4 weeks ago
Chinese hackers targeted phones used by Trump and Vance – report
Chinese hackers have targeted phones used by Donald Trump and JD Vance, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
According to the sources, investigators are trying to determine what communication data may have been taken or observed.
They added that Trump’s and Vance’s teams have been alerted this week and that the two men were “among a number of people inside and outside the government whose phone numbers had been targeted through the infiltration of Verizon phone systems”, the New York Times reports.
It added that Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung did not directly address whether the phones used by Trump and Vance have been targeted. The outlet did however report that Cheung blamed the Biden-Harris administration for allowing a foreign adversary to target the campaign.
In August, the FBI said that Iranian hackers targeted the Trump campaign and sent documents to the Biden campaign.
Iran’s efforts include “thefts and disclosures” and “are intended to influence the US election process”, a joint statement by the FBI, the office of the director of national intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said at the time.
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Joining Donald Trump on stage was Alexis Nungaray, the mother of 12-year old Jocelyn, who was murdered earlier this summer.
The people accused of killing Jocelyn are Franklin Pena and Johan Jose Martinez Rangel, two undocumented men from Venezuela.
Addressing the crowd, Nungaray said:
She was just being a child and due to the Biden-Harris policies we have here are why she’s not here any more. She was taken from her vulnerability and they made her a target, and ran with that and now I will for ever be a grieving mother and my son will for ever be a grieving brother who will no longer get to grow up with his sister.
Kamala Harris has never reached out to me, just even as a human to give her condolences as a humane person running this country. I think it’s very sad that she can’t even just give me an open apology, sincere apology.
She’s attempted to apologize to me just days before this election. I find it very inconvenient and convenient for her. I appreciate everything Donald Trump and Senator Ted Cruz have done for me. They’ve been a tremendous amount of help for me and my family during this incredibly hard, hard journey.
Donald Trump has taken the stage at a campaign rally in Austin, Texas.
Addressing the latest decision from a federal judge that Virginia must restore voter eligibility to more than 1,600 people after their eligibility was illegally removed, Trump said:
The outrageous decision goes against the very bedrock of our democracy.
Trump, who has also falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him, called the decision “blatantly non-American, it’s election interference”, and went on to baselessly accuse Kamala Harris of being “behind it”.
Harris slams Trump for comments that 'belittle' US
Joanna Walters
Kamala Harris is talking to reporters in Houston, in one of her new, impromptu quick comments on camera at short notice and willingness to take questions on the hop.
She has just criticized Donald Trump for his comments on the campaign trail last night when he called the country a “garbage can” because of immigration policies under the Biden administration.
“It’s just another example of how he really belittles our country,” Harris said. The Democratic nominee for president is standing against a backdrop of American flags, shortly after arriving in Houston, Texas, which, despite being a strongly Republican-voting state, is a place her campaign thinks is a powerful springboard for a national message. Harris is appearing with Beyoncé and Willy Nelson tonight.
Harris continued on about Trump, the Republican nominee, about him enjoying a bully pulpit.
“And this is how he uses it? To tell the rest of the world that the United States is trash?” she said. She said it was not how the president of the United States should behave.
Asked whether she has voted yet, she said no, not yet. Asked if she could get pro-choice legislation through Congress to restore the rights of Roe v Wade – taken away by a US supreme court stacked by Trump to the right – she pointed out, revealingly, that if Democratic candidate Colin Allred can unseat GOP Senator Ted Cruz in Texas, it will boost her party’s hopes of keeping control of the US Senate, which is crucial to pass legislation.
Washington Post publisher reversed plan to endorse Harris – report
Joanna Walters
The new publisher of the Washington Post, controversial British journalist Will Lewis, squashed the paper’s plans to endorse Kamala Harris for the White House in this election, according to a report.
The Columbia Journalism Review has just published an article saying that senior figures at the Post, including in the opinion section and on the board, had been preparing to publish the announcement that the Post was endorsing Harris, the Democratic nominee for president – but there were delays.
Then earlier today, the publication announced it would not endorse either Harris or her Republican rival Donald Trump – and that the plan to back Harris had been reversed by Lewis.
It quoted a democracy expert, Ian Bassin, from a previous CJR article calling the decision by the Post – and also this week by the Los Angeles Times, which is also owned by a billionaire – not to endorse “anticipatory obedience” in trying to appease Donald Trump in case he wins. Trump has called the mainstream media “the enemy of the people”.
Susan Rice calls Washington Post refusal to endorse a nominee 'chicken shit'
Joanna Walters
Senior Democratic figure Susan Rice, who was US ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser under Barack Obama and then director of the US domestic policy council under Joe Biden, has made a blistering post on X about the Washington Post.
“So much for ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’,” she said, referring to the newspaper’s slogan.
She continued: “This is the most hypocritical, chicken shit move from a publication that is supposed to hold people in power to account.”
So much for “Democracy Dies in Darkness”. This is the most hypocritical, chicken shit move from a publication that is supposed to hold people in power to account. https://t.co/xnQMuR4kIJ
— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) October 25, 2024
Joanna Walters
There is welling disquiet over the Washington Post’s announcement that it will decline to endorse either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump in this election.
A former long-serving senior editor from the paper called it “appalling”, especially “given the choice this year”. Robert McCartney has previously speculated that the Post would endorse Harris and also had heard on the grapevine that they would dodge. Here’s his reaction on X now:
Omigod, it’s apparently true: NPR reports Washington Post will not endorse for president. First time since 1988. Given the choice this year, it’s appalling. https://t.co/HoDjKcKYnQ
— Robert McCartney (@McCartneyWP) October 25, 2024McCartney had posted yesterday: “There’s speculation in newsroom that owner Jeff Bezos may want to avoid risk of endangering Amazon’s government contracts if Trump wins.”
Publisher Will Lewis was a controversial choice by Bezos at the Post, which the Amazon mogul owns. A British police special enquiry team is examining allegations that Lewis presided over the deliberate destruction of emails at Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper business when he worked for the company 13 years ago. Sally Buzbee, the editor who took over from Marty Baron, was forced out last year in a move instigated by Lewis, who wanted to replace her with fellow Brit Robert Winnett, but he shortly after backed out amid uproar at the Post.
Former Washington Post editor calls non-endorsement 'cowardice'
Joanna Walters
Marty Baron, the distinguished former editor of the Washington Post, has excoriated his old employer’s decision not to endorse either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump in next month’s presidential election.
Baron, who was editor of the Boston Globe before he moved to the capital to run the Post in 2013 – both of which publications have won Pulitzer prizes under his leadership – has called the Post’s move to avoid picking a favored nominee for the White House “cowardice”.
He posted on X that it represented: “Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”
Baron retired from the Washington Post in 2021. You can read the Guardian’s profile of him then, here.
Interim summary
As Tim Walz prepares to take the stage in Philadephia for a campaign rally event, here’s a look at where things stand in the world of US politics:
For the first time since the 1980s, the Washington Post has said it will not endorse any US presidential candidate this year nor in any future presidential elections. A note from publisher Will Lewis that was posted on X on Friday said: “We recognize that this will be read in a range of ways, including as a tacit endorsement of one candidate, or as a condemnation of another, or as an abdication of responsibility. That is inevitable. We don’t see it that way.”
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are tied at 48%, according to a new poll by the New York Times and Siena College. Published on Friday, the poll also revealed that 31% of registered voters view Trump as very favorable while 29% view Harris as very favorable.
More young Americans favor Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race, according to a new Harvard Youth Poll published today by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School. The poll, which surveyed 2,001 voters under the age of 30 between 3 and 14 October, found that Harris leads Trump by 20 points among registered voters under 30 and by 28 points among likely voters.
Joe Biden has issued a statement ahead of his presidential apology for the federal Indian boarding school era, calling it “one of the darkest chapters of American history”. In his statement, Biden said: “The Federal Indian Boarding School Era is one of the darkest chapters of American history. The trauma experienced in those institutions haunts our conscience to this very day.”
Jill Biden is set to campaign alongside Gwen Walz in Michigan and Wisconsin next week. In a press release issued on Friday, the Harris-Walz campaign said that the two educators will campaign in Michigan and Wisconsin, marking the first time they campaign together.
With just a few days away from the election, Kamala Harris’s campaign continues to raise significantly more funds than Donald Trump’s. In the first half of October, Harris’s campaign reported $97m raised, according to reports filed on Thursday with the Federal Election Commission, Politico reports. Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign raised $16m during this time period.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are taking a detour from barnstorming the battleground states that will decide November’s election with Friday stops in Texas, a conservative state that was the first to implement a near-total abortion ban. Superstar singer Beyoncé is expected to join Harris at her Houston stop and perform, two sources told Reuters. Harris has made Beyoncé’s song Freedom her campaign anthem.
Washington Post won't make presidential endorsement for first time since 1980s
For the first time since the 1980s, the Washington Post has said it will not endorse any US presidential candidate this year nor in any future presidential elections.
A note from publisher Will Lewis that was posted on X on Friday said:
We recognize that this will be read in a range of ways, including as a tacit endorsement of one candidate, or as a condemnation of another, or as an abdication of responsibility. That is inevitable. We don’t see it that way. We see it as consistent with the values The Post has always stood for and what we hope for in a leader: character and courage in service to the American ethic, veneration for the rule of law, and respect for human freedom in all its aspects. We also see it as a statement in support of our readers’ ability to make up their own minds on this, the most consequential of American decisions – whom to vote for as the next president.
Our job at The Washington Post is to provide through the newsroom non-partisan news for all Americans, and thought-provoking, reported views from our opinion team to help our readers make up their own minds. Most of all, our job as the newspaper of the capital city of the most important country in the world is to be independent.
And that is what we are and will be.
