Category: Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will meet for the first time on Tuesday for a presidential debate hosted by ABC News.

The two are facing off at a pivotal time, with just weeks until Election Day and days before some states begin the early voting process.

The ABC News presidential debate will take place on Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. EDT and air on ABC and stream on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.

Hot-button political issues that are likely to be discussed by Harris and Trump include the economy, immigration, reproductive rights, crime, and more.

Here is a brief look at where each of them stand on key election-year topics as reflected in recent ABC News/Ipsos polling.

Economy, inflation

Trump has been a vocal critic of the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the economy, saying their policies are to blame for inflation, which reached a 40-year high in 2022 but has since cooled to 2.9% year-over-year as of July.

On policy, he’s pledged to cut costs by restoring “energy independence” through drilling more oil and lowering gas prices. He’s also said he would reduce the national debt, eliminate regulations and implement a variety of tax cuts for domestic corporations as well as tariffs on foreign imports.

Harris has presented a plan for what she’s calling an “opportunity economy” that builds on what the administration’s done on drug pricing and the Child Tax Credit but also goes further on several fronts.

Her proposal includes $25,000 in down-payment support for first-time homeowners, construction of 3 million new housing units, raising the minimum wage and a federal ban on corporate price-gouging on food and groceries. She’s also pitched a $50,000 tax benefit for new small businesses and a lower long-term capital gains tax of 28%.

Immigration

Trump has made immigration and border security a focal point of his campaign, often going further in his anti-immigrant rhetoric than he did in 2016.

He said if elected, he plans to finish the U.S.-Mexico border wall, revive “Remain in Mexico” and asylum restrictions and “carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American History” of immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission. Trump has also promised to sign an executive order to end birthright citizenship.

Harris has defended the administration’s handling of the issue, specifically her role in taking on root causes of migration from Central America.

She’s also railed against Republicans for rejecting a bipartisan border bill that would have tightened asylum rules and implemented other immigration restrictions while also increasing resources to improve legal immigration pathways. Harris said if elected, she would continue to push for the legislation and pledged to sign it if it came to her desk. She also wants comprehensive reform that includes an earned pathway to citizenship.

Reproductive rights

Harris became the face of the administration’s fight for reproductive rights and abortion access after the fall of Roe. v. Wade, traveling the country to speak on the issue.

She has called on Congress to pass a law restoring protections to the right to abortion that were guaranteed by Roe. She’s been highly critical of state-level restrictions, questioning why Republican lawmakers don’t “trust women.”

Trump frequently touts his role in nominating three Supreme Court justices who voted to overrule Roe but has changed his stance on some issues as the campaign’s gone on. While he previously voiced support for a nationwide ban, he now says it should be up to states to regulate abortion access.

Recently, he declared that under his administration, the government or company insurance would be mandated to pay for all costs associated with in vitro fertilization or IVF. Though he didn’t specify how exactly the program would work or be funded.

Crime, gun violence

Gun violence is back in the news after two students and two teachers were killed in a shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia.

Harris called the shooting a “senseless tragedy” and said it “doesn’t have to be this way.” She has called for nationwide red flag laws, universal background checks and an assault weapons ban.

Trump blamed a “sick and deranged monster” for the shooting. He has often argued in the wake of mass shootings that guns were not to blame but rather mental health issues. He’s referred to himself as the “most pro-gun” president in history and has not signaled he would enact any gun control measures if elected.

Overall, Trump has frequently claimed crime rates are rising despite violent crime being down across the country overall compared to last year. Harris, meanwhile, has leaned into her background as a prosecutor, saying she has a record of taking on drug cartels and corporations in the interest of everyday Americans. She also pledged to continue funding law enforcement agencies, touting the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan for investing $15 billion in public safety.

Foreign policy

Harris has, so far, adopted much of President Biden’s foreign policy stances. She said as president, she would continue to stand with Ukraine and NATO. She’s also pledged to “never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to protect U.S. forces and interests from Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups.”

On the Israel-Hamas war, Harris has reiterated support for Israel’s security but also expressed sympathy for the plight of civilians suffering in Gaza. She’s called for a cease-fire with hostages returned and said she is working with Biden to secure such a deal.

Trump has claimed neither the Israel-Hamas war nor the Russia-Ukraine war would have started if he were president. He’s signaled he would cut back U.S. aid to Kyiv and continues to criticize NATO allies who he says are not doing enough. He’s also expressed staunch support for Israel’s right to defense and to go after Hamas, but has also called for a quick end to the war.

Trump’s also sought to make Afghanistan a key topic in recent weeks after the third anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal of troops from the country. He’s slammed the Biden-Harris administration for the chaotic withdrawal, blaming them for the death of 13 U.S. service members who were killed in a suicide bombing at Abbey Gate. Harris defended the decision to end America’s “longest war” and said she would take action to protect Americans against terrorist threats.

Democracy

Trump continues to make false claims about the 2020 election, asserting without evidence it was rigged or stolen. He currently faces state and federal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his election loss, to which he pleaded not guilty. Last week, he appeared to admit he lost the 2020 election, saying he got more votes in his reelection campaign than in 2016 but still “lost by a whisker.”

In a major escalation of that rhetoric, Trump said that if he wins this race, those who “cheated” would “be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences.” He suggested his apparent threat of “legal exposure” applies to “Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials.”

Trump’s also sent mixed messages on voting methods this cycle, often doubling down on his calls for Election Day voting only and making groundless claims that mail-in voting is ripe for abuse while also encouraging supporters to cast their ballot whether it’s early voting, mail-in voting or other forms of voting.

Trump’s also accused Democrats of a “coup” after President Biden exited the race and endorsed Harris, who quickly secured enough party support to become the nominee.

Harris has been critical of efforts to cast doubt on the election, claiming Trump tried to “throw away” people’s votes and blaming him for what happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

She’s said as president, she would advocate for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act to bolster voting rights and vowed to “hold sacred America’s fundamental principles, from the rule of law, to free and fair elections, to the peaceful transfer of power.”

ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Hannah Demissie, Fritz Farrow, Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim, Will McDuffie and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Much of the work of election campaigning goes on beneath the radar, where campaigns fight furiously to identify and register potential supporters and ensure their participation. Identifying likely voters, as such, is a moving target — but with absentee voting now beginning, an initial look reveals some intriguing patterns.

As previously reported, Kamala Harris leads Donald Trump by a slight 4 percentage points, 50-46%, among all adults and registered voters alike, and by 6 points, 52-46%, among likely voters in the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll. While those numbers are virtually identical, closer assessment shows movement to Harris in some groups when comparing all adults with likely voters — notably, those younger than 40, younger women in particular and Black people.

This analysis, produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates, finds that support for Harris goes from 54% of all adults younger than 40 to 64% of those identified as likely voters. Trump’s support, meanwhile, drops from 42% of adults in this age group to 33% of those likely to vote.

That shift is driven largely by women: Harris’ support increases from 60% of all women younger than 40 to 73% of those in this age group who are likely to vote. Trump sees a corresponding drop in support, from 35% among all women younger than 40 to 24% of those likely to vote.

Harris has 82% support among all Black people, rising to 93% among those who are likely voters. Trump, for his part, goes from 15% support among all Black people to 7% among those who are likely to vote. Harris also gains among liberals.

Countervailing movement in Trump’s direction doesn’t reach the level of statistical significance in any group. He has, for example, 52% support among all 50- to 64-year-olds (his best age group) and 56% among likely voters in this group. He goes from 85% to 88% among conservatives and from 52% to 54% among people who don’t have a four-year college degree.

But it’s not all about who receives more support in likely voter groups; it’s also about the size of those groups. Harris, for example, leads Trump by 23 points, 60-37%, among likely voters with four-year degrees — and, as such, benefits from the fact that this group makes up 45% of likely voters, vs. 35% of the general population.

Trump pushes back with his 10 point likely voter advantage among white people: they account for 61% of all adults but 71% of likely voters. He’s also aided by a lower prevalence of adults younger than 40; they make up 36% of all adults vs. 25% of those identified as likely to vote.

All told, it’s the combination of group sizes and preferences among groups that add up to keep the race a close one. Likely voters are defined here, in part, by people saying they are certain to vote. Motivating them actually to do so is what both campaigns are all about — starting now.

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(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a weekend letter to Congressional appropriators urging them to pass government funding bills after the election in the “vulnerable time around transitions” to “uphold the bipartisan tradition of funding our nation’s defense prior to the inauguration of a new president,” a source in the department told ABC News.

In his letter to bipartisan committee chairs on government funding, Austin urged lawmakers to avoid a six-month stopgap funding measure, calling a regular funding bill for the Pentagon “the single most important thing that Congress can do to ensure U.S. national security.”

Speaker Mike Johnson has proposed the six-month continuing resolution to fund the government beyond the inauguration of a new president. The government funding deadline is September 30.

Austin’s letter does not signal opposition to a one-month stopgap – but he urges “action immediately after the election.”

“The repercussions of Congress failing to pass regular appropriations legislation for the first half of FY 2025 would be devastating to our readiness and ability to execute the National Defense Strategy,” Austin writes.

The defense secretary points out to Congressional leaders that a six-month continuing resolution “would represent the second year in a row, and the seventh time in the past 15 years” the Pentagon has been stalled until midyear in receiving its funding orders from the legislative branch.

“I am fully aware of the political pressures that will challenge the Congress from fulfilling its duty before our national elections conclude,” he writes. “No matter who wins this election, there will be a Presidential transition. I urge you and your colleagues to take up action immediately after the election to limit damage to our national security during this vulnerable period around transitions and uphold the bipartisan tradition of funding our nation’s defense prior to the inauguration of a new President.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will need to navigate the pitfall-filled debate of their political lives on Tuesday as each tries to persuade millions of voters and viewers that they’re the one best suited to be president.

Harris, whose wave of momentum has brought Democrats back to a neck-and-neck presidential race, will have to prosecute the case against Trump while also laying out how her agenda could help the country — particularly beleaguered middle- and working-class Americans.

Trump, meanwhile, has the task of casting his record on the economy and immigration as superior to Harris’ while avoiding distracting personal attacks on Harris.

The ABC News presidential debate will take place on Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. ET and air on ABC and stream on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.

The showdown in Philadelphia is taking place months after the last debate ended President Joe Biden’s reelection bid, sending Harris rushing to stand up an eleventh-hour campaign and Trump scrambling to figure out how to negatively define a new opponent voters are less familiar with.

“I think there’s an outsized expectation of ‘gosh, the last guy dropped out, let’s watch it.’ So, I think that there’s a lot more at stake than normally I would ever say is at stake,” said Sean Spicer, Trump’s first White House press secretary.

“I’m not a huge believer that debates move the needle that much,” he added, “but I do think that because of the nontraditional nature of what’s happening right now, there’s going to be an outsized degree of attention.”

Democrats who spoke to ABC News said that Harris has two main goals: affirm to voters that she is ready to lead the country and the free world and to describe in more detail what policies she’d pursue as president.

Some Democratic sources said that voters could be concerned by Harris’ rapid ascension as the Democrats’ nominee and — unjustly, they said — her gender when thinking of the kind of president they’d feel comfortable with.

A strong debate performance could allay worries and cement the momentum she’s enjoyed to date.

“I think she has to answer the overarching question, which is, can she lead the country, and what type of president will President Harris be? People just want to be comfortable in that decision,” said Bakari Sellers, a prominent Harris ally. “I don’t want her to be timid at all. Just be yourself, be comfortable, answer questions and turn around and hammer him.”

Trump has sought to cast Harris as “dangerous” by painting her as a “California liberal” who was soft on crime and generally out of step, referencing her time as state attorney general and senator and relying on voters’ perceptions of the progressive bastion to fill in the blanks.

That’s something Harris could use the debate stage to push back on, possibly repeating parts of her stump speech in which she details her efforts as California attorney general combating transnational gangs operating across the southern border.

One source familiar with the Harris campaign’s thinking said the vice president should “clearly [stake] out where she stands on issues like the border and crime and [talk] about her record on those issues as a prosecutor and attorney general to demonstrate that the portrayals are misrepresenting her actual views on those issues.”

That defense will likely be complemented by an effort to highlight Harris’ economic policies, which she’s recently begun to roll out, to also address voter worries about inflation.

Harris has introduced plans to make it easier to buy a house and start a small business, while, in a nod to the business community, saying she’d also increase the capital gains tax by less than Biden has proposed.

“It’s an important opportunity for her to continue to lay out her economic vision, to demonstrate both through talking about her experience and her vision, that she will be a strong leader, as she has said, for all Americans,” one source close to Harris’ team said.

However, Harris is facing off against maybe the most unpredictable non-traditional figures in modern politics, and Trump is likely to throw in curveballs that could take the vice president off her talking points.

Trump has already launched a fusillade of personal attacks, including questioning Harris’ race and intelligence and highlighting vulgar suggestions about sexual acts.

So far, Harris has barely responded, casting the barbs as the “same old, tired playbook.”

Now, some allies would like to see her fight back.

“I think there is a mechanism whereby you stand up to bullies and you call it out for what it is and simply say that, ‘while the former president is using racism as political currency, I represent a new future, one where we don’t divide people and use such degrading terms to anyone,’ Sellers said. “I would look him dead in the eye and say, ‘former President Trump, we are better than you right now.'”

Others weren’t so sure.

“I would ignore what are likely to be rude, disrespectful behaviors from Trump, and stay focused on the substance, because by doing so, it will further highlight for people just how disgusting his behavior can be,” said the source close to Harris’ team.

Republicans, for their part, hope to avoid that scenario altogether.

GOP operatives who spoke to ABC News said Trump should focus on policy contrasts, boasting that he has the edge on issues like inflation and immigration and can try to pin her down on her policy reversals on things like fracking – while he himself searches for consistent stances on issues like abortion.

“He’s not going to have many other windows where Kamala Harris is going to be asked tough questions and tough follow up questions, and so he needs to keep his responses and very focused on her issue positions that have come out of her mouth and make her reconcile what she’s saying now with what she said in 2020,” said GOP strategist Brad Todd.

“When she says, ‘I’m not for banning fracking,’ then he needs to say, “so, you wrong before? What caused you to believe that your previous position was wrong? Or are you just worried about Pennsylvania'” Todd said, referencing the swing state’s economic reliance on the practice.

Trump has at times knocked leaned into that message, knocking her promises for “day one” by noting she’s already been in office for almost four years serving a president facing severe disapproval ratings when he dropped out of the race.

It’s unclear precisely how effective that tie could be — an ABC News/Washington Post poll last month showed that only 11% of voters said Harris had a great deal of influence over economic policy, and just 15% said the same of immigration policy. But Republicans urged Trump to hammer the connection.

“For him to be viewed as having a successful debate, he has to continue that assault,” said one former campaign aide in touch with Trump’s current team. “She’s the vice president United States seeking the second term of Joe Biden. We can make that case.”

Still, Trump has a proven penchant for veering off into unrelated attacks, whether it be against opponents or moderators — a strategy that has helped him on the stump but one that could backfire on Tuesday.

“If he takes the bait and makes some kind of one-off comment about her and calls her names, I think that’s going to be the story the next day,” Spicer said.

“He’s a field player and he’s an improviser, and that’s what’s made him effective as a communicator,” Todd added. “But this is a time for discipline.”

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(WASHINGTON) —  House Republicans on Monday released the results of a sweeping three-year investigation they say is the most detailed public accounting yet of the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan that left behind hundreds of Americans and thousands of allies, some so desperate they clung to U.S. planes as the last military aircraft departed Kabul in 2021.

The report by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul — which relied on interviews with 18 top officials and 20,000 pages of documents — blames the White House, its National Security Council and the State Department for being slow to listen to military generals who warned the security situation would deteriorate quickly once U.S. troops began to depart.

The investigation did not, however, find evidence that Vice President Kamala Harris played any role in the planning or execution of the evacuation, although she expressed public support for President Joe Biden’s decision at the time.

Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have suggested Harris is culpable, noting past comments by the vice president that she was the “last person in the room” when Biden decided to leave Afghanistan.

“Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world,” Trump told National Guard members and their families in Detroit last month on the anniversary of the 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport during the evacuation, which killed 13 U.S. service members and some 170 Afghans.

The Biden administration pushed back on the findings by Republicans, calling it a partisan effort that sought to cherry-pick facts ahead of an election.

The Republican probe also is being released ahead of the first political debate between Harris and Trump, which ABC News is hosting on Tuesday night in Philadelphia. Trump and GOP loyalists are expected to hammer the Democratic administration for failing to prepare for a Taliban takeover once U.S. troops began to depart.

“The chaos and devastation that took place in August of 2021 has forever damaged U.S. credibility in the eyes of our allies, while emboldening our adversaries like China, Russia and Iran,” said McCaul, R-Texas. “Yet, not a single person was fired and, to this day, no one was ever held accountable by President Biden or Vice President Harris.”

Last week, McCaul issued a subpoena for Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s testimony on the withdrawal, threatening to hold him in contempt if he doesn’t testify on Sept. 19. In a written statement, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller noted that Blinken has already testified on Afghanistan and the State Department provided the 20,000 pages of documents the committee was relying on to inform its investigation.

“Though the secretary is currently unavailable to testify on dates proposed by the committee, the State Department has proposed reasonable alternatives to comply with Chairman McCaul’s request for a public hearing,” Miller said. “It is disappointing that instead of continuing to engage with the Department in good faith, the committee instead has issued yet another unnecessary subpoena.”

On the investigation, Miller accused Republicans of politicizing the war and “presenting inaccurate narratives.”

“The State Department remains immensely proud of its workforce who put themselves forward in the waning days of our presence in Afghanistan to evacuate both Americans and the brave Afghans who stood by our sides for more than two decades,” he said.

While many of the details included in the Republican investigation have already become public through media reports and internal government reviews, among the more interesting details come from inside-the-room accounts of U.S. Embassy personnel.

At one point, according to Republicans, staff grew so panicked at the rushed evacuation that they began filling Tupperware containers with passports and visa foils to burn as Taliban forces arrived outside their building. Classified documents were eventually left behind in the scramble, according to the report, although the report doesn’t say how many or what type.

Meanwhile, the NSC was slow to establish criteria for who was eligible for evacuation, a standard the report says changed hourly. At one point, electronic visa letters known as “hall passes” were given to eligible Afghans, but the documents were so easily replicated that bootleg copies began circulating and the U.S. quickly scrapped the plan, according to the report.

The report also paints a picture of a State Department and NSC slow to understand the danger U.S. personnel were in as the Afghanistan government collapsed and the Taliban took control.

Ambassador Ross Wilson, who was brought out of retirement in the Trump administration to serve in Afghanistan and was the top American diplomat in Kabul at the time of the withdrawal, was allegedly reluctant to trigger a military-led evacuation, according to the report. Wilson has spoken publicly before that his staff worked feverishly in those final days to try to process as many travel documents as possible to help qualified people evacuate.

Biden has defended the State Department’s handling of the evacuation in the wake of the operation.

“In the 17 days that we operated in Kabul after the Taliban seized power, we engaged in an around-the-clock effort to provide every American the opportunity to leave. Our State Department was working 24/7 contacting and talking, and in some cases, walking Americans into the airport,” Biden said in 2021 in the wake of the withdrawal.

Biden and other Democrats have also defended the decision to pull out U.S. troops and shutter the embassy after 20 years in the country, saying their options were limited after Trump struck a deal with the Taliban to depart by May 1, 2021.

Trump’s agreement with the Taliban included the departure of U.S. troops and the release of 5,000 Taliban fighters from Afghan prisons so long as the Taliban promised not to collaborate with al-Qaeda or engage in “high-profile” attacks.

Wanting to bring an end to the war and concerned that Taliban fighters might target American service members if the U.S. reneged on the deal, the Biden administration stayed the course but amended the U.S. withdrawal deadline to Aug. 31, 2021.

“He could either ramp up the war against a Taliban that was at its strongest position in 20 years and put even more American troops at risk or finally end our longest war after two decades and $2 trillion spent,” said Sharon Yang, the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations. “The President refused to send another generation of Americans to fight a war that should have ended long ago.”

Military generals in charge at the time have previously testified that their recommendation to Biden earlier that year was to maintain some 2,500 troops beyond that date regardless of what Trump had agreed to.

“At the end of 20 years, we the military helped build an army, a state, but we could not forge a nation. The enemy occupied Kabul, the overthrow of the government occurred and the military we supported for two decades faded away,” Gen. Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time of the withdrawal, testified last March.

“That is a strategic failure,” he said.

ABC News’ Emily Chang, Matthew Seyler and Shannon Kingston contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump’s advisers may have publicly insisted he doesn’t need any debate prep, but the former president is preparing more than he’s letting on, sources tell ABC News.

Trump is holding informal policy sessions with a small team of advisers, including GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who once challenged Vice President Kamala Harris on the debate stage in 2019, the sources said.

Gaetz has been firing questions at Trump around some of the more challenging issues, such as his legal troubles, including his federal indictments on election interference and retaining classified documents, criminal conviction in the New York hush-money case and stance on abortion, according to the sources.

Two people familiar with Trump’s preparation also told ABC News that Trump has been briefed on Harris’ past debates, including the headline-making moment when she hit back at former Vice President Mike Pence with the words, “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking.” That exchange went viral then, and Trump has privately told his allies he won’t let that happen to him.

Sources told ABC News that Trump’s recent press address on Friday has left some on the GOP side with pre-debate concerns.

While Trump has continued with his campaign schedule, his movements on Friday puzzled some Republicans. Trump, following his appeal of the $5 million a federal jury awarded writer E. Jean Carroll after finding him liable for sexually assaulting and defaming her, came before the cameras rattling off — in often vivid detail — the accusations of sexual misconduct from multiple women over the years. All of which he has denied.

Meanwhile, as ABC News previously reported, Harris has been engaged in traditional debate prep in Pittsburgh.

The cameras caught her in the city on Sunday on a walk with second gentleman, Doug Emhoff. But, she ignored two shouted questions on Trump’s claims that he’ll jail his political opponents and how she plans to respond to personal attacks from Trump on the debate stage.

On Saturday, Trump posted on TruthSocial, writing, “… the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.”

Trump’s false claims of election fraud in the 2020 election have continually been disproven.

Harris, on Sunday, did respond to a third question shouted at her by the media about whether she was ready by echoing, “ready,” and giving a thumbs up before disappearing around the side of a building.

In related news, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, will appear in the spin room following the debate, ABC News has confirmed.

The ABC News presidential debate will take place on Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. ET and air on ABC and stream on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.

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(DALLAS) — Former President George W. Bush doesn’t plan to make an endorsement or voice how he or his wife Laura will vote in November, his office told ABC News Saturday.

The announcement came a day after Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney, announced he would cross party lines and vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Cheney said former President Donald Trump “can never be trusted with power again.”

“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him,” he said in a statement.

Cheney’s daughter, former Wyoming member of the House Liz Cheney, also announced this week that she would be voting for Harris.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., a once-rising star in the GOP who fell out with her party over her criticism of Donald Trump, slammed the former president as an “unrecoverable catastrophe” in her call for other Republicans to vote against him this year.

“We see it on a daily basis, somebody who was willing to use violence in order to attempt to seize power, to stay in power, someone who represents unrecoverable catastrophe, frankly, in my view, and we have to do everything possible to ensure that he’s not reelected,” Cheney told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

“You have many Republicans out there who are saying, ‘Well, you know, we’re not going to vote for him, but we will write someone else in.’ And I think that this time around, that’s not enough, that it’s important to actually cast a vote for Vice President Harris,” Cheney added.

Cheney made her endorsement of Harris official this week, also announcing her father, former Vice President and liberal antagonist Dick Cheney, would follow suit.

The announcements from the Cheneys marked the highest profile endorsements from Republicans for Harris yet as the vice president looks to peel off disgruntled GOP voters frustrated with Trump’s hardline and personal brand of politics.

For his part, Trump appeared unconcerned with the endorsements, calling the former vice president “an irrelevant RINO, along with his daughter,” on his Truth Social platform. “RINO” stands for “Republican in name only.”

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded in kind when asked about the endorsements, replying, “who the f— is Liz Cheney?”

Liz Cheney cited both Harris’ policy stances this year — some of which have moved to the center since her first run in 2019 — and a speech Harris gave at the Democratic convention this summer which leaned heavily on themes of patriotism.

“I have never viewed this as a policy election, but I think that it’s very important point. If you look at Vice President Harris’s speech, for example, at the Democratic Convention, it is a speech that Ronald Reagan could have given. It’s a speech that George Bush could have given. It’s very much an embrace and an understanding of the exceptional nature of this great nation,” she said.

“I think that she has changed in a number of very important ways on issues that matter. And I would encourage independents to look at where she is on these policy issues today. I would encourage independents to compare where she is today with where Donald Trump is on these issues,” she added. “And on top of all of that, the Republicans have nominated somebody who you know is depraved.”

Cheney seemed to recognize the stark departure from carrying on a career as a conservative warrior in the House to now endorsing a Democrat for president, suggesting that the GOP has shifted its values while she has remained consistent.

When pressed by Karl if she’s still a Republican, Cheney responded, “I’m a conservative.”

“I am certainly not a Trump Republican. I am a conservative. I think that what’s happened to the Republican party today is indefensible, and I hope to be able to rebuild, as I said, after this cycle,” Cheney said.

“But I also think it’s really important for us as we’re thinking about rebuilding, as we’re thinking about the future the country, to recognize that at the end of the day, the vast majority of people in this country want to know fundamentally that their elected officials are going to defend the peaceful transfer of power,” she said. “And as someone who’s been a lifelong Republican, it’s heartbreaking to me to see what has happened to so many of the elected officials in my party, and I know we can do better.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Forty-two years ago, Lita Rosario-Richardson was the only woman on Howard University’s debate team. She made sure that changed — successfully recruiting Kamala Harris.

“I noticed Kamala’s analytical skills and critical thinking skills and that she had a very cogent way of making arguments,” said Rosario-Richarson.

Rosario-Richardson and Harris’ former debate opponents are some of the people who know her debating style best. Many of them are now expressing for the first time how Harris’ earlier debates could impact her upcoming one on Sept. 10 against former President Donald Trump.

The ABC News presidential debate will take place on Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. ET and air on ABC and stream on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.

Seizing a moment

When then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris took the stage against Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley in the general race for California attorney general in 2010, Harris was trailing in the polls.

A reporter asked Cooley about accepting both his pension as a former LA district attorney and an attorney general salary, which would bring him over $400,000 from taxpayers.

“I definitely earned whatever pension rights I have and I will certainly rely upon that to supplement the very low – incredibly low salary that’s paid to the attorney general,” Cooley responded.

Harris’ campaign turned Cooley’s answer into a campaign ad.

Her former aides tell ABC News that Harris had hoped to focus the race on her accomplishments and vision, but she signed off on the ad regardless.

In an interview with ABC News, Cooley said “I think she had very good consultants who constructed an ad,” but added he thought Harris “was not smart.”

On election night, Cooley was narrowly ahead and initially claimed victory, but Harris emerged as the winner when the votes were fully counted weeks later.

Cooley said he had not watched the debate since it happened, but he predicted that in the upcoming debate against Trump “a lot is going to depend upon the rules of the debate, and if she is there for an hour and a half on generally important issues and the questions are fair, she will not be well in a debate setting. She needs her teleprompter. She needs her notes that are probably written by someone else in order to do well.”

Cooley and Harris’ former aides both said neither had a teleprompter during the AG debate and both had notes on stage.

Former California Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, who lost to Harris in the primary for the AG race, said it would be a mistake for Trump to assume Harris is “dumb” going into the debate. “She’s not dumb, and she’s going to prosecute him. She’s not going to debate him … She’s going to treat him like one of the defendants that she prosecuted when she was a rank and file DA in Oakland.”

A perceived Achilles’ heel

Just a few months before the 2010 general election debate, Torrico, former Facebook executive Chris Kelly, Congressman Ted Lieu, former LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and former state assembly member Pedro Nava were among Harris’ opponents in the AG primary race.

Congressman Lieu remembered, “She came from a law enforcement background, and that really came out. She didn’t take any crap. I wouldn’t want to debate her.”

Nava was one of the five men who faced Harris in the primary debate held by Los Angeles ABC station KABC. He described her as unfazed, saying, “There’s nothing more scary than a woman who doesn’t fear men.”

Delgadillo, who was next to Harris at the debate, said what stood out to him most was a call she made to him after the race. “She was extraordinarily magnanimous and gracious after defeating all of us,” he said.

Torrico said he knew Harris was the frontrunner going into the race.

He said, “The question that I always had in my mind was, can we trap her? Can we get her to say something? Can we get her to lose her cool?”

Torrico said in one forum they were seeking the Service Employees International Union’s endorsement. Torrico said he reminded the members in attendance that he had represented many of them, and knowing many spoke Spanish, answered part of a question in Spanish. “They went crazy … and I just looked at her and I thought, ‘Okay, bring it now.'”

He said Harris deflected the original question. “She just went after corporate America and the rich,” he said. “She just totally diffused all of the enthusiasm.”

“I was just sitting there fuming and saying, ‘She’s not answering the question at all. I just answered the question. I hit a home run … and everyone’s clapping for you.'”

Torrico said, “I always thought it was an Achilles’ heel for her … she’s very good at saying a lot of things without answering the actual question.”

He said once at a forum, when he didn’t know she was in attendance, he initially felt he had a great response on stage to a question about criminal justice. “I said something like, whoever the next attorney general is, he would have to do such and such.” Torrico said Harris “just popped out of nowhere, threw her finger in the air and declared, ‘or she will have to!'”

“I was like, ‘Oh God, what are you doing here? Where’d you come from?'” said Torrico.

“The room loved it,” he said.

Torrico said he grew reflective at the DNC. “I’m among the many people she vanquished on the path to where she is now,” he said.

Changing a moment

During her first public office debate for San Francisco district attorney, Harris had been in single digits in the polls, but her former campaign manager says that would change during one of the forums.

Someone in the audience asked Harris how she’d lead independently of the current mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown. Harris had dated Brown about a decade before when he was the Speaker of California’s State Assembly. Harris responded by walking over to her opponents, Bill Fazio and the current DA, Terrance Hallinan, and mentioned the scandals that had been highlighting about each other.

Then she said, “I want to make a commitment to you that my campaign is not going to be about negative attacks.”

Former Harris aides say moments like that helped her beat Fazio, and got her to the runoff.

Fazio said he doesn’t recall that specific moment, but told ABC News that he had more experience as a trial attorney than Harris. But “she certainly was a much more accomplished and natural politician than I ever was. It’s probably the reason I lost.”

“She didn’t back down”

As the only woman at the time on Howard’s debate team, Rosaro-Richardson noticed how Harris challenged men.

“Oftentimes men use their physical prowess and the strength of their voices to win an argument. But I noticed that she didn’t allow that to deter her,” she said.

She remembers one specific moment when Harris was debating a man during her time on the Howard team.

“She was in cross examination, and [the opponent] hit her hand … I don’t know if it was intentional,” she said.

She said Harris stated out loud, “He hit my hand.” But Harris, according to Rosario-Richardson, did a “good job of it at the time … it didn’t throw her off. She was able to gather herself back after a few seconds and get back to the point.”

Rosario-Richardson said she will be watching Tuesday’s debate with other Howard alums and believes Donald Trump will be her most unpredictable opponent yet.

“I would say this is a unique situation because of the unpredictability of how Donald Trump will approach this debate and whether or not she can focus on substantive issues or focus on personal attacks,” Rosario-Richardson said.

She added that regardless of having known Harris’ debate style for over four decades, she has little idea of what to expect like everyone else. “I’m going to be excited. I’m going to feel some of the anticipation,” she said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the most prominent Republicans in the last half-century, will be crossing party lines this election and voting for Vice President Kamala Harris, his daughter Liz Cheney said Friday, who contended her father sees former President Donald Trump as a “grave a threat to our democracy.”

The former House member who represented Wyoming told “The Atlantic” reporter Mark Leibovich during an interview at the Texas Tribute Festival that her father believes this is a serious moment in history.

“My dad believes — and he said publicly — that there’s never been an individual in our country who is as grave a threat to our democracy as Donald Trump is, and that’s, that’s the moment that we’re facing,” she said.

Tune in to “This Week” on Sunday, Sept. 8, where co-anchor Jonathan Karl will have an exclusive interview with Liz Cheney.Both Cheneys have been open about their criticism of Trump following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

Earlier in the week, Liz Cheney said she was going to vote for Harris.

She lost her seat in the 2022 primary to Trump-backed Harriet Hageman by more than 60,000 votes, according to election results.

Cheney made news on another front during her remarks at the festival and said she would support incumbent Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s Democratic challenger Rep. Colin Allred ahead of November. She said that one of the most important things to do to “rebuild our politics is we need to elect serious people.”

“You know, there aren’t enough good candidates running. I want to say specifically, though, here in Texas, you guys do have a tremendous, serious candidate running for the United States Senate, and his name is …” Cheney began before being interrupted by an applause. “Well, it’s not Ted Cruz.”

“Colin Allred is somebody I served with in the House … When you think about the kind of leaders our country needs, and going to this point about [how] you might not agree on every policy position, but we need people who are going to serve in good faith. We need people who are honorable public servants and and in this race that is Colin Allred, so I’ll be working on his behalf,” she continued.

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