On The Campaign Trail, Latest Polls (Video)

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell is suddenly at the center of the presidential campaign because of a batch of stolen emails from his Gmail account, that show he has issues with both major presidential candidates.

If Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton sometimes seem like they’re talking about two different Americas, there’s a reason: Their voting bases pretty much live in two different Americas. Clinton voters are concentrated in cities, in the nation’s denser and more diverse areas; Trump voters dominate rural areas and America’s wide-open landscapes.

As a lot of political observers have noted, Trump’s grim-sounding language about a downcast America makes more sense if you realize just what’s happening for his rural base. And buried in the Census Bureau’s new report on income, poverty and health insurance, released Tuesday, are two piece of further bad news for rural America—trends that could keep shaping politics well after November’s election.

President Obama returned Tuesday to the campaign trail to help fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton through arguably the rockiest stretch of her White House campaign, brushing aside the controversies that have dogged her candidacy and assuring voters she’s “fit” for office — as she spends a second day off the trail on doctor’s orders.

“You want to debate who is more fit to be our president?” Obama asked the crowd at a rally in Philadelphia. “One candidate [has] traveled to more countries than any secretary of state ever has. … And the other … isn’t fit in any way, shape or form to represent this country.”

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Tuesday unveiled his new proposal to help families with the high cost of child care expenses.

It’s a policy issue he has not focused on throughout his long career (although he has inaccurately said a child care program offered for guests of his resorts is available for his employees’ child care needs). He also repeatedly said in the past that it’s up to women to take the lead in child care.

Gov. Mike Pence came to Capitol Hill on Tuesday on a mission to promote Republican unity, attacking Hillary Clinton for describing many supporters of the G.O.P. ticket as bigoted “deplorables” and urging Republicans to rally behind their nominee, Donald J. Trump.

But Mr. Pence struggled to press the attack: In separate news conferences, House and Senate Republican leaders declined to join Mr. Pence, the Indiana governor and vice-presidential nominee, in rebuking Mrs. Clinton over her remark.