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Trump holds rally at site of 1st assassination attempt; Harris readies for media appearances

With less than a month to go until the U.S. presidential election, the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees have a busy week ahead. Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are both scheduled to continue rallying supporters in key states, amid warnings that the rhetoric is becoming more inflammatory. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
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Trump returns to site of first assassination attempt for campaign rally

BUTLER, Pennsylvania — Donald Trump returned on Saturday to the Pennsylvania fairgrounds where he was nearly assassinated in July, holding a sprawling rally before a massive crowd in a critical swing state Trump hopes to return to his column in November’s election.

The former president and Republican nominee picked up where he left off in July when a gunman tried to assassinate him and struck his ear. He began his speech with, “As I was saying,” and gestured toward an immigration chart he was looking at when the gunfire began.

The Trump campaign worked to maximize the event’s headline-grabbing potential with just 30 days to go and voting already underway in some states in his race against his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Musician Lee Greenwood appeared on stage and serenaded him with God Bless the USA, frequently played at his rallies, and billionaire Elon Musk spoke for the first time at a Trump rally.

“We fought together. We have endured together. We have pushed onward together,” Trump said. “And right here in Pennsylvania, we have bled together. We’ve bled.”

‘This is a must-win’

Trump needs to drive up voter turnout in conservative strongholds like Butler County, an overwhelmingly white, rural-suburban community, if he wants to win Pennsylvania in November. Harris, too, has targeted her campaign efforts at Pennsylvania, rallying there repeatedly as part of her aggressive outreach in critical swing states.

At the beginning of the rally, Trump asked for a moment of silence to honor firefighter Corey Comperatore, who died as he shielded family members from gunfire. Opera singer Christopher Macchio sang Ave Maria after a bell rung at the same time that gunfire began on July 13.

Standing behind protective glass that now encases the stage at his outdoor rallies, Trump called the would-be assassin “a vicious monster” and said he did not succeed “by the hand of providence and the grace of God.” There was a very visible heightened security presence, with armed law enforcers in camouflage uniforms on roofs.

One of the most anticipated guests of the evening was Musk, who climbed onto the stage on Saturday jumping and pumping his fists in the air after Trump introduced him as a “great gentleman” and said he “saved free speech.”

“President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution. He must win to preserve democracy in America,” said Musk, who endorsed Trump after the assassination attempt. “This is a must-win situation.”

Musk, who bought Twitter and rebranded it as X and has embraced conservative politics, met with Trump and Vance backstage, donning a black “Make America Great Again” hat. A billboard on the way into the rally said, “IN MUSK WE TRUST,” and showed his photo.

Earlier on Saturday, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, got on stage and reflected on the events that day while criticizing Democrats for calling Trump “a threat to democracy,” saying that kind of language is “inflammatory.”

“You heard the shots. You saw the blood. We all feared the worst. But you knew everything would be OK when President Trump raised his fist high in the air and shouted, ‘Fight, fight!'” said Vance. “Now I believe it as sure as I’m standing here today that what happened was a true miracle.”

Crowds pack stands

Crowds were lined up as the sun rose Saturday. The crowd packed bleachers, folding chairs and the field stretching to the venue’s edges. Area hotels, motels and inns were said to be full and some rallygoers arrived Friday.

Much of the crowd waited several hours for Trump. About half an hour into his speech, Trump paused his speech for more than five minutes after an attendee had a medical issue and needed a medic.

Trump used the event to remember Comperatore, the volunteer firefighter struck and killed at the July 13 rally, and to recognize the two other rallygoers injured, David Dutch and James Copenhaver. They and Trump were struck when 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, opened fire from an unsecured rooftop nearby before he was fatally shot by sharpshooters.

The building from which Crooks fired was completely obscured by tractor-trailers, a large grassy perimeter and a fence. Most bleachers were now at the sides, rather than behind Trump.

How Crooks managed to outmaneuver law enforcement that day and scramble on top of a building within easy shooting distance of the ex-president is among many questions that remain unanswered about the worst Secret Service security failure in decades. Another is his motive.

Butler County District Attorney Rich Goldinger told WPXI-TV this week that “everyone is doubling down on their efforts to make sure this is done safely and correctly.”

Mike Slupe, the county sheriff, told the station he estimates the Secret Service, was deploying “quadruple the assets” it did in July. The agency has undergone a painful reckoning over its handling of two attempts on Trump’s life.

‘I believe God’s got Trump’

Butler County, on the western edge of a coveted presidential swing state, is a Trump stronghold. He won the county with about 66% of the vote in both 2016 and 2020. About 57% of the county’s 139,000 registered voters are Republicans, compared with about 29% who are Democrats and 14% something else.

Chris Harpster, 30, of Tyrone, Pennsylvania, was accompanied by his girlfriend on Saturday as he returned to the scene. Of July 13, he said, “I was afraid” — as were his parents, watching at home, who texted him immediately after the shots rang out.

Heightened security measures were making him feel better now, as well as the presence of his girlfriend, a first-time rallygoer. Harpster said he will be a third-time Trump voter in November, based on the Republican nominee’s stances on immigration, guns, abortion and energy. Harpster said he hopes Pennsylvania will go Republican, particularly out of concern over gas and oil industry jobs.

Other townspeople were divided over the value of Trump’s return. Heidi Priest, a Butler resident who started a Facebook group supporting Harris, said Trump’s last visit fanned political tensions in the city.

“Whenever you see people supporting him and getting excited about him being here, it scares the people who don’t want to see him reelected,” she said.

Terri Palmquist came from Bakersfield, California, and said her 18-year-old daughter tried to dissuade her. “I just figure we need to not let fear control us. That’s what the other side wants is fear. If fear controls us, we lose,” she said.

She said she was not worried about her own safety.

“Honesty, I believe God’s got Trump, for some reason. I do. So we’re rooting for him.” 
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Nearly 24M immigrants eligible to vote in U.S. election

In the United States, nearly 24 million immigrants are eligible to vote in November’s presidential election, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. census data. VOA’s Jeff Swicord spoke with two naturalized citizens about the choices they are making in this vote.
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Harris discusses US policies on Gaza, Lebanon with Arab Americans in Michigan

washington — Vice President Kamala Harris met briefly with a group of Arab Americans in Flint, Michigan, on Friday, as her campaign aims to build support with communities outraged by the administration’s response to the war in Gaza and the expanding conflict in Lebanon.

“The vice president heard directly their perspectives on the election and the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon,” her campaign said in a statement.

Harris “expressed her concern over the scale of suffering in Gaza” and discussed “her efforts to end the war” and to prevent regional war, the campaign statement said.

On Lebanon, Harris expressed “concern about civilian casualties and displacement” and reiterated the administration’s position that “a diplomatic solution is the best path to achieve stability and protect civilians.”

Michigan, a key battleground state, is home to almost 400,000 Arab Americans, the highest in the country by percentage, according to the Arab American Institute.

Neither the Harris campaign nor the vice president’s office provided the list of participants. However, Edward Gabriel, president of the American Task Force on Lebanon, said he took part in the meeting.

“We discussed the need for a cease-fire and the support needed from the United States and its allies to address the humanitarian crisis, the presidential leadership void in Lebanon, and the important role of the Lebanese armed forces,” he told VOA. “This was a valuable two-sided exchange, and we made important progress in our relationship.”

Also participating were representatives from Emgage, a Muslim American advocacy group that endorsed Harris in September, citing the danger of “Trump’s brand of authoritarianism” for “Muslim Americans, America and the world.”

In its endorsement, the group noted its support did not equal “an agreement with Vice President Harris on all issues, but rather, an honest guidance to our voters regarding the difficult choice they confront at the ballot box.”

Pro-Palestinian groups excluded

Harris’ meeting did not include the Uncommitted National Movement and Abandon Harris, two pro-Palestinian activist groups that have been pushing for change in the administration’s policies on Gaza.

“We weren’t invited,” said Layla Elabed, a spokesperson for Uncommitted National Movement, the group that helped organize more than 100,000 Michiganders to vote “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary election to protest the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s military campaign.

Hudhayfah Ahmad, a spokesperson for the Abandon Harris campaign, a group that is actively working to defeat Harris in Michigan and other battleground states in protest of U.S. Gaza policies, said the only path forward is to hold the administration and the Harris campaign accountable.

“We’ve remained firm in our position that we will not meet with the vice president or anyone from her campaign team, as that opportunity has passed,” he told VOA.

The Flint meeting showed the group’s pressure on the Harris campaign is working, Elabed told VOA. However, she added, the campaign should heed the group’s request for Harris to meet “everyday Americans whose loved ones are being impacted by this administration’s policy to continue supplying the bombs and weapons to Israel that are killing Palestinians and now Lebanese people, including Americans in Gaza and Lebanon.”

In the past two weeks, Israel’s military campaign targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has killed hundreds, including Kamel Ahmad Jawad, an American from the nearby city of Dearborn, Michigan.

Earlier this week, Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, spoke to a Muslim group focused on activities to increase voter turnout. Harris’ national security adviser, Phil Gordon, also met virtually with Muslim and Arab community leaders Wednesday.

With the exception of the Arab American Institute and the American Task Force on Lebanon, Gordon’s engagements did not include major Muslim and Arab groups.

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, who participated in the eight-person engagement with Gordon, told VOA it did not include representatives of the community.

The vice president’s office did not respond to queries on why these groups were excluded from the Flint meeting.

A campaign spokesperson, however, said Harris was “committed to work to earn every vote, unite our country, and to be a president for all Americans.”

“Throughout her career, Vice President Harris has been steadfast in her support of our country’s diverse Muslim community, ensuring first and foremost that they can live free from the hateful policies of the Trump administration,” the spokesperson told VOA.

“She will continue working to bring the war in Gaza to an end in a way where 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.”

Harris’ outreach efforts come as a new poll indicates Arab American support for the Democratic presidential nominee is virtually tied with that for the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.

Vote evenly split

On Wednesday, the Arab American Institute released a nationwide poll of 500 Arab American registered voters that indicated support for Trump stood at 42%. For Harris, it was 41%.

Among those who said they were very likely to vote, Trump led Harris 46% to 42%.

The poll suggested the administration’s handling of the crisis in Gaza has eroded the community’s support for Democrats, whom they traditionally back. Arab Americans now are evenly divided between the two parties: 38% for each.

Trump has also been courting Arab and Muslim voters. He has won the support of Amer Ghalib, the Yemeni American mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan. The city is home to about 30,000 people, almost half of them Muslim, and it is the only city in the U.S. to have an all-Muslim city council.

“Endorsing President Trump was a combination of disappointment and hope,” Ghalib told VOA. “Disappointed at the current administration’s policies domestically and internationally, and in hope that President Trump will come to fix things up, end the chaos in the Middle East and restore peace everywhere, as well as preventing our economy from further deterioration.”

Ghalib’s endorsement came last month following his meeting with Trump, also in Flint, Michigan.
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Trump, Harris enter last month of campaigning

There is just one month to go in the U.S. presidential race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns looks at the state of the race.
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Major Arab, Muslim, Palestinian American groups say they were excluded from Harris’ Middle East outreach 

washington — Major Muslim and Arab American organizations and pro-Palestinian activist groups say they were excluded from Vice President Kamala Harris’ office’s outreach to community leaders on the administration’s efforts to contain the widening conflict in the Middle East.

On Wednesday, the White House announced that Phil Gordon, Harris’ national security adviser, met virtually with “Muslim, Arab and Palestinian American community leaders from across the United States” to discuss the administration’s efforts to end the war in Gaza.

In a statement, the White House said Gordon “expressed concern for civilians in Lebanon” and about Israeli “actions that undermine peace, security and stability in the West Bank.”

The meeting appeared to be an attempt to repair ties with Arab, Palestinian and Muslim communities who are outraged about the administration’s continued support for Israel in the war against Hamas, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and left a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

However, none of the major community groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Public Affairs Council, were invited. Neither were the Uncommitted National Movement and Abandon Harris, the two pro-Palestinian activist groups that have been pushing for change in the administration’s policies on Gaza.

Community leaders of prominent groups in the Washington area, including MakeSpace, the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center and the Mustafa Center, were also not invited.

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, participated in the eight-person engagement with Gordon. He said the meeting was “irritating,” as it did not include representatives of the community.

“We were told an Arab American meeting. We were told a Muslim meeting. It was none of the above,” Zogby told VOA. “There were no Palestinian leaders. There were some Palestinian Americans, but there were no organizations representing Palestinian Americans.”

The White House, the vice president’s office and the Harris campaign did not respond to VOA’s queries.

Zogby said he felt “blindsided” by the event, characterizing it as a “check the box” engagement with the community. He said the administration missed an opportunity by not inviting the list of people the community had recommended to be included.

“There were only two of us out of the eight who headed any organization at all,” he said.

Edward Gabriel, president of the American Task Force on Lebanon, said that the VP’s office has engaged him in “nearly a dozen” meetings, including the one with Gordon this week.

“Our meetings continue to be positive,” he wrote to VOA. “We have expressed to the vice president and her team the importance of now providing our community with a clear message on the need for ending this war and helping those Lebanese citizens most affected by the conflict.”

In the past two weeks, Israel’s military campaign targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has killed hundreds, wounded thousands and displaced over a million people. The victims included Kamel Ahmad Jawad, an American from Dearborn, Michigan.

Gabriel said Biden’s stance on the widening of Israel’s campaign to Lebanon to date “has not been well received by the Lebanese American community, as there was no sense of compassion expressed for the loss of life of innocent citizens, especially women and children.”

Virtually tied

Harris’ outreach efforts come as a new poll showed that Arab American support for the Democratic presidential nominee is virtually tied with that for the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.

The Arab American Institute on Wednesday released a nationwide poll of 500 Arab American registered voters that showed support for Trump stood at 42%. For Harris, it was 41%.

Among those who said they were very likely to vote, Trump led Harris 46% to 42%.

The poll suggested the administration’s handling of the crisis in Gaza has eroded the community’s support for Democrats, whom it traditionally backs. Arab Americans were evenly divided between the two parties, with 38% for each.

The U.S. is home to roughly 3.5 million Arab Americans, according to the latest census. The U.S. Census Bureau does not count population based on religious beliefs, but various sources show an estimated 4 million to 6 million Muslim Americans.

That’s a very small percentage of the 337 million total U.S. population. However, since Arab Americans are concentrated in a few states such as California and Michigan, they may play an outsized role in next month’s election.

This may be seen especially in Michigan, a battleground state with the largest percentage of Arab Americans. Biden won the state in 2020 with only 154,000 votes more than Trump. In 2016, Trump won the state over Hillary Clinton by just under 11,000 votes.

More than 100,000 Michiganders voted “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary to protest the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s military campaign — votes that could be up for grabs for Trump.

Trump courting community

Trump has been courting Arab and Muslim voters and has won the support of Amer Ghalib, the Yemeni American mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan. The city is home to 30,000 people, almost half of them Muslim, and is the only city in the country to have an all-Muslim city council.

“Endorsing President Trump was a combination of disappointment and hope,” Ghalib told VOA. “Disappointed at the current administration’s policies domestically and internationally, and in hope that President Trump will come to fix things up, end the chaos in the Middle East and restore peace everywhere, as well as preventing our economy from further deterioration.”

Ghalib’s endorsement came last month following his meeting with Trump, who held a campaign event in the nearby city of Flint.

On cultural issues such as LGBTQ rights and the right to abortion, Ghalib and many of his constituents are more aligned with the Republican Party. He has supported conservative measures taken by his city council, including a 2023 ban on Pride flags on city property — a move that angered members and allies of the LGBTQ community.

“The cultural issues are important to some,” Zogby said. Wanting to “punish Democrats” over Gaza is another motivator for the community, he added.

“I don’t think that there’s anyone actually very seriously considering that Donald Trump is better than Kamala Harris on the Middle East,” he said. “It’s a question of, they might be both terrible. That’s, I think, the more prevalent view.”

VOA’s U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer and reporter Sayed Aziz Rahman contributed to this report.
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Voting by mail — how does it work?

America’s voting landscape is shifting. While many still cast ballots at local polls, mail-in voting is on the rise. Once limited to military personnel and homebound citizens, it’s now the primary method in several states.
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Trump, Harris stances on China differ, but not completely

The United States’ policy on China has been mostly consistent from the administration of Donald Trump to the White House of Joe Biden — with both presidents viewing China as America’s biggest competitor. But in the race for the next president, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have slightly different approaches toward the global superpower. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee explains.
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In India, pride in Harris’s run for US presidency, but excitement missing

NEW DELHI — In the small South Indian village of Thulasendrapuram, where U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s maternal grandfather once lived, locals and priests have prayed to the local deity at a Hindu temple for her victory as she runs for the U.S. presidency.

In the capital, New Delhi, many express pride that one of the candidates for the world’s most powerful office has Indian roots – she is the daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father.

But Harris has failed to enthuse others who feel she never built on her Indian connection during her vice presidency.

“It’s quite exciting for someone like me who is a common girl around town,” said New Delhi resident, Simran Singh.

Another city resident, Nandita Soni, and her husband watched Harris debate her opponent, former U.S. President Donald Trump, last month.

“I think she won hands down. Of course, there is a sense of pride for us. That she is, firstly, a woman and then of Indian heritage, feels really good,” Soni said.

Harris is not the only Indian connection to the American presidential race. Usha Vance, the wife of Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance, is also the daughter of Indian immigrants.

Not many in India have heard of Usha Vance. Those who have, see it as a tribute to a country where immigrants can make a mark.

“I think both of them having a role in the elections is a very good thing for our Indian heritage and diaspora, but I think it is much more important for the American system,” said Shyam Bajpai, a retired professional. He praises Harris for “reviving the Democrat Party’s energy after a very difficult moment with Mr. Biden.”

However, the euphoria witnessed in India four years ago when Harris became vice president is missing. She hosted a luncheon for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year during his state visit to Washington, where she spoke of her deep personal connection to India. In interviews she has said that her introduction to the concepts of equality, freedom and democracy came from her Indian grandfather during her visits to her maternal family’s hometown, Chennai, when she was young.

But some point out that she neither visited India during her tenure as vice president nor emphasized her Indian identity much while in office.

“To be honest we did not hear much of her in India, because as vice president, her connections with India were not all that great,” said Pradeep Bhargava, a New Delhi resident. “We were not getting much news about her.”

That may be why many young Indians ask: Who is Kamala Harris?

“I think she is not on social media,” said Simar Kaur, an undergraduate student in Delhi University. “I get most of the news from social media only.”

But IT professionals who have long eyed the United States for career opportunities are excited about the possibility of an American president with roots in India. “I am sure this will help in more job opportunities for Indians in the future,” said software engineer Vishal Chabra. “It will be good for India as well.”

Those who are tracking the U.S. race see Harris’s bid as another huge milestone for its diaspora in Western countries — Rishi Sunak, who became British Prime Minister in 2022 but lost in July, was also of Indian origin. They also point to the success of Indian Americans who have risen to the top of the corporate ladder in the U.S., heading companies like Google.

“With UK also and now America, Indians are all the way, and it is the way to go from them,” said Soni.

 
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In India, Harris’s run for US presidency evokes pride, but excitement missing

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s bid for the U.S. presidency has evoked a mixed response in India. Some are excited about her part Indian origins, while some know little about her. Others call it yet another milestone for a diaspora that is making its mark, not just in the United States but in other countries. Anjana Pasricha has a report from New Delhi.
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Cybersecurity head says there’s no chance a foreign adversary can change US election results

WASHINGTON — Nearly a month out from Election Day, the head of the nation’s cybersecurity agency is forcefully reassuring Americans who have been swept into the chaotic churn of election disinformation and distrust that they will be able to feel confident in the outcome.

State and local election officials have made so much progress in securing voting, ballot-counting and other election infrastructure that the system is more robust than it has ever been, said Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. As a result, she said, there is no way Russia, Iran or any other foreign adversary will be able to alter the results.

“Malicious actors, even if they tried, could not have an impact at scale such that there would be a material effect on the outcome of the election,” Easterly told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday.

Easterly’s trust in the election process comes as intelligence officials have warned of escalating efforts by foreign adversaries to influence voters, deepen partisan divides and undermine faith in U.S. elections.

Her comments stand in contrast to the doubts millions of Americans, especially Republicans, have held since the 2020 election when former President Donald Trump refused to accept his loss. He has built on his false claims of vote rigging since then, setting the stage to claim the election has been stolen if he loses again this November.

Easterly touched on a range of election-related concerns — including misinformation, her agency’s role in interacting with social media companies and ongoing threats to election workers — during the 40-minute interview, which came as mail ballots are being sent out and some states have started early in-person voting. She also said her agency is in touch with election officials throughout the regions of the Southeast that have been ravaged by Hurricane Helene and praised those workers for “displaying enormous and admirable resilience” as they try to ensure that voters are able to cast their ballots despite the devastation.

Recognizing that many Americans’ confidence in elections “has been shaken,” Easterly emphasized how prepared election officials are for emergencies, simple mistakes and attacks — and how motivated they are to protect Americans’ votes.

Election officials have worked in recent years to boost cybersecurity defenses around the nation’s voting systems, implementing procedures ranging from access controls to regular testing to identify potential vulnerabilities. Officials also test voting equipment before every election to ensure it works properly.

Easterly pointed to layers of security and transparency — such as the paper record of votes in more than 97% of voting jurisdictions — as protections that will help verify the results.

“Things will go wrong. There could be another storm. There could be a ransomware attack, a distributed denial of service attack,” she said. “These disruptions will create effects, but they will not impact the ability and the votes being cast or those votes being counted.”

U.S. officials have spent recent months warning through criminal charges, sanctions and public advisories that foreign adversaries are ramping up their efforts to influence voters in the race for the White House.

The Biden administration last month seized more than two dozen Kremlin-run fake websites and charged two Russian state media employees in a scheme to covertly fund right-wing influencers. Last week, three Iranian operatives were charged with hacking the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Intelligence agencies and tech companies have tracked both Russian and Iranian actors using fake websites and social media profiles to spread misinformation, stoke division and potentially sway American voters. Iran and Russia have sought to influence past U.S. elections through online disinformation and hacking. Easterly noted that China also was “very interested” in influencing the 2024 election.

Beyond the influence campaigns, she said her agency had not detected any activity targeting election systems.

“We have not seen specific cyber activity designed to interfere with actual election infrastructure or processes,” Easterly said.

The prevalence of election misinformation has become a widespread concern. One consequence is what Easterly described as a troubling uptick in physical threats against election officials of both parties and, in some cases, their families, often based on false claims about the 2020 election. She called it “corrosive” to democracy and said it’s something the public needs to collectively fight.

“Those election officials, they are not faceless bureaucrats,” Easterly said. “They’re folks we see in the community every single day. And they’re not doing this for pay. They’re not doing it for glory. They are doing it because they believe in the process of democracy.”

Many secretaries of state and some larger local election offices have established specific efforts to combat the misinformation.

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, a Democrat who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee, last week wrote a letter to Easterly that urged the agency to take further steps against election misinformation and disinformation, including coordinating with social media platforms to combat false claims.

In the interview, Easterly acknowledged “a very convoluted, very confusing information environment,” and said her agency works with election officials to promote accurate information. However, she also made it clear that her agency does not monitor social media sites or attempt to moderate their content.

“That is not our role,” she said.

On the heels of Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance, accusing the federal government of “censorship” in Tuesday night’s debate between the vice presidential candidates, Easterly strongly defended her agency, known as CISA.

“CISA does not censor, has never censored,” she said. “And allegations against CISA are riddled with factual inaccuracies.”

CISA, along with other federal agencies, was part of a lawsuit filed by Republican-led states claiming the federal government had applied “unrelenting pressure” to coerce changes in online content on social media platforms. In a 6-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court said the states did not have a legal right to sue.

Easterly encouraged voters who question how elections are run to contact their local election office and even volunteer to serve as poll workers so they understand the process and the safeguards already in place. She also warned that foreign adversaries almost certainly will seek to take advantage of the vote-counting process after Election Day as a way to undermine confidence in the results. She urged voters to be patient, emphasizing that it could take several days for a presidential winner to be determined.

“We need to come together as Americans to protect and preserve what is most precious,” she said. “And that is the foundation of our democracy — fair, free, safe and secure elections.”
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Candidates clash over immigration, TPS at vice presidential debate

washington — It came as no surprise that one of the tensest moments in Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate between Democratic Governor Tim Walz and Republican Senator JD Vance was over immigration, one of the most divisive issues in America.

Debate moderators muted Vance’s microphone after he claimed that “millions of illegal immigrants” had overwhelmed American cities, including Springfield, Ohio, where many Haitians have been encouraged to find jobs. When Walz joined in, both candidates’ microphones were muted, and the moderators reminded them the audience couldn’t hear them.

Hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants, including those who live in Springfield, hold Temporary Protected Status, known as TPS, or other forms of legal protection, such as humanitarian parole.

“These are people who have a lawful status. They have a lawful presence. They have work authorization,” Sarang Sekhavat, chief of staff at the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition, told VOA.

What is TPS?

Congress established TPS in 1990 when it said migrants whose home countries were considered unsafe could live and work in the U.S. temporarily if they met certain requirements established by the U.S. government.

The secretary of homeland security is responsible for designating a foreign country for Temporary Protected Status.

Currently, 16 countries have TPS designations: Afghanistan, Cameroon, El Salvador, Haiti, Ethiopia, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela and Yemen.

“Usually what happens is the administration will designate a country for TPS because of some kind of catastrophe. It could be a natural disaster … very often it’s used in times of war,” Sekhavat said. “Basically, the idea is recognizing that, ‘OK, this individual here perhaps doesn’t have permission to be here, but it would be inhumane of us to actually send them back home to their home country under the conditions their country is suffering right now.’ ”

TPS and legal immigration

Tom Jawetz, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, told VOA that people covered by TPS should not be confused with undocumented immigrants.

“It’s an immigration status that people can have the statutory right to travel on,” he said. “In order to get TPS, people file an application. That application is reviewed individually. It’s adjudicated. They get identification materials attesting to their TPS. Get work authorization by statute. So, these are not individuals who are undocumented by any means.”

Haitian immigrants and TPS

Haitian nationals were first given TPS in 2010 after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, killing more than 100,000 people and overwhelming the government.

This protection was renewed several times during the administration of former President Barack Obama and was extended for six months under former President Donald Trump. Trump decided to end TPS for Haitians in 2019, but this decision faced several legal challenges that lasted until the end of his administration.

Who can apply for TPS?

Protections under TPS are reserved for people who are already in the United States at the time of the designation. To be eligible, a person must be a national of a designated TPS country and have been continuously physically present in the United States since the date specified by the U.S. government. For Haitian immigrants, this date was August 4, 2024.

People must apply during the registration period. For Haitians applying for the first time, this period began July 1, 2024, and runs through February 3, 2026. For those renewing their TPS status, the re-registration period began July 1, 2024, and ran through August 30, 2024.

“For example, when we had the earthquake in Haiti, there were many Haitians who came to the U.S. on valid transit or tourist visas, intending for their stay to be temporary. But due to the situation in Haiti, they couldn’t return, making them eligible to apply for TPS,” Sekhavat said.

Filing for TPS can cost about $545.

TPS and US citizenship

TPS alone does not lead to U.S. permanent residence or citizenship unless the applicant seeks to change status through other immigration processes.

“If you don’t have some other means through which to get permanent residence — whether that’s because you qualify for asylum or you have a family member or an employer who is petitioning for you to get a permanent residence — TPS is not going to get you there,” Jawetz said.

But TPS allows a person to legally work, and it can open a pathway to an employment-based green card — a process immigration experts say can be long and complicated.

TPS ineligibility

An applicant is ineligible for TPS if convicted of a felony or two or more misdemeanors in the United States, or if subject to mandatory restrictions for asylum, such as having taken part in the persecution of someone else or having engaged in terrorist activities.

People are also ineligible if they do not meet the requirements for continuous physical presence and residency in the United States, fail to register for TPS on time, or do not re-register for TPS when required without a good reason.

Travel authorization for TPS holders

TPS holders must request travel authorization to leave the U.S. Applicants must show U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that they need to travel for urgent humanitarian reasons, such as a sick relative. If permission for the TPS holder to travel is requested by a nonprofit organization, it must prove the travel will further social and cultural interests of the United States. The current filing fee is $575.

If a TPS holder leaves the United States without first obtaining travel authorization, the person may lose the TPS status and will not be able to reenter the United States.

Can an administration end TPS at any time?

The secretary of homeland security has to review conditions and decide whether conditions on the ground in a country continue to merit TPS.

Only if the secretary concludes that conditions do not merit a continuation of TPS can the secretary issue a determination ending temporary protected status at that point.
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State-run media in Latin America criticize US government, candidates

Madrid — In their coverage of the U.S. presidential election, countries with repressive media such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela have taken aim at the American system of government and, to some degree, the candidates themselves.

Following the two assassination attempts targeting Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Cuban state-run newspaper Granma ran a headline, “The guns speak again in the U.S. elections,” an apparent reference to gun violence in the United States.

But the newspaper made no mention on its front pages Wednesday of the previous night’s vice presidential debate between Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz in which the two candidates clashed on issues that included gun control. The paper did cover the face-to-face debate last month between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, saying they traded “low blows.”

Overall, Cuban press coverage of the U.S. has not favored either candidate during this election cycle, said William LeoGrande, professor of government at American University in Washington.

“The Cuban press has been very even-handed in coverage of the U.S. elections, mostly offering simple factual accounts of the campaign — no doubt because they will have to deal with whoever wins,” said LeoGrande.

“To the extent that they have offered any critical commentary, it can be summed up as a ‘plague on both your houses,’” he said.

LeoGrande noted that one Granma report said, “There is only one certainty: Whoever wins will be the face invested with the arrogance of the empire with a desire for power.” Cuba has long referred to the U.S. as the “empire.”

To understand how Granma views the U.S. election, VOA emailed its editor, Yailin Orta Rivera, for comment but did not receive a reply before publication. 

In Nicaragua, ‘hate and criticism’

In Nicaragua, state-controlled media have used reports about the U.S. election as a chance to repeat traditional criticisms of Washington, independent media monitoring groups say.

Abigail Hernandez, director of Galeria News and a member of the Independent Journalists and Communications of Nicaragua, said state media such as La Nueva Radio Ya have run reports critical of the American political system.

“These analysis reports concentrate on the judicial and electoral system of the U.S. and criticize the candidacy of Trump,” she told VOA. “I say ‘analysis’ because in reality, these articles are the traditional line of hate and criticism toward the U.S. empire.”

Hernandez added, “They try to say that the U.S. is a sham democracy and that the elections are a reflection of this.”

The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega did not respond to an emailed request for comment before publication.

In Nicaragua, state media are controlled by Ortega or members of his family, independent media monitoring groups said.

In 2010, Canal 8, which had been an independent television network, had a new chief executive — Juan Carlos Ortega Murillo — the president’s son.

Until then, the channel had been known for scrutinizing governments of the left or right, the Reuters news agency reported. Its new owner is the wife of Rafael Ortega Murillo, another of the president’s sons.

Media analysts say that in Nicaragua and Venezuela, reports on the U.S. election criticized the U.S. political system in relation to key issues of interest to their core audiences, especially migration.

Tens of thousands of Nicaraguans desperate to escape the Ortega government have headed north, seeking to cross into the United States.

Earlier this year, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Nicaragua over issues related to migrant smuggling and human rights.

Venezuela, US in tense relationship

Venezuela’s government has also had a tense relationship with the United States over human rights and the conduct of elections.

Driven by political turmoil, 7.7 million people have left Venezuela since 2014, according to a United Nations report published earlier this year.

Most have headed for other Latin American countries or Spain. Others have ended up in the United States illegally, although there have been efforts to allow some Venezuelans into the U.S. lawfully, the U.N. report said.

Marivi Marin Vazquez, founder and director of ProboxVE, a nongovernmental organization that studies disinformation in Latin America, said state media in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela all used reports about the U.S. elections to criticize the American political system.

“They all look at problems in the political system so they can justify their own systems,” she said in an interview with VOA from Washington, where she has lived in exile since leaving Venezuela four years ago.

“They pick holes in things like contradictions, inequality and the power of corporate interests.”

The Venezuelan government did not respond to emailed requests for comment on coverage of the U.S. election.
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Ohio Democrats, Republicans hope vice presidential debate boosts voter turnout

Both Democrats and Republicans in Ohio are hoping Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate will motivate people to participate in the upcoming election. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more from Ohio. Videographer: Adam Greenbaum
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Vance and Walz face off in US vice presidential debate

U.S. vice presidential nominees Tim Walz and JD Vance met for the first and only vice presidential debate of this election season. Tina Trinh reports from New York.
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Vance and Walz focus their attacks on the top of the ticket — not each other

Washington — Vice Presidential hopefuls Tim Walz and JD Vance squared off Tuesday night in what may be the last debate of the 2024 presidential campaign. It was the first encounter between Minnesota’s Democratic governor and Ohio’s Republican senator, following last month’s debate between the tops of their tickets, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. 

No more debates are on the political calendar before Election Day. Tuesday’s confrontation came as the global stakes of the contest rose again as Iran fired missiles at Israel. The vice presidential hopefuls sparred over the violence in the Middle East, climate change and immigration. Here are some takeaways from Tuesday’s debate. 

Mideast in turmoil 

Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel on Tuesday elicited a contrast between the Democratic and Republican tickets on foreign policy: Walz promised “steady leadership” under Harris while Vance pledged a return to “peace through strength” if Trump is returned to the White House. 

The differing visions of what American leadership should look like overshadowed the sharp policy differences between the two tickets. 

The Iranian threat to the region and U.S. interests around the world opened the debate, with Walz pivoting the topic to criticism of Trump. 

“What’s fundamental here is that steady leadership is going to matter,” Walz said, then referenced the “nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes” and responding to global crises by tweet. 

Vance, for his part, promised a return to “effective deterrence” under Trump against Iran, brushing back on Walz’s criticism of Trump by attacking Harris and her role in the Biden administration. 

“Who has been the vice president for the last three and a half years and the answer is your running mate, not mine,” he said. He pointedly noted that the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, happened “during the administration of Kamala Harris.” 

Vance and Walz punch up 

Vance and Walz trained the bulk of their attacks not on their on-stage rival, but on the running mates who weren’t in the room. 

Both vice presidential nominees sought to convey a genial mien as they lobbed criticism at Harris and Trump, respectively. 

It was a reflection of the fact that most voters don’t cast a ballot based on the vice president, and on a vice presidential nominee’s historic role in serving as the attack dog for their running mates. 

Walz pointedly attacked Trump for failing to meet his pledge of building a physical barrier across the entire U.S.-Mexico border at the country’s southern neighbor’s expense. 

“Less than 2% of that wall got built and Mexico didn’t pay a dime,” Walz said. 

Underscoring the focus on the top of the ticket, during a back-and-forth about immigration, Vance said to his opponent: “I think that you want to solve this problem, but I don’t think that Kamala Harris does.” 

Climate change 

In the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Helene, Vance took a question about climate change and gave an answer about jobs and manufacturing, taking a detour around Trump’s past claims that global warming is a “hoax.” 

Vance contended that the best way to fight climate change was to move more manufacturing to the United States, because the country has the world’s cleanest energy economy. It was a distinctly domestic spin on a global crisis, especially after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the international Paris climate accords during his administration. 

Walz also kept the climate change focus domestic, touting the Biden administration’s renewable energy investments as well as record levels of oil and natural gas production. “You can see us becoming an energy superpower in the future,” Walz said. 

It was a decidedly optimistic take on a pervasive and grim global problem. 

Immigration 

The two running mates agreed that the number of migrants in the U.S. illegally is a problem. But each laid the blame on the opposing presidential nominee. 

Vance echoed Trump by repeatedly calling Harris the “border czar” and suggested that she, as vice president, single-handedly rolled back the immigration restrictions Trump had imposed as president. The result, in Vance’s telling, is an unchecked flow of fentanyl, strain on state and local resources and increased housing prices around the country. 

Harris was never asked to be the “border czar” and she was never specifically given the responsibility for security on the border. She was tasked by Biden in March 2021 with tackling the “root causes” of migration from the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador and pushing leaders there and in Mexico to enforce immigration laws. Harris was not empowered to set U.S. immigration policy — only the president can sign executive orders and Harris was not empowered as Biden’s proxy in negotiations with Congress on immigration law. 

Walz advanced Democrats’ arguments that Trump single-handedly killed a bipartisan Senate deal to tighten border security and boost the processing system for immigrants and asylum seekers. Republicans backed off the deal, Walz noted, only after Trump said it wasn’t good enough. 
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A look at false and misleading claims during the vice presidential debate

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November trial set for suspect in Trump assassination attempt in Florida

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Trump declines to be interviewed for ’60 Minutes’ election special

NEW YORK — CBS News said Tuesday that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has declined to participate in an interview with “60 Minutes” for its election special, which will go forward next Monday with Democratic opponent Kamala Harris alone.

Television’s top-rated news program regularly invites the two presidential contenders for separate interviews that air back-to-back on a show near the election. This year, it is scheduled for Monday instead of its usual Sunday time slot.

Asked for comment, the former president’s campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said, “Fake news,” adding that there were discussions, but nothing was ever locked in.

“60 Minutes” said Trump’s campaign had initially agreed to an interview before telling CBS that the former president would not appear. The network said its invitation to sit for an interview still stands, and correspondent Scott Pelley will explain Trump’s absence to viewers.

Vice President Harris will appear in a pretaped interviewed with Bill Whitaker.

There are currently no other scheduled opportunities for voters to compare the two candidates together. Harris and Trump previously debated on Sept. 10. Although Harris has accepted an invitation from CNN for a second debate later this month, Trump has not accepted.

The interview special is scheduled to air Monday instead of the usual “60 Minutes” time slot because CBS is showing the American Music Awards on Sunday.

Trump’s interview with “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl prior to the 2020 election proved contentious, with the former president ending the session early and his campaign posting an unedited transcript of the session.

CBS News was hosting Tuesday’s vice presidential debate between Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Tim Walz, Minnesota’s Democratic governor.
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Biden calls for Lebanon cease-fire after weekend of fighting

Washington is trying to keep a Mideast war from snowballing after a dramatic weekend in Lebanon, but regional powers are expressing concerns as Israel’s leadership seems determined to continue. From the White House, President Joe Biden has called for a cease-fire, but VOA’s Anita Powell asks: Will anyone listen?
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Vance, Walz to compete in US vice presidential debate

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Vance, Walz prepare for US vice presidential debate

In the U.S. election, vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz meet Tuesday for their first, and only, debate. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns looks at what to expect when the candidates meet in New York.
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Understanding political polls: From history to interpretation

During any campaign, it is crucial that voters and candidates have a way to measure the state of public opinion. Polling — surveying representative samples of the electorate — allows everyone to understand and adapt to prevailing sentiments. But it has its flaws.
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Harris to campaign again in swing-state Nevada

Los Angeles — Vice President Kamala Harris is set to rally in Las Vegas on Sunday night as both she and Republican Donald Trump continue to make frequent trips to Nevada, looking to gain momentum in the swing state as Election Day nears.

The rally is part of Harris’ latest West Coast swing, which included making her first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border since taking over for President Joe Biden atop the Democratic presidential ticket. On Friday, the vice president walked alongside a towering, rust-colored border wall fitted with barbed wire in Douglas, Arizona, and met with federal authorities.

She attended a San Francisco fundraiser Saturday and had plans for a Sunday event in Los Angeles before heading to Nevada, with a return to Washington set for Monday night.

“This race is as close as it could possibly be,” she said Saturday to a raucous crowd of donors. “This is a margin-of-error race.”

Harris said even if there is enthusiasm, she’s running like an underdog. And she invited people to “join our team in battleground states” to help get voters to the polls — even if it’s Californians making calls from home.

On Sunday, former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake became the latest prominent Republican to endorse Harris and Walz. He credited them with a “fine character and love of country” and said he wants a president who does not treat political adversaries as enemies or try to subvert the will of voters.

Flake, a longtime critic of the former president, joins a list of anti-Trump Republicans who have said they will vote for the Democratic ticket, not just refrain from voting for Trump. Among them is Dick Cheney, the deeply conservative former vice president, and his daughter, Liz.

On Sunday, Maryland Senate candidate Larry Hogan, a former Republican governor and a sharp critic of Trump, said Harris has yet to earn his vote, though Trump won’t get it.

In Nevada, all voters automatically receive ballots by mail unless they opt out — a pandemic-era change that was set in state law. That means most ballots could start going out in a matter of weeks, well before Election Day on Nov. 5.

Harris plans to be back in Las Vegas on Oct. 10 for a town hall with Hispanic voters. Both she and Republican rival Donald Trump have campaigned frequently in the city, highlighting the critical role that Nevada, and its mere six votes in the Electoral College, could play in deciding an election expected to be exceedingly close.

Trump held his own Las Vegas rally on Sept. 13 at the Expo World Market Center, where Harris is speaking Sunday. Her campaign has frequently scheduled events in the same venue where her opponent previously spoke, including in Milwaukee, Atlanta and suburban Phoenix. During his Las Vegas event, the former president singled out people crossing into the U.S. illegally, saying Harris “would be the president of invasion.”

During a campaign stop in the city in June, Trump promised to eliminate taxes on tips received by waiters, hotel workers and thousands of other service industry employees. Harris used her own Las Vegas rally in August to make the same promise.

Fully doing away with federal taxes on tips would probably require an act from Congress. Still, Nevada’s Culinary Union, which represents 60,000 hospitality workers in Las Vegas and Reno, has endorsed Harris.

Ted Pappageorge, the culinary union’s secretary-treasurer, said the difference between the dueling no-taxes-on-tips proposals is that Harris has also pledged to tackle what his union calls “sub-minimum wage,” where employers pay service industry workers small salaries and meet minimum wage thresholds by expecting employees to supplement those with tips.

Harris has no public schedule for Tuesday, when her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, squares off against Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance for the first and only vice presidential debate of the campaign. But Harris and Walz will campaign jointly on Wednesday, making a bus tour with various stops through central Pennsylvania.

The campaign says that during that swing, both will emphasize plans to energize U.S. manufacturing, including by using tax credits to encourage steel production and overhaul federal permitting systems to increase American construction.
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Trump rails against immigrants at rally in swing state Pennsylvania

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Vance, Walz sharpen debate skills; new insights on policies unlikely

Both the U.S. Republican and Democratic vice presidential nominees have been preparing for their debate that will be hosted by “CBS News” Tuesday in New York. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias looks at the policies JD Vance and Tim Walz might focus on, and whether the debate itself could impact the outcome of the U.S. presidential race. (Produced by: Marcus Harton)
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