Kamala harris

Evan Gershkovich is free

An emotional scene unfolded at Joint Base Andrews last night, with the surprise return of a number of American hostages after a prisoner swap with Russia and Belarus. Among those returned were Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza, Radio Free Europe correspondent Alsu Kurmasheva and former US Marine Paul Whelan. The returned hostages were greeted by their families, along with President Biden and Vice President Harris. Harris exchanged what are technically her first remarks with the press since becoming the presumptive nominee: “This is an extraordinary day and I’m very thankful for our president.

Who’s losing the oppo-dump veepstakes?

Oppo veepstakes: which of Kamala’s VP picks has the dirtiest laundry? Have you canceled plans this weekend? Are you a white dude for Kamala? You just might be in contention to be the Democratic pick for vice president this year! The nation’s hacks are doggedly monitoring the movements of electable white dads from convenient states as the campaign formerly known as Biden 2024 prepares itself for weekend auditions ahead of an announcement next week. Similarly, America’s grubbiest political operatives have been working overtime to farm out opposition research on the men in question.

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Joe Biden is still president, apparently

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.

Trump’s digs at Kamala’s racial identity could prove damaging

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.

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Republicans can’t figure out Kamala

Welcome to Thunderdome. The essential divide between Republican insiders on how to attack Kamala Harris is stuck, swinging back and forth between the question of inauthentic climber or authentic leftist. Is she an untrustworthy chameleon who was against fracking before she was for it? Or is she a San Francisco Democrat elitist who was the furthest senator to the left? When the George W. Bush re-elect had to tangle with John Kerry, they went the unreliable flip-flopper route — something Chris LaCivita is very familiar with as the then-media advisor to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth — to great success.

Trump spars on stage with black journalists in Chicago

“I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner,” Donald Trump began at this afternoon’s National Association for Black Journalists annual convention in Chicago. ABC News’s Rachel Scott had asked why black voters should trust him in light of his prior attacks on black journalists. “First question, you don’t even say ‘hello, how are you?’” Trump continued. “Are you with ABC? Because I think they’re a fake news network, a terrible level.” Trump went on query his opponent Kamala Harris’s racial ethnicity when asked about her being a DEI hire. “I didn’t know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage.

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The pros and cons of a Trump-Harris debate

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.

What I saw on the White Dudes for Harris Zoom call

When I was a younger man, I found myself on the receiving end of a good bit of unsolicited advice for surviving as a member of the right — tried and true lessons in how to stay interesting without getting canceled or killed. Read all the archives of the Weekly Standard. Avoid talk of Israel, IQ and the Glorious Revolution. Don’t drink too much. Don’t drink too little. Take up smoking. And, most importantly, don’t involve yourself with any organizations predicated on white identity. I have never been very good at following sound advice, which is why I joined “White Dudes for Harris” on Monday. The existence of such an affinity group is remarkable in itself.

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The Trump-Harris unpopularity contest

Now that the Democrats have toppled the president in a bloodless coup, the bases of the Republican and Democratic parties have candidates they’re excited about. But both parties remain largely in denial regarding the unpopular leaders they’ve picked. According to the RealClearPolitics average of favorability polls, Harris is just over nine points underwater with 51 percent of Americans viewing her unfavorably, and Trump is just under nine points underwater, with 53 percent of Americans viewing him unfavorably. In nominating Harris and Trump, the devoted bases of both parties have essentially extended middle fingers at each other and to a swathe of independents who view both of them unfavorably.

President Biden’s plan to overhaul SCOTUS

President Biden unveiled his outline for changes to the Supreme Court, which includes term limits for justices and a new code of ethics. He also called for a constitutional amendment saying former presidents do not have immunity from any federal criminal indictments, trials, convictions or sentencing — a direct dig at the Court’s recent immunity ruling in Trump’s favor. The plan comes amid a series of landmark decisions by the Supreme Court that favored conservatives, such as the overturning of Chevron and rulings on abortion and affirmative action, that sparked Democrats to criticize the 6-3 conservative controlled-court for an alleged lack of impartiality.

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Republicans need to bring it home for me and my three cats 

I am forty, I’m perpetually single, I have no kids, and I own three cats. No, this isn’t a reboot of Bridget Jones’s Diary; it’s my life. And I also happen to be a lifelong conservative who votes in every election.   I’m not so sensitive that I thought J.D. Vance’s now-widely circulated comments about “cat ladies” from 2021 were directed specifically at me — but the words hurt all the same. Like so many women in my shoes, I did not set out to be single and childless forever to make a hallow political gesture. I dreamed of a family, true love and the white picket fence. But thus far, that simply hasn’t been the course mapped out for me by the Author of all things.

A very bad week for the Secret Service

The Secret Service’s worst week since John Hinckley Jr. failed to gun down President Ronald Reagan continued with some buggy problems just days after the organization’s embattled director announced plans to step down following bipartisan condemnation.Fresh off of failing to adequately protect President Donald Trump from a deranged gunman, the Secret Service failed to secure the Watergate Hotel where Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was staying and allowed a pro-Hamas organization to pour live maggots all over a room where he was alleged to be dining. “BON APPETIT!! MAGGOTS RELEASED ON THE CRIMINAL ZIONIST’S WAR TABLE!” the Palestinian Youth Movement posted on Instagram, along with a video of insects crawling all over the Watergate’s grounds.

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The Obamas — finally — endorse Harris

The support for Kamala Harris within the Democratic Party springs eternal. Last night, activist Shannon Watts organized a “white women for Kamala Harris” Zoom call, surpassing 100,000 attendants with guests such as pop star P!nk and Megan Rapinoe in attendance. Voting for Harris is now being called an act of “self-love,” according to actress Connie Britton. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, also on the call, echoed her thoughts, sharing a slightly disturbing anecdote of her and Britton drinking toad venom to recover from seasickness. “We survived,” said Gillibrand. “Connie’s an extraordinary role model for women and girls and people everywhere.” Because she is a woman, Harris will be a better listener and empath, Britton claimed.

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Why won’t the AP tell the truth about J.D. Vance and the couch?

Sofa, so good? What does “fake news” mean in the post-truth era? Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, and rebranding of it to X, was supposed to augur a new age of unfiltered information, to combat the censorship of Silicon Valley apparatchiks. For a lot of this week, that meant you’d see Laura Loomer and Charlie Kirk sincerely assuring you that Joe Biden was dead or about to die (he addressed the nation, weakly, on Wednesday, an impressive feat for any corpse). How is the discerning reader supposed to separate fact from falsehood in this climate? That’s the question facing tech-savvy Senator J.D.

Gaslighting for Kamala

Welcome to Thunderdome. Last night, something that a month ago was unthinkable happened: Joe Biden announced from the Oval Office that he would stand down as his party’s nominee and pass the torch to a new generation of Democrats in Kamala Harris. The speech was blatantly political with the normal Jon Meacham high-school civics elements instead of sounding the type of deeply personal notes that marked the better aspects of Biden’s career. It was delivered with a world-weary tone, the old man being put out to pasture by a party and their media allies who deliberately chose to knife him at his weakest moment, despite lauding his achievements as historic for the past several years.

We should be grateful that Biden is going nowhere… for now

The question going into Joe Biden’s address to the national from the Oval Office tonight was: will he, having announced that he is dropping out of the race to be president, will he also resign the presidency now? Or would he announce that he was sticking it out till 11:59 a.m. on January 20, 2025? Given the perks of the office, and the appetites of Dr. Jill Biden, I thought it likely that he would choose to stick it out. I am often wrong in my political predictions, but about this I was right. In his sad, at times maudlin, painfully mendacious eleven-minute speech, Joe Biden told the American people that he wasn’t going anywhere. Circumstances may intervene to change that. All of us are subject to the sudden intervention of fate.

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Inside Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress

Today Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the first world leader to address a joint session of Congress four times, surpassing the previous record jointly held by him and Winston Churchill. And the anti-Israel protesters, not unlike the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, drastically inflated their numbers ahead of Wednesday’s proceedings. Despite concern that more than 10,000 anti-Israel protesters would descend on the nation’s capital, only a small group that carried Hamas flags and shut down multiple streets showed up. That’s not to say there was no drama, however. There was “absolute chaos” in the streets of the capital by the protesters who did show, with some activists pepper-sprayed and arrested by the Capitol Police.

Politico reporter falsely accuses Fox anchor of saying ‘colored’

Considering the demographics who typically watch Fox News, it's ironic that it's one of its youngest viewers that's desperately in need of a hearing test. In a clip from this morning's Fox and Friends that has circulated the web, Fox host Brian Kilmeade critiqued Vice President Kamala Harris's decision to speak to a "college sorority"... but the mob has been quick to assert he said "colored sorority." Politico reporter Eugene Daniels, the current head of the White Houser Correspondents' Association, tweeted the clip with the caption: “Kilmeade: ‘She’d rather address, in the summer, a sorority…a COLORED sorority, like she can’t get outta that!’ Not this in the year of Beyonce 2024.

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The media’s flip to Harris was predictable

This time last week, America’s media was excruciatingly examining Joe Biden’s current health condition and fading campaign to Donald Trump, with leaks coming from White House and campaign Zoom calls. George Clooney, after hosting a Biden fundraiser, called for Biden to withdraw in the pages of the New York Times. Reports of a mysterious Covid diagnosis followed. But when Biden’s Twitter/X account posted his withdrawal letter on Sunday, the story instantly turned to Vice President Kamala Harris, a presumptive nominee in-waiting who has received more New York Times fluff profiles than she has primary votes (that number is zero, by the way). The media has dug a hole in the woods for Joe Biden.

Cringe white women flock to the KHive

The only thing more cringe than Kamala Harris is the legion of white women who have suddenly rediscovered their obsession with the Democrats' presumptive nominee. The KHive, as Harris’s fans call themselves, was launched during Harris's failed bid for the presidency in 2020 and has since been remobilized to provide suburban moms and young gay men a platform to post coconut memes.  The first pillar of the KHive is race. Being a part of the coalition demands an acute awareness of the enormity of electing the nation’s first black female president and unburdening the white privilege that has been. Any mention of Harris's Indian heritage is, of course, only optional. “Fellow white ladies. Get over it.

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