The event, at 9 p.m. Eastern in Philadelphia, will offer Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June. In rapid fashion, President Joe Biden bowed out of the race after his disastrous performance, Trump survived an assassination attempt and bothsides chose their running mates.

Harris is intent on demonstrating that she can press the Democratic case against Trump better than Biden did. Trump, in turn, is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters skeptical he should return to the White House.

Trump, 78, has struggled to adapt to Harris, 59, who is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. The Republican former president has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes, frustrating allies who want Trump to focus instead on policy differences with Harris.

The vice president, for her part, will try to claim a share of credit for the Biden administration’s accomplishments while also addressing its low moments and explaining her shifts away from more liberal positions she took in the past.

The debate will subject Harris, who has sat for only a single formal interview in the past six weeks, to a rare moment of sustained questioning.

Decision 2024 22 hours ago

When is the 2024 presidential debate? How to watch the Trump, Harris debate

news 18 hours ago

Harris previews her Trump debate plan: ‘I think he's gonna lie'

“If she performs great, it’s going to be a nice surprise for the Democrats and they’ll rejoice,” said Ari Fleischer, a Republican communications strategist and former press secretary to President George W. Bush. “If she flops, like Joe Biden did, it could break this race wide open. So there’s more riding on it.”

Tim Hogan, who led Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s debate preparations in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, said Harris, a former California attorney general, would bring a “prosecutor’s instincts to the debate stage.”

“That is a very strong quality in that setting: having someone who knows how to land a punch and how to translate it,” Hogan said.

The first early ballots of the presidential race will go out just hours after the debate, hosted by ABC News. Absentee ballots are set to be sent out beginning Wednesday in Alabama.

Trump plans to hit Harris as too liberal

Trump and his campaign have spotlighted far-left positions she took during her failed 2020 presidential bid. He’s been assisted in his informal debate prep sessions by Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who tore into Harris during their primary debates.

Harris has sought to defend her shifts away from liberal causes to more moderate stances on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun buyback programs — and even backing away from her position that plastic straws should be banned — as pragmatism, insisting that her “values remain the same.” Her campaign on Monday published a page on its website listing her positions on key issues.

The former president has argued a Harris presidency is a threat to the safety of the country, highlighting that Biden tapped her to address the influx of migrants as the Republican once again makes dark warnings about immigration and those in the country illegally central to his campaign. He has sought to portray a Harris presidency as the continuation of Biden’s still-unpopular administration, particularly his economic record, as voters still feel the bite of inflation even as it has cooled in recent months.

Trump’s team insist his tone won’t be any different facing a female opponent.

“President Trump is going to be himself,” senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters during a phone call Monday.

Gabbard, who was also on the call, added that Trump “respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way than he would speak to a man.”

His advisers suggest Harris has a tendency to express herself in a “word salad” of meaningless phrases, prompting Trump to say last week that his debate strategy was to “let her talk.”

The former president frequently plows into rambling remarks that detour from his policy points. He regularly makes false claims about the last election, attacks a lengthy list of enemies and opponents working against him, offers praise for foreign strongmen and comments about race, like his false claim in July that Harris recently “happened to turn Black.”

Harris wants to argue Trump is unstable and unfit

The vice president, who has been the Biden administration’s most outspoken supporter of abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, is expected to focus on calling out Trump’s inconsistencies around women’s reproductive care, including his announcement that he will vote to protect Florida’s six-week abortion ban in a statewide referendum this fall.

Harris was also set to try to portray herself as a steadier hand to lead the nation and safeguard its alliances, as war rages in Ukraine more than two years after Russia’s invasion and Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza drags on with no end in sight.

She is likely to warn that Trump presents a threat to democracy, from his attempts in 2020 to overturn his loss in the presidential election, spurring his angry supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, through comments he made as recently as last weekend. Trump on social media issued yet another message of retribution, threatening that if he wins he will jail “those involved in unscrupulous behavior,” including lawyers, political operatives, donors, voters and election officials.

Harris has spent the better part of the last five days ensconced in debate preparations in Pennsylvania, where she participated in hours-long mock sessions with a Trump stand-in. Ahead of the debate, she told radio host Rickey Smiley that she was workshopping how to respond if Trump lies.

“There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go,” she said.

___

AP Polling Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington and Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Las Vegas, Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Josh Boak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

After a disastrous performance in the first general election debate of this cycle in June, President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, upending the campaign in its closing months and kicking off the rapid-fire process that allowed Harris to rise as Democrats’ nominee in his place.

As was the case for the June debate, there will be no audience present.

Pennsylvania is perhaps the nation’s premier swing state, and both candidates have spent significant time campaigning across Pennsylvania. Trump was holding a rally in Butler, in western Pennsylvania, in mid-July when he was nearly assassinated by a gunman perched on a nearby rooftop. Harris chose Philadelphia as the spot where she unveiled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in August.

In 2020, it was Pennsylvania’s electoral votes that put Biden over the top and propelled him into the White House, four years after Trump won the state. Biden’s victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed the processing of some ballots, and the Trump campaign mounted several legal challenges.

An estimated 51.3 million people watched Biden and Trump in June. But that was before many people were truly tuned into the election, and the potential rematch of the 2020 campaign was drawing little enthusiasm.

Tuesday’s debate will almost certainly reach more people, whether or not it approaches the record debate audience of 84 million for the first face-off between Hillary Clinton and Trump in 2016.

Here’s a look at what to expect:

When is the 2024 presidential debate?

The presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump takes place at 8 p.m. CT/9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

The planned debate comes nearly three weeks after the conclusion of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, in which Harris formally accepted the party’s nomination after a turbulent month kickstarted by Biden’s withdrawal.

How to watch the presidential debate

NBC News will broadcast the full debate live and offering extensive primetime coverage beginning at 8 p.m. ET. You can watch it here on the News4 streaming channel.

NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt and TODAY co-anchor Savannah Guthrie will anchor a pre-debate primetime special starting at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, followed by a live presentation of the ABC News-hosted debate at 9 p.m. ET. Holt and Guthrie will continue special coverage following the debate. 

Viewers can watch the debate live on NBC4 or on the News4 streaming channel, which is available 24/7 and free of charge across nearly every online video platform, including The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus and the NBC News app on smartphones and smart TVs.

Will mics be on or off? Full list of debate rules

The parameters now in place for the Sept. 10 debate are essentially the same as they were for the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.

According to ABC News, the candidates will stand behind lecterns, will not make opening statements and will not be allowed to bring notes during the 90-minute debate. David Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate the event.

“Moderators will seek to enforce timing agreements and ensure a civilized discussion,” the network noted.

A Harris campaign official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss planning around the debate, said a candidate who repeatedly interrupts will receive a warning from a moderator, and both candidates’ microphones may be unmuted if there is significant crosstalk so the audience can understand what’s happening.

After a virtual coin flip held Tuesday and won by Trump, the GOP nominee opted to offer the final closing statement, while Harris chose the podium on the right side of viewers’ screens. There will be no audience, written notes or any topics or questions shared with campaigns or candidates in advance, the network said.

Here’s the full list of rules:

– The debate will be 90 minutes with two commercial breaks.

– The two seated moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, will be the only people asking questions.

– A coin flip was held virtually on Tuesday, Sept. 3, to determine podium placement and order of closing statements; former President Donald Trump won the coin toss and chose to select the order of statements. The former president will offer the last closing statement, and Vice President Harris selected the right podium position on screen (stage left).

– Candidates will be introduced by the moderators.

– The candidates enter upon introduction from opposite sides of the stage; the incumbent party will be introduced first.

– No opening statements; closing statements will be two minutes per candidate.

– Candidates will stand behind podiums for the duration of the debate.

– Props or prewritten notes are not allowed onstage.

– No topics or questions will be shared in advance with campaigns or candidates.

– Candidates will be given a pen, a pad of paper and a bottle of water.

– Candidates will have two-minute answers to questions, two-minute rebuttals, and one extra minute for follow-ups, clarifications, or responses.

– Candidates’ microphones will be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak and muted when the time belongs to another candidate.

– Candidates will not be permitted to ask questions of each other.

– Campaign staff may not interact with candidates during commercial breaks.

– Moderators will seek to enforce timing agreements and ensure a civilized discussion.

– There will be no audience in the room.

Are other debates planned?

Though the September debate is currently the only debate currently planned between Harris and Trump, Harris’ campaign said that a potential October debate was contingent on Trump attending the Sept. 10 debate.

In addition to the planned Harris-Trump debate on Sept. 10, vice presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance also agreed to a debate, scheduled to be hosted by CBS News on Oct. 1.

When is Election Day?

Voters will officially head to the polls just over a month later Tuesday, Nov. 5, for Election Day, though early voting starts significantly earlier in many states.

Decision 2024 Sep 4

Trump and Harris campaigns agree to rules for ABC debate

If you’re here, you likely know that Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will face off for the first time in a debate hosted by ABC News on Tuesday. NBC News will broadcast the full debate live and offer primetime coverage starting at 8 p.m.

If you want to watch with some fellow election nerds (and perhaps an on-theme drink), D.C. is the place to be.

In general, we recommend making reservations or at least showing up early to snag a seat.

Here are watch parties and specials for your debate night.

Presidential debate watch parties in the DC area

The Admiral
1 Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.
Details

Tune into the debate on 15 TVs inside and on the patio. Quench your thirst with Blue Wave and Red State shots ($6.50), discounted draft refills ($5.75) or a burger, fries and beer special ($17.99).

All-Purpose takeout specials
Shaw, Riverfront and AP Pizza Shop in Bethesda
Details

Picking up pizza for a private watch party? Three All-Purpose locations will offer free focaccia breadsticks or garlic bread for any to-go order over $50. You must order online and use promo code VOTE.

Boundary Stone
116 Rhode Island Ave NW, Washington, D.C.
Reservations

This Bloomingdale pub will show the debate at full volume and serve a drink called Kamala’s Coconut Daiquiri, made with local Cotton & Reed rum.

Johnny Pistolas
2333 18th St NW, Washington, D.C.
Details

Watch the debate projected on a 12.5-foot screen while sampling $10 drink specials including the Filibuster Buzz, the Bipartisan Breeze and the Swing State Sangria.

Madhatter
1319 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington D.C.
Details

The Trump vs. Harris showdown will be shown on all TVs – with the sound on – at this Dupont bar and restaurant. Specials include $8 smash burgers, $5 Jello-O shots and Taco Tuesday deals.

Decision 2024 22 hours ago

When is the 2024 presidential debate? How to watch the Trump, Harris debate

Philadelphia Sep 8

Little debate that Pa. is key as Harris and Trump prep for Philly showdown

metrobar
640 Rhode Island Avenue Northeast Washington, D.C.
Details

The transit-themed bar’s debate watch party coincides with specials for Industry Night and the “Beetlejuice” sequel at the Metro-themed bar. You’ll find $9 specialty cocktails from 4-11 p.m.

Royal Sands Social Club
26 N Street SE, Washington, D.C.
Details

Dip into the pool-themed bar for Brat or Mar-a-Lago Punch shots ($6.50). Other specials include $6 Kona drafts, $10 frozen drinks, $2 off sushi rolls and a $10.50 slider trio.

Large groups are welcome to watch the debate on 25 TVs.

Shaw’s Tavern
520 Florida Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.
Details

Enjoy taco and margarita specials while the debate is shown on TVs on two floors and the covered patio. Doors open at 7 p.m. Grab a reservation for a table or show up early for a seat at the bar.

Solaire Social
8200 Dixon Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland
Details

The new food hall in Silver Spring will offer an all-day happy hour to soothe any debate-related nerves. You’ll also find $20 beer pitchers or buckets, plus Tequila Tuesday specials.

Whitlow’s Debate Watch Bingo Party
901 U Street NW, Washington, D.C.
Details

Whitlow’s adds a twist to their debate watch party with a Bingo game built around campaign buzzwords. Winners could get prizes including Whitlow’s t-shirts and gift cards.

Head to the second floor of Whitlow’s to play and watch the debate on five TVs and a large screen.

Union Pub
201 Massachusetts Ave NE, Washington, D.C.
Details

For one of D.C.’s most politically-oriented bars steps from the U.S. Capitol, debate night is basically the Super Bowl.

Sip on coconut or orange drinks, join a drinking game and grab specials including $4 shots and discounted pitches and beer buckets.

Make reservations or get there early (very early) to beat the crowd.

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After a disastrous performance in the first general election debate of this cycle in June, President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, upending the campaign in its closing months and kicking off the rapid-fire process that allowed Harris to rise as Democrats’ nominee in his place.

As was the case for the June debate, there will be no audience present.

Pennsylvania is perhaps the nation’s premier swing state, and both candidates have spent significant time campaigning across Pennsylvania. Trump was holding a rally in Butler, in western Pennsylvania, in mid-July when he was nearly assassinated by a gunman perched on a nearby rooftop. Harris chose Philadelphia as the spot where she unveiled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in August.

In 2020, it was Pennsylvania’s electoral votes that put Biden over the top and propelled him into the White House, four years after Trump won the state. Biden’s victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed the processing of some ballots, and the Trump campaign mounted several legal challenges.

An estimated 51.3 million people watched Biden and Trump in June. But that was before many people were truly tuned into the election, and the potential rematch of the 2020 campaign was drawing little enthusiasm.

Tuesday’s debate will almost certainly reach more people, whether or not it approaches the record debate audience of 84 million for the first face-off between Hillary Clinton and Trump in 2016.

Here’s a look at what to expect:

When is the 2024 presidential debate?

The presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump takes place at 8 p.m. CT/9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

The planned debate comes nearly three weeks after the conclusion of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, in which Harris formally accepted the party’s nomination after a turbulent month kickstarted by Biden’s withdrawal.

How to watch the presidential debate

Will mics be on or off? Full list of debate rules

The parameters now in place for the Sept. 10 debate are essentially the same as they were for the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.

According to ABC News, the candidates will stand behind lecterns, will not make opening statements and will not be allowed to bring notes during the 90-minute debate. David Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate the event.

“Moderators will seek to enforce timing agreements and ensure a civilized discussion,” the network noted.

A Harris campaign official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss planning around the debate, said a candidate who repeatedly interrupts will receive a warning from a moderator, and both candidates’ microphones may be unmuted if there is significant crosstalk so the audience can understand what’s happening.

After a virtual coin flip held Tuesday and won by Trump, the GOP nominee opted to offer the final closing statement, while Harris chose the podium on the right side of viewers’ screens. There will be no audience, written notes or any topics or questions shared with campaigns or candidates in advance, the network said.

Here’s the full list of rules:

– The debate will be 90 minutes with two commercial breaks.

– The two seated moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, will be the only people asking questions.

– A coin flip was held virtually on Tuesday, Sept. 3, to determine podium placement and order of closing statements; former President Donald Trump won the coin toss and chose to select the order of statements. The former president will offer the last closing statement, and Vice President Harris selected the right podium position on screen (stage left).

– Candidates will be introduced by the moderators.

– The candidates enter upon introduction from opposite sides of the stage; the incumbent party will be introduced first.

– No opening statements; closing statements will be two minutes per candidate.

– Candidates will stand behind podiums for the duration of the debate.

– Props or prewritten notes are not allowed onstage.

– No topics or questions will be shared in advance with campaigns or candidates.

– Candidates will be given a pen, a pad of paper and a bottle of water.

– Candidates will have two-minute answers to questions, two-minute rebuttals, and one extra minute for follow-ups, clarifications, or responses.

– Candidates’ microphones will be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak and muted when the time belongs to another candidate.

– Candidates will not be permitted to ask questions of each other.

– Campaign staff may not interact with candidates during commercial breaks.

– Moderators will seek to enforce timing agreements and ensure a civilized discussion.

– There will be no audience in the room.

Are other debates planned?

Though the September debate is currently the only debate currently planned between Harris and Trump, Harris’ campaign said that a potential October debate was contingent on Trump attending the Sept. 10 debate.

In addition to the planned Harris-Trump debate on Sept. 10, vice presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance also agreed to a debate, scheduled to be hosted by CBS News on Oct. 1.

When is Election Day?

Voters will officially head to the polls just over a month later Tuesday, Nov. 5, for Election Day, though early voting starts significantly earlier in many states.

Decision 2024 Sep 4

Trump and Harris campaigns agree to rules for ABC debate

On Saturday, they took their campaign against the conservative Project 2025 blueprint, written by allies of Republican Donald Trump, to the sky above college football stadiums in key swing states.

Democratic National Committee -sponsored banners pulled by small airplanes flew Saturday over Michigan Stadium, where the defending national champion Wolverines lost to Texas, and at home games for Penn State and Wisconsin. A banner set to fly over Georgia’s home game was grounded due to weather.

Vice President Kamala Harris and her allies have spent months warning about Project 2025, betting that the initiative makes Trump seem especially extreme. More than 900 pages and produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation, the plan lays out how Trump in his second term might do everything from firing tens of thousands of federal workers to abolishing government departments to imposing new restrictions on abortion and diversity initiatives.

Trump has rejected a direct connection to Project 2025, though he’s also endorsed some of its key ideas.

Saturday’s gambit aimed to put Democratic messaging over stadiums with a total capacity of 380,000-plus, with tens of thousands of fans more in the vicinity of each game.

“JD Vance ‘hearts’ Ohio State + Project 2025,” read the message going over Michigan Stadium, suggesting Trump’s running mate loves the project as much as he famously does Michigan’s hated archrival.

In Wisconsin, which hosted South Dakota, the message was “Jump Around! Beat Trump + Project 2025,” a nod to fans jumping with enough ferocity to shake Camp Randall Stadium when House of Pain’s “Jump Around” plays between the third and fourth quarters.

Penn State’s Bowling Green matchup got more general messages urging fans to “Beat Trump, Sack Project 2025.

Banners started flying around four hours before each kickoff, said DNC deputy communications director Abhi Rahman. The Trump campaign did not answer a message Saturday seeking comment.

Harris’ campaign and party bring up Project 2025 multiple times each day, often unprompted.

The DNC marked Labor Day by arguing that Project 2025 would undermine overtime rules and “hard-fought” worker rights. It also paid for internet ads on the initiative that flashed up for users searching “back to school.” Democrats have further pointed to Project 2025 in seemingly incongruous places, while highlighting Vance getting booed at a recent firefighters convention or slamming Trump for laying into his perceived political enemies in online posts.

“We want people to know exactly what Project 2025 is, what the ties are to Trump,” Rahman said. “Finding creative avenues to get the message out is something that we’re always trying to do.”

Democratic strategist Brad Bannon warned that Harris’ focus on Project 2025 “can’t overwhelm her positive message about the changes she wants to make.”

“She can’t afford to go overboard,” he said, “if it interferes with her establishing her own personal profile.”

A large portion of Saturday’s game crowds, meanwhile, may support Trump. Many college football fans hail from rural, more Republican areas, well beyond the confines of reliably Democratic college towns.

“One of the really interesting things when political candidates try to leverage sports is that they’re putting themselves at risk,” said Amy Bass, who is a professor of sport studies at Manhattanville University in Purchase, New York.

She pointed to Trump being surprised to get booed while attending Game 5 of the 2019 World Series — though the former president also made largely successful stops at tailgates before the Iowa-Iowa State football game in 2023 and when South Carolina hosted Clemson after last Thanksgiving.

Sports crowds have “a propensity to get loud, also have the added layer of alcohol and tailgating and all kinds of things pregame, and they haven’t curated that crowd,” Bass said.

Rahman, though, shrugged off such concerns.

“They can get rowdy all they want at a banner,” he said. “But the message is definitely there. It’s there for a reason.”

During the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Mallory McMorrow, a 37-year-old state senator from Michigan, brought out a giant copy of the roughly 900-page “Mandate for Leadership” and slammed it on the lectern, making an expression to signal how heavy it was as she opened to start reading.

“They went ahead and wrote down all the extreme things that Donald Trump wants to do in the next four years,” McMorrow said from the stage. “We read it.”

The lengthy plan drafted by conservatives serves as a blueprint to remake the federal government in a second Trump administration. The former president, meanwhile, has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, claiming he doesn’t know anything about has “no idea who is in charge of it, and, unlike our very well received Republican Platform, had nothing to do with it.”

However, many of Trump’s key allies and former administration officials are writers and architects of Project 2025.

“Don’t believe it when (Trump’s) playing dumb about this Project 2025. He knows exactly what it’ll do,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Aug. 9 at a campaign event in Glendale, Arizona.

Here’s what to know about Project 2025:

Decision 2024 Aug 23

When is the upcoming Harris vs. Trump presidential debate?

news Aug 23

Harris says Trump ‘wants to be an autocrat' and tyrants are ‘rooting' for him

What is Project 2025?

Led by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, Project 2025 is a detailed, 920-page handbook for governing under the next Republican administration.

The document outlines a dramatic expansion of presidential power. The overarching theme of Project 2025 is to strip down the “administrative state.” This, according to the blueprint, is the mass of unelected government officials who pursue policy agendas at odds with the president’s plans.

Much of the new president’s agenda would be accomplished by reinstating what’s called Schedule F — a Trump-era executive order that would reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees as essentially at-will workers who could more easily be fired and replaced by Trump loyalists.

It calls for the U.S. Education Department to be shuttered, and the Homeland Security Department dismantled, with its various parts absorbed by other federal offices.

There’s a “top to bottom overhaul” of the Department of Justice, particularly curbing its independence and ending FBI efforts to combat the spread of misinformation

The plan says the Department of Health and Human Services should “pursue a robust agenda” to protect “the fundamental right to life,” and the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of medications used in abortions should be reversed. It also calls for reviving a 19th century law, the Comstock Act, to ban any abortion medications, equipment, or materials from being sent through the U.S. Postal Service.

Diversity, inclusion and equity programs would be gutted. Promotions in the U.S. military to general or admiral would go under a microscope to ensure candidates haven’t prioritized issues like climate change or critical race theory.

On immigration, proposals include targeted raids on immigrant communities for mass deportations, ending birthright citizenship and reversing the Flores settlement to make way for family separation. It also proposes restricting legal immigration by doing away with many of the programs that offer immigrants a pathway to citizenship, including work and student visas, DACA, family-based immigration, TPS and visas for victims of crime and human trafficking.

While presidents typically rely on Congress to put policies into place, the Heritage project leans into what legal scholars refer to as a unitary view of executive power that suggests the president has broad authority to act alone.

To push past senators who try to block presidential Cabinet nominees, Project 2025 proposes installing top allies in acting administrative roles, as was done during the Trump administration to bypass the Senate confirmation process.

John McEntee, another former Trump official advising the effort, said the next administration can “play hardball a little more than we did with Congress.”

In fact, Congress would see its role diminished — for example, with a proposal to eliminate congressional notification on certain foreign arms sales.

Who is behind Project 2025?

Some of the people involved in Project 2025 are former senior administration officials with deep GOP ties. The project’s former director, Paul Dans, served as chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management under Trump. Dans stepped down from the role in July after the project “completed exactly what it set out to do: bringing together over 110 leading conservative organizations to create a unified conservative vision, motivated to devolve power from the unelected administrative state, and returning it to the people,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a statement.

Trump’s former White House budget chief, Russell Vought, was a key architect of the plan and was also appointed to the Republican National Committee’s platform writing committee. Vought is likely to be appointed to a high-ranking post in a second Trump administration. And he’s been drafting a so-far secret “180-Day Transition Playbook” to speed the plan’s implementation to avoid a repeat of the chaotic start that dogged Trump’s first term.

John McEntee, a former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office in the Trump administration, was a senior adviser. McEntee told the conservative news site The Daily Wire earlier this year that Project 2025’s team would integrate a lot of its work with the campaign after the summer when Trump would announce his transition team.

More than a hundred conservative organizations have contributed to the project, recruiting an “army” of Americans to go to Washington and “flood the zone with conservatives” if Republicans took back the White House.

What does Trump say about Project 2025?

Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025 and has denied knowing who is behind the plan.

Yet he spoke highly about the group’s plans at a dinner sponsored by the Heritage Foundation in April 2022, saying: “This is a great group, and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.”

Trump’s recent attempts to reject the blueprint are complicated by the connections he has with many of its contributors.

The decision to make Ohio Sen. JD Vance his running mate was taken by some as one more connection to Project 2025. Heritage’s President Kevin Roberts has said he’s good friends with Vance and that the Heritage Foundation had been privately rooting for him to be the VP pick.

Vance penned the foreword to Roberts’ own new book, which was set to be out in September but has now been postponed as Project 2025 hits turmoil. Roberts is holding off the release of his potentially fiery new book until after the November presidential election.

Stephen Miller, a former Trump White House adviser who now runs America First Legal, has also been closely involved. Miller has also sought to distance himself, insisting in a statement to NBC News that he’s “never been involved with Project 2025.”

Democrats for months have been using Project 2025 to hammer Trump and other Republicans, arguing to voters that it represents the former president’s true — and extreme — agenda.

WASHINGTON — Eighty-eight current and former top executives from across corporate America have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president in a new letter shared exclusively with CNBC.

Among the signers are several high-profile CEOs of public companies, including Aaron Levie of Box, Jeremy Stoppelman of Yelp and Michael Lynton, chairman of Snap, Inc. 

Other signers appear to be issuing their first public endorsements of Harris since she became the de facto Democratic nominee in July.

They include James Murdoch, the former CEO of 21st Century Fox and an heir to the Murdoch family media empire, and crypto executive Chris Larsen, co-founder of the Ripple blockchain platform.

Other notable signers are philanthropist Lynn Forrester de Rothschild, private equity billionaire José Feliciano, Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson, and D.C. sports magnate Ted Leonsis, owner of the NBA’s Washington Wizards, WNBA’s Mystics and the NHL’s Washington Capitals.

The three-page list also includes a slate of longtime Democratic political donors, like Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr, Insight partners Deven Parekh and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former chairman of Walt Disney Studios.

Another subset of names are people who have supported Harris in particular since her political campaigns in California, like the philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and NBA Hall-of-Famer and billionaire businessman Magic Johnson.

More than a dozen of the signers made their fortunes on Wall Street: Tony James, the former president and COO of Blackstone and founder of Jefferson River Capital; Bruce Heyman, former managing director of private wealth at Goldman Sachs; Peter Orszag, CEO of Lazard and Steve Westly managing director of the Westly Group and a former Tesla board member. 

Still more are prominent in Silicon Valley, including the venture capitalist Ron Conway, entrepreneur Mark Cuban, and former LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman.

After all these, however, the lion’s share of the 88 signers who endorsed Harris are former CEOs of major public companies.

They include former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, Barry Diller of Paramount, Ken Frazier of Merck, Logan Green of Lyft, Blake Irving of GoDaddy, Alan Mulally of Ford, Laxman Narasimhan of Starbucks, and Dan Schulman of PayPal.

A strategic purpose

Considering how long the list of names runs, the endorsement letter itself is relatively short.

“The best way to support the continued strength, security, and reliability of our democracy and economy” is by electing Harris president, the writers say.

They also argue that Harris would “continue to advance fair and predictable policies that support the rule of law, stability, and a sound business environment” if she were president.

The reason for the long list and the short letter is because the letter itself was not written to convince the general public to vote for Harris.

Instead, it’s purpose is to serve as a well-timed political show of force for Harris, who is locked in a very tight race, with the first presidential debate just four days away.

Both Harris and Trump have spent the past week rolling out their dueling economic visions, ahead of the Sept. 10 debate, hosted by ABC.

Harris outlined proposals to support small businesses that feature a plan to increase a tax deduction for start-up expenses by ten times, up to $50,000. 

She also proposed lifting the top capital gains tax rate to 28% for people making more than $1 million a year—up from the current 20% rate, but far lower than the 39.6% level that President Joe Biden has proposed.

Harris said she dialed back Biden’s top rate, in part, because her goal is to encourage more private-sector investment.

Trump laid out his own competing economic agenda on Thursday in New York, where he called for the creation of a government efficiency commission designed to root out fraud.

He also pledged to cut the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15% for companies that make their products in the United States.

Trump has also earned support from a number of prominent Wall Street and private-sector backers, including Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.

The letter’s initial organization can be traced back to four top Harris supporters: Roger Altman, senior chairman of Evercore, Blair Effron, co-founder of Centerview Partners, the former American Express CEO Ken Chenault and Ursula Burns, the former CEO of Xerox.

The genesis of the project was described to CNBC by a person familiar with the process, who was granted anonymity to describe how it came about.

Altman, Effron, Chenault and Burns organized the effort, and then brought the letter to the Harris presidential campaign as a way to showcase the vice president’s support within the business community.

The full text of the letter and list of signatures is below.

We endorse Kamala Harris’s election as President of the United States.

Her election is the best way to support the continued strength, security, and reliability of our democracy and economy. With Kamala Harris in the White House, the business community can be confident that it will have a President who wants American industries to thrive. As a partner to President Biden, Vice President Harris has a strong record of advancing actions to spur business investment in the United States and ensure American businesses can compete and win in the global market. She will continue to advance fair and predictable policies that support the rule of law, stability, and a sound business environment, and she will strive to give every American the opportunity to pursue the American dream.

• Roger Altman, Founder & Senior Chairman of Evercore
• Shellye Archambeau, former CEO of MetricStream
• Carl Bass, former CEO of Autodesk
• Tom Bernstein, President and Co-Founder of Chelsea Piers
• Afasaneh Beschloss, Founder & CEO of Rock Creek
• Jeff Bewkes, former CEO of Time Warner
• W. Michael Blumenthal, 64th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and former CEO of both Bendix and Unisys
• Rosalind “Roz” Brewer, former CEO of Sam’s Club; former CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance; former COO of Starbucks
• Ursula Burns, former CEO of Xerox; Chairwoman of Teneo; Founding Partner of Integrum Holdings
• Maverick Carter, CEO of The SpringHill Company
• Ken Chenault, Chairman & Managing Director of General Catalyst; former Chairman & CEO of American Express
• Peter Chernin, Co-Founder & Partner of TCG 
• Tony Coles, Chairperson & former CEO of Cerevel
• Tim Collins, Founder, CEO, and Senior Managing Director of Ripplewood
• Ron Conway, Founder & Managing Partner of SV Angel
• Robert Crandall, former President and Chairman of American Airlines
• Mark Cuban, Various entrepreneurial endeavors and a “shark” on Shark Tank
• Richelieu Dennis, Founder and Executive Chair of Sundial Group of Companies
• Barry Diller, Chairman & Senior Executive of IAC and Senior Executive of Expedia; Former Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Fox, Inc.
• John Doerr, Chairman of Kleiner Perkins
• Arnold Donald, former CEO of Carnival Corporation
• Blair Effron, Partner & Co-Founder of Centerview Partners
• José E. Feliciano, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Clearlake Capital Group
• David P. Fialkow, Co-Founder & Managing Director of General Catalyst
• Anne Finucane, former Vice Chair of Bank of America
• Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Chief Executive of E.L. Rothschild
• Ken Frazier, former Executive Chairman, President & CEO of Merck
• Mark Gallogly, Co-Founder and Managing Principal of Three Cairns Group; Co-Founder of Centerbridge Partners
• Chad Gifford, Former Chairman of Bank of America
• David Grain, Founder and CEO of Grain Management
• Logan Green, Chairman and former CEO of Lyft
• Daniel J. Halpern, Co-founder and CEO of Jackmont Hospitality
• Bruce Heyman, Former U.S. Ambassador to Canada and former Managing Director of Private Wealth at Goldman Sachs
• Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO and President of Ariel Investments; Chairman of Starbucks
• Roger Hochschild, former CEO and President of Discover Financial Services
• Reid Hoffman, Partner at Greylock Partners and Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn 
• Glenn Hutchins, Chairman of North Island or Co-Founder of Silver Lake
• Blake Irving, former CEO of GoDaddy
• Tony James, former President, CEO & Executive Vice Chairman of Blackstone; Founder of Jefferson River Capital
• David Jacobson, Senior Advisor and former Vice Chair of BMO Financial Group; Former U.S. Ambassador to Canada
• Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Chairman and CEO, Magic Johnson Enterprises
• Brad Karp, Chairman of Paul, Weiss
• Jeffrey Katzenberg, Founder & Managing Partner of WndrCo
• Ellen Kullman, President and CEO of Carbon3; former Chair and CEO of DuPont
• Todd Lachman, Founder of Sovos Brands
• Chris Larsen, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Ripple
• Jeff Lawson, former CEO of Twilio
• Ted Leonsis, CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment
• Aaron Levie, Co-Founder & CEO of Box
• Ed Lewis, former Chairman and CEO of Essence Communications, co-founder Essence Magazine
• William M. Lewis, Jr.
• Michael Lynton, Chairman of Snap, Inc., former CEO of Sony Entertainment
• Tracy V. Maitland, President and Chief Investment Officer of Advent Capital Management
• Helena Maus, CEO of Archetype and Marker Collective
• Marissa Mayer, co-founder and CEO of Sunshine Products, former CEO of Yahoo!
• T.J. McGill, Co-Founder of Evergreen Pacific Partners and Suzanne Sinegal McGill, Co-Founder of Rwanda Girls Initiative
• Danny Meyer, Founder & Executive Chairman of Union Square Hospitality Group
• Dustin Moskovitz, Co-founder and CEO of Asana
• Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford
• Anne Mulcahy, former Chairman and CEO of Xerox
• James Murdoch, Founder & CEO of Lupa Systems; former CEO of 21st Century Fox
• Laxman Narasimhan, former CEO of Starbucks
• Indra Nooyi, former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo
• Peter Orszag, former Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget and CEO of Lazard
• Deven J. Parekh, Managing Director of Insight Partners
• Sean Parker, Founder of Napster; Founder and Chairman of Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
• Charles Phillips, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Recognize; former President of Oracle and former CEO of Infor; 
• Laurene Powell Jobs, Founder and President of Emerson Collective
• Penny Pritzker, 38th U.S. Secretary of Commerce; founder and Chairman of PSP Partners 
• Vasant Prabhu, former CFO and Vice-Chair of Visa
• Spencer Rascoff, Founder and CEO of 75 & Sunny Ventures; Co-Founder and former CEO of Zillow
• Punit Renjen
• Rachel Romer, Founder of Guild Education
• Robert Rubin, former U.S. Treasury Secretary; Senior Counselor at Centerview Partners
• Kevin P. Ryan, Co-founder, MongoDB, Business Insider, GILT Groupe, Zola, Pearl Health, Affect Therapeutics, and Transcend Therapeutics
• Faiza J. Saeed
• Dan Schulman, former President & CEO of PayPal
• Jim Sinegal, Co-Founder and Former CEO of Costco
• Dan Springer, former CEO of Docusign
• Tom Steyer, Founder and former Co-Senior-Managing-Partner of Farallon Capital
• Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO of Yelp
• Scott Stuart, Founding & Managing Partner of Sageview Capital
• Larry Summers, 71st United States Secretary of the Treasury and President Emeritus of Harvard University
• Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder & CEO of Chobani
• Daniel Weiss, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Angeleno Group
• Steve Westly, Founder and Managing Partner of The Westly Group
• Ron Williams, former CEO of Aetna
• Robert Wolf, former CEO of UBS Americas

The Sept. 10 event in Philadelphia will use the same rules and format as the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.

Both campaigns had previously agreed to hold the debate on that date, but the agreement appeared to be in jeopardy after Trump suggested he might back out and Harris’ team sought to change the rule on muted microphones.

Candidate microphones will be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak.

Trump campaign official Jason Miller said in a statement that the former president’s campaign was “thrilled that Kamala Harris and her team of Biden campaign leftovers” have “accepted the already agreed upon rules.”

“Americans want to hear both candidates present their competing visions to the voters, unburdened by what has been,” Miller said. “We’ll see you all in Philadelphia next Tuesday.”

In a letter to ABC, the Harris campaign agreed to the muted microphone rule but said she “will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President.”

“Notwithstanding our concerns, we understand that Donald Trump is a risk to skip the debate altogether, as he has threatened to do previously, if we do not accede to his preferred format. We do not want to jeopardize the debate. For this reason, we accepted the full set of rules proposed by ABC, including muted microphones,” the letter said, bringing an end to the stalemate.

The 90-minute debate will be held without an audience in Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center at 9 p.m. ET, and will be moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis of ABC News. Neither candidate will be allowed notes or props, and both will stand for the entire debate. Both will have two minutes to answer questions and two-minute rebuttals, with an additional minute to each candidate for follow-up, clarification or response.

The rules mirror the June 27 CNN debate between Trump and Biden. The president’s performance in the debate was widely panned and eventually led to him exiting the race and endorsing Harris in July.

0 seconds of 2 minutes, 48 secondsVolume 89%

The standoff over muted or live microphones had threatened to derail the debate, and the Harris campaign took jabs at Trump during the impasse.

“Both candidates have publicly made clear their willingness to debate with unmuted mics for the duration of the debate to fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates — but it appears Donald Trump is letting his handlers overrule him. Sad!” a Harris campaign spokesperson previously said in a statement to NBC News.

Trump had told reporters that he was considering backing out of the debate because he didn’t like how Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., was treated in an interview on ABC News’ “This Week.”

“When I looked at the hostility of that, I said, ‘Why am I doing it? Let’s do it with another network.’ I want to do it,” Trump said.

He also acknowledged at the time that he didn’t have an issue with both microphones being live, but said that “we agreed to the same rules” as the June 27 debate with Biden. “I’d rather have it probably on, but the agreement was it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted,” Trump said.

Trump publicly relented on ABC hosting the debate in a post on Truth Social on Aug. 27 when he said he had “reached an agreement” with the network.

A virtual coin flip on Tuesday determined podium placement and the order of closing statements for Sept. 10, ABC News said. Trump won the coin toss and decided to speak last during closing statements. Harris selected the right podium position on the screen.

NBC news’ Rebecca Shabad, Zoë Richards and Megan Lebowitz contributed.

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Before getting into the details of her plans, she started by making comments about the deadly shooting at a Georgia high school Wednesday.

“We have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all. It doesn’t have to be this way,” she said.

Harris then launched into details of her small business tax plan, part of what she called an “opportunity economy” where everyone gets a chance at success.

To do that, she said, she wants to expand tax incentives for small business startup expenses from $5,000 to $50,000, with the goal of eventually spurring 25 million new small business applications over four years.

She also said she plans to change the way the government taxes capital gains, expand access to venture capital, support innovation hubs and business incubators and increase federal contracts with small businesses.

“I believe America’s small businesses are an essential foundation to our entire economy,” the vice president said.

Harris also took time to drive home her differences from opponent Donald Trump, describing her campaign as the underdog in a tight race with the future at stake.

“We are witnessing a full-on attack on hard-fought hard-won fundamental freedoms and rights,” she said, citing the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and its implications for abortion rights as well as concerns about voting rights, gun control and other topics.

Harris made her stop at Throwback Brewery in North Hampton, outside Portsmouth, to meet with co-founders Annette Lee and Nicole Carrier. Their brewery got support to open its current location through a small business credit and installed solar panels using federal programs championed by the Biden administration, according to the Harris campaign.

Before leaving New Hampshire, Harris also visited a pretzel shop in Portsmouth along with all four members of New Hampshire’s all-Democratic congressional delegation.

New Hampshire has been reliably blue in recent presidential elections, but the trip could also have some benefit across state lines, since Maine splits its electoral votes, allowing candidates to win some without carrying the full state. Still, it marks a rare deviation from Harris spending most of her time visiting a tight group of Midwest and Sun Belt battlegrounds likely to decide November’s election.

Since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and endorsed Harris, the vice president has focused on the “blue wall” states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that have been the centerpiece of successful Democratic campaigns.

She’s also frequently visited Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, all of which Biden narrowly won in 2020, and North Carolina, which she’s still hoping to flip from Republican former President Donald Trump.

Wednesday’s stop came after Harris marked Labor Day with Monday rallies in Detroit and Pittsburgh and before she heads back to Pittsburgh on Friday — marking her 10th visit to Pennsylvania in 2024. By contrast, Wednesday was her first visit to New Hampshire in years.

Trump has called for lowering the corporate tax rate to 15% — a break with Biden, who in his budget proposal in March suggested setting the corporate tax rate at 28%. Harris has released relatively few major policy proposals in the roughly six weeks since taking over the top of the Democratic ticket, but has not suggested she’s planning to deviate greatly from his administration on tax policy.

The small business plan Harris presented Wednesday had lots of facets that many in the business community would like. But that contrasts another proposal Harris unveiled last month, where she promised to help fight inflation by working to combat “price gouging” from food producers that she suggests have driven grocery store prices up unnecessarily.

She didn’t only focus on the economy during Wednesday’s event — she also elicited cheers from the crowd by speaking on abortion rights.

“We trust women, and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law,” she told spectators.

And in her comments on Trump, she tried to stoke fears about what Trump could do in a return to office, given a recent Supreme Court decision that found presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts.

“What this means is that, almost explicitly, he has been told no consequences and imagine, just imagine, Donald Trump with no guardrails,” she said.

Harris has built her campaign around calls to grow and strengthen the nation’s middle class — and suggested that rich Americans and large corporations should “pay their fair share” in higher taxes.

Biden, who similarly built his campaign around promoting the middle class, won New Hampshire by 7 percentage points in 2020, but Trump came much closer to winning it against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Still, the Harris campaign notes that it has 17 field offices operating in coordination with the state Democratic party across New Hampshire, compared to one for Trump’s campaign.

Some of the state’s Democrats were angry that Biden directed the Democratic National Committee to make South Carolina the first state to vote in the party’s presidential primary this year — displacing Iowa’s caucus and a first-in-the-nation primary New Hampshire held for more than a century.

Despite that, New Hampshire pressed ahead with an unsanctioned primary. Though Biden didn’t campaign in it, or appear on the ballot, he still easily won via a write-in drive.

Trump is nonetheless hoping to use what happened to his advantage, posting on his social media account that Harris “sees there are problems for her campaign in New Hampshire because of the fact that they disrespected it in their primary and never showed up.”

“Additionally, the cost of living in New Hampshire is through the roof, their energy bills are some of highest in the country, and their housing market is the most unaffordable in history,” the former president wrote. “I protected New Hampshire’s First-In-The-Nation Primary and ALWAYS will.”

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The crashed occurred shortly before 1 p.m. local time. Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign said she spoke with Walz shortly after the crash and that he was not injured. The campaign said the crash involved cars near the rear of the motorcade, not closer to the front, where Walz, who is also the governor of Minnesota, was riding.

A member of Walz traveling staff, who was in a van carrying reporters, was injured and being treated by medics, according to a pool report from a reporter traveling in Walz’s motorcade. The pool reporter said others in the van were shaken but appeared to be OK after being “violently thrown forward, as our van slammed into the one in front of us and was hit from behind.”

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the crash.

The crash occurred after Walz and his wife, Gwen, were greeted at the airport by Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin. The trio embraced, chatted and posed for a photo before the motorcade began heading to the event.

Monday’s campaign stops marking Labor Day were Walz’s first aboard the Harris-Walz campaign charter aircraft. It bears decals of an American flag, the words Harris-Walz, and “A New Way Forward.”

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Harris accused Trump of “disrespect[ing] sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt.”

“If there is one thing on which we as Americans can all agree, it is that our veterans, military families, and service members should be honored, never disparaged, and treated with nothing less than our highest respect and gratitude,” she added.

Harris also called on Trump to “never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America,” as a result of his actions.

Her statement comes after the U.S. Army said that a member of Trump’s campaign staff “abruptly pushed aside” a staff member at the cemetery so that Trump and his campaign could take photos and videos with families of service members who passed away during the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

The incident occurred in Section 60, where taking videos and photos is usually prohibited.

During an interview with NBC News Thursday, Trump defended his actions, saying a family “asked me whether or not I would stand for a picture at the grave of their loved one who should not have died.”

He claimed that he did not request to take photos and videos, but “While I was there, I didn’t ask for a picture. While I was there, they said, ‘Sir, could we have a picture at the grave?’”

In a post on X responding to Harris, Trump’s running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance said, “President trump was there at the invitation of families whose loved ones died because of your incompetence. Why don’t you get off social media and go launch an investigation into their unnecessary deaths?”

And Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt blasted Harris in her own post, blaming the vice president for the servicemembers’ deaths during the withdrawal, which occurred during the Biden administration.

“Kamala’s stupidity led to one of the most embarrassing events in American history and 13 brave US soldiers being killed,” Leavitt posted, adding “For this alone, Kamala does not deserve to be elected. Kamala has already proven that she would be a dangerously incompetent Commander in Chief.” 

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His announcement came a day after telling NBC News that Florida’s six-week ban is “too short” and declining to take a clear stance on a state ballot measure that would expand access to the procedure.

On Friday, Trump said, once again, that women need “more time” than six weeks to decide whether to have an abortion, but that the “Democrats are radical” and he couldn’t back the amendment.

“So I think six weeks, you need more time than six weeks. I’ve disagreed with that right from the early primaries when I heard about it, I disagreed with it,” Trump said in comments to Fox News. “At the same time, the Democrats are radical, because the nine months is just a ridiculous situation where you can do an abortion in the ninth month. … So I’ll be voting no for that reason.”

The proposed amendment would bar restrictions on abortion before fetal viability, around the 24th week of pregnancy, while ensuring exceptions to protect the health of the mother.

The backlash from anti-abortion advocates was fierce after Trump’s interview with NBC News, with some warning that the Republican presidential nominee was risking losing support from a key bloc of the party’s base.

Alarmed by what she saw, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the influential anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, called Trump on Thursday to ask for clarity on his comments, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation. Trump told her that he didn’t state a position on an amendment on his home state’s ballot this fall.

Dannenfelser told him that “it’s imperative that you’re clear because there’s confusion now that you may be in support of this,” the source added. She also told him the amendment is “incongruent” with his opposition to late-term abortion.

During the interview with NBC News, Trump said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks,” when asked how he would vote on the ballot measure. It’s unclear what he meant as the Florida initiative gives voters a binary choice.

Later Thursday, Trump’s campaign issued a statement saying the former president had “not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida.”

Meanwhile, anti-abortion activists, who have provided critical support to Trump during his three presidential runs, piled on. Some also criticized his suggestion that he’d mandate that the government or insurance companies pay for in vitro fertilization treatments. 

“Former President Trump now appears determined to undermine his prolife supporters,” evangelical theologian Albert Mohler wrote on X. “His criticism of Florida abortion restrictions & his call for government funding of IVF & his recent statement about ‘reproductive rights’ seem almost calculated to alienate prolife voters.”

The clash put Trump and Republicans in uncharted waters, facing the first presidential election in half a century without Roe v. Wade on the books to protect abortion rights. The GOP was largely unified behind legislation to outlaw abortion at the state and federal levels when they were able to use it to rally anti-abortion voters with no chance of it succeeding legislatively.

But some Republicans now fear voter backlash from the majority of Americans who say in polls they want abortion to be mostly or always legal, particularly as Democrats seek to further capitalize on the issue. And Trump, who has bragged about appointing three of the five Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe, is still struggling to navigate it.

Abortion foes are caught in their own bind over whether to abandon Trump or to support him in the hope that Republicans will win in November and continue to pursue nationwide abortion restrictions, despite the former president’s claims to the contrary.

“If Donald Trump loses in November, it will be his improvisational approach to abortion that alienated the pro-life community that costs him victory,” conservative radio host Erick Erickson said.

Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life — which has helped organize tens of thousands of anti-abortion activists, mostly on college campuses — wrote Thursday on X: “My phone is blowing up with @SFLAction volunteers who no longer will door knock for President Trump if this is not corrected. With polls neck and neck, this is the last thing we need right now to defeat Kamala’s pro-abortion extremism.”

She told NBC News the Trump campaign “personally” told leaders in her group that he’s undecided on the Florida measure. She said they expect him to vote “no” and warned that Trump’s waffling on the issue would likely hurt his support with many volunteers.

“When they hear the leader of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, walking back past pro-life statements, it’s devastating to them,” she said. “And it’s shocking to them that Republicans would betray this very important part of the Republican Party.”

“He needs to be very careful with his words,” she added.

Taryn Fenske, a spokeswoman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, pushed back against Trump’s initial comments.

“Donald Trump has consistently stated that late-term abortions where a baby can feel pain should never be permitted, and he’s always stood up for parents’ rights,” Fenske said in a statement on X. “Amendment 4 would allow late-term abortions, eliminate parental consent, and open the door to taxpayer-funded abortions. It’s extreme and must be defeated.”

The governor’s wife, Casey DeSantis, also weighed in, saying the initiative “would open the door to taxpayer funded abortions” and added, “We must spread the word and vote NO on 4!”

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign said Trump is lying about his shifts on abortion and his pro-IVF rhetoric.

“We’re going to hold Donald Trump and JD Vance accountable for the devastating impacts of overturning Roe v. Wade and their threats to access to IVF. So every day between now and Election Day, we are going to make sure that the communities that will decide this election know the fundamentals here and the fundamental choice this election,” Harris spokesman Kevin Munoz told reporters on Friday. “Kamala Harris is going to fight for your rights. Donald Trump will take them away.”

In response to Trump’s announcement Friday about how he’ll vote on the amendment, the Harris campaign issued a statement saying that Trump “will vote to uphold an abortion ban so extreme it applies before many women even know they are pregnant” and said if he’s elected, he will “limit access to birth control, threaten access to fertility treatments and ban abortion nationwide, with or without Congress.”

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Harris presented herself as a pragmatist in the long-anticipated interview, given to CNN’s Dana Bash alongside her running mate, Tim Walz. The vice president sought to strike a balance between defending the Biden-Harris administration’s legacy and charting her own path if elected president, while taking questions about how some of her policy positions have changed since the last time she ran for president.

“I believe it is important to build consensus, and it is important to find a common place of understanding of where we can actually solve problems,” Harris said.

Here are five takeaways from the interview.

Defending her shifting stances

Harris has changed her position on some major issues since 2019, when she ran for president and sought to win over progressive Democratic primary voters by cosponsoring Medicare for All, supporting a Green New Deal, opposing fracking and calling for decriminalizing migration.

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“The most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” Harris said in the interview Thursday, adding that she continues to believe “the climate crisis is real” and that the White House made strides to address it with the Inflation Reduction Act.

On fracking, Harris said she promised during the 2020 vice presidential debate that she wouldn’t seek to ban fracking, “nor will I going forward.” She continued, “I cast the tie-breaking vote that actually increased leases for fracking as vice president.”

(Harris said during her 2020 debate against Mike Pence that “Joe Biden will not ban fracking.”)

Harris added that there can be “a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.”

On those who cross the border unlawfully, Harris said, “I believe there should be consequence. We have laws that have to be followed and enforced that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally.” She also criticized Trump for pushing Republicans to kill a bipartisan border security bill.

“My value around what we need to do to secure our border — that value has not changed. I spent two terms as the attorney general of California prosecuting transnational criminal organizations,” she said.

Brushing off Trump’s rhetoric on her race

Trump has sought to attack Harris’ racial identity, falsely claiming she previously identified as Indian American and only started identifying as Black recently.

Harris didn’t engage.

“Same old, tired playbook,” she said. “Next question, please.”

Harris cast Trump as a politician of the past, calling him “someone who is really been pushing an agenda and an environment that is about diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as Americans, really dividing our nation.

“And I think people are ready to turn the page on that,” she continued.

It reflects Harris’ approach to the campaign since she took the baton from Biden last month: running her own race as opposed to focusing on what Trump has said day to day.

Her ‘Day One’ agenda

Harris said her “Day One” agenda as president will be to start “implementing my plan for what I call an opportunity economy,” citing her recent economic proposals aimed at lowering costs.

“Prices, in particular for groceries, are still too high. The American people know it. I know it,” she said. “Which is why my agenda includes what we need to do to bring down the price of groceries, for example, dealing with an issue like price gouging.”

Harris continued, “What we need to do to extend the child tax credit to help young families be able to take care of their children in their most formative years. What we need to do to bring down the cost of housing; my proposal includes what would be a tax credit of $25,000 for first-time home buyers.”

When asked why she hasn’t already done those things as vice president, Harris defended Biden’s record but said “there’s more to do.” Harris also said she doesn’t regret her remarks after the late June debate that the president could ably serve another four-year term. (Biden bowed to pressure mounting in his party and withdrew from the presidential race on July 21, less than a month later.)

Trump lashes out at Harris’ answers

Trump responded on his social media platform ahead of the interview after watching a clip of Harris defending her new stances.

“I just saw Comrade Kamala Harris’ answer to a very weakly-phrased question … her answer rambled incoherently, and declared her ‘values haven’t changed.’ On that I agree, her values haven’t changed — The Border is going to remain open, not closed, there will be Free Healthcare for Illegal Aliens, Sanctuary Cities, No Cash Bail, Gun Confiscation, Zero Fracking, a Ban on Gasoline-Powered Cars, Private Healthcare will be abolished, a 70-80% tax rate will be put in place, and she will Defund the Police,” Trump wrote. “America will become a WASTELAND!”

Walz: ‘I wear my emotions on my sleeves’

Walz defended his prior characterizations of his service in the national guard, including suggesting while discussing gun policy that he served in combat situations. Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, himself a military veteran, accused him of “stolen valor.”

Walz — who has previously said through a spokesperson that he “misspoke” when talking about handling weapons “in war” — elaborated on his remarks, blaming that and other misstatements on a habit of speaking “passionately.”

“First of all, I’m incredibly proud I’ve done 24 years of wearing the uniform of this country,” Walz said in the Thursday interview. “I wear my emotions on my sleeves, and I speak especially passionately about about our children being shot in schools and around around guns. So I think people know me,” he said. “They know who I am. They know where my heart is.”

“If it’s not this, it’s an attack on my children for showing love for me, or it’s an attack on my dog,” he said. “The one thing I’ll never do is I’ll never demean another member’s service in any way.”

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“We are going to be, under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment,” Trump said, before adding, “We’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”

Asked to clarify whether the government would pay for IVF services or whether insurance companies would do so, Trump reiterated that one option would be to have insurance companies pay “under a mandate, yes.”

Abortion and IVF have been a political liability for the GOP this year. Democrats have blasted Republicans over IVF in recent months, saying that GOP-led restrictions on abortion could lead to restrictions on IVF as well.

In a statement, Sarafina Chitika, a spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, said that “Donald Trump’s own platform could effectively ban IVF and abortion nationwide” and added that “because Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, IVF is already under attack and women’s freedoms have been ripped away in states across the country. There is only one candidate in this race who trusts women and will protect our freedom to make our own health care decisions: Vice President Kamala Harris.”

The statement refers to the GOP platform’s language on the 14th Amendment in its section on abortion policy: “We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process, and that the States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those Rights.”

Earlier this year, the Alabama state Supreme Court ruled that embryos created via IVF were to be considered people, a move that led to the largest fertility clinics in the state pausing their IVF care.

Trump’s stance could put him at odds with anti-abortion advocates who oppose certain parts of the IVF process that involve discarding unused embryos.

Currently, few people have insurance plans that cover fertility treatments like IVF, leaving many couples to pay out of pocket for the treatment’s high costs. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates the cost per patient for one cycle of IVF at about $20,000.

According to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, its member clinics performed 389,993 IVF cycles in 2022. At a cost of around $20,000 each, that would come to $7.8 billion for that one year.

A growing number of employers have begun to offer fertility benefits over the last decade, however. Some pay for a fixed amount of a patient’s costs, while others have a lifetime maximum of a particular number of cycles.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, spoke in a recent, separate NBC News interview about his “frustration that reproductive rights is a whole suite of pro-family things that Republicans are way better at than Democrats. And the media always focus on abortion. But, you know, we’ve actually done a lot of things to try to promote fertility treatments to people who are struggling with it.”

Trump’s stance on IVF is the latest instance of him addressing criticism of his presidential administration through 2024 campaign policy proposals. After criticism from Democrats that his 2017 tax plan favored the wealthy, he announced that if elected again, he would eliminated taxes on tips for service workers.

Now, as he and other Republicans face criticism for supporting the Supreme Court justices who struck down Roe, Trump is proposing to protect IVF and address its costs.

In the interview, Trump did not explicitly say how we would vote on an upcoming ballot measure in his home state of Florida that would guarantee a right to abortion until fetal viability, which is around 24 weeks of pregnancy. He repeated past criticism that Florida’s current six-week limit on abortion, which was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, is “too short.” Trump added, “it has to be more time.”

Pressed on how he will be voting in November, he said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”

Trump has long gone back and forth on his position on abortion before arriving at his current position that the issue should be up to the states.

As president, before Roe v. Wade was overturned, he once urged the Senate to pass a 20-week ban on abortion. After he left office, he celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe and the national right to abortion, at one point going as far as saying, “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade,” in a social media post.

But as the presidential race has taken shape this year, the former president has inched further away from other Republicans on the issue, especially as abortion has emerged as a key issue for Vice President Kamala Harris and her allies.

In a speech at the Democratic convention last week, Harris called Trump and Vance “out of their minds” and accused them of planning to “ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion.”

In the interview, Trump said on abortion policy that “exceptions are very important for me,” later adding, “I believe in exceptions for life of the mother … incest, rape.”

Trump on Thursday also pushed back on criticism of his Monday visit to Arlington National Cemetery, saying that a family “asked me whether or not I would stand for a picture at the grave of their loved one who should not have died.”

The former president said that he did not initiate the photo, adding, “While I was there, I didn’t ask for a picture. While I was there, they said, ‘Sir, could we have a picture at the grave?'”

Trump’s campaign has faced criticism this week after reports emerged that a member of Trump’s staff “abruptly pushed aside” a cemetery staff member who tried to prevent Trump and others from taking photo and videos in Section 60, where service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried and where filming is typically prohibited.

The former president on Thursday also blasted Harris on immigration and border security, reprising his usual language about the increased number of migrants entering the country in recent years.

“Our country is going to hell. We’ve never been in a position like this,” Trump said, adding, “There’s never been a country that’s been invaded like we have been invaded. And I think that alone loses them the election.”

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Sitting with her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris was asked about changes in her policies over the years, specifically her reversals on fracking and decriminalizing illegal border crossings.

“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” Harris replied.

The interview with CNN’s Dana Bash gave Harris a chance to try to quell criticism that she has eschewed uncontrolled environments while also giving her a fresh platform to define her campaign and test her political mettle ahead of an upcoming debate with former President Donald Trump set for Sept. 10. But it also carried risk as her team tries to build on momentum from the ticket shakeup following Joe Biden’s exit and last week’s Democratic National Convention.

“First and foremost, one of my highest priorities is to do what we can to strengthen and support the middle class,” Harris said. “When I look at the aspirations, the goals, the ambitions of the American people, I think that people are ready for a new way forward.”

The CNN interview was taped at 1:45 p.m. Thursday at Kim’s Cafe, a local Black-owned restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, and aired in the evening.

Harris also brushed off Trump’s questioning of her racial identity after the former president said she “happened to turn Black.” Harris, who is of Black and South Asian heritage, said it was the “same old, tired playbook.”

“Next question.”

She also said she’d name a Republican to serve in her Cabinet if she were elected, though she didn’t have a name in mind.

Joint interviews during an election year are a fixture in politics; Biden and Harris, Trump and Mike Pence, Barack Obama and Biden — all did them at a similar point in the race. The difference is those other candidates had all done solo interviews, too. Harris hasn’t yet done an in-depth interview since she became her party’s standard bearer five weeks ago, though she did sit for several while she was still Biden’s running mate.

Harris and Walz are still introducing themselves to voters, unlike Trump and Biden, of whom people had near-universal awareness and opinion.

Harris said serving with Biden was “one of the greatest honors of my career,” as she recounted the moment he called to tell her he was stepping down and would support her.

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During her time as vice president, Harris has done on-camera and print interviews with The Associated Press and many other outlets, a much more frequent pace than the president — except for Biden’s late-stage media blitz following his disastrous debate performance that touched off the end of his campaign.

Harris’ lack of media access over the past month has become one of Republicans’ key attack lines. The Trump campaign has kept a tally of the days she has gone by as a candidate without giving an interview and have suggested she needs a “babysitter” and that’s why Walz will be there.

“I just saw Comrade Kamala Harris’ answer to a very weakly-phrased question, a question that was put in more as a matter of defense than curiosity, but her answer rambled incoherently, and declared her ‘values haven’t changed,’” Trump posted online.

Trump has largely steered toward conservative media outlets when granting interviews, though he has held more open press conferences in recent weeks as he sought to reclaim the spotlight that Harris’ elevation had claimed.

Harris and Walz went out on a two-day bus tour through southeast Georgia that culminated with an evening rally in Savannah. Harris campaign officials believe that in order to win the state over Trump in November, she must make inroads in GOP strongholds across the state.

Democrats’ enthusiasm about their vote in November has surged over the past few months, according to polling from Gallup. About 8 in 10 Democrats now say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting, compared with 55% in March.

This gives them an enthusiasm edge they did not have earlier this year. Republicans’ enthusiasm has increased by much less over the same period, and about two-thirds of Republicans now say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting.

But at a packed arena on Thursday, Harris cast her nascent campaign as the underdog and encouraged the crowd to work hard to elect her in November.

“We’re here to speak truth and one of the things that we know is that this is going to be a tight race to the end,” she said.

Harris went through a list of Democratic concerns: that Trump will further restrict women’s rights after he appointed three judges to the U.S. Supreme Court who helped overturn Roe, that he’d repeal the Affordable Care Act, and that given new immunity powers granted presidents by the U.S. Supreme Court, “imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails.”

Her rally was briefly disrupted by demonstrators who were protesting the U.S. involvement in the Israel-Hamas war.

The campaign wants the events to motivate voters in GOP-leaning areas who don’t traditionally see the candidates, and hopes that the engagements drive viral moments that cut through crowded media coverage to reach voters across the country.

Harris has another campaign blitz on Labor Day with Biden in Detroit and Pittsburgh with the election rapidly approaching. The first mail ballots get sent to voters in just two weeks.

The Democratic presidential nominee will be joined by her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in an interview with CNN anchor Dana Bash in Savannah, Georgia. The interview will air Thursday at 9 p.m. Eastern time.

Harris’ lack of access has become one of Republicans’ key lines of attacks against her as she ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket after Biden’s July 21 announcement. The CNN interview may be an opportunity for Harris to quell criticism that she is unprepared for uncontrolled environments, but it may also carry risks as her team tries to build on momentum from the ticket shakeup and Democratic National Convention.

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During her three-plus years as vice president, she has done on-camera and print interviews with The Associated Press and many other outlets, often at a pace more frequent than Biden.

The Trump campaign has kept a tally of the days she has gone by as a candidate without giving an interview. On Tuesday, the campaign reacted to the news by noting the interview was joint, saying “she’s not competent enough to do it on her own.”

Earlier this month, Harris had told reporters that she wanted to do her first formal interview before the end of August.

Harris travels with members of the media on Air Force Two for all trips and nearly always comes to the back of the plane to speak to them for a few minutes before takeoff. Her office insists that those conversations are off the record, though, so what she says can’t be used publicly.

She will rally voters in Savannah on Thursday as part of a bus tour that kicks off on Wednesday.

FBI officials also said they had found no indication or evidence that any co-conspirators worked with 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who attempted to kill Trump just days before he accepted the 2024 Republican nomination at the RNC.

“I want to be clear: We have not seen any indication to suggest Crooks was directed by a foreign entity to conduct the attack,” FBI Assistant Director Bobby Wells told reporters.

Another official Kevin Rojek, the FBI special agent in charge of the bureau’s Pittsburgh field office, said that the shooter had searched for details of campaign events held by both Trump and President Joe Biden, who was still the presumptive Democratic nominee when Trump was shot. Crooks also searched for information on the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention, Rojek said.

Crooks engaged in a “sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack” and “looked at any number of events and targets” before ultimately “hyper-focusing” on the Trump rally after it was announced in early July. The Trump rally appears to have been a “target of opportunity,” Rojek said.

Rojek said that investigators found a “mixture of ideologies” in the content the FBI recovered from Crooks’ accounts. “I would say that we see no definitive ideology associated with our subject, either left-leaning or right-leaning,” Rojek said. “It’s really been a mixture and something we’re still attempting to analyze and draw conclusions on.”

The shooter’s family had been “extremely cooperative” with the investigation, Rojek added.

A bullet whizzed by Trump’s skull and struck him in the ear during the July 13 attack, leaving the former president bleeding as the Secret Service formed a wall around him and ushered him to a vehicle. Attempted assassin Crooks was shot and killed seconds after shots rang out. A rally attendee, former fire chief Corey Comperatore, was killed in the attack, and others were injured.

Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service at the time of the shooting, stepped down last month under pressure from lawmakers. Multiple officials at the Secret Service were placed on leave as an internal investigation into rally planning unfolds, a source familiar with the decisions told NBC News.

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Last week, Trump spoke from behind bulletproof glass during an outdoor rally in Asheboro, North Carolina.

The FBI said their victim impact interview with Trump was “productive” and noted that they provided the former president with an “in-depth briefing” on the investigation.

“We’re grateful to the former president for his cooperation and his time,” Rojek said.

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First, Vance told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that before imposing mass deportations, Trump would need to “stop the bleeding.”

“You have to stop so many people from coming here illegally in the first place, and that means undoing everything that [Vice President] Kamala Harris did practically on day one of the administration,” he added, later saying: “Before we even fix the problem, we’ve got to stop the problem from getting worse.”

Asked again by moderator Kristen Welker about whether the Trump administration’s plan would include family separation, Vance dodged again.

“I think that families are currently being separated,” he said, adding that “you’re certainly going to have to deport some people in this country.”

He argued that mass deportations under Trump would “start with the most violent criminals in our country.”

“Those people need to be deported,” Vance said. “That’s where you focus federal resources.”

Vance went on to blast Harris again, baselessly accusing her of backing policies that led to family separations and to children living with criminals.

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When President Joe Biden and Harris first took office, Biden rescinded the Trump-era zero-tolerance policy and established a family reunification task force that found that more than 5,000 families were separated under the policy.

More recently, the Biden administration worked with a bipartisan group of senators to craft a comprehensive immigration and border security plan that seemed to have buy-in from both parties on Capitol Hill.

But GOP support for the bill tanked after Trump indicated his disapproval of the plan.

Vance’s remarks Saturday came days after Trump visited the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona for a campaign event.

While there, the former president also dodged NBC News’ questions about whether his proposal for “zero tolerance” policies on the border would lead to family separations, instead saying “provisions will be made” for mixed-status families that may have some members who are American citizens and some who are undocumented.

Trump did not clarify what provisions would be made for those families.

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Asked on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” about GOP lawmakers like South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham who would want to see Trump advocate for and pass an abortion ban, Vance told moderator Kristen Welker that Trump has “explicitly” said he would veto a ban.

“I mean, if you’re not supporting it, as the president of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it,” Vance argued.

The latest position from the Trump campaign comes as the former president has changed his position on abortion policy over the years.

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In April, Trump was asked on a tarmac in Atlanta about whether he would sign a national abortion ban if it passed through Congress and he simply answered “no.”

But the former president didn’t clarify at the time what he considered a “ban.”

In 2018, when he was president, Trump called on the Senate to pass a 20-week limit on abortions that had already passed the House.

Last year, he celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and eliminate the constitutional right to abortion.

“After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone,” Trump said in a May 2023 social media post.

And as recently as March, Trump flirted with the notion of a 15-week federal abortion ban, telling a local radio host that “the number of weeks now — people are agreeing on 15, and I’m thinking in terms of that, and it’ll come out to something that’s very reasonable.”

“But people are really — even hard-liners are agreeing — seems to be 15 weeks, seems to be a number that people are agreeing at,” Trump added in that interview.

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First, it was plastered on a wall in Brooklyn to promote Charli XCX’s June 7 album release.

Then, the color began to spread.

On social media, as “Brat” dominated the Billboard Dance/Electronic charts, users began using the color in their profile pictures and creating memes with it. The color has become so iconic since that it even made appearances at this week’s Democratic National Convention — earlier this summer, Charli XCX posted on X that “kamala IS brat.”

kamala IS brat

— Charli (@charli_xcx) July 22, 2024

The “Brat” album explores themes like womanhood, insecurity and relationships. And for many, having a “Brat” summer is all about being carefree and unapologetically yourself, potentially expressed through bright green and the Arial font.

As the color went viral, businesses, online stores and individuals began cashing in on the trend.

Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, said people became interested in “unexpected” shades around 10 years ago. And in 2017, the Pantone Color of the Year was “Greenery,” a shade similar to “Brat” green. It symbolized how people wanted to close their laptops and explore nature.

“When I think about this color, it’s spiky. It’s strange,” Pressman said. “You absolutely stop and stare when you see this color. There’s a defiance to it, a rebellion to it.”

She added that when people embrace “Brat” green, they’re essentially saying: “I am who I am. And I want to make a proud and bold statement.”

Charli XCX was one of the first people to market merchandise using the color. Her $60 “Brat” green towel quickly became a meme.

Charli xcx debuts official ‘BRAT’ merchandise. pic.twitter.com/qsCRtoL94D

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 10, 2024

And in the e-commerce era, copycats and new “Brat” products quickly became available on marketplaces across the internet.

On eBay and Depop, a platform used to resell used and vintage clothing, many light-green items are now marketed as being “Brat” green. And on online retailers like Amazon and Etsy, sellers are hawking everything from “Brat”-themed notebooks to throw pillows.

BRAT Kamala shirts already on Fire Island. The gays move SO FAST pic.twitter.com/Zq3e9yctzv

— Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) July 21, 2024

Artist Megan Jones, who goes by JeganMonesArt on Etsy, sells lime-green lighters that say “kamala is brat” and “it’s so confusing sometimes being a girl” in the Arial font. These lighters are part of a larger “Brat”-themed collection that also includes a tote bag. She also sells items inspired by two other artists who rocketed up the charts this summer, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter.

According to Jones, who now lives in Pittsburgh, she has already sold over 1,000 of the “Charli lighters” on Etsy and in boutiques across the U.S.

Jones has always liked lime green but acknowledged that Charli XCX’s color choice was “unexpected” for many listeners, helping boost its popularity.

Some customers have even taken the opportunity to customize with their own text. Jones recalled that one person ordered “Brat”-themed lighters with everyone’s names on them for a birthday party. In the order notes, people frequently share their favorite Charli XCX song.

The trend has also made an appearance in restaurants and cafes.

Among the many cafes around the world selling “Brat”-themed matcha is La Clochette in San Diego. The light-green hue of the drink is almost an exact match for “Brat” green.

The first weekend the cafe put the passion fruit-based Iced Brat Matcha on the menu, it sold out, supervisor Amber Rel-Solia said. Customers also often take pictures of the seasonal drinks sign that includes the Iced Brat Matcha.

“For me, [‘Brat’] represents being imperfectly yourself,” Rel-Solia said. “With introducing something like [the Iced Brat Matcha], I feel like it’s just really cool for everyone. It’s about being you.”

There are indications that interest in the trend may have also translated to larger purchases.

According to Auto Trader, a U.K.-based car marketplace, views of green-colored cars grew 24% in June compared to the same time last year and in previous years.

“People are often doing two things now when they’re watching something,” said Laura McNally, a marketing director at Auto Trader. “If they are seeing something, whether it’s [on] the big screen, in the cinema or at home on the TV, they’re looking at what it means and how it connects to their life.”

On average, people buy a new car every three to four years, she said, so it’s not a lifetime commitment.

While McNally said Auto Trader didn’t have any sales data for green cars, she said higher views would likely be associated with more sales. She also suggested there’s an aspirational part of viewing a car.

“People want to go and have a look for a bit of escapism when things are kind of crazy and out of control,” McNally said. “You want to go and see yourself in a ‘Brat’-green car to take yourself from reality for a little while.”

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The vice president formally accepted the party’s nomination in a speech to close out the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Thursday night.

Harris’ nomination came less than two months after President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump squared off in the first presidential debate of this election cycle. Suffice to say, a lot has happened since in what’s been a whirlwind period for American politics.

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So, with Election Day just months away, when will Harris and Trump have their head-to-head showdown? Here’s what to know about the Harris-Trump debate:

When is the next presidential debate in 2024?

Harris and Trump will take the debate stage on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. ET. The debate will be hosted by ABC News.

ABC News was previously set to hold the second debate between Biden and Trump on that same debate before the president dropped his reelection bid.

Who are the moderators for the next presidential debate?

ABC News’ Linsey Davis and David Muir will serve as moderators for the second debate. Davis hosts “ABC News Live Prime” and Muir hosts “World News Tonight.”

Where is the next presidential debate being held?

The Harris-Trump debate will take place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

How many presidential debates are there?

Trump had proposed two additional debates, one on Sept. 4 hosted by Fox News and one on Sept. 25 hosted by NBC News. But Harris campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said in a statement on Aug. 15 that, “The American people will have another opportunity to see the vice president and Donald Trump on the debate stage in October.”

Tyler did not provide any additional details about that October debate. He said Trump’s campaign “accepted our proposal for three debates — two presidential and a vice presidential debate.”

“The debate about debates is over,” Tyler added.

How many presidential debates were there in 2020?

There were two Biden-Trump debates leading up to the 2020 election, one in September and one in October. A third debate was canceled due to COVID-19.

When is the VP debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz?

Trump running mate JD Vance and Harris running mate Tim Walz will square off in a debate hosted by CBS News on Tuesday, Oct. 1.

The Harris campaign said that the Oct. 1 showdown would be the only VP debate. Vance had previously challenged Walz to an additional debate on Sept. 18 hosted by CNN.

When is the presidential election?

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5.

“We want an America filled with hope and bound together by a shared vision of a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic promise and national pride,” said a statement signed by five of the former independent presidential candidate’s siblings.

“We believe in Harris and Walz,” the statement continued. “Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story.”

The statement includes signatures from Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Chris Kennedy and Rory Kennedy.

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Joe Kennedy III, a grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, reacted to the statement, sharing it on X and writing that it was “well said.”

Separately, the former candidate’s cousin Jack Schlossberg said that he has “never been less surprised in my life.”

“Been saying it for over a year — RFKjr is for sale, works for Trump. Bedfellows and loving it,” he posted to X. “Kamala Harris is for the people — the easiest decision of all time just got easier.”

Schlossberg is the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy.

Many members of the Kennedy family have been publicly critical of the independent’s presidential bid, instead vocalizing their support for first President Joe Biden and now Harris.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Friday that he would withdraw from the presidential race and back Trump. However, he said that he would only remove his name from the ballot in “about 10 battleground states where my presence would be a spoiler.” He encouraged voters in states where he remains on the ballot to still support him.

“These are the principled causes that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and now to throw my support to President Trump,” he said during his Friday remarks. “The causes were: Free speech, the war in Ukraine, and the war on our children.”

Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement that the Harris campaign is for “any American out there who is tired of Donald Trump and looking for a new way forward.”

“Even if we do not agree on every issue, Kamala Harris knows there is more that unites us than divides us: respect for our rights, public safety, protecting our freedoms, and opportunity for all,” she said in a bid to attract Kennedy supporters.

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Hours later, Kennedy joined Trump onstage at an Arizona rally, where the crowd burst into “Bobby!” cheers.

Kennedy said his internal polls had shown that his presence in the race would hurt Trump and help Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, though recent public polls don’t provide a clear indication that he is having an outsize impact on support for either major-party candidate.

Kennedy cited free speech, the war in Ukraine and “a war on our children” as among the reasons he would try to remove his name from the ballot in battleground states.

“These are the principal causes that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and now to throw my support to President Trump,” Kennedy said at his event in Phoenix.

However, he made clear that he wasn’t formally ending his bid and said his supporters could continue to back him in the majority of states where they are unlikely to sway the outcome. Kennedy took steps to withdraw his candidacy in at least two states late this week, Arizona and Pennsylvania, but election officials in the battlegrounds of Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin said it would be too late for him to take his name off the ballot even if he wants to do so.

Kennedy said his actions followed conversations with Trump over the past few weeks. He cast their alliance as “a unity party,” an arrangement that would “allow us to disagree publicly and privately and seriously.” Kennedy suggested Trump offered him a job if he returns to the White House, but neither he nor Trump offered details.

Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, this week entertained the idea that Kennedy could join Trump’s administration as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The announcement ended days of speculation and landed with heaps of confusion and contradictions from Kennedy’s aides and allies, an emblematic cap for a quixotic campaign.

Shortly before his speech in Phoenix, his campaign had said in a Pennsylvania court filing that he would be endorsing Trump for president. However, a spokesperson for Kennedy said the court filing had been made in error and the lawyer who wrote it said he’d correct it. Kennedy took the stage moments later, aired his grievances with the Democratic Party, the news media and political institutions, and extolled Trump. He spoke for nearly 20 minutes before he said explicitly that he was endorsing Trump.

Kennedy later joined Trump onstage at a rally co-hosted by Turning Point Action in Glendale, where Trump’s campaign had teased he would be joined by “a special guest.”

Kennedy was greeted by thundering applause as he took the stage to the Foo Fighters and a pyrotechnics display after being introduced by Trump as “a man who has been an incredible champion for so many of these values that we all share.”

“We are both in this to do what’s right for the country,” Trump said, later commending Kennedy for having “raised critical issues that have been too long ignored in this country.”

With Kennedy standing nearby, Trump invoked his slain uncle and father, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, saying he knows “that they are looking down right now and they are very, very proud.”

He said that, if he wins this fall, he will establish a new independent presidential commission on assassination attempts that will release all remaining documents related to John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

And he repeated his pledge to establish a panel — “working with Bobby” — to investigate the increase in chronic health conditions and childhood diseases, including autoimmune disorders, autism, obesity and infertility.

A year ago, some would have thought it inconceivable that a member of arguably the most storied family in Democratic politics would work with Trump to keep a Democrat out of the White House. Even in recent months, Kennedy has accused Trump of betraying his followers, while Trump has criticized Kennedy as “the most radical left candidate in the race.”

Five of Kennedy’s family members issued a statement Friday calling his support for Trump “a sad ending to a sad story” and reiterating their support for Harris.

“Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear,” read the statement, which his sister Kerry Kennedy posted on X.

Kennedy Jr. acknowledged his decision to endorse Trump had caused tension with his family. He is married to actor Cheryl Hines, who wrote on X that she deeply respects her husband’s decision to drop out but did not address the Trump endorsement.

“This decision is agonizing for me because of the difficulties it causes my wife and my children and my friends,” Kennedy said. “But I have the certainty that this is what I’m meant to do. And that certainty gives me internal peace, even in storms.”

In a statement, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon reached out to Kennedy’s supporters who are “tired of Donald Trump and looking for a new way forward” and said that Harris wanted to earn their backing.

At Kennedy’s Phoenix event, 38-year-old Casey Westerman said she trusted Kennedy’s judgment and had planned to vote for him, but would support Trump if Kennedy endorsed him.

“My decision would really be based on who he thinks is best suited to run this country,” said Westerman, who wore a “Kennedy 2024” trucker hat and voted for Trump in the last two presidential elections.

Kennedy first entered the 2024 presidential race as a Democrat but left the party last fall to run as an independent. He built an unusually strong base for a third-party bid, fueled in part by anti-establishment voters and vaccine skeptics who have followed his anti-vaccine work since the COVID-19 pandemic. But he has since faced strained campaign finances and mounting legal challenges.

At Trump’s event in Las Vegas, Alida Roberts, 49, said Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump spoke volumes about the current state of the Democratic Party.

“It says that he doesn’t trust what’s going on, that it’s not the party he grew up in,” Roberts said.

Roberts, who voted twice for Trump, said she was relieved and excited by the endorsement because she’d been “teeter-tottering” between the two candidates.

He said in an interview that he was “not suggesting there is widespread voter fraud,” but had said in an earlier interview, “Call me crazy, but I think American elections should be decided by American citizens.” 

The news quickly spread. Former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson and others praised Youngkin’s order, in tweets and retweets, saying he was keeping “illegals,” “illegal aliens” or “noncitizens” from voting.

Yet the governor’s Aug. 7 order didn’t state whether any of the 6,303 people removed from the voter rolls over the past 18 months were noncitizens who actually voted or if there was an error and they later turned out to be citizens. His office didn’t provide that information when asked by NBC News. 

But months before Election Day, the Republican rhetoric around “noncitizen voting” is propagating the falsehood that masses of undocumented immigrants are voting in U.S. elections, according to voting, civil and immigrant rights groups. Such rhetoric contributes to the erosion of confidence in the electoral process, the groups say.

Local Virginia officials who spoke to NBC News attributed much of the presence of possible noncitizens on the voter rolls to errors made when people fill out paper or online forms or when they respond to a question about citizenship on a touchpad device at the department of motor vehicles.

The same day Youngkin announced the order, Trump praised him in a Truth Social post, saying Virginia and its governor were taking a strong lead in “securing” November’s election, protecting every “legal vote and keeping illegal aliens that had been let into our country for voting.”

Massive voting by people illegally in the country is a conspiracy theory long ago debunked, but one that Trump has repeated throughout his campaigns, along with other Republicans. 

“What we are seeing is a concerted effort at the state, federal level to stoke fears about noncitizen voting, and obviously that’s tied to xenophobic rhetoric about immigration generally,” said Alice Clapman, senior counsel for voting rights at the progressive Brennan Center for Justice. 

In an Aug. 9 retweet of a post by a conservative magazine writer about Virginia’s executive order, Johnson stated that Democrats “are perfectly fine with noncitizens voting in our elections.” To back that up, the Louisiana Republican pointed to how Democrats had voted against the SAVE Act bill that would require all Americans to prove citizenship when registering to vote. 

Griffin Neal, a spokesman for Johnson, said the House speaker was “making a point about the 198 House Democrats who voted against this bill, which only ensures American citizens can decide American elections,” not alleging any of the 6,303 had voted illegally. 

Voter purges, DMV forms — and possible errors

Youngkin’s press secretary Christian Martinez referred NBC News to the governor’s previous statements saying that the process is “very transparent”  and that they “give everyone who was removed from the voter roll 14 days to come back and demonstrate that they are a citizen.”

Nearly two dozen voting, civil and immigrant rights groups have called on Youngkin to release more information about the people removed from Virginia’s voter lists, “to ensure that Virginia’s voters are not wrongfully purged from the voter rolls” ahead of November’s elections. Youngkin’s order also calls on local registrars to warn people about election offenses and their penalties, leading the groups to question how this will be done without intimidating voters.

“I would be curious to know why they are choosing to do this now, before the November election. It sounds like they are pushing this fraud message,” said Jossie Flor Sapunar, spokesperson for CASA, a national advocacy group for immigrants.

On Virginia’s DMV forms, people are asked whether they want to register to vote. Virginia requires people to provide their full Social Security numbers, a DMV credential or proof of identity and legal presence when registering, Youngkin’s order states. Spokesperson Jillian Cowherd said the voter registration process is started at the DMV, but completed at the Virginia Elections Department. 

When Virginia residents who aren’t U.S. citizens go to the DMV to apply for a license, they have to provide identifying documents including proof of residence. Youngkin’s order requires lists of people who have said they’re not citizens to be turned over daily to the Elections Department.

Virginia’s DMV checks proof of identity and “legal presence” with the Social Security Administration, Youngkin’s order states. It also uses the Department of Homeland Security system, SAVE, which is designed for checking agency records on immigrants when they’re applying for certain benefits. It’s also used to verify voter rolls.

But user and data errors in the DHS system — such as confusing people who share the same name — have led to people being inaccurately flagged on voter rolls, Clapman said. The use of immigrant records under the SAVE system to verify voter rolls has been criticized by voting rights  and immigration advocates because it’s not foolproof. 

“If a voter renews their driver’s license or completes another DMV form but neglects to check ‘yes’ to the citizenship question, checks ‘no’ or checks neither box, then this voter is flagged as a possible noncitizen and included in the list,” Tony Castrilli, a spokesman for Fairfax County in northern Virginia, told NBC News in an email.  

Fairfax County canceled 985 voters in the county over the last two years, but Castrilli didn’t know how many subsequently confirmed they were citizens and re-registered. 

Gretchen Reinemeyer, Arlington County registrar, said the wrong answers sometimes can be a result of frustration with the series of questions people have to answer when they don’t opt out of voter registration. 

“What happens is you get pop-ups asking, ‘Are you sure?’ A lot of times people start hitting no, no, no, wondering ‘what do I have to do to stop this?’” she said.

Local officials said they send letters notifying people who have been flagged that they’ve been removed from voter rolls, and give them 14 days to correct errors if they were wrongly removed.

Reese Brogdon, Manassas Park deputy director of elections, said most letters his department sends don’t get a response. But Reinemeyer said she’s experienced citizens being flagged erroneously. None of the local officials had data on how many people return to fix the errors.

“In my experience in working with voters, they know whether or not they are citizens and they know whether or not they should be voting,” Reinemeyer said. 

Virginia has same-day registration, so people mistakenly removed from voter rolls who are citizens can show up, affirm they are a citizens and vote, she said. 

It is rare for noncitizens to vote because doing so risks prison, fines and even expulsion from the country, the Brennan Center’s Clapman said. It’s been shown over and over, she said, that noncitizen voting is not a problem. 

She said Youngkin’s announcement of noncitizen voters “stokes election denial generally, undermining faith in election results. It creates momentum for legislation that would make it harder to vote,” Clapman said. 

A history of mistakes

Virginia has a history of mistakes in its voter removals. Last October, election officials under Youngkin removed nearly 3,400 legal Virginia voters from the rolls, after misclassifying probation violators as felons. Felons automatically lose their right to vote in Virginia.

The League of United Latin American Citizens of Richmond settled a 2018 defamation lawsuit it filed against a group run by Trump’s former vote fraud commissioner, J.Christian Adams, for publishing identifying information of people who were identified as noncitizens and removed from the state’s voter rolls. The group had to apologize and publicly state the people they targeted are U.S. citizens. 

In their recent letter to Youngkin, voter, civil and immigrant rights groups said,“the integrity of our electoral system depends on the protection of every eligible Virginian’s right and freedom to vote.” 

The groups said it’s critical that any election security measures don’t prevent eligible voters from “having their voices heard” or “intimidate or dissuade voters from participating or otherwise sow distrust in our democratic processes.”

This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Trump says his focus is ensuring Democrats ‘don’t cheat,’ not voter turnout — echoing efforts to undermine election
• Local Georgia officials equip election workers with ‘panic buttons’ to combat rising threats
• Fed Chair Powell says ‘time has come’ for interest rate cut

Kennedy is scheduled to speak at 2 p.m. Eastern time in Phoenix “about the present historical moment and his path forward,” according to his campaign. Hours later, Trump will hold a rally in neighboring Glendale.

Trump, campaigning Thursday in southern Arizona at the U.S.-Mexico border, said that “no plans have been made” for Kennedy to appear with him on Friday. But he noted they would be in the same city at the same time.

On Thursday evening, Trump’s campaign made an unusual announcement, teasing that he would be joined by “a special guest” at his Glendale event.

Hours later when he called into Fox News Channel after the Democratic National Convention wrapped, Trump said of Kennedy, “I have no idea if he’s going to endorse me.”

Decision 2024 Aug 21

RFK Jr. is planning to drop out of the 2024 presidential race and endorse Trump

news Aug 20

RFK Jr. campaign ‘looking at' joining forces with Trump, running mate Shanahan says

But he noted that they were going to be in the same state and said, “It’s possible we will be meeting tomorrow and we’ll be discussing it.”

Representatives for Trump’s campaign did not respond to messages about whether Kennedy would be the guest and the Kennedy campaign did not immediately return a message seeking comment if he would be joining Trump.

Kennedy’s Arizona withdrawal, confirmed by a spokesperson for the secretary of state, came less than a week after Kennedy submitted well more than the required number of signatures to appear on the ballot. His critics raised questions about the validity of some of the signatures after a pro-Kennedy super PAC was heavily involved in his effort to collect them, potentially running afoul of rules against coordination between candidates and independent political groups.

But on Thursday, Kennedy, his running mate, Nicole Shanahan and all of their electors submitted notarized letters dated that day, withdrawing from the race in the state.

A year ago, some would have thought it inconceivable that Kennedy — a member of the most storied family in Democratic politics — would work with Trump to keep a Democrat out of the White House. Even in recent months, Kennedy has accused Trump of betraying his followers, while Trump has criticized Kennedy as “the most radical left candidate in the race.”

But the two campaigns have ramped up their compliments to each other and engaged in behind-the-scenes discussions in recent weeks, according to those familiar with the efforts. Both campaigns have spent months accusing Democrats of weaponizing the legal system for their own benefit. And both have hinted publicly that they could be open to joining forces, with the shared goal of limiting the election chances of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

Last month, during the Republican National Convention, Kennedy’s son posted and then quickly deleted a video showing a phone call between Kennedy and Trump, in which the former president appeared to try to talk Kennedy into siding with him.

Talks between the two camps have continued, with close Trump allies quietly lobbying Kennedy to drop out of the race and support the Republican nominee, according to a person familiar with the efforts who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Trump told CNN on Tuesday that he would “love” an endorsement from Kennedy, whom he called a “brilliant guy.” He also said he would “certainly” be open to Kennedy playing a role in his administration if Kennedy drops out and endorses him.

Shanahan, also openly suggested on a podcast this week that his campaign might “walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump.” While she clarified that she is not personally in talks with Trump, she entertained the idea that Kennedy could join Trump’s administration as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

“I think that Bobby in a role like that would be excellent,” Shanahan said. “I fully support it. I have high hopes.”

Kennedy, a son of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and a nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, hasn’t disclosed the reason for his Friday remarks, but they come as his campaign’s momentum has slipped.

Kennedy Jr. first entered the 2024 presidential race as a Democrat but left the party last fall to run as an independent. He built an unusually strong base for a third-party bid, fueled in part by anti-establishment voters and vaccine skeptics who have followed his anti-vaccine work since the COVID-19 pandemic. But he has since faced strained campaign finances and mounting legal challenges, including a recent ruling from a New York judge that he should not appear on the ballot in the state because he listed a “sham” address on nominating petitions.

Recent polls put his support in the mid-single digits. And it’s unclear if he’d get even that in a general election, since third-party candidates frequently don’t live up to their early poll numbers when voters actually cast their ballots.

There’s some evidence that Kennedy’s staying in the race would hurt Trump more than Harris. According to a July AP-NORC poll, Republicans were significantly more likely than Democrats to have a favorable view of Kennedy. And those with a positive impression of Kennedy were significantly more likely to also have a favorable view of Trump (52%) than Harris (37%).

In an interview with MSNBC at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Thursday, Harris communications director Michael Tyler said her campaign welcomes Kennedy voters should the independent candidate drop out.

For voters who see Trump as a threat, who are looking for a new way forward, or who want “government to get the hell out of the way of their own personal decisions, there’s a home for you in Kamala Harris’ campaign,” Tyler said.

For Trump, Friday will mark the end of a week’s worth of battleground state visits in which he has sought to draw attention away from Democrats’ celebration of Harris’ presidential nomination in Chicago.

He traveled to Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Arizona’s U.S.-Mexico border for events focused on his policy proposals on the economy, crime and safety, national security and the border. He will close out the week Friday with stops in Las Vegas and Glendale.

___

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Michelle L. Price in Phoenix, Meg Kinnard in Chicago and Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

Good evening.

To my husband, Doug, thank you for being an incredible partner to me and father to Cole and Ella.

And happy anniversary. I love you so very much.

To Joe Biden — Mr. President. I am forever grateful for your lifetime of leadership and your trust in me.

And to Coach Tim Walz, you are going to be an incredible Vice President.

And to the delegates and everyone who has put your faith in our campaign — your support is humbling.

America, the path that led me here in recent weeks, was no doubt… unexpected.

But I’m no stranger to unlikely journeys. My mother Shyamala Harris had one of her own.

I miss her every day. Especially now. And I know she’s looking down tonight.

And smiling. My mother was 19 when she crossed the world alone. Traveling from India to California. With an unshakeable dream to be the scientist who would cure breast cancer.

When she finished school, she was supposed to return home to a traditional arranged marriage. But, as fate would have it, she met my father, Donald Harris.

A student from Jamaica. They fell in love and got married. And that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and me.

Growing up, we moved a lot. I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings.

Ready to go.

To Illinois.

To Wisconsin.

And wherever our parents’ jobs took us.

My early memories of my parents together are joyful ones. A home filled with laughter and music. Aretha. Coltrane. And Miles.

At the park, my mother would tell us to stay close. But my father would just smile, and say, “Run, Kamala. Run. Don’t be afraid. Don’t let anything stop you.”

From my earliest years, he taught me to be fearless. But the harmony between my parents did not last. When I was in elementary school, they split up. And it was mostly my mother who raised us.

Before she could finally afford to buy a home, she rented a small apartment in the East Bay. In the Bay, you either live in the hills or the flatlands. We, lived in the flats. A beautiful working-class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses and construction workers. All, who tended their lawns with pride. 

My mother worked long hours. And, like many working parents, she leaned on a trusted circle to help raise us.

Mrs. Shelton, who ran the daycare below us and became a second mother. Uncle Sherman. Aunt Mary. Uncle Freddy. And Auntie Chris. 

None of them, family by blood. And all of them, family by love.

Family who taught us how to make gumbo. How to play chess. And sometimes even let us win.

Family who loved us. Believed in us. And told us we could be anything.

Do anything. They instilled in us the values they personified. Community. Faith. And the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated.

With kindness. Respect. And compassion.

My mother was a brilliant, five-foot-tall, brown woman with an accent. And, as the eldest child, I saw how the world would sometimes treat her. 

But she never lost her cool.

She was tough.

Courageous.

A trailblazer in the fight for women’s health. 

And she taught Maya and me a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night — she taught us to never complain about injustice.  But…do something about it.

She also taught us — never do anything half-assed. That’s, a direct quote.

I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement. My parents had met at a civil rights gathering. And they made sure we learned about civil rights leaders, including lawyers like Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley.

Those who battled in the courtroom to make real the Promise of America. 

So, at a young age, I decided I wanted to do that work. I wanted to be a lawyer. And when it came time to choose – he type, of law I would pursue – I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life.

When I was in high school, I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda.

She was sad at school.

And there were times she didn’t want to go home.

So, one day, I asked if everything was alright and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her step-father.

And I immediately told her she had to come stay with us.

And she did. 

That is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor.

To protect people like Wanda.

Because I believe everyone has a right to safety. To dignity. And to justice.

As a prosecutor, when I had a case, I charged it not in the name of the victim. But in the name of “The People.”

For a simple reason.

In our system of justice, a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us. I would often explain this, to console survivors of crime. To remind them no one should be made to fight alone. We are all in this together. 

Every day in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge and said five words: “Kamala Harris, for the People.”

And to be clear, my entire career, I have only had one client. The People. And so, on behalf of The People, on behalf of every American. Regardless of party, race or gender. Or the language your grandmother speaks. 

On behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey. On behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with. People who work hard. Chase their dreams and look out for one another.

On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth. I accept your nomination for President of the United States of America.

With this election, our nation has a precious,  fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past.

A chance to chart a New Way Forward.

Not as members of any one party or faction But as Americans.

I know there are people of various political view watching tonight. And I want you to know: I promise to be a President for all Americans.

You can always trust me to put country above party and self.

To hold sacred America’s fundamental principles. From the rule of law. To free and fair elections. To the peaceful transfer of power.  I will be a President who unites us around our highest aspirations.

A President who leads and listens. Who is realistic. Practical. And has common sense and always fights for the American people.

From the courthouse to the White House, that has been my life’s work.

As a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland, I stood up for women and children against predators who abused them.  As Attorney General of California, I took on the Big Banks. Delivered $20 billion for middle-class families who faced foreclosure. And helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights — one of the first of its kind. 

I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges. For workers who were being cheated out of the wages they were due. For seniors facing elder abuse. I fought against cartels who traffic in guns, drugs, and human beings. Who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities.

Those fights were not easy. And neither were the elections that put me in those offices.

We were underestimated at every turn. But we never gave up. Because the future is always worth fighting for. And that’s the fight we are in right now.  A fight for America’s future.

Fellow Americans, this election is not only the most important of our lives. It is one of the most important in the life of our nation. In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.

Consider not only the chaos and calamity when he was in office, but also the gravity of what has happened, since he lost the last election. Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes.                                                                    

When he failed, he sent an armed mob into the U.S. Capitol, where they assaulted law enforcement officers.

When politicians in his own party begged him to call off the mob and send help, he did the opposite. He fanned the flames.

And now, for an entirely different set of crimes, he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans. And separately, found liable for committing sexual abuse.

And consider what he intends to do if we give him power again. Consider his explicit intent to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the Capitol.

His explicit intent to jail journalists. Political opponents. Anyone he sees as the enemy. 

His explicit intent to deploy our active-duty military against our own citizens.

Consider the power he will have — especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled he would be immune from criminal prosecution. 

Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails.

How he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States. Not to improve your life. Not to strengthen our national security. But to serve the only client he has ever had: Himself. 

And we know what a second Trump term would look like. It’s all laid out in “Project 2025.” Written by his closest advisors. And its sum total is to pull our country back into the past.

But America, we are not going back.

We are not going back to when Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare.

We are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. When insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions.

We are not going to let him eliminate the Department of Education that funds our public schools.

We are not going to let him end programs like Head Start, that provide preschool and child care.

America, we are not going back.

We are charting a new way forward. 

Forward — to a future with a strong and growing middle class.

Because we know a strong middle class has alway been critical to America’s success. And building that middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.

This is personal for me.

The middle class is where I come from. My mother kept a strict budget. We lived within our means. Yet, we wanted for little.

And she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us. And to be grateful for them. Because opportunity is not available to everyone.

That’s why we will create what I call an Opportunity economy. An Opportunity economy where everyone has a chance to compete and a chance to succeed.

Whether you live in a rural area, small town, or big city. As President, I will bring together: Labor and workers, small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs. Grow our economy. And lower the cost of everyday needs. Like health care, housing and groceries.

We will provide access to capital for small business owners, entrepreneurs and founders. We will end America’s housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare.

Compare that to Donald Trump.

He doesn’t actually fight for the middle class. Instead, he fights for himself and his billionaire friends. He will give them another round of tax breaks that will add $5 trillion to the national debt.

All while, he intends to enact what, in effect, is a national sales tax — call it, a Trump tax — that would
raise prices on middle-class families by almost $4,000 a year. 

Well, instead of a Trump tax hike, we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans.

Friends, I believe America cannot truly be prosperous unless Americans are fully able to make their own decisions about their own lives. Especially on matters of heart and home.

But tonight, too many women iin America are not able to make those decisions.

Let’s be clear about how we got here: Donald Trump hand-picked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom.

And now he brags about it.

His words: Quote – “I did it, and I’m proud to have done it.” End quote.

Over the past two years, I have traveled across our country. And women have told me their stories. Husbands and fathers have shared theirs. Stories of women miscarrying in a parking lot, getting sepsis, losing the ability to ever have children again, all because doctors are afraid of going to jail for caring for their patients.

Couples just trying to grow their family, cut off in the middle of IVF treatments.

Children who have survived sexual assault, potentially forced to carry the pregnancy to term.

This is what is happening in our country.

Because of Donald Trump.

And understand he is not done.

As a part of his agenda, he and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban medication abortion and enact a nation-wide abortion ban with or without Congress.

And, get this, he plans to create a National anti-abortion coordinator, and force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions.

Simply put: They are out of their minds.

And one must ask: Why exactly is it that they don’t trust women?

Well. We trust women.

And when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, as President of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.

In this election, many other fundamental freedoms are at stake.

The freedom to live safe from gun violence — in our schools, communities and places of worship.

The freedom to love who you love openly and with pride.

The freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis.

And the freedom that unlocks all the others: The freedom to vote.

With this election, we finally have the opportunity to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.

And let me be clear. After decades in law enforcement, I know the importance of safety and security, especially at our border.

Last year, Joe and I brought together Democrats and conservative Republicans to write the strongest border bill in decades.

The Border Patrol endorsed it.

But Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign. So he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal.

Well, I refuse to play politics with our security. Here is my pledge to you: As President, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed. And I will sign it into law.

I know we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants — and reform our broken immigration system.

We can create an earned pathway to citizenship — and secure our border.

America, we must also be steadfast in advancing our security and our values abroad. 

As Vice President, I have confronted threats to our security, negotiated with foreign leaders, strengthened our alliances and engaged with our brave troops overseas. 

As Commander-in-Chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.

I will fulfill our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families. And I will always honor, and never disparage, their service and their sacrifice.

I will make sure that we lead the world into the future  on space and Artificial Intelligence. That America — not China — wins the competition for the 21st century. And that we strengthen — not abdicate — our global leadership.

Trump, on the other hand, threatened to abandon NATO. He encouraged Putin to invade our allies. Said Russia could — quote — “do whatever the hell they want.”

Five days before Russia attacked Ukraine, I met with President Zelensky to warn him about Russia’s plan to invade. I helped mobilize a global response — over 50 countries — to defend against Putin’s aggression.

And as President, I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies.

With respect to the war in Gaza, President Biden and I are working around the clock. Because now is the time to get a hostage deal and ceasefire done.

Let me be clear: I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself. Because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that the terrorist organization Hamas caused on October 7th. Including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival.

At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost. Desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, over and over again.

The scale of suffering is heartbreaking.

President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.

And know this: I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists.

And I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim-Jong-Un, who are rooting for Trump because they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors.

They know Trump won’t hold autocrats accountable — because he wants to be an autocrat.

As President, I will never waver in defense of America’s security and ideals. Because, in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand — and where the United States of America belongs.

Fellow Americans, I love our country with all my heart.  Everywhere I go —in everyone I meet — I see a nation ready to move forward. Ready for the next step n the incredible journey that is America.

I see an America where we hold fast to the fearless belief that built our nation. That inspired the world. That here, in this country, anything is possible.

Nothing is out of reach. An America, where we care for one another, look out for one another, and recognize that we have so much more in common than what separates us. That none of us has to fail for all of us to succeed. And that, in unity, there is strength.

Our opponents in this race  are out there, every day, denigrating America. Talking about how terrible everything is. 

Well, my mother had another lesson she used to teach: Never let anyone tell you who you are. You show them who you are. 

America, let us show each other — and the world — who we are and what we stand for: Freedom, opportunity, compassion, dignity, fairness and endless possibilities. 

We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world.

And on behalf of our children and grandchildren and all those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy of this moment. 

It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done.

Guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love. To fight for the ideals we cherish. And to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth. The privilege and pride of being an American. 

So, let’s get out there and let’s fight for it. 

Let’s get out there and let’s vote for it.

And together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.

Thank you.

God bless you.

May God bless the United States of America.

“Are you ready to protect our rights?! Are you ready to secure our freedoms?! And are you ready to defend our democracy?! And are you ready to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz?! America, let’s get to work,” Shapiro said.

While Shapiro’s speech drew plenty of praise from Democrats, it also sparked criticism from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Trump took to the social media platform Truth Social, calling Shapiro – who is Jewish – a “highly overrated Jewish Governor.”

“The highly overrated Jewish Governor of the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, made a really bad and poorly delivered speech talking about freedom and fighting for Comrade Kamala Harris for President, yet she hates Israel and will do nothing but make its journey through the complexities of survival as difficult as possible, hoping in the end that it will fail. Judge only by her actions,” Trump wrote. “Yet Shapiro, for strictly political reasons, refused to acknowledge that I am the best friend that Israel, and the Jewish people, ever had. I have done more for Israel than any President, and frankly, I have done more for Israel than any person, and it’s not even close. Shapiro has done nothing for Israel, and never will. Comrade Kamala Harris, the Radical Left Marxist who stole the nomination from Crooked Joe, will do even less. Israel is in BIG trouble!”

Trump’s statement sparked controversy, with some accusing the former president of antisemitism. While speaking with NBC10’s Lauren Mayk on Thursday in response to the social media post, Shapiro accused Trump of peddling “antisemitic tropes.”

“I mean first off, I think it’s clear over the last few weeks, Donald Trump is obsessed with me and obsessed with continuing to spew hate and division in our politics. He’s someone who has routinely peddled antisemitic tropes like this,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro went on to predict that Trump would lose to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

“Look, remember, he’s the guy who wanted Doug Mastriano to have this job,” Shapiro said. “He’s the guy who has been repeatedly rejected by the voters of Pennsylvania. He himself lost in 2020. All of his handpicked candidates have lost. And I think he’s heading for another loss, this time to Kamala Harris.”

Shapiro then referenced his own speech Wednesday night, comparing it favorably to Trump’s rhetoric.

“I think you all heard me talk last night at the DNC, the exact polar opposite of what Donald Trump is talking about. I’m talking about real freedom,” Shapiro said. “Bringing people together. Accepting folks no matter what they look like, where they come from, who they love, who they pray too and saying, ‘This is a place for you.’ That’s diametrically opposed to everything Donald Trump believes. And it’s clear that he’s going to continue to be the hateful, divisive person that he’s always been in this campaign. And I think, given his track record, it’s clear he’s setting himself up for another defeat.”

Shapiro also said he was most concerned about the impact Trump’s statements have on American citizens.

“Folks from Pennsylvania, folks from around the country who come to me and say, ‘I’m a proud American Jew. I’m proud of my faith and I’m now scared to practice my faith because of what Donald Trump and his allies keep saying.’ So it’s less about what they say about me but more about how that hits other people,” Shapiro said. “How that makes other people feel. And Donald Trump is making other people feel less safe. Less prideful in who they are. This should be a country where no matter who you are, you belong and you feel like you belong. And Donald Trump is trying to rip that away from people.”

When asked if he believes Trump is antisemitic, Shapiro again accused the former president of spreading “antisemitic tropes.”

“I think Donald Trump has a long history of spewing antisemitic tropes, racist tropes,” Shapiro said. “He attacks other people for who they are, what they look like, what they believe in. And that is not the way any American should act, let alone someone who wants to be the leader of this country.”

Kamala Harris is scheduled to speak on the final night of the Democratic National Convention.

The event, at 9 p.m. Eastern in Philadelphia, will offer Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June. In rapid fashion, President Joe Biden bowed out of the race after his disastrous performance, Trump survived an assassination attempt and bothsides chose their running mates.

Harris is intent on demonstrating that she can press the Democratic case against Trump better than Biden did. Trump, in turn, is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters skeptical he should return to the White House.

Trump, 78, has struggled to adapt to Harris, 59, who is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. The Republican former president has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes, frustrating allies who want Trump to focus instead on policy differences with Harris.

The vice president, for her part, will try to claim a share of credit for the Biden administration’s accomplishments while also addressing its low moments and explaining her shifts away from more liberal positions she took in the past.

The debate will subject Harris, who has sat for only a single formal interview in the past six weeks, to a rare moment of sustained questioning.

Decision 2024 22 hours ago

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Harris previews her Trump debate plan: ‘I think he's gonna lie'

“If she performs great, it’s going to be a nice surprise for the Democrats and they’ll rejoice,” said Ari Fleischer, a Republican communications strategist and former press secretary to President George W. Bush. “If she flops, like Joe Biden did, it could break this race wide open. So there’s more riding on it.”

Tim Hogan, who led Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s debate preparations in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, said Harris, a former California attorney general, would bring a “prosecutor’s instincts to the debate stage.”

“That is a very strong quality in that setting: having someone who knows how to land a punch and how to translate it,” Hogan said.

The first early ballots of the presidential race will go out just hours after the debate, hosted by ABC News. Absentee ballots are set to be sent out beginning Wednesday in Alabama.

Trump plans to hit Harris as too liberal

Trump and his campaign have spotlighted far-left positions she took during her failed 2020 presidential bid. He’s been assisted in his informal debate prep sessions by Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who tore into Harris during their primary debates.

Harris has sought to defend her shifts away from liberal causes to more moderate stances on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun buyback programs — and even backing away from her position that plastic straws should be banned — as pragmatism, insisting that her “values remain the same.” Her campaign on Monday published a page on its website listing her positions on key issues.

The former president has argued a Harris presidency is a threat to the safety of the country, highlighting that Biden tapped her to address the influx of migrants as the Republican once again makes dark warnings about immigration and those in the country illegally central to his campaign. He has sought to portray a Harris presidency as the continuation of Biden’s still-unpopular administration, particularly his economic record, as voters still feel the bite of inflation even as it has cooled in recent months.

Trump’s team insist his tone won’t be any different facing a female opponent.

“President Trump is going to be himself,” senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters during a phone call Monday.

Gabbard, who was also on the call, added that Trump “respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way than he would speak to a man.”

His advisers suggest Harris has a tendency to express herself in a “word salad” of meaningless phrases, prompting Trump to say last week that his debate strategy was to “let her talk.”

The former president frequently plows into rambling remarks that detour from his policy points. He regularly makes false claims about the last election, attacks a lengthy list of enemies and opponents working against him, offers praise for foreign strongmen and comments about race, like his false claim in July that Harris recently “happened to turn Black.”

Harris wants to argue Trump is unstable and unfit

The vice president, who has been the Biden administration’s most outspoken supporter of abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, is expected to focus on calling out Trump’s inconsistencies around women’s reproductive care, including his announcement that he will vote to protect Florida’s six-week abortion ban in a statewide referendum this fall.

Harris was also set to try to portray herself as a steadier hand to lead the nation and safeguard its alliances, as war rages in Ukraine more than two years after Russia’s invasion and Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza drags on with no end in sight.

She is likely to warn that Trump presents a threat to democracy, from his attempts in 2020 to overturn his loss in the presidential election, spurring his angry supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, through comments he made as recently as last weekend. Trump on social media issued yet another message of retribution, threatening that if he wins he will jail “those involved in unscrupulous behavior,” including lawyers, political operatives, donors, voters and election officials.

Harris has spent the better part of the last five days ensconced in debate preparations in Pennsylvania, where she participated in hours-long mock sessions with a Trump stand-in. Ahead of the debate, she told radio host Rickey Smiley that she was workshopping how to respond if Trump lies.

“There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go,” she said.

___

AP Polling Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington and Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Las Vegas, Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Josh Boak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

Good evening. After the last two days, am I proud to be a Democrat! I’m especially proud of President
Biden, who came to office during the pandemic and an economic crash. He healed us and got us back
to work. He strengthened our alliances for freedom and security.

Perhaps the greatest test of anyone in power is whether they’re willing to relinquish it. George
Washington knew that and it enhanced his legacy. The same is now true for Joe Biden. Mr. President,
thank you for your courage, compassion, and class; for your service and your sacrifice. You have not
only kept the faith—you are spreading the faith.

Now, let’s cut to the chase: The stakes are too high and I’m too old to gild the lily. I actually turned 78
two days ago. And I’m still not quite as old as Donald Trump.
Last night we nominated Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to be the next president and vice president.
Two leaders with improbable, all-American life stories that could only happen here, with careers
starting in community courtrooms and classrooms. Two leaders who have spent a lifetime getting the
job done.

A presidential election is a job interview for the greatest job in the world. What questions will you
ask—because you’re doing the hiring. Will a president take us forward or backward? Will she give our
kids a brighter future? Will she make us more united or more divided? Will we all feel heard, seen, and
valued, regardless of who we voted for?

We, the people, are the employers, charged by our Constitution to hire a president to do a job that we
get to redefine every four years. In effect, the American people say, “Here are our problems; solve
them. Here are our opportunities; seize them. Here are our fears; ease them. Here are our dreams;
help us make them come true.” A president can answer that call by leading us to work together—or
dodging what needs to be done by dividing, distracting, and deceiving us.

In 2024, we have a clear choice: “We the People” versus “me, myself, and I.” I know which one I like
better for our country. Kamala Harris will solve problems, seize opportunities, ease our fears, and
make sure that every American can chase their dreams.

When she was a student, she worked at McDonald’s. She greeted every person with that
thousand-watt smile and said, “How can I help you?” And now, at the pinnacle of power, she’s still
asking “How can I help you?” I’ll be so happy when she actually enters the White House because, at
last, she’ll break my record as the president who has spent the most time at McDonald’s.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump—a paragon of consistency—is still dividing, blaming, and belittling. He
creates and curates chaos. It’s showmanship, but it’s not leadership. Not a day goes by that I’m not
grateful for the chance the American people gave me to be one of the 45 people who have held the
job. Even on the bad days, you can still make something good happen.

Kamala Harris is the only candidate in this race with the vision, the experience, the temperament, the
will, and—yes—the sheer joy to do that on good and bad days. To be our voice.

Now, how does Donald Trump use his voice? Mostly to talk about himself—his vengeance, vendettas,
complaints, conspiracies. The next time you hear him, don’t count the lies—count the I’s. He’s like the
tenor warming up before the opera: me, me, me, me. Kamala Harris is focused on you.

Do you want to build a strong economy from the bottom up and the middle out? Or do you want to
spend the next four years talking about crowd sizes? Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, America
has created about 51 million new jobs—about 50 million under Democrats, 1 million under
Republicans. 50 to 1! Coach Walz will tell ya, if you’re up 50 to 1—you’re winning!

Do you want more affordable housing, affordable health care, and affordable child care? Do you want
more financing for small businesses? Do you want to strengthen our alliances and stand up for
freedom and democracy around the world? Or a tribute to the “late great” Hannibal Lecter? Do you
want to save our country and our world from the calamities of climate change? Or obsess on the vital
debate between getting eaten by sharks or electrocuted? President Obama once famously called me
the Explainer in Chief, but folks—but I can’t even.

I want an America that’s more joyful, inclusive, and future-focused. Where we weather the storms and
earn the benefits together. That’s the America Kamala Harris will lead. She’s already made her first
presidential decision, picking a running mate. And boy, did she knock it out of the park. She called Tim
Walz for duty one more time. He’s the real deal with a record—as a coach, as a teacher, as a soldier, as
a congressman, and as a great governor—to prove it. And he reminds us of home.

Kamala Harris has fought for kids that were left out and left behind. She’s taken on gangs trafficking
across the border, and fought to protect the rights of homeowners. She’s been our leader in the fight
for reproductive freedom, and advanced America’s interests and values all over the world. She’ll work
to make sure that no American working full-time has to live in poverty and that homeownership is an
achievable dream, not a privilege. She’ll protect your right to vote, including your right to vote for
someone else.

For 250 years, the forces of division have tried to halt the march of progress in this beautiful
experiment of ours. In the face of stiff, often violent opposition, we have kept hope alive and kept
marching forward together.

Kamala Harris’s story is the story of an America we all know is possible. Where “We the People”
continually strive to make our union more perfect. One where a daughter of the Bay and a son of the
Heartland can be the president and vice president.

We should not despair about America’s divisions, because we move from happiness to heartbreak,
from building and breaking to rebuilding and making. We do the best we can. Until, in God’s good
time, there comes a new generation to pick up where we left off. That’s the opportunity we’re given
now. To pick an extraordinary woman, clearly up to the job, who’ll bring us together and move us
forward.

So, talk to your neighbors. Meet people where they are. Don’t demean them. Ask them for their help.
And ask them, as Kamala still does, “How can I help you?” We’ve got a lot of hay in the barn—we just
need to saddle up and ride with strength through November. If America hires Kamala Harris and Tim
Walz, we will never regret it.

Take it from the Man from Hope, Kamala Harris is the woman from joy. And we will make a joyful
noise on Election Day if you do your part. Thank you. God bless you and God bless America.

Not even the future President of the United States has the authority to play any song they want.

What they listen to once inside the comfort of the White House is, of course, their right. But while on the campaign trail ahead of the 2024 election, those seeking entry into the highest office in the country need the proper licenses and approvals to play an artist’s copyrighted music. Without it, the presidential candidates could face untimely public condemnation from the artists and possible litigation.

Obtaining these approvals isn’t quite as easy as signing up for a Spotify subscription.

Just as a politician might not listen to the music of an artist they aren’t a fan of, musicians might not want their work used by a political party they aren’t affiliated with.

In many cases, campaign organizers pay an annual fee to obtain a blanket license from performance rights organizations to play or perform any work within a rightsholder’s entire catalog.

“The campaign will use it for live performances only, which means when they’re outside somewhere or they’re in an arena where they’re just gonna put out the song live, no one’s recording it, it’s not being simulcast, it’s not being streamed, none of that,” said Kenneth Freundlich, a business, entertainment and intellectual property attorney “That implicates only one right.

“You do not need to license the master recording of the song for a live performance only. So, what would normally happen is when you go to a concert, the venues themselves get what’s called a blanket license from the performance rights organizations.”

But even with that license, an artist or license holder can still object. So, campaign organizers often just press play on a song and hope it doesn’t anger those holding the rights to it. 

“Campaigns operate on the ask for forgiveness rather than permission basis, especially when it is not in the context of a television commercial,” Joel Sawyer, the former head of communication for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. “If you are playing music at a live event, you kind of operate like a college cover band, just use the music and you hope for the best.”

Trump has faced recent backlash from artists after their songs were used at his campaign rallies. Celine Dion made a post on social media saying Trump used unauthorized video of her performing her song “My Heart Will Go On” at his rally in Montana.

“Today, Celine Dion’s management team and her record label, Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc., became aware of the unauthorized usage of the video, recording, musical performance, and likeness of Celine Dion singing “My Heart Will Go On” at a Donald Trump / JD Vance campaign rally in Montana,” read a statement posted on Dion’s X account. “In no way is this use authorized, and Celine Dion does not endorse this or any similar use. …And really, THAT song?”

The family of late soul singer Isaac Hayes threatened legal action against Trump for the unauthorized use of the song “Hold On I’m Coming” at campaign rallies from 2022 to 2024.

“It’s just about not having their music associated,” Freundlich said. “Either they are not down with that political party, and they want to be with the other party, or they’re just not political. They don’t want their songs thrown in the fray.”

Trump has received authorization from musicians like Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood, known for his patriotic anthem, “God Bless the USA.”

Artists, however, do not always have control over how and when their music is played. Political campaigns obtain licenses from performing rights organizations like ASCAP that enable them to use a wide variety of songs from the catalogs of recognizable artists at live events. If an artist objects to its use, the song is pulled from the license.

“If the artist has already gone to the PRO and told them to stop using it …your first step is a cease and desist letter from a lawyer. And sometimes that will work. And it does in many cases,” Freundlich said. “Now, once it’s pulled, technically, it’s a copyright infringement for the campaign to continue to use it.”

But not every campaign immediately complies, risking up to $150,000 in statutory damages from the copyright infringement for each work used.  

“It’s simply a public pressure campaign,” Sawyer said. “In cases where it is a national figure who is very divisive, when you have artists who do not want their work associated with a divisive figure, you’re going to see more and more of this.

“You’re putting together a playlist, but look, you don’t want any unforced errors, right? You don’t want stories like this coming out in the middle of the campaign. So if you get that first letter saying, don’t use this anymore, the best practice would be don’t use it anymore.”

So, which party has the better musical catalog to choose from for its campaign playlist?

“I don’t think it’s inaccurate to say the Democrats have had a little bit better luck than Republicans in finding good and popular bands,” Sawyer said. “Kamala Harris has Beyoncé in one of her ads for God’s sake. I mean, how are Republicans supposed to compete with that?”

The Associated Press contributed to this story

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

The event, at 9 p.m. Eastern in Philadelphia, will offer Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June. In rapid fashion, President Joe Biden bowed out of the race after his disastrous performance, Trump survived an assassination attempt and bothsides chose their running mates.

Harris is intent on demonstrating that she can press the Democratic case against Trump better than Biden did. Trump, in turn, is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters skeptical he should return to the White House.

Trump, 78, has struggled to adapt to Harris, 59, who is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. The Republican former president has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes, frustrating allies who want Trump to focus instead on policy differences with Harris.

The vice president, for her part, will try to claim a share of credit for the Biden administration’s accomplishments while also addressing its low moments and explaining her shifts away from more liberal positions she took in the past.

The debate will subject Harris, who has sat for only a single formal interview in the past six weeks, to a rare moment of sustained questioning.

Decision 2024 22 hours ago

When is the 2024 presidential debate? How to watch the Trump, Harris debate

news 18 hours ago

Harris previews her Trump debate plan: ‘I think he's gonna lie'

“If she performs great, it’s going to be a nice surprise for the Democrats and they’ll rejoice,” said Ari Fleischer, a Republican communications strategist and former press secretary to President George W. Bush. “If she flops, like Joe Biden did, it could break this race wide open. So there’s more riding on it.”

Tim Hogan, who led Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s debate preparations in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, said Harris, a former California attorney general, would bring a “prosecutor’s instincts to the debate stage.”

“That is a very strong quality in that setting: having someone who knows how to land a punch and how to translate it,” Hogan said.

The first early ballots of the presidential race will go out just hours after the debate, hosted by ABC News. Absentee ballots are set to be sent out beginning Wednesday in Alabama.

Trump plans to hit Harris as too liberal

Trump and his campaign have spotlighted far-left positions she took during her failed 2020 presidential bid. He’s been assisted in his informal debate prep sessions by Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who tore into Harris during their primary debates.

Harris has sought to defend her shifts away from liberal causes to more moderate stances on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun buyback programs — and even backing away from her position that plastic straws should be banned — as pragmatism, insisting that her “values remain the same.” Her campaign on Monday published a page on its website listing her positions on key issues.

The former president has argued a Harris presidency is a threat to the safety of the country, highlighting that Biden tapped her to address the influx of migrants as the Republican once again makes dark warnings about immigration and those in the country illegally central to his campaign. He has sought to portray a Harris presidency as the continuation of Biden’s still-unpopular administration, particularly his economic record, as voters still feel the bite of inflation even as it has cooled in recent months.

Trump’s team insist his tone won’t be any different facing a female opponent.

“President Trump is going to be himself,” senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters during a phone call Monday.

Gabbard, who was also on the call, added that Trump “respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way than he would speak to a man.”

His advisers suggest Harris has a tendency to express herself in a “word salad” of meaningless phrases, prompting Trump to say last week that his debate strategy was to “let her talk.”

The former president frequently plows into rambling remarks that detour from his policy points. He regularly makes false claims about the last election, attacks a lengthy list of enemies and opponents working against him, offers praise for foreign strongmen and comments about race, like his false claim in July that Harris recently “happened to turn Black.”

Harris wants to argue Trump is unstable and unfit

The vice president, who has been the Biden administration’s most outspoken supporter of abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, is expected to focus on calling out Trump’s inconsistencies around women’s reproductive care, including his announcement that he will vote to protect Florida’s six-week abortion ban in a statewide referendum this fall.

Harris was also set to try to portray herself as a steadier hand to lead the nation and safeguard its alliances, as war rages in Ukraine more than two years after Russia’s invasion and Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza drags on with no end in sight.

She is likely to warn that Trump presents a threat to democracy, from his attempts in 2020 to overturn his loss in the presidential election, spurring his angry supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, through comments he made as recently as last weekend. Trump on social media issued yet another message of retribution, threatening that if he wins he will jail “those involved in unscrupulous behavior,” including lawyers, political operatives, donors, voters and election officials.

Harris has spent the better part of the last five days ensconced in debate preparations in Pennsylvania, where she participated in hours-long mock sessions with a Trump stand-in. Ahead of the debate, she told radio host Rickey Smiley that she was workshopping how to respond if Trump lies.

“There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go,” she said.

___

AP Polling Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington and Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Las Vegas, Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Josh Boak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

The event, at 9 p.m. Eastern in Philadelphia, will offer Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June. In rapid fashion, President Joe Biden bowed out of the race after his disastrous performance, Trump survived an assassination attempt and bothsides chose their running mates.

Harris is intent on demonstrating that she can press the Democratic case against Trump better than Biden did. Trump, in turn, is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters skeptical he should return to the White House.

Trump, 78, has struggled to adapt to Harris, 59, who is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. The Republican former president has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes, frustrating allies who want Trump to focus instead on policy differences with Harris.

The vice president, for her part, will try to claim a share of credit for the Biden administration’s accomplishments while also addressing its low moments and explaining her shifts away from more liberal positions she took in the past.

The debate will subject Harris, who has sat for only a single formal interview in the past six weeks, to a rare moment of sustained questioning.

Decision 2024 22 hours ago

When is the 2024 presidential debate? How to watch the Trump, Harris debate

news 18 hours ago

Harris previews her Trump debate plan: ‘I think he's gonna lie'

“If she performs great, it’s going to be a nice surprise for the Democrats and they’ll rejoice,” said Ari Fleischer, a Republican communications strategist and former press secretary to President George W. Bush. “If she flops, like Joe Biden did, it could break this race wide open. So there’s more riding on it.”

Tim Hogan, who led Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s debate preparations in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, said Harris, a former California attorney general, would bring a “prosecutor’s instincts to the debate stage.”

“That is a very strong quality in that setting: having someone who knows how to land a punch and how to translate it,” Hogan said.

The first early ballots of the presidential race will go out just hours after the debate, hosted by ABC News. Absentee ballots are set to be sent out beginning Wednesday in Alabama.

Trump plans to hit Harris as too liberal

Trump and his campaign have spotlighted far-left positions she took during her failed 2020 presidential bid. He’s been assisted in his informal debate prep sessions by Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who tore into Harris during their primary debates.

Harris has sought to defend her shifts away from liberal causes to more moderate stances on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun buyback programs — and even backing away from her position that plastic straws should be banned — as pragmatism, insisting that her “values remain the same.” Her campaign on Monday published a page on its website listing her positions on key issues.

The former president has argued a Harris presidency is a threat to the safety of the country, highlighting that Biden tapped her to address the influx of migrants as the Republican once again makes dark warnings about immigration and those in the country illegally central to his campaign. He has sought to portray a Harris presidency as the continuation of Biden’s still-unpopular administration, particularly his economic record, as voters still feel the bite of inflation even as it has cooled in recent months.

Trump’s team insist his tone won’t be any different facing a female opponent.

“President Trump is going to be himself,” senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters during a phone call Monday.

Gabbard, who was also on the call, added that Trump “respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way than he would speak to a man.”

His advisers suggest Harris has a tendency to express herself in a “word salad” of meaningless phrases, prompting Trump to say last week that his debate strategy was to “let her talk.”

The former president frequently plows into rambling remarks that detour from his policy points. He regularly makes false claims about the last election, attacks a lengthy list of enemies and opponents working against him, offers praise for foreign strongmen and comments about race, like his false claim in July that Harris recently “happened to turn Black.”

Harris wants to argue Trump is unstable and unfit

The vice president, who has been the Biden administration’s most outspoken supporter of abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, is expected to focus on calling out Trump’s inconsistencies around women’s reproductive care, including his announcement that he will vote to protect Florida’s six-week abortion ban in a statewide referendum this fall.

Harris was also set to try to portray herself as a steadier hand to lead the nation and safeguard its alliances, as war rages in Ukraine more than two years after Russia’s invasion and Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza drags on with no end in sight.

She is likely to warn that Trump presents a threat to democracy, from his attempts in 2020 to overturn his loss in the presidential election, spurring his angry supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, through comments he made as recently as last weekend. Trump on social media issued yet another message of retribution, threatening that if he wins he will jail “those involved in unscrupulous behavior,” including lawyers, political operatives, donors, voters and election officials.

Harris has spent the better part of the last five days ensconced in debate preparations in Pennsylvania, where she participated in hours-long mock sessions with a Trump stand-in. Ahead of the debate, she told radio host Rickey Smiley that she was workshopping how to respond if Trump lies.

“There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go,” she said.

___

AP Polling Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington and Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Las Vegas, Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Josh Boak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

Gaetz, however, is the heavy favorite as he faces Navy veteran Aaron Dimmock in Tuesday’s primary, when voters head to the polls in Florida, Wyoming and Alaska. 

McCarthy, R-Calif., has backed Dimmock, and Florida Patriots PAC, a group tied to McCarthy’s allies, has spent $3.5 million on ads against Gaetz, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. The group has run ads referring to an ongoing Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz over alleged drug use and sexual misconduct. Gaetz has criticized the investigation as “frivolous.”

But Florida Patriots PAC stopped spending in the race three weeks ago, a sign that Gaetz is in an advantageous position. 

Gaetz is the final member of the GOP cohort that voted to remove McCarthy as speaker to face a primary this year. While most members of that group who ran for re-election have won renomination, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, of Virginia, lost a close primary this summer. 

Unlike Good, Gaetz has a crucial endorsement in his race: former President Donald Trump. Gaetz has touted Trump’s support on the airwaves, with one TV ad featuring audio of Trump saying Gaetz is “a very good person and he’s a very capable man. You ever watch this guy on television? Like a machine. He’s great. He loves Florida and he loves the country.”

McCarthy has acknowledged that Gaetz could be tough to beat in his conservative 1st District this year. But he suggested to reporters at last month’s Republican National Convention that he may also be trying to damage Gaetz’s standing ahead of a potential statewide bid in 2026.

“I don’t think he’ll ever be able to run for governor like he wants to,” McCarthy said, according to The Independent. 

Trump, who cast his Florida primary ballot last week, has backed every other member of the state’s GOP delegation up for re-election, including Sen. Rick Scott. That race will be set Tuesday, with Scott expected to face former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who’s leading in the polls in the Democratic primary. 

Trump’s endorsement is also on the line in the primary in Florida’s 8th District to replace retiring GOP Rep. Bill Posey. The former president has backed former state Sen. Mike Haridopolos, who has been the top GOP fundraiser in the race and who has gotten a boost on the airwaves from two aligned outside groups. 

Florida’s primaries will also officially set the matchups in four competitive House races, with GOP Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Maria Elvira Salazar and Democratic Reps. Darren Soto and Jared Moskowitz defending their seats in November.

But the most expensive primary in the state, at least when it comes to ad spending, is a state Senate contest that has drawn more than $10 million on the airwaves.

Trump is involved here, too, endorsing former St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar. But he is running against some heavy hitters in the GOP primary. State Rep. Tom Leek, the former head of the Appropriations Committee, is backed by a slew of major Republicans in the state, like Scott, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez. And Gerry James is backed by former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and other conservative groups.

Alaska opportunity

Tuesday’s primaries will also tee up the general election contest in Alaska’s at-large congressional district. Rep. Mary Peltola is a top GOP target as one of five Democrats representing a district Trump carried in 2020. Trump won Alaska by 10 points four years ago. 

In Alaska, the top four vote-getters in the primary, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the November election, which is then decided by ranked-choice voting. That dynamic helped Peltola win a special election in 2022 and a full term that November. 

The top two GOP candidates in the race are Nick Begich, who comes from a well-known political family in the state, and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom. Trump and other GOP leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have endorsed Dahlstrom. 

Begich is back for another run after losing in 2022, and he has support from the political arm of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus. 

While Begich has pledged to drop out if he finishes behind Dahlstrom in the primary, Dahlstrom has not committed to doing the same.

Meanwhile, in Wyoming, Sen. John Barrasso and Rep. Harriet Hageman aren’t facing serious primary threats in the heavily conservative state.

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The event, at 9 p.m. Eastern in Philadelphia, will offer Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June. In rapid fashion, President Joe Biden bowed out of the race after his disastrous performance, Trump survived an assassination attempt and bothsides chose their running mates.

Harris is intent on demonstrating that she can press the Democratic case against Trump better than Biden did. Trump, in turn, is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters skeptical he should return to the White House.

Trump, 78, has struggled to adapt to Harris, 59, who is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. The Republican former president has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes, frustrating allies who want Trump to focus instead on policy differences with Harris.

The vice president, for her part, will try to claim a share of credit for the Biden administration’s accomplishments while also addressing its low moments and explaining her shifts away from more liberal positions she took in the past.

The debate will subject Harris, who has sat for only a single formal interview in the past six weeks, to a rare moment of sustained questioning.

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“If she performs great, it’s going to be a nice surprise for the Democrats and they’ll rejoice,” said Ari Fleischer, a Republican communications strategist and former press secretary to President George W. Bush. “If she flops, like Joe Biden did, it could break this race wide open. So there’s more riding on it.”

Tim Hogan, who led Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s debate preparations in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, said Harris, a former California attorney general, would bring a “prosecutor’s instincts to the debate stage.”

“That is a very strong quality in that setting: having someone who knows how to land a punch and how to translate it,” Hogan said.

The first early ballots of the presidential race will go out just hours after the debate, hosted by ABC News. Absentee ballots are set to be sent out beginning Wednesday in Alabama.

Trump plans to hit Harris as too liberal

Trump and his campaign have spotlighted far-left positions she took during her failed 2020 presidential bid. He’s been assisted in his informal debate prep sessions by Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who tore into Harris during their primary debates.

Harris has sought to defend her shifts away from liberal causes to more moderate stances on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun buyback programs — and even backing away from her position that plastic straws should be banned — as pragmatism, insisting that her “values remain the same.” Her campaign on Monday published a page on its website listing her positions on key issues.

The former president has argued a Harris presidency is a threat to the safety of the country, highlighting that Biden tapped her to address the influx of migrants as the Republican once again makes dark warnings about immigration and those in the country illegally central to his campaign. He has sought to portray a Harris presidency as the continuation of Biden’s still-unpopular administration, particularly his economic record, as voters still feel the bite of inflation even as it has cooled in recent months.

Trump’s team insist his tone won’t be any different facing a female opponent.

“President Trump is going to be himself,” senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters during a phone call Monday.

Gabbard, who was also on the call, added that Trump “respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way than he would speak to a man.”

His advisers suggest Harris has a tendency to express herself in a “word salad” of meaningless phrases, prompting Trump to say last week that his debate strategy was to “let her talk.”

The former president frequently plows into rambling remarks that detour from his policy points. He regularly makes false claims about the last election, attacks a lengthy list of enemies and opponents working against him, offers praise for foreign strongmen and comments about race, like his false claim in July that Harris recently “happened to turn Black.”

Harris wants to argue Trump is unstable and unfit

The vice president, who has been the Biden administration’s most outspoken supporter of abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, is expected to focus on calling out Trump’s inconsistencies around women’s reproductive care, including his announcement that he will vote to protect Florida’s six-week abortion ban in a statewide referendum this fall.

Harris was also set to try to portray herself as a steadier hand to lead the nation and safeguard its alliances, as war rages in Ukraine more than two years after Russia’s invasion and Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza drags on with no end in sight.

She is likely to warn that Trump presents a threat to democracy, from his attempts in 2020 to overturn his loss in the presidential election, spurring his angry supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, through comments he made as recently as last weekend. Trump on social media issued yet another message of retribution, threatening that if he wins he will jail “those involved in unscrupulous behavior,” including lawyers, political operatives, donors, voters and election officials.

Harris has spent the better part of the last five days ensconced in debate preparations in Pennsylvania, where she participated in hours-long mock sessions with a Trump stand-in. Ahead of the debate, she told radio host Rickey Smiley that she was workshopping how to respond if Trump lies.

“There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go,” she said.

___

AP Polling Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington and Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Las Vegas, Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Josh Boak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

The images Trump shared had originally been posted on X by highly followed pro-Trump accounts. One of those accounts also posted multiple guides to using generative AI tools on its Substack blog. In a reply on X, the same account acknowledged that the images Trump reposted from them were AI-generated. 

The new images are part of a social media campaign that some pro-Trump accounts spearheaded over the weekend trying to suggest that more and more fans of Swift, who endorsed Biden and harshly criticized Trump in 2020, are turning to support Trump. In reality, there is little evidence this is the case for a notable number of Swift’s fans, who are called “Swifties.”

“There is no Swifties For Trump movement — but there should be,” wrote one of the accounts that Trump reposted on Truth Social in a caption on the AI-generated images.

Other pro-Trump accounts have also shared AI-generated images that falsely depict Democrat-leaning voter blocs, like Black voters, supporting Trump. 

Two of the images Trump shared on Sunday were of real people and featured a Liberty University college student who had a political communications internship this summer, according to her LinkedIn account. Her “Swifties for Trump” social media content flew under the radar with fewer than 1,000 views until large pro-Trump accounts, and then Trump himself, shared it. 

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The same pro-Trump accounts have also reshared TikToks from women who say they are Swift fans and are voting for Trump, in an effort to promote the idea that Swifties are mobilizing en masse to support Trump. But these videos received far fewer views on TikTok than they did when Trump and his highly followed supporters reshared them.

Representatives for Trump’s campaign and Swift didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Swift has yet to endorse any candidate in 2024, but some of her fans have mobilized to support Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. Shortly after President Joe Biden announced he was not running for re-election in July, a group called “Swifties for Kamala” launched on social media. It has more than 61,000 followers on X and is not affiliated with the singer or Harris.

“We do not represent every Swiftie, but I think there is a reason we don’t need AI to show our support for Kamala,” the organization’s co-founder, Irene Kim, told NBC News in a statement. 

AI-generated images and videos of Swift have repeatedly gone viral this year, from sexually suggestive ones that broke X’s platform guidelines to other ones that falsely identified Swift as a Trump supporter. 

Throughout his presidential term and his campaigns, Trump has repeatedly shared inflammatory memes created by his  online supporters. Up until 2021 he shared them on Twitter, but after he was banned from the platform that year, he has shared them on his own Twitter copycat platform, Truth Social. Trump has since returned to posting on X, with an uptick starting Aug. 12, the day he was interviewed by Elon Musk on the platform. Over the weekend, Trump posted a fake image of Harris standing in front of a communist symbol on both X and Truth Social. 

It’s not yet clear if the Sunday post or the images violate certain laws around publicity, likeness and AI. In March, Swift’s home state of Tennessee passed updated legislation to protect the unauthorized use of someone’s likeness with AI. While the account that acknowledged the photos were AI-generated labeled them as satire, the account that first published the “Uncle Sam” poster using Swift’s likeness did not. 

David Greene, the civil liberties director and senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told NBC News that this situation, which is not exclusive to AI-generated content,  could overlap with publicity laws that protect people from unauthorized commercial use of their likenesses.

“This is probably a stronger case than many others because false endorsement is at the heart of those claims, though we typically see that in terms of product endorsements,” Greene wrote in an email. “This was just good old low-tech lying.”

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The idea of offering universal free school meals could become a policy issue in the U.S. presidential race, experts say — especially given Vice President Kamala Harris’ choice of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on the Democratic ticket.

The federal government offered K-12 students free school meals — regardless of household income — for two years during the Covid-19 pandemic.

That policy has since ended. However, eight states have passed laws to continue offering free meals.

Among them is Minnesota. Walz, a former teacher, signed a bill in 2023 to provide breakfast and lunch to the state’s public school students at no charge, regardless of household income.

“Should Harris and Walz win the election, his role as vice president and his potential influence on universal school meals could be profound,” wrote Alexina Cather, policy director at Wellness in the Schools, an advocacy group for public school nutrition.

Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, unveiled some details about her economic policy platform Friday.

School meals weren’t among them. But children and food feature in a few proposals: one to restore and enhance the value of a pandemic-era child tax credit, and another to enact the first-ever federal ban on “corporate price-gouging” on food and groceries.

A spokesperson for the Harris campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The federal school lunch program has for decades provided meals for lower-income students. But universal free lunch advocates say it’s essential that free meals be provided for all students.

It helps school districts by reducing administrative burdens and, for students, eliminates “the stigma and shame tied to free and reduced-price meals, creating a level playing field for every child in the cafeteria,” said Alexis Bylander, interim director of child nutrition programs and policy at the Food Research & Action Center, or FRAC.

How the federal school lunch program works

The typical student pays $1.75 or $1.80 for a full-price breakfast at a school cafeteria, varying by grade level, according to the School Nutrition Association. Lunch typically costs $2.83 to $3.05, according to the group. Its data reflects the median price. Prices may be higher or lower based on school district.

The federal government currently subsidizes meal cost for certain students — based on criteria such as annual income — via initiatives such as the National School Lunch Program.

Under the NSLP, students in families with income at or below 130% of the federal poverty line qualify for a free meal.

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A family of three would need to make less than about $34,000 a year to qualify for free meals, according to Bylander.

Those at 130% to 185% of the poverty line are eligible for reduced-price meals. Such students don’t pay more than 30 cents for breakfast or 40 cents for lunch.

On average, about 20 million students — roughly 71% — ate free or reduced price lunches in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Former President Donald Trump signed legislation in March 2020 that allowed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to issue nationwide waivers that effectively made meals free for all kids in participating school districts.

That expansion was in place for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years.

The “vast majority” — about 90% — of U.S. school districts participated, according to the USDA. Schools were allowed to serve meals or deliver them even if they were closed during the pandemic.

Congress didn’t extend the policy for the 2022-23 school year.

Since then, eight states — California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Vermont — have passed laws to create universal free school meal programs, according to the Hunter College New York City Food Policy Center.

All those states are headed by Democrats, with the exception of Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, who is a Republican.

Many other states are “currently planning, drafting, discussing, or negotiating” such legislation for the “near future,” the Food Policy Center added.

“This isn’t a new idea, but it really picked up speed during the pandemic,” FRAC’s Bylander said. “I think there’s a lot of momentum around this issue.”

Some groups oppose universal free school meals

The policy of offering universal free school meals doesn’t seem to have buy-in across conservative circles.

For example, the blueprint for Project 2025 — a collection of policy plans developed by right-leaning groups and spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation — would “reject efforts” around universal free school meals, according to its text.

Democrats have pointed to Project 2025 as an example of what a second Trump term could look like.

The former president made statements distancing himself from the policy blueprint. But several people who formerly worked for Trump were involved in creating the playbook, and a recently resurfaced video from April 2022 shows Trump speaking at a Heritage Foundation gala about the group’s plans.

While in office, the Trump administration had extended the USDA waivers to offer universal free school meals.

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Project 2025 would also “restore” the National School Lunch Program to its “original goal” of providing food to K-12 students of low-income families who would otherwise forgo a meal, and not include middle and higher earners.

“Federal school meals increasingly resemble entitlement programs that have strayed far from their original objective and represent an example of the ever-expanding federal footprint in local school operations,” according to the text.

But the party platform was written and voted on by the Democratic National Convention’s Platform Committee before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, and the document repeatedly highlights the president’s achievements and positions — even when they differ slightly from Vice President Kamala Harris‘ comments.

The platform refers to Biden’s “second term” more than a dozen times, underscoring the unprecedented timing of the top of the ticket shake-up.

The document was approved by the Platform Committee on July 16, just days before Biden bowed out of the race on July 21. Convention delegates will vote on the platform Monday night, a largely ceremonial procedure. 

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“This election is a choice between two very different economic visions for America: Donald Trump, who sees the world from his country club at Mar-a-Lago; and Joe Biden, who sees it from kitchen tables in Scranton like the one he grew up around,” the document says in the economy chapter.

The economy chapter emphasizes many Democratic priorities that Biden and Harris have touted, including improving infrastructure, supporting unions and pushing for a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour. The document also highlights Biden’s proposal for a $10,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers, though the 2020 platform pushed for a $15,000 credit.

Harris, however, said last week that she would provide a $25,000 subsidy for first-time homebuyers, a more than twofold increase from the party platform document.

The platform also touted Democrats expanding the child tax credit to $3,600 for “nearly 40 million families.” Harris said last week that she would go further, touting a plan to offer “$6,000 in tax relief to families during the first year of a child’s life.” 

The policy platform is divided into nine chapters, emphasizing the party’s top issues, including lowering costs, fighting climate change and gun violence, and strengthening democracy.

“It makes a strong statement about the historic work that President Biden and Vice President Harris have accomplished hand-in-hand, and offers a vision for a progressive agenda that we can build on as a nation and as a Party as we head into the next four years,” the DNC said in a press release.

The policy document also discusses the party’s position on Israel amid a party divide over the White House’s response to the war in Gaza.

The document says Biden supports “a negotiated two-state solution that ensures Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state with recognized borders and upholds the right of Palestinians to live in freedom and security in a viable state of their own.”

“The United States strongly supports Israel in the fight against Hamas,” the document said.

The party platform also reiterates support for a “lasting ceasefire deal” that includes the release of hostages and addresses “the displacement and death of so many innocent people in Gaza.”

The document dedicates a section to securing the southern border as well, an issue that Republicans repeatedly use as fodder for attacks on Democrats’ records.

“In President Biden’s second term, he will push Congress to provide the resources and authorities that we need to secure the border,” the document said. “This includes additional border patrol agents, immigration judges, asylum officers, cutting-edge inspection machines to help detect and stop the flow of fentanyl, and funding for cities and states that are sheltering migrants.”

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The event, at 9 p.m. Eastern in Philadelphia, will offer Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June. In rapid fashion, President Joe Biden bowed out of the race after his disastrous performance, Trump survived an assassination attempt and bothsides chose their running mates.

Harris is intent on demonstrating that she can press the Democratic case against Trump better than Biden did. Trump, in turn, is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters skeptical he should return to the White House.

Trump, 78, has struggled to adapt to Harris, 59, who is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. The Republican former president has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes, frustrating allies who want Trump to focus instead on policy differences with Harris.

The vice president, for her part, will try to claim a share of credit for the Biden administration’s accomplishments while also addressing its low moments and explaining her shifts away from more liberal positions she took in the past.

The debate will subject Harris, who has sat for only a single formal interview in the past six weeks, to a rare moment of sustained questioning.

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“If she performs great, it’s going to be a nice surprise for the Democrats and they’ll rejoice,” said Ari Fleischer, a Republican communications strategist and former press secretary to President George W. Bush. “If she flops, like Joe Biden did, it could break this race wide open. So there’s more riding on it.”

Tim Hogan, who led Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s debate preparations in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, said Harris, a former California attorney general, would bring a “prosecutor’s instincts to the debate stage.”

“That is a very strong quality in that setting: having someone who knows how to land a punch and how to translate it,” Hogan said.

The first early ballots of the presidential race will go out just hours after the debate, hosted by ABC News. Absentee ballots are set to be sent out beginning Wednesday in Alabama.

Trump plans to hit Harris as too liberal

Trump and his campaign have spotlighted far-left positions she took during her failed 2020 presidential bid. He’s been assisted in his informal debate prep sessions by Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who tore into Harris during their primary debates.

Harris has sought to defend her shifts away from liberal causes to more moderate stances on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun buyback programs — and even backing away from her position that plastic straws should be banned — as pragmatism, insisting that her “values remain the same.” Her campaign on Monday published a page on its website listing her positions on key issues.

The former president has argued a Harris presidency is a threat to the safety of the country, highlighting that Biden tapped her to address the influx of migrants as the Republican once again makes dark warnings about immigration and those in the country illegally central to his campaign. He has sought to portray a Harris presidency as the continuation of Biden’s still-unpopular administration, particularly his economic record, as voters still feel the bite of inflation even as it has cooled in recent months.

Trump’s team insist his tone won’t be any different facing a female opponent.

“President Trump is going to be himself,” senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters during a phone call Monday.

Gabbard, who was also on the call, added that Trump “respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way than he would speak to a man.”

His advisers suggest Harris has a tendency to express herself in a “word salad” of meaningless phrases, prompting Trump to say last week that his debate strategy was to “let her talk.”

The former president frequently plows into rambling remarks that detour from his policy points. He regularly makes false claims about the last election, attacks a lengthy list of enemies and opponents working against him, offers praise for foreign strongmen and comments about race, like his false claim in July that Harris recently “happened to turn Black.”

Harris wants to argue Trump is unstable and unfit

The vice president, who has been the Biden administration’s most outspoken supporter of abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, is expected to focus on calling out Trump’s inconsistencies around women’s reproductive care, including his announcement that he will vote to protect Florida’s six-week abortion ban in a statewide referendum this fall.

Harris was also set to try to portray herself as a steadier hand to lead the nation and safeguard its alliances, as war rages in Ukraine more than two years after Russia’s invasion and Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza drags on with no end in sight.

She is likely to warn that Trump presents a threat to democracy, from his attempts in 2020 to overturn his loss in the presidential election, spurring his angry supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, through comments he made as recently as last weekend. Trump on social media issued yet another message of retribution, threatening that if he wins he will jail “those involved in unscrupulous behavior,” including lawyers, political operatives, donors, voters and election officials.

Harris has spent the better part of the last five days ensconced in debate preparations in Pennsylvania, where she participated in hours-long mock sessions with a Trump stand-in. Ahead of the debate, she told radio host Rickey Smiley that she was workshopping how to respond if Trump lies.

“There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go,” she said.

___

AP Polling Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington and Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Las Vegas, Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Josh Boak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

The South Carolina Republican’s admission came after moderator Kristen Welker asked whether Trump should continue personally attacking his opponent Vice President Kamala Harris on the campaign trail.

“President Trump can win this election. His policies are good for America, and if you have a policy debate for president, he wins. Donald Trump the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election,” Graham told Welker.

“I’m looking for President Trump to show up in the last 80 days to define what he will do for our country, to fix broken borders, to lower inflation,” Graham added.

His advice for Trump came after Graham acknowledged that he and others ought to “get together and actually campaign for the guy, rather than just give advice.”

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He referred to fellow Republicans like former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

“Me and Nikki need to go to Georgia,” Graham said, adding: “We’re giving advice on TV to President Trump. He’s got a lot of critics. He’s got a lot of advisers, but to Nikki Haley and DeSantis and Youngkin and all these great people we have, let’s get together and actually campaign for the guy.”

Earlier this week, Haley blasted Trump’s personal attacks on Harris, telling Fox News, “The campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes. It’s not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is. … Look, this is a winnable election. But you need to focus.”

Still, on Thursday, Trump doubled down, telling reporters at a press conference, which was billed to focus on inflation and the economy, that “I think I’m entitled to personal attacks.”

“I don’t have a lot of respect for [Harris’] intelligence, and I think she’ll be a terrible president. And I think it’s very important that we win, and whether the personal attacks are good, bad, I mean, she certainly attacks me personally,” the former president added.

Graham on Sunday pointed out that he believes Harris’ policy positions are a liability for her and “a nightmare” for the vice president to defend.

“Every day we’re not talking about her policy choices as vice president and what she would do as president is a good day for her and a bad day for us,” he added.

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• Harris’ ancestral village in India cheers for ‘daughter of this land’

The event, at 9 p.m. Eastern in Philadelphia, will offer Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June. In rapid fashion, President Joe Biden bowed out of the race after his disastrous performance, Trump survived an assassination attempt and bothsides chose their running mates.

Harris is intent on demonstrating that she can press the Democratic case against Trump better than Biden did. Trump, in turn, is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters skeptical he should return to the White House.

Trump, 78, has struggled to adapt to Harris, 59, who is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. The Republican former president has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes, frustrating allies who want Trump to focus instead on policy differences with Harris.

The vice president, for her part, will try to claim a share of credit for the Biden administration’s accomplishments while also addressing its low moments and explaining her shifts away from more liberal positions she took in the past.

The debate will subject Harris, who has sat for only a single formal interview in the past six weeks, to a rare moment of sustained questioning.

Decision 2024 22 hours ago

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news 18 hours ago

Harris previews her Trump debate plan: ‘I think he's gonna lie'

“If she performs great, it’s going to be a nice surprise for the Democrats and they’ll rejoice,” said Ari Fleischer, a Republican communications strategist and former press secretary to President George W. Bush. “If she flops, like Joe Biden did, it could break this race wide open. So there’s more riding on it.”

Tim Hogan, who led Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s debate preparations in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, said Harris, a former California attorney general, would bring a “prosecutor’s instincts to the debate stage.”

“That is a very strong quality in that setting: having someone who knows how to land a punch and how to translate it,” Hogan said.

The first early ballots of the presidential race will go out just hours after the debate, hosted by ABC News. Absentee ballots are set to be sent out beginning Wednesday in Alabama.

Trump plans to hit Harris as too liberal

Trump and his campaign have spotlighted far-left positions she took during her failed 2020 presidential bid. He’s been assisted in his informal debate prep sessions by Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who tore into Harris during their primary debates.

Harris has sought to defend her shifts away from liberal causes to more moderate stances on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun buyback programs — and even backing away from her position that plastic straws should be banned — as pragmatism, insisting that her “values remain the same.” Her campaign on Monday published a page on its website listing her positions on key issues.

The former president has argued a Harris presidency is a threat to the safety of the country, highlighting that Biden tapped her to address the influx of migrants as the Republican once again makes dark warnings about immigration and those in the country illegally central to his campaign. He has sought to portray a Harris presidency as the continuation of Biden’s still-unpopular administration, particularly his economic record, as voters still feel the bite of inflation even as it has cooled in recent months.

Trump’s team insist his tone won’t be any different facing a female opponent.

“President Trump is going to be himself,” senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters during a phone call Monday.

Gabbard, who was also on the call, added that Trump “respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way than he would speak to a man.”

His advisers suggest Harris has a tendency to express herself in a “word salad” of meaningless phrases, prompting Trump to say last week that his debate strategy was to “let her talk.”

The former president frequently plows into rambling remarks that detour from his policy points. He regularly makes false claims about the last election, attacks a lengthy list of enemies and opponents working against him, offers praise for foreign strongmen and comments about race, like his false claim in July that Harris recently “happened to turn Black.”

Harris wants to argue Trump is unstable and unfit

The vice president, who has been the Biden administration’s most outspoken supporter of abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, is expected to focus on calling out Trump’s inconsistencies around women’s reproductive care, including his announcement that he will vote to protect Florida’s six-week abortion ban in a statewide referendum this fall.

Harris was also set to try to portray herself as a steadier hand to lead the nation and safeguard its alliances, as war rages in Ukraine more than two years after Russia’s invasion and Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza drags on with no end in sight.

She is likely to warn that Trump presents a threat to democracy, from his attempts in 2020 to overturn his loss in the presidential election, spurring his angry supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, through comments he made as recently as last weekend. Trump on social media issued yet another message of retribution, threatening that if he wins he will jail “those involved in unscrupulous behavior,” including lawyers, political operatives, donors, voters and election officials.

Harris has spent the better part of the last five days ensconced in debate preparations in Pennsylvania, where she participated in hours-long mock sessions with a Trump stand-in. Ahead of the debate, she told radio host Rickey Smiley that she was workshopping how to respond if Trump lies.

“There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go,” she said.

___

AP Polling Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington and Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Las Vegas, Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Josh Boak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

The event, at 9 p.m. Eastern in Philadelphia, will offer Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June. In rapid fashion, President Joe Biden bowed out of the race after his disastrous performance, Trump survived an assassination attempt and bothsides chose their running mates.

Harris is intent on demonstrating that she can press the Democratic case against Trump better than Biden did. Trump, in turn, is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters skeptical he should return to the White House.

Trump, 78, has struggled to adapt to Harris, 59, who is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. The Republican former president has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes, frustrating allies who want Trump to focus instead on policy differences with Harris.

The vice president, for her part, will try to claim a share of credit for the Biden administration’s accomplishments while also addressing its low moments and explaining her shifts away from more liberal positions she took in the past.

The debate will subject Harris, who has sat for only a single formal interview in the past six weeks, to a rare moment of sustained questioning.

Decision 2024 22 hours ago

When is the 2024 presidential debate? How to watch the Trump, Harris debate

news 18 hours ago

Harris previews her Trump debate plan: ‘I think he's gonna lie'

“If she performs great, it’s going to be a nice surprise for the Democrats and they’ll rejoice,” said Ari Fleischer, a Republican communications strategist and former press secretary to President George W. Bush. “If she flops, like Joe Biden did, it could break this race wide open. So there’s more riding on it.”

Tim Hogan, who led Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s debate preparations in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, said Harris, a former California attorney general, would bring a “prosecutor’s instincts to the debate stage.”

“That is a very strong quality in that setting: having someone who knows how to land a punch and how to translate it,” Hogan said.

The first early ballots of the presidential race will go out just hours after the debate, hosted by ABC News. Absentee ballots are set to be sent out beginning Wednesday in Alabama.

Trump plans to hit Harris as too liberal

Trump and his campaign have spotlighted far-left positions she took during her failed 2020 presidential bid. He’s been assisted in his informal debate prep sessions by Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who tore into Harris during their primary debates.

Harris has sought to defend her shifts away from liberal causes to more moderate stances on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun buyback programs — and even backing away from her position that plastic straws should be banned — as pragmatism, insisting that her “values remain the same.” Her campaign on Monday published a page on its website listing her positions on key issues.

The former president has argued a Harris presidency is a threat to the safety of the country, highlighting that Biden tapped her to address the influx of migrants as the Republican once again makes dark warnings about immigration and those in the country illegally central to his campaign. He has sought to portray a Harris presidency as the continuation of Biden’s still-unpopular administration, particularly his economic record, as voters still feel the bite of inflation even as it has cooled in recent months.

Trump’s team insist his tone won’t be any different facing a female opponent.

“President Trump is going to be himself,” senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters during a phone call Monday.

Gabbard, who was also on the call, added that Trump “respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way than he would speak to a man.”

His advisers suggest Harris has a tendency to express herself in a “word salad” of meaningless phrases, prompting Trump to say last week that his debate strategy was to “let her talk.”

The former president frequently plows into rambling remarks that detour from his policy points. He regularly makes false claims about the last election, attacks a lengthy list of enemies and opponents working against him, offers praise for foreign strongmen and comments about race, like his false claim in July that Harris recently “happened to turn Black.”

Harris wants to argue Trump is unstable and unfit

The vice president, who has been the Biden administration’s most outspoken supporter of abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, is expected to focus on calling out Trump’s inconsistencies around women’s reproductive care, including his announcement that he will vote to protect Florida’s six-week abortion ban in a statewide referendum this fall.

Harris was also set to try to portray herself as a steadier hand to lead the nation and safeguard its alliances, as war rages in Ukraine more than two years after Russia’s invasion and Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza drags on with no end in sight.

She is likely to warn that Trump presents a threat to democracy, from his attempts in 2020 to overturn his loss in the presidential election, spurring his angry supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, through comments he made as recently as last weekend. Trump on social media issued yet another message of retribution, threatening that if he wins he will jail “those involved in unscrupulous behavior,” including lawyers, political operatives, donors, voters and election officials.

Harris has spent the better part of the last five days ensconced in debate preparations in Pennsylvania, where she participated in hours-long mock sessions with a Trump stand-in. Ahead of the debate, she told radio host Rickey Smiley that she was workshopping how to respond if Trump lies.

“There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go,” she said.

___

AP Polling Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington and Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Las Vegas, Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Josh Boak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

To combat misinformation about ballot security and election integrity, the office staff decided to let the public see what they do and judge for themselves.

The open house was so popular that 300 county residents quickly signed up, and there was a waitlist.

Office staff led two days of tours detailing the nitty gritty of the election process.

Visitors learned how voting machines are tested before election day, how voter rolls are maintained and how absentee ballots are handled.

“We only send ballot to voters who request them,” one elections official said.

Visitors learned about the many layers of verification of election night results.

“The state system we’re using also has validation,” Elections Director Eric Olsen said.

They also heard about the challenge of staffing polling places, to make sure both major parties get represented equally.

The main takeaway of tour participants who News4 spoke with was renewed confidence in the election system.

“With this tour I’m very confident the elections are very secured,” participant Nira Sheppard said.

That confidence comes as former President Donald Trump and other political leaders continue to cast doubt on 2020 election results, with the Trump team working to assemble more than 100,000 volunteer poll watchers and attorneys to monitor the 2024 vote.

Olsen said he came up with the open house plan with the hope of giving the public a chance to see for themselves what happens.

“Bringing people into our process and showing them how it works, and then also all the steps we do to make sure our elections are fair and accurate and done really well,” he said. “We want to make sure we demonstrate that for the public.”

Some on the tour said the media spotlight on the 2020 results has raised questions in their mind — questions put to rest Friday.

“I think if you listen to some the media stuff, I think, yes, you do have doubts, but after seeing this process and the time and care that’s put into this and the effort that’s put into this, it’s really calmed some of those doubts down,” participant Doug Radoye said.

Others saw the tour as part of their civic duty. They leave armed with accurate information they can share in the community.

“They have a lot of safeguards,” participant Michelle Oha. “They have a lot of double checks, triple checks.”

“You have to know how it’s done, and a lot of the things that you hear are just not accurate,” participant Dennis Baugh said. “So, the only way you can counteract that is to have good information.”

The event, at 9 p.m. Eastern in Philadelphia, will offer Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June. In rapid fashion, President Joe Biden bowed out of the race after his disastrous performance, Trump survived an assassination attempt and bothsides chose their running mates.

Harris is intent on demonstrating that she can press the Democratic case against Trump better than Biden did. Trump, in turn, is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters skeptical he should return to the White House.

Trump, 78, has struggled to adapt to Harris, 59, who is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. The Republican former president has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes, frustrating allies who want Trump to focus instead on policy differences with Harris.

The vice president, for her part, will try to claim a share of credit for the Biden administration’s accomplishments while also addressing its low moments and explaining her shifts away from more liberal positions she took in the past.

The debate will subject Harris, who has sat for only a single formal interview in the past six weeks, to a rare moment of sustained questioning.

Decision 2024 22 hours ago

When is the 2024 presidential debate? How to watch the Trump, Harris debate

news 18 hours ago

Harris previews her Trump debate plan: ‘I think he's gonna lie'

“If she performs great, it’s going to be a nice surprise for the Democrats and they’ll rejoice,” said Ari Fleischer, a Republican communications strategist and former press secretary to President George W. Bush. “If she flops, like Joe Biden did, it could break this race wide open. So there’s more riding on it.”

Tim Hogan, who led Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s debate preparations in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, said Harris, a former California attorney general, would bring a “prosecutor’s instincts to the debate stage.”

“That is a very strong quality in that setting: having someone who knows how to land a punch and how to translate it,” Hogan said.

The first early ballots of the presidential race will go out just hours after the debate, hosted by ABC News. Absentee ballots are set to be sent out beginning Wednesday in Alabama.

Trump plans to hit Harris as too liberal

Trump and his campaign have spotlighted far-left positions she took during her failed 2020 presidential bid. He’s been assisted in his informal debate prep sessions by Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who tore into Harris during their primary debates.

Harris has sought to defend her shifts away from liberal causes to more moderate stances on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun buyback programs — and even backing away from her position that plastic straws should be banned — as pragmatism, insisting that her “values remain the same.” Her campaign on Monday published a page on its website listing her positions on key issues.

The former president has argued a Harris presidency is a threat to the safety of the country, highlighting that Biden tapped her to address the influx of migrants as the Republican once again makes dark warnings about immigration and those in the country illegally central to his campaign. He has sought to portray a Harris presidency as the continuation of Biden’s still-unpopular administration, particularly his economic record, as voters still feel the bite of inflation even as it has cooled in recent months.

Trump’s team insist his tone won’t be any different facing a female opponent.

“President Trump is going to be himself,” senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters during a phone call Monday.

Gabbard, who was also on the call, added that Trump “respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way than he would speak to a man.”

His advisers suggest Harris has a tendency to express herself in a “word salad” of meaningless phrases, prompting Trump to say last week that his debate strategy was to “let her talk.”

The former president frequently plows into rambling remarks that detour from his policy points. He regularly makes false claims about the last election, attacks a lengthy list of enemies and opponents working against him, offers praise for foreign strongmen and comments about race, like his false claim in July that Harris recently “happened to turn Black.”

Harris wants to argue Trump is unstable and unfit

The vice president, who has been the Biden administration’s most outspoken supporter of abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, is expected to focus on calling out Trump’s inconsistencies around women’s reproductive care, including his announcement that he will vote to protect Florida’s six-week abortion ban in a statewide referendum this fall.

Harris was also set to try to portray herself as a steadier hand to lead the nation and safeguard its alliances, as war rages in Ukraine more than two years after Russia’s invasion and Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza drags on with no end in sight.

She is likely to warn that Trump presents a threat to democracy, from his attempts in 2020 to overturn his loss in the presidential election, spurring his angry supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, through comments he made as recently as last weekend. Trump on social media issued yet another message of retribution, threatening that if he wins he will jail “those involved in unscrupulous behavior,” including lawyers, political operatives, donors, voters and election officials.

Harris has spent the better part of the last five days ensconced in debate preparations in Pennsylvania, where she participated in hours-long mock sessions with a Trump stand-in. Ahead of the debate, she told radio host Rickey Smiley that she was workshopping how to respond if Trump lies.

“There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go,” she said.

___

AP Polling Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington and Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Las Vegas, Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Josh Boak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

The event, at 9 p.m. Eastern in Philadelphia, will offer Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June. In rapid fashion, President Joe Biden bowed out of the race after his disastrous performance, Trump survived an assassination attempt and bothsides chose their running mates.

Harris is intent on demonstrating that she can press the Democratic case against Trump better than Biden did. Trump, in turn, is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters skeptical he should return to the White House.

Trump, 78, has struggled to adapt to Harris, 59, who is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. The Republican former president has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes, frustrating allies who want Trump to focus instead on policy differences with Harris.

The vice president, for her part, will try to claim a share of credit for the Biden administration’s accomplishments while also addressing its low moments and explaining her shifts away from more liberal positions she took in the past.

The debate will subject Harris, who has sat for only a single formal interview in the past six weeks, to a rare moment of sustained questioning.

Decision 2024 22 hours ago

When is the 2024 presidential debate? How to watch the Trump, Harris debate

news 18 hours ago

Harris previews her Trump debate plan: ‘I think he's gonna lie'

“If she performs great, it’s going to be a nice surprise for the Democrats and they’ll rejoice,” said Ari Fleischer, a Republican communications strategist and former press secretary to President George W. Bush. “If she flops, like Joe Biden did, it could break this race wide open. So there’s more riding on it.”

Tim Hogan, who led Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s debate preparations in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, said Harris, a former California attorney general, would bring a “prosecutor’s instincts to the debate stage.”

“That is a very strong quality in that setting: having someone who knows how to land a punch and how to translate it,” Hogan said.

The first early ballots of the presidential race will go out just hours after the debate, hosted by ABC News. Absentee ballots are set to be sent out beginning Wednesday in Alabama.

Trump plans to hit Harris as too liberal

Trump and his campaign have spotlighted far-left positions she took during her failed 2020 presidential bid. He’s been assisted in his informal debate prep sessions by Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who tore into Harris during their primary debates.

Harris has sought to defend her shifts away from liberal causes to more moderate stances on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun buyback programs — and even backing away from her position that plastic straws should be banned — as pragmatism, insisting that her “values remain the same.” Her campaign on Monday published a page on its website listing her positions on key issues.

The former president has argued a Harris presidency is a threat to the safety of the country, highlighting that Biden tapped her to address the influx of migrants as the Republican once again makes dark warnings about immigration and those in the country illegally central to his campaign. He has sought to portray a Harris presidency as the continuation of Biden’s still-unpopular administration, particularly his economic record, as voters still feel the bite of inflation even as it has cooled in recent months.

Trump’s team insist his tone won’t be any different facing a female opponent.

“President Trump is going to be himself,” senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters during a phone call Monday.

Gabbard, who was also on the call, added that Trump “respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way than he would speak to a man.”

His advisers suggest Harris has a tendency to express herself in a “word salad” of meaningless phrases, prompting Trump to say last week that his debate strategy was to “let her talk.”

The former president frequently plows into rambling remarks that detour from his policy points. He regularly makes false claims about the last election, attacks a lengthy list of enemies and opponents working against him, offers praise for foreign strongmen and comments about race, like his false claim in July that Harris recently “happened to turn Black.”

Harris wants to argue Trump is unstable and unfit

The vice president, who has been the Biden administration’s most outspoken supporter of abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, is expected to focus on calling out Trump’s inconsistencies around women’s reproductive care, including his announcement that he will vote to protect Florida’s six-week abortion ban in a statewide referendum this fall.

Harris was also set to try to portray herself as a steadier hand to lead the nation and safeguard its alliances, as war rages in Ukraine more than two years after Russia’s invasion and Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza drags on with no end in sight.

She is likely to warn that Trump presents a threat to democracy, from his attempts in 2020 to overturn his loss in the presidential election, spurring his angry supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, through comments he made as recently as last weekend. Trump on social media issued yet another message of retribution, threatening that if he wins he will jail “those involved in unscrupulous behavior,” including lawyers, political operatives, donors, voters and election officials.

Harris has spent the better part of the last five days ensconced in debate preparations in Pennsylvania, where she participated in hours-long mock sessions with a Trump stand-in. Ahead of the debate, she told radio host Rickey Smiley that she was workshopping how to respond if Trump lies.

“There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go,” she said.

___

AP Polling Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington and Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Las Vegas, Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Josh Boak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

CBS News on Wednesday posted on its X feed that the network had invited both Vance and Walz to debate in New York City, presenting four possible dates — Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1 and Oct. 8 — as options.

Walz reposted that message from his own campaign account, “See you on October 1, JD.”

The Harris-Walz campaign followed up with a message of its own, saying Walz, “looks forward to debating JD Vance — if he shows up.”

Vance posted on X that he would accept the Oct. 1 invitation. He also challenged Walz to meet on Sept. 18.

Officials with the Harris-Walz campaign did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Vance’s acceptance of the earlier debate that he said would be on CNN or whether Walz would participate in that one as well.

Representatives for CNN did not immediately return messages seeking comment as to whether Walz had accepted the Sept. 18 invitation, when it was extended, or whether other dates had been proposed for a debate on the cable network.

Whether or not Walz and Vance would debate before the Nov. 5 general election had been in question. In just the past several weeks, President Joe Biden left the campaign, Democrats selected Harris to lead their ticket.

Decision 2024 Aug 15

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Vance has largely kept his focus trained on Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he would have been set to debate before Biden’s departure from the race. Vance has lobbed critiques against Walz, including questioning the retired Army National Guardsman’s service record.

Former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, has said he wanted Vance to debate Walz on CBS, which had been discussing potential dates for that meeting.

The debate is expected weeks after the Sept. 10 top-of-the-ticket debate recently solidified between Trump and Harris on ABC News.

Trump has said he negotiated several other debate dates, on three different networks. Fox News has also proposed a debate between Harris and Trump to take place on Sept. 4, and NBC News is angling to air one on Sept. 25.

During an appearance in Michigan, Harris said she was “happy to have that conversation” about an additional debate.

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said it has issued an arrest warrant for Toby Shane Kessler, 39, of no fixed address, on a burglary charge in connection with the break-in.

The sheriff’s office says Kessler was captured on surveillance video Sunday night forcing his way through a back door into the office building in Ashburn. The office is being leased by the Trump campaign and serves as headquarters for the Virginia 10th District Republican Committee. The suspect’s face was captured clearly on the surveillance video.

According to the sheriff’s office, Kessler spent a brief time in the office and it’s unclear whether he took anything. They do not believe he left anything behind.

Thomas Julia, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said Wednesday that it’s too early to say whether there was any political motivation to the break-in and that authorities will know more once Kessler is arrested.

The sheriff’s office said Kessler has a history of criminal behavior and appears to have been in the Washington metropolitan area since at least 2018. He has a California driver’s license.

Last month, Kessler was charged in neighboring Fairfax County with entering property with intent to damage, a misdemeanor, according to online court records. The attorney representing him in the Fairfax case did not immediately return a call Wednesday evening seeking comment.

Kessler’s name does not appear as a defendant in Loudoun County court records.

Democrats need to flip just four seats to take back control of the House, while Republicans hope to expand their majority and make it easier to get priorities over the finish line, something they have struggled to do in a divided government.

While the most hotly contested House races tend to involve newer incumbents still building their name recognition, a few long-time veterans of Congress are facing competitive contests as well due to demographic shifts in their districts.

Overall, House control is likely to come down to the 16 Republican-controlled districts that Democratic President Joe Biden carried in 2020 and the five Democratic-controlled districts that Republican Donald Trump won. Such districts are rich targets for both parties.

Here’s a look at six of these toss-up races to watch this fall.

Maine’s 2nd Congressional District

National Republicans have tried before to unseat three-term Democratic incumbent Jared Golden. This time, they believe they’ve found the right candidate in Republican Austin Theriault, a state lawmaker and former NASCAR driver.

Nearly $16 million in political ads have been reserved for the district, which Trump won twice. That’s a lot of ad buys in a relatively inexpensive market. The planned spending is about evenly divided between Republican and Democratic groups, according to AdImpact, which tracks media buys. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., visited the district this month, highlighting the race’s importance.

Golden, a Marine Corps veteran, has bucked Biden’s administration on some votes. Most notably, he was the only Democrat to vote against Biden’s COVID-relief bill in March 2021.

Golden subsequently voted for major bills to increase infrastructure spending and expand benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxic environments, and he voted for Biden’s centerpiece health and climate bill, referred to as the Inflation Reduction Act.

New York’s 4th Congressional District

Democrats see Long Island as a prime opportunity to recapture congressional seats and reclaim a House majority, starting with a race featuring a rematch of two years ago, freshman Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito versus Democratic challenger Laura Gillen.

Groups plan to spend nearly $11 million on advertising in this race with Democratic-aligned groups reserving nearly $7 million in ads and Republicans reserving nearly $4 million, according to AdImpact.

Gillen also had an advantage in cash on hand as of June 30, according to the Federal Election Commission, with $2.5 million versus nearly $2.2 million for D’Esposito. It’s unusual for the challenger to have more cash on hand than the incumbent.

D’Esposito is a former New York City Police detective who won in 2022 even though Biden carried his district by about 15 percentage points in 2020. D’Esposito has made public safety a priority of his campaigns and boasts of delivering millions of federal dollars to help local law enforcement.

Gillen is a former supervisor of the town of Hempstead, the largest town in Nassau County, and has emphasized support for a woman’s right to choose an abortion.

Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District

Matt Cartwright is used to competing in close races — and winning. The Democrat began his career in Congress in 2013. Judging by the resources pouring into this race, he’s in another dogfight. Democratic groups plan to spend about $13 million on ads and Republicans plan to spend more than $10 million, according to AdImpact.

His opponent is Republican Rob Bresnahan, who is emphasizing his experience as the CEO of an electrical contracting company and reinvesting in local communities.

Cartwright represents a northeast Pennsylvania district that sided with Trump in 2020 even though Biden is a Scranton native.

Cartwright voted against a sweeping House GOP bill to build more border wall and impose new restrictions on asylum seekers, but he is emphasizing in ads a vote to deport immigrants who commit crimes as he tries to blunt Republican criticism on border issues.

Arizona’s 1st Congressional District

Republican Rep. David Schweikert is used to winning election to Congress comfortably. Not anymore. Schweikert won his suburban Phoenix district by just 3,200 votes in 2022 against a relatively unknown rival who got minimal support from national Democrats.

This time, the House Majority PAC, which focuses on electing Democrats, is planning to spend more than $6 million on ads compared to about $4.9 million from the lead Republican group, the Congressional Leadership Fund.

Schweikert, serving his seventh term, will face Amish Shah, a physician and former Arizona state representative who emerged recently from a crowded Democratic primary as the winner.

California’s 13th Congressional District

Freshman Republican Rep. John Duarte won by just 564 votes in 2022 and did so in a district that Biden carried by double digits two years earlier. That makes this Central Valley-based district an automatic priority for both parties in what will be a rematch from two years ago.

The Democratic challenger is Adam Gray, who served for 10 years in the California State Assembly.

Democratic-aligned groups plan to spend about $7.6 million on ad buys. Republicans have reserved about $6.1 million in air time, according to AdImpact.

The state’s farm belt is more conservative than most of California with the cost of living and access to water for irrigation both being top challenges and priorities.

Duarte emphasizes his farming roots, growing grapes, almonds and pistachios, and says curbing Washington spending would lessen inflation. Gray touts money he’s helped deliver to the region from Sacramento for water storage and to repair aging canals.

Democrats hope Gray benefits from a presidential election that drives more voter turnout as opposed to the mid-term election that often benefits the party not in control of the White House. But Duarte can take comfort from winning the March primary earlier this year with nearly 55% of the vote compared to 45% for Gray. In California, the top two vote-getters regardless of party advance to the general election.

Washington’s 3rd Congressional District

Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez will face Trump-endorsed Joe Kent in a rematch from two years ago that the Democrat won by less than 1 percentage point.

Republicans see Gluesenkamp Perez as vulnerable in a district that Trump won by more than 4 percentage points in 2020. Republican groups have reserved nearly $6 million in political ad buys while Democratic groups plan to spend about $5.3 million.

Gluesenkamp Perez supports abortion access and policies to counter climate change, but also speaks openly about being a gun owner. Meanwhile, Kent says Gluesenkamp Perez only pretends to be a moderate.

The southern border could be a defining issue in the race. American Action Network, a Republican-aligned issue advocacy group, has run ads showing the incumbent saying in March 2023 that “nobody stays awake at night worrying about the Southern border.” She went on to make the point that people stay awake worried about pocketbook issues like the prospect of losing their house or having a child drop out of school.

But the comment has clearly become a focal point for Republicans who blame Democrats for not doing enough to stem illegal immigration.

Gluesenkamp Perez is emphasizing in campaign ads her willingness to work with Republicans on border issues. An ad that features some local public safety officials endorsing her ends with her saying she approved the message “to do whatever it takes to secure the border and keep Washington safe.”

Vice President Kamala Harris plans to propose the first-ever federal ban on “corporate price-gouging in the food and grocery industries,” her campaign announced late Wednesday.

“There’s a big difference between fair pricing in competitive markets, and excessive prices unrelated to the costs of doing business,” the Harris campaign said in a statement. “Americans can see that difference in their grocery bills.”

The proposed ban is part of a broader economic policy platform that the Democratic presidential nominee plans to unveil Friday at a campaign rally in battleground North Carolina.

Harris will also pledge that if elected president, she will direct her administration to increase scrutiny of potential mergers between large supermarkets and food producers, “specifically for the risk that the proposed merger would raise grocery prices for consumers,” her campaign said.

This package of regulatory proposals is one of the Harris campaign’s earliest efforts to outline an economic platform that is independent of President Joe Biden’s agenda.

Before Biden abruptly dropped out of the race in July and endorsed Harris, he had spent more than a year campaigning for reelection and blaming corporate greed for consumer prices driven higher by inflation.

Harris’ plan still sits firmly within the overall Biden approach to regulation, however, which has prioritized consumer protections across a range of industries and sued to block several massive corporate mergers.

In March, the White House launched a “Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing,” a joint initiative between the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission.

On Friday, Harris will single out the meat industry, saying that “soaring meat prices have accounted for a large part of Americans’ higher grocery bills, even as meat processing companies registered record-breaking profits following the pandemic,” according to the statement from her campaign.

The Democratic presidential nominee will also unveil proposals intended to bring down consumer costs in two other sectors where corporations have aggressively exercised their pricing powers: prescription drugs and housing.

Harris’ speech will come two days after her opponent, former President Donald Trump, gave his own economic policy speech in North Carolina, where he blamed Harris for the high price of consumer goods.

“You’re paying the price for [Harris’] liberal extremism at the gas pump, at the grocery counter, and on your mortgage bill,” Trump said in Asheville.

Nearly a month into her campaign, Harris has already erased Trump’s lead over Biden in national and swing state polls.

But Trump still maintains his longstanding advantage over Democrats when it comes to which candidate voters believe would be best for the economy.

Google’s announcement adds credence to the Trump campaign’s claim Saturday that it had been hacked as part of an Iranian campaign to interfere with the election.

In its report, Google’s Threat Analysis Group, which tracks government-backed cyberattacks, said it had disrupted a “small but steady” phishing operation from a hacking unit tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

In May and June, “targets included the personal email accounts of roughly a dozen individuals affiliated with President Biden and with former President Trump, including current and former officials in the U.S. government and individuals associated with the respective campaigns,” Google said in its report. The company blocked “numerous” attempts to log in to the targets’ personal email addresses, it said.

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Google said the hacking operation accessed the Gmail account of at least one high-profile political consultant in July. The company said it went on to secure the account and referred the matter to law enforcement. The company didn’t disclose the identity of the consultant or whether the consultant was involved with either campaign.

Like many elite government-affiliated hacking groups, the Revolutionary Guard hackers are known for their dogged persistence. Google said it “continues to observe” unsuccessful attempts to break into accounts affiliated with Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump.

The attempted hacks, part of a larger campaign to hack U.S. and Israeli targets, have used Google products like Sites, Drive and Gmail, Google said.

Reports of a credible hacking threat to U.S. presidential campaigns began last week, when Microsoft said hackers affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard had broken into the email account of a former senior adviser to a presidential campaign. Microsoft didn’t provide more details about who was hacked.

A spokesperson for Iran’s Mission to the United Nations didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. Iranian state news previously reported that a representative for the mission had denied Iranian involvement in hacking Trump’s campaign.

Over the weekend, three U.S. news outlets — Politico, The Washington Post and The New York Times — said they had received emails including what appeared to be Trump campaign files in what appeared to be a “hack-and-leak” operation to embarrass Trump. The FBI said Monday it was investigating efforts to hack both the Trump and the Biden-Harris campaigns but didn’t provide further details.

Only the Trump campaign has claimed to have been hacked. The initial round of phishing emails this spring happened before Biden dropped out of the race and Harris became the Democrats’ nominee. A Harris official told NBC News the campaign was unaware of any security breach.

No major cybersecurity company or government agency has so far explicitly said that Iran successfully hacked the Trump campaign. Microsoft has declined to comment further on its report. A Microsoft spokesperson told NBC News its policy is to refrain from publicly disclosing details about a hacking victim unless that victim clearly asks it to.

The series of events comes after a U.S. intelligence official from the Foreign Malign Influence Center, one of the few arms of the U.S. government devoted to countering foreign propaganda campaigns, warned that Iran was likely to continue efforts to denigrate Trump. 

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“I am damn proud of my service to this country,” Walz, the governor of Minnesota, said in Los Angeles during his first solo event on the campaign trail.

Walz said he served in the National Guard for 24 years “for the same reason all my brothers and sisters in uniform do: We love this country.”

He also addressed his GOP critics head-on in remarks at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Convention.

“These guys have — are even attacking me for my record of service,” Walz said. “And I just want to say I’m proud to serve my country, and I always will be.”

“I firmly believe you should never denigrate another person’s service record,” he said. “To anyone brave enough to put on that uniform for our great country, including my opponent, I just have a few simple words: Thank you for your service and sacrifice.”

Republicans have attacked Walz over his military record, with Vance, a Marine Corps veteran, accusing him of lying about his service.

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The criticism over Walz’s military service swirled after Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign posted a video clip of Walz discussing gun control and referring to his own military background in 2018. “We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at,” Walz says in the clip.

An open letter published on Wednesday and signed by more than 1,000 veterans and military family members bashed Vance and Trump’s “disrespectful” attacks on Walz’s military record.

Vance last week asserted that Walz had misrepresented his military record in those remarks.

“I’d be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did,” Vance said at the time.

A Harris campaign spokesperson clarified that Walz “misspoke” in the video when he discussed his handling of weapons “in war.”

Walz’s 24 years in the military included serving overseas and supporting forward units, but he was not deployed to a combat zone. He formally retired from the Minnesota National Guard in 2005 as he prepared to run for Congress. He won a House seat the next year.

Walz said Tuesday that he was encouraged to enlist by his father, who served in the Army during the Korean War, and that he signed up for the Army National Guard two days after his 17th birthday.

He is holding several events without Harris this week after numerous campaign stops with her in battleground states last week.

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