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Tag: Kamala Harris

  • White House Rebrands Situation Room As Dark, Moody ‘Club Situation’

    White House Rebrands Situation Room As Dark, Moody ‘Club Situation’

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    WASHINGTON—Touting the renovation as a long-overdue effort to bring the U.S. government’s command and control hub into the 21st century, the White House announced Friday that it had rebranded the Situation Room as a dark, moody drum-and-bass-oriented dance lounge known as Club Situation. “Thanks to these recent updates, there’s now no hotter place for those with top secret clearance and an urge to cut loose during a national security crisis than Club Situation,” said club manager Jake Sullivan, describing other additions allowed by their $50 million development budget such as a black light-illuminated dance floor, extrajudicial detainees writhing in cages, bottle service to celebrate successful drone strikes, and tropical house and hyperpop-inflected tracks spun by DJ Jeff Zients. “We were also able to construct a vitally needed VIP area where the president can receive a glass of Courvoisier and classified intelligence about the hottest ladies out there tonight. Yes, there’s a bit of a wait to get in, but once you’re there, everyone who’s anyone is back there. You just have to leave your phone at the door, because shit gets crazy fast.” At press time, Vice President Kamala Harris was spotted outside Club Situation telling the skeptical bouncer she knew someone in there and begging to be let inside.

    This Week’s Most Viral News: September 08, 2023

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  • Harris says she and Biden

    Harris says she and Biden

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    Harris says she and Biden “will win reelection,” is prepared to lead “if necessary” – CBS News


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    “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan sat down with Vice President Kamala Harris during her visit to Jakarta, Indonesia, for an international summit of Southeast Asian countries. She talked about China, Russia and North Korea, and why she says she and President Biden will be reelected.

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  • Why Has Kamala Harris Spent So Much Time in Ron DeSantis’s Florida?

    Why Has Kamala Harris Spent So Much Time in Ron DeSantis’s Florida?

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    Kamala Harris touched down in Florida within 24 hours of Ron DeSantis challenging her to debate Florida’s new African American studies curriculum standards, which, among other things, includes a lesson on the “personal benefits” of being a slave. Harris declined the offer. Her itinerary was to visit the African Methodist Episcopal church in Orlando. “I will tell you there is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: There were no redeeming qualities of slavery,” she told the audience in early August.

    It was Harris’s second visit to Florida within just over a week—a notable choice for a campaign stop. The Sunshine State looks more like a breeding ground for Trumpism and DeSantis’s “anti-woke” war, than the swing state it once was. Surely, the vice president’s message might have gone further even in neighboring Georgia. But insiders on the Biden-Harris reelection campaign say her trips were a preview of what to expect from the vice president in the run-up to the 2024 election. “She will go where she is needed,” Sheila Nix, Harris’s campaign chief of staff, told Vanity Fair. “The whole concept of our democracy really feels like hanging by a thread,” Nix said, and the Biden campaign plans to deploy Harris as a chief messenger in the fight against Republican extremism.

    As the president gears up for what will undoubtedly be a contentious campaign season, Harris’s role in the reelection bid is coming into clearer focus. She’s no longer going to be the face of the administration at the border—an issue Republicans have relentlessly attacked her on—but rather a key attack dog against Republicans’ culture wars, from abortion rights and civil rights to gun control and threats to democracy. Americans should expect to see her in the battleground states, like Pennsylvania and North Carolina—and some fairly conservative states. Like Florida: “You don’t send the VP down here twice in a week if you’re not actually serious about it being part of your plan,” said Steve Schale, a Florida-based Democratic strategist who is the CEO of the pro-Biden PAC Unite the Country. “Do I think Republicans have an edge in 2024? Sure. I’m not an idiot…Democrats don’t have to win Florida to win the White House.” But if they can make the state more competitive—with the help of Harris—“they force the Republicans to spend money here, and that’s a win,” Schale said. By August 2024, the Biden campaign will need to make some tough decisions as to where to invest its resources. But right now, the game is creating options.

    “The setting can be as important as the message,” a Democratic strategist who worked with the 2020 Biden campaign and served in the Obama administration, explained to VF. “Her travel isn’t necessarily an electoral strategy, but it is a strategy to get out there and make the case, and sometimes that’s even more important.”

    There has been much discussion about Harris’s approval rating and whether she would be a “drag” on the Biden ticket. According to a recent NBC News poll, 32% of registered voters had a favorable opinion of the vice president and 49% had an unfavorable opinion. By comparison, in the same poll, Biden had a 39% job approval rating and 48% disapproval rating. In April, Axios reported the White House was moving swiftly to rehabilitate Harris’s image out of fear she could hold Biden back—an idea conservative talking heads have latched on to. For years, Harris has been dogged by a slow trickle of reports showing discord in her office and between her team and the West Wing. In a recent interview with ABC News, Harris dismissed her low approval ratings as a distraction from the achievements of the Biden administration.

    Nix, too, was unsurprisingly apathetic. “It is missing a big part of the picture. She’s an extreme asset to the ticket with the groups that we need to make sure are turning out,” she said of the approval ratings. “You just have to not worry about the chatter. The issues—like reproductive rights, democracy, school safety, gun safety—that people really care about. She’s great and she’s a natural at talking about all those issues. We just have to keep our eye on the prize.” Harris allies say these polls are missing nuances of the political moment. Specifically, that her popularity and approval is higher amongst constituencies that could determine the 2024 election. “For the national Democratic grumbling about her numbers, she’s actually very popular among younger voters; she’s popular among communities of color; she’s more popular among women than men,” Schale said. “There are places where she’s a very effective voice and those are all constituencies that are very important to get to a win.” 

    Especially on issues like abortion where Biden isn’t seen as the most credible talking head. “There are topics and there are pieces of the policy platform that the Biden administration supports that Kamala is just a better message deliverer on,” one reproductive rights activist, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the administration, told VF. “She is righteously angry, she is holding space for all of the emotions that people are feeling, and she’s just speaking in a way that resonates with people.”

    Of a half dozen sources close to the Biden-Harris ticket VF spoke with, each noted the resounding victory for abortion rights in the Ohio special election last week as a sign the issue remains salient to voters. “It’s just sort of another proof point that a lot of the same issues that defined 2022 are gonna define 2024,” Schale said.

    Hence, Florida. Aside from Donald Trump, there is perhaps no better bogeyman of Republican extremism than DeSantis. “We recognize that issues like abortion on the ballot, and the backlash against DeSantis’s extreme agenda, including book bans and soaring inflation in state, open up opportunity, but that it will be challenging,” a Biden campaign official told VF.

    The campaign is betting Harris, most comfortable speaking on these issues, will be able to drive that message home. “She has found her footing,” the former Obama-Biden official said. “The scrutiny by which she came into office being the heir apparent was not anything a sitting vice president has had to contend with since 1992—and Al Gore was neither Black nor a woman.”

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  • Kamala Harris Says She’s ‘Worried’ About Voter Turnout Ahead Of 2024 Election

    Kamala Harris Says She’s ‘Worried’ About Voter Turnout Ahead Of 2024 Election

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    Vice President Kamala Harris declared that she’s “worried” about voter turnout as she appeared to knock Republicans for “unapologetically” proposing and passing laws that make voting difficult.

    In an interview with MSNBC host the Rev. Al Sharpton posted Saturday, Harris weighed in on whether she’s concerned about turnout especially among Black people ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

    “I am always concerned about turnout, whatever election we are talking about. Because let us — in a moment where we thank everybody for what they did to turn out in 2020 — appreciate that it takes an effort to turn out to vote,” said Harris, who remarked on “obligations” of those working multiple jobs and taking care of children.

    The vice president went on to explain that people who have the “most at stake” in the election are often those who are least likely to have the luxury of taking time out from their day to cast a ballot.

    “I’m worried about it because I also know that there has been a lot of effort and laws that have been passed to try and make it more difficult for people to vote,” she later said.

    “I mean, can you imagine, Rev? In the United States of America, we went through all these fights — the March on Washington, John Lewis, all that — and these so-called leaders who are so bold as to unapologetically propose and pass laws to make it more difficult for the American people to vote. The gall,” she added.

    Republicans have pushed for more restrictive voter requirements in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss.

    The “rush to restrict voting access after the 2020 election has waned somewhat this year,” the Brennan Center for Justice noted in a June report, although it still has hit “near record highs.”

    There have been at least 13 restrictive voting laws enacted this year, which “surpasses the total number of restrictive laws enacted in any year in the last decade except 2021,” the center said.

    “I do worry that we have to do everything we can to remind people of why it’s important and also fight against those people who are trying to make it difficult,” Harris said of voting.

    Watch more of Harris’ interview with Sharpton below.

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  • Harris allies and key Democrats rally around vice president amid party handwringing | CNN Politics

    Harris allies and key Democrats rally around vice president amid party handwringing | CNN Politics

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     — 

    Allies of Vice President Kamala Harris and other prominent Democrats are sending a clear message to their fellow party members who speculate that she should be replaced as President Joe Biden’s running mate in 2024: It’s time to stop it.

    “It’s not only a distraction, it’s offensive,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told CNN in an interview.

    The vice president has faced renewed calls from some pundits and columnists to be dropped from the ticket amid heightened concerns about the president’s age and doubts over her ability to lead if Biden were no longer able.

    It’s at least the second major go-around of questioning whether Harris’ rightful place is by Biden’s side for the 2024 contentious race, leaving her office tired of the fraught conversation, according to a person familiar with the dynamic.

    “Everybody’s sort of over it,” the person said.

    The feeling is shared across most of the Democratic spectrum, who hope the party turns their sights on former President Donald Trump or whomever the Republican presidential nominee will be, instead of handwringing about themselves.

    A source close to the Biden campaign told CNN: “People need to get on board and recognize every time they undermine the vice president, they undermine the campaign. We cannot afford to lose to these Republicans. So, get on board.”

    There have both been private and public efforts to deliver this message.

    Privately, according to a person familiar with campaign operations, the Biden campaign contacted both former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, after neither directly answer repeated questions from CNN about whether Harris was the best running mate for Biden on the 2024 ticket. The campaign asked Pelosi and Raskin to clarify their comments and both lawmakers later cleaned up their remarks to offer direct messages of support.

    Raskin told CNN in a follow-up statement Friday that “Vice President Harris has excelled in perhaps the most ambiguous and challenging job in our constitutional system and she is unquestionably the best running mate for President Biden in 2024.”

    Pelosi’s office offered no additional statement but pointed CNN to the praise Pelosi heaped on Harris in her interview, saying she’s “very politically astute, I don’t think people give her enough credit.”

    Discussions on how best to shepherd the party along are also happening among groups like the Congressional Black Caucus, who are actively talking about how to combat the replacement chatter and other attacks against the vice president, according to a source familiar with the effort.

    “Some of us need to say that they are acting in many ways like agents for the MAGA crowd,” Rev. Al Sharpton told CNN. He plans to call on Democrats to stop during CBC weekend in Washington, DC. “I can only think that they are either politically stupid or working for the opposition.”

    And according to conversations with more than a dozen Democratic strategists, elected officials and people close to the vice president, many will join Sharpton in urging Democrats to stop their groaning over the Biden-Harris ticket and end the chatter of potentially replacing the vice president.

    Publicly, key Democrats have come out to support Harris, casting the lingering doubt as harmful to Biden and his 2024 chances.

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom said “of course” Harris should be the Democratic 2024 vice presidential nominee. Newsom and Harris are old friends – and sometimes frenemies.

    “I mean, by definition, if I think this administration last two, two-and-a-half years, has been one of the most outstanding administrations the last few decades. And she’s a member of that administration, she gets to lay and claim credit to a lot of that success. The answer is absolutely,” he said in an interview to CNN earlier this week.

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and a former rival who was once iced out by the vice president for her lukewarm support, said Thursday she was proud to support Harris’ campaign with Biden.

    “Vice President Harris is a passionate, clear, unyielding advocate for Americans’ freedoms, leading the administration’s efforts to protect reproductive freedom and strengthen voting rights,” Warren said in a statement. “I am proud to support her campaign with President Biden and I’m confident that the Administration’s record of delivering for American families will lead them to victory in 2024.”

    Many who CNN spoke to believe the origins of the doubt come from a place of misogyny, racism or jealousy from other Democrats who wish they were in the vice president’s spot. Harris is the first woman and first Black and South Asian person in her role.

    “There’s a lot of people in Washington who would love that job,” said Jim Messina, a Democratic operative who ran Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign. “I think that a lot of the criticism at the at the vice president is borderline misogynistic and there’s a lot of people who judge her harder than they would judge a male politician (in) that role.”

    Moore, the only Black governor in the US, said, “The attacks on her, they hit different – they hit our ears differently. And I think people should remember that.”

    But others cite Harris’ low poll numbers and history of gaffes as reasons to take a second look at her position. Three prominent political columnists collectively suggested politicians like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Rep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia as possibilities to replace Harris.

    Contacted by CNN, each Democrat rejected the notion.

    “I absolutely do not think Vice President Harris should be dropped,” Raimondo told CNN directly. “I fully support Vice President Harris on the ticket. I think she is doing an incredible job as vice president and is a strong leader for our country.”

    “Gov. Whitmer supports President Biden and Vice President Harris,” a spokesperson for the Michigan governor responded.

    “‘I’ve seen the vice president up close and in action in my state, and you couldn’t contain the excitement in the room. I’m hard-pressed to imagine a better partner for President Biden,” Warnock told CNN.

    “Kamala Harris is a tremendous leader. I was proud to introduce the Momnibus with her and am pleased we can continue to work together to end disparities in maternal health. I am on team Biden-Harris and enthusiastically support their re-election in 2024,” Underwood said in a statement.

    “Any assertion that there is anyone better qualified to run on the Democratic ticket other than President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris is absolutely ludicrous. I am excited to do my part to ensure that they are both re-elected so that we can continue delivering for the people of this country,” Bass said in a statement.

    It’s unclear whether the latest round of coalescing behind the vice president will be enough to stop all the handwringing.

    Harris and the Biden administration have spent the last several months trying to build up her public profile, bolstering her public schedule to include stops focused on the hot 2024 issue of abortion as well as being the first-in-line responder to GOP attacks on freedom. On Thursday, the White House announced she would serve as the head a newly launched, first-of-its kind White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, the latest step in the Biden administration’s efforts to enact meaningful gun control against the backdrop of a deadlocked Congress.

    Harris has also beefed up her fundraising efforts, a key signal of her expanded role in the campaign.

    Biden aides see their path to victory next year embedded firmly in their ability to secure Black voters, women, young people and other groups that tend to respond warmly to Harris.

    But this most recent round of speculation comes as Republicans have frequently made Harris a central figure in their campaign trail attacks, with some – such as former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley – insinuating that this upcoming election is really about the vice president due to Biden’s age.

    Asked earlier this month about her reaction to constant critiques, Harris said in an interview that it was “not new.”

    “They feel the need to attack because they’re scared that we will win based on the merit of the work that Joe Biden and I, and our administration, has done,” she added.

    More recently, during a conversation at a Pennsylvania community college on voting rights, Harris did not directly reference the rumbles over her place on the ticket. But in a thinly veiled moment, Harris called those who once doubted her and then-candidate Biden’s 2020 bid, “haters.”

    “So, when people turned out in 2020 – even though they were the doubters. I would say, some of the haters. Let’s keep it real,” Harris said, with some laughter.

    There was “record turnout, and it’s because you voted that Joe Biden’s president of the United States and I’m vice president of the United States,” she added to a crowd of younger voters.

    It was reflective of what appears to be her office’s larger “say nothing” stance, at least publicly.

    “They’ve been in the mode of, they’re ignoring it,” one source familiar with Harris’ office told CNN.

    And those close to Harris say, though she’s generally “very aware of what people are saying,” it’s unlikely she’ll proactively address the calls for her to leave the ticket. Instead, she’ll work through it.

    “I think she keeps her head down and keep working,” Sharpton told CNN.

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  • Ron DeSantis Invites Nation’s First Black VP to Florida for Roundtable Discussion on the Upsides of Being Enslaved

    Ron DeSantis Invites Nation’s First Black VP to Florida for Roundtable Discussion on the Upsides of Being Enslaved

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    Remember when Ron DeSantis’s board of education announced last month that new state standards would require schools to teach students that there were some benefits to being enslaved? And the Florida governor was blasted for it, not only by the “The Left,” but by fellow Republicans too? Because the idea of forcing teachers to tell kids that there were some silver linings to being human property is, to quote former GOP congressman Will Hurd, “insane”?

    You might have thought that, given the bipartisan blowback, DeSantis would not be eager to keep this particular story in the news. But surprise! He apparently does, and his plan to keep people talking about it was to troll-invite Kamala Harris, the nation’s first Black vice president, to Florida for an “honest dialogue” about why it isn’t nuts to require school curricula to include a section on slavery not being all bad.

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    Incidentally, it should be noted that the individual DeSantis proposed Harris chat with, William Allen, once gave a talk at a conference entitled “Blacks? Animals? Homosexuals? What is a Minority?” He was also charged with kidnapping a 14-year-old from an indigenous reservation in Arizona; he later apologized but insisted he would “not assume responsibility” for what had happened.

    Anyway, Harris will not be traveling to Florida to speak with him or anyone else about the silver linings of slavery.

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  • Trump, DeSantis to share stage as candidates for first time

    Trump, DeSantis to share stage as candidates for first time

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    Trump, DeSantis to share stage as candidates for first time – CBS News


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    2024 GOP candidates gathered in Iowa on Friday to speak to hundreds of Republican voters in the state. The annual Lincoln Day Dinner saw the race’s two front-runners — Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis — share the same stage for the first time since they launched their campaigns. CBS News senior White House and political correspondent Ed O’Keefe reports from Des Moines.

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  • Florida blasted for its Black history curriculum:

    Florida blasted for its Black history curriculum:

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    Florida blasted for its Black history curriculum: “They want to replace history with lies” – CBS News


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    The Florida State Board of Education released a controversial new school curriculum this week that was immediately criticized for its depiction of African American history. One section of the curriculum reads that its “instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” In a fiery speech Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris said of the curriculum: “They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us.” Manuel Bojorquez reports.

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  • Florida’s new Black history curriculum says “slaves developed skills” that could be used for “personal benefit”

    Florida’s new Black history curriculum says “slaves developed skills” that could be used for “personal benefit”

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    Florida’s 2023 Social Studies curriculum will include lessons on how “slaves developed skills” that could be used for “personal benefit,” according to a copy of the state’s academic standards reviewed by CBS News. 

    The lessons in question fall under the social studies curriculum’s African-American studies section, and be taught to students in sixth through eighth grade, according to the state standards. 

    The lessons for that grade level will include teachings on understanding the “causes, courses and consequences of the slave trade in the colonies,” and instruction on the differences and similarities between serfdom and slavery, the curriculum says. Students will also be asked to describe “the contact of European explorers with systematic slave trading in Africa” and look at the history and evolution of slave codes. 

    The line about “personal benefit” is included as a “benchmark clarification” to a lesson that asks students to “examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves,” such as agricultural work, domestic service, blacksmithing and household tasks like tailoring and painting. 

    The curriculum was approved by Florida’s board of education on Wednesday. 

    Vice President Kamala Harris called the lesson plan an attempt to “gaslight” students. 

    “They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us and we will not stand for it,” she said in a speech at Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.’s national convention in Indiana on Thursday. “We who share a collective experience in knowing we must honor history in our duty in the context of legacy. There is so much at stake in this moment.”

    On Friday afternoon, Harris tweeted that she was traveling to Jacksonville to “fight back” against “extremists in Florida who want to erase our full history and censor our truths.” According to CBS Miami, Harris is expected to “forcefully condemn” the curriculum. 

    Florida governor Ron DeSantis, a 2024 presidential hopeful, dismissed Harris’ criticism of the curriculum. 

    “Democrats like Kamala Harris have to lie about Florida’s educational standards to cover for their agenda of indoctrinating students and pushing sexual topics onto children. Florida stands in their way and we will continue to expose their agenda and their lies,” tweeted DeSantis, whose political platform has included statements against alleged “woke ideology” in schools.

    Two members of the work group who established the curriculum standards said in a statement to CBS News that they “proudly stand behind” the language of the lessons. 

    “The intent of this particular benchmark clarification is to show that some slaves developed highly specialized trades from which they benefitted. This is factual and well documented,” said Dr. William Allen and Dr. Frances Presley Rice, members of the group, before listing examples like Crispus Attucks and Booker T. Washington. “Any attempt to reduce slaves to just victims of oppression fails to recognize their strength, courage and resiliency during a difficult time in American history. Florida students deserve to learn how slaves took advantage of whatever circumstances they were in to benefit themselves and the community of African descendants.” 

    Allen and Rice said that the curriculum provides “comprehensive and rigorous instruction on African American History.” 

    “It is disappointing, but nevertheless unsurprising, that critics would reduce months of work to create Florida’s first ever stand-alone strand of African American History Standards to a few isolated expressions without context,” the pair said. 

    Earlier this year, Florida rejected a proposed advanced placement course that would have focused on African American studies. DeSantis called the course, which included lessons on Black queer theory and the prison abolition movement, “indoctrination.” 


    AP African American Studies class to be offered for first time at 60 high schools

    05:27

    “That is more of ideology being used under the guise of history,” DeSantis said in January 2023. “That’s what our standards for Black history are. It’s just cut and dried history. You learn all the basics, you learn about the great figures, and you know, I view it as American history. I don’t view it as separate history.”

    The Florida Department of Education said in a letter to the College Board, which handles AP courses, that the curriculum was “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.” The College Board, which later posted a revised curriculum that did not include the areas DeSantis criticized, said the department’s comments were “slander.” 

    Kerry Breen


    Kerry Breen

    Kerry Breen is a news editor and reporter for CBS News. Her reporting focuses on current events, breaking news and substance use.

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  • Vice President Kamala Harris on One Year Post-Roe: ‘So Many Women Are Silently Suffering’

    Vice President Kamala Harris on One Year Post-Roe: ‘So Many Women Are Silently Suffering’

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    On Saturday, the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and ending the constitutional right to abortion, Vice President Kamala Harris shared a message with ELLE readers. In the exclusive video—filmed backstage after the vice president gave a national address in Charlotte, North Carolina, about the state of abortion rights in the U.S.—Harris said: “My concern is that so many women are silently suffering, and we want to make sure that we’re reaching out to let folks know that we’re not gonna judge them. We want them to know that they exist in a country where there is care and compassion and an acknowledgement of the right of each woman to make decisions for herself.”

    She continued, “I think on this issue, it’s really important to also just remember: You don’t have to abandon your faith or your deeply held beliefs to agree that the government should not be telling a woman what to do.”

    The vice president also emphasized the importance of voting for pro-abortion candidates, explaining that “the right that the Court took away, Congress can put back in place.” President Joe Biden has previously promised that if Democrats are able to take control of Congress and garner enough votes to pass a bill reinstating the protections of Roe v. Wade, he would sign it into law.

    In the year since Roe fell, 14 states have instated near-total abortion bans, and the chaos that has followed the Supreme Court’s ruling has led to people being denied—or being forced to travel across the country to receive—essential medical care. In North Carolina, where the vice president spoke on the anniversary, most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy will be banned come July 1.

    “Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, extremist elected officials continue to undermine and attack women’s rights, putting their political agenda between a woman and her health care provider,” Harris previously told ELLE. “The consequences of these laws have been heart-wrenching…This fight is about defending our rights, protecting our freedoms, and ensuring all Americans have access to the health care they need.”

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  • Kamala Harris’s 2024 Role Crystallizes Around Abortion Rights

    Kamala Harris’s 2024 Role Crystallizes Around Abortion Rights

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    On Saturday, June 24—the one-year anniversary of the day the Supreme Court gutted federal abortion protections—Kamala Harris is scheduled to be in Charlotte, North Carolina to address reproductive rights advocates and Democratic leaders. It will be one of many campaign stops she is expected to make across the country on the issue; a natural progression from the abortion rights rally she headlined in Washington DC on the same day Joe Biden announced his reelection bid, and the MSNBC roundtable discussion she participated in this week on the subject. As the Biden-Harris ticket begins to rev up its 2024 game plan, Harris’s role in the campaign is taking clearer shape as the face of one of Democrats’ biggest rallying cries: abortion rights. “This will clearly be a continued focus for her,” a senior Harris adviser tells me.

    It’s telling that she’ll be in North Carolina, a purplish state that Biden came within a point and a half of winning in 2020, and where Republicans recently passed a 12-week abortion ban, overriding Democratic governor Roy Cooper’s veto. Harris is expected to call for codifying Roe v. Wade into law and electing enough Democrats in 2024 to ensure that’s even a remote possibility. On Friday, the eve of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization anniversary, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and Emily’s List all endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket; Biden and Harris are scheduled to hold an event with the groups Friday in Washington, DC. The hope is that abortion rights are a strong enough message to overpower any other reservations Democratic voters have with their leading ticket. “It’s a fairly easy decision, right?” Alexis McGill Johnson, the president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, told VF, adding “You can speak unapologetically about protecting freedoms and rights—like abortion access—and the electorate will be with you.”

    Though, there have been plenty of reservations: Voters have repeatedly cited Biden’s age, questioned his ability to serve, and raised concerns about the direction the country is headed. Moreover, polling has shown Harris as a potential drag; ever since being tasked with handling immigration, her favorability among the American public has dropped. She’s lagged behind all of her recent predecessors in the vice presidency when it comes to popularity. Still, abortion advocates have welcomed her as a leading voice on reproductive rights for the White House. “She’s remarkably well-suited,” Laphonza Butler, the president of EMILY’s List, said. “She clearly is showing up as the convener, the leader, the empathizer and the fighter that we need, that the American people really need to lean on and be able to believe in.” She cited Harris’s background as a prosecutor and senator. Perhaps the greatest portent of the role Harris can play on the campaign trail comes from the latter—specifically the time she questioned Brett Kavanaugh on the issue.

    Harris: Can you think of any laws that give government the power to make decisions about the male body?

    Kavanaugh: I’m happy to answer a more specific question.

    Harris: Male versus female.

    Kavanaugh: I’m not thinking of any right now, senator.

    “My colleagues call her Auntie Kamala cause she just shows up with the truth, right?” McGill Johnson said, with a laugh.

    The Biden administration drew early criticism for what was perceived as a sluggish response to the Dobbs decision, raising skepticism that Biden, who, himself, was once openly conflicted on the issue, could carry a strong message on reproductive rights. At the time, sources lamented that the White House’s initial actions, forming a task force on reproductive rights, didn’t “go far enough.” That sentiment has largely shifted among advocates after Biden signed a series of executive orders aimed at broadening access to contraceptives and protecting abortion providers from prosecution, and of course, because of the Justice Department’s fight to keep mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortions, on the shelves. Harris has played a role in that, meeting the stakeholders both at the national and state level, as well as campaigning on the issue, tying abortion rights to the assaults on voting rights and LGBTQ+ Americans’ rights. “Vice President Harris really is the closing argument for why this ticket matters and how much we could lose if we don’t elect them,” Mini Timmaraju, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America said.

    The White House expects the issue to be a major driver in the 2024 election, Neera Tanden, the head of Biden’s Domestic Policy Council, told reporters in a briefing this week. Already the Democratic Party credits Republicans’ hard-line anti-abortion positions with preventing a “red wave” midterms election, and securing several pro-abortion rights ballot measure wins in red states. The Democratic Party has launched an ad campaign with billboards in swing states, including North Carolina and Georgia. On them, per Politico, a photo of Biden and Harris, and the text “NO to Republican Abortion Bans! YES to a Women’s Right to Choose!” The polling reflects the saliency of the issue. As GOP-controlled state legislatures across the country have imposed abortion bans, in some cases without any exceptions, one-in-four Americans say their support for abortion rights has only grown, according to a USA Today/Suffolk University poll. By an almost two-to-one margin—58% to 30%—of those polled say they oppose the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. “Abortion is no longer a social issue. It is a core life or death, democracy, kitchen table issue… That is how American voters are seeing it,” Timmaraju said.

    Nationally, Republicans haven’t backed down either; Donald Trump has boasted about being the impetus for Roe’s demise (by appointing conservative Supreme Court justices), Mike Pence is apparently convinced most Americans actually do want a federal ban on abortion (there’s no polling to indicate such a thing); Nikki Haley has said a national ban is “not realistic” but hasn’t ruled out supporting one; Tim Scott has said he would “definitely” sign a 20-week federal abortion ban if president. “The contrast is really clear,” Jennifer Klein, the Director of the White House Gender Policy Council, told reporters Wednesday. “If given the opportunity, Republicans in Congress would pass the national abortion ban and this president, this administration is about trying to restore the protections of Roe—and that is completely consistent with where the majority of American people are.”

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    Abigail Tracy

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  • A look at the 2024 presidential election and politics surround the debt ceiling

    A look at the 2024 presidential election and politics surround the debt ceiling

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    A look at the 2024 presidential election and politics surround the debt ceiling – CBS News


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    The 2024 presidential election is starting to take shape, with former President Donald Trump leading the Republican race. CBS News political contributor and former communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris, Ashley Etienne, and GOP political consultant Terry Sullivan join “CBS Mornings” for a look at what’s at stake.

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  • Biden, Harris meet with CEOs about AI risks

    Biden, Harris meet with CEOs about AI risks

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris met on Thursday with the heads of Google, Microsoft and two other companies developing artificial intelligence as the Biden administration rolls out initiatives meant to ensure the rapidly evolving technology improves lives without putting people’s rights and safety at risk.

    President Joe Biden briefly dropped by the meeting in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, saying he hoped the group could “educate us” on what is most needed to protect and advance society.

    “What you’re doing has enormous potential and enormous danger,” Biden told the CEOs, according to a video posted to his Twitter account.

    The popularity of AI chatbot ChatGPT — even Biden has given it a try, White House officials said Thursday — has sparked a surge of commercial investment in AI tools that can write convincingly human-like text and churn out new images, music and computer code.

    But the ease with which it can mimic humans has propelled governments around the world to consider how it could take away jobs, trick people and spread disinformation.

    The Democratic administration announced an investment of $140 million to establish seven new AI research institutes.

    In addition, the White House Office of Management and Budget is expected to issue guidance in the next few months on how federal agencies can use AI tools. There is also an independent commitment by top AI developers to participate in a public evaluation of their systems in August at the Las Vegas hacker convention DEF CON.

    But the White House also needs to take stronger action as AI systems built by these companies are getting integrated into thousands of consumer applications, said Adam Conner of the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress.

    “We’re at a moment that in the next couple of months will really determine whether or not we lead on this or cede leadership to other parts of the world, as we have in other tech regulatory spaces like privacy or regulating large online platforms,” Conner said.

    The meeting was pitched as a way for Harris and administration officials to discuss the risks in current AI development with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and the heads of two influential startups: Google-backed Anthropic and Microsoft-backed OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.

    Harris said in a statement after the closed-door meeting that she told the executives that “the private sector has an ethical, moral, and legal responsibility to ensure the safety and security of their products.”

    ChatGPT has led a flurry of new “generative AI” tools adding to ethical and societal concerns about automated systems trained on vast pools of data.

    Some of the companies, including OpenAI, have been secretive about the data their AI systems have been trained upon. That’s made it harder to understand why a chatbot is producing biased or false answers to requests or to address concerns about whether it’s stealing from copyrighted works.

    Companies worried about being liable for something in their training data might also not have incentives to rigorously track it in a way that would be useful “in terms of some of the concerns around consent and privacy and licensing,” said Margaret Mitchell, chief ethics scientist at AI startup Hugging Face.

    “From what I know of tech culture, that just isn’t done,” she said.

    Some have called for disclosure laws to force AI providers to open their systems to more third-party scrutiny. But with AI systems being built atop previous models, it won’t be easy to provide greater transparency after the fact.

    “It’s really going to be up to the governments to decide whether this means that you have to trash all the work you’ve done or not,” Mitchell said. “Of course, I kind of imagine that at least in the U.S., the decisions will lean towards the corporations and be supportive of the fact that it’s already been done. It would have such massive ramifications if all these companies had to essentially trash all of this work and start over.”

    While the White House on Thursday signaled a collaborative approach with the industry, companies that build or use AI are also facing heightened scrutiny from U.S. agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces consumer protection and antitrust laws.

    The companies also face potentially tighter rules in the European Union, where negotiators are putting finishing touches on AI regulations that could vault the 27-nation bloc to the forefront of the global push to set standards for the technology.

    When the EU first drew up its proposal for AI rules in 2021, the focus was on reining in high-risk applications that threaten people’s safety or rights such as live facial scanning or government social scoring systems, which judge people based on their behavior. Chatbots were barely mentioned.

    But in a reflection of how fast AI technology has developed, negotiators in Brussels have been scrambling to update their proposals to take into account general purpose AI systems such as those built by OpenAI. Provisions added to the bill would require so-called foundation AI models to disclose copyright material used to train the systems, according to a recent partial draft of the legislation obtained by The Associated Press.

    A European Parliament committee is due to vote next week on the bill, but it could be years before the AI Act takes effect.

    Elsewhere in Europe, Italy temporarily banned ChatGPT over a breach of stringent European privacy rules, and Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a review of the AI market.

    In the U.S., putting AI systems up for public inspection at the DEF CON hacker conference could be a novel way to test risks, though not likely as thorough as a prolonged audit, said Heather Frase, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

    Along with Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic, companies that the White House says have agreed to participate include Hugging Face, chipmaker Nvidia and Stability AI, known for its image-generator Stable Diffusion.

    “This would be a way for very skilled and creative people to do it in one kind of big burst,” Frase said.

    ___

    O’Brien reported from Cambridge, Massachusetts. AP writers Seung Min Kim in Washington and Kelvin Chan in London contributed to this report.

    ___

    Follow the AP’s coverage of artificial intelligence at https://apnews.com/hub/artificial-intelligence.

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  • Biden Asks Americans To Come Sit By Him And Keep Him Company Until The End

    Biden Asks Americans To Come Sit By Him And Keep Him Company Until The End

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    WASHINGTON—Gesturing with a frail hand while shuddering under a blanket, President Joe Biden reportedly asked the nation Monday to come and sit by him and keep him company until the end. “Come, my hour draws near,” said Biden, who patted the couch cushion and spoke in a strained whisper as he urged all 330 million Americans to take his hand so that he would not have to be alone in his final moments. “Do you feel that chill in the air? Do you hear that whisper? It won’t be long now. I have grown weak, and I am so tired. So, so tired. Come close to me. Don’t be shy. I just want to see your faces one last time.” At press time, Biden added, “Not you,” while pointing to Vice President Kamala Harris.

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  • Zelenskyy in Berlin amid push for new weapons for Ukraine

    Zelenskyy in Berlin amid push for new weapons for Ukraine

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    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy touched down in Germany Sunday morning ahead of talks to secure new Western weaponry for his country and to shore up support among European allies.

    “Already in Berlin,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter. “Weapons. Powerful package. Air defense. Reconstruction. EU. NATO. Security,” he added in reference to his priorities for the visit, which comes on the heels of meetings in Rome on Saturday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Pope Francis.

    Signing a guest book ahead of meeting top German officials, Zelenskyy wrote that “together we will win and bring peace back to Europe,” hailing Berlin as a “true friend and reliable ally.”

    Following talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, the two leaders are expected to fly to the city of Aachen, where Zelenskyy will collect the International Charlemagne Prize, awarded to him in December for the defense of “Europe and European values.”

    Ukraine on Saturday said it had made a series of strategic gains around the town of Bakhmut, where its forces have faced a fierce Russian onslaught for weeks. According to CNN, U.S. officials believe Kyiv is conducting “shaping operations” to lay the foundations for a major counteroffensive to take back its territory.

    Ahead of Zelenskyy’s visit to Berlin, the German government on Saturday announced a new package of military aid worth an estimated €2.7 billion, which will be the country’s largest delivery of arms to Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his all-out invasion in February 2022.

    “We all wish for a speedy end to this terrible and illegal war,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. “Unfortunately, this is not yet foreseeable.”

    While Kyiv officials had previously hit out at Berlin over a reluctance to supply military hardware and its dependence on Russian oil and gas imports, the country has since emerged as one of the largest exporters of arms and armor to Ukraine.

    The latest package includes 30 Leopard-1 A5 main battle tanks, four new IRIS-T SLM anti-aircraft rocket launchers, dozens of armored personnel carriers and other combat vehicles, 18 self-propelled Howitzers and hundreds of unarmed recon drones.

    Zelenskyy’s last visit to Germany, attending the Munich Security Conference in February 2022, came just days before Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At the high-profile defense event, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris had warned that Europe faced “a decisive moment in history” and pledged support for Kyiv if Russia attacked.

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    Gabriel Gavin

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  • Kamala Harris Asks If She Can Put West Wing Docent Down As Reference

    Kamala Harris Asks If She Can Put West Wing Docent Down As Reference

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    WASHINGTON—Quietly applying to better jobs while still working her current one, Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly asked a West Wing docent Friday if she could put him down as a reference. “Hey, James—it’s James, right?—would you be okay with me putting you down as a work reference on my résumé?” said Harris, explaining that she needed to include someone from the White House, but didn’t want to raise any alarm bells with her team or her supervisor before she secured a new position elsewhere. “I feel like we’ve had a great rapport the three times we’ve spoken, and you know me about as well as any of my colleagues here. Also, you work in a different department, which is kind of perfect because no one knows I’m leaving yet. I’m trying to stay under the radar in case I don’t get the job I’m applying for—you know how it goes. You don’t have to lie or anything. Just pretend to be my boss if anyone calls and say how hard of a worker I am, how passionately I approach my duties, how I get along with everyone, etc. And, hey, if you’re interested in my job, I can definitely put in a good word for you to replace me.” At press time, sources confirmed the vice president had successfully secured a role as the White House’s summer intern.

    Sun, Sand, and Zombies — Wish You Were Here!

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  • Harris faces new test of political skills in 2024 campaign

    Harris faces new test of political skills in 2024 campaign

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — She swaggered, she jabbed, she inspired. She even joked.

    Anyone looking for a glimpse of what Vice President Kamala Harris could bring to the campaign trail would have found it this week at Howard University, where she headlined a rally for reproductive rights. After two years of tightly scripted, uneven performances that often dismayed Democrats and cheered Republicans, Harris is looser, more forceful and more willing to speak off the cuff following her trip to Africa a month ago.

    “That is the vice president that America is going to get a chance to get to know for the first time,” said Laphonza Butler, a former adviser to Harris who leads EMILY’s List.

    Now Harris, the first woman and person of color in her position, will be put to the test as President Joe Biden seeks a second term. Although vice presidents are rarely decisive in reelection efforts, Harris is poised to be an exception. Not only is she leading the charge on Democrats’ most potent issue, the battle over abortion rights, she’s the running mate for the oldest president in history, increasing scrutiny over whether she’s ready to step into the top job if necessary.

    It’s an issue that Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, raised on Wednesday in an interview with Fox News.

    “If you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President Harris,” Haley said. “Because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old” — the age Biden would be at the end of a second term — “is not something that I think is likely.”

    Harris’ mission until Election Day will be energizing the voters that Democrats most need — specifically women, people of color and young people — while sustaining what will likely be an unrelenting barrage of Republican attacks.

    “Vice presidential candidates, if they’re going to make a difference, they’re going to make it at the margin,” said Joel Goldstein, a historian of the vice presidency. “But if you look at our recent history, a lot of our presidential elections have been decided at the margins.”

    Harris’ appearance at her alma mater Howard University on Tuesday night, the same day that Biden announced his reelection bid, was a first look of how she’ll approach the campaign. Her focus on abortion echoed her message during the midterm elections, but was even more barbed than usual as she targeted “extremists” she accused of taking away people’s rights.

    “Don’t get in our way because if you do, we’re going to stand up, we’re going to organize and we’re going to speak up and we’re going to say we’re not having that, we’re not playing that!” Harris said.

    Addressing herself to “so-called leaders” who want to restrict abortion, Harris told them to “open your medicine cabinet in the privacy of your bathroom, in the privacy of your home. I wonder what’s sitting up in there.”

    The crowd roared with laughter. “You don’t want me getting in your business, do you?” she said.

    Harris linked efforts to restrict abortion to Republican attempts to tighten rules for voting and limit what can be taught in schools.

    “Understand what’s at play,” she said. “You can’t sleep on this.”

    Cornell Belcher, a Democratic pollster, said Harris is “probably better positioned to connect with, in an authentic way, that critical emerging cohort of the American electorate that we are absolutely positively dependent on to win a majority.”

    Not everyone has felt that way, and she’s faced chatter from the sidelines over whether Biden should replace her as vice president. She consistently polls worse than Biden, whose own numbers are underwater.

    In an AP-NORC poll conducted in January, 43% of U.S. adults had a favorable opinion of Biden, and 36% said the same about Harris. Among Democrats, Biden was at 78% and Harris was at 67%, while 10% said they didn’t know enough about Harris to have an opinion.

    However, Harris featured prominently in Biden’s announcement video — walking alongside the president, embracing first lady Jill Biden, taking a selfie with a supporter and more.

    Biden’s campaign website is topped by the names “Biden Harris,” and a pop-up fundraising solicitation includes a picture of the two leaders smiling together. Biden’s Twitter account shared the same photo on Tuesday night, adding the caption “in this together.”

    “I was really put off by all the prognostication about whether she was a drag on the ticket,” said Mini Timmaraju, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “She’s the biggest asset.”

    Harris’ portfolio as vice president changed with last year’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide. Although she had previously been assigned thorny issues with little political upside, such as stemming migration from Central America, Harris swiftly embraced a new role as the administration’s most ardent defender of reproductive rights.

    When a copy of the decision was leaked, Harris reviewed it with a small circle of aides in a West Wing office. “How dare they?” she kept repeating, according to a member of her staff at the time who requested anonymity to discuss the private conversation.

    The phrase was swiftly included in a previously scheduled speech that night. Outrage over abortion helped Democrats limit their losses in the midterm elections, and the party expects it to remain a focus for voters.

    “It’s going to be a major mobilizing issue,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who has worked with Biden. “Republicans keep doing things to keep the issue alive.”

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, recently signed a state ban on abortions after six weeks. Women would have more time to get an abortion in cases involving rape or incest, but they would need to provide documentation such as a restraining order or police report.

    Erin Perrine, a spokesperson for Never Back Down, a super PAC supporting DeSantis, scoffed at the idea that Harris would be helpful to Biden’s reelection chances.

    “She’s not a good messenger,” she said. “She is prone to not only stepping on the message, but putting out word salad answers, and then when she gets uncomfortable, getting into a laughing fit.”

    Judging by the poll numbers, Perrine said “you have two people that Democrats don’t want running for president and vice president.”

    Former President Donald Trump, who is running for another term, suggested in a recent interview with Newsmax that running mates will ultimately be irrelevant in the campaign.

    “There’s never been a vice president that’s done anything for the election. In other words, they vote for the one person,” he said. “I don’t think vice presidents have any impact at all on the vote.”

    However, Trump said, “It’s such an important position. If something happens, that’s going to be your president.”

    Democrats rely on Black women in elections, and Harris’ support was evident during a February event at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta. Although the vice president had come to talk about the administration’s energy policy, the crowd was eager to discuss their support for her as a barrier-breaking woman.

    “In her own way, as a female, as an African American, she is stepping out,” said Camille Zeigler, a 65-year-old retired educator. “What’s happening is she’s not stepping out in the way that society wants her to step out.”

    Zeigler said people want to put Harris in a box as “an angry Black woman or a mad Black woman or a Black woman with an attitude.”

    Instead, Zeigler said, Harris answers with “grace” and “poise,” providing “a model for other African American women.”

    Beverly Rice, a 65-year-old who runs a nonprofit focused on literacy, celebrated Harris’ ascension after a history of Black women being close to power — but not holding it.

    “It’s about time,” she said. “We’ve been building America forever.”

    ___

    Associated Press writers Bill Barrow in Atlanta, and Hannah Fingerhut in Washington contributed to this report.

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  • Republicans launch attack ads as Biden-Harris 2024 campaign kicks off

    Republicans launch attack ads as Biden-Harris 2024 campaign kicks off

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    Republicans launch attack ads as Biden-Harris 2024 campaign kicks off – CBS News


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    Republicans are launching attacks on the Biden-Harris 2024 reelection bid just a day into the official campaign. Meanwhile, a CBS News poll finds 72% of Americans feel things in the U.S. are “out of control.” Nancy Cordes reports from the White House.

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  • Coy Biden Appears Nude Behind Folding Fan To Tease 2024 Run

    Coy Biden Appears Nude Behind Folding Fan To Tease 2024 Run

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    WASHINGTON—Addressing members of the press corps with breathy coos and flirty air-kisses, a coy President Joe Biden reportedly appeared nude behind a folding fan Friday, presumably to tease a 2024 reelection campaign. “Run for president? Moi?” the leader of the free world asked with a shimmy and a wink, peeking over an undulating fan made of long silky feathers; teasing small glimpses of a pair of Biden 2024 nipple covers with red, white, and blue tassels; and swinging wildly as he approached reporters with a seductive, sensual strut. “I may throw my hat in the ring, and perhaps my gloves and stockings, too. Tee-hee! Did you want to see more of my potential platform? Ah, ah, ah, not just yet. Oopsie daisy, I think I just dropped a hint of when my official announcement might be. Let me just bend over very slowly and pick it up.” At press time, rumors of President Biden’s 2024 run were further substantiated when Vice President Kamala Harris was wheeled onto the stage in an oversized champagne glass.

    Biden Announces Nation Can Stay Up Till 9:30 Tonight

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  • Harris to close out ‘Invest in America’ tour by announcing $300M in bridge repair funding | CNN Politics

    Harris to close out ‘Invest in America’ tour by announcing $300M in bridge repair funding | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The Biden administration will announce nearly $300 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to repair and replace bridges across eight states and the District of Columbia Thursday, closing out its three week “Invest in America” tour highlighting legislative achievements under President Joe Biden.

    Vice President Kamala Harris will make the announcement at the Arland D. Williams Jr. Memorial Bridge, which connects Washington, DC, to Northern Virginia and will receive $72 million in funding for repairs, the White House said. According to a fact sheet shared with CNN, the bridge serves over 88,000 vehicles per day.

    In addition, administration officials, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and infrastructure coordinator Mitch Landrieu, will fan out across the country to highlight bridge projects in San Diego; Bay City, Michigan; Albany, New York; Northwest Oklahoma; Portland, Oregon; Northwest South Carolina; San Antonio; and Madison, Wisconsin.

    The funding is the latest in a series of projects aimed at preserving and repairing the nation’s bridges, including last year’s Bridge Formula Program, which released $11 billion in Department of Transportation funding in 2022 and 2023 to states, tribes, and territories for bridge repairs. It also allocated $2.1 billion in Federal Highway Administration grants to make critical improvements to the Brent Spence Bridge connecting Kentucky and Ohio; the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco; the Gold Star Memorial Bridge in New London, Connecticut; and the Calumet River Bridges in Chicago.

    Since Biden signed the infrastructure law in November 2021, an official told reporters Wednesday, states, cities, tribes, and metropolitan planning organizations across the country have begun repairs on over 4,600 of the nation’s bridges.

    Thursday’s announcement marks the last stop on the administration’s “Invest in America” tour, which Biden launched last month by touring a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Durham, North Carolina. Per an administration official, 20 representatives from the Biden administration traveled to over 50 cities across 25 states during the tour, highlighting $435 billion in funding for 23,000 infrastructure projects in 4,500 cities and towns across the US.

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