Trump’s NABJ comments on Harris’s racial identity trigger bipartisan criticism
Donald Trump’s questioning of Kamala Harris’s racial identity during his NABJ appearance yesterday has triggered criticism from both Republicans and Democrats alike.
Larry Hogan, the former Republican governor of Maryland, took to X and wrote: “It’s unacceptable and abhorrent to attack vice president Harris or anyone’s racial identity. The American people deserve better.”
It’s unacceptable and abhorrent to attack Vice President Harris or anyone’s racial identity. The American people deserve better.
— Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) July 31, 2024
Alaska’s Republican senator Lisa Murkowski said, “Maybe they don’t know how to handle the campaign, and so you default to issues that just should simply not be an issue,” Axios reports.
South Dakota’s John Thune, the Senate Republican whip, echoed similar sentiments, saying, “The campaign … needs to be about the issues … I just think that’s where the focus needs to be,” the Hill reports.
Meanwhile, Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, described the interview as a “hot mess”.
From the Democrat side, Senator Raphael Warnock told CNN, “This is who Donald Trump is. And he reminds us time and time again the only thing he knows is the politics of division and hatred.”
Illinois’s governor, JB Pritzker, widely considered as one of Harris’s top VP contenders, told the network that Trump’s comments “showed the racism coming through him”.
Arizona senator Mark Kelly, another top contender, said that Trump’s words were “overtly racist”, adding, “My first reaction was this is the reaction of a desperate and scared old man.”
Sen. Mark Kelly, who is under consideration for VP, says Trump’s comments were “overtly racist.” “My first reaction was this is the reaction of a desperate and scared old man.” pic.twitter.com/MOufnbxeIA
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 1, 2024
Key events
Among the top contenders for Kamala Harris’s vice-president pick is Mark Kelly, a former astronaut, US navy pilot and Arizona senator.
The Guardian’s Rachel Leingang explores Kelly’s background ahead of Harris’s vice-president announcement next week:
Mark Kelly’s résumé stands out in the sea of lawyers that dominate Washington.
The Arizona senator was a US navy pilot who served multiple deployments. He was on Celebrity Jeopardy. He is a steadfast partner to his wife, former US representative Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt at a public event in Tucson in 2011 and has worked alongside Kelly to limit guns since.
Oh, and he’s been to space multiple times because he was an astronaut, along with his twin brother, Scott. He even wrote a children’s book about it, called Mousetronaut.
“An astronaut! Who doesn’t like astronauts, except for Flat Earthers, right? But they’re very small in quantity,” Arizona pollster Mike Noble said. “So, outside of Flat Earthers, I’m trying to think of what’s more American than astronauts. Astronaut takes everybody. I’ve been to space, what have you done?”
Kelly is on Kamala Harris’s shortlist for vice-president, and his background certainly helps make his case.
For the full story, click here:
New Hampshire Republican governor calls on fellow Republicans to ‘stop the trash talk’
New Hampshire’s Republican governor, Christopher Sununu, has called on fellow Republicans to “stop the trash talk” in a new New York Times op-ed.
Sununu, who has won four elections in New Hampshire, wrote on Thursday:
“The path to victory in November is not won through character attacks or personal insults.
In fact, those attacks are unlikely to bring a single new voter onboard. Catchy one-liners — calling vice-president Harris a ‘bum,’ ‘not a serious person’ and ‘bottom of the barrel’ — might rile up the base, but they do little to connect with independent voters needed to close the deal in November.
He went on to add:
“Attacks like those waged against vice-president Kamala Harris are unserious and don’t meet the moment that American families find themselves in. You have to connect with voters on their issues and their concerns.”
Russia has freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and other others in the largest prisoner swap since the cold war.
We are covering the live developments in a separate blog which can be found here:
In her new book, Nancy Pelosi revealed that doctors voiced their concerns to her over Donald Trump’s mental health.
Martin Pengelly reports for the Guardian:
In early 2019, at a memorial service for a prominent psychiatrist, a succession of “doctors and other mental health professionals” told Nancy Pelosi they were “deeply concerned that there was something seriously wrong” with Donald Trump, “and that his mental and psychological health was in decline”.
“I’m not a doctor,” the former speaker writes in an eagerly awaited memoir, “but I did find his behaviors difficult to understand.”
Pelosi’s book, The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House, will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.
For the ful story, click here:
In an apparently sarcastic post on Truth Social, Donald Trump seems to be doubling down on his questioning of Kamala Harris’s racial identity, despite swift criticisms from Republicans and Democrats.
Posting a photo of a young Harris – who was born to an Indian mother and a Black father – dressed in traditional Indian garb alongside her family, Trump wrote:
“Thank you Kamala for the nice picture you sent from many years ago! Your warm, friendship, and love of your Indian heritage are very much appreciated.”
Trump’s post follows comments he made at the NABJ conference on Wednesday in which he said Harris was of Indian heritage until she “happened to turn Black”.
Over the years, Trump has also espoused birtherism and false claims about Barack Obama, Ted Cruz and Nikki Haley.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are neck and neck in five swing states, according to a new survey from Public Opinion Strategies, Politico reports.
In Pennsylvania, Harris leads Trump 48% to 45% while in Wisconsin, she leads him 48% to 46%.
In Arizona, Trump leads Harris 48% to 43% while in Nevada, Trump leads her 46% to 45%.
The two opponents are tied in Michigan at 45%.
According to the survey, 4% of the voters back third-party candidates and 4% are undecided. Additionally, the undecided voters lean Republican, with 47% of undecideds identifying as Republicans, compared with 19% who say they are Democrats.
In his interview with CNN following Donald Trump’s appearance at the NABJ conference, Arizona senator Mark Kelly hit back at the ex-president over his comments on Kamala Harris’s racial identity.
Speaking to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Kelly, who is widely considered to be a top contender among Harris’s vice-president picks, said:
[It is] very obvious to me watching him and just what I’ve seen over the last week while she’s been across the country just kicking his butt that he’s afraid. He’s probably afraid to debate her, he is certainly afraid to lose an election to her in November and he’s afraid about his own future.
He went on to add:
She’s got great momentum. She’s a fantastic historic candidate and who is he? He just convicted felon.
Trump’s NABJ comments on Harris’s racial identity trigger bipartisan criticism
Donald Trump’s questioning of Kamala Harris’s racial identity during his NABJ appearance yesterday has triggered criticism from both Republicans and Democrats alike.
Larry Hogan, the former Republican governor of Maryland, took to X and wrote: “It’s unacceptable and abhorrent to attack vice president Harris or anyone’s racial identity. The American people deserve better.”
It’s unacceptable and abhorrent to attack Vice President Harris or anyone’s racial identity. The American people deserve better.
— Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) July 31, 2024
Alaska’s Republican senator Lisa Murkowski said, “Maybe they don’t know how to handle the campaign, and so you default to issues that just should simply not be an issue,” Axios reports.
South Dakota’s John Thune, the Senate Republican whip, echoed similar sentiments, saying, “The campaign … needs to be about the issues … I just think that’s where the focus needs to be,” the Hill reports.
Meanwhile, Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, described the interview as a “hot mess”.
From the Democrat side, Senator Raphael Warnock told CNN, “This is who Donald Trump is. And he reminds us time and time again the only thing he knows is the politics of division and hatred.”
Illinois’s governor, JB Pritzker, widely considered as one of Harris’s top VP contenders, told the network that Trump’s comments “showed the racism coming through him”.
Arizona senator Mark Kelly, another top contender, said that Trump’s words were “overtly racist”, adding, “My first reaction was this is the reaction of a desperate and scared old man.”
Sen. Mark Kelly, who is under consideration for VP, says Trump’s comments were “overtly racist.” “My first reaction was this is the reaction of a desperate and scared old man.” pic.twitter.com/MOufnbxeIA
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 1, 2024
Unfazed Harris describes Trump’s questioning of her race as ‘divisiveness’ and ‘disrespect’
Good morning,
Following Donald Trump’s combative appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists conference on Wednesday where he questioned Kamala Harris’s racial identity, the vice-president called Trump’s behavior “the same old show”.
Speaking at a rally in Houston, Harris appeared unfazed, saying: “It was the same old show: the divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say, the American people deserve better.”
Harris’s husband, the second gentleman, Douglas Emhoff, has also responded to Trump’s comments, saying: “We’ve got to focus on what they’re really trying to do, which is to destroy our country.”
As Trump ramps up his attack on the vice-president, Harris is expected to announce her running mate by next Tuesday. Speculation over her finalists include the swing state Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, and the Arizona senator Mark Kelly.
Here are other developments in US politics:
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Harris is set to deliver a eulogy for the late Texas Democratic representative Sheila Jackson Lee in Houston at 2.20pm ET.
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The former House speaker Nancy Pelosi said doctors voiced their concern for Trump’s mental health to her in 2019, saying there was something “seriously wrong”, according to her new book.
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The supreme court is set to take on several major education issues including Joe Biden’s student debt program and transgender policies in its next term, the Hill reports.