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Oct. 7, 2025, 7:31 PM EDTBy Henry J. Gomez, Matt Dixon and Jonathan AllenAs President Donald Trump clashes with Democratic governors over his push to deploy federalized National Guard troops to their cities, several former Republican governors are raising concerns about strong-arm tactics and constitutional crises — while also noting that the president has wide latitude to deploy the guard.The three former governors, who have long histories of criticizing Trump, also expressed a sense of resignation, saying they believe he will charge ahead unless the courts rein him in.“This is infuriating,” former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who left the Republican Party in 2022 after years of opposing Trump and endorsing his opponents, said in an interview. “It is stoking resentment and fanning the flames. But as a governor there is nothing you can do to really stop the president from federalizing the guard.” Christine Todd Whitman said governors don’t have much power to stop the president from federalizing the National Guard.Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg via Getty Images fileFormer Ohio Gov. John Kasich expressed concern with the communication between the Trump administration and state and local officials.“I would say: ‘Here are my problems. What can you do to help me? Work with me. Don’t just shove stuff down my throat,’” said Kasich, a Republican who ran against Trump in the 2016 GOP presidential primaries and has since been a prominent anti-Trump voice in the party. While these former governors are critics, their perspectives as former chief executives of their states are instructive when active Republicans dealing with the White House and its political objectives on a daily basis are less inclined to publicly scrutinize Trump.Sitting GOP governors were less eager to weigh in on the matter, which could escalate if Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, a step he said he would consider if resistance from mayors, governors and courts makes it “necessary.” Roughly a dozen GOP governors, through their spokespeople, either declined or have not yet responded to requests for comment. “Uninformed criticisms from irrelevant former politicians shouldn’t be given the time of day,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in an emailed statement. “President Trump is lawfully taking action to protect federal officers and assets amidst ongoing violent riots and lawlessness that Democrat leaders, like [Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom] have refused to quell. Why aren’t these washed up nobodies concerned with Democrat inaction to address violent crime and riots?” The political fallout is falling largely along partisan lines. The White House has cast Trump’s desire to send troops into Democratic-run cities and states as an effort to curb crime and protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and facilities that administration officials say are being targeted by rioters. Trump most recently has called for deploying federalized guard members to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, drawing pushback and lawsuits from the Democratic governors in those states.A Trump ally, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, is on record embracing the administration’s efforts, writing Sunday on X that he had “fully authorized” Trump to deploy 400 Texas National Guard members to other states. And Trump’s push to mobilize the National Guard and other federal law enforcement agencies in Memphis, Tennessee, has met with support there from Republican Gov. Bill Lee.“You can either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let [the] Texas Guard do it,” Abbott wrote in his social media post. “No Guard can match the training, skill, and expertise of the Texas National Guard.”Peter Finocchio, a spokesperson for Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, did not specifically address the recent developments in Oregon and Illinois but described the governor’s administration as supportive of Trump’s goals. Finocchio noted the Virginia National Guard’s mobilization last month of about 40 soldiers and airmen to “provide administrative and logistics support to ICE at locations across the Commonwealth.” The mission, Finocchio added, is expected to continue through Nov. 15. At a news conference Monday, Pritzker suggested that Trump was trying to sow unrest so he can invoke the Insurrection Act. The measure — which allows the president to mobilize the U.S. military to conduct civilian law enforcement activities under certain circumstances — was last used during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.“The Trump administration is following a playbook: Cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it seem like peaceful protesters are a mob by firing gas pellets and tear gas canisters at them,” Pritzker said. Pritzker also threatened this week to withdraw from the National Governors Association if the nonpartisan group does not take a stand against Trump’s National Guard moves.Illinois sued Monday to block the Trump administration from deploying troops to Chicago. A judge declined to immediately block the administration’s move and instead scheduled a hearing for Thursday. Oregon AG: Trump shouldn’t deploy troops to cities unless under ‘extreme circumstances’02:44Earlier, a federal judge in Oregon had blocked the Trump administration from deploying federalized National Guard members from California or other states to Portland’s streets. U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, had also blocked the administration from deploying Oregon National Guard troops in Portland.“I think it’s a real constitutional dilemma that is unprecedented and it will have to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court,” said former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who briefly challenged Trump for last year’s Republican presidential nomination.“It’s difficult for the courts to step in and say, ‘We’re going to override the executive branch,’” added Hutchinson, a former U.S. attorney who stressed that he was offering more analysis than personal opinion.Hutchinson noted that he approved the deployment of Arkansas National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., to protect federal assets in late January 2021, after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and before the inauguration. He also noted that in 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower deployed the 101st Airborne Division to Arkansas to enforce integration at Little Rock Central High School over the objections of then-Gov. Orval Faubus, who had mobilized the state national guard to stop Black students from entering the school.“He was enforcing federal law as interpreted by the courts,” Hutchinson said of Eisenhower. “There’s a lot of latitude given to the president.”Whitman, who also was President George W. Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency administrator, suggested that governors could try to wrestle the bully pulpit away from Trump.“There is going to be crime in cities and small towns,” she said. “Unfortunately, it happens when humans get together, but that’s vastly different than cities burning down. I remember the ’60s when the cities were burning. That is not happening. We have mostly peaceful protests outside ICE offices. … If you are a governor, go walk the streets and take the press. There are periods where you will have drug users and homeless, and you need to be up front about that. You have to show what is and is not true, use visuals.”White House denies Trump aims to ‘take over’ cities with the military01:18Kasich, who said he was upset about a recent aggressive ICE operation involving a helicopter at a Chicago apartment complex, urged more pragmatic discussions about crime and immigration. Kasich marveled at the success that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, has had in courting the president on initiatives important to her state. Whitmer, like Pritzker and California’s Newsom, another Democrat opposed to Trump’s deployments, is seen as a potential White House contender in 2028.“Everybody’s running for president, but I can’t blame it all on them, either,” Kasich said. “There’s not much communication coming the other way,” from the Trump administration to the governors. Whitman was blunter when assessing the partisan politics, asserting that Trump is “absolutely” targeting Democratic states.“And what I want to say to Republicans who voted for him in those states,” Whitman added, “is, ‘How is that working out for you? Are you happy?’”Henry J. GomezHenry J. Gomez is a senior national political reporter for NBC NewsMatt DixonMatt Dixon is a senior national politics reporter for NBC News, based in Florida.Jonathan AllenJonathan Allen is a senior national politics reporter for NBC News. Zoë Richards contributed.

- Latest News - October 8, 2025

As Trump clashes with Democratic governors, several former Republican governors are raising concerns about strong-arm tactics and constitutional crises.

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Oct. 7, 2025, 6:10 PM EDTBy Denise ChowA mysterious interstellar comet — just the third such object ever confirmed to have entered our solar system — streaked past Mars last week.A spacecraft in orbit around the red planet had a front-row seat and snapped new images of the comet, known as 3I/ATLAS, on Friday. The photos, released Tuesday by the European Space Agency, show a fuzzy white dot moving against the vast expanse of space.

- Latest News - October 7, 2025

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS — just the third such object ever confirmed to have entered our solar system — flew past Mars last week. A spacecraft got a photo.

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Oct. 7, 2025, 6:57 PM EDTBy Dan Slepian, Nick McElroy and Erik OrtizLawyers for Robert Roberson, the condemned man on Texas’ death row who faces execution next week, say the first episode of a “Dateline” podcast about his case contains “highly relevant” evidence that highlights judicial misconduct and supports their petition for a new trial.The ongoing claim before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals seeks to halt Roberson’s Oct. 16 execution for the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki. If executed by lethal injection, Roberson, 58, would be the first person put to death in the United States in a case of “shaken baby syndrome.”For more on this case, listen to episodes of the “Dateline” podcast “The Last Appeal”In a filing Monday, Roberson’s lawyers wrote that an interview with Nikki’s maternal grandfather conducted by “Dateline” anchor Lester Holt is “directly relevant to the judicial misconduct claim,” which alleges a “serious violation of Mr. Roberson’s fundamental right to a trial before an impartial tribunal — and before a tribunal that appears impartial.”“It’s shocking that we are discovering the truth about this glaring, undisclosed evidence of bias only by chance, from a podcast, days before Robert is scheduled to be executed for a tragedy that has been mislabeled as a crime,” Gretchen Sween, a lawyer for Roberson, said in a statement.Robert Roberson with his daughter Nikki.Courtesy Roberson familyIn January 2002, Roberson and Nikki fell asleep in their East Texas home and he later awoke, he said, after he heard a sound and found Nikki had fallen out of bed, according to court documents.Later that morning, when Roberson discovered his daughter was unconscious and her lips were blue, he rushed her to an emergency room.Within three days, a detective arrested Roberson on a capital murder charge.For the initial episode of “The Last Appeal” podcast, which was released Monday, Holt interviewed Larry Bowman, Nikki’s maternal grandfather.Bowman identified Anderson County Judge Bascom Bentley as the judiciary official who called the hospital, directing them to contact the Bowmans for permission to authorize removing Nikki from life support.“Matter of fact, Judge Bentley told ’em we were the parents,” Bowman said.But Roberson’s lawyers say the Bowmans did not have that authority, and Roberson had custody of Nikki and was appointed her sole conservator in November 2001, about two months before she died.Roberson had been a single father caring for Nikki after her mother lost custody because of personal issues.In addition to Bentley providing false information to the hospital, which allowed Nikki to be removed from life-sustaining care, according to the latest filing, he was the judge who signed Roberson’s arrest warrant based on the “shaken baby syndrome” diagnosis and then presided over all but one proceeding in Roberson’s criminal trial.Roberson’s lawyers say Bentley’s involvement in the early stages of Roberson’s case are material to their larger claims of judicial misconduct that they say tainted his trial.“Any objective member of the public, with knowledge of the new facts, would reasonably believe that Judge Bentley had prejudged Mr. Roberson’s guilt and, animated by that presumption of guilt, improperly circumvented the law governing parental rights and the guarantees of due process and thus should have recused himself from presiding over Mr. Roberson’s criminal case to preserve the appearance of impartiality,” the court filing says. “Judge Bentley’s failure to do so caused structural error and requires a new trial.”Robert Roberson.NBC NewsBentley died in 2017. The Texas Attorney General’s Office, which is now overseeing the prosecution against Roberson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The office of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declined to be interviewed for the “Dateline” podcast.Roberson was nearly put to death a year ago, but a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers used their legislative power to help block his execution in a last-minute maneuver.State Attorney General Ken Paxton vowed to press ahead with a execution date, and has previously said Roberson murdered his daughter by “beating her so brutally that she ultimately died.”In filings this year, Roberson’s legal team has argued that there is new evidence of his innocence and that the medical and scientific methods used to convict him of so-called shaken baby syndrome, in which a child is shaken so violently that the action causes head trauma, have since been largely discredited.His team also claims that judicial officials in Anderson County, where a jury sentenced him to death in 2003, violated Roberson’s constitutional rights.Aside from the request in front of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Roberson filed a separate plea this month with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for a stay of execution so that he could file a new legal challenge claiming his imprisonment is illegal because of “overwhelming evidence that he was convicted using discredited ‘science.’” That appeal is also ongoing.Previous attempts to stop Roberson’s execution have been unsuccessful, including as it relates to a 2013 “junk science” law in Texas that allows prisoners to potentially challenge convictions based on advances in forensic science.While doctors and law enforcement concluded that Nikki suffered blunt-force trauma and was shaken, Roberson’s defense team says a new understanding of “shaken baby syndrome” shows that other medical conditions can be factors in a child’s death, as it believes was the case with Nikki.Dan SlepianDan Slepian is an award-winning investigative producer and a veteran of “Dateline: NBC.” Nick McElroyNick McElroy is an associate producer for NBC News’ “Dateline.”Erik OrtizErik Ortiz is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital focusing on racial injustice and social inequality.

- Latest News - October 7, 2025

Lawyers for Robert Roberson, the condemned man on Texas’ death row who faces execution next week, say the first episode of a “Dateline” podcast about his case contains “highly relevant”.

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Oct. 7, 2025, 6:30 PM EDTBy Kaitlin SullivanShort bursts of purposeful activity –– such as walking around the block or lifting small weights –– may be the best way to get in the habit of exercising. Bite-sized bits of exercise also improve heart and muscle fitness, a study published Tuesday in BMJ Sports Medicine found.Less than half of adults in the United States get enough aerobic activity and less than a quarter get the recommended amount of both aerobic and muscle-strengthening exercise. “When people are asked why they don’t exercise, the answers are almost always the same, no time and no motivation,” Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, a doctoral student in clinical research at the University of Oviedo in Spain, who led the study, said in an email.Rodríguez and his team measured how brief bouts of exercise spread throughout the day –– which he calls exercise snacks –– affected cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, as well as blood pressure and body composition in adults who did not regularly exercise. The team compiled data from seven randomized clinical trials that included people ages 18 to 80. There were more than 400 inactive people across the study, about 70% of whom women.What’s an effective exercise snack? An exercise snack was defined as a bout of vigorous physical activity that lasted less than five minutes. The activity had to be done at least two times a day on at least three days per week, for four to 12 weeks. The exercise was short and deliberate, such as climbing flights of stairs for the purpose of exercise. Stair-climbing was most common in adults younger than 65, while exercise, including tai chi, that strengthened lower body muscles was more common in older adults. They found that in adults younger than 65, these small acts of physical activity significantly improved cardiorespiratory fitness. For older adults –– those 65 and older –– exercise snacks significantly improved muscular endurance. People were also extremely likely to adhere to these small bouts of exercise –– about 91% of adults and 83% of older adults routinely engaged in them.“The biggest benefits happen at the very beginning, when someone goes from being inactive to a little bit active. That’s where exercise snacks can really help,” Rodríguez said. The study did have limitations, including the fact that the seven clinical trials they included used different methods to collect data, and had people exercise for different lengths of time between four and 12 weeks. For this reason, some of the benefits of moving may have been masked.For example, contrary to what past research has found, the new study found that short bursts of activity did not appear to have an effect on cardiometabolic health, such as body composition, blood pressure and blood lipids. Lipids are fatty substances, including LDL (bad cholesterol), HDL (good cholesterol) and triglycerides, that perform critical functions in the body but can be harmful if they build up in the blood.“It was surprising that they didn’t find any improvement in those other markers of cardiometabolic health because most other studies have,” said Carol Ewing Garber, director of both the Applied Physiology Laboratory and the EXerT Clinic at the Columbia University Teachers College, who wasn’t involved in the study. Cardiorespiratory health is a measure of how well the heart and lungs deliver oxygen to the muscles during exercise and predicts a person’s risk of developing heart disease and diabetes. The new study showed short bursts of exercises improved cardiorespiratory fitness.At the very least, getting small amounts of deliberate exercise on a regular basis will make everyday tasks, such as hauling groceries or making the bed, much easier, Garber said. “Most of us could probably find these five-minute bouts of time in our day, to walk around the building we work in, or up and down the stairs. We just don’t think we can,” she said. Short workouts create changes in the bodyPerhaps the biggest benefit of starting an exercise snack routine is that it can help people who are inactive build upon these small changes, said Dr. Tamanna Singh, director of the Sports Cardiology Center at Cleveland Clinic. “If you do the same snack, for the same amount of time, at the same frequency, your body will get used to it. The body needs a challenge,” she said. “The exercise snack can be the start of a foundation for more intense exercise.”Short workouts create key changes in the body that make intensifying workouts easier, Singh added. Within a couple of weeks of getting exercise, aerobic activity initiates cellular changes that increase the amount of plasma in the blood, which allows the blood to deliver more oxygen to the muscles and lengthens endurance. Even small amounts of aerobic activity strengthens the network of tiny blood vessels, called capillaries, that remove waste from muscles. Consistent activity also improves the amount of energy cells can provide, she added. These changes make it easier to exercise for longer periods of time or at a higher intensity. “The main takeaway here is that anything is better than nothing, but that does not mean you should just get three minutes of exercise,” Singh said. “Use that as a base, hopefully these exercise snacks will make people want to have an exercise meal.”Kaitlin SullivanKaitlin Sullivan is a contributor for NBCNews.com who has worked with NBC News Investigations. She reports on health, science and the environment and is a graduate of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at City University of New York.

- Latest News - October 7, 2025

Short bursts of purposeful activity –– such as walking around the block or lifting small weights –– may be the best way to get in the habit of exercising.

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