Featured

Why do people still back Trump, after everything? 5 things to understand about MAGA supporters’ thinking. By Alex Hinton / The Conversation

For many people, especially those leaning left, Donald Trump’s disqualifications to be president seem obvious, prompting some to question: How could anyone still vote for Trump?

More recently, I have been examining toxic polarization – and ways to stop it. Many efforts to reduce people’s polarized views begin with an injunction: Listen and understand. To this end, I have attended Trump rallies, populist and nonpartisan events and meetings where Democrats and Republicans connect and talk. Along the way, I have spoken with Trump supporters ranging from the Make America Great Again, or MAGA, faithful to moderate “hold the nose and vote for him” conservatives.

Here are five key lines of reasoning that, in varying combinations, inform Trump voters’ choice. Read more

Political / Social

Harris holds 7-point lead over Trump in national survey. By Lauren Irwin / The Hill

The survey, conducted by Reuters and Ipsos, found Harris leading with 46.61 percent support compared to Trump’s 40.48 percent, rounding to a 47-40 gap. That margin was slightly higher than the 5-point advantage over Trump the prior edition of the poll found Harris held.

According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, Harris leads by 3.9 percentage points nationally based on an aggregation of polls. She’s maintained a lead since early August and enjoyed an uptick in support after the presidential debate against Trump, where Harris was widely viewed as the winner. Read more

How Trump Hopes to Exploit the Myth of Voter Fraud in November. By Jonathan Blitzer / The New Yorker

For years, the former President has claimed that undocumented immigrants vote illegally. That fiction is now the explicit position of the Party establishment.

The threat of voter fraud is one of the more durable myths in American politics, probably because it has proved so useful. Lately, it has taken a radical turn: Donald Trump and his allies have combined their two principal obsessions—immigration and election “integrity”—to conjure the spectre of immigrants crossing the border to elect Kamala Harris President. “A lot of these illegal immigrants coming in,” Trump said, at the September 10th Presidential debate, “they don’t even know what country they’re in.” Gesturing toward Harris, he added, “These people are trying to get them to vote. And that’s why they’re allowing them to come into our country.” Read more

The MAGA Movement Has Become a Problem for Trump. By Ezra Klein / NYT

In 2024, the deep state that defeats Donald Trump might be his own.

That, after all, is what Project 2025 was actually meant to be. The 900-page tome that Democrats hoist in front of the cameras is a festival of policy options, detailed down to the subagency level. But options for whom? Not for Trump. Even the most wonkish of presidents can engage on only a small fraction of what the executive branch does. And Trump was not the most wonkish of presidents. When he said, during his debate with Kamala Harris, that he hadn’t read Project 2025 and has no intention of doing so, I believed him.

But Project 2025 — and much else like it that has gotten less press — is more than a compendium of policy proposals: It is an effort to build a deep state of Trump’s own.
Read more

The Brazen, Absurd, and Dangerous Hypocrisy of JD Vance. By David Corn / Mother Jones

The veep candidate says the Democrats’ rhetoric is the problem—and then continues his smears against Haitian immigrants.

With his calls for illegal and ruthless action, his backing of Trump’s lies about 2020, and his support for right-wingers who hail political violence and condemn progressives as “unhumans,” Vance is himself a threat to democracy. Which is why he, like Trump, huffs that the actual threat is posed by those who point out how he and Trump endanger the republic. Read more

The MAGA scramble to defend Mark Robinson. By Charles Sykes / The Atlantic

Those still on the North Carolina gubernatorial nominee’s side are pulling from a grab bag of weak tactics.

Mark Robinson is pointing a finger at artificial intelligence amid the recent revelations about disturbing comments he allegedly made on a porn site. Robinson, the lieutenant governor of North Carolina who is now the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee, suggested that the comments in which he apparently called himself a “black NAZI,” yearned for the restoration of slavery, and enjoyed reading Mein Kampf could have been artificially generated. Then there are those who simply don’t care about the allegations. At a Trump rally in North Carolina over the weekend, The New York Times found that while few in attendance believed the story—many blamed the untrustworthiness of the media, according to the Times—some would support Robinson even if the reports of his racist, anti-Semitic, transphobic, and obscene posts were real. Read more

In Springfield, I heard stories about strain, promise — and race. By Eugene Robinson / Wash Post

A struggling Rust Belt city of Haitian immigrants confronts lies from Trump and Vance. Creations Market owner Philomene Philostin in her store in Springfield, Ohio, on Monday. (Maddie McGarvey for The Washington Post)

This city is besieged by a lie. Mayor Rob Rue could not meet with me at his office because of a series of anonymous bomb threats that shut down schools, hospitals and the municipal center. One morning this week, I watched as eight police cars sped up to City Hall and officers rushed inside, investigating the latest threat; it turned out to be a false alarm, like all the others. So far. Read more

Pregnancy deaths rose by 56% in Texas after 2021 abortion ban, analysis finds. By Erika Edwards, Zinhle Essamuah and Jason Kane / NBC News

The number of women in Texas who died while pregnant, during labor or soon after childbirth skyrocketed following the state’s 2021 ban on abortion care — far outpacing a slower rise in maternal mortality across the nation, a new investigation of federal public health data finds.

From 2019 to 2022, the rate of maternal mortality cases in Texas rose by 56%, compared with just 11% nationwide during the same time period, according to an analysis by the Gender Equity Policy Institute. The nonprofit research group scoured publicly available reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and shared the analysis exclusively with NBC News. Read more

Marcellus Williams executed in Missouri amid strong innocence claims. By Natalie Neysa Alund / USA Today

The execution came despite one of the prosecutors in the case saying that Williams’ life should be spared because DNA did not connect him to the case. Critics are calling the execution murder.

Missouri executed Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams on Tuesday in the 1998 killing of a former newspaper reporter despite a prosecutor in the case and the family of the victim saying his life should be spared. Williams, who always maintained his innocence − a claim backed by not only his defense team but later prosecutors − is now the third inmate executed in Missouri this year and the 15th in the nation. He was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. following the lethal injection, the Missouri Department of Corrections reported. Read more

How Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs wielded power and prestige to fuel decades of alleged abuse. By Char Adams / NBC News

For decades, Sean “Diddy” Combs presented the image of a wealthy, Black music mogul, one who broke business barriers, threw lavish parties and even created iconic TV moments. But behind the scenes, prosecutors say, was a more sinister picture, with allegations of violence, sex trafficking and severe abuses of power.

Prosecutors allege in an indictment unsealed Tuesday, Combs, now 54, and his associates “wielded” his “power and prestige” to orchestrate sexual, emotional and physical abuse against the people around him. While Combs’ explosive temper was an open secret and rumors long swirled about his sex life, his power and influence, experts say, has shielded him from accountability for years of alleged illegal activity. Read more

World News

The War That Would Not End. By Franklin Foer / The Atlantic

Inside the year-long American effort to release the hostages, end the fighting in Gaza, and bring peace to the Middle East

On October 6, 2023, Brett McGurk believed that a Middle East peace deal was within reach—that the Biden administration just might succeed where every administration before it had failed. McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, was meeting in his office with a group of Saudi diplomats, drawing up a blueprint for a Palestinian state. It was the centerpiece of a grand bargain: In exchange for a Palestinian state, Saudi Arabia would normalize diplomatic relations with Israel. At a moment when Israel was growing internationally isolated, the nation that styled itself the leader of the Muslim world would embrace it. Read more

World leaders gather at a U.N. desperate to save itself. By Ishaan Tharoor / Wash Post

Ongoing crises in Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine have underscored the inefficacy of the world’s foremost decision-making body. Great power competition may be to blame.

The backdrop to this week’s gathering of world leaders at the United Nations could hardly be more grim. Wars, increasing anxiety over the state of democracy and deep geopolitical divisions roil the global scene. At the dais of the U.N.’s General Assembly, dignitaries will once more appeal to the virtues of cooperation. But the august institution itself is grappling with its inability to reckon with a surging tide of challenges. Read more

With nuclear option unlikely, Putin struggles to defend his red lines. By Catherine Belton and Robyn Dixon / Wash Post

There’s a growing realization in the Kremlin that the West is not falling for its nuclear threats and Putin is searching for new ways to enforce his red lines.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin warned earlier this month that Western approval for Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia would mean Moscow was at war with NATO, Russian propagandists rushed to rattle the nuclear saber. Alexander Mikhailov, director of the Bureau of Military Political Analysis, called for bombing plywood mock-ups of London and Washington — complete with reproductions of Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the White House — to simulate nuclear strikes, so that they would “burn so beautifully that it will horrify the world.” Read more

Africa’s Youngest Elected Leader Wants a New World Order. By Ruth Maclean / NYT

In his first interview with Western media since becoming president of Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye said the United Nations has to change to reflect changing world demographics.

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye rocketed to international fame last March when he went from prison to president-elect of the West African nation of Senegal in 10 days, becoming the youngest elected leader on the continent. He carried the hopes of the youngest, fastest-growing population on earth, who saw in him a fresh start, and a break with Africa’s many aging presidents and military rulers. But until now, he has rarely given interviews.Speaking with The New York Times last week — in his first interview with a Western media outlet — he made the case for a different world order that gives more weight to Africa. Before traveling to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Faye called for “a reform of the world system and an equality among its peoples.” Read more

Donald Trump emboldened UK racists, says Labour minister. By Noah Keate / Politico

Home Office Minister Angela Eagle says US Republican fed anti-immigrant sentiment across the west.

Speaking at the Labour party’s annual conference in Liverpool on Monday night, Home Office Minister Angela Eagle listed the former U.S. president among those who had made “anti-immigrant rhetoric” mainstream in the West. In comments first reported by the Guardian, Eagle said it was difficult for new immigrants to “rise above the constant drumbeat of toxic anti-immigration, anti-immigrant rhetoric that has become emboldened, not only in Britain but across the western countries.” Read more

Ethics / Morality / Religion

Project 2025 is a death sentence for religious freedom. By Wa’el Alzayat / RNS

The conservative vision proposes turning the United States into a religious monolith.

Far-right groups are chomping at the bit for an election that will return Donald Trump to the White House, giving them a chance to achieve their dilapidated vision for America. That vision is contained in what its authors call “a menu of solutions” for the country’s problems, titled Project 2025. The 900-plus page document, written by conservatives and allies of former President Donald Trump at the Heritage Foundation, is loaded with radical policies aimed at dismantling individual freedoms while gutting the federal government’s ability to operate. One of the gravest dangers isn’t spelled out, but can be discerned by reading between the lines: A dream to turn the United States into a religious monolith, where far-right interpretations of the Bible dictate every aspect of our lives. Read more

William Barber joins faith leaders at vigil in Springfield to defend Haitian migrants. By Kathryn Post / RNS

It’s gone on far too long, and we won’t be silent anymore,’ said civil rights champion the Rev. William Barber II.

As a storm loomed over Springfield, Ohio, Sunday afternoon (Sept. 22), some 60 Ohio faith leaders gathered outside the city’s Greater Grace Temple to welcome the Rev. William Barber II, who was invited to the city by clergy to push back against former President Trump and vice president-hopeful J.D. Vance’s campaign messages about Haitian immigrants in the city. “Do not reject God by rejecting your Haitian neighbor,” said Barber, the Disciples of Christ pastor and founder of Repairers of the Breach, a civil rights and anti-poverty organization. “Take your lies, take your foot, take your oppression, take your distortion off the back of our immigrant brothers and sisters. It’s gone on far too long, and we won’t be silent anymore.” Read more

Confessions of a (Former) Christian Nationalist. By Reverend Rob Schenck / Mother Jones

When religion is placed at the service of a political party, it corrupts both

In 2014, at an elegant gala inside the Supreme Court’s gilded Great Hall, a tuxedoed Justice Clarence Thomas turned to me and voiced his approval for my work. I glanced over to where Chief Justice John Roberts and his wife, Jane, were entertaining two of my associates, trustees of the Supreme Court Historical Society, a private, nongovernmental entity for which Roberts served as honorary chair. At that moment, I knew the secretive operation I had run, aimed at emboldening Thomas and his conservative colleagues to render the strongest possible decisions in favor of our right-wing Christian agenda, had succeeded. Read more

What Happened When an Ohio Megachurch Decided to Tackle Racism. By Ruth Graham / NYT

In “Undivided,” the political scientist Hahrie Han follows members of a mostly white congregation that resolved to fight bias and promote racial justice. Chuck Mingo, a pastor at Crossroads Church and co-founder of Undivided, its program to promote racial justice. Credit…Jim Gormley

Crossroads Church in Cincinnati has a style that stands out for its flash and irreverence even among its megachurch peers. At one Easter service, a production team shot confetti from the stage and presented a large cake with icing studded with communion wafers. “Jesus is alive!” they announced. “It’s a party!” But in many other ways Crossroads is a typical American megachurch, an institutional category known for an eagerness to attract people unfamiliar or uncomfortable with traditional religion. The church is broadly conservative, but wary of stepping too noisily into political or cultural controversies. Read more

The American Catholic Right vs. The Social Justice Wing. By Julie Nichols / Patheos

Experiencing the dangers of Donald Trump and watching the battle between the progressive left and conservative right laity and clergy from within the Catholic Church are some of the best and worst things I’ve ever experienced.

If you want to see the “central brewing hub” of Christian Nationalism and what happens when people (mainly men) try to use and abuse the church for political gain, watch the battle between the Catholic progressive social justice wing and the ultra-traditionalist conservative Catholics from within the institutional Catholic Church. These super-conservative circles combined with the most powerful patriarchy in the world buck Pope Francis’s reforms to move the Church out of the dark ages because they want control over the church and the country, and/or they are clinging to their ideals from the past. Read more

Historical / Cultural

The Civil War Still Echoes in the South, Forcing Towns to Take Sides. By Scott Calvert and Cameron McWhirter / WSJ

A Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature in 2015 approved a statute protecting “objects of remembrance,” a law since used to shield monuments that commemorate the four-year rebellion waged by the Confederate States of America.

In 2020, when protests over police violence against Black men and women spread around the U.S., the campaign to take down Confederate monuments in the South drew national attention. That year, statues were removed in Richmond, Va., the former Confederate capital, and in most of the 11 states that had seceded from the U.S. Read more

Traditions of Resistance in the Black Diaspora. By Christina Proenza-Coles / AAIHS

Depiction of Haitian Revolution on August 22, 1791 (Wikimedia Commons)

African resistance to American slavery originated at the moment African slavery in the Americas began. The first recorded enslaved Africans landed in Hispaniola (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in 1502. Within months the Spanish governor wrote the king of Spain, asking him to stop sending enslaved Africans because “they fled among the Indians and taught them bad customs and never would be captured.” These self-liberated Africans formed several maroon communities across Hispaniola that went to war with the Spanish for decades. Read more

When ‘Between the World and Me’ Faced a School Book Ban, Ta-Nehisi Coates Decided to Report It Out. By Ta-Nehisi Coates / Vanity Fair

In an excerpt from his new book, The Message, the author visits South Carolina to confront a raging censorship battle—and some terrible vestiges of American history.

The truth is that even as I know and teach the power of writing, I still find myself in disbelief when I see that power at work in the real world. Maybe it is the nature of books. Film, music, the theater—all can be experienced amidst the whooping, clapping, and cheering of the crowd. But books work when no one else is looking, mind-melding author and audience, forging an imagined world that only the reader can see. Read more

Nixon Fought a War on Drugs He Knew Was Unjust. By Brent Staples / NYT

President Richard Nixon insisted on classifying marijuana as a dangerous drug on par with heroin, despite abundant evidence to the contrary. In 1972, for example, his own National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse found that the harm of use was not great enough to warrant criminal prosecution in personal possession cases.

When Nixon ignored this advice, countless people were unfairly prosecuted and research into an important therapeutic drug was stalled. We now know what the Watergate president actually believed: that marijuana was no more harmful than his favorite mind-altering substance, the martini. Read more

Benny Golson, jazz saxophonist and composer of surpassing grace, dies at 95. By matt Schudel / Wash Post

In a seven-decade career, he composed such jazz standards as “I Remember Clifford,” “Along Came Betty” and “Whisper Not.”

In 1959, Mr. Golson and trumpeter Art Farmer founded the Jazztet, one of the premier “hard bop” jazz groups of the era. He appeared in perhaps the most famous photograph of jazz musicians ever made, “A Great Day in Harlem,” taken by Art Kane in 1958, and was featured in an Oscar-nominated 1994 documentary about the photo, directed by Jean Bach. He was one of the last two surviving musicians among the 57 in the picture. Read more

I see Howard of the 1980s in Kamala Harris. By Carla Hall / Wash Post

Her mantra to move forward is one of the lessons we learned attending “the Mecca” amid social and political tumult.

Kamala Harris and I were in the same class at Howard University, but we did not cross paths. She majored in economics and political science and joined the prestigious Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. I majored in accounting and spent most of my time with the performing arts crowd as a member of a dance ensemble and a model in campus fashion shows. But her life at “the Mecca” must have been much like mine because I see Howard’s unmistakable mark on her career. Read more

Sports

The N.B.A. Is Partnering With a Repressive Regime. By Stanis Elsborg / NYT

In a bygone era, N.B.A. teams enforced an unofficial quota on Black players, apparently fearing that a “too Black” team might alienate its white audience. Today, this same league is celebrated as one of the world’s most progressive sports organizations.

Indeed, N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. players have consistently demonstrated over the years that athletes can be drivers of change, helping to create a more just and equal society. The N.B.A., after struggling with racism and injustice, is now a leading advocate of diversity and positions social justice as a core mission. The league has aligned itself with movements like Black Lives Matter, proclaimed the value of freedom of expression and established initiatives such as the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award, honoring players who make significant strides in the fight for social justice. Read more

Reggie Bush lawsuit: RB sues USC, NCAA, Pac-12 over unearned NIL money. By Craig Meyer / USA Today

Former USC football star running back and 2005 Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush has filed a lawsuit against USC, the Pac-12 and the NCAA, seeking compensation for his name, image and likeness (NIL) from his decorated career with the Trojans from 2003-05.

In a statement, the law firm representing Bush in the matter said the lawsuit “aims to address and rectify ongoing injustices stemming from the exploitation” of his NIL rights. Read more

Tyreek Hill retains counsel for legal battle after police detainment. By Safid Deen / USA Today

Miami Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill, who was detained by police before a NFL game earlier this month, has hired three lawyers, including a former federal prosecutor and a civil rights attorney who worked several high-profile cases including George Floyd’s, to assist in his legal battle against the Miami-Dade Police Department.

“Miami Dolphins’ superstar Tyreek Hill said that he will speak for all people in a broad fight against national police misconduct,” a statement by Hill’s lawyer, Julius B. Collins of Atlanta, released to USA TODAY Sports said Monday. “Hill is adamant that his legal team will ensure that the voices of people who have long been ignored or silenced on the issue of police reform will finally be heard.” Read more

A third of former NFL players surveyed believe they have CTE, researchers find. By Becky Sullivan / NPR

One-third of former professional football players reported in a new survey that they believe they have the degenerative brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.

The research, published Monday in the medical journal JAMA Neurology, represents one of the broadest surveys to date of former NFL players’ perception of their cognitive health and how widely they report symptoms linked to CTE, which is thought to be caused by concussions and repeated hits to the head. Read more

Mercury Morris, who helped Dolphins win two Super Bowls, dies at 77. By AP and Wash Post

His 1982 conviction on cocaine trafficking charges was overturned, and he became a motivational speaker urging people to avoid drugs.

Mr. Morris, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, was the starting halfback and one of three go-to runners that Dolphins Coach Don Shula used in Miami’s back-to-back title seasons of 1972 and 1973, alongside Pro Football Hall of Famer Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick. Mr. Morris led the Dolphins in rushing touchdowns in both of those seasons, finishing with an NFL-best 12 in 1972 and then 10 more in 1973. Read more

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