Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to give first major TV interview since nomination
Kamala Harris will give her first major interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee in a few hours – in what is being seen as a key test of her credibility after a prolonged honeymoon during which she surged ahead of Donald Trump in opinion polls.
She and her running mate, Tim Walz, will face CNN’s Dana Bash in a pre-recorded interview due to be aired at 9pm ET. It was scheduled following some criticism of Harris’s reluctance to expose herself to media scrutiny following her ascent to the top of the Democratic ticket last month in place of Joe Biden, who withdrew from the race on 21 July.
The US vice-president, who has had a variable performance in past televised one-on-ones, had previously pledged to hold a major interview before the end of August.
We’ll be covering the interview and bring you all the latest updates and reaction. So stay tuned.
Key events
Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, are now appearing on CNN in their first joint interview since becoming the Democratic presidential and vice-presidential nominees.
Harris and Walz spoke to CNN’s Dana Bash at Kim’s Cafe in Savannah, Georgia, in an interview that was taped earlier today.
Justin Glawe
Kamala Harris addressed a boisterous crowd during a campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, earlier today and told them that despite the state being a stretch, it is still winnable in November.
“Don’t pay attention to polls – we are underdogs,” Harris said, telling the roughly 9,500 attendees that they had “work to do” in order to secure victory.
We don’t mind hard work. Hard work is for workers.
Thousands waited outside for hours as a spitting rain became a steady drizzle, which turned into an outright downpour, on a hot and characteristically humid Savannah afternoon.
Inside, thousands of supporters filled out an arena usually reserved for minor league hockey games and concerts – taking up every last seat.
Harris, speaking after two days on a bus tour through south-east Georgia with her running mate, Tim Walz, said: “It’s good to be back in Savannah,” before jumping right into a stump speech that, while familiar, nonetheless kept the crowd’s attention for the entirety of her remarks.
Read the full story here:
The Trump campaign has clarified that Donald Trump “has not yet said how he will vote” on an abortion amendment on the ballot in Florida this November.
Trump, in an interview with NBC News earlier today, was asked whether he would vote to repeal his home state’s six-week abortion ban that was signed into law by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, last year. Trump replied:
I think the six week is too short, there has to be more time … I’ve told them I want more weeks.
“I think the six week is too short, there has to be more time,” former President Trump says how he’ll vote on an abortion rights amendment in Florida. pic.twitter.com/rQAdPtW9i0
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) August 29, 2024
According to a statement by Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary:
President Trump has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida, he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short.
Donald Trump is clearly still not over being called “weird”, instead accusing the Minnesota governor and Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Tim Walz, of the same label.
“He’s a weird guy,” Trump tells supporters at the town hall event in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Trump says his running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance, is also “not weird”.
He’s not weird and I’m not weird. I mean, we’re a lot of things, but that guy [Walz] is weird.
Donald Trump’s “own platform could effectively ban [in vitro fertilization] and abortion nationwide”, a spokesperson for Kamala Harris’s campaign said in response to Trump’s latest IVF comments.
The Harris campaign statement continued:
Because Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, IVF is already under attack and women’s freedoms have been ripped away in states across the country. There is only one candidate in this race who trusts women and will protect our freedom to make our own health care decisions: Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Alabama state supreme court ruled earlier this year that embryos created via IVF were to be considered people. As a result, the state’s three major IVF providers paused services, as patients in Alabama reported that upcoming embryo transfers had been abruptly cancelled and their paths to parenthood put in doubt.
Alabama’s governor, Kay Ivey, then signed into law legislation that would shield IVF providers from the fallout of the court’s ruling.
The head of Emily’s List, a group dedicated to electing Democratic candidates who support abortion rights, mocked Donald Trump’s comments that he wanted to make the government or insurance companies pay for in vitro fertilization treatments.
Jessica Mackler, the president of Emily’s List, said in a statement shared by NBC News:
Congratulations to Donald Trump for realizing that his position and his record on abortion are wildly unpopular, particularly with women who will decide this election.
She added:
But rather than give him credit for a disingenuous and unserious proposal that contradicts his own GOP platform, we’ll credit him for something he actually did: overturning Roe v Wade, ending abortion access for millions of women across the country, and jeopardizing reproductive freedom for all of us.
Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman for Hawaii, starts off the town hall event by discussing her struggle to conceive a child through in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Donald Trump tells Gabbard that her situation sounds like “tough stuff” and that he is “very much for” IVF.
At a campaign event in Potterville, Michigan, earlier this evening, Trump said he would require the government or insurance companies to pay for IVF fertility treatments if he is elected in November.
In remarks likely aimed at appealing to women and suburban voters, Trump told supporters in Michigan:
Your government will pay for or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with IVF treatment fertilization for women.
Donald Trump on stage at Wisconsin town hall event
Alice Herman
Donald Trump is on stage, enjoying a prolonged standing ovation.
The former president will hear questions during a town hall event here in La Crosse, Wisconsin, which former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, will moderate.
Ex-Democrat Tulsi Gabbard introduces Trump at town hall event
Alice Herman
Tulsi Gabbard has taken the stage in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where she will moderate a town hall event with Donald Trump tonight, to wild applause.
“Two former Democratic candidates have endorsed Donald J Trump to be president of the United States,” said Gabbard, referring to herself and Robert F Kennedy Jr, who both endorsed Trump this week.
I am so excited about the opportunity that we have before us to stand together not as Democrats or Republicans, but as proud Americans who love this great country.
Alice Herman
Donald Trump’s supporters lined up for blocks to see the Republican presidential nominee at a town hall in La Crosse, Wisconsin, even as he was speaking at a campaign event in Michigan earlier.
I spoke with Michelle Thiessen, a 56-year-old nurse from the La Crosse area who said that her top issue is keeping the US out of foreign conflicts, and sees Trump as the candidate most likely to do that.
Abortion, she said, would be his toughest issue.
“Lots of women are flipping because of that,” said Thiessen, who supports abortion rights and said she does not believe Trump will allow for a nationwide ban.
Harris pledges to appoint a Republican to her cabinet
Kamala Harris promised to name a Republican to serve in her cabinet if elected.
In her first major interview since becoming the Democratic nominee, the vice-president told CNN journalist Dana Bash that she had spent her career “inviting diversity of opinion”. Harris said:
I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.
Dani Anguiano
Earlier today, CNN released a first clip of the interview with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, in which the vice-president said that her values have not changed.
CNN journalist Dana Bash asked Harris what voters should make of the changes to some of her policy positions. Harris said:
Dana, I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed.
“You mentioned the Green New Deal. I have always believed that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time,” she said. “We did that with the Inflation Reduction Act.”
My value around what we need to do to secure our border – that value has not changed. I spent two terms as the attorney general of California prosecuting transnational criminal organizations, violations of American laws regarding the illegal passage of guns, drugs and human beings across our border. My values have not changed.
In an exclusive interview, CNN’s Dana Bash presses Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on why her policies have changed over the years. The full interview will air at 9 p.m. ET Thursday on CNN’s “The First Interview: Harris & Walz, A CNN Exclusive.”… pic.twitter.com/JYgHvcXZMd
— CNN (@CNN) August 29, 2024
Trump to answer questions in Wisconsin town hall event
Alice Herman
There aren’t many open seats at the La Crosse Center, where Donald Trump is scheduled to answer questions at a town hall event moderated by former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard later this evening.
Gabbard, who announced her support for Trump this week, could earn Trump support from voters such as Melissa Nelson, an attendee sitting near me at the event in a Tulsi Gabbard for President T-shirt.
Nelson told me she voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary, supported Gabbard’s run in 2020, and is reluctantly throwing her support behind Trump this year.
“The Democratic Party is going downhill,” said Nelson, who cited healthcare and disability benefits as her top issues. Gabbard’s endorsement, Nelson said, “kind of pushed me over the edge, for sure, that I was gonna vote for Trump. Otherwise I would have voted for Jill Stein.”
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to give first major TV interview since nomination
Kamala Harris will give her first major interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee in a few hours – in what is being seen as a key test of her credibility after a prolonged honeymoon during which she surged ahead of Donald Trump in opinion polls.
She and her running mate, Tim Walz, will face CNN’s Dana Bash in a pre-recorded interview due to be aired at 9pm ET. It was scheduled following some criticism of Harris’s reluctance to expose herself to media scrutiny following her ascent to the top of the Democratic ticket last month in place of Joe Biden, who withdrew from the race on 21 July.
The US vice-president, who has had a variable performance in past televised one-on-ones, had previously pledged to hold a major interview before the end of August.
We’ll be covering the interview and bring you all the latest updates and reaction. So stay tuned.