This week began with heightened stakes for President Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden. After their raucous first presidential debate Tuesday, who knows how it will shake out.
In what’s been a remarkably stable race despite tumultuous times, Trump has been stuck for months on a losing trajectory, amid mounting COVID-19 deaths and new, bombshell revelations about his taxes and the extent of his debt. And while Biden has enjoyed the lead in polls both nationally and in swing states, it’s not a solid one, as reporter Brian Contreras wrote this week. The Trump campaign has spent months sowing doubts about Biden’s mental fitness.
Then they finally met, at the first of the three debates of 2020 — the stage for all that brewing electoral drama to play out. It got loud. It got ugly. At times, it devolved into chaos — provoked, not surprisingly, by the disrupter president.
Political strategists often say debates are overrated and rarely change a race, David Lauter and Janet Hook wrote this week. But this time? An unconventional debate in an unconventional year could yield unconventional results.
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The Times’ staff, of course, was watching. Here are the big takeaways.
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All the world’s a debate stage
Maskless but socially distant, the candidates met onstage for the first time this year. There were no handshakes, no large audience — mostly just a few family members and guests of each candidate — and so no partisan cheering for the applause lines.
Trump immediately began the debate on a biting, disruptive note that set the tone for the next 90 minutes. His frequent interruptions and the candidates’ heated exchanges led to all three men — Biden, Trump and moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News — attempting to speak over one another for minutes at a time.
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But if it wasn’t always clear what the candidates were saying, clear themes did emerge, offering a glimpse of where the race might be headed. Election reporters Mark Z. Barabak and Melanie Mason broke down the most important takeaways.
It was a vintage Trump performance. The bullying, the blustering, the lack of regard for timekeeping, rules and moderators are classic Trump, they write. But while the performance played to his supporters, it’s questionable whether he attracted much-needed new ones with his old tricks.
Joe was not so sleepy. Trump has attempted to cast Biden as “Sleepy Joe,” growing senile and unfit for office. Biden has in the past struggled on the debate stage, but he held his own on Tuesday. He had no major awkward moments, and several effective ones when he turned directly to the camera to address voters.
The pandemic isn’t going away. Wallace didn’t even have to ask before the coronavirus entered the conversation. Biden laid into Trump early and often, holding him personally responsible for the more than 200,0000 Americans who have died, Barabak and Mason write. Trump defended himself with unfounded claims that China unleashed the virus and argued Biden would have done worse in his position.
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Taxes, taxes, taxes. Trump’s taxes have been a source of speculation and litigation for years, and a New York Times report this week based on leaked tax returns confirmed that he’s paid little or no income taxes in many years over the last two decades. During the debate, Trump denied the report he’d paid just $750 a year in federal income tax in two recent years, instead claiming he’d paid “millions.” Prove it, Biden challenged him: Release the returns.
Courting voters through the court. The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg opened a new political front. Trump boasted of his recently announced nominee, appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett, and defended his right to name someone even as the voting for president has begun. The pending confirmation process is a rallying point for Republicans as well as Democrats. In opposing Barrett, Biden focused on healthcare, highlighting the threat he says she poses to abortion rights and the Affordable Care Act — an appeal likely to resonate with liberals and independents who are wary of an ultra-conservative high court, Barabak and Mason write.
Here’s what else you should know about the debate:
— From China to healthcare to the economy, many of Trump’s talking points and a few of Biden’s weren’t quite right. White House reporter Chris Megerian fact-checked the debate.
— Chris Wallace, the debate moderator, became a referee, breaking up tense squabbles between the candidates and chastising Trump for his frequent interruptions. Here’s what to know about the veteran Fox News anchor.
— Biden and his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, released their latest tax returns ahead of the debate, 2020 reporters Matt Pearce and Michael Finnegan write. The Democratic candidates and their spouses paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes to the federal government in 2019.
— Biden and Trump are offering Latino voters different visions of America and of each other. Melissa Gomez, Vanessa Martínez and Rahul Mukherjee looked at the Spanish-language ads the campaigns are spending millions to run in states including Arizona and Florida.
— On the healthcare beat, Noam Levey reports that U.S. employers are increasingly open to a bigger government role in healthcare, including regulating prices and expanding Medicare to more working Americans.
— The Trump administration is strengthening U.S. military and diplomatic ties with Greece. Tracy Wilkinson writes that it’s an unsubtle warning to Turkey, which is taking on what U.S. officials see as a more combative role in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.
What’s happening in California
— Detainees at California’s for-profit ICE detention centers will soon be able to sue over abuse and harm after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill backed by immigrant-rights advocates, writes Times immigration reporter Andrea Castillo.
— A new poll from UC Berkeley finds Newsom’s response to the pandemic has put him in the good graces of California voters, with an approval rating among the highest of any governor in the last 50 years at the same point in office. But he’s also facing intense dissatisfaction over his handling of homelessness and housing costs, Phil Willon writes.
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— Newsom vetoed a bill that would have authorized California to give low-income immigrants $600 to buy groceries. He said he could not sign it because of its “significant General Fund impact.”
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
