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Look at you. You're 5-foot-nothin' and you weigh a hundred and nothin', and with hardly a speck of athletic ability.

So says Fortune, a groundskeeper at the Notre Dame stadium, to Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger Jr., whose dream is to play for the Fighting Irish. Rudy is not insane. He doesn't expect to start. It would fulfill his lifetime dream simply to wear the uniform and get on the field for one play during the regular season, and get his name in the tiniest print in the school archives.

Almost everyone except Fortune thinks his dream is foolish.

Rudy comes from a working-class family in Joliet, where his father ( Ned Beatty ) joins his family, his teachers, his neighbors and just about everybody else in assuring him that he lacks not only the brawn but also the brains to make it into a top school like Notre Dame.

But Rudy persists. And although his story reads, in outline, like an anthology of cliches from countless old rags-to-riches sports movies, "Rudy" persists, too. It has a freshness and an earnestness that gets us involved, and by the end of the film we accept Rudy's dream as more than simply sports sentiment. It's a small but powerful illustration of the human spirit.

The movie was directed by David Anspaugh , who directed another great Indiana sports movie, " Hoosiers ," in 1986. Both films show an attention to detail, and a preference for close observation of the characters rather than sweeping sports sentiment. In "Rudy," Anspaugh finds a serious, affecting performance by Sean Astin , the erstwhile teen idol, as a quiet, determined kid who knows he doesn't have all the brains in the world, but is determined to do the best he can with the hand he was dealt.

To start with, he can't get into Notre Dame. He doesn't have the grades. But he's accepted across the street at Holy Cross, where an understanding priest (the benevolent Robert Prosky ) offers advice and encouragement. Finally Rudy is accepted by Notre Dame, one of the few remaining big football schools that still has tryouts for "walk-ons" - kids without starring high school careers or athletic scholarships.

It's the mid-1970s. The Notre Dame coach is Ara Parseghian ( Jason Miller ). He doesn't know what to make of this squirt who is happy to play on a practice team and offer his body up week after week so that the big Irish linemen can batter and bruise him on their way to a Saturday victory. Rudy isn't really even good enough to be the lowliest sub, but he has great heart (something that is observed perhaps a little too often in the dialogue).

The movie is not cluttered up with extraneous subplots. A hometown girlfriend ( Lili Taylor ) is left behind, and for four years Rudy turns into a grind, studying nonstop to make his grades, and sometimes sleeping on a cot in the groundskeeper's room because he doesn't have money for rent. His father continues to think he's crazy. But Rudy shows him.

Underdog movies are a durable genre and never go out of style. They're fairly predictable, in the sense that few movie underdogs ever lose in the big last scene. The notion is enormously appealing, however, because everyone can identify in one way or another.

In "Rudy," Astin's performance is so self-effacing, so focused and low-key, that we lose sight of the underdog formula and begin to focus on this dogged kid who won't quit. And the last big scene is an emotional powerhouse, just the way it's supposed to be.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Rudy (1993)

112 minutes

Sean Astin as Rudy

Ned Beatty as Daniel

Charles S. Dutton as Fortune

Directed by

• David Anspaugh

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Great Life Lessons From the Movie Rudy

The film Rudy can teach us a lot about courage, perseverance and setting achievable goals.

Sometimes profound, life-changing insights come from unexpected places.

Case in point: Listen to how one of the real-life heroes who helped to thwart a machine-gun massacre aboard a French train explained how he mustered the courage to confront the armed assailant: “Once you start moving, you’re not afraid anymore,” he said .

What a great motto for all of life.

And here’s another example, from an equally unexpected source: You can learn a lot about courage, perseverance and setting achievable goals… from the movie Rudy .

The 1993 film tells the story of real-life Notre Dame football player Daniel Ruettiger (“Rudy”), a short, slightly built young man whose dream in life was to play football for the famed Fighting Irish.

You can find the best summary of the movie and some of its most valuable life lessons in the Roger Ebert review , which opens with a shortened version of perhaps the film’s most inspiring quote:

  You’re 5-feet nothing, 100 and nothing, and you’ve got hardly a spec of athletic ability — and you hung in with the best college football team in the land, for 2 years!

What made Rudy so special? And what makes this film such a great example of how to live? Two things.

Fight relentlessly for what you want — naysayers be damned

Rudy was not “supposed to” play football, not according to anyone in his life — even his own family, who knew how much it meant to him.

As that quote above illustrates, Rudy wasn’t built like an athlete, and he didn’t have any natural skills to compensate for it, either.

All he had was an all-consuming drive to be a part of the Notre Dame football team — and the courage to suit up for practice day after day and serve, essentially, as a human tackling dummy for his teammates.

His family mocked him for it. They told him the whole idea was crazy, and that he should just come home and work at the steel mill. But Rudy pressed on.

And at first, some of his teammates mocked him for it, and suggested he quit or risk getting killed in practice. But Rudy’s answer — “If I cool it, I won’t be helping you guys get ready for the next week’s games. Got it?” — began the process of wining their respect and admiration.

Rudy knew what he wanted. He didn’t need the approval of anyone else. Neither do you.

Set achievable goals — and work like hell toward them

As Roger Ebert perceptively notes in his movie review, Rudy wasn’t crazy. He had no dreams of being a star player.

All Rudy hoped for, as Ebert explains, was “to wear the uniform and get on the field for one play during the regular season, and get his name in the tiniest print in the school archives.”

Rudy was never going to be a starting member of the Notre Dame football team. He understood that. But he did find an achievable goal based on that dream: the chance to suit up with the team for one game and get on the field just once, so he could forever say he was a Notre Dame football player.

And once he’d set that goal, Rudy did the hard work of earning it, putting himself through years of punishing practices — which truly helped his teammates and made a massive contribution to team morale.

Indeed, when the head coach decided just before the final game not to let Rudy suit up with the team — his last chance to do so — every one of his teammates brought their jersey to the coach’s office and demanded Rudy suit up in their place.

For every pie-in-the-sky fantasy we have, there’s a realistic, attainable version of that dream. Work toward that.

But first, watch Rudy .

About the Author

Robbie Hyman is a professional communications and public affairs writer. He has 15 years’ experience writing for nonprofits, small business and multibillion-dollar international organizations and is available as a freelance writer for federal agencies.

Robbie has written thousands of pages of content, including white papers, speeches, published articles, reports, manuals, newsletters, video scripts, advertisements, technical document and other materials. He is also co-founder of MoneySavvyTeen.com , an online course that teaches smart money habits to teenagers.

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Rudy film review.

1288 words | 5 page(s)

Directed by David Anspaugh and released in 1993, “Rudy” tells the story of a young man who pursues his life goal against all odds, and manages to accomplish his dream of playing football for Notre Dame. The film tackles prominent themes in sports psychology, such as self-confidence, goal setting and achievement, commitment, and sportsmanship inner drive, teamwork, and the existence of mentors.

The film follows the early life of Rudy Ruettiger, a boy whose dream is to play football for the Notre Dame University, which has one of the best football teams in the country. The third son of a factory worker, Rudy starts the work in the steel mill after finishing high school, dreaming to raise enough money to pay the tuition at Notre Dame. After his childhood friend dies in an accident at work, Rudy decides to follow his dream and leaves for South Bend, Indiana. He finds extraordinarily father figures and mentors on his path, in the persons of a local priest and of the Notre Dame stadium’s groundskeeper, named Fortune. Both are impressed by his determination and by his sincere nature and offer him help and emotional support. Rudy tries for several times to get admitted to Notre Dame, and he finally succeeds which opens the path towards the football team, where he is admitted in the prep squad.

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He distinguishes himself during training for having a lot of heart, and never giving up, despite being hurt, or put to the ground. His father and his brothers however do not believe that he is in the team because they do not see him playing, and not even dressed up on the side. He therefore asks coach Ara Parseghian for a chance to dress up for one game during his final year at college. The coach promises to offer him this chance. However, coach Devine takes his place in Rudy’s final year, and continues to overlook him, causing Rudy’s anger, and his decision to quit. Fortune however confesses that he was also once in the team and quit, an action he regretted for the rest of his life. Rudy returns, and with the help of his teammates, he convinces the coach to allow him to suit up for the final game. As his parents and brothers come to watch him play, the entire stadium begins to chant his name, led by the Notre Dame players, in an attempt to convince the coach to allow Rudy to play. Rudy does play in the last seconds of the game, sacking a player from the opposite team. He is carried off the field on his teammates’ shoulders.

The film’s main theme is the determination of an individual to overcome all obstacles and realize his impossible dream. There are several major obstacles that stand in the way of Rudy’s way. First, it is his family’s financial situation, and social status. The Ruettiker boys were expected to follow his father and work in the steel mill, and were not encouraged to go to college. Second, Rudy is not tall or strong and therefore, he was not considered fit to play football. Finally, he is dyslexic, which stays in the way of academic achievements. Rudy however, has a huge desire to follow his dream, and tries to overcome each of the obstacles, thus proving great self-confidence. He establishes small goals in the attempt to reach his life goal. By achieving one goal after the other, Rudy gets closer and closer to reaching his impossible dream: first, he enters the Holy Cross College. There, he obtains good grades to be able to obtain a transfer to Notre Dame. Once at the Notre Dame College, he immediately tries to enter the team. Finally, while in the prep team, he pursues his final goal of dressing up and playing for one game. Establishing small goals is important because it allows him to keep his optimism as he records small successes.

His main advantages were his inner drive, and his energy and resilience. He was ready to make a greater effort than the other boys in order to succeed. Rudy never complains about his physical disadvantage, and he did not victimize himself. Instead, with each failure, he continues to try. In what football is concerned, Rudy compensates his physical disadvantage with great energy and resilience. He puts a lot of heart with each training session and all the coaches notice it. Coach Parseghian criticizes one of the other players and says, “If you had the tenth of the heart of Ruettiger, you would have made All American”. His willingness to work twice as his teammates and his endless energy impresses coaches and team leaders and bring him their respect, admiration and affection.

However, Rudy is also respected for his ethical system. He is committed and devoted to the team, and its symbols. When one teammate criticizes him for trying too hard, he confesses: “if I cool it, I won’t be helping you guys to get ready for the next week’s game, got it?”. Rudy therefore does not spare his efforts and energy to make sure that his teammates are prepared for the game His dedication and his optimism also inspire one of his other teammates, who declares: “you are one of the reasons I stayed on this last year”, in other words, that Rudy’s attitude encouraged him not to give up. While many athletes give up in lack of motivation, or support, Rudy had the support of men who counsel him, and offer him support, because they recognize his sincere commitment.

People around him influence Rudy to a great extent. His family keeps him from attempting to overcome his limits, from the belief that he does not have what it takes to succeed. However, his father’s love for the Notre Dame team, and the desire to make him, and the rest of his family proud, represent a great motivation for Rudy. His best friend’s death convinces him not to spare any more minute and to try to achieve the impossible. His friend constantly supported him, and offered him a Notre Dame College jacket before his death. This jacket reflects his intense desire and also his great commitment because he never takes his off. This jacket therefore becomes a symbolic object for Rudy. The trauma, which in many cases has a destructive effect upon young people, is constructive in Rudy’s case, because his friend had faith in him. The priest who helps him by having him admitted to the Holy Heart College is also a mentor for him, because he helps him to preserve his religious faith, and his spiritual strength. Finally, Fortune represents a silent and wise presence in Rudy’s life, who shows him what happens when one quits, and makes him realize he needs to keep trying.

Thus, Rudy’s story is a story of success because Rudy, despite the obstacles that seemed insurmountable, managed to reach his dreams by being committed, hard-working, and motivated. In addition, he pursued his life dream by establishing small goals, and using great energy and dedication to achieve each one. His ethical values and his loyalty to the team and to others, as well as his resilience and determination to give his best even in less important occasions, brought him the respect and admiration of coaches and team leaders, and determined them to try to help him. The men in his life had great influence upon him, and upon his decisions. They acted as motivational factors, helpers, counselors and mentors. However, it is his own inner drive, energy and optimism which brought him the affection of the others, and determined him to continue despite all odds.

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• Cast & crew
• User reviews

• Rudy has always been told that he was too small to play college football. But he is determined to overcome the odds and fulfill his dream of playing for Notre Dame.
• Rudy grew up in a steel mill town where most people ended up working, but wanted to play football at Notre Dame instead. There were only a couple of problems. His grades were a little low, his athletic skills were poor, and he was only half the size of the other players. But he had the drive and the spirit of 5 people and has set his sights upon joining the team. — Brian W Martz <[email protected]>
• Daniel Eugene "Rudy" Ruettiger grows up in Joliet, Illinois dreaming of playing college football at the University of Notre Dame. Though he is achieving some success with his local high school team (Joliet Catholic), he lacks the grades and money necessary to attend Notre Dame, as well as the talent and physical stature to play football for a major intercollegiate program. Ruettiger takes a job at a local steel mill like his father Daniel Sr., who is also a Notre Dame fan. He prepares to settle down, but when his best friend Pete is killed in an explosion at the mill, Rudy decides to follow his dream of attending Notre Dame and playing for the Fighting Irish. He resolves to do everything he can to get into the football powerhouse. He travels to South Bend, Indiana to the campus but fails to get admitted to Notre Dame. With the help and sponsorship of a local priest, Rudy enrolls at Holy Cross College, a nearby junior college, hoping to get good enough grades to qualify for a transfer. In keeping with his football dream, he approaches a Notre Dame stadium groundskeeper named Fortune and volunteers to work for free. Rudy sneaks in and out of Fortune's office at night through a window and sleeps on a cot, having no place to live of his own. At first, Fortune is indifferent toward Rudy but gradually sees his sincerity and later provides Rudy with a key of his own to the office. Rudy learns that Fortune has never seen a Notre Dame football game, despite having worked at the stadium for years. Rudy befriends D-Bob, a graduate student at Notre Dame and a teaching assistant at Rudy's junior college. The socially awkward D-Bob offers to tutor Rudy in exchange for help in meeting girls. Suspecting an underlying cause to Ruettiger's previous academic problems, D-Bob has him tested and Rudy finds out that he has dyslexia. Rudy learns how to overcome his disability and becomes a better student. Meanwhile, Rudy's efforts at setting up D-Bob with attractive girls at Holy Cross prove fruitless, until one girl offers to set D-Bob up with Elsa, a shy co-ed. At Christmas vacation, Rudy returns home to his family's appreciation of his report card but is still mocked for his attempts at playing football and loses his fiance to one of his brothers. After numerous rejections, Rudy is finally admitted to Notre Dame during his final semester of transfer eligibility. He rushes home to tell his family, with his father announcing the news to his steel mill workers over the loudspeaker. Rudy persuades Fortune to promise to come see his first game if Rudy is permitted to suit up. After "walking on" as a non-scholarship player for the football team, Ruettiger convinces coach Ara Parseghian to give him a spot on the practice squad. An assistant coach warns the players that 35 "scholarship" players will not even make the "dress roster" of players who take the field during the games but notices that Ruettiger exhibits more drive than many of his scholarship teammates. Rudy is part of the practice team & puts in a lot of effort every day on the field & even earns the disrespect of the regular team members for "making them look bad". But the coaches notice Rudy's effort & dedication. Coach Parseghian agrees to Rudy's request to suit up for one home game in his senior year so his family and friends can see him as a member of the team. Rudy has accepted that he will never be a regular member of the Notre Dame team & is happy to get a chance to dress up. However, Parseghian steps down as coach following the 1974 season and is replaced by former NFL coach Dan Devine. D-Bob announces he is leaving for law school in Miami with Elsa, now his fiance. Coach Devine keeps Rudy on the team but refuses to list him on the active playing roster. When Rudy sees that he is not on the dress list for the team's next-to-last game, he becomes angry and quits the team. Fortune sees Rudy at the stadium and asks why he is not at practice, then chastises Rudy for giving up. Rudy learns for the first time that Fortune has seen his share of Notre Dame games because he was once on the team but has never seen one from the stands. Fortune had quit the team because he felt he was not playing due to his skin color. Fortune reminds Rudy that he has nothing to prove to anyone but himself, and that not a day will go by when he will not regret quitting. With that, Rudy returns to the team. Led by team captain and All-American Roland Steele, the other seniors rise to Rudy's defense and lay their jerseys on Devine's desk, each requesting that Rudy be allowed to dress in his place for the season's final game. In response, Devine lets Ruettiger suit up for the game against Georgia Tech. Steele invites Ruettiger to lead the team out of the tunnel onto the playing field. Fortune is there to see it, as promised. As the game nears its end with Notre Dame up 27-3, Devine sends all the seniors onto the field but not Rudy, despite urging from Steele and the assistant coaches. As a "Rudy!" chant begins in the stadium, the offensive team, led by tailback Jamie O'Hare, overrules Devine's call for victory formation and scores another touchdown instead, providing defensive player Ruettiger with one more chance to get into a game and thus be entered onto the official roster of Notre Dame football players. Devine finally lets Rudy play on the final kickoff, to the joy of his family. Rudy stays in for the final play of the game, sacks the Georgia Tech quarterback, and to cheers from the stadium, is carried off the field on his teammates' shoulders.

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"Rudy" is one of those beating-the-odds tales that no one does better than Hollywood. A film that hits all the right emotional buttons, it's an intelligent , sentimental drama that lifts an audience to its feet cheering. In the current filmgoing climate, this is an easy winning touchdown that should score big returns.

By Leonard Klady

Leonard Klady

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“Rudy” is one of those beating-the-odds tales that no one does better than Hollywood. A film that hits all the right emotional buttons, it’s an intelligent , sentimental drama that lifts an audience to its feet cheering. In the current filmgoing climate, this is an easy winning touchdown that should score big returns.

Based on the life story of Joliet, Ill., native Rudy Ruettiger (Sean Astin), it chronicles Ruettiger’s battle to overcome the seemingly impossible educational and physical handicaps in his path.

From the get-go, Rudy has been filled with tales of Notre Dame’s legendary Fighting Irish football champions. It matters little to him that his slight stature and below-average scholastic standing make him a highly unlikely candidate for the school or the squad. His brother mocks his ambition and his father (Ned Beatty) vainly attempts to bring him down to earth.

Popular on Variety

His future would seem to be a job in the local smelter. But when his only friend and ally dies in a freak accident, Rudy packs his bags and heads for the South Bend campus.

A priest (Robert Prosky) impressed by his determination gets Rudy into an allied college, and, against all odds, he succeeds. Along the route he learns other valuable life lessons. A primary guiding influence is Fortune (Charles S. Dutton), the stadium grounds manager who reminds him that whether he makes the football squad or not, he has the golden opportunity to get a quality education.

“Rudy” is rife with insights about the nature of ambition and the caste system that pervades American society. Angelo Pizzo’s screenplay is a heartfelt paean to the working class. Pizzo and director David Anspaugh are working on familiar emotional turf, having earlier explored the thrill of victory in “Hoosiers.””Rudy” is richer, less obvious material. That it gives the impression of a by-the-books tale only makes its unexpected turns more satisfying.

Astin works as hard to shake off his bland image as his character strives to achieve his ambition; his youthful zeal is perfect for the role. The large supporting cast is excellent, particularly Dutton and Jason Miller as legendary Fighting Irish coach Ara Parseghian. There are also ample opportunities for its cast of newcomers to excel.

• Production: TriStar Pictures presents a Fried/Woods Films Production. Produced by Robert N. Fried and Cary Woods. Executive producer, Lee R. Mayes. Directed by David Anspaugh. Screenplay, Angelo Pizzo.
• Crew: Camera (Technicolor), Oliver Wood; editor, David Rosenbloom; music, Jerry Goldsmith; production design, Robb Wilson King; art direction, set decorator, Martin Price; costume design, Jane Anderson; sound (Dolby), Curt Frisk; football technical assistants, Paul Bergan, Bill Bergan; consultant, Daniel Ruettiger; casting, Richard Pagano, Sharon Bialy, Debi Manwiller. Reviewed at Sony Pictures, Culver City, Aug. 24, 1993. MPAA rating: PG. Running time:113 MIN.
• With: Rudy Ruettiger - Sean Astin Daniel Ruettiger - Ned Beatty Fortune - Charles S. Dutton Sherry - Lili Taylor Ara Parseghian - Jason Miller Father Cavanaugh - Robert Prosky D-Bob - Jon Favreau Mary - Greta Lind Frank - Scott Benjaminson Coach Yonto - Ron Dean Dan Devine - Chelcie Ross

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NBA Star Rudy Gobert Pens Emotional Essay About How Feeling Ostracized By White Family Members Led To Basketball

NBA player Rudy Gobert recently penned an essay about how the racial discrimination he faced within his family at a young age due to being a product of an interracial relationship and how it fueled his purpose.

In the nearly 3,000-word essay for The Players’ Tribune , the Minnesota Timberwolves center got candid about an incident that involved him and his mother right before Christmas when he was just a baby.

“It’s a painful memory, but one that I need to share,” he wrote early on in the essay.

Born to a white mother and Black father, his parents met in France while his dad was playing international basketball for the country. When he was two years old, his father decided to leave the U.S. and go back to Guadeloupe so he was solely raised by his mom.

One of the first instances he unknowingly faced around Christmas time was when his mother’s relatives ostracized and did not welcome him.

“After I was born, certain relatives made it very clear to her that she wasn’t welcome to come to Christmas dinner if she brought me along,” he said.

In turn, Gobert’s mom decided to reject abiding by those roles and chose him over her relatives, which was a tough decision.

“She was devastated,” he wrote. “And obviously, she spent Christmas with me instead. She told them, ‘If that’s the way you think, then you’re not going to see me anymore. Not at Christmas. Not ever. I don’t want anything to do with you.'”

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Rudy D. Gobert (@rudygobert27)

The two became inseparable, and his mom did everything in her power to ensure he had the best upbringing with what she could afford. He recalled one Christmas in elementary when he had to pick his gift at a charity event, which stuck with him and pushed him to change the trajectory of their lives.

“That’s when I started to realize what my life back then was like compared to other kids, and having that feeling of happiness, mixed with sadness, mixed with hunger…. As I was playing with this new toy, I remembered thinking ‘One day, we won’t have to worry about anything,'” he wrote.

Shortly after learning basketball at 12 years old, he was offered a chance to participate in an academy’s basketing program. Although he would be gone Monday through Friday, his mom supported his decision to attend because he would be chasing a dream of his and a better chance at making it a reality.

“At the time, all she told me was, ‘Go after your dreams. I’ll be fine,'” he said.

Gobert’s mom was right because their life changed following him being picked by the Utah Jazz in the first round of the 2013 NBA Draft.

“I had an iron belief. Not necessarily that I was going to play in the NBA,” he wrote in his essay for The Players’ Tribune. “But that I was going to be successful — whatever that meant for me. Science, law, accounting, whatever. It didn’t matter. I was going to make it. For us .”

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• Rudy and Tootsie

Rudy and Tootsie - Term Paper Example

• Subject: Visual Arts & Film Studies
• Type: Term Paper
• Level: Undergraduate
• Pages: 3 (750 words)
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• Author: freddy03

Extract of sample "Rudy and Tootsie"

Rudy and Tootsie Summary of the Films The two films under study are Rudy and Tootsie. Rudy is the story of how a youngman achieved his life long dream of playing football regardless of different obstacles such as his height, dyslexia and financial situation. Tootsie is about the changes experienced by an actor who turned from a person with problematic attitude that resulted to difficulty in finding roles to a person who was able to accept a woman’s role just to have a job and act. 2. Comparison of Characters Rudy’s obstacles were caused by his financial situation, his height and the later discovered dyslexia.

Dyslexia prevented him from passing the qualifying exam in his dream university, University of Notre Dame. On the other hand, his height had been an obstacle in terms of joining the football team. In term of personality, Rudy can be considered as a person with positive outlook in life and a good personality, thus, he was able to achieve his ultimate goals in life. There are different scenes that exhibited Rudy’s perseverance. Because of his lack of financial resources to attend his dream school, he worked and then studied in a nearby school to improve on his grades and have a chance to try to be accepted in the University of Notre Dame.

He also worked as a helper in school grounds and found a friend in D-Bob who is a graduate student and teaching assistant. He then became Rudy’s tutor and contributed to the discovery of his dyslexia, another obstacle. He also found a way around the said condition and was able to study in the University of Notre Dame. Studying in the said university is just the initial step for him thus he was faced with the challenge of joining the football team, which he successfully achieved after hard work.

The character of Tootsie has different obstacles in life. The main obstacle in the life of the main character, Michael, is his attitude and behavior. As an actor he became known to create problems in the different factors related to his work which resulted in the difficulty of acquiring new roles and new jobs. Although this obstacle can be resolved through the characters will, it still resulted to the difficulties he went through in the plot of the film. Another difficulty is the balancing act he undertook as the female character in a soap opera, Dorothy Michaels especially when it became a hit, since he had to live a double life. 3. The Conflicts in the Film Rudy Both movies have escalating or compounding obstacles as the story progresses.

In the film Rudy, the conflicts can be considered more organized and occurring in a subsequent manner, which means that at different points in the story each obstacle became comparatively more affective and more pronounced compared to the other obstacles and problems. Near the end though there is a build-up of the effects of the different factors creating greater obstacle for the main character, Rudy. In the beginning before he was set to fulfill his goals, his life can be considered simpler.

He has a simple job which was the same as his father. But when his friend died and stimulated him to set out and reach for his dreams, he felt the effects of the different obstacles in his life. The first obstacle he had to face was the limiting effects of his financial situation which pushed him to seek help from a priest for a place to stay and to find job to support his needs while pursuing steps in achieving his main goal. In addition to the financial issues, Rudy was faced with the condition called dyslexia which he also had to overcome.

This is the main reason why he cannot get high scholastic marks. When he resolved the said problem, he was able to improve his grades and he got accepted in the university he considered as his goal, the University of Notre Dame. Then, the goal of joining the football team became his next goal which was hindered by his height. He also reached that goal which became the climax of the plot. Basically, the different obstacles gradually escalated to highlight the lesson of the film, which is the attainment of set goals.

The significant presentations of each obstacle developed the climax. This is the main reason why screenwriters choose to raise stakes and heighten conflict as the film progresses. The said style also helped reinforce the tone and atmosphere generated by the film. Rudy is a representation of ordinary people with a dream. Almost all of the viewers of the film can relate to his situation and his obstacles. Most people are financially, physically and intellectually challenged. Due to the serious lessons in the story, the main approach of the story is dramatic, thus, the obstacles are more pronounced as compared to the film Tootsie.

Works Cited: Anspaugh, David, dir. Rudy. TriStar Pictures, 1993. Pollack, Sydney. Tootsie. Columbia Pictures/Warner Brothers Pictures, 1982.

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A Pictorial Essay on Rudy’s Moist Brisket

Brisket evokes a lot of passion among BBQ fans. Everyone has their own take and favorites but without question, Texans truly love brisket. Now I’m a long-time fan of the moist brisket at Rudy’s Country Store and BBQ and i got to thinking about the process that a brisket goes through from the time it arrives at the restaurant until it’s sliced while you watch at the counter. So I took a peek behind the scenes.

And here we go. Black Angus briskets arrive at Rudy’s weighing between 12-13 pounds and looking like this.

Rudy’s typically cooks around 130-140 brisket per day per store. Now that is a serious amount of meat!

Then they are coated in a proprietary rub of spices and other ingredients. And they don’t spare the horses with the rub at all.

The spice-coated briskets are then stored on trays for the trip to the smoker. Typically, most briskets start smoking around 11pm each night.

The briskets smoke for 12-13 hours at 200 degrees and then for a time at 225 degrees. A critical rule that amateur smokers often break: the brisket must always be smoked with the moist side facing up. The same small group of pros work on the brisket at Rudy’s. The average tenure for these employees is well over ten years. These guys can tell by the insertion of a two-pronged just what level of “doneness” the brisket has reached. This is an intuitive skill that takes years to master. After the brisket is cooked and transferred to the serving area, a thick layer of fat is trimmed from the top. One unique aspect of the marbling in the moist brisket [as opposed to other smoked meats] is that according to a Texas A&M study, it’;s actually beneficial to you. Who knew? I’m going to email a copy of that study to my cardiologist.

After that heavy top layer of fat has been removed, the moist and the lean cuts are separated. I guess I like the moist for the same reason I order a Ribeye Steak instead of a Strip. For me, it’s just got more flavor.

This is where most consumers first really start to pay attention to the moist brisket. The moist needs to be sliced against the grain and with me, an almost Pavlovian response starts as the slices of moist begin to pile up on the wax paper. The aroma is almost visceral. I can virtually taste it. Then the server puts it on the scale. “Look about right?” he says. “Aw put on some more,” I always say. {And I always do[.]

And there you have it. They take this process very seriously at Rudy’s. And whether eating it right at the store [best], taking it home [very good] or reheating it the next day [still damn good] there’s simply nothing like a moist brisket from the guys who spell sauce wrong:]

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Election Updates: Praising police, Trump calls crackdown at Columbia a ‘beautiful thing to watch.’

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Chris Cameron

Donald Trump again attacked Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate who polls suggest is taking some support from Trump voters , in a post on his social media site, pleading that Republicans “don’t waste your precious vote on this phony liberal activist” while also insisting that Kennedy’s candidacy hurts President Biden more than it hurts him.

In an interview with local television in Waukesha, Wis., Donald Trump again said he would not sign a national abortion ban if elected , after a wide-ranging interview with Time magazine in which he suggested he would consider other federal abortion limits. He has struggled to strike a balance between siding with the anti-abortion activists who helped elect him in 2016 and what he sees as a risk to his electability.

Anjali Huynh

Trump has finished speaking in Freeland, Mich., where he blasted his New York criminal trial, laying into the judge who fined him, falsely suggesting the case amounts to political persecution and claiming, without evidence, that the trial is helping his poll numbers. The comments, among the first he’s made on the trail since the trial started, show how he plans to use the trial to rally supporters whenever he can hit the road.

In Michigan, Donald J. Trump again insists abortion should be left “to the states,” rather than supporting a federal ban. He praised the justices who overturned Roe but alluded to the electoral risk to Republicans, saying, “A lot of bad things will happen beyond the abortion issue, if you don’t win elections.” Kamala Harris, in Florida today, tried to make Trump the face of the state’s six-week abortion ban.

Michael Gold

At his second rally of the day, Donald J. Trump has spoken far more extensively about his criminal trial in New York, though he is mostly expounding on his view that the trial is, as he put it, “an unlawful exercise in very stupid and very evil politics” that is keeping him from campaigning.

Former President Donald J. Trump has taken the stage in Freeland, Mich., a state he visited last month for an event focused on illegal immigration and border policy. He opened today by briefly praising Mike Rogers, the Republican he endorsed in Michigan’s Senate race, before pivoting to criticizing the economy under President Biden.

Migrant crossings on the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped significantly in the first three months of the year, according to official figures , from a peak of 301,981 in December to under 200,000 a month from January to March. That could ease political pressure on President Biden, but Republicans are likely to continue attacking him by pointing out that border crossings remain relatively high.

Donald J. Trump, at a rally in Waukesha, Wis., called for tougher action against campus protests and again suggested some of the protesters were paid actors. He called on college presidents to “remove the encampments immediately, vanquish the locals and take back our campuses for all of the normal students.”

At his rally in Wisconsin, former President Donald J. Trump is again trying to walk a fine line on abortion. He is celebrating that the issue was returned to states after Supreme Court justices he appointed overturned Roe, while also criticizing Democrats for being too liberal and anti-abortion activists who are pushing for broader bans.

Former President Donald J. Trump, who has campaigned on a tough law-and-order message while facing criminal charges and criticizing the legal system, commended the New York police for arresting dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia University. “That’s one good thing that really happened,” he said, adding later, “It was a beautiful thing to watch.”

Nicholas Nehamas

On the day that a six-week abortion ban went into effect in Florida, Vice President Kamala Harris warned a crowd in Jacksonville that Donald J. Trump would bring “more bans, more suffering, less freedom,” if he won in November. Harris and Democrats have sought to tie abortion bans directly to Trump, seeing abortion as a winning political issue.

Donald J. Trump at a rally in Waukesha, Wis., again contended without evidence that the protests at college campuses over the war in Gaza were an effort by the left to distract attention from the surge of migrants at the border. “Some people are saying they do the colleges so they can get your eyes off the border,” he said, repeating an assertion that he made on social media last night.

Donald J. Trump just took the stage in Waukesha, Wis., for his first rally since his trial in New York began. He noted that Republicans would hold their national convention in Milwaukee in July, telling the crowd of hundreds of his supporters, “That means you’ve got to vote for us because we’re spending our money in your state.”

Alyce McFadden

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. proposed that his campaign and President Biden’s campaign jointly conduct a poll in October to see who would do better against former President Donald J. Trump in a hypothetical two-way race. He teased the idea that the underperformer should drop out. But Biden really has no incentive to do this, and by October, it'd be too late drop off the ballot anyway.

Rebecca Davis O’Brien

The Libertarian Party is one of the more established third parties — it is on 37 state ballots, with plans for more. Angela McArdle, the party’s chair, said: “For 50 years, we’ve been trying to get our candidates on the main stage with major party POTUS candidates and we’ve finally succeeded in bringing one to our stage. We will do everything in our power to use this incredible opportunity to advance the message of liberty.”

Shane Goldmacher

Former President Donald J. Trump called Libertarians “some of the most independent and thoughtful thinkers” ahead of his speech to the party later this month and urged them “to remember that our goal is to defeat” President Biden. He added, “If Libertarians join me and the Republican Party, where we have many Libertarian views, the election won’t even be close.”

Reid J. Epstein

The Biden video, recorded Tuesday when he was in Wilmington, Del., is part of the Biden campaign’s effort to extend the news cycle surrounding former President Donald J. Trump’s interview with Time. Polling has shown abortion rights is Biden’s best issue against Trump; talking points the campaign sent to surrogates Tuesday urged them to focus attention on Trump’s abortion comments.

President Biden called former President Donald J. Trump’s comments on abortion in the Time interview published yesterday “shocking” in a video released by the president’s campaign Wednesday . “This should be a decision between a woman and her doctor,” Biden said. “And the government should get out of people’s lives.”

The Libertarian Party's invitation to Trump, to speak at the party's national convention , is an intriguing one at a moment when third-party candidates and ballot lines are a major focus of the 2024 race. A Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Neil Vigdor

Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker, compared the student protesters who occupied a building at Columbia University to Juan M. Merchan, the judge presiding over Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial in New York. It was not the first time that he tried to make such an equivalency in Trump’s defense. In 2018, he likened the F.B.I. probe into Russia’s election interference to the “Gestapo.”

Michael Gold and Anjali Huynh

Michael Gold reported from Waukesha, Wis., and Anjali Huynh from Freeland, Mich.

Trump praises police crackdowns on campus protests.

Holding his first campaign rallies since his criminal trial in Manhattan began, former President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday urged college presidents to take a tougher approach to protests over the war in Gaza that have swept across campuses and praised police action at the demonstrations.

Calling protesters “raging lunatics” and suggesting without any evidence that they were hired by liberal groups to draw attention away from the surge of migrants at the border, Mr. Trump commended New York City police officers who, in riot gear, arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia University and cleared a building that they had occupied.

Speaking to supporters in Waukesha, Wis., Mr. Trump called for similar actions at universities across the country.

“To every college president, I say remove the encampments immediately,” he said. “Vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses for all of the normal students.”

Both in Wisconsin and at a later rally in Freeland, Mich., Mr. Trump promoted a strong a law-and-order message, even as he contends with a criminal case in New York in which he is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal.

Mr. Trump, who on Tuesday was held in contempt and fined $9,000 for violating a gag order in the trial that bars him from attacking witnesses and jurors, criticized the order. He laid into the judge who fined him, calling him “crooked” and “conflicted” at both rallies.

“I have a judge who gags me,” Mr. Trump said. “I’m not allowed to talk about things. And nobody’s seen anything quite like it.”

And he reiterated his typical complaints about the criminal case: that it is a sham, that it is impossible for him to get a fair trial in deep-blue Manhattan and that the whole ordeal amounts to political persecution by President Biden — a claim made without a shred of evidence but that has helped him bolster support among his base.

“What you’re witnessing in New York is not a legal proceeding — it’s an unlawful exercise in very stupid and very evil politics,” he said.

As Mr. Trump is tied down in court proceedings, he and Republicans have seized on the campus demonstrations as a wedge issue. They hope to foment discontent among Mr. Biden’s Democratic base over his handling of Israel, while also pointing to the protests to support Mr. Trump’s frequent contention that Mr. Biden is a weak leader.

In the past week, Mr. Trump has also used the protests to diminish violent episodes involving right-wing extremists that took place during his presidency. He tried to downplay the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, by calling it “peanuts” compared with the campus protests. One woman was killed and nearly 40 people were injured when a neo-Nazi plowed his car through a crowd of counterprotesters in Charlottesville.

And building on his bid to portray federal prosecutors as politically motivated, Mr. Trump suggested the government would be lenient with the protesters, comparing them to supporters who he has said were treated harshly after they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a bid to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Though he has made small campaign stops in New York City, Mr. Trump has in the weeks since his trial started been visible more as a criminal defendant than as a political candidate. A planned rally in North Carolina last month was canceled at the last minute because of weather.

“I’ve got to do two of these things a day,” Mr. Trump told the crowd in Michigan. “You know why? Because I’m in New York all the time with the Biden trial.”

Mr. Trump’s energetic demeanor at Wednesday’s rallies stood in stark contrast to the stern speeches he has given in the hallway outside the courtroom, and to reports from the court that depict him as dour, glowering or, at times, asleep. He bantered lightly with members of the crowd in both states and repeatedly expressed pride at the size of his crowds.

But Mr. Trump’s dark, and sometimes coarse, campaign message has changed little. He again argued that Mr. Biden’s leadership was steering the country toward doomsday and stoked fears about immigration, accusing Democrats of creating “mayhem” at the border. He also repeated unsubstantiated claims that Democrats were encouraging migration in order to register undocumented immigrants to vote.

On a day when abortion was in the spotlight again, with Florida’s six-week ban taking effect and Arizona lawmakers repealing their state’s 1864 ban , Mr. Trump largely kept his focus elsewhere. But he defended his position in an effort to neutralize an issue that Democrats hope to make central in 2024.

Mr. Trump has tried a balancing act on the issue, arguing that all abortion rights should be left to the states even as he has voiced opposition toward strict six-week bans. And he stressed the need to consider the political implications of calling for further abortion restrictions as Republicans try to win in November, saying in Michigan that “a lot of bad things will happen beyond the abortion issue, if you don’t win elections.”

In Wisconsin, he presented his views as a kind of compromise. “Some people will be very happy,” he said. “Some people won’t be as happy. But time will make this.”

Still, in Michigan, he praised the conservative justices who had overturned Roe v. Wade, singling them each out by name. His remarks there came shortly after Vice President Kamala Harris visited Florida , where she called the state’s new restrictions “another Trump abortion ban,” part of a larger effort by Democrats to tie Mr. Trump to strict limits on the procedure.

At both rallies, Mr. Trump also railed against Mr. Biden’s handling of the economy, arguing that the president’s economic policies were hurting the middle class and that Mr. Biden had not done enough to fight inflation.

Both parties are focused intently on winning Michigan and Wisconsin, two battleground states that were critical to Mr. Trump’s 2016 victory but flipped to Mr. Biden in 2020. Mr. Trump visited both states last month, shortly before his New York criminal trial began.

The Republican National Committee is holding its 2024 convention in Milwaukee, which Mr. Trump acknowledged in nearby Waukesha. “That means you’ve got to vote for us, because we’re spending our money in your state to have the big convention,” he said.

The two states were also central in Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. Last week, he was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in an investigation by the Michigan attorney general’s office into efforts he and his allies took to subvert Mr. Biden’s victory in the state. So far, 15 Republicans who acted as fake electors have been charged.

An earlier version of this article misquoted a statement from Donald J. Trump at a

campaign rally. He called on college leaders to “vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses for all of the normal students,” not “vanquish the locals.”

How we handle corrections

Michael Gold and Chris Cameron

Michael Gold reported from Waukesha, Wis. Chris Cameron reported from Washington.

Donald Trump, repeating his 2020 election lies, tells a Milwaukee newspaper that he will not commit to accepting the 2024 outcome.

Former President Donald J. Trump told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday that he would not commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election, as he again repeated his lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

“If everything’s honest, I’ll gladly accept the results. I don’t change on that,” Mr. Trump said, according to The Journal Sentinel. “If it’s not, you have to fight for the right of the country.”

In an interview with Time magazine published on Tuesday, he also dismissed questions about political violence in November by suggesting that his victory was inevitable.

When pressed about what might happen should he lose, he said, “if we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.”

Mr. Trump’s insistent and fraudulent claims that the 2020 election was unfair were at the heart of his efforts to overturn his loss to President Biden, and to the violent storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by a mob of supporters who believed his claims. Mr. Trump now faces dozens of felony charges in connection with those events.

Mr. Trump’s vow to “fight for the right of the country” also echoes his speech on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, where he told his supporters that “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” before urging his supporters to march to the Capitol.

As he campaigns in battleground states this year, Mr. Trump has repeatedly tried to sow doubt about the integrity of the fall election, while repeating many of the same lies that he used to assail the integrity of the 2020 election. Months before any voting has taken place, Mr. Trump has regularly made the baseless claim that Democrats are likely to cheat to win.

“Democrats rigged the presidential election in 2020, but we’re not going to allow them to rig the presidential election — the most important day of our lives — in 2024,” Mr. Trump said at a rally in Freeland, Mich.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Trump has for years promoted the lie that he won Wisconsin in 2020, and he did so again in the Journal Sentinel interview. Even after Jan. 6, 2021, and years after his exit from office, he has repeatedly pressured Assembly Speaker Robin Vos , the top Republican in the State Legislature, to help overturn Mr. Trump’s loss in the state and to impeach the state’s nonpartisan chief of elections.

More than 1,250 people have been charged with crimes in connection to the Jan. 6 attack — and hundreds of people have been convicted . Mr. Trump said in a recent interview that he would “absolutely” consider pardoning every person convicted on charges related to the storming of the Capitol. A bipartisan Senate report found that at least seven people died in connection with that attack.

The former president and his allies have also installed election deniers in influential positions in his campaign and in Republican Party institutions. In March, Trump allies newly installed to the leadership of the Republican National Committee appointed Christina Bobb , a former host at the far-right One America News Network, as senior counsel for election integrity. A self-described conspiracy theorist, she has relentlessly promoted false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Ms. Bobb was indicted in Arizona last week, along with all of the fake electors who acted on Mr. Trump’s behalf in that state and others, on charges related to what the authorities say were attempts by the defendants to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona.

The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee have made an aggressive approach to “election integrity” — a broad term often used by Republicans to cast doubt on elections that the party lost — central to their efforts heading toward November.

Last month, the committee announced a plan to train and dispatch more than 100,000 volunteers and lawyers to monitor the electoral process in each battleground state and to mount aggressive challenges.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump said at the rally in Freeland that his campaign and national and state Republican parties would put together “a team of the most highly qualified lawyers and other professionals in the country to ensure that what happened in 2020 will never happen again.”

“I will secure our elections because you know what happened in 2020,” Mr. Trump said at a rally in Waukesha, Wis., on Wednesday.

Mr. Trump lost Wisconsin by more than 20,000 votes .

Reporting from Jacksonville, Fla.

In Florida, Harris looks to make Trump the face of the state’s abortion ban.

Harris blasts trump over florida abortion ban, on the day that florida began to enforce its six-week abortion ban, vice president kamala harris delivered a searing attack on former president donald j. trump in jacksonville, fla., calling the measure “another trump abortion ban.”.

Today, this very day, at the stroke of midnight, another Trump abortion ban went into effect here in Florida. As of this morning, four million women in this state woke up with fewer reproductive freedoms than they had last night. This is the new reality under a Trump abortion ban. The contrast in this election could not be more clear. Basically under Donald Trump, it would be fair game for women to be monitored and punished by the government. Whereas Joe Biden and I have a different view. We believe the government should never come between a woman and her doctor. [crowd cheering]

On the day that Florida began to enforce its six-week abortion ban, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a searing attack on former President Donald J. Trump in Jacksonville, calling the measure “another Trump abortion ban” and saying he was forcing women to live a “horrific reality” without access to essential medical care.

“As much harm as he has already caused, a second Trump term would be even worse,” Ms. Harris said to about 200 supporters at a convention center in a historically African American neighborhood.

If Mr. Trump were to win in November, she argued, Americans would be compelled to endure “more bans, more suffering, less freedom.”

President Biden has made abortion — a rare issue on which he polls strongly against Mr. Trump — a pillar of his re-election campaign. He and Ms. Harris have campaigned aggressively in states that have imposed abortion restrictions, including Florida, where the president spoke last week , and Arizona, where legislators voted on Wednesday to overturn a near-total ban dating to 1864.

The president and vice president have used their appearances to illustrate the consequences of electing Republicans, and have placed the blame for the bans squarely on Mr. Trump, whose appointments to the Supreme Court helped overturn Roe v. Wade. “Donald Trump did this” has become a frequent refrain in Mr. Biden’s ads and speeches — a pointed and direct attack from a campaign that has struggled to sell its message to voters.

Ms. Harris’s appearance in Jacksonville also allowed her to capitalize on an interview Mr. Trump gave to Time magazine that was published on Tuesday. In the interview, Mr. Trump refused to commit to vetoing a federal abortion ban — which seemed to contradict recent statements from him — and said he would permit states to punish women who violated abortion bans.

“Just this week, in an interview, Trump said that states have the right to monitor pregnant women to enforce these bans, and to punish pregnant women for seeking out abortion care,” Ms. Harris warned.

In talking points distributed to surrogates on Tuesday, the Biden campaign urged them to focus attention on Mr. Trump’s abortion comments. And on Wednesday it released a video of Mr. Biden speaking directly to the camera.

“There seems to be no limit to how invasive Trump would let the state be,” the president said. “This should be a decision between a woman and her doctor, and the government should get out of people’s lives.”

On Wednesday, the six-week ban had already started to change lives. About 15 minutes away from Ms. Harris’s campaign event in Jacksonville, a reproductive health clinic called A Woman’s Choice received calls from women seeking abortions.

One woman said she was calling from Georgia, which also has a six-week ban. An official at the clinic informed her that a six-week ban was now in effect in Florida, too.

“Oh, Lord Jesus,” the woman responded, before opting to make an appointment in North Carolina, the nearest state where an abortion for someone at her stage of pregnancy would be available.

Many women do not know that they are pregnant at six weeks. And Florida’s ban means patients in the Southeast will have to travel as far away as North Carolina and Virginia to seek abortions, an unaffordable expense for many.

“The extremists who wrote this ban either don’t know how a woman’s body works, or they simply don’t care,” Ms. Harris said.

Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, signed the six-week ban last year ahead of a failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination in which he tried to court social conservatives. Floridians will have the chance to overturn the law with a ballot referendum in November. That has revived faint hopes among Democrats that Florida could be in play in the presidential election, although the Biden campaign has yet to invest significant resources in the state and Republicans hold a major advantage in voter registration.

“This is going to be a game changer here in Florida. It’s going to be a motivator,” said Christina Diamond, the chief executive of Ruth’s List Florida, a group that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights.

“The reason we have a six-week ban,” Ms. Diamond added, “is because the State Legislature and our statewide offices are held by Republicans.”

To emphasize that point, the Democratic National Committee put up billboards around Florida with Mr. Trump’s face that told women how far they would have to drive to reach a state where they could receive an abortion. And it also hired a plane to fly over Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s home in Palm Beach, Fla., trailing a banner that read: “Trump’s Plan: Ban Abortion, Punish Women.”

(Mr. Trump is campaigning in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday as the criminal trial against him in Manhattan is on break for the day.)

Republicans in Florida responded to Ms. Harris’s visit by talking about everything except abortion.

“In Florida, especially in Jacksonville, families are suffering under the train-wreck Biden-Harris Bidenomics,” Evan Power, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, said in a statement. “Groceries cost more. Gas prices are surging. And the cost of housing continues to push Americans’ wallets to the breaking point. Meanwhile, the open border lawlessness of the Biden Bloodbath has made all states — including Florida — a border state.”

Jacksonville has one of the largest Black populations in the United States, and the six-week ban will most likely have a disproportionate impact on African American women, who receive the procedure at higher rates than other groups.

The Biden campaign has been working to shore up its support among African Americans. Polling shows that Black voters are more likely to say abortion is their top issue. At the Jacksonville event, a marching band from Edward Waters University, a historically Black university, warmed up the crowd. Ms. Harris’s introductory speakers included Fentrice Driskell and Tracie Davis, two of the state’s most prominent Black politicians.

“We want the little girls of Florida to have the same freedom that their mothers and their grandmothers did,” said Ms. Driskell, a Tampa Democrat and the state House minority leader. “So let’s say it loud enough that they hear it from Jacksonville all the way to shake the walls of Mar-a-Lago: Get out of our health care. Get out of our exam rooms. We are taking our rights back.”

Abigail Geiger contributed from Jacksonville, Fla., Reid J. Epstein from Washington and Patricia Mazzei from Miami.

Chris Cameron and Michael Gold

Chris Cameron reported from Washington, and Michael Gold reported from Waukesha, Wis.

Trump says at rally that he wanted to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Former President Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that he asked his Secret Service detail to take him to the Capitol after his speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, acknowledging a key detail of his actions that were central to the findings of the House committee established to investigate the attack.

During a campaign rally in Waukesha, Wis., Mr. Trump brought up a sensational but disputed element of testimony given to the House Jan. 6 committee by a Trump White House aide: that Mr. Trump had lunged for the wheel and physically struggled with Secret Service agents when they refused to take him to join the large crowd of supporters who were marching toward the Capitol.

“I sat in the back,” Mr. Trump said, giving his version of events. “And you know what I did say? I said, ‘I’d like to go down there because I see a lot of people walking down.’ They said, ‘Sir, it’s better if you don’t.’ I said, ‘Well, I’d like to.’”

“It’s better if you don’t,” Mr. Trump recounted an agent saying. The former president said he replied, “All right, whatever you guys think is fine,” and added, “That was the whole tone of the conversation.”

President Biden’s campaign immediately highlighted Mr. Trump’s comments, amplifying that the former president had intended to participate in what would become an attack by his supporters on the Capitol in an effort to overturn Mr. Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

It is not the first time that Mr. Trump has spoken of his effort to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6. He has said in several interviews that he regretted not marching on the Capitol with his supporters that day, and that his Secret Service detail prevented him from doing so.

“Secret Service said I couldn’t go,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post in April 2022 . “I would have gone there in a minute.”

Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House aide, later testified to Mr. Trump’s conversation with Secret Service agents during televised hearings held by the House Jan. 6 committee. Ms. Hutchinson was not in the car with Mr. Trump, and said that her testimony to those events came secondhand or thirdhand from what other people had told her that day.

In an interview with the same committee, Mr. Trump’s driver, whose name was not disclosed, said: “The president was insistent on going to the Capitol. It was clear to me he wanted to go to the Capitol.”

Mr. Trump at the rally on Wednesday portrayed his requests to his Secret Service detail as casual ones.

In the interview with investigators for the House panel, the driver said that while he did not see Mr. Trump accost agents or reach for the steering wheel, “what stood out was the irritation in his voice, more than his physical presence.”

After Mr. Trump was driven back to the White House by his Secret Service detail, the former president sat and watched the ensuing violence play out on television, according to testimony by an array of former administration officials . After Mr. Trump’s speech at the Ellipse where he repeated his false claims that the election was stolen from him and urged attendees to march on the Capitol , a mob of his supporters overran police barricades to storm the building, temporarily disrupting the certification of Mr. Biden’s victory.

In a lengthy interview with Time magazine published on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said he would “absolutely” consider pardoning every person who had been convicted on, or pleaded guilty to, charges related to the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6. He also would not rule out the possibility of political violence after this year’s election.

“I think we’re going to win,” he said. “And if we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.”

Shane Goldmacher ,  Neil Vigdor ,  Nicholas Nehamas and Maggie Astor

more news from the campaign

Trump to address Libertarian Party, hundreds of Black women endorse Alsobrooks in Maryland and more.

The Libertarian Party announced that Donald J. Trump will address the party’s national convention in late May in Washington, D.C., calling it the first time a former president will speak to a gathering of the party. — Shane Goldmacher

Over 650 Black women — ranging from House members to local activists — endorsed Angela Alsobrooks against Representative David Trone in Maryland’s Democratic Senate primary and criticized a recent ad from Trone. The ad featured Black officials questioning the qualifications of Alsobrooks, the executive of Prince George’s County, and suggesting she might need “training wheels”; the statement said that the ad “echoes tones of misogyny and racism.” Race has been a major undertone in the contest; Alsobrooks is Black and Trone is white. Some of Trone’s supporters hit back: State Senator Jill P. Carter, who is also Black, said she thought the ad was not an attack but simply “a campaign ad where some individuals are speaking about their specific experience.” — Maggie Astor

Almost four in 10 local election officials who were surveyed by the Brennan Center of Justice for a new report said they had experienced threats, harassment or abuse, another sign of the duress that the group has been under since the 2020 election. Sixty-two percent said they were worried about political leaders trying to interfere with how they or other election officials did their jobs. — Neil Vigdor

Florida’s six-week abortion ban takes effect today, giving Democrats another opportunity to press their case against former President Donald J. Trump. In a statement, President Biden called the ban “extreme” and a “nightmare,” and said voters would teach Trump “a valuable lesson” in November. — Nicholas Nehamas

Katie Glueck

From Florida to Arizona, abortion politics are dominating the 2024 race.

In Florida, a ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy took effect.

In Arizona, state lawmakers repealed a stringent abortion ban that dates to the Civil War era.

And across the country, the presidential campaign trail on Wednesday was brimming with reminders of just how central Democrats hope the abortion rights debate will be to voters’ decisions this fall.

Nearly two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade , Democrats are betting that the tangible effects of abortion restrictions that many Americans are already experiencing — and the threats of more to come — will help their party power through an ominous and volatile political environment, as Republicans struggle to address an issue that has become a significant, sustained liability for them.

“Donald Trump is to blame for the harm state abortion bans are doing to women every day in our country,” Vice President Kamala Harris wrote on social media on Wednesday morning, ahead of delivering remarks n Jacksonville, Fla., about the state’s “extreme” new ban.

Mr. Trump, she said there, would bring “more bans, more suffering, less freedom,” if he won re-election.

As they did in the midterm elections in 2022, Democrats are borrowing from language long favored by Republicans — about freedom and limiting the reach of government — to make their case.

They believe that Mr. Trump, whose Supreme Court nominees helped overturn Roe, recently bolstered their argument further.

In a Time magazine interview released on Tuesday, Mr. Trump refused to commit to vetoing a national abortion ban and said he would allow states to monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violated abortion restrictions.

“There seems to be no limit to how invasive Trump would let the state be,” President Biden said in a video released on Wednesday morning. “This should be a decision between a woman and her doctor, and the government should get out of people’s lives.”

The focus on abortion rights propelled Democrats in the midterm elections, when candidates harnessed voter anger over abortion restrictions to overcome challenging national headwinds in key contests.

And it has remained a potent force in subsequent elections.

State Representative Mike Caruso of Florida, a Republican who opposed the six-week ban, noted that a number of states including Florida are expected to have abortion rights-related measures on the ballot this fall.

“It’s going to hurt Republicans,” he said. For Democrats who were unenthusiastic about Mr. Biden, he said, “now they’ve got reason they can show up. I think it’s going to have a major impact on the elections in November.”

But it is not yet clear how galvanizing the issue will be across the country in a presidential election shaped by economic concerns at home and crises abroad, with two well-known and unpopular men — one of whom, Mr. Trump, faces multiple criminal cases — at the top of their party’s tickets.

“President Trump has long been consistent in supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, said in a statement. “Women want a president who will secure our nation’s borders, remove violent criminals from our neighborhoods and build an economy that helps hardworking families thrive.”

And even as Democrats sought to keep the issue at the forefront of voters’ minds on Wednesday, they were competing with unrest at college campuses across the country, including in critical battleground states, as students protested the war in Gaza, with many objecting to Mr. Biden’s support for Israel.

Such scenes of turmoil, some party strategists have warned, can be damaging for the party that controls the White House.

Nicholas Nehamas contributed reporting.

A new progressive PAC is targeting 8 key House races in California.

Democrats nearly pulled off the impossible in the 2022 midterms.

In the final weeks of the campaign, with an unpopular president in his first term, polls forecast a red wave that would sweep the country and flip control of the House and the Senate — prompting alarm from Democrats and predictions from Republicans of a decisive victory.

But that wave never materialized, a mirage of bad polling and inflated expectations . Democrats came close to maintaining a national trifecta, but Republicans eked out a thin majority in the House — prevailing in a handful of seats in New York and California, each by just a few thousand votes .

Now, a new coalition of progressive groups in California has formed a super PAC aiming to bolster Democratic candidates in a state that the party sees as crucial to winning control of the House this fall.

The super PAC, Battleground California, says it aims to spend $15 million this year on eight competitive House races, seven with Republican incumbents — in Northern California, Orange County, the Inland Empire east of Los Angeles, the Central Valley and Los Angeles — as well as the seat left open by Representative Katie Porter, a Democrat who is not running for re-election after a failed Senate campaign.

It is an ambitious effort, one that seeks to establish a durable progressive machine in California — advised and supported by local activists and community organizations — to lift swing district Democratic candidates through an extensive field operation, including marathon door-knocking campaigns aimed at driving turnout among minority groups.

“Trusted messengers from the community are a very critical element,” said Steve Phillips, a co-founder of the California Donor Table, the group leading the Battleground California PAC, adding that those residents are not only more trusted by voters but are better able to provide feedback on what messages work and what messages don’t.

Pablo Rodriguez, the executive director of Communities for a New California, a group focused on civil rights, is among the activists working with the PAC. He said that focusing on local issues, and less on the “national noise” generated by President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump, would be the key to victory.

“The path towards victory,” Mr. Rodriguez said, “is not making big TV or radio buys or even digital ad buys, right? We need to actually have face-to-face conversations with voters.”

Battleground California has set a challenging goal. Only two of the seven Republicans that the PAC will spend against — Representatives David Valadao and John Duarte, who represent predominantly Latino districts in the Central Valley region — won their 2022 races by what would be considered close margins. They will both face rematches with their 2022 opponents: Rudy Salas and Adam Gray, two Democratic former state assemblymen.

The PAC’s target spending figure of $15 million, while substantial, will not go far in a state where House races can get expensive. In the Central Valley, the race for Mr. Valadao’s seat in 2022 fielded more than $25 million in outside spending . Ms. Porter also spent more than $28 million on her re-election campaign . Michael Gomez Daly, political strategist at California Donor Table, said the coalition had raised about $1.3 million to date, aiming for $5 million by July.

Mr. Phillips and Mr. Daly said their targets were within reach for Democrats with enough investment of resources.

“All the districts should be flippable,” Mr. Daly said. He declined to say how many victories would be considered a success, adding that “failure is not really an option this cycle.”

Both Mr. Gray and Mr. Salas attributed their losses in 2022 to depressed turnout, and in interviews they both highlighted their efforts to start get-out-the-vote efforts early. They also had high expectations for a boost in presidential-year turnout.

Mr. Valadao and Mr. Duarte declined interview requests, but Republican pollsters, strategists and consultants in California have said that demographic changes and new efforts to reach voters of color have shifted the balance of power in their favor. They point to Mr. Valadao’s close victory in 2020, as well as wins by minority candidates like Representatives Young Kim and Michelle Steel in that same year. Others say that the presidential race is just as likely to inflate turnout among Republicans.

“It’ll be close, but Valadao will win,” said Cathy Abernathy, a Republican campaign consultant in Kern County. “And he’ll win most likely because Trump’s on the ballot.”

The Republican voter base is also growing in the Central Valley districts represented by Mr. Valadao and Mr. Duarte, according to registration records by the California secretary of state’s office, a net gain of several thousand voters in both districts from September 2022 to February this year — exceeding the narrow margin of victory in those seats in the 2022 races.

“It’s a little bit of contrast to, I think, the typical narrative that people of color are more progressive-minded,” said Rachel Hernandez, a member of the City Council in Riverbank who is running for mayor. Instead, she added, “what we’re seeing in the Central Valley is that the Latino community is electing more conservative candidates.”

Ms. Hernandez added that, for now, that is not an irreversible trend, but a warning sign for Democrats to pay attention to the nuances of the Latino electorate. She encouraged many of the same tactics that Battleground California says it plans to use: molding a message for the needs of a specific community, and working with staff members and volunteers who represent the community.

“My volunteers, for example, up until just this weekend actually, were all young women,” Ms. Hernandez said. “Young Latina women, college-aged, who approached me because they were saying ‘Wow, this is like our campaign.’”

Trump is heading to two Midwest battlegrounds, his first major campaign events since his criminal trial began.

Former President Donald J. Trump will return to the campaign trail today, with stops in Wisconsin and Michigan, his first major events in battleground states since the beginning of his felony criminal trial three weeks ago.

Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver remarks “about the fight for reproductive freedoms” in Jacksonville, Fla., as a six-week abortion ban begins in that state. Her visit is part of a national tour aimed at energizing Black voters in battleground states. In Washington, President Biden will attend a campaign reception at the Mayflower Hotel.

Mr. Trump will first deliver remarks in Waukesha, Wis., before holding a rally later in the evening in Freeland, Mich. Thousands of voters in the county, Saginaw, backed Nikki Haley in the Republican primary, though Mr. Trump has so far not directly appealed to her voters for support.

With friendly audiences, Mr. Trump is likely to use his bully pulpit during his Midwest trek to attack the justice system. He has repeatedly asserted without evidence that his legal troubles are a conspiracy to interfere in the election, and he has argued that he should be immune from criminal charges for actions he took as president — while simultaneously promising to wield the Justice Department to go after President Biden and his family .

But Mr. Trump became familiar with the limits of those attacks on Tuesday, when the judge in his criminal trial held him in contempt for violating a gag order for attacking witnesses and jurors. He was fined $9,000 and ordered to take down offending posts on his social media site, Truth Social. Mr. Trump complied and took the posts down before a midafternoon deadline.

The former president is also expected to speak about escalating clashes between the police and pro-Palestinian demonstrators on college campuses. Mr. Trump has painted the mostly peaceful protests as “riots,” filled with “tremendous hate.” He has also repeatedly distorted the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 in comparing the two events, describing it on Tuesday morning as “a big hoax” when compared with the campus protests.

Reporting from Atlanta

Federal judges block Louisiana’s newly drawn congressional map.

A newly drawn congressional map in Louisiana was struck down on Tuesday by a panel of federal judges who found that the new boundaries, which form a second majority Black district in the state, amounted to an “impermissible racial gerrymander” that violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The 2-to-1 ruling now leaves uncertain which boundaries will be used in the November elections, which are just six months away and could play a critical role in determining the balance of power in the House of Representatives.

Critics warned that the decision could have broader implications on voting rights. Eric H. Holder Jr., the former U.S. attorney general and current chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said the “ideological nature of the decision could not be more clear.”

Louisiana’s attorney general, Liz Murrill, a Republican, indicated on Tuesday that the case could advance to the U.S. Supreme Court. “I’ve said all along the Supreme Court needs to clear this up,” she wrote on social media .

The judges have scheduled a hearing on May 6 to discuss next steps. The Louisiana secretary of state has ordered that the congressional map be finalized by May 15.

Read the Federal Judges’ Ruling

A newly drawn congressional map in Louisiana was struck down by a panel of federal judges who found that the new boundaries, which form a second majority Black district in the state, amounted to an “impermissible racial gerrymander” that violated the U.S. Constitution.

The new districts had been outlined in January during a special session of the State Legislature. Lawmakers had been ordered to sketch out the new boundaries after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that the previous map had very likely violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting power of Black residents.

But the new maps went before another panel of federal judges after a group of residents scattered across the new congressional district who describe themselves as “non-African American” voters challenged the maps. They argued that lawmakers had moved to “segregate voters based entirely on their races,” and to achieve that they stitched together “communities in far-flung regions of Louisiana.”

The new majority Black district cuts across a long, narrow swath that reaches from Baton Rouge, the capital city in the toe of Louisiana’s boot, to Shreveport, in the northwest corner of the state. About 54 percent of the district’s population is Black.

In the ruling on Tuesday, Judges David C. Joseph and Robert R. Summerhays, both of the Western District of Louisiana, acknowledged that factors other than race, like protecting certain incumbents, had figured into the process. Even so, they said, it was evident that creating a second district with a majority of Black voters was lawmakers’ overarching objective.

“The predominate role of race in the state’s decisions,” the judges wrote, “is reflected in the statements of legislative decision makers, the division of cities and parishes along racial lines, the unusual shape of the district and the evidence that the contours of the district were drawn to absorb sufficient numbers of Black-majority neighborhoods to achieve the goal of a functioning majority Black district.”

The judges noted that the ruling did not decide “whether it is feasible to create a second majority Black district in Louisiana that would comply” with the Equal Protection Clause. But they added that the Voting Rights Act “never requires race to predominate in drawing congressional districts at the sacrifice of traditional districting principles.”

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Carl E. Stewart of the Fifth Circuit argued that the challengers had failed to prove that their constitutional rights were violated.

“The totality of the record,” he wrote, “demonstrates that the Louisiana Legislature weighed various political concerns — including protecting of particular incumbents — alongside race, with no factor predominating over the other.”

The ruling is the latest wrinkle in the lengthy legal battle over the shape of Louisiana’s congressional districts and comes as other Southern states have also been forced by courts to redraw district lines amid accusations of racial discrimination.

Louisiana was obligated to redraw congressional districts after the 2020 census to take into account population changes. The census had found that the Black population in the state had increased by 3.8 percent over the past decade, meaning that roughly a third of the overall population was Black. But in the map drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature, only one of the six congressional districts had a majority Black population.

In June 2022, a federal judge found that the map had been racially gerrymandered and illegally weakened the electoral power of Black voters. The judge ordered lawmakers to create another district that would give Black voters the chance to elect a candidate of their choice. But the disputed map was still used in the 2022 election.

Other Southern states had also been ordered to redraw maps after a surprise U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year in which the justices threw out Alabama’s congressional boundaries, finding that they did not adequately account for the state’s Black population. The ruling reaffirmed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which had been diminished over the years by the court’s conservative majority.

Critics of Tuesday’s ruling argued that the repercussions in Louisiana could extend beyond a single election, or even partisan divisions. Ashley Shelton, who leads the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, which was part of the challenge to the original 2020 map, said she and others remained undeterred.

“We will continue to fight for a map that reflects our communities, that honors the promise of the Voting Rights Act,” Ms. Shelton said, “and that respects the voices of thousands of Louisianians who have engaged throughout the redistricting process. We have been clear since day one in our call for a fair and representative map.”

Nicholas Fandos

Democrats win a special House election in New York, narrowing the Republican majority.

Timothy M. Kennedy, a Democratic New York State senator, easily won a special House election on Tuesday to replace a retiring congressman in western New York, according to The Associated Press .

The victory was hardly a surprise. Democrats have controlled the Buffalo-area district for decades. And Mr. Kennedy outspent his Republican opponent, Gary Dickson, by an eye-popping 47 to 1 .

But his victory will have an immediate impact on the House at a time when Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana is laboring to hold onto a narrow Republican majority and fend off a rebellion on his right flank.

Once Mr. Kennedy is seated, Mr. Johnson’s margin will effectively shrink to just a single, tenuous vote on partisan issues. A handful of special elections in Wisconsin, Ohio, Colorado and California are expected to offer Republicans reinforcements, but not until this summer.

In the meantime, Mr. Kennedy, 47, is expected to provide a reliably liberal vote. He campaigned on a familiar Democratic platform, promising to fight for federal infrastructure dollars for a region that has struggled economically, for federal abortion rights and against former President Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee to face President Biden this fall.

Mr. Dickson, a former F.B.I. agent and local town supervisor, ran a relatively moderate campaign for a Republican in the Trump era. He had endorsed the former president, but called the Jan. 6 Capitol riot “a travesty.” He supported Ukraine’s war against Russia and federal investment in transportation projects, spending priorities that more conservative Republicans forcefully oppose.

But it was not enough to win over a district that counts more than twice as many Democrats as Republicans. With 62 percent of the votes counted, Mr. Kennedy was beating Mr. Dickson by 34 percentage points, 67 to 33.

The seat was vacated in February by the retirement of Brian Higgins , a moderate Democrat who had represented the Buffalo area for 19 years.

Mr. Higgins, who left the job early to lead Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, was part of a wave of seasoned lawmakers from both parties heading toward the exits this year. Like many others, Mr. Higgins, 64, cited an increasingly toxic and unproductive environment on Capitol Hill.

Mr. Kennedy is a former occupational therapist who has served in the New York State Senate since 2011. In Albany, he led an important legislative committee on transportation and supported a tough package of gun safety measures after a racist shooter killed 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket in 2022. He also earned a reputation as a prolific fund-raiser.

He was selected directly by party leaders as the Democratic nominee to serve the remainder of Mr. Higgins’s term. Mr. Kennedy will likely remain in campaign mode this year, with a Democratic primary in June and November’s general election still ahead.

The district sweeps north from Buffalo, including the city, many of its suburbs and Niagara Falls.

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