EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — It has been easy to criticize coach Brian Daboll and the New York Giants this season. And there have been plenty of reasons to do so.
Coming off a dismal 6-11 season in 2023, the Giants were horrible in a season-opening 28-6 loss to Minnesota and then handed Washington a 21-18 win in a game New York scored three touchdowns and the Commanders didn't have any.
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New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (8) passes during the first half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
New York Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton (86) scores a 30-yard touchdown ahead of Seattle Seahawks cornerback Tre Brown (22) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
New York Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton (86), left, celebrates with teammates after scoring a 30-yard touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (8) celebrates after throwing a 30-yard touchdown pass during the second half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
New York Giants linebacker Brian Burns (0) celebrates with teammate safety Tyler Nubin (31) after sacking Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith (7) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)
New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll looks at a play sheet during the second half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
New York Giants running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. (29) celebrates after the 29-20 win against the Seattle Seahawks of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
The last three weeks might indicate it's time to reevaluate.
The Giants have won twice to improve to 2-3. And their 29-20 win over the Seahawks (3-2) in Seattle might have been their best game of the year for a number of reasons.
New York overcome adversity. It gave up an early touchdown on a 102-yard fumble return and won a game in which its best player on offense — rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers (concussion) — didn't play. No. 1 running back Devin Singletary (groin) also didn't play.
The Giants gained a season-high 420 total yards, including 175 yards rushing, and had a season high in first downs (24). Daniel Jones completed 23 of 34 passes for 234 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Veteran Darius Slayton took over Nabers’ spot and had eight catches for 122 yards and his first touchdown.
The defense frustrated the Seahawks, except at the ends of the halves. Special teams clinched the game when Isaiah Simmons blocked a late 47-yard, game-tying, field goal attempt and Bryce Ford-Wheaton returned it 60 yards for a touchdown.
While 2-3 isn't a winning record, the losses have been to the undefeated Vikings (5-0), the Commanders (4-1) and the Cowboys (3-2).
New York should have beaten Washington. It failed three times to convert after touchdowns because kicker Graham Gano was hurt on the opening kickoff and Nabers dropped a fourth-down pass in the final two minutes that would have given the Giants a first down at the Commanders 10 in a tie game.
The game against Dallas was a tossup, and could have gone either way.
Bottom line is the Giants should be no worse than 3-2 and possibly 4-1. That's not reality.
But with 12 games left, they are improving and have a chance to be respectable this season.
The pass rush is creating pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Seattle quarterback Geno Smith was sacked seven times Sunday, the second-highest total of the Daboll era. New York had eight sacks in Cleveland in Week 3. Dexter Lawrence has a career-high three Sunday and has six for the season. Fellow defensive lineman DJ Davidson had the first two full sacks of his career. New York has 22 for the season.
The Giants are 1 of 6 in red-zone chances in the past two games. They were 1 of 4 against Seattle, settling for three field goals by Greg Joseph. They were 0 for 2 in a five-point loss to Dallas in Week 4.
Rookie running back Tyrone Tracy made his first career start for the injured Singletary and led the Giants by rushing for 129 yards on 18 carries. He had 12 attempts for 29 yards in the first four games. The fifth-round draft pick out of Purdue is the first Giants rookie to run for 100 yards since Saquon Barkley had 109 yards against Dallas late in 2018.
Second-year running back Eric Gray was supposed to share the load with Singletary out, but he lost a fumble near the goal line on fourth-down on the opening drive and it was returned 102 yards for a touchdown by Seahawks safety Rayshawn Jenkins. It was the longest fumble return against the Giants in their 100-year history. Gray had one more carry the rest of the game and finished with 4 yards on four carries.
The Giants seemingly got out of Seattle healthy. Daboll had no update on Nabers and Singletary on Monday.
35:38 — The Giants' average time of possession over the last three games. New York beat Cleveland and Seattle in the first and third games and dropped a 20-15 decision to Dallas in the middle one.
Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals (1-4) come to New Jersey to face the Giants on Sunday night. New York is winless at home, losing to Minnesota and Dallas in Week 4. Cincinnati lost a 41-38 overtime decsion to Baltimore on Sunday.
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New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (8) passes during the first half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
New York Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton (86) scores a 30-yard touchdown ahead of Seattle Seahawks cornerback Tre Brown (22) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
New York Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton (86), left, celebrates with teammates after scoring a 30-yard touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (8) celebrates after throwing a 30-yard touchdown pass during the second half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
New York Giants linebacker Brian Burns (0) celebrates with teammate safety Tyler Nubin (31) after sacking Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith (7) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)
New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll looks at a play sheet during the second half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
New York Giants running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. (29) celebrates after the 29-20 win against the Seattle Seahawks of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
No one is likely to be happy with the projected higher deficits laid out in a new analysis of Kamala Harris’ and Donald Trump’s economic plans.
The analysis released Monday by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget suggests a Harris presidency could increase the national debt over 10 years by $3.5 trillion. The same analysis says former President Trump’s ideas could heap another $7.5 trillion onto the debt and possibly as much as $15.2 trillion.
Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Here’s the latest:
Vice President Kamala Harris is criticizing her opponent, former President Donald Trump, for spreading falsehoods about the federal response in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
"There’s a lot of mis- and disinformation being pushed out there by the former president about what is available, particularly to the survivors of Helene,” Harris told reporters before boarding Air Force Two to fly to New York. “It’s extraordinarily irresponsible. It’s about him. It’s not about you.”
Trump has falsely claimed that the federal government is intentionally withholding aid to Republican disaster victims, and far-right extremist groups have warned without evidence that officials plan to bulldoze affected communities and seize the land from residents.
The vice president said, “The reality is that FEMA has so many resources that are available to folks who desperately need them now and resources that are about helping people get back on their feet and rebuild and have places to go.”
“People are entitled to these resources, and it is critically important that people apply for the help that is there to support,” Harris added. “All those resources were created for just these types of moments, in an emergency situation, knowing that folks are entitled to have the relief that they so rightly need.”
It might seem curious that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appeared on Polish TV, as he did Monday.
Trump gave Poland’s Republika TV a 10-minute interview, during which he praised the country’s President Andrzej Duda, a conservative whom Trump hosted for dinner in New York in April, a “very good man.”
But considering states with some of the highest percentages of Americans of Polish ancestry — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — it makes more sense. The three states are among the most competitive on the 2024 campaign map and account for a combined 44 Electoral College votes. The states rank in the top 5 nationally in Americans of Polish ancestry, along with Illinois and New York.
“There is no president that’s been better to the Polish people,” Trump said during the interview.
Trump touted his administration’s decision to sell military equipment to Poland and to oppose Russia’s gas pipeline to Germany that would have increased Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.
Poland has concerns for its own security in the face of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which borders Poland to the east. Poland supports Ukraine in the conflict.
Trump has promised to end the war, should he win the Nov. 5 election, before even taking office in November.
But Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has also upped her outreach to Polish Americans, notably by capitalizing on their animosity toward Russia and Trump’s hesitancy to back Ukraine publicly, such as during the debate with Harris last month.
There are an estimated 784,000 Americans of Polish descent in Michigan, 758,000 in Pennsylvania and 481,000 in Wisconsin, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ transition team has reached an agreement with the Biden administration on rules for accessing government offices and records should she win the November presidential election.
Former President Donald Trump’s team has yet to reach a similar agreement, according to an administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss transition planning.
Congress called for the agreements to be reached by Oct. 1 of a presidential election year to enable all major party nominees to be prepared to assume the presidency on Inauguration Day.
It’s the latest transition planning milestone that Trump is behind on. The former president has also yet to reach an agreement to utilize General Services Administration support and official space, like the Harris team has, which Congress in the Presidential Transition Act, had wanted met by Sept. 1.
— By Zeke Miller
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance headlined a 1,500-strong rally Monday to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“This terrible assault on the Jewish people must never be allowed to happen again,” Vance, an Ohio senator, told the crowds gathered near the Washington Monument. “Every single American of common sense and principle must reject it.”
The event took place under a massive security deployment due to both Vance’s presence and fear of attack.
Tall fencing draped with black fabric ringed a vast swath of lawn across the street from the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Multiple law enforcement agencies, including Secret Service and Park Police, on horseback, locked down the area.
Attendees said they came to send a message of solidarity with Israel.
“I think that Jews in America often feel like they have to apologize or feel bashful about their identity,” said Miriam Regev, who came from New York City to attend.
Regev said she wasn’t a Republican but was impressed by Vance’s words. She holds “serious concerns” about former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump, but added “there’s no doubt in my mind that a Trump-Vance administration would be much more strongly pro-Israel.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz visited an exhibition dedicated to some of the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, according to the Harris-Walz campaign.
Walz, the running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, attended the exhibition in Culver City, California, that was dedicated to the victims who were maimed, killed or kidnapped from the Nova music festival on that date.
Survivor Noa Beer and event producer Virginia Fout led Walz on a tour that featured original artifacts from the festival and displays that depicted the gruesomeness of the attack. Walz spent time at a Memorial Wall dedicated to those who were murdered.
Around 3,000 people were dancing in a field in Israel just miles from Gaza when heavily armed Palestinian militants rampaged through the festival, killing at least 364 people and taking more than 40 hostage. At least some are still held in Gaza.
North Carolina’s bipartisan state elections board unanimously approved an emergency resolution making several changes to how voters in 13 western North Carolina counties can cast their ballots by Election Day.
The resolution comes less than two weeks after deadly Helene destroyed large swaths of western North Carolina, displacing residents, damaging homes and washing away roads.
In a critical presidential election that may hinge on which way the battleground state swings, that widespread disruption also presents major problems for how residents can cast their votes.
“I’m generally very hesitant to make changes to the normal running our election,” said Stacy Eggers IV, a Republican board member from Boone in western North Carolina. “But these have been tailored to give flexibility to the county boards to meet those specific needs.”
One of the biggest changes allows affected voters to turn an absentee ballot in on Election Day by 7:30 p.m. to polling places operated by their county elections board.
Displaced voters may also turn in ballots to another county’s elections board by the same deadline.
The resolution also expands opportunities to pick up an absentee ballot in-person from a county elections office until the day before the election.
Trump claimed in a radio interview on Monday morning that he polls so well in Israel that he could run for office.
“I could run for prime minister, although Bibi’s doing a lot better right now,” he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Speaking on WABC radio, the former president said that in the U.S., “very conservative Jews, very, very conservative, they’re all for Trump, every, 100% because I’ve done things that are — they understand it.”
“I heard I’m doing very well with New York, Jewish people from New York, I hear I’m doing well,” Trump said.
Trump appeared on the same radio program in July with host Sid Rosenberg and claimed Vice President Kamala Harris, who is married to a Jewish man, “doesn’t like Jewish people.”
He repeated his claims that the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas never would have happened if he were still president.
Soon, the ballots will be cast, the polls will close and a campaign marked by assassination attempts, animosity and anxiety will come to an end. But for U.S. adversaries, the work to meddle with American democracy may be entering its most critical phase.
Despite all the attention on efforts to spread disinformation in the months before the Nov. 5 election, the hours and days immediately after voting ends could offer foreign adversaries like Russia, Iran and China or domestic extremist groups the best chance to mess with America’s decision.
That’s when Americans will go online to see the latest results or share their opinions as the votes are tabulated. And that’s when a fuzzy photo or AI-generated video of supposed vote tampering could do its most damage, potentially transforming online outrage into real-world action before authorities have time to investigate the facts.
It’s a threat taken seriously by intelligence analysts, elected officials and tech executives, who say that while there’s already been a steady buildup of disinformation and influence operations, the worst may be yet to come.
Turning Point’s representatives have made two things clear in meetings with state and local Republican leaders — Donald Trump has blessed their conservative organization to help lead his get-out-the-vote effort, and local party officials ought to use the group’s new voter mobilization app.
Both prospects terrify fellow Republicans.
Soaring to prominence after Trump’s unexpected 2016 win, Turning Point earned a reputation for hosting glitzy events, cultivating hard-right influencers and raising prodigious sums of money while enriching the group’s leaders. They’ve had far less success helping Republicans win, especially in their adopted home state of Arizona.
Now the organization has leveraged its ties to Trump to expand its influence in a way that could be potentially lucrative. Turning Point has sought to lead an effort to remake the GOP’s get-out-the-vote effort based on the theory that there are thousands of Trump supporters who rarely vote but could be persuaded to in this year’s election. And they are pitching their new mobile app as vital to this effort’s success.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference at the state Capitol in Atlanta, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
This combination photo shows Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at a rally in Flint, Mich., Oct. 4, 2024, left, and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Walker, Mich., Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo)
FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump gestures as he finishes speaking at The Believers' Summit 2024 at a Turning Point Action event in West Palm Beach, Fla., July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force Two at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Saturday, October 5, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C., after a briefing on the damage from Hurricane Helene. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
