Harris and Walz launch their 1st bus tour through western Pennsylvania
(PITTSBURGH) — Just a day away from the Democratic National Convention, Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz and their spouses, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and Gwen Walz, will kick off their “On the Road to Chicago” bus tour in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania. It will be the first time all four hit the trail together.
Sunday’s tour is set to launch from Pittsburgh with multiple stops in Beaver and Allegheny counties located in western Pennsylvania. The campaign hopes to “meet voters where they are in community settings.” The stops will range from canvass kick-offs to local retail stops.
The stops will be right after former President Donald Trump’s Saturday rally in Wilkes-Barre located in the northeastern region. The former president will also be stopping in York on Monday and his vice presidential pick, JD Vance, will deliver remarks in Philadelphia on the same day as well.
Harris’ campaign is looking to make inroads in the heavily conservative Beaver county where she will highlight labor unions while Trump is looking to appeal to the blue collar voters in Wilkes-Barre which is not too far from President Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton.
At his rally, Trump claimed that Harris’ economic policies would be the “death of Pennsylvania,” a state that has heavy ties in the energy and steel industries.
“We’re going to get your energy prices down by 50% the Kamala presidency will mean death for Pennsylvania energy. Remember that it’ll mean death of Pennsylvania,” said Trump.
The dueling events highlight how critical the state is in reaching the coveted 270 electoral votes needed to win November’s election. The state, which not only holds significance to Biden but for First Lady Dr. Jill Biden as well, was a regular stomping ground for the president. He made 9 stops this year before leaving the ticket. This will be both Harris’ and Trump’s 8th visit to the state this year.
Trump won Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes in 2016, but Biden was able to reclaim the state along with two other Rust Belt states, Wisconsin and Michigan, by a narrow margin of just over 1% in 2020.
The momentum Harris has seen since Biden stepped down has injected a much-needed enthusiasm into the campaign that has helped to give the candidate a bump in swing state polling. Currently Harris is polling nearly two points ahead of Trump in Pennsylvania, according to 538’s average.
The Harris-Walz campaign is betting on the heavy investments they’ve made in the state to keep their edge. The campaign has nearly 300 staffers across 36 offices in the Keystone State. On Saturday they announced a $370 million ad investment with a promise of twice of the investment in TV in Pennsylvania than made in 2020.
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has stepped in to dispel rumors that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield — an unsubstantiated claim amplified by former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance and other Republicans in recent days.
“I think we should take the word of the city manager and the mayor that they’ve found no credible evidence of that story of Haitians eating pets,” DeWine told local reporters who questioned him at an unrelated event on Wednesday.
Reporters asked the governor if he was dismayed that the leader of his party, Trump, is repeating the unsubstantiated rumors that largely stem from a viral social media post in a local Facebook group in which the poster wrote that their neighbor’s daughter’s friend had lost her cat.
“Look, my job is to tell what the facts are and what we’re seeing and I rely, frankly, on Mayor [Rob] Rue, the other officials, and county officials,” DeWine responded. “Look, they’re the ones who are there, they’re the ones who know what’s going on.”
A spokesperson for the city of Springfield previously told ABC News the claims that migrants are eating residents’ cats and dogs are false, and that there have been “no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals in the immigrant community.”
Still, Trump brought up the rumor while on the debate stage with Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday when asked a question about immigration.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said on Tuesday night.
The Ohio town estimates there are up to 15,000 immigrants living in the city, which has put a strain on some resources. The city, in a FAQ page on its website, explained that the Haitian population is in the U.S. legally under the Immigration Parole Program.
DeWine earlier this week announced the state would send more resources to Springfield, which is grappling with the rapid influx of Haitian migrants over the last few years. His office said local primary caregivers have been impacted due to increased number of patients and lack of translation services. DeWine has authorized $2.5 million to go toward expanding primary care access for the city of Springfield.
“In general, migrants from Haiti have had little to no healthcare services prior to arriving in the United States, including vaccinations,” the press release said.
Now, Springfield is also dealing with the fallout of the pet controversy.
Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck addressed the issue in a video posted to Facebook.
“It is disappointing that some of the narratives surrounding our city has been skewed by misinformation on social media and further amplified by political rhetoric,” Heck said. “While we are experiencing challenges related to the rapid growth of our immigrant population, these challenges are primarily due to the pace of the growth, rather than the growth, rather than the rumors being reported.”
ABC News’ Alex Presha and Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is dealing with a “heightened threat environment,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says, as the FBI is investigating an apparent second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
It’s not only the “historic threat of foreign terrorists” that persists, but also home-grown extremists, Mayorkas said Tuesday.
“We’re now speaking of individuals radicalized to violence because of ideologies of hate, anti-government sentiment, personal narratives and other motivations propagated on online platforms,” the secretary said during the POLITICO AI & Tech Summit.
Threats from both at home and abroad are worrisome, senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and members of Congress say. FBI Director Christopher Wray has previously said he sees “blinking red lights everywhere” in terms of terror threats.
On Sunday, Ryan Wesley Routh was allegedly lying in wait for nearly 12 hours near the Republican presidential nominee’s West Palm Beach golf course before a Secret Service agent spotted him, according to a criminal complaint.
Routh did not get off a single shot, Secret Service Acting Director Ron Rowe said Monday, and at no time was the former president in the sight line of the suspect. The suspect was taken into custody and faces charges of possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, prosecutors said.
The former president has the same level of security that is “quite approximate” to President Joe Biden’s, Mayorkas said Tuesday, adding that agents did their job on Sunday and “they deserve to be commended for it.”
Trump, speaking Tuesday in a phone interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, also praised the Secret Service for stopping the apparent assassination attempt.
“I’m fine. The Secret Service did a good job, actually,” he said.
Trump also spoke about the heightened threat environment, telling ABC News, “Probably always been dangerous, but it’s more so now, I think.”
In the wake of the July 13 attempted assassination of Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI issued a bulletin to law enforcement across the country warning them that violent extremists could try to conduct “follow-on or retaliatory” attacks at events over the next few months related to the 2024 presidential election.
During a March hearing in front of Congress, the FBI director testified that threats from various groups have reached a “whole other level.”
“Even before [Hamas’ attack against Israel on] October 7, I would have told this committee that we were at a heightened threat level from a terrorism perspective — in the sense that it’s the first time I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Wray said on March 11.
“The threats from homegrown violent extremists — that is jihadist-inspired, extremists, domestic violent extremists, foreign terrorist organizations and state-sponsored terrorist organizations — all being elevated at one time since October 7, though, that threat has gone to a whole other level,” he said at the time.
In the aftermath of the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump, the Secret Service said it changed the way the former president is protected. Former director Kimberly Cheadle, who came under scrutiny for the agency’s failure to prevent the assassination attempt, also resigned.
Secretary Mayorkas appointed a new acting director — Rowe — and praised him for stepping up and leading the agency.
“I appreciate his willingness to lead the Secret Service at this incredibly challenging moment, as the agency works to get to the bottom of exactly what happened on July 13 and cooperate with ongoing investigations and Congressional oversight,” Mayorkas said at the time. “At the same time, the Secret Service must effectively carry on its expansive mission that includes providing 24/7 protection for national leaders and visiting dignitaries and securing events of national significance in this dynamic and heightened threat environment.”
During an April hearing in front of a congressional committee, the secretary said there’s been a “dramatic increase” in the number of threats facing Jewish and Muslim people in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.
“We’re certainly operating in a charged political environment, and there are many reasons for that,” Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told ABC News on Monday.
“Certainly the partisanship of our country in recent years has something to do with it, easy access to buy military-style weapons also plays a role in it, and also importantly, our adversaries are purposefully trying to stoke divisions within our country between Americans through social media and other means,” he said.
The intelligence community has warned of foreign actors, mainly Russia, China and Iran, carrying out influence operations in the United States with an aim to divide the country ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department alleged that two employees of Russia Today, or RT — a Russian state-controlled media outlet, implemented a nearly $10 million scheme “to fund and direct a Tennessee-based company to publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government.”
“So it’s important that the Department of Justice just announced a series of actions to prosecute individuals who are involved in a Russian plot to try to divide Americans against each other politically,” said Magaziner, who’s also the ranking member on the House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence.
“And we need all of our federal agencies, the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, CISA [Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency] and others, to remain vigilant and to expose those foreign actors who are trying to turn Americans against each other,” he added.
John Sandweg, former general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security under then-President Barack Obama, agreed.
“The situation is inflamed by a multitude of factors, but I do think it is important to emphasize the role that foreign state adversaries are playing — not only with regards to their support for extremist groups abroad, or efforts to disrupt and influence the election, but also through their efforts to further divide us as a nation,” Sandweg told ABC News on Monday, adding this is an “unprecedented” threat environment.
(GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.) — Former President Donald Trump and his allies have quickly pivoted to attacking Vice President Kamala Harris since President Joe Biden on Sunday suspended his reelection campaign and the Democratic Party coalesced behind the president’s former running mate.
Both the Trump campaign and groups supporting him are accusing Harris of being “complicit” in a cover-up of what they claim is Biden’s decline making him unfit for office.
At the same time, they are painting her as an even more “radical” liberal.
Trump’s team and his allies have been fast in firing off new attacks on Harris, already running both television and online ads in key swing states.
A new campaign video released on Sunday shortly after Harris jumped in the race as a presidential candidate claimed Harris helped Biden “screw up the border,” emphasizing her role in the Biden White House as the “border czar” and accusing her of not visiting the border enough — rhetoric Trump has used in the past during his own border visits.
The Trump campaign has also launched new social media ads attacking Harris, highlighting her gaffes while describing her as a “far more radical” candidate.
Pro-Trump super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. too immediately launched an ad in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Arizona, pushing unfounded claims alleging Harris had concerns about Biden’s mental fitness and worked to cover it up.
A source close to the super PAC told ABC News, “we will expand the buy,” adding that “there is going to be tremendous chaos within the Democratic Party and our job now is to seize on that.” The plan will be to continue to frame Harris as complicit in hiding Biden’s decline while also focusing on her record as a prosecutor and vice president, according to the source.
Trump himself has also been lashing out at Harris during his recent campaign stops as his campaign began privately polling Trump versus other candidates — increasingly name-calling her and attacking her credibility. Until recently, her name would only occasionally come up on Trump’s campaign trail — particularly during his border visits and while attacking her record on border security.
Just this past weekend, at a campaign stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Trump poked fun at Harris’ laugh — a personality trait his campaign has also spotlighted.
“I call her ‘Laughin’ Kamala.’ Have you seen her laughing? She is crazy. You can tell a lot by a laugh. She is nuts,” Trump said.
Even before Biden dropped out on Sunday, Trump long argued that Harris, along with other members of the Democratic Party, was secretly running the show because Biden was not fit to be president — an argument that they hope will help them as they attempt to point the blame on Harris for policies from the Biden administration.
“When you vote for Biden, you’re probably voting indirectly for Harris anyway,” Trump added on Saturday.
“We’re going to defeat ‘Crooked Joe Biden’ and Laughin’ Kamala Harris,’ and we’re going to take back the White House, and we’re going to take back our country,” Trump similarly said at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, two weeks ago — shortly before he was rushed off the stage after an assassination attempt on him.
A campaign rally at his Doral golf course in Florida earlier this month, Trump zeroed in on Harris’ border record, saying she has the “worst border” in history.
“As vice president, Kamala Harris was given two jobs — two very important jobs, actually,” Trump said. “First, she was put in charge of the U.S. border security at the border. And she never showed up. She’s never gone.”
He then attacked Harris’ role in the Biden administration’s foreign policy, claiming she “failed” to deter Russia’s attacks on Ukraine.
“Both times the result was a deadly failure,” Trump said.
The RNC Research social media account, managed by the Trump campaign and merged with the Republican National Committee, also posted several “flashbacks” on Sunday following Biden’s departure from the ticket, using Harris’ own words in an attempt to remind voters on what they believe is a failed record.
Again, those attacks centered around the claim that Harris’ was complicit in a cover-up as well as her role on the border.
“The biggest scandal in a generation — and Kamala is right at the center of the coverup,” one post by the Trump campaign suggested.
In another video posted, Harris is seen on the 2019 Democratic primary debate stage, raising her hand to suggest she would make illegal border crossings a civil, not, criminal offense.
As the Trump campaign attempts to capitalize on outlining Harris’ border policies, Harris has been on the campaign trail talking about abortion. She has issued several attacks on Trump’s proposed abortion policy.
Abortion bans have emerged as a divisive issue among Republicans since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overrule Roe v. Wade’s nationwide guarantee to access the procedure.
“And understand, the former president wants to pass a national abortion ban to outlaw abortion in every single state, but we will not let him,” Harris said last month at an event in Texas. “We will not let that happen.”
Harris continued, “America must trust women, America must honor individual choice, America must defend freedom.”
Hailing from California where she served as attorney general, the Harris campaign is also starting to tout her previous role in contrast to Trump’s convictions, framing the potential battle between the two as prosecutor vs. criminal.
“Vice President Kamala Harris has held criminals accountable her entire career — and Donald Trump will be no different,” Harris for President Spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement. “That’s the contrast the American people will see over the next 106 days.”