Trump in debate again denies involvement in Project 2025
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump attend a presidential debate in Philadelphia, Sept. 10, 2024. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
(PHILADELPHIA) — During Tuesday evening’s consequential ABC News presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris criticized former President Donald Trump for what she says is his involvement in Project 2025, a 922-page playbook of controversial policy proposals put together by the Heritage Foundation intended to guide the next conservative administration.
Trump denied involvement in Project 2025, saying he had “nothing to do with it” and that he has not read it, despite the playbook being authored by dozens of former members of his administration, including former cabinet secretaries and West Wing aides.
Speaking at a Heritage event in April 2022, Trump said: “This is a great group and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do… when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.”
In the debate, Trump said, “I have nothing to do as she knows better than anyone, I have nothing to do with Project 2025. That is out there. I have not read it. I don’t want to read it, purposely. I’m not going to read it.”
He attributed Project 2025 to a “group of people that got together.”
“They came up with some ideas, I guess, some good, some bad,” he said. “But it makes no difference. I have nothing to do. Everybody knows I’m an open book.”
Tying Trump to Project 2025 has been a big part of the Harris campaign strategy, and she’s already done so a few times during this debate. Polls have consistently shown the plan and its proposals are widely unpopular, so it’s no surprise that Trump is disavowing it yet again.
(CHICAGO) —Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday unveiled her economic platform, her first major policy rollout since becoming the Democratic nominee.
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday held a press conference in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he said he’s “entitled” to insult his Democratic opponent because he doesn’t respect her and attacked her record on the economy.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Harris headed to Milwaukee rally tonight
Democratic candidate for president, Vice President Kamala Harris, is set to speak at a rally in Milwaukee on Tuesday, according to her campaign.
Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ vice presidential running mate, will be in attendance, the campaign confirmed. Also expected at the event are Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, members of the Milwaukee Bucks franchise, including Khris Middleton and President Peter Feigin, and labor leaders.
Harris and Waltz appeared at the DNC in Chicago on Monday night, where Harris surprised delegates by taking the stage early in the night for a brief speech.
Tuesday’s rally, which is being held at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, is aimed at energizing Wisconsin voters, the campaign said.
Iran denies involvement in attempts to hack Trump, Biden campaigns
Iran is denying reports it was involved in attempts to hack the presidential campaigns of former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, the latter of which while he was still in the race.
In a statement, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations, said that reports of attempted hacking, which came from Google and Microsoft, are “unsubstantiated.”
“Such allegations are unsubstantiated and devoid of any standing. As we have previously announced, the Islamic Republic of Iran harbors neither the intention nor the motive to interfere with the U.S. presidential election,” the statement read. “Should the U.S. government genuinely believe in the validity of its claims, it should furnish us with the pertinent evidence—if any—to which we will respond accordingly.”
-ABC News’ Pierre Thomas
7:32 AM EDT Bernie Sanders to speak at DNC on ‘lowering health care costs’
Lowering health care costs will be a central theme at the Democratic National Convention this week, campaign and convention officials said on Monday, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), confirmed as one notable program speaker set to focus upon the issue — specifically on “lowering Rx drug prices” and “taking on Big Pharma.”
Speakers throughout the week like Sanders, California Rep. Robert Garcia, Illinois Rep. Lauren Underwood and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will highlight the support of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for strengthening the Affordable Care Act, convention officials shared first with ABC News.
In a Friday speech setting out a string of economic proposals, Harris pledged to “lower the cost of insulin and prescription drugs for everyone.” She also said she’d “demand transparency from the middlemen who operate between Big Pharma and the insurance companies, who use opaque practices to raise your drug prices and profit off your need for medicine.”
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray
Kerry Washington, Tony Goldwyn and more to host DNC
Actors Kerry Washington, Tony Goldwyn, Mindy Kaling and commentator Ana Navarro will serve as hosts at the Democratic National Convention this week, convention officials confirmed to ABC News.
Each will host one night of the four-day convention, starting the programming with opening remarks and reappearing onstage throughout the night.
Goldwyn will host Monday night, Navarro on Tuesday and Kaling on Wednesday. Washington will host on Thursday, the night Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepts her nomination.
CNN first reported this news.
Harris and Walz debut new campaign buses and kick off tour ahead of DNC
Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz debuted their new campaign buses Sunday and kicked off a bus tour of southwestern Pennsylvania ahead of this week’s Democratic National Convention.
Upon their arrival on Air Force Two, a few hundred supporters greeted Harris, Walz and their spouses at a hangar where the new were buses parked.
Supporters told ABC News they were thrilled by Harris’ candidacy, with one saying she had not felt this excited about politics in years. Some said they had never volunteered for a campaign before signing up to work on Harris’.
“I was excited about Biden, but I am a million times more excited about Kamala,” Nicole Molinaro, a Pittsburgh-area mom, said. “I think that we need her leadership. We need her intelligence. We need her progressive, you know, stance. I think we need her experience. We need everything about Kamala.”
Another supporter, Edward Freel, said he was unsure about Harris at first, “but then, as I started listening better and following her, [I thought] this woman is going to be good for this country.”
Trump campaign releases counterprogramming schedule for DNC week
During the week of the DNC, Former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance will be out on the campaign trail, holding events in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
Trump allies — including Sens. Ron Johnson and Rick Scott, and Rep. Byron Donalds — will travel to Chicago to host press conferences every day of the convention. The Trump team will also give a press conference on Thursday ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris accepting the Democratic party’s nomination.
“As they meet Americans where they are in battleground states across the country, President Trump and Senator Vance will remind voters that under their leadership, we can end inflation, protect our communities from violent criminals, secure the border, and Make America Great Again,” Trump Campaign Senior Advisors Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Michelle Obama to speak at DNC this week
Former first lady Michelle Obama will speak at the DNC in Chicago this week, ABC News has confirmed with her office.
Her appearance, first reported by Essence Magazine, will be among a lineup of prominent Democratic leaders who are rallying in support of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Former President Barack Obama is also scheduled to speak at the DNC.
According to a source familiar with the planning, Michelle Obama will speak on Tuesday — the same day as the former president.
-ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart and Gabriella Abdul-Hakim
Former Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard will help Trump prepare for presidential debate
Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard will assist Trump in preparing for his first debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.
“[Trump] does not need traditional debate prep but will continue to meet with respected policy advisors and effective communicators like Tulsi Gabbard, who successfully dominated Kamala Harris on the debate stage,” Trump campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a statement to ABC News, confirming a development first reported by The New York Times.
Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and a one-time Democratic presidential candidate during the 2020 election, gained brief momentum during her presidential run after challenging Harris on the debate stage on topics like criminal prosecutions.
Since leaving the Democratic Party, Gabbard has been gaining traction among Trump supporters, and more recently she has appeared on Fox and other conservative news outlets attacking Harris.
– ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Soo Rin Kim, Kelsey Walsh, and Lalee Ibssa
Election 2024 updates: ABC News Harris-Trump debate to be held in Philadelphia
The first debate between Vice President Harris and former President Trump will be held by ABC News at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
The Sept. 10 debate will be moderated by ABC News anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis.
It will air live at 9:00 p.m. ET on the network and on its 24/7 streaming network ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.
(WASHINGTON) — In Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for the White House, her pathway to the coveted 270 electoral votes has evolved now that she is the Democratic Party’s nominee — as she can potentially fare better than President Joe Biden in regions like the Sun Belt.
Biden’s decision to leave the 2024 race last month and Harris’ ascension to the top of the ticket has injected fresh enthusiasm into the contest — and the Harris campaign is looking to capitalize on that during a tour of battleground states this week with her newly minted running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, which includes stops in the Sun Belt states of Arizona on Friday and Nevada on Saturday.
The Sun Belt — which includes states in the South and West, ranging from Florida and Georgia through the Gulf states into California — contains several 2024 battleground states that both Harris and former President Donald Trump will target in their effort to win in November.
Biden’s campaign, focused on saving democracy and the threat Trump poses in the effort, struggled to capture the energy needed to mobilize voters in the Sun Belt states he narrowly won during the 2020 election — including Arizona and Georgia, experts told ABC News. Now Harris’ campaign is working to appeal to the coveted Sun Belt voters who could help her win the White House.
Broadening Harris’ base
Republican and Democratic strategists both agree that the momentum Harris has been able to garner has paved new lines in the Sun Belt that the campaign can now realistically cross.
Chuck Coughlin, a longtime Republican consultant in Arizona, said Harris can make inroads in Arizona where Biden was not able to.
“Harris seems to have grasped the ‘I’m looking forward, they’re looking backward’ narrative and Arizona is a forward-looking state,” said Coughlin, who is now registered as a “PND” or “Party Not Designated” after leaving the party in 2017.
Lorna Romero, an Arizona GOP strategist, told ABC News that the campaign’s “forward looking” messaging is what a lot of voters are looking for in a candidate. However, she said she thinks Harris will have to do a lot more if she wants to win over Republicans in the state that Biden narrowly won in 2020 by roughly 10,000 votes.
“I think Harris really needs to separate herself from the Biden administration because what Republicans have been doing has been pointing out the failures under Biden like the border,” Romero said of Arizona, a state where the immigration and border debate — a key voter issue in 2024 — has raged.
And Harris’ campaign is working to sway some of those Republican voters. In order to win the Sun Belt states, Harris will not only have to appeal to her base, but also woo moderate and Republican voters. The campaign has launched a grassroots organizing program nationwide to attract Republicans called “Republicans for Harris.”
No matter the party, issues such as immigration and the economy are top of mind for Arizona residents, according to Coughlin. But issues such as abortion have galvanized voters on both sides of the aisle to head to the polls.
In Arizona, abortion will appear on the ballot in November after an Arizona Supreme Court decision revived an 1864 near-total abortion ban, which could potentially punish providers who provide an abortion. Before the Arizona Supreme Court decision, the state had a 15-week abortion ban in place.
Coughlin said he thinks abortion on the ballot could be a major “turnout mechanism” in the state.
Romero says these issues will make for a tough balancing act for Harris over these next few months between “alienating” swing voters and keeping progressives “happy.”
Morgan Jackson, a Democratic strategist from North Carolina, said she thinks Harris’ chances of winning over that battleground Sun Belt state will be a lot simpler.
Although Biden lost North Carolina in 2020 by some 90,000 votes, Jackson said she thinks the state’s rapidly growing population of young, college-educated adults who prioritize issues such as abortion will help to flip the state.
In 2023, Raleigh — which is home to a consortium of colleges and universities — was America’s third fastest-growing city, according to the Census bureau.
“The way you win North Carolina is you run up the score in the urban and suburban areas, and just try to limit your losses in the rural areas, and I think Kamala Harris is well positioned to do so,” Jackson said.
In Georgia, which played a crucial role in Biden’s 2020 victory after it went blue for the first time since 1992, strategist Amy Morton said she is already seeing the effects of Harris leading the party’s ticket.
“For all of our clients, we will need to revise our projections for turnout upward,” Georgia Democratic strategist Amy Morton told her team after a flood of Harris endorsements when Biden dropped out of the race. “That’s the impact Harris will have on the ticket.”
Voter enthusiasm in the Sun Belt
Harris is doing better than Biden in the Sun Belt’s swing states, according to 538’s polling average.
For example, in Arizona, Trump leads only by a half point margin — 44.8% to Harris’ 44.4%, according to 538’s polling average. Biden left the race polling at 39.5%. In Georgia, 538’s polling average shows Trump leads by a small and similar margin — 45.8% compared to 45.2% for Harris; Biden polled at 39.2% before leaving the race.
Loomis Henry, an independent voter and Arizona native, plans to attend the rally Harris and Walz are hosting in Phoenix on Friday.
“I’m completely blown away. And it’s the first time I have felt invigorated and excited about politics,” Henry said.
Although previously unfamiliar with Walz, the governor’s “Minnesota nice” persona has won him over, Henry said.
“I’m like, where’s this guy been hiding? He seems like he’s really a working-class guy and authentic. And I think that has been lacking from politics for so long,” Henry said.
Stephanie Munoz, a 35-year-old from Phoenix, who also plans to attend Friday’s rally approved of the addition to the Harris ticket, too.
“A lot of people criticize Kamala Harris for being like a prosecutor and too uptight and I feel like he brings in more of that warmth feeling, and they play off each other very well,” Munoz said.
Henry told ABC News that regardless of party, the country is ready to move on from its “divisions,” and he thinks Harris will help to ease those tensions.
“I think she just needs to be herself,” said Henry. “I think she’s likable, and I think if she just has more direct dialogue with our country, people will see this and a lot of this ugly right and left, and division — I think she can slowly thaw that out a little bit.”
(NEW YORK) — Vice President Kamala Harris went after Donald Trump for his false claims about FEMA in the wake of devastating storms in the Southeast during an appearance on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday.
“It’s profound and it is the height of irresponsibility and, frankly, callousness,” Harris said of Trump’s claims. “Lives are literally at stake right now.”
Harris described personal stories she heard from those affected by Hurricane Helene and its aftermath after traveling to Georgia and North Carolina.
“People are losing their home with no hope of ever being able to reconstruct or return, and the idea that somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself — but this is so consistent about Donald Trump,” she said. “He puts himself before the needs of others. I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level to care about suffering of other people and understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down, it’s to lift people up.”
Harris’ sit-down on “The View” marked her first live interview since becoming the Democratic nominee. She is ramping up her media appearances this week with now just one month until Election Day.
Harris was also asked about a comment from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accusing Harris of only getting involved in storm response out of political motivation.
“She has no role in this,” DeSantis said on Monday. “In fact, she’s been vice president for three-and-a-half years. I’ve dealt with a number of storms under this administration. She has never contributed anything to any of these efforts, and so what I think is selfish is trying to blunder into this.”
ABC News reported DeSantis declined to take a call with Harris in the last several days, though DeSantis later said he was unaware of the attempted outreach.
“I have called and talked within the course of this crisis, this most recent crisis, Democrat and Republican governors — called, taken the call, answered the call, had a conversation,” Harris said. “So, obviously this is not an issue that is about partisanship or politics for certain leaders but maybe is for others.”
Harris then turned to Hurricane Milton and urged any Floridians tuning in to the show to heed to calls to evacuate. The storm is expected to make landfall on Wednesday evening as possibly a Category 4 hurricane.
“This one is going to be different, and that’s why I called the governor about what Florida has received in terms of impact,” she said.
President Biden, after being briefed on Hurricane Milton on Tuesday, was asked if Harris had been helpful in preparing for the storm. Biden nodded his head and said “yes.”
Biden also criticized those spreading misinformation about FEMA in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, calling it “un-American.”
“It puts people in certain things where they panic. Where they really, really, really worry,” Biden said. “They think we’re not being taken care of. And it really is — that’s going to sound, I’m gonna use an old phrase, it’s un-American. It really is. People are scared to death.”
Biden said he was able to speak with all the governors of states that will be affected by Hurricane Milton, including a call with DeSantis last night. Biden said DeSantis has been “cooperative” and that the Florida governor said he’s received everything he needs.
“I made clear they should reach out, including to me directly, with everything else they may need as they see this storm hit,” Biden said. “I gave them my personal number to contact me here in the White House.”
