A Confounding Question: Understanding Sacrifice

Warning: this episode contains strong language.

With less than two weeks to go in the race for the presidency, Donald Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff is warning that he met the definition of a fascist, Kamala Harris is seizing on the message of Mr. Trump as a threat to democracy and Mr. Trump himself is relying on viral stunts and vulgarity to break through to undecided voters.

The Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Michael S. Schmidt, Lisa Lerer, Reid J. Epstein and Nate Cohn try to make sense of it all.

Guests: 

• Michael S. Schmidt, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, covering Washington
• Lisa Lerer, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.
• Reid J. Epstein, a New York Times reporter covering politics.
• Nate Cohn, the chief political analyst for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• John Kelly, the Trump White House’s longest-serving chief of staff, said that he believed that Donald Trump met the definition of a fascist.
• Harris called Mr. Trump’s reported remarks on Hitler and Nazis “deeply troubling.”
• A look at the polls: A slight shift toward Mr. Trump but still no clear favorite.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

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