Today's Liberal News

Trump Blames Everybody but Himself

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This morning found the former apex predator of American politics looking for some hand-holding.

Trump Again Disgraces a Sacred American Space

The bar for tastelessness in American politics has dropped precipitously in the past decade. It’s even dropped in the past 24 hours. Nonetheless, it takes a unique kind of vulgarity to bring a 9/11 “truther” to events marking the 23rd anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The culprit is former President Donald Trump, who attended commemorative events in New York and Pennsylvania today.

How Swing Voters Reacted to the Trump-Harris Debate

Before last night’s debate, I got a text from a friend who summed up Kamala Harris’s predicament: She has to appear feminine but not dainty. She has to be firm but not nasty. She has to call out Donald Trump’s lies but not be naggy. She has to dress presidentially but not be blah.
Evidently, women candidates face challenges that men don’t—voters question their toughness and are often ambivalent about how they should discuss identity.

Kamala Harris Highlights “Trump Abortion Bans” Across U.S., Vows to Restore Roe v. Wade

Tuesday night’s presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump focused heavily on abortion rights and the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Trump repeated his false claim that Democrats support infanticide, and claimed that allowing individual states to set their own laws on abortion was an improvement. Harris highlighted the risk to pregnant people now navigating a patchwork of laws and restrictions in the U.S.

“Dystopian Vision”: Carol Anderson on Trump’s Election Denial & Racist Fearmongering

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump had their first and only scheduled debate Tuesday, providing a stark contrast between the two candidates with just eight weeks to go before the November 5 election. Harris repeatedly put Trump on the defensive as they debated abortion, immigration, Israel’s war on Gaza, race, January 6 and other issues.

“They’re Eating the Dogs”: Trump Touts Anti-Migrant Conspiracy Theory in Debate with Kamala Harris

Tuesday night’s debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris focused heavily on immigration, with the Republican nominee attacking the current administration for not closing the border, and spreading xenophobic and racist conspiracy theories about asylum seekers. “Donald Trump resorted to the same deranged and despicable rhetoric that is meant to divide people.

The Climate Question the Next President Will Have to Answer

Tonight’s presidential debate was held while wildfires rage in Nevada, Southern California, Oregon, and Idaho. Louisiana is bracing for a possible hurricane landfall. After a year of floods and storms across the country, more than 10 percent of Americans no longer have home insurance, as climate risk sends the insurance industry fleeing vulnerable places. Record heat waves have strained infrastructure and killed hundreds of Americans.

How Harris Roped a Dope

Vice President Kamala Harris walked onto the ABC News debate stage with a mission: trigger a Trump meltdown.
She succeeded.
Former President Donald Trump had a mission too: control yourself. He failed.
Trump lost his cool over and over. Goaded by predictable provocations, he succumbed again and again.
Trump was pushed into broken-sentence monologues—and even an all-out attack on the 2020 election outcome.

The Worst Cat Memes You’ve Ever Seen

Over the past 24 hours, the MAGA faithful have been busy sharing cat memes with one another. These are not the adorable “lolcats” that have circulated on the internet for well over a decade, but something darker. They reference a baseless and racist claim from Donald Trump’s running mate, J. D. Vance, that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating people’s pets. Trump, the memes show, will protect America’s house cats from this supposed threat.

The Issue Neither Party Can Ignore

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
Tonight’s debate—if it doesn’t devolve fully into personal attacks—presents an opportunity for the moderators to ask Kamala Harris and Donald Trump about policy proposals, including on the urgent problem of housing. The U.S.

Bird Flu Is Quietly Getting Scarier

Up until last Friday afternoon, a total of 13 people in the United States had officially come down this year with avian influenza H5, also known as bird flu. A subtype of that virus, a potential pandemic pathogen called H5N1, has for months been circulating in our dairy herds, and has already killed tens of millions of birds here. The 13 human cases through last Friday were generally mild, and more important, they were all clearly linked to sickened cows or poultry.