Former President Donald Trump is campaigning Thursday in Michigan and Wisconsin as he ramps up battleground state travel heading into the traditional Labor Day turn toward the fall election.
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, sat down Thursday for the first major television interview of their presidential campaign as the duo travels in southeast Georgia on a bus tour.
The interview with CNN’s Dana Bash gave Harris a chance to quell criticism that she has eschewed uncontrolled environments.
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And that’s it
The first sit-down interview from Harris and Walz since taking the helm of the Democrats’ presidential ticket for 2024 has ended.
Walz responds to criticism of his former false statements
Bash asked Walz about several misstatements of fact in his record, starting with how he has described his 24 years of service in the National Guard.
In a 2018 video clip that the Harris-Walz campaign once circulated, Walz spoke out about against gun violence and said, “We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at.”
Critics say Walz portrayed himself as someone who spent time in a combat zone. But a campaign spokesperson said he misspoke.
Walz replied that he was “incredibly proud” of his National Guard service.
“My record speaks for itself, but I think people are coming to get to know me. I speak like they do. I speak candidly, I wear my emotions on my sleeves, and I speak especially passionately about our children being shot in schools ... I think people know me. They know who I am. They know where my heart is.”
Walz said his wife, who was an English teacher, tells him that his grammar is not always correct.
“One thing I’ll never do is, I’ll never demean another member’s service in any way. I never have. And I never will,” Walz said.
Asked about statements that appeared to indicate that he and his wife conceived their children with in vitro fertilization when they in fact used a less controversial fertility treatment, he said he believes most Americans get that it’s the Trump campaign that’s splitting hairs.
But Walz did not address Bash’s question about false statements that his staffers made in his first congressional campaign in 2006 about his arrest for drunken driving in 1995. The staffers denied that he was driving drunk, but a transcript of his court appearances shows that he and his attorney acknowledged that he was.
So exactly how did Harris learn Biden was dropping out?
She explained that it was a Sunday — July 21 — when she answered the phone at the vice-presidential residence in Washington. Family was visiting, including her 6- and 8-year-old nieces. They had pancakes and bacon for breakfast and were sitting down to work on a puzzle when the phone rang.
It was Biden and Harris said, “He told me what he had decided to do and ... I asked him, ‘Are you sure?’ and he said, ‘Yes,’ and that’s how I learned about it.”
She said she didn’t ask Biden to endorse her because “he was very clear that he was going to endorse me.”
Harris has no regrets defending President Biden’s record and reputation
“He is so smart and loyal to the American people,” Harris told CNN. “And I have spent hours upon hours with him, be it in the Oval Office or the Situation Room. He has the intelligence, the commitment and the judgment and disposition that I think the American people rightly deserve in their president.”
Harris’ words of support for Biden, whose exit from the nomination and endorsement cleared her path, also came with a criticism of Republican Trump. She said her opponent in November’s election had none of Biden’s values.
Harris reiterates her position on Israel’s war in Gaza
Asked about Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, Harris said, “I am unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself.” But the vice president also reiterated what she’s said for months, that civilian deaths are too high amid the fighting.
“Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed, and we have got to get a deal done,” Harris said of the Biden administration’s efforts to help broker a cease-fire to temporarily end the fighting in Gaza. She added, “This war must end.”
Harris also promised to “work toward a two-state solution,” a policy that is also consistent with the Biden administration.
Trump is keeping an eye on Harris’ interview
Their debate is set for next month, but it seems like Trump is paying close attention to Harris’ CNN interview.
After Bash mentioned the Sept. 10 debate between Harris and Trump, Trump posted to Truth Social, “I look so forward to Debating Comrade Comrade Kamala Harris and exposing her for the fraud she is.”
Trump went on to say that his Democratic opponent “has changed every one of her long held positions, on everything. America will never allow an Election WEAPONIZING MARXIST TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.”
Bash noted during the broadcast that the debate would be the first-ever meeting for Harris and Trump. She said the opponents had only been in the same space when Harris, as a senator, attended Trump’s State of the Union addresses.
Trump wrapped up his town hall in Wisconsin earlier tonight — at just over half an hour, a notably short campaign event compared to Trump’s hour-plus-long rallies — less than 10 minutes before the beginning of Harris’ interview broadcast.
Harris ignores Trump’s comments about her race: ‘Next question, please’
Vice President Harris in her CNN interview chose not to dignify former President Trump’s claim that the multicultural Democrat only recently began identifying as Black.
“Same old tired playbook, Harris said. “Next question, please.”
Harris’ mother was born in India and her father in Jamaica. She has long embraced the totality of her identity and graduated from Howard University, a historically Black institution.
Harris pledges to add a Republican to her Cabinet if elected
Harris says that she values building “consensus” and will put a Republican in her Cabinet if elected.
The vice president said on CNN that “it would be to the benefit of the American people” if she had a Republican as part of her administration’s top advisers.
But Harris paused when asked to name prospective appointees, saying she would not be “putting the cart before the horse” with more than two months left until Election Day.
Harris, who has said she would be a president representing all Americans, from all political persuasions, said she felt it “important to find a common place of understanding to where we can actually solve problems,” something that could be served by having a high-ranking Republican around her as president.
Harris promises to sign bipartisan border bill
Vice President Harris defended the Democratic administration’s record on the southern border and illegal immigration. Harris said her work in the administration was on the “root causes” in other countries that were driving the border crossings.
She noted that border crossings are down from their peaks and stressed that there was a bipartisan deal to strengthen border security that Trump, her Republican opponent, killed “because he believes that it would not have helped him politically.” Harris said she would sign the bipartisan deal if she is elected and it passes Congress.
“We have laws that have to be followed and enforced, that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally, and there should be consequences,” Harris said.
Harris says she will not ban fracking
"As president, I will not ban fracking,” Vice President Harris said.
The Democratic nominee had said as part of her campaign for her party’s nomination in 2020 that she would ban the practice of fracking to produce oil and natural gas.
Harris indicated that her position has changed, but said her values had not and that the country could now address climate change without needing to ban fracking.
Harris recalls the challenges of entering the White House during the COVID-19 pandemic
Asked about voters who might want to return to economic prosperity they recalled from the Tump administration, Harris noted that she and Biden were tasked first with helping the U.S. dig out from difficulties brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic when they entered the White House.
Harris also promoted her proposals to clamp down on price gouging and extend the child tax credit.
“First of all, we had to recover as an economy,” Harris added when asked why she had not yet implemented some of those ideas during her time as Biden’s vice president.
Harris explains her plan to grow the American economy
Asked about voters who want prices to go back to 2019 levels, Harris stressed job growth and inflation being under 3% annually.
But Harris also acknowledged that “the American people know” prices are too high. The Democratic nominee said she would tackle the issue of possible price gouging by supermarkets, expand the child tax credit and offer $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers to help deal with costs.
CNN broadcasts Harris-Walz interview
CNN has just started broadcasting its interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic ticket in November’s presidential election.
Dana Bash conducted the interview in the likely swing state of Georgia. After talking with Harris aboard her vice presidential plane, they met at Kim’s Cafe in Savannah.
Trump joins former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for Wisconsin town hall
Trump is taking the stage at La Crosse Center, an arena along the Mississippi River for a town hall discussion moderated by former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
More than 5,000 have been waiting for more than two hours at the venue in western Wisconsin, in a county Trump lost in 2020 — La Crosse County — but surrounded by rural counties in northern and western Wisconsin he won en route to losing the state by fewer than 23,000 votes.
Gabbard, a former Democratic House member, left the Democratic Party in 2022, after leaving office in 2021, and endorsed Trump Monday in Michigan. Trump was traveling to Wisconsin from Michigan, where he appeared at an event in a town southwest of Lansing.
Trump calls the GOP ‘a leader’ on IVF. The reality is more complex.
Trump has repeatedly called the Republican party a “leader” on IVF this month — a claim many IVF experts and medical ethicists have refuted by pointing to what they say is an innate tension between support for IVF and for the laws granting legal personhood to fetuses and embryos that are pillared by many GOP lawmakers.
At least 23 bills aiming to establish fetal personhood have been introduced in 13 states so far this legislative session, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. This type of legislation, based on the idea that life begins at conception, could imperil fertility treatments that involve the storage, transportation and destruction of embryos.
Reproductive rights legal experts also warn of the potential that Trump, if elected, would appoint judges who support fetal personhood, which may lead to restrictions on IVF down the line.
“That’s a very real risk that we could see the impacts through court rulings a few years down the line,” said Kimberly Mutcherson, a professor of reproductive rights, bioethics and health law at Rutgers Law School.
How an Alabama supreme court ruling brought IVF into the spotlight
In Alabama, clinics paused IVF treatments after the all-conservative state supreme court granted frozen embryos the legal rights of children in February. Soon after, Alabama’s Republican governor signed legislation shielding doctors from legal liability so that IVF procedures could continue in the state.
In the weeks after the ruling, congressional Republicans rushed to appear unified in support for the fertility treatment, despite histories of voting for fetal personhood laws many medical ethicists and legal experts say are legally inconsistent with IVF access.
These attempts at unity on the issue have also been complicated by opposition from anti-abortion leaders, including members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus who have objected to expanding IVF access for veterans, and by Senate Republicans blocking legislation that would have made IVF access a federal right.
Trump indicates opposition to Florida’s six-week abortion ban
In an interview with NBC, Trump seemed to indicate that he will vote to repeal Florida’s six-week abortion ban that was signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last year.
The former president told NBC that banning the procedure after six weeks is “too short,” and that “it has to be more time.”
“I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks,” Trump said.
Florida voters, of which Trump is one, will get to vote on a ballot measure in November that legalizes abortion until fetal viability. That would expand the right even beyond the prior ban on abortion at 15 weeks that Florida had in place before its newest law.
Trump has previously called DeSantis’ signing of the six-week ban a “terrible mistake.” But he has also taken credit for appointing U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturned nationwide abortion rights and called it “a beautiful thing to watch” as states set their own laws.
Trump has shifted his position on abortion over the years but his current stance is that restrictions should be left to the states. His running mate JD Vance said in a recent interview that Trump would not support a national abortion ban if elected president and would veto such legislation if it landed on his desk.
Harris dismisses Trump’s false suggestion that she misled voters about her race
The vice president was asked by CNN about Trump falsely saying he only learned she was Black a few years ago because she’d always promoted her Indian heritage.
She responded to CNN’s Dana Bash with, “same old, tired playbook” and “next question, please.”
Trump made the false statement during a July interview during the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago. Harris is the first woman, and first Black and Asian American person to be elected vice president. She is now the first Black woman and first Asian American person to be the presidential nominee of a major political party.
Harris’ mother and father were immigrants from India and Jamaica, respectively. She’s a graduate of Howard University, a preeminent historically Black institution in the U.S. She pledged to a historically Black sorority and was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus when she was a U.S. senator.
Trump says he’d ‘rather get’ the Medal of Freedom
Trump recently came under criticism for the way he discussed the Congressional Medal of Honor, the military’s highest decoration for service members.
Praising billionaire Republican donor Miriam Adelson, whom he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, Trump said she fared “much better” than receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor because recipients of that award are often badly injured or dead.
Despite the Veterans of Foreign Wars admonishing Trump by calling his comments “flippant” and “asinine,” he repeated a version of the remark at his campaign event in Michigan, saying he’d “rather get” the Medal of Freedom because the Medal of Honor recipients “often times they’ve suffered greatly, right? They’ve suffered greatly or they’re not around.”
Trump says he wants government or insurance companies to cover IVF treatment
Former President Donald Trump says that, if he wins a second term, he wants to make IVF treatment free for families.
“I’m announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for — or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for — all costs associated with IVF treatment,” he said at an event in Michigan. “Because we want more babies, to put it nicely.”
IVF treatments are notoriously expensive and can cost tens of thousands of dollars for a single round.
He also said that new parents will be allowed to deduct expenses on caring for newborns from their taxes. “We’re pro-family,” he said.
The announcement comes as Trump has been under intense criticism from Democrats for his role in appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the Constitutional right to an abortion.
The decision is expected to be a major motivator for Democrats this November.
Harris insists Trump will sign a national abortion ban
Kamala Harris said at a rally Thursday in Savannah that Donald Trump does not trust women and insists the former president will sign a national abortion ban.
“If he wins, Donald Trump will go forward. He will sign a national abortion ban you best believe.”
Trump has said abortion should be left up to the states, but he’s also taken credit for appointing the judges on the Supreme Court who created a conservative majority and overturned federal abortion protections.
Pop group ABBA asked Trump to stop using their songs. Trump team says they have the OK.
Swedish supergroup ABBA has asked Donald Trump to stop using their music at campaign rallies, but the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign says it has permission.
“ABBA has recently discovered the unauthorized use of their music and videos at a Trump event through videos that appeared online,” said a statement to The Associated Press from the band, whose hits include “Waterloo,” “The Winner Takes It All” and “Money, Money, Money.”
“As a result, ABBA and its representative has promptly requested the removal and deletion of such content. No request has been received; therefore, no permission or license has been granted.”
A spokesman for the Trump campaign said it had obtained a license. “The campaign had a license to play ABBA music through our agreement with BMI and ASCAP,” the spokesperson told the AP.
▶ Read more about the Trump and ABBA
Harris wants a Republican in her Cabinet, she tells CNN
Harris told CNN that she would name a Republican to her Cabinet if elected.
The vice president noted in the interview airing at 9 p.m. ET tonight that there are still 68 days until the election “so I’m not putting the cart before the horse.” She said she didn’t have a particular Republican in mind but thinks having a member of the GOP in her Cabinet is important because “I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion.”
She continued: “I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.”
Harris has pledged to be a president for all Americans.
Trump rails against Harris as he visits Michigan and heads to Wisconsin
Former President Donald Trump is campaigning in Michigan and Wisconsin as he ramps up his battleground state travel heading into the traditional Labor Day turn toward the fall election.
Trump is intensely focused on recapturing states he won in 2016 but lost narrowly in 2020 as he continues to adjust to the reality of his new race against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump’s first stop was Potterville, Michigan, near the state capital of Lansing, where he railed against the Biden administration over inflation in the most dramatic terms, accusing Harris and President Joe Biden of having presided over “an economic reign of terror” and “committing one financial atrocity after another.”
“Kamala has made middle-class life unaffordable and unlivable and I’m going to make America affordable again,” he vowed to supporters at Alro Steel.
New Trump book defends 2018 Putin meeting, taunts rivals and threatens to imprison Meta’s Zuckerberg
In a new book, former President Donald Trump calls his 2018 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki “a GREAT meeting” and threatens to imprison Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg if the tech mogul does anything this year akin to his $400 million donation to local election offices in 2020.
The book, entitled “Save America,” is a collection of pictures, anecdotes and reminiscences from Trump’s presidential campaigns and term in office.
In it, Trump defended his widely criticized Helsinki meeting with Putin, in which Trump said he gave equal weight to the Russian president’s claims not to have interfered in the 2020 presidential election as to the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies. In regards to his meeting with Zuckerberg, Trump writes that “He would bring his very nice wife to dinners, be as nice as anyone could be, while always plotting to install shameful Lock Boxes in a true PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT,” referring to the more than $400 million that Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan Zuckerberg, donated to election offices in 2020.
The book is scheduled to be released Sept. 3. It is one of a number of commercial ventures the former president has launched that include a special pair of sneakers, an edition of the Bible and digital trading cards. “Save America” will sell for $99 with a signed copy going for $499.
▶ Read more about Trump’s new book
Harris talks climate policy in first clip of CNN interview
The first clip of CNN’s interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, is up.
In it, Harris is pressed about once supporting the Green New Deal — a sweeping package of policies meant to drastically reduce the nation’s greenhouse emissions at an accelerated pace — and other liberal policy initiatives she supported while running in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary but now no longer does.
“My values have not changed,” Harris responded.
She added of the Green New Deal, “I have always believed — and I have worked on it — that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter.”
The vice president said that the U.S. had to set deadlines to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the Biden administration has done that. She added that her policies around the U.S.-Mexico border also have not changed, noting that she prosecuted human and drug smugglers as California attorney general.
This is the first sit-down interview Harris has done since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and endorsed her.
Military approves additional support for Harris and Trump campaigns
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters at a briefing Thursday that the military has approved a request from the Department of Homeland Security to provide additional support to both the Harris and Trump presidential campaigns.
The support will include both active duty and National Guard forces who will provide additional helicopter lift, explosives detection, chemical weapons detection and military working dogs among other assets to provide both campaigns increased security and support.
The support will continue for both campaigns through election day and for the next president and vice-president-elect through inauguration day, Singh said.
The path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win presidency runs through 7 states
With most states reliably red or blue, the path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency runs through seven states where the contest is expected to be narrowly decided.
Those are: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. All together, they are home to only 18.3% of the country's population.
The Associated Press has been tracking the campaign appearances of the Democratic and Republican tickets since March.
Since then, Pennsylvania has been getting the most love from both campaigns, with a total of 21 visits, including one planned this coming weekend. Wisconsin and Michigan are close behind with 17 and 16, respectively.
Most states haven’t been visited at all, and a handful with clusters of wealth, such as California, get attention not for their voters but when the campaigns want to tap the wallets of the rich.
Vance greeted with cheers and boos at appearance before top firefighters union
JD Vance was greeted with some cheers and some boos during an appearance before a top firefighters union.
Vance appeared Thursday at the annual meeting of the International Association of Firefighters in Boston.
After receiving a mixed reaction to some of his comments, he remarked that it “sounds like we've got some fans and some haters — that's OK."
One of Vance's remarks that elicited both cheers and jeers was that he and Trump “are the most pro-American worker ticket in history.”
The GOP vice presidential nominee’s appearance came a day after Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz addressed the same group. The organization’s political arm endorsed President Joe Biden’s candidacy in the 2020 campaign.
Vance got a larger reaction of cheers when he promised support for collective bargaining and more benefits for firefighters.
No audience, live mics or written notes, according to rules for upcoming debate between Trump and Harris
Next month’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump won’t have an audience, live microphones when candidates aren’t speaking, or written notes.
That's according to rules that host network ABC News shared this week with both campaigns.
A copy of the rules was provided to the Associated Press on Thursday by a senior Trump campaign official on condition of anonymity ahead of the network’s announcement. The Harris campaign on Thursday insisted it was still discussing the muting of mics with ABC.
The parameters now in place for the Sept. 10 debate are essentially the same as they were for the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, a disastrous performance for the incumbent Democrat that fueled his exit from the campaign.
Harris’ campaign had advocated for live microphones for the whole debate, saying in a statement that the practice would “fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates.”
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Associated Press reporter Jill Colvin in New York contributed.
Army says Arlington Cemetery employee ‘abruptly pushed aside’ during wreath-laying attended by Trump
The Army says an Arlington Cemetery official was “abruptly pushed aside” during an altercation with a member of Trump's campaign staff that took place as Trump was attending a wreath-laying for service members killed in the Afghanistan war withdrawal.
In a statement Thursday, the Army said the employee was trying to make sure those participating in the wreath-laying ceremony were following the rules, and “acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption.”
The Trump campaign has been facing blowback since an NPR report said that two Trump campaign staff members had “verbally abused and pushed” aside a cemetery official who tried to stop them from filming and photographing in Section 60, the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Federal law prohibits campaign or election-related activities within Army national military cemeteries.
The Trump campaign has claimed the Republican presidential nominee’s team was allowed to have a photographer during the Monday event and has contested the allegation that a campaign staffer pushed a cemetery official.
Trump campaign adviser Lewandowski says Harris has been dodging the news media
Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski says Vice President Kamala Harris has been dodging the news media ahead of her interview Thursday night on CNN.
Lewandowski, who was recently brought back to the Trump campaign, said the former president has conducted more than three dozen interviews in recent weeks while Harris refused to grant an interview to a major news outlet.
He also complained that Trump will have to “beat two Democratic nominees” after Harris’ “coronation” by Democrats, following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race. Harris “can’t hide” from the Biden administration’s record on jobs and inflation, Lewandowski told reporters on a call Thursday morning.
Polling shows ramped-up enthusiasm among Democrats since Harris became the presidential nominee
Democrats’ enthusiasm about their vote in November has surged over the past few months, according to polling from Gallup. About 8 in 10 Democrats now say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting, compared with 55% in March.
This gives them an enthusiasm edge they did not have earlier this year. Republicans’ enthusiasm has increased by much less over the same period. About two-thirds of Republicans now say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting.
Trump visiting swing districts in Michigan and Wisconsin as battleground campaigning ramps up
Donald Trump is scheduled to campaign Thursday in Michigan and Wisconsin as the former president ramps up battleground state travel heading into the traditional Labor Day turn toward the fall election.
Trump’s intense focus on recapturing states he won in 2016 but lost narrowly in 2020 continues with stops in the middle of Michigan and western Wisconsin.
Trump’s day starts with an afternoon rally in Potterville, Michigan, near the state capital of Lansing. Trump won Eaton County, where part of Lansing is located, in both 2016 and 2020, but by a smaller margin the second time.
Later, he'll visit La Crosse, Wisconsin, for a town hall moderated by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who endorsed him in Detroit. It will be Trump’s first visit to Wisconsin since the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Harris, Walz will sit down for first major TV interview of their presidential campaign
Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will sit down Thursday for their first major television interview of their presidential campaign as the duo travels in southeast Georgia on a bus tour.
The interview with CNN’s Dana Bash will give Harris a chance to quell criticism that she has eschewed uncontrolled environments, while also giving her a fresh platform to define her campaign and test her political mettle ahead of an upcoming debate with former President Donald Trump set for Sept. 10. But it also carries risk as her team tries to build on momentum from the ticket shakeup following Joe Biden’s exit and last week’s Democratic National Convention.
The CNN interview is set to air at 9 p.m. EDT. It was scheduled to be taped at 1:45 p.m. EDT at Kim’s Cafe, a Black-owned restaurant in Savannah, Georgia. The interview comes during Harris' two-day bus tour through southeast Georgia that culminates with an evening rally in the coastal city.
Joint interviews during an election year are a fixture in politics; Biden and Harris, Trump and Mike Pence, Barack Obama and Biden — all did them at a similar point in the race.
The Associated Press
