Kamala Harris, Donald Trump debate prompts major endorsement, Fox News invitation for a 2nd face-off
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris traded barbs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, tonight during the ABC News Presidential Debate.
Coverage for this event has ended.
The Harris campaign says that it wants a second presidential debate in October, moments after the end of the first debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
"That was fun. let's do it again," Harris advisor Brian Fallon said.
The Washington Post reported that the campaign had planned to announced its desire for a second debate before the November election.
Trump has also called for multiple debates between the two so a second matchup between the two seems likely.
Thus far, at least 42 out of the currently serving 49 Republican senators have endorsed former President Donald Trump.
In the House of Representatives, just over 75% of the GOP delegation has also endorsed Trump, according to FiveThirtyEight’s endorsement tracker. Other high-profile endorsers of Trump include former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former U.S. Attorneys General Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions.
Meanwhile, Trump has garnered other endorsements from 21 out of the country’s 27 Republican governors. Endorsements for Trump have been rolling in ever since he announced his intention to run for the presidency again in November 2022. Several of the GOP politicians who now support Trump, however, did not initially. Haley, one of Trump’s big endorsers , actually campaigned against Trump before dropping out and ultimately pledging her support to the former president.
Former President Donald Trump sat down with Fox News' Sean Hannity after the debate Tuesday night, during which he praised his performance and suggested he would consider debating again if it was done on a "fair network."
"I had a good time, I think it was our best debate ever," Trump said, before slamming ABC and its moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, for being unfair. "We had three against one," Trump insisted.
Trump took Harris to task for "destroying our country" during the interview and noted it was intentional when he left his criticisms about Harris' job as vice president for his closing remarks. "She's complaining about all the stuff that's wrong about the country and she's been [in the White House] for three and a half years," Trump told Hannity. "And I wanted to save that for my last little summation."
When asked by Hannity if he was considering participating in a second-debate, which the Harris campaign signaled it was open to Tuesday night, Trump said "maybe."
"If it was on a fair network," he added.
Trump, meanwhile, compared Harris to a prize-fighter who just lost and wants a rematch.
“When you're a prize fighter and you lose you immediately want a new fight -- you want a rematch. The guy that won is sort of happy and thinking about it.”
"It’s pretty clear to me that on Tuesday night, Vice President Kamala Harris won what may be the only debate between herself and former President Donald Trump.
The vice president had some help, too. She was aided and abetted by two ABC News moderators who seemingly felt the need to fact-check virtually everything the former president said.The former president was clearly frustrated and became more strident and divisive as the nearly two-hour debate continued.
And the vice president appeared to gain renewed confidence as she saw Trump faltering under relentless questioning from herself and moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis.Although Harris clearly won the debate in my estimation, it isn’t at all clear that this debate, just 56 days before the election, will fundamentally impact the outcome on November 5."
Read the full opinion editorial from Doug Schoen.
PHILADELPHIA, PA - Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris faced off in a heated debate Tuesday night, sparring about abortion, immigration, Israel, the economy and a range of other issues—but Trump also battled the ABC News moderators, who were quick to challenge and "fact check" the 45th president, while leaving Harris’ numerous distortions untouched.
Trump and Harris engaged in their first, and possibly only debate of the 2024 general election cycle at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pa. Tuesday night—a highly-anticipated ninety-minute showdown as they traded jabs, and repeatedly, accused each other of lying.
The two met for the first time Tuesday night on the debate stage, with the vice president introducing herself as "Kamala Harris" to the former president as they shook hands--before making it a top priority to attempt to get under his skin and bait him throughout the debate.
The debate got underway with questions from ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis, who challenged Trump throughout the debate.
Shortly after it concluded, Trump told Fox News Digital that he thought it was his "best debate ever, especially because it was three on one."
Fox News' Brooke Singman and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Former President Trump sat down with Fox News's Sean Hannity following the debate Tuesday night.
"I thought it was a great debate," Trump told Hannity. "I think I got everything out."
Pop star Taylor Swift announced late Tuesday she will be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris this November.
The 14-time Grammy winner wrote on Instagram that she watched the ABC News debate and came away believing Harris "fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.
"I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate Tim Walz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades," Swift wrote on Instagram.
"I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make. I also want to say, especially to first time voters: Remember that in order to vote, you have to be registered."
"I also find it’s much easier to vote early....With love and hope, Taylor Swift; Childless Cat Lady.
Swift, who hails from Reading in the swing state of Pennsylvania, now primarily resides in Nashville, Tenn.
In that regard, she has been outspoken in the past in regard to politics -- previously deriding her adoptive home state's senator Marsha Blackburn as "Trump in a wig."
Fox News has formally re-upped its offer to host a second presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump.
On the heels of the ABC News Presidential Debate on Tuesday, FOX News Media executives sent a letter to the Harris and Trump campaigns offering to host another debate, with Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum as moderators.
"Now that the first debate is underway between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, FOX News Media is re-upping its proposal. As the Harris Campaign has stated, the American people will have another opportunity to see both on stage in October," FOX News Media president & Executive Editor Jay Wallace and Vice President of Politics Jessica Loker wrote.
Former President Donald Trump and VP Kamala Harris traded blows on the issue of crime in the United States in the first presidential debate, with Harris defending accusations that migrant crime has increased under her watch by citing Trump's legal issues.
"Yeah, it is much higher because of them," Trump said during the debate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania discussing crime committed by illegal immigrants in the U.S., some of which entered the country under Biden's watch.
"They allowed criminals, many, many millions of criminals," Trump continued, "They allowed terrorists. They allowed common street criminals. They allowed people to come in drug dealers to come into our country. And then now in the United States and told by their countries like Venezuela, don't ever come back or we're going to kill you. Do you know that crime in Venezuela and crime in countries all over the world is way down?"
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Andrew Mark Miller.
Vice President Harris told former President Trump that he is "not running against Joe Biden" during the presidential debate.
"We're playing with World War Three, and we have a president that we don't even know if he's - Where is our president? We don't even know if he's the president," Trump said of Biden during the presidential debate on Tuesday.
"They threw him out of the campaign like a dog," Trump added. "We have a president that doesn't even know he's alive."
Harris responded that she is the candidate Trump is running against, not Biden.
"It's important to remind the former president you're not running against Joe Biden, you're running against me," Harris told Trump.
Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July, throwing his endorsement behind Harris immediately after ending his campaign.
Former President Donald Trump cited his assassination attempt during his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, saying he "probably took a bullet to the head" due to rhetoric from Harris and Democrats.
"I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me. They talk about democracy. I'm a threat to democracy. They're the threat to democracy," Trump said from the debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening.
Trump faced an assassination attempt in July during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooter, Matthew Crooks, shot Trump in the ear, injured two audience members and fatally shot local dad and fireman Corey Comperatore.
This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News' Digital's Emma Colton.
Trump continued to hit out at Biden-Harris foreign policy, citing the change in policy towards Iran and accusing them of enriching the nation to the detriment of close allies such as Israel.
“Iran has $300 billion because they took off all the sanctions that I had,” Trump said. “Iran had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah or any of the 28 different spheres of terror, and they are spheres of terror, horrible terror.”
“They had no money … they had no money for terror. They were broke,” he insisted. “Now, they’re a rich nation, and now what they’re doing is they’re spreading the money around. Look at what’s happening with the Houthis and Yemen.”
When pressed on why he believes the war in Ukraine would end once he took office, Trump touted his good relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that everything has “gone to hell” after he left office.
“I will get it settled before I even become president,” Trump promised. “If I win, when I'm president elect, what I'll do is I'll speak to one, I'll speak to the other. I'll get them together. That war would have never happened.”
“In fact, when I saw Putin after I left, unfortunately left because our country has gone to hell, but after I left, when I saw him building up soldiers, he did it after I left, I said, oh, he must be negotiating,” Trump explained.
“It must be a good, strong point of negotiation,” he added. “Well, it wasn't because Biden had no idea how to talk to him. He had no idea how to stop it. And now you have millions of people dead, and it's only getting worse.”
Vice President Kamala Harris claimed former President Donald Trump would install a national abortion ban that would allow for no exceptions, despite Trump saying moments before that he believes in exceptions for abortion.
"Now, in over 20 states there are Trump abortion bans, which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide health care in one state, it provides prison for life. Trump abortion bans that make no exception, even for rape and incest, which understand what that means. A survivor of a crime of violation to their body does not have the right to make a decision about what happens to their body. That is immoral, and one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government and Donald Trump certainly should not be telling a woman what to do with her body," Harris said Tuesday evening from Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center.
"Understand, if Donald Trump were to be re-elected, he will sign the national abortion ban," Harris added.
Moments before, Trump said he believes in exceptions for abortion, similar to former President Ronald Reagan.
Former President Trump took a jab at Vice President Harris for getting a possible endorsement from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Putin endorsed her last week, said he hopes she wins, and I think he meant it," Trump said.
Harris had claimed that autocrats were "rooting" for Trump to be president because he could be manipulated with "flattery and favors."
Putin said last week that ultimately it was up to the American people to decide, but said that as President Biden has backed Harris, "we will do the same, we will support her."
"She laughs so expressively and infectiously that it means that everything is fine with her," he added.
Former President Donald Trump challenged Vice President Kamala Harris to leave the debate, go to Washington D.C. and get President Biden to sign a bill to "close up the border."
"Why are we allowing these millions of people to come through on the southern border? How come she's not doing anything?" he said.
"And I'll tell you what I would do, and I would be very proud to do it. I would say we would both leave this debate right now. I'd like to see her go down to Washington, DC during this debate, because we're wasting a lot of time...Go down to Washington, DC and let her sign a bill to close up the border, because they have the right to do it, they don't need bills."
He then took a jab at President Biden, accusing him of being asleep during the day.
"The President of the United States, you'll get him out of bed. You'll wake him up at four o'clock in the afternoon. You say, 'Come on down to the office, let's sign a bill.' If he he signs a bill that the border is closed, all he has to do is say it to the Border Patrol, who are phenomenal. If they do that the border is closed."
"Those people are killing many people, unlike [January 6 2021]," he said.
Former President Trump said that Vice President Harris would end fracking "on day one" if elected.
During her 2020 presidential campaign, Harris said that "there's no question I'm in favor of banning fracking." Harris shifted her stance on the issue after becoming the 2024 Democratic nominee, saying now that she does not support a ban on fracking.
The issue was brought up during the presidential debate in Pennsylvania on Tuesday.
"Fracking? She's been against it for 12 years," Trump said.
"This is a radical left liberal that would do this," the former president added. "She will never allow fracking in Pennsylvania. If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on day one."
Vice President Harris recounted her experience of Jan. 6, during which time she was VP-elect and a sitting senator, and accused Trump of inciting “a violent mob.”
“I was there, and on that day, the president of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation's capitol, to desecrate our nation's Capitol,” Harris said.
“On that day, 140 law enforcement officers were injured and some died,” she said. “And understand the former president has been indicted and impeached for exactly that reason. But this is not an isolated situation.”
Trump bemoaned that Harris and her campaign “bring all of this stuff up,” referring to Jan. 6, Project 2025 and other allegations made against him.
Trump touched directly on Jan. 6, noting that Biden has not done enough to combat crime as a result of illegal crossings at the border, saying that “those people are killing many people – unlike J-6.”
Trump hit out at the Biden administration for failing to take more clear and punitive action following the death of 13 U.S. servicemembers during the Afghanistan drawdown.
“I'm a different kind of a person. I fired most of those people. Not so graciously,” Trump said.
“They did bad things or a bad job: I fired them,” he continued, claiming that Biden and Harris “never fired one person” for poor performances, including in response to the military drawdown.
“13 people who were just viciously and violently killed, and I got to know the parents and the family,” he said. “They didn't fire - they should have fired all those generals, all those top people, because that was one of the most incompetently handled situations anybody has ever seen.”
“So when somebody does a bad job, I fire him,” Trump said, pointing to Mark Esper, saying “he was no good” so he “fired him.”
“They have done such a poor job, and they never fire anybody,” Trump insisted. “Look at the economy. Look at look at the inflation. They didn't fire any of their economists. They have the same people. That's a good way not to have books written about you.”
Former President Trump fueled viral claims online that migrants are eating pets in a town in Ohio, despite pushback from officials and debate moderators.
Trump, speaking on immidgration, highlighted issues in Springfield, Ohio, which has seen a significant amount of Haitian migration in recent years. This week there have been claims online, fueled by Republicans, that some migrants have eaten ducks and pets.
"In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats, they're eating the pets of the people that live there," Trump said.
However, officials in Springfield pushed back on those claims in a statement, which was also referenced by the moderators at the debate.
"In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community," the statement said this week, provided to Fox News Digital.
But Trump stood by his remarks when challenged by the moderators.
"The people on television say 'my dog was taken and used for food,'" he said.
Trump raised a few policies that the Biden-Harris administration had promised but failed to fully implement during their tenure, stressing that Harris will continue to fall short if she won the election.
“Look, we don’t have to discuss it because she’d never be able to get it, just like she couldn’t get student loans, they couldn’t get student loans,” Trump said.
“They taunted young people and a lot of other people that had loans,” he added. “They can never get this approved, so it doesn’t matter what she says about going to Congress. So wonderful: Let’s go to Congress. Do it.”
“But the fact is that for years they wanted to get it out of Congress and out of the federal government, and we did something that everybody said couldn't be done, and now you have a vote of the people on abortion,” Trump said.
Former President Donald Trump accused VP Kamala Harris of not having a plan to combat rising inflation and improve the U.S. economy during the early minutes of the first presidential debate.
"She doesn't have a plan," Trump said during the debate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during a discussion about the economy.
"She copied Biden's plan. And it's like four sentences like 'Run, Spot, Run' for sentences that are just, oh, we'll try and lower taxes. She doesn't have a plan. Take a look at her plan. She doesn't have a plan."
"Donald Trump has no plan for you," Harris said earlier in the presidential debate. "And when you look at his economic plan, it's all about tax breaks for the richest people. I am offering what I describe as an opportunity economy and the best economist in our country, if not the world, have reviewed our relative plans for the future of America.
Trump hit out at Harris’ perceived lack of policies, claiming that she was increasingly resembling him on some issues while once again accusing her of changing policies on a whim.
“Everything that she believed three years ago and four years ago is out the window,” Trump insisted. “She's going to my philosophy now.”
“In fact, I was going to send her a Maga hat,” Trump quipped. “She's going to my philosophy, but if she ever got elected, she’ll change it and it will be the end of our country.”
“She's a Marxist,” he added. “Everybody knows she's a Marxist. Her father's a Marxist professor in economics, and he taught her well.”
Harris previously faced accusations of copying Trump’s plan to cut taxes on tips for restaurant and hospitality workers.
Former President Trump says that he has "nothing to do with Project 2025," after Vice President Harris attempted to tie him to the conservative group during the presidential debate.
Harris claimed that Trump "intends on implementing" a "detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025."
Project 2025 was launched by the Heritage Foundation as part of their Presidential Transition Project for the 2024 cycle. The former president, however, has denied any involvement with the group.
"As you know, and as she knows better than anyone, I have nothing to do with Project 2025. That's out there. I haven't read it. I don't want to read it purposely. I'm not going to read it," Trump said during Tuesday's debate.
"This was a group of people that got together. They came up with some ideas, I guess. Some good, some bad. But it makes no difference," he added. "Everybody knows I'm an open book. Everybody knows what I'm going to do."
Former President Trump pivoted quickly to the subject of immigration and border security in the presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump, responding to a question on the economy, said that the Biden administration has been a "disaster" for the country and then turned to the subject of "millions of people pouring into our country."
He mentioned Springfield, Ohio where Haitian migration has been a big issue, and Aurora, Colo., where Tren de Aragua -- a Venezuelan gang -- has been causing trouble in apartment blocks.
"You see what's happening with towns throughout the United States. You look at Springfield, Ohio. You look at Aurora in Colorado, they are taking over the towns. They're taking over buildings. They're going in violently. These are the people that she and Biden led into our country, and they're destroying our country. They're dangerous. They're at the highest level of criminality. And we have to get them out," he said.
He later went back to it and said that Harris "has destroyed our country with a policy that's insane...policy that you say they have to hate our country."
Vice President Kamala Harris claimed that former President Trump wants to introduce a “sales tax” on every day goods, but Trump dismissed the claim as an “incorrect statement.”
“She knows that we're doing tariffs on other countries,” Trump explained. “Other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we've done for the world.”
“And the tariff will be substantial in some cases,” he added. “I took in billions and billions of dollars, as you know, from China. In fact, they never took the tariff off because it was so much money.”
Harris had argued that Trump’s tariff would manifest as a tax on everyday goods “that you rely on to get through the month.” Moderators noted that Trump said he would go as high as 20% and cited economists who reviewed Trump's tariff plan and the costs it could pass on to consumers.
Trump countered that the economy suffered high inflation under the Biden-Harris administration, claiming that the U.S. has “inflation like very few people have ever had before, probably the worst in our nation’s history.”
The presidential debate is underway and it began with Vice President Kamala Harris introducing herself to former President Trump.
"Kamala Harris," Harris told Trump.
Trump responded by saying "It's good to see you. Have fun"
The debate is the first, and perhaps only face-to-face debate between the two candidates this cycle.
Former President Trump has promised to cut taxes if elected as part of an effort to boost the economy and to make America “richer and stronger.”
Trump announced last week that he wants to cut the corporate tax rate to 15% as part of a broader effort to decrease the hand of government.
"I am promising low taxes, low regulations, low energy costs, low interest rates, secure borders, low, low crime and surging incomes for citizens of every race, religion, color and creed," Trump said. "My plan will rapidly defeat inflation, quickly bring down prices and reignite explosive economic growth."
Trump signed into law a broad tax cut during his first term, a move that drew significant left-wing opposition. Trump promised last week to make the tax cuts permanent.
"They are massive tax cuts," he said.
Vice President Harris' campaign is planning to "fact check" former President Trump in real-time during the presidential debate.
"Trump is going to lie tonight. A lot," the Harris HQ account said in a post on X ahead of the event. "So we are going to fact check him in real time."
Prominent surrogates for the Harris campaign will be watching the debate from the spin room.
The spin room surrogates include Governor Roy Cooper, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Governor Gavin Newsom, Governor Josh Shapiro, Brigadier General Steve Anderson (Ret.), Senator Laphonza Butler, Senator Tammy Duckworth, Senator Chris Murphy, Congressman Jason Crow, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, Congressman Robert Garcia, Congressman Ted Lieu, Former Congressman Cedric Richmond, Reproductive Freedom for All President & CEO Mini Timmaraju, and Gold Star Father Khizr Khan.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Fox News' Jesse Watters on Tuesday that VP Kamala Harris will have a difficult time attempting to defend the policies of the Biden-Harris administration.
"She's not Joe Biden but she does still have to be responsible for all the failures of this administration," Sanders said shortly before the first presidential debate was set to begin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
"Not only that, she is literally taking the same out of his playbook and trying to use it and fool the American people but their too smart to fall for the ridiculousness and think that she is anything other than a far left radical."
The Arkansas Republican said that Harris is "infinitely worse" than Biden."
She can not show anything other than failure that they have been responsible for over the past several years," Sanders added.
Former President Donald Trump has said he had a “good” relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin when he was in the Oval Office, adding that war between Russia and Ukraine would not have happened if he were in office.
“So I had a good relationship with Putin despite the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax that lasted for over two years. Just a hoax created by Hillary Clinton and Adam Shifty Schiff,” Trump told tech billionaire Elon Musk in an X interview last month.
“I know Putin very well, I got along with him very well. He respected me. It’s just one of those things, and we would talk a lot about Ukraine. It was the apple of his eye. I said, “Don’t ever do it. Don’t ever do it,” he added during the interview.
Trump has long been accused by liberal critics of having a cozy relationship with the Russian leader, which Trump has brushed aside, saying he and Putin simply respect each other as leaders.
Similar to Trump’s view on the Israel-Gaza conflict, the former president says Putin’s invasion of Ukraine wouldn’t have happened in 2022 were he in the White House.
The Biden-Harris administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal in August 2021, when 13 U.S. service members were killed, was a key sign of weakness to Putin emboldening the invasion, Trump argues.
Pro-Palestinian protesters outside the hall for tonight's presidential debate are claiming that the US is "built on supremacy" as they attack Republicans and Democrats for "supporting genocide."
Protesters affiliated with the Philly Palestine Coalition and National SJP have gathered outside City Hall in downtown Philadelphia, some were wielding Palestinian flags and keffiyehs.
An Instagram page affiliated with the group said that "the two leading candidates in the 2024 Amerikan [sic] presidential race both have made their positions clear: When it comes to supporting genocide, the Republicans and Democrats are as united as ever."
About 100 protesters gathered for the protest with a heavy media presence. One speaker at the protest criticized both former President Trump and Vice President Harris.
"The USA was built on supremacy," they said.
Fox News' Kirill Clark contributed to this report.
Former President Jimmy Carter is paying close attention to the election cycle while in hospice care and grieving the loss of his wife, Rosalynn Carter, their son revealed in a recent interview.
"He does not believe Donald Trump should be president again," James Earl "Chip" Carter III, the second child of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, told the Washington Post last week.
Carter, the longest-lived American president at 99, entered hospice care in February of last year, but he has remained committed to following the presidential election, his son said. Last month, the 39th president watched the speakers of the DNC, who gathered in Chicago in support of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s presidential campaign.
Carter’s son said the former president believed Harris’ speech was "great," but noted another speaker stole the show.
"He thought Michelle Obama was the best, and he thought Kamala was great, too," Chip Carter said.
Vice President Kamala Harris has stated throughout her campaign that she believes prices are too high, as she lays out an economic blueprint just weeks before election day.
“We believe in a future where we lower the cost of living for America's families so that they have a chance not just to get by, but to get ahead. Because while our economy is doing well by many measures, prices for everyday things like groceries are still too high,” Harris said recently while in Wisconsin.
During a campaign rally in Atlanta, Ga., Harris said that one of her “Day One” priorities, should she be elected president, would be to “take on price gouging and bring down costs."
White Harris is yet to reveal her economic agenda, the vice president said that she will unveil more details of her economic plan in the coming days of her campaign.
Asked what she would do on "day one" during her first sit down interview since becoming the Democratic nominee, Harris said she would work on what she calls an "opportunity economy."
"I've already laid out a number of proposals in that regard, which include what we're going to do to bring down the cost of everyday goods, what we're going to do to invest in America's small businesses, what we're going to do to invest in families," Harris said.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., claimed on Monday's episode of "The View" that there was an "open" process and anybody could have been the Democratic nominee after President Biden dropped out of the race.
Pelosi was among the Democrats who was instrumental in the effort to force Biden to step down following his disastrous debate in June, something that appears to have caused a rift between her and the president.
"There is a perception among some that there's a lot of hurt feelings, because you played an outsized role in him stepping down, which was a very selfless, but a very hard thing for him to do," co-host and Harris supporter Ana Navarro said. "I’ve heard that Jill Biden and her team, that there's people close to the Biden team that are upset at you. Have you spoken to him, and how do you respond to that?"
"No," Pelosi answered. "My point was we need a better campaign, as I said, a decision to win. I didn't see us on a path to victory. So, it wasn't about him not running. It's just, if this is the case, we have to run in a different way. The president made his decision: patriotic, selfless, the most consequential president of modern times. This has been a great President of the United States."
House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson , R-La., took to social media platform X just hours before Tuesday’s presidential debate to praise former President Trump and slam Kamala Harris for their contrasting visions for America.
“Tonight at the debate, President Trump will expose VP Kamala Harris' radical record,” Johnson wrote.
“As Vice President, Harris has failed to lower costs or secure the border over the past 3 and a half years,” Johnson continued. “Lying about her record and positions will not work.”
“Instead, President Trump has a strong agenda that will secure our border, fix our economy, and deliver peace through strength once again!” he added, including a link to a list of the “20 Core Promises to Make America Great Again!”
The list included such points as “seal the border,” “end inflation,” “make America the dominant energy producer in the world” as well as “prevent World War Three” and “end the weaponization of government against the American people.”
FIRST ON FOX: The House Judiciary Committee is requesting a briefing from the Justice Department on how it is working to combat "potential conflicts of interest and political bias" in its lawsuit against Google amid reports that the Big Tech giant’s lead attorney is helping prep Vice President Harris for the debate against former President Trump.
Fox News Digital obtained a letter that House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday morning.
"The Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government continue to conduct oversight of how and to what extent the Executive Branch has colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor lawful speech," Jordan wrote.
Jordan went on to cite a Fox News Digital report that revealed the lead attorney defending Google in U.S. v. Google LLC, a high-profile antitrust case led by the Justice Department, is simultaneously advising and prepping Harris for the debate against Trump on Tuesday night, which is hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia.
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that if he were in office that the Russian-Ukraine war wouldn’t have happened, and that if elected, he vows to end it within a day.
“They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done — I’ll have that done in 24 hours,” Trump said during a CNN town hall last year.
“If we had a real president, a president that knew — that was respected by Putin ... he would have never invaded Ukraine,” Trump argued during his debate with President Biden earlier this year.
Trump’s campaign has said that it would be a “top priority” to end the war in Ukraine if he were to win in November, though it has also argued that European nations should be paying more of the price tag for supporting Ukraine.
“Trump believes European nations should be paying more of the cost of the conflict,” Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung told the Associated Press earlier this year.
Vice President Kamala Harris has continued to support Ukraine in the war between Russia and the former Soviet republic.
In February, Harris met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where she praised Ukraine’s resolve.
“It is thanks to the skill and bravery of the people of Ukraine and the support of the 50-nation coalition the United States has led, Kyiv stands free and strong," she said.
Harris went on to call the war an “utter failure for Vladimir Putin,” crediting the collective strength of the West and Ukraine.
Harris has said support for Ukraine is within the U.S.’ strategic interest, and has warned that “international rules and norms are on the line – including fundamental principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Sen. J.D. Vance has arrived in Philadelphia ahead of tonight's presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Vance's press secretary posted a video on X of Vance landing in Philadelphia ahead of debate night.
Trump and Harris will meet tonight for their first and potentially only presidential debate.
Philadelphia is seen as one of the must-win states in November. Both candidates have repeatedly made stops this summer in the state, which, along with Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.
Philadelphia’s metropolitan area votes overwhelmingly Democratic. There is one Republican on its 17-seat city council, and it hasn’t had a Republican mayor since 1952.
Philadelphia’s suburbs, however, were key to Biden winning the swing state in 2020.
Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by just 44,000 votes, while Biden flipped the state in 2020 by over 80,000 votes thanks in large part to in-roads in Philly outskirts.
Pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. released a website and ad on Tuesday ahead of the debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, slamming Harris for her economic record in a rollercoaster-themed attack.
"Kamala's Economy: The biggest, wildest, scariest economic ride you've ever written," the website declares, alongside of an illustration of Harris and President Biden on a rollercoaster.
The website was launched just hours before Harris and Trump will take the debate stage in Philadelphia for their first, and perhaps only, debate this election cycle.
The website was accompanied by a new ad showing a rollercoaster while a narrator says inflation rose to levels not seen in the U.S. in over 40 years under the Biden-Harris administration , which created "a crisis of affordability on groceries, gas, and housing."
Former President Trump's campaign is mocking Vice President Harris for reportedly having a shorter podium at the upcoming presidential debate, according to Axios.
The outlet reported ahead of the crucial face off that given the height difference between the dueling presidential nominees, Harris will be given a shorter podium at the debate.
Trump reportedly stands at 6 foot 3, while Harris is 5 foot 4. The different podium sizes are reportedly intended to make it so the candidates appear the same size on screen.
"It looks like the kids' table at Thanksgiving," a Trump campaign official told Axios.
An individual familiar with the matter told Axios that this is nothing out of the ordinary.
"This is normal and both campaigns were given visibility about the different podium sizes," they told the outlet.
Harris and Trump will go head to head in their first debate of the 2024 presidential election cycle on Tuesday night.
Democratic strategist James Carville said Monday that Vice President Kamala Harris would win the debate against former President Trump, and said that the former president "made a big mistake."
"I think she’s well-prepared," Carville said. "She’s got really top people preparing her. She’s going to have low expectations because President Biden did so horrible in June. It wasn’t that Trump did great, it was that President Biden didn’t do very well at all. And I have to say this, I could be eating my words on Wednesday, but I think she’s going to do quite well. And I think he made a big mistake by accepting this debate."
Harris and Trump will debate on Tuesday for the first time on ABC News. Linsey Davis and David Muir are set to host the debate.
Carville argued, "I think Trump is walking into a giant trap."
Carville said in a recent guest essay for the New York Times that Harris "must enable exactly what his campaign is scared to death of: letting Trump be Trump."
"She should let him talk over her," he wrote. "Not just let him but goad him into spouting insane conspiracy theories about the previous election. She should use her sense of humor at key moments to get under his skin and show he’s not getting to her. And she should welcome the personal attacks as a badge of honor."
"And each time, no matter how many times he does it, respond with this refrain: It’s the same old tired playbook, and I’m focused on a new way forward," Carville continued.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Hanna Panreck.
Former President Donald Trump has courted the pro-life wing of the Republican Party, but has also shown a more moderate side on the issue, including in recent weeks.
Trump, as president, nominated Supreme Court justices who would eventually overturn Roe v Wade – the landmark abortion case which found a constitutional right to an abortion.
But in the wake of the Supreme Court decision in 2022 to overturn Roe, Trump has not gone as far as other Republicans in pushing for full abortion bans at the federal level.
Trump has said he would leave abortion rights to the states and opposes a federal ban. In response to questioning about a Florida amendment that would have enshrined abortion rights, Trump said a six week limit in place in the state “is too short” – but later said he would be voting no on the measure.
The remarks disgruntled some pro-life activists who slammed a “betrayal” of their movement.
President Biden told reporters that he has spoken with Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of her big debate showdown with former President Trump, even as he remained tight-lipped about his advice to his deputy.
“I've spoken to the vice president,” Biden said in response to a shouted question on the White House South Lawn.
“She seems calm, cool and collected. I think she's going to do great. And I'm not going to tell you what advice I gave her.”
Biden plans to travel to New York City to attend Wednesday’s Sept. 11 remembrance ceremonies as well as his granddaughter’s birthday.
Biden also fielded questions on Ukraine and Israel, telling reporters that he’s “finding out more detail” about the Turkish American citizen killed during a demonstration in the occupied West Bank.
“Apparently it was an accident, ricocheted off the ground and just got hit by accident,” Biden said. “I’m working that out now.”
Vice President Kamala Harris has long been an outspoken advocate for the right to abortion. According to the Harris-Walz campaign website, Harris would not sign any nationwide limit on abortion. Additionally, she would approve of a congressionally passed measure to “restore reproductive freedom nationwide.” As for what that means, in previous interviews, Harris has stated that she wants the protections under Roe v. Wade to be reinstated. Harris’ campaign told Politico in July that this remains her position.
The Supreme Court decision in Roe prevented states from limiting abortion before fetal viability, which is understood to be between 20-24 weeks of pregnancy. Since the current vice president has committed to veto any national limits on abortion, she has also committed to keeping abortion legal potentially through the entirety of pregnancy. States would have the ability under the protections of Roe to limit abortion after viability, but only some states would likely do this.
Polling guru Nate Silver and his election prediction model gave Donald Trump a 63.8% chance of winning the Electoral College in an update to his latest election forecast on Sunday, after a NYT-Siena College poll found the former president leading Vice President Kamala Harris by 1 percentage point.
Harris has come out ahead in several national polls and swing state polls since taking over the top of the ticket.
However, the results of the new NYT/Siena College poll, according to Silver, show that the results of the poll confirmed his election model's view that there was a "shift in momentum" in the race.
The NYT/Siena college poll also found more voters said Harris is "too liberal or progressive" on key policy issues than voters who said they considered Trump to be "too conservative.
"According to his model, Harris has just a 36% chance of winning the Electoral College, and overall, leads Trump by 2.5 points in Silver's national polling average.
"A new New York Times/Siena College poll this morning contained excellent news for Donald Trump, showing him 1 point ahead in a head-to-head matchup against Kamala Harris and 2 points up with minor candidates included. This is one of our highest-rated pollsters, so it has a fair amount of influence on the numbers, reducing Harris’s lead in our national polling average to 2.5 points, which would put her in dangerous territory in the Electoral College," Silver wrote in the update at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
Silver initially wrote on Wednesday that Trump's chances of winning the Electoral College have increased from 52.4% to 58.2% since the end of August. Harris' odds had decreased from 47.3% to 41.6% in that same time frame.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Hanna Panreck.
Ahead of the ABC News Presidential Debate, Wisconsin college students are calling on Kamala Harris to be "more honest" with the American people about her plans and policies if elected president in November.
Fox News Digital spoke with voters at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, about how they feel about the vice president's 2024 campaign and how they think she would lead the country compared to President Biden.
"I think there's a lot of optimism around what she can bring to the country," a student named Dylan said, but added the vice president needs to do more interviews, including about "specifically what her record is."
Dylan also encouraged the vice president to do more outreach.
"I think being more honest to the American people, going out and doing interviews, not just speaking on script at a rally, but actually going out and talking to the American people," Dylan said.
Dylan said when comparing a possible Harris presidency to Biden's, "I don't know if there will be a huge difference necessarily. But I think there needs to be more transparency with the American people."
Sheridan, another student, added, "I feel like she doesn't really have a political stance on a lot of things. She's just trying to seem like a friendly candidate to everyone to try and get people."
Additionally, Antonio said he has not heard enough from Harris when it comes to various issues."I haven't really heard much on education, on housing, and a lot of other crises that are happening in America," he said.
"So I guess I'm really just waiting to hear what else she has to comment on, because I haven't really heard much else."
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Elizabeth Heckman, Kira Mautone and Nikolas Lanum.
Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared to imply some criticism of Vice President Kamala Harris when he was asked about whether she should give more interviews.
CBS News asked Newsom about whether Harris might give more interviews in the coming weeks.
"That's up to the campaign, I'm not here to advise in that respect, I think absolutely she should do that but that's up to her," Newsom said.
Harris has come under fire from many media outlets for not making herself more available in interviews to the media.
The California GOP accused Newsom of "throwing" Harris "under the bus."
"Not very demure, Gavin," the account quipped.
Pennsylvania, a key battleground state in U.S. elections, has swung between both the Republican and Democratic parties throughout the years. From 1992 until 2012, Pennsylvania voted Democrat, but that changed in 2016 when former President Donald Trump narrowly won Pennsylvania over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — a departure from its historically Democratic preference.
However, in 2020, President Biden reversed the trend, securing the state for the Democrats once again and playing a key role in his overall victory. Since 1828, Pennsylvania has favored the Democratic nominee in 20 elections and the Republican nominee in 26, with the GOP dominating from 1860 to 1932, except for 1912. In that year, according to Statista, Pennsylvania’s 38 electoral votes went to Theodore Roosevelt of the Progressive Party, marking the state’s only deviation from major party candidates.
Pennsylvania’s Senate races also have swung between both parties. In 2022, Democratic candidate John Fetterman won a U.S. Senate seat, flipping it from Republican control.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is back on the presidential campaign trail.
The high-profile Democrat and two-term governor was one of the top surrogates for President Biden during the president's re-election campaign.
But other than an appearance – but no speaking role – at last month's Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, Newsom has mostly been off the campaign trail since fellow Californian Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Biden atop the party's 2024 ticket seven and a half weeks ago.
Until now.
Newsom will be one of four Democratic governors – along with Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Roy Cooper of North Carolina and Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico – who will be in the debate spin room on behalf of the vice president.
Ahead of his stop in Philadelphia, Newsom was in New York on Sunday to headline a fundraiser for Harris and also made media appearances on behalf of the vice president and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, her running mate.
"What Kamala Harris has done in the past eight weeks is unprecedented in U.S. history. She's closed the gap. We're not just in the margin of error. We've expanded the map of the United States," Newsom emphasized early Tuesday in an interview on "CBS Mornings."
This is an excerpt of an article by Paul Steinhauser
Tech billionaire Elon Musk hit out at Vice President Kamala Harris’s promise to “take on corporate landlords that unfairly raise rents on working families,” suggesting she would tackle the issue through nationalized rent control.
“National rent control will destroy the incentive to build new housing,” Musk wrote on social media platform X along with a photo of a laughing Harris superimposed over an empty supermarket aisle.
“National food price controls on supermarkets, which only have few percent profit margin, means empty shelves, just like Venezuela,” Musk added, referring to Harris’s previous promise to tackle grocery pricing.
Harris had promised to tackle grocery store “price gouging” at large chains by imposing price controls to ensure that prices do not increase at unsustainable rates. The plan has faced plenty of criticism from various corners over its viability.
Pennsylvania could be the "tipping point" in the 2024 presidential election, according to electoral and polling analysis, and as the race tightens, CNN pondered whether Vice President Kamala Harris' choice of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro might be a determinative factor in her performance in the state.
CNN's Harry Enten described the "tightening race in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania," explaining how the state is pivotal to the outcome of the race. He also pointed out Shapiro's 59% approval rating in the state.
"The bottom line is if Kamala Harris loses in the state of Pennsylvania and that is the tipping point state as Mr. [John] Berman put it, the state that put Donald Trump over the top in the electoral college, there are going to be some real questions as to whether Kamala Harris should have chosen Josh Shapiro given how popular he is in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania," he said.
"Could she have been a winner if she had chosen him instead of Tim Walz? We don't know the answer to that question, we don't know who is going to win the state of Pennsylvania, but it's certainly a question that at this particular moment, with the Pennsylvania polls getting tighter and tighter and tighter, that I am certainly asking."
Enten also pointed out polls from a month ago to now, which have seen tightening margins as Harris loses her lead in Pennsylvania.
"A month ago when you looked at the polls, New York Times +4 Harris, +3 Quinnipiac for Harris, Franklin & Marshall +3 for Harris, but look at polls that have come out over the last week or so and what do we see? We see a much tighter race, we see a tie in the CBS/YouGov poll, we see a tie in the CNN SSRS poll," he said.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Kendall Tietz.
Former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., made a bold claim about Republicans during a discussion with the Texas Tribune that some have compared to Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” comment.
“There are people who will never be, shall we say, inclined to support Democrats because they just have a different orientation toward women, people of color, LGBTQ – you know, they just are not ever going to be there,” Pelosi said. “Say that’s about like 30% or so of that – of the Republicans.”
Members of Fox News panel show “Outnumbered” said they were “shocked” at the former speaker’s statement, calling it “nuts.”
“They learned nothing from ‘basket of deplorables,’” Kayleigh McEnany, who has served as Trump’s first press secretary, said in reference to Clinton’s controversial comment.
“I will just say, Kamala said tonight, via The New York Times … they don’t plan to bring up the ‘racist, misogynistic rhetoric of the Clinton years’ on the debate stage.”“Interesting if she chooses to leave that behind,” McEnany added. “Maybe she should leave Pelosi behind with it.”
Pelosi also claimed that some Republicans are “very, very rich people” who “do not want to pay taxes” or have “any regulation of clean air, of clean water.”
Vice President Kamala Harris in late August boasted on X, formerly Twitter, that she and President Joe Biden had “canceled” nearly $170 billion in student debt; covering 5 million Americans.
Harris also defended her SAVE Plan – which seeks to lower required monthly payments on federal student loans to 5% of one’s discretionary income, according to Newsweek.A federal court stayed a previous injunction against the SAVE plan in July.
“We won't stop fighting to build an economy that works for every American,” Harris said in an Aug. 28 tweet.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shifted course and called for his supporters to vote for former President Trump regardless of the state they live in Tuesday.
Kennedy had previously only urged his supporters to vote for Trump if they lived in a swing state. The former presidential candidate is working to remove his name from the ballot in several states after dropping out and endorsing Trump last month.
"No matter what state you live in, you should be voting for Donald Trump," Kennedy said in a video posted to social media. "That's the only way that we can get me and everything I stand for into Washington, D.C. and fulfill the mission of my campaign."
"Right now, freedom of speech is under withering an relentless attack in America and across the globe, but at least we still have enough of it here that you can watch this video. We can still run an opposition political campaign," he added.
Kennedy is one of two former Democrats to endorse Trump in 2024, with the other being former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. Both have criticized the Democratic Party for moving too far to the left.
As of September 2024, President Biden appears to be in stable health. In August, he spoke on night one of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, where Vice President Kamala Harris officially accepted the presidential nomination.
After the June debate against Republican nominee former President Donald Trump, Biden dropped his re-election bid amid a firestorm of pressure from Democrats due to his age and reports of dwindling mental acuity. Shortly after, he contracted COVID-19 but recovered fairly quickly after self-isolating at his Delaware home.
In an interview with BET shortly before he contracted COVID-19, he said that only a “medical condition” would force him to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
Biden also recently made an appearance at a Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh with Harris. Last week, he spoke in Wisconsin to announce a $7.3 billion investment in “rural electrification” pulled from the Inflation Reduction Act.
It's fitting that Tuesday night's debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump is being held in the key general election battleground state of Pennsylvania.
Harris and Trump will face off at 9 p.m. ET at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, the largest city in the Keystone State. The debate is the first and potentially the only showdown between Harris and Trump.
Both candidates have repeatedly made stops this summer in Pennsylvania, which was one of seven key swing states that decided the outcome of the 2020 election between Trump and President Biden. And Pennsylvania, along with Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada, will likely determine who wins the White House in November.
While the campaigns and their allied super PACs are pouring resources into all seven states, more money has been spent to run spots in Pennsylvania than any of the other battlegrounds. And both sides have dished out more dollars to reserve airtime going forward in the Keystone State than any of the other battlegrounds in the final eight weeks leading up to Election Day on Nov. 5, according to figures from AdImpact, a top national ad tracking firm.
"It's the one state that it's hard to see someone losing and then still winning the presidential race," Mark Harris, Pittsburgh-based longtime Republican national strategist and ad maker, told Fox News Digital . "It's clearly ground zero."
Harris, a veteran of multiple GOP presidential campaigns said, "You can see that in media reservations and in the candidates' travel schedules. Clearly, the Trump campaign and the Harris camp believe this is a must-win situation."
Mike Butler, a Pittsburgh-based Democratic consultant, told Fox News Digital that when it comes to the White House race, "I don't think any other state quite swings the needle as much as Pennsylvania."
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Paul Steinhauser.
Most notably, President Joe Biden did come out to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris after dropping out of the race in mid-July.
Meanwhile, several former Republicans have endorsed Harris for president, including former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wy., her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and more than 200 staffers of four previous Republican presidential nominees.
Other powerful endorsements for Harris have come from former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
She also has the endorsement of every Democratic governor in the nation, of which there are 23, and is backed by at least 45 Democratic U.S. senators and 200 Democratic members of the House of Representatives.
FIRST ON FOX: An anti-CCP group is launching a 6-figure ad in key battleground states during Tuesday’s debate between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris that accuses her of "doing damage" to the country through her position on China.
"The Protecting America Initiative, a nonprofit organization focused on safeguarding the nation from Communist China’s growing influence in the states, today released a six-figure TV ad that will air during the Trump-Harris Presidential Debate on Tuesday," the Protecting America Initiative said in a press release this week leading up to the first debate between Trump and Harris.
In the 30-second ad, which will run in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin during Tuesday’s debate, the group takes direct aim at the Harris-Walz record on China.
"Joe Biden and Kamala Harris opened the door to Communist China, and they’re marching right through it," the ad says.
"A new Biden-Harris rule means China will hold our auto industry hostage. Harris even cast the tiebreaking vote that made it possible. And now that she's running for president, she’s chosen a running mate under federal investigation for ‘close ties’ to the CCP," the ad continued. "Harris has done enough damage. It’s time to fight back. To safeguard our manufacturing, our food supply, and our border…It's time to stand up to China and Protect America."
The Protecting America Initiative describes itself as a "conservative nonprofit organization that supports state lawmakers in their effort to crack down on the growing threat of the Communist Chinese Party" that is led by former Trump Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and former GOP Congressman Lee Zeldin.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Andrew Mark Miller
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., revealed the "biggest thing" he believes can help former President Donald Trump in his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia.
During Tuesday night's debate in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Scott said that "the best thing Trump can get her to do is if she could talk 99% of the time."
"It'll be interesting to see which Kamala Harris shows up," Scott told Fox News Digital. "The Harris that has been part of the Biden administration that has opened the border, ruined the economy and … stopped supporting Israel and allowed Iran to have all the weapons, or is it a new Harris that, you know, that believes the border ought to be secure, and we ought to get inflation under control by allowing free markets to work … allowing oil and gas production in this country so we can get the gas prices down. So it'll be interesting to see which Harris shows up."
"I think the biggest thing is make sure that Harris talks," Scott, a Trump 2024 campaign surrogate, said. "When she talks, no one, almost nobody agrees with her – maybe some socialists would. So I think the biggest thing is for her to talk about her ideas, whether it's to talk about the border, talk about the economy, talk about foreign policy ... there is no logic to her thought process."
"When she talks about price controls, that just means product shortages," the senator said during a phone interview Monday morning. "When she talks about the border, people say, 'Well, why didn't she do it now?' And because everything she says she's going to do, I mean, I think the first reaction everybody has is 'Well, why didn't you do it?'"
Scott said ABC News moderators should ask Harris during the debate if she will apologize to the families of the 13 U.S. service members killed in the August 2021 suicide bombing at Abbey Gate during the Afghanistan withdrawal. He also said the moderators should ask what Harris has to say to the families in this country who "can't afford grocery prices and gas prices and rent because of the inflation she and Joe Biden caused."
Scott, who sat next to Harris for two years on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said he noticed during that time that she "wasn't serious about any policy issues," but "was serious about getting on television."
After plenty of debate over the debate, both camps agreed to adhere to the same rules that governed the Biden-Trump debate. The most contentious rule – the microphones will once again be muted during an opponent's responses, which pundits see as a victory for Trump. As with the June debate hosted by CNN in Atlanta, there will be no studio audience.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Danielle Wallace
Sen. John Fetterman on Sunday acknowledged that both former President Trump and Vice President Harris can hold their own in a debate, saying that whatever happens during the ABC News Presidential Debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday, "it will be close."
Fetterman, D-Penn., made the remarks during an appearance on CNN’s "State of the Union" while responding to a question about what Harris must do during the debate to win over key voters in battleground state Pennsylvania.
"I also want to just say that it's going to be a straight-up debate," Fetterman said. "She's going to do great, of course, but Donald Trump will be good, too. I mean, we can all remember he wrecked all of the Republicans. He's a good debater. But at the end of the day, I don't believe this debate's going to be definitive because it's going to come down to this choice, and it's going to be close."
Fetterman said Pennsylvania "is always going to be close" in terms of votes during the presidential election, and thinks that the focus of voters will be on "order" versus "chaos."
"I think a majority of Pennsylvanians are going to decide, ‘Hey, I want four years of order and fairness and unity and a different way forward.’ And I don't think they want the kinds of dark days and chaos that Donald Trump provided for our nation," the senator said.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Stephen Sorace
Years before Vice President Kamala Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket, she promoted a third-strike crime policy for drug dealers as San Francisco's district attorney that was promptly shut down by law enforcement for being too easy on narcotics peddlers.
Harris served as San Francisco’s DA from 2004 to 2011, when she was then elected attorney general of California. In her second year in office as the Golden City’s district attorney, Harris proposed a drug enforcement policy that would have prosecuted drug dealers upon their third arrest. Under the proposal, dubbed "Operation Safe Streets," police in the city would have detained and released drug dealers two times before finally charging them upon their third arrest.
The San Francisco Police Department, however, refused to take part in the plan, detailing in a letter to Harris that such a proposal would likely allow criminals back on the streets to re-offend immediately after being detained.
"This proposal asks us not to arrest, but instead detain and release observed narcotics sales suspects pursuant to Penal Code Section 849(b) P.C. When the same suspect is arrested the third time for narcotics sales, your office would then charge all three counts," then-Police Chief Heather Fong wrote in a letter to Harris in 2005 which was obtained by Fox Digital.
"The proposal would result in a double standard, as adults would be released while juveniles would be booked. Additionally, narcotics dealers who sell drugs near a school would be released after only a brief detention," Fong argued. "Undoubtedly, this would send the wrong message to observant children who unfortunately witness drug dealing activity on a regular basis."
Fong added in the letter to Harris that while the left-wing city was sympathetic to those suffering with drug addiction issues, the police department and community did not hold drug dealers in high regard.
"The San Francisco Police Department fully supports treatment programs for users who desire to break their cycle of addiction. However, the community and the Police Department are not sympathetic to those who sell narcotics and exploit for profit the weakness of others," Fong wrote.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Emma Colton
Former Trump rival Nikki Haley defended her decision to throw her support behind the GOP nominee after Liz Cheney called her principles into question.
Cheney, a one-time rising Republican Party star who became a top GOP critic of former President Trump, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris last week. She then called out Haley on ABC Sunday for saying she's "on standby" to campaign for the GOP nominee.
"I respect [Cheney's] decision, but she can't say my decision is not principled," Haley told "Fox & Friends" in response, Monday. "It actually is."
"We can either vote based on style or we can vote on substance. I'm voting based on substance. I'm looking at the fact we can't live the next four years like we did the last four years. This is no contest. Harris raised taxes. Trump reduced taxes. Harris wants to stop any energy production. Trump built it up. Harris is weak on national security. Trump was strong on national security. Harris has allowed the border to be infiltrated by 8 million people. Trump was much harder on the border."
Cheney told "This Week" yesterday that she can't understand the former South Carolina governor's position "in any kind of a principled way" following a contentious GOP primary.
"The things that she [Haley] said that she made clear, when she was running in the primary, those things are true," Cheney said. "Casting a vote for Donald Trump or writing someone in means that you've made the decision in too many instances that so many elected Republicans have made, which is, is to abandon the Constitution."
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Elizabeth Heckman
It’s impossible to know just how tonight’s debate will go, but polling suggests the pressure is on Kamala Harris.
Almost everyone on the planet knows what they think about Donald Trump, love him or loathe him. But the vice president, who has granted exactly one interview (speaking for 16 minutes) and generally avoids the press, hasn’t debated in four years.
In a New York Times/Siena College survey, 28% said they needed to know more about Kamala; only 9% felt that way about Trump. (Who are these 9%??)
Some warning signs: More than 60% of likely voters want a major change from Joe Biden, but just 25% said Kamala represented that change, while 53% said Trump did. Not a great sign in what is obviously a change election.
What’s more, while roughly a third of Trump voters say he’s too far to the right, nearly half say the VP is too far to the left.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Trump will try to hang the Biden record around his opponent’s neck – a tricky situation since any veep isn’t in charge. And Kamala will use her prosecutorial skills not just to debate her opponent but to cite low moments from his four years in office – I’d wager Jan. 6 will come up – as well as pushing her top issue, abortion, where Trump has been softening his stance in a confusing manner.
Here is one game that both sides are playing. Since both have flip-flopped as they move toward the middle, they are taking old or outdated positions and pretending they are current stances.
This is a particular problem for Kamala, since she has walked away from her left-wing rhetoric of 2019, when she didn’t make it to Iowa. She said she was against fracking, for decriminalizing the border and for abolishing private health insurance.
And for the most part, she has done this without explanation, other than having anonymous aides say, oh, she doesn’t believe that anymore.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Howard Kurtz
Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign revealed their lineup of surrogates for the spin room following Tuesday night's debate against former President Trump.
The campaign confirmed that California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and New Mexico Gov. Lijuan Grisham will all be in attendance.
Trump's campaign has also prepared its own lineup of surrogates, chief among them his running mate JD Vance. Former Democrats Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard will also speak in Trump's favor following the debate.
Analysts say Harris faces a crucial test in Tuesday's debate, with it being the first time she will face tough questions alone in an unscripted environment since becoming the Democratic nominee.
"Let me say, it‘s not overblown to say this is the biggest moment of her political life," CNN's Jake Tapper said Monday. "It‘s an incredibly consequential one, and there‘s still so much that people don‘t know about her, voters don‘t know."
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report
Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris supports eliminating taxes on tips and expanding tax credits to parents and first time home buyers.
Harris recently revealed she supports ending taxes on tips for workers, mirroring a similar idea floated by former President Donald Trump throughout his campaign. The Democratic nominee also signaled that it is her intent to raise the minimum wage.
"It is my promise to everyone here, when I am president, we will continue our fight for working families of America, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers," Harris said during a campaign event in Nevada.
Similar to Sen. JD Vance's proposed $5,000 child tax credit, Harris has also proposed a $6,000 tax credit for parents of newborns, available to families within their child's first year. Harris also said she supports a tax credit of $25,000 for first-time home buyers.
The Biden-Harris agenda on tips also paints a picture for what a potential Harris presidency could look like. The Biden administration has advocated for tax credits for eligible Americans, previously pushing for citizens to receive the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
In what may be the defining moment of the 2024 presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump face off Tuesday in their first and potentially only debate.
And with a margin of error race with eight weeks to go until Election Day and early voting getting underway this month in some crucial battleground states, there's no denying how much is on the line as Harris and Trump face-off for 90 minutes in primetime at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center.
"It's high, high, high stakes. This is going to be a really, really important moment in the campaign," longtime Republican strategist and veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns David Kochel told Fox News Digital.
With the presidency up for grabs, the intense jockeying by both candidates and their camps has been heating up ahead of the debate.
"There's no floor for him in terms of how low he will go. And, and we should be prepared for that. We should be prepared for the fact that he is not burdened by telling the truth," the vice president charged in a radio interview on the eve of the debate.
The comment appeared to be the latest stab by Harris to roil Trump in the days leading up to the showdown.
Hours later, on Tuesday morning, another jab, as the Harris campaign launched a new ad that spotlights Trump's age and seeming obsession with crowd sizes, as it used clips from former President Barack Obama's much-talked about tweaks of Trump during his Democratic National Convention speech last month.
Trump has repeatedly insulted the vice president over her intelligence, mockingly nicknamed her ‘Comrade Harris,' and even questioned her racial identity in the month and a half since Harris replaced President Biden atop the Democrats' 2024 ticket.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Paul Steinhauser
Vice President Kamala Harris’ shifting view on immigration represents a broader trend among Democratic politicians shifting towards the center as Americans’ views on immigration have changed since the pandemic years.
In 2016, Harris spoke out against immigration raids and, in 2017, then-Sen. Harris publicly swore to oppose any funding bill unless Congress took action to protect the 700,000 DREAMers that were then in the United States.
“I will not vote for an end-of-year spending bill until we are clear about what we are going to do to protect and take care of our DACA young people in this country,” Harris said at a press conference. “Each day in the life of these young people is a very long time, and we’ve got to stop playing politics with their lives.”
Recently, in 2021, Harris backed a bipartisan border bill that would have closed the border after a certain number of crossings and hired new border security and asylum officers.
"Outnumbered" co-host Kayleigh McEnany weighed in ahead of the ABC News presidential debate where former President Donald Trump and Vice President Harris will face off for the first time.
"Donald Trump has three secret weapons: He has a plan, he has the record, and he has the experience," McEnany said. "If he is measured and methodical in describing his record, with the experience as a seven-time presidential debater, he will prevail."
"But here's how he can end Kamala Harris' political career as he did to Joe Biden. Be prepared, because they have said we are going to needle him on women's issues. Here's what you say. You say, here's my childcare plan. It's on Truth Social, it's the Marco Rubio plan. Go look at it. Here's my school safety plan...finally, here is my plan for women and paid family leave. Find my plan on Truth Social. You don't have one, Kamala," she continued.
Harris has faced heavy criticism for her campaign's lack of policy proposals despite serving as the Democratic Party's nominee for weeks.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley says Vice President Kamala Harris will have a difficult time at Tuesday night's debate, arguing she has to both run from and defend her left-wing record.
Whately made the comments during a Tuesday morning appearance on Fox Business' "Mornings with Maria."
"I think what we're going to see tonight is a contrast of her trying to run from [her] record, but also trying to defend that record. I'm going to be very curious, I think millions of Americans are, to see which Kamala Harris is going to show up: Is she going to be the one that's going to double down on an open southern border...or she going to try to walk back from those positions?"
He went on to say Harris has a long history of "word salads," and he predicted that the vice president is likely to fumble again Tuesday night.
Whatley is among the Trump campaign surrogates who will talk to the press from the spin room after Tuesday night's debate.
Former President Donald Trump has spoken out against Democratic efforts to forgive student loans, arguing that President Biden’s plan to forgive certain loans was a stunt to “get publicity with the election.”
Trump has also chosen a running mate who shares his view on the issue in Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who argued in 2022 that forgoing student loans would be a “massive windfall to the rich, to the college educated.”
“Republicans must fight this with every ounce of our energy and power,” Vance said in a post on X, then Twitter.
In an interview with Fox News later the same year, Vance said student loans “subsidize the life decisions of college-educated young people, primarily young people who are going to make a lot of money over the course of their lifetime.”
Republicans have resisted recent plans to forgive student loans in general, while recent court rulings have rolled back Biden administration efforts to forgive certain loans by executive action.
Vice President Kamala Harris derided former President Trump's debate style as "old and tired" ahead of their Tuesday night matchup this weekend.
Harris made the comments while speaking to radio host Rickey Smiley.
“He plays with a really old and tired playbook. There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go," Harris said. She accused Trump of not being “burdened by telling the truth” and of fighting for himself instead of the American people.
“I think he’s going to lie,” she said. “And you know he has a playbook that he has used in the past, be it his attacks on President Obama or Hillary Clinton. So we should expect some of that will come out.”
Harris and Trump will face off in Philadelphia Tuesday night. Trump's campaign has said it will be the first time Harris has had to defend her candidacy against tough questions in an unscripted environment.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ flip-flopping on the border wall is a reflection of Democrat’s shift towards the center on immigration and border security.
In 2016, then-Sen. Harris called Trump’s border wall a “medieval vanity project” and claimed that she would never support one, even if DACA protections were on the table. In a 2019 tweet, Harris said “Let’s get this straight: billions of dollars for a border wall is a waste of money. American taxpayers shouldn’t foot the bill for the President’s vanity project. We simply don’t need it.”
In 2021, Harris backed a Senate bill that, amongst other things, would include funding for border wall construction. Harris’ campaign has downplayed the significance of the border wall to the bill and has attacked the Trump camp for allegedly killing the bill.
In a 2017 tweet, Harris stated “Trump’s border wall is just a stupid use of money. I will block any funding for it.”
Two well-known former Democrats turned independents who are backing Donald Trump will be in the spin room at Tuesday night's debate between the former president and Vice President Kamala Harris, to talk up Trump's performance.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the well-known environmental activist and vaccine skeptic who last month suspended his own presidential campaign and endorsed Trump, will be on hand at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center, the Trump campaign confirmed to Fox News.
So will former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who unsuccessfully ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination before leaving the party and becoming an independent two years ago.
Gabbard, who's become a favorite of many on the political right, backed Trump last month.
Joining Kennedy and Gabbard in the spin room at the debate – which is the first and potentially only face-to-face showdown between Harris and Trump before Election Day on Nov 5 – is a squad of high-profile Republicans.
Topping the list is Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.
Also in the spin room for Trump: Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley and co-chair Lara Trump, who is the former president's daughter-in-law.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Paul Steinhauser
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly condemned the war in the Middle East since October, when terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel, pinning blame for the conflict on the Biden-Harris administration.
As Trump enters the final fall leg of the election cycle, he has argued that war would not have broken out in Israel were he president, pointing to his sanctions on Iran during his administration. Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon are terrorist groups that target Israel with the backing and direction of Iran.
“I will end every single international crisis that the current administration has created, including the horrible war with Russia and Ukraine, which would’ve never happened if I was president and the war caused by the attack on Israel, which would’ve never happened if I was president,” Trump declared during his nomination acceptance speech at the RNC in July.
“Iran was broke. Iran had no money. Now Iran has $250 billion. They made it all over the last two and a half years,” Trump continued.
The former president met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July, when Trump said he believes Vice President Kamala Harris had been “disrespectful to Israel.”
Trump told reporters during the meeting that if he’s re-elected to the White House, he would end the war in the Middle East “very quickly,” while continuing to argue the Biden-Harris administration showed weakness on the world stage that could lead to a "third world war."
Media "malpractice" has increased the importance of Tuesday night's debate for former President Trump, as reporters have failed to press Vice President Kamala Harris with tough questions, Wall Street Journal columnist William McGurn argues.
McGun, a member of the Journal's editorial board, says the debate may be the only opportunity for Harris to face real questions before Election Day.
"Press failure has inflated it into the seminal event of the Trump-Harris race. Because reporters haven’t insisted that Ms. Harris answer basic questions, the debate, moderated by ABC News, may provide the only moment in the 2024 election when Americans get to see how Ms. Harris performs under pressure," McGurn wrote.
"This failure would be appalling at any time, but the circumstances of Ms. Harris’s campaign turn simple media bias into journalistic malpractice. The vice president secured the top slot on the Democratic ticket without having to contest a single primary—and therefore without having to lay out and defend her record. This leaves her largely unknown to American voters, a situation Ms. Harris is now exploiting to reinvent herself as a moderate challenger rather than a woke incumbent," he added.
Since becoming the Democratic nominee, Harris has not held a single press conference. She has conducted one sit down interview, which she did on CNN alongside her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Tensions are sure to run high at tonight’s debate as it is the first in-person meeting of former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Expect issues like abortion, the border, the economy and instability in the Middle East to arise, along with Trump’s personal attacks on Harris, like when he said she “happened to turn Black.”
The microphones will be muted between questioning after a back-and-forth over the rules. The Harris team had wanted open mics in the hopes that Trump might show himself in an unfavorable light by interrupting her.
“I’m speaking,” Harris said in a viral moment in a debate with former Vice President Mike Pence in 2020 when he spoke over her. Trump has often described Harris as “dumb,” “inexperienced” and “too liberal” and will likely try to paint her as such.
Harris likes to describe herself as the prosecutor and Trump as the felon. She’s framed him as “corrupt” and “dishonest” and claims he wants to set the country back and take away women’s reproductive freedoms.
Vice President Kamala Harris holds a one-point lead over former President Trump as the pair prepare to debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday, according to a new poll.
The NPR/Marist poll shows Harris at 49% among registered voters, compared to Trump's 48%. The poll shows the race has tightened since August, when Trump trailed Harris by 3 points in a 48% to 45% matchup.
The NPR poll surveyed 1,413 registered voters from Sept. 3-5. The poll advertises a margin of error of 3.3%.
The poll also indicated that voters believe Harris to be the more radical of the two candidates, with 47% of Americans saying Harris is "too liberal." Meanwhile, 43% of Americans said Trump is "too conservative."
Harris and Trump will meet in Philadelphia for their first presidential debate on Tuesday night. ABC News his hosting the event and the moderators will be David Muir and Lindsey Davis. It is unclear whether there will be a second debate.
Pennsylvania is a must-win swing state in the presidential race, and both campaigns have been pouring money into media markets in the Keystone State. Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 and Biden won it in 2020.
Trump and Harris are virtually tied in Pennsylvania and Georgia, and Trump’s debate with President Joe Biden was held in Atlanta.
While Election Day on November 5 is nine weeks away, early voting in Pennsylvania begins this month. Whoever wins Pennsylvania cinches 20 electoral votes.
Philadelphia is also conveniently situated on the northeast corridor between Washington, D.C. and New York City’s media hubs.
The first presidential debate, to be held Tuesday Sept. 10, will be moderated by ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis. Muir is the anchor of “World News Tonight” on ABC, while Davis anchors the Sunday edition of the program and hosts her own show “ABC News Live.”
Muir has been at ABC since 2003. He was former President Donald Trump’s first White House interview as president. More recently, he interviewed President Joe Biden on the anniversary of the famous D-Day invasion.
Davis, meanwhile, has been at the network since 2007. She previously interviewed Vice President Kamala Harris in July 2023, and also touts a long list of other high-profile subjects she has sat down with on camera.
Both Muir and Davis have previously moderated presidential debates in 2016, 2019 and 2020.
Among the most contentious rules of the upcoming debate is whether the candidates’ microphones will be muted when they are not speaking, or whether they will remain on. While former President Donald Trump has historically preferred the latter, his campaign wants to mute them.
Meanwhile, prior to President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance in July, his campaign wanted the microphones to be muted when Biden wasn’t talking, but now, Democrats want the mics to remain on for Harris, insisting it will “fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates.”
It was announced Wednesday that the two candidates agreed on debate rules that said the mics would be muted when a candidate is not speaking. Other rules for the Sept. 10 debate mirror much of the rules from the last presidential debate between Trump and Biden.
The candidates will stand behind lecterns, will not make opening statements and will not be allowed to bring any notes. The debate will last 90 minutes.
Live Coverage begins here