It’s Wednesday, October 16, and this is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Coming up: terror funders in Canada and Europe; Emily Oster on the crisis among our boys; Suzy Weiss on “Nobody Wants This”; and more. But first, Rupa Subramanya reports on the fight for a crucial demographic ahead of election day.
With fewer than three weeks until the 2024 election and polls showing a dead heat between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, the two candidates are trying to woo every single swing-state voter in every major demographic to eke out a win.
For Harris, the latest focus is black men, whose waning support could cost the vice president the election. (In 2020, 85 percent of black men said they would support Biden, but only 70 percent said they would vote for Harris this year.) Last Thursday, former president Obama lambasted them for not “feeling the idea of having a woman as president” and accusing them of “coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”
This week, Harris opted for the carrot rather than the stick, with an “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men” that would surely have been criticized as patronizing were it a Trump initiative. It includes “1 million loans that are fully forgivable to Black entrepreneurs,” protections for cryptocurrency investments, and “legalizing recreational marijuana and creating opportunities for Black Americans to succeed in this new industry.”
Trump, meanwhile, is addressing a vulnerability of his own: women. The fact he was found by a jury to be liable for sexual abuse last year and appointed a Supreme Court that led to the fall of Roe v. Wade, making abortion access a key issue for women this election, has clearly not helped his case. Now, more than ever, he’s flailing with white women, who make up nearly 41 percent of registered voters.
In 2016, white women helped him beat Hillary Clinton by six points. Though Trump lost in 2020, he still won with white women against Joe Biden by seven points. But now, polling shows Trump has only a one-point lead over Harris with white women. In fact, Trump is doing worse than any other Republican candidate this century among this demographic. (And he’s faring even worse with young women, as Rachel Janfaza reported for The Free Press earlier this week.)
Trump is trying to change that with a town hall in Georgia (being broadcast today) addressing “issues impacting women ahead of the election.”
But his outreach might come too late. In our lead story today, Rupa Subramanya meets the women who should alarm Trump most. The ones who supported the former president in 2016 and 2020, but now have buyer’s remorse—and have decided to vote for Harris to atone for their “mistake.” Amy Tarkanian of Nevada, a former Trump delegate, is one such penitent. She told Rupa her breaking point was January 6. His “lack of response to that event to this day” still has her riled, she said, as well as the fact “he continues to spew the lies of the election being stolen.”
Meanwhile, Stephania Messina, 39, from Michigan, made a confession to Rupa: “I am part of the reason we’re in this divisive mess today, because I voted for him,” she said. “My vote caused harm and I really believe I need to make amends.”
Read Rupa’s report on “The White Women Who Regret Voting for Trump.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly implied that Trump beat Joe Biden in 2020. In fact, he won the white female vote that year, but lost the election.
And now, two stories about terrorism and who’s funding it. . .
Since the October 7 massacre, a small “charity” registered in Canada has co-sponsored a divestment rally at Princeton, taught an “Abolish Imperialism” lecture at Harvard Law School and, most infamously, led a “Palestinian Resistance 101” teach-in at Columbia University that resulted in the suspension of multiple student organizers who used the event to “promote the use of terror or violence.”
But on Tuesday, the U.S. and Canadian governments confirmed what should have been obvious. Samidoun is not a charity at all. Rather, it’s a group “that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization,” according to a press release issued Tuesday by the Treasury Department.
Read Eli Lake and Danielle Shapiro: “The U.S. and Canada Label Terror Fundraiser a ‘Sham Charity’.”
Meanwhile, a new report shared exclusively with The Free Press identifies an extensive network of Hamas-affiliated officials and activities throughout Europe. The European Leadership Network, a nonprofit pro-Israel advocacy group, details at least a dozen individuals in five countries, such as the UK and Germany, who use seemingly innocuous charities to line the pockets of Hamas.
“Most of the world has absolutely no idea what is taking place right beneath their noses,” Mark Sachs, a U.S.-based director of the European Leadership Network, told The Free Press’s Olivia Reingold.
He’s referring to people like Mohammad Hannoun, a 62-year-old Jordan native living in Genoa, Italy, who has sent at least $4 million to Hamas over the past decade via the Charity Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Read Olivia’s piece, “How Hamas Infiltrated Europe.”
In Episode Five of Raising Parents, Emily Oster Asks: Are Boys Being Left Behind?
From the moment the pregnancy test turns positive, parents anxiously anticipate their child’s future. But those who see blue when cutting into their gender-reveal cake have extra reason to fret. In advanced countries, being male increasingly means you’re more likely to fail.
By age 5, there’s a 14-percent gap in school readiness between girls and boys. In the average school district, boys are nearly a grade level behind their female peers in English. Men today earn only 42 percent of degrees in higher education. And the risk of suicide, which has risen among men by 40 percent since 2010, is four times higher for males than females.
Today: Why are boys and men falling behind? Why are some experts so worried about this? And what is at stake for our families, our society, our economy, and the future of boys everywhere?
Click play below, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, to listen to Emily Oster unpack all this and more.
Calling all New York Free Pressers: Our next book club is this month in Manhattan!
British journalist Brendan O’Neill is joining The Free Press’s Michael Moynihan to discuss his new book on how the West failed the moral test of October 7.
For the last year, Israel has been subjected to extreme—and extremely vicious—rhetoric from leftists across the West. As Brendan writes in After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation, “October 8, 2023, ought to have been a day of shining moral clarity for humankind.” Instead, what we saw was “ ‘victim-blaming’ par excellence.” Now the American left is doing “Hezbollah’s bidding on the streets of our cities.”
Michael will host a live conversation with Brendan at Maxwell Social in Tribeca, at 7 p.m. on October 30, followed by an audience discussion and drinks. For a chance to mingle with other Free Press readers—and to meet some of our team—reserve your ticket today by clicking here.
On Monday, the Biden administration sent a letter to Israel demanding they improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza within 30 days or jeopardize the supply of U.S. weapons. The U.S. demanded “humanitarian pauses” for at least four months to allow aid to get through and for Israel to announce it has no policy of “forced evacuation of civilians from northern to southern Gaza.” Israel has denied it is implementing a policy of forced evacuations, or that it is hampering aid supplies.
More from the campaign trail: Donald Trump turned a town hall event in Pennsylvania into a dance party on Monday night. After a pause in proceedings because of several medical emergencies, the former president decided to play some of his favorite tunes rather than take any further questions. Which is about right for this “vibes-based” election. Who wants to hear about fracking policy when they could be bopping to “Nessun Dorma”? Meanwhile, Tim Walz attacked J.D. Vance for being “a venture capitalist cosplaying as a cowboy.” He boasted: “I don’t even know what a venture capitalist does.” And that’s supposed to make me think you’re more qualified to help run the country? As for Kamala Harris, she’s reportedly considering an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Could it get weird? Yes. Should she still do it? Also yes.
But what about the state of the race? According to Nate Silver’s election model, Trump has a 49.7 percent chance of victory, while Harris has a 50.1 percent chance of victory. Tl;dr: It’s close!
Americans’ trust in the media has plunged to a new low, according to Gallup. Just 31 percent of respondents said they either had a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of trust in mass media; 33 percent said they had “not very much” trust in mass media; and 36 percent said they had “no trust at all” in mass media. This bleak picture is often presented as a crisis of trust, when really it’s a crisis of trustworthiness. (Help us build a better alternative by becoming a Free Press subscriber today.)
Canada expelled six Indian diplomats and other officials Monday in relation to the murder of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil last year. India retaliated, expelling six Canadian diplomats. “We will never tolerate the involvement of a foreign government threatening and killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil, a deeply unacceptable violation of Canada’s sovereignty and of international law,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
Your periodic reminder that America—and, in particular, the American economy—rocks comes courtesy of The Economist’s comparison of the United States with other mature countries. One crazy stat: “On a per-person basis, American economic output is now about 40 percent higher than in western Europe and Canada, and 60 percent higher than in Japan—roughly twice as large as the gaps between them in 1990.” Another: “In 1990 America accounted for about two-fifths of the overall GDP of the G7 group of advanced countries; today it is up to about half.” Okay, one more: “Since the start of 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic, America’s real growth has been 10 percent, three times the average for the rest of the G7 countries.”
Lufthansa has been fined $4 million by the Transportation Department for discriminating against 128 Jewish passengers by stopping them from making a connecting flight in Frankfurt in 2022. They were on their way from New York to Budapest for an event in honor of an Orthodox rabbi when a Lufthansa captain reported misbehavior by a group of passengers after the first leg of the flight. Right away, without evidence, the airline put a hold on 128 passengers wearing Orthodox Jewish clothing. The fine is the largest issued against an airline for civil rights violations.
In Defense of the Hot Rabbi
Netflix’s newest chart-topper Nobody Wants This is a 10-episode romantic comedy featuring a sex podcaster, Joanne (Kristen Bell), who falls in love with a rabbi, Noah (Adam Brody). What’s not to like? Quite a lot, according to some humorless reviewers. They have accused the show of dealing in stereotypes, particularly when it comes to the Jewish characters, who come off as insufferable “nags” and “harpies” as they gripe about Noah getting together with a shiksa.
But Suzy Weiss disagrees. She found the series to be a refreshingly accessible rom-com, a “real, fresh comedy that makes Jews out to be funny, normal, and loving.” Suzy writes: “The worst thing about the Jewish women in the show, namely Noah’s sister-in-law Esther, is that they are loud and loyal to a fault. To which I say, no comment.”
Read Suzy’s piece “In Defense of the Hot Rabbi.”
Madeleine Kearns is an associate editor for The Free Press. Follow her on X @madeleinekearns.
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