Republicans step up effort to change Nebraska’s electoral vote process to benefit Trump

(PHILADELPHIA) — During the face-off between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump during Tuesday’s ABC News presidential debate, both candidates tried to score points by slinging barbs at each other. 

Here are some of them:

Trump: “Wait a minute, I’m talking now, if you don’t mind, please. Does that sound familiar?”

— While Trump was trying to claim Harris supported defunding the police, she could be seen saying his statement was “not true.” Despite her microphone being muted. But Trump clearly heard her. His comment was a callback to Harris’ viral chiding of Mike Pence during their vice presidential debate in 2020 when she told him “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking” during one of the most viral moments of the night.

Harris: “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people.”

— When asked about Trump’s recent threat to prosecute those who “cheated” during the 2020 presidential election and his intimidation tactics, that was Harris’ response. She added that he is “having a very difficult time processing that,” referring to his refusing to concede he lost the 2020 election.

Trump: “She’s going to my philosophy now. In fact, I was going to send her a MAGA hat.”

— Trump on how Harris’ earlier policies have evolved to be similar to his.

Harris: “He talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter.”

— Harris mocked what she said is Trump’s inability to address problems and engage in solutions and talked about topics he addresses instead in his rallies.

Trump: “Run, spot, run”

— Trump mocked Harris’ economic plan, which he said was copied from President Joe Biden’s plan, saying it’s as short as “four sentences” and summarized it as, “Run, spot, run,” despite that only being three words.

Harris: “Friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch.”

— When asked about Ukraine, Harris touted what her administration has done to “preserve the ability of [President Zolodymyr] Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians to fight for their independence.” Referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats against neighboring Poland, she asked him, “And why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch.”

Harris: “You’re not running against Joe Biden, you’re running against me.”

— After Trump engaged in a series of criticisms of Biden and his handling of Ukraine, Harris was quick to point out who the current presidential candidate is.

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(CHICAGO) — When President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race, Edgar Diaz said his first thought was one of relief.

“Biden did great when he was [Barack] Obama’s running mate and then as he became president, he did a great job,” Diaz, a 43-year-old moderate Democrat who lives in Chicago, told ABC News. “But now I think he’s realized that, ‘Hey, you know what? Now it’s time to step aside and let somebody like Kamala Harris step in.'”

He wasn’t alone in that sentiment.

Four Illinois voters sat down with ABC News at the start of the Democratic National Convention to discuss Biden’s bombshell decision, the rise of Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee and her possible historic path to the presidency.

On Biden’s exit from the campaign

Valerie Jencks and Grace Walters, who also plan to support Harris in November, described feeling uplifted and reassured when Biden said he wouldn’t seek a second term in the White House.

Jencks, 61, recalled watching Biden as a senator during the Reagan administration discuss apartheid and how “vibrant he was and how passionate he was about about these issues.”

“Over the years, he has stayed true to the issues and values,” she said. “But I feel that the passion that’s required to bring us together again just wasn’t there. So I was very relieved, actually, when he bowed out.”

Walters, 25, said she immediately saw more energy and enthusiasm behind Harris and her agenda.

“That was encouraging to see,” she said. “It became less about vote for us because we’re not them, and more vote for us because we’re doing X, Y and Z — and that is always an easier thing to get behind.”

David Spada, a 53-year-old conservative Republican, asked those at the table whether they had any concern with how Harris came to be the nominee. Much of the Democratic Party quickly coalesced around her after Biden quickly endorsed her to take his place, and no challenger to her candidacy emerged.

“But don’t you have a problem with the party picking Kamala, where, again, the Democratic voters didn’t pick the candidate,” Spada asked. “Shouldn’t the voters pick who the candidate is for president, not just the party?”

On Harris’ rise to the nomination

Before she became Biden’s vice president, Harris unsuccessfully ran for the party’s nomination in the 2020 Democratic primary. She exited the field before the first votes were cast in the Iowa caucus.

This time, however, she’s managed a positive campaign rollout that has her polling better against former President Donald Trump than Biden did.

“I think Kamala is resonating with the voters this time around much, much better because we’re familiar with her work,” said Jencks. “And I also believe that she has hit her stride in being able to publicly present herself and her thoughts and her ideas.”

Walters said she believed Harris’ background as an attorney general may have been too much of a focus in 2020, when protests against racism and police brutality were central to the political landscape.

“I think there’s been enough distance since her work as a prosecutor that people aren’t really talking about it as much,” she said. “There’s less ‘Kamala is a cop’ discourse on Twitter or whatever. I do still think some of that is maybe salient to look at with regards to her political record, but she definitely seems like the younger, more appealing pick, as opposed to Biden.”

Diaz, though, said he thought her prosecutorial skills were being portrayed in a different light to present Harris as an overall “fighter.”

“She is not afraid to go against big corporations, and sit down at the table with them and try to negotiate something,” he said. “I think that brings a lot of joy to a lot of our folks and a lot of passion. And I think that’s why she’s surging, she resonates with a lot of us.”

On Harris’ historic candidacy

While Harris could make history as the first woman elected president, voters said it wasn’t at the center of their support and they’re glad to see it’s not a focal point for the Harris campaign either.

“I think it’s cool that it hasn’t been a major thing of note,” said Walters. “That she’s the first is kind of exciting, but that it’s more about her policy than it is about her gender is even more exciting to me.”

Diaz said he was glad his daughter, who is 13, is seeing Harris and other women already serving in positions of power.

“At least it shows gender is not going to be an issue, it’s who’s the best person to lead this nation,” he said.

Spada, the lone Republican at the table, agreed.

“I just want the best candidate, man or woman,” he said.

“If she’s Black, she’s Indian, she’s a woman — it doesn’t matter. You just got to look at her policies, just like I would look at Nikki Haley’s policies if she was running, like you got to look at Trump’s policies as he’s running again,” Spada said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys have asked the judge overseeing his federal election interference case to further delay the release of a redacted appendix containing evidence amassed by special counsel Jack Smith in his probe of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to a Thursday morning court filing.

The release of the redacted appendix, which was an attachment to the immunity motion unsealed two weeks ago by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan that included new details about Trump and his allies’ actions leading up to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, is currently scheduled for Thursday.

In their motion Thursday, Trump’s attorneys requested that Chutkan delay the release of the appendix until Nov. 14 — after the presidential election — when Trump’s own reply brief appendix is due. The former president is expected to argue that his actions leading up to and on Jan. 6 should be immune from prosecution.

“Here, President Trump requests only that the Court briefly continue its existing stay of the Order, such that the redacted versions of the SC Appendix and President Trump’s forthcoming appendix may be released concurrently,” the filing said. “Although this stay will not eliminate the harms President Trump identified in his prior opposition filings, certain harms will be mitigated. For example, if the Court immediately releases the Special Counsel’s cherry-picked documents, potential jurors will be left with a skewed, one-sided, and inaccurate picture of this case.”

“If the appendices are released simultaneously, at least some press outlets will attempt to report both sides of this case, reducing (although, again, not eliminating) the potential for irreversible prejudice,” the filing said.

The filing includes arguments that could draw direct a rebuke from Judge Chutkan, after she previously warned Trump’s attorneys to not level any further allegations of partisanship at Smith’s team without providing evidence.

Trump’s attorneys also argue that while Chutkan has previously said the election will play no role in her decisions in the case, she should address “the public’s interest in ensuring that this case does not unduly interfere, or appear to interfere, with the ongoing election.”

Smith did not respond to Trump’s request for a delay, the filing says.

Trump last year pleaded not guilty to federal charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election in order to remain in power.

Smith subsequently charged Trump in a superseding indictment that was adjusted to respect the Supreme Court’s July ruling that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken as president.

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