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August 26, 2024 09:16:02 AM |
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August 26, 2024 09:16:02 AM |
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Vice President Kamala Harris is having it both ways as she hits the campaign trail after the Democratic National Convention, taking credit for parts of President Joe Biden's record in rallies staged in front of Air Force Two while casting herself as a new leader who rails against “the politics of the past."
Welcome to this week’s edition of AP Ground Game.
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Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to speak on the final day of the Democratic National Convention, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) |
Harris angles to be both established and fresh |
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In every presidential cycle, candidates run on experience or freshness, but Harris so far appears to be successfully harmonizing two seemingly competing messages, much to the frustration of former President Donald Trump and his allies.
Harris’ vision for the country has leaned heavily on Biden plans, to the point of not rewriting those plans even after Biden dropped out. The platform approved by the DNC was passed last week with frequent — and outdated — mentions of a Biden “second term.”
Her presentation as someone offering a “new way forward” relies in large part on being someone different from the norm. The 59-year-old daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants replaced an 81-year-old white man who first ran for president 36 years ago. She is running to become the nation's first female president and first Black woman or person of South Asian descent to serve. Read more.
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Of note:
The Trump campaign has attacked Harris’ lack of policy specifics and tried to portray her as someone far more liberal than she’s letting on. Perhaps trying to set expectations before new polls emerge, the campaign predicted on Saturday that Harris would see a post-convention bump in her polling and blamed what it called the “Harris Honeymoon.”
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Harris campaign says it’s raised $540 million and saw a surge of donations during the convention
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Harris isn’t backing away from Biden’s democracy focus. But she’s putting her own spin on it
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GOP continuing criticism of Walz’s military record |
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It’s far from clear whether Republicans can turn criticism surrounding the military record of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, into a liability. His decades of service stand in contrast with Trump, who received a series of deferments to avoid serving in Vietnam, including one attained with a physician’s letter stating that Trump suffered from bone spurs in his feet. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, was a Marine Corps corporal, including six months as a military journalist in Iraq.
For many Democrats, the GOP salvos are an eerie reprise of the tactics used to sully their 2004 presidential candidate, John Kerry, by questioning his leadership as a swift boat commander in Vietnam, even though Kerry was a decorated combat veteran and his Republican opponent, President George W. Bush, did not fight in the war.
But the criticism stems not so much from Walz’s service record but from how he has characterized his time in uniform and how he ended his tenure. An Associated Press review of Walz’s statements as a congressional candidate, congressman and governor shows that Walz has toggled between being precise and careless about key details. Read more.
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Of note:
Walz’s supporters reject the criticism as politically motivated and say it denigrates the sacrifices he and other troops have made. The Harris campaign provided a letter signed by hundreds of veterans and military family members that said Vance’s broadsides against Walz are not surprising given reports that Trump expressed disdain for those who served. Trump has denied the claim.
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Takeaways from the AP’s review of Tim Walz’s descriptions of his military record
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In boosting clean energy in Minnesota, Walz lays foundation for climate influence if Harris wins
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2024 campaign: Telling the American story |
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Harris accepted the Democratic nomination “on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth.” America, Barack Obama thundered, “is ready for a better story.” Vance insisted that the Biden administration “is not the end of our story,” and Trump called on fellow Republicans to “write our own thrilling chapter of the American story.”
In the discourse of American politics, this kind of talk from both sides is unsurprising — fitting, even. Because in the campaign season of 2024, just as in the fabric of American culture at large, the notion of “story” is everywhere.
This year’s political conventions were, like so many of their kind, curated collections of elaborate stories carefully spun to accomplish one goal — getting elected. But lurking behind them was a pitched, high-stakes battle over how to frame the biggest story of all — the one about America that, as Harris put it, should be “the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.” Read more.
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Of note:
It was hard to miss that the Democrats were not only coalescing around the multiracial, multicultural nation that Harris personifies but at the same time methodically trying to reclaim the plainspoken slivers of the American story that have rested in Republican hands in recent years: The flag was everywhere, as was the notion of freedom.
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Ready or not, election season in the US starts soon. The first ballots will go out in just two weeks
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Portrait of a protester: Outside the Democratic convention, a young man talks of passion and plans
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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump shakes hands with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a campaign rally at the Desert Diamond Arena, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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- Trump speaks to the National Guard Association in Detroit on Tuesday, campaigns in Michigan and Wisconsin on Thursday and holds a rally in Pennsylvania on Friday before attending the Moms for Liberty conference.
- Vance gives remarks on the economy in Michigan on Tuesday.
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Harris and Walz campaign together in Georgia on Wednesday and Thursday.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his independent White House campaign and endorsed Trump on Friday, a late-stage shakeup of the race that could give the former president a modest boost from Kennedy’s supporters. Read more.
Vance says Trump would not support a national abortion ban if elected president and would veto such legislation if it landed on his desk. Read more.
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Alaska adjustment: Trump-backed Republican withdraws from US House race after third-place finish in primary
Michigan’s mechanics: GOP nominates judge for Supreme Court after man charged in election tampering drops out
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