President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris appeared together for the first time Thursday since she replaced him as the Democratic presidential nominee.
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Vice President Kamala Harris is set to unveil her economic agenda in a speech Friday that is expected to focus on high food and housing costs. Although year-over-year inflation has reached its lowest level in more than three years, food prices are 21% above where they were three years ago.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump on Thursday gave his second news conference in as many weeks where he blended falsehoods about the economy with misleading statements and deeply personal attacks about Harris.
What to know:
- DNC preparations: Four days before the Democratic National Convention opens in Chicago, the party’s proposed platform names the wrong candidate for president. The Democratic platform has not been updated since a draft was released July 13, eight days before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
- VP debate: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance have agreed to debate each other on Oct. 1, setting up a matchup of potential vice presidents as early voting in some states gets underway for the general election.
- What the polls are saying: Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is launching a $90 million advertising effort over the next three weeks to introduce the Democrat to voters and sharpen the contrast with Republican Donald Trump.
Trump forms official transition committee that will oversee preparations for possible second term
The work will be overseen by Linda McMahon, who formerly led the U.S. Small Business Administration, and now works for America First Policy Institute, and Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald.
Assisting the effort will be Trump’s vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, as well as his two eldest sons: Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
Trump says in a statement that he has “absolute confidence the Trump-Vance Administration will be ready to govern effectively on Day One.”
The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 lays out steps the federal government must take to prepare for a potential transfer of power, including things like providing office space to campaigns.
Prominent 2020 election denier seeks GOP nod for Michigan Supreme Court race
A Donald Trump ally who faces felony charges of trying to illegally access and tamper with voting machines is seeking the Republican nomination for the highest court in Michigan, an epicenter of efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
In June, attorney Matthew DePerno announced his intent to run for the state Supreme Court, almost one year after he was charged and arraigned.
Delegates will vote on nominees Saturday, Aug. 24, at the Michigan GOP party convention for two state Supreme Court seats in a battleground state where the court has the potential final say in Michigan election matters.
Michigan Supreme Court races are officially nonpartisan — meaning candidates appear on the ballot without party labels — but candidates are nominated at party conventions. Democratic-backed justices currently hold a 4-3 majority. Republican nominees would have to win both seats to take back majority control while Democrats stand to gain a 5-2 favorability.
Why the progressive ‘Squad’ is getting smaller after defeats this primary cycle
The “Squad,” a group of progressive lawmakers in the House, is set to shrink next year after two members suffered primary defeats this election cycle following an unprecedented deluge of special interest spending.
The primary losses for Reps. Cori Bush in Missouri and Jamaal Bowman in New York came over the summer and dealt a blow to the progressive faction, which had amassed considerable clout within the Democratic Party since its initial rise in 2018.
The cohort of Black and brown lawmakers — including Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania — became the target of pro-Israel PACs like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, late last year after members criticized Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. Eight months later, AIPAC’s super political action committee, United Democracy Project, helped unseat Bush and Bowman after pouring nearly $25 million combined into those races.
Harris zeroes in on high food and housing prices
FILE – Vice President Kamala Harris is reflected in a table as she speaks while meeting with state legislators about protecting reproductive rights, Friday, July 8, 2022, in her ceremonial office inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Harris is zeroing in on high food and housing prices as her campaign previews an economic policy speech Friday in North Carolina, promising to push for a federal ban on price gouging on groceries and laying out plans to cut other costs as she looks to address one of voters’ top concerns.
JD Vance has long been on a quest to encourage more births
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks at a campaign event at VFW Post 92, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, in New Kensington, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
Five summers ago, Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance took the stage at a conservative conference and tackled the United States’ declining fertility rate.
“Our people aren’t having enough children to replace themselves. That should bother us,” Vance told the gathering in Washington.
His criticism then of Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, and other high-profile Democrats as “childless cat ladies” who didn’t have a “direct stake” in the country have drawn particular attention since Trump picked him as his running mate.
His rhetoric could threaten the Republican ticket’s standing with women. But it’s delighted those in the pro-natalist movement.
▶Read more about Vance’s views on birth rates
Marijuana, the death penalty and fracking: A look at Harris’ shifted positions
Politicians often recalibrate in the face of shifting public opinion and circumstance. Across two decades in elected offices, Vice President Kamala Harris is no exception.
She has staked out expedient and – at times — contradictory positions as she climbed the political ladder.
In addition to reversing course on fracking and cash bail, Harris has changed tack on issues including health care (she supported a plan to eliminate private health insurance before she opposed it), immigration and gun control.
▶Read more about Harris’ shifting policy positions
JD Vance to dissolve last vestige of mothballed charity
The Trump-Vance campaign says the Republican vice presidential nominee is preparing to dissolve what’s left of the modest charitable effort he launched to help people in Appalachia after writing “Hillbilly Elegy.”
About $11,000 remains in the Our Ohio Renewal Foundation’s account, although the nonprofit has been inactive since 2022.
Lawmakers ask Pentagon leaders to commit to keeping the military out of presidential election
FILE – Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon, July 25, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File)
Members of Congress are pressing the Pentagon’s top two leaders to ensure the military is not swept up in politics during the presidential election and that active-duty troops are not used illegally as a domestic police force.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, lawmakers asked the defense leaders to reaffirm that U.S. law prohibits forces from being used for civilian law enforcement and that they should not carry out unlawful orders.
What to know about Tim Walz’s 1995 drunken driving arrest
Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz reacts as he speaks at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Convention in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Now that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, his drunken driving arrest from 1995 in Nebraska — long before he entered politics — is getting renewed scrutiny.
A look at claims made at Trump’s rambling NJ press conference
Former President Donald Trump blames Vice President Kamala Harris for massive price hikes that have left Americans are struggling. Harris “broke the economy, broke the border and broke the world, frankly,” Trump said.
Yesterday, Trump gave his second news conference in as many weeks as he adjusts to a newly energized Democratic ticket ahead of next week’s Democratic National Convention.
At his New Jersey golf club, he blended falsehoods about the economy with misleading statements and deeply personal attacks about his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.