Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign smashed all kinds of records
in the first 48 hours, and the momentum—and record-breaking—hasn’t flagged since. The grassroots is energized. Small donors are swarming to her. Big donors are flocking to her and the whole tenor of this fight to save our democracy has been infused with hope and enthusiasm and plain-old fun
.
The money continues to pour in—more than $130 million
by mid-week primarily from small donors. That more than doubled
the $96 million cash on hand the Biden-Harris campaign had at the end of June.
Where some of that money is coming from is even fun—all those campaign Zoom calls, each of which has broken previous participant and money records. It started with Win with Black Women
on Sunday, with 44,000 participants and $1.6 million raised. Then on Monday, Win With Black Men
built on that with over 40,000 participants, netting about $1.3 million.
On Thursday night, “White Women: Answer the Call” literally broke Zoom
with 164,000
participants handing over more than $2 million in just an hour. Not to be outdone, White Dudes for Harris
, who “aren’t going to sit around and let the MAGA crowd bully other white guys into voting for a hateful and divisive ideology” will have their call next Monday.
Since Sunday, more than 100,000 people
have signed up to volunteer for the Harris campaign, and more than 2,000 people applied for campaign jobs by Wednesday. That includes 6,600 new sign-ups in Florida
, 3,000 in Michigan
, 4,000 in Pennsylvania
, more than 1,300 in Arizona
, and more than 1,000 in Wisconsin
, ready to start knocking on doors this weekend.
Harris got three more big endorsements, from Democratic congressional leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer
on Tuesday, and the week was capped off by the most exciting endorsement (after President Joe Biden’s) from former president and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama.
More national labor groups
pledged their support to Harris, including “educators, construction workers, health care professionals, farmworkers, postal workers, service and public employees, as well as workers in communications, hospitality, nursing, transportation, utility and manufacturing,” a campaign press release said.
And finally, she still doesn’t have any criminal convictions.
Rep. Ronny Jackson, the former White House doctor for Donald Trump, is spitting mad
about what FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress
on Wednesday about the July 13 attempt on Donald Trump’s life. Wray said that it’s not clear yet “whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that … hit [Trump’s] ear.”
That’s blasphemy in Trump world. So Jackson is out to refute it. In a letter
posted on Trump’s Truth Social site, Jackson insisted, “There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet. Congress should correct the record as confirmed by both the hospital and myself. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”
In fact, the hospital has not confirmed any such thing.
The hospital has released very little information about the injury, the treatment, or Trump’s condition. That’s led commentators
like Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and the chief medical correspondent for CNN, to call for a “full public assessment of Trump’s injuries,” saying it “is necessary, for both the former president’s own health and the clarity it can provide for voters about the recovery of the man who could become president of the United States once again.”
The only medical information the Trump campaign has released comes from the disgraced Jackson
, who was demoted
by the Navy after a Defense Department report found he drank on the job, among other misbehavior. Jackson was not Trump’s attending physician immediately following the shooting. Furthermore, he reportedly no longer has a valid medical license
and is certified only to provide emergency treatment or to practice on military bases.
The lack of information around Trump’s injury is troubling. In what universe is a presidential candidate shot and the hospital doesn’t make a statement about the treatment? More information should be public knowledge by now.
It also shouldn’t matter if Trump was injured by glass or shrapnel. It doesn’t change the fact that he survived an assassination attempt—and should be cooperating with the investigation to find out all the answers.
Instead, he’s lashing out
against Wray. “No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel,” Trump posted Thursday on Truth Social. “The hospital called it a ‘bullet wound to the ear,’ and that is what it was. No wonder the once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!”
Trump needs to bolster the mythology that he, in his words
, “took a bullet for democracy.” It wasn’t enough to have survived a horrendous assassination attempt. The MAGA hagiography
demands more drama, that he be “shot”—a whole convention was centered on that
.
After nearly a near year of careful planning, organizers of the Democratic National Convention
are in a mad dash to accommodate a new nominee, a re-crafted program, and a highly compressed deadline to pull everything off as though this was the plan all along.
With President Joe Biden
now out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris
pursuing the party’s nomination, a dramatic role reversal for the two is likely to play out before a nationally televised audience when around 5,000 delegates, 12,000 volunteers, and 15,000 media members gather for four days in Chicago starting Aug. 19.
Harris is banking on introducing her vice presidential pick to the country and standing at center stage to accept her party’s nomination. Biden—who until mere days ago thought he’d be the one getting the nod—will have a more peripheral and ceremonial role akin to the treatment of second-term presidents set to leave office.
He will still give a speech and have his achievements feted, but the whole thing will require a delicate political balance between the president and his No. 2.
“If it’s a Biden-Harris reelection convention, it’s all about doubling down on the great accomplishment. The challenge, obviously, will be how to sort of bank that, but also talk about the future,” said William M. Daley, a former Obama White House chief of staff whose father and brother were Chicago mayors.
There have occasionally been tensions, or at least struggles with political messaging and tone, as vice presidents campaign to succeed a president—like in 2000, when Bill Clinton was in office and Al Gore was seeking the White House. Clinton left the convention after offering a triumphant review of his accomplishments on the first day, but prominent party leaders urged him to more definitively cede the spotlight to his vice president going forward, citing the Monica Lewinsky scandal that prompted the president’s impeachment.
Then-Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who would be the Democratic nominee himself four years later, said of Clinton: “We may need to get the Jaws of Life to pry him free from the thing — but we’ve got to pry him free.”
As for Biden’s situation this year, “there are people in the party that would have rather seen something different happen. The question is can this be subsumed to an overarching unity message,” said Julia Azari, a political science professor at Marquette University who is co-authoring a book on the vice presidency and political parties.
A convention helmed by Harris would nonetheless make history as Democrats become the first major party to nominate a woman of color for president
.
“It lights a fire under national Democrats. It’s an added level of history,” said Christian Perry, political director for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. He added that Harris would break more barriers in a city that produced a series of history-making Black Democrats, from the Rev. Jesse Jackson to former President Barack Obama.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a Wisconsin rally—her first as the presidential nominee—on Tuesday.
“I think it’ll be a celebratory mood,” said Bruce Thompson, a member of the convention rules committee. “There’s been way too much gallows humor in the Democratic Party over the last month. And now we have this confidence and this energy.”
Like Biden, Harris could be expected to use the convention to promote the administration’s policy accomplishments, while decrying Republican President Donald Trump
as a threat to democracy
.
But other aspects of the campaign are shifting profoundly—from fundraising and travel schedules to how Harris targets key states and the personal advisers closest to her. The vice president’s “Harris for President” logo in blue and red does feature lettering similar to the original Biden-Harris reelection insignia, at least.
The convention’s background music could also reflect a fresher vibe.
In the first appearances of her nascent 2024 presidential campaign, Harris’ soundtrack has featured Beyoncé’s hit “Freedom.” Biden’s events leaned more toward working-class-themed ballads by the likes of Bruce Springsteen.
The Chicago convention will have different themes each night, such as economic growth or national diversity. In addition to Biden, there will be addresses from White House alums Barack and Michelle Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Before Biden bowed out of the race, he and his family gathered at Camp David to pose for famed photographer Annie Leibovitz for photos to be used at the convention. They’ll still be used—but likely in a more retrospective way.
For all the upheaval to the presidential race, organizers say actual convention logistics won’t change all that much—highlighting how the quadrennial gatherings are as much about a party partying as they are about fortifying candidates.
“Our mission remains the same,” said convention chair Minyon Moore.
Party staff began occupying the United Center, normally home to the NBA’s Bulls and the NHL’s Blackhawks, on June 25. Construction to remake the arena to better meet the convention’s needs has been underway for more than a month, with nearly as long still to go. The convention logo still reads “CHICAGO” over the city’s signature four-star insignia and “DNC 2024.” The slogan remains: “Our future is created here.”
“There’s not a lot in the actual hall that has to move around because you’re taking one out and putting the other in. It’s all somewhat neutral,” Daley said. “The stage and all that, is all set, if it’s Biden or it’s Harris or who walks out.”
Also unaltered are plans for widespread demonstrations protesting the Biden administration’s strong support for Israel in its war with Hamas
.
Azari said Democrats may be hoping to re-create the last time the Democrats held a Chicago convention in 1996, when there were no significant protests, the party was mostly unified behind Clinton and the lasting image was of Hillary Clinton and others dancing the Macarena.
“The ‘96 convention is what they’re aiming for,” Azair said, “where the biggest story is gonna be people dancing badly.”
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance responded to his previous claim
on Fox News that Democrats are “a bunch of childless cat ladies” by doubling down. “Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment,” Vance told Megyn Kelly on her SiriusXM show on Friday. But then he continued:
“I’ve got nothing against cats. I’ve got nothing against dogs. I’ve got one dog at home and I love them. Meghan. But look, this is not, people are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said and the substance of what I said. Meghan, I’m sorry. It’s true. It is true that we become anti-family. It is true that the left has become anti-child. “
North Carolina state regulators now declare a nonprofit run by wife of North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson must repay over $132,000 for what they call disallowed expenses while carrying out a federally funded child care meal program.
The state Department of Health and Human Services revealed a larger amount in a Friday letter to Yolanda Hill following a compliance review of Balanced Nutrition Inc.
, for which Hall is listed as owner and chief financial officer. Robinson, who is also the Republican nominee for governor this fall, worked in the nonprofit years ago before running for elected office, according to his memoir.
Hill previously announced she was shutting down the nonprofit’s enterprise and withdrawing from the Child and Adult Care Food Program on April 30. But state officials had already announced in March that the annual review of Balance Nutrition would begin April 15.
The review’s findings, released Wednesday, cited new and repeat problems, including lax paperwork and the failure to file valid claims on behalf of child care operators or to report expenses accurately. The program told Hill and other leaders to soon take corrective action on the “serious deficiencies” or regulators would propose they be disqualified from future program participation.
The state health department said on Thursday that the Greensboro nonprofit also owed the state $24,400 in unverified expenses reimbursed to child care providers or homes examined by regulators in the review.
But Friday’s letter counted another $107,719 in ineligible expenses that the state said was generated by Balanced Nutrition performing its work as a program sponsor during the first three months of the year.
Forms signed by regulators attributed over $80,000 of these disallowed costs to “administrative labor” or “operating labor.” The records don’t provide details about the labor costs.
This week’s compliance review did say that Balanced Nutrition should have disclosed and received approval from the program that Hill’s daughter was working for the nonprofit.
A lawyer representing Balanced Nutrition and Hill did not immediately respond to an email Friday seeking comment.
The lawyer, Tyler Brooks, has previously questioned the review’s timing, alleging Balanced Nutrition was being targeted because Hill is Robinson’s wife and that “political bias” tainted the compliance review process. Program leaders, meanwhile, have described in written correspondence difficulties in obtaining documents and meeting with Balanced Nutrition leaders.
The health department is run by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration. He was term-limited from seeking reelection. Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein is running against Robinson for governor.
Balanced Nutrition helped child care centers and homes qualify to participate in the free- and reduced-meal program, filed claims for centers to get reimbursed for meals for enrollees and ensured the centers remained in compliance with program requirements. The nonprofit received a portion of a center’s reimbursement for its services.
Balanced Nutrition, funded by taxpayers, collected roughly $7 million in government funding since 2017, while paying out at least $830,000 in salaries to Hill, Robinson and other members of their family, tax filings and state documents show.
Robinson described in his memoir how the operation brought fiscal stability to his family, giving him the ability to quit a furniture manufacturing job in 2018 and begin a career in politics.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz skewered the GOP’s notion of populism on MSNBC Thursday.
“The golden rule that makes small towns work, so we’re not at each other’s throats all the time,” the Democrat explained, is “mind your own damn business.”
“I don’t need him to tell me about my family,” Walz told host Jen Psaki, referring to Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s many extreme anti-abortion positions.
“I don’t need him telling me about my wife’s health care and her reproductive rights. I don’t need him telling my children what books they can read.”
I think rural America is, they are angry. They were gutted. But Joe Biden’s policies, and now soon-to-be President Harris, bringing back manufacturing jobs, bringing back dignity. Investing in infrastructure. How are you going to build a water treatment plant in a town of 400, if you don’t have a collective effort at it?
So I have to tell you, they scream socialism. We just build roads, and we build schools, and we build prosperity into this. Their whole plan is to go backwards, to give tax cuts to the wealthy. And look, so surprising, you know, the super successful Donald Trump who inherited $400 million dollars and then proceeded to fail at everything. In middle America, you earn it. But you know what? You’re not on your own. Neighbors help neighbors.
This one bothers me. I heard you talking about punching back at the bullies. They see people less fortunate as scapegoats and, you know, punch lines for their jokes. We see them as neighbors.
And I said—with my mom? My dad dies when my little brother’s young—we’re teenagers. We get Social Security survivor benefits. I’m all for pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. We didn’t have any boots. Social Security was the boots. And we pulled ourselves up and we paid that back. And I think JD Vance gets none of that. You know, it’s the, ‘Aw shucks, I’m from here’ or whatever. So, my hillbilly cousins did not go to Yale. But I’ll tell you what they did: They contributed to our community, and they’re proud of it.
Waltz has been doing a bang-up job explaining how Democratic policies benefit working Americans while slamming the GOP’s obsession
with bullying LGBTQ+ children and other marginalized groups while promising tax breaks to the wealthiest people.
Another day, another skeleton dancing from the seemingly bottomless closet of Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance.
As ABC News
reported on Friday, Vance proposed in 2021 that Americans who don’t have children should pay higher taxes. According to Vance, this is because the government should “punish the things that we think are bad.” Like, you know, people who either can’t have or don’t want kids.
That skeleton will have to step around the pile of bones left by Thursday’s revelation that, also in 2021, Vance insisted people with more children should get more votes
. (This is just another aspect of Vance’s deep obsessions with creepy far-right natalism
.)
And that skeleton tripped on the remains of the recent revelation that, in 2022, Vance called for a “federal response
” in dealing with women who tried to seek out-of-state abortions—which he wrapped up in a disgusting fantasy about Black people and George Soros, a Jewish billionaire and Democratic donor.
Don’t worry. There are surely more skeletons where those came from. I’m telling you, Vance is perfect. And he’s also profoundly weird. Not in a good way.
The morning after the pick was announced at the Republican National Convention, our own Kos
put it clearly: Trump had picked “the worst possible running mate,” a man who underperformed in his Ohio Senate election, didn’t expand Trump’s base, and brought nothing to the ticket that would make Trump’s election more likely. Really, Vance seemed to bring nothing to the table except a history of hating Trump
.
“He’s the first vice presidential nominee of either party since 1980 to begin underwater in his approval ratings,” Paul Begala, a former advisor to President Bill Clinton, said Thursday on CNN. “And he’s not good on the stump.” Trump may have a form of charisma but Vance is “just dull,” Begala added.
On Friday, The Hill
reports that House Republicans are bashing Vance behind the scenes, worrying about his pro-Russian foreign policy and fretting over his lack of expertise. According to one source, 9 out of 10 congressional Republicans think Vance is the wrong pick.
But really, how can they do without a man who makes politics seem this glamorous?
This guy has zero charm and charisma. Picking JD Vance was a massive gift for Democrats. pic.twitter.com/m1uiYe3e0v
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) July 26, 2024
Does your candidate give you “a ton of crap”? Trump and Vance will! It takes real skill to make a presidential campaign seem less organized and inviting than signing up for the rules committee at your local Little League.
If that doesn’t seem off-putting enough, this little trip into Vance’s recently resurfaced posting history should make things a little … ickier.
That’s Vance, in February of this year, posting an image of a video in which a woman is purportedly “violated by a dolphin.” Maybe it’s not couches
that he has the hots for after all. Or maybe it’s not just couches.
Vance’s deep allegiance to the idea that spreading your personal genetic blueprint is all that matters in life has led to a long obsession with calling anyone who isn’t knee-deep in toddlers a “childless cat lad[y].
” And that includes applying the term to men
. Whether it’s having a cat or being a lady that Vance believes makes this such a great insult isn’t clear … but it’s sure not earning him any fans
.
But the biggest problem that Republicans are facing is that awareness of Vance’s radical ideas isn’t restricted to political circles and his billionaire tech-bro friends. This stuff is going mainstream.
JD Vance said Americans without kids should be taxed at a higher rate in a 2021 interview obtained by @ABC
He said: “Let’s tax the things that are bad and not tax the things that are good” Then he went on to say those with kids, “should pay a different, lower tax rate” @GMApic.twitter.com/JEjxfWrRmW
Vance’s call to up the taxes on the childless is getting showcased on Good Morning America, while Taylor Swift fans are lit
over his cat-lady schtick. That’s a combination that could turn Vance’s “underwater” ratings into “just how deep is the Mariana Trench”?
Sen. JD Vance is perfect. Not in the sense that he helps Donald Trump. He’s perfect in illustrating what a disorganized, radical, shit-fest of a personality cult the Republican Party has become.
The pull of blaming it all on Vance and moving on to Trump Vice President No. 3 is likely to be irresistible. Don’t be surprised if Vance gets to go home soon so he can fantasize about couches and marine mammals while plotting how to punish people who don’t have children. No doubt, though, that he’ll miss getting first dibs at “a ton of crap.”
Supposedly, Donald Trump Jr. was one of those who pushed for Vance
and helped in vetting him as Trump’s running mate. So what went wrong?
Junior was absolutely out of his mind tonight interviewing JD Vance. I did not speed this up. pic.twitter.com/n0d0ok0GVy
In a week that delivered an absolute avalanche of feel-good stories about likely Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, one man has been shoved completely to the sidelines. Donald Trump is afraid to debate her
. He’s unable to find a way
into the news cycle. And a VP selection
made just 11 days ago is making Sarah Palin seem like a brilliant choice
.
And Trump is demonstrating the last sign of total political desperation for any Republican: He’s citing Rasmussen polls
.
Huh. So this is what a good week looks like.
Shortly after Joe Biden announced
that he was suspending his campaign on Sunday afternoon, The Atlantic
reported on how this blew up Trump’s entire campaign. Trump’s team was convinced that it was too late, that Biden couldn’t withdraw. The primaries were done. Biden insisted he was staying. And Trump was free to run a campaign in which he knocked “Sleepy Joe” for his poor performance in the first debate all the way to November.
The mentality of this Trump campaign, [Trump senior advisor Chris] LaCivita once told me, is to spend every day on offense. The team wants to shape the pace and substance of every news cycle and force Democrats to react, ensuring that key battles are fought on the GOP’s chosen terrain.
That is not happening.
Ten days earlier, the Trump campaign was reportedly supremely confident
, planning for a landslide victory. It was that kind of confidence that made Trump feel comfortable about picking Sen. JD Vance
as his running mate, even though Vance did nothing to expand his base.
Then … boom.
It took Trump a long time to notice and admit that he was no longer running against Biden
. For days he continued to make social media attacks on the candidate-that-was, not the candidate he was facing.
That attitude extended into Trump’s first rally after Harris entered the race, where Trump lobbed some generic “radical liberal” attacks at Harris
but continued to focus much of his rhetoric on Biden. And it’s still happening on Trump’s failing social media platform
, where he’s whining about Biden’s departure.
Trump has even launched another of his endless lawsuits
in an effort to block Harris’ access to campaign funds raised when Biden was the candidate. The litigation isn’t going to work, but at least it makes Trump feel like he’s doing something—which is probably a big relief to those who have to live with him.
Honestly, this isn’t going to last. Republicans will settle into a line of attack—and considering where the party is now, that attack will probably be both racist and sexist. Trump’s campaign will get back on its feet and find a way to turn everything that has happened this week into a fundraising pitch. That’s what they do.
Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama have endorsed Kamala Harris
in her White House bid, giving the vice president the expected but still crucial backing of the nation’s two most popular Democrats.
The endorsement, announced Friday in a video
showing Harris accepting a joint phone call from the former first couple, comes as Harris builds momentum as their party’s likely nominee after President Joe Biden’s decision to end his reelection bid and endorse his second-in-command
against Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump
.
It also highlights the friendship and potentially historic link between the nation’s first Black president and the first woman, first Black woman and first person of Asian descent to serve as vice president, who is now vying to break those barriers at the presidential rank.
“We called to say Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” the former president told Harris, who is shown taking the call as she walks backstage at an event, trailed by a Secret Service agent.
Said Michelle Obama, “I can’t have this phone call without saying to my girl, Kamala, I am proud of you.
“This is going to be historic,” she added.
Harris, who has known the Obamas since before his election in 2008, thanked them for their friendship and said she looks forward to “getting there, being on the road” with them in the three-month blitz before Election Day on Nov. 5
.
“We’re gonna have some fun with this too, aren’t we?” Harris said.
Earlier this week, Michelle and I called our friend @KamalaHarris
. We told her we think she’ll make a fantastic President of the United States, and that she has our full support. At this critical moment for our country, we’re going to do everything we can to make sure she wins in… pic.twitter.com/0UIS0doIbA
The Obamas are perhaps the last major party figures to endorse Harris
formally, a reflection of the former president’s desire to remain, at least publicly, a party elder operating above the fray. The Obamas remain prodigious fundraising draws
and popular surrogates at large campaign events for Democratic candidates.
According to an Associated Press survey, Harris already has secured the public support
of a majority of the delegates
to the Democratic National Convention
, which begins Aug. 19 in Chicago. The Democratic National Committee expects to hold a virtual nominating vote that would, by Aug. 7, make Harris and a yet-to-be-named running mate the official Democratic ticket.
Biden endorsed Harris within an hour of announcing his decision Sunday to end his campaign amid widespread concern about the 81-year-old president’s ability to defeat Trump. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Whip Jim Clyburn, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton followed in the days after.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on Thursday.
The Obamas, however, trod carefully as Harris secured the delegate commitments
, made the rounds among core Democratic constituencies, and raised more than $120 million. The public caution tracks how the former president handled the weeks between Biden’s debate debacle
against Trump and the president’s eventual decision to end his campaign: Barack Obama was a certain presence
in the party’s maneuvers, but he operated quietly.
Obama’s initial statement after Biden’s announcement did not mention Harris. Instead, he spoke generically about coming up with a nominee to succeed Biden: “I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges,” the former president wrote.
Both Obamas campaigned separately for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, including large rallies on the closing weekends before Election Day. They delivered key speeches at the Democrats’ convention in 2020, a virtual event because of the coronavirus pandemic. The former president’s speech was especially notable because he unveiled a full-throated attack on Trump as a threat to democracy, an argument that endures as part of Harris’ campaign.
