The Headlines - Trump and Harris Neck and Neck in a New Poll, and a Manhunt in Kentucky

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

Plus, a Pulitzer-winning Super Bowl halftime headliner.   Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. On Today’s Episode:Trump and Harris Neck and Neck After Summer Upheaval, Times/Siena Poll Finds, by Jonathan Weisman and Ruth IgielnikAfter a Year of Legal Peril, Trump Seeks Election as a Felon, but Free, by Ben Protess, Kate Christobek and William K. RashbaumA Trial Over Tyre Nichols’s Death Begins as Memphis Is in a New Bind, by Emily CochraneGunman Who Wounded 5 on a Kentucky Highway Remains At Large, by Amanda HolpuchVenezuela’s Presidential Contender Flees, and Hopes for Democracy Dim, by Genevieve GlatskyWhat Happens When Half a Million People Abandon Their City, by Frances RoblesKendrick Lamar to Headline 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show, by Emmanuel Morgan

From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Traci Mumford. Today's Monday, September 9th. Here's what we're covering. A new national poll of likely voters from The Times and Siena College shows Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are neck and neck. Trump's sitting at 48% to Harris's 47, with a three-point margin of error.

That leaves them in an incredibly tight race with only eight weeks to go until Election Day. And the poll highlights some potential weaknesses for Harris, who had been riding a wave of enthusiasm since she entered the race earlier this summer. What it shows for Kamala Harris is that there are still a lot of voters, about 28%, who say they don't know enough about her. And a lot of those say they don't really know what her policies are.

This is already the shortest presidential campaign in modern American history. There isn't a lot of time for voters to feel more comfortable about what they know regarding Kamala Harris. But remember, there's a debate on Tuesday night. And what this poll really shows is that this is a moment for her to get her points across, to get herself better known to the voters. So I think the pressure is really on her, and she has to win people over and win people over fast. Donald Trump, on the other hand, he's a very known commodity, and only a small percentage of voters say they need to know more about Trump

before they can decide who to vote for in November. For more on the new poll numbers, you can listen to today's episode of The Daily. Meanwhile, Trump's entering this week on the back of a significant legal victory. On Friday, the judge in his Manhattan hush money case postponed sentencing for his 34 felony convictions until after the election. Citing the unique time frame this matter currently finds itself in, Justice Juan Marchand rescheduled it for November 26th. In Tennessee, a federal trial over the death of Tyree Nichols after a traffic stop starts today. Footage of Memphis police officers chasing, kicking, and punching Nichols, a Black man, horrified the city and the country when it came out last January.

The unit the officers belonged to was disbanded, and five officers were fired. Three of them will now be on trial on charges of depriving Nichols of his civil rights. They also face second-degree murder charges at the state level. I spoke with Tyree's mother and stepfather, and for them, this is going to be a really emotional few weeks. Emily Cochran is covering the trial for The Times. Mrs. Wells, Tyree's mother, still hasn't watched the footage of what happened to her son that night. It's a really agonizing and painful moment, especially when he calls out for her. They're also looking for answers. Namely, it's still not entirely clear why he was stopped that night, and they're hoping to finally get an answer to that

question. Emily says that even though officers were fired and charged, there's a feeling that other efforts at police accountability in Memphis have stalled. She says one reform that Nichols' family supported would have prevented police from stopping cars for minor traffic infractions. But that was repealed by the state's Republican-controlled legislature. He couldn't have picked an area that is any more remote and difficult for us to try to locate him. And that's what we want to do. We want to safely, we don't want our guys to get hurt. We don't want any more of the public to be hurt.

A manhunt is still underway in rural Kentucky after authorities say a man shot at drivers traveling along Interstate 75 on Saturday, hitting 12 vehicles and seriously injuring five people. You know, we recovered a weapon, but who's to say that he doesn't have another weapon? It seems like he's planned numerous parts of this anyway, so we have to anticipate that. The suspect, a 32-year-old Kentucky native who previously served in the National Guard, had been arrested earlier this year on a terroristic threatening charge, but it was later dismissed. On Saturday, authorities say he bought an AR-15 rifle and a thousand rounds of ammunition,

then opened fire on the interstate from a cliff ledge before disappearing into the dense woods. Authorities established a perimeter around the area but had to call off the search on Saturday and Sunday nights when it got dark. They plan to resume the manhunt this morning with dogs, a helicopter, and a drone with an infrared scanner. Venezuela's opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, fled to Spain over the weekend, as the Venezuelan government continues its brutal post-election crackdown. Gonzalez had been widely expected to win the presidential election in July, and voting data released by his party showed that he did. But, despite protests and international outcry, the authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro has held onto power. Thousands of demonstrators

have been arrested, and security forces have now surrounded a diplomatic residence in the country's capital, where top opposition leaders have been sheltering. Meanwhile, efforts by Brazil, Mexico, and other countries in the region to broker a resolution to the crisis have failed, and there are fears that the political turmoil will drive even more of Venezuela's population out of the country. More than a quarter of Venezuelans have left in recent years. Times reporter Frances Robles has been reporting from the country's second largest city, which she says has been completely hollowed out. Maracaibo used to be this thriving oil town.

And now you see a completely different city. You see a place where the houses have literally been stripped for parts. People take the windows and roofs off and sell them before they leave. Everybody talks about how there used to be so much traffic and now the streets are really, really quiet. And it's kind of a sad place, to be honest. Francis says that the city was decimated by the collapse of the state oil company about a decade ago and hit hard by U.S. sanctions on Venezuela. Half a million people have left. We know that most of the people who have left are kind of that working age, 18 to 45 years old. And a lot of them left their little kids behind with their parents while they get situated in

whatever country they landed in. They've gone to Chile, they've gone to Colombia, they've gone to the United States. So you have a lot of retirees making $3 a month in their pensions, really struggling to make ends meet. They talk a lot about how everywhere you go, you see that everybody's gone. So the doctor's office, the doctors are gone, the nurses are gone, the bus drivers are gone, the police officers. Meanwhile, the power goes out every week or so, the water goes out every week or so. It's really a struggle for people. In fact, one older woman who was taking care of her grandchildren, who I interviewed,

she's already gone. By the time the story published, she had already hit the road and trekked through the Darien Gap jungle in order to get to the United States. And so far, she made it to Mexico. And I think there's going to be a lot more people behind her. And finally, the 2024 NFL regular season just started last week, but the Super Bowl already has a headliner. What the deal, everybody? I'm named Kendrick Lamar, and I'll be performing at Super Bowl 59. The rapper Kendrick Lamar announced yesterday that he'll perform at the halftime show this February in New Orleans. Lamar already performed at the Super Bowl in 2022 when hip-hop was showcased for the first time ever there, kind of belatedly, with superstars Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, and more.

The Super Bowl's organizers have been accused of overlooking hip-hop in the past, and Lamar said, quote, rap music is still the most impactful genre to date, and I'll be there to remind the world why. Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.