Politics

(Los Angeles Times photo illustration; Photos by Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times) As she runs the most truncated presidential campaign in modern American history, Vice President Kamala Harris has made lofty promises on issues that polls show voters care most about: the economy, abortion, gun policy and immigration. Since President Biden dropped out of … Read more

In many ways, Texas is the center of red-state America. Unlike several Western states, it remains solidly Republican at the presidential level. (Brandon Bell / Getty Images) Over the last 20 years, the West has politically transformed. The onetime Republican stronghold has become a Democratic bastion, dramatically reshaping the fight for the White House as … Read more

Brandon Baker, center and Prescott McKenzie, right, take cover from flying embers during a brush fire in Ventura in December 2017. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) The former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security claims in a political ad released Monday that President Trump tried to withhold disaster relief money for … Read more

San Francisco’s new district attorney Kamala Harris in 2004. (Jay and Ani / For the Times) Editor’s note: Kamala Harris announced her run for president on Monday. Here’s more background on the candidate in an article published in The Times on Oct. 24, 2004. The girl on the witness stand was a 14-year-old runaway with … Read more

It’s not unusual for people to look for political laughs during a combative presidential campaign. What is unusual about the 2004 race is where they looked — the Internet. From the commander in chief cartwheeling with a pink bow on his head to Sens. John F. Kerry and John Edwards exchanging teen-lust glances, satiric images … Read more

A demonstrator in Jerusalem waves an Israeli flag smudged with red coloring during a protest this week against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government’s overhaul of the judicial system. (Ariel Schalit / Associated Press) Full-page ads in solid black covered the fronts of Israel’s major newspapers Tuesday. Doctors walked out on strike, and the Israeli … Read more

Republican Party officials on Tuesday denied they were trying to send a subliminal message by inserting the word “rats” for a nearly invisible split-second in a recent television advertisement criticizing Al Gore’s Medicare plan. The 30-second commercial ends with the words, “The Gore prescription plan: Bureaucrats decide,” in white lettering on a black screen. In … Read more

I spent the week talking to a few impassioned people who want to warn us about an evil spirit behind one of the propositions on the March ballot. The initiative has a lucky-sounding number–21. And it has a neutral name–”Juvenile Crime.” But a few activists in Orange County say it’s a sinister proposal that would … Read more

Exclusive: Biden has quietly deployed an app for asylum seekers. Privacy experts are worried Facing a backup of tens of thousands of migrants stranded at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Biden administration is betting on a technological fix: a mobile app. In recent weeks, U.S. border officials have taken an unprecedented step, quietly deploying a new … Read more

Waving a hurried farewell from the steps of a military transport plane, the man whose starched white shirt, cufflinks and desert boots embodied Western authority in Iraq brought the United States’ experiment in occupation to an abrupt end last week. L. Paul Bremer III, the civilian administrator for Iraq, left without even giving a final … Read more