Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to continue campaign blitz with UAW event in Detroit
Good morning,
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are continuing their campaign blitz today with a scheduled address at an United Auto Workers event in Detroit following an energized rally in the city on Wednesday night.
Harris’s scheduled address before the UAW comes amid the union’s endorsement of her and Walz. Last week, the UAW president, Shawn Fain, hailed Harris’s record of “delivering for the working class” and in response to Harris’s pick of Walz as her running mate earlier this week, Fain said Walz is “one of us”.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has been firing off a series of posts on Truth Social this morning, one of which includes him announcing a press conference at 2pm ET in Mar-a-Lago – probably to lambast Harris and Walz over their progressive policies.
With Harris’s campaign gaining momentum across the country – much to Trump’s ire, a new survey by Marquette University Law School showed that among likely voters, Harris leads Trump 53% to 47%, or 6 points.
Here are other developments in US politics:
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Joe Biden is set to call Hawaii governor Josh Green at 12.30pm ET to mark one year since the deadly Maui wildfires.
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Far-right online attacks against Walz are focusing on a conspiracy theory that he changed Minnesota’s flag to mimic Somalia’s.
Key events
With Tim Walz being thrust into the national spotlight, his handling of George Floyd’s killing by police is coming back into view.
The Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo reports:
For his handling of George Floyd’s killing by police, Tim Walz has largely been commended by progressives both nationwide and on the local level. The vice-presidential candidate and Minnesota governor’s role in the 2020 case has come back into view since being selected as Kamala Harris’s running mate on Monday.
Many have credited Walz for tapping Keith Ellison, the attorney general, to prosecute the case, which resulted in an unlikely conviction of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of Floyd while on duty. Former officers J Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao were later convicted for violating Floyd’s civil rights.
“At the time, the Hennepin county attorney [Mike Freeman] was someone who the community did not have any trust in being able to try the case effectively,” said Elianne Farhat, executive director of the political advocacy group TakeAction Minnesota. “So the community and George Floyd’s family raised the demand that the case be moved to the attorney general. What we saw is that [Ellison] and his team led a powerful case and those police officers were ultimately held accountable.”
For the full story, click here:
Angela Giuffrida
The Italian rightwing newspaper Il Tempo has come under fire for racism after featuring an image on its front page of Kamala Harris wearing a Native American feathered headdress alongside the headline: “The challenge against Donald, hunt for the white man.”
The headline was in reference to Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, and intended to depict Harris as picking a white man to try and win over support from Donald Trump voters.
The front page was slammed as racist by critics, who also pointed out that Harris is not of Native American origin.
Francesco Strazzari, a professor of international relations at Sant’Anna University in Pisa, wrote on X: “How racial tropes work: ignorance runs so deep that Italy’s rightwing newspaper Il Tempo ignores that that Kamala Harris’ mother was from Madras, India,” and not Native American.
How racial tropes work: ignorance runs so deep that Italy’s rightwing newspaper Il Tempo ignores that Kamala Harris’s mother was from Madras, India. Kamala is portrayed on frontpage as Native Indian under the title ‘white manhunt’. pic.twitter.com/ADvZSlazyB
— francesco strazzari (@franxstrax) August 7, 2024
Tommaso Cerno, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, defended the front page, saying the headdress was chosen as a “symbol par excellence of all America’s minorities.” He accused Italy’s left of incorrectly accusing him of confusing Harris’ ethnicity. “Total idiocy!” he said in a video posted on X.
Harris leading Trump by 6% among likely voters – poll
Kamala Harris is leading Donald Trump by 6 points, 53% to 47%, among likely voters, according to a new poll by Marquette Law School.
Among registered voters, 52% said Harris is the choice for president while Trump is the choice of 48%.
Moreover, since becoming the Democratic nominee, Harris is seen favorably by 47% and unfavorably by 50% of registered voters, while 3% say they haven’t heard enough, according to the survey.
The survey was conducted July 24-Aug. 1, 2024, interviewing 879 registered voters nationwide, with a margin of error of +/-4.1 percentage points, Marquette University Law School said, adding that for likely voters, the sample size is 683 with a margin of error of +/-4.7 percentage points.
Just within the last two hours, Donald Trump has fired off six posts on Truth Social, each one angrier than the last.
In addition to accusing Kamala Harris of refusing to do interviews “because her team realizes she is unable to answer questions,” Trump vowed to “expose Kamala during the debate the same way I exposed Crooked Joe, Hillary, and everyone else during debates.”
Trump then lamented about media coverage of the size of his rallies, saying:
“If Kamala has 1,000 people at a Rally, the Press goes ‘crazy,’ and talks about how ‘big’ it was – And she pays for her ‘Crowd.’ When I have a Rally, and 100,000 people show up, the Fake News doesn’t talk about it, THEY REFUSE TO MENTION CROWD SIZE. The Fake News is the Enemy of the People!”
Writing in capitalised letters, Trump also said that this election is about the “ECONOMY, INFLATION, OPEN BORDER (ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION), RESPECT FOR OUR NATION, PREVENTING WORLD WAR III AND A 1929 STYLE DEPRESSION.”
Harris-Walz campaign releases new Latino-focused ad called ‘Determination’
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz’s campaign has released a new Latino-focused ad in English and Spanish called “Determination.”
The one-minute ad, which aims to target Latino voters, centers on Harris’s track record as a prosecutor, state attorney general, senator and vice president.
Multiple voiceovers in the ad say:
“When you’re raised by an immigrant mother, you learn what’s possible with determination. And determination is how Kamala Harris went from working in McDonald’s to prosecutor, state attorney general, US senator and our vice president in only one generation.”
Describing the ad, Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said:
“This ad buy also sends a clear signal that vice president Harris and governor Walz are leveraging the historic outpouring of grassroots support we’ve seen, and using it to earn the support of the Latino vote. Because it’s determination that will win this election.”
This ad is part of a historic, two-week, seven-figure paid media blitz targeting Latino voters — a testament to Team Harris-Walz’s commitment to earning the Latino vote, the campaign said.
“Determination” will run on TV, radio, and digital platforms in English and Spanish in battleground states with an emphasis on high-viewership events that skew toward Latino voters, including the Olympic Games, Major League Baseball games, game shows, high-ranked telenovelas, and La Liga de Fútbol and Leagues Cup matches, it added.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to continue campaign blitz with UAW event in Detroit
Good morning,
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are continuing their campaign blitz today with a scheduled address at an United Auto Workers event in Detroit following an energized rally in the city on Wednesday night.
Harris’s scheduled address before the UAW comes amid the union’s endorsement of her and Walz. Last week, the UAW president, Shawn Fain, hailed Harris’s record of “delivering for the working class” and in response to Harris’s pick of Walz as her running mate earlier this week, Fain said Walz is “one of us”.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has been firing off a series of posts on Truth Social this morning, one of which includes him announcing a press conference at 2pm ET in Mar-a-Lago – probably to lambast Harris and Walz over their progressive policies.
With Harris’s campaign gaining momentum across the country – much to Trump’s ire, a new survey by Marquette University Law School showed that among likely voters, Harris leads Trump 53% to 47%, or 6 points.
Here are other developments in US politics:
-
Joe Biden is set to call Hawaii governor Josh Green at 12.30pm ET to mark one year since the deadly Maui wildfires.
-
Far-right online attacks against Walz are focusing on a conspiracy theory that he changed Minnesota’s flag to mimic Somalia’s.