Harris campaign office in Arizona damaged by apparent gunfire, police say
(TEMPE, Ariz.) — An office in Arizona used by Kamala Harris’ campaign was shot at early Monday morning in the second apparent gun attack in a week, according to investigators.
Police in Tempe, Arizona, responded to the office, which the local Democratic Party also uses, after they received calls from staffers about the damage. At least five bullet holes were found in the windows and the door.
“No one was inside the office during the overnight hours, but this raises concerns about the safety of those who work in that building, as well as those nearby,” Tempe Police spokesperson Sgt. Ryan Cook told ABC News.
Tempe police said they were analyzing evidence and were taking “additional measures” after the shooting “to ensure the safety of staff and others in the area.” A motive for the shooting has not yet been determined and the investigation continues, according to the police.
The same office was shot at just a week prior, on Sept. 16, in an incident the police said appeared to involve a BB or pellet gun. That shooting also happened just after midnight and caused “criminal damage,” according to the police.
Arizona Democratic Party Chair Yolanda Bejarano condemned the vandalism in a statement to ABC News Phoenix affiliate KNXV.
“It’s extremely sad that the Arizona Democratic Party has become the target of violence — it’s not who we are as Arizonans or Americans. We are working with law enforcement to ensure this threat is taken seriously and that our staff members are safe while they’re at work,” she said in a statement.
Law enforcement around the country is under heightened alert over an increase in political violence threats.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to soon face her first post-convention test when she sits for a formal interview — something she told reporters this month she planned to do by the end of August, but has yet to announce.
With an absence of plans for any such sit-down, Republican critics have accused her of dodging the press.
“She refuses to do any interviews or press conferences, almost 30 days now, she has not done an interview,” former President Donald Trump said of Harris at a North Carolina event earlier this month. “You know why she hasn’t done an interview? Because she’s not smart. She’s not intelligent.”
His campaign has said Harris is trying to “duck and hide” from the news media, which is sure to sling several tough questions her way when she meets the press.
The lack of a media interview has yet to hurt Harris, whose poll number are outpacing those of President Joe Biden when he was atop the Democratic ticket, according to 538’s national polling average. As of Tuesday, Harris is polling ahead of Trump, 47.2% to 43.6%; when Biden left the race, he was polling at 40.2% compared to Trump’s 43.5%, according to 538’s polling average.
Harris has also stirred an enthusiasm from Democrats that had been absent most of the campaign cycle — and is riding a high following last week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Moreover, she chose a running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, whose rural background has helped the ticket craft a message Democrats have said they believe will make inroads with voters in conservative parts of the country.
All the while, Trump has seemed to abandon the discipline Republicans had lauded him for this summer. Recently, he has made false claims about the crowd size at a Harris rally and appeared to forget to mention a policy proposal he had been slated to unveil at an event in Michigan.
Democrats have cautioned that Harris has several hurdles to clear in the coming weeks.
One of those hurdles is the pending media interview, where Harris would likely have to defend the decisions of the Biden administration and specify some of her policy stances.
On Monday, Trump sought to spotlight Harris’ connection to the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, laying wreaths in Arlington National Cemetery to commemorate the third anniversary of the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members.
“Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world,” Trump claimed when he spoke to National Guardsmen at a Detroit event later Monday.
Harris is also likely to be pressed on how much she knew about Biden’s capacities prior to the June 27 debate. That night, she urged Americans to judge Biden not on the “90 minutes” on stage but the “three-and-a-half years of performance.”
Yet, that same debate performance set in motion a weekslong effort by top Democrats to nudge Biden from the race.
Few had a better understanding of what Biden was like behind the scenes than Harris, his No. 2, and an interviewer would likely challenge her about what she witnessed in private.
Harris would surely be asked about the war in Gaza. She said recently, “We need a cease-fire,” but is a member of an administration that has yet to help broker one.
The situation at the southern border would likely be another topic an interviewer would press Harris on. Republicans have linked her to an increase in unauthorized border crossings earlier in Biden’s term, misleadingly dubbing her the “border czar.”
An interviewer might also ask Harris to respond to the criticism of her recently unveiled economic plan, in which she called for an end to grocery “price-gouging,” prompting accusations by some Republicans that she wants “communist price controls.”
Harris travels this week to south Georgia, where she will embark on a bus tour and hold a rally in Savannah, Georgia.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday called the Federal Reserve’s rate cut the day before an “important signal” from the Fed to Americans that inflation is cooling, but he cautioned that it “doesn’t mean the work is done” to improve the economy.
In remarks on Thursday at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., Biden said, “Yesterday was an important day for the country.”
“Two and a half years after the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates, it announced that it began lowering interest rates,” Biden said. “I think it’s good news for consumers, and that means the cost of buying a home, a car, and so much more would be going down. And it’s good news in my view, for the overall economy.”
The president in his remarks discussed how far the U.S. has come since the COVID-19 pandemic, including supply chain issues, high costs of food and goods, and baby formula shortages. He also checked through all of his legislative achievements such as the American Rescue Plan, Inflation Reduction Act, Chips and Science Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“At its peak, as you all know, inflation was 9.1% in the United States. Today it’s much closer to 2%,” Biden said. “It doesn’t mean our work is done. Far from it. Far from it, no one should confused why I’m here. I’m not here to take a victory lap. I’m not here to say, ‘A job well done.’ I’m not here to say ‘We don’t have a hell of a lot more work to do.’ We do have more work to do.”
White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients told reporters on a call previewing Biden’s remarks that president and Vice President Kamala Harris are still looking ahead to the work that is not finished, pointing to the cost of child care and housing as two of the biggest areas.
One White House official on the call was asked about whether the administration was concerned about rising unemployment in response to today’s rate cut, but the official brushed off the concern, saying that the Fed’s data today shows “the labor market remaining solid,” and adding that unemployment has “remained the lowest on average of any administration in 50 years.”
A reporter also asked whether rising tensions in the Middle East could be a setback in the fight against rising inflation. The different White House official said that it is one of the “geopolitical risks that we consistently monitor.”
“But our assessment, you know, right now is that the economy is in a healthy place, and that the kind of range of risks, while we continue to monitor them are do not pose a significant risk to the to the outlook,” the White House official added.
In his remarks Thursday, Biden also falsely claimed that he has “never once spoken to the chairman of the Fed since I became president.” He actually met with Jerome Powell in the Oval Office in May 2022.
(CHICAGO) — Former President Barack Obama’s highly anticipated speech at the Democratic National Convention stage on Tuesday night is expected to be a full-circle moment between him and Vice President Kamala Harris as he plans to champion her experience and make the case that she is the best person for the job.
Over the last few months, Barack and former first lady Michelle Obama have been in close contact with the vice president and supported her campaign in any way they are able, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.
In Tuesday’s address, Obama will affirm why Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are the leaders the country needs right now, a source familiar with the speech told ABC News. He will lay out the task in front of Democrats over the next eleven weeks, and bring into focus the values at stake in this election and at the heart of our politics, according to the source.
The speech is expected to touch on Harris and Obama’s 20 years of friendship and political camaraderie with Harris. The two met at a fundraiser back when Obama was vying for the Illinois seat in the Senate and Harris was the San Francisco district attorney.
When then-Sen. Obama was running for president in 2008, Harris was one of his early supporters in that year’s Democratic primary. In fact, she was on the ground in Iowa in December 2007 knocking on doors to advocate on Obama’s behalf to caucus voters.
Harris talked about her dedication to Obama’s campaign at a 2019 presidential campaign event, recalling a moment when a caucus voter told her “They’re not gonna let him win.”
“And I stepped back in my mind and I looked at what I was looking at,” she said at a 2019 Des Moines event. “Which over the course of at least 85 years, all the indignities, all the injustices, that she has experienced and witnessed, and at that age of life, she wasn’t about to go through experiencing another disappointment or indignity. And so, me being me, I decided well I am not leaving here.”
Harris recalled talking with the voter longer and eventually saw her at the polls the next day.
“So, we know that when we don’t sit back and wait for somebody else to give us permission to tell us what is possible, we make what is possible, possible. We make it happen,” she said.
Obama endorsed Harris in 2010 when she ran for California attorney general and appeared at a rally in Los Angeles where he called her “a dear, dear friend.”
“I want everybody to do right by her,” he told the crowd.
Harris would speak at the 2012 Democratic National Convention and continued to make her case for Obama.
“President Obama stood with me and 48 other attorneys general in taking on the banks and winning $25 billion for struggling homeowners. That’s leadership,” she said. “That’s what President Obama did. And that’s why we need to give him another four years”
In 2013, Obama spoke highly of Harris at a fundraiser in California, but his comments got him in hot water at the time.
“She is brilliant and she is dedicated and she is tough, and she is exactly what you’d want in anybody who is administering the law, and making sure that everybody is getting a fair shake. She also happens to be by far the best-looking attorney general in the country,” he said.
The comment on Harris’ looks sparked a backlash for being sexist and inappropriate, and he apologized the next day.
Obama would continue to support Harris as she ran for U.S. Senate in 2016 and later Joe Biden’s running mate on the 2020 presidential ticket.
The former president and former first lady have been in regular touch with Harris over the years, providing counsel and being a sounding board, too, a source familiar with the Obamas told ABC News.
On July 26, five days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, the Obamas officially endorsed Harris.