Donald Trump – The Denver Post https://www.denverpost.com Colorado breaking news, sports, business, weather, entertainment. Mon, 09 Sep 2024 17:08:14 +0000 en-US hourly 30 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/cropped-DP_bug_denverpost.jpg?w=32 Donald Trump – The Denver Post https://www.denverpost.com 32 32 111738712 Opinion: If Harris and Trump keep their cool, the debate will come down to the economy https://www.denverpost.com/2024/09/09/harris-trump-debate-philadelphia-key/ Mon, 09 Sep 2024 15:37:28 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6604187 All eyes are on Philadelphia where tens of millions of voters will watch former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris explain their positions and debate their differences on Tuesday.

This high-stakes moment could be the most consequential one in this truncated presidential election season. No one understands the importance of this debate more than President Joe Biden who ended his re-election campaign following his disastrous performance in the June debate.

The only thing that matters now is how each candidate gets to the winning total of 270 electoral college votes. As of today, Harris has 225 solid and likely electoral college votes versus 219 for Trump. This means that the presidential race will be won in six states representing three different regions.

Two are in the West: Arizona (11) and Nevada (6); two are in the South: Georgia (16) and North Carolina (16); and, two are in the Midwest: Pennsylvania (19) and Wisconsin (10).

With the exception of Wisconsin where Harris holds a narrow lead, recent polling data from FiveThirtyEight shows that Trump and Harris are within 1% of each other in the other 5 states. Biden won every one of these battleground states, except North Carolina in 2020.

What makes this debate even more crucial is that voting is about to begin. While November 5th is election day, forty-seven states offer early in-person voting. In North Carolina, mail ballots are sent to all voters who request them as early as September 6th. In Pennsylvania, early voting begins on September 16th when voters can visit their election office to request, complete and return the ballot. Other states vary on voting timelines.

Before Biden dropped out, Trump had a clear advantage. Biden’s base was weary and there was no clear path to victory. Harris, however, reset the election by energizing her base and attracting independent-leaning Democrats. Trump has been caught off guard. Trump needs to thwart Harris’ momentum, which won’t be easy given his caustic style.

For these two candidates, it’s not just about winning the debate, it’s also about not losing it in the style of a Biden-like performance. Both candidates need to find ways to connect with undecided voters without weakening their base.

The economy is the most important issue. Harris and Trump need to persuade voters that they understand the average American’s economic situation and have a viable plan that will make their lives better.

This year’s key issue hearkens back to 1980 when Ronald Reagan so effectively posed the question in the debate with President Jimmy Carter: are you better off today than you were four years ago?  Based on polling, Trump has an advantage here. Harris has had less time to roll out her economic agenda while distinguishing herself from Biden. Harris has an opportunity to sharpen her message and close the gap, which will be pivotal to her success.

Their policy positions on immigration, foreign affairs, protecting democracy, crime and abortion will also matter, not only to energize their base to get out the vote, but to move the key swing voters.  While polling shows Trump has the upper hand on the key issue of immigration, Harris has the upper hand on protecting democracy and abortion which has been costly for Republicans since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Meanwhile, both candidates will need to explain why their positions have changed on different issues.

Ultimately, however, style may prove to be more important than substance. There once was a day when looking presidential mattered and while that will be important for Harris, it has never been Trump’s strong suit as he chaotically mocks and insults his opponents. While it may be red meat for his most ardent followers, attacking Harris’s intelligence and racial identity or making sexual slurs against her will be a major liability in wooing undecided voters.

Harris and Trump both need to demonstrate they are likable.

Harris can do this by staying calm and showing humor, compassion, intelligence and sharing her personal journey. Harris can’t take Trump’s bait and she needs to be able to deliver an effective retort when Trump lies, like saying “there he goes again” or “he doesn’t let the facts get in his way.”

She was brilliant in her CNN interview when she was asked about Trump’s questioning of her racial identity and responded, “Same old, tired playbook” and, then said, “Next question, please”.  As George Bernard Shaw famously said, “Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”

Trump must resist his instincts to self-sabotage. He needs to be coherent and avoid delivering confusion and obnoxious bombs. Trump needs to demonstrate strength, steadiness, and leadership and figure out a way to take Harris off balance and script without crossing lines.

Whoever does these things best will likely be our next president.

Doug Friednash grew up in Denver and is a partner with the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. He is the former chief of staff for Gov. John Hickenlooper.

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6604187 2024-09-09T09:37:28+00:00 2024-09-09T09:39:28+00:00
“I’m living a lie”: On the streets of a Colorado city, pregnant migrants struggle to survive https://www.denverpost.com/2024/09/09/venezuelan-migrants-aurora-colorado/ Mon, 09 Sep 2024 14:28:22 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6608476&preview=true&preview_id=6608476 By BIANCA VÁZQUEZ TONESS, Associated Press

AURORA — She was eight months pregnant when she was forced to leave her Denver homeless shelter. It was November.

Ivanni Herrera took her 4-year-old son Dylan by the hand and led him into the chilly night, dragging a suitcase containing donated clothes and blankets she’d taken from the Microtel Inn & Suites. It was one of 10 hotels where Denver has housed more than 30,000 migrants, many of them Venezuelan, over the last two years.

First they walked to Walmart. There, with money she and her husband had collected from begging on the street, they bought a tent.

They waited until dark to construct their new home. They chose a grassy median along a busy thoroughfare in Aurora, the next town over, a suburb known for its immigrant population.

“We wanted to go somewhere where there were people,” Herrera, 28, said in Spanish. “It feels safer.”

That night, temperatures dipped to 32 degrees. And as she wrapped her body around her son’s to keep him warm enough that he could sleep, Ivanni Herrera cried.

Seeking better lives, finding something else

Over the past two years, a record number of families from Venezuela have come to the United States seeking a better life for themselves and their children. Instead, they’ve found themselves in communities roiling with conflict about how much to help the newcomers — or whether to help at all.

Unable to legally work without filing expensive and complicated paperwork, some are homeless and gambling on the kindness of strangers to survive. Some have found themselves sleeping on the streets — even those who are pregnant.

Like many in her generation, regardless of nationality, Herrera found inspiration for her life’s ambitions on social media. Back in Ecuador, where she had fled years earlier to escape the economic collapse in her native Venezuela, Herrera and her husband were emboldened by images of families like theirs hiking across the infamous Darién Gap from Colombia into Panama. If all those people could do it, they thought, so can we.

They didn’t know many people who had moved to the United States, but pictures and videos of Venezuelans on Facebook and TikTok showed young, smiling families in nice clothes standing in front of new cars boasting of beautiful new lives. U.S. Border Patrol reports show Herrera and the people who inspired her were part of an unprecedented mass migration of Venezuelans to America. Some 320,000 Venezuelans have tried to cross the southern border since October 2022 — more than in the previous nine years combined.

Just weeks after arriving in Denver, Herrera began to wonder if the success she had seen was real. She and her friends had developed another theory: The hype around the U.S. was part of some red de engaño, or network of deception.

After several days of camping on the street and relieving herself outside, Herrera began to itch uncontrollably with an infection. She worried: Would it imperil her baby?

She was seeing doctors and social workers at a Denver hospital where she planned to give birth because they served everyone, even those without insurance. They were alarmed their pregnant patient was now sleeping outside in the cold.

Days after she was forced to leave the Microtel, Denver paused its policy and allowed homeless immigrants to stay in its shelters through the winter. Denver officials say they visited encampments to urge homeless migrants to come back inside. But they didn’t venture outside the city limits to Aurora.

As Colorado’s third-largest city, Aurora, on Denver’s eastern edge, is a place where officials have turned down requests to help migrants. In February, the Aurora City Council passed a resolution telling other cities and nonprofits not to bring migrants into the community because it “does not currently have the financial capacity to fund new services related to this crisis.” Yet still they come, because of its lower cost of living and Spanish-speaking community.

In fact, former President Donald Trump last week called attention to the city, suggesting a Venezuelan gang had taken over an apartment complex. Authorities say that hasn’t happened.

The doctors treated Herrera’s yeast infection and urged her to sleep at the hospital. It wouldn’t cost anything, they assured her, just as her birth would be covered by emergency Medicaid, a program that extends the health care benefits for poor American families to unauthorized immigrants for labor and delivery.

Herrera refused.

“How,” she asked, “could I sleep in a warm place when my son is cold on the street?”

Another family, cast out into the night

It was March when David Jaimez, his pregnant wife and their two daughters were evicted from their Aurora apartment. Desperate for help, they dragged their possessions into Thursday evening Bible study at Jesus on Colfax, a church and food pantry inside an old motel. Its namesake and location, Colfax Avenue, has long been a destination for the drug-addicted, homeless veterans and new immigrants.

When the Jaimez family arrived, the prayers paused. The manager addressed the family in elementary Spanish, supplementing with Google Translate on her phone.

After arriving from Venezuela in August and staying in a Denver-sponsored hotel room, they’d moved into an apartment in Aurora. Housing is cheaper in that eastern suburb, but they never found enough work to pay their rent. “I owe $8,000,” Jaimez said, his eyes wide. “Supposedly there’s work here. I don’t believe it.”

Jaimez and his wife are eligible to apply for asylum or for “ Temporary Protected Status ” and, with that, work permits. But doing so would require an attorney or advisor, months of waiting and $500 in fees each.

At the prayer group, Jaimez’s daughters drank sodas and ate tangerines from one participant, a middle-aged woman and Aurora native. She stroked the ponytail of the family’s 8-year-old daughter as the young girl smiled.

When the leader couldn’t find anywhere for the family to stay, they headed out into the evening, pushing their year-old daughter in her stroller and lugging a suitcase behind them. After they left, the middle-aged woman leaned forward in her folding chair and said: “It’s kind of crazy that our city lets them in but does not help our veterans.” Nearby, a man nodded in agreement.

That night, Jaimez and his family found an encampment for migrants run by a Denver nonprofit called All Souls and moved into tent number 28. Volunteers and staff brought in water, meals and other resources. Weeks later, the family was on the move again: Camping without a permit is illegal in Denver, and the city closed down the encampment. All Souls re-established it in six different locations but closed it permanently in May.

At its peak, nearly 100 people were living in the encampment. About half had been evicted from apartments hastily arranged before their shelter time expired, said founder Candice Marley. Twenty-two residents were children and five women were pregnant, including Jaimez’s wife. Marley is trying to get a permit for another encampment, but the permit would only allow people over 18.

“Even though there are lots of kids living on the street, they don’t want them all together in a camp,” Marley said. “That’s not a good public image for them.”

A city’s efforts, not enough

Denver officials say they won’t tolerate children sleeping on the street. “Did you really walk from Venezuela to be homeless in the U.S.? I don’t think so,” said Jon Ewing, spokesman for Denver’s health and human services department. “We can do better than that.”

Still, Denver struggled to keep up with the rush of migrants, many arriving on buses chartered by Texas to draw attention to the impact of immigration. All told, Denver officials say they have helped some 42,700 migrants since last year, either by giving them shelter or a bus fare to another city.

Initially, the city offered migrants with families six weeks in a hotel. But in May, on pace to spend $180 million this year helping newcomers, the city scaled back its offer to future migrants while deepening its investment in people already getting help.

Denver paid for longer shelter stays for 800 migrants already in hotels and offered them English classes and help applying for asylum and work permits. But any migrants arriving since May have received only three days in a hotel. After that, some have found transportation to other cities, scrounged for a place to sleep or wandered into nearby towns like Aurora.

Today, fewer migrants are coming to the Denver area, but Marley still receives dozens of outreaches per week from social service agencies looking to help homeless migrants. “It’s so frustrating that we can’t help them,” she said. “That leaves families camping on their own, unsupported, living in their cars. Kids can’t get into school. There’s no stability.”

After the encampment closed, Jaimez and his family moved into a hotel. He paid by holding a cardboard sign at an intersection and begging for money. Their daughter only attended school for one month last year, since they never felt confident that they were settled anywhere more than a few weeks. The family recently moved to a farm outside of the Denver area, where they’ve been told they can live in exchange for working.

On the front lines of begging

When Herrera started feeling labor pains in early December, she was sitting on the grass, resting after a long day asking strangers for money. She waited until she couldn’t bear the pain anymore and could feel the baby getting close. She called an ambulance.

The paramedics didn’t speak Spanish but called an interpreter. They told Herrera they had to take her to the closest hospital, instead of the one in Denver, since her contractions were so close together.

Her son was born healthy at 7 pounds, 8 ounces. She brought him to the tent the next day. A few days later the whole family, including the baby, had contracted chicken pox. “The baby was in a bad state,” said Emily Rodriguez, a close friend living with her family in a tent next to Herrera’s.

Herrera took him to the hospital, then returned to the tent before being offered a way out. An Aurora woman originally from Mexico invited the family to live with her — at first, for free. After a couple weeks, the family moved to a small room in the garage for $800 a month.

To earn rent and pay expenses, Herrera and Rodriguez have cleaned homes, painted houses and shoveled snow while their children waited in a car by themselves. Finding regular work and actually getting paid for it has been difficult. While their husbands can get semi-regular work in construction, the women’s most consistent income comes from something else: standing outside with their children and begging.

Herrera and her husband recently became eligible to apply for work permits and legal residency for Venezuelans who arrived in the United States last year. But it will cost $800 each for a lawyer to file the paperwork, along with hundreds of dollars in government fees. They don’t have the money.

One spring weekday, Herrera and Rodriguez stand by the shopping carts at the entrance to a Mexican grocery store. While their sons crawl along a chain of red shopping carts stacked together and baby Milan sleeps in his stroller, they try to make eye contact with shoppers.

Some ignore them. Others stuff bills in their hands. On a good day, each earns about $50.

It comes easier for Rodriguez, who’s naturally boisterous. “One day a man came up and gave me this iPhone. It’s new,” she says, waving the device in the air.

“Check out this body,” she says as she spins around, laughing and showing off her ample bottom. “I think he likes me.”

Herrera grimaces. She won’t flirt like her friend does. She picks up Milan and notices his diaper is soaked, then returns him to the stroller. She has run out of diapers.

Milan was sick, but Herrera has been afraid to take him to the doctor. Despite what the hospital had said when she was pregnant, she was never signed up for emergency Medicaid. She says she owes $18,000 for the ambulance ride and delivery of her baby. Now, she avoids going to the doctor or taking her children because she’s afraid her large debt will jeopardize her chances of staying in the U.S. “I’m afraid they’re going to deport me,” she says.

But some days, when she’s feeling overwhelmed, she wants to be deported — as long as she can take her children along. Like the day in May when the security guard at the Mexican grocery store chased off the women and told them they couldn’t beg there anymore. “He insulted us and called us awful names,” Rodriguez says.

The two women now hold cardboard signs along a busy street in Denver and then knock on the doors of private homes, never returning to the same address. They type up their request for clothes, food or money on their phones and translate it to English using Google. They hand their phones to whoever answers the door.

The American Dream, still out of reach

In the garage where Herrera and her family live, the walls are lined with stuffed animals people have given her and her son. Baby Milan, on the floor, pushes himself up to look around. Dylan sleeps in bed.

Herrera recently sent $500 to her sister to make the months-long trip from Venezuela to Aurora with Herrera’s 8-year-old daughter. “I’ll have my family back together,” she says. And she believes her sister will be able to watch her kids so Herrera can look for work.

“I don’t feel equipped to handle all of this on my own,” she says.

The problem is, Herrera hasn’t told her family back in Venezuela how she spends her time. “They think I’m fixing up homes and selling chocolate and flowers,” she says. “I’m living a lie.”

When her daughter calls in the middle of the day, she’s sure not to answer and only picks up after 6 p.m. “They think I’m doing so well, they expect me to send money,” she says. And Herrera has complied, sending $100 a week to help her sister pay rent and buy food for her daughter.

Finally, her sister and daughter are waiting across the border in Mexico. When we come to the U.S., her sister asks, could we fly to Denver? The tickets are $600.

She has to come clean. She doesn’t have the money. She lives day to day. The American Dream hasn’t happened for Ivanni Herrera — at least, not yet. Life is far more difficult than she has let on.

She texts back:

No.

___

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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6608476 2024-09-09T08:28:22+00:00 2024-09-09T11:08:14+00:00
Harris’ past debates: A prosecutor’s style with narrative flair but risks in a matchup with Trump https://www.denverpost.com/2024/09/08/harris-past-debates-a-prosecutors-style-with-narrative-flair-but-risks-in-a-matchup-with-trump/ Mon, 09 Sep 2024 04:02:39 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6608383&preview=true&preview_id=6608383 By BILL BARROW

ATLANTA (AP) — From her earliest campaigns in California to her serving as President Joe Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris has honed an aggressive but calibrated approach to debates.

She tries to blend punch lines with details that build toward a broader narrative. She might shake her head to signal her disapproval while her opponent is speaking, counting on viewers to see her reaction on a split screen. And she has a go-to tactic to pivot debates back in her favor: saying she’s glad to answer a question as she gathers her thoughts to explain an evolving position or defend a past one.

Tuesday’s presidential debate will put the Democratic vice president’s skills to a test unlike any she’s faced. Harris faces former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, who will participate in his seventh general election debate since 2016 for an event that will be seen by tens of millions of viewers just as early voting in November’s election starts around the country.

People who have competed against Harris and prepared her rivals say she brings a series of advantages to the matchup, including her prosecutorial background juxtaposed with Trump being the first U.S. president convicted of felony crimes. Still, Harris allies warn that Trump can be a challenging and unpredictable opponent who veers between policy critiques, personal attacks, and falsehoods or conspiracy theories.

“She can meet the moment,” said Marc Short, who led Republican Vice President Mike Pence’s debate preparation against Harris in the fall of 2020. “She has shown that in different environments. I would not underestimate that in any way.”

Julian Castro, a Democrat who ran for president against Harris in the 2020 primary, said Harris blended “knowledge, poise and the ability to explain things well” to stand out during crowded primary debates.

“Some candidates get too caught up with trying to be catchy, trying to go viral,” Castro said. “She’s found a very good balance.”

Balancing narrative and detail

A former Harris aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about her approach, said the vice president views the events like a jury trial she would have led when she was district attorney in San Francisco or querying a judicial nominee on Capitol Hill as a U.S. senator. The idea, the former aide said, has always been to win the debate on merit while leaving more casual or piecemeal viewers with key takeaways.

“She understands that debates are about the individual interactions themselves but also about a larger strategy of offering a vision for what your leadership and style looks like,” said Tim Hogan, who led Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s 2020 primary debate preparation.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a political communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said Harris makes deductive arguments but folds them into a broader narrative — the same way she would talk to jurors.

“She states a thesis and then follows with fact, fact, fact,” Jamieson said.

Jamieson pointed to the 2020 vice presidential debate in which Harris hammered Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy, and to her most memorable 2019 primary debate when she skewered Biden for how he had talked about race and institutional racism. She weaved her critique of Biden’s record with her own biography as a young, biracial student in the early era of school integration.

“That little girl was me,” Harris said in a widely circulated quip that punctuated her story about court-ordered busing that helped non-white students attend integrated schools.

“Most people who are good at the deductive argument aren’t good at wrapping that with an effective narrative,” Jamieson said. “She’s good at both.”

Landing memorable punches

Castro said Harris has a good feel for when to strike, a quality he traced to her trial experience. In 2019, as multiple Democratic candidates talked over one another, Harris sat back before getting moderators to recognize her.

“Hey, guys, you know what? America does not want to witness a food fight. They want to know how we’re going to put food on their table,” she said, taking control of the conversation and drawing applause.

When Harris faced Pence in 2020, it was a mostly civil, substantive debate. But she got in digs that framed Pence as a serial interrupter, as Trump had been in his first debate with Biden.

“Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking,” she said at one point, with a stern look. At another: “If you don’t mind letting me finish, we can have a conversation.”

Finding traps in policy

Debates have sometimes put Harris on the defensive.

In the 2020 primary matches, Tulsi Gabbard, who this year has endorsed Trump, blitzed Harris over how aggressively she prosecuted nonviolent drug offenders as a district attorney.

That fall, Pence made Harris sometimes struggle to defend Biden’s positions. Now, her task will be to defend not just Biden’s record, but her own role in that record and what policies she would pursue as president.

Short, one of Pence’s top aides, noted that Republicans and the media have raised questions about more liberal positions Harris took in her 2020 primary campaign, especially on fracking, universal healthcare, reparations for slavery and how to treat migrants who cross the U.S. border illegally.

“We were surprised that she missed some opportunities (against Pence) when the conversation was centered around policy,” Short said.

Timing, silence and nonverbal communication

One of Harris’ earliest debate triumphs came in 2010 as she ran for California attorney general. Her opponent was asked about his plans to accept his public pension while still being paid a salary for a current public post.

“I earned it,” Republican Steve Cooley said of the so-called “double-dipping” practice.

Harris looked on silently, with a slightly amused look as Cooley explained himself. When moderators recognized her, she said just seven words – “Go for it, Steve. You earned it!” — in a serious tone but with a look that communicated her sarcasm. The exchange landed in her television ads within days.

“Kamala Harris is quite effective at nonverbal communication and knowing when not to speak,” Jamieson said.

The professor said Harris often will shake her head and, with other looks, telegraph her disapproval while her opponent is speaking. Then she smiles before retorting, or attacking, in a conversational tone.

“She defuses some of the argument that Trump makes that she is ‘a nasty woman,’ that she’s engaging in egregiously unfair behavior, because her nonverbal presentation is actually undercutting that line of attack,” Jamieson said.

Meeting a new challenge with Trump

For all of Harris’ debate experience, Tuesday is still a new and massive stage. Democrats who ordinarily tear into Trump instead appeared on Sunday’s news shows to make clear that Harris faced a big task ahead.

“It will take almost superhuman focus and discipline to deal with Donald Trump in a debate,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, yet another of Harris’ 2020 opponents, on CNN. “It’s no ordinary proposition, not because Donald Trump is a master of explaining policy ideas and how they’re going to make people better off. It’s because he’s a master of taking any form or format that is on television and turning it into a show that is all about him.”

Castro noted that Trump is “a nasty and crafty stage presence” who makes preparation difficult. And with ABC keeping the candidates’ microphones off when they are not speaking, Harris may not find it as easy to produce another viral moment that hinges on viewers having seen or heard Trump at his most outlandish.

“The best thing she can do,” Castro said, “is not get distracted by his antics.”

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Frenzy over Venezuelan gang in Aurora reaches crescendo, fueled by conflicting information and politics https://www.denverpost.com/2024/09/04/venezuelan-gang-colorado-aurora-apartments/ Wed, 04 Sep 2024 12:00:59 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6601887 The frenzy over a Venezuelan gang’s presence in Aurora reached a fever pitch over the holiday weekend, fueled in part by viral video of men with guns knocking on an apartment door and by a presidential election in which immigration and border security will be key issues for voters.

Right-wing social media influencers and citizen journalists seized on video shared by Denver’s Fox31 television station showing armed men at an Aurora apartment complex, often adding their own captions and commentary, as it made the rounds on TikTok, X and Facebook.

Even former President Donald Trump weighed in during a podcast interview, repeating unverified claims that gangs were taking over big buildings with “big rifles” in the city.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman appeared on national TV and posted about the Venezuelan gang on his Facebook page, contradicting his police chief about the severity of the situation, and saying the city was preparing to go to court to get a judge’s order to clear out the apartment complexes where the Tren de Aragua gang operates. However, city staff on Tuesday said that is not the immediate plan.

Aurora and Denver police have publicly acknowledged there are Tren de Aragua gang members in their cities, but they say the gang’s numbers are not large and they operate in isolated areas. Others say the Tren de Aragua presence in Aurora, a city of nearly 400,000 people, has been overhyped.

“Those stories are really overblown. If you didn’t live here, you would swear we were being taken over by a gang and Aurora was under siege,” Aurora City Councilwoman Stephanie Hancock said Tuesday. “That’s simply not true.”

Aurora officials over the Labor Day weekend contradicted each other on the scope of the problem and the city’s responses to it.

Coffman claimed on Facebook that five apartment buildings along Dallas Street are “associated with gang activity,” and told Fox News that “several buildings” under the same ownership “have fallen to these Venezuelan gangs,” repeating claims made by property management company CBZ Management that the apartments fell into disarray because of gang activity.

Coffman did not return a request for comment Tuesday.

Aurora Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky, who has been most outspoken about the gang’s presence in the city, also did not return a call from The Denver Post seeking comment Tuesday.

The mayor’s claim of a gang takeover is disputed by other city officials, who say the longstanding disarray and poor conditions at the apartment buildings were the fault of poor oversight by CBZ Management — not because of criminal acts by Tren de Aragua members.

“There’s this hysteria that we apparently have a gang problem, but what we have is a slumlord problem in the city of Aurora,” City Councilwoman Alison Coombs said.

Aurora interim police Chief Heather Morris said in a video Friday that residents are not paying rent to gang members.

“I’m not saying there’s not gang members that live in this community,” she said in the video, taken at the Edge at Lowry apartments at Dallas Street and 12th Avenue, where officers were talking with residents.

“We’ve really made an effort these last few days to ask the specific questions and direct questions in terms of the gang activity and… making sure that people aren’t paying rent to gang leaders, gang members. That’s not happening. And we’ve discovered here today and yesterday, talking with so many residents, that that is not the case.” she said. “…We’re standing out here, and I can tell you that gang members have not taken over this apartment complex.”

Residents and supporters gather to speak out at the Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Residents and supporters gather to speak out at the Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

“We don’t feel threatened by gangs”

Dozens of residents who gathered in the courtyard at the Edge at Lowry apartments Tuesday afternoon said they have not been threatened by — or even interacted with — gang members.

“They say there are gangs and criminals, but the only criminal here is the owner,” resident Moises Didenot told a crowd of reporters.

The residents demanded city leaders hold the “slumlord” building owners accountable for untenable living conditions, including rodents and bedbugs. Didenot held up adhesive mouse traps with three dead mice stuck to them.

Aurora officials have disputed the property manager’s claims that issues at the apartment buildings are due to gangs, instead citing poor upkeep that has resulted in repeated code violations.

Tenants on Tuesday said they were more afraid of the hatred sparked by news coverage.

“We don’t feel threatened by gangs,” said resident Gladis Tovar.

Juan Carlos Alvarado Jimenez speaks about the living conditions within the Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Juan Carlos Alvarado Jimenez speaks about the living conditions within the Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Multiple people interviewed by The Post, including the two City Council members, specifically referenced the Fox31 report about gangs at the Edge at Lowry complex — featuring the video of armed men in the building — as elevating the national attention on the story.

On Aug. 28, Fox31 reporter Vicente Arenas, who had been reporting on problems at the complex, posted to social media a video that shows six men, one of whom was holding a rifle and four of whom were carrying pistols, knock on a door and go inside an apartment.

Since the footage was first posted on the news station’s website and X accounts, Fox31 says its network partners have confirmed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that the men were affiliated with the Tren de Aragua gang. Efforts to reach the Fox31 news director Sean McNamara were unsuccessful Tuesday.

On Friday, Coffman wrote in a Facebook post that the city was preparing to seek an emergency court order declaring additional buildings a criminal nuisance — a tactic the city used before evicting 85 families from a building at 1568 Nome St. earlier this year. But city officials denied that Tuesday.

Aurora representatives are planning to meet with the property managers and owners before taking any official action in court, and an emergency court order is “one of several considerations at this time,” city spokesman Michael Brannen said.

“The state law is clear when it comes to a property owner’s responsibility when it comes to addressing health hazards and code violations at the apartment buildings they own,” he said in a statement. “We will continue to aggressively pursue a resolution in order to address the poor conditions impacting residents.”

A decrease in crime in Aurora this year

Emely Gascon stands with neighbor children as residents gather in the courtyard at the Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Emely Gascon stands with neighbor children as residents gather in the courtyard at the Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Venezuelan migrants have been arriving in metro Denver as they flee political upheaval, a poor economy and a humanitarian crisis. So far, an estimated 42,700 migrants have come through Denver since January 2023, according to a tracker on the city’s website, although many have moved to other parts of the country to be closer to family and friends.

While some claim the Venezuelan gang is bringing danger to the city, crime in Aurora has declined in 2024 compared to 2023, statistics published by the city show. Overall reported crime dropped 20% in the first eight months of the year when compared to the first eight months of 2023, the statistics show. The city saw declines in homicides, robberies and aggravated assaults.

Aurora police did not answer questions Tuesday about whether they have identified any instances of Tren de Aragua members collecting rent from Aurora residents, how many people have been identified as Tren de Aragua members in the city, or how many criminal acts have been connected to the gang.

Aurora city officials have publicly tied just one crime this summer to the Tren de Aragua gang: a July 28 shooting in which two men were shot and a third broke his ankle at the apartment building at 1568 Nome St.

One of the suspects in that shooting, Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirinos, 22, is a known Tren de Aragua member, police said in a statement Thursday. Pacheco-Chirinos, who uses the alias “Galleta,”  was charged with assault with a deadly weapon in connection to that attack.

Pacheco-Chirinos was also charged with aggravated assault after an incident at the apartment complex in November, Aurora police said.

Across the metro area, Tren de Aragua gang members have been arrested in two other incidents this summer: a jewelry store robbery in Denver and an enforcement action by the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff’s office on Aug. 21 arrested six people during a routine policing effort near South Quebec Street and High Line Smith Way — a slice of county land sandwiched between Aurora and Denver, spokesman John Bartmann said. Four of those arrestees were later found to be Tren de Aragua members, he said.

“We weren’t looking for them,” Bartmann said, adding that deputies found some drugs and recovered a stolen vehicle during the “proactive” policing effort. He was not able to identify the four arrestees or say Tuesday what charges they faced.

Denver police spokesman Doug Schepman said many people on social media were conflating Denver and Aurora in a “misleading” way. He said officers have no evidence that Tren de Aragua members are targeting Denver apartment complexes for “takeovers.”

The Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
The Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Jon Ewing, a spokesman for Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, said the national attention was “fanning ugly rhetoric” during an election year. The mayor’s office is concerned that immigrants who moved to Colorado to start a better life will be harmed. But the city is also working to stop the spread of Tren de Aragua.

“We can walk and chew gum at the same time and be concerned about both of those things,” Ewing said.

Hancock, the Ward 4 Aurora City Council member, said the city is working to build trust among new arrivals so they will report crime to police.

“Our immigrant population is being targeted by gangsters from their own communities,” she said. “They often don’t report for fear of retaliation.”

“The hardest thing is getting people to tell us these things are happening. We need to develop trust with our agencies and we need APD to develop a relationship with people who came here to seek a better life.”

Aurora leaders also are worried about how the national reports reflect upon the city’s reputation.

“It definitely makes it seem like our city is not safe, that it’s not a good place to live, not a good place to do business,” City Council member Coombs said. “It also makes it seem like our city staff and our police department are not trying to serve the public.”

Denver Post reporter Katie Langford contributed to this report. 

This story was updated at 10 a.m., Wednesday, Sept. 4 to correct the Aurora ward represented by Stephanie Hancock.

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6601887 2024-09-04T06:00:59+00:00 2024-09-05T08:13:30+00:00
Raise taxes on the rich or cut them? Harris, Trump differ on how to boost the US economy. https://www.denverpost.com/2024/09/03/raise-taxes-on-the-rich-or-cut-them-harris-trump-differ-on-how-to-boost-the-us-economy/ Wed, 04 Sep 2024 04:01:55 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6602760&preview=true&preview_id=6602760 By JOSH BOAK

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is betting that Americans crave trillions of dollars in tax cuts — and that growth will be so fantastic that it’s not worth worrying about budget deficits.

In short, he’s hoping that most economic analyses of his ideas are dead wrong.

Vice President Kamala Harris believes that big corporations and the ultra-wealthy should pay more in taxes — and wants to use those revenues to help spur the construction of 3 million homes and offer tax breaks for parents.

She’s hoping to deliver on the types of policies that President Joe Biden has been unable to secure in a lasting way.

The two presidential nominees are using the week before their debate to sharpen their economic messages about who could do more for the middle class. Harris will discuss her policy plans Wednesday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, while Trump will address the Economic Club of New York on Thursday.

The economy has historically been a dominant issue in presidential elections. In an August survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs, Trump did narrowly better on the economy with 45% saying he would handle it better and 38% saying Harris would.

There are high stakes in this showdown because the winner of November’s election could rewrite much of the federal tax code next year, when parts of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts are set to expire.

A look at the candidates’ proposals:

DIFFERENT PITCHES TO THE MIDDLE-CLASS

Trump and Harris have different ways of trying to help the middle class.

The former Republican president sees tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy as essential for promoting more investment, with those who’ve previously advised him saying average growth would top 3%. Mind you, overall economic growth never hit 3% a year when Trump was president. But between 2018 and 2019, the median household income jumped by $5,220 to an inflation-adjusted $78,250, according to the Census Bureau.

“What I tell people all the time: The Trump policies were designed to lift middle-class wages, re-onshore and re-industrialize,” said Joseph LaVorgna, an economist who worked in the Trump White House. “The intention is to get wages higher.”

By contrast, Harris wants to upgrade the middle-class promise of home ownership and ease the high costs of parenthood. She also wants tax breaks for entrepreneurs. It’s a message meant to show that Harris can address the problem of prices as people are still recovering from inflation spiking to a four-decade high in 2022.

First-time homebuyers could get $25,000 in down payment assistance that would be coupled with broader policies to encourage the construction of 3 million additional homes in four years. New parents could get a $6,000 tax credit and an expanded child tax credit.

“When working- and middle-class Americans have the opportunity to earn more, to build a business, to buy a home, to climb the economic ladder, it strengthens our economy and helps us grow,” said Brian Nelson, a Harris adviser.

NO TAXES ON TIPS, SOCIAL SECURITY

Trump has proposed no taxes on tips paid to workers or Social Security income. Harris has embraced the idea of not taxing workers’ tips.

As Ernie Tedeschi at the Yale Budget Lab noted, excluding tips from taxes is unlikely to provide much of an economic boost even if some individuals feel better off. He noted that just 2.5% of workers receive tips and that many don’t earn enough money to owe income taxes to the federal government.

Trump would also exclude Social Security payments from taxation, which could cost $1.2 trillion over 10 years. The risk is those taxes help fund Social Security. Without those revenues, the program would be unable to pay full benefits starting in 2033, or two years earlier than currently forecast, according to an analysis by Brendan Duke, senior director of economic policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.

TARIFFS

As much as Trump talks about tax cuts, he would also want to engage in a massive tax hike by charging higher tariffs on imports in order to grow jobs.

How much would the tariff be? No one really knows. Trump has proposed a broad tariff of 10%, but at an August event in North Carolina suggested it could be as high as 20%. Against Chinese products, he would like a tax of somewhere between 60% to 100%.

The Republican insists his tariffs wouldn’t jack up inflation, but the whole goal of the tax is to make imports more expensive so that more manufacturing occurs domestically. The Harris campaign says the middle class would face a higher tax burden, with the 20% tariff applied broadly costing a typical household $4,000 annually.

The Trump campaign did not answer questions about how the tariffs would work. If the goal is to bring jobs back from overseas, the tariffs would presumably be phased in over time so that manufacturing jobs could return to the U.S. But if the goal is to raise revenues, then they would be implemented immediately.

TRUMP’S NOT AFRAID OF DEBT

It’s not clear that Trump could pay for his ambitious tax cuts.

He wants to extend the expiring provisions of his 2017 tax overhaul. He’s floated the idea of chopping the 21% corporate tax rate to 15%, in addition to no taxes on tips and Social Security income. The estimated price is close to $6 trillion, but it could be higher. And the Congressional Budget Office already estimates $22 trillion in deficits over the next decade without the tax overhaul being extended.

Growth would not appear to cover the price tag. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget surveyed economic analyses and found that Trump extending his tax cuts would have roughly no impact on overall growth over 10 years because of the additional debt.

“The overall agenda doesn’t seem to be all that pro-growth,” said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president and senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

HARRIS IS MORE CAUTIOUS WITH DEFICITS

According to the Harris campaign, all her spending plans would be funded. Officials with her campaign have suggested that her sources of revenue would largely mirror Biden’s 2025 budget proposal.

Still, the Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates that her policies would add $2.3 trillion in spending. It forecasts that her plan to increase the corporate tax rate to 28% would produce $1.1 trillion in tax revenues. But the group did not include other proposals such as taxing the unrealized income gains of people worth $100 million or more, as there are not enough details to produce an accurate number. Nor did it include other revenue increases.

The Penn Wharton Budget Model suggests that the Harris plans would hurt growth more than Trump’s would through 2034, though it excluded his proposed tariffs from the analysis.

The real difference of the plan is how tax burdens would change starting in 2026.

Under Trump’s plans, someone in the top 0.1% of earners would after taxes get on average $376,910 more in income. The poorest 20% would get just $320 more.

Harris’ policies would reduce the average incomes of the top 0.1% by $167,225. But the bottom 20% get $2,355 more in income and benefits.

“Bigger picture: both Harris and Trump are causing the debt path to rise even faster than the fast pace under current law,” said Kent Smetters, the faculty director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model.

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6602760 2024-09-03T22:01:55+00:00 2024-09-04T07:20:42+00:00
Lauren Boebert spars with opponent Trisha Calvarese over veterans, economy in only scheduled debate https://www.denverpost.com/2024/09/03/colorado-lauren-boebert-trisha-calvarese-4th-congressional-district-election/ Tue, 03 Sep 2024 23:39:52 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6583546 U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and Democratic opponent Trisha Calvarese sparred over veterans care, the national debt and the congresswoman’s record Tuesday during their only scheduled debate in the 4th Congressional District race.

Calvarese, a former speechwriter and labor activist, repeatedly attacked Boebert’s congressional record, including criticizing the Republican for voting against a larger bill that included provisions allowing the federal government to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices. She defended President Joe Biden’s marquee Inflation Reduction Act and called for an end to the “offshoring” of American manufacturing.

Boebert, who is seeking a third term — and her first outside of the Western Slope-based 3rd Congressional District — defended her record. She hit on familiar red-meat issues for the Republican Party, saying she wanted to cut taxes, “take our country back,” “bring back prosperity” and “secure our southern border.”

At one point, she derisively referred to American citizens born to undocumented immigrants as “anchor babies” and said they should not receive certain tax-credit assistance.

The debate, co-hosted by Colorado Politics/the Denver Gazette and the Douglas County Economic Development Corporation at The Club at Ravenna, focused on the economy and business issues.

It was the first debate since Boebert cruised to a June primary win over a crowded Republican field. Amid serious challenges from both Democrats and Republicans in her home district, she had switched from seeking reelection to vying in the 4th after then-U.S. Rep. Ken Buck announced he wouldn’t run for the seat again in the November election.

Though Boebert is new to the district, she is the odds-on favorite to win. The Eastern Plains-focused 4th District is Colorado’s most conservative district, where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 2-to-1, giving her a greater advantage on paper than she had in her old district. The 4th takes in extensive farmland as well as south suburban Denver’s Douglas County.

On Tuesday, Calvarese sought to contrast her stated desire for partnership and compromise with Boebert’s approach, which Calvarese characterized as “defund, to cancel it, shut down the government if you don’t get your way.”

Despite being one of the most partisan members of a particularly partisan Congress, Boebert touted her own bipartisan efforts, including by pointing to her support for a bill backed by U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, a Colorado Democrat, that would allow federal land to be used for housing.

Here’s what else Boebert and Calvarese discussed Tuesday:

National debt

In response to a question about the growing national debt, Boebert said she wanted to go through spending individually, line by line. She said she wouldn’t support larger omnibus funding bills and instead wanted individual appropriations bills.

“I do not agree with Republican debt as much as I do not agree with Democrat debt,” she said.

CD4 congressional race candidate U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert makes remarks during a debate at a lunch at The Club at Ravenna  in Douglas County, Colorado, on Sept. 3, 2024. It was the first and for now the only debate between Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and Democratic challenger Trisha Calvarese. Boebert switched to this district and won a contested Republican primary in June.  (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
CD4 congressional race candidate U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert makes remarks during a debate at a lunch at The Club at Ravenna in Douglas County, Colorado, on Sept. 3, 2024. Her Democratic opponent, Trisha Calvarese, is in the background. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)

Calvarese said she wanted to better tax corporations that hide “their money abroad” and repeatedly said that the “middle class needs a tax break.” She said the federal government should look for efficiencies, with help from artificial intelligence, to reduce unnecessary spending.

She also said she would support keeping the federal corporate tax rate at its current level, while Boebert said she wanted former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts to be continued and the rates “lowered significantly.”

Those individual income tax cuts are set to expire at the end of next year. If they were extended for another decade, they would add $3.3 trillion to the federal deficit over that time period, according to a nonpartisan fiscal analysis.

Veterans

The most extended scuffle of the debate came next. Calvarese accused Boebert of not supporting veterans, pointing to Boebert’s support for a bill that would have cut the Department of Veterans Affairs budget and her opposition to a bill that would’ve expanded health benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances.

“Don’t sit here and tell us … that you are somehow for veterans,” Calvarese said.

Boebert defended her support for veterans and her vote against the toxic substances bill. She said she wasn’t able to provide amendments and that she wasn’t willing to spend “a billion dollars forever because we couldn’t get a couple of pieces of language right in the legislation.”

As for the VA, she criticized the department’s responsiveness and then criticized some Democrats’ support for a universal health care system.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, left, and Democratic opponent Trisha Calvarese, right, participate in a debate in the 4th Congressional District race, during an event in Douglas County on Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, left, and Democratic opponent Trisha Calvarese, right, participate in a debate in the 4th Congressional District race, during an event in Douglas County on Sept. 2, 2024. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)

Economic lightning round

Boebert and Calvarese were peppered with several lightning round questions, including on whether they supported increasing the federal minimum wage, which currently stands at $7.25 an hour, about half of Colorado’s minimum. Boebert said she opposed increasing it. Calvarese said she supported increasing the minimum wage — including for tipped workers — to $15 an hour.

Both said they supported a policy backed by Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race to end taxes on tips. Both also said they opposed privatizing social security benefits and would support legislation that would bar entities from foreign countries — like China or Saudi Arabia — from buying American farmland.

More debates?

In a brief talk with reporters after the debate, Calvarese called on Boebert to meet her again for at least two more debates, which would be televised.

“This was the beginning of what I think is a job interview for all of our constituents,” Calvarese said.

In a separate media gaggle, Boebert would not commit to additional debates and said Calvarese “had her debate today.”

“I debate Democrats on a daily basis,” she said. “It is my job.”

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6583546 2024-09-03T17:39:52+00:00 2024-09-03T18:07:49+00:00
Opinion: America survived Watergate and it’ll survive the November election, too https://www.denverpost.com/2024/09/01/election-2024-president-crime-impeachment-nixon-watergate/ Sun, 01 Sep 2024 11:01:01 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6578670 Today’s political turbulence is a stark reminder that this nation has successfully endured the shenanigans of those occupying political office and those vying for that privilege. In that regard, Watergate comes to mind because it was 50 years ago, on Aug. 9, 1974, that Richard M. Nixon was forced to resign as our 37th president. Sound familiar?

It is inevitable that the political frenzy surrounding the resignation of President Joe Biden as a candidate for re-election and the tribulations of former President Donald J. Trump, including his two impeachments by the House of Representatives, his subsequent acquittals by the Senate, and his criminal proceedings, is compared to that which existed in 1973 and 1974 with respect to Watergate.

8th Aug. 1974: American president Richard Nixon (1913 - 1994) announces his resignation on national television, following the Watergate scandal. (Photo by Pierre Manevy/Express/Getty Images)
Richard Nixon announces his resignation on national television on Aug. 8, 1974, following the Watergate scandal. (Photo by Pierre Manevy/Express/Getty Images)

The overall atmosphere of divisiveness is common to both eras, although few know or remember that President Nixon was never charged with a crime, was never impeached by the House of Representatives, and never was convicted by the Senate of an impeachable offense. He, as did President Biden, succumbed to enormous political pressure from both sides of the aisle “for the good of the country.”

What is the most important legacy of the Watergate experience on today’s events that are often declared by both political parties and the mass media to be the most dangerous and important in the history of the United States?  Was it the Supreme Court’s historic limitation of the application of executive privilege, the pressure by members of Congress that forced a president’s resignation, the confirmation that there are indeed terrible consequences for bad acts or that transparency in government is our ally not our enemy?

Jim Prochnow poses with a photo of Richard M. Nixon at Duke University. (Provided by Jim Prochnow)
Jim Prochnow poses with a photo of Richard M. Nixon at Duke University. (Provided by Jim Prochnow)

No, in my opinion, the most significant lesson of Watergate is the recognition that our form of government continues to have the strength and resilience to overcome the transgression of our leaders, political crisses, predictions, and warnings of national doom and government collapse.

Watergate has come to mean much more than a botched burglary by James McCord and four others on the night of June 17, 1972, at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate office complex on the banks of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. The core issue of Watergate was whether President Nixon committed obstruction of justice by participating in a cover-up (plugging the leak) of wrongful actions committed by individuals (the Plumbers) who were associated with the White House.

I had the privilege of serving as one of the president’s lawyers on the Watergate legal defense team, reporting to Special Watergate Counsel James St. Clair, a tough Boston trial lawyer. The 20-lawyer White House defense team consisted of our group, the White House Office of General Counsel, including Our Watergate defense team included, among others, Loren Smith, later to become the chief counsel of the two Reagan presidential campaigns and the chief judge of the United States Court of Federal Claim. We faced about 200 lawyers employed by the Senate Select Judiciary Committee and the House Judiciary Committee. Our team’s primary White House political contact was General Alexander Haig, the White House chief of staff, later the Allied supreme commander in Europe.

My service at the White House started in early 1974, soon after St. Clair took the reins as the principal Watergate defense counsel. I had responded to a notice that invited DOJ lawyers to apply to the new Watergate defense team; following, I was almost immediately interviewed at the Old Executive Office Building by Geoff Shepard, who has since authored fascinating in-depth books about Watergate. Upon receiving the job offer, I accepted it without calling my wife and resigned from my position as a trial lawyer in the general litigation section in the Civil Division at the Department of Justice.

A photograph of Jim Prochnow, of the defense staffwith President Richard M. Nixon at the White House. (Provided by Jim Prochnow)
A photograph of Jim Prochnow, of the defense staff with President Richard M. Nixon at the White House. (Provided by Jim Prochnow)

I was then 30 years old and not that far away from my graduation from the William Mitchell College of Law in Minneapolis coincidentally the alma matter of then Chief Justice Warren Burger — a Nixon appointee.

Our team was close-knit, although as in real life, some were more equal than others — despite the fact that we were all lawyers. Make no mistake about it – Watergate was a political animal or a zoo of political animals. We worked day and night together to do what we thought was legally right, attending meetings of the judiciary committees, writing sections of court briefs, appearing at Grand Jury and court proceedings, and interviewing witnesses. We argued on behalf of the Office of the President for a strong presidential executive privilege. We were under an immense amount of pressure — pressure that remains difficult to describe in words.

I accompanied Jim St. Clair when he argued before the Supreme Court that Leon Jaworski, the special prosecutor, was not entitled to enforce subpoenas that had been issued, in the context of a criminal trial against seven Watergate figures, for 64 specific taped recordings of presidential conversations. We lost resoundingly in the Supreme Court on July 24 on a 9-0 vote, the opinion of which was authored by Chief Justice Burger.

His opinion established that a claim of executive privilege is reviewable by a court and the claim of executive privilege by a president is not absolute. Nonetheless, in retrospect, we had helped to set the table for similar arguments and somewhat similar results a half-century later, in the now controversial Trump v. United States decision of July 1 of this year.

I have often thought about the impact of those times on my family and the country and occasionally relive those exciting, tumultuous times. The daily tension was palpable even without the presence of cell phones, computers, and social media. The daily developments were captured in detail in the pages of The Washington Post and hometown papers across the United States and shared in buses, bowling alleys, and cafes across the United States. There also were lighter days, such as our children Justin and Heather’s (ages 5 and 1) participation in the White House Easter Egg Roll, our excursion on the presidential yacht, the Sequoia, and very late-night dinners and conversations with Loren Smith about chasing UFOs.

People demonstrate against President Richard Nixon and for the implementation of the impeachment proceedings, on Jan. 30, 1974, the day of Richard Nixon's State of the Union Address to Congress, in Washington DC. A burglary inside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office complex in Washington in June 1972 grew into a wide-ranging political scandal that culminated in the resignation of President Richard Nixon two years later, in August 1974. Two young reporters on The Washington Post's staff, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, using a secret source known as
People demonstrate against President Richard Nixon and for the implementation of the impeachment proceedings, on Jan. 30, 1974, the day of Richard Nixon’s State of the Union Address to Congress, in Washington DC. (CONSOLIDATED NEWS PICTURES/AFP via Getty Images)

Our future as a nation depends on our common sense and the vigorous exercise of the rights and obligations of each of the three branches of government, which were demonstrated during Watergate. It does not depend on personalities.

I am proud to have been an integral part of a historic legal team. We worked as your lawyers to help our country handle a major constitutional crisis. One is never the same after having such an experience.

Since then, most of the major figures of the Watergate era. including Richard M Nixon, Senator Sam Ervin , and Chief Justice Warren Burger, have passed. However, the United States has survived. I am a much better person for having stepped forward to help in 1974 and hope that my involvement helped. I would do it all over again, and without doubt there will be need again in the history of this great country.

Jim Prochnow is a principal shareholder in the Denver Office of Greenberg Traurig, LLP, a global law firm. He is primarily a food, drug, and trial lawyer. He and his wife, Virginia, live in Denver. They moved to Colorado after Watergate to ski and for the Colorado sunshine. They have three children.

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6578670 2024-09-01T05:01:01+00:00 2024-08-30T19:16:10+00:00
A JD Vance remix goes viral on TikTok, as political memes change shape https://www.denverpost.com/2024/08/31/a-jd-vance-remix-goes-viral-on-tiktok-as-political-memes-change-shape/ Sat, 31 Aug 2024 12:00:31 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6579350&preview=true&preview_id=6579350 One of the hottest tracks on TikTok this summer is, unexpectedly, a 22-second Petey Pablo hip-hop beat remixed with a years-old audio clip of J.D. Vance — now former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick — declaring, before his loyalties changed, that he was “a never Trump guy.”

The song has been used in more than 8,500 TikTok videos since two independent music producers created it in July. Supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris have seized on it, wagging their fingers and swinging their arms to it, some hoping to create its official dance. It was also reposted by @KamalaHQ, the campaign’s official TikTok account. Videos with the sound have racked up more than 40 million views overall, according to Zelf, a social video analytics company focused on TikTok.

It’s a marquee example of a new genre of political memes finding an audience on the short-form video app, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.

Politically minded Americans are increasingly embracing TikTok to make videos and trends out of snippets of songs and speeches in this election cycle. The app — a pandemic-fueled curiosity during the last presidential election — has since exploded its user base to 170 million Americans. About half of users younger than 30 say they use TikTok to help them keep up with politics and political issues, according to new data from the Pew Research Center.

“People are still doing dances to random songs, but now people are doing dances to remixes of rap with Kamala Harris speeches over it,” said Emma Mont, a digital creator and administrator of @OrganizerMemes, a liberal meme account.

While TikTok prohibits political advertising, unpaid political content is thriving on the platform — Vance, Trump, Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, each had verified accounts there as of last week. Users have also flocked to a remix of Harris quoting her mother in a speech last year, saying, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” and laughing, and to a clip that starts with Harris speaking and ends with a hip-hop song repeating, “Trump 2024.”

Seth Schuster, a Harris campaign spokesperson, said the team was tapping into viral trends both to “bring the conversation about the stakes of this election to the places a lot of our voters are getting their news from” and to expand its supporter network.

In response to the TikTok video, Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson for Vance, said: “Cringe.”

Song snippets and catchphrases from pop culture are a core part of using TikTok. Users can select from a library of popular sounds when they make TikToks and search for songs and sounds related to topics that they’re interested in. Searching “Trump” or “Kamala” in the app’s sounds yields dozens of results, which have been used in tens of thousands of videos.

If users like a particular sound, TikTok is likely to serve them additional videos that include it — which is how it can seem that the entire internet is suddenly using a phrase like “very demure, very mindful.” (That meme sprang from a TikTok creator’s playful descriptions of how to behave in a variety of places, from work to drag shows.)

The “never Trump guy” song was created by Carl Dixon and Steve Terrell, two 34-year-old music producers with a company called House of Evo. They regularly make sounds on TikTok, including a popular remix of an evangelical sermon about margaritas last year, but they hadn’t dabbled much in politics until now.

Dixon, also known as Casa Di, and Terrell saw the footage of Vance’s comments in a post on the Harris campaign’s TikTok account that compared them with newer footage of him expressing support for Trump.

The two found Vance’s manner of speech “sort of melodic in a sense,” Terrell said. Dixon said, “We were like, what if we put this to a catchy beat or something?” The process took the pair under three hours, they said.

Their video started with footage of a member of the Harris campaign staff saying, “So this is really who Donald Trump chose as his running mate?” A different voice then says, “Drop the beat,” after which a sample of Petey Pablo’s “Freek-a-Leek” plays, remixed with Vance saying, “I’m a never Trump guy” and “I never liked him.”

“When Kamala decided to start running, me and Steve were figuring out ways to encourage people to vote or be aware of what’s going on,” Dixon said. “This is our first time doing something as politically charged,” he added.

Sounds like this one allow people to profess their political opinions, or share what they view as the stakes of the election, without having to formally expound on their beliefs, Terrell said.

TikTok is one of the few social media sites showing a sharp increase “in the percent of adults getting news there and an increase in just the newsiness of the platform,” said Elisa Shearer, a senior researcher at Pew. “A lot of that is opinion- and humor-based,” she added.

Sasha Khatami, a 24-year-old digital marketing coordinator from Alexandria, Virginia, said she had come across the song while browsing popular sounds on TikTok in July, soon after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

“Sounds are the number-one way to express your opinions,” Khatami said. “I don’t think people are sharing their feelings anymore. I think they’re making TikTok sounds and TikTok dances.”

Khatami, who said her earlier videos on TikTok typically received between 300 and 1,000 views, made up a dance to the “never Trump guy” song — and was startled and thrilled to see her post rack up hundreds of thousands of views as TikTok’s algorithm served it to other users.

Since then, she has performed the dance in front of iconic locations in the nation’s capital, including the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, and has been tickled to see other TikTok users perform their own version of her shimmy.

While Khatami has been enjoying her newfound success on TikTok, she has been surprised by the volume of angry comments from supporters of Trump and Vance on many of her videos. She said she had sought to “turn that backlash into motivation,” like when a commenter declared, “Can we find this ladies dad so he can teach her about what the consequences are for what she’s doing?”

She put text from that comment onto a separate TikTok featuring her father and boyfriend, who had also learned the dance, posting it with the caption: “My dad is a never Trump guy.”

Khatami, who recently made her first political donation to Harris, said she planned to canvas soon, too.

“I feel so inspired by her campaign and what her being president could mean that I feel like I have to get more involved,” she said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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6579350 2024-08-31T06:00:31+00:00 2024-08-28T20:35:38+00:00
Harris defends shifting from some liberal positions in first interview of presidential campaign https://www.denverpost.com/2024/08/28/harris-defends-shifting-from-some-liberal-positions-in-first-interview-of-presidential-campaign/ Thu, 29 Aug 2024 04:18:01 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6579603&preview=true&preview_id=6579603 By ZEKE MILLER and COLLEEN LONG

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday defended shifting away from some of her more liberal positions in her first major television interview of her presidential campaign, but insisted her “values have not changed” even as she is “seeking consensus.”

Sitting with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris was asked specifically about her reversals on banning fracking and decriminalizing illegal border crossings, positions she took during her last run for president. She confirmed she does not want to ban fracking, an energy extraction process key to the economy of swing-state Pennsylvania, and said there “should be consequence” for people who cross the border without permission.

“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” Harris said.

She went on to say: “I believe it is important to build consensus. It is important to find a common place of understanding where we can actually solve the problem.”

The interview with CNN’s Dana Bash came as voters are still trying to learn more about the Democratic ticket in an unusually compressed time frame. President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid just five weeks ago. The interview focused largely on policy, as Harris sought to show that she had adopted more moderate positions on issues that Republicans argue are extreme, while Walz defended past misstatements about his biography.

Harris hadn’t done an in-depth interview since she became her party’s standard-bearer five weeks ago, though she did sit for several while she was still Biden’s running mate.

She said serving with Biden was “one of the greatest honors of my career,” and she recounted the moment he called to tell her he was stepping down and would support her.

“He told me what he had decided to do and … I asked him, ‘Are you sure?’ and he said, ‘Yes,’ and that’s how I learned about it.”

She said she didn’t ask Biden to endorse her because “he was very clear that he was going to endorse me.”

Harris defended the administration’s record on the southern border and immigration, noting that she was tasked with trying to address the “root causes” in other countries that were driving the border crossings.

“We have laws that have to be followed and enforced, that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally, and there should be consequences,” Harris said.

Asked about Israel’s war in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Harris said, “I am unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself.” But the vice president also reiterated what she’s said for months, that civilian deaths are too high amid the Israeli offensive.

She also brushed off Republican Donald Trump’s questioning of her racial identity after he suggested falsely that she changed how she presents herself for political reasons and “happened to turn Black.” Harris, who is of Black and South Asian heritage, said Trump’s suggestion was the “same old, tired playbook.”

“Next question, please,” she said.

Trump and Harris are set to debate on Sept. 10. In a post Thursday evening, it appeared Trump was paying close attention to the interview. After the debate was mentioned, he posted, “I look so forward to Debating Comrade Kamala Harris and exposing her for the fraud she is.”

Trump went on to say that his Democratic opponent “has changed every one of her long held positions, on everything. America will never allow an Election WEAPONIZING MARXIST TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.”

The debate will be the first-ever meeting for Harris and Trump. The opponents had only been in the same space when Harris, as a senator, attended Trump’s joint addresses to Congress.

During the early parts of the interview, Walz watched quietly and nodded when Harris made her main points. He was later asked about misstatements, starting with how he has described his 24 years of service in the National Guard.

In a 2018 video clip that the Harris-Walz campaign once circulated, Walz spoke out against gun violence and said, “We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at.”

Critics said the comment “that I carried in war” suggested that Walz portrayed himself as someone who spent time in a combat zone. He said Thursday night that he misspoke after a school shooting, adding, “My grammar’s not always correct.”

Asked about statements that appeared to indicate that he and his wife conceived their children with in-vitro fertilization, when they in fact used a different fertility treatment, he said he believes most Americans understood what he meant and pivoted to Republican opposition to abortion rights.

Democrats’ enthusiasm about their vote in November has surged over the past few months, according to polling from Gallup. About 8 in 10 Democrats now say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting, compared with 55% in March.

This gives them an enthusiasm edge they did not have earlier this year. Republicans’ enthusiasm has increased by much less over the same period, and about two-thirds of Republicans now say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting.

At a packed arena for a rally Thursday in Savannah, Harris cast her nascent campaign as the underdog and encouraged the crowd to work hard to elect her in November.

“We’re here to speak truth and one of the things that we know is that this is going to be a tight race to the end,” she said.

Harris went through a list of Democratic concerns: that Trump will further restrict women’s rights after he appointed three judges to the U.S. Supreme Court who helped overturn Roe, that he’d repeal the Affordable Care Act, and that given new immunity powers granted presidents by the U.S. Supreme Court, “imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails.”

The rally was the end of a two-day bus tour in southeastern Georgia. Harris has another campaign blitz on Labor Day with Biden in Detroit and Pittsburgh with the election rapidly approaching. The first mail ballots get sent to voters in just two weeks.

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Long reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Sagar Meghani and Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.

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6579603 2024-08-28T22:18:01+00:00 2024-08-29T21:07:02+00:00
Trump calls for universal coverage of IVF treatment with no specifics on how his plan would work https://www.denverpost.com/2024/08/28/trump-calls-for-universal-coverage-of-ivf-treatment-with-no-specifics-on-how-his-plan-would-work/ Thu, 29 Aug 2024 04:11:34 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6579628&preview=true&preview_id=6579628 By JILL COLVIN, JOEY CAPPELLETTI and THOMAS BEAUMONT

POTTERVILLE, Mich. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump says that, if he wins a second term, he wants to make IVF treatment free for women, but did not detail how he would fund his plan or how it would work.

“I’m announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for — or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for — all costs associated with IVF treatment,” he said at an event in Michigan. “Because we want more babies, to put it nicely.”

IVF treatments are notoriously expensive, and can cost tens of thousands of dollars for a single round. Many women require multiple rounds and there is no guarantee of success.

The announcement comes as Trump has been under intense criticism from Democrats for his role in appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to an abortion in the country.

The decision is expected to be a major motivator for Democrats and women this November, and was a major theme of the party’s national convention last week as well as Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech as she accepted her party’s nomination.

In response, Trump has been trying to present himself as more moderate on the issue, going as far as to declare himself “very strong on women’s reproductive rights.”

In an interview with NBC ahead of the event, Trump also suggested that he will vote to repeal Florida’s six-week abortion ban, which limits the procedure before many women even know they are pregnant.

Trump, in the interview, did not explicitly say how he plans to vote on the ballot measure when he casts his vote this fall. But he repeated his past criticism that the measure, signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last year, is too restrictive.

“I think the six weeks is too short. It has to be more time,” he said. ”I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”

Trump had previously called DeSantis’ decision to sign the bill a “terrible mistake.”

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement after the rally Thursday that Trump “has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida” known as Amendment 4 and that he “simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short.”

His comments nonetheless drew immediate reaction from those who oppose abortion rights, including Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, who said she had spoken with Trump after his speech.

“He has not committed to how he will vote on Amendment 4. President Trump has consistently opposed abortions after five months of pregnancy. Amendment 4 would allow abortion past this point. Voting for Amendment 4 completely undermines his position,” she said, adding that, “anyone who believes in drawing a different line” still “must vote against Amendment 4, unless they don’t want a line at all.”

In his speech, Trump also said that, if he wins, families will be able to deduct expenses for caring for newborns from their taxes.

“We’re pro-family,” he said.

Trump has held multiple conflicting positions on abortion over the years. After briefly considering backing a potential 15-week ban on the procedure nationwide, he announced in April that regulating abortion should be left to the states.

In the months since, he has repeatedly taken credit for his role in overturning Roe and called it “a beautiful thing to watch” as states set their own restrictions.

Trump, however, has also said he does not support a national abortion ban, and over the weekend, his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, said he would veto such legislation if it landed on his desk.

“Donald Trump’s view is that we want the individual states and their individual cultures and their unique political sensibilities to make these decisions because we don’t want to have a nonstop federal conflict over this issue,” Vance said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Trump first came out in favor of IVF in February after the Alabama state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, briefly pausing treatment and sparking national backlash.

Trump has since claimed the Republican party is a “leader” on the issue, even as at least 23 bills aiming to establish fetal personhood have been introduced in 13 states so far this legislative session, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. That kind of legislation, which asserts that life begins at conception, could imperil fertility treatments that involve the storage, transportation and destruction of embryos.

In a statement, Harris’ campaign said Trump shouldn’t be believed.

“Trump lies as much if not more than he breathes, but voters aren’t stupid,” said Harris-Walz 2024 spokesperson Sarafina Chitika. “Because Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, IVF is already under attack and women’s freedoms have been ripped away in states across the country. There is only one candidate in this race who trusts women and will protect our freedom to make our own health care decisions: Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Jessica Mackler, the president of EMILYs List, which works to elect women who support abortion rights, called Trump’s proposal “disingenuous and unserious.”

“Congratulations to Donald Trump for realizing that his position and his record on abortion are wildly unpopular, particularly with women who will decide this election,” she wrote. “But rather than give him credit for a disingenuous and unserious proposal that contradicts his own GOP platform, we’ll credit him for something he actually did: overturning Roe v. Wade, ending abortion access for millions of women across the country, and jeopardizing reproductive freedom for all of us.”

Trump made the IVF announcement during a campaign swing to Michigan and Wisconsin as he ramps up his battleground state travel heading into the traditional Labor Day turn toward the fall election.

Trump is intensely focused on recapturing states he won in 2016 but lost narrowly in 2020 as he continues to adjust to the reality of his new race against Harris.

Trump’s first stop was Alro Steel in Potterville, Michigan, near the state capital of Lansing, where he railed against the Biden administration over inflation.

“Kamala has made middle class life unaffordable and unlivable and I’m going to make America affordable again,” he charged. It was his third visit to the state in the past nine days and second this week after a speech to the National Guard Association in Detroit on Monday.

Later, he will visit La Crosse, Wisconsin, for a town hall moderated by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who endorsed him in Detroit. It will be Trump’s first visit to Wisconsin since the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which ended three days before Biden dropped out of the race and made way for Harris.

Along with Pennsylvania, which Trump will visit on Friday, these three Midwestern states make up a northern industrial bloc Democrats carried for two decades before Trump won them in 2016. Biden recaptured them on his way to the White House in 2020.

Trump and Vance have blitzed the battleground states in recent weeks, with Vance in both states this week as well.

___

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer Christine Fernando contributed to this report from Chicago.

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6579628 2024-08-28T22:11:34+00:00 2024-08-30T03:40:10+00:00