “literally swivel chair between multiple different computers” to gather intelligence and paste it into PowerPoint slides, she noted.
“When it is the world around you that is changing over time, that swivel chair just gets updated slowly,” Plumb said. “People don’t have full information about the world around them and that makes it harder to make good decisions.”
Modernizing the Pentagon
However, the government’s more recent efforts are slowly improving this situation. Shannon Clark, a former Pentagon analyst and current head of defense growth at Palantir, cited Project Maven, a Pentagon initiative launched in 2017 to consolidate data and integrate AI into battlefield operations, as a key driver of improvements. Palantir is a government contractor assisting the Pentagon in executing Project Maven.
Still, modernization also requires a new mindset, said Clark. The government and Congress need to take more risks, although they are already making strides, thanks in part to some outside influence, she added.
“They’ve seen what the companies in Silicon Valley are doing,” said Clark. “I think they’re seeing that that’s the only way that we’re going to be able to forge forward faster, is by watching and failing and then learning from those mistakes, just as much as learning from success.”
Incorporating AI into government has already helped drive results in part by speeding up how fast the Pentagon can buy and deliver things, said Plumb.
Another positive development over the years has been the emergence of numerous defense technology companies that are helping the U.S. gain an edge over its adversaries, said Clark.
“All of this technology was used for the 12-day war. All this technology was used for the conflict with Russia and Ukraine, and it’ll be used for whatever the next conflict is as well,” she said. “We really need America’s best and brightest to be working on this.”
For Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, the political implications of still-elevated inflation are not lost on him.
Inflation has come down a lot from 9% in 2022 to 2.9% in the government’s latest CPI report. Core PCE prices, the Fed’s favorite gauge of inflation, rose 2.9% in August, matching July’s climb.
But inflation has been sticky as tariffs take hold, and Griffin predicted inflation will continue to be in the mid-2% to 3% range next year, still above the Fed’s 2% target.
In 2024, the high cost of living was a focal point in Trump’s reelection campaign, and Biden-era inflation hurt Democrats. They lost the White House and Congress, while Trump won all seven swing states.
Many voters blamed Democratic policies—including stimulus spending—for sustained, high costs, exit polls found.
“There’s no doubt that the president and the Republicans came to power on the back of frustration with inflation,” Griffin said. “I would not underestimate how grating a 3% inflation rate could be to tens of millions of American households.”
Inflation could feature heavily in midterm elections next year, as the Republican Party looks to defend narrow majorities in the House and Senate. And voters are souring on Trump’s economy.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed only 28% of respondents approved of Trump’s handling of their cost of living. A YouGov/Economist poll put Trump’s approval rating on the economy at an all-time low of 35%.
One indicator of affordability has been a thorn in Trump’s side: high mortgage rates. Yet as Trump looks to the Fed for homeowner relief, many worry about political influence over the independent body.
Trump has been criticized lately for pressuring the Federal Reserve and threatening its independence. Critics argue that his efforts to appoint loyalists to the Fed, public calls to lower interest rates, and attempts to remove a sitting governor represent a clear move to sway monetary policy for political purposes.
Griffin advised that continued Fed independence would be in Trump’s interest.
“If I were the president, I would let the Fed do their job,” he said. “I would let the Fed have as much perceived and real independence as possible, because the Fed often has to make choices that are pretty painful to make.”
The Federal Open Market Committee cut interest rates by a fourth of a percent earlier this month to buoy a slowing labor market. The move comes after months of continued pressure from the Trump administration on Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other committee members to cut rates.
Still, President Donald Trump has been vocal about cutting rates further, even though the move likely will risk further price increases.
Griffin warned that erosion of Fed independence could lead to Americans conflating the White House and central bank.
“If the president’s perceived as being in control of the Fed, then what happens when those painful choices have to be made?”
Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.
Nexstar joined Sinclair on Friday in calling off its Jimmy Kimmel boycott just days after ABC returned the comedian to late-night television.
Beginning Friday night, Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return to air on the ABC affiliates, which had preempted the show last week over remarks he made about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
“As a local broadcaster, Nexstar remains committed to protecting the First Amendment while producing and airing local and national news that is fact-based and unbiased and, above all, broadcasting content that is in the best interest of the communities we serve,” a Nexstar statement said. “We stand apart from cable television, monolithic streaming services, and national networks in our commitment–and obligation–to be stewards of the public airwaves.”
Similarly, Sinclair issued a statement earlier on Friday reversing its decision to keep the comedian off its airwaves.
It cited “feedback from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives.”
Sinclair had previously vowed not to put Kimmel back on air unless meetings were held with ABC to discuss the network’s “commitmentment to professionalism and accountability.”
Those discussions are still ongoing, though ABC and Disney have not yet accepted any measures proposed by Sinclair, which included a network-wide independent ombudsman, per the company’s Friday release.
The stand-down comes days after Kimmel’s first episode back on air had the highest ratings for a regularly scheduled episode in over a decade. His monologue at the top of the show ranged from the First Amendment and the Trump administration to Erica Kirk’s speech at her late husband’s memorial, garnering over 21 million views on YouTube in just a couple days—the most for a monologue in his show’s history.
Kimmel’s comeback on Tuesday drew 6.3 million TV viewers, about four times the show’s average, despite nearly a quarter of ABC’s national reach blacking out his return episode. Sixty-six local stations owned by the ABC affiliates did not broadcast Jimmy Kimmel Live!, but this cost them a natural influx of viewership, and possibly some of their market, according to media experts.
“Blackouts like this often highlight the strength of digital platforms,” Natalie Andreas, a communications professor at the University of Texas, told Fortune.
Instead of limiting reach, blackouts push viewers toward spaces like YouTube where content spreads faster, lingers longer, and attracts new audiences who may not have tuned in live, she said.
Susan Keith, a professor in the Rutgers School of Communication and Information, told Fortune the blackouts can push viewers to seek—and easily find—Kimmel on their digital cable packages or YouTube if local stations didn’t air the show.
“There’s this idea of public interest, necessity and convenience that over-the-air broadcast media were supposed to fulfill,” she said. “So if we all move to streaming services for content because (of) incidents like this one,” it trains viewers to seek media this way.
Earlier this year, streaming overtook cable and broadcast as America’s most-watched form of TV, according to Nielsen data.
The FCC does not license TV or radio networks such as CBS, NBC, ABC or Fox, but rather individual stations that may air programming from these networks. But the shift to streaming has raised questions about what its continued role might be as viewers lean away from individual broadcast stations.
“I think this is an open question,” Keith said. “I think we don’t really know what to think about the ultimate usefulness of the FCC.”
Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.
Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek investigative reporter based in Michigan. His focus includes U.S. and international politics and policies, immigration, crime and social issues. Other reporting has covered education, economics, and wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Nick joined Newsweek in 2021 from The Oakland Press, and his reporting has been featured in The Detroit News and other publications. His reporting on the opioid epidemic garnered a statewide Michigan Press Association award. The Michigan State University graduate can be reached at n.mordowanec@newsweek.com.
Jason Lemon is a Senior Politics Editor at Newsweek based in Brooklyn, New York. Prior to taking on the editor role, Jason’s reporting focused on U.S. politics and international affairs. He joined Newsweek in 2018, and had previously worked as an editor at a Middle Eastern media startup called StepFeed. He also worked a year as a contributor to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and has bylines in The Christian Science Monitor, The Palm Beach Post, Al Fanar Media and A Magazine. He is a graduate of the American University of Beirut in Lebanon and Andrews University in Michigan. You can get in touch with Jason by emailing j.lemon@newsweek.com. Languages: English, Spanish, French and Levantine Arabic
🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Former President Barack Obama raised concerns about political violence in the United States during an interview at the Jefferson Educational Society in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk less than a week ago.
“We are certainly at an inflection point, not just around political violence, but there are a host of larger trends that we have to be concerned about. I think it is important for us, at the outset, to acknowledge that political violence is not new. It has happened at certain periods in our history, but it is something that it is anathema to what it means to be a democratic country,” he said.
“And regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, what happened to Charlie Kirk was horrific and a tragedy. What happened, as you mentioned, to the state legislators in Minnesota, that is horrific. It is a tragedy,” Obama said.
This is a developing story will be updated with additional information.
Former President Barack Obama addresses the Obama Foundation’s 2024 Democracy Forum on December 5, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. Former President Barack Obama addresses the Obama Foundation’s 2024 Democracy Forum on December 5, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. Scott Olson/Getty Images
John Deere is the kind of homegrown, domestic manufacturer President Donald Trump claims to support, yet his tariffs and hostility toward China are threatening its bottom line.
The Moline, Ill.–based tractor and agriculture machinery manufacturer boasted a record profit just two years ago, but since then its luck has turned. That’s partly because of instability related to tariffs and an economic fight with China. Last month, the company said it would lay off 238 production employees in Illinois and Iowa, citing “decreased demand and lower order volumes.”
In Q3, the company’s net profit fell by a quarter compared with the same time last year, and its worldwide net sales and revenues fell by 9% to $3.9 billion, down from $5.8 billion last year. The company also lowered its guidance for its annual net profit through the end of the year.
On the company’s most recent earnings call, investor relations director Josh Beale said there were “pockets of optimism” across John Deere’s business, but added customers may be feeling the sting of tariffs and instability.
“Given challenging industry fundamentals and evolving global trade environment and ever-changing interest rate expectations, our customers are operating in increasingly dynamic markets, which naturally drives caution as they consider capital purchases,” Beale said.
Agriculture is an industry in constant flux. Elevated crop prices mean farmers can consider buying new tractors and equipment, but in challenging times they may buy used equipment or hold off on a big purchase. New tractors can cost tens of thousands of dollars depending on their capabilities, and many farmers rely on credit for these purchases. Prices are low for the two main American crops: corn and soybeans. Corn is selling for 50% less than its price in 2022, while prices for soybeans are down 40%, the New York Timesreported.
John Deere’s customers, apart from the confusion of tariffs, are also facing headwinds from an economic battle with China. In response to Trump’s tariff escalations, the world’s second-biggest economy retaliated with tariffs on U.S. soybeans; last year, China imported $13 billion worth—or about equal to the market cap of John Deere competitor Kubota. Soybean imports to China are down by 51% this year, and the country hasn’t made any advanced soybean purchases for the upcoming harvest, the NYT reported.
If John Deere customers make fewer equipment purchases, the cutback will hit the company’s domestic manufacturing, which makes up 80% of its U.S. sales and a quarter of its international sales.
John Deere did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Still, there may be a silver lining to Trump’s policies for John Deere. The company could benefit from bonus depreciation changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill, passed in July, which gives farmers a tax break on equipment purchases.
Because of its robust domestic manufacturing, the company may also be more immune to tariffs on foreign imports than competitors Kubota, Fendt, and Mahindra, which manufacture more of their products internationally.
Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.
President Donald Trump said Friday that American chipmaker Intel had agreed to give the U.S. government a 10% stake, worth roughly $10 billion.
“They’ve had some bad management over the years, and they got lost. I said, ‘I think you should pay us 10% of your company,’ and they said yes. That’s about $10 billion. I don’t get it; this comes to the United States of America,” he said at a press conference with reporters in the Oval Office.
Intel was previously allocated about $11 billion in grants to build out manufacturing in the U.S. under the CHIPS and Science Act passed by Congress during the Biden administration.
Under the new agreement with Trump, the government will take equity in return for the grant money allocated to Intel through the CHIPS Act, the New York Timesreported. The government will not be involved in company governance or claim a board seat, according to the Times.
Intel shares jumped 5.5%.
A spokesperson for Intel declined to comment to Fortune. The White House did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick previously outlined plans for the U.S. government to receive equity in return for the CHIPS Act cash grants Intel has received.
“We should get an equity stake for our money, so we’ll deliver the money which was already committed under the Biden administration,” Lutnick told CNBC earlier this week.
Trump claimed the agreement came after a conversation with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, whom he previously called on to resign in a post on his social media website, Truth Social.
Trump said Friday he called for Tan’s ouster because of a letter Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) sent to Intel’s chairman, expressing concern about Tan’s ties to Chinese companies. Following Trump’s post, Tan traveled to Washington for a meeting with Trump last week.
“He walked in wanting to keep his job, and he ended up giving us $10 billion for the American people,” Trump said Friday.
The Intel agreement comes as the Trump administration has shown a recent willingness to take a more interventionist role with U.S. companies. As a condition of the merger between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel, the administration demanded that it name a board member to the combined entity and secure a “golden share,” giving it veto power over company decisions.
The U.S. also recently reached a revenue-sharing agreement with chipmakers Nvidia and AMD, giving the government 15% of sales generated through AI chip sales in China as part of its terms for granting export licenses to the companies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week similar agreements could be expanded to other industries.
Some Republicans, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have criticized Trump’s plan for the U.S. government to take a stake in Intel.
“If socialism is government owning the means of production, wouldn’t the government owning part of Intel be a step toward socialism? Terrible idea,” Paul wrote Wednesday in a post on X.
Still, Trump was undeterred by the criticism and noted Friday that the government will continue its interventionist path as long as the agreements don’t hurt the U.S. military or security.
“We do a lot of deals like that. I’ll do more of them,” he said.
Introducing the 2025 Fortune Global 500, the definitive ranking of the biggest companies in the world. Explore this year’s list.
(CNN) — Jennifer Lopez, campaigning with Kamala Harris on Thursday in Nevada, said Donald Trump’s campaign had offended “every Latino in this country” with his Sunday rally at Madison Square Garden, where a comedian mocked Puerto Rico.
The pop star and actress’ comments at Harris’ rally in Las Vegas came as outrage continues to reverberate over the pro-Trump comedian calling the US island territory of Puerto Rico — where Lopez’s parents were born — a “floating island of garbage.”
“At Madison Square Garden, he reminded us who he really is and how he really feels,” Lopez said of Trump. “It wasn’t just Puerto Ricans who were offended that day, OK? It was every Latino in this country, it was humanity and anyone of decent character.”
Harris’ stop in Las Vegas with Lopez came during a swing through the hotly contested Western battlegrounds of Arizona and Nevada — where CNN polls released earlier this week showed exceedingly close races with no clear leader.
The vice president has deployed a growing list of celebrities and musicians with huge social media followings in the race’s closing days, as her campaign seeks to turn out key constituencies — including Black voters in Georgia and Latinos out West. That list ranges from music legends Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen, who have performed at Harris events in Georgia, to the stars of Marvel’s “Avengers” movies, who backed the vice president on social media Thursday.
But the most impactful support might come from Puerto Rican stars like Lopez, who have grown more vocal since Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally.
“This is our country, too,” Lopez said Thursday night.
At one point, she fought back tears.
“You know what? We should be emotional. We should be upset. We should be scared and outraged. We should. Our pain matters. We matter,” Lopez said. “Your voice and your vote matters.”
Other Puerto Rican celebrities have also been critical of Trump in recent days.
Bad Bunny, one of the world’s biggest Latin music stars, shared Harris’ platform for Puerto Rico on social media on Sunday. And reggaeton star Nicky Jam, who had previously appeared onstage with Trump, withdrew his endorsement of the former president, saying, “Puerto Rico should be respected.”
Trump has long sought to make inroads with Black and Latino men. In the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, in particular, a sizable portion of the rapidly growing Latino population is of Puerto Rican heritage.
Harris’ campaign on Thursday launched a Spanish-language ad, aimed at reaching Latino voters, that highlighted comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s remark at the Trump rally.
“Puerto Rico is an island of scientists, poets, educators, stars and heroes,” the narrator of the ad says in Spanish. “We’re not trash, we’re more.”
The Trump campaign has sought to distance itself from Hinchcliffe, with Trump campaign spokesperson Danielle Alvarez saying in a statement after the rally, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
And Trump’s campaign has sought to turn attention to another “garbage” remark — pointing to President Joe Biden’s comment on Tuesday night that many interpreted as referring to Trump supporters as “garbage.” (The White House and Biden quickly tried to clean up the comment, saying that the president was referring to “supporter’s,” as in the comedian, and the rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally.)
Harris, in Las Vegas, said Trump is “all about hate and division.” She said if he is elected again, he would reinstate a policy that led to migrant families being separated at the US-Mexico border.
Lopez repeatedly said Harris “gets it” — and said she understands what it means for immigrant families to chase the American dream, because her parents were also immigrants.
She also said she believes “in the power of women.”
“Women have the power to make the difference in this election,” Lopez said.
The singer’s comments came the same day Harris seized on Trump’s remark in Wisconsin the night before that he will protect women, “whether the women like it or not.” He said he would protect them “from migrants coming in” and “from foreign countries with missiles and lots of other things.”
The vice president told reporters on Thursday that Trump’s comment is “very offensive to women, in terms of not understanding their agency, their authority, their right and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies.”
She pointed to Trump’s appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices who helped undo Roe v. Wade’s national abortion rights protections. Trump said earlier this month he would veto a national abortion ban, but has waffled on the issue in the past, and many Republican-led states have imposed their own restrictive laws.
Polls show this year’s election could see a historic gender gap, with a majority of men backing Trump and women supporting Harris — a reality that helps explain Harris’ emphasis on an issue that has proven potent with voters, particularly women, since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision.
As she campaigned in Reno, Nevada, on Thursday, Harris again raised Trump’s remarks, which she called “outrageous.”
“This is someone who simply does not respect the freedom of women or the intelligence of women to make decisions about their own lives,” she said.
(CNN) — The violent and vulgar rhetoric at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally Sunday has prompted finger-pointing within the former president’s inner circle and deep concern that his message was once again eclipsed by controversy.
Several of Trump’s allies expressed dismay at the language used by speakers at the New York City event, particularly an off-color joke about Puerto Rico by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who opened the event and set the tone for an evening of disparaging and divisive remarks.
“I’m livid,” one source close to the former president said, noting that they were stunned the remarks had not been thoroughly vetted before speakers took the stage.
Throughout Sunday afternoon and evening, a parade of speakers roused the crowd at Trump’s pre-election MAGA celebration, adopting the anything-goes tone of the Republican nominee. Some lobbed racist barbs about Latino and Black Americans; others deployed misogynistic attacks against Trump’s female political adversaries, past and present.
Many of these remarks appeared to be read from teleprompters, indicating they had been approved by someone within the event’s planning team. One campaign adviser told CNN that speeches were supposed to be vetted ahead of time and was uncertain as to how the overtly racist language had made it to the stage. Another senior adviser said the speeches were vetted but insisted that the more offensive remarks were adlibbed and not on any draft given to the campaign.
By Monday, there were still disputes within the campaign over who approved Hinchcliffe’s set, which was replete with racial tropes. One adviser suggested no one had reviewed Hinchcliffe’s remarks in full. Another said the campaign was not given a draft that included some of the comedian’s more indecent jokes but did flag one calling Vice President Kamala Harris a “c*nt” as “in poor taste” and nixed it from the set.
The program diverged sharply from the meticulous staging of this summer’s Republican National Convention, where every speech was carefully scrutinized and tightly choreographed. During the convention, campaign advisers routinely edited and, in some cases, rewrote the remarks of invited speakers, with minimal room for improvisation. Campaign aides acknowledged to CNN that the level of preparation exercised at the Milwaukee convention was not applied to Sunday’s rally.
Since the RNC in July, a period marked by an extraordinary series of events — including Harris replacing President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket — Trump’s advisers have struggled to keep him focused, and his public appearances have grown increasingly erratic has he veers further off message. Some allies have at times publicly questioned whether the former president was striking an appropriate tone to win over the voters needed to carry the election in battleground states.
Sunday began with Republicans optimistic that Trump’s campaign was, at least, striking the right tone with a new advertisement that looked ahead to the prospect of a second Trump presidency.
“President Trump fights for you. His strength kept us safe. Trump cut taxes for families. Prices were lower, and the border secure. Now, President Trump can do it again, and we are going to a new golden age of American success for the citizens of every race, religion, color, and creed,” a narrator intoned.
Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist and CNN political commentator, praised the ad as a “perfect closing argument” from Trump’s campaign. But by 8 p.m., any hopes that Trump would build on that message at Madison Square Garden had evaporated.
Yet, the offending comments that evening were not altogether out of place in the context of a Trump rally, where the use of crude slogans, explicit anthems from Kid Rock, and offensive nicknames for political opponents has been the norm. Many of his supporters express themselves through crass messages on T-shirts. Trump himself has often adopted nativist language and increasingly uses profanity in his speeches.
For nearly a decade, Trump has endured — if not thrived — on the lack of a filter that defines his political brand, leaving Democrats with no clear path to exploit it in the closing stretch of the race. In a similar vein, Future Forward, the leading super PAC supporting Harris’ presidential campaign, recently cautioned that Democrats risk diluting their final message by spending time labeling Trump a fascist.
Still, the timing of Sunday’s event — so close to Election Day and with a high-profile New York backdrop — has prompted a new wave of concern from Republicans.
The controversy largely centers around Hinchcliffe’s joke about Puerto Rico, which he called a “floating island of garbage.” A handful of Republicans, some closely aligned with Trump, issued statements condemning the remarks. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the state with the largest Puerto Rican population, described the comments as “neither funny nor true.” Rep. Byron Donalds, also from Florida, said, “Nobody agreed with that.”
Allies expressed worry that the remarks could have political repercussions, especially given Puerto Ricans’ growing influence in battleground states, with about half a million residing in Pennsylvania alone. Sources close to the former president confirmed that a number of calls had been made to campaign officials stressing the need to respond to the remarks.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, a New York Republican and Puerto Rican who is facing one of the toughest reelection battles in the country, wrote on X, “The only thing that’s ‘garbage’ was a bad comedy set.”
“Stay on message,” D’Esposito advised.
The Trump campaign, generally unapologetic about inflammatory statements, swiftly released a statement on Sunday night distancing itself from Hinchcliffe’s remarks.
“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said.
Trump’s distancing from Hinchcliffe did not extend to the comedian’s other inflammatory remarks — including a stereotype about Black people and watermelons, as well as a crude assertion about Latino immigrants’ sex lives. Nor did the campaign acknowledge other speakers who have drawn condemnation, such as one who referred to Harris as “the devil” and “the antichrist.”
As of Monday, there were not plans for Trump to address the comments during his upcoming appearances. The former president held an event Monday in Georgia and travels to Pennsylvania on Tuesday.
Democrats quickly seized on the outwardly offensive display Sunday. In the aftermath of the rally, Puerto Rican music super star Bad Bunny signaled his support for Harris to his 45 million followers on social media, which her campaign quickly promoted.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, called Trump’s Madison Square Garden event a “hate rally” and suggested the campaign was in damage control mode over Hinchcliffe’s comments.
“They’re just realizing that they might have made a big error by saying out loud what they’re thinking,” she told MSNBC on Monday.
It remains to be seen, though, if Trump faces electoral consequences for the remarks disparaging Puerto Rico. Trump himself once called the territory “one of the most corrupt places on earth.” He accused local officials there of inflating the death toll from Hurricane Maria – estimated at 3,000 – to make him look bad.
Democrats attempted in 2020 to mobilize Puerto Ricans in some battlegrounds by attacking Trump’s handling of the response to Maria. Spanish-language ads and billboards in Florida featured Trump tossing paper towels to survivors who had lost their homes and highlighted his past criticism of the island. In Osceola County, where the population surged after Maria and one in three voters identifies as Puerto Rican, Democrats enlisted storm survivors to reach out to other Puerto Ricans against Trump.
In the end, Trump won Florida and, in Osceola County, his performance improved by 7 points.
There are eight days remaining in the 2024 Presidential Election for Vice President Kamala D. Harris and former President Donald J. Trump. In the last week, Vice President Harris visited Clarkston, an enclave bordered by Decatur to the west and Stone Mountain to the east. Friday, Harris visited Houston, Texas to campaign alongside U.S. Represntative Colin Allred, Kelly Rowland, and Beyoncé. Saturday, Michelle Obama joined Harris to rally voters in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Meanwhile, Trump headlined a rally at Madison Square Garden and is set to return to Atlanta tonight at Georgia Tech.
What do we know about the race with one week to go?
First, the early voting turnout in Georgia has surpassed the levels from 2020. As of 6am Monday morning, 38.9% of Georgia’s registered voters have made their choice in this year’s presidential election. More than 2.81 million voters have cast their ballot. Black voters make up nearly 34% of that turnout. The general rule of thumb is if more than 30% of Black voters vote for the Democratic Party, it bodes well for their chances. In the cases for Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fulton and Henry Counties, total turnout has been north of 40% during the early voting period.
Additionally, 71,000 Georgians who were registered to vote in 2020, but did not cast a ballot in that election, have already cast a ballot this year during the first week of early voting. Among newly-activated voters, Democrats currently hold an edge.
Every single survey has Harris and Trump locked in a dead heat in Georgia.
Maya Harris speaks during a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday, October 18, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)
A Woman’s Right to Choose is central to Democrats closing message
During each campaign stop, one message was clear: reproductive freedom for women is true freedom for all Americans. The stories of the pain and suffering were told in an effervescent manner. Thursday, the family of Amber Nicole Thurman attended the Harris rally in Clarkston. Friday, Harris rallied voters in Houston on her pledge to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law. Texas, like Georgia, abortion procedures are prohibited at six weeks – before many women know they are pregnant – with exceptions only if the mother’s life is in danger.
“So do you think Donald Trump is thinking about the consequences for the millions of women who will be living in medical deserts,” asked Michelle Obama during her speech in Houston. “Does anyone think he has the emotional maturity and foresight to come up with a plan to protect us?”
During an event hosted by Maya Harris, the women backing the Vice President Harris urged attendees to vote early and in person, emphasizing the significance of youth and diverse voter engagement. Maya Harris also underscored the Vice President’s commitment to reproductive freedom. The message was clear: individual efforts can make a significant impact, and the collective goal is to ensure Kamala Harris becomes the next President.
Objectives for enshrining Roe
Vote for Kamala Harris in the upcoming election, as she has pledged to protect reproductive rights and expand access to healthcare.
Women must have open and honest conversations important men in their lives to make it clear that protecting women’s health and rights is a priority. Urge the gentlemen to vote accordingly.
Encourage women, especially first-time voters, to exercise their right to vote and make their voices heard on these critical issues.
Support efforts to pass legislation that would restore nationwide protections for reproductive rights.
Advocate against policies and politicians that seek to restrict or undermine access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion, contraception, and maternal care.
Maya Harris takes a selfie with a crowd during a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday, October 18, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)
“It is why she has spent her entire life fighting for each of us to be able to have that freedom,” explained Maya Harris. “To put a fine point on it, like the freedom to make our own decisions about our health, our families and our futures. Which includes our reproductive freedom, which is a defining issue, not just in this election, but for our entire country. And certainly for this room in so many ways. It’s an issue that Kamala has been the strongest, most vocal champion of this issue since the overturning of Roe v Wade.”
Puerto Rico, an American territory, MAGA’s latest target
While Kamala Harris was in Philadelphia on Sunday, Donald Trump staged a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was apropos for Trump to hold such an event on an NFL Sunday. Trump notoriously failed in his attempt to buy the Buffalo Bills and the NFL put the former United States Football League out of business in the 1980s.
As for modern times, Trump and his surrogates put on a rally that was red meat for conservatives living on Long Island and Staten Island. Comedian Tony Hinchcliff warmed up the crowd by dehumanizing Puerto Ricans when he said, “I don’t know if you know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.” That joke did not go over well for U.S. Senator Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida currently fighting to keep his seat.
The problem for Scott is that every speaker was vetted by Team Trump. Scott is locked in a battle with Debbie Mucarsel-Powell for his seat in November’s elections. Florida is home to the largest number of Puerto Ricans in the United States outside of the island itself.
Conversely, Marc Anthony, Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Luis Fonsi and others have shared a post by Kamala Harris which outlines her plans for Puerto Rico. Each person is supporting Harris in the election.
Notably, about 100,000 Puerto Ricans live in Georgia. Also notable, it took the Trump team six hours to clean up the disastrous fallout from the joke. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” says Trump campaign Senior Advisor Danielle Alvarez. I mean, this too is a lie because Trump spent the week calling America a ‘garbage can.’ Trump also wanted to swap Puerto Rico for Greenland in 2020.
Trump does nothing to distance himself from the fascist labels
David Rem, a Trump surrogate, called Vice President Harris ‘the antichrist’. Tucker Carlson referred to Harris as, ‘a Samoan, Malaysian, low IQ former California prosecutor.’ Stephen Miller said, ‘America is for Americans and Americans only.’ That quote was directly lifted from Adolf Hitler’s speech in 1934 when he said, ‘Germany is for Germans and Germans only.’ No coincidence here. The Nazi Party held a rally at the World’s Most Famous Arena in 1939, espousing similar views.
This story will not directly discuss Trump’s former Chief of Staff John Kelly proclaiming that his former boss is a fascist and wishes he had generals that are loyal to him like Hitler’s. However, Miller’s quote is directly reminiscent of Joseph Goebbels, the philosopher of the Nazi Party. Goebbels drafted its literature which was cloaked in antisemitism.
For Trump, he realized his dream of seeing his name in lights on Sunday. Like his rally in Traverse City on Friday, Trump showed up hours late for his event. Trump labeled the Democrats as ‘the enemy from within’ because he believes they’ve done terrible things to America. Trump rattled through his greatest hits Sunday. He attacked the media and referred to America’s generals as ‘weak, stupid people’. Trump also said FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina was worse than Hurricane Katrina because FEMA paid out money to undocumented immigrants. That is an outright lie.
Subsequently, his followers left MSG after they could not sit around any longer.
Black Men and the Vote
Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event for Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, at the James R Hallford Stadium on October 24, 2024 in Clarkston, Georgia. (Photo: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)
During Sunday night’s WinWithBlackMen call, it emphasized the importance of increasing Black voter turnout in key battleground states. Key metrics included Black women voting 34-56 points above Black men in some states, and over 65% of Black voters aged 65+ having already voted. In Georgia, 38% of Black men have voted in the 2024 Elections.
Many leaders on the call were emphasizing to young voters that their vote can make a critical difference. For example, The Collective PAC is hiring up to 15,000 voting ambassadors in key swing states, including Georgia, to organize their friends and family. They are encouraging young people to sign up as ambassadors and leverage their personal networks to drive voter turnout.
The idea that Black men are not turning out for Harris is a myth. 72% of Black men are supporting Harris according to a Pew Research Center survey. However, misogyny is what is driving conversation. It is not a myth that misogyny by some Black men are being platformed by the Republican Party. Those pleas got hollowed out when “Dixie” was played before the U.S. Representative, Byron Donalds, was introduced in New York City Sunday afternoon.
The finish line is approaching
With eight days remaining, the Harris campaign has momentum. They are packing out stadiums. If polling data is not to be trusted, follow the money. The Harris campaign raised more than $1 billion in the period before September 30th, according to official filings.
Conversely, the Trump campaign is resigned to using racism and threats of violence. Trump even winked at the U.S. House Speaker, Mike Johnson, saying: “I think with our little secret we are gonna do really well with the house. Our little secret is having a big impact. He and I have a little secret. We will tell you what it is when the race is over.” Trump hopes the Election has enough chaos that it shall be thrown into the House of Representatives.
Donald Trump pledges to use the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. It was created to deport individuals during war with France, to deport undocumented immigrants from the United States. While Trump’s surrogates are making jingoistic and xenophobic remarks, Vice President Kamala Harris is shoring up support within Latino communities in Philadelphia.
The case for both candidates is now in the collective hands of Georgia voters.
(CNN) — Georgia’s secretary of state’s office this month fended off a cyberattack believed to have come from a foreign country against the website voters use to request absentee ballots, the office told CNN.
The state’s cyber defenses — aided by tech firm Cloudflare — repelled the hackers’ attempts to knock the absentee ballot website offline, and there was no disruption to voters’ ability to request ballots.
“It slowed our systems down for a little bit, but it never stopped our systems from working,” Gabe Sterling, an official in Georgia’s secretary of state’s office, which oversees elections in the battleground state, told CNN.
The cyberattack likely originated from overseas and had “the hallmarks of a foreign power or a foreign entity [acting] at the behest of a foreign power,” Sterling said.
US officials have yet to publicly confirm that assessment.
Hundreds of thousands of IP addresses from numerous countries flooded the Georgia website with bogus traffic, Sterling said in an interview on Wednesday.
“From talking to experts, it felt like a probing attack, saying, ‘Hey, if we do this, what will they do in response?’” Sterling said.
CNN has requested comment from Cloudflare, a San Francisco-based firm that protects large portions of the internet from cyberattacks.
The FBI and US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are aware of the cyberattack and worked with the Georgia secretary of state’s office in the aftermath of the incident, sources told CNN. The FBI declined to comment. CISA referred questions to officials in Georgia.
The incident is a reminder of the keen interest that hackers take in election-related targets with the US presidential race in its final days. In a given election cycle, a range of cybercriminals and state-backed hacking groups might opportunistically target political campaigns and election offices for their own purposes.
None of the cyber activity has prevented the casting or tallying of votes so far; it’s instead often aimed at voters’ perceptions of the democratic process.
Separate from the Georgia incident, Iranian government-linked hackers have researched and probed election-related websites in multiple US swing states, in a possible effort to discover vulnerabilities that could be used to influence the election, Microsoft said on Wednesday.
Election offices in Georgia are no stranger to cyber threats.
Georgia’s Coffee County was hit with a cyberattack in April that forced the county to sever its connection to the state’s voter registration system as a precautionary measure, CNN previously reported.
Harris was the first US official to say anything on camera about the monumental occasion. President Joe Biden, who was aboard Air Force One jetting toward Germany, had drafted a paper statement with his team hailing Sinwar’s death and calling for renewed ceasefire talks.
Biden’s statement hit inboxes at 2:10 p.m. ET. Harris walked out to cameras five minutes later. The moment was carefully coordinated between aides to the president and vice president.
The one-two step was a glimpse into the methodical approach to the conflict taken by Harris, who has been under scrutiny for her approach to the war but unwilling to break from Biden’s strategy.
For Harris, the complicated politics of the Middle East are unlikely to be made much easier by Sinwar’s demise. Standing outside the campaign event in Wisconsin where she was speaking Thursday, demonstrators kept up their pro-Palestinian chants.
And as she headed to Michigan a day later for a three-stop swing, the fraught politics were likely to continue dogging her. The Israel war has proven a complicating factor as the vice president looks for votes among the state’s large Arab- and Muslim-American population in the Detroit metro area.
Many in that community have said they cannot vote for Harris, angry over the Biden administration’s largely unequivocal support for Israel and refusal to limit most weapons to the country.
Despite the swell of political pressure, Harris has resisted describing how she might approach the conflict differently. She has instead pointed to the nascent ceasefire and hostage negotiations, which have been stalled for weeks.
Earlier this month, Harris met with Arab-American leaders in Michigan, where participants encouraged her to distance herself from Biden’s approach to the conflict.
On Thursday, however, there was little daylight in Biden and Harris’s approach. Both used Sinwar’s death to make renewed calls for restarting the hostage talks.
“This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza,” Harris said during her three-minute speech, delivered carefully from a script and ended without taking any questions.
She said the war “must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”
“It is time for the day after to begin,” she said.
Speaking hours later on the tarmac in Berlin, Biden said he’d congratulated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but also told him “now is the time to move on” from the war in Gaza.
“I talked with Bibi about that. We’re going to work out what is the day after now, how do we secure Gaza and move on,” he said.
Two-time GRAMMY award winner Jermaine Dupri will campaign for the Harris-Walz ticket tomorrow in Georgia. JD is launching an effort to reach Black men who are undecided before the start of early voting, which is October 15th. These efforts are critical if the Harris campaign is to win Georgia in November.
Dupri will headline a “Brothas and Brews” event at an Atlanta brewery on Friday, October 11th at 6:30pm. Joining JD will be singer, actor, activist Isaac Hayes III; rapper, singer, and activist Armani White. Additionally, Atlanta Public Schools Board Member Alfred ‘Shivy’ Brooks and Fulton County Democrats Chair Dontaye Carter will be in attendance.
In a recent interview, Dupri says, “A lot of times we don’t have all the information and we also don’t know how important we are. I think this election … sounds like it’s very important for us to be focused and know what’s going on.”
This event is part of the campaign’s ongoing efforts to reach Black men and underscore the stakes of the election. Vice President Kamala Harris has promoted her record of delivering for Black communities and her vision for a New Way Forward. She has put forth economic plans that promises to lower costs. Plus, Harris has plans that seek to make it easier to build generational wealth, and protect rights and freedoms.
Related
Itoro Umontuen currently serves as Managing Editor of The Atlanta Voice. Upon his arrival to the historic publication, he served as their Director of Photography. As a mixed-media journalist, Umontuen…
More by Itoro N. Umontuen
“There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle. They’re taking care of their kids and they’re taking care of their aging parents, and it’s just almost impossible to do it all, especially if they work,” Harris said on ABC’s “The View,” part of a media blitz this week that’s putting her in front of friendlier interviewers with more targeted audiences.
Harris, who has promised on the campaign trail to improve long-term care, said the proposal will allow aging Americans to keep their dignity and help families with the emotional, financial and physical burdens of caring for their elders.
Nearly one-quarter of American adults are in the “sandwich generation,” which contains many remaining undecided voters, according to Harris campaign data. More than 105 million Americans are acting as caregivers, according to the campaign.
“We’re finding that so many are then having to leave their job, which means losing a source of income, not to mention the emotional stress,” Harris said Tuesday.
The plan calls for Medicare enrollees to be independently evaluated to determine whether they cannot handle activities of daily living, such as bathing, eating or going to the bathroom, according to a fact sheet issued by the campaign. The vast majority of seniors could continue living at home with an average of 20 hours or less a week of care provided by an aide, the fact sheet said.
Medicare would provide coverage for those with modest incomes, while seniors with higher incomes would share in the cost, according to the campaign.
Covering home health care, however, could be very expensive. One recent estimate from the Brookings Institution for a “very-conservatively designed” program, which would cover those unable to perform two activities of daily living and would require enrollees to share part of the cost, would have a price tag of about $40 billion a year.
The Harris campaign cited the Brookings research as a building block for the vice president’s proposal.
To cover the cost, Harris said she would expand Medicare drug price negotiations. Increasing drug discounts from manufacturers, implementing international tax reform and other measures would also help pay for the program.
In addition, Harris is proposing that Medicare cover hearing aids and exams, eye exams, and new glasses and lenses. She also wants to stop states from seizing seniors’ homes to recover Medicaid funds spent on long-term care services.
Costly long-term care
The proposal aims to address the long-term care needs of senior citizens and people with disabilities, helping them stay at home instead of moving to a nursing home, which can cost thousands of dollars a month. Medicare does not cover home health care except in very narrow circumstances. So most senior citizens have to pay for the services out of pocket or through Medicaid, if they are eligible.
On average, an American turning 65 in 2022 would incur an estimated $120,900 in future long-term services and supports, with families footing one-third of the bill themselves, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
A home health aide costs nearly $69,000 a year for 40 hours of weekly care and more than $288,000 for round-the-clock services, while nursing home stays can total between $104,000 and nearly $117,000 a year, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research organization. The typical Medicare beneficiary’s income is $36,000 a year.
In her caregiving push to voters, Harris has previously leaned into her experience of taking care of her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who died of colon cancer in 2009. She mentioned it again Tuesday, relaying the stress of taking care of a sick parent.
“That means trying to cook what they want to eat, what they can eat,” she said. “It means picking out clothes for them that [are] soft enough that it doesn’t irritate their skin, right? It means trying to think of something funny to make them laugh or smile.”
Some two-thirds of caregivers reporting having difficulty balancing their career and care responsibilities, according to a survey conducted in 2023 by AARP and S&P Global.
Just over a quarter of working caregivers have had to shift from full-time to part-time positions or have reduced hours, the survey found. About 1 in 6 stopped working for a period of time.
“Family caregivers are the backbone of a broken long-term care system, providing $600 billion in unpaid labor each year and saving taxpayers billions,” Nancy LeaMond, AARP’s chief public policy and engagement officer, said in a statement. “It is long past time for lawmakers to enact commonsense solutions that support family caregivers and help older Americans live independently in their homes, where they want to be.”
On the heels of Harris’ announcement, Care in Action PAC — the political arm of an organization advocating for care workers and care givers — announced a multimillion-dollar additional investment across battleground states and praised Harris’ longtime commitment to working adults who care for both their aging parents and their children.
“This is the financial relief that families are screaming for,” said the group’s executive director Hillary Holley. The money will in part support a new digital ad featuring a woman talking about her mother brushing her hair as a child and how she now has the responsibility of doing the same for her mother and daughter.
Harris’ appearance on “The View” comes as both she and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are appearing in a handful of interviews with traditional and new media figures after Republicans have criticized the pair for weeks for avoiding taking questions from the media.
ATLANTA (AP) — With less than a month to go before voters head to the polls, the State Election Board is embroiled in a fight with Georgia’s most populous county over a monitoring team to observe the county’s election practices.
The monitoring team was part of a resolution of a complaint against Fulton County stemming from the 2020 election. The State Election Board in May found that the county violated some parts of the state election code. It voted to issue a letter of reprimand, which included instructions for an agreement on a mutually acceptable monitor to be entered into by the board’s August meeting.
But the county and state election boards have been unable reach agreement. The county favors a team proposed by Ryan Germany, a former chief lawyer for the secretary of state’s office, and the Atlanta-based Carter Center. The Donald Trump-endorsed majority on the State Election Board has proposed an alternative slate that includes people who questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election.
In late August the county went ahead and hired its team without agreement from the state board, and it has been in place monitoring pre-election practices for over a month. But the disagreement between the county and state boards continued to fester and escalated significantly this week.
On Monday the Fulton County board filed a lawsuit asking a judge to declare that the state board lacks the authority to force it “to accept, and Fulton County to pay for, additional monitors for the 2024 election that have been hand-picked by certain State Election Board members.”
At a State Election Board meeting Tuesday, member Janice Johnston said the county doesn’t seem to be holding up its part of the bargain. She had voted against the agreement because she didn’t believe the investigation into the original complaint was complete and has repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to reopen it.
Johnston proposed subpoenaing a trove of 2020 election documents from the Fulton County clerk of court. She and the other two Republican members of the board voted for the subpoena over the objections of the lone Democratic member and the nonpartisan chair, who pointed out that the state attorney general said the case was closed and could not be reopened.
An Aug. 19 legal opinion written by state Attorney General Chris Carr and obtained by The Associated Press says final decisions of the State Election Board are “preclusive” and that “re-litigation of all claims which have already been adjudicated, or which could have been adjudicated, is therefore prohibited.” Fulton County attorneys assert that the approval of the motion at the May meeting and resulting reprimand meant the case is closed and can’t be reopened, and that “argument is likely correct,” Carr wrote.
Asked about the attorney general’s guidance, Johnston said, “That was opinion. That’s not a legal finding. That was their advice or opinion. We have different opinions about that.”
Fulton is home to about 11% of the state’s electorate and includes most of Atlanta. Problems with its elections, including long lines and slow reporting of results, have drawn national scrutiny. Then-President Trump falsely asserted that widespread voter fraud in Fulton County during the 2020 presidential election cost him the state.
After a particularly problematic primary that year, the county and the State Election Board formally agreed to assign an independent monitor to examine county’s election practices during the general. He documented “sloppy processes” and “systemic disorganization” but found no evidence of illegality or fraud.
Fulton County’s elections have been closely watched since then, and the State Election Board voted last year not to take over its elections after a performance review found the county showed marked improvement.
The county and the secretary of state’s office both signed off in July on a team proposed by Germany, who also was part of the team that did the performance review. The county also rejected a proposal from Johnston.
The Republican majority on the State Election Board repeatedly said during meetings in August that they did not approve of the county’s team. But the county board reaffirmed its selection, and county commissioners voted to approve the contract days later.
The state board Republicans in September repeated their dissatisfaction, and Johnston suggested that she and board chair John Fervier meet with Fulton County election board chair Sherri Allen.
Fervier said at Tuesday’s meeting that they met last week, that Johnston proposed that the monitoring team be expanded and that the state board sent a list of eight proposed members. Allen told them the county commissioners would have to make the change, and Fervier said he believed no action was taken on that front.
Fervier then said he was alerted that morning about the Fulton board’s petition to the judge. Johnston said she interpreted that as a rejection of the monitoring team members they proposed and accused the local board of not complying with its obligation under the agreement.
(CNN) — The campaigns of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump made strategic adjustments to the content of their TV advertisements between August and September, a CNN analysis of ad tracking data shows, amid a contentious fight to define the transformed race for the White House.
Emphasis of key issues, including abortion, immigration and crime, shifted, with the Harris campaign moving away from defensive ads that stressed the vice president’s law enforcement background, and the Trump campaign leaning into economic appeals – the top issue for voters in this election.
The ad tracking firm AdImpact catalogs the issues that are referenced in broadcast TV campaign ads and tracks the amount of money behind those spots. Comparing changes over the past two months illustrates how each campaign is tailoring its message, and it shows the share of campaign resources spent highlighting various issues.
Harris campaign ads
In August, Harris’ first full month as a candidate since taking over from Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, her campaign spent $24.5 million on ads that referenced crime – nearly half of the roughly $52.4 million spent on broadcast TV ads in total. According to AdImpact data, crime ranked as the top issue in Harris’ ads that month, as her campaign sought to blunt blistering GOP criticism of Harris’ past record as California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney.
In September, the Harris campaign’s spending on ads about crime plummeted to just $28,000, less than 1% of its monthly broadcast TV ad spending.
At the same time, the Harris campaign put more ad dollars toward discussing abortion, a key issue for many Democratic and independent voters since Roe v. Wade was overturned and severe restrictions on the procedure were enacted in mostly Republican-led states. In August, the Harris campaign spent $7.8 million on broadcast TV ads about abortion, about 15% of its total spending that month. In September, that total rose to $25 million, and the share doubled to 32%, ranking second among the issues referenced in Harris advertising.
Economic themes also dominated Harris campaign advertising throughout August and September. Taxation was among the top issues referenced in Harris campaign ads in both months, accounting for 37% of the spending in August and 40% in September.
Trump campaign ads
While pro-Trump outside groups have maintained an emphasis on immigration and crime in scathing attackads, the Trump campaign itself made significant changes to its messaging budget over the last two months, increasingly accentuating economic issues.
In August, the Trump campaign spent about $15.5 million on broadcast TV ads about immigration, or about 41% of its monthly broadcast TV outlays. In September, that total fell dramatically to just $10,500, less than 1% of the Trump campaign’s total broadcast TV spending. Crime, often referenced in association with immigration in stark attack ads from the Trump campaign, also fell from a 41% share in August to a share of less than 1% the following month.
Meanwhile, the campaign shifted even more ad dollars to messaging about the economy. In August, inflation was the top issue in Trump campaign ads, referenced in about 57% of its broadcast TV advertising; in September, that share jumped to 80%. Housing also rose as a share of campaign messaging, drawing 77% of its broadcast TV spending in September, up from 20% the previous month.
Advertising from the Harris and Trump campaigns accounts for only a portion of the total amount of political advertising targeting presidential race; super PACs and other outside groups are also pouring tens of millions of dollars onto the airwaves, and their ads display similar messaging strategies and include similar points of emphasis as those from the presidential campaigns.
Breaking down the battlegrounds
While their messaging has evolved, the campaigns have developed a consistent set of targeted states for their ads. In the two-plus months since Harris entered the race, seven states have emerged as the top battlegrounds – and Democrats have outspent Republicans across all seven.
Including spending from the campaigns and allied outside groups on TV, digital and radio platforms, those seven states – Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin, Arizona, North Carolina and Nevada – have accounted for nearly $930 million out of a total of more than $1.1 billion spent on presidential campaign ads between July 22, the day after Biden withdrew from the race, and the end of September.
Pennsylvania looms as the linchpin for each side’s path to 270 electoral votes, and the commonwealth is being flooded with advertising money – more than $250 million between July 22 and September 30. Democrats have outspent Republicans in the Keystone State by about $144 million to $105 million over that stretch, and both sides have spent more there than any other battleground state.
Michigan ranks second, with Democrats again outspending Republicans by about $115 million to $71 million. Democratic investments in Pennsylvania and Michigan far outpace their spending in any of the other battlegrounds, underscoring the importance of the “blue wall” states to the party’s electoral strategy.
Georgia ranks third, seeing about $132 million worth of advertising since Harris became the nominee. The ad wars in the Peach State have been closer, with Democrats narrowly outspending Republicans by about $66 million to $65 million.
Together, those three states – Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia – accounted for about $570 million in presidential ad spending between July 22 and September 30, almost half (49%) of all such spending in those two-plus months.
Wisconsin and Arizona are the two other states that have seen more than $100 million worth of combined ad spending since Harris became the nominee, and Democrats have outspent Republicans on advertising in both by at least $10 million. Democrats have also outspent Republicans in North Carolina and Nevada, rounding out the seven top battlegrounds.
Another target of an inordinate amount of ad spending has been deep-red Nebraska, with one electoral vote up for grabs in a state that splits some of its electoral votes by congressional district. Democrats have spent more than $8 million advertising there, while Republicans have made a minimal investment of a little more than $200,000.
Future reservations
Campaigns and outside groups routinely book advertising time far in advance, and both parties have reserved hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of ad time through Election Day. Numbers will change as more money pours in and spending targets get updated, but entering October, Democrats were poised to enjoy a significant advantage on the airwaves.
Including ad buys covering October 1 through the election, Democrats have about $344 million worth of ad time booked, compared with about $225 million for Republicans. Across the seven battleground states, the margin is closer, but Democrats still have the edge, $269 million to $222 million (Democratic advertisers also have more than $50 million in national presidential reservations, contributing to their overall advantage).
That dynamic could change quickly, as a handful of extremely wealthy, influential megadonors – many of whom have already given tens of millions of dollars to the super PACs battling it out on both sides – face no limits on additional giving. And their willingness to plow millions more into the race could escalate the ad wars.
It’s all contributed to what AdImpact projects will be the most expensive election in US history, totaling $10.2 billion in political advertising expenditures up and down the ballot. According to the firm’s projections, that would represent a 13% increase of the previous record of $9.02 billion set during the 2020 campaign.
(CNN) — Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to meet Friday with a group of Arab American and Muslim leaders in Flint, Michigan, according to three sources familiar with her plans, but frustration over the Harris campaign’s outreach efforts is boiling over amid Israel’s recent escalations in Lebanon.
The gathering comes as the Harris campaign works to garner support within the community in the face of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that has expanded to a multifront conflict involving Iran, which launched missiles at Israel this week, and Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon and Yemen.
Michigan, which Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020, will be a crucial battleground again this November and is home to a large Arab American population.
Emgage Action, an organization aimed at boosting the Muslim American vote, endorsed Harris last month while acknowledging “strong disappointment” with the Biden administration’s stance on Gaza. The leaders of Emgage Action are expected to participate in the meeting, according to one of the sources.
CNN has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment about the meeting.
Absent from the guest list were leaders of the “Uncommitted” movement, which sprung up during the Democratic primaries this year in opposition to the Biden administration’s policy on the war in Gaza. Harris interacted with leaders of the group in early August during a photo line at the Detroit airport.
The group has called on the vice president to hold meetings with families affected by the war after her campaign and national Democrats denied the group’s previous request for a Palestinian American to speak during the Democratic convention in Chicago this summer.
Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to meet Friday with a group of Arab American and Muslim leaders in Flint, Michigan as frustrations boil over Middle East escalation. In this September 2 photo, Pro-Palestinian activists demonstrate in Detroit where Harris was scheduled to speak. (Scott Olson/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
Uncommitted leaders have since announced that their group will not endorse Harris, though they also warned against a vote for Donald Trump or, in states where they might appear on the ballot, third-party candidates.
Uncommitted movement co-founder Abbas Alawieh, a former Capitol Hill staffer, confirmed Friday that his group was not invited to the meeting with Harris.
In a social media post, Alawieh said he was “glad our pressure is helping yield more engagement. What we need right now is for the @VP to specifically say that as president she will respect international humanitarian and U.S. law and stop sending the Israeli military weapons for war crimes.”
James Zogby, a co-founder of the Arab American Institute and a Democratic National Committee member for more than 30 years who addressed the Uncommitted movement during the Chicago convention, told CNN he turned down an invitation to Friday’s meeting with Harris. He cited growing frustration with what he described as a campaign more concerned with optics than addressing the anger and anxiety among Arab American voters.
Zogby was part of a Wednesday call with Harris national security adviser Phil Gordon that the White House described as a virtual gathering with “Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian American community leaders” to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East.
“There was no ground broken. I wasn’t quite sure what the intent was other than to just say … that they met with leaders. There were no leaders,” Zogby said of the Wednesday conversation.
That call and other communications with the Harris campaign, and Biden’s before that, have irked the longtime Democratic pollster. And Israel’s escalation in Lebanon has also turned up the heat in states like Michigan, where Lebanese Americans have made up a major part of the Democratic coalition.
“With Lebanon in flames, they’ve got a bigger job. And I don’t think they’re ready to handle it,” Zogby said of the Harris campaign. “It’s sort of like trying to sell a car to somebody with terminal cancer. ‘What’re you talking for? I have bigger things on my mind right now.’”
Abed Ayoub, the national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said there have been “many meetings with both the campaign and administration. They know our concerns and demands.”
“Our position and work is focused on bringing an immediate ceasefire, and an end to the genocide in Palestine and the war on Lebanon,” said Ayoub, who noted that his group has nearly 130,000 active voters as members, including 7,500 in Michigan.
This week, Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, took the campaign’s pitch to Emgage Action’s “Million Muslim Votes: A Way Forward” summit.
“I know the pain of this community is deep. Our hearts are broken. The concern of the vice president and Harris and I – it’s on our minds every day. The scale of death and destruction in Gaza is staggering and devastating. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians killed, families fleeing for safety, over and over again,” Walz said at the virtual event.
Zogby said Friday he “desperately” wants Harris to win but is concerned about the campaign’s efforts to stage-manage the issue.
“They have to say something about the issue that’s on people’s minds,” Zogby said, “and they just don’t seem able to bring themselves to talk about it.”
