Trump kicks off week of DNC counterprogramming with economy remarks in Pennsylvania
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump will spend the week traveling to battleground states — a way of counterprogramming the Democratic National Convention, which kicks off on Monday — starting with remarks on the economy and energy in York, Pennsylvania, just a few hours before key speakers take the stage at the DNC.
On Monday, Trump will further highlight his economic proposal, following dueling remarks on the topic from both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris last week.
Trump spoke about the economy at two separate events — one in North Carolina followed by one in Pennsylvania — during which he went back and forth between on-topic messaging, non sequiturs and personal attacks aimed at Harris and former President Joe Biden.
The former president and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance will continue to hold issue-centered campaign events throughout the week in states including Wisconsin, North Carolina, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia. The Trump campaign suggests that they are “dividing and conquering” with their ticket spread across the nation in the highly-contested states.
Each campaign stop will focus on a key election issue, Trump’s campaign said.
After economy-centered events in Pennsylvania on Monday, the campaign will focus on crime and safety on Tuesday, national security on Wednesday, immigration on Thursday — when the former president is expected to visit the southern border — and then will round out the week with “no tax on tips” events on Friday to highlight the policy Trump has advocated for.
The campaign’s schedule uptick comes as the Harris campaign criticized Trump’s lack of swing-state events in recent weeks. Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz barnstormed key swing states earlier this month.
As Trump’s campaign continues to accuse Harris of dodging the press, it has offered the media several opportunities to talk with Trump’s surrogates — with the presumed expectation that either Trump or Vance will take questions too.
Harris has not sat down for an official interview since the evening of the first presidential debate with Biden.
Trump allies including Sen. Ron Johnson, Sen. Rick Scott and Rep. Byron Donalds will travel to the convention host city of Chicago to host press conferences every day of the convention. In addition, the Trump campaign has teased a “special guest” on Thursday ahead of Harris accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination at the DNC.
“As they meet Americans where they are in battleground states across the country, President Trump and Senator Vance will remind voters that under their leadership, we can end inflation, protect our communities from violent criminals, secure the border, and Make America Great Again,” Trump Campaign Senior Advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement.
The campaign suggests their strategy is being with everyday Americans and telling their stories — whereas they claim Harris and Democrats will roll out big names at the Democratic National Convention from “yesteryear,” including former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden.
In the evening, during the DNC’s primetime programming, Trump is scheduled to participate in fundraisers and media engagements, according to the campaign.
“Our goal and message that we’re trying to send other than continuing to define Kamala Harris and Tim Walz is a very clear signal that there’ll be no free shots on goal,” a campaign official said, pivoting to suggest that Harris’ “honeymoon” period is over.
“We believe that we have the winning message. We believe that the Democrats have the losing message,” the campaign official said.
(WASHINGTON) — In the hours after Vice President Kamala Harris announced Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, allies of former President Donald Trump rushed to denigrate the Minnesota Democrat, seizing on criticism of his handling of the riots in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in May 2020.
“He allowed rioters to burn down the streets of Minneapolis,” Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican candidate for vice president, said Tuesday.
But at the time, Trump expressed support for Walz’s handling of the protests, according to a recording of a phone call obtained by ABC News — telling a group of governors that Walz “dominated,” and praising his leadership as an example for other states to follow.
“I know Gov. Walz is on the phone, and we spoke, and I fully agree with the way he handled it the last couple of days,” Trump told a group of governors on June 1, 2020, according to a recording of the call, in which he also called Walz an “excellent guy.”
“I was very happy with the last couple of days, Tim,” Trump continued. “You called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them out so fast it was like bowling pins.”
Trump also suggested on the call that it was his encouragement that sparked Walz to call in the National Guard: “I said, you got to use the National Guard in big numbers,” Trump said. A spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign said Wednesday that was untrue.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said Trump lauded Walz only after the governor heeded his advice to enlist support from the National Guard.
“Governor Walz allowed Minneapolis to burn for days, despite President Trump’s offer to deploy soldiers and cries for help from the liberal Mayor of Minneapolis,” Leavitt said in a statement to ABC News. “In this daily briefing phone call with Governors on June 1, days after the riots began, President Trump acknowledged Governor Walz for FINALLY taking action to deploy the National Guard to end the violence in the city.”
Trump’s contemporaneous approval of Walz’s decision-making in the wake of George Floyd’s murder undermines one of Republicans’ most vocal lines of attack against the vice presidential nominee. Critics have accused Walz of stalling the mobilization of the National Guard to quell rioters who set fire to 1,500 buildings, caused some $500 million in property damage, and were linked to at least three deaths.
Walz, himself a 24-year veteran of the National Guard, ultimately summoned more than 7,000 guardsmen to the Twin Cities. But that decision came 18 hours after Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey initially asked the governor to activate military personnel.
“This hesitation cost Minnesotans their lives, communities, and livelihoods,” according to an investigative report compiled by Republicans in the state Senate.
At the time, Walz condemned the Republicans’ report — which was published just weeks before his 2022 reelection — as a political hit job that was “unhelpful.” More recently, Walz brushed aside scrutiny of his handling of the protests.
“It is what it is,” he recently told reporters. “And I simply believe that we try to do the best we can.”
Inside the aftermath
In the days after the murder of George Floyd, as agitators set fires and laid siege to a police precinct, city officials scrambled to contain the unrest.
Floyd, a Black man, was killed by Officer Derek Chauvin on Monday, May 25, 2020. By Wednesday evening, the city’s police “had expended all available resources,” according to a copy of the written request for the National Guard prepared by police officials.
At 6:29 p.m. that Wednesday, Frey called Walz to request the National Guard, he later told the Star-Tribune. That verbal communication was followed up hours later, at 9:11 p.m., with a written request from city police officials. A copy of the written request obtained by state senators indicated that the city would need 600 guardsmen to help with area security, transportation assistance and logistical support.
That evening, Frey’s office crafted a draft press release announcing that the National Guard had been called in, but did not disseminate it, according to records released by the city and reported by local outlets. Instead, city aides would have to wait another 15 hours before Walz would formally mobilize the National Guard.
In text messages released by the city, a member of the mayor’s staff asked, “What’s happening? As far as the Guard,” around 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday night. Another staffer replied that Frey “said Walz was hesitating.”
“According to Minneapolis officials, the governor’s office responded that they would consider the request, but the city did not receive any follow-up until much later,” according to an after-action report commissioned by the state.
On Thursday afternoon, Walz imposed a curfew on city residents and formally mobilized the National Guard. The first troops arrived within hours, and by that weekend, the unrest had largely been quelled.
On Friday, Walz told reporters he had spoken with Trump the day before and that Trump had “pledged his support in terms of anything we need in terms of supplies to get to us.”
Days later, on the June 1 phone call with governors, Walz thanked Trump and accepted his praise before making comments of his own — expressing support for peaceful protesters and suggesting that governors who might otherwise hesitate to call in the National Guard could do so delicately, and frame them as “not an occupying force,” but instead as “neighbors, teachers, business owners.”
“That’s a really effective method,” Walz said.
Trump agreed, but added his own spin on the role of guardsmen.
“It got so bad a few nights ago that the people wouldn’t have minded an occupying force,” Trump said. “I wish we had an occupying force in there.”
An ‘unproductive’ spat
A pair of after-action reports commissioned by the city and state cited private miscommunications and public disputes between Walz and Frey as impediments to effectively handling the protests. At one point, Walz characterized the city’s response as an “abject failure.”
“Several interviewees blamed the Mayor and Governor for their public disagreements about the response to the protests and expressed that this was unproductive,” according to the report commissioned by the city, which was released in March 2022.
The state-commissioned report arrived at a similar conclusion: “Other state officials claim that the request became complicated when elected officials became involved (i.e., the Minneapolis mayor, the governor’s office).”
Another complicating factor, those after-action reports indicated, was the failure of city officials to articulate their needs. The requests made on May 27 “initially lacked clarity and that more information and time was needed for [the state’s emergency management office] to develop the necessary details of the mission to activate the Minnesota Guard,” one report said.
For his part, Walz initially argued that mobilizing thousands of National Guardsmen requires time.
“The average person maybe assumes that there’s soldiers waiting in helicopters to drop in like they do in movies,” Walz said that Tuesday, May 26. “Actually, they’re band teachers and small business owners. They’re folks working in a garage in Fergus Falls who get a call that says you’ve got 12 hours to report to your armory.”
Days later, however, Walz told a reporter that “if the issue was that the state should have moved faster, that is on me.”
Lt. Gen. Jon Jensen, the director of the Minnesota National Guard at the time, later testified before state senators that, had the National Guard been deployed sooner, the protests might not have been so destructive.
“If we had done things differently on Tuesday, as it relates to numbers, as it relates to tactics, could we have avoided some of this? My unprofessional opinion as it relates to law enforcement is ‘yes,'” Jensen said. “My professional military opinion is ‘yes.'”
(WASHINGTON) — Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly is seen as one of the front-runners to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, sources have told ABC News.
Kelly hasn’t immediately commented on speculation on his possibly joining the presidential ticket.
While relatively new to Capitol Hill — having been first elected in 2020 — the border state senator and former NASA astronaut has long been involved in national issues.
Kelly, 60, was born and raised in New Jersey with his twin brother, Scott. After graduating high school, he attended United States Merchant Marine Academy where he graduated in 1988 with highest honors.
Kelly became a U.S. Navy pilot and was deployed to Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. He flew 39 missions during the war, according to his service record. Scott Kelly was also deployed as a U.S. Navy pilot during the war, but operated on a different ship.
Kelly continued to serve as a Navy pilot following the war and in 1996 NASA selected him and his brother to be space shuttle pilots. During his 15-year NASA career, Mark Kelly logged in 54 days in space, including several missions to the International Space Station, according to his NASA records.
Kelly became closer to the world of Washington, D.C., politics after he married his second wife, Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords in 2007, just months into her first term. Kelly was at Giffords’ bedside after she was shot during an event with constituents in January 2011.
He would retire from NASA later that year as he helped his wife recuperate from her near-fatal wounds.
The couple became vocal gun control advocates and started a political action committee — Americans for Responsible Solutions — in 2013 which eventually evolved into the gun control non-profit Giffords. For years, Kelly would advocate for tighter gun control legislation including universal background checks, red flag laws and other measures.
Kelly, who is a gun owner, has worked with local, state and federal officials on this issue and backed candidates who shared those views.
In 2020, Kelly announced that he would get more involved in Washington and ran on the Democratic ticket for the special election that year for Arizona’s U.S. Senate seat.
Kelly won the highly watched election with just roughly 78,000 votes, beating out Republican incumbent Martha McSally. The election helped Democrats gain power in the Senate.
Kelly would be reelected two years later, beating out Republican challenger Blake Masters with over 125,000 votes.
Since he joined the Hill, Kelly has positioned himself as a moderate Democrat who has been vocal on the issues.
Kelly continues to advocate for laws and policies that enact gun control, including universal background checks.
Last month, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that ruled a ban on federal ban on bump stocks was illegal, the senator vowed to introduce legislation that would make them illegal nationwide.
“Banning bump stocks is common sense. They make semi-automatic guns even deadlier, and as a gun owner and someone who knows personally the damage a gun can do, I will always support efforts to protect Americans from the most dangerous weapons and devices,” he said on a statement on his X page.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overruling Roe v. Wade guaranteeing nationwide access to abortion, Kelly has been pushing for abortion access for women both in Arizona, which has a ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy, and around the country. The state legislature repealed an Arizona State Supreme Court ruling that banned all abortions this year.
“Right now, as Arizona whiplashes between two abortion bans, physicians are choosing not to come to our state and others are considering leaving, putting women’s lives at risk. We must write abortion rights into law to eliminate once and for all the catastrophic consequences of Roe v. Wade being overturned,” he said in a statement in May.
In the past, Kelly has criticized President Joe Biden over his policies on immigration, specifically ending Title 42, which allowed the U.S. to turn away asylum seekers during the pandemic.
“When the president decided he was going to do something dumb on this and change the rules that would create a bigger crisis, I told him he was wrong. So I pushed back on this administration multiple times,” Kelly said during a 2022 debate.
Kelly has been calling for more border agents and support in Arizona to handle the influx of migrants.
The senator commended Biden recently after the president issued an executive order in June that turned away migrants who cross illegally between ports of entry and try to claim asylum after seven consecutive days of more than 2,500 encounters.
“This doesn’t change the ability for individuals to come here and seek asylum,” Kelly said in an interview with PBS last month. “There will be pathways.”
Kelly chastised former President Donald Trump for calling on Republicans to block a bipartisan bill that would have addressed the migrant crisis.
“The politics of the presidential election superseded everything,” he told PBS. “To run away from a comprehensive piece of legislation that was going to help the Border Patrol, help CBP, [and] help communities in Southern Arizona and other states…I have never seen [it].”
(NEW YORK) — Authorities are looking for a man in connection to a burglary at the Trump for President 2024 campaign office in Ashburn, Virginia, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday.
Sheriff’s deputies said they were alerted to the break-in at approximately 9:00 p.m. ET, but the suspect was gone before officials arrived on the scene.
Surveillance video provided by officials showed the suspect — an adult male — wearing dark clothing, a dark cap and a backpack.
The investigation is ongoing and the sheriff’s office did not indicate if anything was taken or left at the scene.
“It is rare to have the office of any political campaign or party broken into,” Sheriff Mike Chapman said in a news release. “We are determined to identify the suspect, investigate why it happened, and determine what may have been taken as well as what may have been left behind.”
The campaign office, which is leased, also serves as the headquarters of the Virginia 10th District Republican Committee, officials said.