Delegates to the Democratic National Convention began online voting Thursday in a process expected to result in Vice President Harris becoming the official 2024 Democratic nominee for president well ahead of this month’s gathering in Chicago. Voting is scheduled to remain open into Monday. Harris, meanwhile, is nearing a pick for a running mate, and her campaign has announced a tour of battleground states by the new ticket starting Tuesday.
Inspector general issues report on Secret Service’s handling of Jan. 6 attack
The Department of Homeland Security’s chief watchdog on Thursday issued its long-awaited findings on the Secret Service’s handling of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, saying the protective agency had looked into the possibility of protests but “did not anticipate” the level of violence that occurred that day, according to a copy of the report sent to Congress and obtained by The Washington Post.
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Democrats begin process of officially making Harris their nominee
Democrats on Thursday began the process of making Vice President Harris their formal presidential nominee on a day that saw several campaign developments and highlighted one of the solemn challenges of an American president: bringing hostages home.
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Biden, Trump exchange jabs as Russia prisoner swap turns political
President Biden cast the release of several detained Americans in a multicountry prisoner swap as a vindication of his effort to cultivate international alliances, rebuking his predecessor’s isolationist impulses while celebrating a long-sought foreign policy achievement.
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Donald Trump is pushing back on Democrats’ recent messaging strategy of calling the Republican presidential nominee, his policies and his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) “weird.” It’s Vice President Harris and Democrats pushing for certain immigration and gender policies, he said, that are the weird ones.
“They’re the weird ones, and if you’ve seen [Harris] with the laugh and everything else, that’s a weird deal going on there,” Trump told the “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,” in an episode that aired Thursday afternoon.
“Nobody’s ever called me weird,” he claimed. “I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not. … JD is not, at all. They are.”
Vance launches a TikTok account
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) launched a TikTok account. The Republican vice-presidential nominee’s first video was a collaboration with the Nelk Boys, a group of YouTube stars who are staunch Donald Trump supporters, promoting a forthcoming appearance on their podcast. Vance so far follows only two accounts on TikTok: Trump’s personal and campaign accounts.
Harris on prisoner swap: ‘We never stopped fighting for their release’
Vice President Harris addressed the recent multilateral prisoner swap with Russia, telling reporters on an airport tarmac in Houston, “Over many years, President Biden and I, and our team, have engaged in complex diplomatic negotiations to bring these wrongfully detained Americans home.”
“We never stopped fighting for their release. And today, in spite of all of their suffering, it gives me great comfort to know that their horrible ordeal is finally over,” she added.
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Donald Trump’s running mate, said in a statement Thursday that “it’s great that Evan [Gershkovich] and Paul [Whelan] are coming home.” He said that their return is a sign “that a lot of bad guys across the world are worried Donald Trump is coming back into office, and they’re trying to clean house.” The United States, Russia, Germany and four other countries swapped at least two dozen people Thursday in the largest prisoner exchange since the height of the Cold War, a deal brokered in part by the Biden-Harris administration.
Former president Donald Trump raised $138.7 million in July, according to his campaign, raising the campaign’s total cash on hand to $327 million. The figures won’t be confirmed until financial disclosures are filed later this month.
Rep. Jackson Lee was a changemaker, Harris says
Vice President Harris said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) was a changemaker, and lawmakers like her must carry her legacy.
Vice President Harris, while delivering remarks at Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s (D-Tex.) funeral, briefly misspoke and referred to herself as “president” before correcting to say “vice president.”
The crowd cheered.
“It was Sheila Jackson Lee whose bill made Juneteenth a federal holiday,” Harris said. “Which, as a United States senator, I was proud to co-sponsor. And then as president — as vice president, it was my honor with the president … [to make it into law]. It was my honor.”
In her memorial speech for congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.), Vice President Harris recalled how Lee struck up a friendship with Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff.
“They did a number of events together, including with the Jewish community here in Houston, because Sheila, of course, was also a coalition builder, and she fought for everybody, knowing that the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us,” Harris said.
In recent days, Trump has questioned Harris’s racial identity and said she is “against the Jewish people” — even though Emhoff is Jewish.
Rep. Ogles faces well-funded primary challenge
Rep. Andrew Ogles (R) faces a primary challenge Thursday from Courtney Johnston, a Nashville Metro council member who has so far raised more money than the freshman congressman.
Ogles, endorsed by former president and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), was one of the holdouts to approving Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as House speaker in early 2023. However, Ogles later voted against McCarthy’s ouster that fall.
Laura Loomer posted on social media about Harris’s racial identity before Trump did
The first time Donald Trump posted on social media about Vice President Harris’s racial identity, following her entrance into the presidential race, was on July 24.
The former president shared a graphic on Truth Social that highlighted headlines from the Associated Press. One, from 2016, noted Harris was the “first Indian-American senator.” The other, from 2020, announced Harris as the “first Black woman” chosen as a vice presidential nominee.
A spokesman for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said the governor’s trip this weekend to the Hamptons on Long Island, which was planned “several weeks ago and included several fundraisers for his own campaign committee,” has been canceled because “his schedule has changed.”
Shapiro is believed to be on the list of potential running mates for Vice President Harris. She is expected to announce her pick this weekend.
Tennessee voters head to the polls to pick nominees for Senate, House seats
Voters in Tennessee head to the polls Thursday to cast their ballots in the state’s primary, which includes a competitive Republican challenge against a sitting member of Congress.
There are two major races to watch Thursday in Tennessee: the 5th Congressional District Republican primary and the Senate Democratic primary.
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Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Donald Trump is coming to Montana next week to help get Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) out of office. “President Trump is coming to Montana for one reason: He supports Tim Sheehy,” Daines said, referencing the Republican Senate nominee. “President Trump wants to have a senator that will work with him and not work against him on every turn.”
Who is ahead in Harris vs. Trump 2024 presidential polls right now?
The Washington Post is gathering the best available national and state-level polling data, and factoring how citizens in each state voted in the last two presidential elections, to calculate whom voters currently favor in the presidential race.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said President Biden reached out Thursday afternoon to give personal thanks to the leaders of Germany, Poland, Norway and Turkey for their work in freeing the hostages released from Russia.
“And honestly, guys, I can just say this was vintage Joe Biden rallying American allies to save American citizens and Russian freedom fighters, and doing it with intricate statecraft, pulling his whole team together to drive this across the finish line,” Sullivan told reporters at the White House.
“Today was a good day,” Sullivan said, as he got emotional in the briefing room podium.
Biden privately weighs how to use the time left in his presidency
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Biden was in a wood-paneled conference room with civil rights leaders and elected officials, flying high over the country en route to Texas. About an hour into the flight, he glanced at the television playing in the background, where guests on MSNBC were speculating over who Vice President Harris would pick as her running mate.
“Kamala and I talked,” Biden remarked. “I said she could pick me.” He waited a beat, then said he was joking, prompting laughter.
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Donald Trump’s presidential campaign announced that the former president is slated to participate in a rally in Bozeman, Mont., on Aug. 9.
Montana is the site of a major battleground Senate race between incumbent Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Trump-endorsed Republican candidate Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL.
Before departing the White House State Dining Room after announcing the United State’s monumental prisoner exchange with Russia, President Biden was asked for his response to a frequent criticism by former president Donald Trump.
“President Trump has said repeatedly that he could have gotten the hostages out without giving anything in exchange. What do you say to that," a reporter asked.
Biden replied: “Why didn’t he do it when he was president?"
In his remarks about the prisoner swap with Russia, President Biden did not mention Vice President Harris — the likely Democratic presidential nominee — by name, despite reports that the administration leaned on her at key moments to help secure the complex multicountry prisoner release.
As The Post’s John Hudson reported, Harris held high-level meetings with key leaders in the exchange, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob.
Biden thanks allied countries for helping seal prisoner swap deal
President Biden thanked several allied countries for their help in achieving a landmark prisoner exchange in which Russia agreed to release 16 prisoners: four Americans, five Germans and seven Russians.
Sen. Kelly calls Trump’s comments about Harris ‘desperate’
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who has been under consideration as a possible running mate for Vice President Harris, on Thursday called former president Donald Trump’s recent comments about Harris’s racial identity “desperate.”
“It’s such a desperate, desperate attempt to rebuild his campaign that’s obviously faltering,” Kelly told reporters in the Capitol. “She’s the person to bring us into the future and Donald Trump is about divisiveness.”
Harris urged German, Slovenian leaders to help secure prisoner swap
The Biden administration leaned on Vice President Harris at key moments to help secure the complex multicountry prisoner release, including two high-level meetings in Germany with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob, a senior administration official said.
Vance takes aim at Harris during U.S.-Mexico border visit
After 30 minutes of speaking with law enforcement and touring the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) began six minutes of remarks by repeatedly attacking Vice President Harris and referring to her as the “border czar” — despite that not being her title.
Vance described several policy initiatives a Trump-Vance administration would implement, including resuming border wall construction, more aggressively deporting undocumented immigrants and investigating drug crimes further.
Vice President Harris’s late mother was from India, and her father was born in Jamaica. Harris has embraced both identities for decades. She attended historically Black Howard University and has been a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha since the mid-1980s. She has routinely talked about being a barrier-breaking first in many of the jobs she has held.
President Biden is scheduled to deliver remarks from the White House at 12 p.m. Eastern about the major prisoner swap that includes the release of American journalist Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal and Paul Whelan, a former Marine, who were detained in Russia. Vice President Harris, who is in Houston, will not be appearing alongside Biden as she often does for major announcements.
Vance says he and Trump have ‘a good relationship’
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Donald Trump’s running mate, said he and the former president have a “good relationship” and sought to push back on criticism that Democrats — and some Republicans — have leveled against him since he was put on the ticket.
At the site in Arizona along the U.S.-Mexico border where JD Vance spoke with law enforcement, large placards were displayed, including a picture of the border wall and undocumented immigrants with a label that read “under border czar Kamala Harris.” That referenced a title conservatives have increasingly tried to tie to Vice President Harris, even though that has not been her role in the administration. She was tasked by President Biden with addressing the “root causes” of migration.
Trump’s comments on Harris came as she has been reaching out to Black women
Former president Donald Trump’s comments Wednesday about Vice President Harris’s racial identity came during a stretch when Harris was attending several events likely to resonate with Black women. Harris’s appearance at a Sigma Gamma Rho gathering Wednesday night was the latest effort in her extensive outreach to members of historically Black sororities and fraternities.
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), the Republican vice-presidential candidate, arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in southeast Arizona on Thursday morning for a tour and remarks. Dressed in a flannel shirt, jeans and hiking boots, Vance greeted law enforcement authorities with handshakes and was shown a spot where the border wall Donald Trump started building was incomplete.
Democratic convention will host hundreds of online influencers
In a move that could add to a recent surge in online support for Kamala Harris, the Democratic National Convention later this month will host hundreds of online content creators. More than 200 creators, with large followings on TikTok, YouTube and other platforms, have already been issued credentials to attend the Chicago event, according to convention organizers.
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Senate Republicans are expected to block legislation Thursday that would cut taxes for working families. Democrats plan to use the episode to focus on Republican vice-presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (Ohio). He voiced support for the legislation before he was tapped as Donald Trump’s running mate and has since come under fire for past comments about the U.S. birth rate.
A long shot for vice president, Pete Buttigieg is suddenly everywhere
On Sunday, Pete Buttigieg was on Fox News challenging the “warped reality” that an aging Donald Trump is “perfectly fine … even though he’s rambling about electrocuting sharks.” On Monday, he was on “The Daily Show,” denouncing Trump’s running mate, JD Vance. And on Wednesday, he proclaimed on MSNBC that the former president is afraid to debate Vice President Harris.
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Analysis: JD Vance has much to learn about the spotlight, Senate Republicans say
Even Sen. JD Vance’s allies realize the relative political newcomer has taken a huge leap that was bound to run into some early stumbles.
The Ohio Republican is the most politically inexperienced GOP vice-presidential nominee in almost 90 years. He’s run in just one election for any political office.
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Trump allies want to hit Harris’s record. He keeps talking about her race and gender.
Donald Trump’s aides have said they aim to beat Vice President Harris in November by portraying her as a San Francisco liberal who is responsible for illegal border crossings and inflation.
Yet in the past 48 hours, Trump has repeatedly deviated from that messaging to more familiar territory: personal attacks.
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Analysis: Tech group asks Trump to clarify Section 230 stance
As president, Donald Trump repeatedly tried to roll back Section 230, the pivotal 1996 statute that helped give rise to social media by shielding online platforms and websites from liability for what their users post.
But since launching his own social network, Truth Social, in February 2022, Trump has gone quieter on the issue. With the November election approaching, a tech trade group is calling on Trump to clarify his stance on a statute that Silicon Valley has long held dear.
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Analysis: Trump unleashes usual litany of falsehoods at Black journalists’ convention
In his half-hour sit-down with three journalists at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago, former president Donald Trump unleashed his usual litany of falsehoods, ranging from a phony story about the ex-governor of Virginia executing a baby after birth to an absurd claim that he “saved” historically Black colleges and universities.
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Harris is only candidate on virtual roll call for Democratic presidential nominee
Vice President Harris is the only candidate who has qualified for the virtual roll call vote to officially select the Democratic presidential nominee.
Electronic voting for the nearly 4,000 Democratic delegates will begin Thursday at 9 a.m. Eastern and end Monday at 6 p.m. Harris needs 1,976 votes to secure the nomination and is expected to far surpass that number.
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Schumer: ‘Every single one of our candidates’ is ahead
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) is more optimistic about Democrats’ chance of holding onto their slim majority in the Senate with Harris now on top of the ticket, he said in an interview Wednesday.
“Every single one of our candidates in the six battleground states is ahead,” Schumer said, referencing Democrats running tough Senate races in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Montana and Ohio. “They’re doing even better since Kamala Harris became the nominee.”
It’s primary day in Tennessee
Tennessee is holding primary elections Tuesday.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R) is seeking a second term in the upper chamber, while nine House incumbents — seven Republicans and one Democrat — are vying to continue serving in office.
Vice President Harris’s campaign formally announced Thursday that she and her running mate will embark on a cross-country tour of battleground states next Tuesday, signaling that her choice will be finalized and made public in the next few days.
According to the campaign, from Aug. 6-10, Harris and her running mate will travel to Philadelphia; Eau Claire, Wis.; Detroit; the Research Triangle in North Carolina; Savannah, Ga.; Phoenix; and Las Vegas.
Analysis: Reading the Harris VP tea leaves
The veepstakes. It’s Washington’s favorite parlor game.
The process to determine the second spot on the Democratic ticket is taking place at lightning speed as Vice President Harris is expected to announce her decision in the coming days. So let’s play that parlor game, too.
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Trump falsely calls Schumer a ‘proud member of Hamas’
Former president Donald Trump falsely accused Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) of being a “proud member of Hamas” at a rally Wednesday night, lodging another insult directed at a prominent Jewish American.
“Chuck Schumer refused to shake the Israeli prime minister’s hand,” Trump told his supporters in Harrisburg, Pa. “Chuck Schumer has become a Palestinian. Can you believe it? He’s become a proud member of Hamas.”
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Trump’s attack on Harris’s racial identity moves contest into new phase
For Vice President Harris’s supporters, Donald Trump’s lashing criticisms of her racial identity on Wednesday came with blinding speed but little surprise: A week after entering the race, the first Black and Indian American woman to top a party’s presidential ticket is contending with Trump’s assertion that she leaned into being Black for political expediency.
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