Donald Trump questions Kamala Harris' racial identity | The Excerpt
On Thursday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Former President Donald Trump, during an appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists Annual Convention, questioned Kamala Harris' racial identity. Harris said it was the "same old show." President Joe Biden’s new Title IX rules are all set to take effect Thursday. But not everywhere. USA TODAY Education and Breaking News Reporter Zach Schermele explains. Firefighters battle massive wildfires in California and Colorado. USA TODAY Health Reporter Karen Weintraub discusses the ALS ice bucket challenge ten years later, and why it's making a comeback. Swimmer Katie Ledecky goes for more history at the Paris Olympics.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Thursday, August 1st, 2024. This is The Excerpt.
Today, Donald Trump questions Kamala Harris's racial identity. Plus, the latest on new Title IX rules. And the Ice Bucket Challenge makes a return.
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Republican 2024 presidential nominee, Donald Trump, made a combative appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists Annual Convention yesterday. There he questioned Vice President Kamala Harris's racial identity. At one point he was asked whether he believes Harris is on the Democratic ticket because she's a Black woman. Harris is on track to face Trump as the likely Democratic presidential nominee. Trump responded as follows.
Donald Trump:
She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?
Rachel Scott:
She has always identified as a Black woman. She went to an historically Black college.
Donald Trump:
But you know what? I respect either one. But she obviously doesn't.
Taylor Wilson:
Trump's sat for a 30-minute wide-ranging Q&A where he touched on a number of key issues important to the Black community, including Sonya Massey, the Black woman who was fatally shot by an Illinois Sheriff's Deputy earlier this month, along with abortion access and why he chose Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate.
The former President's appearance at NABJ sparked widespread backlash from some of those attending the convention, expressing an array of concerns over Trump's comments about the Black community and attacks against the media. Harris responded to Trump's comments during remarks in Houston saying, "It was the same old show; the divisiveness and the disrespect."
Kamala Harris:
The American people deserve better. The American people deserve better. The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth, a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us.
Taylor Wilson:
Harris made the remarks while addressing a historically Black sorority; Sigma Gamma Rowe. Meanwhile, it's about to be official. Democrats will begin a virtual roll call today to vote Kamala Harris as the party's presumptive presidential nominee. Delegates then will have until the deadline on Monday at 6:00 PM Eastern Time to return their ballots.
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President Joe Biden's new Title IX Sex Discrimination Regulations are supposed to launch today, but legal issues are stalling a national rollout. I spoke with USA TODAY Education and Breaking News reporter, Zach Schermele for the latest.
It's always good to hear from you, Zach. Thanks for hopping on.
Zach Schermele:
Hey, Taylor. Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So Zach, what are the Biden administration's new anti-discrimination protections that become law today in parts of the country?
Zach Schermele:
These policies are part of the Biden administration's revisions of Title IX, which is a federal law that was passed in 1972 to protect people from discrimination based on sex and education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. It's kind of a mouthful, but these rules govern lots of problems related to sex and gender on college and K-12 school campuses from sexual misconduct. That includes sexual harassment and sexual violence, recruitment, athletic programs, hiring; all sorts of things.
And the law has become sort of a political football in recent years after the Trump administration revised it in a way that critics say, for years, has bolstered the rights of people accused of sexual assault on school campuses. When Joe Biden was running for President, for instance, he described his predecessor's version of the Title IX regulations as "a green light to ignore sexual violence and strip survivors of their rights."
Under the new policies, colleges and schools will be allowed to use a lower standard to find someone guilty of sexual misconduct. And another big part of Biden's version of the regulations, which were finalized in April, would officially codify protections for LGBTQ+ students and staff members by including sexual orientation and gender identity under that larger umbrella of what constitutes as sex-based misconduct. There are also some other protections that try to curb discrimination against pregnant students and parents too.
Taylor Wilson:
So the law has been stalled by legal challenges in some states. Why is this, Zach, and what's really the controversy here over the changes to Title IX?
Zach Schermele:
So there have been waves of what are called preliminary injunctions against Biden's version of the rules that have led to blocks on the regulations in roughly two dozen states. And that number, Taylor, it keeps growing and changing depending on the litigation, which has been really a challenge to keep up with. A lot of the judges are taking issue with the protections for LGBTQ+ students in particular.
In June, for instance, a federal judge in Kentucky banned the law in six states. He opened his court order with the phrase, "There are two sexes, male and female." Moms for Liberty, which is a far-right conservative group, succeeded in getting a judge to ban the regulation at the schools of the children of its members. So, Taylor, that's thousands of schools across the country, including in states where the larger rules haven't already been banned, and hundreds of additional colleges are affected here too.
Taylor Wilson:
And Zach, what are you hearing from students about these changes and really some of the confusion around their implementation?
Zach Schermele:
So schools, including K-12 ones and colleges and universities that receive funding from the federal government, they have to be compliant. In order to get the money from the federal government, they have to abide by their rules or they don't get the money. For that reason, schools have Title IX offices and they have Title IX coordinators who are supposed to help oversee implementation of the law on their campuses. And they've been in this kind of wait-and-see mode for years, Taylor, after the Trump administration reversed Obama-era Title IX rules, and then Biden said he planned to reverse his predecessor's. It's something I and a lot of people I talk to refer to as regulatory ping pong.
These people are scrambling right now. The government has given schools in parts of the country that aren't affected by a lot of this litigation, advice on what they should do to implement the law. But those other schools that are affected by all the court battles are still basically in limbo.
Taylor Wilson:
It's clear that this issue is not going away in terms of the courts. What's next for this looming Supreme Court decision, and what impact will that have on some of what we've been talking about?
Zach Schermele:
So the Supreme Court has set to decide on whether or not it's going to curb some of the bans that lower courts have placed on the regulations, but honestly, your guess is as good as mine as to when that decision is going to land. But you've got to remember, Taylor, Federal policies affect real people. I've talked to lots of LGBTQ+ students especially who have been waiting for these rules to take effect, people in parts of the country that really aren't so favorable to their identities and who they are. And this back and forth doesn't serve people like them at all.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Zach Schermele covers education and breaking news for USA TODAY, with an excellent breakdown for us as always. Thank you, Zach.
Zach Schermele:
Thanks, Taylor.
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Taylor Wilson:
Deadly wildfires spread over mountainous terrain as firefighters in Northern California battled the fifth-largest blaze in state history. More than 5,700 personnel were battling the park fire which has torched more than 600 square miles, an area larger than New York City. That comes as Colorado's Stone Canyon fire continues to spread. Colorado Governor Jared Polis told reporters yesterday afternoon that Boulder County authorities confirmed one fatality from the blaze and at least five homes have been destroyed as strong winds and dry heat hampered emergency responders' efforts.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said four firefighters were injured in the fire, which ignited Tuesday and threatened nearly 500 homes as well as roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure. Several fires across Northern and Central Colorado triggered waves of evacuation orders this week as they spread across more than 8,000 acres. You can follow along with more fire updates on usatoday.com.
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It is been 10 years since the creation of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. In the decade since, science has progressed around the illness, but the fatal prognosis remains. I spoke with USA TODAY Health reporter, Karen Weintraub for more.
Karen, thanks for hopping on.
Karen Weintraub:
Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So Karen, how did the Ice Bucket Challenge get started originally?
Karen Weintraub:
So three young guys who had ALS were talking, trying to figure out ways to raise money and raise awareness for their disease. And they were on the internet, cruising around, and they came across this example of a woman who had done an Ice Bucket Challenge to raise money for breast cancer. And they were like, "Hey, it worked for her, let's try it for us." And I think because they were so young, in their 30s and very active, very sporty, they also, because the sports people are familiar with dumping Gatorade on coaches heads, I guess people were looking for something fun, crazy to do. And it really caught on, truly, across the world.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah. And how has this challenge raised awareness and money for the fight against ALS in the years since?
Karen Weintraub:
In the short-term, it raised $159 million. You challenge somebody to take this. "I'll give you five bucks if you dump ice water on your head," that kind of thing. So they raised money that way. Most of it went to scientific research. They have some new drugs, two that have been approved, 80 that are under development now; treatments or drugs. New clinics have opened. They've doubled the number of clinics to help treat people. But we're still more or less in the same place with the disease in terms of mortality.
Taylor Wilson:
Nancy Frates, this mom, is now bringing the challenge back several years after her son's death. What's the latest here, Karen, and what are her goals here?
Karen Weintraub:
Her son unfortunately passed about five years ago now, and she wants to renew the enthusiasm and excitement and fundraising for this disease. What tends to happen with scientific research is it makes a lot of progress, but it needs more money to keep going. They really are on the cusp of a lot of advances, and more money will help them make those advances faster. So she is hoping to raise awareness and funds to keep going.
The other great thing that has happened because of the awareness 10 years ago is more scientists have entered the field. So there's a lot of great minds doing this work now, but again, they need money to keep going.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah. And Karen, I know, as you write in your piece, there's an event today at Fenway Park. Pete Frates was a big Red Sox fan himself, a college baseball player as well, and they'll be reconstructing an event at Fenway that they did when Pete was alive.
So Karen, you mentioned that we're on the cusp of some advancements for ALS. What's next for research going forward? What are the barriers that remain? Of course, funding is the big one. And can we see hope on the horizon for this really awful illness?
Karen Weintraub:
What Nancy told me is that now there is hope, where really when her son was diagnosed in 2012, there was no such thing as hope. He was just told, "Basically, you've got two to five years. Good luck." The challenge now is people seem to be living a little bit longer, but they're living longer at the end stage of this disease; when they need 24-hour care, they're on a ventilator, they need help swallowing and feeding and a tremendous amount of care. That's very expensive and obviously hugely draining emotionally, physically, financially on the family. So all of that takes a lot of money as well.
So the hope is to increase the scientific understanding of the disease. The better that scientists can understand a disease, the faster the treatments can evolve and advance. The hope is to turn this disease into a chronic disease. If they can't cure it, at least they can get closer to making it a long-term disease, keeping people alive longer and at earlier stages where they're more functional.
Taylor Wilson:
Karen Weintraub covers health for USA TODAY. Thank you, Karen.
Karen Weintraub:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
The Summer Olympics roll on today in Paris, and there are some unique medal rounds on tap for sports like kayaking and fencing, while the US Women's Basketball team will look to continue their dominance with a game against Belgium. And one of the Game's biggest stars, Katie Ledecky, is back in the pool joining her teammates in the swimming 4x200 freestyle relay. Ledecky has already won a pair of medals at the 2024 Games, a bronze in the 400-meter freestyle and gold in the 1500-meter freestyle. Ledecky has now earned 12 medals in her Olympic career, tied for the most Olympic medals in women's swimming. And her eight gold medals is tied for the most golds won by an American woman in any Olympic sport ever. You can follow along with more Olympics' coverage from USA TODAY Sports.
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Across the globe, populations are in precipitous decline. Here in the US, the fertility rate in 2023 hit a historic low according to the CDC. So what, if anything, can we do to fix it? Tune in today after 4:00 PM Eastern Time on this feed when Jennifer Sciubba, President and CEO of the nonprofit Population Reference Bureau joins me to share her insights.
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And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. Sarah Ganim is in for me the next couple of mornings, and I'll be back Monday with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump questions Kamala Harris' racial identity | The Excerpt