Attention to the Unseen

James Risen writes: To understand the rise of Donald Trump, you don’t need to go to a diner in the Midwest or read “Hillbilly Elegy,” J.D. Vance’s memoir. You just need to know these basic facts: In 1980, white people accounted for about 80 percent of the U.S. population. In 2024, white people account for about 58 percent of the U.S. population. Trump appeals to white people gripped by demographic hysteria. Especially older white people who grew up when white…

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Seth Hettena and Jeff Stein write: The last time he ran for president, Donald Trump said he might not tell the FBI if he received dirt on his opponent offered by a foreign source. “It’s not an interference, they have information — I think I’d take it,” Trump told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in 2019. “If I thought there was something wrong, I’d go maybe to the FBI — if I thought there was something wrong.” “It’s called oppo research,” he…

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NPR reports: There were a host of false things that Donald Trump said during his hour-long news conference Thursday that have gotten attention. A glaring example is his helicopter emergency landing story, which has not stood up to scrutiny. But there was so much more. A team of NPR reporters and editors reviewed the transcript of his news conference and found at least 162 misstatements, exaggerations and outright lies in 64 minutes. That’s more than two a minute. It’s a…

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Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday spoke to auto workers in Detroit:   (Audio quality improves after first minute.) Trump is a ‘joke,’ Harris ‘walks the walk,’ UAW president says:  

Katie Rogers writes: There was a time, early in her vice presidency, when Kamala Harris, aware of reams of conservative news coverage criticizing her laughter, privately wondered to confidants whether she should laugh, or show a sense of humor, at all. They reassured her that she should, according to two people familiar with the discussions at the time. Still, Ms. Harris proceeded gingerly, embarking on a run of tightly controlled appearances. She focused on issues like abortion rights and worked…

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The New York Times reports: As Ms. Harris — long ridiculed and underestimated — has transformed the contest, campaigning energetically and drawing roughly even with Mr. Trump in many polls, Mr. Trump has responded with one unforced error after another while struggling to land on an effective and consistent argument against her. He has found the change disorienting, those who interact with him say. Mr. Trump had grown comfortable campaigning against an 81-year-old incumbent who struggled to navigate stairs, thoughts…

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Politico reports: On that ride [in 1990], [Barbara Res, Trump’s former executive vice president of construction and development] said the pilots started feverishly maneuvering the equipment as the chopper lurched over the water. “From the corner of my eye, I can see in the cockpit and what I see is the co-pilot pumping a device with all his might,” Res wrote in her book. Donald Trump and Robert Trump were reassuring [Nate] Holden [a former city councilman and state senator…

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NPR reports: When Vice President Harris introduced her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, to the nation this week, she ran through his biography – dad, military member, high school football coach, teacher – but lingered on one particular story about his time teaching and coaching. “Coach Walz was approached by a student in his social studies class,” Harris said. “The young man was one of the first openly gay students at the school and was hoping to start a…

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NBC News reports: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was just a year into his first term when in May of 2020 a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes, spurring protests across the state and the nation. To Philonise Floyd, Walz’s compassion and dedication to ensure accountability for his older brother’s murder — and for other police brutality victims in Minnesota — is one of things that make him worthy of being the…

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Quartz reports: It would take more than five career lifetimes for workers to earn what S&P 500 index chief executive officers earn in just one year, according to a new report from the AFL-CIO. CEOs in the S&P 500 made about $17.7 million on average in 2023, according to the latest edition of the federation of labor unions’s “Paywatch” report. That’s more than 268 times the median worker’s income at those companies, according to the AFL-CIO, which reviewed compensation data…

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