Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee for Ohio governor whose childhood sexual abuse became fodder for an attack ad by her Republican rival, Vivek Ramaswamy, directly addressed the widely-criticized video on Saturday.
“As you’ve probably heard by now, as a young child, my brother and I experienced a lot of child abuse and neglect. We moved countless times as kids, and even wound up living in a tent in the middle of the winter,” Acton said at a rally in Cleveland, alongside former President Barack Obama and former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is making a comeback bid to oust Republican Sen. Jon Husted.
“And now, my opponent has chosen to exploit, intentionally, my childhood to save to save his struggling campaign, but it’s not going to work,” Acton said to cheers from the crowd. “It’s not going to work because compassion and decency still matter.”
The former president took his star power to Cleveland to help carry his party across the finish line just 10 days before Election Day. He criticized Ramaswamy by name.
“There’s a decency we should expect from our public officials where the standards of behavior have gotten so low that somebody can run an ad like that,” Obama said. “There’s got to be something inside you where you just say, ‘You know, no office is worth stooping that low.’ Because you know what, character matters.”
Acton and Obama’s comments referred to a 60-second video released by Ramaswamy’s campaign last week that featured her estranged mother, Donna Arthur. In the clip, Arthur calls her daughter a “liar.”
“She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true,” Arthur says in the ad.
Acton has spoken about her and her brother’s difficult shared childhood even before entering politics. She said they were homeless for a time and lived in a tent one winter. She accused her mother’s husband of sexual abuse, and court records obtained by news outlets show Acton’s stepfather was arrested and charged with raping her when she was 12, before he fled the state and later died.
Arthur disputed Acton’s allegations against her husband in a interview with a conservative website in 2020, but said she stood by her husband. She and Acton have separately said they have not spoken since a last encounter in court over Arthur’s husband’s charges.
Ramaswamy’s ad was met with a wave of condemnation from Democrats and some Republicans almost as soon as it began circulating on the internet. The Ohio governor’s race is very tight, according to MS NOW polling. On Friday, the Cook Political Report moved the race from “toss up” to “lean Democrat,” pointing to the ad negative’s consequences of “perhaps creating some collateral damage.”
But Ramaswamy has stood by the video, saying it “had nothing to do with childhood abuse.” President Donald Trump also backed the Republican candidate and accused the media of engaging in a “well-coordinated attack” to get the ad taken down.
In her remarks Saturday, Acton said her difficult childhood experiences shaped who she is today.
“I know that I am not the only one in this room who saw a thing or two in their childhood, but our stories, Ohio’s stories, is one of resilience, of grit, of grace, and, yes, of hope,” she said.
“Hope is a very powerful thing. It’s what got me through living in a cold, dark basement when I wasn’t sure where my next meal was coming from,” Acton continued. “Hope is what got me through sexual abuse, living through cold nights, where all I could think about was how to keep my brother safe and warm.”
She called Ramaswamy “out of touch” and “a danger to my state.”
“Apparently, there is no low to which you won’t stoop,” she said. “But look, I am a scrappy kid from Youngstown. Scrappy kids from Youngstown, we never back down from a fight.”
Alaska Senate Democratic nominee Mary Peltola and national Democrats have filed a legal motion to fight the Trump administration’s lawsuit over the Alaska Senate race, asking a judge to grant a motion to intervene and ultimately dismiss the case.
Marc Elias, the lawyer representing both Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Saturday that his firm “has filed to fight DOJ’s lawsuit to rig the Alaska Senate election.”
BREAKING: On behalf of Mary Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Elias Law Group has filed to fight DOJ's lawsuit to rig the Alaska Senate election.
We will win this case, Mary will win this election, she will be certified and seated.
Filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for Alaska, Peltola’s Senate campaign committee and the DSCC asked the court to grant their motion to intervene “to defend against the Justice Department’s extraordinary assault.”
“This case directly threatens both Proposed Intervenors’ interests by demanding that defendants refuse to certify the election if, and only if, Peltola wins,” the motion states. “It is part of a nationwide attack on free elections by the federal government, which the DSCC has fought at every turn.”
At President Donald Trump’s behest, the Justice Department on Friday filed a lawsuit to block the certification of Alaska’s Senate election results if Peltola narrowly beats Republican incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. The DOJ argued that another candidate on the ballot, a retired teacher named Daniel J. Sullivan, could confuse voters — despite the ballots clearly stating the senator’s title and his status as an incumbent.
The lawsuit was met with outrage from Democrats and some Republicans. In an exclusive interview with MS NOW’s Nicole Wallace, Peltola described it as a “desperate attempt to cling to power” on Trump’s part, as Republicans brace for a blow to their majority in Congress.
The Friday motion to intervene argued similarly.
“Alaskans, apparently, must elect Senator Dan S. Sullivan or the President will not let them elect anyone at all,” the motion states, later adding, “And the Department of Justice’s assumption that every voter who casts a vote for Daniel J. Sullivan really meant to vote for Senator Sullivan is insulting to voters and irreconcilable with Alaska’s ranked-choice voting procedures and the ballot’s clear differentiation between the two candidates.”
The Alaska Senate race is rated a toss-up. Peltola has proven herself capable of flipping a Republican-controlled seat when she won the 2022 special election for the U.S. House. Voters in Alaska appear to have soured on Trump — who won the state in 2024 by double digits — but the Republican senator has continued to align himself with the president and his unpopular policies.
Alaskan Republicans had tried to boot Daniel J. Sullivan from the ballot during the primary race, accusing him of being in cahoots with Democrats to sabotage the senator’s chances. In June, the Alaska Supreme Court ordered the state’s Division of Elections to include his name on the primary ballot after election officials removed him.
The retired teacher has said he is running a genuine campaign for Senate.
“My intention is not to trick people,” he told The New York Times in August. “I would hope people are informed enough to know the difference between an incumbent senator and a teacher.”
The Justice Department sent threatening letters to California election officials on Friday demanding local registrars immediately sequester ballots from voters the Trump administration alleges are noncitizens.
The letters were hand-delivered to counties across the state in a move that some clerks viewed as an attempt to intimidate state election officials despite ongoing litigation.
In the letter to Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder Kristin Connelly, a copy of which was obtained by MS NOW, U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian warned Connelly that she will face prosecution if she fails to “segregate” ballots from the suspected noncitizens on the department’s list.
“It’s an unenforceable 48-hour deadline delivered late on a Friday,” Connelly told MS NOW. “There’s nothing about this that is actionable for me at this moment, because I need to follow the state and federal laws.”
The move by the Justice Department marks the latest escalation by the administration as President Donald Trump repeats false claims of widespread voter fraud by noncitizens. Voting by noncitizens is extremely rare, and data from nonpartisan organizations and state audits have shown that those isolated incidents have not changed the outcome of an election.
The Justice Department sent Connelly a list of 407 suspected noncitizens registered to vote in Contra Costa County. That number is a subset of the 20,000 alleged noncitizens the department sent to California’s secretary of state and Los Angeles County last week.
“I write to make unmistakably clear the legal implications of continuing to send vote-by- mail ballots to those people on the list or tabulating ballots cast by them until citizenship can be verified,” DOJ attorney Missakian wrote to Connelly. The DOJ told Connelly to “temporarily set aside” but “not cancel” the mail ballots until “citizenship status can be determined.”
They gave Connelly and other clerks “48 hours” to work with the DOJ and DHS “to identify who on the accompanying list is a citizen and who is not.” The counties must provide social security numbers, a copy of state IDs, a copy of voter registration applications for people on its list, the DOJ ordered in the letter.
“The legal consequences for either facilitating or ignoring federal crimes are significant,” the letter to Connelly and other clerks state.
Asked if she’d afraid of prosecution, Connelly said “no.”
“Because I’m not doing anything wrong. I protect our voter rolls, we’re very meticulous about it,” Connelly said. “We follow the law. Do I want a target on my back? No, I do not. Do I want to get prosecuted? No, I do not.”
The Justice Department directly contacted every county in California, DOJ spokesperson, Kiersten Pels, told MS NOW.
“We are asking each county election official to commit to working with us by providing the necessary information for DHS to quickly verify citizenship status,” Pels said. “With their help, we can ensure the most secure election in California history.”
The latest threats to election officials come after the Justice Department sent similar orders to LA County and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Oct. 13, after counties had already begun to mail ballots to voters across the state.
In a message to fellow California clerks and election officials Friday, LA County Registrar Dean Logan said the new letter from the DOJ “misrepresents the facts of their own actions” and “threatens local election officials twelve days before the election.”
“To have them threaten me with prosecution at this hour is not what’s helpful for democracy,” Connelly told MS NOW. “I want to make sure that the voters know that we have safe and secure elections.”
The escalation comes after the Justice Department sued California, asking a judge to block the state from counting roughly 20,000 ballots from people the administration claims are “likely noncitizens.” A hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled for next week, but the DOJ is asking an appeals court to make a decision this weekend.
In Los Angeles County, a preliminary sampling of the suspected noncitizen names sent by the Justice Department found that “approximately 43% had canceled voter registrations, and more than 70% had no voting history,” Logan said in a prior statement. And in a court filing, LA County said some 25.8 percent of the sampled voters listed a “place of birth in the United States, a strong indicator of citizenship status.”
Those findings fit a pattern. In Nevada, state officials reviewed suspected noncitizen lists provided by the Trump administration, only to find zero were noncitizens, according to email exchanges between state and federal officials obtained by MS NOW. And in other states, local officials have told MS NOW that the lists of alleged noncitizens are unreliable and risk disenfranchising eligible voters.
Democrats are hoping Barack Obama — their “closer in chief” — still has the magic.
The former president certainly still had his magic with words on Saturday when he rallied with the Democrats’ Senate and gubernatorial candidates in Cleveland before another in Detroit.
“There’s gold everywhere. What’s up with the gold?” Obama said as he eviscerated President Donald Trump on everything from the Iran war and soaring costs of living to his penchant for taxpayer-funded home remodeling.
“He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened up a Cheesecake Factory,” Obama said, electrifying the crowd at the Cleveland rally.
Democrats are breathing a sigh of relief, welcoming the blitz just 10 days before Election Day, with everything seemingly at stake.
“Obama’s our most potent weapon for sure,” said one House Democratic lawmaker, adding, “He remains the biggest star in our party. I think it’s a perfect time to send him on the road and activate him.”
Obama’s arrival on the campaign trail comes as Democrats make their closing messages on affordability and the economy and compete for voters in closely contested races. The Michigan and Ohio Senate races are currently rated as “toss ups” by MS NOW. Georgia’s Senate race is in the “lean Democrat” category.
“President Obama understands the stakes of this election could not be any higher, and that is why he’s doing everything he can to help Democrats up and down the ballot win on November 3,” Eric Schultz, a senior advisor to Obama, told MS NOW. “Our strategy is focused on maximizing his impact, especially where his voice can help move the needle in support of the next generation of leaders currently stepping up to lead.”
For candidates, his appeal goes beyond drawing a crowd: Democrats say Obama can deliver a closing argument that connects the high stakes of the election to voters’ everyday concerns, while drawing a sharp contrast with Republicans.
Plus, they say Obama is the closest thing Democrats have to match the magnetism Trump once had at the height of his packed MAGA rallies.
On the trail, the former president will focus on the high cost of living, including housing and energy prices. But he’s also highlighting corruption and abuse of power in Washington and the implications of artificial intelligence, according to a person familiar with Obama’s thinking.
The same person said Obama’s team worked with Democratic House, Senate and gubernatorial leadership to identify where his presence could be most beneficial in the most competitive Senate and gubernatorial races. The former Democratic president has raised over $15 million for his party, the person close to Obama said, through events, emails and mail campaigns.
His strategy has gone beyond rallies, filming more than two dozen endorsement videos to support Democratic candidates. Among those receiving the boosts are Iowa senate nominee Josh Turek and Troy Jackson, the nominee in Maine. He also made an appearance in Austin, Texas in May with the state’s Senate nominee James Talarico and gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa.
For candidates on the trail, Obama brings an unmatched enthusiasm that other Democrats can’t replicate.
“He does a really good job making closing arguments: why this moment is so important, why the election is so consequential, why everyone’s vote matters as much as it does,” Rep. Greg Landsman, an Ohio Democrat, said. “There’s very few that do it better than he does.”
Obama joined Senate Democratic candidate Sherrod Brown and the state’s gubernatorial nominee, Amy Acton, at the rally in Cleveland Saturday afternoon before wooing voters for Michigan’s Senate Democratic nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, and gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson in the evening. He’s set to head south to Atlanta on Wednesday.
In an election cycle dominated by concerns about affordability and the economy, Landsman said Obama can draw a contrast between Democrats’ approach to the economy and health care and the policies Republicans have pursued over the past two years.
“He has the ability to talk about what you have to do to build a strong economy, which he did, versus what’s happened over the last two years,” Landsman said.
Trump will also campaign in the Great Lakes State this weekend, rallying voters in Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday afternoon. He’s embarked on a more than 15 state campaign blitz in the month leading up to Election Day, hitting red states like Kentucky, Montana and Alabama while also hosting multiple rallies in battleground states like Texas, Ohio, Georgia and Iowa.
Obama’s role on the trail extends beyond energizing the party faithful.
Democratic Governors Association Communication Director Sam Newton said his presence can bring attention to races, including those for the governor’s mansion, that receive less national attention than contests for Congress.
His ability to reach voters who might otherwise tune out politics is another reason his appearances matter in the final stretch before Election Day, Newton said.
“Part of why President Obama is the closer in chief is because he’s always had a special and unique ability to draw attention from voters who are otherwise apathetic or not necessarily paying attention,” Newton said. “Having him on the trail at this critical time when you’re trying to reach every possible voter is really important.”
And although Obama may be their “most potent weapon,” he may have some competition.
“He’s just a rockstar,” said another House Democratic member. “The only more powerful closer we could possibly have is Michelle Obama.”
Sixteen days before Election Day, Abdul El-Sayed is sitting at the dinette of a bus that has his face plastered all over it.
I had just played him a clip on my iPad. It was of Tashawna Gill, a Detroit organizer he knows well and who was one of his earliest supporters, describing an alarming trend in what she and her canvassers were hearing from Black voters in the city’s retirement communities.
“They’re skipping that part of the ballot,” Gill said. “We do the senior home tour, and they’re not interested. They skipped that on the ballot. They have returned their absentees, and some of them have shared that they’ve returned their absentees without checking the box for anything for the Senate race.”
In the tight space on the bus, the clip finishes, and El-Sayed says: “I hope more folks will fill out that part of the ballot. This one’s for all the marbles.”
El-Sayed watches a video on his campaign busMS NOW
How did it feel, I asked? Hearing that his story, his message isn’t landing with people in a community he has long served, people he needs if he wants to become Michigan’s next senator?
El-Sayed has a reputation of being pretty sure of himself. Unflappable, quick on his feet, someone who leans into the “don’t let ’em see you sweat” brand of politics.
For a second, that drops.
”Obviously, it’s heartbreaking. I’ve spent most of my career serving exactly those communities,” he says. “But I also get that campaigns are complicated.”
He blames the tens of millions of dollars in PAC money for the tepidness within the Black community toward his attempt to hold Michigan’s open Senate seat for Democrats, and for “destroying trust” he built with the Black community in his time as a public health official in Detroit.
“Rebuilding it takes a long time, so I’ve got work to do to rebuild trust, but I’ve been serving those communities for a long time,” he said. “I’m confident in the work I have done and confident in the work that I will do. And I hope I get the opportunity to do it.”
He notes that he’s not sure, either, just how widespread the sentiment Gill related is among his would-be constituents.
And just like that, the self-assuredness is back.
It’s clear, though, that he’s hurt that the work he has done in Detroit is being misconstrued or discounted, or that folks just don’t know about it. And he’s running out of time to spread the word.
Empty yards
Greenview Avenue in the North Rosedale Park neighborhood of DetroitMS NOW
The clip that I had El-Sayed respond to was from a walk I took with Gill on a quiet street back in Detroit.
She wanted me to see the lawns on Greenview Avenue in North Rosedale Park. It’s a neighborhood of brick houses on Detroit’s northwest side that she calls one of the most educated, highest-turnout precincts in the city. And she would know — her office is one block over.
Gill is a well-known organizer who chairs the Michigan Democratic Party’s Grassroots caucus, founded the African American Leadership Institute, helped get Gretchen Whitmer elected governor and was an early endorser of El-Sayed’s Senate campaign when most of the party establishment — including Whitmer — was behind U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens. Every day, Gill’s office sends out about 70 canvassers across Wayne County.
Tashawna Gill, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party’s Grassroots caucusMS NOW
She knows of what she speaks, especially when it comes to Black voters.
“If you look down here, do you see any yard signs? Look left and right,” she says. I do, and it’s … empty. “It doesn’t even look like it’s an election going on anywhere,” she said.
Typically, Gill said, the streets are pretty lined with them. That they aren’t now, so close to the election, “is scary to me.”
Yard signs are not votes, but they are a sign of enthusiasm and of a campaign that is working hard to get those signs stuck in lawns.
Detroit is 75% Black, according to census data, the largest majority-Black big city in the country. And the Democratic playbook for winning statewide has not changed in a lifetime: run up the score in Wayne and Genesee counties, then hang on everywhere else.
When Detroit doesn’t turn out, Democrats lose. Two years ago, when Elissa Slotkin narrowly held Michigan’s other Senate seat, she won 86% of the Black vote compared with Republican Mike Rogers’ 12%. Recent polling shows El-Sayed hovering below 80% of the Black vote.
The concerns aren’t new. Back in the primary in August, El-Sayed eked out a 1-point win against Stevens. He won the college towns and progressive strongholds. He lost Detroit by 28 points.
El-Sayed seems well aware that the tepidness exists. The campaign says it and party entities have spent nearly $14.3 million in paid media specifically for the Detroit and Flint markets.
They’ve invited the equivalent of the Black political Avengers to endorse and campaign with him in the state, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock and Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. Former President Barack Obama is stumping with El-Sayed in Detroit this weekend.
The campaign says it has been to 45 Black churches and had more than 125 meetings and roundtables with Black elected officials, faith leaders and community organizations.
It’s not something that’s been lost on his opponent either; they see an opening. The Rogers campaign opened a storefront office on Livernois Avenue in Detroit while we were there, and a group calling itself Democrats for Mike Rogers has been campaigning for him. A recent ad features Black voters saying they felt El-Sayed cared more about Palestine than Detroit.
“If you’re from Detroit, you know no Republican will be going through Detroit like they’re going through Detroit. They are in places a Republican would never be,” Gill said. “So I’m scared that a slice of that, just a little bit, will go to them.”
A Rogers campaign spokesperson touted their outreach, saying they are the first Republican to open a Detroit office, have visited a dozen Black churches and visited Flint and Pontiac “multiple times.” And multiple Democrats in Michigan have told me that Rogers is showing up in places in Detroit that haven’t seen a statewide GOP candidate in years.
Nearly every person I talked to on the ground in Detroit pointed to three reasons why El-Sayed is underperforming with Black voters.
Community conflict
The first one is uncomfortable to talk about: historic tensions between Black and Arab Michiganders. Dearborn sits right on the edge of Detroit, and today Arab Americans are estimated to make up the majority of that city’s 105,000 residents. Older Black voters know the long, violent history between the two communities. In 1980 an Iraqi immigrant store owner shot a Black customer he suspected of stealing soda. In 2023 a clerk at a gas station locked customers inside with an armed man after a card used to purchase less than $4 was declined. One of them was killed. A crash this fall reignited the fight.
Gill puts it in plain terms: “African Americans, especially seniors, feel like they were treated disrespectful, targeted, kicked out of the stores in Dearborn. So our seniors and our parents, when they see Abdul, they blame him for all of that.”
He wasn’t there, I point out. She knows that but says that trauma is unfairly being taken out on his candidacy.
Former Obama administration official Portia Roberson is CEO of Focus: HOPE, a civil rights organization in Detroit founded in 1968. She put those tensions this way:
Portia Roberson, CEO of Focus: HOPEMS NOW
“It has seemingly been that Arab people have been able to move to Detroit in this area and find ways to be successful, whether that is owning gas stations, whether that is owning party stores, and that Blacks who have been here have been locked out of those places,” she said.
I asked El-Sayed about the tension.
“I’ll be honest with you, I understand. I’ve worked in the city of Detroit. You walk into one of these party stores, you walk into a gas station and you’ve got somebody that looks like me behind bulletproof glass, and you look at the way that they’re treating customers. The number of times that people have been denied a bathroom or their kid gets sold a loosie cigarette out of the back or they’re catcalling a woman in the community. That’s deeply inappropriate. It’s wrong and I’ve never been one of those guys,” he said, “even if I look like one of those guys.”
While he was health director in Wayne County, he said, he led a conversation with “those guys” about why that behavior was inappropriate, adding, “You can’t just take money out and not invest in the local community. You can’t just deny local contractors opportunities to service your business and think that’s OK.”
A fateful stance
That second reason? The Uncommitted movement in 2024. In February of that year, more than 101,000 Michigan Democrats, about 13%, voted “uncommitted” in the presidential primary to protest President Joe Biden’s support of Israel’s war in Gaza. El-Sayed publicly announced that he was one of them. Nine months later, Harris lost the state as Black voters watched a party they had carried for decades fail to show up for the first Black woman at the top of the presidential ticket.
When it comes to the Black community, El-Sayed leans hard on his track record. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s mandate to him when he hired him back in 2015 to run a health department that had been gutted: “rebuild it.” In his first year, the department restarted lead screenings for children and helped pay for them in Detroit schools. The department also partnered with a nonprofit to offer free eye exams and glasses to thousands of students. After his failed run for governor in 2018, El-Sayed became director of Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services.
His stance on Uncommitted is overshadowing all of that.
Roberson has voted consistently her entire adult life, and that movement still stings.
“As a Black woman, I’ve never had the luxury of voting on one issue. I’ve never had that luxury. I’ve never been able to walk into a polling booth and say, this is my one issue and if it doesn’t correlate with my one issue, I’m willing to throw the rest of it away,” she said. “We knew all of the things that have now happened to us, and you still decided to be uncommitted because of your issue.”
El-Sayed endorsed Harris the day after she became the nominee; Uncommitted largely was about the primary for him. And Harris came to Detroit just last month to endorse and campaign with El-Sayed. She has gotten over his criticism of the Biden-Harris policies.
“But a lot of folks haven’t,” Roberson said, laying out the very kind of single-issue objections she had just disavowed. “And I have friends who are very politically astute, and they have said, ‘I will never forgive that.’ It got so big so quickly that they couldn’t pull it back when it was time to coalesce around Kamala Harris, and now we are here.”
At the doors Gill’s team knocks on, the version that seniors are sharing is harsher than what actually happened and full of wrong information, she said.
They tell her teams, “‘He didn’t vote for Kamala. He didn’t help her get in.’ That’s the No. 1 thing,” she said. So the message from his campaign to set the record straight “needs to be louder.”
Democrats’ dilemma
The third reason is largely ideology, and in some ways reflects the maneuvering between progressives and mainstream Democrats within the larger party. Older Black voters in Detroit are more likely to be politically moderate. El-Sayed is running on Medicare for All, and Rogers has spent the fall telling anyone who will listen that Detroit is about to elect a socialist. For the record, El-Sayed says he is a capitalist.
The campaign’s answer to older Black voters has largely been to head to the Black church, the Old Faithful of politics. His team says he has been to 45 Black churches during this election season.
Last Sunday he visited two churches in Flint. His message was, yes, political and full of references to a shared God between his Muslim and their Christian faith. But one of his biggest applause lines was his promise to be back as Sen. El-Sayed.
Abdul El-Sayed speaks to a crowd in Flint, Michigan on Oct. 18, 2026MS NOW
“This is not my first time in communities like these,” he said from the front of the stage. “I’ve been showing up to do this work for the better part of a decade, and I hope that I can show up for you in the United States Senate. If you give me that honor, I promise you this will not be the last time you see me, and the next time I come, God willing, I’m bringing resources and I’m taking your pain and your purpose with me to the halls of power.”
The bridge he’s trying to build is a difficult one. A 2024 poll from AARP found that among Black Michaganders, only 29% called themselves “liberal.”
El-Sayed’s bet is that a different Black voter can come and make up the difference. “There’s a generational divide, and even if there are some seniors who might say, ‘You know what, we’re going to leave this blank because we’ve seen all the ads,’ there are a lot of young Black voters who are like, ‘This is the first time I’ve ever voted,’” he said.
The candidate isn’t blind to the tensions. On the contrary, he seems very aware of them and how hard they may be to overcome. But he’s also running out of time.
I asked Roberson if she thinks he has done enough in the short period he has been the nominee to get the Black vote where it really needs to be.
“That’s tough. Probably not,” she said. “I think there’s more he could have done. And listen, I’m giving grace to the fact that he had a contentious primary. But I do think there were more voters out there, and there are still more voters out there that he could be talking to.”
Her larger point is that it’s less about effort and more about translation. That in a lot of his ads, his platform sound great to the voters who follow politics closely, and who maybe aren’t affected by those three points of tension.
She’s also pretty hopeful. That when Detroit’s most reliable voters wake up on Election Day, they will do what they’ve always done.
”We know what we’re going to get if he doesn’t win,” she said. “So what are we so afraid of that we’re going to get if he does win?”
Nobody on Greenview Avenue has answered that yet. The lawns are still empty.
“Detroit just needs to be waking up. It needs to be waking up because it is asleep,” Gill said. “That is my fear, that Detroit has not woken up.”
El-Sayed says he’ll keep coming back either way.
“At the end of the day, whether folks vote for me or they don’t vote for me, I intend to serve in the same way that I showed up to serve back in 2015 when I came to Detroit to rebuild the health department.”
MS NOW producer Alexander Trowbridge contributed to this report.
I will join my fellow Gulf War veterans in Washington on Saturday for the dedication of the Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial. Our journey began Sunday, Aug. 5, 1990, three days after Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Kuwait, when President George H.W. Bush stood on the White House lawn and declared, “This will not stand — this aggression against Kuwait.”
I was privileged to have been a battalion commander then and, soon after Bush’s speech, led roughly 700 soldiers from Germany to the Middle East. At the end of the ground campaign, my unit was astride the so-called Highway of Death that connects Kuwait City to Basra following the famous “left hook” into Iraq. This weekend, I am looking forward to seeing many of my men — some of whom I have not seen for more than 30 years — but I fear my pride in my soldiers’ bravery and accomplishments will be tempered by what I believe the nation has lost since that conflict.
We deployed to liberate a sovereign nation from a totalitarian government. Our approach was the same as our parents’ in World War II, when American soldiers freed Europe from fascist occupation.
I told my soldiers in 1990 that American interests as well as our values — democracy, freedom, justice and respect for international law — were the basis for our deployment. We deployed to defend and liberate a sovereign nation from aggression by a totalitarian Iraqi government. Our approach was the same as our parents’ in World War II, when American soldiers helped free Europe from fascist occupation.
But based on how President Donald Trump has approached Ukraine and its ongoing efforts to resist Russian aggression, it appears that the democratic values that have long guided our national security policy are no longer relevant, and the use of U.S. military power is now based solely on the cold calculation of economic gain. The United States no longer supports nations, even fledgling democracies, that are the victims of aggression, but aligns itself with totalitarian states.
Recent decisions by the Trump administration are not only contrary to American values but a watershed for the future of U.S. national security policy. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed in September that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been invited to attend December’s Group of 20 summit in Miami. The Trump administration has also proposed unfreezing Russian assets in Europe to encourage Moscow to participate in peace talks. European and Asian leaders were surprised, shocked, upset and deeply critical of these decisions, which effectively seek to normalize economic relations with Russia.
Trump said on Oct. 9 that he and Putin had talked on the phone and reached an agreement for Russia to supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel fuel to U.S. and global markets. This translates into $4 billion for the Russian war machine. The president said this deal would lower diesel prices — and he blamed Ukraine for the rise in fuel costs here — but it is brutally clear that Trump is simply trying to appeal to American voters in the final days before the midterm elections. Energy experts are nearly unanimous that this agreement will have a limited impact on the cost of fuel and that the overwhelming driver for skyrocketing fuel costs is the president’s war with Iran. The agreement has been condemned by U.S. allies as well as congressional leaders on both side of the aisle.
On Oct. 11, Trump announced a unilateral “energy ceasefire” on his social media platform. He said that the truce between Russia and Ukraine was “effective immediately” and that both parties had agreed to halt strikes on energy infrastructure. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy subsequently noted that Kyiv learned of the purported truce through media reports, and Russian forces continued striking Ukrainian power facilities immediately following Trump’s announcement.
The president subsequently declared that Russia “has been fine on Ukraine,” argued that Ukraine was largely responsible for the continuation of the war, accused Zelenskyy of ingratitude and called for him to be replaced.
The president subsequently declared that Russia “has been fine on Ukraine,” argued that Ukraine was largely responsible for the continuation of the war, accused Zelenskyy of ingratitude and called for him to be replaced. At the same time, his administration hasn’t explained the disruption of Ukraine’s use of SpaceX’s Starshield, which provides Kyiv with critical intelligence on both incoming Russian ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones as well as command and control. An increase in Ukrainian civilian casualties followed as Russia continued its relentless bombardment. The Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. officials, reported Thursday that the president had called SpaceX chief Elon Musk to have those restrictions lifted.
Trump has waived the imposition of new sanctions against the Russian government, oligarchs and companies as well as nations purchasing Russian energy consistent with the so-called Graham Act, named in memory of the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham. The president argued that negotiations with Russia were ongoing, and he did not “want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.” As Bush told the nation from the Oval Office on Aug. 8, 1990, “Appeasement does not work.” History bears him out.
It is true that the Bush administration was also pursuing economic interests in thwarting Saddam’s occupation of Kuwait. Secretary of State James Baker argued that allowing Iraq to control the crucial economic lifeline of the Persian Gulf would trigger a worldwide recession and subsequent American job losses. Yet the Bush administration didn’t seek to avoid war by pursuing an agreement with Saddam for American economic advantage, like Trump is doing with Putin.
Trump has shown a problematic lack of support for Ukraine since the outset of his second term, and he is likely frustrated by his failure to deliver on his campaign promise to end the war in 24 hours. The Trump administration is no longer treating Ukraine as a victim of aggression but as an obstacle to the president’s admiration for Putin and desire for closer economic cooperation with Russia. Trump seems to believe this would be an economic bonanza. American national security policy is now transactional and bereft of values.
Oddly, as of Friday morning, there had been no announcement about who would speak at the dedication of the Gulf War memorial on Saturday. I suspect the president and senior members of his administration are too busy campaigning. In some ways, I hope they are too busy, because I fear the president would attempt to turn a day set aside to honor Desert Storm veterans into a campaign rally. But if he shows up, it may do him some good. We’ll gather a short distance from memorials dedicated to World War II, Vietnam and Korea, and not far from the Lincoln Memorial. To stand in that space is to reflect on the values our nation holds dear.
A new report by the Federal Reserve Board says that from 2022 to 2025, the median net worth in the United States rose for families of all racial and ethnic groups — except Black people, whose median net worth fell a stunning 25%. During 2019-2022, by contrast, the median net worth for Black families increased by 60%. The median wealth of white families last year was nine times that of Black families. That is the largest gap since 2016.
“It’s the economy, stupid” was James Carville’s blunt, and effective, slogan during Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign.
Today, it is the economy that’s stupid — especially for Black Americans.
The median wealth of white families last year was nine times that of Black families. That is the largest gap since 2016.
While President Donald Trump’s fatuous war against Iran makes prices soar for everybody, African Americans are being subjected to a unique level of economic pain, providing them another reason to scorn Trump’s Republican Party this Election Day.
Factors in the African American economy’s turnaround are complex and varied. At the macro-level, Trump has convinced much of America, including corporations and colleges, that promoting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts to redress a long legacy of racism is taboo, if not illegal.
Black workers saw his harsh, overzealous firing of federal employees as a community affront because the government, especially in the Post Office decades ago, was a place where Black people could more reliably get jobs, even if at the lower levels, when other employers didn’t hire them.
Other factors include African Americans holding more money in houses and cars, which don’t gain ground like stocks and bonds. Also the Covid-19 financial assistance that was especially helpful for lower-income Black households during the pandemic expired in 2021.
And the bad economic news — especially for Black families — keeps coming.
The Black unemployment rate rose to 7% in September, a full percentage point over August. As usual, the Black unemployment rate is about twice the rate for white people, which is now 3.6%. (The Hispanic unemployment rate is in between, at 4.7%.)
Meanwhile, the social safety net is in tatters as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) participation has dropped to it lowest level in 17 years, even while “affordability” campaigns crowd the political landscape.
This administration has defunded and dismantled policies and economic safeguards for Black people to gain and maintain generational wealth in this country. We must fight to restore and expand the pathways that allow Black families to build, protect and pass down that wealth.
NAACP PRESIDENT AND CEO DERRICK JOHNSON
Last month, not long before the Federal Reserve released its consumer survey, the NAACP published its Roadmap to Generational Wealth, an initiative to dismantle “the systemic barriers that fuel the widening racial wealth gap in America.” The document focuses on crucial pillars that could help close the racial gap.
“This administration has defunded and dismantled policies and economic safeguards for Black people to gain and maintain generational wealth in this country,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson wrote. “We must fight to restore and expand the pathways that allow Black families to build, protect, and pass down that wealth.”
As usual, Trump sees what he wants to see and makes up the rest. This month, he told reporters that “we’re doing great” when asked about the economy.
NEW: Federal Reserve data shows the median net worth of Black households fell 25% from 2022 to 2025, dropping from $49,100 to $36,800. Every other major racial group gained wealth over the same period, so the racial wealth gap grew even wider.
People don’t believe that. If they did, then the economy wouldn’t be the highest ranked issue for voters, including African Americans.
Eighty-seven percent of Black voters, more than any other group surveyed, listed the economy as their top concern in a Pew Research Center poll conducted Sept. 28-Oct. 4. With the alarming data about falling net worth, rising unemployment and sliding SNAP rates, it’s no wonder why. African Americans see more danger ahead.
Politics play a major role in the economy and the “future of democracy” also is a high-rated concern, cited by 72% of Black people. Voting is the fundamental function of democracy, and African Americans know that Republicans from state houses to the Supreme Court have used every tool to diminish the Black vote. Other major issues, including Washington’s unchecked corruption, the vanquishing of DEI and draconian immigration enforcement also drew substantial attention from African Americans in the survey.
None of this bodes well for Trump and his Republican allies if they care about Black votes.
But just as Trump is trying to convince Iran he has defeated it, he is trying to convince Black Americans that they’ve been winning because of him. The White House provided a list of 24 bullet points with “tangible benefits” meant to persuade Black families that he is not the man they know him to be. Lynne Patton, deputy assistant to the president for coalition, policy and engagement, told me in an email, “Even though the media refuses to cover it, I have seen firsthand the incredible impact President Trump has made for Hispanic and Black Americans.” Among other things, Patton cited what she called “the largest middle-class tax cuts in American history,” a drop in violent crime and “an additional $174 million” for historically Black university and colleges.
But with all the bluster, bullet points and whatever impact those points might have, another Pew Poll this month found Black families are not convinced. Only 7% of African American voters back Republicans this election.
Hillary Clinton may no longer be the most influential voice in the Democratic Party, but she remains a member in good standing of the party establishment. So when she expresses support for expanding the number of justices on the Supreme Court, it tells us that what was once a radical idea has gone mainstream.
“We should seriously look at expanding the court while the Democrats are in power,” Clinton said on a recent podcast. “You know, it used to be that you’d have one justice for each circuit. We now have 13 circuits, we should have 13 justices.”
Adding four justices to the court is just one of the potential reforms that have been suggested as a way of curbing the court’s abuses. Others include 18-year term limits for justices, ethics rules with actual teeth (no more billionaire-funded junkets for you, Justice Thomas) and limits on the court’s ability to strike down any law they don’t like. Whichever particular reforms one prefers, it is no longer acceptable for a Democrat to simply decry the latest awful ruling. They have to be willing to entertain fundamental change to the institution.
This shift in Democrats’ thinking is as remarkable as it is recent. Five years ago, Sen. Ed Markey introduced a bill to do just what Clinton and others now favor, adding four justices to the court; it got only two co-sponsors, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tina Smith. Joe Biden responded to demands for court reform with Washington’s favorite way of burying an issue: He appointed a commission to study it. They produced a lengthy white paper, but it wasn’t until July 2024 — after he pulled out of the presidential race — that Biden finally endorsed term limits and an enforceable ethics code.
The situation today is far different. Supreme Court reform will almost certainly be part of the 2028 Democratic platform, and just about every politician considering a presidential bid has already come out for at least some version of reform.
What changed? The most important factor is the court’s own behavior. There are the monumental decisions: overturning Roe v. Wade, gutting the Voting Rights Act, eliminating any meaningful restrictions on billionaires pouring money into campaigns, outlawing affirmative action in education and giving the president immunity from prosecution for crimes, among other things. Taken together, the court’s conservative majority is so obviously pursuing its own partisan political project: to remake the law and the structure of the federal government in line with their personal preferences. Yet the justices pretend that they and only they are truly committed to the framers’ intentions and the text of the Constitution.
“We are not part of any political movement, and we are not attempting to further any political agenda,” said Samuel Alito, the most partisan justice on the court. “People think we’re making policy decisions,” lamented Chief Justice Roberts earlier this year, when nothing could be further from the truth. So says the man who has steered the court’s stampede to the right, including achieving his lifelong goal of destroying the Voting Rights Act.
Even Elena Kagan, the most conciliatory of the liberal justices, said in a recent speech that the court’s decisions rubber-stamping partisan gerrymandering showed “a lack of the appropriate concern or understanding of the consequences of their decisions.” With all due respect, Kagan was mistaken: They know exactly what the consequences of their decisions are. That’s why they rule the way they do.
So thanks to the conservative justices, Democrats are moving toward a consensus on court reform. There is no left versus center division within the party on whether the court’s decisions have or haven’t created a crisis. The only question is what should be done about that crisis. Anyone wanting to lead the party is going to have to be willing to take on this court and rebalance the scales. If they don’t, their constituents won’t stand for it.
When President Donald Trump encouraged Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to keep running the despicable attack ad featuring his opponent Amy Acton’s estranged mother, the message to survivors of sexual abuse was unmistakable. The TV ad shows the Democratic candidate’s mother, who defended Acton’s stepfather after he was accused of sexually abusing Acton starting at 9 years old, and who lost custody of Acton and her brother after her stepfather was indicted for raping her.
Trump called the ad “hitting pay dirt.” Vice President JD Vance dismissed it as “not really my concern.” Ironically, keeping the American public safe from harm — regardless of their political affiliation — is arguably the most important duty of the president and vice presidential offices.
These endorsements take a family’s rejection of a survivor’s testimony and back it with national political power.
Ramaswamy’s campaign committed $4 million to promote the ad. On Thursday, Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said his wife had seen the spot on television that morning, indicating the campaign had moved from defending the ad to actually putting it into people’s homes for anyone to watch. Donald Trump Jr. also urged Ohio voters to watch it.
As a surgeon who has cared for survivors of sexual abuse, I am concerned about the people watching the ad who themselves have experienced sexual abuse, who will never appear on a ballot. What does it tell them when the president and vice president defend the public humiliation of someone who endured childhood sexual abuse, just to score political points? It tells them that the very people elected to protect them will abandon and defame them, just to win. These endorsements take a family’s rejection of a survivor’s testimony and back it with national political power.
For a survivor of sexual abuse, any reminder of abuse can bring the past painfully into the present, forcing them to relive what happened to them. Survivors of childhood sexual abuse especially go through multiple, sometimes lifelong cycles of self-blame and guilt after disclosure, especially given that the majority of children who are sexually abused know their abuser, as in Acton’s case.
A child may blame herself for the upheaval that follows disclosure: leaving home, losing contact with a parent, seeing a sibling’s life disrupted. She may wonder whether staying silent would have kept her family together. That is a devastating burden for a child, and the ensuing adult, to carry. As professionals who work with survivors, we must make clear that telling someone did not make her responsible for the abuse or its consequences. The responsibility belongs to the adults who harmed her and failed to protect her.
Broadcasting Acton’s mother’s words risks reinforcing precisely that misplaced guilt that we work so hard to heal. And when the president and vice president defend and support it, they give a survivor’s deepest self-doubt the authority of the highest offices in the country.
No responsible physician can diagnose Acton from a campaign advertisement, and survivors will respond differently. But for some viewers, hearing a mother denounce her daughter who reported abuse could evoke their own experiences or fears of disclosure, rejection or disbelief. Repeatedly airing the spot creates repeated opportunities for that encounter.
A frightened child could reasonably wonder: If this is what happens to a prominent doctor and political figure, what will happen to me?
The response to disclosure matters. A 2019 systematic review and meta-analysis of 51 studies, published in Clinical Psychology Review, found that negative reactions to disclosures of interpersonal violence were associated with worse mental health. That research does not measure this advertisement’s effects. But it does establish why dismissing survivors’ concerns as political oversensitivity, as Vance is doing, is medically irresponsible and morally reprehensible.
Then there is the person who has never told anyone. The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network identifies fear of disbelief, retaliation and losing support among the barriers to reporting sexual violence. Imagine weighing those fears while watching a survivor’s estranged mother become a campaign asset, with the president’s encouragement. A frightened child could reasonably wonder: If this is what happens to a prominent doctor and political figure, what will happen to me?
That possibility should trouble every public official. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that at least 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 20 boys in the U.S. experience childhood sexual abuse. The audience for this spectacle includes people carrying experiences their spouses, colleagues or children may know nothing about.
In medicine, our responsibility is to make it safer to ask for help. We should listen without judgment, respect patients’ choices and treat their distress seriously. Needing treatment is not a character defect. Neither is having a parent who failed to protect you. Nor should survivors have to earn compassion by becoming physicians. Acton’s accomplishments do not make her more deserving of dignity than someone whose trauma interrupted an education, damaged relationships or made holding a job difficult. Recovery is not an audition for public sympathy.
The endorsement matters because it offers permission. A campaign uses a survivor’s family history against her. Powerful allies defend the tactic. Objections become evidence of weakness or disloyalty. I worry about how that example lands with people already reluctant to seek help, and with the people they might turn to.
There is an obvious alternative. Ramaswamy can withdraw the ad. Trump and Vance can say that survivors’ childhood suffering should never become campaign ammunition. They can debate Acton’s public record without elevating the rejection she experienced as a child.
Their responsibility extends to the survivor watching alone at home, wondering whether speaking up will bring support or punishment. That person deserves a better answer than the one these leaders are giving.
Every survivor watching this ad deserves a clear message: What happened to you was not your fault. Your suffering is not a character flaw. Your future does not belong to the people who failed to protect you.
Ramaswamy is spending $4 million amplifying that betrayal, and Trump and Vance are defending his right to do it. Anyone willing to make a survivor’s humiliation the price of political victory has absolutely no business anywhere near the seat of power.
Los Angeles (AP) — Federal prosecutors sent letters to county registrars across California on Friday demanding that local officials set aside and verify ballots that the Department of Justice said may belong to noncitizens, according to the Los Angeles County registrar and a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
The letters are the latest escalation in a legal battle between California and President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, which has recently focused on the state in its efforts to root out noncitizen voting ahead of the midterm elections. Data shows illegal voting by people who aren’t U.S. citizens is incredibly rare, difficult to prove and has not been shown to change the outcome of races.
Earlier this month, the federal government targeted Los Angeles County and the California Secretary of State’s office in a lawsuit that aimed to block them from counting the votes of roughly 20,000 people who are “likely” noncitizen voters. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Tuesday.
The Trump administration asked the 9th Circuit court of appeals to rule on the lawsuit barring a decision from the district judge assigned to the case. They set a deadline for Saturday.
Now, according to the LA County registrar’s office, at least 18 counties across the state have received similar letters. They have been given a 48 hour deadline to provide identifying information corresponding with ballots that the federal government believes were sent to noncitizens illegally registered to vote. The letter requests that county officials also sequester any ballots where citizenship cannot be verified.
“Any election official who knowingly processes the ballot of a noncitizen is opening themselves to legal jeopardy,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.
The Justice Department is asking counties to send information about the voters it suspects are noncitizens including social security numbers, ID information, a copy of their registration and more.
That information can help the government and state quickly assess each person suspected of illegally registering to vote, said the letter sent to San Bernardino County voting officials. The letter says the government’s list of suspected noncitizen voters includes 1,133 people from the inland Southern California county.
California’s secretary of state and the Los Angeles County registrar have opposed the federal government’s demands. In legal filings, lawyers for California say the request threatens to delay the certification of the vote and undermine the legitimacy of the November midterms. They have also argued that the federal government’s data is unreliable and that their demands risk disenfranchisement of citizens.
Voting is underway in California, with the state’s more than 23 million registered voters receiving ballots in the mail earlier this month. The state said in legal filings that over 330,000 mail-in ballots have already been counted.
The letters on Friday came on the heels of statewide sweep by federal authorities earlier in the week, where 28 people from the list of 20,000 were charged with illegally registering to vote. Some were also charged with illegally voting and lying on naturalization paperwork. Those charges could lead to years in prison.
METULA, Israel — Even amid a ceasefire, the sounds of war still reverberate through the countryside along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Few places have felt the ripple effects of the Iran war and the brunt of Hezbollah more than Metula, the northernmost community in Israel. Surrounded by Lebanon on three sides, the scenic town is uniquely exposed to attacks by the Iranian proxy group.
Until recently, an American flag flew beside Israeli flags in Metula’s town center. Then Mayor David Azoulay took it down.
He is that offended by President Donald Trump.
“I have massive gratitude to him because he really seriously helped release all the hostages” held by Hamas, Azoulay told MS NOW. “And he supports Israel in a lot of ways.”
“But we are not a banana republic, let us vote for whoever we want and don’t interfere with that,” Azoulay said.
David Azoulay, mayor of Metula, speaks to MS NOW.Julia Jester / MS NOW
Azoulay said Trump’s failure to finish the job in Iran and interference in Israeli elections with his eleventh-hour endorsement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu soured him on the American president.
“You have to understand that this regime in Iran sends its tentacles all over: Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis,” Azoulay said. “I fully support the fact that this regime has to go.”
“We started this campaign together and regrettably, Trump is talking a lot and doing less,” he said.
Both Trump and Netanyahu have threatened to escalate attacks on Iran in recent weeks, with the U.S. leader hesitant to take action that could negatively impact his political party in the midterms.
After the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, most of Metula’s 2,500 residents were evacuated amid frequent missile and rocket bombardment from Hezbollah in northern Israel. Ninety percent of its homes have been destroyed or damaged.
In March, following the joint U.S.-Israel attack on Iran, the Israeli military invaded Lebanon and pushed the threat from Hezbollah away from the border — causing extensive damage to infrastructure and civilian casualties in Lebanon in the process.
Over the past year and a half, the locals of Metula have returned, bringing life — and hope — back to the community. But the longer the Iran war drags on and U.S.-led peace talks between Israel and Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah remain precarious, the longer it will take for Metula to fully rebuild.
“We are still at war. … We try to lead a normal town life,” Azoulay said just steps away from a bustling cafe filled with families and kids running around.
Hagai Rosenbaum, a fruit farmer whose family has lived in Metula for generations, said the Netanyahu government should be doing more to help, especially when it comes to clearing remnants of rockets and unexploded ordnance from his farmland.
“A lot of cluster bombs were falling in Metula, and actually, I’m afraid,” he said, standing in his kiwi orchard amid peak harvest season. “Every time I walk, I look down more than before.”
Rosenbaum said locals encounter debris and parts of Iranian rockets “all the time.” Minutes later, he pointed out a mangled, charred piece of an exploded projectile.
A piece of shrapnel, or metal fragment from an exploded bomb, found in Hagai Rosenbaum’s orchard.Julia Jester / MS NOW
As he walked through the rows of kiwi plants, the sound of a mortar round cracked throughout the valley.
“This is normal,” Rosenbaum reassured reporters with him, adding the jarring sound came from the Israeli military firing toward Lebanon, where destroyed structures were visible on the distant hills surrounding the harvest.
The Trump administration plans to lift 50% tariffs on certain Canadian goods critical to Maine’s agricultural industry less than two weeks before Election Day, while also imposing new duties on other imports.
The move, announced Friday, hands Republican Sen. Susan Collins a political boost as she fights to retain her seat in one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races.
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation exempting certain Canadian products, including seaweed, packaging materials, plywood, refrigeration equipment and agricultural machinery, from the steep tariffs.
While the exemptions, set to take effect Oct. 30, ease some trade restrictions, the proclamation also imposes 50% tariffs on other Canadian imports, including certain cocoa powders, carpets and floor coverings.
Trump’s latest ease on tariffs marks another shift in his administration’s contentious trade relationship with Canada. The president has repeatedly imposed and modified tariffs on Canadian imports, prompting concerns among U.S. businesses and lawmakers about rising costs and disruptions to cross-border trade.
Tensions between Trump and the U.S.’ northern neighbor appeared to reach a boiling point earlier this year after Trump announced a round of tariffs of up to 50% on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney threatened to match those tariffs “dollar for dollar.” Days later, Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario, which forms part of the U.S.-Canada border, “Lake America” in the U.S.
Collins, who has sought tariff relief for Maine businesses amid Trump’s escalating trade tensions with Canada, celebrated the exemptions Friday, saying she had repeatedly pressed senior administration officials to ease the financial burden on farmers and growers.
“I am pleased to have secured additional tariff exemptions [for] products crucial to Maine’s agricultural industries, including blueberry, potato, apple, and seaweed producers,” Collins wrote on X.
The senator said she had raised the issue in repeated conversations with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other administration officials. She also pledged to continue seeking additional exemptions and a broader trade agreement with Canada, which she described as Maine’s “largest trading partner.”
Collins has sought to distance herself from some of Trump’s policies, particularly his tariffs on Canada, while emphasizing her ability to secure concessions from his administration for Maine residents.
The tariff relief gives Collins a tangible policy achievement to highlight in the final days before the Nov. 3 election, as voters remain concerned about rising costs and the economy.
Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola on Friday blasted the Trump administration’s lawsuit seeking to block Alaska from certifying the results of its Senate race under certain circumstances, calling it a “desperate attempt to silence Alaskans.”
“This is exactly the kind of corruption that Alaskans are sick and tired of,” Peltola told MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace. “This is clearly a very desperate attempt to cling to power, using his allies in Washington, D.C., to rig the system even further.”
The remarks came after President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice filed an extraordinary preemptive lawsuit seeking to prevent Alaska from certifying the Senate election results if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses to Peltola by a narrow margin.
The lawsuit centers on another candidate named Daniel Sullivan, a retired teacher who shares the incumbent senator’s name. The administration argues that the presence of both candidates on the ballot could confuse voters and potentially affect the outcome of the election.
Trump said Friday that he directed the Justice Department to pursue the lawsuit, an unusual intervention in a Senate contest that could help determine control of the chamber. The legal challenge comes as polling averages show Peltola narrowly leading Sullivan with 11 days until Election Day. Peltola holds a 2-point lead over Sullivan, 49.7% to 47.7%, in MS NOW polling partner FiftyPlusOne’s weighted average.
Sen. Lisa Murkowsi, Alaska’s Republican senator who frequently bucks Trump, also blasted the lawsuit on Friday night.
“Alaskans don’t need any help voting for their preferred candidates, and the State of Alaska has already handled this by clearly distinguishing the candidates on this year’s ballot,” Murkowski said on X. “The Department of Justice should never have filed this lawsuit.”
In her interview with Wallace, Peltola rejected the suggestion that voters could mistake the two candidates, noting that the ballot identifies the incumbent senator.
“It is not playing well with Alaskans at all, and it’s sending a message that Dan Sullivan does not believe that Alaskans are sophisticated enough to know exactly who they’re voting for,” she said.
Peltola also argued that the lawsuit was an effort to distract voters from affordability concerns and Sullivan’s record.
“It’s such a distraction,” she said. “The only thing Alaskans want to talk about right now is affordability and the high cost of living, and just the concerns about making it through this upcoming winter, being able to afford to heat your home and feed your family.”
The Alaska Supreme Court has already considered the question of whether the other Daniel Sullivan could appear on the ballot, ordering the state’s Division of Elections in June to include his name on the primary ballot.
Asked whether she was confident that a win would ultimately be certified, Peltola said she is “worried about the level of desperation,” adding that she hoped for a decisive enough margin to avoid a prolonged dispute.
Peltola said her campaign had set a $60 million fundraising goal even before the prospect of costly litigation over the election results, citing the high cost of advertising and reaching voters across Alaska’s remote communities.
“We are worried about the implications of the cost of a legal battle,” she said.
She also warned that intervention from Washington could backfire in a state where voters prize their independence.
“Alaskans know exactly who they’re voting for,” Peltola said. “We have safe and secure elections, and this is just more distraction, more diversion and another red herring.”
A former Florida congressional candidate is facing two felony counts for allegedly making death threats on social media against two women if they did not support Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon.
Two days after Elijah Manley came in third place in the hotly contested August Democratic primary in Florida’s 20th Congressional District, he allegedly told two women on Facebook he would “make your life a living hell” and “cut your fucking head off” if they did not vote for Nixon, according to an arrest affidavit reviewed by MS NOW.
The person who filed the police report did so a day after the alleged posts, on Aug. 21. In one of the posts, Manley, 27, allegedly wrote: “I’m talking to y’all. I saw y’all comments earlier. I’m already pissed off, do not piss me off more. I swear to god, take me to war over this black woman and I promise y’all I will burn y’all mf castle to the ground and everyone else in my way.”
Nixon, who is Black, is facing off against incumbent Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, who is white, in the critical Senate race.
In another post, Manley allegedly wrote: “This the kind of shii that will make me snap. Any of you that don’t support [redacted] I promise I will make your life a living hell to the very end. You better lineup behind the Democratic nominee like we always do.”
He also allegedly wrote: “Every democrat needs to get behind the democratic nominee for Senate. Anybody not doing that, I promise you I’m going to cut your fucking head off.”
It is unclear what comments or messages Manley was responding to. Both Facebook representatives and Manley confirmed to authorities that he wrote the comments, according to the affidavit.
Manley earned the support of progressives, including Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., in his campaign for the Democratic nomination in the South Florida district, which was represented by a Black lawmaker for more than 30 years. Manley, who is Black, and much of the local Black Democratic establishment criticized Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is white, for opting to run in the district after her neighboring district was redrawn to lean more Republican. But Wasserman Schultz ultimately triumphed in the primary, earning about 46% of the vote, ahead of second-place finisher Dale Holness, who received about 23%, and Manley, who received 14% of the vote.
Two days later, Manley allegedly made the Facebook threats.
Manley told police he and one of the recipients “were having a political disagreement over a party candidate and the comments made did not have any actual intention of harm, but a challenge to their political views,” adding that he did not intend to perpetrate any harm. He also told authorities he had previously had “casual and polite” encounters with the women “despite having differing political opinions.”
The women who received the messages told authorities they were “concerned for their safety” and interpreted the term “castle” to refer to their homes, according to the affidavit. They also reported the posts to Meta, the company that operates Facebook, but according to the affidavit, the company’s response was that the posts “failed to meet their safety guidelines” for removal.
After other commenters told Manley to tone down his rhetoric, he allegedly replied: “I’m not toning anything down. I’m tired of being told tone my voice while white people get away with destroying everything. I want all white people to vote for the Democratic nominee.”
Manley turned himself in to police in Fort Lauderdale last Friday, three days after a warrant was issued for his arrest, according to court records reviewed by MS NOW. He was released on $40,000 bond and ordered not to possess weapons, contact the victims or use social media.
Manley directed a request for comment to his attorney, Khurrum Wahid, who said in a statement that his client denies the allegations and characterized the comments in question as part of a “political discussion.”
“We are confident that a trier of fact will see there is no intent to carry out any act of violence,” Wahid said. “It is unfortunate that our political differences have led some to weaponizing the police instead of using dialogue.”
Spokespeople for Nixon’s and Wasserman Schultz’s campaigns did not respond to requests for comment from MS NOW.
A spokesperson for the Broward State Attorney’s Office said the office will not prosecute Manley’s case because of a conflict of interest: The people who reported the alleged threats have participated in charity drives organized by the office over the years. Officials requested Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office assign the case to another office, the spokesperson said. The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If convicted, Manley could face up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 on each count.
This is an adapted excerpt from the Oct. 22 episode of “The Briefing with Jen Psaki.”
This week, we learned about an incident that feels like a perfect metaphor for the moment we are in.
For decades, two globes used by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II had been carefully preserved in the custody of the U.S. Army. That is, until this year, when one of those globes ended up broken on the floor of the Defense Department — the bottom smashed down into its ornamental base, which punched a large hole directly through the continent of Antarctica.
So how did that priceless artifact end up broken? In the most predictable way possible, of course.
According to reporting from The Washington Post, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wanted Eisenhower’s globe for his office and ordered the artifact to be moved earlier this year, and the Army office in possession of the globe “had expected to consult with experts at the U.S. Army Center of Military History on how to ensure its safe transport and properly document its relocation to Hegseth’s office, according to two people familiar with the matter.” But at the time, “the history staffers were furloughed due to a partial government shutdown.”
When the experts could not be reached, according to the sources who spoke to the Post, Hegseth’s staff decided to move the globe themselves. An “apparent lack of patience appeared to be a factor,” according to a person familiar with the situation. Their impatience was especially unfortunate, given that the partial government shutdown ended the very same day the globe was clumsily damaged.
After the Post published the story, a Defense Department official provided the outlet with a brief, unattributed statement acknowledging the broken globe, writing that accidents “happen.” The statement said the globe was in the process of being repaired but did not say how much those repairs would cost or when they are expected to be completed.
For an insecure man baby, there is nothing worse than when the people taking back control from them are women.
The story is a perfect metaphor for what it feels like to live in this country right now: a country run by small, insecure, petulant little men with too much power — men who will break the world if they don’t get what they want, when they want it.
We see it every day among the impulsive man babies in President Donald Trump’s inner circle. And often the world they are wrecking isn’t just a replica.
For example, consider what is happening in Ukraine right now: For over a week, the Ukrainian army has been blindsided by the sudden slowdown of Starshield, a critical military-grade satellite system run by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. Lives were at stake while the Ukrainian army could not operate its missile interceptor systems at full capacity, which meant more Russian missiles and drones were able to get through.
You would think when an ally like Ukraine raises the alarm about a life-threatening problem like that, leaders in the United States would immediately try to remedy the situation. But instead, we have spent the past week watching a game of “he said, he said,” as both Musk and the White House try to deflect blame for the fiasco. All the while, more Russian missiles and drones were getting through.
When members of Congress had the audacity to suggest they would investigate what happened, Musk lashed out like an angsty teenager whose parents took away his favorite video game. “Live by the sword, die by the sword,” he threatened in a statement posted to his social media platform, X. “Those who pick fights with me should understand that I will find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets.”
For a full week, we have watched Trump and Musk deliver exactly what Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted, while they thumped their chests, pretending they are all-powerful but also not responsible for anything that has gone wrong.
It was only on Thursday, more than a week after Ukraine lost this critical service, that, as The Wall Street Journal first reported, Trump called Musk and told him to restore full access to Starshield.
This was all happening while Musk was hard at work trying to amass more power that he can wield recklessly. Musk-backed super PACs have now spent more than $400 million supporting Republicans in the midterm elections, according to the latest filings.
We also learned that he’s putting up $1 billion for a stake in a new megamedia company run by one of Trump’s allies. It’s a move I see as less about protecting the freedom of the press and more as an effort to exert control over the media.
There is clearly no amount of power Musk can obtain that will satisfy his own insecurity. To Musk, the world is one big, ornamental globe that he thinks he’s allowed to break.
For two years now, we have watched man babies like Hegseth, Trump and Musk act this way. Whenever their power is threatened, whenever someone dares defy them, they lash out. They hate losing control, and they hate it when someone takes power back from them. And for an insecure man baby, nothing is worse than when the people who are taking back control from them are women.
As you probably know by now, the Republican candidate in that race, Vivek Ramaswamy, has sparked national outrage for airing an ad featuring the estranged mother of his opponent, Amy Acton. The 60-second video shows Acton’s mother calling her a liar. However, it leaves out the important context that Acton was removed from her mother’s custody at age 12, when her stepfather was criminally charged with raping her (he fled the state before he could be put on trial).
But when Trump was asked about his thoughts on the ad, he decided to go absolutely all-in on defending it and attacking a childhood rape victim. Speaking to reporters at the White House, the president said the press had “ganged up on a woman making a horrible statement about her daughter” and insisted Acton was “fair game.”
The truth is, Trump cannot stand the idea that he and his party have lost control of this moment. He cannot stand that most of the country has, understandably, taken the side of a woman who survived serious trauma at the hands of a man with power over her. And he cannot stand that a woman chose to take that power back.
Trump has not forgotten how a movement of women taking back power from their abusers overshadowed his first inauguration as president. He has not forgotten how a woman stood up to him in court and accused him of abusing her — and how a jury sided with that same woman against him.
There have been several moments over the last year when Trump seemed to be afraid. But nothing reveals his insecurity, nothing shows you the whites of his eyes, quite like these moments.
This moment can feel really dark at times, but here’s the good news: We are just over a week away from Election Day, when half the population will get a chance to show this group of insecure man babies exactly how they feel.
One group is oddly overrepresented among those whom Donald Trump has trotted out during his recent rallies ahead of the midterms: dudes who used to take blows to the head for a living.
Yes, just like in 2024, Trump is leaning on aging boxers — including some with disturbing histories — in his late-stage voter mobilization push.
Convicted rapist Mike Tyson sang the president’s praises during a recent rally in upstate New York. In turn, Trump touted Tyson’s brutality during his prime, calling him a “very dangerous person.” Floyd Mayweather Jr., who served time for domestic violence, recently touted Trump at a rally in Arizona.
And Evander Holyfield appeared alongside Trump this week at a rally in South Carolina, where the president evoked Holyfield’s name to cheer on a supporter who punched a heckler in the crowd. The retired boxer made headlines in 2014 for making homophobic remarks, which certainly makes me wonder what he thinks about Trump’s lecherous observations about men’s bodies lately.
The racial component here is unavoidable. As his administration wages war on Black America in a host of ways reminiscent of the Jim Crow era, Trump is trotting out old Black boxers during rallies — events filled with bigoted diatribes — in a way that might suggest he’s not actually leading a movement fueled by blatant racism. It’s also easy to see how these kinds of men can be made into pawns in a conservative movement that is steeped in toxic masculinity and displays of bravado.
Given all of that, prizefighters of past and present have basically become shiny objects that can distract MAGA men from the president’s failings. I’ve written previously about Trump’s use of combat sports — both boxing and mixed martial arts — to give his movement an air of toughness that he seems to lack on his own. Journalists like Luke Thomas have excellently homed in on this trend in even greater depth.
And the question for voters is whether they think these alliances serve any purpose other than to stroke fragile male egos. If political expertise were measured in jabs taken to the head, endorsements from Tyson, Mayweather and Holyfield might mean something of value. But that obviously is not the case.
These endorsements seem to me, more than anything else, like favors called in for a wannabe strongman whose clout is waning among a core constituency. In other words: weakness masked as strength.
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