This blog is closing now. Here is the full report on the new indictment against Trump:
The interview winds down with Trump claiming that November “should be a landslide” for the Republicans.
Dr Phil ends by saying he has asked Kamala Harris for a sit down interview, too. “I hope she will agree” he says.
Updated
Trump says that RFK Jr is “somewhat friendly actually” and that he is “a very smart guy, a different kinds of a guy”.
An environmental group is calling for a federal investigation into the former presidential candidate for an episode in which he allegedly severed the head of a washed-up whale with a chainsaw – and drove home with it strapped to his car’s roof.
Donald Trump has appointed Robert F Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard, two former Democrats who have endorsed his bid for a second presidency, to the transition team that could shape his future administration.
Kennedy’s appointment came after he suspended his own presidential campaign as an independent candidate last week and threw his weight behind an erstwhile opponent who, just four months ago, branded him a “radical-left lunatic”.
Dr Phil asks if “they” would have been ok with Trump being shot. He says he doesn’t know, but that there is “a lot of hate”.
Comments about Trump being a threat to democracy “can get potential assassins going”, he says.
He claims that inflation was not mentioned at the DNC, which is not true.
A clip is played of Trump saying, “In four years we’ll have it fixed you won’t have to vote”. Trump claims that this was aimed at Christians, who he says don’t like to vote. He says it wasn’t claim about dictatorship.
He says he was joking about being a “dictator” on “day one”.
Sean Hannity asked Trump in an interview in December last year, “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?”
“Except for day one,” Trump responded. Trump said on the “day one” he referred to, he would use his presidential powers to close the southern border with Mexico and expand oil drilling.
Trump claims there was a conspiracy to cover up Biden’s mental ability.
But he also is defensive about claims that Biden was too old. He claims that he knows “many many people in their 90s that are sharp”.
He says that Biden is 81, “it’s just not old with what we’re taking about”.
When Biden dropped out, Trump became the oldest presidential candidate in US history. He is 78 to Biden’s 81.
Nonetheless he claims there was a conspiracy to cover up Biden’s mental fitness.
Trumps’ view, in short: Biden is too old, Trump is not too old, though he would turn Biden’s current age while in office, were he to win.
Updated
In case you’re wondering about Dr Phil’s politics: Media Matters wrote an article in 2022 headlined “CBS’ Dr Phil has become a safe space for right-wing media personalities to spread hate and misinformation”. That show was later cancelled.
The 2022 article reports:
The newest season of CBS’ Dr. Phil has regularly featured right-wing personalities, including anti-abortion activists, Fox News and PragerU personalities, and members of far-right student and parent groups, giving them platforms to share misinformation and hate.
This trend appears to be a distinct turn for the show in contrast to the previous season. Dr. Phil now tackles conservative culture war issues like critical race theory, transgender athletes, “cancel culture,” cultural appropriation, and abortion.
“Any time you have a mail in ballot there is going to be massive fraud”, Trump says, erroneously. It is a claim he has made before, referring to “cheating”.
More on this from my colleague Hugo Lowell:
Trump’s attacks are complicating efforts at the Trump campaign to convince Republicans to vote early, which advisers know is crucial to win the election given Democratic voters have no qualms about voting by mail or organizing ballot initiatives and have given their party a major advantage.
Just 28% of Republicans support allowing any voter to cast a ballot by mail, compared with 84% of Democrats, according to a study in February by the Pew Research Center. A large part of that thinking, sources close to Trump concede, has been driven by the former president’s criticism of early voting.
The problem has become multi-faceted, sources familiar with the situation say. The Trump campaign needs to convince Republicans who believe Trump’s every word that they can discount his fearmongering, while ensuring they do not anger Trump by undercutting his position.
In essence, the Trump campaign has the delicate task of persuading Republican voters to participate in early voting methods that Trump has falsely said were the reason why there was rampant fraud in the 2020 election that meant he lost to Joe Biden.
The undertaking is made difficult by the fact that Trump’s voters typically take him at his word. The fear instilled in them of early voting means that Trump and down-ballot Republican candidates are far more at the mercy of election day problems like bad weather, long lines or voting machine issues.
Trump talked about mail-in ballots, yet another personal bugbear of his.
In his question to Trump, Dr Phil used the pejorative term “ballot harvesting”, a term Republicans use to refer to absentee ballots.
In December he called for the end of mail-in voting entirely, before claiming in an interview last month that “any time the mail is involved, you’re going to have cheating”.
He talks about voting in person being a “family custom”.
More on Trump and mail-in ballots:
Asked by Dr Phil about immigration, Trump says that if he is in power, there will be a mass deportation of “criminals”.
He is repeating false claims about Harris wanting to defund the police and ban fracking. He both says that she still believes in policies she has since changed, and that “everything has changed”.
“At this moment she can do no wrong,” he says at one point. But he also claims that she will “destroy the country”.
He says he has nothing against her personally. She is getting “a free press”, he says.
At the 20 minute mark, we are onto taxes and immigration. He claims that Europe has 10% income tax.
From the Tax Foundation: “Among European OECD countries, the average statutory top personal income tax rate lies at 42.8 percent in 2024.”
The interview starts with Trump talking about the assassination attempt, he talks about the misleading graph on immigration that he credits with saving his life, because he turned to look at it as shots were fired.
He repeats the claim that he was saved by God, because God loves America. “It has to be God,” he says.
He says that maybe God wants him to do more than save America, “maybe it’s saving the world” and “I get along with all those guys”, appearing to mean the leaders of Iran, Russia, and Israel.
He takes umbrage with Biden dropping out, “you’re doing well against the opponent… and they give you a nice fresh opponent”.
Dr Phil has published his interview with Trump on X. The full episode his here, we’ll bring you anything important.
NPR reports that Trump staff had a “verbal and physical altercation Monday with an official at Arlington National Cemetery” on Monday. Trump was at Arlington to take place in a wreath-laying ceremony.
In a statement, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung denied that there was a physical altercation and said that an unnamed individual was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode” when he tried to prevent a member of Trump’s staff during the ceremony.
Here is part of that report:
The cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent US casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members are authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.
When the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside, according to the source.
Trump participated in an event to mark the third anniversary of a deadly attack on US troops in Afghanistan as U.S. forces withdrew from the country; 13 US service members were killed in the attack. The Trump campaign has blamed President Biden and Vice President Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, for the chaotic withdrawal.
In a statement to NPR, Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s spokesman, strongly rejected the notion of a physical altercation, adding: “We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.
“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” Cheung said in the statement.
The debate rules appear to still be in dispute
Donald Trump says he’s reached “an agreement” with Kamala Harris over rules for their debate next month, but Harris’ campaign says that’s not the case.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday that the parameters for the 10 September presidential debate would be “the same as the last CNN Debate.” During that debate with Joe Biden, the candidates’ microphones were muted except when it was their turn to speak.
But Harris’ campaign says Tuesday that specifics for the debate are still being worked with host ABC News. A Harris spokesperson noted: “Both candidates have publicly made clear their willingness to debate with unmuted mics for the duration of the debate to fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates - but it appears Donald Trump is letting his handlers overrule him. Sad!”
The back and forth over the debate has centred around the issue of microphone muting, which Biden’s campaign made a condition of his decision to accept any debates this year.
A Harris spokesperson said Monday that Harris wants microphones to be live all the time. Trump’s campaign alleged Harris’ representatives sought “a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements,” specifications the Harris campaign denied.
JD Vance has admitted he once doubted Donald Trump’s abilities to be US president but insists he was won over by the policies and track record of a man he previously decried as “America’s Hitler” and “cultural heroin”.
The Republican vice-presidential nominee obliquely referred to his former hostility at a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as he attempted to blame Kamala Harris, the US vice-president, for the policies of the Biden administration at the same time as accusing her of preparing to steal Trump’s ideological clothes.
His concession of past skepticism came after he accused Trump’s critics of wrongly forecasting his failure in office.
“The same people who screwed this country up for 30 years said President Donald Trump would fail. Remember that?” Vance said. “But I remember, I was myself – I didn’t fully believe in the promises of Donald Trump. He persuaded me because he did such a good job.”
It is unclear what role Kennedy or Gabbard will play on the transition team, which also features two of Trump’s sons, Donald Jr and Eric, and his vice-presidential running mate, JD Vance.
Kennedy, who has traded in debunked conspiracy theories about children’s vaccines and the causes of the Covid epidemic, has been touted as a potential member of a second Trump administration, and has said he would expect any role would involve healthcare and food and drug policy.
Trump has supported some of Kennedy’s vaccine scepticism, but played down suggestions that he could appoint him as secretary of health and human services. That post would see him surmounting the potentially problematic hurdle of Senate confirmation.
Marc Short, a former chief of staff to Mike Pence, who served as Trump’s vice-president, told the New York Times that the appointment of Kennedy and Gabbard was a setback to conservatives.
“From the convention platform to the transition team, free-market, limited-government and social conservatives have been kicked to the curb,” he said. “Doubling down on big-government populists will not energise turnout among traditional conservatives.”
Gabbard, a former member of Congress for Hawaii, unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and left the party shortly thereafter.
She has rebranded herself as a pro-Trump celebrity and has been helping the Republican nominee prepare for a 10 September debate with Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent, which is to be hosted by ABC.
Gabbard and Harris clashed in a televised primary debate in 2019, footage from which was posted on social media on Tuesday.
Gabbard, a former member of the national guard who served in the Middle East, criticised the Democratic party in the debate, saying it was “not the party that is of, by and for the people and continues to be influenced by the foreign policy establishment in Washington represented by [Hillary] Clinton ... and other greedy corporate interests”. She also attacked Harris’s record as a prosecutor.
Harris responded by describing Gabbard as “someone who during the Obama administration spent four years full-time on Fox News criticising President Obama”. She also accused Gabbard of “buddying up” to Steve Bannon, a key Trump supporter and adviser, to get a meeting with Trump after he won the 2016 presidential election.
Trump appoints RFK Jr and Tulsi Gabbard to transition team
Trump has appointed Robert F Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard, two former Democrats who have endorsed his bid for a second presidency, to the transition team that could shape his future administration.
The pair will serve as honorary co-chairs of a body that will help him choose policies and personnel if he wins November’s presidential election, the New York Times reported.
Kennedy’s appointment came after he suspended his own presidential campaign as an independent candidate last week and threw his weight behind an erstwhile opponent who, just four months ago, branded him a “radical-left lunatic”.
He had already flagged up his new role in an interview with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host and prominent Trump supporter, posted on X.
Updated
The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted Tuesday to keep independent presidential candidate Cornel West on the ballot, rejecting a challenge filed by an employee of the Democratic National Committee, the Associated Press reports.
The so-called Badger state is likely to be pivotal to the election. It picked the winning presidential candidates in 2016 and 2020 Both years they won by a margin of just over than 20,000 votes. The narrow margins mean independent candidates are likely to be influential in November.
There will be eight presidential candidates on the ballot in Wisconsin, including Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. Six other lesser-known candidates include West, Green Party nominee Jill Stein and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suspended his campaign last week to endorse Trump.
Kennedy’s campaign sent the Wisconsin Elections Commission a letter dated Friday asking that his name be removed from the ballot. Although Kennedy has said he would try to remove his name from the ballot in battleground states, he has made clear that he wasn’t formally ending his bid and said his supporters could continue to back him in the majority of states where they are unlikely to sway the outcome.
No one challenged Kennedy’s appearance on the ballot. The commission did not discuss his request to be removed.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday rejected an attempt by Democrats to remove Stein from the ballot.
Here is what we know about Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz’s interview.
The running mates will sit for an interview with CNN on Thursday after weeks of criticism from Republicans and some media that the Democratic presidential candidate has not allowed journalists to press her on issues.
The interview will air at 9 pm ET on Thursday, CNN said in a statement on Tuesday.
It will be Harris’ first interview since becoming the Democratic candidate after President Joe Biden ended his campaign for re-election on 21 July following a shaky debate performance.
Harris was last interviewed in June, when she appeared on CNN to defend Biden’s policy record after the Biden-Trump debate and acknowledged theUS president had a “slow start” in that debate.
While Harris has occasionally taken questions from journalists on foreign and economic policies on the campaign trail, she has yet to do a one-on-one media interview or hold a formal press conference, prompting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to criticize her.
CNN anchor Dana Bash will conduct the interview from the battleground state of Georgia, CNN said.
Harris laid out some broad policy agendas at the Democratic National Convention last week, promising a middle class tax cut at home and a muscular foreign policy of standing up to Russia and North Korea while backing a Gaza ceasefire and a two-state solution in the Middle East.
She was expected to sit for one-on-one interviews where she will be pressed for details in the final sprint to Election Day on 5 November when she and Trump face off in a tight race. Trump has held press conferences and done media interviews in recent weeks but they have mostly focused on criticizing the Biden administration’s record instead of detailing his own policy proposals.
Trump’s interview with Dr Phil will air this evening, but was pre-recorded, so is very unlikely to include any response to the indictment.
It will air in roughly ninety minutes’ time.
TONIGHT my one on one with @realDonaldTrump airs on @MeritStreet, the Merit+ app, and right here on X.@PatriotMobile #Trump #DonaldTrump #DrPhil #Primetime #MeritTV pic.twitter.com/B39UBQseFJ
— Dr. Phil (@DrPhil) August 27, 2024
If you’re just joining us, the US justice department filed a new indictment against Donald Trump on Tuesday over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Here is how the new indictment protects the case, and differs from the original indictment, in the wake of a July supreme court decision ruling saying that Trump and other presidents have immunity for official acts, but not unofficial ones.
Put simply: portions of the new indictment are rewritten to emphasize that Trump was not acting in his official capacity during his efforts to try to overturn the election.
The document retains the same four criminal charges against Trump that were originally filed last summer.
Here are some of the aspects that have changed:
The new document removes mention of Jeffrey Clark, a former justice department official who aided Trump’s attempt to try to overturn the election. Clark was the only government official who was listed as an unnamed co-conspirator in the original indictment. “Trump is therefore absolutely immune from prosecution for the alleged conduct involving his discussions with Justice Department officials,” the supreme court wrote in its ruling in July.
The superseding indictment reframes Trump’s interactions with Mike Pence, emphasizing that he was Trump’s running mate. The supreme court suggested that a president could be criminally immune in connection to acts between him and the vice-president.
At other points in the document, prosecutors emphasize that Trump was acting outside the scope of his official duties. “The defendant had no official responsibilities related to any state’s certification of the election results,” the document says.
Prosecutors also highlighted that Trump used his Twitter/X account both for official and personal acts. They noted that the rally he attended on the Ellipse, near the White House, on 6 January 2021 was a “campaign speech”.
This is Helen Sullivan taking over our live US politics coverage with news and analysis.
Today so far
The special counsel filed a new indictment against Donald Trump in the 2020 election subversion case. The indictment keeps the same criminal charges against him that were filed last summer but removes allegations related to the justice department after a supreme court ruling that Trump and other presidents have immunity for official acts.
Trump described the case against him as a “witch hunt” and election interference and sought to pin the blame on his political rival Kamala Harris.
Kamala Harris’ campaign pushed back against Trump’s claims that the two sides had reached an agreement about their upcoming debate in September. The campaign suggested that the former president had not agreed to muted mics for the debate. Trump had said earlier today that he had come to an agreement regarding the debate rules after mulling whether he would participate for days.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will sit down for a joint interview with CNN on Thursday – their first together and the first for the vice-president in more than a month. It comes as Harris has faced growing criticism for not sitting down with a major media organization or holding a full press conference since she began her campaign.
Trump calls new indictment a 'travesty' in Truth Social rant
Donald Trump has responded to the new indictment filed against him in the election subversion case, describing it as an “effort to resurrect a ‘dead’ Witch Hunt” and accusing the special counsel of election interference.
The former president unleashed a torrent of criticism and complaints about the superseding indictment, which keeps the same criminal charges against him that were filed last summer but removes allegations related to the justice department.
The indictment came after a supreme court decision in July that ruled that Trump and other presidents have immunity for official acts.
Trump described the move as a “travesty” and sought to pin the blame on his rival for the White House, Kamala Harris.
Updated
Kamala Harris’s campaign denied Donald Trump’s claims that the two sides had reached an agreement about their upcoming debate in September.
The former president said Tuesday that he had agreed to the rules for the 10 September debate, which will be their first encounter since Harris kicked off her White House campaign. Trump had previously spent several days suggesting he might not participate.
The vice-president’s campaign has suggested the debate terms have not been finalized.
“Both candidates have publicly made clear their willingness to debate with unmuted mics for the duration of the debate to fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates - but it appears Donald Trump is letting his handlers overrule him. Sad!” the Harris campaign said in a statement.
Updated
More on the updated indictment against Donald Trump:
The justice department filed a new indictment against Donald Trump on Tuesday over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The maneuver does not substantially change the criminal case against him but protects it in the wake of a July supreme court decision ruling saying that Trump and other presidents have immunity for official acts, but not unofficial ones.
“Today, a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a superseding indictment, charging the defendant with the same criminal offenses that were charged in the original indictment,” lawyers for Jack Smith, the special counsel handling the case, said in a filing that accompanied what’s known as a supersedeing indictment.
“The superseding indictment, which was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in this case, reflects the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions in Trump v United States.”
The document retains the same four criminal charges against Trump that were originally filed last summer. But portions of the new indictment are rewritten to emphasize that Trump was not acting in his official capacity during his efforts to try to overturn the election.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Harris and Walz to sit for first joint interview on Thursday
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will sit down for a joint interview with CNN on Thursday, the outlet reported.
The interview will be their first together and the first for the vice-president in more than a month. It comes as Harris has faced growing criticism for not sitting down with a major media organization or holding a full press conference since she began her campaign.
Updated
The updated indictment against Trump was issued by a grand jury that had not heard evidence in the case before, the special counsel said.
The new indictment keeps the same charges, but there are several key changes – primarily, the removal of allegations against the former president related to his interactions with the justice department.
It also no longer includes Jeffrey Clark, an official at the justice department who promoted Trump’s false claims that the election had been stolen, as a co-conspirator.
Updated
New indictment against Donald Trump in election subversion case
Donald Trump faces a new indictment in the 2020 case against him after the US supreme court ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution.
The new indictment filed by the special counsel Jack Smith dropped allegations that Trump attempted to pressure the US justice department in his effort to overturn his defeat.
Updated
It’s worth noting that Kamala Harris has not responded to Donald Trump’s announcement that he has reached an agreement for the rules of their debate on 10 September.
Earlier this month, her campaign said she would be willing to do two debates, one on 10 September, and another on a to-be-determined date in October. Her running mate Tim Walz will do one debate with Trump’s pick, JD Vance, on 1 October.
Updated
Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris say they support cutting taxes on tips, and the topic may come up at their debate on 10 September. But as the Guardian’s Michael Sainato reports, workers’-rights advocates aren’t thrilled about the suddenly popular policy:
Tipping has always been a controversial subject in the US. Imported from Europe and popularized by some accounts after the fall of slavery to reinforce racial wage disparities, the practice comes freighted with historic baggage.
Nor is it overly popular with consumers. Since the pandemic, 72% of US adults say tipping is expected in more places today than it was in 2019, according to a Pew survey. Four in 10 Americans oppose the suggested tips that have been popping up on payment screens everywhere from coffee shops and dry cleaners to self-service machines in airports.
That hasn’t stopped Donald Trump and Kamala Harris from putting tips at the center of their election battle. Earlier this month, in a bold move, the vice-president endorsed a policy that the former president touted earlier this year to ban taxes on tips for service workers, as both candidates have been vying for working-class voters in the 2024 election, especially in the swing state of Nevada.
At a glance, the idea of giving a break to tipped workers is attractive – in some states, the minimum wage for tipped workers is just $2.13 an hour, and an alarming 14.8% of those workers live in poverty. But the idea raises many issues: why should a low-wage worker who does get tips be treated differently from one who doesn’t? Will higher-paid workers be able to use the measure to cut their tax bills? Harris says no; Trump is less clear.
Updated
Donald Trump agreed to the rules of the 10 September presidential debate after spending the last few days openly mulling pulling out of the event entirely. Here’s a look back at what we know about the squabble over the debate’s rules, from the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe:
Donald Trump has expressed doubt that he will participate in a scheduled televised debate with Kamala Harris next month, hurling a trademark “fake news” slur at the network that agreed to host it.
The former president and Republican presidential nominee threatened to pull out of the 10 September meeting with Harris, the vice-president and Democratic nominee for November’s election, in a post on his Truth Social network on Sunday night.
Referring to an interview on ABC’s This Week earlier in the day with the host Jonathan Karl and Tom Cotton, the Republican Arkansas US senator, Trump questioned the network’s fairness for the only debate that both presidential candidates had already agreed on.
“I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl’s(K?) ridiculous and biased interview of Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!), and their so-called Panel of Trump Haters, and I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” Trump wrote with his usual penchant for erroneous uppercase letters.
He also alluded to his ongoing defamation lawsuit against the This Week host George Stephanopoulos and the ABC network over comments the anchor made in March stating Trump had been found “liable for rape” instead of sexual abuse in a case brought by the New York writer E Jean Carroll.
Updated
Trump says he's reached agreement for rules of 10 September debate with Harris
Donald Trump says he has agreed to the rules for ABC News’s 10 September debate with Kamala Harris, which will be their first encounter since she launched her presidential campaign.
The two campaigns had reportedly been at odds over the rules of the debate, with the biggest point of contention being whether the candidates’ microphones would be muted when the other candidate was talking. Politico reported yesterday that Harris’s team wanted the microphones live during the whole broadcast, which would be a change from the CNN-hosted June debate between Trump and Joe Biden.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that the debate will be held under CNN’s rules – which seems to indicate microphones will be muted when a candidate is not speaking:
I have reached an agreement with the Radical Left Democrats for a Debate with Comrade Kamala Harris. It will be Broadcast Live on ABC FAKE NEWS, by far the nastiest and most unfair newscaster in the business, on Tuesday, September 10th, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Rules will be the same as the last CNN Debate, which seemed to work out well for everyone except, perhaps, Crooked Joe Biden. The Debate will be “stand up,” and Candidates cannot bring notes, or “cheat sheets.” We have also been given assurance by ABC that this will be a “fair and equitable” Debate, and that neither side will be given the questions in advance (No Donna Brazile!). Harris would not agree to the FoxNews Debate on September 4th, but that date will be held open in case she changes her mind or, Flip Flops, as she has done on every single one of her long held and cherished policy beliefs. A possible third Debate, which would go to NBC FAKE NEWS, has not been agreed to by the Radical Left. GOD BLESS AMERICA!
Updated
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will host fundraisers in three well-heeled western towns, the Harris-Walz campaign announced this afternoon.
Emhoff’s first event will be in Ketchum, Idaho, on Thursday, and then on Friday, he’ll hold fundraisers in San Francisco and in Aspen, Colorado.
Harris has raked in donations since entering the presidential race in late July following Joe Biden’s withdrawal, and saw a pronounced surge in fundraising during last week’s Democratic convention:
Updated
Donald Trump has for months been viewed as the preferred candidate to deal with the economy, according to public opinion polls.
But a Reuters/Ipsos survey released today shows that his advantage on that issue, as well as on handling crime, is eroding against Kamala Harris. Here’s more:
The three-day poll, conducted Aug 23-25, showed Republican former President Trump’s approach to the economy and employment was preferred by 43% of registered voters compared to 40% who preferred Harris’s approach. The 3 percentage point difference was too small to be significant given the poll’s 4 percentage point margin of error. A prior Reuters/Ipsos poll in late July showed Trump with an 11-point advantage on the economy.
On crime and corruption, Harris and Trump were tied with 40% support for each, showing more movement toward Harris, who trailed Trump by 5 points in the July poll.
Recent national polls have shown Harris building a small lead over Trump since she entered the race on July 21 following President Joe Biden’s decision to fold his campaign. The Reuters/Ipsos poll from late July showed Harris up by 1 point, 43% to 42%.
Since entering the race late last month, Harris has focused squarely on lowering prices, which rose steadily during the past three years of Joe Biden’s presidency as the US economy saw its worst episode of inflation since the 1980s.
Among the vice-president’s proposals is a federal ban on price-gouging. Here’s more on that:
Updated
Robert F Kennedy Jr's sister calls Trump endorsement 'gaudy and obscene'
In an interview today with CNN, Robert F Kennedy Jr’s sister, Kerry Kennedy said their father, former attorney general Robert F Kennedy, would not approve of his son’s endorsement of Donald Trump.
The elder Kennedy served as the country’s top law enforcement officer under John F Kennedy, his brother, and later represented New York in the Senate. He was assassinated in 1968, as he campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“Bobby carries my father’s name, and throughout his campaign, he relied on Daddy’s images and Uncle Jack’s images to promote that campaign,” Kerry Kennedy said in the interview.
“So he has an extra duty to protect their values and their vision, and were he alive today, that real Robert Kennedy would have detested almost everything Donald Trump represents. His lying, selfishness, racism, hatred, fascist sympathies, deliberate misinformation about vaccines, criminal felony convictions.”
She continued:
Daddy was the attorney general of the United States, the chief law enforcement officer. Donald Trump raped E. Jean Carroll, has 34 felony actions. He has contempt for the poor and suffering, for ethics, democracy, and healing. His cruel sneering at human rights for suffering people in America and around the world, the cause that was so loved passionately by my father Robert Kennedy. So I’m frankly outraged and disgusted by Bobby’s, my brother’s gaudy and obscene embrace of Donald Trump.
Updated
As he climbs the ranks of Donald Trump’s campaign, Robert F Kennedy is getting perhaps-unwanted attention from environmentalists over his involvement in cutting off a whale’s head and driving it back home on the roof of his car, the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe reports:
His independent White House campaign has fizzled, but the flow of bizarre stories of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s unorthodox handling of the carcasses of wild mammals has experienced no similar suspension.
An environmental group is calling for a federal investigation into the former presidential candidate for an episode in which he allegedly severed the head of a washed-up whale with a chainsaw – and drove home with it strapped to his car’s roof.
The episode has parallels with another extraordinary tale reported earlier in August in which Kennedy confessed to dumping a dead bear cub in New York’s Central Park and attempted to make it look like the animal was killed by a bicyclist.
The latest grisly revelation, about the whale head, is not particularly new – it stems from a 2012 interview Kennedy’s daughter Kick gave to Town & Country magazine, in which she talks about a visit to other family members of the political dynasty in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, more than two decades prior.
But the story’s re-emergence, following the bear tale and other off-the-wall declarations – including claims that part of RFK Jr’s brain was eaten by worms and that he had an apparent fondness for barbecued dog – has angered activists at the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund. The group previously denounced Kennedy’s candidacy and endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for president.
In a new video, Tim Walz, vice-presidential nominee and governor of Minnesota, appeared on popular Instagram talkshow Subway Takes hosted by comedian Kareem Rahma.
During the interviews for the popular online talkshow, that has over 300,000 followers on Instagram and more than 450,000 on TikTok, Rahma asks guests for controversial opinions while riding on the New York City subway. Each video tends to start with Rahma asking his guest: “So, what’s your take?”
In the video with Walz, posted on Tuesday, the vice-presidential candidate answers:
“My take is … the most neglected part of home ownership is the gutters,” adding “it’s personal for me … I’ve had problems with gutters before.”
The most neglected part of home ownership is THE GUTTERS 🏡 @Tim_Walz pic.twitter.com/JL21BoR7El
— SubwayTakes with Kareem Rahma (@SubwayTakes) August 27, 2024
Throughout the lighthearted video, that seems to be an attempt to appeal to young voters, Walz and Rahma, both midwest natives, discuss ways to clean your gutters, the state of Minnesota, whether cheese should go on or inside a hamburger and more.
Updated
JD Vance, the Ohio senator and Donald Trump’s running mate, is giving a speech to supporters at a campaign event in Big Rapids, Michigan.
Earlier today, Vance’s press secretary tweeted that the vice-presidential candidate was on his way to the event and was bringing his mother.
Michigan is one of a handful of crucial states in the upcoming 2024 presidential election. Earlier this month, a new poll conducted by the New York Times and Siena College put Kamala Harris ahead of Donald Trump by four points in three key swing states, including Michigan.
President Joe Biden has responded to a decision issued by a federal judge in Texas on Monday night to temporarily block a Biden immigration policy that allows undocumented spouses of US citizens to remain in the country while their applications for permanent residence are considered.
In a statement sent on Tuesday, Biden responded to the ruling and said:
Last night, a single district court in Texas ruled that our work to keep families together has to stop. That ruling is wrong. These families should not be needlessly separated. They should be able to stay together, and my Administration will not stop fighting for them.
I am not interested in playing politics with the border or immigration; I am interested in solving problems. Nor am I interested in tearing families apart. That is not who we are as Americans. I will continue to fight to secure our border and fix our broken immigration system.
The day so far
Fresh off picking up the endorsements of former independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr and ex-Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump will reportedly appoint both to a team tasked with vetting personnel for his administration, should he win the November elections. Meanwhile, his campaign is today attacking Kamala Harris for not scheduling any interviews since starting her bid for the White House in late July, and also for saying she would sign a bipartisan deal to tighten immigration policy, which would also greenlight new border wall construction – something she has said she opposes. Harris has no public events scheduled today, but her campaign did debut television ads that will tell battleground state residents about her plan to lower housing costs.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Trump is spending the day hawking digital trading cards, and promising that if you buy 15, he’ll send you a physical card bearing a piece of the suit he wore to his debate with Joe Biden.
JD Vance will later this afternoon deliver a campaign speech in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he’ll talk about his economic plans.
The Democratic national convention may also be remembered as a great way to get Covid-19.
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In other immigration news, the Biden administration suffered a setback in its attempt to allow undocumented spouses of US citizens to remain in the country, the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe reports:
A federal judge in Texas has temporarily blocked a Joe Biden immigration policy that allows undocumented spouses of US citizens to remain in the country while their applications for permanent residence are considered.
The so-called “parole in place” program was halted in a Monday night ruling by federal district court judge J Campbell Barker in the eastern district of Texas, a favorite venue of conservatives seeking to derail the president’s policy agenda. Barker was appointed to his position by the Donald Trump White House.
About half a million foreign-born spouses of US citizens were estimated to have been eligible for the Biden administration’s initiative that was announced in June under the banner “Keeping Families Together”. Applications opened on 19 August.
Unless or until Barker’s 14-day stay is lifted or overturned on appeal, the pre-existing requirement for applicants to seek a change in legal status from overseas remains in effect.
Immigration advocates condemned the ruling as “heartbreaking”, saying it could separate mixed-status families for years – or even permanently while their lengthy green card applications are processed.
As happy as Democrats were with last week’s convention in Chicago, NBC News reports that it may also qualify as something of a superspreader event for Covid-19.
Citing sources close to the campaign, NBC reports that two members of Kamala Harris’s campaign staff came down with the virus, and there are some concerns that the infections could affect events planned for this week. Here’s more:
One of the sources said that so far, the aides’ symptoms they’ve heard about have been mild, and a third person close to the campaign said there was no concern about staffing the events.
Since the convention wrapped up Thursday, various attendees and reporters have posted photos of positive Covid results.
“You put 20,000 people in an 18,000-person building, it’s bound to happen,” said Jaimey Sexton, a Chicago political consultant who attended the convention and was involved in multiple related events. Sexton said he knew of people who now have Covid from the convention and has heard of even more anecdotally. “You could ask anybody who was planning an event, they know somebody who has Covid,” he said.
The convention had overflow crowds at the United Center each day, particularly Thursday, the night Harris delivered her acceptance remarks. Before 8 p.m. that evening, organizers announced the venue would be closed off because it was at capacity.
There was much buzz that night that a surprise guest was to take the stage and make a big splash. Rumors were rampant even before that night that pop star Beyoncé was to appear. Harris has tapped Beyoncé’s hit “Freedom” as a theme song for her candidacy. At one point, TMZ reported the Beyoncé rumors were true — only to then retract the story.
“Maybe the DNC surprise was the COVID we got along the way,” NewsNation reporter Kellie Meyer posted on X, alongside a photo of a positive Covid test result.
In 2020 — before a vaccine was available — Democrats canceled their in-person convention because of Covid. There were no health-related requirements for attendees, including testing or wearing of masks, before last week’s convention.
While his campaign is busy bringing on high-profile supporters and attacking Kamala Harris, Donald Trump is spending today … hawking trading cards.
“By popular demand, I’m doing a new series of Trump digital trading cards,” he says in a video posted this morning to his Truth Social account (which his newly resurrected account on X has not shared).
“These cards show me dancing and even me holding some bitcoins,” he continues, adding that those who buy 15 digital cards will get a physical card mailed to them for free – which will have a piece of the suit he wore at his presidential debate against Joe Biden (which he says is known as the “knockout suit”, because it indeed proved disastrous for the Democrat’s campaign) sewn into it.
“We’ll be talking about it for a long time,” the former president promises at the video’s end.
It seems to be a repeat of a sale Trump first rolled out two years ago, which brought him a few million dollars, and plenty of mockery:
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Tulsi Gabbard is a former Hawaii congresswoman who endorsed Bernie Sanders and once called Joe Biden a friend. But her days in Democratic politics are far behind her, the Guardian’s David Smith reported earlier this year, when he covered Gabbard’s speech to a major convention of conservatives:
Once a prominent backer of the leftwing senator Bernie Sanders, on Thursday she was greeted by far-right activists with a standing ovation and a group of supporters brandishing gold letters that spelled T-R-U-M-P.
Such is the journey of Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who has an entire Wikipedia page devoted to her “political positions” and is now seen as a possible running mate for Donald Trump.
There are few better examples, critics say, of how the Trump era has scrambled the ideology not only of the Republican party but opportunists seeking media cachet and a book deal. Gabbard’s isolationist foreign policy views, disdain for “wokeness” and desire for attention from the rightwing ecosystem made her a natural headline speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the National Harbor in Maryland.
“Today we see the Democrat elite leaders say, with great concern in their voice, that if the American people elect Donald Trump again, they warn us, he will destroy our democracy,” said Gabbard, 42, in a speech that portrayed Trump as a victim of political persecution and sounded like an audition for the vice-presidency.
“They say he will be the dictator-in-chief, that if he’s elected it will be the last election this country sees. It’s laughable. This is so crazy, it’s laughable. They’re justifying their actions by telling themselves that they need to destroy our democracy in order to save it. It’s lunacy and it’s the mindset and mentality of dictators. They are waging a multi-front battle and they will stop at nothing until they’re successful.”
Trump to name Robert F Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard to transition team – report
Donald Trump will appoint former independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman, to his campaign’s transition team, the New York Times reports, citing a senior campaign adviser.
They’ll join a team tasked with selecting personnel to staff a second Trump administration, should he win the November election. Senior Trump advisor Brian Hughes told the Times the campaign is “proud that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have been added to the Trump/Vance Transition team. We look forward to having their powerful voices on the team was we work to restore America’s greatness.”
The reported appointments come as Trump looks to consolidate support against Kamala Harris, as polls show her posing a stronger challenge to his bid to return to the White House than he faced from Joe Biden. Kennedy dropped out of the presidential race last week and endorsed Trump, ending a third-party run for the presidency that analysts predicted could poses risks to both major candidates’ support in crucial states.
Gabbard, who ran for president as a Democrat in 2020 but has since quit the party and become a fixture on the right, threw her support behind Trump yesterday:
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Democrats are continuing to bask in the afterglow of their convention last week, in which Kamala Harris, Tim Walz and other party leaders delivered marquee speeches intended to boost their campaign.
Walz, in particular, is highlighting the football metaphors he deployed to rally supporters during his speech closing out the convention’s third night. The Minnesota governor is a former high school football coach, after all:
I haven’t given many big speeches before, but I have given plenty of pep talks. Let’s go win this, team. pic.twitter.com/PiB5S2dp09
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) August 26, 2024
Donald Trump’s allies have also stepped up their attacks on Kamala Harris’s running mate Tim Walz, accusing him of fabricating his record, the Guardian’s Robert Tait reports:
Donald Trump’s supporters have seized on misstatements and embellishments by Tim Walz about his past in an effort to depict the Democratic vice-presidential nominee as a serial liar, even amid concerns about the former president’s own track record of lies and untruthful statements.
The Republican focus on Walz has already dredged up potentially misleading descriptions of his military service, which ended nearly 20 years ago, and appears aimed at undermining Kamala Harris’s running mate’s self-proclaimed image as a plain-spoken paragon of normality.
Now the campaign appears to have expanded into more personal – even trivial – areas, including in at least one case, unsubstantiated innuendo about Walz’s character that may be in part driven by a desire to cancel out aspersions aimed at JD Vance, Trump’s running mate.
Walz has characterised Vance and Maga Republicans as “weird” and has also made reference to lewd and baseless online rumours that the GOP vice-presidential once had sex with a couch.
In the latest example of a Republican counteroffensive, Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and radio host with more than 3.3 million followers on X, posted in a now-deleted tweet that “Tim Walz is an all-time legendary liar” in response to another user’s post showing the Democratic candidate’s tweets about his dog, Scout.
Donald Trump’s campaign is seizing on the apparent contradiction between Kamala Harris’s support for a failed bipartisan deal to tighten immigration policy that would have included money for border wall construction, and her opposition to constructing the barrier when Trump was in office.
“Kamala’s RECORD proves she is pro-open border,” the former president’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “As a senator, Kamala tried to block President Trump’s construction of the border wall. As Border Czar, Kamala Harris halted construction of the border wall. Kamala’s ACTIONS speak much louder than the WORDS of the anonymous staff she is cowering behind.”
Republicans often say that Harris was appointed “border czar”, but such a position does not exit. Joe Biden did task Harris with addressing the “root causes” of migration from three Central American countries, a job at which she had mixed success:
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Kamala Harris has attacked Donald Trump for interceding earlier this year to kill a bipartisan deal in Congress that would have tightened immigration policy to stem the flow of migrants crossing the southern border. But, as the Guardian’s Robert Tait reports, the GOP is accusing the vice-president of supporting a deal that would have restarted construction of a Trump-era border wall that Harris says she opposes:
Republicans have accused Kamala Harris of a policy flip-flop after she embraced an immigration crackdown that would involve expanding the controversial US southern border wall, which she once called “un-American” and “a medieval vanity project”.
Harris committed to reviving a bipartisan immigration deal that collapsed in the Senate earlier year at last week’s Democratic national convention.
The agreement, a compromise worked out between Joe Biden’s administration and congressional Republicans, would have represented the toughest clampdown on illegal immigration in years. It unravelled after GOP members withdrew support under pressure from Donald Trump, the former president and Republican nominee for November’s election, because he did not want Democrats to win credit for a potentially vote-winning issue.
Reviving it means Harris is committing to spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the border wall, one of Trump’s pet projects during his presidency, said James Lankford, a Republican US senator for Oklahoma, one of the deal’s architects.
“It requires the Trump border wall,” Lankford told Axios. “It is in the bill itself that it sets the standards that were set during the Trump administration: here’s where it will be built. Here’s how it has to be built, the height, the type, everything during the Trump construction.”
JD Vance is on his way to make a speech about the economy in Big Rapids, Michigan, this afternoon, and is being joined by his mom, the vice-presidential candidate’s press secretary tweets:
.@JDVance en route to Big Rapids, Michigan with his mom! pic.twitter.com/dmVF4EnAoz
— Taylor Van Kirk (@taylorvankirk) August 27, 2024
Vance is billed to hit out at Kamala Harris for the inflation that occurred over the past three years of Joe Biden’s administration, which is seen a major liability for the vice-president and Democratic candidates nationwide.
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Kamala Harris’s campaign is meanwhile focused on drawing attention to her plans to lower housing costs.
Here’s the television ad that will start airing in battleground states promoting the vice-president’s plans to drive down rents, and help first-time home buyers:
My mother saved for years to buy a home. I was a teenager when that day finally came—I remember how excited she was.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 27, 2024
Right now, home ownership is out of reach for too many Americans.
When I am President, we will end the housing shortage by building 3 million homes and rentals. pic.twitter.com/PHVaSt5OCe
Vance says Harris 'wants a promotion but refuses to interview for the job'
Republicans are trying to make the most of the bubbling controversy over Kamala Harris not doing any interviews since launching her presidential bid, with Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance yesterday joining the pile-on:
Kamala Harris wants a promotion but refuses to interview for the job. https://t.co/Vv4Hr0ZoWT
— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 26, 2024
Vance has lately adopted the unusual practice of taking questions from reporters attending his speeches in front of the crowd. Most other politicians schedule press conferences separately from their speeches, or gaggle with reporters after leaving the podium.
Trump campaign hits Harris for lack of interviews as vice-president rolls out plan to lower housing costs
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Kamala Harris has campaigned across the country, selected a running mate and clinched the Democratic presidential nomination ever since Joe Biden dropped out of the race in late July. But one thing the vice-president has not done is give a media interview, or even a press conference, much to the consternation of journalists who argue Harris should be willing to answer questions about her plans. While she says she intends to get one scheduled (but not necessarily conducted) before the end of August, the Trump campaign this morning criticized her for “dodging the press”, saying, “She doesn’t want to talk about her radical agenda.” We’ll see if there’s any news today about when this much-anticipated interview might happen, and with which outlet.
Meanwhile, the Harris campaign this morning announced plans to hold events and air television ads in battleground states promoting her plan to lower housing costs, which includes the construction of up to 3m new units of housing in four years, and providing $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. The vice-president will also rally voters in Savannah, Georgia, on Thursday, the campaign just announced, as she seeks to clinch victory in the swing state that could be crucial to her path to the White House.
Here’s what else is happening today:
Harris has no public events today, but will deliver a video message to the African Methodist Episcopal church general conference in the afternoon.
Joe Biden remains on vacation in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Donald Trump will on Thursday hold a town hall in La Crosse, Wisconsin, moderated by Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who yesterday endorsed him.
JD Vance is due for a campaign visit in Big Rapids, Michigan, around 1.30pm ET today.
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