2024 presidential election

There are multiple reports, still unconfirmed at the moment but from reliable sources, that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will end his independent candidacy at an event this Friday in Phoenix, Arizona. If so, regardless if he decides to throw his support behind Donald Trump, it will serve as a politically meaningful boost to the Republican campaign in multiple battleground states where Kennedy has gained ballot access in the past few months. The rationale for the RFK campaign was always dependent on the vast number of "double haters" — people who were strongly opposed to both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

While the DNC is in full swing in Chicago, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are spending the week traveling to battleground states as part of their campaign’s way of counterprogramming. Trump’s schedule is packed this week, with more events than he’s done in several weeks. Today, Trump made an appearance in Howell, Michigan, to “deliver a strong message on law and order, making it clear that crime, violence and hate of any form will have zero place in our country when he is back in the White House,” according to Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt. Trump came under fire from Democrats for choosing Howell, part of Livingston County, which was rocked by white supremacist demonstrations last month with some chanting “Heil Hitler” and has links with the KKK.

From the moment Kamala Harris ascended to the status of 2024’s bringer of joy, the vice president has navigated a world where the media has been overwhelmingly positive about her presence at the top of the ticket. But if there’s one thing we know about the media, they dislike being ignored. It’s a sign of disrespect, you see — we helped Joe Biden off the slow ramp, we praise you to high heaven as and the deal is you sit down for an interview — quid pro quo, Kamala! Obviously, the Harris-Walz ticket hasn’t done this — and it’s starting to get under the media’s skin.

The Trump campaign just expanded its circle of senior campaign advisors to welcome five new operatives, including former Trump 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. With roughly eighty days until the election, Trump is attempting to reunite the dream team that got him into the White House back in 2016. Lewandowski will reportedly serve above Trump’s co-campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, amid rumors that they are the most vulnerable on Trump’s campaign.  They "are all veterans of prior Trump campaigns, and their unmatched experience will help President Trump prosecute the case against Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the most radical ticket in American history,” LaCivita and Wiles said.

Watch out California: Gavin Newsom is wearing a T-shirt. You know what that means: the Golden State governor means business! Every few years the well-coifed pol dons his everyman garb (jeans, trucker hat, aviators, et cetera) and puts on an impassioned performance for the press. His latest PR stunt has to do with his state’s worsening homeless crisis. Two weeks ago Newsom issued an executive order directing state agencies to clear the tent cities and encampments that bestrew the state. To drive the point home, Newsom even put his gloves on and picked up garbage from underneath an overpass in Mission Hills before heading back to the place hefeels most comfortable— in front of the cameras. “We need local government to step up. This is a crisis,” he huffed to the press gaggle.

I’ve seen it repeated numerous times, most recently by our friends over at the Free Press: 2024 is a “vibes election.” The definition of this is clumsily characterized, but essentially it means (as the FP says) that the personalities matter more than the policies. Who would you like to have a beer with, not who would you prefer to handle the very urgent need to pass Social Security Disability Insurance reform. This contention, made by many intelligent people, is absolute shite. The 2024 election has been one of the most stable elections of the modern era in terms of voter priorities, with the top three issues — the economy, immigration and security — locked in for more than a year.

“I think it’s very important to have debates,” former president Donald Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago press conference Thursday afternoon, confirming his agreement to three debates against Kamala Harris throughout September on Fox, ABC and NBC. The Harris campaign has only confirmed the ABC debate on September 10, which will be moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis. Until now, Trump would not commit to a date to debate Harris, saying he could consider skipping it after Biden's disastrous performance in their previous face-off. The Harris campaign accused Trump of refusing to debate out of fear. Harris “wants to say I don’t want to debate, but I do want to debate,” he added at the presser, his first public appearance since Tim Walz was selected as the Democratic VP candidate.

It’s not hard to recognize the sunny optimism that embodies the phrase, “Minnesota Nice.” You must be able to survive in a state where the land-locked upper Midwest weather vacillates between the stiflingly humid ninety-degree summers and dark, subzero winters. It’s those slivers of perfection between each season that make living here worthwhile; people flock to lakes with Native American names like Winnibigoshish and Minnetonka, whose purifying waters were made famous by Minnesota’s favorite native son, Prince. Our professional sports teams suffer from record-setting championship droughts, yet the fan base is never deterred.

OK, it’s August 6, the anniversary of the detonation of Little Boy over the city of Hiroshima in 1945. That marked the end of World War Two. (I know, it took one more bomb and a little more time, but August 6 was the gang plank to the signing of the act of surrender aboard the Missouri.)  Fast forward to August 6, 2024. As of 9:25 ante meridiem there have been no huge detonations. True, the market has yet to open. If we have a repeat of yesterday cautious folk will lock windows on the upper stories in the buildings where the financial experts congregate. But we do have a little whimper of news, a tiny pssst of a political crepitation. Kamala Harris has just chosen Tim Walz, tapioca progressive and governor of Minnesota as her running mate.

Former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are at odds over where and when the pair will debate, with Trump rejecting a debate he had previously scheduled with President Joe Biden on September 10, hosted by ABC News. Instead, Trump says he will only debate Harris on September 4 in a debate hosted by Fox News: “I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all,” he wrote on Truth Social. Harris has accused Trump of “playing games” and is keen to stick with the ABC debate. Trump has given two reasons as to why the ABC debate is no longer on the table for him. First, he agreed to that debate with Biden, not Harris. Second, he is in active litigation against ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos (or, as Trump calls him, “Slopadopoulos”).

On Thursday, while delivering remarks at the eulogy for the late Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Vice President Kamala Harris “accidentally” referred to herself as the president. Kamala was discussing a bill that Lee co-sponsored with Republican senator John Cornyn that eventually became law and made Juneteenth a federal holiday. “As a United States senator, I was proud to co-sponsor it. Then, as president — as vice president — it was my honor, with the president. With the president! It was my honor, along with our president, Joe Biden, to stand beside Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee as our president signed her bill into law.” Whoops.

While Donald Trump’s outlandish behavior usually garners free publicity for him in the news, this time, there is a lot on the line. Trump’s Wednesday comments at the National Association for Black Journalists convention have been branded “audacious lie[s],” “outrageous insults,” “overtly racist,” “repulsive” and “insulting.” “She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said, in one of the more widely circulated quotes. “I didn’t know she was black until a number of years ago until she happened to turn black, and now she wants to be known as black.” Race is the last thing GOP political strategists want Trump to mention when it comes to Kamala’s campaign.

Will Donald Trump and Kamala Harris face each other in a debate? Three months ago, Trump and his team agreed to a pair of debates, the second of which was set to take place on ABC News on September 10, obviously assuming both debate would take place against Joe Biden. But ever since Harris has replaced him as the nominee, the Trump campaign appears reluctant to schedule a Trump-Harris match up.  Trump said in an interview with Fox News that he will “probably” debate Harris, but he “can also make a case for not doing it.” “I want to do a debate. But I also can say this. Everybody knows who I am. And now people know who she is,” said Trump. “The answer is yes, I’ll probably end up debating,” he eventually said.