Harris ‘erases’ Trump’s lead in new poll; Trump says VP’s comments about Israel-Gaza war ‘very nice’ – live

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Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are essentially tied in a new Wall Street Journal poll. Trump leads Harris 49% to 47% in a two-person matchup, within the margin of error, compared to a previous poll that showed Trump leading Joe Biden by six points.

Donald Trump has called Kamala Harris’s statement on the Gaza war “disrespectful” before a meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Florida to discuss the conflict.

Kamala Harris’s comments after her own meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday, in which she said she would “not be silent” about the suffering of Palestinians, have been attacked by right-wing Israeli politicians and anonymous officials.

Donald Trump said he plans to return to Butler, Pennsylvania for a “big and beautiful rally” in the town where a gunman shot and injured him during a campaign rally nearly two weeks ago.

Since Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race on Sunday and endorsed Kamala Harris, more than 100,000 new voters have registered to vote on Vote.org, the organization said.

Barack Obama has endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee, meaning the vice-president has now won the backing of all the party’s politically active high-profile figures for her White House bid.

Don Davis, a North Carolina Democratic representative, issued a statement endorsing Kamala Harris, just a day after he broke party rank and joined House Republicans in condemning Harris’s border policies.

JD Vance, the Ohio senator and Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate, defended his comments where he described the country as being run by “childless cat ladies”, insisting in an interview on Friday that “I’ve got nothing against cats”.

Vance promoted a baseless rightwing talking point in 2022 when he warned of George Soros-funded planes transporting Black women across state lines for abortions, according to a recently resurfaced podcast interview.

“We are here! We are here! We have arrived!” cheered the lawyer and activist Valarie Kaur, to more than 4,000 south Asian participants mobilizing for Kamala Harris on a Zoom call on Wednesday night.

I want to name this a historic moment – and as a moment for all of us to come together.

If elected, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee would become the first woman, first Black woman, and first south Asian to win the US presidency.

Kaur was one of a series of speakers that included the actor Mindy Kaling, the congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, the Philadelphia councilwoman Nina Ahmad, the actor Poorna Jagannathan and other south Asian female leaders who called on south Asian women to rally for Harris.

While views within the south Asian community are mixed – a few speakers, and many listeners on the call, voiced concerns over the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza – the possibility of electing Harris in an election where the future of American democracy is at stake has renewed hope for Democrats.

Read the full story by Prachi Gupta: ‘Could we have imagined this moment would come?’: Kamala Harris and the rise of Indian American politicians

Harris 'erases' Trump's lead in new poll

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are essentially tied in a new Wall Street Journal poll published on Friday.

Trump leads Harris 49% to 47% in a two-person matchup, within the margin of error, the poll of 1,000 registered voters shows. In comparison, Trump held a six-point lead earlier this month over Joe Biden before he withdrew from the race.

In a race that includes Robert F Kennedy Jr and other independent and third-party candidates, Harris receives 45% and Trump gets 44%, the WSJ poll shows.

The poll shows heightened support for Harris among Black, Latino and young voters, and dramatically increased enthusiasm about the campaign among Democrats. The WSJ writes:

Greater backing among nonwhite voters could help her in the more racially and ethnically diverse battleground states—Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina—where Biden was struggling..

Kamala Harris voiced support for the movement to “defund the police” in a June 2020 interview amid nationwide protests for police reform, according to a report.

Harris, in an interview on a New York-based radio program reported by CNN, said:

This whole movement is about rightly saying, we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities.

“It has to be about forcing change,” she added.

This is why, you know, I was out there with folks and we’ll, any movement, any progress we have gained has been because people took to the streets.

Her comments came just weeks after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer galvanized the “defund” movement among progressive activists. Harris’s remarks came months before she became Joe Biden’s vice-presidential running mate.

Kamala Harris called the family of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman who was shot in her home by an Illinois sheriff’s deputy earlier this month, NBC reported, citing Massey’s family members.

Massey was killed on 6 July after she called the Sangamon county sheriff’s office because she was afraid there might be a prowler outside, according to an attorney of her family and Illinois state police.

Harris “gave us her heartfelt condolences, and she let us know that she is with us, 100% that this senseless killing,” James Wilburn, Massey’s father, told the outlet.

“It’s made me feel a lot better today,” he added.

Harris called for policing reforms earlier this week following Massey’s killing, adding that her thoughts were with “communities across our nation whose calls for help are often met with suspicion, distrust and even violence”.

On Monday, a 36-minute police body-camera video of the fatal shooting was publicly released.

Trump says he will return to Pennsylvania town for 'big and beautiful rally' after assassination attempt

Donald Trump says he plans to return to Butler, Pennsylvania for a “big and beautiful rally” in the town where a gunman shot and injured him during a campaign rally nearly two weeks ago.

Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, wrote:

I WILL BE GOING BACK TO BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA, FOR A BIG AND BEAUTIFUL RALLY, HONORING THE SOUL OF OUR BELOVED FIREFIGHTING HERO, COREY, AND THOSE BRAVE PATRIOTS INJURED TWO WEEKS AGO. WHAT A DAY IT WILL BE — FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS.

He was referring to Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief fatally shot during the Trump rally.

Comperatore, 50, spent the final moments of his life shielding his wife and daughter from gunfire, officials said.

Tammy Duckworth, the Democratic senator for Illinois, has criticized Donald Trump for alleged remarks in which the former president said disabled Americans “should just die”.

In a new book, obtained by the Guardian, Fred C Trump III said Trump, his uncle, told him that he should let his disabled son die. “Wait!” Fred C Trump III writes.

What did he just say? That my son doesn’t recognize me? That I should just let him die? Did he really just say that?

In a statement today, Senator Duckworth said anyone who suggests disabled Americans shouldn’t exist is “fundamentally unfit to serve”.

Duckworth, who lost both legs serving in the Iraq War, said:

It’s hard to describe the pain millions of Americans with disabilities are feeling in response to Donald Trump’s newly-reported comments against folks with disabilities. But we know this is nothing new for him — he mocked a reporter with a physical disability, dismissed traumatic brain injuries as ‘not very serious,’ attempted to slash support for disabled veterans and so much more.

As we reported earlier, JD Vance tried to defend his comments where he described the country as being run by “childless cat ladies”, insisting in an interview on Friday that “I’ve got nothing against cats”.

The Ohio senator and Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate claimed his comments were “not a criticism of people who don’t have children” but about criticizing the Democratic party “for becoming anti-family and anti-child”.

Here’s the clip of Vance’s interview with Megyn Kelly:

Following the success of a virtual call to mobilize Black women voters for Kamala Harris, a similar event with more than 160,000 attendees was held on Thursday aimed at white women, and appeared to break records.

White women will be a key demographic for the Democrats to win over this election.

“It’s our turn to show up. So that’s what we’re doing. Hold this date and time,” read the virtual flyer for an event calling for white women – the majority of whom tend to vote Republican – to mobilize for Harris shared widely on social media.

“White Women: Answer the Call,” a Zoom call inspired by the one for Black women held earlier this week, saw 164,000 white women joining the call, reportedly setting a world record as the largest Zoom meeting in history. Nearly $2m was raised for Harris in less than two hours on Thursday night.

Shannon Watts, a prominent gun control activist, organized Thursday’s event, which featured speakers, including actor Connie Britton, former US soccer star Megan Rapinoe, US house representative Lizzie Fletcher and musician Pink.

The Zoom call that started it all was hosted on Sunday by Win With Black Women, a group of Black women leaders and organizers, within hours of Biden’s decision, and saw an astonishing 44,000 participants, raising more than $1.5m for Harris’s budding campaign.

A Win With Black Men call also inspired by the one with Black women raised more than $1.3m to support Harris from over 17,000 donors on Monday.

Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor and contender for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination, has defended Kamala Harris’s remarks on the Gaza war.

Harris was “spot on” in her statement yesterday before a meeting with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Shapiro said at an event of building trade unions in Philadelphia on Friday, NBC reported.

Harris “spoke about Israel’s right to defend itself, the need for the hostages to be returned home, that that is necessary in order to achieve peace in the Middle East,” he said, adding:

She was right to shine a light on the suffering of innocents in Gaza and I thought she was right to lay it out the way she did. That has always been my view, stretching back long before Oct. 7, that we need a two-state solution, Palestinians and Israel living side by side in peace.

He added:

I think we also have to speak truth about the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu, I believe, has been a dangerous and destructive force, and someone who has blocked peace in the Middle East.

The Trump campaign has released its readout of the meeting between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago.

Netanyahu “thanked President Trump and his Administration for working to promote stability in the region through, among many historic achievements, the Abraham Accords, moving the United States Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, eliminating Qasem Soleimani, ending the horrific Iran Nuclear Deal, as well as combatting anti-Semitism in America and abroad,” the statement read.

The status of both Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are disputed under international law.

According to the Trump campaign readout, the former US president “expressed his solidarity with Israel after the heinous October 7 attack, and pledged that when he returns to the White House, he will make every effort to bring Peace to the Middle East and combat anti-Semitism from spreading throughout college campuses across the United States.”

Lindsey Graham, South Carolina senator and staunch Donald Trump ally, has written a letter to FBI director to recant his comments over whether Trump was hit but a bullet or shrapnel during his assassination attempt.

In the letter reported by the Hill, Graham told Christopher Wray:

“It is clear to everyone that president Trump survived an assassination attempt by millimeters, as the attempted assassin’s bullet ripped the upper part of his ear. This was made clear in briefings my office received and should not be a point of contention. Therefore, I urge you to immediately correct your statement and acknowledge that President Trump was hit by a bullet rather than glass or shrapnel…

As head of the FBI, you should not be creating confusion about such matters, as it further undercuts the agency’s credibility with millions of Americans. Please correct this statement immediately.”

On Thursday, during a hearing on Capitol Hill, Wray raised questions over the matter, saying, “I think with respect to former president Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear.”

Vance defends 'childless cat ladies' comment, accuses Democrats of being 'antifamily'

JD Vance defended his comment that the US was being run by “childless cat ladies.”

In an interview with Megyn Kelly which the Hill reported, Vance addressed his comments made in 2021 when he said that the country was being run “bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

Speaking to Kelly, Vance said:

“I know the media wants to attack me and wants me to back down on this, Megyn, but the simple point that I made is that having children, becoming a father, becoming a mother, I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way.”

Vance went on to attack the Democratic party, accusing them of being “antifamily and antichildren.”

“There’s a deeper point here, Megyn. It’s not a criticism of people who don’t have children. I explicitly said in my remarks — despite the fact the media has lied about this — that this is not about criticizing people who for various reasons didn’t have kids… This is about criticizing the Democratic party for becoming antifamily and antichildren,” he said.

“No president has done what I’ve done for Israel,” Donald Trump said as he met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara at Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

Sitting across from Netanyahu and next Sara, Trump went on to say, “We’ve always had a very good relationship and if I didn’t, I have a secret weapon. You know what it is? Sara,” as he put his hands on Netanyahu’s wife’s shoulders.

“I have Sara. As long as I have Sara, that’s all that matters,” Trump continued.