Harris preparing for upcoming Trump debate in battleground Pennsylvania
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(PITTSBURGH) — Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Thursday to hunker down and prepare for the ABC News Sept. 10 debate with former President Donald Trump, according to a campaign aide.
Choosing to stay in Pennsylvania, a critical battleground state, could potentially allow Harris to continue campaigning while she prepares for the debate — and what will be her first in-person meeting with Trump.
The debate is a critical moment for Harris as it could be her last opportunity to pitch herself to a large television audience.
Harris has been preparing for the debate for weeks now. She has been holding mock debates at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, D.C., with former Hillary Clinton aide Phillips Reines playing the part of Trump while wearing a wig, according to a source.
Reines isn’t the only one assisting Harris in her preparation — she’s also enlisted former White House aides Karen Dunn, Sean Clegg and Rohini Kosoglu. All three worked with her during her 2020 vice presidential debate against Mike Pence.
Asked by reporters Wednesday how her debate preparations were going, Harris responded, “So far, so good.”
While in Pittsburgh, Harris will work on maintaining a calm demeanor as she makes a case for her own presidency while holding Trump accountable for his, according to a source familiar with Harris’ debate preparations.
If Trump dodges a question or begins launching attacks, she wants to be able to successfully pivot the conversation, the source added.
That same source said the vice president will also focus on avoiding going down policy rabbit holes, which the source said was something she did during her 2019 debates.
Harris’ latest high-profile debates were during her presidential run four years ago and her vice presidential debate with Pence. This cycle, Trump debated President Joe Biden in June.
The ABC News debate 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.
Former President Donald Trump accepts his party’s nomination on the last day of the 2024 Republican National Convention, in Milwaukee, July 18, 2024. — Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
(MILWAUKEE) — After formally accepting the Republican nomination, former President Donald Trump recounted surviving Saturday’s assassination attempt.
With a bandage covering his right ear, Trump addressed the crowd at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, saying it would be the only time he would share what happened at the rally.
“You’ll never hear it from me a second time because it’s too painful to tell.”
During the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a gunman opened fire from a nearby roof, striking Trump in the ear, killing a rallygoer, Corey Comperatore, and wounding two others. Before Trump was hit, he had turned his head to the right to look at a screen and hit with a glancing blow.
“The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark, and I would not be here tonight. We would not be together,” Trump said.
“Behind me and to the right was a large screen that was displaying a chart of border crossings under my leadership,” he recounted. “In order to see the chart, I started to turn to my right, and was ready to begin a further turn, which I’m lucky I didn’t, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me, really hard, on my right ear.”
“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet,'” the former president said.
Secret Service agents swarmed Trump as he ducked behind the podium, with blood dripping down the side of his face, “Bullets were continuing to fly.”
“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump repeatedly told the crowd, to which they responded, “Yes you are!”
“Thank you. But I’m not. And I’ll tell you, I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God.”
Police are investigating the incident as an assassination attempt and potential act of domestic terrorism. The motive is unknown, but officials said that the shooter searched for images of both President Trump and President Biden as well as dates for the Butler rally and the Democratic National Convention.
The shooter was killed by a Secret Service sniper.
Trump held a moment of silence for Comperatore, a former fire chief who died when he “dove on his family” to protect them during the rally, his wife said.
Making his first public remarks since the shooting, Trump expressed his “gratitude to the American people for your outpouring of love and support following the assassination attempt.”
(CHICAGO) — Keisha Lance Bottoms served as mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, from 2018 to 2022, before joining the Biden administration as senior adviser and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement until 2023.
She served the Biden campaign as a senior adviser, a role she has also taken on with the Harris-Walz campaign.
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Bottoms sat down with ABC News’ Linsey Davis on Tuesday to talk about organizing the gathering in the wake of President Biden’s decision not to run in November, her home state’s election board and the message the Harris-Walz campaign needs to send to win in November.
ABC NEWS: We are joined now by former Atlanta mayor, Biden senior campaign adviser, Ms. Keisha Lance Bottoms. Thank you so much for joining us.
BOTTOMS: Thank you for having me, Linsey.
ABC NEWS: So let’s talk about 30 days that it’s been for you guys to get all this together. Give us a sense of behind the scenes, what it took.
BOTTOMS: Well, it seems like it’s been dog years, I think, for all of America. But of course, there were plans underway, [2024 DNC Chair] Minyon Moore and the entire team have done an incredible job in not only pulling this convention together, but then making a pivot to make sure that this convention is fitting for Vice President Kamala Harris.
And you can feel the energy in this building. You see the lights, you hear the music. But there is such excitement and enthusiasm. And then, of course, such a warm response to President Biden last night.
ABC NEWS: Of course Georgia once again, in major play. We have JD Vance, who’s heading to Georgia later on this week. Let’s talk about the changes that were made, the state election board changes that could actually potentially delay certification. What does that mean? What’s being done to try to combat it?
BOTTOMS: It is unbelievable that in 2024, the state election board in Georgia is still talking about the 2020 election and attempting to revisit this alleged steal that didn’t happen in 2020. But I was so glad to see that the secretary of state has spoken up, spoken out against the changes proposed. The attorney general has spoken out.
And by the way, these are both Republican election officials who said enough is enough. We need to move forward. Focus on 2024, making sure we are preserving the integrity of this election. And so I think what’s happening in Georgia is that there is bipartisan agreement that we need to move on, and it would be great if so many other states would do the same.
ABC NEWS: You talked about the emotional speech and reception that Joe Biden got in here last night. He talked during that speech about appointing the first Black and South Asian woman as his vice president, delivering on his promise to appoint Ketanji [Brown Jackson] as a Supreme Court justice, first Black woman to the Supreme Court.
What do you think that will mean? How will it resonate for Black voters? Because as we know, we saw during the RNC, Donald Trump is actively pursuing Black voters.
BOTTOMS: Yeah. And to his credit, he’s not taking anyone for granted. And that’s why it’s going to be important for all of us as surrogates — we heard the president do it last night — to remind people what his presidency, what the Biden-Harris administration has meant for African Americans, he made commitments that he kept: first African American woman on the Supreme Court and so many other federal appointments of people of color. And the Court of Appeals and district courts.
And I think all of us are keenly aware, I have a, I’m a lawyer, so I pay attention to courts, but most Americans don’t. But of course, we know with the Dobbs decision and so many other decisions coming from the Supreme Court – people are really starting to pay attention as to what these lifetime appointments mean for their day-to-day lives. So we just gotta keep reminding people that this president, this vice president made a difference.
Kamala Harris has been a strong partner and leader in this White House. And the president laid out the work that she’s going to, that she’s taking the baton and the work that she’s going to continue and expand upon.
ABC NEWS: Keisha Lance bottoms, we thank you so much for your time, really appreciate you joining us.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris has received a flurry of endorsements from many of the nation’s largest labor unions since she announced her candidacy for president.
Concern has emerged within the labor movement, however, over the potential selection of Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., as a running mate because he has not signed onto a key piece of labor reform legislation.
Current and former union officials told ABC News that the possible selection of Kelly sounds alarm bells due to his unwillingness to back the PRO Act, legislation that would ease the path toward forming unions and winning labor contracts. Some officials outright oppose the pick, while others say the policy position should be part of a wider assessment of Kelly.
At least one labor leader who backs Harris said Kelly’s position on the measure should not reflect on his support toward labor or deter his selection as vice president.
Kelly and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro are the two leading candidates for the nod as vice president on a Harris-led ticket, a senior administration official told ABC News on Tuesday. Harris is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee after receiving more than half of the party’s delegates.
“Why would the Democrats even consider a senator for the vice presidency if the senator doesn’t support the PRO Act?” John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union and an ally of President Joe Biden, told ABC News. “It’s the most important piece of national legislation workers have right now.”
The Transport Workers Union is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, a 12.5 million member union federation that endorsed Harris on Monday. Samuelson, who said he did not attend the meeting at which the AFL-CIO endorsed Harris, will not decide on his union’s endorsement of Harris until after she selects her vice presidential nominee.
Kelly, who took office in 2020, has declined to sign onto the PRO Act throughout his tenure. The latest version of the bill, known as the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act, boasts the support of 48 of the 51 U.S. Senators who caucus with Democrats.
Richard Bensinger, former organizing director at the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor organization, said in a post on X that he opposes Kelly due to his position on the PRO Act.
“Only 3 Democrats refused to sign on to the Pro Act, one of whom was Mark Kelly,” Bensinger said on Sunday, after Harris announced her candidacy. “The right to organize unions is the most important thing to labor so that’s a hard no.”
In a statement, Kelly’s office said the Arizona senator has robustly backed labor.
“Senator Kelly is the son of two union police officers and has been a strong supporter of workers throughout his time in the Senate,” Kelly spokesperson Jacob Peters told ABC News.
Peters pointed ABC News to a statement Kelly made to the Huffington Post in 2021 in which he said he supports “the overall goals” of the legislation while acknowledging that he had “some concerns.”
In 2022, Kelly’s Senate campaign was endorsed by the Arizona AFL-CIO and the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, among other unions.
At least one labor leader whose union endorsed Harris told ABC News that the position taken by Kelly on the PRO Act should not reflect negatively on his perceived support for labor or deter Harris from selecting him for vice president.
The legislation has stood well short of passage in both chambers during Kelly’s tenure in office, the person said. In turn, the person added, Kelly has chosen to prioritize his standing among voters in the highly contested state that he represents. The labor leader requested that their name not be used due to the sensitivity surrounding the Harris campaign.
“I think that Kelly voted against the PRO Act when he felt his vote was not going to make a difference but might have been necessary in order to achieve labor’s bigger objective, which was to control the U.S. Senate,” the labor leader said.
“We don’t question his support for working people,” the labor leader added.
A union president who backs Harris, however, told ABC News they oppose the potential selection of Kelly on account of his position on the labor reform measure. The union president requested that their name not be used due to the sensitivity surrounding the Harris campaign.
“The Democrats cannot afford to have someone on the ticket who is identified as soft on labor,” the person said, referring to Kelly. “This is a huge problem.”
Larry Cohen, former president of the Communications Workers of America, said Kelly’s position on the PRO Act raises concern but the primary consideration in assessing his selection as vice president should be whether he helps the Democratic ticket win in November.
“I wouldn’t rule out Mark Kelly but he certainly wasn’t quick to support what I would call moderate labor reform in a democracy near the bottom in terms of workers’ rights,” Cohen told ABC News.
MORE: Kamala Harris rallies new campaign to fight against Trump after Biden’s endorsement “I would tend to go back to the issue of the swing states. Who can move the needle?” Cohen added, noting Arizona is a battleground state. “The number one goal is beating Trump.”
The AFL-CIO did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did the Service Employees International union, the nation’s largest private sector union, which endorsed Harris.
