Editorial cartoons for Sept. 29, 2024: Presidential campaign, political scandals, Hurricane Helene

With less than six weeks to Election Day, the candidates for president are neck and neck, if you put stock in the many polls out there. Editorial cartoonist Walt Handelsman borrows terminology from hurricane forecasting to say the polls are creating a “cone of uncertainty” around the race.

Drew Sheneman and Mike Luckovich comment upon Republican nominee Donald Trump’s reluctance to debate Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for a second time. Nick Anderson ribs GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson for having few legislative accomplishments for his members to campaign on. Anderson, Luckovich, Joel Pett and Jack Ohman see Trump’s outreach to women as futile in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision overturning abortion rights.

Meanwhile, North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, who is Black, was in hot water over racist and pro-Nazi comments attributed to him. Republicans feared that Robinson’s troubles would hurt Trump at the top of the ticket. Anderson sees his campaign snagged on a rock by a swastika.

Meanwhile, Democrats have their own problems. New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted for allegedly taking illegal campaign donations and freebies from foreigners, including the Turkish government. Bill Bramhall of the New York Daily News smells a rat.

Other topics in this week’s editorial cartoon gallery include Hurricane Helene, which slammed into the Florida Gulf Coast; the widening crisis in the Middle East; and the Chicago White Sox, which compiled the worst season in Major League Baseball history. In a reference to the 1919 Black Sox scandal, Chicago Tribune cartoonist Scott Stantis draws a fan with a paper bag over his head and the legend, “Say it ain’t so.”

Cartoons were drawn by Jack Ohman, Nick Anderson, Bill Bramhall, Dana Summers, Drew Sheneman, Scott Stantis, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey, Phil Hands, Joel Pett and Joey Weatherford of Tribune Content Agency; and Mike Luckovich, Steve Breen and Michael Ramirez of Creators Syndicate.