JD Vance ‘absolutely’ sure Trump thinks he could be president if needed
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(NEW YORK) — Sen. JD Vance affirmed former President Donald Trump’s assertion that the vice presidential pick doesn’t matter to the vast majority of voters. However, Vance stressed he’s “absolutely” sure Trump is confident he could step up as commander in chief if needed.
“Trump was asked recently very directly, ‘Would you be ready to be president on day one’ … Are you ready?” “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl asked as part of a wide-ranging interview that will air in full Sunday morning.
“He made it the main focus of his vetting process, is, ‘Do I think this person can be president on day one if, God forbid, something happens?’ Yes,” Vance said.
The Ohio senator said voters are more focused on the candidates at the top of the ticket instead of the vice presidential pick.
“They’re voting for Donald Trump or for Kamala Harris, not for JD or Tim Walz,” he said. “I also think that he’s right that the politics of this really don’t matter that much.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — With the economy a priority for many Americans in the upcoming 2024 election, the Democrats and Republicans are pitching plans to tackle the financial burden facing families nationwide.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, is proposing a new plan to provide up to $6,000 in tax credits to middle-income and low-income families in the first year of their child’s life. This could cost $100 billion over a decade, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
If elected president, Harris says she will also expand the child tax credit to $3,000 for all children and 3,600 for young children. This was estimated by the CRFB to cost $1.1 trillion over a decade.
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance also recently floated the idea of raising the child tax credit to $5,000 in an interview with CBS.
Guaranteed income programs have similarly offered cash assistance to new or expectant mothers for years – and data has thus far found that early childhood support increases savings, housing stability, food security and more.
“It’s a smart economic investment for our country, and I was thrilled that both parties are recognizing that bipartisan nature of it, and both stepping forward to say we could take better care of our littlest and most vulnerable citizens,” said Holly Fogle, president of The Bridge Project, a privately funded guaranteed income project for new mothers.
The Bridge Project gives an unconditional $1,000 a month for three years to new mothers in low-income communities in New York. One recipient, a 34-year-old who lives in New York City’s Bronx neighborhood, said the program “saved my life.”
The recipient, who asked to be anonymous for privacy reasons, told ABC News that she and her husband separated while she was pregnant. When she left her job to give birth, she was left financially vulnerable, and the program supported her in getting the necessities for her baby.
“When I had gotten accepted, I remember honestly just crying,” she said. “I had a full breakdown, because I was so stressed about everything at that point.”
To be eligible, women must live in the specified region, be at least 18 years old, 23 weeks pregnant or less with your first child, and have an annual household income under $52,000.
The Bridge Project found that for the first cohort of mothers, savings increased by 242% and access to child care increased 63%.
In the second cohort of recipients, 63% of mothers living in transitional housing moved to more permanent housing and there was a 53% increase in food security after one year of payments.
The payments helped parents pay for day-to-day items – 46% of the cash was used for baby expenses, 20% to pay bills and the rest for other expenses including debt payments and savings, according to the Bridge Project.
A study by the Institute for Research on Poverty from the University of Wisconsin-Madison separately found that cash assistance “during infancy can have profound and long-lasting effects, including educational, behavioral, and economic or labor market advantages.”
Similarly, the Healthy Beginnings Project, privately funded by children’s accessory company Goldbug, provides pregnant participants experiencing economic hardship in Colorado with a monthly guaranteed income of $750 for 15 months.
“This is such a transitional time in a person’s life, when they give birth, have a new child, and that the money is being spent very wisely,” said Katherine Gold, CEO of Goldbug. “They’re just buying necessary items to live, like food, utilities and transportation.”
The COVID-era expansion of the Child Tax Credit of $3,600 per child under 6 and $3,000 per child between the ages of 6 and 18 reduced food insecurity, financial hardship, and brought child poverty to historic lows, according to research from Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy.
However, this expansion expired at the end of 2021.
The child tax credit currently provides up to $2,000 per child to about 40 million families every year, according to the White House.
Critics of the child care tax argue that in its current form, families who are the most in need receive less than the full $2,000 Child Tax Credit or no credit at all because their families’ incomes are too low. Some call it a subsidy for middle- and upper-income Americans.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes that families get no credit based on their first $2,500 of earnings. Starting at $2,501 of income earnings, the credit phases in at a rate of just 15 cents on the dollar — regardless of whether a family has one, two, or more children.
“For example, a family with $12,500 of earnings receives a $1,500 Child Tax Credit whether the family has one child or two,” the center states. Some advocates argue in favor of abolishing the minimum income threshold to cover those in deep poverty, while others see the minimum income threshold as a motivator for parents to engage in the labor market.
Some critics, including Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., denounced its costs and argued that some recipients may misuse the payments.
“Because of the way it phases in with earnings, 19 million children in families with low incomes get a smaller credit than children in higher-income families, or none at all,” according to The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “This is backwards, providing the least help to the children who need it most.”
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, disembark from their campaign bus in Savannah, Georgia, Aug. 28, 2024, as they travel across Georgia for a 2-day campaign bus tour. — Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
(DETROIT) — Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota blitzed the country on Labor Day, making a concerted effort to court union workers ahead of the November election.
Harris kicked off Labor Day in Detroit, Michigan, meeting with union members and delivering brief remarks. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Rep. Elissa Slotkin and Rep. Debbie Dingell joined Harris.
“The way we celebrate Labor Day is we know that hard work is good work; we know that when we organize, when we bring everyone together,” Harris said at the Northwestern High School gym in Detroit. “It’s a joyful moment where we are committed to doing the hard work of lifting up America’s families, and I want to thank everyone here for that work and the way you do it every day.”
“So, on Labor Day, and every day, we celebrate the dignity of work,” she later added. “The dignity of work, we celebrate unions because unions helped build America, and unions helped build America’s middle class.”
Harris also credited union labor with many current workplace standards.
“Everywhere I go, I tell people, look, you may not be a union member, you better thank a union member; for the five-day work week, you better thank a union member; for sick leave, you better thank a union member,” she said. “For paid leave you better thank a union member for vacation time. Because what we know is when union wages go up, everybody’s wages go up.”
Union leaders, including United Autoworkers President Shawn Fain and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, stood behind Harris on stage as he delivered her remarks. They took the stage shortly before Harris.
Harris was set to join Biden later Monday in Pittsburgh at a union hall for the pair’s first joint campaign event since Biden dropped his bid for reelection. They will both deliver informal remarks, the Harris campaign said. The United Steelworkers, AFSCME, and other unions will be in attendance, as well as Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Bob Casey, Mayor Ed Gainey and Reps. Summer Lee, Madeleine Dean and Chris Deluzio.
Walz and his wife, Gwen, started off the day meeting with laborers in St. Paul, Minnesota, before attending Laborfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In addition to prominent labor groups, including SEIU, Teamsters, and United Autoworkers, Gov. Tony Evers, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Rep. Gwen Moore and Mayor Cavalier Johnson were there.
Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff was in Newport News, Virginia, to participate in Rep. Bobby Scott’s annual Labor Day Cookout and deliver remarks, the campaign said.
“Vice President Harris always put workers first and held powerful interests accountable. As California’s attorney general, she fought wage theft to make sure workers got the pay they earned. As senator, she fought tirelessly for the most vulnerable workers, walking the picket line with UAW and McDonald’s workers and introducing a domestic workers’ bill of rights,” the campaign said in a statement.
“Vice President Harris chairs The White House Task Force on Worker Organizing, which made it easier for working people to exercise their right to join a union,” the campaign continued.
“Meanwhile, Trump was one of the most anti-worker and anti-union presidents in history,” the Harris campaign later added, criticizing former President Donald Trump. “He stacked the National Labor Relations Board with anti-labor advocates. He hurt autoworkers, shipped jobs overseas, and lined the pockets of the super wealthy and big corporations at the expense of the middle class.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will deliver an Oval Office address on Wednesday night on his decision not to seek reelection and how he plans to finish his tenure as commander in chief.
What time is President Biden’s address from the Oval Office?
Biden said he will speak “on what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people” at 8 p.m. ET.
How to watch or livestream Biden’s address
ABC News Live will carry the network’s special report on the president’s speech.
The White House is also expected to stream the remarks live on their website and on YouTube.
It will be Biden’s first extensive, on-camera comments on his decision to step away from the 2024 campaign trail and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.
The president first announced he would “stand down” from the race and focus his attention on the remaining six months of his term in a letter posted to social media on Sunday.
In the letter, addressed to his “fellow Americans,” Biden said it was the “greatest honor of my life to serve as your President.”
While he said his in-depth remarks on his decision would come later, Biden expressed his “deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me reelected.”
“I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work,” he wrote. “And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me. I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing America can’t do — when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United States of America.”
Biden’s decision to drop out of the race came after weeks of intense scrutiny from fellow Democrats about his ability to campaign and serve a second term after his poor debate performance against Donald Trump in June.
Biden was initially defiant, insisting he would stay the course and that only the “Lord Almighty” could tell him to step aside in the 2024 race.
But after a drumbeat of Democrats publicly called on him to step aside from his reelection bid, and other prominent leaders like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries privately suggesting he do so, Biden made the decision to bow out.
Biden went on to endorse Harris to take his place atop the ticket.
“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,” he wrote in another social media post on Sunday. “And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
