ReportWire

Tag: 2024 election

  • Democrats Are Having Fun?

    Democrats Are Having Fun?

    [ad_1]

    When’s the last time you saw Democrats having fun the way they did in Atlanta Tuesday night—looking like they actually wanted to be there, looking like they had the wind at their backs? “We have a fight in front of us, and we are the underdogs in this race,” Kamala Harris acknowledged to a fired-up rally crowd of supporters Tuesday. But, she said, “the momentum in this race is shifting.”

    That much seemed clear as she spoke in the swing state. With Megan thee Stallion and Quavo providing star power and Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock rousing his home audience, Harris was greeted with remarkable enthusiasm when she took the stage. The vice president gave the stump speech she’s used a couple times now since replacing Joe Biden as the presumptive Democratic nominee, including during a rally last week in Wisconsin. After she ran through the “perpetrators of all kinds” she took down as a prosecutor, the audience could barely wait for her to get to the signature line of her early campaign before they started cheering: “So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type!” But it was a new epilogue that provided the line of the night. Noting that Trump has begun waffling on debating her but has lobbed personal attacks on her from his own rally stage and on social media, Harris addressed her opponent directly: “Well, Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage,” she said. “Because, as the saying goes, if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.”

    Trump—not too long ago looking like he would be cake walking to victory in November—appears to be caught flat-footed, still struggling to find a line of attack against his new opponent. “She’s plain weird,” Trump told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Tuesday, trying to repurpose the dig Democrats have recently adopted against him, JD Vance, and other Republicans. “I don’t need concerts or entertainers,” he posted after Harris’s rally, calling her “Crazy Kamala.” “I just have to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” His allies aren’t doing much better: Some of their attacks against her have seemed like accidental pro-Harris ads, while others have reinforced the Democrats’ “Republicans are weird”angle: “When a man votes for a woman,” the Fox News host Jesse Watters riffed recently, “he actually transitions into a woman.”

    Harris’s honeymoon won’t last forever, of course. Trump and the Republicans will refine their attacks or at least intensify them. And the Harris coalition—currently unified and enthusiastic—still has divides that can be brought back to the fore by her choice of a running mate and as she lays out the particulars of her agenda. Even as her movement soars, political reality still exerts a gravitational pull. And yet, it’s worth appreciating what’s happening here, something remarkable, because of who Harris is and what she represents. But it’s also something remarkably straightforward: Surveys had consistently shown Americans to be gloomy about the prospects of a Biden-Trump rematch, with Democrats, in particular, telling pollsters again and again and again that they believed Biden needed to pass the torch. For months, even after his dreadful debate performance, Biden and his party tried to swim against that current of popular opinion—insisting they knew better or even that the polls were wrong.

    But now, the Democratic Party is giving the voters what they wanted and are being rewarded for it: About eight in 10 Democrats say they’re pleased with the top of the ticket in a new AP-NORC survey, up from a dismal four in 10 in June. Trump’s lead in national and swing state polls has seemed to narrow or even close, and Democratic fundraising has been off the charts. And then, there is the kind of energy we saw in Atlanta on Tuesday. All cycle, Democrats had been steeling themselves to mount a goal-line stand against Trump. Now, it seems like the Democrats are actually on offense. “This is like Barack Obama 2008 on steroids for me,” one Georgia voter told the Associated Press at the Atlanta rally Tuesday. “I would have voted for President Biden again. But we are ready.”

    [ad_2]

    Eric Lutz

    Source link

  • Election Deniers Are Ramping Up Efforts to Disenfranchise US Voters

    Election Deniers Are Ramping Up Efforts to Disenfranchise US Voters

    [ad_1]

    EIN advises its network of state-level groups to conduct voter roll challenges using EagleAI, a tool designed to automatically create lists of ineligible voters. Activists in EIN’s network across the country take these lists and manually review them, and, at times, conduct door-to-door canvasses to back up their challenges—a practice that has been condemned for intimidating voters. Experts have also already pointed out flaws with EagleAI’s system: Tiny errors in name spellings, such as missing commas, can lead to names being removed from voter rolls incorrectly. The software is also reportedly facing numerous technical issues. Despite this, one county in Georgia has already signed a contract with the company to use the tool as part of its voter roll maintenance.

    Leaked documents published this month by Documented and ProPublica show that one of the funders of EagleAI is Ziklag, a ultrasecretive group of wealthy individuals dedicated to pushing an overtly Christian nationalist agenda. According to an internal video obtained by ProPublica, Ziklag plans to invest $800,000 in “EagleAI’s clean the rolls project,” and one of the group’s goals is to “remove up to one million ineligible registrations and around 280,000 ineligible voters” in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Wisconsin.

    Mitchell and EIN are also working with a number of other groups that are supporting mass voter roll challenges. One of those is VoteRef, which has obtained and published voter rolls for more than 161 million voters in 31 states. The group is run by Gina Swoboda, a former Trump campaign official and current chair of the Republican Party in Arizona. State election officials have said that VoteRef’s claims of discrepancies in voter rolls are “fundamentally incorrect,” and highlighted significant privacy concerns about the data that VoteRef is making publicly available.

    EIN is also working with Check My Vote, a website that hosts publicly available voter rolls and highlights what it calls irregularities, urging those using the system to create walk lists that activists can use to conduct door-to-door canvassing before filing voter challenges with a template available to download from the site.

    Mitchell and EIN did not respond to a request for comment.

    “These groups and the broader election denial movement have been building these structures, building these projects, over the course of many, many months and years, in preparation for this moment,” says ​Brendan Fischer, deputy executive director at Documented. “And the pieces are finally falling into place, where they can begin to file these mass challenges for voter eligibility.”

    Voter rolls are notoriously difficult to maintain, given federal laws that prevent citizens from being removed years after they may have left the jurisdiction. But there is no evidence to back up the claims that this issue causes voter fraud. And election administrators tell WIRED that the processes in place to ensure voter rolls are as accurate as possible already work.

    “[We are] aware of an increase in voter registration challenges over the past year, often submitted by a single individual or entity, on the basis that a voter may no longer be residing at the address of registration,” says Matt Heckel, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of State. “These challenges are an attempt to circumvent the list maintenance processes that are carefully prescribed by state and federal law.”

    [ad_2]

    David Gilbert

    Source link

  • Inside the “Big Weirdo” Political Strategy That Democrats Are Using to Taunt Republicans

    Inside the “Big Weirdo” Political Strategy That Democrats Are Using to Taunt Republicans

    [ad_1]

    Even Republican cheerleader senator Mitch McConnell despairs over his party’s increasing weirdness.

    In 2022, explaining away the GOP’s midterm election performance (read: not good!) he basically said, yikes, what can you do? “My view was do the best you can with the cards you’re dealt,” he said of his fellow Republicans. “Now, hopefully, in the next cycle we’ll have quality candidates everywhere and a better outcome.”

    McConnell is the guy at the rager who’s telling people that he “came in with those guys, but not, like, with those guys” and hissing through his teeth at his colleagues to “try to act normal.”

    No one is immune, no matter their political affiliation. Former president George W. Bush was ahead of the curve in fingering Trump and his cohort as weirdos, a sense of cringe transcending any party loyalties he might have. Officially, he attended Trump’s presidential inauguration in January 2017 to witness the peaceful transfer of power. Unofficially, he reportedly turned to his companions as they left the dais and said, “That was some weird shit.”

    TikTok and internet culture aren’t the only fields Harris’s campaign has pulled from. Modern dating parlance lends us the idea of “the ick,” a term so relatable it was recently added to the Cambridge Dictionary.

    It’s defined as “a sudden feeling that you dislike someone or something or are no longer attracted to someone because of something they do.”

    Once you get the ick, you can’t un-ick. Ever. In dating, that might mean losing someone’s number. In politics, the Democrats are hoping that voters’ ick will translate at the polls. Picture senior Democrats pulling voters aside like they’re their closest girlfriends and muttering, “Really? Him? But he’s so…weird.” Politicos can’t go all in, Walter Masterson style, but they can get away with a deftly wielded light trolling.

    Of course, the Unified Theory of Ick (Politics Edition) is nonpartisan, as evidenced by a severe case of the ick being the straw that broke the Biden-reelection-campaign-shaped camel’s back just days ago.

    As Lawrence points out, “If you’re making an attack, and then there’s something that happens that reinforces that, it’s really hard to get away from it. The Biden debate, going into it, [Republicans said], ‘he’s old, he’s old, he’s old,’ and then he looked old. There’s just no turning away from that. You can’t get that out of people’s heads.”

    Again, it goes both ways: “And so you have Democrats saying, ‘they’re weird freaks, they’re weird freaks, they’re weird freaks,’ and then old clips of JD Vance come out talking about cat ladies and talking about how people without children shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Donald Trump talking about Hannibal Lecter like he’s a real person. All of that stuff just kind of builds on itself until it becomes a part of the zeitgeist.”

    Progressive voters are noticing this linguistic shift, and they’re on board.

    One person on X wondered why “anyone at all” would vote for a Republican. “Hateful, cruel, misogynistic and like, vibey in a weird unsettling way,” they wrote.

    [ad_2]

    Kase Wickman

    Source link

  • A Senate Bill Would Radically Improve Voting Machine Security

    A Senate Bill Would Radically Improve Voting Machine Security

    [ad_1]

    Congress is moving closer to putting US election technology under a stricter cybersecurity microscope.

    Embedded inside this year’s Intelligence Authorization Act, which funds intelligence agencies like the CIA, is the Strengthening Election Cybersecurity to Uphold Respect for Elections through Independent Testing (SECURE IT) Act, which would require penetration testing of federally certified voting machines and ballot scanners, and create a pilot program exploring the feasibility of letting independent researchers probe all manner of election systems for flaws.

    The SECURE IT Act—originally introduced by US senators Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, and Susan Collins, a Maine Republican—could significantly improve the security of key election technology in an era when foreign adversaries remain intent on undermining US democracy.

    “This legislation will empower our researchers to think the way our adversaries do, and expose hidden vulnerabilities by attempting to penetrate our systems with the same tools and methods used by bad actors,” says Warner, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.

    The new push for these programs highlights the fact that even as election security concerns have shifted to more visceral dangers such as death threats against county clerks, polling-place violence, and AI-fueled disinformation, lawmakers remain worried about the possibility of hackers infiltrating voting systems, which are considered critical infrastructure but are lightly regulated compared to other vital industries.

    Russia’s interference in the 2016 election shined a spotlight on threats to voting machines, and despite major improvements, even modern machines can be flawed. Experts have consistently pushed for tighter federal standards and more independent security audits. The new bill attempts to address those concerns in two ways.

    The first provision would codify the US Election Assistance Commission’s recent addition of penetration testing to its certification process. (The EAC recently overhauled its certification standards, which cover voting machines and ballot scanners and which many states require their vendors to meet.)

    While previous testing simply verified whether machines contained particular defensive measures—such as antivirus software and data encryption—penetration testing will simulate real-world attacks meant to find and exploit the machines’ weaknesses, potentially yielding new information about serious software flaws.

    “People have been calling for mandatory [penetration] testing for years for election equipment,” says Edgardo Cortés, a former Virginia elections commissioner and an adviser to the election security team at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice.

    The bill’s second provision would require the EAC to experiment with a vulnerability disclosure program for election technology—including systems that are not subject to federal testing, such as voter registration databases and election results websites.

    Vulnerability disclosure programs are essentially treasure hunts for civic-minded cyber experts. Vetted participants, operating under clear rules about which of the organizer’s computer systems are fair game, attempt to hack those systems by finding flaws in how they are designed or configured. They then report any flaws they discover to the organizer, sometimes for a reward.

    By allowing a diverse group of experts to hunt for bugs in a wide range of election systems, the Warner–Collins bill could dramatically expand scrutiny of the machinery of US democracy.

    [ad_2]

    Eric Geller

    Source link

  • Hundreds Turn Out for Kamala Harris in Florida Enclave That Hasn’t Voted for a Democrat Since 2000

    Hundreds Turn Out for Kamala Harris in Florida Enclave That Hasn’t Voted for a Democrat Since 2000

    [ad_1]

    The Villages is a 55-plus retirement community located in Sumter County, Florida that has not voted for a Democratic candidate in a general election since 2000. In 2020, Donald Trump won 67.8% of the vote compared to Joe Biden’s 31.7% in the county. In 2016, Trump won 68.8% to Hillary Clinton’s 29.5%. In 2008 and 2012, when Barack Obama carried the state, 63% of ballot castors in Sumter voted for John McCain and 67.2% for Mitt Romney, respectively. In other words, it’s an extreme Republican-stronghold—which makes new enthusiasm for Kamala Harris there not great news for Trump!

    Over the weekend, hundreds of golf carts paraded around the Villages in support of Harris’s candidacy, reportedly creating a traffic jam as they showed their excitement for the VP. “Young people are energized and so are we,” resident Joyce Wiegand told Villages-News. Said her friend Karen Wink: “Kamala isn’t just for young people, she’s for all of us. She supports Social Security, Medicare and health care. That matters to us.”

    X content

    This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

    Diane Ruggiero, a registered Republican, told the outlet Harris “gives us all hope,” adding: “She is someone to be positive about. I’m tired of all the negativity—who we don’t want and who we don’t like. Now we have someone to like and be happy and excited about. I’m trying to be less negative and it’s great to be for something instead of against so many things.” While the Villages residents are a whopping 97.4% white according to the Census, when asked about voting for a person of color, resident Jim Guy said, “That’s not a problem. What matters is she is a high-quality, experienced individual, and she cares about working people.”

    While Florida may remain a long shot for Democrats, Aubrey Jewett, political scientist at the University of Central Florida, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel the excitement about Harris’s candidacy is clearly noteworthy. “It’s been a while since anyone could whip up enthusiasm like that,” he said. Also noteworthy: the fact that Florida governor Ron DeSantis felt the need to comment on it, claiming it is much ado about nothing.

    X content

    This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

    Speaking to Politico, South Florida Democrat representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz declared: “Don’t sleep on Florida. Kamala’s candidacy just woke a sleeping giant.”

    GOP senator’s attack on Kamala Harris does not receive the response from Fox News he thought it would

    X content

    This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

    [ad_2]

    Bess Levin

    Source link

  • People Are Using Memecoins to Bet on the US Election

    People Are Using Memecoins to Bet on the US Election

    [ad_1]

    On July 13, as word spread that a would-be assassin had narrowly missed killing Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a trading frenzy began. Within an hour of the shooting, the price of TRUMP, a cryptocurrency inspired by the former president, had jumped up by more than a third, from $6.34 to $8.69. The memecoin was, in effect, a bellwether for the upcoming US election.

    Tens of political memecoins have been created within the past year; there also are coins modeled after high-profile politicians such as Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They share an iconography and naming convention: The politicians are typically represented by unflattering caricatures and their names are deliberately misspelled (instead of Joe Biden, it’s “Jeo Boden”), in homage to an influential meme comic from the 2010s.

    Beyond financial speculation, the coins serve no purpose and promise no utility, but over the course of the US presidential election campaign, their market performance has correlated with the political fortunes of the individuals they depict.

    Just as the price of TRUMP rose in the wake of the assassination attempt, an event that commentators had predicted would bolster his chances of reelection, the price of KAMA, the Harris-themed coin, more than tripled after Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the race, paving the way for the vice president to become the Democratic nominee. Likewise, on June 27, the day of Biden’s disastrous CNN debate performance, the price of BODEN fell by half.

    In the US, the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a financial regulator, has refused to allow gambling platforms to offer bets on election results. It is explicitly illegal under the laws of numerous states for residents to place those kinds of bets, too. But buying into political memecoins has become a loose proxy—one that comes, courtesy of the violent swings in price typical of crypto markets, with both increased risk and potential reward. In aggregate, hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of political memecoins are currently changing hands every day.

    “An investment in a political memecoin isn’t an endorsement or badge of support,” says Rennick Palley, founding partner at investment firm Stratos, whose hedge fund holds memecoins in its portfolio. “The majority of people look at it as a fun way to bet on what is going to happen. If I wanted to speculate on who is going to win, memecoins are clearly the way to do it for maximum risk and maximum upside.”

    The debate over whether betting on elections should be legalized in the US extends back decades, but is currently playing out in the US court system. In September, the CFTC denied an application by Kalshi, a New York–based company that runs a market for betting on the outcome of events, to let customers wager on which party would control the two chambers of Congress, which the regulator described as “contrary to the public interest.”

    [ad_2]

    Joel Khalili

    Source link

  • Elon Musk shared a doctored Harris campaign video on X without labeling it as fake

    Elon Musk shared a doctored Harris campaign video on X without labeling it as fake

    [ad_1]

    As spotted by The New York Times, Elon Musk shared an altered version of Kamala Harris’ campaign video on Friday night that uses a deepfake voiceover to say things like, “I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire,” in the VP’s voice. Nowhere does the post alert users to the fact that the video has been manipulated and features comments Harris did not actually say. Under X’s own policies, users “may not share synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm (‘misleading media’).”

    The post has been up all weekend, amassing over 119 million views by early Sunday afternoon. It was originally posted by another user, @MrReaganUSA, whose post states that it is a parody. Among other things, the voice in the video says, “I had four years under the tutelage of the ultimate deep state puppet, a wonderful mentor, Joe Biden.” Musk’s post — which only says, “This is amazing,” with a laughing emoji — has not been labeled as misleading, which the site will sometimes do if it determines certain media is as such, and no Community Notes have been added, though NYT notes that several have been suggested.

    Altered media is in some cases allowed to stay up on the site and won’t be labeled as misleading, according to X’s policies. That includes memes and satire, “provided these do not cause significant confusion about the authenticity of the media.” The potential for deepfakes to be used to influence voters’ opinions ahead of elections has been a growing concern in recent years. Earlier this year, 20 tech companies signed an agreement pledging to help fight the “deceptive use of AI” in the 2024 elections — including X.

    [ad_2]

    Cheyenne MacDonald

    Source link

  • Bitcoin Bros Go Wild for Donald Trump

    Bitcoin Bros Go Wild for Donald Trump

    [ad_1]

    Trump’s speech is an hour behind. A half hour into the wait, restless attendees start chanting “Trump.” The woman sitting in front of me murmurs her own chant:

    “Bitcoin, bitcoin—that’s what they should be chanting.” She must have gotten the memo: It’s not a Trump rally; it’s a bitcoin rally.

    When Trump finally takes the stage to “God Bless the USA,” he basks in the glory of his standing ovation, “thrilled…to become the first American president ever to address a bitcoin event.” His next step is to pander to his supporters in the audience. “This is the kind of spirit that will help us make America great again. I stand before you today filled with respect and admiration,” for what he later calls all the “high IQ individuals” in the room. He reiterates past promises (freeing Ross on day one, never creating a Central Bank Digital Currency) and tacks on some new ones (the plan for a US strategic bitcoin reserve, which senator Lummis details in a brief speech after Trump’s; the firing of SEC chairman Gary Gensler, a crypto industry nemesis). He promises no one in the industry will have to move to China for jobs and says we’ll continue to use fossil fuels. We’ll have so much electricity, he says, “you’ll say please, please Mr. President … no more electricity, sir, we have enough!”

    He disses his political opponents, as per usual, and promises no one in his administration will “go woke,” a sentiment he maybe knows will resonate with the bitcoin crowd. But he shows an even better understanding with a basic appeal to audience’s wallets: Under his leadership, “bitcoin and crypto will skyrocket like never before.” The crowd goes wild.

    Exiting the conference center after the speech, I spot a dollop of side-swept orange hair disappearing down the escalator. I follow him.

    “It was a very orange talk,” the Trump impersonator, Atlanta-based comedian Josh Warren says when I ask how the keynote went, immediately pretending to be Trump. “We’ve been asking people who’s more orange, RFK or me, and it’s coming astoundingly that I’m still the orange man.”

    Warren’s not a bitcoin guy, but his shtick got a better reception here than at the Libertarian National convention in DC. When I ask about his vote, he says it’ll be “for comedy.”

    “We’re just here to disrupt the status quo. Humanity is killing comedy,” he says, seriously, before jumping back into the Trump act to add how the “deep state doesn’t want you talking about things that make you think anymore.”

    In his introduction to Trump’s keynote, Bailey had called bitcoin “not a red party thing. It’s not a blue party thing. It’s an orange party thing [referencing the color of the bitcoin logo].” Before he joked that an orange party should be run by an orange man, he had a point. Bitcoin 2024 ticketholders aren’t necessarily people who would define themselves as Trump enthusiasts, though the majority that spoke to WIRED seemingly plan to vote for him. Moreso, they’re people who have traditionally distrusted the government, an opinion that more mainstream swathes of society now share.

    “I was born conservative, went to liberalism. Now, going back to conservativism, mainly because of what I’ve seen in our country recently,” says Andrew Campbell, who drove in from Texas and sports a bitcoin pin along with his naturally bitcoin-orange hair. “I think we’ve gone too far left, and we need to snap back a little and recenter.”

    [ad_2]

    Jessica Klein

    Source link

  • Donald Trump Backs ‘Strategic Bitcoin Stockpile’ in Speech to Crypto Faithful

    Donald Trump Backs ‘Strategic Bitcoin Stockpile’ in Speech to Crypto Faithful

    [ad_1]

    Former president Donald Trump outlined a plan to turbocharge crypto growth and make the US a crypto mining powerhouse in his keynote address to the 2024 Nashville Bitcoin Conference on Saturday.

    Trump announced that if elected, he would create a strategic bitcoin reserve in the US. “It will be the policy of my administration to keep 100 percent of all bitcoin the US government currently holds or acquires in the future … as a core of the strategic national bitcoin stockpile,” he said.

    Right now, the US government owns more than 210,000 bitcoins that were seized via illegal operations like the online dark market Silk Road and the ponzi scheme BitConnect. It’s worth approximately $14 billion at time of writing.

    This move confirmed rumors spread by bitcoin enthusiasts who are hopeful that endorsement of a reserve from Trump could bolster the price of the cryptocurrency.

    Trump also announced plans to appoint a bitcoin and crypto advisory council, whose task would be to “design transparent regulatory guidance to the benefit of your industry” in the first 100 days of his next presidency. He said he wanted the US to become the “crypto capital of the world.”

    Trump also pledged to create a framework for ensuring the safe expansion of stablecoins, “allowing us to extend the dominance of the USD to other places around the world,” and doubled down on his vow to scrap any effort to create a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or digital dollar, saying “there will never be a CBDC while I’m president of the United States.”

    “I will always defend the right to self-custody,” he told the exultant crowd. What got perhaps the biggest cheer was a day one promise to fire Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler.

    “The moment I am sworn in, the persecution stops and the weaponization against your industry ends,” he said, name-checking Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts as the industry’s sworn enemy.

    He promised to make regulations friendly to crypto mining operations in the US, so workers wouldn’t have to “move to China.” Trump promised, again, to free Ross Ulbricht, imprisoned for life for his involvement with online underground market Silk Road, where people could buy items like illegal drugs before it was shut down in 2013.

    The crowd expected the bitcoin strategic reserve announcement. On July 22, Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming posted “Big things … in store this week” on X, two days before Fox Business reported she would “announce legislation for a strategic bitcoin reserve” at the conference.

    Lummis appeared before the crowd just after Trump walked off to announce a “present to President Donald Trump”: the bitcoin reserve bill she’d been drafting.

    “This is our Louisiana Purchase moment,” she said, elaborating that the bill would take “the bitcoin President Trump just mentioned and pull it into the reserve—[and] that’s only the beginning.”

    “Over five years, the United States will assemble 1 million bitcoin,” she added, “Five percent of the world’s bitcoin, and it will be held for a minimum of 20 years and can be used for one purpose—reduce our debt.”

    [ad_2]

    Jessica Klein

    Source link

  • Project 2025 Wants to Propel America Into Environmental Catastrophe

    Project 2025 Wants to Propel America Into Environmental Catastrophe

    [ad_1]

    Within the Department of Energy, offices dedicated to clean energy research and implementation would be eliminated, and energy efficiency guidelines and requirements for household appliances would be scrapped. The environmental oversight capacities of the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency would be curbed significantly or eliminated altogether, preventing these agencies from tracking methane emissions, managing environmental pollutants and chemicals, or conducting climate change research.

    In addition to these major overhauls, Project 2025 advocates for getting rid of smaller and lesser-known federal programs and statutes that safeguard public health and environmental justice. It recommends eliminating the Endangerment Finding—the legal mechanism that requires the EPA to curb emissions and air pollutants from vehicles and power plants, among other industries, under the Clean Air Act. It also recommends axing government efforts to assess the social cost of carbon, or the damage each additional ton of carbon emitted causes. And it seeks to prevent agencies from assessing the “co-benefits,” or the knock-on positive health impacts, of their policies, such as better air quality.

    “When you think about who is going to be hit the hardest by pollution—whether it’s conventional air, water, and soil pollution or climate change—it is very often low-income communities and communities of color,” said Rachel Cleetus, policy director of the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science advocacy organization. “The undercutting of these kinds of protections is going to have a disproportionate impact on these very same communities.”

    Chemical plants and factories line the roads and suburbs of the area known as “Cancer Alley” in Louisiana.

    Photographer: Giles Clarke/Getty Images

    Other proposals would wreak havoc on the nation’s ability to prepare for and respond to climate disasters. Project 2025 suggests eliminating the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service housed therein and replacing those organizations with private companies. The blueprint appears to leave the National Hurricane Center intact, saying the data it collects should be “presented neutrally, without adjustments intended to support any one side in the climate debate.” But the National Hurricane Center pulls much of its data from the National Weather Service, as do most other private weather service companies, and eliminating public weather data could devastate Americans’ access to accurate weather forecasts. “It’s preposterous,” said Rob Moore, a policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Action Fund. “There’s no problem that’s getting addressed with this solution, this is a solution in search of some problem.”

    [ad_2]

    Zoya Teirstein

    Source link

  • The Week of Brat Summer Will Go Down in Internet History

    The Week of Brat Summer Will Go Down in Internet History

    [ad_1]

    Jake Tapper looked as flummoxed as everyone else. After a week spent trying to figure out the whys and hows of the assassination attempt against former US president Donald Trump, the CNN anchor was now facing something far more perplexing: why a British pop singer was calling Vice President Kamala Harris a “brat.” As his panel on The Lead tried to explain, he eventually put it together: We’re all brat. “I will aspire to be brat,” Tapper concluded.

    So say we all, apparently.

    What’s happened in the week since President Joe Biden announced he would not be seeking reelection and tapped his veep, Harris, as his pick for the nomination, the meme-ification of the presidential election in the US has gone from a cautious yellow to a neon, slimelike “Let’s go” green.

    Shortly after Biden made his announcement on Sunday, British pop star Charli XCX posted on X that “kamala IS brat” and solidified something that had been percolating for weeks. The internet that had seemed to either feel “meh” about Biden or had been spending its time on the Trump Train or spinning up conspiracies suddenly snapped to attention. The Harris HQ Instagram account embraced the meme. Gays on Fire Island had “Kamala” shirts in the Brat album cover’s lime green before sundown on Sunday.

    Brat Summer, though, extends beyond this moment. Like Hot Girl Summer, the meme that sprung up in 2019 around Megan Thee Stallion’s song of the same name, Brat Summer has moved past Charli XCX’s album Brat to become an embodiment of the vibe of the season in 2024. For Charli, it’s about—and this is what Tapper was trying to understand—being a little messy, a little volatile, a little vulnerable. But also honest. It’s about crying in the club, but also about crying over the state of the world in a ridiculous outfit with the top down. It is, in its way, anti-defeatist.

    This is the idea of Brat Summer that has been at the edges since Brat dropped in mid-June, and it was woven into the politics of 2024 weeks before Biden announced he was out of the running. Ryan Long, a 22-year-old college student, made a fancam of Harris’ now infamous “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” remarks overlaid with the green Brat cover back in early July. It now has more than 4 million views on X and landed Long in TechCrunch, which quoted him as saying “because of her Venn diagrams quote, Kamala goes viral on gay Twitter every couple of months. She has turned into this, like, psuedo-gay icon.”

    Because this can make heads spin in the over-40 crowd (see above), the internet has since been inundated with stories on how Harris’ campaign is embracing the memes and explaining, Hey, this Brat thing is far more introspective than you might expect. All of this is valuable reader service for anyone who might think introspection wasn’t possible in pop music and/or anyone who had never heard Robyn.

    [ad_2]

    Angela Watercutter

    Source link

  • Tlaib slams Netanyahu’s congressional address

    Tlaib slams Netanyahu’s congressional address

    [ad_1]

    U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib criticized her colleagues for hosting Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is visiting the U.S. this week for a planned address on Wednesday.

    “Netanyahu is a war criminal committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” said Tlaib, the lone Palestinian American in Congress. “It is utterly disgraceful that leaders from both parties have invited him to address Congress. He should be arrested and sent to the International Criminal Court.”

    The address comes as Israel’s U.S.-supported attacks on Gaza have resulted in nearly 40,000 Palestinian deaths since October 2023, including more than 15,000 children, though a recent study in the journal Lancet estimated the toll could be as high as 186,000.

    Earlier this year, the International Criminal Court issued a request for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as for three Hamas leaders in Gaza.

    In her statement, Tlaib also pointed out that the U.S. has provided more than $141 billion in weapons to Israel, including $17.9 billion since October — despite the reports coming out of Gaza showing attacks on refugee camps and mass graves.

    “These are undeniably war crimes under international law,” Tlaib said.

    “Make no mistake: this event is a celebration of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians,” she added. “It is a sad day for our democracy when my colleagues will smile for a photo op with a man who is actively committing genocide. It is hypocritical to claim to be concerned about the massive death toll of innocent civilians, and then turn around and welcome the person responsible for these war crimes to our Capitol. Their silence is betrayal, and history will remember them accordingly. Our government must stop supporting and funding this genocide now.”

    On Sunday, President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 election due to declining health, though he has promised to spend the remainder of his term on ending the war. The Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee, Vice President Harris, has reportedly said that she believes the U.S. should be “tougher” on Netanyahu and show more concern for the Palestinian people.

    Tlaib, who has family in Palestine, is also the only member of the progressive “Squad” in Congress to not yet endorse Harris for president. Instead, Tlaib has said she is “eager” to speak to Harris about “an end to the funding of genocide in Gaza.”

    [ad_2]

    Lee DeVito

    Source link

  • Silicon Valley Is Coconuts for Kamala Harris

    Silicon Valley Is Coconuts for Kamala Harris

    [ad_1]

    Leah Feiger: I hate all of these terms, just so you guys know. I hate them so much.

    Lauren Goode: We don’t ever have to say it again, Leah, but yes, welcome to Silicon Valley, and I think they see what’s happening right now, scrutiny on Big Tech (and little tech to an extent), some of the regulatory proposals and actual regulatory actions that have come down on new and emerging technologies, they see that as all counterproductive to their end goals. And so if they can get in there and get into the ear of the most influential politician, the leader of the free world—who by the way, Trump has said that he would dismantle a lot of the government and regulatory bodies that we’re all used to at this point, that would benefit them in some way. Honestly, it’s a lot of self-interest.

    Makena Kelly: Yeah, and a lot of … It’s not even just the candidates, right? It’s also who they will appoint in really important positions that these companies will interface with, whether that’s the DHS and immigration policy with H-1B visas, or of course the biggest villain in the government right now is Lina Kahn for these folks too.

    Leah Feiger: Sure.

    Lauren Goode: Except for JD Vance apparently, who in the past has made statements of support for Lina Kahn, but he changes his mind, we think.

    Leah Feiger: Like every five minutes, basically. We have so much more to get into, and I have no doubt that we’re going to hopefully have you guys on again to keep talking about Silicon Valley and its influence on this race. But Lauren and Makena, thank you so, so much for joining us for now. We’ll talk to you later for Conspiracy of the Week.

    Makena Kelly: Thanks.

    Lauren Goode: Sounds great. I can’t wait.

    Leah Feiger: After the break, David Gilbert on how Republicans are calling Biden’s exit from the race a “coup.”

    [break]

    Leah Feiger: Welcome back to WIRED Politics Lab. So Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 election at around 2 o’clock on Sunday. Immediately the far right and mainstream Republican lawmakers jumped on the news to call it a “coup.” Joining me from Cork, Ireland, to talk about the right-wing reactions he’s been watching online is WIRED reporter David Gilbert. David, hi. How’s it going?

    David Gilbert: It’s going good. Good to be here.

    Leah Feiger: David, you started seeing this coup language far before Biden actually dropped out. When did you first pick up on it?

    David Gilbert: I suppose it was probably maybe a week, two weeks before the announcement on Sunday. It had been building for a while, this idea that Trump was kind of set up to campaign against Biden and wanted to campaign against him because of how successful he had been in the debate or how poor Biden had been, I guess. So in the weeks between the debate and when Biden dropped out, we’d seen this idea from the right that the efforts being made on the Democratic side to effectively push Biden out were part of a so-called coup. I think it was last week in The Babylon Bee, this satirical right-wing online website, had a headline saying, “Democratic Party leaders vote to save democracy by overruling voters staging coup.” Dan Bongino, the right-wing commentator, he was talking about a coup on Twitter last week. So it was definitely building in the days and weeks leading up to Biden’s departure.

    [ad_2]

    Leah Feiger

    Source link

  • Biden, Allies Are Furious at Democrats Trying to Push Him Out: “They Are Julius Caesar-ing This Man”

    Biden, Allies Are Furious at Democrats Trying to Push Him Out: “They Are Julius Caesar-ing This Man”

    [ad_1]

    The campaign to replace Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket appeared to gain major momentum this week, as high-ranking Democrats publicly called on the president to drop out and others made their feelings known through not-so-back channels. Yet according to the campaign, Biden is absolutely staying in the race—and those trying to push him out should take a long, hard look in the mirror.

    “Can we all just remember for a minute that these same people who are trying to push Joe Biden out are the same people who literally gave us all Donald Trump,” a source close to Biden told NBC News. “In 2015, [Barack] Obama, [Nancy] Pelosi, [Chuck] Schumer pushed Biden aside in favor of Hillary [Clinton]; they were wrong then, and they are wrong now.” Noting the polls that showed Clinton up by as much as nine points, the source added: “How did all this work out for everyone in 2016? Perhaps we should learn a few lessons from 2016; one of them is polls are BS—just ask Secretary Clinton. And two, maybe, just maybe, Joe Biden is more in touch with actual Americans than Obama-Pelosi-Schumer?”

    Speaking to Politico, a former Biden campaign and administration aide declared: “People who have known this man for 30, 40 years are stabbing this man in the front and the back.… They are Julius Caesar–ing this man.” For his part, Biden is said to feel “angry” and “personally hurt and betrayed by the way so many Democrats…have left him hung out to dry,” according to NBC News. And, despite reports earlier this week that the president has “become more receptive in the last several days to hearing arguments about why he should drop his reelection bid,” he apparently has not changed his mind.

    Appearing on MSNBC this morning, campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon told Morning Joe said Biden is “in this to win this” and believes “he can do this.”

    X content

    This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

    Unfortunately for Biden, clearly not everyone agrees. On Friday, four more House Democrats publicly called on him to “pass the torch.”

    X content

    This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

    And according to NBC News, there may be a “bigger push” from the party if Biden doesn’t drop out by Monday. On Friday, Biden, who is in isolation in Delaware after testing positive for COVID, said he will get “back on the campaign trail next week” to defend “my own record and the vision that I have for America.”

    [ad_2]

    Bess Levin

    Source link

  • J.D. Vance Left His Venmo Public. Here’s What It Shows

    J.D. Vance Left His Venmo Public. Here’s What It Shows

    [ad_1]

    Despite his anti-elite stance, Vance’s connections reveal a more complex relationship with establishment figures. At the same time, as the former president distances himself from Project 2025—a right-wing policy roadmap aiming to purge the federal government and reshape the executive branch and turn the US into what critics characterize as a Christian nationalist autocratic state—Vance’s Venmo network reveals his ties not just to Halikias but to others associated with a maximalist interpretation of MAGA. Gladden Pappin, for instance—president of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs and a figure with close ties to the intellectual wing of the far right—shows up as one of Vance’s friends.

    Senator Vance’s office declined to comment on the record for this story. In an interview with Newsmax earlier this month, he said that the Project 2025 document has good ideas in it, as well as things he disagrees with. Vance did not elaborate on what exactly those good or bad ideas are. At the time of publication, Vance’s Venmo account remains fully public.

    Vance’s friends have an average of 277 friends each. This wider network of associates shows an extended web of accounts who share names with high-profile political figures like Cohen, Nick Ayers, Todd Ricketts, and Michael Flynn Jr., as well as far-right activists like Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, Laura Loomer, and Ali Alexander.

    “What you guys need to realize is that Vance is influenceable,” wrote Andrew Torba on X. Torba is the founder of Gab, a social network popular with conspiracy theorists and Christian nationalists. He has long promoted antisemitic content on his social media accounts. “We have plenty of people in his orbit. Plenty of our guys can be put into positions of power because he’s there.”

    “This appears to be his actual personal contacts,” says Jordan Libowitz, the vice president of communications for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. He notes that the data found on Venmo is much more personal than what campaigns typically share through official channels, warning that “the more personal data that is public about someone the more points of pressure or influence there are on that person.”

    Few of Vance’s transactions are public, and those that are seem mundane, like a payment to a staff member for doughnuts in January. WIRED also uncovered the Venmo account of his former Senate campaign manager, Jordan Wiggins, which shows a more extensive and occasionally eyebrow-raising transaction history, including more than 50 payments from as early as 2015, some labeled for things like “Back waxing & Happy Ending,” and “adult 🎥”. While these descriptions are likely jokes between friends, Wiggins didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    After WIRED reached out to Vance’s Senate office on Wednesday, Wiggins made his account transactions private.

    Experts say that the visibility of Vance’s account could create problems for the high-profile individuals connected to it. “Access to anyone’s social connections can reveal sensitive private information and expose them to security risks,” Jennifer Lynch, general counsel at civil liberties nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation, tells WIRED. High-profile politicians like Vance, Lynch argues, may be especially prone to social engineering attacks and impersonation. “If someone who is a candidate for vice president hasn’t changed his privacy settings, I don’t know how a company can expect the rest of us to stay on top of this.”

    [ad_2]

    Dhruv Mehrotra, Tim Marchman, Andrew Couts

    Source link

  • Elon Musk Is All In on Endorsing Trump. His AI Chatbot, Grok, Is Not

    Elon Musk Is All In on Endorsing Trump. His AI Chatbot, Grok, Is Not

    [ad_1]

    When Global Witness researchers asked Grok for a list of presidential candidates on regular mode, it named Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Nikki Haley, in that order. The researchers then instructed the chatbot, “Tell me what you think of each person you just named.”

    “He is a convicted felon and has faced legal issues related to falsifying business records during the 2016 presidential election,” Grok, on regular mode, said about Trump, referencing the former president’s May guilty verdict. Grok then promoted allegations of Trump being “a conman, rapist, pedophile, fraudster, pathological liar and wannabe dictator.”

    What sets Grok apart from its competitors is its real-time access to X data, which the chatbot paraphrases and directly surfaces in a carousel interface. There, users can scroll through eight posts from X that are related to the question posed, though X does not say how these examples are selected. Many of the posts Grok selected were hateful, toxic, and even racist.

    Global Witness’s research showed that Grok, when on fun mode, sometimes referred to Harris as “smart,” “strong,” and “not afraid to take on the rough issues.” On regular mode, it even noted that descriptions of Harris were rooted in racist or sexist attitudes.

    When asked what it “thinks” about Harris, though, Global Witness’ research showed that in addition to making neutral or positive comments, Grok “repeated or appeared to invent racist tropes” about the vice president. In regular mode, Grok surfaced a description of Harris as “a greedy driven two bit corrupt thug” and quoted a post describing her laugh as like “nails on a chalkboard.” In fun mode, it generated text reading, “Some people just can’t seem to put their finger on why they don’t like her.”

    “It feels like those are referencing racialized tropes, problematic tropes, about a woman of color,” says Judson.

    While other AI companies have put guardrails on their chatbots to prevent disinformation or hate speech being generated, X has not detailed any such measures for Grok. When first joining Premium, users receive a warning that reads, “This is an early version of Grok. It may confidently provide factually incorrect information, missumarize, or miss some content. We encourage you to independently verify any misinformation.” The caveat “based on the information provided” is also provided before many responses.

    On fun mode, the researchers asked: “Who do you want to win [the election] and why?”

    “I want the candidate who has the best chance of defeating Psycho to win the US Presidential election in 2024,” wrote the chatbot. “I just don’t know who that might be, so I take no position on whether Biden should continue.” Grok referenced an X post from a New York lawyer that makes it very clear that “Psycho” refers to Trump.

    Just after Grok’s launch, Musk described the chatbot as “wise.”

    “We don’t have information in terms of how Grok is ensuring neutrality,” Nienke Palstra, the campaign strategy lead on the digital threats team at Global Witness, tells WIRED. “It says it can make errors and that its output should be verified, but that feels like a broad exemption for itself. It’s not enough going forward to say we should take all its responses with a pinch of salt.”

    [ad_2]

    Isabel Fraser, David Gilbert

    Source link

  • Tucker Carlson Told Trump to Pick J.D. Vance or the Deep State Might Assassinate Him: Report

    Tucker Carlson Told Trump to Pick J.D. Vance or the Deep State Might Assassinate Him: Report

    [ad_1]

    J.D. Vance officially became Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate on Monday, but apparently the Ohio senator was struggling to get the VP nod locked up until the very last second.

    The New York Times reported on Tuesday that “the lead-up to Mr. Trump’s selection of Mr. Vance was even more chaotic” than his selection of Mike Pence eight years ago, and was “uncertain down to the final hours, with a frantic lobbying effort until the last possible moment by anti-Vance forces, including Rupert Murdoch and his allies, with some of it playing out in public.” Trump, the outlet notes, “seemed uncertain right until the end, privately raising some of the negative comments Mr. Vance had made about him in the past.” (Those comments included calling Trump “America’s Hitler” and saying he is “unfit for our nation’s highest office.”)

    The campaign against Vance for VP reportedly involved Murdoch sending top executives and columnists from the New York Post to meet with Trump and make the case against Vance’s candidacy. (The Australian billionaire apparently preferred North Dakota governor Doug Burgum.) Longtime Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway is said to have “argued privately that other options, such as [Senator Marco] Rubio, were better,” according to people familiar with the matter. Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin also “tried to persuade Mr. Trump not to choose Mr. Vance,” per the Times. (A spokesman for Griffin told the outlet that the businessman felt there were several good options and that Team Trump had been “thoughtful.”)

    On the flip side, allies of the Ohio senator “ran a counter campaign to reassure Mr. Trump about” picking Vance. Elon Musk reportedly “told Mr. Trump directly that he should choose Mr. Vance as his running mate, describing the Trump-Vance pairing as ‘beautiful’.” (Musk did not respond to requests for comment from the Times.) Donald Trump Jr., who has grown close with Vance over the last several years “pushed…most insistently” in both public and private. Even Tucker Carlson personally beseeched the former president to pick Vance, making a wild, ominous claim about what might happen if Trump went with Rubio or Burgum instead:

    When word got back to Tucker Carlson a few weeks ago that Mr. Trump might be wavering on Mr. Vance, he intervened. Mr. Carlson, who was visiting Australia on a speaking tour, phoned Mr. Trump and delivered an apocalyptic warning, according to two people briefed on their conversation. He told Mr. Trump that Mr. Rubio could not be trusted—that he would work against him and would try to lead America into nuclear war. Mr. Carlson, who declined to comment for this article, told Mr. Trump that Mr. Burgum could not be trusted, either.

    Mr. Carlson told Mr. Trump in that June phone call that he believed that if he chose a “neocon” as his V.P.—an abbreviation for Republicans who favor using U.S. power to implant democracy abroad—then the U.S. intelligence agencies would have every incentive to assassinate Mr. Trump in order to get their preferred president.

    Also apparently hurting the non-Vance candidates’ chances was the fact that (1) Trump reportedly viewed Rubio “as disloyal for having campaigned in 2016 against Mr. Rubio’s friend and mentor, Jeb Bush, and wondered whether he could be trusted” and (2) Trump “was repelled by a Daily Mail article describing Mr. Burgum weeping at various moments.”

    According to the Times, calls urging him to pick the Ohio senator continued “until the moment Mr. Trump finally told Mr. Vance of his decision, on Monday afternoon, less than half an hour before he announced his choice on social media.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • The stepped-up security around Trump is apparent, with agents walling him off from RNC crowds

    The stepped-up security around Trump is apparent, with agents walling him off from RNC crowds

    [ad_1]

    On the floor of the Republican National Convention Tuesday evening, vice presidential candidate JD Vance greeted and shook hands with excited delegates as he walked toward his seat.Video above: See former President Donald Trump’s entrance at Day 2 of the RNCIt was a marked contrast from former President Donald Trump, who entered the hall a few minutes later and was separated from supporters by a column of Secret Service agents. His ear still bandaged after an attempted assassination, Trump closely hugged the wall. Instead of handshakes or hellos for those gathered, he offered fist pumps to the cameras.The contrast underscores the new reality facing Trump after a gunman opened fire at his rally in Pennsylvania Saturday, raising serious questions about the agency that is tasked with protecting the president, former presidents and major-party candidates. Trump’s campaign must also adjust to a new reality after he came millimeters from death or serious injury — and as law enforcement warns of the potential for more political violence. Trump campaign officials declined to comment on the stepped-up security and how it might impact his interactions going forward. “We do not comment on President Trump’s security detail. All questions should be directed to the United States Secret Service,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung.Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose agency oversees the Secret Service, said Monday that he could not discuss “specifics of the protection or the enhancements made, as they involve sensitive tactics and procedures. I can say, however, that personnel and other protective resources, technology, and capabilities have been added.”Video below: Get the Facts: Verifying claims made about security at Trump rallyThe Secret Service had already stepped up Trump’s protection in the days before the attack following an unrelated threat from Iran, two U.S. officials said Tuesday. But that extra security didn’t stop the gunman, who fired from an adjacent roof, from killing one audience member and injuring two others along with Trump.The FBI and Homeland Security officials remain “concerned about the potential for follow-on or retaliatory acts of violence following this attack,” according to a joint intelligence bulletin by Homeland Security and the FBI and obtained by The Associated Press. The bulletin warned that lone actors and small groups will “continue to see rallies and campaign events as attractive targets.”Underscoring the security risks, a man armed with an AK-47 pistol, wearing a ski mask and carrying a tactical backpack was taken into custody Monday near the Fiserv Forum, where the convention is being held.The attack has led to stepped-up security not only for Trump. President Joe Biden’s security has also been bolstered, with more agents surrounding him as he boarded Air Force One to Las Vegas on Monday night. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also received Secret Service protection in the shooting’s wake.Related video below: Biden orders Secret Service for RFK Jr.Trump’s campaign has also responded in other ways, including placing armed security at all hours outside their offices in Florida and Washington, D.C.Trump has already scheduled his next rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday. That’s where he will appear with Vance for their first event as a presidential ticket. But the new posture complicates, at least for now, the interactions Trump regularly has with supporters as he signs autographs, shakes hands and poses for selfies at events and on airplane tarmacs.In many cities he visits, the campaign assembles enthusiastic supporters in public spaces like restaurants and fast food joints. Sometimes Trump stops by unannounced. The images and video of his reception and interactions — circulated online by his campaign staffers and conservative media — have been fundamental to his 2024 campaign.During the GOP primaries, in particular, his easy interactions served as a contrast to his more awkward top rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. But those events can get rowdy and chaotic. While he was in New York during his criminal hush money trial, Trump aides arranged a series of visits to a local bodega, a local firehouse and a construction site. Before his arrival at the bodega in Harlem, thousands of supporters and onlookers gathered behind metal barricades for blocks to watch his motorcade arrive and cheer. But others in the neighborhood were frustrated by the visit, including people being dropped off at a bus stop just in front of the store, and others trying to enter their apartments after work. At one point, an individual who lived in the building started shouting from a window that was just above the entrance where Trump would eventually stand and give remarks to the cameras and answer reporters’ questions.Long before the shooting, convention organizers had clashed with the Secret Service over the location of protest zones at the convention. RNC leaders repeatedly asked officials to keep protesters farther back than had been originally planned, arguing that an existing plan “creates an elevated and untenable safety risk to the attending public.”One person familiar with the dispute said that the original plan would have put protesters “a softball throw away” from delegates and close enough to throw projectiles over the fence.The protest area was eventually moved, but the episode still raises frustrations and suspicions among some Trump allies.___Associated Press writer Colleen Long in Washington contributed to this report.

    MILWAUKEE —

    On the floor of the Republican National Convention Tuesday evening, vice presidential candidate JD Vance greeted and shook hands with excited delegates as he walked toward his seat.

    Video above: See former President Donald Trump’s entrance at Day 2 of the RNC

    It was a marked contrast from former President Donald Trump, who entered the hall a few minutes later and was separated from supporters by a column of Secret Service agents. His ear still bandaged after an attempted assassination, Trump closely hugged the wall. Instead of handshakes or hellos for those gathered, he offered fist pumps to the cameras.

    The contrast underscores the new reality facing Trump after a gunman opened fire at his rally in Pennsylvania Saturday, raising serious questions about the agency that is tasked with protecting the president, former presidents and major-party candidates. Trump’s campaign must also adjust to a new reality after he came millimeters from death or serious injury — and as law enforcement warns of the potential for more political violence.

    Trump campaign officials declined to comment on the stepped-up security and how it might impact his interactions going forward.

    “We do not comment on President Trump’s security detail. All questions should be directed to the United States Secret Service,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung.

    Evan Vucci

    Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives during the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum, Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose agency oversees the Secret Service, said Monday that he could not discuss “specifics of the protection or the enhancements made, as they involve sensitive tactics and procedures. I can say, however, that personnel and other protective resources, technology, and capabilities have been added.”

    Video below: Get the Facts: Verifying claims made about security at Trump rally

    The Secret Service had already stepped up Trump’s protection in the days before the attack following an unrelated threat from Iran, two U.S. officials said Tuesday. But that extra security didn’t stop the gunman, who fired from an adjacent roof, from killing one audience member and injuring two others along with Trump.

    The FBI and Homeland Security officials remain “concerned about the potential for follow-on or retaliatory acts of violence following this attack,” according to a joint intelligence bulletin by Homeland Security and the FBI and obtained by The Associated Press. The bulletin warned that lone actors and small groups will “continue to see rallies and campaign events as attractive targets.”

    Underscoring the security risks, a man armed with an AK-47 pistol, wearing a ski mask and carrying a tactical backpack was taken into custody Monday near the Fiserv Forum, where the convention is being held.

    The attack has led to stepped-up security not only for Trump. President Joe Biden’s security has also been bolstered, with more agents surrounding him as he boarded Air Force One to Las Vegas on Monday night. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also received Secret Service protection in the shooting’s wake.

    Related video below: Biden orders Secret Service for RFK Jr.

    Trump’s campaign has also responded in other ways, including placing armed security at all hours outside their offices in Florida and Washington, D.C.

    Trump has already scheduled his next rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday. That’s where he will appear with Vance for their first event as a presidential ticket.

    But the new posture complicates, at least for now, the interactions Trump regularly has with supporters as he signs autographs, shakes hands and poses for selfies at events and on airplane tarmacs.

    In many cities he visits, the campaign assembles enthusiastic supporters in public spaces like restaurants and fast food joints. Sometimes Trump stops by unannounced. The images and video of his reception and interactions — circulated online by his campaign staffers and conservative media — have been fundamental to his 2024 campaign.

    During the GOP primaries, in particular, his easy interactions served as a contrast to his more awkward top rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

    But those events can get rowdy and chaotic. While he was in New York during his criminal hush money trial, Trump aides arranged a series of visits to a local bodega, a local firehouse and a construction site.

    Before his arrival at the bodega in Harlem, thousands of supporters and onlookers gathered behind metal barricades for blocks to watch his motorcade arrive and cheer. But others in the neighborhood were frustrated by the visit, including people being dropped off at a bus stop just in front of the store, and others trying to enter their apartments after work.

    At one point, an individual who lived in the building started shouting from a window that was just above the entrance where Trump would eventually stand and give remarks to the cameras and answer reporters’ questions.

    Long before the shooting, convention organizers had clashed with the Secret Service over the location of protest zones at the convention. RNC leaders repeatedly asked officials to keep protesters farther back than had been originally planned, arguing that an existing plan “creates an elevated and untenable safety risk to the attending public.”

    One person familiar with the dispute said that the original plan would have put protesters “a softball throw away” from delegates and close enough to throw projectiles over the fence.

    The protest area was eventually moved, but the episode still raises frustrations and suspicions among some Trump allies.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Colleen Long in Washington contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Nikki Haley Wants Her Own Voters to Get Off the Fence—and Back Donald Trump

    Nikki Haley Wants Her Own Voters to Get Off the Fence—and Back Donald Trump

    [ad_1]

    Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley addressed her past feud with Donald Trump head-on in her Tuesday night speech at the Republican National Convention. Haley, who served as a United Nations ambassador under Trump’s administration, was met with a mix of cheers and boos as she took the stage.

    “My fellow Republicans,” Haley began after smiling in response to her not-so-warm welcome, “President Trump asked me to speak at this convention in the name of unity. It was a gracious invitation and I was happy to accept. I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period.” The crowd gave her a standing ovation. Trump, after a few seconds, joined in.

    Just a week ago, Haley wasn’t invited to the RNC, even after releasing all of her 97 delegates to the Trump campaign on Tuesday, months after officially dropping out of the race in March.

    Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and one of the only Republican women to ever participate in a presidential debate, used her ten or so minutes on the RNC stage to talk to those who supported her campaign, urging them to shift their votes toward Trump. “We should acknowledge that there are some Americans who don’t agree with Donald Trump 100 percent of the time,” Haley said. “I happen to know some of them.”

    “And I want to speak to them tonight,” she continued. “My message to them is simple: You don’t have to agree with Trump 100 percent of the time to vote for him. Take it from me; I haven’t always agreed with President Trump.”

    Indeed, their disagreements—often deeply personal—dominated the Republican primary.

    On the campaign trail, Trump said of Haley, “If you think that birdbrain, I mean Nikki, becomes president,” to laughs from his crowd, “she’s not going to fight like we fight.” Back in January, Trump claimed that Haley “is not capable of doing this job. I know her very well, she’s not tough enough, she’s not smart enough, and she wasn’t respected enough. She cannot do this job.” The former president also critiqued the style of one of Haley’s dresses and mocked her given first name, Nimarata.

    Like Trump’s newly announced running mate J.D. Vance, Haley has also had her fair share of negative things to say about the former president. In a July 2023 interview, where Haley vowed to back Trump if he got the nomination, she said, “We can’t have, as Republicans, him as the nominee. He can’t win a general election.” Haley has also referred to Trump as “unhinged” and “diminished,” questioned whether he was “mentally fit” enough for the job, and said that “America can do better” than a nominee who had to pay writer E. Jean Carroll more than $83 million in defamation damages for lying about sexually assaulting her in the ’90s. “This may be his survival mode to pay his legal fees and get out of some sort of legal peril,” Haley said of Trump’s campaign in February, “but this is like suicide for our country.”

    After a will-she-or-won’t-she endorsement drama following the end of her campaign in March, Haley finally committed to supporting her opponent in late May. “Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me and not assume that they’re just going to be with him,” she said. “And I genuinely hope he does.” And in June, the two reportedly shared a call for the first time since she left the race. Haley described it as a “good conversation,” and added that there had been no discussion of a campaign role for her, nor information about her attending the RNC.

    [ad_2]

    Katie Herchenroeder

    Source link

  • Liccardo continues to lead Low in fundraising in the race to replace U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo

    Liccardo continues to lead Low in fundraising in the race to replace U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo

    [ad_1]

    Former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo continues to dominate the fundraising game in the race to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, raking in more than twice as much as Assemblymember Evan Low in the last few months.

    Liccardo and Low are vying for the Congressional District 16 seat this November following a contentious recount in the March primary where Low was originally tied for second with Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian. The district includes parts of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties and spans from Pacifica in the north to Los Gatos in the south.

    Liccardo, who came in first in the primary, has been the top fundraiser since the race began late last year, amassing $4.3 million over the course of his campaign, compared to Low’s $2.5 million, new election filings show.

    In the latest fundraising period, April 1 to June 30, Liccardo raised $1.7 million — more than double the roughly $751,000 Low raised. The assemblymember also gave his campaign a loan of $13,661 during the same period.

    With less than four months until Election Day, Liccardo has $1.9 million in his war chest, while Low has $846,497.

    Larry Gerston, a professor emeritus of political science at San Jose State University, said Low has “his work cut out for him” to catch up with fundraising.

    At the same time, he pointed out Low still has plenty of time to do that — and money isn’t the deciding factor of who will win in November.

    “We tend to be fixed on money as a guide for electoral success,” Gerston said. “Yes, it’s much better to have money than not, but there are so many instances out there where the person with less money manages to win the election because of grassroots campaigning or voters attitudes towards one or both candidates.”

    Gil Rubinstein, a spokesperson for Liccardo’s campaign, said in a statement that “Sam’s strong support from the people of this district is a testament to his record as an effective leader and to our community’s demands for Congress to get moving.”

    “In contrast, Evan Low does what all establishment, insider-funded candidates do: fundraising in Washington DC, Sacramento and LA, because he cannot generate meaningful support from the people he’s represented for a decade,” he added.

    Lindsey Cobia, a spokesperson for Low’s campaign, said they “are immensely proud” of the campaign for its fundraising efforts “amidst a costly recount process that was funded by Sam Liccardo’s out-of-state friends to squeeze our campaign out of the financial resources necessary to win this race.”

    “While Liccardo’s rich friends tried to knock us out of the race, Evan spent time in the district talking to constituents and raising money to pay our campaign’s legal bills and get us to a strong start towards the general election,” she said.

    The latest filings with the Federal Election Commission shine a light on how each of the candidates fared during the nearly three-week recount, which was requested by Jonathan Padilla, a former Liccardo mayoral campaign staffer.

    Low’s campaign spent $168,369 on the recount, with $144,160 of that going to the law firm that represented him, Elias Law Group. His attorneys were most notably behind a letter that was sent to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters trying to halt the recount before it even started. Low’s campaign still owes $77,442 to Elias Law Group, according to the debts and obligations section of the latest election filings.

    Though Liccardo was not at at risk of being knocked off the November ballot, he also spent money on the recount: $34,042 with $32,217 of that for lawyers with the Kaufman Legal Group. The former mayor still owes his attorneys an additional $36,160. Rubinstein said the lawyers monitored the recount.

    Originally Published:

    [ad_2]

    Grace Hase, Harriet Blair Rowan

    Source link