Trump & Harris Appearances, Ferguson 10 Years Later, Olympic Track Night

0:01The U.S. presidential campaign is going full force. Vice President Harris is touring swing states and former President Trump spoke for the first time since Minnesota Governor Tim Walz joined the Democratic ticket. With less than 90 days until the election, how's the race shaping up? I'm Michelle Martin, that's Leila Faddle, and this is Up First from NPR News. Today marks 10 years since the death of Michael Brown Jr. The 18-year-old was killed in Ferguson, Missouri in a confrontation with a police officer. His death set off protests against police violence across the country.

0:36Ten years later, what's changed in Ferguson? And it was another big track and field night at the Paris Olympics with three gold medals for the U.S. I just always want to continue to try to improve and figure out ways to just continue getting better. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

1:04that Walmart is one of Fortune's 100 best companies to work for in 2025? It's no surprise. Walmart is investing$1 billion in training and development to help associates build lasting careers with or without a degree. In fact, 75 % of Walmart management started in hourly roles. With benefits like health care, paid parental leave, and tuition support, Walmart isn't just a place to work. It's a place to grow. Learn more at walmart.com slash spark. There are less than 90 days until the November election, and it feels like the campaign is in full force. For the first time since Vice President Harris announced her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, her opponent, former President Donald Trump, spoke at a news conference.

1:51It was rambling and chaotic. Meanwhile, Harris and Walz continued their debut tour with a stop in the battleground state of Michigan. For more on Trump and Harris' latest appearances, NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is with us. Hi, Danielle. Hey, good morning. Good morning. So let's start with Trump's press conference yesterday. What did we learn from it? 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.

2:27Shortly after he said this, Harris said she would do the September 10th 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. And Trump took questions for nearly an hour. What kind of things did reporters ask him? 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.

3:02Now, a reporter asked, how is that true? She went to a historically black university. 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's recent large crowds. That really seemed to get under his skin. Oh, give me a break. 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. 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.

3:37It does seem to be too high. 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. So that's what the press wanted to know. What did Trump seem to want to get out of this press conference? 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.

4:12He 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 Walls have gotten so much attention he just wanted some for himself. So Harris, meanwhile, along with Walls, made an appearance in Detroit with the UAW Labor Union.

4:49What did she say? 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 Walls 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. That's NPR's Danielle Kurt Sleven. Thanks, Danielle. Thank you.

5:19Today marks 10 years since the death of Michael Brown Jr. The 18-year-old black man was shot dead in Ferguson, Missouri 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. Mike Brown! What's his name? Mike Brown! What's his name? Mike Brown! Hands up! Don't shoot! Those protesters demanded a change in how police treat people, especially black people. And of course, Michelle has been in St. Louis all week asking people a really key question. Has there been change? So Michelle has there.

5:55Yeah, Layla. And while I was here, I moderated a panel discussion hosted by St. Louis Public Radio. It included government leaders like the Ferguson police chief and the city's mayor and also veterans of the protest movement. But most importantly, there are 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.

6:25You just cannot blame the police that's here now. This stuff started back way when. He's doing an amazing thing, and I'm going to speak my mind. So, Chief, Mayor, keep on doing what you're doing. And Chief Dillard 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 in the police cars since he told us that the sight of the old ones was so triggering to people. Okay, 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.

7:03Did those findings have an impact on the way police treat the residents they're tasked with protecting? Yeah, so what you're talking about here, Layla, is that the Ferguson Police Department entered into a consent decree with the DOJ 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.

7:33which 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 Arch City 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 it's been a problem all over the St. Louis region, but he says it is getting better. Municipal court revenues in 2013, just in the St. Louis region, were over$60 million. In 2023, that figure is$17.8 million.

8:08So 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. 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 believe, 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.

8:41As 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. So 10 years, some of the underlying issues that led to the protests are being worked on. What's next for Ferguson? Well, there's a big focus on job development, especially for young people. Here's how Henry Jones, Ollie Brown, and Willie Powell put it. We met them at a park in Ferguson. Some young guys and these young kids be right here where we are. But the majority of the time, we watch them.

9:16And we watch them like a train out of control. They just got in their head. They want to be a gangster, you know. The police can't change. It's got to start from home first. So unfinished business, more to do, and a sense of empowerment that some things can get done. All right. Thanks for bringing this to us, Michelle. Thank you.

9:44To Paris next, where the Olympics are in the final days. 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. NPR's Brian Mann is at the games in Paris. Hi, Brian. Hi, Leila. Okay, so let's start with American sprinter Noah Lyles. He was hoping for a historic finish in the 200-meter final. What happened? Yeah, this did not go as Noah Lyles' plan. He calls himself the fastest man on earth and triumphs Sunday in the 100-meter sprint.

10:22So 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 and field later confirmed that Lyles tested positive for COVID ahead of the race. The man who took gold, the Tsilei Tuboho, Botswana, said after the race that it was clear something was off with Lyles.

10:55I 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. U.S. track and field says it was Lyles' choice to run. He ended up with bronze and American Kenny Bednarik took silver. 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? You know, we have seen COVID pop up here and there. A top British swimmer Adam Peaty got sick.

11:30He 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. Okay, the US still had a big night on the track, a bunch of gold medals. Tell us about the world record set last night. Yeah, this was big. I was in Eugene, Oregon a couple months ago when Sydney McLaughlin-Levroni 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.

12:02She broke away from the other runners and again shattered her own world record. I just always want to continue to try to improve and figure out ways to just continue getting better. McLaughlin-Levroni 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 100 medals in these Olympic Games with three days of competition to go. Okay, 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?

12:37Yeah, 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 four-point win. They'll now move on to play host country France. That's tomorrow night for the gold medal.

13:13NPR's Brian Mann in Paris. Thank you, Brian. Thank you.

13:20And that's Up First for Friday, August 9th. I'm Leila Faldil. And I'm Michelle Martin. And don't forget, Up First airs on the weekend, too. Ayesha Roscoe and Scott Simon have the news. It will be here in this feed or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Megan Pratz, Erica Aguilar, Russell Lewis, Jenea Williams, and Ali Schweitzer. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, Ben Abrams, and Julie Deppenbrock. We get engineering support from Robert Rodriguez and our technical director is Zach Coleman. Join us again on Monday.