US election live: Harris and Walz on swing-state charm offensive; Trump hints at Harris debate news ‘fairly soon’ | US elections 2024

In the days leading up to Kamala Harris’s final selection of her vice-president, three finalists were presented to her by her campaign team: Josh Shapiro, Mark Kelly and Tim Walz, the New York Times reports.

Among the questioners who interviewed the finalists were Marty Walsh, Joe Biden’s labor secretary, Cedric Richmond, a campaign co-chair, Tony West, Harris’s brother-in-law, Dana Remus, a former White House counsel, and Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada senator.

According to the report, “Mr. Shapiro had privately appeared more circumspect about the vice presidency, according to multiple people familiar with the selection process, asking about his role and responsibilities.

“Mr. Shapiro, 51, is widely seen as harboring his own presidential ambitions, which could have complicated any relationship where his chief job would be to serve as a dutiful No. 2,” the Times added.

Meanwhile, the impression Walz gave off the Harris was “joyful” and “willing to do anything for the team”.

According to a source speaking to the Times anonymously, Harris said, “He’s just so open,” adding, “I really like him.” Additionally, Walz reportedly explicitly told Harris to not pick him if he could not help her win in November.

The Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign has rolled out its newest merchandise: the Harris-Walz camo hat which it described as the “most iconic political hat in America”.

The embroidered hat with the orange words is described on the website as “America made, union made” and sells for $40.

The hat appears to pay homage to Missouri-born popstar Chappell Roan’s own tour merchandise collection which also features a camo hat with the orange words, “Midwest Princess”.

Following the release of the Harris-Walz hat, Roan herself took notice of the resemblance, writing on X, “Is this real?”

Martin Pengelly

More from Donald Trump’s friendly Fox & Friends phoner, in which the former president and current Republican nominee took softball questions from the hosts on the cream couch and from a small crowd in Sturgis, South Dakota, who turned out before dawn to cheer him:

• On Tim Walz’s charge that Trump is not fighting for “kitchen-table issues”: Walz said so during his rally with Kamala Harris in Philadelphia yesterday, saying Trump was “sat at his country club in Mar-a-Lago wondering how he can cut taxes for his rich friends”. On Fox, Trump answered by rambling about his “unbelievable business, one of the greatest businesses, I built a business that is phenomenal”. The Trump Organization has certainly generated a phenomenal number of legal problems of late, not least a multi-hundred-million-dollar fine and other penalties for business fraud and a jail term for its chief financial officer.

• On what he will do for the economy on day one of a second term: “The first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to ‘drill baby drill’ and then number two, and I can do lots of things in the first day, it’s not one thing or two things or four things, we’re going to do lots of things on the first day, but we’re going to close up the border. We’ll let people come in but they have to come in legally.” Notably, Trump has said he wants to be a “dictator” on his first day back in office.

• On surviving an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania last month, and on news of another plot to kill him: “I’m in a very dangerous business. Being president is a dangerous thing. And especially when you’re an active president, when you are somebody that wants to make our country secure, when you want to build a strong military, we built, I rebuilt our entire military, and we gave a lot of it away to Afghanistan, which is, like, shocking, that was by the way the Afghanistan when we showed that gross incompetence in Afghanistan, I was getting out but we’re getting out with tremendous dignity and strength, we were the boss and … [and much more on Afghanistan, Ukraine – “I can go into Ukraine”, Iran and Hamas.]

• On the media “honeymoon” period for Harris and whether it “must drive you crazy”: “It does.”

Usha Vance has come to her husband JD Vance’s defense after his comments on “childish cat ladies” running the country surfaced in recent weeks.

In an interview with Fox News, Usha Vance responded to a question on what she would say to people who were offended by JD Vance’s comment, saying:

“JD absolutely, at the time and today, would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family, who really … was struggling with that…

And I also understand there are a lot of other reasons why people may choose not to have families and many of those reasons are very good.”

Usha Vance’s comments have been paraphrased by Vanity Fair as, “My husband only meant to insult people who actively choose not to have kids, not people who are trying but are unsuccessful” in a new headline.

She also did not mention her husband’s other attacks in which he called people without children “sociopathic”, “psychotic” and “deranged”.

For more on Usha Vance’s defense of her husband’s words – which she described as a “quip”, click here:

Trump compares Walz to Sanders and teases Harris debate news

Martin Pengelly

Donald Trump called into Fox & Friends this morning, for half an hour of softball questions teeing up invective about Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Democrats’ supposed antisemitism and other matters. Here are some of the highlights …

• On Tim Walz for vice-president: Trump said he was surprised Harris picked the Minnesota governor, who he predictably slammed for being extremely progressive, repeatedly comparing him to Bernie Sanders. Trump also claimed to have saved Walz from “thousands” of pro-Trump protesters with “the American flags and the Maga flags” who Trump said “surrounded” Walz’s house in summer 2020, when Minnesota saw protests and rioting prompted by the police murder of George Floyd. Trump said Walz asked him to “put out the word that I’m a good person”, so Trump did and the crowd went home. “And he called me back and he thanked me very much, that’s my only thing I’ve ever had to deal with him,” said Trump, who in 2019, as president, appointed Walz to the bipartisan Council of Governors.

• On Josh Shapiro missing out: Trump said he was “no big fan” of the Pennsylvania governor but “would have said it would have been a better choice” for Harris to pick him. Claiming to be leading in Pennsylvania – contestable, at least – Trump also agreed with his hosts that antisemitism, stoked by Shapiro’s positions on Israel and Gaza, played a role in Shapiro missing out. “I think that any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat … should have their head examined,” said Trump – a man whose own alleged antisemitic remarks memorably include the contention, “The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. Those are the kind of people I want counting my money. No one else.” Trump also claimed, in the same answer, to be in with a chance of winning New York. Polling there shows Harris pulling clear.

• On whether he will debate Harris: Trump fringed close to making news when he said: “We’ll be debating I guess in the pretty near future, it’s going to be announced fairly soon, but we’ll be debating her.” Trump had agreed a second debate with Joe Biden on ABC News but has said he will only debate on Fox News. Harris says it has to be ABC. “I would like to say my preference would be Fox but we have to debate,” Trump said, adding: “I think debates are very important as they should be exposed just like Biden was exposed.” It’s true Biden’s catastrophic debate display against Trump in June hastened the end of the president’s candidacy for re-election. But Harris – who Trump complained the media wanted to “build up into the next Margaret Thatcher, liberal version” – would be a very different opponent.

More follows…

Donald Trump has attacked Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in an interview with Fox and Friends on Wednesday morning.

The former president trotted out familiar attack lines, trying to paint his Democratic opponent as “communist” and out of touch with American voters.

During a phone-in interview, Trump claimed: “This is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately if not sooner.”

He went on to disparage Walz’s record on protecting gender-affirming care in Minnesota while suggesting Harris not choosing Josh Shapiro was “very insulting to Jewish people”.

Analysis: why Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz

Chris Stein

Walz emerged as Harris’s pick after a search lasting two weeks that saw the vice-president also consider a group that included the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, and Arizona senator Mark Kelly. The choice of Walz drew praise from across the Democratic party’s ideological spectrum.

The progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Harris made an “excellent decision”, while Joe Manchin, the West Virginia senator who recently left the party and is best known for hamstringing Biden’s proposals to fight child poverty and more aggressively combat climate change, said: “I can think of no one better than Governor Walz to help bring our country closer together and bring balance back to the Democratic party.”

Republicans responded to Walz’s selection by posting on social media images of the protests the rocked Minneapolis four years ago after George Floyd’s murder, reminders of the governor’s support for a law allowing undocumented migrants to obtain driver’s licenses, plus a massive Covid relief scandal that took place during his administration.

Now in his second term as governor, the former congressman and high school teacher brings to the ticket a record of progressive policymaking, a somewhat sympathetic view towards pro-Palestine protesters, and a distinctly Minnesotan style of communication the campaign could use in its efforts to win the nearby swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Here’s the full analysis from my colleague Chris Stein:

Our Revolution, a grassroots US progressive political organization founded by Bernie Sanders, condemned the outcome of Cori Bush’s Democratic primary.

Joseph Geevarghese, spokesperson for the group, said Democratic party leaders failed to support Bush against a “barrage of racist attacks and millions of dollars” being spent to unseat her.

Geevarghese said in a statement: “Cori Bush had the moral courage to speak out against her constituents’ taxpayer dollars funding war crimes in Gaza. As a result, Aipac and its Maga Republican-funded super Pac spent more than $8.4m to buy her congressional seat.

“Democratic party elites have spent years decrying Trump as an existential threat to democracy, yet they are resoundingly silent when wealthy conservative donors unseat a true working-class champion who was among the first federal lawmakers to endorse Kamala Harris in her historic candidacy for president.”

Progressive congresswoman Cori Bush loses primary after pro-Israel campaign against her

Chris McGreal

The other big news late on Wednesday was congresswoman Cori Bush losing her Democratic primary after pro-Israel pressure groups spent millions of dollars to unseat her over criticisms of Israel’s war on Gaza.

St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell defeated Missouri’s first Black female member of Congress with about 51% of the vote. Bush, a member of the progressive “Squad”, took about 46%.

Bell’s win marks a second major victory for the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) after it played a leading role in unseating New York congressman Jamaal Bowman, another progressive Democrat who criticized the scale of Palestinian civilians deaths in Gaza, in a June primary.

Aipac pumped $8.5m into the race in Missouri’s first congressional district to support Bell through its campaign funding arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP), after Bush angered some pro-Israel groups as one of the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire after the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.

Kamala Harris is drawing more support from Black voters than Joe Biden did, while Donald Trump’s support among white voters has risen somewhat in recent months, according to an analysis of Reuters/Ipsos polling.

The analysis, which examined more than 10,000 responses from seven nationwide Reuters/Ipsos polls conducted since May, says about 70% of Black voters polled in July picked Harris over Trump on a hypothetical ballot, up from 59% who backed Biden in May and June polls. Trump’s share of the Black vote rose marginally to 12% in July from 9% in May and June.

Trump, meanwhile, is seeing increased support from white voters. Some 50% picked Trump in July polls, up from 46% in May and June. Harris had the support of 38% of white voters in July, compared to 36% in May and June.

The race remains essentially tied, with Harris and Trump each getting 43% support in an aggregate of last month’s polls. Biden and Trump each had 40% in the polls conducted in the previous two months.

The analysis examined poll responses gathered throughout July on a hypothetical Harris-Trump contest and included responses from before Biden, 81, ended his bid. All responses on Harris, however, were gathered after Biden’s 27 June debate against Trump, when the president’s faltering performance led Democrats to call on him to end his campaign.

White voters make up the biggest racial bloc, accounting for 72% of all voters in the 2020 election, according to the Pew Research Center, though their share of the electorate has dropped sharply in recent decades.

African Americans accounted for only 11% of voters that year. But they are a critical component of the Democratic Party’s coalition and could play an outsized role in this year’s election.

Black voters in Georgia, for example, propelled Biden to victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election. But a surge in the cost of living and what they see as a lack of progress on racial justice issues has prompted disillusionment in some quarters.

Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, was meant to campaign in North Carolina on Wednesday.

But severe weather forced the campaign to cancel the events in Raleigh and Oakboro.

Heavy rain was forecast as Tropical Storm Debby pushes into the state. The Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, declared a state of emergency on Monday.

After Wisconsin, Harris and Walz fly off to Michigan, for an evening rally at Wayne county airport.

They will be joined by Democratic party officials, several congressmen and women as well as Detroit mayor Mike Duggan, senator Debbie Stabenow, and governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Shawn Fain, the influential president of the United Autoworkers Union, will be there too, after his union endorsed Harris last week. Harris and Walz are expected to speak at 7pm ET.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are off to Eau Claire in Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan, on Wednesday to continue their battleground tour after a raucous debut of the Minnesota governor in Philadelphia.

The rally in Wisconsin is due to start at 12pm CT and the vice-president and Walz will be joined by Wisconsin’s governor Tony Evers, senator Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin secretary of state Sarah Godlewski, and others.

Indie folk band Bon Iver, who have their roots in Eau Claire, will perform at the rally before Harris and Walz are due to address the crowd around 1.25pm CT.

Walz’s name has left some people confused as to how to pronounce it.

Is it “Waltz”, as in the dance, or “Walls”, as in the things that hold up roofs, or even “Wal-tz” as in Walmart? Turns out it’s “Waalls”, as in “Walls” but with a slightly longer “a”. He says it that way himself.

Minnesota news site MPR news has this handy video explainer:

Cheat sheet: 10 things to know about Tim Walz

Martin Pengelly

Tim Walz came from relative obscurity to seize the glittering prize of becoming Kamala Harris’s running mate. So who is he and what should you know about him?

Martin Pengelly has this handy cheat sheet to help you learn more about the Minnesota governor:

The coach v the couch: key takeaways from the first Harris-Walz rally

Helen Sullivan

Kamala Harris introduced her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, to supporters at a packed, energetic rally at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Harris sought to define Walz foremost as a teacher, veteran and football coach.

Walz focused on a unifying, future-focused message, and attacked the Trump-Vance ticket with a focus on reproductive rights and other freedoms.

Meanwhile Josh Shapiro, who had been a vice-presidential contender, still made his mark.

Read the key takeaways here.

Here are some images from the Harris/Walz campaign rally in Philadelphia last night.

Kamala Harris introduces running mate Tim Walz at raucous Philadelphia rally

Lauren Gambino

Kamala Harris introduced her running mate Tim Walz as “the kind of vice-president America deserves” at a raucous rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday that showcased Democratic unity and enthusiasm for the party’s presidential ticket ahead of the November election.

Casting their campaign as a “fight for the future”, Harris and Walz were repeatedly interrupted by applause and cheering as they addressed thousands of battleground-state voters wearing bracelets that twinkled red, white and blue at Temple University’s Liacouras Center – a crowd Harris’s team said was its largest to date.

“Thank you for bringing back the joy,” a beaming Walz told Harris after she debuted the little-known Minnesota governor as a former social studies teacher, high school football coach and a National Guard veteran.

“We’ve got 91 days,” he declared. “My God, that’s easy. We’ll sleep when we’re dead.”

Read the full story here.