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Russia responds to Kamala Harris-Donald Trump debate: “Leave our president alone”
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesperson Dmitry Peskov complained Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump had referred too often to the Russian autocrat during their first head-to-head debate as candidates in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
“The name Putin is used, let’s say, as one of the tools in the domestic political struggle of the United States,” Peskov told reporters in Moscow, adding: “We really, really don’t like this and we still hope they will leave our president alone.”
He struck a seemingly neutral tone on the American political duel despite his boss recently offering a very tongue-in-cheek endorsement of Harris, saying the position was “quite clear: The U.S. as a whole, no matter which party the candidates are from, maintains a negative attitude, an unfriendly attitude towards our country.”
Trump, however, has for years made comments admiring Putin, including calling his tactics in the 2022 invasion of Ukraine “genius” and “very savvy.” The former U.S. leader has expressed no such warmth for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling him a “salesman” for his appeals to allies for weapons.
The Biden administration, along with its European allies and Zelenskyy himself, say a victory in Ukraine would embolden Putin to move against other Western-allied democracies in Europe. President Biden and his top officials were key players in rallying international support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia since even before Russian forces rolled into Ukraine. The U.S. spurred allies into action by pointing to declassified intelligence showing Russian preparations for the invasion.
Trump won’t say if he wants Ukraine to win war with Russia
Trump spoke heatedly in Tuesday night’s presidential debate about wanting Russia’s war in Ukraine to be over — but twice refused to directly answer a question about whether he wanted Ukraine, which has received immense financial and military support from the U.S. and its NATO allies, to win.
It’s “a very simple question. Do you want Ukraine to win this war?” moderator David Muir of ABC News asked Trump in Tuesday night’s debate.
“I want the war to stop,” Trump responded. “I want to save lives.”
Asked to clarify whether he believed it was in the best interest of the United States for Ukraine to win the war with Russia, Trump responded: “I think it’s the U.S. best interest to get this war finished and just get it done.”
Ukraine is dependent on U.S. aid to keep up its fight against Russian forces, and it would have grave difficulty withstanding their attacks if Washington were to pull its support.
Trump also falsely claimed Tuesday that the war had killed “millions” of people since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, while the United Nations says 11,700 civilian deaths have been verified. Neither the Russian nor Ukrainian governments provide full casualty tallies for their military forces.
His comments are likely to heighten concern among Ukraine and its supporters that his return to the White House could put Kyiv under pressure to sign a peace deal with its stronger neighbor that would force it to give up land seized by Putin’s forces — something Zelenskyy has firmly rejected so far.
Harris tells Trump Putin is a “dictator who would eat you for lunch”
Trump has claimed repeatedly that he would get a peace deal done between Ukraine and Russia within a day if he is elected, although he has never said how he’d accomplish the feat, beyond getting Putin and Zelenskyy together to talk. The fear of Ukraine’s supporters is that the kind of deal Trump is talking about would amount to the country’s democratic government capitulating significant territory and sovereignty to Russia.
Putin earlier this year insisted that Ukraine give up vast amounts of its eastern Donbas region, much of which is already occupied by Russian forces, and shun NATO membership as preconditions to even starting negotiations. The NATO alliance’s members, including the U.S., said bluntly in a joint statement in July that Ukraine was on an “irreversible path” to membership.
“The reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours is because he would just give it up,” Harris said during the debate. She accused Trump of being in “what you think is a friendship with … a dictator who would eat you for lunch.”
Just days before the invasion in 2022, Mr. Biden sent Harris to the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany, a high-profile mission to consolidate support for Ukraine among European and NATO leaders. Harris met on the sidelines with Zelenskyy.
Trump, during the debate, linked the timing of Harris’ trip to Europe to Putin’s sending troops into Ukraine days later.
“They sent her in to negotiate with Zelenskyy and Putin. And she did. And the war started three days later,” he said.
But the U.S. government said the Russian troops massing on Ukraine’s border and intelligence assessments already pointed to an imminent invasion. Putin was not at the security conference in Germany, and Harris didn’t meet with him.
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. — A New Hampshire woman suffered severe burns on her leg after hiking off-trail in Yellowstone National Park and falling into scalding water in a thermal area near the Old Faithful geyser, park officials said.
The 60-year-old woman from Windsor, New Hampshire, along with her husband and their leashed dog were walking off a designated trail near the Mallard Lake Trailhead on Monday afternoon when she broke through a thin crust over the water and suffered second- and third-degree burns to her lower leg, park officials said. Her husband and the dog weren’t injured.
The woman was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho for treatment.
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank
Park visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution. The ground in those areas is fragile and thin and there’s scalding water just below the surface, park officials said.
Pets are allowed in limited, developed areas of Yellowstone park but are prohibited on boardwalks, hiking trails, in the backcountry and in thermal areas.
The incident is under investigation. The woman’s name wasn’t made public.
This is the first known thermal injury in Yellowstone in 2024, park officials said in a statement. The park had recorded 3.5 million visitors through August this year.
Hot springs have injured and killed more people in Yellowstone National Park than any other natural feature, the National Park Service said. At least 22 people have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around the 3,471-square-mile national park since 1890, park officials have said.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.