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September 2nd 2024

A sharp round-up of the most important political news

SUBSCRIBER ONLY

The US in brief

A sharp round-up of the most important political news

Kamala Harris will spend Labor Day campaigning in Detroit and Pittsburgh. Michigan and Pennsylvania, the states in which those cities lie, respectively, were once firmly blue but are now up for grabs. They still have some decidedly blue-collar voters, and many lean toward Donald Trump. Joe Biden, who often plays on his upbringing in working-class Scranton, will accompany Ms Harris in nearby Pittsburgh. Tim Walz, Ms Harris’s running-mate, will aid the effort by meeting union leaders in St Paul, Minnesota, before speaking at “Laborfest”, a union event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Trump campaign released a statement from the families of fallen American soldiers who invited Donald Trump to Arlington National Cemetery last week. They defended the former president’s conduct while there and said that Kamala Harris, who accused Mr Trump of “disrespecting sacred ground” by filming campaign material in the military burial ground, had “disgracefully twisted this sacred moment into a political ploy”.

Adam Schiff, a Democratic congressman, criticised Mr Trump for “flip-flopping” after he “changed his position four times on abortion in the last 48 hours”. The former president said he would vote for a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in Florida’s constitution and then said he would not. Mr Trump has been walking a tightrope, trying to appease conservatives while not giving the Harris campaign ammunition.

Robert F. Kennedy junior sued North Carolina’s board of elections after it refused to take his name off the state’s ballots. The board said that it would “not be practical” to reprint ballots, having already made 2m of them. Mr Kennedy dropped out of the race on August 23rd and backed Mr Trump; having his name appear on the ballot may dilute the effect of that endorsement.

Oregon’s experiment with drug decriminalisation ended on Sunday. In 2020 Oregonians passed a ballot measure meaning that those found in possession of a small amount of hard drugs would be fined rather than incarcerated, becoming the first state to try such an approach. A law, passed in March, recriminalises possession. People found guilty could face six months in prison.

KAL flashback

Every Monday we will republish a cartoon by KAL from the archive. This time four years ago Lexington spoke with construction workers in Ohio to gauge whether Mr Trump may be able to extend his base. He concluded that the then-president’s chauvinism made it unlikely. Four years on, Mr Trump has shown no sign of reigning in his most offensive instincts.

A view from elsewhere
Whoever wins in November, foreign policy is “in for a shake-up” and “the world will be a more uncertain place,” wrote Arthur Sinodinos, a former Australian ambassador to America, in an op-ed published by the Lowy Institute, a think-tank. Both candidates have some experience in diplomacy, but “Biden’s foreign policy chops will be missed.”

We want to hear from you
Readers are sending us lots of thoughtful emails so we’ve decided to publish some every Wednesday. If you have views on what is happening in America drop us a line at usib@economist.com. And, of course, we still welcome your feedback on this newsletter.

Editor’s picks

Our latest US coverage

180 degrees

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For-profit colleges in America would have very different futures under Donald Trump or Kamala Harris

Trustbusting

Are American rents rigged by algorithms?

That is what Department of Justice prosecutors allege

Back in black

The Onion’s cutting edge: paper

A new era dawns for America’s self-declared finest news source

Today’s forecast

Our forecast reckons that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have nearly equal chances of winning the election in November.

Daily quiz

From Monday to Thursday we’ll quiz you on all things America. This week’s winner is Sonia Barrad in Long Beach, California. The answers were:

Monday: The official name of the “Sears Tower” is the Willis Tower.

Tuesday: Electricity had its American debut at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. So too did the incandescent lights and ferris wheel it powered.

Wednesday: In John Hughes’ “Ferris Bueller’s day off” the eponymous character pretends to be ill to go on a tour of Chicago with his mates.

Thursday: McDonald’s founded Hamburger University.

From Monday to Thursday we’ll quiz you on all things America. This week’s winner is Sonia Barrad in Long Beach, California. The answers were:

Monday: The official name of the “Sears Tower” is the Willis Tower.

Tuesday: Electricity had its American debut at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. So too did the incandescent lights and ferris wheel it powered.

Wednesday: In John Hughes’ “Ferris Bueller’s day off” the eponymous character pretends to be ill to go on a tour of Chicago with his mates.

Thursday: McDonald’s founded Hamburger University.

From Monday to Thursday we’ll quiz you on all things America.

Monday: Where was the first Labour Day parade held in 1882?

See how to take part in the quiz at the bottom of this page.

If you enjoyed this week’s quiz, play Dateline, The Economist’s new history game.

Figure of the day

11.3m, the number of unauthorised immigrants living in America in 2022. Read our story on Donald Trump’s dream of mass deportation, and our leader about why it is a fantasy.

Heard on Fox News

I’d like to think that God thinks that I’m going to straighten out our country.

—Donald Trump hopes that his mission to save America has God’s blessing.

Read all of our recent coverage of the 2024 election. Confused about a term? Check out our A-Z of American politics.

Also from The Economist

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