WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are in a dead heat in the final stretch of the campaign, a new poll found. Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance was pressed on baseless claims he amplified about Haitian people who migrated to Springfield, Ohio, while President Joe Biden was scheduled to apologize to Native Americans for the government’s role in so-called Indian boarding schools. A religious liberty group released its index of state rankings, while U.S. bishops released a statement in advance of International Religious Freedom Day.
Harris, Trump in dead heat in NY Times/Siena Poll
With less than two weeks until Election Day, Harris and Trump were in a dead heat for the popular vote — each at 48% — in the final national poll of the 2024 cycle by The New York Times and Siena College.
But when minor party candidates were included, Trump led Harris by one percentage point on the poll, still within its margin of error.
The poll found the two major party candidates are effectively tied as a tumultuous election cycle — which saw Harris replace President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee and assassination attempts against Trump — draws to a close.
Vance pressed on claims about Haitian migrants
Vance, also the Republican senator from Ohio, took questions from Republicans, Democrats, and independents during a NewsNation town hall in Detroit on Oct. 24, including on baseless claims he made about Haitian immigrants eating the pets of residents in Springfield, Ohio, which were disputed by Vance’s fellow Ohio Republican officials, both local and state.
Vance, a Catholic, defended amplifying the claims, arguing he heard them from Springfield residents. In September, The Wall Street Journal reported that a city official told a Vance staffer, who called seeking information, that the claims were not true. The Journal noted that outside neo-Nazi groups had been targeting the Haitians over the summer, and it debunked many of Vance’s claims. It pointed out that communicable diseases have declined in Springfield since 2015, and found the cat whose disappearance was used to fuel the controversy, “Miss Sassy,” was actually alive and well.
“Now, do I think that the media certainly got distracted on the housing crisis and the health crisis and the crisis in the public schools by focusing on the eating the dogs and the cats things? Yeah, I do. Do I wish that I had been better in that moment? Maybe,” Vance said at the town hall.
Catholic leaders have called for respect for the human dignity of people who have had to migrate. Trump has pledged to mass deport the Haitians from Springfield, who overwhelmingly are legally authorized to live and work in the U.S. on a temporary basis due to the ongoing violence in their home country.
President Joe Biden gives apology to Native Americans over ‘Indian boarding schools’
Biden formally apologized Oct. 25 for the U.S. government’s role in forcing Native American children for 150 years into hundreds of so-called “Indian boarding schools” as part of a federal policy of separating Native American children from their parents and families, cutting them off from their communities, languages and cultures, in order to assimilate them into a white society.
An investigative report issued by the Interior Department in July said nearly 19,000 Native children were sent to such schools in the U.S., and nearly 1,000 died while there over a period stretching from the early 1800s to the late 1960s. Many children at the schools were also victims of physical, psychological and sexual abuse, further compounding intergenerational trauma caused by the schools.
Biden, the nation’s second Catholic president, delivered the apology at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona. He noted that while the federal government stopped the policy, it had “never formally apologized for what happened — until today.
“I formally apologize, as president of the United States of America, for what we did. I formally apologize. That’s long overdue,” he said.
In his extensive remarks, Biden acknowledged the Indian boarding school era was a “sin” and “one of the most horrific chapters in American history.”
Pope Francis made a similar apology in 2022 for Catholic-participation in forced residential schools for Indigenous people that were part of Canada’s government policy and departed from the church’s practice of keeping education close to the families and within communities they served.
Group scores religious freedom at home
The Napa Legal Institute Oct. 25 launched their second annual “Faith and Freedom Index,” in which the group scores state laws across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, concerning religious freedom protections.
The group’s report gave Alabama and Indiana the highest overall scores, while they gave Washington, Michigan the lowest overall scores, with West Virginia and Massachusetts tied for third lowest overall.
Mary Margaret Beecher, the group’s vice president and executive director, said in a statement the report “clearly shows that states must actively engage in the battle for religious freedom and a flourishing civil society.”
“The work of faith-based nonprofits is especially crucial this election year, in which many Americans are uncertain about the future of our nation and are seeing escalating attacks on religious freedom and conscience rights across the country,” she said.
Bishops speak on global state of religious freedom
Ahead of International Religious Freedom Day, Oct. 27, Bishop A. Elias Zaidan of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles and Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, in an Oct. 25 statement emphasized that religious freedom is a basic human right defended by Catholic teaching. The bishops spoke in their respective roles as chairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ international justice and peace committee and religious liberty committee.
Bishop Zaidan and Bishop Rhoades pointed to a recent report by Aid to the Church in Need, a pontifical foundation supporting persecuted Christians throughout the world, with data showing religious freedom violations in 61 countries home to 4.9 billion people.
In addition, the USCCB’s religious liberty committee issued its own report earlier this year on the state of religious freedom in the U.S.
“Pope Francis has repeatedly emphasized the importance of religious freedom as a basic, primary and inalienable right that must be promoted everywhere,” the bishops said in their statement. They noted the USCCB has “made advocacy of religious freedom a high priority in public policy deliberations, most recently supporting the reauthorization of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
“Let us uphold freedom of religion and pray that globally, the dignity of the human person will be recognized, tolerated, and respected,” the bishops said.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) @kgscanlon. Gina Christian, national reporter for OSV News, contributed to this report. Follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) @GinaJesseReina.