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Harris selects Tim Walz as running mate for US presidential run

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Kamala Harris is now Democratic presidential nominee

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris, a daughter of immigrants who rose through the California political and law enforcement ranks to become the first female vice president in U.S. history, formally secured the Democratic presidential nomination on Monday — becoming the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket.

More than four years after her first attempt at the presidency collapsed, Harris’ coronation as her party’s standard-bearer caps a tumultuous and frenetic period for Democrats prompted by President Joe Biden’s disastrous June debate performance that shattered his own supporters’ confidence in his reelection prospects and spurred extraordinary intraparty warfare about whether he should stay in the race.

Just as soon as Biden abruptly ended his candidacy, Harris and her team worked rapidly to secure backing from the 1,976 party delegates needed to clinch the nomination in a formal roll call vote. She reached that marker at warp speed, with an Associated Press survey of delegates nationwide showing she locked down the necessary commitments a mere 32 hours after Biden’s announcement.

Harris’ nomination became official after a five-day round of online balloting by Democratic National Convention delegates ended Monday night, with the party saying in a statement released just before midnight that 99% of delegates had cast their ballots for Harris. The party had long contemplated the early virtual roll call to ensure Biden would appear on the ballot in every state. It said it would next formally certify the vote before holding a celebratory roll call at the party’s convention later this month in Chicago.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted after Biden withdrew found 46% of Americans have a favorable view of Harris, while a nearly identical share has an unfavorable view of her. But more Democrats say they are satisfied with her candidacy compared with that of Biden, energizing a party that had long been resigned to the 81-year-old Biden being its nominee against former President Donald Trump, a Republican they view as an existential threat.

Already Harris has telegraphed that she doesn’t plan to veer much from the themes and policies that framed Biden’s candidacy, such as democracy, gun violence prevention and abortion rights. But her delivery can be far fierier, particularly when she invokes her prosecutorial background to lambast Trump and his 34 felony convictions for falsifying business records in connection with a hush money scheme.

“Given that unique voice of a new generation, of a prosecutor and a woman when fundamental rights, especially reproductive rights, are on the line, it’s almost as if the stars have aligned for her at this moment in history,” said Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California, who was tapped to succeed Harris in the Senate when she became vice president.

A splash in Washington before a collapse in the 2020 primaries

Kamala Devi Harris was born Oct. 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, to Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer scientist who emigrated to the United States from India when she was 19 years old, and Stanford University emeritus professor Donald Harris, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Jamaica. Her parents’ advocacy for civil rights gave her what she described as a “stroller’s-eye view” of the movement.

She spent years as a prosecutor in the Bay Area before her elevation as the state’s attorney general in 2010 and then election as U.S. senator in 2016.

Harris arrived in Washington as a senator at the dawn of the volatile Trump era, quickly establishing herself as a reliable liberal opponent of the new president’s personnel and policies and fanning speculation about a presidential bid of her own. Securing a spot on the coveted Judiciary Committee gave her a national spotlight to interrogate prominent Trump nominees, such as now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“I’m not able to be rushed this fast,” then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions said during a 2017 hearing as Harris repeatedly pressed him on potential conversations with Russian nationals. “It makes me nervous.”

Harris launched her 2020 presidential campaign with much promise, drawing parallels to former President Barack Obama and attracting more than 20,000 people to a kickoff rally in her hometown. But Harris withdrew from the primary race before the first nominating contest in Iowa, plagued by staff dissent that spilled out into the open and an inability to attract enough campaign cash.

Harris struggled to deliver a consistent pitch to Democratic voters and wobbled on key issues such as health care. She suggested she backed eliminating private insurance for a full government-run system — “Medicare for All” coverage — before releasing her own health care plan that preserved private insurance. Now, during her nascent general election campaign, Harris has already reversed some of her earlier, more liberal positions, such as a ban on fracking that she endorsed in 2019.

And while Harris tried to deploy her law enforcement background as an asset in her 2020 presidential campaign, it never attracted enough support in a party that couldn’t reconcile some of her past tough-on-crime positions at a time of heightened focus on police brutality.

Joining Biden’s team — and an evolution as vice president

Still, Harris was at the top of the vice presidential shortlist when Biden was pondering his running mate, after his pledge in early 2020 that he would choose a Black woman as his No. 2. He was fond of Harris, who had forged a close friendship with his now-deceased son Beau, who had been Delaware’s attorney general when she was in that job for California.

Her first months as vice president were far from smooth. Biden asked her to lead the administration’s diplomatic efforts with Central America on the root causes of migration to the United States, which triggered attacks from Republicans on border security and remains a political vulnerability. It didn’t help matters that Harris stumbled in big interviews, such as in a 2021 sit-down with NBC News’ Lester Holt when she responded dismissively that “I haven’t been to Europe” when the anchor noted that she hadn’t visited the U.S.-Mexico border.

For her first two years, Harris also was often tethered to Washington so she could break tie votes in the evenly divided Senate, which gave Democrats landmark wins on the climate and health care but also constrained opportunities for her to travel around the country and meet voters.

Her visibility became far more prominent after the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that dismantled Roe v. Wade, as she became the chief spokesperson for the administration on abortion rights and was a more natural messenger than Biden, a lifelong Catholic who had in the past favored restrictions on the procedure. She is the first vice president to tour an abortion clinic and speaks about reproductive rights in the broader context of maternal health, especially for Black women.

Throughout her vice presidency, Harris has been careful to remain loyal to Biden while emphasizing that she would be ready to step in if needed. That dramatic transition began in late June after the first debate between Biden and Trump, where the president’s stumbles were so cataclysmic that he could never reverse the loss of confidence from other Democrats.

Headed to the top of the ticket

After Biden ended his candidacy July 21, he quickly endorsed Harris. And during the first two weeks of her 2024 presidential bid, enthusiasm among the Democratic base surged, with donations pouring in, scores of volunteers showing up at field offices and supporters swelling so much in numbers that event organizers have had to swap venues.

The Harris campaign now believes it has a renewed opportunity to compete in Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia — states that Biden had started to abandon in favor of shoring up the so-called “blue wall” states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

“The country is able to see the Kamala Harris that we all know,” said Bakari Sellers, who was a national co-chair of her 2020 campaign. “We really didn’t allow the country to see her” four years ago. Sellers said: “We had her in bubble wrap. What people are seeing now is that she’s real, she’s talented.”

Yet Democrats are anticipating that Harris’ political honeymoon will wear off, and she is inevitably going to come under tougher scrutiny for Biden administration positions, the state of the economy and volatile situations abroad, particularly in the Middle East. Harris has also yet to answer extended questions from journalists nor sit down for a formal interview since she began her run.

The Trump campaign has been eager to define Harris as she continues to introduce herself to voters nationwide, releasing an ad blaming her for the high number of illegal crossings at the southern border during the Biden administration and dubbing her “Failed. Weak. Dangerously liberal.”

The Republican nominee’s supporters have also derisively branded Harris as a diversity hire, while Trump himself has engaged in ugly racial attacks of his own, wrongly asserting that Harris had in the past only promoted her Indian heritage and only recently played up her Black identity.

His remarks are previewing a season of racist and sexist claims against the person who would be the first woman and the first person of South Asian heritage in the presidency.

“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black,” Trump said while addressing the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists. “So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”

In her response, Harris called it “the same old show — the divisiveness and the disrespect” and said voters “deserve better.”

“The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth, a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts,” Harris said at a Sigma Gamma Rho sorority gathering in Houston. “We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us.”
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Harris to select running mate for US presidential run

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What is an open convention?

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Despite security concerns, TikTok still plays key role in 2024 race

Washington — Despite national security concerns about TikTok – and its ties to China – the popular short-form video app is playing an important role on the campaign trail for both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. The reason, experts say, is because the platform remains a crucial tool for candidates to reach young voters. 

Trump joined TikTok in June, where he currently has 9.5 million followers on the platform, more than the 7.47 million followers on his own social media service, Truth Social. 

Capitalizing on a sudden surge in popularity on the platform, Harris created a TikTok account on July 25. Harris has amassed more than 4.1 million followers. 

On both of their respective TikTok profiles, the candidates have adopted a unique TikTok style of campaigning, making use of popular background music, editing methods, and collaborations with popular celebrities. 

Young voters 

“A huge part of the reason why Joe Biden left the race is because voters thought he was out of touch, he was too old,” said Caitlin Chin-Rothmann, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who researches the impact of technology on geopolitics. “And so, I think both Trump and Harris are trying to position themselves as very relevant, especially when it comes to that younger demographic that’s harder to reach in general.” 

In one recent 8-second video, Harris is shown shaking hands with members of the USA Men’s Olympic basketball team to the sound of a screaming eagle and the buzz of an electric guitar. Twenty-nine-year-old rapper Megan Thee Stallion calls Harris “the future president of the United States” in another video on the candidate’s account. 

Trump has made videos with famous YouTuber brothers-turned-boxers Jake and Logan Paul, simulating pre-fight confrontations before breaking to hug each of the influencers. The video he filmed with Logan Paul has more than 157 million views. 

“I’m gonna save TikTok,” Trump says to the camera while holding a framed portrait of himself. In another video with famous UFC commentator Dana White, Trump describes joining TikTok as his honor. 

Beijing backed 

TikTok was adapted for overseas use by a Chinese social media platform owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance. Over one-third of American adults, and 62% of adults under 30, reportedly use TikTok, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center.

While he was president, Trump issued an executive order attempting to ban TikTok and WeChat, describing the Chinese-originated apps as a threat to American national security given that data collection on the platforms “threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information.”

However, in an interview with CNBC in March, Trump said that while he still believes TikTok to be a national security threat, he understands that, if it were banned, a lot of young kids would “go crazy without it.”  

The former president also argued that a TikTok ban would ultimately benefit Facebook, which he described as “an enemy of the people.” After the January 6th Capitol riots, Meta suspended Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts for two years.  

Citing similar concerns to Trump’s, President Biden approved a bill in April that requires parent company ByteDance to sell the app to remain in the U.S. market. TikTok said it has not and will not share U.S. user data with the Chinese government and has been releasing a series of slick advertisements over the past year as the debate over its ownership has intensified, highlighting the benefit that TikTok provides to American citizens. 

Upper hand 

Arthur Herman, senior fellow and director of the Quantum Alliance Initiative at Hudson Institute, told VOA that although Trump’s and Harris’ decisions to campaign on TikTok are rational given the popularity of the app, American politicking occurring on a Chinese platform gives the Chinese government an upper hand. 

He said that TikTok, which is under the control of the Chinese government, will use its algorithm to influence the election results and “push one [candidate] who is probably going to be softer on China.” 

TikTok denies allegations that it is trying to carry out covert influence operations and has sued the federal government over the law that is forcing it to cut ties with its parent company to keep operating in the United States. 

In May, just a few weeks after the Brookings Institution released a study that said Russian state-media were boosting their use of the platform, the company said it was putting new regulations in place. Those regulations aimed to limit the reach of state media accounts. The company also pledged to release regular updates on what the platform is doing to fight back against covert influence. 

What’s next? 

Biden’s withdrawal from the race has left questions regarding the future of TikTok in the United States. Experts argue that even though TikTok’s fate is ultimately left up to the courts, a future president could try to revoke the ban or change the U.S. position toward Chinese companies. 

“No matter who wins the election in November, whether that’s Trump or Harris, they don’t have to take responsibility for the TikTok ban. Now they can say ‘that was Biden’s policy, not mine,’” Chin-Rothmann said. 

Herman is optimistic that the next president will continue to take actions against TikTok and ByteDance, and expressed hope that the United States will develop an “American version of TikTok.” 

“The most important next step is that we need an American TikTok. Let’s figure out a way in which to develop that and to turn America into high-tech leadership,” Herman said. He added that is where the real future lies. 

Katherine Michaelson contributed to this report.
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Senior economic aide Sperling leaving White House to work on Harris campaign

washington — White House senior adviser Gene Sperling is leaving his administration position to work with Vice President Kamala Harris’ election campaign as the Democrats step up efforts to challenge Donald Trump on policy issues in November’s election.

Sperling will be a senior economic adviser to Harris’ policy team. The shift was revealed by White House officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

Sperling served both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as director of the White House National Economic Council. President Joe Biden tasked Sperling with managing his $1.9 trillion pandemic aid package, a role in which Sperling implemented the temporary expansion of the child tax credit. He was also the White House liaison to the union and car companies during the auto strikes.

“Under Gene’s leadership, the American Rescue Plan has delivered economic relief to cities and counties across the country, protected millions of union pensions, made the largest-ever federal investment in public safety, and kept thousands of small businesses afloat,” Biden said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press.

Sperling first worked with Harris when she was California attorney general during his time in the Obama administration. He frequently consulted with her as an outside adviser when she was in the Senate. The two partnered during the Biden presidency on promoting the monthly payments for the child tax credit, among other policies.

The pandemic programs halved child poverty with tax credits that went to 40 million families and provided rental assistance to 8 million.

But Republican critics blame the pandemic aid for sparking higher inflation, an issue that has hounded the Biden administration as many voters say that groceries, housing and gasoline have become less affordable. Financial markets opened Monday with a selloff as a weaker than expected jobs report last week has raised concerns about the U.S. economy’s resilience.

The White House has maintained that the inflation was global in nature, with chief of staff Jeff Zients saying that the efforts coordinated by Sperling “produced the strongest economy in the world.”

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, described the work that Sperling spearheaded as “generational investments” and credited him working with states to get the programs right.
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Who is Usha Vance, wife of Republican vice presidential nominee?

In the U.S. presidential election, likely Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate Tuesday. Republican candidate Donald Trump last month chose Ohio Senator JD Vance. Vance went to law school at Yale, where he met his wife, Usha. She is a first-generation daughter of Indian immigrants who recently left her job at a top Washington, D.C., and California law firm. VOA’s Dora Mekouar has more about her. VOA footage by Adam Greenbaum.
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Harris to announce VP pick soon; Trump wants different debate venue

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is reportedly narrowing down her choices for a running mate in the 2024 presidential race. Her new vice presidential pick will join her at a campaign event Tuesday in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump took to social media to make his case on why there should be a change in venue and date for the next presidential debate. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the details. (Produced by Henry Hernandez)
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Harris interviewing possible vice presidential running mates, with decision soon

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Trump again tears into Georgia’s Republican governor as he campaigns in state

ATLANTA — Donald Trump picked a new fight Saturday with the Republican governor of the state of Georgia as he campaigned in the key swing state where he’s looking to avenge his narrow 2020 loss — a defeat he continues to blame on GOP officials for not giving into his false theories of election fraud.

Trump railed at Gov. Brian Kemp on his social media site before his rally and said Kemp should be “fighting Crime, not fighting Unity and the Republican Party.” He also criticized Kemp’s wife, Marty, for saying she would write in her husband’s name for president this fall instead of voting for the Republican nominee.

At Saturday’s rally, Trump assailed Kemp in a roughly 10-minute tirade, blaming him for his loss to Democratic President Joe Biden and for not stopping a local district attorney from prosecuting him and several associates for his efforts to overturn the results.

“He’s a bad guy. He’s a disloyal guy,” Trump said.

On X, Kemp told Trump to “leave my family out of it” and urged him to stop “engaging in petty personal insults, attacking fellow Republicans, or dwelling on the past.”

Georgia is likely to see another closely contested election as both campaigns push hard in the state, with Democrats riding a new wave of enthusiasm after Biden dropped his reelection bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. To win this time, Trump will likely need the support both of Kemp’s political operation and from moderate and conservative voters who aren’t as committed to him as members of his base.

Going to Atlanta put Trump in the state’s largest media market, including suburbs and exurbs that were traditional Republican strongholds but have become more competitive as they’ve diversified and grown in population. Thousands of supporters packed the same arena for a Harris rally days earlier.

Draic Coakley, a 23-year-old who works in the trucking industry and drove from Heflin, Alabama, just across the western Georgia border to attend his third Trump rally, said he believes Trump “sees people like me,” while “Biden and Harris, well, are part of what I think of as the elite.”

“President Trump may be a billionaire, but it’s OK to be rich,” Coakley said. “He gets us. He just gets us, and he gets the country.”

Biden beat Trump in the state by 11,779 votes in 2020. Trump pressured Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to change the outcome and his allies tried to present slates of so-called “fake electors” that could replace the Democratic voters Biden won.

Trump was later indicted in Georgia for his efforts to overturn the election, but the case remains on hold while courts decide whether the Fulton County district attorney can continue to prosecute it.

Kemp certified the electors that Biden won four years ago and repeatedly rejected efforts by Trump allies to replace them.

He’s since proven to be the rare Republican nationally who could hold his ground against Trump without sacrificing his power or popularity.

Kemp won the governor’s office narrowly in 2018 after garnering Trump’s endorsement. But Trump backed a primary rival against Kemp in 2022 — former Sen. David Perdue, who spoke at Saturday’s rally. Kemp trounced Perdue on his way to defeating Democrat Stacey Abrams, a national star in her party, by 7.5 percentage points, a veritable blowout in a battleground state. 

Kemp will chair the Republican Governor’s Association for the 2026 election cycle, when he is leaving office. And he’s widely known to be national Republicans’ top choice to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in that midterm cycle. 

Kemp has said he didn’t vote for anyone in this year’s primary but will vote for the Republican ticket in November.

Erick Erickson, a prominent conservative host in Georgia, said of Trump, “He can’t help himself.”

“Donald Trump is really trying to build unity in Georgia by attacking the sitting Republican Governor whose ground game he will need to win and also that Governor’s wife,” Erickson wrote on X. “And if he loses, it’ll be because of this stuff, not a stolen election.”

Both parties are focusing on Georgia, a Sun Belt battleground that just two weeks ago, Democrats had signaled they would sideline in favor of a heavier focus on the Midwestern “blue wall” states. Biden’s decision to end his campaign and endorse Harris fueled Democratic hopes of an expanded electoral map.

Trump’s Republican allies have urged him to focus on issues where they see an advantage over Harris, notably the economy and immigration. Trump attacked the likely Democratic nominee on both issues — also at times swinging from policy critiques to portraying Harris as “a dumb version of Bernie Sanders,” the progressive independent senator from Vermont.

Taking the stage first, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, credited Trump with “exposing a massive coverup of the president’s mental incapacity” during the fateful June debate that ultimately led to Biden’s exit from the 2024 campaign, before lighting into Harris as “a San Francisco liberal who is so far out of the mainstream.”

The Harris campaign called out Trump before the rally for what it predicted would be a speech in which he would “deny the 2020 election results.” It also criticized Trump for his announcement earlier that he would not attend a September debate that he set up with Biden’s campaign before the president dropped out. Trump says he wants to debate Harris on Fox News instead.
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Harris campaign staffs up in battleground states, ‘Sun Belt’

WILMINGTON, Delaware — Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign is staffing up in battleground states over the next two weeks including in the ‘Sun Belt’ that increasingly looked out of reach for President Joe Biden, citing momentum for her White House bid as grassroots engagement and fundraising soar. 

“Our grassroots engagement is proving that Kamala Harris is strong in both the Sun Belt and the Blue Wall — with multiple pathways to 270 (electoral votes),” wrote Dan Kanninen, the campaign’s battleground states director in a memo on Saturday. 

The Sun Belt refers to states including Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, and the Blue Wall includes Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. U.S. President Joe Biden won all six of those states in 2020 by thin margins, but just weeks ago, his campaign said the Sun Belt and North Carolina looked increasingly out of reach. 

Harris energizes race

Harris’ takeover of the Democratic presidential campaign has injected new energy, money and enthusiasm into the race, which is translating into a shift in polls that show her pulling even with Republican former President Donald Trump or ahead in some battleground states. 

Since Biden endorsed Harris on July 21, 200,000 volunteers have joined the Harris campaign, while over 350,000 supporters attended their first phone bank, rally or other campaign event – an over 350% increase in event attendees, Kanninen said. 

Harris’ campaign announced on Friday it raised $310 million in July, fueled by small-dollar donations. 

In the next two weeks, the campaign will add 150 more staff in the “Blue Wall,” and will more than double its staff in Arizona and North Carolina, Kanninen said. 

Harris campaign operations on the ground are more extensive than Trump’s, he said. 

“In Nevada, Team Harris has 13 offices, while Trump has just one,” Kanninen wrote. “In Pennsylvania, we have 36 coordinated offices while Trump has just three. In Georgia, we have 24 offices while the Trump team didn’t open their first until June.” 

The Trump campaign did not immediately confirm the accuracy of those numbers, and it did not respond to a request for comment. 

This week Trump’s campaign was set to launch a $10 million advertising blitz in six battleground states. A super PAC supporting Trump, MAGA Inc., kicked off a parallel ad blitz after it said it will spend $32 million in three states with new ads criticizing Harris. 

Some political experts have questioned Trump’s lack of campaign infrastructure in recent days. 

“Those of us who are interested in voting are like, ‘Why don’t you need a ground game?'” political historian Heather Cox Richardson said in a Facebook livestream. “It really takes feet on the ground, knuckles on doors, meetings with people, everything to get money circulating. He is not trying to get enough votes.” 

Search for running mate. continues

Harris was expected to meet in person this weekend with the top contenders vying to join the ticket as the candidate for vice president, Reuters reported on Friday, citing sources.  

She will meet with leading contenders Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro for interviews on Sunday, according to sources familiar with her plans.  

Other top names include U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. 

Harris held a marginal one-percentage-point lead over Trump in a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, closing the gap that opened in the final weeks of Biden’s reelection bid. 

The three-day poll showed Harris supported by 43% of registered voters, with Trump supported by 42%, within the poll’s 3.5 percentage point margin of error. 
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Harris rejects Trump’s idea to debate her on FOX with live audience

reuters — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump proposed to debate Democratic U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Fox News on September 4, and the Harris campaign said Trump is trying to back out of a debate that had been set to run on ABC. 

The rules would be similar to the first debate with President Joe Biden, who has since dropped his reelection bid, Trump said in a post on Truth Social late Friday. But this time it would have a “full arena audience” and take place in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Trump said. 

Trump and Biden had agreed to a second debate on September 10 on ABC News which the former president had suggested should be moved to Fox, the most popular network with his followers. 

Harris, who on Friday secured the delegate votes needed to clinch the Democratic nomination for the November 5 election, said Saturday that she plans to participate in the originally planned debate. 

“It’s interesting how ‘any time, any place’ becomes ‘one specific time, one specific safe space,'” she wrote on social media platform X. “I’ll be there on Sept. 10, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there.” 

Trump ‘running scared,’ says Harris camp

Harris spokesperson Michael Tyler said Trump is “running scared” and that her campaign is happy to discuss further debates after the September 10 one that “both campaigns have already agreed to.” 

On Saturday, Trump said on Truth Social that Harris is “afraid to do it” and that he will see her on September 4, “or I won’t see her at all.” 

On Friday he said that the ABC debate had been “terminated” in that Biden would no longer be in it and because he himself was in litigation with ABC. 

ABC on July 26 outlined qualification requirements for the debate but did not mention any candidates by name. 

Requirements include proving polling support and state ballot access by September 3. 

Recent polls show a tight contest between Harris and Trump, who had enjoyed a bigger lead over Biden after the first debate. 

ABC News had no comment about whether Trump had dropped out of the debate, a spokesperson said. 

Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Trump’s proposal for the debate on Fox came right after the Democratic National Committee launched an advertising campaign Friday taunting him by saying “the convicted felon is afraid to debate” and questioning whether that is due to his stance on abortion. 

David Plouffe, an adviser to former President Barack Obama who recently joined the Harris campaign, posted on social media: “Now, he seems only comfortable in a cocoon, asking his happy place Fox to host a Trump rally and call it a debate. Maybe he can only handle debating someone his own age.” 

Trump is 78 and Harris is 59. 

Former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, who turns 100 on Oct. 1, said, “I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Saturday. 
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Harris foreign policy would bring continuity with some distinct emphases

With Democratic nominee Kamala Harris set to face off with Republican Donald Trump for the U.S. presidency, Harris’ positions on military support to Israel and Ukraine; a rising China; and the migrant crisis at the southern border are under increased scrutiny. As VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports, expect a continuation of Biden administration policies with a few shifts in emphasis.
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Trump, Vance head to Georgia after Harris event in same arena

ATLANTA, GEORGIA — Former President Donald Trump returns Saturday to Georgia, which he lost four years ago, to campaign in a state that Democrats and Republicans see as up for grabs yet again.

Trump’s 5 p.m. event alongside his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, comes just days after Vice President Kamala Harris rallied thousands in the same basketball arena at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

Both parties are focusing on Georgia, a Sun Belt battleground that Democrats had signaled just two weeks ago they would sideline in favor of a heavier focus on the Midwestern “blue wall” states. President Joe Biden’s decision to end his campaign and endorse Harris fueled Democratic hopes of an expanded electoral map.

“The momentum in this race is shifting,” Harris told a cheering, boisterous crowd on Tuesday. “And there are signs Donald Trump is feeling it.”

Biden beat Trump in the state by 11,779 votes in 2020. Trump pressured Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to change the outcome. Trump was later indicted in Georgia for his efforts to overturn the election, but the case remains on hold while courts decide whether the Fulton County district attorney can continue to prosecute it.

In announcing Saturday’s rally, the Trump campaign accused Harris of costing Georgians money due to inflation and higher gas prices, which have risen from pandemic-era lows at the end of the Trump administration. The campaign also noted the case of Laken Riley, a nursing student from the state who was killed while jogging in a park on February 22. A Venezuelan citizen has been indicted on murder charges in her death.

Trump and his allies have repeatedly labeled Harris the current administration’s “border czar,” a reference to her assignment leading White House efforts on root causes of migration.

But in recent days, Trump has lobbed false attacks about Harris’ race and suggested she misled voters about her identity. Harris has stated for years in public life that she is Black and Indian American.

At her rally in Atlanta, Harris called Trump and Vance “plain weird” — a lane of messaging seized on by many other Democrats of late — and taunted Trump for wavering on whether he’d show up for their upcoming debate, currently on the books for September 10 on ABC.

Saying earlier that he would debate Harris, Trump has more recently questioned the value of a meetup, calling host network ABC News “fake news,” saying he “probably” will debate Harris, but he “can also make a case for not doing it.”

The fact that Harris and Trump have been focusing resources on Georgia underscores the state’s renewed significance to both parties come November. Going to Atlanta puts Trump in the state’s largest media market, including suburbs and exurbs that were traditional Republican strongholds but have become more competitive as they’ve diversified and grown in population.

In a strategy memo released after Biden left the race, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon — who held the same role for Biden — reaffirmed the importance of winning the traditional Democratic blue wall trio of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania but also argued that Harris’ place atop the ticket “opens up additional persuadable voters” and described them as “disproportionately Black, Latino and under 30” in places like Georgia.

Next week, along with her eventual running mate, Harris plans to visit that Midwestern trifecta, along with North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada. On Friday, she will make another stop in Georgia.
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Foreign policy under Harris would bring continuity with distinct nuances

The White House — With Vice President Kamala Harris set to face off with Republican nominee former President Donald Trump in the November election, her foreign policy positions – including on military support for Israel and Ukraine, threats from a rising China, and the migrant crisis in the U.S. border with Mexico – are under increased scrutiny.

In her speech at the Munich Security Conference in February, Harris laid out elements of what a White House official described as her worldview.

“I believe it is in the fundamental interest of the American people for the United States to fulfill our long-standing role of global leadership,” Harris said.

Trump and his allies say Harris will be weak against America’s adversaries and continue what they call Biden’s disastrous policies in various regions of the world and on illegal immigration.

“She was a bum, a failed vice president in a failed administration,” Trump said at the Turning Point Summit in Florida late last month. “With millions of people crossing. And she was the border czar.”

Harris was asked to coordinate diplomatic relationships to address the root causes of the migration of thousands of Central Americans who attempt to enter the U.S. each year at the U.S.-Mexico border. She was not the administration’s border czar.

But she has brought a tough message to the campaign trail, highlighting her experience as California’s attorney general going after “transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers,” that came into the U.S. illegally.

“I prosecuted them in case after case and I won,” she said earlier this week during her rally in Atlanta. “Donald Trump, on the other hand, has been talking a big game about securing our border, but he does not walk the walk.”

Middle East conflict

If elected, Harris will inherit the administration’s ongoing effort of preventing – if not managing – a wider war in the Middle East while continuing to support its ally, Israel.

That effort has taken extensive diplomatic resources and military deterrence from the administration since the October 7 Hamas attack that triggered the war in Gaza.

Analysts predict Harris is unlikely to veer from Biden’s long-term policy goals: a two-state solution that ensures Israel’s security and Palestinian statehood, and regional integration of Israel and Arab allies to counter Iran and its proxies.

Administration officials underscore that a cease-fire in Gaza is a crucial first step. Following the assassination of leaders of Iran-backed proxies Hamas and Hezbollah this week, Harris reaffirmed support for Israel’s right to self-defense while calling for an immediate halt to the fighting.

However, with a large swath of the Democratic electorate angry at the president’s staunch support for Israel, she appears to be projecting a much more sympathetic tone toward Palestinians.

“We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering,” she said in remarks following her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week. “And I will not be silent.”

European security

In Europe, Harris has been a strong advocate of Biden’s policy pillars: helping Ukraine defend its sovereignty while preventing direct conflict with Russia and maintaining unity in transatlantic alliances.

The White House official declined to speculate on what U.S. policy on Ukraine would look like under a Harris administration but pointed to her record in advocating for Kyiv.

“You’ve seen her stand up to dictators like Putin, you’ve seen her work with our allies in Europe to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself,” the official told VOA. “She has been a critical component of maintaining NATO unity.”

In her two meetings with Volodymyr Zelenskyy this year, in Munich and at the Peace Summit in Switzerland in June, Harris reassured the Ukrainian president of the administration’s commitment to support his country’s fight against Russia, despite increasing Republican opposition in Congress.

Should Republicans keep control the House of Representatives and should Democrats lose their slim majority in the Senate, Harris will have an uphill battle to keep U.S. funds flowing for Ukraine.

Rivalry with China

Harris has been the administration’s lead in shoring up alliances in the Indo-Pacific, where China is expanding its diplomatic and economic clout. She has been to the region several times, meeting leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Asia Pacific Economic Forum.

She has been outspoken in standing up against Beijing’s increased aggression in the South China Sea, underscoring U.S. commitment to defend “international rules and norms,” and reaffirming support to Manila, a treaty ally.

In 2022, Harris became the first high-ranking U.S. official to visit the Philippines’ tiny Palawan island chain, just 330 kilometers east of the disputed Spratly Islands claimed entirely by China and partly by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

She will continue to strengthen these partnerships and alliances, said Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the U.S.

On the trade side, Harris has said she will continue to work to de-risk from China, continuing trade and investment activities but reducing reliance on a single supplier.

“We know that when she ran for president in 2020, she was fairly tariff averse,” Daly told VOA. “Like President Biden, she seems to have changed her mind about that. So, more continuity.”

The vice president has also been vocal on human rights issues, and as a senator worked on legislation against abuses in Hong Kong and Xinjiang – another red light for Beijing.

Nontraditional security threats

Harris has focused on nontraditional security threats, chairing the National Space Council and promoting the administration’s policies on artificial intelligence and climate on various global forums.

“She has been big on these technology issues, on space, on climate,” said Linda Robinson, senior fellow for Women and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“That’s where you could expect to see a real effort to try to have people understand that climate change, if not really addressed quickly, we’re past that point of no return,” she told VOA.

Before her term as a senator, Harris was a San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general with little foreign policy experience. But in her 3½ years as vice president, she has traveled to 21 countries and met with 150 leaders.

Still, Trump and his allies have sought to paint her as an inexperienced and unaccomplished candidate, as well as “a radical left lunatic who will destroy our country.”

In response, Harris goaded Trump, who has yet to accept her challenge to a presidential candidate debate, saying, “If you got something to say, say it to my face.”
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Harris secures enough Democratic delegate votes to be nominee, chair says

WASHINGTON — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has secured enough votes from delegates to become her party’s nominee for president, Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison said Friday.

The announcement was made before the online voting process ends on Monday, reflecting the breakneck speed of a campaign that is eager to maintain momentum after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed Harris as his successor less than two weeks ago.

Harris is poised to be the first woman of color at the top of a major party’s ticket, and she joined a call with supporters to say she is “honored to be the presumptive Democratic nominee.”

“It’s not going to be easy. But we’re going to get this done,” she said. “As your future president, I know we are up to this fight.”

Harrison pledged that Democrats “will rally around Vice President Kamala Harris and demonstrate the strength of our party” during their convention in Chicago later this month.

The Democratic National Committee did not provide details of the delegate vote count, including a number or state-by-state breakdowns, during a virtual event that had the flavor of a telethon, with campaign officials keeping tabs on a delegate-counting process whose result is a foregone conclusion.

No other candidate challenged Harris for the nomination, and she swiftly solidified Democratic support in the days after Biden endorsed her.

Democrats still plan a state-by-state roll call during the party’s convention, the traditional way that a nominee is chosen. However, that will be purely ceremonial because of the online voting.

New campaign personnel

As Harris prepares to face off with Republican nominee Donald Trump, her campaign is reorganizing its senior staff and bringing on a coterie of veterans of President Barack Obama’s successful campaigns.

David Plouffe will serve as a senior adviser focused on Harris’ pathway to the 270 Electoral College votes she needs to win the election. To take the role, he will stop consulting for TikTok, the social media app, as well as a podcast that he was hosting with Kellyanne Conway, the former Trump campaign manager, according to a person familiar with his plans.

In addition, Stephanie Cutter will advise on messaging and strategy, while Mitch Stewart will serve as senior adviser for battleground states. Brian Nelson, who until recently was an undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury Department, has shifted to the campaign to advise Harris on policy.

Despite the additions, many aspects of the campaign remain the same from when Biden was the candidate. Jen O’Malley Dillon still serves as chairwoman and will oversee the entire staff structure.

Other unchanged senior roles include Julie Chavez Rodriguez as campaign manager, Quentin Fulks as principal deputy campaign manager and Michael Tyler as communications director.

Sheila Nix will continue as Harris’ senior adviser and chief of staff on the campaign. Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, who was recently brought on as a campaign co-chair, is expanding her portfolio to include outreach and strategy.

Brian Fallon, who had been Harris’ campaign communications director when Biden was still on the ticket, will now serve as senior adviser of communications.

Elizabeth Allen, most recently an undersecretary at the State Department, will be chief of staff for Harris’ running mate, who has not yet been chosen. Harris is expected to interview candidates over the weekend.

Democratic officials have said the accelerated roll call process was necessary because of an Aug. 7 deadline to ensure candidates appear on the Ohio ballot.

Ohio state lawmakers have since changed the deadline, but the modification doesn’t take effect until Sept. 1. Democratic attorneys said that waiting until after the initial deadline to determine a presidential nominee could prompt a legal challenge.
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US millennials look for bigger role in 2024 election

Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance is the first person from the millennial generation to run on a U.S. major party presidential ticket. VOA’s Elizabeth Cherneff looks at how some millennial voters see November’s election. VOA footage by Scott Stearns, Mary Cieslak and Genia Dulot.
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Memes, mudslinging appear on social media in run-up to election

In a U.S. election season that has been filled with unexpected twists and turns, social media users have responded in kind … with coconuts and cat ladies. VOA’s Tina Trinh explains.
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US Democrats start voting to nominate Harris as presidential candidate 

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Harris says Trump’s false claims about race same old show’ of divisiveness, disrespect

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday that former President Donald Trump’s false assertions about her race were the “same old show” as she emphasized the need for Black women to organize for his defeat this November.

Addressing the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc. — one of “Divine Nine” historically Black fraternities and sororities — in Houston, Harris told the crowd, “When I look out at everyone here, I see family.”

She drew knowing chuckles from the audience as she mentioned Trump’s comments earlier in the day at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists. Trump said Harris, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president, had in the past promoted only her Indian heritage.

“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump said while addressing the NABJ in Chicago.

Harris responded briefly during her address to the sorority, saying Trump’s display was “the same old show: the divisiveness and the disrespect.”

She added: “And let me just say, the American people deserve better. The American people deserve better.”

“Our differences do not divide us, they are an essential source of our strength,” Harris said.

Referencing the combative tone of Trump’s interview at the NABJ convention, she said, “The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth, a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts.”

Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, both immigrants to the U.S. As an undergraduate, Harris attended Howard University, one of the nation’s most prominent historically Black colleges and universities, where she also pledged the historically Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. As a U.S. senator, Harris was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Speaking to Sigma Gamma Rho members, Harris said, “Our nation is counting on you” to register people to vote and ensure they go to the polls. “When we organize, mountains move,” she said.

Black Greek life is often seen as a lifelong involvement, leading many members to return to regular gatherings — or “boulés” in the organizations’ phrasing — that gather tens of thousands of members each. Harris has attended three such events in the last month, including the boulé for her own sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.

The Divine Nine organizations, which are officially apolitical, emphasize public service as a mission and have deep networks in politics, business and media.

June Penny, 66, of Georgia, an attendee at Harris’ speech in Houston, said Trump’s comments about Harris’ race reminded her of how he tried to discredit then-President Barack Obama.

“I’m not surprised he would try to find something like that,” Penny said.

She said Trump’s views don’t reflect the reality of race in the country, noting, “I have biracial grandchildren” — her son-in-law is white — “and the world views them as Black.”

More than 30 members of Congress are affiliated with a Black Greek letter organization. Close advisers to President Joe Biden, including Stephen Benjamin, Cedric Richmond and Keisha Lance Bottoms, are members of Divine Nine organizations. Harris has welcomed such connections to staff her operation and build her own network in Washington.
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Trump questions Harris’ racial identity

In the U.S. presidential contest, Republican candidate Donald Trump and likely Democratic candidate Kamala Harris are both out on the campaign trail, where Trump questioned Harris’ racial identity and Harris challenged Trump to debate. With fewer than 100 days before Election Day, VOA correspondent Scott Stearns looks at the state of the race and what voters are saying about the candidates.
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Trump questions Harris’ race at gathering of Black journalists

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Biden prods Congress to act to curb fentanyl from Mexico as Trump paints Harris as weak on border

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is prodding Congress to help him do more to combat the scourge of fentanyl before he leaves office. 

The Democratic administration is making the new policy push as Republican former President Donald Trump steps up attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris, painting her as Biden’s feckless lieutenant in the battle to slow the illegal drugs and immigrants without authorization coming into the United States from Mexico. 

The White House on Wednesday announced a series of proposals from Biden aimed at curbing the ongoing drug epidemic. These include a push on Congress to pass legislation to establish a pill press and tableting machine registry and enhance penalties against convicted drug smugglers and traffickers of fentanyl. 

Biden also wants to tighten rules on importers shipping small packages into the United States, requiring shippers to provide additional information to Customs and Border Protection officials. The move is aimed at improving the detection of fentanyl precursor chemicals that frequently find their way into the United States in relatively low-value shipments that aren’t subject to customs and trade barriers. 

The president’s new efforts at combating fentanyl may also benefit Harris, the likely Democratic nominee, as Trump and his surrogates are trying to cast her as a central player in the Biden administration’s struggles at the U.S.-Mexico border throughout his term. 

“Still, far too many of our fellow Americans continue to lose loved ones to fentanyl,” Biden said in a statement. “This is a time to act. And this is a time to stand together — for all those we have lost, and for all the lives we can still save.” 

Biden said he will also sign a national security memorandum on Wednesday aimed at improving the sharing of information between law enforcement and federal agencies to improve understanding about the flows of production and smuggling of the synthetic opioid that has ravaged huge swaths of America. In the last five months, more than 442 million doses of fentanyl were seized at U.S. borders, according to the White House. 

The Trump campaign launched its first television ad of the general election cycle on Tuesday, dubbing Harris the “border czar” and blaming her for a surge in illegal crossings into the United States during the Biden administration. After displaying headlines about crime and drugs, the video brands Harris as “Failed. Weak. Dangerously liberal.” 

Border crossings hit record highs during the Biden administration but have dropped more recently. 

The Trump campaign has so far reserved $12.2 million in television and digital ads through the next two weeks, according to data from the media tracking firm AdImpact. 

Biden tasked Harris early in his administration with addressing the root causes of migration. Border crossings became a major political liability for Biden when they reached historic levels. Since June, when Biden announced significant restrictions on asylum applications at the border, arrests for illegal crossings have fallen. 

House Republicans passed a symbolic resolution last week criticizing Harris’ work on the border on behalf of the Biden administration. 

The White House reiterated its call on Congress to pass sweeping immigration legislation that includes funding for more border agents and drug detection machines at the border. GOP senators earlier this year scuttled months of negotiations with Democrats on legislation intended to cut back record numbers of illegal border crossings after Trump eviscerated the bipartisan proposal. 

The proposed pill-pressing registry floated by Biden aims to help law enforcement crackdown on drug traffickers who use pill presses to press fentanyl into pills. 

Authorities say most illicit fentanyl is produced clandestinely in Mexico, using chemical precursors from China. Synthetic opioids are the biggest killers in the deadliest drug crisis the U.S. has ever seen. In 2014, nearly 50,000 deaths in the U.S. were linked to drug overdoses of all kinds. By 2022, the total was more than 100,000, according to a tally by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than two-thirds of those deaths — more than 200 per day — involved fentanyl or similar synthetic drugs. 

Meeting with China

Meanwhile, administration officials and Chinese government officials are expected to meet Wednesday to discuss efforts to curb the flow of chemical precursors coming from China, according to a senior administration official. 

Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at a November summit in California that Beijing had agreed to press its chemical companies to curtail shipments to Latin America and elsewhere of the materials used to produce fentanyl. China also agreed to a resumption of sharing information about suspected trafficking with an international database. 

But a special House committee focused on countering the Chinese government in April issued a report that China still is fueling the fentanyl crisis in the U.S. by directly subsidizing the manufacturing of materials that are used by traffickers to make the drug outside the country. 

The official, who spoke under the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said China had taken “important steps,” but there is much more to do.
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What would Harris do differently?

Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have worked closely together — but what distinguishes them politically?
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New US citizens could determine outcomes of key elections

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Harris, Trump will offer competing approaches to China trade, tariffs

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