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US economy presents complicated picture as election nears 

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New Jersey governor’s ex-chief of staff will replace Menendez until election

NEWARK, New jersey — New Jersey Democratic Governor Phil Murphy tapped his former chief of staff Friday to temporarily replace convicted U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and said he would appoint whoever wins the post in November as soon as election results were certified.

Democratic Representative Andy Kim and Republican hotelier Curtis Bashaw are competing in the race. Murphy said that he spoke to both about his plans.

“I expressed to them that this approach will allow the democratically chosen winner of this year’s election to embark on the smallest possible transition into office,” Murphy said at a news conference.

Former chief of staff George Helmy promised during Friday’s announcement to resign after the election.

Helmy’s appointment underscored Murphy’s decision to not appoint Kim, who is in a strong position in the November election. Kim and first lady Tammy Murphy were locked in a primary struggle for the Senate seat earlier this year before Tammy Murphy dropped out, citing the prospects for a negative, divisive campaign.

The stakes in the Senate election are high, with Democrats holding on to a narrow majority. Republicans have not won a Senate election in Democratic-leaning New Jersey in over five decades.

Helmy’s appointment won’t take effect until after Menendez’s resignation on August 20. The governor said he picked Helmy because he understands the role after serving as an aide to New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker and former New Jersey U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg.

Murphy also praised Helmy’s work as his top aide, and the two embraced briefly after Helmy spoke.

Helmy, 44, served as Murphy’s chief of staff from 2019 until 2023 and currently serves as an executive at one of the state’s largest health care providers, RWJBarnabas Health. He previously served as Booker’s state director in the Senate. The son of Egyptian parents who immigrated to New Jersey, Helmy attended public schools in New Jersey and then Rutgers University.

“New Jersey deserves its full voice and representation in the whole of the United States Senate,” he said.

Menendez, 70, used his influence to meddle in three different state and federal criminal investigations to protect the businessmen, prosecutors said. They said he helped one bribe-paying friend get a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund and another keep a contract to provide religious certification for meat bound for Egypt.

He was also convicted of taking actions that benefited Egypt’s government in exchange for bribes, including providing details on personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, ghostwriting a letter to fellow senators regarding lifting a hold on military aid to Egypt. FBI agents found stacks of gold bars and $480,000 hidden in Menendez’s house.

Menendez denied all the allegations.

“I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country,” he said after his conviction.

Menendez said in a letter to Murphy last month that he was planning to appeal the conviction but would step down on August 20, just over a month after the jury’s verdict.
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Harris, Trump duel on inflation, taxes

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump laid out their economic visions for the country this week, promising to rein in inflation and slash federal taxes on workers’ tips. While both ideas are popular with voters ahead of the November presidential election, experts say they are not so easy to implement. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Harris to roll out populist proposals in first economic speech

WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris is set to unveil plans for a federal ban on food and grocery “price gouging” and assistance of up to $25,000 in down payment support for first-time homeowners – populist proposals the vice president has embraced since becoming the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

Harris is scheduled to outline her proposals Friday, in her first speech on the economy focusing on dealing with rising grocery and housing prices – key concerns for voters. She is set to speak in front of supporters at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, a battleground state that she and former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, are vying to win in the November presidential election.

“In her first 100 days, Vice President Harris will work to enact a plan to bring down Americans’ grocery costs and keep inflation in check,” her campaign said in a memo to reporters Wednesday.

Harris aims to ensure “big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits,” her campaign said, and will specifically call out the “highly consolidated” meat processing industry. “The lack of competition gives these middlemen the power to drive down earnings for farmers while driving up prices for consumers.”

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Trump called Harris’ proposal “communist price controls.”

“They don’t work, they actually have the exact opposite impact and effect,” he said. But it leads to food shortages, rationing, hunger, dramatically more inflation.”

In the U.S., the Federal Reserve sets interest rates independently, and presidential policies do not have much influence on lowering prices, at least in the short term.

“It is highly unlikely that any single policy introduced by a president could have a significant enough impact to bring inflation down from its current level to the Federal Reserve’s long-term target for the economy, which is 2%,” said Andrew Lautz, associate director for the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Economic Policy Program.

Trump has said he will fight rising prices by boosting oil and gas production. While increasing energy supply could have a downward pressure on prices, and in turn on inflation, it won’t happen quickly, Lautz told VOA.

Lower inflation

While Americans are still feeling the pain, last month U.S. year-over-year inflation dipped under 3% for the first time since March 2021. Unemployment remains low, retail sales figures are upbeat, and most economists no longer warn of recession.

Still the overall health of the economy remains a key concern for voters, and a point of attack on the campaign trail.

“The only thing Kamala Harris can deliver is horrific inflation, massive crime and the death of the American dream,” Trump said.

Both candidates have also promised to slash federal taxes on tips received by workers in the service and hospitality industry.

Critics say that proposal won’t help fast food servers or other low-income workers who don’t get tips and is vulnerable to abuse.

“How can we be sure that it’s deserving working people, as opposed to opening the door to a whole bunch of other people who might treat their bonuses and performance fees like tips and exempt themselves?” said Steven Rosenthal, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center.

Such proposals are common during presidential campaigns, Rosenthal said. “We often see a race to the bottom, with the candidates trying to outbid themselves for how many tax cuts they can promise.”

If enacted, those promises will be costly at a time when the country needs to seriously think about fiscal responsibility and deficit reduction, said Lautz.

“We are at nearly $28 trillion in federal debt held by the public,” he said. “The Congressional Budget Office estimates that’s going to increase by another $20 trillion or so over the next decade.”

Trump previously held a commanding lead among voters on key economic issues, with various polls showing Americans think they will be better off financially under Trump than President Joe Biden.

However, a survey conducted for the Financial Times and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business published this week found that 41% trust Trump to be better at handling the economy, while 42% believe Harris would be better – a figure up seven points from Biden’s numbers in July. 
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Trump to hold another news conference while Harris touts drug price cuts

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Vance, Walz agree to vice-presidential debate Oct. 1 on CBS

COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Ohio Senator JD Vance have agreed to debate each other on October 1, setting up a matchup of potential vice presidents as early voting in some states gets underway for the general election.

CBS News on Wednesday posted on its X feed that the network had invited Vance and Walz to debate in New York City, presenting four dates — September 17, September 24, October 1 and October 8 — as options.

Walz reposted that message from his own campaign account, “See you on October 1, JD.” The Harris-Walz campaign followed up with a message of its own, saying Walz “looks forward to debating JD Vance — if he shows up.”

Vance posted on X that he would accept the October 1 invitation. He also challenged Walz to meet on September 18.

Whether Walz and Vance would debate before the November 5 general election had been in question. In just the past several weeks, President Joe Biden left the campaign, and Democrats selected Vice President Kamala Harris to lead their ticket.

Vance has largely kept his focus trained on Harris, whom he would have been set to debate before Biden’s departure from the race. Vance has lobbed critiques against Walz, including questioning the retired Army National Guardsman’s service record.

Trump has said he wanted Vance to debate Walz on CBS, which had been discussing potential dates for that meeting.

The debate is expected weeks after the September 10 top-of-the-ticket debate recently solidified between Trump and Harris on ABC News.

Trump has said he negotiated several other debate dates, on three different networks. Fox News has also proposed a debate between Harris and Trump to take place on September 4, and NBC News is angling to air one on September 25.

During an appearance in Michigan, Harris said she was “happy to have that conversation” about an additional debate.
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Trump asks judge to delay hush money sentencing until after election

NEW YORK — Donald Trump is asking the judge in his New York hush money criminal case to delay his sentencing until after the November presidential election.

In a letter made public Thursday, a lawyer for the former president and current Republican nominee suggested that sentencing Trump as scheduled on September 18 — about seven weeks before Election Day — would amount to election interference.

Trump lawyer Todd Blanche wrote that a delay would also allow Trump time to weigh next steps after the trial judge, Juan Merchan, is expected to rule September 16 on the defense’s request to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July presidential immunity ruling.

“There is no basis for continuing to rush,” Blanche wrote.

Blanche sent the letter to Merchan on Wednesday after the judge rejected the defense’s latest request that he step aside from the case.

In the letter, Blanche reiterated the defense argument that the judge has a conflict of interest because his daughter works as a Democratic political consultant, including for Kamala Harris when she sought the 2020 presidential nomination. Harris is now running against Trump.

By adjourning the sentencing until after that election, “the Court would reduce, even if not eliminate, issues regarding the integrity of any future proceedings,” Blanche wrote.

Merchan, who has said he is confident in his ability to remain fair and impartial, did not immediately rule on the delay request.

A message seeking comment was left with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted Trump’s case.

Trump was convicted in May of falsifying his business’ records to conceal a 2016 deal to pay off porn actor Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with him. Prosecutors cast the payout as part of a Trump-driven effort to keep voters from hearing salacious stories about him during his first campaign.

Trump says all the stories were false, the business records were not and the case was a political maneuver meant to damage his current campaign. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is a Democrat.

Trump’s defense argued that the payments were indeed for legal work and so were correctly categorized.

Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years behind bars. Other potential sentences include probation, a fine or a conditional discharge which would require Trump to stay out of trouble to avoid additional punishment. Trump is the first ex-president convicted of a crime.

Trump has pledged to appeal, but that cannot happen until he is sentenced.

In a previous letter, Merchan set September 18 for “the imposition of sentence or other proceedings as appropriate.”

Blanche argued in his letter seeking a delay that the quick turnaround from the scheduled immunity ruling on September 16 to sentencing two days later is unfair to Trump.

To prepare for sentencing, Blanche argued, prosecutors will be submitting their punishment recommendation while Merchan is still weighing whether to dismiss the case on immunity grounds. If Merchan rules against Trump on the dismissal request, he will need “adequate time to assess and pursue state and federal appellate options,” Blanche said.

The Supreme Court’s immunity decision reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal. Trump’s lawyers argue that in light of the ruling, jurors in the hush money case should not have heard such evidence as former White House staffers describing how the then-president reacted to news coverage of the Daniels deal.
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Google says Iranian group trying to hack US presidential campaigns

NEW YORK — Google said Wednesday that an Iranian group linked to the country’s Revolutionary Guard had tried to infiltrate the personal email accounts of roughly a dozen people linked to President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump since May. 

The tech company’s threat intelligence arm said the group was still actively targeting people associated with Biden, Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the Democratic candidate last month when he dropped out of the presidential race. It said those targeted have included current and former government officials, as well as presidential campaign affiliates. 

The new report from Google’s Threat Analysis Group affirmed and expanded upon a Microsoft report released Friday that revealed a suspected Iranian cyber intrusion in this year’s U.S. presidential election. It shed light on how foreign adversaries are increasing their efforts to disrupt the election that is now less than three months away. 

Google’s report said its threat researchers detected and disrupted a “small but steady cadence” of the Iranian attackers using email credential phishing, a type of cyberattack where the attacker poses as a trusted sender to try to get an email recipient to share login details. John Hultquist, chief analyst for the company’s threat intelligence arm, said the company sends suspected targets of these attacks a Gmail pop-up that warns them that a government-backed attacker might be trying to steal their passwords. 

The report said Google observed the group gaining access to one high-profile political consultant’s personal Gmail account. Google reported the incident to the FBI in July. Microsoft’s Friday report had shared similar information, noting that the email account of a former senior adviser to a presidential campaign had been compromised and weaponized to send a phishing email to a high-ranking campaign official. 

The group is familiar to Google’s threat intelligence arm and other researchers, and this isn’t the first time it has tried to interfere in U.S. elections, Hultquist said. The report noted that the same Iranian group targeted both the Biden and Trump campaigns with phishing attacks during the 2020 cycle, as early as June of that year. 

The group also has been prolific in other cyber espionage activity, particularly in the Middle East, the report said. In recent months, as the Israel-Hamas war has fueled tension in the region, that activity has included email phishing campaigns targeted at Israeli diplomats, academics, nongovernmental organizations and military affiliates. 

Trump’s campaign said Saturday that it had been hacked and that sensitive internal documents had been stolen and distributed. It said Iranian actors were to blame. 

The same day, Politico revealed it had received leaked internal Trump campaign documents by email, though it wasn’t clear whether the leaked documents were related to the suspected Iranian cyber activity. The Washington Post and The New York Times also received the documents. 

While the Trump campaign hasn’t provided specific evidence linking Iran to the hack, both Trump and his longtime friend and former adviser Roger Stone have said they were contacted by Microsoft related to suspected cyber intrusions. Stone’s email was compromised by hackers targeting Trump’s campaign, a person familiar with the matter said. 

Google and Microsoft wouldn’t identify the people targeted in the Iranian intrusion attempts or confirm that Stone was among them. Google did confirm that the Iranian group in its report, which it calls APT42, is the same as the one in Microsoft’s research. Microsoft refers to the group as Mint Sandstorm. 

Harris’ campaign has declined to say whether it has identified any state-based intrusion attempts but has said it vigilantly monitors cyber threats and isn’t aware of any security breaches of its systems. 

The FBI on Monday confirmed that it’s investigating the intrusion of the Trump campaign. Two people familiar with the matter said the FBI also is investigating attempts to gain access to the Biden-Harris campaign. 

The reports of Iranian hacking come as U.S. intelligence officials have warned of persistent and mounting efforts from both Russia and Iran to influence the U.S. election through their online activity. Beyond these hacking incidents, groups linked to the countries have used fake news websites and social media accounts to churn out content that appears intended to sway voters’ opinions. 

While neither Microsoft nor Google specified Iran’s intentions in the U.S. presidential race, U.S. officials have previously hinted that Iran particularly opposes 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. 

Iran’s mission to the United Nations, when asked about the claim of the Trump campaign, denied being involved. 

“We do not accord any credence to such reports,” the mission told The Associated Press. “The Iranian government neither possesses nor harbors any intent or motive to interfere in the United States presidential election.” 

The mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday about Google’s report.
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Trump talks energy, economy amid attacks on Harris, personally, on policy

ASHEVILLE, North Carolina — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump lobbed a series of personal and policy-based attacks at his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, in a speech on Wednesday. 

Some allies, donors and advisers have expressed concern at Trump’s attacks on the U.S. vice president’s intellect and suggested that he instead focus on what they argue are the failed policies Harris has promoted while in office. 

Speaking to supporters in Asheville, North Carolina, Trump steered clear of broadsides challenging Harris’ racial identity and spoke about policy in more detail than he has at other recent events. But he continued to throw personal insults at her, at one point calling her “stupid” and denigrating her laugh as a cackle, saying: “That’s the laugh of a person with some big problems.” 

Since emerging as the Democratic Party’s candidate after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid last month, Harris has dramatically changed the race. Polls have consistently shown her closing the gap on Trump and some now have her ahead in the race for the November 5 election. 

The surge has rattled Trump’s campaign, and he has responded with insults. He has implied that Harris, whose mother was born in India and whose father was born in Jamaica, has only recently leaned into her Black identity.  

Some Trump allies say the approach has hurt his campaign. 

“Personally, it makes no difference to me what Kamala wants to identify as,” said Bill Bean, a major Republican donor who hosted Trump’s vice presidential pick, JD Vance, at an Indiana fundraiser in late July. 

Bean said he had talked with Vance and Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley about the need to attack Harris on her policy record, not her identity. 

Trump spent the latter part of his North Carolina speech doing just that. 

He said he would open up federal lands to drilling and ease the permitting process for pipelines, among other measures designed to bring down consumer prices, should he defeat Harris. 

He also pledged to cut energy and electricity prices in half within 12 to 18 months of taking office. He did not specify how he would do this but repeated previous promises to bring more oil production online, including in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where the Biden administration has ceased issuing new permits. 

He accused Harris of supporting a ban on fracking and said her position would prove a major liability in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, where fracking is common.  

While Harris opposed all new fossil fuel infrastructure projects when she was running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019, and the Biden administration tried and failed to impose a fracking ban on federal lands, her campaign says she no longer favors a ban. 

In a memo released before Trump’s Asheville event, Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler accused Trump of neglecting the middle class by opposing union protections and backing corporate tax cuts, among other measures. 

Harris on Friday will travel to North Carolina, where she will talk about economic policy in a speech in Raleigh. She will outline a plan “to lower costs for middle-class families and take on corporate price-gouging,” a campaign official said. 

Trump maintains a slim lead in North Carolina, according to an average maintained by the website Real Clear Politics, though Harris is within striking distance. That represents a marked difference from a month ago, when Biden was the candidate and Republicans appeared to be running away with the state and were turning their attention to traditionally Democratic states like Minnesota and Virginia. 
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Economy a key issue for voters in Wisconsin

Wisconsin is one of three states in the Midwest both Republicans and Democrats view as critical to their presidential campaigns. VOA’s Midwest Correspondent Kane Farabaugh looks at what’s motivating voters as campaigning in the state ramps up.
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Somali American member of Congress Ilhan Omar faces repeat primary challenge

Minneapolis, Minnesota — Democratic U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, one of the progressive House members known as the “Squad” and a sharp critic of how Israel has conducted the war in Gaza, is trying to avoid the fate of two of her closest allies when Minnesota holds its primary elections Tuesday.

Omar is defending her Minneapolis-area 5th District seat against a repeat challenge from former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels, a more centrist liberal whom she only narrowly defeated in the 2022 primary.

In the main statewide race on the ballot, conservative populist and former NBA player Royce White is facing a more conventional Republican candidate, Navy veteran Joe Fraser, for the right to challenge Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar.

Meanwhile, two newcomers are in a bitter fight for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Representative Angie Craig in November in the mostly suburban 2nd District.

Omar’s fellow Squad member Representative Cori Bush lost the Democratic nomination in Missouri last week. Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York lost his primary in June. The only charter member not facing a primary challenge is Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

Both Bush and Bowman faced well-funded challengers and millions of dollars in spending by the United Democracy Project, a super political action committee affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which appears to be sitting out the Minnesota race.

But Omar isn’t taking victory for granted. Omar reported spending $2.3 million before the 2022 primary. In the same period this year, she reported raising about $6.2 million. Samuels has raised about $1.4 million.

Omar — a Somali American and Muslim — came under fire from the Jamaican-born Samuels and others in her first term for comments that were widely criticized for invoking antisemitic tropes and suggesting Jewish Americans have divided loyalties. This time, Samuels has criticized her condemnation of the Israeli government’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

While Omar has also criticized Hamas for attacking Israel and taking hostages, Samuels says she’s one-sided and divisive.

The winner in the overwhelmingly Democratic district will face Republican Dalia Al-Aqidi, an Iraqi American journalist and self-described secular Muslim who calls Omar pro-Hamas and a terrorist sympathizer.

In the U.S. Senate race, White — an ally of imprisoned former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones — shocked many political observers when he defeated Fraser at the party convention for the Republican endorsement.

White’s social media comments have been denounced as misogynistic, homophobic, antisemitic and profane. His legal and financial problems include unpaid child support and questionable campaign spending, including $1,200 spent at a Florida strip club after he lost his primary challenge to Omar in 2022. He argues that, as a Black man, he can broaden the party’s base by appealing to voters of color in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and others disillusioned with establishment politics.

Fraser has said White’s confrontational style and message won’t attract the moderates and independents needed for a competitive challenge to Klobuchar, who’s seeking a fourth term. He said he offers a more mainstream approach, stressing fiscal conservativism, a strong defense, world leadership and small government. Fraser has also highlighted his 26 years in the Navy, where he was an intelligence officer and served a combat tour in Iraq.

Neither has anywhere near the resources that Klobuchar has. White last reported raising $133,000, while Fraser has taken in $68,000. Klobuchar, meanwhile, has collected about $19 million this cycle and has more than $6 million available to spend on the general election campaign.

Craig is preparing for what’s expected to be Minnesota’s most competitive House race in November. Vying to challenge her are former federal prosecutor Joe Teirab and defense attorney Tayler Rahm. Teirab has the support of Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and the National Republican Congressional Committee. He was better funded than Rahm, who won the endorsement at the district convention with support from grassroots conservatives.

While Rahm announced in July that he was suspending his campaign and would instead serve as a senior adviser for Trump’s Minnesota campaign, he will still be on the ballot and didn’t fully pull the plug on his campaign.
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Democrats are energized, but can Harris win?

WASHINGTON — Since replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris has quickly consolidated power and energized a campaign that many Democrat leaders had worried about.

Meeting no meaningful challenge from other Democrats, Harris secured votes to be the nominee from 4,567 delegates — 99% of the participating delegates — in a virtual call earlier this month. 

The campaign, together with the Democratic National Committee and other joint fundraising committees, raised a historic $310 million in July, dwarfing the tally for the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, in the same month. More than $200 million of Harris’ haul came during the first week of her candidacy. 

“We’ve seen a groundswell of support. The type of grassroots support — organizing and fundraising — that wins elections,” said Kevin Munoz, a Harris campaign spokesperson.

The campaign’s optimism is reflected in the polls. After another series of very strong surveys in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Harris now has a 55% chance of winning, said election data analyst Nate Silver.

Silver gave Biden a 27% chance of winning when he was the Democratic nominee.

However, the Trump campaign insists that the fundamentals of the race have not changed.

“The Democrats deposing one Nominee for another does NOT change voters discontent over the economy, inflation, crime, the open border, housing costs not to mention concern over two foreign wars,” Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio said in a memo.

Harris’ “honeymoon” will soon end, he said. “While the public polls may change in the short run and she may consolidate a bit more of the Democrat base, Harris can’t change who she is or what she’s done.”

While the fundamentals have not changed, they were “being obstructed by concern about Biden’s age and cognitive abilities,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

“Donald Trump is as unpopular as ever, and now he has an opponent who is much more appealing,” he told VOA. “Democrats are back in the game.”

Battleground states

In the United States, elections are not determined by winning the popular vote but by winning Electoral College votes, which are allotted to each state roughly in proportion to its population. In all but two states, the candidate getting the most votes in a state gets all its Electoral College votes.

Harris’ team has been investing heavily in campaign infrastructure, opening offices, recruiting new staff and enlisting tens of thousands of volunteers in what is considered battleground or swing states that could help determine the 2024 electoral victory — Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia. 

In 2020, those seven states were won by a margin of 3 percentage points or less. Currently, Harris is polling slightly ahead but still within the polling margin of error in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Trump is ahead in Michigan, Nevada, Arizona and North Carolina. He is leading by more than the polling error margin in Georgia.

Both Trump and Harris will be hard-pressed to win without Pennsylvania, said Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky. Pennsylvania has 19 Electoral College votes, the most of any swing state.  

“They can each afford to lose it but would have to run the table in most, if not all, of the other swing states, which include Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina,” Roginsky told VOA. 

A candidate needs to secure at least 270 out of the 538 electoral college votes to win. Ultimately, it comes down to winning more Electoral College votes than your opponent, however you make that math happen, said Kelly Dittmar, associate professor of political science at Rutgers University-Camden.

“Winning swing states with a high number of Electoral College votes, such as Michigan and Pennsylvania — both states where Democrats have recently won statewide and where Biden won in 2020 — is one solid path toward [Harris] achieving success,” Dittmar told VOA. 

In Michigan, a state with a large population of Arab Americans, Harris will need to convince the more than 100,000 people, angry over the Biden administration’s staunch support for Israel, who wrote “uncommitted” on their primary ballots. Thirty members of the so-called Uncommitted National Movement have earned delegate spots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week.

Harris also inherits opposition from the “Abandon Biden” movement over the same cause.

“We are saying do not vote for those who are supporting or endorsing what’s happening currently in Gaza,” Hudhayfah Ahmad, the campaign’s media representative, told VOA. “Quite frankly, that applies to both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.” 

Inflation and immigration 

While Democrats’ enthusiasm has soared, Harris must deal with voters’ frustration over high inflation, a problem that Republicans blame on the Biden-Harris administration.

Trump previously held a commanding lead among voters on key economic issues, with various polls showing Americans think they will be better off financially under Trump than Biden. 

However, a survey conducted for the Financial Times and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business published this week found that 41% trust Trump to be better at handling the economy, while 42% believe Harris would be better – a figure up seven points from Biden’s numbers in July.

Immigration is another weak spot for Biden, and by extension Harris. The Trump campaign has sought to paint her as the nation’s “Border Czar” responsible for the “invasion” of Central American migrants crossing into the United States from the border with Mexico.

Her campaign is now aiming to present their candidate as someone who is pro-immigration but tough in enforcing the law, by highlighting Harris’ life story as the daughter of immigrants and experience as a former attorney general of California, the state with the largest number and share of immigrants.

“I was attorney general of a border state,” Harris said at a recent rally in Arizona, a swing state where immigration is a top concern for voters. “I went after the transnational gangs, the drug cartels and human traffickers. I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won.”

Will she win in November? 

In such a tight race in an ever-changing political environment, analysts have avoided saying that any candidate’s path to victory is clear.

The Harris campaign said they believe this will be a very close election, decided by a very small number of voters, in just a few states.

Even with this momentum, said Harris campaign spokesperson Munoz, “we are the underdogs in this race, and we’re taking nothing for granted.”
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Harris faces misogyny, racism in bid for White House

Critics of Vice President Kamala Harris have used her gender as a cudgel, saying subtly and overtly that a woman cannot hold the most powerful job in the free world. Gender scholars say those railing against Harris have also chosen another line of attack: her race. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
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Elon Musk interview of Trump marred by technical issues

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s interview with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk finally got underway on Musk’s social media platform X on Monday evening, following a lengthy delay caused by technical problems that kept many users from accessing the live stream.

Musk, who has endorsed Trump, began the event at 8:42 p.m., more than 40 minutes after the scheduled start time. He blamed the difficulties on a distributed denial-of-service attack, in which a server or network is flooded with traffic in an attempt to shut it down, though his claim was not confirmed.

More than 1.3 million people were listening about 45 minutes into the conversation, according to a counter on X.

Trump sought to turn the problems into a positive, congratulating Musk on the number of people trying to tune in.

The former president sounded at times as if he had a lisp, many listeners on X pointed out. Some said it made him sound like a cartoon character, others suggested it could be due to audio compression issues.

The technical issues recalled a similar event on X in May 2023, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suffered a chaotic start to his bid for the Republican presidential nomination due to glitches on the platform.

At the time, Trump mocked DeSantis on his own, social media platform, Truth Social. “My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!)” Trump posted, “Yours does not.”

Ahead of Monday’s event, Musk had written: “Am going to do some system scaling tests tonight & tomorrow in advance of the conversation.” X did not respond to requests for details or evidence of the alleged cyberattack.

Musk spent much of the early part of the interview lauding Trump for his bravery during the attempt on his life on July 13, when his ear was struck by a bullet.

Musk, the world’s richest person, announced his support for Trump shortly after the shooting. He backed Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020 but has tacked rightward since.

Trump said he plans to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of the attack, for a rally in October.

As the conversation unfolded, Trump delivered his usual mix of grievances, exaggerated claims and personal attacks, with Musk offering occasional encouragement.

Trump claimed without evidence that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if he were still president and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — all authoritarian strongmen — as at the “top of their game.”

He also expressed anger that Vice President Kamala Harris had been swapped in for Biden on the Democratic ticket.

“She hasn’t done an interview since this whole scam started,” Trump said, claiming falsely that Biden dropping off the ticket was a “coup.” Trump had been leading Biden in many polls of battleground states likely to be critical to the outcome of the Nov. 5 election but is now trailing Harris in some of the same states.

In an interview that was light on policy detail, Trump also appeared to praise Musk for firing workers.

“You’re the greatest cutter. I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in, you just say: ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike — I won’t mention the name of the company — but they go on strike. And you say: ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone.'”

Trump back on X

The interview provided an opportunity for Trump to seize the limelight at a time when his campaign is facing new headwinds.

Harris has erased Trump’s lead in opinion polls and energized Democratic voters with a series of high-energy rallies since she replaced Biden as the party’s candidate three weeks ago. Her momentum could get another boost from the Democratic National Convention next week in Chicago.

Trump returned to X, formerly known as Twitter, with a series of posts on Monday for the first time in a year, reviving an account that had served as a main method of communication in previous campaigns and his four years in the White House, including his followers’ Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump’s access to his account, @realDonaldTrump, was restored a month into Musk’s ownership of X after being suspended by the platform’s previous owners following the Jan. 6 attack, citing concerns he would incite violence.

Trump frequently posts on his Truth Social platform, which was launched in February 2022, but his posts there reach a much smaller audience than on X.

Musk backs Trump

Musk, who heads electric car company Tesla, has echoed Trump’s false claims about voter fraud and Biden’s immigration policies.

Musk has started an external super PAC spending group to support Trump’s campaign. The political action committee is now under investigation in Michigan for possible violations of state laws on gathering voter information.

Trump, a longstanding critic of electric vehicles, shifted gears after Musk’s endorsement.

“I’m for electric cars. I have to be, because Elon endorsed me very strongly. So I have no choice,” Trump said at an early August rally.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fein, campaigning in support of Harris, called Trump a “sellout.”

The Biden administration has worked to popularize electric vehicles through tax breaks and other support as part of its broader goal of reducing carbon emissions blamed for climate change.

Republicans in Congress, including Trump’s running mate Senator JD Vance, have opposed those subsidies.
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Judge rules RFK Jr. not a state resident, can’t be on New York ballot

ALBANY, N.Y. — A judge ruled Monday that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name should not appear on New York’s ballot, saying that he falsely claimed a New York residence on nominating petitions despite living in California.

Kennedy’s lawyers quickly vowed to appeal ahead of the Aug. 15 deadline. If the judge’s ruling is upheld, it would not only keep Kennedy off the ballot in New York but could also lead to challenges in other states where he used an address in New York City’s suburbs to gather signatures.

The ruling came after a North Carolina judge decided earlier Monday that Kennedy can remain on that state’s ballot following a separate challenge on different grounds.

Judge Christina Ryba, in her 34-page decision, said the rented bedroom Kennedy claimed as his home in the state wasn’t a “bona fide and legitimate residence, but merely a ‘sham’ address that he assumed for the purpose of maintaining his voter registration” and furthering his political candidacy.

“Given the size and appearance of the spare bedroom as shown in the photographs admitted into evidence, the Court finds Kennedy’s testimony that he may return to that bedroom to reside with his wife, family members, multiple pets, and all of his personal belongings to be highly improbable, if not preposterous,” the judge wrote.

Ryba said evidence submitted in trial showed Kennedy had a “long-standing pattern” of borrowing addresses from friends and relatives so he could maintain his voter registration in New York State while actually residing in California.

“Using a friend’s address for political and voting purposes, while barely stepping foot on the premises, does not equate to residency under the Election Law,” the judge wrote. “To hold otherwise would establish a dangerous precedent and open the door to the fraud and political mischief that the Election Law residency rules were designed to prevent.”

Clear Choice Action, the Democrat-aligned political action committee that backed the legal challenge, said the ruling makes it clear that Kennedy “lied about his residency and provided a false address on his filing papers and candidate petitions in New York, intentionally misleading election officials and betraying voters’ trust.”

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of several voters in the state, claims Kennedy’s state nominating petition falsely listed a residence in well-to-do Katonah while actually living in the Los Angeles area since 2014, when he married “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Cheryl Hines.

Kennedy, who led a New York-based environmental group for decades and whose namesake father was a New York senator, argued during the trial that he has lifelong ties to New York and intends to move back.

During the trial, which ran for less than four days, Kennedy said he currently rents a room in a friend’s home in Katonah, about 65 kilometers north of midtown Manhattan, though has only slept in that room once due to his constant campaign travel.

The 70-year-old candidate testified that his move to California a decade ago was so he could be with his wife, and that he always planned to return to New York.

Barbara Moss, who rents the room to Kennedy, testified that he pays her $500 a month. But she acknowledged there is no written lease and that Kennedy’s first payment wasn’t made until after the New York Post published a story casting doubt on Kennedy’s claim that he lived at that address.

The judge also heard from a longtime friend of Kennedy’s who said the candidate had regularly been an overnight guest at his own Westchester home from 2014 through 2017, but was not a tenant there as Kennedy had claimed.

Attorneys representing several New York voters grilled Kennedy in often heated exchanges as they sought to make their case, pointing to government documents including a federal statement of candidacy with a California address, and even a social media video in which Kennedy talks about training ravens at his Los Angeles home.

“Kennedy’s testimony that none of the furniture, bedding and other decorative items in the spare bedroom belonged to him, as well as his testimony that his wife and family, his extensive book collection, and his wide assortment of domestic and exotic pets all remained in California, was further compelling evidence that Kennedy lacks the necessary physical presence and intent to remain” at the Katonah address, the judge wrote in her ruling.

Kennedy has the potential to do better than any independent presidential candidate in decades thanks to his famous name and a loyal base. Both Democrat and Republican strategists have expressed concerns that he could affect their candidate’s chances.

Kennedy’s campaign has said he has enough signatures to qualify in a majority of states, but his ballot drive has faced challenges and lawsuits in several.

Kennedy has told reporters that getting knocked off the ballot in New York could lead to lawsuits in other states where his campaign listed the same address.

After the trial ended Thursday, Kennedy argued that people who signed his petitions deserve a chance to vote for him.

“Those Americans want to see me on the ballot. They want to have a choice,” he said.
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FBI investigating after Trump campaign says it was hacked by Iran

WASHINGTON — The U.S. FBI said on Monday it was investigating after Donald Trump’s presidential campaign said its internal communications were hacked and the campaign blamed the Iranian government.

The former president said on Saturday that Microsoft had informed his campaign that Iran had hacked one of its websites. Trump said Iran was “only able to get publicly available information.”

The FBI is also investigating an alleged hack targeting advisers to the campaign of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

The FBI began the investigation in June, when Biden was still running for president, suspecting that Iran was behind the attempts to steal data from two U.S. presidential campaigns, the newspaper said, citing sources.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee after Biden withdrew his bid last month.

The Iranian government has denied that it hacked the Trump campaign.

Trump’s campaign has pointed to a report on Friday by Microsoft researchers that indicated that Iranian government-linked hackers tried breaking into the account of a “high-ranking official” on a U.S. presidential campaign in June.

The report added that the hackers took over an account belonging to a former political adviser and then used it to target the official. It did not provide further details on the targets’ identities.
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Elon Musk to interview Trump on X social media network

washington — Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is due to interview Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on the X social media network on Monday in an event that could inject more surprises into the turbulent U.S. presidential election.

The interview, scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern Time (0000 Tuesday GMT), could provide the former president an opportunity to seize the limelight at a time when his campaign is seen as sagging.

His Democratic rival for the Nov. 5 election, Vice President Kamala Harris, has erased Trump’s lead in opinion polls and energized Democratic voters with a series of high-energy rallies.

The interview on Musk’s social media platform could allow Trump to reach a different audience than the conservative faithful who attend his rallies and watch his interviews on Fox News. However, similar events on the platform have been plagued by technical problems.

“Am going to do some system scaling tests tonight & tomorrow in advance of the conversation,” Musk wrote on the platform, formerly known as Twitter.

The interview will be hosted live using Trump’s official X account, his campaign said on Sunday. Trump’s access to his account, @realDonaldTrump, was restored a month into Musk’s ownership of X after being suspended by the platform’s previous owners following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress by his supporters.

Trump frequently posts on his Truth Social social media platform, which was launched in February 2022. On Monday morning, Trump returned to X for the first time in a year, posting an ad that highlighted his claim that the four criminal prosecutions he faces are politically motivated.

His last X post before Monday was one in August 2023 appealing for donations and showing a mug shot after he was booked at an Atlanta jail in relation to felony charges tied to his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.

Musk could prove to be an unusual interviewer. The world’s richest person backed Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020 but has tacked rightward since and endorsed the Republican following the attempted assassination of Trump in July.

Musk, who heads electric car company Tesla, also started a fundraising organization to support Trump’s campaign. The political action committee is now under investigation in Michigan for possible violations of state laws on gathering voter information.

Trump, a longstanding critic of electric vehicles, shifted gears after Musk’s endorsement.

“I’m for electric cars. I have to be, because Elon endorsed me very strongly. So I have no choice,” Trump said at an early August rally.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fein, campaigning in support of Harris, called Trump a “sellout.”

The Biden administration has worked to popularize electric vehicles through tax breaks and other support as part of its broader goal of reducing carbon emissions blamed for climate change.

Republicans in Congress have opposed those subsidies. Senator JD Vance, Trump’s vice presidential running mate, said the Biden policy merely subsidizes rich people who purchase the cars.

Advertisers have fled X since Musk bought it in 2022 and subsequently reduced content moderation that has resulted in a dramatic increase in hate speech, civil rights groups have said.

In the meantime, the entrepreneur has been involved in a swirl of additional controversies. He has falsely accused Biden and the Democratic Party of opening U.S. borders to undocumented immigrants in a ploy to boost the number of potential Democratic voters. Non-citizens are not allowed to vote in federal elections.

Musk in November 2023 endorsed an antisemitic post on X that said members of the Jewish community were stoking hatred against white people. He defended himself, saying the user was speaking “the actual truth.” Musk has also attacked the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit that works to fight antisemitism, accusing it, without evidence, of being responsible for a drop in advertising on X.
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Harris talks immigration and leans into her record as prosecutor while Trump still promises mass deportations

Immigration is one of the top issues in the upcoming U.S. election. Vice President Kamala Harris is campaigning on her achievements as a prosecutor, while former President Donald Trump blasts the current administration’s record and promises mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. VOA’s immigration reporter Aline Barros has more.
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Harris is pushing joy. Trump paints a darker picture. Will moods matter?

WASHINGTON — At the top of his first speech as her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz turned to Vice President Kamala Harris and declared, “Thank you for bringing back the joy.” The next day, Harris took the theme a step further, branding the Democratic ticket “joyful warriors.”

Contrast that with former President Donald Trump, who opened a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida a few days later by saying, “We have a lot of bad things coming up,” and predicting the U.S. could fall into an economic depression unseen since the dark days of 1929 or even another world war.

“I think that our country is, right now, in the most dangerous position it’s ever been in, from an economic standpoint, from a safety standpoint,” Trump said Thursday.

Democrats are playing up their sunnier outlook, promoting the idea that voters can be inspired to support someone and not just cast their ballot against the other side. The Trump campaign argues their candidate is reflecting the dour mood of the country and dismisses the idea that a growing contrast in tone and upbeat attitude will decide the presidency.

Two-thirds of Americans reported feeling very or somewhat pessimistic about the state of politics, according to polling by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research from last month. Roughly 7 in 10 said things in the country are heading in the wrong direction.

Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the former president, said people don’t care about “vibe checks.”

“That’s not making gas or food or housing less expensive,” Miller said.

Walz promotes positivity

Still, just how hard Harris is betting on the opposite approach is evident in her decision to pick Walz, whose personal story includes being on the coaching staff of a high school football team that had gone winless just a few years earlier to clinching a state championship in 1999.

The Minnesota governor’s relentless positivity is meant to give supporters a jolt of new energy and keep the momentum that Harris has built after President Joe Biden — facing mounting pressure from within his own party and increasingly pessimistic views about his chances in November — stepped aside and endorsed his vice president.

Walz spent his first week as Harris’ running mate traveling to swing states with Harris and underscored the point during a rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, celebrating what he said was “the ability to talk about what can be good.”

“This idea of caring for our neighbor and kindness, and a hand up when somebody needs it. And just the sense that people go through things and to be able to be there when they need it, that’s who we are,” he said. “It’s not about mocking. It’s not name-calling.”

Biden often ended his speeches saying he’d never been more optimistic. But he built his now-shuttered reelection bid around branding Trump an existential threat to democracy. The president offered dire predictions about the former president, suggesting he’d dismantle the nation’s founding principles should he retake the White House.

Harris’ campaign still relies on many of the same themes, decrying Trump as a threat to democracy, warning that he’ll impose draconian limits to abortion and voting and that he will follow Project 2025, a plan championed by top conservatives to remake large swaths of the federal government.

And despite Walz insisting that smiles were more powerful than insults, he and Harris have continued their share of denunciations, decrying Trump’s conviction in New York on 34 felony counts in a hush-money case and his being found liable for fraudulent business practices and sexual abuse in civil court.

Still, even before she named Walz her running mate, Harris was suggesting that she could help make politics fun again.

“We love our country. And I believe it is the highest form of patriotism to fight for the ideals of our country,” Harris declared in campaign speeches before picking Walz. She now tells crowds that she and her running mate “both believe in lifting people up, not knocking them down.”

Paula Montagna, who went to see Harris and Walz at a rally outside Detroit last week, highlighted the shift in messaging since Harris took over from Biden.

“Kamala is so positive, and it’s nice to hear positive instead of negative,” Montagna said.

Trump team says their candidate is reflecting reality

Trump’s senior campaign advisers counter that the mood of the country right now is sour over the economy, the state of the U.S.-Mexico border and turmoil in the Middle East and beyond. They see their candidate as reflecting that reality rather than what they believe is a temporary exuberance igniting the Democratic base after months of discouragement over their ticket.

Trump has tried to harness that with his repeated predictions of stock market crashes and war. His campaign appearances have included a long list of other warnings that have veered into the apocalyptic, saying that if he’s not elected, “we’re not going to have a country anymore,” that “the only thing standing between you and its obliteration is me,” and that under a Harris administration, “Social Security will buckle and collapse” and “the suburbs will be overrun with violent crime and savage foreign gangs.”

During his Republican National Convention speech last month, where his advisers said Trump would seem changed and more personal after surviving an attempted assassination, the former president did strike a different tone — at least to start.

He said early on that he had “a message of confidence, strength and hope” and sought to “launch a new era of safety, prosperity and freedom for citizens of every race, religion, color and creed.”

But by the end, Trump had returned to predictions of doom, twice warning, “Bad things are going to happen.”

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, has drawn a sharp contrast with Walz. Vance has been cheered on the right for being an aggressive fighter on behalf of the former president, particularly when engaging with reporters.

“Right now, I am angry about what Kamala Harris has done to this country and done to the American southern border,” Vance said at a campaign stop in Michigan. “And I think most people in our country, they can be happy-go-lucky sometimes, they can enjoy things sometimes, and they can turn on the news and recognize that what’s going on in this country is a disgrace.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, not himself known for a sunny disposition, offered much the same assessment Friday at a conservative conference in Atlanta hosted by radio host Erick Erickson.

“The country is obviously in a bad mood,” McConnell said.

Trump supporters waiting to see him at a rally in Bozeman, Montana, said they felt the former president’s campaign made them feel positive — even if his message often isn’t.

“Just looking at the state of the country now, I don’t think Kamala Harris’ campaign is one of joy and hope. I think that’s Trump’s campaign,” said Alex Lustig, a 23-year-old from Billings, Montana.

Fred Scarlett, a 63-year-old retiree from Condon, Montana, said that “everyone understands that we need to be here to support Trump because he has never let us down.”

“They shoot at him,” Scarlett said, “and he still keeps firing back.”
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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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