In newly uncovered remarks from 2017, Donald Trump’s 2024 vice-presidential pick, JD Vance, said “some people who voted for Trump are racist and they voted for him for racist reasons”.
“Race definitely played a role in the 2016 election,” Vance said. The remarks were first reported by Mother Jones. Vance said:
I think that race will always play a role in our country. It’s just sort of a constant fact of American life. And definitely some people who voted for Trump are racist and they voted for him for racist reasons.
He was then a Trump critic. But Vance is now a hard-right Republican US senator from Ohio, this month named as Trump’s running mate for the November election.
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Harris campaign hits back at Trump immigration attack ad
Kamala Harris’s campaign has responded to Donald Trump’s first major ad attacking her handling of the issue of immigration.
A statement from the Harris campaign’s spokesperson, Ammar Moussa, reads:
After killing the toughest border deal in decades, Donald Trump is running on his trademark lies because his own record and ‘plans’ are extreme and unpopular. As a former district attorney, attorney general, and now vice-president, Kamala Harris has spent her career taking on and prosecuting violent criminals and making our communities safer. She’ll do the same as president.
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Donald Trump’s campaign also released its first television ad of the general election attacking Kamala Harris over her handling of the issue of immigration, and accusing the vice-president of being a failed “border czar”.
The 30-second ad attacks Harris as “failed”, “weak”, “dangerously liberal”.
Kamala is failed, weak, and dangerously liberal. pic.twitter.com/nspLTt6BLC
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) July 30, 2024
Harris campaign launches $50m ad buy ahead of Democratic national convention
Kamala Harris’s campaign has announced a $50m advertising blitz ahead of the Democratic national convention next month with a television ad that portrays the presumptive Democratic nominee as “fearless”.
The 60-second ad will be the first in a series of paid media efforts ahead of the convention, which begins 19 August in Chicago.
“This campaign is about who we fight for,” Harris says in the ad.
We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead. Where every senior can retire with dignity. But Donald Trump wants to take our country backward. To give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and end the Affordable Care Act. But we are not going back.
We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead. Where every senior can retire with dignity.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 30, 2024
But Donald Trump wants to take our country backward.
We are not going back. pic.twitter.com/POhMKFIqZz
The ad will air on local and national television stations across battleground states, the campaign said. It will air during Olympics coverage, and during shows like Big Brother, The Daily Show, The Simpsons and The Bachelorette.
Donald Trump will attend the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention in Chicago this week, his campaign announced on Monday.
Trump will join a Q&A panel with political journalists including ABC News’s Rachel Scott, Fox News’s Harris Faulkner and Semafor’s Kadia Goba, according to a NABJ press release. A statement from NABJ president Ken Lemon said:
We look forward to our attendees hearing from former president Trump on the critical issues our members and their audiences care about most.
Trump will “engage in a Q&A with political journalists before an audience of registered convention attendees that will concentrate on the most pressing issues facing the Black community”, Trump’s campaign said in a statement.
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The “White Dudes for Harris” Zoom fundraising call came in the wake of similar, well-attended gatherings for Black women, Black men and white women supporting Kamala Harris.
There is also a “cat ladies for Harris” Zoom call being planned in response to comments from Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, in which he insulted the vice-president as a “childless cat” lady. And there is a similar call in the works titled “Latino Men for Kamala”.
The white women for Harris call last Thursday raised nearly $8.5m for the vice-president and had more than 160,000 attenders.
The Black women for Harris Zoom call attracted about 90,000 participants. And the Black men for Harris streaming event, moderated by the journalist Roland Martin, saw more than 53,000 people register.
‘White Dudes for Harris’ raise $4m
A Zoom call meant to rally “white dudes” in support of Kamala Harris’s run for the White House raised more than $4m from about 190,000 participants, including numerous celebrities, according to the presumptive Democratic nominee’s campaign.
Guests on the call not only included contenders for Harris’s vice-presidential running mate: the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, and the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg.
They also included the actors Jeff Bridges – famous for portraying the Dude in The Big Lebowski – and Mark Hamill, who secured a $50,000 donation during the call by delivering his renowned Star Wars line: “I’m Luke Skywalker. I’m here to rescue you.”
Other celebrities on Monday’s call were Mark Ruffalo, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Paul Scheer, Josh Gad, Sean Astin, JJ Abrams and Bradley Whitford. The call lasted over three hours.
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Those rumored to become Kamala Harris’s running mate are all white men who govern in swing states that can decide the 2024 election.
They include: the Kentucky governor, Andy Beshear; the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz; the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro; and Arizona senator Mark Kelly.
While all four have been asked about their willingness to serve as Harris’s running mate if tapped, all have signaled that they would step up if asked but none have hinted at their engagements with her campaign.
Kelly told reporters on 25 July:
This is not about me. But I’ve always, always said when I’ve had the chance to serve, I think that’s very important to do.
Walz told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday:
Being mentioned is certainly an honor … I trust vice-president Harris’s judgement, she’ll make the best choice she’s going to … But one way or another, she’s going to win in November and that’s gonna benefit everyone … Either way it’s gonna be a win.
During a campaign stop for Harris in Pittsburgh, Shapiro said:
It’s a decision she needs to make who she wants to govern with, who she wants to campaign with, and who can be there to serve alongside her.
And Beshear, who has also been stumping for Harris in red and purple jurisdictions, told the Des Moines Register newspaper:
I’m honored to be considered and, regardless of what happens, I’m going to work every day between now and election day to make sure that Kamala Harris is the next president of the United States.
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The Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, who is considered to be among the leading contenders for the vice-presidential running mate to Kamala Harris, held a joint rally with the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, in the Philadelphia suburbs on Monday.
“I want a future that is cleaner and greener,” Shapiro told a crowd of about 1,000 supporters.
I want a future with better schools and safer streets, and I want a future full of freedom. I want to look the 47th president of the United States in the eye and say, ‘Madam President.’
Harris took a break from the campaign trail this weekend and held private conversations with several of the candidates, including Shapiro, according to Reuters, citing sources.
Shapiro, who took over the governorship of Pennsylvania just last year, is seen as a rising star in the Democratic party. Joe Biden won the state in his election victory over Donald Trump in 2020.
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Harris to announce VP pick in ‘next six, seven days’, says Whitmer
Kamala Harris will announce her running mate “in the next six, seven days”, Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, said on Monday.
Whitmer, an influential Democratic campaign co-chair, told CBS yesterday:
I would imagine we’ll know who her running mate is, and we’ll get ready for the convention.
Whitmer told CBS she expected a “convention of happy warriors” in Chicago next month. She added that she was not under consideration herself.
I have communicated with everyone, including the people of Michigan, that I’m going to stay as governor until the end of my term at the end of 2026.
The North Carolina governor, Roy Cooper, 67, has known Kamala Harris since their overlapping days as state attorneys general and recently campaigned with her.
Cooper ran two successful gubernatorial campaigns in North Carolina, a battleground state, even as Donald Trump carried the state at the presidential level.
Three factors were cited for Cooper’s withdrawal from contention to become Harris’s running mate, Politico reported:
His desire to potentially run for Senate, his age and fears that North Carolina’s divisive Republican lieutenant governor would take over each time Cooper traveled out of state.
“From the get go, he was not a candidate for this,” a source told the outlet.
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The North Carolina governor, Roy Cooper, was asked last week by the Harris campaign to be vetted for vice-president but declined to participate, according to a report.
The Cooper team reached out to the Harris campaign a week ago on Monday – a day after Joe Biden left the race and endorsed Kamala Harris as his successor – to say he did not want to be considered, the New York Times reported, citing a source.
The report says that Cooper harbored concerns that Lt Gov Mark Robinson, a conservative Republican who is on the ballot this year to replace him, would mount a legal effort to usurp his executive authority while he was out of state. Cooper did not think Robinson would be successful but thought any such challenge would serve as a chaotic distraction had he been added to the ticket, the report says.
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Harris nears VP pick decision as North Carolina governor Roy Cooper bows out
Good morning US politics readers. Kamala Harris’s pool of potential running mates is narrowing after two Democratic lawmakers seen as strong contenders in the race, the North Carolina governor, Roy Cooper, and the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, ruled themselves out on Monday.
“This just wasn’t the right time for North Carolina and for me to potentially be on a national ticket,” Cooper said in a statement last night.
As I’ve said from the beginning, she has an outstanding list of people from which to choose, and we’ll all work to make sure she wins.
— Roy Cooper (@RoyCooperNC) July 30, 2024
Cooper’s withdrawal came hours after Whitmer said she was “not a part of the vetting” process for Harris’s running mate. In an interview with CBS, Whitmer said:
I have communicated with everyone, including the people of Michigan, that I’m going to stay as governor until the end of my term at the end of 2026.
Whitmer added that she expected Harris to announce her pick within the week, which would confirm the Democratic ticket at least two weeks before the Democratic national convention begins on 19 August in Chicago.
Others rumored to be potential running mates include: the Kentucky governor, Andy Beshear; the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz; the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro; and the Arizona senator, Mark Kelly.
Here’s what else we’re watching:
Kamala Harris will hold a rally this evening in Atlanta featuring a performance by rapper Megan Thee Stallion. Harris will be accompanied by both Georgia senators, the Atlanta mayor and other high-profile Democrats in the state.
Ronald Rowe Jr, the acting Secret Service director, will testify alongside the deputy FBI director, Paul Abbate, in front of a joint hearing of the Senate judiciary and homeland security and government affairs committees.
Republican primaries across Arizona today will test whether the far-right cadre focused on election denial still can win among their base, despite major losses in the 2022 primaries.
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