Intro

In the final week of the race for president, Donald J. Trump’s big rally in New York appeared to backfire, while Kamala Harris’s closing message cast her as a unifier. Fears about election interference also resurfaced after arsonists burned ballots in three states.

The Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Lisa Lerer, Shane Goldmacher and Astead Herndon try to make sense of it all.

Guest: 

• Lisa Lerer, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.
• Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.
• Astead W. Herndon, a national politics reporter and the host of the politics podcast “The Run-Up.”

Background reading: 

• Trump at the Garden: A closing carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism.
• Michelle Obama made a searing appeal to men: “Take our lives seriously.”
• Investigators have identified a “suspect vehicle” in the ballot drop box fires in the Pacific Northwest.

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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