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US lawmakers react with bipartisan horror to Trump shooting

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Former US President Trump rushed from rally stage following apparent shots fired

Gunshots appear to have been fired while former U.S. President Donald Trump was on stage at a campaign rally in the state of Pennsylvania Saturday. VOA’s Chief National Correspondent Steve Herman reports from Washington.
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In swing-state Pennsylvania, Latino-majority city embraces chance to sway 2024 election

READING, PA — Religion and politics frequently overlap in Reading, an old industrial city in one of the most pivotal swing states of this year’s presidential election.

In Pennsylvania, there is early precedent for this kind of thing. The state began as a haven for Quakers and other European religious minorities fleeing persecution. That includes the parents of Daniel Boone, the national folk hero born just miles from Reading, a town where the Latino population is now the majority.

Today, the Catholic mayor is also a migrant — and the first Latino to hold the office in Reading’s 276-year history. Mayor Eddie Moran is keenly aware of the pivotal role Pennsylvania could play in the high-stakes race, when a few thousand votes in communities like his could decide the future of the United States.

“Right now, with the growing Latino population and the influx of Latinos moving into cities such as Reading, it’s definitely an opportunity for the Latino vote to change the outcome of an election,” Moran says. “It’s not a secret anymore.”

A community of spirituality — and Latinos

In Reading, the sky is dotted with crosses atop church steeples, one after the other. Catholic church pews fill up on Sundays and many stand for the services. Elsewhere, often in nondescript buildings, evangelical and Pentecostal congregations gather to sing, pray and sometimes speak in tongues.

Outside, salsa, merengue and reggaeton music (often sung in Spanglish) blast from cars and houses along city streets first mapped out by William Penn’s sons — and that now serve a thriving downtown packed with restaurants proudly owned by Latinos.

This is a place where, when the mayor is told that his town is 65% Latino, he takes pride in saying: “It’s more like 70%.”

They believe in their political sway. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2022 found that eight in 10 Latino registered voters say their vote can affect the country’s direction at least “some.”

On a recent Sunday, Luis Hernandez, 65, born in Puerto Rico, knelt to pray near the altar at St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church. Later, walking out after Mass, Hernandez said he’ll vote for Trump — even on the very day of the former president’s criminal convictions related to hush money for a porn star.

“Biden is old,” Hernandez says, and then reflects on how Trump is only a few years younger. “Yes, but you look at Trump and you see the difference. … Biden’s a good man. He’s decent. But he’s too old.”

In the weeks after he spoke, many more Americans would join in calls for Biden to withdraw from the race after his debate debacle, which crystallized growing concerns that, at 81, he’s too old.

Immigration is a key topic

It’s not just about Biden’s age or debate performance. It’s also, Hernandez says, about the border crisis. He says too many immigrants are arriving in the United States, including some he considers criminals. And, he adds, so much has changed since his Dominican-born father arrived in the 1960s — when, he says, it was easier to enter and stay in America.

For some, there are other issues as well.

“It’s the economy, immigration and abortion,” says German Vega, 41, a Dominican American who became a U.S. citizen in 2015. Vega, who describes himself as “pro-life,” voted for Trump in 2020 and plans to do so again in November.

“Biden doesn’t know what he’s saying. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, and we have a country divided,” Vega says. Trump is “a person of character. … He looks confident. He never gives up; he’s always fighting for what he believes.”

Of course, there are some here who just don’t favor taking sides — except if it’s for Jesus. Listen to Pastor Alex Lopez, a Puerto Rican who cuts hair in a barber shop on the first floor of his home on Saturdays, and preaches on the second floor on Sundays.

“We’re neutral,” he says. “We just believe in God.”

A city with deep industrial roots resurges

Reading was once synonymous with iron and steel. Those industries cemented the creation of the Reading Railroad (an early stop on the Monopoly gameboard) that helped fuel the Industrial Revolution and became, in the late 19th century, one of the country’s major corporations.

Today, the city of about 95,000 people, 65 miles northwest of Philadelphia, has a fast-increasing population. However, it is one of the state’s poorest cities, with a median household income of about $44,000, compared to about $72,000 in Pennsylvania.

Reading is 67% Latino, according to U.S. Census figures, and home to high concentrations of people of Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage — as well as Colombians and Mexicans, who own restaurants and other businesses around town.

Political candidates are taking notice of Reading’s political and economic power. The 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania was decided by about 82,000 votes, and — according to the Pew Research Center — there are more than 600,000 eligible Latino voters in the state.

It’s true that Reading still leans mostly Democratic — Biden crushed Trump in the city by a margin of about 46 percentage points in 2020. However in that election, voting-age turnout in the city (about 35%) was significantly lower than the rest of the state (about 67%).

But the Trump campaign doesn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to turn it around. It recently teamed up with the Republican National Committee and Pennsylvania GOP to open a “Latino Americans for Trump” office in a red-brick building near the Democratic mayor’s downtown office.

Moran has made a plea to Biden and other Democrats to take notice and visit Reading before the election. It’s crucial, he says.

“I think that it’s still predominantly Democratic,” he says. “But the candidates need to come out and really explain that to the community.”

One development, Moran says, is that religious leaders are now less hesitant to get involved in politics.

“Things change, even for churches,” he says. Clergy “realize the importance that they hold as faith-based leaders and religious leaders and they’re making a call of action through their congregations.”

The message: Get out and vote

A few blocks from St. Peter’s, a crowd gathers inside First Baptist Church, which dates to the late 19th century.

In a sign of Reading’s changing demographics, the aging and shrinking congregation of white Protestants donated the building to Iglesia Jesucristo es el Rey (Church Jesus Christ is the King), a thriving Latino congregation of some 100 worshippers who have shared the building with First Baptist for nearly a decade.

Pastors Carol Pagan and her husband Jose, both from Puerto Rico, recently led prayer. At the end of the service, microphone in hand, the pastors encourage parishioners to vote in the election — irrespective of who they choose as the president.

“The right to vote is,” Carol Pagan says before her husband chimes in: “a civic responsibility.”

After the service, the congregation descends to the basement, where they share a traditional meal of chicken with rice and beans.

“I believe the principle of human rights have to do with both parties — or any party running,” Carol Pagan says. “I always think of the elderly, of the health system, of health insurance, and how it shouldn’t be so much about capitalism but more rights for all of us to be well.”

Both of the Pagans make clear that they won’t vote for Trump. They’re waiting, like others, for circumstances that might lead Biden to withdraw, so they can support another Democratic candidate.

“It’s our duty to shield that person with prayer — it doesn’t matter if that person is a Democrat or a Republican,” Carol Pagan says. “We owe them that.”
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Biden digs in on candidacy in battleground state amid age doubts

Detroit — “I promise you,” said U.S. President Joe Biden, as he stood before a small crowd of supporters crammed into a Detroit diner – including a 4-year-old boy with a halo of blond hair, named Beau like the president’s beloved late son – “I am OK.”

Young Beau gazed up at the 81-year-old president from his mother’s lap and giggled as Biden spoke in an automotive-themed diner in Detroit’s wealthy western suburbs.

Biden joked about his age – “I’m only 41” – he said, to laughs – but the tone of Friday’s campaign swing through the battleground state of Michigan was serious just weeks after a disastrous debate performance raised concerns over his fitness for reelection.

“I am running, and we are going to win!” he said to cheers, hours later, at a packed high school gym in central Detroit.

Biden also used the rally before 2,000 ramped-up supporters to lay out a series of campaign promises, including enshrining abortion in law, increasing voter access, expanding entitlement programs, banning assault weapons, curbing housing costs and more – all, he said, by “making the wealthy pay their fair share,” which he defined as a 25% minimum tax on billionaires.

He also threw unprecedented amounts of shade – both serious and spurious – at his 78-year-old Republican opponent, joking: “Trump doesn’t get out of his golf cart.”

But also: “It’s time for us to stop treating politics like entertainment and reality TV,” he said. “Another four years of Donald Trump is deadly serious.”

Those firm words come up against growing concerns about his prospects – not from his detractors, but from within the Democratic Party. On Friday, en route to Michigan, campaign officials pushed back and brushed aside the worries.

“He is laser-focused on demonstrating that he is the best possible person to take on Donald Trump in November,” said Biden campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler, speaking to reporters on Air Force 1.

And in Washington, Biden’s allies are on the attack in his defense.

“Joe Biden is focused on the future of this country,” South Carolina Representative James Clyburn told NBC News’ Today Show. Clyburn is a staunch supporter credited with helping deliver the Black vote to Biden in 2020. “And I always say the best predictor of future performance is past behavior.”

But not all Democrats agree. On Thursday night, Biden took nearly an hour of questions from reporters, on everything from his health to the future of NATO and his strategy for countering an emboldened China. But a new campaign, called “Pass the Torch,” on Friday released a scorching review of his performance, during which he accidentally referred to his vice president as “Vice President Trump.” Her name is Kamala Harris.

“Great job, Joe!” Trump posted on his social media platform.

“We cannot be holding our breath during every campaign speech and appearance,” said Aaron Regunberg of Pass the Torch. “We need a candidate who is able to campaign vigorously against Donald Trump.”

On Thursday, Biden also drew gasps by calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by his nemesis’ name, introducing him at the NATO summit as “President Putin,” for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He quickly corrected the mistake, but it was pounced upon by his political opponents – and his allies.

“This is a gaffe – by itself it’s not a massive deal,” Regunberg said in a statement. “But it’s concerning that the president can’t seem to get through a single event without making a mistake that could provide grist to the Trump attack machine.”

Washington state Democratic Senator Patty Murray agreed, saying: “We need to see a much more forceful and energetic candidate on the campaign trail in the very near future in order for him to convince voters he is up to the job.”

And academics say Biden’s main enemy here is simple math.

“I’m not sure how he’s going to overcome the ‘too old’ aspect because all of us have calendars and can count,” said Shannon O’Brien, an associate professor of instruction at the University of Texas at Austin. “However, just because you’re old doesn’t mean you’re not vital. And just because you’re old doesn’t mean you’re impaired. And I think he needs to show that he’s vigorous and that he is mentally adept and that he understands the issues.”

On Friday, a confident Biden, energized by the packed crowd of supporters – some of whom began singing the national anthem while waiting for him to appear, led by a soaring alto somewhere deep in the crowd – zeroed in on what he sees as the real weak link in this election.

“I know I look 40 years old,” Biden said. “I know I’m a little bit old. Hopefully with age comes a little bit of wisdom. And here’s what I know: I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. … And I know Americans want a president, not a dictator.” 
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Can the 25th amendment be used to replace Biden?

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Playbook for controlling government bureaucracy prepared for Trump

white house — “If I’m elected president, we are going to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.,” vowed Donald Trump – in 2016.

Eight years later, in his quest for a second, non-consecutive term, “drain the swamp” – meaning to rid government of those who impose policy but are unaccountable to the president – is still a key Trump campaign slogan. If the Republican is victorious in November, he will have a detailed playbook for placing the entire federal bureaucracy under his direct control.

What is essentially a manual for how to swing a wrecking ball at the administrative apparatus of government, which Trump has decried as the “deep state,” has been written with the cooperation of more than 100 conservative organizations. The 922-page handbook, known as Project 2025, was organized and published by the right-wing Heritage Foundation. 

“Project 2025 is a plan to execute what amounts to a comprehensive authoritarian takeover of American government,” wrote Thomas Zimmer, a Georgetown University visiting professor, in his Democracy Americana blog.

“We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless — if the left allows it to be,” said Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts in a recent appearance on a right-wing podcast, The War Room with Stephen K. Bannon.  

After Roberts’ incendiary comment, Trump tried to distance himself from Project 2025, in a somewhat contradictory posting on his Truth Social platform. He asserted that while he knew “nothing” about Project 2025 and its authors, “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying.”

Many of those who wrote Project 2025’s chapters, however, were key appointees in Trump’s administration. Some are reportedly assisting the Trump re-election effort behind the scenes.

Several have also popped up in a recruitment video for Project 2025’s online “Presidential Administration Academy,” which is recruiting and training loyalists. The plan calls for restoring Schedule F, which briefly existed at the end of the Trump administration, a classification that made positions in the civil service more easily filled by loyalists to the president.

Tens of thousands of appointees could then fan out across government agencies to implement far-right priorities, such as detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants, dismantling social safety nets, infusing Christian values and ethics into government policy, eliminating LGBTQ+ rights, directing the Justice Department to prosecute anti-white racism and banning pornography.

On reproductive rights, including abortion, Project 2025 outlines far stricter restrictions than even Trump or the platform for next week’s Republican National Convention is advocating.

The plan’s proponents characterize it as restoring “self-governance to everyday Americans.” The project’s head, Paul Dans, appearing on C-SPAN, left no doubt Trump’s words and ideas were the inspiration.

“He was president for four years, so many of the ideas are carry-ons from his original work. So, I would like to think a lot of it does spring from that first term of Trump,” Dans said.

‘Full Trumpian’ document

VOA requested an interview with the Heritage Foundation for this story. The think tank said it could not make anyone available to discuss Project 2025. It did email a statement stressing that Project 2025 does not speak for any candidate, and that if Trump was re-elected, it would be up to him to decide which recommendations to implement.

“It’s a full Trumpian sort of document with an angry and highly polarizing tone” is how Progressive Policy Institute President Will Marshall characterized Project 2025. 

It seeks to eliminate the checks and balances that writers of the Constitution, such as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, guaranteed through dividing power among the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the government, according to Marshall. 

“Madison and Jefferson ought to be spinning in their graves when they see how much power they want to concentrate in the next president’s hands. And if that president happens to be Donald Trump, then it’s a kind of a nightmare for the country, given the way he’s misused power in the past,” Marshall told VOA.

The sweeping document is in line with Trump’s stances. It calls for placing big tariffs on imported goods and ending America’s “blind support for international organizations.”

“That would really endanger our prosperity and undercut our leadership and influence in the world,” Marshall said.

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has made Project 2025 a key target.

“Trump’s advisers have created a 900-page blueprint — called Project 2025 — detailing everything else they plan to do in a second term, including a plan to cut Social Security, repeal our $35 cap on insulin, eliminate the Department of Education and end programs like Head Start [which provides early education, health benefits and nutrition to pre-school children],” Vice President Kamala Harris said during a campaign appearance Tuesday at a Las Vegas hotel/casino. 

The plan also calls for slashing government funding for renewable energy and climate change mitigation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation would be overhauled top to bottom, as would the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees the Voice of America. VOA, whose news content is independent of higher government control, should — according to Project 2025 — be supervised by either the National Security Council or the State Department.
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Handbook prepared for Trump to take direct control of government bureaucracy

If former U.S. president Donald Trump wins the November presidential election, he may seek to place the entire federal bureaucracy under direct presidential control. That move is outlined in a playbook crafted by more than 100 conservative organizations for a prospective second Trump term. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman reports. VOA footage by Adam Greenbaum.
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Some Democrats not yet sure Biden will stay in presidential race

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Russian election meddlers hurting Biden, helping Trump, US intelligence warns

WASHINGTON — Russia is turning to a familiar playbook in its attempt to sway the outcome of the upcoming U.S. presidential election, looking for ways to boost the candidacy of former President Donald Trump by disparaging the campaign of incumbent President Joe Biden, according to American intelligence officials. 

A new assessment of threats to the November election, shared Tuesday, does not mention either candidate by name. But an intelligence official told reporters that the Kremlin view of the U.S. political landscape has not changed from previous election cycles.

“We have not observed a shift in Russia’s preferences for the presidential race from past elections,” the official told reporters, agreeing to discuss the intelligence only on the condition of anonymity.

The official said that preference has been further cemented by “the role the U.S. is playing with regard to Ukraine and broader policy toward Russia.”

The caution from U.S. intelligence officials comes nearly four years after it issued a similar warning about the 2020 presidential elections, which pitted then-President Trump against Biden.

Moscow was using “a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment,’” William Evanina, the then-head of the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said at the time.

“Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump’s candidacy on social media and Russian television,” he added. 

A declassified post-election assessment, released in March 2021, reaffirmed the initial findings. Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized “influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party” while offering support for Trump, the report said. 

U.S. intelligence officials said they have been in contact with both presidential campaigns and the candidates but declined to share what sort of information may have been shared.

Trump pushback

The Trump campaign Tuesday rejected the U.S. intelligence assessment as backward.

“Vladimir Putin endorsed Joe Biden for President because he knows Biden is weak and can easily be bullied, as evidenced by Putin’s years-long invasion of Ukraine,” national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told VOA in an email.

“When President Trump was in the Oval Office, Russia and all of America’s adversaries were deterred, because they feared how the United States would respond,” she said.

“The only people in America who don’t see this clear contrast between Biden’s ineffective weakness versus Trump’s effective peace through strength approach are the left-wing stenographers in the mainstream media who write false narratives about Donald Trump for a living,” she added.

The Biden campaign has so far not responded to questions from VOA about the new U.S. assessment.

Russian sophistication

Russian officials also have not yet responded to requests for comment on the latest allegations, which accuse the Kremlin of using a “whole of government” approach to see Trump and other American candidates perceived as favorable to Moscow win in November.

“Moscow is using a variety of approaches to bolster its messaging and lend an air of authenticity to its efforts,” the U.S. intelligence official said. “This includes outsourcing its efforts to commercial firms to hide its hand and laundering narratives through influential U.S. voices.”

Russia’s efforts also appear focused on targeting U.S. voters in so-called swing states, states most likely to impact the outcome of the presidential election, officials said.

Some of those efforts have already come to light.

Russia and AI

Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the seizure of two internet domains and of another 968 accounts on the X social media platform, part of what officials described an artificial intelligence-driven venture by Russian intelligence and Russia’s state-run RT news network.

A Justice Department statement said Russian intelligence and RT used specific AI software to create authentic-looking social media accounts to mimic U.S. individuals, “which the operators then used to promote messages in support of Russian government objectives.”

A joint advisory, issued simultaneously by the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands, warned Russia was in the process of expanding the AI-fueled influence operation to other social media platforms.

The U.S. intelligence official who spoke to reporters Tuesday described such use of AI as a “malign influence accelerant,” and warned the technology had already been deployed, likely by China, in the run-up to Taiwan’s elections this past January.

China waiting

For now, though, U.S. intelligence officials see few indications Beijing is seeking to interfere in U.S. elections, as it did in 2020 and 2022. 

China “sees little gain in choosing between two parties that are perceived as both seeking to contain Beijing,” said the U.S. intelligence official, noting things could change.

“The PRC is seeking to expand its ability to collect and monitor data on U.S. social media platforms, probably to better understand and eventually manipulate public opinion,” the official said. “In addition, we are watching for whether China might seek to influence select down-ballot races as it did in the 2022 midterm elections.”

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, which has denied previous U.S. allegations, responded by calling the U.S. “the biggest disseminator of disinformation.”

“China has no intention and will not interfere in the US election, and we hope that the US side will not make an issue of China in the election,” spokesperson Liu Pengyu told VOA in an email.

‘Chaos agent’

The new U.S. election threat assessment warns that in addition to concerns about Russia and China, there is growing evidence Iran is seeking to play the role of a “chaos agent” in the upcoming U.S. vote.

“Iran seeks to stoke social divisions and undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions around the elections,” according to an unclassified version of the assessment. 

It also warned that Tehran “has demonstrated a long-standing interest in exploiting U.S. political and societal tensions through various means, including social media.”

As an example, officials Tuesday pointed to newly declassified intelligence showing Iran trying to exploit pro-Gaza protests across the U.S.

“We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters,” said National Intelligence Director Avril Haines.

Haines cautioned, though, that Americans who interacted with the Iranian actors “may not be aware that they are interacting with or receiving support from a foreign government.”

Iranian officials have not yet responded to VOA’s request for comment.

 
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Embattled Biden rallies congressional Democratic support

U.S. lawmakers returned to the nation’s capital this week for the first time since President Joe Biden’s debate against presumptive presidential Republican nominee Donald Trump in June. Katherine Gypson reports on calls from Capitol Hill for Biden to step aside. Kim Lewis contributed to this report.
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Republican Party releases Trump-supported platform

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