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Donald Trump is set to give a press conference for the first time since his debate with Kamala Harris on Tuesday.
He’ll speak to reporters at his golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, a wealthy community near Los Angeles.
Continue reading...Trump says he won’t debate Harris but claims he won the matchup; Harris tells North Carolina crowd that Americans should see another one
In an interview with the Financial Times, Leonard Leo, the conservative activist who was involved in the effort to build the current rightwing supermajority on the supreme court, says he will spend $1b to fight liberal cultural influence in the United States.
“We need to crush liberal dominance where it’s most insidious, so we’ll direct resources to build talent and capital formation pipelines in the areas of news and entertainment, where leftwing extremism is most evident,” Leo told the FT in a rare interview.
“Expect us to increase support for organisations that call out companies and financial institutions that bend to the woke mind virus spread by regulators and NGOs, so that they have to pay a price for putting extreme leftwing ideology ahead of consumers.”
As the United States approaches a critical election, I can’t sit quietly as Donald Trump – perhaps the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation – eyes a return to the White House. For that reason, though I’m a Republican, I’ve decided to support Kamala Harris for president.
Trump failed to do his duty and exercise his presidential power to protect members of Congress, law enforcement and the Capitol from the attacks that day. He failed to deploy executive branch personnel to save lives and property and preserve democracy. He just watched on television and chose not to do anything because that would have been contrary to his interests. Trump still describes that day as beautiful. And as for those subsequently convicted of committing crimes, he describes them as hostages.
Any discussion about fidelity to the rule of law has to include Trump’s 34 state felony convictions, his state civil financial judgment of libel based on sexual abuse, as well as the pending federal elections interference case, not to mention the recently dismissed federal documents case that Special Counsel Jack Smith is continuing to pursue. Standing alone, these charges, convictions and judgments show that Trump is someone who fails to act, time and time again, in accordance with the rule of law.
To be fair, I have spoken with Trump only once. I do not really know him. It is telling, however, that several senior officials who worked for him in the White House now refuse to support him, including his vice president, chief of staff, defense secretary and national security adviser. Their unwillingness to endorse their former boss is an indictment of his character at a level equal to his many, many criminal indictments.
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Russia has accused both presidential candidates of using Vladimir Putin’s name as part of a domestic political fights, saying: “we really, really don’t like it”.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the US was hostile and negative towards Russia, Reuters reports, and the Kremlin hoped that candidates would drop such references to Putin.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed. Here is our full story on US conservative influencers saying they are ‘victims’ of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Half of gen-Z voters said they will vote for Kamala Harris in November, according to a new NBC News poll published today.
The poll shows one-third of gen-Z voters said they plan to vote for Donald Trump, and 1 in 10 said they do not plan to vote in the presidential election.
Continue reading...In sit-down with CNN’s Dana Bash, vice-president defends shifts on policy issues and her support for Biden
Kamala Harris sat for her first interview as the Democratic presidential nominee with CNN’s Dana Bash alongside her running mate, Tim Walz, on Thursday, and defended her shifts on certain policy issues over the years and her support for Joe Biden.
In the interview, which was taped in Savannah, Georgia, earlier on Thursday, the vice-president said her highest priority upon taking office would be to “support and strengthen the middle class” through policies including increasing the child tax credit, curtailing price gouging on everyday goods and increasing access to affordable housing – all policies that she has announced since she started campaigning for the presidency.
Continue reading...Democratic nominee references record of prosecuting traffickers of guns, drugs and humans across the border
This evening, Kamala Harris will give her first sit-down interview since launching her presidential campaign, and will be joined by her running mate, Tim Walz. The Guardian’s Robert Tait takes a look at what we can expect from the hotly anticipated encounter:
Kamala Harris on Thursday will give her first major interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee in what is being seen as a key test of her credibility after a prolonged honeymoon that has seen her surge ahead of Donald Trump in opinion polls.
The 21-second video shows Trump laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and several snippets of Trump joining Gold Star family members at gravesites of their loved ones in a part of the cemetery known as Section 60.
‘We lost 13 great great people, what a horrible day it was,’ Trump says over somber music. ‘We didn’t lose one person in 18 months and then they took over the disaster, the leaving of Afghanistan.’
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Mark Esper, a former defense secretary under Donald Trump, told CNN that he hoped the reported altercation between the former president’s staff and an official at Arlington national cemetery was investigated, while saying that the grounds should never be used for “partisan political purposes”:
Esper served under Trump from 2019 until shortly after the 2020 election, when Trump fired him. The former defense chief has since decried Trump as a “threat to democracy”.
Continue reading...Amid close race, Harris to go on tour in Georgia as Trump surrogate insists state’s governor will back ex-president
As Kamala Harris and Donald Trump brace themselves for what promises to be an ugly and bruising sprint to the finishing line in November, both presidential candidates’ campaigns are turning their sights back on the handful of desperately close swing states where the battle is likely to be decided.
Georgia is coming into view as a critical battleground for both leaders as they struggle to gain voters’ attention in an epochal election. On Wednesday, the vice-president will travel from the White House to southern Georgia to hold her first campaign event in the state with her recently anointed running mate and former high school football coach, Minnesota governor Tim Walz.
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Now comes Pat Ryan, who represents a New York battleground district in the House of Representatives.
He hit out at Donald Trump for his reported insults towards military veterans, then obliquely referenced the newfound optimism Democrats are feeling since Joe Biden ended his bid for a second term:
These last few weeks have felt like a new day in America, when we are waking up, rising up, patriots, to demand a president who does not just treat our veterans with respect, but everyone with respect.
We do not retreat, we are the United States of America, we lead!
Continue reading...Harris will formally accept her party’s historic presidential nomination while Trump and Vance will hold separate battleground state events
Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz is dropping by the Minnesota delegation’s breakfast meeting in Chicago this morning, according to reports.
Walz and his wife, Gwen, are expected to thank delegates at the breakfast for their support of the Harris-Walz ticket.
Continue reading...Walz’s 17-year-old son touched DNC viewers with his emotional display during father’s widely praised speech
Tim Walz’s 17-year-old son Gus stole the show with an emotional display of family fealty as his father delivered his acceptance speech at the Democratic national convention in Chicago.
After the elder Walz described the painful process of starting a family using fertility treatment, television cameras focused on Gus as he stood up, with tears pouring down his face, and pointed to the stage mouthing: “That’s my dad.”
Continue reading...Tim Walz and Bill Clinton headline the third night amid reports Oprah Winfrey will also appear. Here’s a look at other noteworthy speakers on the schedule
The Democratic national convention is under way, with primetime addresses scheduled for tonight from Bill Clinton; Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate; and many more.
CNN reported that Oprah Winfrey, the talkshow host and longtime Democrat, is set to appear on the main stage. In previous elections, Winfrey lent her star power to Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Chris Murphy, US senator, Connecticut
Olivia Troye, former Trump administration national security official
Bennie G Thompson, member of the US House of Representatives, Mississippi
Andy Kim, member of the US House of Representatives, New Jersey
Stevie Wonder, singer-songwriter and musician (performance)
Kenan Thompson, comedian, and guests (remarks on Project 2025)
Mindy Kaling (host introduction)
Hakeem Jeffries, US House of Representatives Democratic leader
Bill Clinton, former US president
Nancy Pelosi, former US House speaker
Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania
Catherine Cortez Masto, US senator, Nevada
Amanda Gorman, national youth poet laureate, whose performance of The Hill We Climb at Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration wowed the audience
Wes Moore, governor of Maryland
Pete Buttigieg, US transportation secretary
John Legend and Sheila E, musicians (performance)
Amy Klobuchar, US senator, Minnesota
Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota and Kamala Harris’s running mate (keynote address)
Democratic national convention 2024 live updates
Monday: For the People
Tuesday: A Bold Vision for America’s Future
Wednesday: A Fight for Our Freedoms
Thursday: For Our Future
Continue reading...Former president addresses delegates amid reports Oprah Winfrey is expected to make an appearance
Kamala Harris’s campaign raised four times as much money last month than Donald Trump’s campaign, Reuters is reporting, citing federal disclosures filed late on Tuesday.
The Harris campaign told the Federal Election Commission it raised $204m in July, compared to $48m reported by Trump’s main fundraising group.
Continue reading...The ‘joyful warrior’ will seek to build on the momentum of his and Kamala Harris’s campaign
Tim Walz will seek to build on the intense enthusiasm surrounding his and Kamala Harris’s campaign on Wednesday, as the newly anointed vice-presidential nominee headlines the third night of the Democratic national convention in Chicago.
The speech will give Walz an opportunity to introduce himself to a much wider audience of voters, as most Americans were unfamiliar with the Minnesota governor before Harris selected him as her running mate earlier this month. An ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted last month, shortly after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race and endorsed Harris, showed that only 13% of Americans knew enough about Walz to register an opinion of him.
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Joe Biden described selecting Kamala Harris as his vice-president as “the best decision I made my whole career”, and he drew a sharp contrast between her and Donald Trump. Mocking Trump over his recent conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden said:
Violent crime has dropped to the lowest level of more than 50 years, and crime will keep coming down when we put a prosecutor in the Oval Office instead of a convicted felon.
When he talks about America being a failing nation, he says, we’re losing. He’s the loser. He’s dead wrong.
Guess who cast the tie-breaking vote? Vice-president, soon-to-be-president, Kamala Harris.
With a grateful heart, I stand before you now on this August night to report that democracy has prevailed. Democracy has delivered, and now democracy must be preserved.
Continue reading...JB Pritzker says 250 national guard members on standby; tens of thousands expected to protest in Chicago to demand US ends aid to Israel
The Harris-Walz campaign has launched a WhatsApp channel targeting Latino voters in what it described as a “first-of-its-kind in a presidential election”.
The channel aims to reach voters with “tailored, culturally competent content” to “create an organic avenue to reach Latino families from the abuelos to tías and tíos and primos”, it said in a statement on Monday.
While Donald Trump vilifies our community at every turn and uses us as a political punching bag, Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know the power of our community and are fighting everyday on the issues that matter to Latino voters.
Continue reading...Trump to hold rally in north-east while Harris tours through west of what election forecaster calls ‘tipping point’ state
The US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will hold dueling campaign events this weekend in the critical political battleground state of Pennsylvania.
The former president was due to hold a Saturday rally in Wilkes-Barre in the north-east of the state, while the vice-president is on a bus tour of western Pennsylvania starting in Pittsburgh on Sunday, before the Democratic national convention kicks off on Monday in Chicago.
Continue reading...Speeches can boost state politician to national prominence, despite awkward challenge with Harris nomination
In 2004, Barack Obama was a relatively unknown state legislator trying to become Illinois’ next senator – until his speech at the Democratic convention. When Democrats gathered in Boston to nominate John Kerry, many Americans heard Obama speak for the first time. And they were mesmerized.
“I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible,” Obama said that evening.
Continue reading...VP nominees to face off on 1 October as Vance challenges Walz to an earlier debate in September
JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, has accepted an invitation by CBS to debate Tim Walz, his Democratic counterpart, on 1 October after initially appearing to hedge.
Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, also said he was accepting another invitation from CNN to debate Walz on 18 September, although it was unclear whether the Democratic nominee had agreed to the challenge.
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Donald Trump’s campaign has made a slew of new hires as he looks to get his footing against Democrat Kamala Harris, including bringing Corey Lewandowski, who managed part of his 2016 run, on to its leadership team.
Other hires on the team include Washington Times columnist and communications strategist Tim Murtaugh, political consultant Alex Bruesewitz and Taylor Budowich and Alex Pfeiffer, both of whom are associated with the Make America Great Again Super Pac.
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