politics

Some Republicans are starting to seriously regret Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance.

It’s been only one week since Vance was nominated at the Republican National Convention, and already his own party members are expressing severe doubts about Trump’s pick. The former president’s allies have acknowledged that nominating Vance was the product of Trump’s absolute certainty that he would be able to defeat Joe Biden in November. While Vance wouldn’t do much for swing voters or independents, he would likely shore up support among Trump’s base.

But ever since Biden passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s new presumptive nominee, Republicans have begun to sour on Vance.

“The road got a lot harder. He was the only pick that wasn’t the safe pick. And I think everyone has now realized that,” one House Republican told Axios Thursday, under the condition of anonymity.

Another House Republican told Axios that Vance “doesn’t add much.”

Wray said it's not clear yet whether it might have been shrapnel

Cross posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/11789755

🤡

A new poll in New Hampshire shows Vice President Kamala Harris is six points ahead of former President Donald Trump in the battleground state.

The survey of more than 2,000 registered New Hampshire voters by Saint Anselm College took place on July 24-25, after Harris secured enough delegate support to become the likely Democratic presidential nominee.

Harris leads Trump 50% to 44% in the poll. A poll taken by Saint Anselm in June after President Biden struggled in the debate showed Trump edging out Biden in New Hampshire by two points.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/11794653

> I'll note that Vance tried to walk back the part about cats, but not the hate of women

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240725233221/https://www.npr.org/2024/07/25/nx-s1-5048285/harris-gaza-war

She worked the phones. Her team worked the delegates. When it was over, she had quickly locked down the nomination in a “well-orchestrated cascade,” as one party leader put it.

Late on Sunday morning, Vice President Kamala Harris summoned a small clutch of her closest advisers and allies to the Naval Observatory, where she lives and works, with little notice and even less information.

President Biden had informed Ms. Harris earlier that morning that he was withdrawing from the race. The vice president had assembled her team so that the exact moment Mr. Biden formally quit, at 1:46 p.m. — one minute after the president had informed his own senior staff — they were ready to go.

Time was of the essence. A sprawling call list of the most important Democrats to reach had been prepared in advance, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. The vice president, in sneakers and a sweatshirt, began methodically dialing Democratic power brokers.

...

The blitz demonstrated exactly the kind of vigor and energy that Mr. Biden had lacked in recent weeks. Mr. Biden had reportedly made 20 calls to congressional Democrats in the first 10 or so days after the debate, while his candidacy hung in the balance. Ms. Harris made 100 calls in 10 hours.

At the same time that Ms. Harris was dialing, a new whip operation was set up to wrangle delegates who will ultimately select the nominee, integrating her team and the pre-existing Biden-Harris campaign’s delegate operation.

Non-paywall link

Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the press following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex.

Harris began by sharing a personal anecdote from her childhood, recalling how she planted trees to support Israel's "right to defend itself." She emphasized the complexity of the ongoing conflict in Gaza, urging Americans to understand that it is not a binary issue. “Let us all condemn terrorism and violence,” she stated. “And let us condemn antisemitism, Islamophobia and hate of any kind.”

Reflecting on her recent discussions with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Harris said, “I just had a frank and constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu. I told him that I will always ensure that Israel is able to defend itself, including from Iran and Iran-backed militias such as Hamas and Hezbollah.”

“I’ve had an unwavering commitment to the existence of the State of Israel, to its security, and to the people of Israel,” she said.

Old article, but think it bears repeating. If anyone reading is still confused about the contrast between these two candidates, go and spend 5 minutes reading the comments on patriots.win

The gap of mental states between parties is unfathomable.

"Enthusiasm" has always been a "flex" for GOP these recent elections.

Is that similar to a noise meter at events?

The enthusiasm equals 2 football fields plus 6 cubits.

Mostly posted this for the picture of trump looking "old and quite weird".

>The meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was requested by Netanyahu, sources familiar with the planning told CNN. It comes on the heels of the prime minister’s address to Congress and meetings with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House. Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee, conveyed a forcefulness on civilian suffering and ending the war following her time with the prime minister.

Donald Trump hosted Benjamin Netanyahu at his Florida resort as he dismissed reports of tensions between the pair and attacked Kamala Harris's "disrespectful" comments about the Gaza war.

The former US president welcomed the Israeli prime minister to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach for their first meeting since September 2020.

The Republican presidential nominee and Mr Netanyahu have reportedly been at odds since the Israeli PM congratulated Joe Biden for his victory in the 2020 presidential election, which Mr Trump falsely claimed was stolen from him.

It was all smiles between Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu on Friday, however, with the American saying "we have a very good relationship" and insisting it was "never bad".

Data obtained by 8News shows that voter registration in Virginia is on the rise after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race for President and Vice President Kamala Harris announced her plans to seek the Democratic nomination for president.

“Particularly Democrats are excited that there is a new face to the party, a new candidate that doesn’t have the age baggage that Joe Biden had,” 8News Political Analyst, Rich Meagher explained.

Data from the Virginia Department of Elections shows that on Monday and Tuesday (7/22 and 7/23), the first two full days of Harris’s campaign, 4,899 Virginians registered to vote, a 38.5% increase over the same time the week before.

>In her first campaign rally as the presumptive Democratic nominee to face Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris took aim at her Republican rival and a widely derided Trump-linked platform that provides a blueprint for the next GOP administration.

>“Donald Trump wants to take our country backward,” she said in remarks from Milwaukee on Tuesday, just two days after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and endorsed his vice president.

>Harris, who secured enough delegate pledges to clinch the Democratic Party’s nomination within a little over 24 hours after announcing her candidacy, linked Trump to Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-backed plan for his administration, and one that his campaign is now furiously trying to distance itself from.

>“He and his extreme Project 2025 agenda will weaken the middle class. We know we got to take that seriously,” Harris said. ”Can you believe they put that thing in writing? Read it. It’s 900 pages.”

>The plan proposes cuts to Social Security and Medicare, tax breaks to corporations that will force “working families to foot the bill” and abolishes the Affordable Care Act, which “will take us back to a time when insurance companies had the power to deny people with preexisting conditions,” Harris said.

Windmills cause cancer.

-- Project 25

Over the last two days users from the social media service Mastodon have started a campaign which has raised over $250,000 for VP Harris. User Heidi Li Feldman started the modest campaign on ActBlue two days ago, with a humble goal of one thousand dollars. She did it for the dual purpose of helping VP Harris, and raising awareness of the social media site.

She has blown by her original goal — and continues to have to move the goalposts, but in a good way...

From Heidi’s initial request:

>I'm doing something I never thought I'd get to do again. I'm specifically fundraising for a woman to head the Democratic ticket and to be the next President of the United States. I want to do this with all of you here on #Mastodon, so I've created a fundraising page specifically for us: #MastodonForHarris.

>We have the chance to save U.S. democracy and rule of law, to elect the first woman President of the United States, and to send TFG packing. By contributing to Kamala Harris's campaign via this portal, we can also encourage her to create a distinct presence on Mastodon, not mediated by Threads or any other social media provider.

>Any amount donated will strengthen the #Mastodon platform as a venue for progressive political activism, as well as benefiting Kamala Harris.

>“In the past, communists marched in the streets waving red flags,” Vance’s endorsement of the book, which came out in July, reads. “Today, they march through HR, college campuses, and courtrooms to wage lawfare against good, honest people. In Unhumans, Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec reveal their plans and show us what to do to fight back.” > >. . . It’s not the only Vance publishing story that’s raising eyebrows. > >The US Senator from Ohio also wrote the foreword and an endorsementfor a book on Project 2025, the far-right roadmap for a potential Trump administration 2.0 that the former president has denied any connection to.  > >“Never before has a figure with Roberts’s depth and stature within the American Right tried to articulate a genuinely new future for conservatism…,” Vance is quoted as saying in press for the book, by Project 2025 head Kevin Robert. > >“We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lie ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.”