Bernie Sanders predicts ‘rough’ campaign ahead but thinks Harris has ‘very good chance to win
Two-time presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders predicted the campaign ahead will be “rough” but said he believes Vice President Kamala Harris “has a very good chance to win” the presidential election.
“She’s certainly going to win the popular vote by millions of votes, and I think she has a great chance to win many of the battleground states,” Sanders told “This Week” co-anchor Jon Karl on Sunday. “I think people are growing tired and fatigued with Trump’s consistent and outrageous lies and I think no matter what people may think of Kamala Harris, I think they want stability in the White House.”
The interview came just days after Democrats wrapped a lively convention where the party highlighted “freedom” as their overarching message for the campaign.
Asked about comments Harris made in her acceptance speech about ensuring the nation’s military strength, Sanders cautioned against increased spending.
“The United States is now spending more than the next 10 nations combined on defense,” he said. “I agree with the vice president. We want the strongest defense in the world, but I do think enough is enough. You’re seeing military contractors profits soaring, and I think we can have the strongest defense in the world without spending a trillion dollars a year.”
Sanders said Harris should focus her messaging on the economy and welfare of voters.
“We have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had in the history of this country,” he said. “So I happen to believe it’s important that we end the embarrassment of having the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth.”
Karl also asked Sanders if not giving the “Uncommitted” movement a platform at the convention was a mistake for Harris. Pro-Palestinian protesters and activists with the Uncommitted movement had repeatedly requested a speaking slot during the Democratic National Convention. The request, however, was denied by party officials.
Sanders has been one of the leading voices on Capitol Hill calling for a change in U.S. policy toward Israel as its war against Hamas in Gaza approaches its 11th month. He also has been outspoken against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I happen to think that we should not be giving another nickel to Netanyahu’s right-wing extremist government,” he said. “They certainly had a right to defend themselves against the atrocious Hamas attack. They never had the right, do not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people, kill 40,000, injure 80,000 and destroy the health care system, the educational system and the civilian infrastructure.”
He added, “American taxpayer dollars should not go to starve children in Gaza.”
Karl then asked Sanders about the nation’s immigration struggles and how Harris’ views on the southern border have shifted.
“When Harris ran for the Democratic nomination against you and others in 2020, she said she favored decriminalizing illegal border crossings. She even suggested she was she would be in favor of abolishing [Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” Karl said.
“We have a crisis at the border. We’ve got to make sure that fentanyl does not get into this country. We have to crack down on illegal immigration,” Sanders replied. “But we need comprehensive immigration reform. And I suspect that’s what the vice president supports.”
Republicans have attacked Harris by tying her to the high level of migrant encounters and apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border over President Joe Biden’s term. Harris has tried to counter that by highlighting her time as a prosecutor and support for the failed bipartisan border policy reform bill. Harris previously supported decriminalizing illegal border crossings and said she believed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “mission … is very much in question and has to be reexamined.”
ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Will McDuffie and Gabriella Abdul-Hakim contributed to this report.
Americans broadly pick Kamala Harris as the winner of last week’s widely watched presidential debate – yet neither she nor Donald Trump moved the needle in terms of trust on the issues, ratings of the candidates’ personal attributes or vote preferences in the 2024 election.
Even Taylor Swift shows little impact: Just 6% in the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll say the pop star singer-songwriter’s endorsement of Harris makes them more likely to vote for her; 13%, instead, say it makes them less likely to support her, with 81% saying it makes no difference. Those responding negatively are overwhelmingly Trump supporters, according to the poll.
Americans by 58-36% say Harris won the debate – a reversal from the Biden-Trump match in June, which Trump was seen as winning by 66-28%. Biden’s performance intensified questions about his cognitive health, precipitating his departure from the race.
The poll of 3,276 adults, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates with fieldwork by Ipsos, finds that Harris did firm up some of her personal appeal: Thirty-seven percent say the debate made them feel more favorably toward her, vs. 23% less favorably. There was no such benefit for Trump: People by nearly 2-1 say the debate made them see him less favorably.
The benefit for Harris occurred almost exclusively in her base, potentially helping her turnout efforts. Sixty-nine percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents say the debate made them see her more favorably. Only half as many Republicans and GOP-leaning Independents, 34%, say the debate made them see Trump more favorably. One factor may be that Harris, a walk-on candidate, has had less public exposure until now.
The poll also finds a slight dip in the share of Trump supporters who back him strongly – 56%, vs. 60% at the end of August. Sixty-two percent of Harris’ supporters now are strongly behind her, the first meaningful difference in strong support between the two.
That said, Trump shows an advantage in another gauge: while 42% call him too conservative, 47% call Harris too liberal, one of his debate themes.
Preferences
Vote preferences haven’t moved meaningfully. This poll finds the race at 51-46%, Harris-Trump, among all adults; 51-47% among registered voters; and 52-46% among likely voters. Each is within a percentage point of its pre-debate level in ABC/Ipsos polling.
Results are essentially identical when including third-party or Independent candidates Chase Oliver, Jill Stein and Cornel West; they get at most 1% support apiece. State-to-state ballot access for these candidates is a work in progress; ABC News estimates that as of now Oliver likely is on the ballot in about 36 states, Stein in about 27 and West in about 15.
It’s important to note that this poll measures preferences nationally, an effort to better understand how all Americans are coming to their choices in the presidential election. It doesn’t assess the contest at the state level, which determines the winner of the Electoral College.
The absence of movement in vote preferences, despite a 22-point tilt to Harris as having won the debate, marks the sharply polarized nature of the electorate. Almost everyone has a preference between Harris or Trump, and among those who do, few say they’d even consider the other. This is especially true among likely voters, with just 3% potentially persuadable to switch.
Another result also shows the entrenched divisions in attitudes. Seventy-three percent of Trump’s supporters say they’ve backed him all year. Of the rest, 17% were undecided at some point but settled on Trump; just 9% moved to Trump from another candidate – mostly, other Republicans or the former Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Barely 2% of Trump’s supporters came to him after previously preferring Harris or Biden.
It’s similar on Harris’ side of the ledger. Two-thirds of her supporters say they’ve been with her since she got into the race. A quarter were undecided at some point. Just 2% of Harris supporters have moved to her from Trump.
Movable voters can matter – as everyone matters – in a tight race. But these results suggest that the biggest pickings for Trump and Harris alike are in motivating turnout among their existing support groups.
Groups
Harris leads Trump by nine points among women while running virtually even with him among men, and by a slight nine points among 18- to 29-year-olds, entirely due to her support from women that age. She improves among young adults who are more likely to vote.
While younger women are important to Harris, the Swift endorsement doesn’t show a positive impact even in this group. Eight percent of women younger than 30 say the endorsement makes them more likely to support Harris, while 13% say it makes them less likely to do so. Most, 78%, say it makes no difference.
Her position among suburban women, an often-watched group, is similar to her support among women overall. More tellingly, she’s +12 points among independents, often a swing voter group in presidential elections.
Trump, for his part, leads by a vast 79-18% among white evangelical Protestants, with this core GOP group seemingly unfazed by his layered position on abortion. He’s roughly on par with past performance, having won white evangelical Protestants by 74-25% in 2020 and 81-16% in 2016.
In other groups, Trump leads by 12 points among white people, growing to 28 points among those who don’t have a four-year college degree, a mainstay of his support. Despite suggestions that he’s denigrated the military, he leads by 29 points among veterans, 63-34%.
Voters
Many of these results – but not all – hold steady when moving from the general public (relevant because there’s still time to register) to registered voters and then to likely voters. But there are a few notable exceptions.
Harris advances from +9 points among all adults aged 18-29 to +19 points among those identified as likely voters. This is fueled by young women, a cornerstone group in her campaign: Harris goes from +23 points among all women under 30 to +38 points among those likely to vote.
There’s a stark contrast with men aged 18-29 who are likely to vote: Just 51% in this group back Harris, with virtually as many, 48%, for Trump.
Trump, for his part, remains closer than usual to Harris among Hispanic people, now trailing her by 17 points among those who are likely voters. That’s better than usual for Trump compared with past elections: Biden won Hispanic people by 33 points in 2020; Hillary Clinton won them by 40 points in 2016, per ABC News exit polls.
Issues and attributes
While overall vote preferences are stable, so are views on issues and attributes. The economy and inflation continue to dominate as the top issues in the election, and Trump leads by 7 points in trust to handle each of them.
In the next most important issues, Harris responds with a 7-point lead on “protecting American democracy” and a 9-point lead on handling health care. The two remain evenly matched on crime and safety.
It’s clear, too, why Trump keeps doubling down on immigration as an issue: He leads Harris by 10 points in trust to handle it. She leads him by 14 points on abortion and by 16 points on handling race relations, although both rate lower in importance.
There are differences among groups in issue importance. In notable gender gaps, women are 14 points more apt than men to cite abortion as a top issue in their vote, 68% vs. 54% – a difference that holds regardless of age. Women also are 11 points more likely than men to cite health care as a top issue, 82 vs. 71%. Still, the economy and inflation top the issues list among women and men alike.
Harris’ best results vs. Trump continue to be on personal attributes, explaining her effort to lean in on this domain. She leads him by 32 points in having the physical health it takes to serve effectively, 17 points in honesty and trustworthiness, 10 points in mental sharpness, 10 points in understanding the problems of people like you and 7 points in better representing your personal values. All, again, are essentially the same as they were before the debate.
Overall favorability also is essentially unchanged: Forty-seven percent have a favorable impression of Harris, vs. 35% for Trump. Still, they’re close in being seen as qualified for office – Harris by 53%, Trump by 49%. The difference widens, however, among independents; 56% see Harris as qualified vs. 48% who say the same of Trump.
Debate
Lastly, on the debate, it’s notable that 95% of Democrats say Harris won, while fewer Republicans, 75%, say Trump won. (Among independents, 61% pick Harris.) Similarly, among Trump’s own supporters, 78% say he won the debate, while among people backing Harris, 97% give her the win. (These results include people who initially called the debate a tie, then leaned toward Harris or Trump as the winner.)
While 58% overall say Harris won, this rises to 64% of those who watched all or some of the debate. That reflects the fact that Harris supporters are 8 points more likely than Trump supporters to have watched. Harris supporters are even more apt to have read, watched or listened to follow-up news coverage or commentary about the debate – 75% have done so, vs. 59% of those who support Trump.
Methodology
This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted online via the probability-based Ipsos KnowledgePanel® Sept. 11-13, 2024, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 3,276 adults. Partisan divisions are 29-29-30%, Democrats-Republicans-independents. Results have a margin of sampling error of 2 percentage points, including the design effect, for the full sample. Sample sizes are 2,772 for registered voters and 2,196 for likely voters, with a 2-point error margin for each. Sampling error is not the only source of differences in polls.
The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates, with sampling and data collection by Ipsos. See details on the ABC News survey methodology here.
(NEW YORK) — As former President Donald Trump’s new running mate, JD Vance, faces renewed scrutiny over his previous comments criticizing childless individuals, an unearthed 2021 interview shows the Ohio senator advocating for higher taxes on Americans without children.
The comments came in a 2021 episode of The Charlie Kirk Show podcast, where Kirk, the CEO of the conservative student organization Turning Point USA, was discussing how Republicans could shift public perception of certain conservative ideas from “unthinkable” to accepted policy.
“So JD … what are you going to do to change this conversation? Everything we have to do should be about moving ideas from unthinkable, to sensible, to popular, to policy,” said Kirk, according to a video of the interview obtained by ABC News.
In response, Vance, who at the time had not yet officially launched his 2022 Senate campaign, suggested that the country needed to “reward the things that we think are good” and “punish the things that we think are bad” — before suggesting that individuals without children should be taxed at a higher rate than those with children.
“So, you talk about tax policy, let’s tax the things that are bad and not tax the things that are good,” Vance said in the interview, which is no longer public on Kirk’s channel. “If you are making $100,000, $400,000 a year and you’ve got three kids, you should pay a different, lower tax rate than if you are making the same amount of money and you don’t have any kids. It’s that simple.”
In response to Vance’s comments, Vance spokesperson William Martin told ABC News, “The policy Senator Vance proposed is basically no different than the Child Tax Credit, which Democrats unanimously support.”
Vance made the comments during a March 2021 appearance on Kirk’s show, but the YouTube page for the episode now reads, “This video has been removed by the uploader,” and the interview is also no longer accessible on Kirk’s podcast Rumble account or on other podcast services.
The video appeared to be public as recently as February of this year, but it was no longer accessible by Wednesday, according to Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. ABC News located an audio version of the interview that remained online, but not on a website run by Kirk.
A spokesperson for Kirk told ABC News that earlier this year, multiple long-form videos on Kirk’s channel were removed due to a reorganization of the page and that the removal of Vance’s 2021 interview had nothing to do with his selection as vice president.
In recent days, Vance has faced criticism over other previous public comments he’s made, including comments made in 2021 in which he questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’ leadership due to her not having biological children — despite Harris having two stepchildren.
“We are effectively run in this country via the Democrats” who are “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too,” Vance said in the 2021 interview on Fox News.
As examples, Vance cited Harris, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who adopted twins in 2021.
In response to criticism over his “childless cat lady” comment, Vance spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk said the senator’s words have been “twisted.”
“Once again, the leftwing media have twisted Senator Vance’s words and spun up a false narrative about his position on the issues,” Van Kirk said. “The only childlessness we should be talking about are the childless parents who lost their kids to the murderous thugs and deadly fentanyl coming across Kamala’s southern border.”
Speaking at a conservative organization called the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in 2021, Vance also argued that parents should have the ability to cast additional votes on behalf of their children.
“A lot of people are unable to have kids for very complicated and important reasons … there are people, of course, for biological reasons, medical reasons that can’t have children — the target of these remarks is not them,” Vance said, prefacing his argument.
“Let’s give votes to all children in this country, but let’s give control over those votes to the parents of those children. When you go to the polls in this country as a parent, you should have more power — you should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our democratic republic — than people who don’t have kids,” Vance argued.
“Let’s face the consequences and the reality: If you don’t have as much of an investment in the future of this country, maybe you shouldn’t get nearly the same voice,” he said.
Vance, who was announced as Trump’s running mate last week, has three children with his wife Usha.
(WASHINGTON) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Friday he is suspending his long-shot campaign for president and instead supporting former President Donald Trump.
He did so at an event in Phoenix, Arizona, during which he encouraged voters in red or blue states to vote for him but said he would remove himself from the ballot in battleground states where he could act as a “spoiler.”
“I want everyone to know that I am not terminating my campaign,” he said. “I am simply suspending it and not ending it.”
He went on to explain what drove him to enter the race, to leave the Democratic Party and “now to throw my support to President Trump.”
Just before he took the stage, his campaign filed a court document in Pennsylvania which said Kennedy would endorse Trump.
Trump, who was in Nevada campaigning as Kennedy spoke, quickly celebrated his support. Trump will be in Arizona later Friday to hold a rally in Glendale, where he teased he would be joined by a “special guest.”
“We just had a very nice endorsement from RFK Jr., Bobby,” Trump said in Las Vegas. “That’s big. He’s a great guy, respected by everybody.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee responded to Kennedy’s announcement with a statement of “good riddance.”
“Today, in a bizarre, rambling announcement, RFK Jr. suspended his campaign and endorsed Donald Trump for President,” the DNC’s senior adviser Mary Beth Cahill. “This should come as no surprise, his candidacy has never been anything other than a spoiler campaign for Trump.”
Kennedy began his White House run in April 2023 as a Democrat to challenge President Joe Biden, but months later dropped the bid and the party that his family has symbolized for decades to chart a new course as an independent. He named Nicole Shanahan, a Silicon Valley lawyer, to be his running mate.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine stance and controversial remarks about COVID-19 had alienated him among Democrats, and he frequently sparred with the Democratic National Committee about the primary process, which he decried as unfair.
Members of his own family, too, were critical of his views and of his presidential run. Fifteen Kennedy family members made a statement by endorsing Biden at a campaign stop in Philadelphia when he was still in the race.
Five of his siblings released a joint statement on Friday stating they believed in Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“We want an America filled with hope and bound together by a shared vision of a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic promise and national pride. We believe in Harris and Walz,” said Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Chris Kennedy and Rory Kennedy.
“Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear,” the continued. “It is a sad ending to a sad story.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.