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The New York Times’s Katie Rogers has filed her pool report. There were six people who are believed to have needed medical attention, she reports, 15,000 people attended, and she confirms that among the chants were ones of “Lock him up” and “Kamala Kamala You Can’t Hide, We Won’t Vote for Genocide”:
The campaign says there were 15,000 people in Detroit, the largest of this campaign so far.
…
Harris shut down a chant of “LOCK HIM UP,” as she did earlier in the day, with the following: “Here’s the thing, the courts are gonna handle that. We’re gonna beat him in November.”
The rally was interrupted by a band of protesters about midway through: Kamala Kamala You Can’t Hide, We Won’t Vote for Genocide,” the shouted.
This was her reply: “I’m here because I believe in democracy. I believe everyone’s voice matters. But I’m speaking now. I am speaking now.”
At least six people needed medical attention over the course of the rally that pool observed.
There were volunteers with water, Fig Newtons, and large boxes full of blue KAMALA FOR EVERYBODY T-shirts on hand.
Summary
Here are the main developments from today:
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz took the stage in front of a roaring crowd in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Wednesday afternoon. “It can’t be said seriously enough, so much is on the line and compounded with everything else that we knew was on the line,” said Harris. Walz echoed similar sentiments, saying: “This election is all about asking that question, which direction will this country go in? Donald Trump knows the direction he wants to take it.”
Twelve thousand people attended the Eau Claire rally, according to the Harris campaign.
Later, the pair attended a rally in Detroit, Michigan. It was the biggest of the campaign so far, Walz said. Harris shut down chants of “lock him up” by rallygoers, and chants, reportedly by Gaza protestors, that interrupted her speech. Three speakers had to call for medics for people in the crowd, which appeared to be heat-related.
In the 24 hours since Walz was announced as the Democrats’ vice-presidential nominee, the campaign raised $36m, it told reporters. The campaign made nearly $1m on Tuesday simply from selling Chappell Roan-style camouflage hats that say “Harris Walz”.
Slightly before Harris and Walz’s rally, JD Vance held his own campaign event, also in Eau Claire. He spoke to his background and about how his mother is now in recovery from the opioid addiction that affected his whole childhood. He also blamed Harris for not securing the border toughly enough.
In response to a question on whether he thinks it matters that Harris chose Walz, Vance replied: “What does Kamala Harris’s selection of Tim Walz say about her? Well, I think it says one, she’s leaning into the defund the police radicalism of the last few years. Two, she’s leaning into the open borders policies of last year … And then the final point that I’d say is it says that she bent the knee to the Hamas caucus of the Democrat party.”
During his campaign in Shelby Township, Michigan, Vance continued to stick to Trump and Republicans’ attack line questioning Harris’s biracial identity, saying: “Donald Trump said something very simple, totally inoffensive but frankly obviously true to me which is that Kamala Harris is a chameleon. She’s a fake …”
Trump called into Fox & Friends this morning, for half an hour of softball questions teeing up invective about Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Democrats’ supposed antisemitism and other matters. On whether he will debate Harris, Trump said: “We’ll be debating I guess in the pretty near future, it’s going to be announced fairly soon, but we’ll be debating her.”
Vance said at a campaign event that he would like to debate Harris in August, and suggested he was not interested in debating his Democratic vice presidential counterpart, Tim Walz.
Vance also attracted both positive and negative reactions on social media for a campaign stunt in which he walked across the tarmac towards Kamala Harris’ plane, and told reporters waiting for Harris that he wanted to check out Air Force 2, which would soon be his plane, and that Harris should talk to the media more.
Here is more on Kamala Harris and sororities. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, whose members have been vocal about their pride and excitement that one of their members could become the most powerful person on earth. (Officially, the way that AKA members express this emotion is through the trademarked call “skee-wee”).
Because they are registered charity organisations, fraternities and sororities aren’t allowed to officially endorse specific political candidates, but they can – and do – mobilise among their members to get out the vote.
Trump and the GOP “flatten Black people into two dimensions,” according to Lawrence Ross, the author of a book on the Divine Nine –America’s most powerful Black Greek letter organisations – told the Guardian. “They don’t know really much about Black culture … It’s too late for them to understand what’s about to happen to them.”
Black Greek letter organizations’ voter engagement programs “reach millions”, according to the New York Times. 93% of Black women who voted in 2020 voted Democrat, according an Associated Press poll.
Black sororities have often been referred to as Harris’s “secret weapon”. But, Ross says, “It’s not a secret weapon to Black folks, right?”
They are a key part of understanding who Harris is. Comparing Harris to Obama is often a mistake, the critic Vinson Cunningham, who worked on Obama’s campaign, said recently on a New Yorker podcast. But one thing they do have in common “is a Black father who is not from America”.
For Obama, forming a Black identity that was distinctly American involved moving to Chicago, joining Trinity Church and sitting under the tutelage of Jeremiah Wright, Cunningham said.
“You can think of the parallel motion in Kamala Harris’s life as: going to a [Historically Black College or University], joining perhaps the most famous historically Black sorority, the AKAs.” By making these choices, Obama and Harris were both, “tying themselves to a more distinctly American form of Blackness than the one that is signified by their fathers,” he said.
That was the first tense or uneasy moment I have seen at a Harris rally. She appeared to deal with it well – first firmly calling on people chanting “Lock him up” to stop, unless they want Trump to win, and then, again shutting down chants, which were reportedly from people protesting Gaza, by saying that she believes in everyone having a voice, but right now, “I am speaking”.
She was forceful, but didn’t appear totally unflustered. The end of the rally had a little less pure joy and energy than others. But the crowds, overall were still hugely supportive and cheered loudly.
I’ll try to find out why medics were called at least three times. The best guess at this stage was that it was hot in that hangar.
Harris ends, and has Freedom plays, waves and claps to huge cheers. Walz and the other speakers are on stage now, they all hold hands and raise them in the air.
Harris then makes her way through the crowd.
But those chants have stopped now. Harris is getting huge cheers as she delivers her key messages. She begins to wind down, and the crowd falls silent.
“What country do we want to live in?” she asks. One of the rule of law, or one of hate.
“We each have the power to answer that question. The power is with the people,” she says, to huge cheers.
A CalMatters reporter at the rally says that the people chanting were protesting the US’s support of Israel in its assault on Gaza:
As most of the crowd chanted in support of Harris, a small group of protesters chanted “We won’t vote for genocide,” appearing to protest over Gaza.
— Yue Stella Yu (@bystellayu) August 8, 2024
In Michigan, Muslim-majority cities like Dearborn and Hamtramck voted overwhelmingly against Biden in the March primary. pic.twitter.com/Pr6uDhDMZm
Updated
“We trust women to know what is in their best interests and not have their government telling them what to do,” she says forcefully, stressing each word.
Harris has regained control of the crowd. I’m trying to work out what the disruptive group was chanting – will continue with the speech in the meantime.
Everyone is now chanting “We’re not going back”.
I can’t tell what the chant is, but as it continues, Harris says, “You know what, if you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. But otherwise, I’m speaking”.
The crowd cheers, and chants, instead of whatever it was (it may have been “lock him up), “We’re not going back”.
Harris allows it. Then continues.
Whichever segment of the crowd is disrupting the speech keeps going, however. But Harris forges ahead.
When Harris starts talking about Project 2025, the crowd starts chanting very loudly, “Kamala! Kamala!” to the point that she stops talking.
Someone in the crowd appears to be starting another chant.
“I’m here because we believe in Democracy. Everyone’s voice matters. But I am speaking now, I am speaking now,” Harris says, in an attempt to control the crowd. There are huge cheers, and she continues speaking, but the chants continue.
Via Politico – Harris stopped the crowd when they started chanting “lock him up”. The chant is a remixed version of a GOP supporter chant, referring to Hilary Clinton, “lock her up”.
As the crowd starts yelling “lock him up,” VP Kamala Harris stops it: “the courts are going to handle that. We’re going to beat him in November.” pic.twitter.com/6f4eC3RRja
— Eugene Daniels (@EugeneDaniels2) August 8, 2024
“We’ll beat him in November. We’ll handle that,” she says.
And repeats that she would proudly put her record against his any day of the week.
This campaign “is about two very different visions…one focused on the future and one focused on the past”.
In Michigan, she says, we fight for a future. “A future where every worker has the right to join a union,” she says. And moves onto housing, healthcare and childcare.
“In this fight we are joyful warriors,” she says. “We all here know hard work is good work”.
Harris is now talking about her record as attorney general, courtroom prosecutor, district attorney. Soon she will say that she knows Trump’s type.
She says it, to huge applause. “I’ve been dealing with them my whole career” .
“This has been a big week,” Harris says.
“On Monday I officially became the Democratic nominee, and yesterday I announced my running mate, Tim Walz,” she says.
“He’s a serious, serious man, he has been a serious leader, and he loves our country.”
He is many things to many people: husband, dad, Sergeant Major Walls, teacher, coach.
And soon he will be Vice President.
Harris mentioned that she was endorsed by the United Auto Workers Union last week. The union is headquartered in Detroit, and was founded there. It was once the car manufacturing centre of the US.
“The UAW has always worked to lift up the working people of our nation,” she says.
Then she stops to call for a medic –at least the third time this has happened during the rally today.
Harris takes to stage in Detroit
Harris enters to huge applause. “We are doing this,” she says. “Good evening Detroit”.
This is her fifth time in Michigan this year.
Walz welcomes Harris to the stage. She enters to her campaign anthem, Beyoncé’s Freedom.
There are 91 days left of the campaign, Walz points out. “My God, you can do anything for 91 days”.
He can’t wait to debate JD Vance, he says.
Vance earlier said that he would debate Harris, not Walz – an unlikely outcome.
He says that JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, “wrote a book trashing the very people who raised him”. He is referring to Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.
“Simple proposition: this election’s about which direction this country’s going to go in,” he says.
Project 2025 will “destroy unions, rig the economy for the ultra-wealthy”, says Walz.
It will be “much, much worse” when Trump comes back, Walz says.
In Minnesota we believe strongly in the second amendment, but we also believe strongly in sensible gun laws, he says.
“These guys, when they talk about freedom, it means the government has the freedom to invade your doctor’s rooms”, Walz says of his opponents.
He repeats his message from his first speech yesterday –mind your own business.
“Don’t like a book, don’t read it,” he says, referring to the growing number of book bans in the US.
He moves onto IVF. Meddling in other peoples’ business leads to them doing things more dangerous than banning animal farm, he says. It leads to them interfering in IVF.
His daughter Hope was born through IVF he says.
He adds that his wife likes to say hope – in general – “is not a damn plan”.
Walz is talking about his career. “I learned how to compromise without compromising my values” . The Democrats are hoping that Walz will be seen as a candidate who straddles left-wing policy making and some more conservative values – like enjoying gun ownership.
Republicans 'try and steal the joy from this country', says Walz
“They try and steal the joy from this country”, Walz says of the GOP. “Our next president brings the joy, she emanates the joy.”
Detroit rally is largest of campaign so far, says Walz
“It’s been a pretty interesting 24 hours, I’ll be honest,” he says. And he doesn’t know how to express the feeling of walking out into these crowds.
He says this is the largest rally of the campaign so far.
“We Minnesotans we’re a stoic people, a people of few words,” Walz says. But here in Michigan they know how to throw a party, he says.
He pauses to call for a medic – the second time this has happened during speeches at this rally today. The person seems to just need water.
Walz walks onto the stage at Detroit rally
Tim Walz is walking onto stage now in Detroit – the song playing is Bruce Springstein’s Born to Run.
“Wow”, he says.
Kamala Harris and the political power of Black sororities
On 10 July, less than two weeks before Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, Kamala Harris attended a boulé: the annual or biannual gathering of all of the members of a sorority. But this wasn’t just any sorority, it was Alpha Kappa Alpha, the historic Black sorority Harris joined in college, and one of the Divine Nine – also known as the Pan-Hellenic Council – the most powerful Black sororities in America.
“To my line sisters, the 38 Jewels of Iridescent Splendor: Oh, you are such an incredible part of my journey,” she said.
AKA was founded in 1908 at Harris’s alma mater, Howard University, as a support network for Black women, who at the time faced increasing racial discrimination. Harris’s aunt was a soror in 1950. Among the sorority’s alumna were Coretta Scott King, Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou. For her Vogue cover in 2021, Harris was photographed in front of a background of draped fabric in AKA’s colours, salmon pink and apple green, and wearing its signature accessory – a pearl necklace.
In the two weeks since Biden stood down, and then became the presumptive nominee, Harris has spoken at two more Black sorority events. Last week, at the Sigma Gamma Rho’s 60th International Biennial Boulé, that she addressed Trump’s comments earlier that day questioning her race.
“When I look out at everyone here, I see family,” she said.
The political power of Black Greek letter organisations is not lost on Harris. She is in many ways proof of their influence: when Biden endorsed Harris as his choice for vice-president in 2020, AKA members raised hundreds of thousands of dollars through individual donations of $19.08, an amount that refers to AKA’s founding year. They helped get out the vote among Black voters – famously organising the “Stroll to the Polls” campaign, in which sorority members filmed themselves dancing and walking to polling stations – a demographic that was crucial to getting Biden elected.
Gretchen Whitmer is speaking now in Detroit. “We gotta show them how we do things in Motown,” she says.
According to the latest White House schedule, Harris and Walz are on next.
In other famous people news – the actor Steve Martin has turned down the offer to play Tim Walz on SNL.
He told the LA Times: “I wanted to say no and, by the way, he wanted me to say no…I said, ‘Lorne, I’m not an impressionist. You need someone who can really nail the guy.’ I was picked because I have gray hair and glasses.”
It would also – depending on the outcome of the election – involve a long time commitment, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Alec Baldwin played Donald Trump on SNL for several years after first taking on the role in 2016.
Here is a side-by-side of Martin and Walz:
Lorne Michaels offered Steve Martin the Tim Walz 'SNL' gig this morning, per @GlennWhipp. Martin declined. “I said, ‘Lorne, I’m not an impressionist. You need someone who can really nail the guy.’ I was picked because I have gray hair and glasses.”https://t.co/cGx5JpU5W1
— Amy Kaufman (@AmyKinLA) August 7, 2024
Earlier today in Wisconsin, Walz and Harris made a pitstop at a fancy general store, where they spoke tio Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.
From the New York Times’s Katie Rogers:
Motorcade pulled up to The Local store, which looks like a general store for locally made goods, at 3.18pm. It smelled like cinnamon.
VP and Walz entered at 3.20. Justin Vernon of Bon Iver was with them wearing a Harris Walz camo hat. Walz’s daughter, Hope, was also there and wearing the hat.
“The whole day was amazing,” Vernon said. “Joyful. I think we’re all feeling it.”
Harris showed Vernon an album, extolling the virtue of vinyl, and them they perused snacks. Walz marveled over the Minnesota items. At one point Hope was directing him around the store.
Pool was moved away as the pair + Vernon were greeting children and headed to motorcade. Pool have asked what they purchased but at one point VP was holding what looked like a bag of candies. Holding at 3.27 pm.
The rally has started –you can tune in at the feed above – but there is a long list of speakers before Harris and Walz take to the stage at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. Here it is:
Lavora Barnes, Chair, Michigan Democratic Party
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans (D-MI)
Mayor Mike Duggan, Detroit (D)
Representative Shri Thanedar (D-MI-13)
Representative Haley Stevens (D-MI-11)
Representative Hillary Scholten (D-MI-03)
Representative Dan Kildee (D-MI-08)
Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI-12)
Musical entertainment: Detroit Youth Choir
Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist (D-MI)
United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain
Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
Representative Elissa Slotkin (D-MI-07)
Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI)
The New York Times’s White House correspondent, Katie Rogers, is filing today’s press pool reports. She writes:
AF2 landed at 6.17pm ET. Walz spent about 8 minutes with the pool OTR during the flight, which was a little bumpy. The VP did not join him.
There was a huge crowd waiting at the airport. Beyoncé’s “Run the World (Girls)” was playing at an ear splitting volume when pool disembarked.
The crowd sang along to Whitney’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” before VP disembarked with Walz. They walked into the rally to “Freedom” and there was an extremely loud and enthusiastic crowd they let the pool linger with for a few.
The self-described “joyful warriors” have landed:
Harris-Walz arriving in Detroit 🤩 pic.twitter.com/E1IlZr7cXP
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 7, 2024
And it looks like another packed rally:
Taking a page of out Trump’s playbook… a huge rally at at airport hangar with the plane in view https://t.co/7oWjDPDcDS
— Tyler Pager (@tylerpager) August 7, 2024
Updated
With fewer than 100 days to go until the election, Kamala Harris announced her VP pick – the avuncular Minnesota governor Tim Walz – and dropped a new official logo.
My colleague Alaina Demopoulos reports:
Harris-Walz merchandise, including yard signs, T-shirts, and one much-memed camouflage printed hat, launched as soon as the current vice-president put Walz on her ticket on Tuesday. The logo looks simple, with some even calling it boring: tall, white, sans serif lettering spelling out the nominees’ last names.
“The logo needs a little more [flair] to reflect the excitement of the base,” read one tweet posted to X. “Oh my god this is minimalist hell get me out of here,” said another.
The Harris-Walz logo is here: pic.twitter.com/FXok4pMWcM
— Hunter Schwarz (@hunterschwarz) August 6, 2024
But, as Hunter Schwarz pointed out for Fast Company, others viewed the logo as historic, tracing its branding back to Shirley Chisholm’s 1972 presidential campaign. Chisholm, the first Black congresswoman and first Black woman to run for a major party’s nomination, used all-caps, sans serif lettering. (Harris took nods from Chisholm’s campaign design when running in 2019.)
“The logo looks bold and strong, and the brilliance of it is that it doesn’t have to be clever,” said Ross Turner, a graphic designer who works on political campaigns.
Turner noted that the Harris Walz design looks similar to Trump Vance signs, which also utilize an all-caps, sans serif font. “I initially thought, wow, Harris kind of dropped the ball, because this looks so much like the Trump logo,” Turner said. “Isn’t the goal to differentiate? But they didn’t have to differentiate with the logo, because Harris already does as a candidate. And [Republicans] can’t turn around and mock this logo, because then they’d have to do the same for Trump since it’s so similar.”
Updated
Here is the report from the Democratic running mates’s rally earlier today, in Wisconsin, by my colleague Alice Herman, who was there:
Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, continued their swing-state tour with a rally in rural Wisconsin on Wednesday.
The rally, which followed a raucous event in Philadelphia, served as an opportunity for Harris to continue to introduce Walz, a formerly low-profile midwest governor, to Democrats in the critical swing state. Held in Eau Claire, a north-western Wisconsin city less than two hours from Minneapolis and St Paul, Minnesota, the rally drew attendees from both states.
Walz spoke first, focusing on his midwestern background and noting he had family in the crowd. “Being a midwesterner, I know something about commitment to the people,” he said.
He also spoke at length about his experience coaching football, teaching social studies and serving in the Minnesota National Guard, underscoring his role as a kind of ambassador to rural and working-class Americans for the Democratic party.
Updated
You’ll see a live feed of that Harris and Walz rally at the top of the blog. The event itself hasn’t started yet – half an hour to go.
JB Pritzker, Illinois governor, has called for the resignation of the sheriff whose deputy fatally shot Sonya Massey in her home last month after the Black woman had called 911 for help.
Pritzker, a Democrat, said on Wednesday that the sheriff, Jack Campbell, should step down.
“He has failed to explain how he ended up hiring this deputy sheriff who has been fired from other departments,” Pritzker said. “He failed to put forward reforms that clearly need to be made – training and other reforms – and still has failed to meet with the Massey family.”
The former sheriff’s deputy, Sean Grayson, who has since been fired, faces three counts of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct in the 6 July shooting death of Massey.
We’re expecting Harris and Walz to speak at a rally in Detroit, Michigan in about 40 minutes’ time. We’ll bring that to you live.
Here is a little more on Biden saying earlier that he is not confident about a peaceful transfer of power in the United States if Trump loses the 5 November presidential election.
“If Trump loses, I’m not confident at all,” Biden said in an interview with CBS News when asked whether he thought there would be a peaceful transfer of power after the vote.
“He means what he says. We don’t take him seriously. He means it. All this stuff about if we lose there’d be a bloodbath,” Biden added.
During a March campaign appearance in Ohio, Trump warned of a “bloodbath” if he fails win the election. At the time Trump was discussing the need to protect the US auto industry from overseas competition, and Trump later said he was referring to the auto industry when he used the term.
Trump has falsely claimed he won the 2020 election against Biden and was criminally charged in Washington, DC, and Georgia with illegally trying to overturn the results.
Hello, this is Helen Sullivan taking over our live US politics coverage for the next while. Stay tuned.
Interim summary
Here’s an updated summary of today’s key events and statistics:
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz took the stage in front of a roaring crowd in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Wednesday afternoon. “It can’t be said seriously enough, so much is on the line and compounded with everything else that we knew was on the line,” said Harris. Walz echoed similar sentiments, saying: “This election is all about asking that question, which direction will this country go in? Donald Trump knows the direction he wants to take it.”
Twelve thousand people attended the Eau Claire rally, according to the Harris campaign.
In the 24 hours since Walz was announced as the Democrats’ vice-presidential nominee, the campaign raised $36m, it told reporters. The campaign made nearly $1m on Tuesday simply from selling Chappell Roan-style camouflage hats that say “Harris Walz”.
Slightly before Harris and Walz’s rally, JD Vance held his own campaign event, also in Eau Claire. He spoke to his background and about how his mother is now in recovery from the opioid addiction that affected his whole childhood. He also blamed Harris for not securing the border toughly enough.
In response to a question on whether he thinks it matters that Harris chose Walz, Vance replied: “What does Kamala Harris’s selection of Tim Walz say about her? Well, I think it says one, she’s leaning into the defund the police radicalism of the last few years. Two, she’s leaning into the open borders policies of last year … And then the final point that I’d say is it says that she bent the knee to the Hamas caucus of the Democrat party.”
During his campaign in Shelby Township, Michigan, Vance continued to stick to Trump and Republicans’ attack line questioning Harris’s biracial identity, saying: “Donald Trump said something very simple, totally inoffensive but frankly obviously true to me which is that Kamala Harris is a chameleon. She’s a fake …”
Trump called into Fox & Friends this morning, for half an hour of softball questions teeing up invective about Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Democrats’ supposed antisemitism and other matters. On whether he will debate Harris, Trump said: “We’ll be debating I guess in the pretty near future, it’s going to be announced fairly soon, but we’ll be debating her.”
Vance said at a campaign event that he would like to debate Harris in August, and suggested he was not interested in debating his Democratic vice-presidential counterpart, Tim Walz.
Vance also attracted both positive and negative reactions on social media for a campaign stunt in which he walked across the tarmac towards Kamala Harris’s plane, and told reporters waiting for Harris that he wanted to check out Air Force 2, which would soon be his plane, and that Harris should talk to the media more.
Updated
Video of JD Vance walking over to Kamala Harris’s plane to talk to Air Force 2 reporters
JD Vance and Kamala Harris were both doing campaign stops in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, today. Multiple news outlets have shared video of Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance at the airport walking over the tarmac to Kamala Harris’s plane to talk to the reporters there.
“I just wanted to check out my future plane,” Vance tells us.
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) August 7, 2024
He didn’t speak to Harris, but added that he “wanted to go say hello to the vice president and ask her why does she refuse to answer questions.” https://t.co/g8ZoqYRt9i
Vance and Harris on the same tarmac in Eau Claire.
— James Stratton (@StrattonWISN) August 7, 2024
Vance comes over to cameras covering AF2 arrival...
"... hopefully it's going to be my plane in a few months. I also thought you guys may get lonely, bc the VP doesn't answer q's from reporters..."
Vid: @WEAU13News pic.twitter.com/QhUS2MtEby
“This is weird behavior actually,” the director of rapid response for Harris’s campaign tweeted.
Vance celebrated the video and photographs of his airport campaign stunt on Twitter/X.
This Entourage reboot is going to be awesome pic.twitter.com/cHbU6Z1H3u
— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 7, 2024
Updated
Biden: if Trump loses, I’m not confident in a peaceful transfer of power in 2025.
CBS News has released a clip from an interview with Joe Biden, his first televised interview since dropping out of the presidential race in late July.
In the clip, the president says he is “not confident at all” that there will be a peaceful transfer of power if Trump loses the 2025 presidential race.
In his first TV interview since exiting the 2024 race, President Biden tells CBS News' @costareports he's "not confident at all" that a peaceful transfer of power will happen in January 2025 if former President Donald Trump loses.
— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) August 7, 2024
"He means what he says. We don't take him… pic.twitter.com/uE4dj5Vzrs
Biden cited Donald Trump’s comments about there being a “bloodbath” if he loses the election as one of his examples of comments that should be taken more seriously. The former president made the “bloodbath” comment while talking about China, auto manufacturing and tariffs, NBC News reported, and a Trump campaign spokesperson said at the time that Trump meant that “Biden’s policies will create an economic bloodbath for the auto industry and autoworkers”.
Updated
Democrats sell nearly $1m worth of Chappell Roan-style camo campaign hats
Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launched with a cryptic “brat” endorsement from Charli xcx.
As Minnesota governor Tim Walz, a recent TikTok favorite, joined the Democratic ticket, the Democrats are also nodding to another pop star of the summer, midwest princess Chappell Roan, also known as “your favorite artist’s favorite artist”.
Her camoflauge hats appear to have inspired the latest Harris-Walz campaign hats, which have already proved very popular, Teen Vogue reports:
scooplet: the Harris-Walz campaign tells @teenvogue nearly $1 million worth of camo hats were bought yesterday (an initial run of 3000 hats sold out in 30 minutes) https://t.co/8lusus9tXn
— Versha Sharma (@versharma) August 7, 2024
I cannot tell you what the popularity of these hats means for the gen Z turnout in this election, but it’s worth noting that Roan is very campy and very queer, and Walz’s resume includes being both a high school football coach and the faculty adviser to the school’s Gay Straight Alliance in 1999.
Updated
JD Vance says he’s willing to debate Harris, not Walz.
Speaking at a campaign event in Wisconsin, JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, said he wanted to debate Kamala Harris, now the Democrats’ presidential nominee, not his new vice-presidential counterpart, Tim Walz.
JD Vance says in Eau Claire that he'd debate Kamala Harris next week on August 13, but not Tim Walz.
— bryan metzger (@metzgov) August 7, 2024
He claims "we don't know who the vice presidential nominee is going to be" and that Dems may "pull a bait and switch" on Walz.
The DNC certified them as the ticket yesterday.
Business Insider has the full quote, and also a link to the speech.
Here's the full quote: pic.twitter.com/oROHppG0NB
— bryan metzger (@metzgov) August 7, 2024
Walz became the Democrats’ choice for vice-president in part because of his viral success in labeling Trump and his political allies as “weird”.
Walz, a former high school teacher, has already gone after Vance, the bestselling author of Hillbilly Elegy, as an elitist who trashed his own community, and has also elevated a rude meme about the Republican vice-president into a recurring campaign bit.
Like all regular people in America's heartland, JD Vance studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and wrote a bestseller trashing that community.
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) August 6, 2024
Come on.
I can't wait to debate the guy—that is, if he's willing to get off the couch and show up. pic.twitter.com/4orv0v2xTZ
Updated
Harris campaign in Wisconsin draws more than 12,000 people, campaign says
Earlier today, we reported on the long lines of people waiting to attend a Harris-Walz campaign event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a key swing state.
CBS News is reporting that “over 12,000 people” attended.
Over 12,000 people came to see @KamalaHarris and @Tim_Walz in Eau Claire, Wisconsin this afternoon, the campaign says.
— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) August 7, 2024
Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance also held a press conference in Eau Claire today.
.@JDVance brushes off Walz, Dems calling him and Trump weird at press conference in Eau Claire, WI:
— Taurean Small (@taureansmall) August 7, 2024
“I think it came from a bunch of 20 year old social media interns who got bullied in high school”@CBSNews @CBSPolitics pic.twitter.com/hxlNGJ95kP
A CBS campaign reporter summed up the day of dueling Republican and Democratic midwest press conferences with this photo:
A day a dueling events in WI and MI between @JDVance & @KamalaHarris comes to an end.
— Taurean Small (@taureansmall) August 7, 2024
This shot of Air Force 2 through the window of Trump Force 2 is just about as close to the “passing ships” metaphor as you can get.@CBSNews @CBSPolitics pic.twitter.com/CJhHfH3RhY
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Harris campaign: $36m raised in first 24 hours after announcing Walz as VP pick
Harris campaign raises $36m in the day after announcing Walz as her running mate.
In the 24 hours after Kamala Harris announced Tim Walz as her vice-presidential pick, the campaign raised $36m, it told reporters.
In July, the campaign raised a total of $310m, ABC News reported. (Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the race on 21 July, a Sunday, and endorsed Harris as his replacement.)
Harris/Walz campaign setting up in this airport hangar in Detroit for rally tonight. They’re heading here from WI.
— Selina Wang (@selinawangtv) August 7, 2024
Harris campaign says it raised $36 million in the 24 hours since the running mate announcement. campaign said it raised $310 million in July pic.twitter.com/XVWqQcV1Qg
Yesterday, the Harris campaign announced it had raised $20m in the first hours since Walz was announced as the Democrats’ vice-presidential candidate, CBS News reported.
Update: In the first 24 hours since Governor Walz was announced as Vice President Harris' running mate, Team Harris-Walz has raised $36 million dollars. https://t.co/ywlQzLqYhl
— Weijia Jiang (@weijia) August 7, 2024
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Interim summary
Here’s a look at where things stand:
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz took the stage in front of a roaring crowd in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Wednesday afternoon. “It can’t be said seriously enough, so much is on the line and compounded with everything else that we knew was on the line,” said Harris. Walz echoed similar sentiments, saying: “This election is all about asking that question, which direction will this country go in? Donald Trump knows the direction he wants to take it.”
Slightly before Harris and Walz’s rally, JD Vance held his own rally, also in Eau Claire. He spoke to his background and how his mother is now in recovery from the opioid addiction that affected his whole childhood. He also blamed Harris for not securing the border toughly enough.
In response to a question on whether he thinks it matters that Harris chose Walz, Vance replied: “What does Kamala Harris’s selection of Tim Walz say about her? Well, I think it says one, she’s leaning into the defund the police radicalism of the last few years. Two, she’s leaning into the open borders policies of last year … And then the final point that I’d say is it says that she bent the knee to the Hamas caucus of the Democrat party.”
In an endorsement post on Twitter/X, Barack Obama wrote of Walz: “Governor Walz doesn’t just have the experience to be vice president, he has the values and the integrity to make us proud. And as we saw last night, @KamalaHarris and @Tim_Walz make a great team.”
During his campaign in Shelby Township, Michigan, JD Vance defended Donald Trump’s attacks on Harris’s biracial identity. He said: “I was not bothered at all by what President Trump said. I didn’t take it as an attack on Kamala Harris’s biracial background at all.”
JD Vance continued to stick to Trump and Republicans’ attack line questioning Harris’s biracial identity, saying: “Donald Trump said something very simple, totally inoffensive but frankly obviously true to me which is that Kamala Harris is a chameleon. She’s a fake …”
Trump called into Fox & Friends this morning, for half an hour of softball questions teeing up invective about Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Democrats’ supposed antisemitism and other matters. On whether he will debate Harris, Trump said: “We’ll be debating I guess in the pretty near future, it’s going to be announced fairly soon, but we’ll be debating her.”
Cori Bush lost her Democratic primary after pro-Israel pressure groups spent millions of dollars to unseat her over criticisms of Israel’s war on Gaza. St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell defeated Missouri’s first Black female member of Congress with about 51% of the vote. Bush, a member of the progressive “Squad”, took about 46%.
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“It can’t be said seriously enough, so much is on the line and compounded with everything else that we knew was on the line,” said Kamala Harris.
“Donald Trump has openly vowed, if re-elected, he will be a dictator on day one, that he would weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies, that he would round up peaceful protesters and throw them out of our country, and even quote, terminate the United States constitution.
Let us be clear, someone who suggests we should terminate the constitution of the United States should never again have a chance to stand behind the seal of the president of the United States.”
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Kamala Harris: 'We are joyful warriors'
“We are joyful warriors,” Kamala Harris said, in apparent reference to Tim Walz’s comment yesterday that she has brought “joy” back to the campaign trail.
She added:
“Because we know that while fighting for a brighter future may be hard work, hard work is good work …
We believe in a future where we lower the cost of living for America’s families so that they have a chance, not just to get by, but to get ahead. Because while our economy is doing well by many measures, prices for everyday things like groceries, are still too high. You know it, and I know it.”
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Kamala Harris has now taken the stage.
Wearing a white shirt and tan pants, Harris waved excitedly to a crowd of cheering supporters, many of whom are waving “Harris Walz” signs.
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“One of the best parts of this job is going to be, I can’t wait till the debate,” Tim Walz said in response to loud cheers from the crowd.
He added:
“So look, I’ve done this enough and I know bullies and I’m not a name caller, but what I am is a teacher, I observe things. So I want to tell you what I observed, and you’ve observed … about these guys, when you see them, that it’s a very clear thing. Yes, they are creepy and weird as hell. You see it. You see it. This is not normal. This is not normal behavior.”
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Walz: 'We settle our political differences not through violence but through our votes'
“We settle our political differences not through violence but through our votes,” said Tim Walz.
He added:
“The question is pretty simple. This election is all about asking that question, which direction will this country go in? Donald Trump knows the direction he wants to take it. He wants to take us back. He wants to do the things that he saw. But be very clear.
Don’t believe him when he plays dumb. He knows exactly what he’s talking about. He knows exactly what Project 2025 will do in restricting and taking our freedoms. He knows that it rigs the economy for the super rich if he gets a chance to go back to the White House. It will be far worse than it was four years ago.”
“We’re pretty neighborly with Wisconsin. We did our friendly battles in Minnesota, just like in Wisconsin. We respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make, even if we wouldn’t make the same choices for ourselves, because we know there’s a golden rule, mind your own damn business. Mind your own damn business,” said Tim Walz.
“I don’t need you telling me about our healthcare. I don’t need you telling us who we love, and I sure the hell don’t need you telling us what books we’re going to read,” he added.
At one point, someone in the crowd appeared to cry out from the heat, to which Walz responded, “Can we get somebody to help? Somebody’s hot, somebody’s hot … Drink some water folks, it is hot out.”
The individual appeared to have swiftly been help, with Walz saying, “Thank you all for helping … We all take care of one another. This is is why we gather. Look, it’s hot. It is hot … But I have to tell you all again, in all seriousness, to come and gather like this, to talk about our freedoms, the ability to talk about what could be good, and I have to say, this idea of caring for our neighbors … and to be able to be there when you need it. It’s not about mocking.”
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“We don’t shy away from challenges, but I’ll tell you what: Donald Trump, he sees the world differently than we see it,” said Tim Walz.
“He has no understanding of service because he’s too busy servicing himself … This guy weakens our country to strengthen his own hands. He mocks our laws. He sows chaos and division among the people and that’s to say nothing of the job he did as president,” he added.
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Tim Walz has taken the stage in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Walz is in Wisconsin alongside Kamala Harris as part of their campaign blitz across seven states in five days.
Walz opened up by talking about his military, teaching and coaching background, saying, “My mom and dad taught me to show generosity to my neighbors and work for a common good.”
Describing himself and Donald Trump amid Democrats including Tim Walz calling GOP leaders “weird”, JD Vance said:
“I think that what makes Donald Trump and I good candidates and a good team … is that we’re normal guys who want to make this country great again, and we want Americans to be able to live the American dream …
And what’s going to happen is the American people aren’t going to care about it because they don’t care about some tagline written by a social media intern. They care about which president and which vice-president is going to make their country better and their lives more safe and more secure. Donald Trump and I are proud to carry that message forward for the next 93 days.”
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In response to a question on whether he thinks it matters that Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz, JD Vance replied:
“What does Kamala Harris’s selection of Tim Walz say about her? Well, I think it says one, she’s leaning into the defund the police radicalism of the last few years. Two, she’s leaning into the open borders policies of last year … And then the final point that I’d say is it says that she bent the knee to the Hamas caucus of the Democrat party.”
JD Vance, who earlier today said that he was “not bothered at all” by Donald Trump’s attacks on Harris’s biracial identity, went on to repeat the Republican attack line that Harris skipped Josh Shapiro as her running mate because of his Jewish identity.
He said:
“The amount of rage that you heard from the far left saying Kamala Harris can’t pick this guy because he’s Jewish is disgraceful. I want my kids to grow up in a country where they can be whatever they want to be, and people aren’t attacking them for their ethnic heritage … It’s not just what these people said about Shapiro. It’s the way that the Harris administration and the Harris campaign refused to push back against it. I think it’s a real scandal.”
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JD Vance is going to take questions from the media at his event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, when he wraps up his remarks at his Republican campaign event at Wollard International, an aviation ground equipment manufacturer.
Donald Trump’s running mate in the 2024 election has been speaking about the smuggling of fentanyl across the US-Mexico border and blaming the Biden administration’s immigration policies for a lack of security to curb the trade.
He also spoke to his background where his mother is now in recovery from the opioid addiction that affected his whole childhood. He blamed Kamala Harris for not securing the border toughly enough.
And he also slammed high inflation.
“Every single thing that Americans need to buy … has become more expensive because of Kamala Harris,” he said, of the woman now at the top of the Democratic ticket in the presidential election.
From the looks on the faces of the workers arranged behind Vance as he’s speaking, they are not electrified by his remarks.
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JD Vance has now taken the podium at his event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Donald Trump’s running mate just joked about his flight landing around the same time as Kamala Harris’s.
He joked that Air Force Two would soon be his to occupy.
He also said Harris “should be ashamed of herself” for not doing any interviews with reporters since she took over the top of the Democratic ticket for the presidential election.
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Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, are about to speak at an open-air rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
We’ll bring you the news from that event, where they are currently playing Bob Marley’s Sun Is Shining to the crowd. Those waiting at the rival JD Vance event heard James Brown’s It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World. Signaling much?
The pool of reporters traveling with the US vice-president reported that the disembarkation from Air Force Two in Wisconsin was a bit delayed.
“JD Vance’s plane could be seen taxiing in the distance shortly after we landed.”
Here’s a clip:
Trump Force Two and JD Vance landed Eau Claire, WI, to find Kamala Harris and Air Force Two already here! pic.twitter.com/GHJyA4Nh4K
— Rob Crilly (@robcrilly) August 7, 2024
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While live political events are running late, here is some fresh news about the right-wing playbook Project 2025, via the Associated Press.
As Project 2025 hits turmoil, the head of the influential, far-right Heritage Foundation is postponing the release of his potentially fiery new book until after the November presidential election, the AP reports.
Kevin Roberts, who took over Project 2025 as part of a leadership shake-up amid blowback over its recommendations for a potential Donald Trump White House, said Wednesday he is focused on defeating presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Trump’s running mate JD Vancepenned the forward to Roberts’ book.
There’s a time for writing, reading, and book tours — and a time to put down the books and go fight like hell to take back our country. That’s why I’ve chosen to move my book’s publication and promotion to after the election,” said Roberts, the president of Heritage Action who has been mentioned as a potential chief of staff in a Trump White House, in a statement.
The Real Clear Politics news site first reported the decision.
Orchestrated by Heritage, Project 2025 is an ultra-conservative blueprint for the next Republican White House, with startling proposals that include firing large swaths of the federal government workforce and disassembling longstanding agencies, including the Justice Department. Trump has said the outside group doesn’t speak for his campaign, but many of his most trusted former White House officials are architects of the plan and are preparing for a second Trump administration.
Read the Guardian’s Rachel Leingang on Project 2025.
At the location in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance is about to speak, they’re playing one of Donald Trump’s favorite songs over the speakers, Village People’s YMCA.
It’s a song the former president likes to get spinning on the decks at his Mar-a-Lago resort and residence in Palm Beach, Florida, too.
At the same time the White House media briefing is due, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, for an interesting split screen with the campaign trail in the midwest.
Both are running late. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are due to speak at another location in Eau Claire before the half-hour.
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — JD Vance deplanes on the same tarmac as AF2 as Harris/Walz campaign in town at the same time. Vance, instead of getting in his motorcade, has walked across the tarmac toward the VP’s plane but we are held at a distance pic.twitter.com/BAOiaD0PNR
— Alec Hernández (@AlecAHernandez) August 7, 2024
Vance will be speaking at Wollard International, an aviation ground equipment manufacturer.
Where Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance will be speaking later today at Wollard International, an aviation ground equipment manufacturer in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. pic.twitter.com/kmaqk8qIIL
— Mike De Sisti (@mdesisti) August 7, 2024
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Here is another video of the crowd waiting in anticipation of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where the duo is set to take the stage at around 2.30pm ET:
This is Eau Claire, Wisconsin now. Population of 70,000 & represented by a Republican in Congress. Just breathtaking. pic.twitter.com/vlELu6Ayd2
— Victor Shi (@Victorshi2020) August 7, 2024
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Long lines in Wisconsin for Harris-Walz event as JD Vance to hold rival rally
Long lines are forming in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, before Kamala Harris and Tim Walz’s much-anticipated rally, according to photos and videos posted on social media:
Three hours until Harris and Walz are set to appear in Eau Claire and this is the line of cars to get to the rally…
— Sabrina Rodríguez (@sabrod123) August 7, 2024
1.5 miles away. pic.twitter.com/kwyqikAqNV
A look at the crowd lining up for Harris/Walz in Eau Claire, WI. They’ll be joined by WI Gov Tony Evers, Sen Tammy Baldwin, and musician Bon Iver (Eau Claire native). JD Vance also in town speaking at same time. Full coverage today on @CBSNews and @WCCO pic.twitter.com/uy7InTX7Ro
— Adam Duxter (@AdamDuxter) August 7, 2024
Spectators were seen waiting for Harris and Walz to appear:
JD Vance is also set to hold a rally in Eau Claire around the same time as Harris as Walz – and will be hoping for good turnout.
Video posted on social media appeared to show a much thinner crowd during his earlier campaign stop in Shelby Township, Michigan.
JD Vance's Michigan rally could've been an email. https://t.co/HxColcM5Nz
— Christopher Hale (@chrisjollyhale) August 7, 2024
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Barack Obama: Tim Walz has 'values and the integrity to make us proud'
In an endorsement post on X, Barack Obama wrote of Tim Walz:
“Governor Walz doesn’t just have the experience to be vice president, he has the values and the integrity to make us proud. And as we saw last night, @KamalaHarris and @Tim_Walz make a great team.
Now let’s do everything we can – volunteer, donate, organize – from now until November to help them get elected.”
Governor Walz doesn’t just have the experience to be vice president, he has the values and the integrity to make us proud. And as we saw last night, @KamalaHarris and @Tim_Walz make a great team.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 7, 2024
Now let’s do everything we can – volunteer, donate, organize – from now until… pic.twitter.com/M4339rHmVq
JD Vance, who served as a combat correspondent for four years from 2003 to 2007 during the Iraq war, attacked Tim Walz’s military record, which included a 24-year run with the army national guard before his retirement in 2005 as a command sergeant major.
Speaking at a campaign event in Michigan, Vance said:
“I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? What was this weapon that you carried into war, given that you abandoned your unit right before they went into Iraq, and he has not spent a day in a combat zone. What’s bothers me about Tim Walz is this stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not.
And if he wants to criticise me for getting an Ivy League education, I’m proud of the fact that my mamaw supported me, that I was able to make something of myself, I’d be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did.”
In 2018, Walz said in an interview, “I know that there are certainly folks that did far more than I did. I know that … I willingly say that I got far more out of the military than they got out of me, from the GI bill to leadership opportunities to everything else.”
During his attack against Walz, JD Vance avoided mentioning Donald Trump’s avoidance of the Vietnam draft (which according to a podiatrist in Queens who rented his office from Donald Trump’s father, was due to timely bone spurs in Trump’s heels).
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During his campaign, JD Vance doubled down on the Republican accusation that Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz over Josh Shapiro because of his Jewish identity.
A reporter asked:
“You have repeatedly suggested that the only reason Kamala Harris didn’t pick Josh Shapiro is because of his Jewish faith. Do you have any evidence to support that assertion that a person who is married to a Jewish man is somehow antisemitic or bowing to antisemites?”
In response, JD Vance said:
“Well I reject the premise of the question. I did not say that was the only reason that Kamala Harris didn’t choose Josh Shapiro so you should take a little less DNC talking points when you ask your question and ask a real question.”
Following Harris’s pick of Walz as her running mate, JD Vance told Fox News on Tuesday that by choosing Walz, Harris “bent the knee to the far-left”, adding, “This decision, selecting Tim Walz, is another sign that she doesn’t care what the American people think. She is only in this to obey the far-left radicals within her own party. It’s a really shameful moment for Kamala Harris.”
Shapiro has been a vocal supporter of Israel amid its war on Gaza which has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians since Hamas’s 7 October attacks that killed 1,200 Israelis.
During the anti-war student protests across US college campuses, Shapiro appeared to compare the student demonstrators to the KKK, saying, “We have to query whether or not we would tolerate this if this were people dressed up in KKK outfits or KKK regalia.”
Shapiro, who says his views have changed, has also once written that “peace will never come” to the Middle East, describing Palestinians as “battle-minded”.
Since Walz’s pick as Harris’s running mate, reports have emerged that Shapiro appeared circumspect about the vice presidency position during the final selection process, with various sources familiar with the matter saying that he had numerous questions about the role and his responsibilities.
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JD Vance continued to stick to Donald Trump and Republicans’ attack line questioning Kamala Harris’s biracial identity, saying:
“Donald Trump said something very simple, totally inoffensive but frankly obviously true to me which is that Kamala Harris is a chameleon. She’s a fake …”
In response to a question from a reporter who asked, “How can you fake your race?”, JD Vance replied:
“She fakes who she is depending on the audience that she’s in front of and that’s who she is and that’s who she’s always been.”
So they are sticking with “she ain’t black?” https://t.co/UMic9m4fuf
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 7, 2024
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JD Vance on Trump's attacks on Harris's racial identity: 'I was not bothered at all'
During his campaign in Shelby Township, Michigan, JD Vance defended Donald Trump’s attacks on Kamala Harris’s biracial identity, saying that he saw no problem with the former president’s comments at the NABJ conference last week where he said Harris “happened to turn Black”.
In response to a question on how he would explain Trump’s attacks, JD Vance, who is married to Usha Vance, an Indian American lawyer, and has biracial children, said:
“I was not bothered at all by what President Trump said I didn’t take it as an attack on Kamala Harris’s biracial background at all.
What I took it as was an attack on Kamala Harris being a chameleon. She pretends to be one thing when she’s in front of one audience, she pretends to be something else when she’s in front of another audience and I think he was observing the basic foundational reality that Kamala Harris pretends to be something different, depending on which audience she’s speaking to.”
Vance: I was not bothered at all by what President Trump said I didn't take it as an attack on Kamala Harris’ biracial background at all pic.twitter.com/SPu5j56v7s
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 7, 2024
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In response to #TamponTim, a trending and apparently mocking hashtag online that takes aim at Tim Walz and his efforts to provide menstrual products to all students, including transgender students, Hillary Clinton defended the progressive Minnesota governor.
Writing on X, Clinton said:
“How nice of the Trump camp to help publicize Gov. Tim Walz’s compassionate and common-sense policy of providing free menstrual products to students in Minnesota public schools! Let’s do this everywhere.”
How nice of the Trump camp to help publicize Gov. Tim Walz's compassionate and common-sense policy of providing free menstrual products to students in Minnesota public schools! Let's do this everywhere. pic.twitter.com/hk6v8cs8p4
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 7, 2024
Tim Walz does not own any stocks, according to financial disclosures reviewed by Axios and confirmed by a spokesperson.
In Axios’s business editor Dan Primack’s newsletter, Primack reports that Walz’s disclosures also do not indicate any mutual funds, bonds, private equities or other securities.
Kamala Harris’s vice-president pick also does not have any book deals, speaking fees or crypto or racehorse interests, Primack reports, adding that Walz does not also own any real estate.
According to the report, the Walzes’ only investment assets appear to be from state pensions.
Tim Walz's finances (per @danprimack newsletter) pic.twitter.com/wIqegLBfNt
— Max Lockie (@staphwriter) August 7, 2024
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In a new post on X, Kamala Harris said that with Tim Walz by her side, “Let us fight for the promise of America’s future.”
With @Tim_Walz by my side, and with all of you at our sides—let us fight for the promise of America’s future. pic.twitter.com/TyDeqWkNPK
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 7, 2024
The duo is set to campaign in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan, today as part of their campaign blitz across seven states in five days.
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'I could not be more thrilled': Trump reacts to Harris's VP pick
Here is video of Donald Trump describing his shock at Kamala Harris’s vice-president pick, Tim Walz:
"I can't believe it. ... I could not be more thrilled."
— The Recount (@therecount) August 7, 2024
— Donald Trump is very happy that Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz as her VP pick pic.twitter.com/tMUxSekadZ
Speaking to Fox News, Trump said he “could not be more thrilled”.
Martin Pengelly reported further on Trump’s Fox News interview for the Guardian, writing earlier this morning:
“Trump also claimed to have saved Walz from ‘thousands’ of pro-Trump protesters with ‘the American flags and the Maga flags’ who Trump said ‘surrounded’ Walz’s house in summer 2020, when Minnesota saw protests and rioting prompted by the police murder of George Floyd.”
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In the days leading up to Kamala Harris’s final selection of her vice-president, three finalists were presented to her by her campaign team: Josh Shapiro, Mark Kelly and Tim Walz, the New York Times reports.
Among the questioners who interviewed the finalists were Marty Walsh, Joe Biden’s labor secretary, Cedric Richmond, a campaign co-chair, Tony West, Harris’s brother-in-law, Dana Remus, a former White House counsel, and Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada senator.
According to the report, “Mr. Shapiro had privately appeared more circumspect about the vice presidency, according to multiple people familiar with the selection process, asking about his role and responsibilities.
“Mr. Shapiro, 51, is widely seen as harboring his own presidential ambitions, which could have complicated any relationship where his chief job would be to serve as a dutiful No. 2,” the Times added.
Meanwhile, the impression Walz gave off the Harris was “joyful” and “willing to do anything for the team”.
According to a source speaking to the Times anonymously, Harris said, “He’s just so open,” adding, “I really like him.” Additionally, Walz reportedly explicitly told Harris to not pick him if he could not help her win in November.
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The Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign has rolled out its newest merchandise: the Harris-Walz camo hat which it described as the “most iconic political hat in America”.
The embroidered hat with the orange words is described on the website as “America made, union made” and sells for $40.
Capping off the night. https://t.co/pgF98PaOLr pic.twitter.com/DwAQ4hoKkY
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) August 7, 2024
The hat appears to pay homage to Missouri-born popstar Chappell Roan’s own tour merchandise collection which also features a camo hat with the orange words, “Midwest Princess”.
Following the release of the Harris-Walz hat, Roan herself took notice of the resemblance, writing on X, “Is this real?”
is this real https://t.co/4HBBEQuo7q
— Chappell Roan (@ChappellRoan) August 7, 2024
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More from Donald Trump’s friendly Fox & Friends phoner, in which the former president and current Republican nominee took softball questions from the hosts on the cream couch and from a small crowd in Sturgis, South Dakota, who turned out before dawn to cheer him:
On Tim Walz’s charge that Trump is not fighting for “kitchen-table issues”: Walz said so during his rally with Kamala Harris in Philadelphia yesterday, saying Trump was “sat at his country club in Mar-a-Lago wondering how he can cut taxes for his rich friends”. On Fox, Trump answered by rambling about his “unbelievable business, one of the greatest businesses, I built a business that is phenomenal”. The Trump Organization has certainly generated a phenomenal number of legal problems of late, not least a multi-hundred-million-dollar fine and other penalties for business fraud and a jail term for its chief financial officer.
On what he will do for the economy on day one of a second term: “The first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to ‘drill baby drill’ and then number two, and I can do lots of things in the first day, it’s not one thing or two things or four things, we’re going to do lots of things on the first day, but we’re going to close up the border. We’ll let people come in but they have to come in legally.” Notably, Trump has said he wants to be a “dictator” on his first day back in office.
On surviving an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania last month, and on news of another plot to kill him: “I’m in a very dangerous business. Being president is a dangerous thing. And especially when you’re an active president, when you are somebody that wants to make our country secure, when you want to build a strong military, we built, I rebuilt our entire military, and we gave a lot of it away to Afghanistan, which is, like, shocking, that was by the way the Afghanistan when we showed that gross incompetence in Afghanistan, I was getting out but we’re getting out with tremendous dignity and strength, we were the boss and … [and much more on Afghanistan, Ukraine – “I can go into Ukraine”, Iran and Hamas.]
On the media “honeymoon” period for Harris and whether it “must drive you crazy”: “It does.”
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Usha Vance has come to her husband JD Vance’s defense after his comments on “childish cat ladies” running the country surfaced in recent weeks.
In an interview with Fox News, Usha Vance responded to a question on what she would say to people who were offended by JD Vance’s comment, saying:
“JD absolutely, at the time and today, would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family, who really ... was struggling with that…
And I also understand there are a lot of other reasons why people may choose not to have families and many of those reasons are very good.”
Usha Vance’s comments have been paraphrased by Vanity Fair as, “My husband only meant to insult people who actively choose not to have kids, not people who are trying but are unsuccessful” in a new headline.
thanks for the clarification pic.twitter.com/LSQxPyNGPm
— đan (@danqdao) August 6, 2024
She also did not mention her husband’s other attacks in which he called people without children “sociopathic”, “psychotic” and “deranged”.
For more on Usha Vance’s defense of her husband’s words – which she described as a “quip”, click here:
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Trump compares Walz to Sanders and teases Harris debate news
Donald Trump called into Fox & Friends this morning, for half an hour of softball questions teeing up invective about Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Democrats’ supposed antisemitism and other matters. Here are some of the highlights …
On Tim Walz for vice-president: Trump said he was surprised Harris picked the Minnesota governor, who he predictably slammed for being extremely progressive, repeatedly comparing him to Bernie Sanders. Trump also claimed to have saved Walz from “thousands” of pro-Trump protesters with “the American flags and the Maga flags” who Trump said “surrounded” Walz’s house in summer 2020, when Minnesota saw protests and rioting prompted by the police murder of George Floyd. Trump said Walz asked him to “put out the word that I’m a good person”, so Trump did and the crowd went home. “And he called me back and he thanked me very much, that’s my only thing I’ve ever had to deal with him,” said Trump, who in 2019, as president, appointed Walz to the bipartisan Council of Governors.
On Josh Shapiro missing out: Trump said he was “no big fan” of the Pennsylvania governor but “would have said it would have been a better choice” for Harris to pick him. Claiming to be leading in Pennsylvania – contestable, at least – Trump also agreed with his hosts that antisemitism, stoked by Shapiro’s positions on Israel and Gaza, played a role in Shapiro missing out. “I think that any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat … should have their head examined,” said Trump – a man whose own alleged antisemitic remarks memorably include the contention, “The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. Those are the kind of people I want counting my money. No one else.” Trump also claimed, in the same answer, to be in with a chance of winning New York. Polling there shows Harris pulling clear.
On whether he will debate Harris: Trump fringed close to making news when he said: “We’ll be debating I guess in the pretty near future, it’s going to be announced fairly soon, but we’ll be debating her.” Trump had agreed a second debate with Joe Biden on ABC News but has said he will only debate on Fox News. Harris says it has to be ABC. “I would like to say my preference would be Fox but we have to debate,” Trump said, adding: “I think debates are very important as they should be exposed just like Biden was exposed.” It’s true Biden’s catastrophic debate display against Trump in June hastened the end of the president’s candidacy for re-election. But Harris – who Trump complained the media wanted to “build up into the next Margaret Thatcher, liberal version” – would be a very different opponent.
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Trump attacks Harris and Walz, claiming they want to make US a communist country
Donald Trump has attacked Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in an interview with Fox and Friends on Wednesday morning.
The former president trotted out familiar attack lines, trying to paint his Democratic opponent as “communist” and out of touch with American voters.
During a phone-in interview, Trump claimed: “This is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately if not sooner.”
He went on to disparage Walz’s record on protecting gender-affirming care in Minnesota while suggesting Harris not choosing Josh Shapiro was “very insulting to Jewish people”.
"This is a ticket that would want this county to go communist immediately if not sooner ... he's very heavy into transgender. Anything transgender he thinks is great ... I think it's very insulting to Jewish people" -- Trump on Fox & Friends on Harris/Walz pic.twitter.com/61Phj3OTVx
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 7, 2024
Analysis: why Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz
Walz emerged as Harris’s pick after a search lasting two weeks that saw the vice-president also consider a group that included the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, and Arizona senator Mark Kelly. The choice of Walz drew praise from across the Democratic party’s ideological spectrum.
The progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Harris made an “excellent decision”, while Joe Manchin, the West Virginia senator who recently left the party and is best known for hamstringing Biden’s proposals to fight child poverty and more aggressively combat climate change, said: “I can think of no one better than Governor Walz to help bring our country closer together and bring balance back to the Democratic party.”
Republicans responded to Walz’s selection by posting on social media images of the protests the rocked Minneapolis four years ago after George Floyd’s murder, reminders of the governor’s support for a law allowing undocumented migrants to obtain driver’s licenses, plus a massive Covid relief scandal that took place during his administration.
Now in his second term as governor, the former congressman and high school teacher brings to the ticket a record of progressive policymaking, a somewhat sympathetic view towards pro-Palestine protesters, and a distinctly Minnesotan style of communication the campaign could use in its efforts to win the nearby swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Here’s the full analysis from my colleague Chris Stein:
Our Revolution, a grassroots US progressive political organization founded by Bernie Sanders, condemned the outcome of Cori Bush’s Democratic primary.
Joseph Geevarghese, spokesperson for the group, said Democratic party leaders failed to support Bush against a “barrage of racist attacks and millions of dollars” being spent to unseat her.
Geevarghese said in a statement: “Cori Bush had the moral courage to speak out against her constituents’ taxpayer dollars funding war crimes in Gaza. As a result, Aipac and its Maga Republican-funded super Pac spent more than $8.4m to buy her congressional seat.
“Democratic party elites have spent years decrying Trump as an existential threat to democracy, yet they are resoundingly silent when wealthy conservative donors unseat a true working-class champion who was among the first federal lawmakers to endorse Kamala Harris in her historic candidacy for president.”
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Progressive congresswoman Cori Bush loses primary after pro-Israel campaign against her
The other big news late on Wednesday was congresswoman Cori Bush losing her Democratic primary after pro-Israel pressure groups spent millions of dollars to unseat her over criticisms of Israel’s war on Gaza.
St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell defeated Missouri’s first Black female member of Congress with about 51% of the vote. Bush, a member of the progressive “Squad”, took about 46%.
Bell’s win marks a second major victory for the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) after it played a leading role in unseating New York congressman Jamaal Bowman, another progressive Democrat who criticized the scale of Palestinian civilians deaths in Gaza, in a June primary.
Aipac pumped $8.5m into the race in Missouri’s first congressional district to support Bell through its campaign funding arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP), after Bush angered some pro-Israel groups as one of the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire after the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.
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Kamala Harris is drawing more support from Black voters than Joe Biden did, while Donald Trump’s support among white voters has risen somewhat in recent months, according to an analysis of Reuters/Ipsos polling.
The analysis, which examined more than 10,000 responses from seven nationwide Reuters/Ipsos polls conducted since May, says about 70% of Black voters polled in July picked Harris over Trump on a hypothetical ballot, up from 59% who backed Biden in May and June polls. Trump’s share of the Black vote rose marginally to 12% in July from 9% in May and June.
Trump, meanwhile, is seeing increased support from white voters. Some 50% picked Trump in July polls, up from 46% in May and June. Harris had the support of 38% of white voters in July, compared to 36% in May and June.
The race remains essentially tied, with Harris and Trump each getting 43% support in an aggregate of last month’s polls. Biden and Trump each had 40% in the polls conducted in the previous two months.
The analysis examined poll responses gathered throughout July on a hypothetical Harris-Trump contest and included responses from before Biden, 81, ended his bid. All responses on Harris, however, were gathered after Biden’s 27 June debate against Trump, when the president’s faltering performance led Democrats to call on him to end his campaign.
White voters make up the biggest racial bloc, accounting for 72% of all voters in the 2020 election, according to the Pew Research Center, though their share of the electorate has dropped sharply in recent decades.
African Americans accounted for only 11% of voters that year. But they are a critical component of the Democratic Party’s coalition and could play an outsized role in this year’s election.
Black voters in Georgia, for example, propelled Biden to victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election. But a surge in the cost of living and what they see as a lack of progress on racial justice issues has prompted disillusionment in some quarters.
Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, was meant to campaign in North Carolina on Wednesday.
But severe weather forced the campaign to cancel the events in Raleigh and Oakboro.
Heavy rain was forecast as Tropical Storm Debby pushes into the state. The Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, declared a state of emergency on Monday.
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After Wisconsin, Harris and Walz fly off to Michigan, for an evening rally at Wayne county airport.
They will be joined by Democratic party officials, several congressmen and women as well as Detroit mayor Mike Duggan, senator Debbie Stabenow, and governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Shawn Fain, the influential president of the United Autoworkers Union, will be there too, after his union endorsed Harris last week. Harris and Walz are expected to speak at 7pm ET.
Harris and Walz to head to Wisconsin and Michigan
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are off to Eau Claire in Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan, on Wednesday to continue their battleground tour after a raucous debut of the Minnesota governor in Philadelphia.
The rally in Wisconsin is due to start at 12pm CT and the vice-president and Walz will be joined by Wisconsin’s governor Tony Evers, senator Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin secretary of state Sarah Godlewski, and others.
Indie folk band Bon Iver, who have their roots in Eau Claire, will perform at the rally before Harris and Walz are due to address the crowd around 1.25pm CT.
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Walz’s name has left some people confused as to how to pronounce it.
Is it “Waltz”, as in the dance, or “Walls”, as in the things that hold up roofs, or even “Wal-tz” as in Walmart? Turns out it’s “Waalls”, as in “Walls” but with a slightly longer “a”. He says it that way himself.
Minnesota news site MPR news has this handy video explainer:
Cheat sheet: 10 things to know about Tim Walz
Tim Walz came from relative obscurity to seize the glittering prize of becoming Kamala Harris’s running mate. So who is he and what should you know about him?
Martin Pengelly has this handy cheat sheet to help you learn more about the Minnesota governor:
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The coach v the couch: key takeaways from the first Harris-Walz rally
Kamala Harris introduced her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, to supporters at a packed, energetic rally at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Harris sought to define Walz foremost as a teacher, veteran and football coach.
Walz focused on a unifying, future-focused message, and attacked the Trump-Vance ticket with a focus on reproductive rights and other freedoms.
Meanwhile Josh Shapiro, who had been a vice-presidential contender, still made his mark.
Here are some images from the Harris/Walz campaign rally in Philadelphia last night.
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Kamala Harris introduces running mate Tim Walz at raucous Philadelphia rally
Kamala Harris introduced her running mate Tim Walz as “the kind of vice-president America deserves” at a raucous rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday that showcased Democratic unity and enthusiasm for the party’s presidential ticket ahead of the November election.
Casting their campaign as a “fight for the future”, Harris and Walz were repeatedly interrupted by applause and cheering as they addressed thousands of battleground-state voters wearing bracelets that twinkled red, white and blue at Temple University’s Liacouras Center – a crowd Harris’s team said was its largest to date.
“Thank you for bringing back the joy,” a beaming Walz told Harris after she debuted the little-known Minnesota governor as a former social studies teacher, high school football coach and a National Guard veteran.
“We’ve got 91 days,” he declared. “My God, that’s easy. We’ll sleep when we’re dead.”
