Officials in Louisiana have released body-camera footage that captured two deputy city marshals firing on a vehicle and killing a 6-year-old boy in 2015. The head of the Louisiana State Police has called the video “the most disturbing thing he’s seen.” A state judge yesterday allowed the video to be released to local media. The video was formally introduced as evidence in the two officers’ murder cases earlier in the day. The boy, named Jeremy Mardis, was killed in the shooting. His father, Christopher Few, was also critically wounded. Deputies Derrick Stafford and Norris Greenhouse Jr. claim they acted in self-defense.
Discussion Questions:
Last night’s debate was the most-viewed presidential debate in the history of such televised events. According to early Nielsen household TV ratings, at least 80 million people watched Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump go head-to-head for their first of three debates. Because those numbers do not include PBS, C-SPAN, or live-streaming options, the numbers will significantly rise when final viewership data becomes available, thereby breaking the 81 million viewership record set by the 1980 debate between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. The big 2016 numbers also dwarf those of the first Obama-Romney debate in 2012, which averaged 67 million viewers. Additionally, according to Nielsen data, Monday evening’s viewership stayed high throughout the entire 98-minute event, with no significant dropoff after the first hour.
Most pundits pronounced Clinton as the victor in the debate, overall, with Trump performing quite well in the initial 20-30 minutes before rapidly fading.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie could face impeachment following the early testimony in the Bridgegate scandal trial. Unnamed members of the New Jersey Assembly are reported to be looking into how to proceed after prosecutors this week said Christie knew about the lane-closing scheme on the George Washington Bridge in 2013. A committee chairman said “clearly” Christie could face a charge of obstruction of justice. The chances, the legislator said, were about 50-50 that the assembly would pursue Christie’s impeachment. That decision would be up to Democratic Speaker Vincent Prieto, followed by a process initiated by the assembly’s judiciary committee and several other votes. Some Democrats have been quick to state that any impeachment talk is premature.
A state of emergency has been declared in North Carolina as protests continued over the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte Tuesday, with one person shot late last night and reported in critical condition. Authorities stressed that the victim was not shot by police officers. The victim was initially reported dead but authorities later said he was on life support. North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory said last night that he was declaring a state of emergency over the unrest and sending in National Guard troops. Officials claimed Tuesday that the police shooting was prompted by Scott holding a gun, but his family members maintained that he was reading a book when the altercation happened.
Former President George H.W. Bush said he plans to vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the upcoming presidential election, according to Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend. Townsend, a former Maryland lieutenant governor, posted a picture on Facebook late last evening with the former Republican president, along with the caption: “The president told me he’s voting for Hillary!” Townsend confirmed to Politico that Bush told her during a meeting in Maine yesterday that he’d be voting for Clinton. A spokesman for Bush played it coy, saying that “the vote President Bush will cast as a private citizen in some 50 days will be just that: a private vote cast in some 50 days. He is not commenting on the presidential race in the interim.”
Police in St. Cloud, Minnesota, said eight people were injured during a knife attack at the Crossroads Center mall at around 8:15 p.m. local time last evening. The suspect, who has not yet been identified, was shot and killed inside the mall by an off-duty police officer. “The individual we believe to be responsible for the victims’ stab wounds is currently deceased inside the mall,” police Sgt. Jason Burke confirmed in a statement. The injured victims were transported to a local hospital for treatment, with their conditions unknown. According to St. Cloud police chief William Blair Anderson, the suspect referred to Allah during the stabbings, and asked at least one victim if they were Muslim. However, the police chief did not call the attack terrorism. In the aftermath, ISIS claimed responsibility.
After three days of uncharacteristic restraint following Hillary Clinton’s near-collapse from dehydration and symptoms of pneumonia at the 9/11 memorial ceremony on Sunday, Donald Trump took a moment during his rally in Ohio yesterday to question her physical stamina. Saying it’s “always hot” when he “performs” on the campaign stump, Trump asked his cheering crowd, “I don’t know folks, do you think Hillary Clinton would be able to stand up here for an hour? I don’t know.” Clinton decided to take three days off from the trail to recover from pneumonia and resumed campaigning today. In previous interviews, when Trump was asked to comment on Clinton’s health, he would only say that he wished her well.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell called Donald Trump a “national disgrace” in a series of private emails reviewed by BuzzFeed News. Powell also said in an email that Trump “is in the process of destroying himself, no need for Dems to attack him. [Speaker of the House] Paul Ryan is calibrating his position again.” Additionally he called the birther movement, which Trump popularized in 2012, a “racist” movement. He also suggested that right-wing conspiracies about Obama being a “secret Muslim” were silly because, “As I have said before, ‘What if he was?’ Muslims are born as Americans everyday.” Other leaked emails show Powell bashing fellow ex-secretary Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server. “Sad thing... HRC could have killed this two years ago by merely telling everyone honestly what she had done and not tie me into it,” he wrote. “I told her staff three times not to try that gambit. I had to throw a mini tantrum at a Hamptons party to get their attention.” In another email from one year earlier, Powell complained that he lost a speaking gig at a university because Clinton had overcharged them. “Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris,” he lamented.
The website DCLeaks.com — which has reported, but not confirmed, ties to Russian intelligence services — obtained Powell’s emails. It may be the latest example of a Russian entity potentially trying to influence the US presidential election.
Hillary Clinton abruptly left the 9/11 ceremony at Ground Zero earlier this morning. Initially, her campaign said it was because she “felt overheated.” Later, Clinton’s team released a statement from the candidate’s doctor, saying that Clinton “was diagnosed with pneumonia.” The doctor, who put Clinton on antibiotics and advised Clinton to rest, added that the former secretary of state became “dehydrated” during today’s events. A senior law enforcement official told sources that Clinton looked pale when she arrived at the ceremony. As she walked away from the ceremony, according to numerous law enforcement officials, she slumped and appeared to faint. Then, according to the sources, her detail put her into a waiting vehicle. About 90 minutes after Clinton’s departure, campaign spokesman Nick Merrill told reporters that the candidate left the ceremony prematurely to go to her daughter’s apartment because she was feeling poorly. He added that she now feels much better. Clinton left Chelsea’s apartment slightly before noon, according to ABC’s Liz Kreutz. She smiled and waved at reporters, and said, "I'm feeling great."
During a NBC News national-security forum last night, Donald Trump defended his earlier claim that rape is to be expected with women serving in the U.S. military. The topic was brought up by a veteran in the audience, at which point host Matt Lauer reminded Trump of a statement he’d made on Twitter in 2013. At that time, Trump noted that there had been “26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military,” adding, “What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?” Trump defended the comment, telling Lauer, “It is a correct tweet. There are many people that think that’s absolutely correct.” He clarified that he did not mean he would remove women from the military, but said “something” has to happen. “When you have somebody that does something so evil, so bad as that, there has to be consequences for that person,” Trump said.
Conservative stalwart Phyllis Schlafly has died at the age of 92, her organization Eagle Forum confirmed last night. The controversial activist came to fame in the mid-20th century with her public crusade against feminism and the Equal Rights Amendment. A self-described “housewife,” Schlafly said she believed the ERA, which sought to prohibit any gender-based distinctions in federal or state law, would destroy “traditional” societal roles for women. Because of Schlafly and a grassroots effort among mostly religious-conservative women, the ERA officially died in the early ’80s. Because of her continued anti-feminist work, she was often dubbed the “first lady of the conservative movement,” while prominent feminists like Betty Friedan called her an “Uncle Tom” to her gender.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has not paid at least ten of his top staff members for their work, according to a new Reuters report based on federal campaign finance filings. Those who apparently worked for free on the campaign include top staffers such as Paul Manafort, who recently stepped down amid scandal over his earlier business dealings with corrupt Ukrainian leaders. In addition, Trump's California state director Tim Clark, communications director Michael Caputo and two senior aides who left in June to work for a Trump Super PAC have all not been paid, according to the campaign finance filings. Trump has repeatedly claimed that his campaign's affordability, with his team spending about one-third of what Hillary Clinton has spent, is proof of his business smarts. It's not clear if the staffers had agreed to work as volunteers or will simply deprived of pay. At least one of those on the list, Michael Caputo, told a radio station in June that he'd never offered to volunteer, but had simply never been paid.
Hours after Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said he’d warned Donald Trump that Mexico would not pay for any wall between the two countries, Trump doubled down and told a crowd in Phoenix that Mexico, not the U.S. would cover all costs of the wall. “Mexico will pay for the wall, 100 percent. They don’t know it yet, but they’re going to pay for it,” Trump said in a fiery immigration speech Wednesday night, adding that the wall would be “beautiful” and “impenetrable.” Oddly, Trump’s comments seemed to contradict not only the Mexican president, but also himself, as he’d admitted after the pair’s meeting that there had been no discussion on who would pay for the wall. Despite praising his meeting with Nieto as “substantive” and “constructive,” Trump took on a much harsher tone in his speech to supporters in Arizona. Promising “extreme vetting” of immigrants, Trump said he’d have no mercy on undocumented immigrants. “Day one, my first hour in office, those people are gone,” he said, promising to create a “deportation task force,” joking that “maybe they’ll be able to deport” Hillary Clinton.