Closing summary
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are essentially tied in a new Wall Street Journal poll. Trump leads Harris 49% to 47% in a two-person matchup, within the margin of error, compared to a previous poll that showed Trump leading Joe Biden by six points.
Donald Trump has called Kamala Harris’s statement on the Gaza war “disrespectful” before a meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Florida to discuss the conflict.
Kamala Harris’s comments after her own meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday, in which she said she would “not be silent” about the suffering of Palestinians, have been attacked by right-wing Israeli politicians and anonymous officials.
Donald Trump said he plans to return to Butler, Pennsylvania for a “big and beautiful rally” in the town where a gunman shot and injured him during a campaign rally nearly two weeks ago.
Since Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race on Sunday and endorsed Kamala Harris, more than 100,000 new voters have registered to vote on Vote.org, the organization said.
Barack Obama has endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee, meaning the vice-president has now won the backing of all the party’s politically active high-profile figures for her White House bid.
Don Davis, a North Carolina Democratic representative, issued a statement endorsing Kamala Harris, just a day after he broke party rank and joined House Republicans in condemning Harris’s border policies.
JD Vance, the Ohio senator and Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate, defended his comments where he described the country as being run by “childless cat ladies”, insisting in an interview on Friday that “I’ve got nothing against cats”.
Vance promoted a baseless rightwing talking point in 2022 when he warned of George Soros-funded planes transporting Black women across state lines for abortions, according to a recently resurfaced podcast interview.
“We are here! We are here! We have arrived!” cheered the lawyer and activist Valarie Kaur, to more than 4,000 south Asian participants mobilizing for Kamala Harris on a Zoom call on Wednesday night.
I want to name this a historic moment – and as a moment for all of us to come together.
If elected, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee would become the first woman, first Black woman, and first south Asian to win the US presidency.
Kaur was one of a series of speakers that included the actor Mindy Kaling, the congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, the Philadelphia councilwoman Nina Ahmad, the actor Poorna Jagannathan and other south Asian female leaders who called on south Asian women to rally for Harris.
While views within the south Asian community are mixed – a few speakers, and many listeners on the call, voiced concerns over the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza – the possibility of electing Harris in an election where the future of American democracy is at stake has renewed hope for Democrats.
Read the full story by Prachi Gupta: ‘Could we have imagined this moment would come?’: Kamala Harris and the rise of Indian American politicians
