Up First from NPR - Harris in Texas, Georgia On Edge, Menendez Brothers Case

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

T​he presidential candidates are racing around the seven swing states and today they're both in Texas — one of the reddest states in the country. Swing states like Georgia are on edge as the FBI warns state and local officials that extremists with election grievances could turn to violence in the coming weeks. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón is recommending that the Menendez brothers be resentenced and released from prison. And President Biden is set to make a formal apology for the federal government's Native American Boarding schools. Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Roberta Rampton, Padma Rama, Denise Rios, Lisa Thomson and Alice Woefle. It was produced by Paige Waterhouse, Nia Dumas and Kaity Klein. We get engineering support from Patrick Mu. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey, it's Amartinez. Now, real quick before the show, it has been a wild, exciting, exhausting election season. And in the homestretch, as you continue to follow things here on Up First, we want you to know that there are two other ways to make sure you don't miss a development throughout the day. First, every weekday, you can find a new episode of the NPR Politics Podcast with context and analysis on the big stories whenever they happen. So like you get a breaking news alert, you don't know what to think, look for the NPR Politics podcast a few hours later. Now second, consider this is the podcast where NPR covers one big story in depth every weekday evening. They will be all over this election and its aftermath as well.

So you've got up first in the morning consider this in the evening and the NPR politics podcast anytime big stuff happens around the clock election news Survival kit pretty much from NPR podcast. Okay. Thanks for listening. Here's the show Both presidential candidates are in Texas today It's one of the reddest states in the country But the demographics there are changing. The population has been surging with people moving here and it's made the state much younger and much more racially and ethnically diverse. Could it flip the state's Senate race? Ami Martinez, and this is a burst from NPR News.

The FBI is warning state and local officials that extremists with election grievances could turn violent. I want us as a family to like vote in a way that shows that we're part of this country. Is the heated political climate changing how voters weigh up whether to get out and support their candidate? And the Los Angeles County District Attorney wants Eric and Lyle Menendez re-sentenced for killing their parents back in 1989. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels. Hey, it's Susan Davis. Yes, there is more than one election happening this year. There are 34 Senate seats up for grabs, and in the House, Republicans are clinging to a single

digit majority. Those races will determine what the next president can do with his or her power. We're covering it all this year, but we can't do it without your support. So help us out and sign up for NPR+. Go to plus.mpr.org. I'm Rachel Martin, host of NPR's Wild Card Podcast. I've spent my entire career learning what kinds of questions prompt the most honest answers. What's the biggest sacrifice you've ever made? What's a belief you had to let go of? What's a goal you're glad you gave up on? Now I'm putting those soul-searching questions to guests like Jenny Slate, Bowen Yang, and Chris Pine. Follow Wildcard wherever you get your podcasts only from NPR.

With less than two weeks left until Election Day, the presidential candidates are racing across the seven swing states. But today, they're both in Texas, one of the reddest states in the country. Former President Donald Trump has a big interview lined up, and Vice President Harris is trying to put abortion rights back into the spotlight. NPR's Deepa Sivaram is in Houston with the Vice President. Deepa, so why the Lone Star State? Well, honestly, polls show that there's a huge gender divide in this campaign. Women favor Harris and men favoring Trump.

And today's Texas Stop kind of highlights that. Trump is taping the Joe Rogan podcast in Austin, which is a podcast that's very popular with young men. And it's a demographic he's trying to get out the vote with. Meanwhile, Harris is in Houston. She's taping a podcast with Brene Brown. It's popular among women. And this is Beyonce's hometown. And Beyonce is going to perform at the rally tonight for

Harris. So a lot of things going on, but I will say it's more than Beyonce in this final stretch of the campaign. Harris is trying to bring her message on reproductive rights back into the forefront and Texas has had some of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country. There are several women from Texas who during this campaign have shared their stories in speeches and ads of being denied an abortion when they needed them, which has put their lives at risk. And how effective have those ads been?

You know there is a new ad out this week and I will say it's pretty memorable. It features a woman in Texas who was denied care when she had a miscarriage and it shows a scar that she had from the emergency surgery that goes all the way down her entire chest, down to her stomach. And because of what happened, she may never be able to have children. It's the kind of image that sticks in your head to show the impact of the Supreme Court decision. And the audio in the background of the ad is Trump saying he's

going to be a quote, protector of women. So this is definitely a topic that Democrats want to reignite attention on and make sure it's top of mind for voters. Right. And reproductive rights have really been a big focus in the Senate race that's going on in Texas right now. That's a Democratic congressman, Colin Allred, a challenging incumbent Senator Ted Cruz. Do Democrats maybe see this as a Senate seat that they can flip? You know, as tight as this presidential race is, the race over who will control Congress is also really tight. And Texas has long been a red state.

It's been 30 years since there was last a Democratic Senator. I spoke with Brandon Rottinghouse. He's a professor of politics at the University of Houston. And he says the changing demographics in Texas in the last several years could maybe change things this time around. The population has been surging with people moving here and it's made the state much younger and much more racially and ethnically diverse. So it's really changing the dynamic of what Texas is politically. And you know, Allred has made reproductive rights a major focus in his campaign,

and it's become a liability for Cruz in this race as Allred has hammered him on this issue. So this visit from Harris is pretty significant. She's a candidate who's short on time here, and for her to fly out to Houston and campaign with Allred shows that Democrats think they have a decent shot to flip this race. All right, so where are Trump and Harris heading to next?

So last night I was with her as she rallied with Barack Obama in Atlanta. It was her biggest rally yet. There were about 20,000 people there. Tomorrow she heads to Kalamazoo, Michigan for a rally with Michelle Obama. Trump is headed to Michigan next as well. He has stops in Traverse City and then the Detroit suburbs. And both candidates will be in Pennsylvania this weekend too going after those undecided voters and trying to drum up support from their bases. Feels like the final turn of a very long race, right? MPR's Deepa Shivaram, thanks a lot. Thank you. The FBI is warning state and local officials that extremists with election grievances could turn to violence in the coming weeks.

In swing states like Georgia, people are particularly on edge. Member station WABE's Sam Greenglass spent time talking to election officials and voters about how they're grappling with the heated political climate and the potential for violence. So Sam, tell us more about this FBI letter. This FBI bulletin earlier this month highlighted that grievances like the perception of election fraud or anger toward perceived political adversaries poses the most likely threat of extremist violence and warned that polling places or campaign events could be potential targets. They cited incidents earlier this year like hoax bomb threats to election offices and those two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump.

So I mentioned you're in Georgia, so let's focus on how this all applies to where you are and where election officials have been dealing with threats since 2020. How does this moment compare to four years ago, Sam? Hey, you might remember this almost haunting press conference from a top Georgia election official gave Sterling in December 2020 when Trump and his allies were falsely claiming the election had been stolen. It has all gone too far. It has to stop.

Sterling said he worried someone was going to get hurt. In one instance, two election workers faced threats so intense they had to leave their homes and jobs. Today, Sterling says officials are more prepared. They've done lots of training, implemented new security measures. But Sterling told me they need to be on guard for situations they haven't even thought about. He says the reality is that the country is still stewing in misinformation. For example, Trump has so far declined to outright say he will accept the results of this election. Now you also spoke to some of Trump's supporters about how they're processing

this moment. What has stood out to you? When I worked the line outside a recent Trump rally in Atlanta, I met Tina McKay and Dory Walters, and I asked whether the violence at a Trump rally this summer made them hesitant about attending. I thought about it when it first happened. I thought, oh, how scary that would be. But when, as soon as I was able to get a ticket here, I didn't think twice of it. Yeah. I mean, I do fear for him because I do feel like he's got a huge target on his back.

The motives behind the assassination attempts remain unclear. Walters and McKay say they blame Democrats, not Trump, for spiking the political temperature. Both campaigns have described their opponents as grave threats, but it is Trump who talks about bypassing democratic norms and uses language laced with violent imagery, personal attacks, and incendiary claims and some of his harshest rhetoric has targeted immigrants. It wasn't that long ago. I was in metro Atlanta. I know that's home to a lot of immigrant communities.

How are they taking this campaign language? Yeah, I went to a democratic canvassing event at the Peachy Corners Cafe in this diverse suburb of Atlanta. For many immigrants, the rhetoric is not only inducing fear, but also shaping their vote. Tha Vinh came to the U.S. as a refugee from Cambodia

in 1980. He told me the welcoming spirit he felt then has since faded. But the current climate is actually making him more committed to going to the polls with his family. We want to make it a big deal. All the kids together. I want us as a family to like vote in a way that shows that we're part of this country.

He says this election is not only about a choice for president, it's about asserting he belongs in the country where he found refuge. W-A-B-E's Sam Greenglass in Atlanta. Sam, good to talk to you again. Thanks, A. Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon is recommending that the Menendez brothers be re-sentenced and released from prison. Eric and Lyle Menendez were convicted of killing their parents in Beverly Hills in 1989. The trial was televised and drew international attention.

It also inspired a number of films, TV series, and documentaries. Frank Stoltz is a civics and democracy correspondent for LAist. He's been following the developments. Frank, first remind us about this case. What was it all about? Sure, Eric Menendez was 18 years old and his brother Lyle was 21 when they killed their parents with shotguns

as they were watching TV one night. At first, police believed their story that intruders committed the crime, that they merely came home and found their parents dead. But when the brothers went on a lavish spending spree with their parents' money, buying a Rolex watch and Porsche car, investigators became suspicious. They ended up arresting them for the killings. Their case burst back into the spotlight this year when it was the subject of a documentary and of a crime drama by Ryan Murphy on Netflix. Now, the Menendez brothers filed a petition about their case in 2023, citing new evidence

that contributed to this decision. What was that new evidence? Yes, there was new evidence supporting the allegation of sexual abuse by their father that Gascon had been reviewing. Some of that came to light in a Peacock documentary from 2023. In it Roy Rossello, a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, made his own allegation which was taken to help corroborate the Menendez brothers' accusations. And around the same time, A, there was also the revelation of a letter from Eric

Menendez to a cousin documenting the alleged abuse. All along the brothers have said they did it because of their father's sexual abuse of them and the fear that their father was going to kill them. While not condoning the murder, Gascon said it's important to understand the brother's desperation as victims of their father's sexual abuse. They have been in prison for nearly 35 years.

I believe that they have paid their debt to society. Gascon is recommending the brothers be immediately eligible for parole. Because they committed the crimes when they were under 26 years old, California's youthful offender law would make them immediately eligible for parole if they get resentenced. So what a turn of events there. Was this a surprising move by George Gascon? No, not at all. George Gascon is one of the nation's most progressive prosecutors. He sought the resentencing of more than 300 people during his four years in office. Gascon did note that not everyone in his office agreed with his decision. Some believed the brothers should remain in prison.

What about reaction from the Menendez family? Well, about a half a dozen of them were at the press conference and thanked Gascon, from the Menendez family? Well, about a half a dozen of them were at the press conference and thanked Gascon, including the Menendez cousin, Joan VanderMulen. This decision is not just a legal matter. It is a recognition of the abuse my cousins endured. Not all members of the Menendez family want to see the brothers, now 53 and 56 years old, released. Their mother's brother Milton Anderson wants them to stay in prison. His attorney described the brothers' act as, quote, cold-blooded murder. A judge will decide whether to re-sentence the brothers and a parole board will decide whether they'll be released, and all of that, A, could take months. All right. That's Frank Stoltz of member station, LAist in Los Angeles.

Frank, thanks. Thank you. Today in Arizona, President Biden is set to make a formal apology for the federal government's Native American boarding schools. For more than a century, indigenous children were removed from their families and prohibited from speaking their

native languages. Many were abused and more than 900 died while attending boarding schools. It's an important piece of our history that every single American should know about. It's a painful part of our history. That's Deb Holland, the first Native American

Interior Secretary. She'll be with President Biden today and recently wrapped up a multi-state boarding school's healing tour. Her stated priority in this role is to right the government's historic wrongs in Indian country. I feel that we've done an excellent job of lifting up Indian affairs and making sure that like across the board, it's important to our entire department.

During her tenure, the Biden administration has made a $45 billion investment in Indian country for everything from clean water to schools to bringing electricity to homes that still don't have it. Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin says Holland has raised the bar such

that future presidents will appoint leaders who empower Indian country and not ignore it. I think overall we're on a path of progress in this country that is beyond party lines. Holland has faced criticism in the last four years and admits that she can't be all things to all 574 federally recognized tribes. But she says that this administration has changed native people's lives for the better, no matter who is in charge next. And that's Up First for Friday, October 25th.

I'm Ami Martinez. Don't forget, Up First airs on the weekend too. Ayesha Roscoe and Scott Simon have all the news. It'll be right here in this feed or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Roberta Ramdon, Padma Rama, Denise Rios, Lisa Thompson, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Paige Waterhouse, Nia Dumas, and Katie Klein. We get engineering support from Patrick Murray and our technical director is Zach Coleman. Join us again and on Monday. Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks?

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