Tim Walz says Trump is ‘spiraling down,’ pitches Harris’ message of change
ABC News
(WASHINGTON, DC) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, said Donald Trump is “spiraling down” after being asked on ABC’s “The View” about the former president’s recent lewd comments.
“It’s very clear that, as you said, Donald Trump is spiraling down, unhinged,” Walz said. “What worries me about these comments, some of these are just so strange that they’re hard to imagine, are the dangerous ones in the middle of that — the ‘enemy from within’ and some of that.”
Walz quickly switched gears, though, to talking about how Trump’s comments stand in contrast with the optimistic vision the Harris campaign is pitching to voters.
“But on the flip side of that is the message that’s starting to break through is this opportunity economy, a new way forward,” Walz said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Amid mounting frustration from centrist voters and shifting party coalitions, one group thinks it has the solution to making parties and political candidates: comprehensive election reform.
Unite America, a philanthropic venture fund, is in the middle of a yearslong effort to support ballot initiatives that would fundamentally alter the way candidates are elected. Rather than hold party primaries, some of which independent voters can’t partake in, states would hold one large primary for all candidates for a race. Then, general election voters would be able to sift through winners in some form, including a ranked choice system or a competition between the top two vote getters.
In an interview with ABC News, Unite America Executive Director Nick Troiano said the system is intended to make the general election the race of consequence rather than low-turnout primaries in safe red or blue areas, making candidates accountable to voters of all stripes.
“If you’re a candidate, the advantage is you’re no longer only having to appeal to one side. You can talk to all the voters, and then all the voters can vote for whomever they want,” Troiano said.
“It’s really about trying to make the general election the election of consequence, meaning the primary, everybody can vote, everybody can run, but it winnows down to just a few candidates in a general election, when most people vote, should really be when the decision is made.”
The reform movement is ramping up at a time of transformation for both parties. Democrats, smarting from Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss, are looking to make a brand more palatable to working-class voters. And Republicans are expected to be tied even closer to President-elect Donald Trump after his win this month.
But the election reform efforts are coming off a rough election cycle.
Voters in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and South Dakota shot down ballot initiatives that would have instituted all-party primaries rather than contests grouping candidates of one party together. The effort marked a setback given rising conversations around other democracy-related issues like gerrymandering.
Troiano conceded the defeats, noting spending from both parties against the ballot initiatives and insisting that progress is not anticipated to be “linear.” Unite America’s advisors include those who worked on the marriage equality movement, which saw several states ban the practice in the 2004 election cycle but only to see same-sex marriage become federally legalized in 2015.
“Sometimes it’s two steps forward, one step back. But that’s how any movement that has made meaningful change in our country has worked. And so, we’re disappointed but not deterred from this mission,” Troiano said.
Some states already have versions of what Unite America is proposing.
Voters in 2022 implemented all-party primaries followed by ranked-choice general elections. Maine already has ranked choice voting. And other states like California and Louisiana institute so-called jungle primaries, which hold all-party primaries and then send the top two candidates to the general election if no contender hits 50%.
Rising independent voter registrations give Troiano hope that momentum will build for the reforms Unite America is pushing.
In the meantime, the group will conduct more research, link up with interest groups and push more ballot measures, Troiano said.
And, Unite America insists, both parties can benefit.
Democratic strategists have theorized that Harris lost this year’s presidential race because of a brand that was viewed as too far to the left — a reputation that could be confirmed by party primaries fueled by the most liberal voters. And Republicans have ceded ground in the suburbs, historically GOP power bases, with a reputation too firmly tied to Trump.
Democratic senators-elect who scored victories in Trump-won states were able to establish brands detached from that of the national party, and the only two Republican House members who impeached Trump left standing — California Rep. David Valadao and Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse — use all party primaries.
“I think both parties have a medium to long-term advantage in these reforms because it will help them nominate more mainstream candidates,” Troiano said. “Both parties have a declining market share of the electorate as independents continue to grow, so it is to their advantage to think about ways to broaden their appeal.”
(WASHINGTON) — Top officials from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security on Thursday drew bipartisan fire for declining to testify in public at a Senate hearing on “worldwide threats” and instead offering to testify in a classified setting.
Both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security Committee expressed anger at what they called Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray’s “refusal” to testify in public.
“In a shocking departure from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s longstanding tradition of transparency and oversight of the threats facing our nation, for the first time in more than 15 years, the Homeland Security and FBI Director have refused to appear before the Committee to provide public testimony at our annual hearing on Threats to the Homeland,” Chairman Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, said in a statement.
Peters said it was “their choice” to not provide public testimony for the American people.
“Americans deserve transparency, public answers about the threats we face,” Peters said.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, went a step further and said he “looked forward to Director Wray’s resignation.”
“This is Mayorkas & Wray giving the middle finger to the American people,” he tweeted.
While it wasn’t immediately clear specifically why they declined to testify in public, a Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement that Mayorkas has appeared before Congress more than 30 times.
“DHS and the FBI have offered to the Committee a classified briefing to discuss the threats to the Homeland in detail, providing the Committee with the information it needs to conduct its work in the months ahead,” a the spokesperson said in a statement. “DHS and the FBI already have shared with the Committee and other Committees, and with the American public, extensive unclassified information about the current threat environment, including the recently published Homeland Threat Assessment.”
The FBI said in a statement they’ve “repeatedly” showed their commitment to being transparent with the American people.
“We remain committed to sharing information about the continuously evolving threat environment facing our nation and the extraordinary work the men and women of the FBI are doing — here at home and around the world — to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States,” according to an FBI statement. “FBI leaders have testified extensively in public settings about the current threat environment and believe the Committee would benefit most from further substantive discussions and additional information that can only be provided in a classified setting.”
(NEW YORK) — The Republican Nebraska lawmaker who effectively helped kill an 11th-hour push to make the winner of the state receive all of the Electoral College votes on Election Day — a move that would have likely benefited former President Donald Trump in a tight race with Vice President Kamala Harris — told ABC News Prime Anchor Linsey Davis that effort “did not seem fair.”
“I’m always willing to listen to people and try to find a compromise, but also try to understand why they’re voting yes … But this just did not seem fair. If we’re going to go ahead and change [the rules] in the state of Nebraska, I think we should do it mid-term. I think we should do it two years before the presidential election,” Nebraska State Sen. Mike McDonnell told Davis on Tuesday of the timing around a potential law change.
The potential winner-take-all electoral change would have been pivotal if the Republican-leaning state then allocated all of its five electoral votes solely to Trump if he won statewide, instead of dividing them with Harris if she won in one of Nebraska’s three congressional districts. Nebraska gives three Electoral College votes to the statewide winner and one to the winner of each congressional district.
Earlier this week, McDonnell, who was one of three state Republican holdouts that Gov. Jim Pillen needed to break an expected filibuster in a special legislative session, said he would not support the change before November. This announcement effectively killed the winner-take-all push.
Instead, McDonnell said he believed the legislature should take up the issue in next year’s legislative session, which tentatively starts the first week of January 2025.
“We do listen, as Nebraskans, and sometimes people say, oh, ‘Nebraska nice,’ that means, you know, you’re kind of weak — and it’s not. We work hard and we play by the rules and we’re just asking everyone to come in, work hard in Omaha, the 2nd Congressional District, and play by the rules,” McDonnell said Tuesday.
McDonnell mentioned that he had been opposed previously to “winner-take-all” in the state since he ran for legislature starting in 2016.
Pressed by Davis if anyone or anything could make him change his decision, McDonnell was resolute: “No. I’ve tried to listen and I always will listen. I think the rest of the country should follow us and look at the unicameral [Nebraska Legislature] and look at getting rid of the winner-take-all.”
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen later released a statement Tuesday confirming he has “no plans” to call a special session before the November general election.
Trump on Monday thanked Pillen for attempting to “simplify the complexity” of the state’s electoral map, while attacking McDonnell for opposing it, calling him a “Grandstander.”
“Unfortunately, a Democrat turned Republican(?) State Senator named Mike McDonnell decided, for no reason whatsoever, to get in the way of a great Republican, common sense, victory. Just another ‘Grandstander!'” Trump wrote in a social media post.
Meanwhile, Harris’ running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, while speaking at a New York fundraiser on Monday night, celebrated McDonnell’s decision, saying that the race would be close because the “Electoral College is the way it is,” before stating, “Thank God for that one guy in Omaha” — a reference to McDonnell.
Asked to respond to Trump’s comments, McDonnell said, “Well, today’s the first day I’ve talked to the media and I’m always willing to get, as I said, over the last eight years, serving in the legislature – willing to talk to people and listen.”
And asked about Walz’s comments and if Harris and Trump should make campaign stops in Omaha — as well as if his own decision may have changed the outcome of the election — McDonnell stayed away from making any predictions, but invited them both to Omaha.
“I’m inviting both Vice President Harris and President Trump. Come to Omaha. Come have a debate here! There’s still 42 days. Listen to the people. Talk to the people and answer the questions,” McDonnell said.
McDonnell emphasized that most — if not all — of the feedback he had gotten about the issue had been civil.
“We know it’s a very important issue. It’s a passionate issue, and people are passionate about it … 90% of them have been professional and polite,” McDonnell told Davis.
