policy

HARRISBURG, Penn. (AP) – Kamala Harris urged Americans on Wednesday to “stop pointing fingers at each other” as she tried to brush aside President Joe Biden's comments about Donald Trump's supporters and “trash,” ending the give attention to to guage her Republican opponent days of the race.

“We know that in this election we have an opportunity to end a decade of Donald Trump, who has sought to divide us and instill fear in each other,” the Democratic nominee said.

Harris held rallies in three battleground states as a part of a protest rally in the ultimate week of the election, with stops Wednesday in Raleigh, North Carolina; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Madison, Wisconsin.

She emphasized unity and togetherness as she followed up her closing speech on Tuesday in Washington, through which she laid out what her team described as her campaign's “closing argument.”

“It’s not about scoring political points for me,” said the vice chairman. “I want to make progress.”

While waiting for Harris to take the stage in Raleigh, Liz Kazal, 35, said she was “cautiously optimistic” in regards to the election. She has tried to volunteer for the campaign every week, including making phone calls, knocking on doors along with her young daughter and raising money for Harris' candidacy.

“You hope for the best and plan for the worst,” Kazal said.

Meanwhile, the White House rushed to elucidate that the president's comment about “garbage” was a reference to the rhetoric of Trump allies, not Trump's supporters themselves. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden “does not view Trump supporters or anyone who supports Trump as trash.”

The controversy began Tuesday — the identical time Harris was speaking near the White House — when Biden attended a campaign call by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino. Biden took the chance to criticize Sunday's rally at Madison Square Garden, where a comedian described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of trash.”

“The only trash I see out there is his supporters. “His demonization of Latinos is irresponsible and un-American,” Biden said. “It’s completely contradictory to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”

Harris told reporters before boarding Air Force Two for her flight to Raleigh that she disagrees with “any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”

“I will represent all Americans, even those who don’t vote for me,” she said.

Her words were an try to defuse the controversy over Biden's comments and put a ways between her and the president, something she has struggled with prior to now.

Republicans seized on Biden's comments, claiming they echoed when Hillary Clinton, because the Democratic nominee in 2016, said half of Trump's supporters were a part of a “basket of deplorables.”

“We know what they believe. Because look how they treated you,” Trump said Wednesday at his rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. “They treated you like trash. The truth is that they have treated our entire country like garbage.”

He also said, “Without question, my supporters are far more quality than Crooked Joe's,” using his nickname for the president.

After landing in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for one more rally later within the day, Trump posed for photos while wearing a neon orange and yellow vest and sitting within the passenger seat of a garbage truck decorated with American flags and campaign signs.

“Joe Biden should be ashamed if he even knows what he’s doing,” Trump said.

Travis Waters, 54, who attended Harris' second rally of the day in Harrisburg, shrugged off the furor over Biden's comments.

“Donald Trump has said so much about so many other groups, and I haven’t heard the media show the same outrage,” Waters said.

In attacking Biden — and by extension Harris — Republicans have glossed over Trump's own history of insulting and demonizing rhetoric, akin to calling the United States a “dustbin for the world” or referring to political opponents as “the enemy within.” Trump also described Harris as a “stupid person” and “lazy as hell” and questioned whether she was on drugs.

Trump also rejected calls to apologize for the comment about Puerto Rico at his rally. He acknowledged that “someone said some bad things” but added that he “can't imagine that's a big deal.”

Political attack lines have been known to sometimes backfire on individuals who use them. For example, Ohio Senator JD Vance, now Trump's running mate, once described Democrats as “beholden to a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable about their own lives and the choices they've made.”

Vance's three-year-old comments resurfaced when he was named the vice presidential running mate, energizing Harris supporters who used the label as a badge of pride on T-shirts and bumper stickers, much like how Trump supporters once gleefully branded themselves “deplorables.”

On Wednesday morning, Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, downplayed Biden's comments in television interviews.

“Let me be clear: The vice president and I have made it absolutely clear that we want everyone to be a part of this,” he told ABC's “Good Morning America.” “Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric must end.”

In Harrisburg, Harris parried repeated interruptions from pro-Palestinian demonstrators protesting her support of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

“We are about fighting for democracy and your right to be heard,” Harris said as a protester shouted. “That’s what’s at stake in this election.”

She added: “Look, everyone has the right to be heard, but right now I'm speaking.”

If all goes well late May 6, 2024, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will blast into space on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. This final critical test for Starliner will launch from Kennedy Space Center and can test the brand new spacecraft and take the pair to the International Space Station for about every week.

a part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, this long-delayed mission will probably be the vehicle's first crewed launch. If successful, it should give NASA – and, in the longer term, space tourists – more opportunities to get into low Earth orbit.

From my perspective as Space policy expertThe launch of Starliner represents one other significant milestone in the event of the business space industry. But the eventful history of the mission also shows how difficult the trail to space may be, even for an experienced company like Boeing.

Origins and development

After the NASA space shuttle was retired in 2011 NASA invited Commercial space corporations assist the agency in transporting cargo and crew to the International Space Station.

In 2014, NASA chosen Boeing and SpaceX to construct their respective crew vehicles: Starliner and Dragon.

Boeing's vehicle, Starliner, was built to hold as much as seven crew members to and from low Earth orbit. For NASA missions to the International Space Station, it might probably carry as much as 4 people at a time and is designed to stay docked to the station for as much as seven months. At 15 feet, the capsule the crew will sit in is barely larger than an Apollo command module or a SpaceX Dragon.

Boeing designed Starliner to be partially reusable to cut back the associated fee of attending to space. Although the Atlas V While the rocket that may carry it into space and the service module that supports the spacecraft are each expendable, the Starliner's crew capsule may be reused as much as 10 times, with a processing time of six months. Boeing has built two airworthy Starliners up to now.

The development of Starliner was related to setbacks. Although Boeing received $4.2 billion from NASA in comparison with $2.6 billion from SpaceX, Boeing spent more invested greater than $1.5 billion moreover in the event of the spacecraft.

Starliner's first unmanned test flight in 2019 was a Series of software and hardware failures prevented it from reaching its planned orbit and docking with the International Space Station. After testing a few of his systems, it landed successfully on the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

In 2022, Starliner conducted one after identifying and implementing greater than 80 fixes second unmanned test flight. This time the vehicle managed to successfully dock with the International Space Station and land in New Mexico six days later.

Despite it, Boeing was delayed the primary manned launch for Starliner from 2023 to 2024 resulting from additional problems. One of those was the Starliner's parachutes, which help slow the vehicle on its strategy to Earth. Tests revealed that some connections were present in these parachute lines weaker than expected, which could have led to breakage. A second problem was the usage of flammable tape, which could pose a hearth hazard.

An essential query arising from these delays is why Starliner's development was so difficult. For one, NASA officials admitted that it didn’t provide as much oversight for Starliner because it did for SpaceX's Dragon since the agency was conversant in Boeing.

And Boeing has experienced several problems currently, most notably with the protection of its aircraft. astronaut Butch Wilmore denied that Starliner's problems reflect these problems.

But several other Boeing space activities In addition, Starliner also experienced mechanical failures and budget pressures, including with the Space Launch System. This system is meant to be the fundamental rocket NASA's Artemis programwhich plans to return humans to the moon for the primary time because the Apollo era.

Importance for NASA and business space travel

Given these difficulties, Starliner's success will probably be essential to Boeing's future space endeavors. Even if SpaceX's Dragon can successfully transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, the agency needs a backup. And that is where Starliner comes into play.

Following the Challenger explosion in 1986 and that Columbia shuttle disaster in 2003NASA decommissioned the Space Shuttle in 2011. The agency was left with few options for getting astronauts out and in of space. With a second provider of economic crew vehicles, NASA doesn’t need to depend on one company or one vehicle for space launches as before.

Perhaps more importantly, if Starliner is successful, it could compete with SpaceX. However, there’s currently no overwhelming demand for space tourism, and Boeing does no plans to market Starliner for tourism soon, Competition is vital in every market to cut back costs and increase innovation.

There will probably be more such competition. Sierra Space's Dream Chaser is scheduled to launch later this yr Transport cargo for NASA to the International Space Station. A manned version of the spaceplane can be being developed for the next round of NASA's business crew program. Blue Origin is Collaboration with NASA on this latest round of economic crew contracts and the event of a lunar lander for the Artemis program.

Although SpaceX makes business spaceflight look relatively easy, Boeing's rocky experience with Starliner shows how difficult spaceflight continues to be, even for an experienced company.

Not only is Starliner essential to NASA and Boeing, but it surely also shows that a couple of company can achieve the business space industry. A successful launch would also give NASA greater confidence within the industry's ability to support operations in Earth orbit because the agency focuses on future missions to the moon and beyond.