Former President George W. Bush will not make formal election endorsement, office says
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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.
(PHILADELPHIA) — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump square off Tuesday at what could be their only presidential debate, setting high stakes for an event expected to be viewed by millions of Americans and a key sliver of undecided voters.
Harris’ momentum — after her unusual rise as the Democrats’ nominee shot her into a neck-and-neck race — has now stalled, making the head-to-head matchup an opportunity to get that started again if she can adequately make the argument for her own candidacy and cast Trump as unfit for another term.
Trump, meanwhile, has struggled to find a way to consistently and effectively attack his new opponent but has remained highly competitive, thanks to a large base of immovable supporters and the broad swath of Americans who already have fixed views of him. Tuesday’s debate offers him an opportunity to solidify his support while painting Harris in a negative light to an electorate that has less cemented perceptions of her.
The ABC News debate, moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis, will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 9 p.m ET. A prime-time pre-debate special will air at 8 p.m. ET. It will air on ABC and stream on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu. Viewers can also stream the debate on the ABC app on a smartphone or tablet, on ABC.com and connected devices.
Here are five things to watch at Tuesday’s debate:
Can Trump stay focused on policy?
Trump has worked to peg Harris as a “California liberal,” letting voters’ perceptions of the progressive bastion paint a picture of a candidate who served as the state’s attorney general and junior senator. He’s also hammered her on immigration and inflation — two voter concerns on which polls suggest he has an edge.
However, he’s also veered into personal remarks, including falsely questioning Harris’ racial identity (she’s Black and south Asian), touting what he says are his superior good looks and promoting vulgar and false allegations that past romantic relationships of Harris’ helped propel her political career.
Staying on message on his four-year economic record, which saw low inflation before the pandemic and less fervor over unauthorized border crossings, is key, allies told ABC News.
Veering into personal attacks would be counterproductive, they argued, drawing media attention away from what they view as a favorable policy issue set.
“I think he does,” former White House press secretary Sean Spicer said when asked if Trump makes an effective contrast on the trail. “If I had a critique, it would be that he’ll make the case sometimes and then, with all due respect, he will sometimes go beyond the case and give the media something else to focus on.”
“He needs to avoid creating a moment that takes the focus away from her record. So, if it’s about her personality or her appearance as opposed to her record, that will change the focus of what people talk about the next day,” Spicer said.
How does Harris introduce herself to undecided voters?
While Trump comes in with nearly universal name recognition, 28% of likely voters in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll said they feel they “need to learn more about Kamala Harris.” That means that while many voters have heard of Harris, she is less defined than Trump in their eyes and thus has more work to do to introduce herself — lest she be defined by her opposition.
Harris has dual goals in Tuesday’s debate: make the case for herself as someone who would be a capable president and get under Trump’s skin to spark a reaction to suggest he isn’t worthy of another four years in the White House.
“I think there needs to be a long litany of just pummeling Donald Trump while also being extremely clear about what your vision is for the future,” said Bakari Sellers, a prominent Harris ally and Democratic media commentator.
Harris on the trail has sought to do both.
Monday, she fleshed out her policy proposals in a new page on her website, her most expansive explanation yet of her platform. And in early stump speeches, she boasted of her time working as a prosecutor and state attorney general combating gangs and other criminal activity, saying to crowds that she knows “Donald Trump’s type,” in a clear reference to his legal travails.
The way she balances those two dictates could offer clues as to the way she and her campaign best think she can march to victory in November.
Will there be any hot mics?
Harris had a memorable debate performance in 2020, when she faced off against then-Vice President Mike Pence. Pence was muscling in on her answers, allowing her to declare, “I’m speaking,” in one of the more viral instances of the night.
It’s unclear whether she’ll be able to replicate such a moment.
The candidates’ microphones will be muted while their opponent is answering a question, something Harris’ team argued against in the hopes of tempting Trump to aggressively interrupt her and come off as unpresidential.
In an election in which policy is largely taking a backseat to personality, producing such a clash might possibly spark one of the debate’s most notable moments.
How big of a role will President Joe Biden play?
Harris has been walking a tightrope since the start of her campaign between recognizing her role in Biden’s administration and touting its achievements while also casting herself as a candidate in her own right, particularly after the unusual way in which she became her party’s nominee.
A recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed that roughly 61% of likely voters said the next president should represent a major change from Biden. Only 25% of them said Harris represented that change, compared to 53% who said Trump did.
Harris so far has appeared mostly on the campaign trail by herself, and in a joint appearance in Pittsburgh and at Democrats’ convention last month, Biden spoke first before handing the stage off to Harris, underscoring her role in the electoral spotlight.
Trump, meanwhile, has at times focused extensively on Biden, particularly in the days and weeks after the president ended his campaign and handed the reins to Harris.
Such a strategy risks focusing too much on Biden rather than Trump’s own opponent — but, allies said, tying Harris to voter disapproval of the way the current president has handled the economy and inflation could be a boon.
“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.”
Is there a major moment that moves the electoral needle?
The last debate between Biden and Trump was clearly consequential — it ended the former’s campaign. That doesn’t mean Tuesday’s debate will pack the same punch.
Surely, millions will tune in to the latest salvo in a race packed with unpredictable twists and turns, raising the stakes. But many debates make little more than ripples in presidential races — an outcome that might benefit neither candidate.
As it stands, it’s a neck-and-neck race. Harris would like a moment that revives her momentum, which jolted her into contention but now is stalled; Trump would like a moment to erase some of the gains Harris has made and actually reverse her improved poll numbers.
Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at the Fiserv Forum on August 20, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(CHICAGO) — Vice President Kamala Harris is setting out to achieve three key objectives in her highly anticipated Democratic National Convention speech Thursday night, according to a campaign official.
The vice president will tell her story of being raised by a working mother in a middle-class neighborhood — sharing how her background means she knows the everyday joys and challenges experienced by middle-class families like hers, explaining how she shares those values, the official said.
She will also discuss how she became a prosecutor in order to protect others, be they survivors of sexual abuse or homeowners impacted by the foreclosure crisis, a Harris-Walz official told ABC News.
She will point out the dangers posed by former President Donald Trump’s campaign, specifically the Project 2025 agenda, which will rip away people’s freedoms, increase the cost of living, and take the country backward, the official said.
In contrast, the official told ABC News Harris will present a New Way Forward — an optimistic agenda that provides economic opportunity and protects fundamental freedoms for all Americans.
Harris will root her optimism about the future in her faith in the American people. She will work to make a stark contrast with Trump, sharing her belief in the promise of America, according to the campaign official.
And she knows that loving your country means being willing to fight for its fundamental ideals. She is driven by a deep sense of patriotism and a desire to be a president for all Americans, the official told ABC News.
(BUTLER, Pa.) — Former President Donald Trump is making his return to the site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, for a rally on Saturday — a moment the campaign hopes will spur inspiration among his fervent supporters as they come together to honor the victims who died during the July shooting.
“I’m going back to Butler because I feel I have an obligation to go back to Butler. We never finished what we were supposed to do,” Trump said earlier this week in an interview with NewsNation. “I said that day, when I was shot, I said, ‘We’re coming back. We’re going to come back.’ And I’m fulfilling a promise. I’m fulfilling, really, an obligation.”
Trump’s rally is taking place at Butler Farm Show, the exact same location as the outdoor rally where he was shot in the right ear nearly three months ago. One main difference this time around: security will be tighter.
Security will be of utmost concern during Trump’s remarks after lapses in security plans led to the gunman being able to scale an unmanned building. Security personnel have already started increased measures. For example, a secure perimeter was enacted around the fairground earlier than usual as the campaign started to set up the rally site.
The campaign quickly worked in the weeks after the July attempt to secure an October rally date at the site, knowing the significance of having Trump return to a place where he survived an assassination attempt for the first time.
The campaign told ABC News the family of Corey Comperatore, the man who was killed at Trump’s rally while shielding his family, along with one of the two supporters who were injured, David Dutch, will be in attendance on Saturday.
Several of Trump’s allies are expected to attend in a show of force, including tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who posted his plans on X, and Pennsylvania senatorial candidate Dave McCormick, who was just about to walk onstage before shots rang out.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, will also appear with Trump.
With exactly a month until Election Day, Saturday’s Butler rally will be an opportunity for Trump, if he can stay on message, to rally his base behind him in the sprint to November, just as he was able to do in the days after he was shot.
After being struck in the ear, Trump was briefly taken to the ground by Secret Service agents covering him until he rose back up moments after, pumping his first in the air with a bloody ear, shouting “Fight, fight, fight!”
The moment has since become a central messaging of his campaign, Trump and his supporters often chanting, “Fight, fight, fight!” at campaign rallies and his campaign frequently using Trump’s image of pumping his fist after surviving an assassination attempt as a symbol of his defiant campaign just days ahead of the critical week of the Republican National Convention.
Counter snipers in Trump’s Secret Service immediately killed the shooter, identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, but the incident stirred a flurry of questions regarding the security of the former president, prompting U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to step down and Trump to only hold indoor rallies for a few weeks after the attack.
Just nine weeks after the shooting in Butler, Trump had a second apparent assassination attempt on his life while he was out golfing at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida. More recently, it was revealed that there were assassination threats from Iran against Trump as well.
In the wake of both incidents, the former president was granted presidential-level security as his campaign has been forced to grapple with new security protocols in the planning of his campaign events.
Trump has gradually started holding a limited number of big and small outdoor campaign events again, including in Asheboro, North Carolina, on Aug. 21, where he was seen surrounded by bulletproof protective glass for the first time as he spoke in front of thousands of supporters gathered at an outdoor aviation museum.
As the campaign prepares for its high-profile rally on Saturday, they’ve said that the rally will be about honoring the victims and their family and expressing thanks to law enforcement and the Pennsylvania community; however, it comes as in recent weeks Trump has escalated his attacks, veering into dark rhetoric on the road.
After once calling for unity, Trump now blames rhetoric from Democrats as the reason behind threats on his life.
In the immediate aftermath of his attack at Butler, Trump called for both sides to tone down their rhetoric against each other — a posture that ended relatively quickly for Trump, who returned to his usual attacks.
While addressing the country after officially being nominated Republican presidential candidate at the RNC in Milwaukee, Trump said, “just like our ancestors, we must now come together, rise above past differences.”
“Any disagreements have to be put aside, go forward, united as one people, one nation pledging allegiance to one great beautiful — I think it’s so beautiful — American flag,” he said as he concluded his nomination speech at the RNC.
But just days after that, Trump, at his first rally after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, called his political opponents “dangerous people” and escalated personal attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris — who was shaping up to be Biden’s successor at the time.
“I was supposed to be nice,” Trump said in Charlotte, North Carolina, in late July. “They say something happened to me when I got shot — I became nice.”
“When you’re dealing with these people — they’re very dangerous people — when you’re dealing with them, you can’t be so nice. You really can’t be so — if you don’t mind — I’m not going to be nice. Is that okay?” Trump continued, followed by the crowd chanting, “Fight, fight, fight.”
Just as Trump is returning to Butler, many of the former president’s more ardent supporters have shied away from continuing to attend his rallies.
“It’s kind of like — it almost brings back memories, because it’s almost kind of the same set up,” said one Butler rally attendee, speaking at the Asheboro, North Carolina, rally last month where Trump delivered remarks in front of thousands of supporters outside for the first time since his first assassination attempt.
“At least we got snipers on it. Really, every roof of snipers on it makes me feel more safe. It brings back memories, especially when we go back in October,” he said.
Susan Gibala, of Irwin, Pennsylvania, said she went to a Trump rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, just after she survived the Butler rally, and has continued to feel safe at Trump rallies.
“To be honest with you, this is one of the safest places. And I know that I was in Butler when that happened. And I know that sounds very strange to say, but I feel like these are the safest places I could be,” Gibala said, attending another Trump rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, last month.
“So it hasn’t really changed me in that sense. I know a lot of my friends, they had to take time out. They had to really work through some things, but I just believe this is one of the safest places to be.”
