--:-- [Upbeat music fades out, and the host, Tracy Mumford, speaks]
--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, October 25th. Here's what we're covering.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Donald Trump says that if he's elected, he will immediately fire Special Counsel Jack Smith, the prosecutor who's pursuing cases against him for allegedly plotting to overturn the 2020 election and illegally holding onto classified materials.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's so easy. I would fire him within two seconds. The former president made the comments in an interview with the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This is the first time that Trump has said he would step in to personally stop the cases, though it's been assumed the charges would be abandoned if he's elected.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They will impeach you again on day one if you fire Jack Smith or you pardon yourself. Are you prepared to be impeached again and again and again if they have the House? Because they just will.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: No, I don't think they'll impeach me if I fire Jack Smith. Trump also said he didn't think the House of Representatives would impeach him if he fires Smith, effectively daring the House to try.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Both of the federal cases against Trump are currently in legal limbo as the courts decide whether they can move forward. The Justice Department has said Smith is prepared to pursue them for as long as he has the legal authority to do so.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: As Trump continues his campaign, the Times has been looking at a think tank operating behind the scenes, laying the groundwork for what Trump's second term could look like.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The group, called America First Policy Institute, didn't even exist four years ago, but it's now worked to install itself as the Trump campaign's primary partner in making plans.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A similar right-wing playbook called Project 2025 from the Heritage Foundation has gotten a lot of scrutiny, but AFPI is poised to be more influential. Its top staff are actively advising Trump's team.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Institute policy book calls for among other things halting federal funding for Planned Parenthood and making ultrasounds mandatory before all abortions. Work requirements for Medicaid recipients and legally establishing only two genders.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It also proposes making all federal workers at-will employees, meaning they could then be fired for any reason, including defying Trump or speaking out on issues like climate change.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump supporters believe that will help them root out federal staffers who they feel stood in Trump's way during his first administration.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The head of AFPI says the group already has nearly 300 executive orders ready for Trump to sign. And as of this morning, the presidential race is locked in a dead heat.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A new poll out from The Times and Siena College shows Trump and Harris tied 48 to 48. This is the closest presidential race we've ever seen in modern history.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And in the past few weeks, it's gotten even tighter. Ruth Agelnik conducts and analyzes polls for The Times.
--:-- Ruth Agelnik: That said, even though it's neck and neck, Kamala Harris is up with undecided and persuadable voters over where she was a couple weeks ago.
--:-- Ruth Agelnik: This is a highly volatile group that's leaned in either direction. And right now, these undecided and persuadable voters are leaning slightly towards Kamala Harris.
--:-- Ruth Agelnik: But the bright spot for Trump is he is still leading on who voters trust to handle the economy and on immigration, which is sort of an increasingly important issue to voters as he finishes out this campaign.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm heading to do something that should have been done a long time ago. Make a formal apology to the Indian nation for the way we treated their children for so many years.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Today in Arizona, President Biden will formally apologize for the federal government's role in running boarding schools for Native American children.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It will be the first time an American president has apologized for what happened. From the early 1800s until the late 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Native American kids were sent to the schools, many of them after being forcibly removed from their homes.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The schools were established by the government to break the children's ties to their tribes, and they were forced to convert to Christianity and punish for speaking their native languages.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The schools were also violent, dangerous places. Children were physically and sexually abused, and nearly 1,000 died at the schools, according to the federal government.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Biden will make the formal apology at the Gila River Indian community. It's the only visit to a Native American reservation that Biden has made as president, and it comes as Democrats are trying to win over Native American voters, including in the battleground state of Arizona.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Biden will be joined by his Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, whose own family members were sent to boarding schools.
--:-- Deb Haaland: Ahead of the visit, I said, "For decades, this terrible chapter was hidden from our history books. But now our administration's work will ensure no one will ever forget."
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In California yesterday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney, George Gascon, said he would ask for Lyle and Eric Menendez to be resentenced, opening the door for their release from prison more than three decades after they were convicted of killing their parents in a case that captured the country's attention.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: There is no excuse for murder, but I understand also how sometimes people get desperate, and I do believe that the brothers were subjected to a tremendous amount of dysfunction in the home and molestation.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Prosecutors said they murdered their parents with shotguns to get their multi-million dollar fortune. Lawyers for the brothers said they'd been sexually abused by their father and feared for their lives.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But their story was dismissed by some as, quote, "an abuse excuse." And the judge excluded most of those details from the trial that ended in their convictions.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In the years since, new evidence about their abuse has emerged, and there's been an outpouring of support for the brothers after a series of documentaries about the case came out, including a Netflix show featuring interviews with them from prison.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Gascon says he'll ask for the brothers' life sentences to be downgraded to include the possibility of parole.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The request will have to be signed off by a judge, and a parole board would eventually make the final decision about whether they should be released from prison.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, the World Series starts tonight in Los Angeles. The Dodgers will face the New York Yankees.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And it is a super rare matchup because two of the league's superstars will be in the same World Series. The Dodgers' Shohei Otani and the Yankees' Aaron Judge.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They are two of the biggest names in baseball. They're both likely MVPs. They're both home-run champions.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This kind of showdown just does not happen in the sport. Tickets to the series are on track to be the most expensive in recent history.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Earlier this week, the average price of a ticket on resale was over $1,600. But there is one thing that that pricey ticket will not get you.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Mascots. Neither the Dodgers or the Yankees have one. They're the only teams in the league that don't.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So there will be no oversized fuzzy birds taunting each other, no breakdancing furry monsters. You are just going to have to watch the game.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, how Pennsylvania, the place where Trump and Harris have now spent more money than anywhere else, became the crucial state to win.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This show is made by Robert Jemison, Jessica Metzger, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford, with help from Isabella Anderson.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Larissa Anderson, Jacob Judah, Jake Lucas, Zoe Murphy, and Paula Schumann.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The headlines will be back on Monday.
