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Trump campaign deals with hack; Harris pledges to eliminate tip taxes

Former President Donald Trump announced that one of his campaign websites was hacked. While details are still coming in, Trump’s VP pick JD Vance granted several news interviews Sunday in which he attacked the Democratic presidential ticket. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz continue rallying supporters on the campaign trail with a focus on the economy. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
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Harris campaign: Walz ‘misspoke’ in 2018 reference to ‘weapons of war’ video

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Poll: Harris leads Trump by 4 points in 3 battleground states

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Trump campaign says it was hacked, blames Iran

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Youth engagement reaches new heights this election cycle

Will the youth vote send Kamala Harris or Donald Trump to the White House? Organizers on both sides have seen a swell of voter enthusiasm and support, particularly among young people. But the younger demographic has had a historically low turnout at the polls. VOA’s Tina Trinh explores whether that could change come November.
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In fight for West, Harris campaigns in Arizona, Trump in Montana

GLENDALE, Arizona — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned in a packed arena in Arizona on Friday, hoping to put Republican candidate Donald Trump on the back foot in the West, while Trump held his own rally in Montana to support a Republican candidate for Senate.

The Democratic presidential candidate, less than a month into her bid for the White House, has been on a weeklong tour after naming her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, with a focus on building excitement for her campaign in seven states that could tip the November 5 election.

That tour on Friday brought her to the Phoenix area, where she was visiting with volunteers at a campaign office and speaking to voters.

While traveling, Harris won the endorsement of LULAC Adelante, the political action committee for the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organization. It was the group’s first-ever presidential endorsement.

In Glendale, a crowd estimated at more than 15,000 greeted Harris, including some pro-Palestinian demonstrators who interrupted the remarks. Harris has faced anger from liberal voters who disagree with her support for Israel in its war in Gaza in response to the October 7 Hamas attack.

“The president and I are working around the clock every day to get that cease-fire deal done and bring the hostages home,” Harris said, adding: “So, I respect your voices, but we are here to now talk about the race in 2024.”

Earlier in the week when some protested during her rally in Michigan and interrupted her speech, she had said: “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.”

Also in the West, Trump held a rally in Bozeman, Montana, a state that Republicans have carried in every presidential race since 1996. He again attacked Harris in personal terms — calling her “crazy,” “dumb” and “low IQ” — and criticized her for not doing interviews or major press conferences since she became the Democratic candidate.

Crowd size, ‘weird’ attacks

Trump on Thursday had mocked the size of Harris’ campaign crowds, even though they have matched his of late.

He falsely compared the size of the gathering on January 6, 2021 — the day his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol — to that who heard Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 in Washington.

“It’s not as if anybody cares about crowd sizes or anything,” Walz quipped during a speech introducing Harris.

While Montana is not a battleground state in the presidential race, it will host a competitive race that could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate in 2025.

Republican Tim Sheehy, who will be facing Democratic Senator John Tester, spoke at the rally. Trump began his speech around an hour and a half later than planned, after his plane was reportedly diverted to a different Montana airport due to a mechanical problem.

Before taking the stage, Trump shared posts on Truth Social insisting that he was in a near-fatal helicopter ride with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, although Brown said the incident never happened and another politician said he had been on a similar flight with Trump decades earlier.

In a speech running nearly an hour and 45 minutes, Trump again portrayed Democrats as left-wing extremists, dubbing the party’s ticket “comrade Walz and comrade Harris.”

Trump also responded to a new Democratic attack line, popularized by Walz, that Republicans were weird. “I think we’re the opposite of weird,” Trump said. “They’re weird.”

When the crowd at the Democrats’ Arizona rally chanted, of Trump, “Lock him up,” Walz discouraged them. “No, better than that, beat the hell out of him at the ballot box.”

Harris, responding to the same chant later, said: “Yeah, the courts will deal with that. We gonna win in November. We’re gonna win in November. We’ll handle that, too.” The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request to elaborate on the comment.

Pro-Trump crowds have often chanted that his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, should be locked up, and Trump called for her to be behind bars.

Democrats hope to take two Western states that are closely divided between Democratic and Republican voters in November: Nevada and Arizona, both of which Democrat Joe Biden carried narrowly over Trump in 2020.

Both are nearly one-third Latino, a demographic group of key focus for both parties. Recent polls taken in both states point to an exceptionally close race.

Harris was due to head to Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday. The powerful Culinary Union Local 226, which represents casino and hospitality workers there, also endorsed her on Friday.

Trump showed new focus on another competitive state on Friday, Georgia.

His campaign placed $37.2 million in television advertising, its biggest such purchase in a single day this election cycle, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks political advertising.

The ads will air in seven battleground states. Trump’s campaign is pouring the most advertising money into Georgia, spending $23.8 million in the Southern state, where polls have tightened since Harris’ ascent.

Trump lamented that he had debated erstwhile Democratic candidate Biden in June. Biden’s disastrous performance at the debate led to Democratic calls for him to drop his presidential bid, which Biden did last month.

“Why the hell did I debate him?” Trump said.
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Military service of VP hopefuls Walz, Vance scrutinized

pentagon — For the first time in 20 years, both Republicans and Democrats have a military veteran on their presidential ticket. The last time this occurred was when President George W. Bush faced Senator John Kerry in 2004.

While Democratic vice presidential hopeful Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Republican vice presidential nominee Ohio Senator JD Vance have different political views, both share a history of military service.

Walz served 24 years as a member of the Army National Guard after voluntarily enlisting at age 17. According to the Minnesota National Guard, Walz served in Nebraska as a senior sergeant and an administrative specialist before transferring to Minnesota as a cannon crewmember and a field artillery senior sergeant.

For eight months in 2003-04, Walz deployed to Italy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan to assist with security missions at various locations in Europe. He did not fight in combat.

Walz culminated his career serving as the command sergeant major for the battalion but “retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy,” Army Lieutenant Colonel Kristen Augé, the Minnesota National Guard’s state public affairs officer, told VOA.

Vance, then named James David Hamel, served four years as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps after he voluntarily enlisted when he was 19. According to the Marine Corps, he was deployed to Iraq for six months in 2005-06 as a military journalist during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Like Walz, he did not see combat and has said he was “lucky to escape any real fighting.”

“Veterans bring a unique level of leadership and experience to government,” Carl Bedell, chair of the Virginia Board of Veterans Services, told VOA. “That the next vice president will bring military experience to the administration is a good thing for our country.”

‘Stolen valor’ controversy

Vance on Wednesday criticized Walz for “stolen valor garbage” and claimed the Democratic vice presidential candidate had “abandoned” his unit “right before they went into Iraq.”

Walz chose to leave the Guard in 2005 to run for Congress. Federal Election Commission records show that Walz filed to run for Congress in February 2005, and National Guard records show he officially retired in May, about two months before his unit received an alert for deployment to Iraq and about a year before the unit deployed to the country in March 2006.

“Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery received an alert order for mobilization to Iraq on July 14, 2005. The official Department of the Army mobilization order was received on August 14, 2005, and the unit mobilized [for pre-deployment training] on October 12, 2005,” Army Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Rossman, the Minnesota National Guard director of operations, said.

Walz went on to flip a U.S. House seat in a 2006 election, igniting his political career and leading him to be elected governor of Minnesota in 2018 and now the Democratic nominee for vice president.

Walz’s Guard colleagues have publicly criticized his decision to leave their unit that year because, while no official orders had been given, some soldiers had started to suspect that they would be deployed to a war zone soon.

Doug Julin, a retired National Guard soldier who worked with Walz, said in an interview with The Washington Post that “the big frustration was that he let his troops down.”

Another veteran who served with Walz, Tom Schilling, told Fox News that Walz “ditched” his team.

Minnesota National Guard veteran Al Bonnifield, however, told NewsNation that at the time, Walz talked to him for more than half an hour about how to move forward, weighing whether he could be a better person for his soldiers and his country by staying in the Guard or running for Congress.

“I know that wasn’t a cowardly move. I know that wasn’t, from the bottom of my heart,” Bonnifield said.

Retired Command Sergeant Major Joe Eustice, who served with Walz for several years, told CNN Friday that while he disagreed with many of his colleagues’ political views, accusations that Walz ran out on his battalion were “baseless” and an “unfair assessment of what took place.”

Unofficial alerts given prior to an alert order for mobilization, known today as the Army’s “Notification of Sourcing,” did not begin until 2009, according to the National Guard.

“Any communication prior to the official order in 2005 would be considered an unofficial notice, for a possible deployment, and would be subject to change until an official mobilization order was received,” the Guard added.

Some veterans have now called out Vance for criticizing Walz’s record. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman compared Vance’s four years of service in public affairs to Walz’s 24 years and eight promotions.

“I do not think you want to compare records,” he wrote on X.

Bedell of the Virginia Board of Veterans Services said that citizens “deserve leaders that are who they say and who did what they say they did, especially in regard to their military service.” He warned, however, that any scrutiny should be an “honest assessment — politics tend to skew that.”

Not ‘in war’

Vance also called Walz “dishonest” for a claim that he made in 2018 while speaking to a group about gun control during his first campaign for governor.

In the video, Walz was discussing his transition away from the National Rifle Association 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.”

Eustice, who disagrees with Vance’s attack on Walz’s retirement, told CNN that Walz “didn’t carry a weapon in war. That statement is untrue.”

In a 2009 interview, Walz explained that his fellow soldiers had expected to “shoot artillery in Afghanistan” as they had trained to do, but that didn’t happen.

“I think in the beginning, many of my troops were disappointed,” Walz said in the interview. “I think they felt a little guilty, many of them, that they weren’t in the fight up front as this was happening.”

After Vance’s comments, the Harris campaign said in a statement that Walz had “fired and trained others to use weapons of war innumerable times” in his 24 years of service.
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Harris, Walz campaign in Arizona, where every vote will be critical

phoenix — Vice President Kamala Harris and her new running mate held a rally in Arizona Friday as part of their tour of electoral battlegrounds, visiting a state with a Democratic U.S. senator she passed over in favor of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and gun control advocate, had been a top contender for running mate. He’s won two tough races in politically divided Arizona.

In passing over Kelly, Harris may have lost the chance to win over people like Gonzalo Leyva, 49, a landscaper in Phoenix. Leyva plans to vote for former President Donald Trump, a Republican, but said he would have backed a Harris-Kelly ticket.

“I prefer Kelly like 100 times,” said Leyva, a lifelong Democrat who became an independent at the beginning of Trump’s term in office. “I don’t think he’s that extreme like the other guys.”

In Arizona, every vote will be critical. The state is no stranger to nail-biter races, including in 2020 when President Joe Biden bested Trump by fewer than 11,000 votes. Both parties are bracing for a similar photo finish this year.

“These last few months are going to feel like years, and it is tough to see anyone winning by a large margin,” said Constantine Querard, a veteran Republican strategist in the state.

Harris acknowledged how tough the race will be, as she and Walz toured a campaign office in North Phoenix Friday afternoon and thanked volunteers, who were making signs with sayings such as “This Mamala is Voting for Kamala” and “Kamala and the Coach.” (Walz has been a high school football coach.)

“It’s gonna be a lot of work,” Harris told volunteers, referring to winning in November.

Democrats profess confidence that Harris is in solid shape in the state even without Kelly on the ticket. The senator is expected to remain a strong advocate for Harris and is already mentioned for possible Cabinet posts or other prominent roles should the vice president ascend to the Oval Office.

“Not picking Kelly hasn’t put the brakes on support for Harris,” said Stacy Pearson, a Democratic strategist in Phoenix. She said she feels the same enthusiasm for the new ticket that has led to giant crowds greeting Harris and Walz at prior stops on their tour, including the home of another running mate also-ran, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.

Arizona is something of a magnet for Midwesterners seeking to escape the cold. So, several observers say, Walz may still play well there.

Arizona was reliably Republican until Trump’s combative approach to politics went national.

In 2016, Trump won Arizona, then quickly started feuding with the late Republican Senator John McCain, a political icon in the state. That sparked a steady exodus of educated, moderate Republicans from the GOP and toward Democrats in top-of-the-ticket contests.

In 2018, Democrats won an open Senate race in the state, foreshadowing Kelly’s 2020 win and Biden’s victory there as well. In 2022, Kelly won again, and Democrats swept the top three statewide races for governor, attorney general and secretary of state, defeating Republican candidates who hewed to Trump’s style and his lies about fraud costing him the 2020 presidential election.

Chuck Coughlin, a Republican strategist and former McCain staffer, said the same voters who tipped the state to Democrats in the past few cycles remain lukewarm, at best, on Trump.

“Trump’s not doing anything to embrace that segment of the electorate,” he said.

The campaign is already being fought over familiar turf in Arizona — its border with Mexico. Trump and his allies have been hammering Biden over the influx of migrants during his term and are shifting their attacks to Harris.

“It’s very easy for us to segue and switch our sights and focus on her,” said Dave Smith, Pima County’s Republican Party chairman.

Kari Lake, who is running against Democratic Republican Ruben Gallego for an open Senate seat in Arizona, unveiled an ad late last week bashing Gallego for supporting what the ad calls Biden’s and Harris’ “radical border agenda,” featuring repeated clips of the vice president chortling.

Meanwhile, Harris is targeting the state’s fast-growing Latino population with her own ad highlighting how Harris, the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, rose to the highest echelons of American politics.
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Trump heads to Montana rally after plane was diverted but landed safely

BOZEMAN, Mont. — Former President Donald Trump headed to Montana for a Friday night rally in hopes of ousting the state’s Democratic senator, but his plane first had to divert to an airport on the other side of the Rocky Mountains because of a mechanical issue, according to airport staff.

Trump’s plane was en route to Bozeman, Montana, when it was diverted Friday afternoon to Billings, 142 miles to the east, according to Jenny Mockel, administrative assistant at Billings Logan International Airport. Mockel said the former president was continuing to Bozeman via private jet.

Trump’s campaign posted a video of him upon landing in which he said he was glad to be in Montana but did not mention anything about the landing.

The former president came to Montana hoping to remedy some unfinished business from 2018, when he campaigned repeatedly in Big Sky Country in a failed bid to oust incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Tester.

Tester has tried to convince voters he’s aligned with Trump on many issues, mirroring his successful strategy from six years ago. While that worked in a nonpresidential election year, it faces a more critical test this fall with Tester’s opponent, former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, trying to link the three-term incumbent to Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Harris has benefited nationally from a burst of enthusiasm among core Democratic constituencies, who coalesced quickly around her after President Joe Biden withdrew from the campaign last month. She’s drawn big crowds in swing states, touring this week with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, her choice to be her vice presidential nominee.

Trump’s only rally this week, meanwhile, will be in a state he won by 16 percentage points four years ago rather than a November battleground. Facing new pressure in the race from a candidate with surging enthusiasm, Trump on Thursday called questions about his lack of swing state stops “stupid.”

“I don’t have to go there because I’m leading those states,” he said. “I’m going because I want to help senators and congressmen get elected.”

He will add fundraising stops in Wyoming and Colorado.

Trump could be decisive in Montana’s Senate race.

Friday’s rally at Montana State University, which is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. Mountain time, is expected to draw thousands of GOP supporters. Yet the former president’s bigger impact could be simply having his name above Sheehy’s on the ballot in November, said University of Montana political analyst Rob Saldin.

“There is a segment of the electorate that will turn out when Trump is on the ticket,” Saldin said. And that could benefit Sheehy, a Trump supporter and newcomer to politics who made a fortune off an aerial firefighting business.

Republicans have been on a roll in Montana for more than a decade and now hold every statewide office except for Tester’s.

Tester won each of his previous Senate contests by a narrow margin, casting himself as a plainspoken farmer who builds personal connections with people in Montana and is willing to break with his party on issues that matter to them. He’s also become a prolific fundraiser.

The race has drawn national attention with Democrats clinging to a razor-thin majority in the Senate and defending far more seats than the GOP this year. Tester is considered among the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents.

For him to win, large numbers of Trump supporters would have to vote a split ticket and get behind the Democratic senator.

Trump’s drive to oust Tester traces back to the lawmaker’s work in 2018 as chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. Tester revealed past misconduct by Trump’s personal physician, Ronny Jackson, that sank Jackson’s nomination to lead the Veterans Affairs Department.

Then-President Trump took the matter personally and came to Montana four times to campaign for Republican Matt Rosendale, who was then the state auditor. Rosendale lost by 3 percentage points.
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Biden set to share a legacy with LBJ  

U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to pass the Democratic Party’s torch to Vice President Kamala Harris makes him a lame-duck president – one who remains in office without any hope of an additional term. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman at the White House looks at how Biden’s legacy may eventually compare to the previous one-term president who did not run for reelection.
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US presidential campaign: The view from Ukraine

The U.S. presidential campaign is being closely followed in Ukraine as its outcome could significantly impact regional security, U.S. foreign policy, NATO support, aid to Ukraine, and relations with Russia. VOA Eastern Europe Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports. Camera: Daniil Batushchak, Vladyslav Smilianets
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Microsoft: Iran accelerating cyber activity in apparent bid to influence US election

NEW YORK — Iran is ramping up online activity that appears intended to influence the upcoming U.S. election, in one case targeting a presidential campaign with an email phishing attack, Microsoft said Friday.

Iranian actors also have spent recent months creating fake news sites and impersonating activists, laying the groundwork to stoke division and potentially sway American voters this fall, especially in swing states, the technology giant found.

The findings in Microsoft’s newest threat intelligence report show how Iran, which has been active in recent U.S. campaign cycles, is evolving its tactics for another election that’s likely to have global implications. The report goes a step beyond anything U.S. intelligence officials have disclosed, giving specific examples of Iranian groups and the actions they have taken so far. Iran’s United Nations mission denied it had plans to interfere or launch cyberattacks in the U.S. presidential election.

The report doesn’t specify Iran’s intentions besides sowing chaos in the United States, though U.S. officials have previously hinted that Iran particularly opposes former President Donald Trump. U.S. officials also have expressed alarm about Tehran’s efforts to seek retaliation for a 2020 strike on an Iranian general that was ordered by Trump. This week, the Justice Department unsealed criminal charges against a Pakistani man with ties to Iran who’s alleged to have hatched assassination plots targeting multiple officials, potentially including Trump.

The report also reveals how Russia and China are exploiting U.S. political polarization to advance their own divisive messaging in a consequential election year.

Microsoft’s report identified four examples of recent Iranian activity that the company expects to increase as November’s election draws closer.

First, a group linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in June targeted a high-ranking U.S. presidential campaign official with a phishing email, a form of cyberattack often used to gather sensitive information, according to the report, which didn’t identify which campaign was targeted. The group concealed the email’s origins by sending it from the hacked email account of a former senior adviser, Microsoft said.

Days later, the Iranian group tried to log into an account that belonged to a former presidential candidate but wasn’t successful, Microsoft’s report said. The company notified those who were targeted.

In a separate example, an Iranian group has been creating websites that pose as U.S.-based news sites targeted to voters on opposite sides of the political spectrum, the report said.

One fake news site that lends itself to a left-leaning audience insults Trump by calling him “raving mad” and suggests he uses drugs, the report said. Another site meant to appeal to Republican readers centers on LGBTQ issues and gender-affirming surgery.

A third example Microsoft cited found that Iranian groups are impersonating U.S. activists, potentially laying the groundwork for influence operations closer to the election.

Finally, another Iranian group in May compromised an account owned by a government employee in a swing state, the report said. It was unclear whether that cyberattack was related to election interference efforts.

Iran’s U.N. mission sent The Associated Press an emailed statement: “Iran has been the victim of numerous offensive cyber operations targeting its infrastructure, public service centers, and industries. Iran’s cyber capabilities are defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces. Iran has neither the intention nor plans to launch cyber attacks. The U.S. presidential election is an internal matter in which Iran does not interfere.”

The Microsoft report said that as Iran escalates its cyber influence, Russia-linked actors also have pivoted their influence campaigns to focus on the U.S. election, while actors linked to the Chinese Communist Party have taken advantage of pro-Palestinian university protests and other current events in the U.S. to try to raise U.S. political tensions.

Microsoft said it has continued to monitor how foreign foes are using generative AI technology. The increasingly cheap and easy-to-access tools can generate lifelike fake images, photos and videos in seconds, prompting concern among some experts that they will be weaponized to mislead voters this election cycle.

While many countries have experimented with AI in their influence operations, the company said, those efforts haven’t had much impact so far. The report said as a result, some actors have “pivoted back to techniques that have proven effective in the past — simple digital manipulations, mischaracterization of content, and use of trusted labels or logos atop false information.”

Microsoft’s report aligns with recent warnings from U.S. intelligence officials, who say America’s adversaries appear determined to seed the internet with false and incendiary claims ahead of November’s vote.

Top intelligence officials said last month that Russia continues to pose the greatest threat when it comes to election disinformation, while there are indications that Iran is expanding its efforts and China is proceeding cautiously when it comes to 2024.

Iran’s efforts seem aimed at undermining candidates seen as being more likely to increase tension with Tehran, the officials said. That’s a description that fits Trump, whose administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of the top Iranian general.

The influence efforts also coincide with a time of high tensions between Iran and Israel, whose military the U.S. strongly supports.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said last month that the Iranian government has covertly supported American protests over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Groups linked to Iran have posed as online activists, encouraged protests and provided financial support to some protest groups, Haines said.

America’s foes, Iran among them, have a long history of seeking to influence U.S. elections. In 2020, groups linked to Iran sent emails to Democratic voters in an apparent effort to intimidate them into voting for Trump, intelligence officials said.
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Fact Focus: A look at Trump’s claims at news conference

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Biden set to share legacy with LBJ     

WHITE HOUSE — U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson, known popularly as LBJ, sat at his desk in the Oval Office of the White House on the last day of March in 1968. There, he addressed the nation, opening his remarks by telling the American public, “Tonight I want to speak to you of peace in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.”

The country had been at war in Vietnam for years. Johnson had taken America’s involvement in the conflict he inherited from his slain predecessor, John F. Kennedy, from a robust and well-funded advisory mission to direct combat in which more than 58,000 American military members would die. Several million Vietnamese civilians and those in uniform in both the North and South perished.

Johnson, that evening, announced he was halting most of the U.S. military’s aerial attacks on North Vietnam. It was big news. Johnson’s speech, however, is remembered for the bombshell he dropped next: “I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”

In that same room, the Oval Office of the White House, 56 years later, President Joe Biden explained why he also had decided to not seek another term.

“You know there is a time and a place, but there’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices, yes, younger voices, and that time and place is now,” Biden told the nation on the evening of July 24, 2024. He emphasized the last word in that sentence by jamming an index finger onto the oak surface of the Resolute Desk.

His words were no surprise. Biden, under intense pressure from his Democratic Party, had taken to social media the previous Sunday to announce he would not continue to seek re-election, although he had secured more than enough Democrats’ delegates – unlike Johnson, who had dropped out early in a contentious party primary process.

Johnson, like Biden, suffered from low popularity in the final year of his presidency. And Johnson’s fractured party eventually chose his vice president to be their candidate.

“I am ready to lead our country,” Vice President Hubert Humphrey told a chaotic 1968 national convention.

The majority of voters in the November election that year did not think so, electing Republican Richard Nixon instead of Humphrey.

This time, Democrats quickly united behind their sitting vice president. 

“The momentum in this race is shifting,” Vice President Kamala Harris repeated within days at packed public rallies after being anointed by Biden as the heir apparent. Her confidence has rejuvenated the Democrats, helping to close what had been a widening lead in the polls for former President Donald Trump, whom the Republicans nominated for a third consecutive presidential election despite his being convicted of numerous felony counts for falsifying business records.

“In contrast to Humphrey, she has really been able, at least for the moment, to separate herself from that unpopularity, to kind of develop a political identity of her own and really recast the momentum of the election,” said Guian McKee, a University of Virginia professor of presidential studies, about Harris’s nascent presidential campaign. 

Compared to the 81-year-old Biden, no one could credibly contend that Harris, 59, was in cognitive decline or unlikely to finish another full term because of the frailties of advanced age.

At the LBJ Presidential Library last month, Biden said he had long admired the late president’s public service, from rural Texas schoolteacher to senator, then vice president and president, noting Johnson had a simple philosophy: In a great society, “no one should be left behind.”

The accomplishments of Johnson’s Great Society – civil rights and voting rights laws, social welfare programs, federal funding for schools and some of the first significant anti-pollution legislation – were overshadowed by his losing efforts in an unwinnable war in Vietnam. In recent years, however, Johnson has climbed just ahead of James Monroe and Woodrow Wilson into the top quartile of historians’ rankings of America’s 46 presidents.

That 46th president, Biden, will be remembered for the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, as well as his climate change initiatives and revitalization of America’s industrial base. Biden’s larger legacy may hinge on the fate of his unfinished diplomacy in Ukraine and the Middle East.

“It depends on whether the accomplishments grow over time and outweigh the limitations of his record, and that will shape his historical legacy and his rank among American presidents,” McKee told VOA.

Biden’s decision is an extraordinary moment in American history because a president is not pursuing another term because of scandal or policy failure “like Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1968 with Vietnam. He’s deciding not to run with a very strong economy, with America actually in very good shape,” according to Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, a center-left research institution.

Biden “is above the fray now” as a so-called lame duck, added McKee. But the presidential studies professor explained that status as a lame duck “might actually give him more efficacy in terms of actually executing the duties and responsibilities of the presidency than if he were a candidate.”

After he dropped out of the race, Johnson said he would do nothing during his remaining nine months in office except “trying to find peace” in Vietnam.

Biden departs in a little more than five months. Trump continues to criticize his successor, saying at a rally in Atlanta last Saturday that the president “was choking like a dog” when he was forced out of their rematch. Trump also quipped the Democrats carried out a coup, but Biden “didn’t know it.”

During the 1968 general election campaign, Nixon also criticized Johnson even though the sitting president was not his opponent. The Republican nominee told voters he had a better plan to end the Vietnam War than Johnson did and accused him of not doing enough to combat crime and civil unrest at a time of social upheaval.

The real reason Johnson dropped out of the race was that he was often seriously ill and Lady Bird Johnson, the first lady, feared her husband would not survive another term, according to the late research historian Vaughn Davis Bornet. Johnson died of what was probably his fifth heart attack in 1973 at age 65.

Johnson and Biden are not the only once-elected presidents who decided not to pursue an additional term. An exhausted and ill James Polk left in 1849 and died three months later. James Buchanan was unpopular and in poor health as the nation headed toward Civil War. In the 20th century, Calvin Coolidge was beset by personal depression and an economic one. Harry Truman decided to bow out early after an upset loss in the first primary amid the stalemate of the Korean War and a yearning to return to private life. 

Many presidents who survive their time in office seem to struggle with that return to private life after their tenure as leader of the free world. Johnson could not abandon some of the trappings of power. He had a 7/8th scale replica Oval Office built for his retirement in Austin, Texas, which is now part of his official presidential library. Johnson also purchased a custom-built Lincoln limousine in which he continued to be chauffeured by Secret Service agents.

Biden will also have Secret Service protection until his death. For the 46th president, after a political career spanning a half-century as a senator, vice president and president, the most difficult thing to give up may be his influence and the ability to command history.
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Tim Walz’s China ties highlighted after VP announcement

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s ties to China will likely inform his work if elected. Where does he stand on key issues? And how does Beijing see him? Everyone has an opinion. VOA’s Anita Powell and Paris Huang report from Washington.
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Silicon Valley luminaries take sides in presidential contest

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Foreign policy differences with fellow Republicans could complicate second Trump presidency

Congressional Republicans closely align with presidential nominee Donald Trump on a number of key foreign policy issues, including U.S. support for Israel. But as VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, lawmakers still have significant differences on China, tariff policy and aid to Ukraine that could complicate a second Trump term. Videographer: Saqib Ui Islam
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Harris, Trump one-up each other on campaign trail

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US presidential campaigns clash in Midwest battleground state 

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Biden ‘not confident’ of peaceful power transition if Trump loses election

washington — President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he was not confident about a peaceful transfer of power in the United States if Republican Donald Trump loses the Nov. 5 presidential election.

“If Trump loses, I’m not confident at all,” Biden said in an interview with CBS News when asked whether he thought there would be a peaceful transfer of power after the vote.

“He means what he says. We don’t take him seriously. He means it. All this stuff about if we lose there’d be a bloodbath,” Biden added.

During a March campaign appearance in Ohio, Trump warned of a “bloodbath” if he fails win the election. At the time Trump was discussing the need to protect the U.S. auto industry from overseas competition, and Trump later said he was referring to the auto industry when he used the term.

Trump has falsely claimed he won the 2020 election against Biden and was criminally charged in Washington and Georgia with illegally trying to overturn the results.

Biden dropped out of the campaign last month after fellow Democrats called for him to step aside following a poor debate performance against Trump that raised questions about the Democratic president’s age and health.

Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, has since captured the Democratic nomination and is running against Trump.
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Are vice presidential picks game changers for US elections?

Now that both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates have selected their running mates, the question is whether those picks will actually help boost the campaigns’ chances of winning the November election. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias looks at the historical relevance of vice presidential candidates and what Tim Walz and JD Vance bring to their respective tickets.
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Dueling political rallies in one of US oldest cities

The two U.S. presidential tickets are set. Vice President Kamala Harris named her running mate Tuesday. But the presumed Democratic Party nominee wasn’t alone making news in one of America’s oldest cities, Philadelphia, in the northeastern state of Pennsylvania. That’s where we find VOA’s Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti.
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US presidential campaigns focus on battleground states with three months before vote

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Successful Democratic presidential ticket would reverberate in Minnesota

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Kamala Harris’ VP choice, Tim Walz, ‘happy’ to be labeled a liberal

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Harris selects Tim Walz as her running mate

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate Tuesday, capping off a whirlwind sequence of events since President Joe Biden endorsed her to be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee less than three weeks ago. Harris and Walz will kick off a seven-state trip to some of the biggest battleground states in the election. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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