Elisenne Stoller

In his first outdoor rally since his July 13 near assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump spoke to a crowd in Asheboro, North Carolina, Wednesday, surrounded by panes of bulletproof glass. The rally was held between hangars at the North Carolina Aviation Museum. Storage boxes were stacked around the perimeter to create additional walls and to block sight lines, and snipers were positioned on all the roofs.  During the rally, Trump spoke of the Biden administration’s national security failures, notably the botched Afghanistan withdrawal and the Russia/Ukraine and Gaza wars. Trump said that if he wins the election, he will ask for the resignation of every senior military official involved with the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

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.

Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently tried to arrange a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss the possibility of serving in her administration, offering to drop out of the 2024 race in exchange for a position as cabinet secretary.   Kennedy’s campaign manager, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, told ABC News the Kennedy campaign had yet to hear back from Harris. RFK’s attempt to meet with Harris comes after the candidate met with former president Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month, where he offered a similar deal that resulted in no agreement. Kennedy spoke about advising Trump in a second term on health and medical issues.

“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.

The Democratic National Convention Committee announced last month that it has issued the same credentials as traditional news outlets to over 200 content creators from TikTok, YouTube and other platforms for the August convention in Chicago. The creators will be able to use dedicated workspaces at Chicago’s United Center and have access to party surrogates. They will also be able to attend related events in Chicago, such as third party panel discussions, and capture content there. The RNC also offered credentials to some content creators last month. @DemConvention shared a clip on X featuring multiple different left-wing influencers/content creators planning on attending the convention announcing their attendance.

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.

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.

In a rare moment of unity, both Democrats and Republicans are coming together to uncover the security failures which led to the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. On Monday, while Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle appeared in front of another House committee, a group of congressmen from the House Homeland Security Committee visited the site in Butler, Pennsylvania, to get a firsthand hold of what really happened that day. The trip was led by Chairman Mark Green on Monday as part of the bipartisan effort to investigate how the gunman, Thomas Crooks, gained access to the roof from which he shot Trump. The visit only yielded more questions — why were warnings about the suspicious sightings ignored? Why were the perimeters not secured?

Elon Musk is parting from his home state, publicly endorsing Trump minutes after the former president was almost assassinated at his rally in Pennsylvania. Musk also announced he will be donating $45 million to a pro-Trump political action committee and that he will be moving the headquarters of SpaceX and X from California to Austin, Texas.  He is among many other Silicon Valley billionaires who are announcing their support for Trump following the attack, including Bill Ackman, the Pershing Square Capital Management CEO. Musk cited California governor Gavin Newsom’s new law that bars school districts from requiring staff to notify parents of their child’s gender identification change as the “final straw,” as the law was “attacking both families and companies.

On Monday, in the aftermath of Trump’s shooting, President Biden sat down in the White House with NBC’s Lester Holt for an "unedited" interview, which aired in the evening. The president successfully made it through without any major gaffes, appearing combative when questioned about his mental acuity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUSmk1SqEu8&ab_channel=NBCNews He started off a little shaky after Holt called out his incendiary language, in particular his remarks it was time to put Trump in the "bullseye." Biden suggested this was a mistake, claiming he meant “focus on him” and what he’s doing, “on his policies, the number of lies he told in the debate.” He was quick to bring up the "existential threat" Donald Trump presents.

After Thursday’s disastrous excuse for a presidential debate, New York Times opinion columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that Joe Biden “has no business running for reelection.” Columnist Nicolas Kristof also said he hopes Biden “reviews his debate performance” and “withdraws from the race.” Johanna Maska, a Democratic consultant and former Barack Obama aide, wrote on X: “We cannot do this, Democrats. Joe Biden can’t put a sentence together.” Meanwhile, numerous other Democratic insiders and donors are in a state of panic. So if President Biden won’t make it to November, then who could step up?