Border Patrol swarms outside LA venue as Democrats outline House election map plans
It fused the two political flash points of redistricting and immigration enforcement.
Democrats portrayed the law enforcement visit as an intimidation tactic.
They also
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
Border Patrol swarms outside LA venue as Democrats outline House election map plans
Border Patrol agents made a show of force today outside a Los Angeles rally where Democrats were detailing their plans to redraw California's congressional map. It fused the two political flash points of redistricting and immigration enforcement. Democrats portrayed the law enforcement visit as an intimidation tactic. They also
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Swing voters want more focus on the economy, less on identity issues
Five years ago, Raymond Teachey voted, as usual, for the Democratic presidential nominee. But by last fall, Teachey, an aircraft mechanic from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was rethinking his political allegiances. To him, the Democratic Party seemed increasingly focused on issues of identity at the expense of more tangible day-to-day concerns, such as public safety or the economy. 'Some of them turned their back on their base,' Teachey, 54, said. Raymond Teachey, an aircraft mechanic who said that he skipped the 2024 presidential election after supporting Joe Biden in 2020, at a park in Bristol, Pennsylvania. Photo / Hannah Yoon, The New York Times Working-class voters like Teachey, who supported Biden in 2020 but either backed Trump last year or, as Teachey did, skipped the 2024 presidential election, help explain why Democrats lost pivotal swing counties like Bucks and vividly illustrate how the traditional Democratic coalition has eroded in the Trump era. Now, Democrats hope to bring these voters back into the fold for the midterm elections in 2026, betting on a backlash to Trump and his party's far-reaching moves to slash the social safety net. But in interviews with nearly 30 predominantly working-class voters who supported Biden in 2020 before defecting or struggling deeply with their choices last year, many had a stinging message for the Democratic Party. Just because we have misgivings about Trump, they say, it doesn't mean we like you. 'I think I'm done with the Democrats,' said Desmond Smith, 24, a deli worker from Smithdale, Mississippi, and a black man who said he backed Biden in 2020 at the height of the racial justice protests. Last year, disillusioned by what he saw as the party's over-emphasis on identity politics and concerned about illegal immigration, he voted for Trump. Asked how Democrats could win him back, he said: 'Fight for Americans instead of fighting for everybody else'. An in-depth post-election study from the Pew Research Centre suggests that about 5% of Biden's voters in 2020 switched to Trump in 2024, while roughly 15% of those voters stayed home last year. Trump retained more of his 2020 voters than Democrats did, a crucial factor in winning the election. Polling on the current attitudes of those Biden defectors is limited, but it is clear the Democratic brand, broadly, continues to struggle. A Wall Street Journal poll released in late July found that the party's image was at its lowest point in more than three decades, with just 33% of voters saying they held a favourable view of Democrats. 'They're doing nothing to move their own numbers because they don't have an economic message,' said John Anzalone, a veteran Democratic pollster who worked on that survey. 'They think that this is about Trump's numbers getting worse,' he added. 'They need to worry about their numbers.' Certainly, anger with Trump, an energised Democratic base and the headwinds a president's party typically confronts in Midterm elections could help propel Democrats to victory next year. Democrats have had some recruitment success (and luck), and they see growing openings to argue that Trump's domestic agenda helps the wealthy at the expense of the working class, a message they are already beginning to push in advertising. There is no top-of-the-ticket national Democrat to defend or avoid, while Republicans have virtually no room to distance themselves from Trump's least popular ideas. But interviews with the voters whom Democrats are most desperate to reclaim also suggest that the party's challenges could extend well beyond next year's races. Here are five takeaways from those conversations. Biden's disastrous re-election bid fuelled a trust issue. It hasn't gone away. Bielski, 35, an executive chef at a private club, said he had typically voted for Democrats until last year's presidential election, when he backed Trump. Democratic leaders had insisted that the plainly frail Biden was vigorous enough to run, and they had encouraged sceptical voters to fall in line. Instantly after he dropped out, they urged Democrats to unite behind the candidacy of Kamala Harris, who was then the vice-president. That did not sit right with Bielski, who said he was already distrustful of Democrats who had pushed pandemic-era lockdowns. Harris, he said, 'wasn't someone that I got to vote for in a primary'. 'It almost seemed wrong,' continued Bielski, who lives in Phoenix. 'It was kind of like, okay, the same people that were just running the country are now telling us that this is the person that we should vote for.' After Harris became the Democratic nominee, some voters interpreted her meandering answers in televised interviews as an unwillingness to be straight with them. By contrast, while Trump gave outlandish and rambling public remarks riddled with conspiracy theories and lies, some said they had got the general sense that he wanted to tackle the cost of living and curb illegal immigration. 'It was difficult to understand what her point of view was,' said Bruce Gamble, 67, a retired substation maintainer for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. Gamble said he voted for Biden in 2020 and Trump last year. Trump 'was able to communicate better to me', he added, while Harris 'felt like she was talking over my head, so I didn't quite trust her'. Worried about paying the bills, they saw Democrats as too focused on cultural issues. Many in this multiracial group of voters said they thought Democrats had gone too far in promoting transgender rights or in emphasising matters of racial identity. But often, they were more bothered by their perception that those discussions had come at the expense of addressing economic anxieties. 'It seemed like they were more concerned with DEI and LGBTQ issues and really just things that didn't pertain to me or concern me at all,' said Kendall Wood, 32, a truck driver from Henrico County, Virginia. He said he voted for Trump last year after backing Biden in 2020. 'They weren't concerned with, really, kitchen-table issues.' A poll from the New York Times and Ipsos conducted this year found that many Americans did not believe that the Democratic Party was focused on the economic issues that mattered most to them. 'Maybe talk about real-world problems,' said Maya Garcia, 23, a restaurant server from the San Fernando Valley in California. She said she voted for Biden in 2020 and did not vote for president last year. Democrats talk 'a lot about us emotionally, but what are we going to do financially?' She added, 'I understand that you want, you know, equal rights and things like that. But I feel like we need to talk more about the economics.' But in a warning sign for Republicans, a recent CNN poll found that a growing share of Americans — 63% — felt as if Trump had not paid enough attention to the country's most important problems. Sarah Smarty, a home health aide and an author who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 but flipped to President Donald Trump last year, drives through Mifflin County, near McClure, Pennsylvania. Photo / Hannah Yoon, The New York Times 'America First' gained new resonance amid wars abroad. As wars raged in the Middle East and Ukraine, some working-class voters thought the Biden Administration cared more about events abroad than about the problems in their communities. 'They were funding in other countries, while we do not have the money to fund ourselves,' said Smarty, 33, a home health aide and an author. She said she voted for Biden in 2020 and Trump in 2024, adding that she viewed Trump as a man of action. 'I would really like to see more jobs,' she said. 'I would like to see them take good care of people who are homeless in our area.' Bielski said that against the backdrop of overseas turmoil, Trump's 'America First' message resonated. But these days, he does not think Trump is living up to that mantra. 'We're getting into more stuff abroad and not really focusing on economics here,' he said. 'It doesn't seem like he's holding true to anything that he's promised.' Flores, 22, a technician at a car dealership, said the foreign policy emphasis — and a sense that life was tough regardless of the party in power — helped explain why he skipped last year's election as well as the 2020 presidential race. 'No matter how many times have we gone red, or even blue, the blue-collar workers' have seen little progress, Flores said. Marlon Flores, a technician at a car dealership who said that regardless of the party in power, blue-collar workers have seen little progress, at his apartment complex in Houston. Photo / Desiree Rios, The New York Times They worry about illegal immigration. But some think Trump's crackdowns are going too far. These voters often said they agreed with Trump on the need to stem the flow of illegal immigration and strengthen border security. But some worried about the Administration's crackdown, which has resulted in sweeping raids, children being separated from their parents, the deportation of American citizens and a growing sense of fear in immigrant communities. Several people interviewed said they knew people who had been personally affected. Smarty, for instance, said her friend's husband, who had lived in the US for 25 years, had suddenly been deported to Mexico. Her friend is 'going through some health problems, and they have kids, and that's really hard on their family', Smarty said. 'I don't really feel that's exactly right.' They're not done with every Democrat. But they're tired of the old guard. Many of the voters interviewed said they remained open to supporting Democrats — or at least the younger ones. 'Stop being friggin' old,' said Cinnamon Boffa, 57, from Langhorne, Pennsylvania. As she recalled, she supported Biden in 2020 but voted only down-ballot last year, lamenting that 'our choices suck'. Teachey thought there was still room for seasoned politicians, but in many cases, it was time to get 'the boomers out of there'. He is increasingly inclined to support Democrats next year to check unfettered Republican power. 'They're totally far-right,' he said of the GOP. 'Honestly, I don't identify with any party.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Katie Glueck Photographs by: Adriana Zehbrauskas, Hannah Yoon, Desiree Rios ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Trump takes over DC police, deploys National Guard
US President Donald Trump said on Monday he was deploying 800 National Guard troops to Washington and temporarily taking over the city's police department, an extraordinary assertion of presidential power in the nation's capital. Trump's move, which bypassed the city's elected leaders, was emblematic of his second-term approach, which has seen him wield executive authority in ways with little precedent in modern US history and in defiance of political norms. The president cast his actions as necessary to "rescue" Washington from a purported wave of lawlessness. Statistics show that violent crime shot up in 2023 but has been rapidly declining since. "Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals," Trump told a news conference at the White House. It is the second time this summer that the Republican president has deployed troops to a Democratically governed city. Trump sent thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June over the objections of state and local officials. And Trump signalled that other major US cities with Democratic leadership could be next, including Chicago, a city that has long been beset by violent crime, although it was down significantly in the first half of the year. "If we need to, we're going to do the same thing in Chicago, which is a disaster," Trump said at the White House, adding, "Hopefully LA is watching." Trump has shown particular interest in taking over Washington, which is under the jurisdiction of Congress but exercises self-governance under a 1973 US law. Hundreds of officers and agents from more than a dozen federal agencies, including the FBI, ICE, DEA and ATF, have fanned out across the city in recent days. Attorney General Pam Bondi will oversee the police force takeover, Trump said. The US Army said the National Guard troops would carry out a number of tasks, including "administrative, logistics and physical presence in support of law enforcement." Between 100 and 200 of the troops would be supporting law enforcement at any given time. The Democratic mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, has pushed back on Trump's claims of unchecked violence, saying the city is "not experiencing a crime spike" and highlighting that violent crime hit its lowest level in more than three decades last year. Violent crime, including murders, spiked in 2023, turning Washington into one of the nation's deadliest cities. However, violent crime dropped 35% in 2024, according to federal data, and it has fallen an additional 26% in the first seven months of 2025, according to city police. The city's attorney general, Brian Schwalb, called Trump's actions "unprecedented, unnecessary and unlawful" in an X post, and said his office was "considering all of our options." Bowser did not immediately comment on Trump's announcement, though other Democrats weighed in. "Donald Trump has no basis to take over the local police department. And zero credibility on the issue of law and order. Get lost," House of Representatives Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote on X. TRUMP RAMPS UP RHETORIC Over the past week, Trump has intensified his messaging, suggesting he might attempt to strip the city of its local autonomy and implement a full federal takeover. The District of Columbia operates under the Home Rule Act, which gives Congress ultimate authority but allows residents to elect a mayor and city council. Trump said last week that lawyers are examining how to overturn the law, a move that would likely require Congress to revoke it. Trump on Monday invoked a section of the act that allows the president to take over the police force for 30 days when "emergency" conditions exist. Trump said he was declaring a "public safety emergency" in the city. Trump's own Federal Emergency Management Agency is cutting security funding for the National Capital Region, an area that includes D.C. and parts of Maryland and Virginia. The region will receive $20 million less this year from the federal urban security fund, amounting to a 44% year-on-year cut. Trump also vowed to remove homeless encampments, though he did not provide details on how or where homeless people would be moved. The federal government owns much of Washington's parkland, so the Trump administration has legal authority to clear homeless encampments in those areas, as President Joe Biden did while in office. But the federal government cannot force people to move out of the city because they lack shelter, advocates for the homeless said. TRIAL BEGINS A federal trial began on Monday in San Francisco on whether Trump violated US law by deploying 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 US Marines in Los Angeles without the approval of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom. The troops were sent in response to protests over raids by federal immigration agents. State and local officials objected to Trump's decision as unnecessary, unlawful and inflammatory. The president has broad authority over the 2,700 members of the D.C. National Guard, unlike in states where governors typically hold the power to activate troops. Guard troops have been dispatched to Washington many times, including in response to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters. During his first term, Trump sent the National Guard into Washington in 2020 to help quash mostly peaceful demonstrations during nationwide protests over police brutality following the murder of George Floyd. Civil rights leaders and city leaders denounced the deployment.
