July 30, 2024, 10:01 p.m. ET35 minutes ago
Live Election Updates:
During a boisterous rally in Atlanta, Vice President Kamala Harris challenged former President Donald J. Trump to keep his previous commitment to debate in September. A performance by Megan Thee Stallion energized the crowd.
‘Say It to My Face’: Harris Rallies in Georgia with Challenge to Trump
The vice president, speaking to thousands in Atlanta, poked fun at the former president’s reluctance to commit to a debate with her.
The momentum in this race is shifting. And there are signs that Donald Trump is feeling it. You may have noticed. So last week, you may have seen, he pulled out of the debate in September he had previously agreed to. So he won’t debate. But he and his running mate sure seem to have a lot to say about me. Well, Donald. I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage. Because as the saying goes, if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.
1:14The vice president, speaking to thousands in Atlanta, poked fun at the former president’s reluctance to commit to a debate with her. Credit Credit…Erin Schaff/The New York Times
July 30, 2024, 9:53 p.m. ET35 minutes ago
Maggie Astor and Chris Cameron
Here’s the latest on the presidential Race.
Vice President Kamala Harris challenged former President Donald J. Trump to meet her onstage in September, responding to his backtracking about a planned debate with a direct demand: “If you got something to say, say it to my face.”
Ms. Harris, rallying about 10,000 supporters in the battleground state of Georgia just over a week since the start of her campaign, highlighted her economic record and again contrasted her time as a prosecutor with Mr. Trump’s long history of legal troubles. Her speech at Georgia State University in Atlanta came after a performance by the rapper Megan Thee Stallion, the latest sign of the pop-culture momentum behind Ms. Harris.
The Democratic National Committee said that its delegates would hold a five-day virtual roll call starting Thursday to select Ms. Harris as the party’s nominee.
Here’s what to know:
- A veepstakes update: How close is Ms. Harris to picking a running mate? She has already set a busy schedule for next week, starting in Philadelphia on Tuesday, with whoever is joining the ticket. Five people are said to remain in serious consideration: Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona; Governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Andy Beshear of Kentucky; and Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary. Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina removed himself from consideration last week.
- Primaries in Arizona: Polls have closed in Arizona, where House and Senate candidates are facing off in party primaries. Representative Ruben Gallego is running unopposed in the Democratic primary for Senate, and Kari Lake is the leading candidate on the Republican side. Other primaries for races in the House have been closely contested.
- Project 2025 resignation: The director of Project 2025, the right-wing policy blueprint and personnel project prepared for the next Republican president that became a political cudgel used by Democrats, is departing after the effort drew criticism from Mr. Trump, who has sought to distance himself from the project. The director, Paul Dans, oversaw the collaborative effort across the conservative ecosystem led by the Heritage Foundation.
- No attempt to quiet the uproar: Mr. Trump repeated his recent assertion that Christians will never have to vote again if they cast their ballots for him in November, brushing aside several requests to walk back or clarify the statement in a Fox News interview televised on Monday night. Mr. Trump’s initial comments, to a group of Christian conservatives on Friday, were interpreted by many Democrats as evidence he would end elections.
- On the trail: Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Mr. Trump’s running mate, held two rallies in Nevada to start a series of campaign events in the Southwest. He used those appearances to hone lines of attack against Ms. Harris, denouncing her as a failed “border czar” and a “wacky San Francisco liberal.”
- Dueling ads from Trump and Harris: Mr. Trump’s campaign is running a television ad in six battleground states that attacks Ms. Harris on immigration. And Ms. Harris released her first ad as the Democrats’ likely nominee. It labels her as “fearless” while leaning into her time as a local and state prosecutor.
Reid J. Epstein contributed reporting.
July 30, 2024, 10:01 p.m. ET47 minutes ago
Kellen Browning
Polls are now closed in Arizona, but first results are not expected for another hour. We’re watching high-profile primaries for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and for the fate of a prominent election official in Maricopa County.
July 30, 2024, 10:00 p.m. ET48 minutes ago
Reid J. Epstein
Philadelphia next Tuesday is the first stop for Harris and whoever she picks as her running mate, but it is not necessarily a sign she has settled on Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania — a native of the Philly suburbs. Philadelphia is the biggest city in the largest battleground state, and happens to be within an easy train ride from both New York and Washington, the home bases for much of the national news media.
July 30, 2024, 10:00 p.m. ET48 minutes ago
Reid J. Epstein
July 30, 2024, 9:44 p.m. ET1 hour ago
Chris Cameron: Reporting from Henderson, Nev.
Vance knocks Harris as a ‘wacky San Francisco liberal’ as he stumps in Nevada.
Senator JD Vance of Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate, began a swing of campaign stops in crucial battleground states in the Southwest — his first visit to the region since joining the ticket — with a pair of rallies on Tuesday in Nevada.
Mr. Vance used those appearances to hone his attack lines against Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the de facto Democratic presidential nominee last week, denouncing her as a failed “border czar” and a “wacky San Francisco liberal.”
Mr. Vance, a political acolyte of the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, accused the vice president of “allowing” migrants to murder Americans and of “inviting” drug cartels to deal fentanyl to children in playgrounds. He also repeated unfounded claims about undocumented migrants’ “bankrupting” Medicare and other government services.
“She has the nerve to question our loyalty to this country,” Mr. Vance said in Henderson, Nev., near Las Vegas. He added that “loyalty to this country is closing the border, not opening it up,” and that “if Kamala Harris wants to see the face of disloyalty she might as well look in the damn mirror.”
Before Mr. Vance took the stage at his second rally, in Reno, former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado of California said that Ms. Harris should be prosecuted because of the Biden administration’s policies at the border. Mr. Vance took the stage and thanked Mr. Maldonado “for such a great introduction,” adding: “I think he’s handled Kamala Harris. I don’t know if I have to say anything about Kamala now.”
In both stops, he also blamed Ms. Harris for the offshoring of American manufacturing jobs through her support of trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Mr. Trump significantly revised but left mostly intact during his term as president.
“She voted to preserve NAFTA, the very trade deal that sent American jobs to Mexico and turned American dreams into nightmares,” Mr. Vance said in Reno. “And now, Kamala Harris is asking for a promotion. And I think we should say: Kamala Harris, you’re fired.”
Mr. Vance brought his message to a state that runs on its service economy, and where roughly one in five residents is an immigrant. In doing so, he parachuted into Democratic strongholds in two of Nevada’s biggest cities: greater Las Vegas and Reno.
Mr. Vance spoke of rebuilding American factories and rebuilding the American dream. And he promised that if his ticket is elected, “we’re going to stamp more and more products with that beautiful label: ‘Made in the U.S.A.,’” a vow that prompted a chant of “U.S.A.” from the audience in Henderson.
Christian Jack, a high school student who works at an ice cream shop in Henderson, said that he was drawn to Mr. Vance by videos on social media after he became Mr. Trump’s running mate. Of particular interest to Mr. Jack was the Trump campaign’s pledge to end taxes on tips — which he estimated would save him about $3,000 in taxes.
But Mr. Jack, an 18-year-old immigrant who was born in the Philippines, said in a text message that listening to Mr. Vance at the rally “makes me want to re-evaluate my options because I thought I would like him more.” He added that he disliked the campaign’s stance on abortion, calling it “a bit too strict for my liking.”
Other rally attendees were energized by the attacks against Ms. Harris. Minutes before Mr. Vance took the stage, Trump supporters yelled at reporters with misogynistic and sexually charged remarks about the vice president.
Mr. Vance will next hold a campaign rally on Wednesday in Glendale, Ariz., before a visit to the state’s border with Mexico on Thursday.Show less
July 30, 2024, 9:37 p.m. ET1 hour ago
Katie Rogers
Vice President Kamala Harris has not settled on a running mate yet, but according to a campaign official, the pair will have a busy schedule once that person is announced. Next week, they are set to visit Philadelphia, western Wisconsin, Detroit, Raleigh, Savannah, Phoenix and Las Vegas.
July 30, 2024, 9:21 p.m. ET1 hour ago
Kellen Browning
Polls in Arizona’s primary election close in less than an hour, and all eyes are on the state’s open Senate seat. Kari Lake, the front-runner in the Republican primary, and Representative Ruben Gallego, who is running unopposed on the Democratic side, spent the day visiting polling places and sparring over the terms of a potential future debate. Lake still has to get past Mark Lamb in the primary, and several key House matchups will be decided tonight, too.
July 30, 2024, 9:17 p.m. ET2 hours ago
Nicholas Nehamas
The Democratic National Committee said that its delegates will hold a virtual roll call starting Aug. 1 and ending Aug. 5 to select Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee. Harris was the only candidate who qualified for the ballot, the D.N.C. said.
July 30, 2024, 8:49 p.m. ET2 hours ago
Chris CameronReporting from Henderson, Nev.
Former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado of California, speaking ahead of JD Vance at a Trump campaign rally in Reno, Nev., said that Vice President Kamala Harris should be prosecuted because of the Biden administration’s policies at the border. Vance took the stage and thanked Mr. Maldonado “for such a great introduction.” He added, “I think he’s handled Kamala Harris. I don’t know if I have to say anything about Kamala now.”
July 30, 2024, 8:41 p.m. ET2 hours ago
Simon J. Levien
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, whose description of Trump as “weird” has caught on among Democrats — including Vice President Kamala Harris tonight — said on CNN that he thinks Trump is a “classroom bully” who must be undercut. “I’ve dealt with bullies,” said Walz, who used to be a high school teacher. “This is about making sure you take away this perceived power he has.”
July 30, 2024, 8:01 p.m. ET3 hours ago
Maya King and Rick Rojas
Reporting from Atlanta
Kamala Harris rallies thousands in Georgia and challenges Trump to ‘say it to my face.’
Vice President Kamala Harris challenged former President Donald J. Trump to commit to a presidential debate on Tuesday night during a raucous rally in Atlanta that featured some 10,000 attendees, celebrity appearances and another rare feature of Democrats’ rallies lately: fun.
In a roughly 21-minute speech, Ms. Harris, now just nine days into her position atop the Democratic ticket, contrasted her policy goals with Republicans’ agenda. But the high point of her remarks came toward the end, when she mentioned the former president’s reluctance to commit to a matchup he had initially agreed to on Sept. 10, when President Biden was still his opponent.
“Well Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage,” she said, as the cheers grew louder. She appeared to savor the delivery of the next line, drawing it out for maximum effect: “Because as the saying goes, ‘If you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.’”
The crowd exploded.
At another moment, as Ms. Harris contrasted her record as a former prosecutor with Mr. Trump’s felony convictions, supporters chanted “Lock him up!” — a twist on the chants of “Lock her up” that first broke out at Mr. Trump’s rallies in 2016, aimed at Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee then.
Last month, Democrats who were licking their wounds after Mr. Biden’s disastrous performance on a debate stage, also in Atlanta, had tempered their expectations for Georgia, which he won by less than 12,000 votes four years ago. Now, Ms. Harris’s visit and place atop the ticket have nurtured a heightened level of optimism about their chances of keeping the state blue, despite Mr. Trump’s current polling lead. In Ms. Harris, several Democratic leaders say they see a chance to galvanize several key voting blocs, including young people and voters of color.
“Yeah, we’re changing the culture again,” said the rapper and Migos frontman Quavo, who, instead of performing, gave a brief address encouraging supporters to vote. His address — as well as an earlier performance by the hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion — underscored the pronounced shift in energy behind Ms. Harris.
Ms. Harris, who is seeking to build enthusiasm among key voting demographics, was in hyper-friendly territory in Atlanta, the Democratic engine of an all-important battleground state. The size of her rally Tuesday night dwarfed Mr. Biden’s 2024 campaign events in both scale and enthusiasm, rivaling the types of crowds Mr. Trump regularly draws for his rallies in similar spaces. (Mr. Trump will hold his own event in Atlanta at the same venue, the Georgia State University convocation center, on Saturday.)
As Ms. Harris started to outline a presidential agenda, she framed her bid in terms of the past versus the future. She condemned Republicans for their policies on abortion access and she promised to restore access to the procedure and also expand voting rights.
She also aimed to blunt attacks against her record on immigration. She noted that as California’s attorney general, she helped lead a border state. She also condemned Mr. Trump for paying lip service to border security while failing to secure it himself as president. On the economy, Ms. Harris pledged to lower costs and stem price gouging “on Day 1” of her presidency.
Before she spoke, several Georgia figures, including a former Democratic candidate for governor, Stacey Abrams; Representative Nikema Williams, who serves as the state Democratic Party chair; and both of the state’s Democratic U.S. senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, addressed supporters.
While it remains unclear if the vice president can translate the energy of the early days of her campaign into overwhelming turnout to match the wave of voters who have powered the party’s top-of-ticket victories for the last two election cycles, the signs of grass-roots enthusiasm were palpable. Before the program and in between speeches, rallygoers danced to hip-hop and R&B and sung along to songs the D.J. played.
Ms. Harris, who at one point had to calm the crowd enough to keep speaking, recognized the role that her most excited supporters would play.
“The path to the White House runs right through this state,” she said. “You all helped us in 2020 and we’re going to do it again in 2024.”
The elation over the moment spilled outside the arena, just beyond downtown Atlanta, roughly a mile from the gold-domed state capitol. Another crowd waited, many of them stragglers who had tried and failed to get inside.
Dr. Marcus Polk said he had an invitation, but pulled up too late. He was sitting in a red Porsche across the street. He said the energy he could feel bubbling up in Atlanta reminded him of former President Barack Obama’s first run for president.
He was going to vote for President Biden, and do so happily, he said. But he also acknowledged the disenchantment that was discouraging some voters. Ms. Harris was turning that around.
“I think it’s just a breath of fresh air,” he said of Ms. Harris’s candidacy. “It’s new. It’s young. It’s exciting.” It was harder to argue that neither candidate was appealing, as they might have before, he said. “People are clearly seeing an option now.”
Nilka Holland had braved roughly an hour of traffic to drive from McDonough, a suburb southeast of Atlanta. She was stuck outside, leaning against the railing, and yet her excitement was undiminished. “This is history-making,” she said.
After the event had ended and the huge crowd came pouring outside, Ms. Holland asked people passing by if they had extra campaign signs to share with her. One person after another rebuffed her. Finally, someone was willing to part with one.
She read the message on it out loud: “When we fight, we win!”
“That’s right,” she said.
She pumped her fist and smiled.
July 30, 2024, 7:58 p.m. ET3 hours ago
Rick RojasReporting from Atlanta
Dr. Marcus Polk sat in his Porsche across the street from the rally, where he had an invitation but could not get in after running late. He said he felt an energy bubbling up that reminded him of the excitement that surrounded former President Barack Obama. “I think it’s just a breath of fresh air,” he said of Harris’s candidacy. “It’s new. It’s young. It’s exciting.” She was making it harder for reluctant voters to sit out and not participate, he said.
July 30, 2024, 7:56 p.m. ET3 hours ago
Rick RojasReporting from Atlanta
Holland, an Army veteran who has worked as a dental assistant and a Spanish translator over the course of her working life, said she was still pained by President Biden ending his re-election campaign. “At first, it broke my heart,” she said. “I know how hard he worked.” But she believed Harris’s campaign would make a difference. Someone passing by handed her a “When we fight, we win!” campaign sign. “That’s right,” she said.
July 30, 2024, 7:33 p.m. ET3 hours ago
Erica L. Green
Harris directly challenged Donald Trump to debate her after he had backtracked on meeting her in September, on a date that he’d previously agreed to face President Biden. “If you got something to say,” she said, “say it to my face.”
July 30, 2024, 7:30 p.m. ET3 hours ago
Erica L. Green
Harris, in a direct counter to Donald Trump’s messaging on border security, said she would resurrect the border security bill that he helped kill, and sign it into law.
July 30, 2024, 7:30 p.m. ET3 hours ago
Erica L. Green
Leaning into her economic policy platform, she also promised that “building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.” She said she would be committed to getting rid of price gouging, keeping prescription drug costs low, and slashing hidden fees and unfair rent increases — which solicited thunderous applause.
July 30, 2024, 7:22 p.m. ET3 hours ago
Maya KingReporting from Atlanta
It’s really hard to overstate just how different the environment is for Democrats now. Just two weeks ago, it would have been nearly impossible to imagine President Biden turning out a rally of Georgia Democrats like this one, with around 10,000 people here at the Georgia State University convocation center tonight.
July 30, 2024, 7:18 p.m. ET3 hours ago
Lisa Lerer
Harris is tackling what are widely viewed as her biggest weaknesses — immigration and her history as a prosecutor — directly, an effort to cast herself as experienced and tough on crime and the border.
July 30, 2024, 7:18 p.m. ET3 hours ago
Lisa Lerer
At one point, after she juxtaposed her record as a prosecutor with the criminal and civil cases against Trump, the crowd burst into a chant: “Lock him up!”
July 30, 2024, 7:12 p.m. ET4 hours ago
Maya KingReporting from Atlanta
Vice President Kamala Harris has taken the stage in Atlanta to a raucous crowd. Supporters were so excited to see her that she had to calm them down, saying, “I’m getting to some business now,” as many continued to cheer.
July 30, 2024, 7:03 p.m. ET4 hours ago
Maya KingReporting from Atlanta
Quavo, the Atlanta native and frontman of the rap group Migos took the stage, not to perform but to address the crowd. He talked about his work with the Biden administration to pass gun safety laws.
July 30, 2024, 7:03 p.m. ET4 hours ago
Maya KingReporting from Atlanta
“Yeah, we’re changing the culture again,” he said, encouraging attendees to vote
July 30, 2024, 6:57 p.m. ET4 hours ago
Maya KingReporting from Atlanta
Megan Thee Stallion has taken the stage at the Harris rally, performing her biggest hits, “Hot Girl” and “Mamushi,” with her and her background dancers clad in blue suits. It’s the clearest illustration yet of just how different the Democratic presidential campaign is under Harris — and how much she’s energizing a part of the Democratic coalition that had been checked out.
July 30, 2024, 6:40 p.m. ET4 hours ago
Maya King: Reporting from Atlanta
Supporters have packed just about every seat in the Georgia State convocation center for Vice President Kamala Harris’s rally. Organizers have said about 10,000 people are here, and the energy is electric: In between speeches from Democratic leaders, supporters are dancing and singing along to music played by a D.J.
July 30, 2024, 5:43 p.m. ET5 hours ago
Reid J. Epstein
Vice President Kamala Harris’s event in Atlanta tonight will be the Biden-turned-Harris campaign’s largest rally to date, the campaign said. The recording artists Megan Thee Stallion and Quavo will perform before Harris speaks — a sign, if there ever was one, that this is no longer President Biden’s campaign.
July 30, 2024, 5:20 p.m. ET5 hours ago
Peter Baker and Katie Rogers
Reporting from Washington
A senior Biden adviser heads to a super PAC supporting Harris.
Anita Dunn, President Biden’s senior adviser, is leaving her White House post next week to move over to a super PAC supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’s fledgling campaign, the first major personnel move in the West Wing since the president dropped his bid for re-election.
Ms. Dunn, who coordinated communications strategy for Mr. Biden and has been one of his closest aides, will consult for Future Forward, the largest Democratic-leaning super PAC, which last week announced a $50 million advertising campaign to promote Ms. Harris in six critical battleground states.
“It’s been an honor and privilege to serve in this White House, with this president and this team, during this transformational term,” Ms. Dunn said in a statement. “I am grateful to President Biden and Vice President Harris for their leadership and giving me the opportunity to be part of what they have accomplished for the American people.”
In a brief telephone call, Ms. Dunn said she would be leaving the White House next Tuesday and not returning to her own consulting firm but would take on Future Forward as an independent consultant. Ms. Dunn has been part of Mr. Biden’s orbit for years and was credited with helping to turn around his campaign for the Democratic nomination in 2020 after early defeats and stabilizing his White House communications strategy.
“She’s not only a key senior member of our team that helped us win a historic election in 2020, she’s also been an invaluable part of our White House,” Mr. Biden said in a statement. “She’s tough and tested, and her experience and intellect have helped us deliver historic results for the American people. I deeply value her counsel and friendship and I will continue to rely on her partnership and insights as we finish the job over the next six months.”
As one of the advisers who participated in the Camp David preparations for the president’s damaging debate with former President Donald J. Trump, Ms. Dunn has come under criticism from some Democrats looking for someone to blame. But her admirers have said such criticism is unfair and uninformed, and a half-dozen of her White House and campaign colleagues released statements on Tuesday praising her as a fierce champion for the president and his agenda.
“She has been critical to making this one of the most successful presidencies in modern American history,” said Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House chief of staff.
Now that Mr. Biden is not seeking a second term and has less than six months left in office, other changes could be possible in the days and weeks to come. Already, Brian Nelson, the Treasury Department’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, is leaving to join the Harris campaign, according to three people familiar with the move. Mr. Nelson is a longtime Harris ally who worked with her when she was the California attorney general.
Many in the White House have been contemplating what life might be like under Ms. Harris if she wins and thinking about other options for their future, especially those not seen as close to her.
Ms. Dunn has been a force in Democratic politics for decades. She started as a White House intern under President Jimmy Carter and went on to work on a number of campaigns, including Senator Bill Bradley’s unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000 against Vice President Al Gore.
She worked on President Barack Obama’s winning campaigns in 2008 and 2012 and served for a time as his White House communications director. Outside government, she helped found SKDK, one of the largest public affairs outfits in Democratic politics and a training ground for many of the party’s top operatives. After helping to right the ship of Mr. Biden’s faltering 2020 campaign, she returned to the White House in 2022.
Politics is a family affair for Ms. Dunn. Her husband, Bob Bauer, is a lawyer who has represented Democrats in many capacities over the years, including as White House counsel under Mr. Obama and as Mr. Biden’s personal attorney.
Alan Rappeport and Nicholas Nehamas contributed reporting.Show less
July 30, 2024, 4:38 p.m. ETJuly 30, 2024
Chris Cameron: Reporting from Henderson, Nev.
Vance has concluded his first rally of the day after speaking for about a half-hour, during which a mention of his upcoming birthday on Friday prompted a serenade from the crowd. He ended his speech in Henderson with a series of questions, each drawing a resounding “No!” from the audience. “I’ll ask you a simple question,” Vance said. “Do we want open borders? Do we want to bankrupt Medicare by giving it to illegal aliens? Do you want to ban fracking? So do we want Kamala Harris? Hell, no.”
July 30, 2024, 4:28 p.m. ETJuly 30, 2024
Neil Vigdor and Shane Goldmacher
The director of Project 2025 is stepping down after criticism from Trump.
The director of Project 2025, the right-wing policy blueprint and personnel project prepared for the next Republican president that became a political cudgel used by Democrats, is departing after the effort drew criticism from former President Donald J. Trump.
The project, which has been a collaborative effort across the conservative ecosystem led by the Heritage Foundation, has become a lightning rod on the 2024 campaign trail. The group had spent months developing an expansive set of policies, and the president of the Heritage Foundation said on Tuesday it was concluding its drafting of new ideas as planned.
“When we began Project 2025 in April 2022, we set a timeline for the project to conclude its policy drafting after the two party conventions this year, and we are sticking to that timeline,” Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, said in a statement praising Paul Dans, the outgoing director.
Mr. Trump has tried to distance himself from the specifics inside the 900-page plan for months, saying the sweeping agenda to reshape the federal government is not his, though many of the proposals were crafted by people who served in the first Trump administration.
“It’s a group of very, very conservative people. And they wrote a document that many of the points are fine. Many of the points are absolutely ridiculous,” Mr. Trump said in an interview on Fox News last week. During the same interview, he insisted he had “never seen” the plan and had “nothing to do with” it.
President Biden, and now Vice President Kamala Harris, have repeatedly used some of the less popular planks to attack Mr. Trump. Ms. Harris brings up Project 2025 during almost every campaign stop. At a fund-raiser this weekend, she described it as “a plan that would return America to a very dark past.”
“And, by the way, can you believe they put that thing in writing?” she said to laughter from the audience. “Nine hundred pages of it!”
The Trump team, which has grown increasingly frustrated by the coverage of Project 2025’s plans, cheered its apparent end on Tuesday. The Daily Beast first reported the departure of Mr. Dans.
“Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you,” said Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, Mr. Trump’s top two advisers, in a statement.
Trump advisers have tried to downplay reports about Mr. Trump’s expansive second-term plans, in particular anything outlined by outside groups and advisers. There is some overlap between Project 2025’s proposals and Mr. Trump’s plans for a second term, including chipping away at the Justice Department’s independence from the White House and installing more Trump loyalists in federal government positions.
And Mr. Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, wrote the foreword for Mr. Roberts’s upcoming book, “Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America.”
On Tuesday, Ms. Wiles and Mr. LaCivita said that “Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the president in any way.”
Others in Mr. Trump’s orbit have tried to create distance, too.
Lara Trump, the Republican National Committee co-chair and Mr. Trump’s daughter-in-law, spent part of her recent podcast bashing Project 2025. “There are a lot of ideas in here that I find really frightening,” Ms. Trump said, adding that anyone who supported the plan knew that it was a “hoax.”
The departure of Mr. Dans was confirmed by Heritage Foundation. Mr. Dans could not immediately be reached for comment.
“Under Paul Dans’ leadership, Project 2025 has completed exactly what it set out to do: bringing together over 110 leading conservative organizations to create a unified conservative vision, motivated to devolve power from the unelected administrative state, and returning it to the people,” Mr. Roberts said. “This tool was built for any future administration to use.”
He added, “Our collective efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels — federal, state, and local — will continue.”
That clearinghouse of conservative personnel who could fill out the executive branch is expected to be crucial for Mr. Trump, should he return to the White House. When Mr. Trump first ran in 2016, he named former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey as his transition chairman in May, before the election. Mr. Trump has yet to roll out his transition team for 2024.
Michael Gold and Nicholas Nehamas contributed reporting.
July 30, 2024, 4:26 p.m. ETJuly 30, 2024
Chris Cameron: Reporting from Henderson, Nev.
JD Vance has just taken the stage in Henderson, Nev., near Las Vegas, starting a series of campaign events across the Southwest this week. He opens with attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris for her role on border policy in the Biden administration.
July 30, 2024, 4:26 p.m. ETJuly 30, 2024
Chris CameronReporting from Henderson, Nev.
“She has the nerve to question our loyalty to this country,” Vance said. He added, “Loyalty to this country is closing the border, not opening it up.” He also invoked the death of Laken Riley, a nursing student killed in February. An undocumented immigrant is charged in her death.
July 30, 2024, 3:25 p.m. ETJuly 30, 2024
Katie Robertson
Trump Invitation to Conference for Black Journalists Sets Off Intense Debate
A scheduled appearance by former President Donald J. Trump at a conference for Black journalists in Chicago has generated fierce debate.
The National Association of Black Journalists, which is hosting the conference, announced on Monday that Mr. Trump would take part in a question-and-answer session with political reporters on Wednesday.
The conference’s description says the session will “concentrate on the most pressing issues facing the Black community.” Harris Faulkner, a Fox News anchor; Kadia Goba, a politics reporter at Semafor; and Rachel Scott, an ABC News correspondent, will moderate the session. The event is expected to be livestreamed on the organization’s YouTube and Facebook pages.
After the announcement of the event with Mr. Trump, a number of well-known Black journalists harshly criticized the group for arranging it, arguing that the organization was giving a platform to someone who had openly denigrated a number of reporters.
“The reports of attacks on Black women White House correspondents by the then president of the United States are not myth or conjecture, but fact,” April Ryan, the White House correspondent for The Grio, a media company geared toward Black Americans, wrote on the social platform X. She said the session was “a slap in the face” to Black female journalists “who had to protect themselves from the wrath of this Republican presidential nominee who is promoting an authoritarian agenda that plans to destroy this nation and her democracy with his Project 2025.”
Ms. Ryan frequently bore the brunt of Mr. Trump’s attacks when he was in office. In 2017, he asked her in a news conference if she could help set up a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. In 2018, he called her a “loser” and “very nasty.”
Jemele Hill, who hosts a podcast and is a contributing writer for The Atlantic, said that while she did not have a problem with Mr. Trump’s appearance “under the right circumstances because he’s a presidential candidate,” she questioned the wisdom of the event.
“A sham of an interview will destroy the organization’s credibility,” she wrote on X. “If the majority of NABJ’s membership is against Trump being there, the organization should listen.”
Karen Attiah, a Washington Post columnist, said on X on Tuesday that she was stepping down as co-chair of this year’s N.A.B.J. convention. She added in another post: “While my decision was influenced by a variety of factors, I was not involved or consulted with in any way with the decision to platform Trump in such a format.”
But the president of the N.A.B.J., as well as some other journalists, argued that the group had a long tradition of inviting presidential nominees and that it was a chance to hold them accountable through questioning. Former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton had all previously attended, and the group had invited the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, to this year’s convention.
In a statement on N.A.B.J.’s website, its president, Ken Lemon, said that the organization looked forward to conference attendees’ hearing from Mr. Trump.
“While N.A.B.J. does not endorse political candidates as a journalism organization, we understand the serious work of our members, and welcome the opportunity for them to ask the tough questions that will provide the truthful answers Black Americans want and need to know,” Mr. Lemon said.
In a video posted on Tuesday by NABJ Monitor, a student journalist-led outlet covering the convention, Mr. Lemon said that discussions with both the Republican and Democratic teams had been happening for more than a month.
“We invited both of them; we got a yes from one of them,” he said.
He continued: “This is a great opportunity for us to vet the candidate right here on our ground.”
Mr. Lemon said that N.A.B.J. was working to set up a fact-checking process for Mr. Trump’s appearance.
Leroy Chapman Jr., the editor in chief of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said in a post on X that he looked forward to the Republican presidential nominee’s visiting the convention, and that he would welcome the presumptive Democratic nominee there, too.
“Here is what we need to ‘normalize’ — candidates for office standing before journalists, answering questions,” he wrote.
Rana Cash, the executive editor of The Charlotte Observer, said on X: “It’s the National Association of Black ‘Journalists’ — journalists who are experts at their craft, highly qualified and critical thinkers. To suggest they not interview a Presidential candidate on issues relevant to the organization’s constituency is outrageous.”
For nearly a decade, there have been furious journalistic debates about the degree to which Mr. Trump should be given a platform, given his propensity to make false claims in speeches. The appearance at a conference for Black journalists adds more complexity: Mr. Trump has frequently denigrated working journalists and has a history of racist comments about Black voters.
Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign said in a news release on Monday announcing his appearance at the N.A.B.J. convention that he had “accomplished more for Black Americans than any other president in recent history.” The campaign also pointed to an April poll in The Wall Street Journal that showed increased support for Mr. Trump among Black men.
Janiyah Thomas, director of Black media for Mr. Trump’s campaign, wrote in an email that Mr. Trump “is grateful for the opportunity to bring his message to their diverse audience,” referring to the N.A.B.J. She added, “Team Trump believes it’s important to give Black journalists more access to presidential candidates so they can better inform Black voters.
July 30, 2024, 3:19 p.m. ETJuly 30, 2024
Nicholas Nehamas
Asked by reporters if she had selected her running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris replied: “Not yet.” Harris answered the question en route to her rally in Atlanta tonight.
July 30, 2024, 3:03 p.m. ETJuly 30, 2024
Paul Dans, the director of Project 2025, is leaving his role, the Heritage Foundation confirmed. The project, a sweeping conservative plan by former President Donald J. Trump’s allies to reshape the federal government and concentrate more power in the executive branch, has become a focal point of Democratic attacks, and Trump has tried to distance himself from it. A spokesman for the think tank said the project was not shutting down.
July 30, 2024, 2:23 p.m. ETJuly 30, 2024
Reid J. Epstein
Reporting from Washington
Kamala Harris is said to be planning to campaign next week with her running mate.
Vice President Kamala Harris will hold her first rally with her running mate next Tuesday in Philadelphia, the first stop in a four-day tour of the battleground states next week, her campaign said on Tuesday night.
Ms. Harris’s campaign insisted that the travel schedule did not mean anything about whom she might select as her vice-presidential nominee, though one top contender, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, was raised in the Philadelphia suburbs and remains a major booster of the city’s sports teams.
Philadelphia is also the biggest city in the largest battleground state, and happens to be within an easy train ride from both New York and Washington, the home bases for much of the national news media.
After the Tuesday rally in Philadelphia, Ms. Harris and her running mate will on Wednesday begin a circuit with stops in western Wisconsin; Detroit; Raleigh, N.C.; Savannah, Ga.; Phoenix; and Las Vegas, the campaign said.
The second stop in western Wisconsin is within the Minneapolis television market, where voters have long been familiar with Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, who is also considered one of Ms. Harris’s leading options for a running mate.
The travel schedule released by the campaign suggests that Ms. Harris will name her running mate no later than next Tuesday, earlier than the deadline on Aug. 7 that her campaign set last week to have the vice-presidential nominee in place. Reuters was first to report that she was scheduled to campaign with her running mate next week.
While the vice president’s team began the search for a running mate by seeking vetting materials from a dozen people, just five are said to remain in serious consideration: Mr. Shapiro; Mr. Walz; Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona; Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky; and Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary.
Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina removed himself from consideration last week, when he declined to participate in the vetting process.
Ms. Harris’s aides have blocked off time for her in the coming days to contemplate her choice, which is considered to be one of the most important decisions a presidential candidate makes, and to conduct additional interviews with finalists.
Ms. Harris’s search for a running mate has moved at remarkable speed. She has compressed a process that typically plays out over many months into two weeks. Auditions that in past cycles have taken the form of joint-campaign appearances are instead playing out on cable television or with would-be running mates holding campaign stops for her on their own.Show less
July 30, 2024, 1:27 p.m. ETJuly 30, 2024
Neil Vigdo
Lara Trump compared Kamala Harris to Balenciaga’s faux ‘trash bag.’
Lara Trump, the Republican Party co-chair and former President Donald J. Trump’s daughter-in-law, compared Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday to a fashion designer’s faux “trash bag” that gained notoriety for its nearly $1,800 price tag.
Ms. Trump, speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox News, complained that Ms. Harris was now being championed as “some sort of amazing political figure” by people who had harbored doubts about her before President Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her to be the party’s presidential nominee.
“It reminds me of — there was this bag that a very famous designer designed — this was several years ago,” she said. “And it literally was a trash bag, but they sold this thing for like $2,000, thinking that people would actually buy it. It’s a similar situation with Kamala Harris.”
Ms. Trump, who was installed in March as a top G.O.P. leader and married Mr. Trump’s middle son, Eric Trump, was referring to a faux trash bag that was introduced in 2022 by Balenciaga. It turned heads on the runway and drew derision in the tabloids.
The metaphor used by Ms. Trump was another personal attack against Ms. Harris from Republicans, who have repeatedly used her race and gender in their criticism.
Several of Mr. Trump’s allies have repeatedly called Ms. Harris, whose mother emigrated from India and whose father emigrated from Jamaica, a “D.E.I.” hire, a reference to diversity, equity and inclusion programs. And at a gathering of religious conservatives on Friday, Mr. Trump called Ms. Harris a “bum.”
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Some Republicans have urged Mr. Trump’s surrogates to dial down their insults and have warned that racist and sexist attacks on Ms. Harris could backfire.
Nikki Haley, a daughter of Indian immigrants who was one of Mr. Trump’s Republican primary opponents, has rebuked members of her party for referring to Ms. Harris as a D.E.I. hire.
“It’s not helpful,” Ms. Haley, who was the South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador during the Trump administration, told CNN on Thursday.
Ms. Haley, who endorsed Mr. Trump months after her bitter primary campaign against him, urged Republicans to focus instead on Ms. Harris’s record. “You don’t need to talk about what she looks like or what gender she is,” she said.
July 30, 2024, 12:59 p.m. ETJuly 30, 2024
Alan Rappeport
Reporting from Philadelphia
Josh Shapiro, a V.P. contender, criticized U.S. Steel takeover and defended his tax cuts
Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who is one of several Democrats in consideration to become Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, expressed on Tuesday his opposition to the proposed takeover of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel, citing his reservations about its potential impact on workers in his state.
Mr. Shapiro’s comments came during an event with Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen in Philadelphia. The proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel has become a sensitive political matter this year, with many Democrats, including Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, calling on President Biden to block the deal.
Mr. Biden has said that the company should remain “domestically owned and operated.” The merger is expected to be reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is headed by Ms. Yellen.
“I have serious concerns about the deal that has been put forth,” Mr. Shapiro said, adding that he was considering what the potential takeover would mean for Pennsylvania as national manufacturing hub. “Speaking from a state perspective, as governor, if the U.S. Steel workers aren’t happy with this deal, which they are not, I’m not happy with this deal.”
The Biden administration has been reviewing the nearly $15 billion buyout and could block it with the argument that it poses a threat to national security. Yet some international deals experts have suggested that such a move would seem overtly political since Japan is a strong U.S. ally.
Former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance, have also spoken against the acquisition of U.S. Steel.
Ms. Yellen said that she could not discuss the details of the deal.
“We would look at any transaction from the national security perspective, and try to make a reasoned judgment,” she said.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Steel said the company remained committed to the transaction with Nippon, describing it as the best deal for employees, shareholders and customers. She said the deal would also bring benefits to workers and communities in Pennsylvania while making the American steel industry more competitive with China.
In addition to his criticism of the deal, Mr. Shapiro offered a strong endorsement of the impact that the Biden administration’s economic agenda has had on the state.
The governor also defended his efforts to cut corporate taxes in Pennsylvania, which clashes with Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris’s aim to raise taxes on companies. He said that reducing taxes on businesses was part of a strategy to recruit companies from other states to Pennsylvania.
“That’s why I’ve been so aggressively working to cut business taxes and make sure that we have an environment here that works for business owners,” Mr. Shapiro said.
July 30, 2024, 12:54 p.m. ETJuly 30, 2024
Alexandra Alter
‘Hillbilly Elegy’ sales surge after JD Vance joins Trump campaign.
Shortly after Donald J. Trump announced JD Vance as his running mate on July 15, Vance’s 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” shot up Amazon’s best-seller list. It has remained there for roughly two weeks — evidence that, even as Vance has stumbled in his debut as a vice-presidential candidate, joining the ticket has delivered a huge boost to his book sales.
Vance’s memoir has sold more than 750,000 copies in all formats since he was named Trump’s vice-presidential pick, according to his publisher, Harper, a HarperCollins imprint. Harper is printing hundreds of thousands of additional copies to keep up with demand.
In paperback alone, “Hillbilly Elegy” sold some 200,000 copies in the week ending July 20, and was the No. 1 best selling print book across all genres, according to Circana Bookscan. The previous week, its print sales totaled 1,500 copies. Sales for the e-book and the audiobook, narrated by Vance, have also surged.
Vance’s memoir was a hit before he entered politics. Since its release, “Hillbilly Elegy” has sold some three million copies and was adapted into a movie by Ron Howard.
The memoir chronicles Vance’s path from a rough childhood growing up in Middletown, Ohio, to his success as a graduate of Yale Law School and as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist. After Trump’s unexpected political rise, Vance’s book was embraced by some pundits and reviewers as a kind of cultural-political Rosetta Stone that helped illuminate why he drew in white working class voters.
The memoir also attracted its share of critics, including those who said he had misrepresented the lives and culture of the disadvantaged white Americans he claimed to represent. It even inspired a book-length anthology, “Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’” which aimed to be a corrective of sorts to the stereotypes about the region and people that were pervasive in Vance’s books.Show less
July 30, 2024, 11:32 a.m. ETJuly 30, 2024
Michael Gold
Hours before Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to hold a rally in Atlanta, the Trump-Vance campaign just announced it will hold a rally on Saturday at the same venue, on the campus of Georgia State University.
July 30, 2024, 10:16 a.m. ETJuly 30, 2024
Maggie Astor
“I said, vote for me, you’re not going to have to do it ever again,” Trump said in a Fox News interview.
Former President Donald J. Trump, in an interview broadcast Monday night, repeated his recent assertion that Christians will never have to vote again if they vote for him this November, and brushed aside multiple requests to walk back or clarify the statement.
Mr. Trump said last Friday to a gathering of Christian conservatives: “I love you. You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.”
His interviewer on Monday, Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, noted that Democrats have highlighted that quote as evidence that Mr. Trump would end elections, and urged Mr. Trump to rebut what she called a “ridiculous” criticism.
But Mr. Trump declined to do so, repeating a pattern he frequently employs in which he makes a provocative statement that can be interpreted in varying ways, and makes no attempt to quiet the uproar. This comment was especially striking, given his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his shattering of other Democratic norms.
The exchange began when Ms. Ingraham told the former president: “They’re saying that you said to a crowd of Christians that they won’t have to vote in the future.”
Mr. Trump started off his response, saying: “Let me say what I mean by that. I had a tremendous crowd, speaking to Christians all in all — I mean, this was a crowd that liked me a lot.” He added that Catholics are “treated very badly by this administration” and that “they’re like persecuted,” then digressed, saying that Jewish people who voted for Democrats “should have your head examined,” a sentiment he has expressed many times before, drawing criticism of antisemitism. He then reiterated his statement from Friday.
“I said, vote for me, you’re not going to have to do it ever again. It’s true,” he said. “Because we have to get the vote out. Christians are not known as a big voting group. They don’t vote. And I’m explaining that to them. You never vote. This time, vote. I’ll straighten out the country, you won’t have to vote anymore. I won’t need your vote.”
Ms. Ingraham offered him an off-ramp: “You mean you don’t have to vote for you, because you’ll have four years in office.”
Mr. Trump began talking about gun owners not voting, but Ms. Ingraham interrupted him.
“It’s being interpreted, as you are not surprised to hear, by the left as, well, they’re never going to have another election,” she said. “So can you even just respond —”
Mr. Trump cut her off, claiming again that Christians “vote in very small percentages,” and digressing into how he would change voting practices.
He then repeated his statement from Friday once more, saying his message had been: “Don’t worry about the future. You have to vote on Nov. 5. After that, you don’t have to worry about voting anymore. I don’t care, because we’re going to fix it. The country will be fixed and we won’t even need your vote anymore, because frankly we will have such love, if you don’t want to vote anymore, that’s OK.”
Democracy has been a focus of President Biden’s and now Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, as well as the campaigns of many Democratic candidates down-ballot, and Mr. Trump’s comments have intensified those concerns.
“Donald Trump has been clear about what he wants to do if he wins this November — he repeatedly suggested this November might be America’s last election, said he’d ‘terminate’ the Constitution, and promised to rule as a dictator on ‘day one,’” said Sarafina Chitika, a Harris campaign spokeswoman.
Mr. Trump, in the interview, suggested he was perplexed by the reaction to his remarks and attempted to minimize the whole episode.
In one more exchange, Ms. Ingraham noted that Democrats were arguing that Mr. Trump might never leave office if elected again, and she asked him, with a laugh, “But you will leave office after four years?”
“Of course. By the way, and I did last time,” Mr. Trump said.
He left office in 2021 after his and his allies’ sweeping legal campaign to overturn the election failed, and after his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 to try to stop Congress from certifying the results.Sh
July 30, 2024, 8:04 a.m. ETJuly 30, 2024
Maggie Astor
Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign announced that it would spend $50 million on ads before the Democratic National Convention next month and released its first ad since she became the presumptive Democratic nominee. She is seeking to define her record positively in voters’ minds before the Trump campaign, which launched its own ad, can do the opposite.
July 30, 2024, 7:00 a.m. ETJuly 30, 2024
Reid J. Epstein and Nicholas Nehamas
Reporting from Washington
With dueling ads, Harris and Trump both try to define her as a candidate.
The race to define Vice President Kamala Harris began in earnest on Tuesday, with both her campaign and former President Donald J. Trump’s team unveiling television advertisements that aim to explain her biography to voters in battleground states.
Ms. Harris’s new ad, her first since becoming the party’s de facto nominee, labels her as “fearless” while leaning into her time as a local and state prosecutor. “She put murderers and abusers behind bars,” a narrator states. “Kamala Harris has always known who she represents.”
Mr. Trump’s new ad, meanwhile, attacks her as being weak on the border. It suggests that she is responsible for millions of border crossings and a quarter-million deaths from fentanyl, which the ad says occurred “on Harris’s watch.” It closes with a new Trump tagline for Ms. Harris: “Failed. Weak. Dangerously Liberal.”
Just over a week ago, Ms. Harris replaced President Biden as the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer. Despite being the vice president and having represented the nation’s largest state as one of California’s senators, Ms. Harris is relatively unknown by many of the voters in battleground states who are likely to decide the presidential election.
The new ads will cost tens of millions of dollars and run in those key states.
Ms. Harris’s spot is the beginning of what her campaign said would be a $50 million blitz before the Democratic National Convention, which begins on Aug. 19 in Chicago. (The campaign has announced roughly the same amount of ad spending in the previous several months.)
The Trump campaign is spending more than $12 million across Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin over the next two weeks, according to data from AdImpact, a media-tracking service — its first major television ad purchase since Mr. Biden made way for his vice president.
The Harris campaign said its ads would run in 60-second increments on broadcast television during the Olympics, among other programming, and appear in shorter versions online.
“Kamala Harris has always stood up to bullies, criminals and special interests on behalf of the American people — and she’s beaten them,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, Ms. Harris’s campaign chair. “This $50 million paid media campaign, bolstered by our record-setting fund-raising haul and a groundswell of grass-roots enthusiasm, is one crucial way we will reach and make our case to the voters who will decide this election.”
Ms. Harris’s ad also leans into an argument that she represents the future while Mr. Trump, 78, stands for the past — a case that is far easier for Democrats to press with the vice president, who is 59, at the top of the ticket rather than the 81-year-old Mr. Biden.
“Donald Trump wants to take our country backward,” Ms. Harris says in the ad. “To give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and end the Affordable Care Act. But we are not going back.”
Mr. Trump’s ad aims at what his campaign believes is one of Ms. Harris’s biggest weaknesses: the Biden administration’s border record.
In speeches over the past week, Mr. Trump repeatedly criticized Ms. Harris’s work as the “border czar,” a position she was never officially given but that refers to her being deputized by Mr. Biden to try to address the root issues causing people to flee countries in Central America. Ms. Harris was not responsible for overseeing border security.
Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, said in a statement that Mr. Trump had been responsible for Republicans in Congress walking away from a bipartisan immigration agreement.
“After killing the toughest border deal in decades, Donald Trump is running on his trademark lies because his own record and ‘plans’ are extreme and unpopular,” Mr. Moussa wrote
July 29, 2024, 11:38 p.m. ETJuly 29, 2024
Rebecca Davis O’Brien and Ken Bensinger
Liberal white dudes rally for Harris: ‘It’s like a rainbow of beige.’
First came the Black women, who had been meeting every week for four years and were ready to spring into action for Kamala Harris. Then came the Black men and South Asian Americans. There were also the white women, in a Zoom-busting paroxysm of solidarity and angst.
On Monday night, the string of identity groups backing Ms. Harris reached its bizarre, and perhaps inevitable, apotheosis with the inaugural meeting of the aptly named “White Dudes for Harris.”
“What a variety of whiteness we have here,” marveled Bradley Whitford, the “West Wing” actor, his tongue firmly in cheek as he opened his remarks to the 60,000 or so attendees who had gathered on a live video call to show their support and raise money for Ms. Harris’s nascent presidential campaign. “It’s like a rainbow of beige.” (Their ranks, across screening platforms, ultimately grew to nearly 200,000, the organizers said on Tuesday morning.)
The call, put together by a few Democratic organizers (and not affiliated with the Harris campaign), was billed as a moment of solidarity, a chance to prove that former President Donald J. Trump doesn’t own the votes of white men or speak for them.
The speakers included two white dudes on the shortlist to be Ms. Harris’s running mate — Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — as well as the singers Josh Groban and Lance Bass and the actor Mark Hamill. Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina was there, in a suit and tie, and Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois was too, cracking jokes about JD Vance.
Since President Biden dropped out of the race and backed Ms. Harris, just over a week ago, there has been a rush of Democratic enthusiasm behind her — momentum that some have likened to Barack Obama’s first presidential run.
But the country has changed since 2008, and so has the Democratic Party.
Since Mr. Trump entered the political scene, Democrats have watched in frustration as Republicans have pushed white identity politics to the cultural foreground. At the same time, Republicans have accused Democrats of amplifying racial divisions through “antiracism” training and mantras like “check your privilege.”
But in a little more than a week, united behind a likely nominee who is Black, South Asian and a woman, the long-suffering Democratic Party and its supporters seem to be hitting upon a robust response, tapping into distinct cultural and ethnic identities — and also learning to poke gentle fun at themselves.
The mood in the White Dudes for Harris group chat, initiated late last week on the WhatsApp messaging service, was positively giddy for days, with organizers sharing John Cena memes, jokes about beer and words of support.
Before Monday’s call, Ross Morales Rocketto, a Democratic organizer who helped start the group, acknowledged the discomfort some might feel about the group’s name.
“I don’t blame them,” he said in an interview. “Throughout American history, there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that when white men organize, it’s often with pointy hats on, and it doesn’t end well.”
“What we are really trying to do is engage a group of people that the left has largely ignored for the last few years,” Mr. Morales Rocketto said. “There’s a silent majority of white men who aren’t MAGA Republicans, and we haven’t done anything to try to capture those votes.”
The group, he said, was inspired by the success of “Win With Black Women,” a weekly call of prominent Black women who had, in the hours after Mr. Biden’s July 21 announcement, raised $1.5 million for Ms. Harris.
Since then, “Win With Black Men,” “Latino Men for Kamala,” “South Asian Men for Harris” and other identity groups have popped up to host their own calls aimed at raising money to support Ms. Harris’s campaign.
On Thursday night came “White Women: Answer the Call 2024,” which drew more than 150,000 people to a Zoom meeting that crashed the platform and, according to its planners, raised more than $8 million. (The “White Dudes for Harris” call, at the end of its three-hour 20-minute run, had brought in more than $4 million.)
The actress Connie Britton jokingly called the women’s group “Karens for Kamala.” Several speakers observed, with shame, that white women had dropped the ball in 2016, and emphasized the importance of using their privilege to fight for freedom and justice alongside Black women. The author Glennon Doyle urged women to get engaged in political organizing, and tearfully described conversations with her therapist and her sister about her fear of getting canceled if she says the wrong thing.
“Spoiler alert,” Ms. Doyle said, paraphrasing her sister. “If we stay quiet and don’t fight, we are all getting mass-canceled on Jan. 20, 2025, anyway.”
In an interview on Monday, the group’s organizer, Shannon Watts, a founder of Moms Demand Action, called the meeting “a reckoning, more than a rally.” She added: “This was meant to be a conversation about the regrets we have about what happened in 2016, and also the need for white women to pull their weight, and they haven’t been.”
Before the White Dudes call on Monday, there was some predictable backlash from the Trump camp. “They should give it a more fitting name like: Cucks for Kamala,” Donald Trump Jr. posted on X, using a term popular in some far-right circles for a weak or submissive man.
(Mr. Morales Rocketto sighed. “For whatever reason, the Republican Party has really leaned into being creeps.”)
Kicking off the White Dudes call was, of course, the Dude, the actor Jeff Bridges, abiding in a comfortable-looking chair. He had seen a link for the “White Dudes for Harris” trucker hat and wanted one. “I qualify!” he said. “I am white. I am a dude. And I love Harris!”
He added, “A woman president, how exciting!”
Then came Mr. Buttigieg, in a shirt and tie, expressing excitement about following the Dude. “The vibes right now are incredible.”
He added: “What’s really filling my sails right now,” he said, was Ms. Harris’s focus on “positive things,” particularly “freedom.”
Later on the call, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, who is running for Senate this year, held up a “Big Lebowski” bobblehead and, after encouraging viewers to “smash” the donation button, signed off with “Thanks, Dudes!”Show more
July 29, 2024, 7:00 p.m. ETJuly 29, 2024
Jonathan Weisman
Reporting from Ambler, Pa.
Shapiro and Whitmer tell Harris supporters that Trump is ‘so scared of her.’
Governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan rallied supporters behind Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday in the critical suburbs of Philadelphia, making a boisterous case that the likely Democratic nominee was going to take the fight to former President Donald J. Trump in the next 100 days — and win.
“I want a future that is cleaner and greener,” Mr. Shapiro bellowed to about a thousand cheering supporters. “I want a future with better schools and safer streets, and I want a future with more freedom, not less. I want a future where I can look the 47th president of the United States in the eye and say, ‘Hello, Madam President.’”
The rally at Wissahickon High School in Ambler, Pa., was something of a tryout for the governor who looks like he wants to be on the Democratic ticket, Mr. Shapiro, and the governor who has said she doesn’t, Ms. Whitmer. Both lead states in the so-called blue wall — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — that former Mr. Trump broke through in 2016, then President Biden won back four years later.
All three states have been seen as easier targets for Democrats than the Sun Belt swing states that Mr. Biden won in 2020: Arizona, Georgia and Nevada. Those states had been trending toward Mr. Trump before the president dropped his re-election bid. Now, that could change.
“The energy, people coming out of the woodwork to volunteer, it’s been amazing,” said Jason Salus, the treasurer of Montgomery County, one of the counties bordering Philadelphia that have made or broken Democratic victories in the state.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton beat Mr. Trump in Montgomery, Bucks, Chester and Delaware counties by 188,353 votes. Four years later, Mr. Biden won them by 287,740. In Montgomery County, Mr. Biden collected 57,000 more votes than Mrs. Clinton did in 2016. Ms. Harris will most likely have to run up the score in the suburban counties again.
In Ambler, both governors were joyfully vulgar. Both weighed in on what Ms. Whitmer called “our three-part strategy: Get Shit Done.” (Mr. Shapiro called it G.S.D.)
But their main job was to attest that Ms. Harris could beat Mr. Trump, and indeed that she already has him running scared.
“As attorney general, she put crooks and sex offenders behind bars,” Ms. Whitmer said of Ms. Harris’s days as California’s top law enforcement officer. “And it makes me think maybe that’s why Donald Trump’s so scared of her.”
Mr. Shapiro tried to remind the audience of “the chaos” of the years when Mr. Trump was in office, when “you didn’t want to pick up your phone and look because you didn’t want to know what he had done that day.”
He also appropriated some of the toughest lines that Mr. Trump and his supporters have leveled at Democrats, saying it is the former president “who doesn’t love this country.”
“This is the greatest country on the face of the earth. Let’s start acting like it,” he added.
July 29, 2024, 6:52 p.m. ETJuly 29, 2024
Shane Goldmacher and Reid J. Epstein
Roy Cooper withdraws his name from Harris’s vice-presidential field.
Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, who had been seen as a leading contender to become Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, has withdrawn from the vice-presidential sweepstakes.
Mr. Cooper confirmed the news, reported earlier by The New York Times, in a social media post on Monday night.
“This just wasn’t the right time for North Carolina and for me to potentially be on a national ticket,” Mr. Cooper wrote. “She has an outstanding list of people from which to choose, and we’ll all work to make sure she wins.”
Mr. Cooper, who previously served as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, was asked last week by the Harris campaign to be vetted for vice president but declined to participate, according to two people engaged in the process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
The Cooper team reached out to the Harris campaign a week ago on Monday to say he did not want to be considered, one of the people said. It was the day after President Biden had left the race and endorsed Ms. Harris as his successor.
Mr. Cooper harbored concerns that Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a conservative Republican who is on the ballot this year to replace him, would mount a legal effort to usurp his executive authority while he was out of state, the two people said. Mr. Cooper did not believe Mr. Robinson would be successful but thought any such challenge would serve as a chaotic distraction had he been added to the ticket.
A spokesman for the Harris campaign declined to comment.
Mr. Cooper has known Ms. Harris dating to their overlapping days as state attorneys general and also campaigned recently with her. He has twice won governor’s races in North Carolina, a battleground state, even as Donald J. Trump carried the state at the presidential level. Mr. Cooper is prohibited from seeking a third term.
Mr. Cooper, 67, is older than Ms. Harris, 59, but still a decade younger than Mr. Trump. He is considered to be North Carolina Democrats’ top contender to challenge Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican who next faces re-election in 2026.
Ms. Harris is seeking to select a running mate on a highly compressed timeline, aiming to make her choice by Aug. 7 — a little more than two weeks after she entered the race to replace President Biden on the Democratic ticket.
Besides Mr. Cooper, those known to be under serious consideration include Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg.
The remaining leading candidates are all white men. All except Mr. Buttigieg have a history of electoral success in politically divided states. Mr. Beshear was elected twice in deep-red Kentucky, Mr. Walz represented a conservative House district before being elected governor, Mr. Shapiro won his attorney general race in 2016 when Mr. Trump carried Pennsylvania and Mr. Kelly has won Arizona twice in the last four years.
Mr. Shapiro on Monday campaigned for Ms. Harris in the Philadelphia suburbs with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, who may have been a vice-presidential contender had she not taken herself out of the running last week.
“I want a future that is cleaner and greener,” Mr. Shapiro told about 1,000 supporters — an audience that would have been considered large for a Biden campaign stop just two weeks ago. “I want a future with better schools and safer streets, and I want a future full of freedom. I want to look the 47th president of the United States in the eye and say, ‘Madam President.’”
Two people with knowledge of the vice-presidential vetting process said the list had been narrowed to five, though the Harris campaign has vetted a dozen potential running mates. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the private deliberations.
The only other vice-presidential contender known to have withdrawn from the process is Adm. William H. McRaven, the former commander of the United States Special Operations Command, who publicly took himself out of consideration last week.
Ms. Harris’s vetting process began last week and is expected to run through this weekend. She has yet to meet in person with any of the potential running mates. The initial candidate interviews with members of her campaign staff have begun over video calls.
Several of those contenders have been campaigning publicly — and thus auditioning — for Ms. Harris in recent days. Mr. Buttigieg appeared on Fox News over the weekend and is set to appear on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart on Monday night. Mr. Walz has been a regular on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News — and even had a profile in the magazine Runner’s World. Mr. Beshear campaigned in Georgia. Show less
July 29, 2024, 6:04 p.m. ETJuly 29, 2024
Tim Balk
The Justice Department will monitor voting in Arizona on Tuesday.
The Justice Department will monitor the primary elections in Arizona on Tuesday to safeguard Phoenix-area voters’ access to the ballot, the agency said Monday.
Arizona has been a hotbed for election conspiracy theories since Joseph R. Biden Jr. defeated Donald J. Trump in 2020 and flipped it and its largest county, Maricopa, blue.
Since then, the state has been embroiled by legal wrangling over various election challenges and legislation, its election workers have faced threats and in 2022, armed members of an election-monitoring group staked out ballot boxes in Maricopa County. Last week, an Alabama man pleaded guilty to charges of sending threatening messages to Maricopa election workers in 2022, according to the Justice Department.
The department released its plans to monitor voting on Tuesday in that county, which includes Phoenix and its suburbs.
The Justice Department often monitors polling sites during elections — it did so as recently as last month in Queens, for New York’s primary contests — and in 2022, it also said it would watch over general election polling sites in five Arizona counties.
The state’s top election official, Adrian Fontes, this year expressed frustration with the Justice Department and the Biden administration over its response to threats against election workers.
Mr. Fontes, who defeated a vocal election denier to win the race for secretary of state in 2022, is now overseeing a primary election that features another candidate with a history of making false election claims: Kari Lake.
Ms. Lake, a close Trump ally who lost her bid for governor in 2022, is facing a county sheriff, Mark Lamb, as she seeks the Republican nomination for Senate. Earlier this year, Ms. Lake urged her supporters to take up arms ahead of the November election.
She is vying for the chance to pick up the seat being vacated by Kyrsten Sinema, a former Democrat who left her party in 2022 to become an independent and decided not to run for re-election. Representative Ruben Gallego is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
The primaries on Tuesday in Arizona, a swing state that could be pivotal in the presidential election in November, will play out after a federal judge delivered a mixed ruling last winter on a pair of 2022 voting measures passed by the state’s Republican Legislature. The judge found that some parts of the laws violated the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, but upheld a requirement for voters to prove their citizenship.
Keep Up With the 2024 Election
The presidential election is 97 days away. Here’s our guide to the run-up to Election Day.
Tracking the Polls. The state of the race, according to the latest polling data.
Picking a V.P. Who could be Harris’s running mate? Here are some potential options.
Harris on the Issues. A look at where Harris stands on abortion, immigration and more.
Vance’s Struggles. Trump’s running mate has stumbled as old comments resurface.
Trump’s 2025 Plans. How Trump is preparing to radically reshape the government.
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