LEILA FADEL, HOST:
There are less than 90 days until the November election, and it feels like the campaign is in full force.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
For the first time since Vice President Harris announced her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, her opponent former President Donald Trump spoke in a news conference. It was rambling and chaotic. Meanwhile, Harris and Walz continued their debut tour with a stop in the battleground state of Michigan.
FADEL: For more on Trump and Harris' latest appearances, NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is with us. Hi, Danielle.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning.
FADEL: Good morning. So let's start with Trump's press conference yesterday. What did we learn from it?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, the main news we learned from it is that Trump is now open to doing three debates with Kamala Harris. Now, that comes after weeks of waffling about whether he would debate her at all. Now, he named three dates in September on which he would debate and three networks, ABC News, NBC News and Fox News. Shortly after he said this, Harris said she would do the September 10 debate on ABC. Now, Trump had backed out of that previously. And she also told reporters she's open to other debates, but she didn't commit to anything.
FADEL: And Trump took questions for nearly an hour. What kind of things did reporters ask him?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, this was rambling and chaotic, yes, so I can't really get to everything here. But I'm going to hit on a few things. He got to a lot of topics that we had all in the press corps been wondering about for the last few weeks. Now, one is his comments that Harris only recently started saying she was Black. Now, a reporter asked, how is that true? She went to a historically Black university.
FADEL: Right.
KURTZLEBEN: He didn't seem to want to answer. He said repeatedly, you'll have to ask her. Now, another reporter asked how he feels about Harris' recent large crowds. That really seemed to get under his skin.
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DONALD TRUMP: Oh, give me a break.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: Listen. I had 107,000 people in New Jersey. You didn't report it. I'm so glad you asked. What did she have yesterday, 2,000 people? If I ever had 2,000 people, you'd say my campaign is finished.
KURTZLEBEN: Now, a quick fact check. That New Jersey rally, it really was big. But the idea that it was 100,000 has been fact-checked. It does seem to be too high.
FADEL: Yeah.
KURTZLEBEN: But again, you can hear there he seemed quite angry. One other thing is he was asked about abortion, if his FDA would revoke access to mifepristone, one of the drugs used in medication abortions. He indicated he was open to it. Now, even by Trump's standards, really what I'm saying is, he was evasive and unclear and pretty combative.
FADEL: So that's what the press wanted to know. What did Trump seem to want to get out of this press conference?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, a few things - first of all, to say that he would do the debates, now, second, to slam Harris and Tim Walz, to say that they're too liberal. He said a couple of times he doesn't think it's fair to run against her since Biden was the one running in the primary. And he also slammed her for not doing enough press interviews, which has become a widespread criticism among Republicans of Harris. Now, he took that a bit further. He had some pretty ugly criticisms, multiple times saying she isn't intelligent. At one point, he said she's, quote, "not smart enough to do a news conference." So the bottom line seems to be that Harris and Walz have gotten so much attention, he just wanted some for himself.
FADEL: So Harris, meanwhile, along with Walz, made an appearance in Detroit with the UAW labor union. What did she say?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, she thanked them for their endorsement. She talked a lot about how unions are great, they create fairness. Now, what's striking is just that she and Walz just seem to be putting out this positive message, which really seems to be what they're leaning into since she is the new candidate at a time when many American voters were just exhausted by Biden and Trump.
FADEL: That's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks, Danielle.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you.
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FADEL: Today marks 10 years since the death of Michael Brown Jr. The 18-year-old Black man was shot dead in Ferguson, Mo., in a confrontation with a white police officer, Darren Wilson. His name became a rallying cry for a protest movement in the St. Louis area that lasted for more than a year.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) What's his name?
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Mike Brown.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) What's his name?
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Mike Brown.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) Hands up.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Don't shoot.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) Hands up.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Don't shoot.
FADEL: Those protesters demanded a change in how police treat people, especially Black people. And, of course, Michel has been in St. Louis all week asking people a really key question, has there been change? So, Michel, has there?
MARTIN: Yeah, Leila, and while I was here, I moderated a panel discussion hosted by St. Louis Public Rdio. It included government leaders, like the Ferguson police chief and the city's mayor, and also veterans of the protest movement. But most important, Leila, there were people from the community. And from what they told us, many people felt that there had been improvement. For example, elder Annette Jenkins said at the event that she's a 30-year resident of Ferguson. And she praised Ella Jones, who's the city's first Black mayor and also the first woman mayor, and the Ferguson police chief, Troy Doyle, whom Ella Jones helped recruit.
ANNETTE JENKINS: You just cannot blame the police that's here now. This stuff started back way when. He's doing a amazing thing, and I'm going to speak my mind. So, Chief, Mayor, keep on doing what you're doing.
MARTIN: And Chief Doyle talked about hiring more Black officers and more women officers. He said most of the force is new. And he also said he's working on a culture change. He's even changed the look of the uniforms and the police cars, since he told us that the site of the old ones was so triggering to people.
FADEL: OK, so that's what's changed. The Department of Justice found systemic problems, though, that the Ferguson Police Department had a pattern of discriminating against Black people. Did those findings have an impact on the way police treat the residents they're tasked with protecting?
MARTIN: Yeah, so what you're talking about here, Leila, is that the Ferguson Police Department entered into a consent decree with the DOJ...
FADEL: Right.
MARTIN: ...To change their training and practices. Chief Doyle says they're slowly coming into compliance. He said when he took over the department a year ago, officers saw the consent decree as punishment. But he's trying to make the case that what it's really doing is bringing in best practices. Now, another issue the DOJ report really brought to national attention was something that local advocates had been fighting for years, which was the city's reliance on the police to generate revenue from fines and fees. I talked to Blake Strode about this. He's the executive director of ArchCity Defenders. The easiest way to describe it is like a nonprofit law firm. He says that that practice of ticketing people for every little thing and then escalating the fines if they couldn't pay, even refusing payment plans to allow people to pay over time, he says that's been a problem all over the St. Louis region. But he says it is getting better.
BLAKE STRODE: Municipal court revenues in 2013, just in the St. Louis region, were over $60 million. In 2023, that figure is $17.8 million. So that's a huge decrease over a decade. You're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars not being extracted disproportionately out of poor Black communities.
MARTIN: I want to say something that's a pain point here. The DOJ report, which was produced after extensive investigation under the Obama Justice Department, contradicts some of what people first believed, and a lot of people here still seem to believe, about exactly what happened the night Michael Brown died. The DOJ report says that the evidence supports that Brown did reach for Officer Darren Wilson's gun, that there was a scuffle for it and he did not have his hands up when he was shot. As I said, a lot of people don't accept the findings of the DOJ report, but even people who do acknowledge that this underlying culture of heavy-handed policing, which was more about money than safety, had to be exposed.
FADEL: So 10 years, some of the underlying issues that led to the protests are being worked on. What's next for Ferguson?
MARTIN: Well, there's a big focus on job development, especially for young people. Here's how Henry Jones, Ollie Brown and Willy Powell put it. We met them at a park in Ferguson.
OLLIE BROWN: Some young guys and these young kids be right here where we are. But a majority of the time, we watch them. And we're watching them like a train out of control.
HENRY JONES: They just got it in their head they want to be a gangster, you know?
WILLY POWELL: Right. The police can't change it. It got to start from home first.
BROWN: Got to start from home.
MARTIN: So unfinished business, more to do and a sense of empowerment that some things can get done.
FADEL: All right. Thanks for bringing this to us, Michel.
MARTIN: Thank you.
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FADEL: To Paris next, where the Olympics are in the final days.
MARTIN: Last night, there was triumph for the U.S. in track and field, including three gold medals and a stunning new world record. But it was also a night when COVID reared its ugly head at the Summer Games. And the U.S. basketball team, packed with all those NBA stars, flirted with disaster against Serbia.
FADEL: NPR's Brian Mann is at the Games in Paris. Hi, Brian.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Hi, Leila.
FADEL: OK, so let's start with American sprinter Noah Lyles. He was hoping for a historic finish in the 200-meter final. What happened?
MANN: Yeah, this did not go as Noah Lyles planned. He calls himself the fastest man on Earth and triumphed Sunday in the 100-meter sprint. So last night, he was hoping to win what's known as the Olympic sprint double, taking gold in the 100 and the 200. Leila, only nine men have ever done this before. But right from the start, it was clear something was wrong. Lyles never hit his stride. We saw none of that power and speed he's famous for, and then he collapsed at the end of the run. He had to be helped off the field. And U.S. Track & Field later confirmed that Lyles tested positive for COVID ahead of the race. The man who took gold, Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, said after the race that it was clear something was off with Lyles.
LETSILE TEBOGO: I didn't want to make assumptions of what he could be going through, but I thought maybe just one of those days when he's not having a great day. So I didn't think of COVID.
MANN: U.S. Track & Field says it was Lyles' choice to run. He ended up with bronze and American Kenny Bednarek took silver.
FADEL: So when I covered the Olympics in Tokyo three years ago, it felt like everyone was getting taken down by COVID, isolated, not to mention the rules, the constant testing. Is this the first time COVID has impacted these Olympics?
MANN: You know, we have seen COVID pop up here and there. A top British swimmer, Adam Peaty, got sick. He also competed, but said it affected his performance. So COVID hasn't reshaped these Games the way it did Tokyo and Beijing, but it's definitely here. And there just aren't special COVID rules here. These athletes are allowed to decide whether or not to compete.
FADEL: OK, the U.S. still had a big night on the track, a bunch of gold medals. Tell us about the world record set last night.
MANN: Yeah, this was big. I was in Eugene, Ore., a couple of months ago when Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone set a world record in the women's 400-meter hurdles. And then last night, on the biggest possible stage, she did it again. Gliding over the hurdles, she broke away from the other runners and again shattered her own world record.
SYDNEY MCLAUGHLIN-LEVRONE: I just always want to continue to try to improve and figure out ways to just continue getting better.
MANN: McLaughlin-Levrone won by a second and a half. That's just bonkers. She's already single-handedly redefined this race, pushing the speed faster and faster. And, Leila, the U.S. now has more than a hundred medals in these Olympic Games with three days of competition to go.
FADEL: OK, we have to talk about that big scare on the basketball court last night. The latest version of the American dream team nearly lost to Serbia. What happened?
MANN: Yeah, the U.S. team is stacked with NBA talent, but they've been erratic in pre-Olympic warm-up games and throughout this tournament in Paris. Last night, they showed all those weaknesses. Their shooting was off. They had shaky defense and a lot of turnovers. The final quarter opened with the U.S. down 17 points. And remember, the Serbian team also has NBA players, so a comeback was not a sure thing. But Steph Curry wound up with a huge night. He really carried them, 36 points. The U.S. eked out this narrow 4-point win. They'll now move on to play host country France - that's tomorrow night - for the gold medal.
FADEL: NPR's Brian Mann in Paris. Thank you, Brian.
MANN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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