At Kamala Harris‘ campaign rally in Detroit on Tuesday, former U.S. president Barack Obama told the crowd his “palms are sweaty, knees weak, my arms are heavy” over having to speak on stage after rapper Eminem.
Both Obama, 63, and Eminem, 52, attended the rally to promote Vice-President Harris ahead of the Nov. 5 American presidential election.
“I have done a lot of rallies, so I don’t usually get nervous,” Obama told the cheering crowd. “But I was feeling some kind of way following Eminem.”
The former president — a known music lover — then recited several lines from Eminem’s song Lose Yourself, but adapted the lyrics to be in first-person.
Harris’ supporters grew raucous as they shouted support and waved campaign signs while Obama rapped.
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“I notice my palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy, vomit on my sweater already, mom’s spaghetti, I’m nervous but on the surface I look calm and ready to drop bombs but I keep on forgetting,” Obama recited while bouncing up and down behind the podium.
Obama blasts Trump’s track record during rally for Harris: ‘We remember you being president, buddy’
He then sang along to the Lose Yourself melody and joked, “I thought Eminem was performing, I was going to jump out.”
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“Love me some Eminem,” Obama said.
Following the rap, the former president condemned Donald Trump and said America is “ready to turn the page” on his antics.
Obama referenced Trump’s recent town hall in Pennsylvania this month, where the former president danced to music for about 40 minutes instead of speaking to voters.
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“If your grandpa was acting like this, you’d be worried,” Obama said. “This is somebody who wants unchecked power. We do not need to see what an older, loonier Donald Trump looks like with no guardrails.”
Obama also spoke about Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election results and said it led to his supporters intimidating poll workers in Detroit, “all because Donald Trump couldn’t accept losing.”
Before Obama took the stage, Eminem spoke briefly and told the crowd that his hometown Detroit and “the whole state of Michigan mean a lot to me.”
“Going into this election, the spotlight is on us more than ever,” the rapper said. “And I think it’s important to use your voice. So, I’m encouraging everybody to get out and vote, please.
“I also think that people shouldn’t be afraid to express their opinions, and I don’t think anyone wants an America where people are worried about retribution, or what people will do if you make your opinion known.”
Eminem endorsed Harris for president because she “supports a future for this country where these freedoms and many others will be protected and upheld.”
Tuesday’s rally was not the first time Eminem has been vocal about politics.
A critic of former U.S. president Trump, Eminem dissed him in his 2016 song Campaign Speech, which was released 19 days before the presidential election. The song warned Americans about voting for Trump and disparaged his supporters.
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Eminem has also criticized other Republican politicians, including former president George W. Bush, whom he rapped about on the 2004 track Mosh, released before the presidential election that year.
Beyond Obama’s appreciation for Eminem, the former president has said he is an avid music fan, and his tastes extend to many genres.
Twice a year, the former president shares an official list of his current favourite songs to his social media accounts. Obama’s Summer 2024 playlist included music from Sting, Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Bob Dylan, GloRilla and Megan Thee Stallion.
Michigan is a swing state with the potential to vote primarily Democrat or Republican in the presidential election. During the 2016 race, the state turned red and helped push Trump to victory. The next election cycle in 2020 saw Michigan vote blue for President Joe Biden.
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Trump also hosted a rally in Detroit last week, where he brought out hometown rapper Trick Trick to endorse him.
A suspected drunken driver going the wrong way on the interstate nearly struck a vehicle containing Vice President Kamala Harris Monday night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.Sister station WISN obtained video from about 8:20 p.m. Monday showing the driver getting onto Interstate 794 via an offramp. The white car heads west into the eastbound lanes just as the motorcade is approaching on what was an otherwise closed-off freeway. The vehicle is seen moving to the left lanes as the first squad at the head of the motorcade passes by. Each of the more than a dozen vehicles then drives past the car until the final ones, driven by Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Deputies, make a traffic stop. The driver has been identified as a 55-year-old Milwaukee man, whom WISN did not identify as of early Wednesday morning because he had yet to be formally charged. According to an arrest report obtained by WISN, when the man was told by a deputy he’d “almost struck a vehicle in the VPOTUS’ motorcade, he was extremely surprised and had no recollection of entering the freeway or coming close to striking another vehicle. He also stated he did not have any intention of harming Vice President Kamala Harris or anybody related to her campaign.” According to the report, the man failed several field sobriety tests and had an open beer can in his vehicle. He was arrested for drunken driving and second-degree recklessly endangering safety. He remained in jail Tuesday night without bail, awaiting a hearing. The Harris campaign referred any questions regarding the incident to the United States Secret Service. “The U.S. Secret Service is aware of the incident involving a motorist traveling in the opposite direction on the highway while the Vice President was in her motorcade. We are grateful to the Milwaukee Sheriff’s Office for their response which allowed them to stop the motorist and take the driver into custody for DUI,” Secret Service Spokesperson Joe Routh told WISN.
MILWAUKEE —
A suspected drunken driver going the wrong way on the interstate nearly struck a vehicle containing Vice President Kamala Harris Monday night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Sister station WISN obtained video from about 8:20 p.m. Monday showing the driver getting onto Interstate 794 via an offramp. The white car heads west into the eastbound lanes just as the motorcade is approaching on what was an otherwise closed-off freeway.
The vehicle is seen moving to the left lanes as the first squad at the head of the motorcade passes by. Each of the more than a dozen vehicles then drives past the car until the final ones, driven by Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Deputies, make a traffic stop.
The driver has been identified as a 55-year-old Milwaukee man, whom WISN did not identify as of early Wednesday morning because he had yet to be formally charged.
According to an arrest report obtained by WISN, when the man was told by a deputy he’d “almost struck a vehicle in the VPOTUS’ motorcade, he was extremely surprised and had no recollection of entering the freeway or coming close to striking another vehicle. He also stated he did not have any intention of harming Vice President Kamala Harris or anybody related to her campaign.”
According to the report, the man failed several field sobriety tests and had an open beer can in his vehicle.
He was arrested for drunken driving and second-degree recklessly endangering safety. He remained in jail Tuesday night without bail, awaiting a hearing.
The Harris campaign referred any questions regarding the incident to the United States Secret Service.
“The U.S. Secret Service is aware of the incident involving a motorist traveling in the opposite direction on the highway while the Vice President was in her motorcade. We are grateful to the Milwaukee Sheriff’s Office for their response which allowed them to stop the motorist and take the driver into custody for DUI,” Secret Service Spokesperson Joe Routh told WISN.
“This state was once the beating heart of the nation, but Kamala Harris and the Democrats have sold you out,” Trump said on Tuesday night in Greensboro, North Carolina. Photo by Carla Peay/The Atlanta Voice
GREENSBORO – It was hard not to notice the difference. When United States Vice President Kamala Harris held a rally at the Greensboro Coliseum on September 12, the 22,000 seat stadium was nearly at capacity. For former United States President Donald Trump’s rally on Tuesday, October 22, both the upper deck and the sides of the arena were curtained off, leaving only one side of the lower bowl – and few dozen chairs on the floor – available for seating. There were about 1,000 supporters relegated to standing room only, for a total of about 7,500 in attendance.
Photo by Carla Peay/The Atlanta Voice
Still, the supporters were as loud and as vocal as ever, clad in MAGA hats and tee-shirts, listening to a familiar playlist of approved tunes prior to the beginning of the program. A video was shown on the big screen monitors with a recorded message from Trump making more than a few controversial statements, but ones still consistent with his message.
· He accused the Democrats of cheating, saying it was the only thing Democrats do well.
· He promised to end early voting.
· He said there will be a return to paper ballots.
· He said that what happened in 2020 must never be allowed to happen again – presumably a reference to his claim that the election was rigged and stolen, and that he was the rightful winner.
· He continued to take shots at Harris and President Joe Biden, calling him crooked and her the worst Vice President in history.
Photo by Carla Peay/The Atlanta Voice
Taking the stage before Trump were Peter Navarro, an economic advisor in the Trump Administration, Addison McDowell, congressional candidate from the 6th District, Congresswoman Virginia Fox from the 5th District, and US Senator Ted Budd.
Navarro blamed former President Bill Clinton for signing NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), which he said was the beginning of China’s economic power and the decline of America’s. He compared Harris to Clinton and former President Barack Obama, saying she was “Clinton and Obama in a pants suit.”
He then told the assembled audience that if they yelled loud enough, Trump’s plane would arrive faster. The crowd happily obliged him with a loud ovation. Navarro was the first former White House official ever imprisoned on a Contempt of Congress Charge for his part in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 Election. He served four months in a minimum security prison in Miami.
McDowell then took the stage and blamed the border crisis on Harris.
“This election is personal for me,” McDowell said. “I lost my younger brother to a Fentanyl overdose. I say to Kamala Harris ‘Shame on you’. You have continued to fail us. You have allowed millions of illegal immigrants into our country. It’s time to put America first.”
Congresswoman Fox said we can make history by electing Trump as president 45 and 47. However, if Trump does win this election, he would not be the first man to serve two non-consecutive terms. That would be Grover Cleveland, who was the 22nd and the 24th president.
Senator Budd also attacked Harris, saying that under leadership, our lives are unsafe and unaffordable.
“We have lost our security and the American Dream,” Budd said. “She took our country on a reckless spending spree. She has had four years in office, why didn’t she fix the economy?” Budd asked, neglecting to mention that Harris is the Vice President, not the President.
All of the Trump surrogates advocated for audience members to get out and vote early, and to take 10 people to the polls with them. It was an interesting request considering Trump’s promise that if elected, he would end early voting.
When Trump finally arrived, he opened with a criticism of the federal response to hurricanes Helene and Milton but promised that residents would still be able to vote. The speech then went into a myriad of different topics with his familiar rambling style. He made fun of Kamala Harris’ name, said Biden likes him better than he likes Harris, said Obama was looking old, and called Tim Walz the stupidest man he’s ever seen. He then called his running mate JV Vance a brilliant man.
“Kamala Harris is a radical left lunatic,” Trump said. “We are a failing nation. We won twice here in North Carolina. We won twice everywhere to be honest,” he said, still perpetuating the idea that he won the 2020 election. He then took a moment to call out the fake news, encouraging the crowd to turn and look at the press and boo, as he does at nearly all of his rallies.
“About nine percent of the press are honest people. If we had a press that wrote the truth we would be a lot better as a country,” Trump said.
In an appeal to North Carolina voters, Trump said it was the fault of the Democrats that manufacturing jobs disappeared under their leadership.
“This state was once the beating heart of the nation, but Kamala Harris and the Democrats have sold you out,” Trump said.
He referred to the Green New Deal as a scam, and said he will end it on his first day in office. He called global warming nonsense and warned of impending nuclear war.
“We’re close to World War three,” Trump said. “We have very stupid people running things. If I’m elected, that will not happen.” He also said that Putin would never have attacked Ukraine if he were president.
He vowed to cut energy prices by 50 percent within one year, cut interest rates, gas and grocery prices.
“Our country is being crippled and destroyed by Kamala Harris,” Trump said.
“When I am inaugurated on January 20, America will be bigger, bolder and stronger. We will begin the four greatest years in history.” In his closing remarks, Trump wondered aloud if Harris was drunk, on drugs, and said she lied like a dog. He also mispronounced Tim Walz’ name several times, accused Harris of flying migrant criminals into the country from prisons and insane asylums, and said she was not mentally or physically able to do the job.
“If you want to end this disaster, go out and vote,” Trump said. “This (referring to his campaign) is the single greatest movement in the history of the country.”
To close out the rally, Tulsi Gabbard made an appearance. She called out Harris for being pro-war. Gabbard served in Congress as a Democrat, representing Hawaii’s 2nd District from 2013 to 2021.
“People like us have a home in the Republican party,” Gabbard said. “I am proud to stand here tonight and announce that I am joining the Republican Party. I am joining the party of people, the party of common sense, and supporting the candidate with the courage to fight for peace.”
To the surprise of no one, Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for Governor who was previously endorsed by Trump, was nowhere to be seen.
The former U.S. President and the first Black man to hold the position of president in the country’s history, remains a fan favorite, particularly among Georgia’s democratic voters. Photo by Julia Beverly/The Atlanta Voice
The number of superstar surrogates is growing the closer it gets to Election Day, Nov. 5. Former United States President Barack Obama, the 44th Commander-in-Chief of the United States, is returning to Georgia to support current United States Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday, Oct. 24.
Award-winning actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry and Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter Bruce Springsteen will join Harris and Obama at the rally on Thursday night.
Obama was one of the featured speakers during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in August. The former Illinois Senator has stumped for Harris and Walz across the country over the past couple of weeks, including in Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, and most recently in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state this election cycle.
Both campaign stops are being billed as “Get Out The Vote” rallies. As of Wednesday night, more than a half-million Georgians have voted early. The early voting period began on Tuesday, Oct. 15, and saw a record 300,000 Georgians cast ballots that day. There have been nearly two million early votes cast in Georgia as of Tuesday, Oct. 22.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Donnell began his career covering sports and news in Atlanta nearly two decades ago. Since then he has written for Atlanta Business Chronicle, The Southern Cross…
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It’s always possible the polls are all wrong and either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris is on the brink of a decisive victory on November 5. For one thing, it’s close enough in the seven battleground states that either candidate could win all of them. But make no mistake: This apparently very close presidential election reflects a deeply divided electorate where the potential changes in either direction we all talk about constantly are glacial and arguably self-canceling. Ron Brownstein points out how very small demographic changes since 2020 might wind up being a big deal:
Extending a pattern that stretches back decades, White voters without a college degree, the cornerstone of the modern GOP coalition, have declined by a little more than 2 percentage points as a share of eligible voters since 2020, falling below 40% of the eligible voting pool for the first time ever, according a new analysis of the latest Census Bureau data by demographer William Frey shared exclusively with CNN.
While those working-class Whites are shrinking, Frey found that both Whites with at least a four-year college degree and voters of color have each increased since 2020 by about a single percentage point as a share of eligible voters. Those increases also continue long-term trends that have seen well-educated Whites grow to represent more than 1-in-4 eligible voters and people of color rise past 1-in-3.
A vote’s a vote, but these small shifts help explain why Kamala Harris is focused on consolidating and extending recent Democratic gains among white college-educated voters — particularly women who support reproductive rights — while Donald Trump is working hard to expand his own party’s beachheads among non-college-educated Black and Latino voters, particularly the men open to his highly gendered, machismo message.
Demographic change varies, of course, across individual states, and that could matter on Election Day as well, notes Brownstein:
[I]n a race so close, small shifts in the electorate’s composition across the most competitive states could make a difference. For instance, the fact that non-college Whites, according to Frey’s analysis, have fallen as a share of the eligible electorate since 2020 considerably more in Michigan and Wisconsin than in Pennsylvania may help explain why most analysts consider the Keystone State more difficult than the other two for Harris …
Across the Sunbelt battlegrounds, blue-collar Whites are a smaller share of the eligible voters: about 1-in-3 in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada and just over 2-in-5 in North Carolina. Arizona and Georgia saw big increases since 2020 in the minority share of their eligible voter population, Frey found, while non-Whites actually declined somewhat in North Carolina and remained almost unchanged in Nevada. College-educated Whites increased as a portion of eligible voters in Nevada and Arizona, while falling slightly in Georgia and essentially holding steady in North Carolina.
It’s as though all these trends are conspiring to produce the closest election since 2000. Yet thanks to our winner-take-all electoral machinery, we will not have the sort of coalition government a different kind of political system would probably mandate in such circumstances. Instead, we’ll have a Harris or Trump administration with a strongly partisan character (and in the case of a Trump administration, a notably radical character) and a strong interest in aggressive use of executive powers. If Trump wins, the odds are better than even he will also be part of a governing trifecta that could very well run roughshod over Democrats and independents thanks to such power-enhancing measures as filibusterproof budget-reconciliation bills, abetted by a conservative-leaning federal judiciary. And that will be true even though it is quite likely that whatever happens in the Electoral College, Trump will be on the losing end of the national popular vote (Nate Silver currently gives Trump a 53 percent probability of winning the presidency but only a 27 percent probability of winning the popular vote).
Very big differences in the direction of the country will flow from tiny shifts in one direction or another of a closely divided electorate. It’s why anxiety levels are so high right now among those paying avid attention to politics, even though the outcome may depend on “low-propensity voters” barely paying attention at all.
One frightening pre-Halloween occupation for political junkies is speculating about Donald Trump’s exact plans for challenging another election defeat. There is zero doubt he will challenge a loss but much less clarity on how he will go about it thanks to several important changes since 2020: Trump is not in control of the federal government; Trump’s party is decidedly not in control of the vice-presidency, the office that supervises the January 6 joint session of Congress to confirm the winner; and the Electoral Count Act of 2022 pretty much closed off Trump’s favorite election-reversal strategies in 2020, notably the fake-elector and vice-presidential coup gambits.
Politico has a new report out offering the latest and by far the most detailed Trump Electoral Coup scenario, raising some possibilities I hadn’t thought about. You should read the whole thing because it nicely illustrates the many inflection points our system creates between Election Night and Inauguration Day on January 20, 2025 (the two dates about which there is complete certainty). The report also emphasizes two points that have probably been underdiscussed and are worth considering.
First, there’s the fringe constitutional-law argument (advanced as a secondary line of attack by Trump lawyer John Eastman) that the Electoral Count Act of 1887 (which the 2022 legislation amended) is an unconstitutional abridgment of the explicit constitutional powers of state legislators to name presidential electors as they wish. This hasn’t been tested by the U.S. Supreme Court, but if it is and is upheld, the Electoral Count Reform Act scheme of ruling out any electoral vote award not made by the state-designated chief executive officer (usually either the governor or secretary of state) would fall and Republican legislators (where they are in power after the 2024 election) would be newly invited to wreak havoc.
Second, Politico explores in some detail the potentially disruptive role of House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Trump vassal of the highest order and a congressional field commander of the 2020 bid to overturn the results:
If Johnson believes, like Eastman, that the laws governing the joint session are unconstitutional, he could assert unprecedented authority to affect the process — all under the guise of following the Constitution. That could include taking steps to ensure that pro-Trump electors embraced by state legislatures get an up-or-down vote, even if they conflict with slates endorsed by governors. It could include permitting hours of floor time to air theories of voter fraud, while holding the presidency in limbo. It could also include lobbying allies to reject pro-Harris electors in order to prevent either candidate from receiving 270 Electoral College votes. And it could also include simply gaveling the House out of session to prevent the joint session from continuing. Each move would likely trigger intense legal battles, putting the courts — and most likely the Supreme Court — in the position of deciding how to resolve unprecedented power plays by the most prominent actors in government.
The Supreme Court, of course, is dominated by a bloc of hardcore conservatives aligned with and partially appointed by Donald Trump and is likely more inherently partisan than the Court that awarded George W. Bush the presidency in 2001. And if Johnson in any manner manages to blow up an electoral-vote majority for Kamala Harris, the presidency would be determined by Johnson’s very own House, where it’s near-certain that Republicans will control a majority of state delegations and would return power to Trump via the peculiar rules of a “contingent” election (not used in a presidential contest since 1825, when a multicandidate field meant no one had an Electoral College majority).
Scary, eh? So too is this detail from the Politico article:
[T]o a person, election observers, elected leaders, and some of Trump’s own allies agree on one operating premise: On Election Night, no matter what the results show, how many votes remain uncounted, and how many advisers tell him otherwise, Donald Trump will declare himself the winner.
Halloween definitely won’t be the only ghoulish day left on this year’s calendar.
In the first presidential election since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump bring sharply different records on abortion. Maggie Astor, a political reporter for The New York Times, describes where the candidates stand on the issue.
Fox News anchor Bret Baier says he “made a mistake” during his interview with Kamala Harris in not airing video of a Donald Trump comment, something Harris pointed out to him in real time.
Baier made that admission on Thursday roughly 24 hours after his interview with the Democratic presidential candidate was aired. Just under 8 million people watched the session, Harris’ first sit-down with a Fox News Channel journalist during the campaign.
It wasn’t immediately clear, however, what Baier meant by saying he made a mistake.
Their exchange over the Trump video, one of the most contentious of the interview, came after Harris criticized her Republican opponent for saying that he might have to call out the National Guard or military to deal with “the enemy within,” whom he defined as “radical left lunatics.”
Baier then said his colleague, Harris Faulkner, had asked Trump about his “enemy within” comment earlier in the day, “and this is how he responded.” The clip showed Trump saying he wasn’t threatening anybody, and criticized “phony investigations” of him, cracking a joke his audience laughed at.
“Bret, I’m sorry, and with all due respect, that clip was not what he has been saying about the enemy within … that’s not what you just showed,” Harris said.
Speaking a day later, Baier said that when he asked his staff for video to play during the interview, he was expecting to get two clips — one that showed Trump making the “enemy within” comment to Fox’s Maria Bartiromo, and the one from Faulkner’s town hall that was played during the Harris interview.
“Take a listen to what I meant to roll,” Baier said on Thursday. He then aired both clips back to back.
Yet during the interview, Baier had given no indication that he meant to air the “enemy within” comment at all, even after Harris had pointed it out. For that reason, his explanation of a mistake met with some skepticism online.
“Newsflash: When wrong clips run (which happens) hosts can easily say `Sorry that was the wrong clip,’” former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson wrote on “X.” “He or his producers would have know it was the wrong one right then.”
There was no immediate comment from a Fox representative on Friday to clarify what Baier meant.
It comes as no surprise that when Taylor Swift passes notes, they’re on custom stationery with a bespoke wax “13” seal. What is surprising is that the recipient of a handwritten note on that “from the desk of Taylor Swift” cardstock was Dave Portnoy, the Barstool Sports founder who is known for being a Swiftie—and a supporter of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential aspirations.
Portnoy, who attended the second show of Swift’s Miami leg of her Eras Tour Saturday night wearing his special sparkly jacket, shared that Swift’s younger brother, Austin Swift, hand-delivered the note to him in the VIP tent at the show, and that he shared a nice hug with Swift’s mom, Andrea Swift. The note (with its footer that describes Swift as a “songwriter/feline enthusiast,” by the way) thanked Portnoy for his longtime support, and hinted at some of the blowback she’s gotten since endorsing Kamala Harris for president.
“Dave, I’m so happy to have you at the show tonight!” Swift wrote. “I wanted to say thank you for always being so supportive, so loyal, and for having my back when a lot of people didn’t. I hope you have a blast tonight!! Love, Taylor”
“I’ll never criticize someone for talking about politics,” he said in an interview on Fox News ahead of the debate between Harris and Trump, on whether he thought Swift would make an endorsement. As we know now, it was shortly after that debate ended that Swift released her statement voicing her support for Harris. “I don’t see the upside for her, but to each their own,” Portnoy said of whether Swift would speak out on the election. He also disclosed then that, “Yeah, I’m voting for Trump. I don’t know that I’d call myself a Trump guy.”
“It’s the gaslighting that the left is doing with Kamala Harris, making it sound like she’s some great, groundbreaking candidate,” he said in part. “She is the worst candidate to ever run for president ever.”
However, the morning after Swift released her own endorsement, Portnoy stood up for her on social media. “As the king of the Swifties people are asking me what I think of her Kamala endorsement,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “I don’t care at all. People can vote for whoever they want in this country. How somebody votes will never change my opinion of a person. I’m voting the other way but to each their own.”
Just days after Vice President Kamala Harris claimed that any suggestion that the country “would turn into Detroit” if she wins is essentially a racist dog whistle, rap artist Lizzo said the exact same thing.
Yes Lizzo, Melissa Viviane Jefferson, dropped what can best be described as some accidental truth. Because accidental is the only kind of truth you’ll ever get out of the left.
“I’m so proud to be from this city, you know they say if Kamala wins then the whole country will be like Detroit,” the “Truth Hurts” singer declared.
“Proud like Detroit, resilient like Detroit. The same Detroit that innovated the auto industry and the music industry. Put some respect on Detroit’s name.”
Detroit is consistently ranked among the top 5 most dangerous cities in the United States based on crime data. Crime rates are higher than the national average, especially for violent crimes like homicide, assault, and robbery. The successes mentioned by Lizzo happened well over half a century ago.
Detroit is a cesspool of failed liberal experimentation. Now, as Lizzo states, Harris wants to bring that blight nationwide.
Hard pass.
Lizzo says “if Kamala wins then the whole country will look like Detroit”
I’m from South Africa, (one of the highest crime rates in the world) & I’ve never been robbed on tour. I was in Detroit last year & our tour van was robbed TWICE in one night 🤣pic.twitter.com/j8CXJgbrPk
Kamala Thinks Saying America Is Going To Turn Into Detroit Is Racist
Lizzo’s comments about Kamala Harris turning the entire country into Detroit wouldn’t be nearly as hilarious as they are if not for the fact that the Democrat candidate for President recently indicated anybody who says such things is racist.
Or maybe it’s just because Trump said it that makes it so racist.
“The whole country is going to be like, you want to know the truth? It’ll be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president. You’re going to have a mess on your hands,” he predicted.
Harris sat down with former CNN contributor Roland Martin for a live-streamed interview last week where they discussed those very comments.
The Veep delivered another one of her signature word salads in response:
“Yes, yes, yes. I- I- you know, there’s this whole – I talked with somebody once who said, ‘You know, if you just look at where the- the- the stars are in the sky. Don’t look at them as just random things, look at them as points. Look at the constellation, what does it show you.’”
That’s when she turned the Detroit criticism and general observation that cities run by Democrats are garbage into a racially driven commentary.
“You just outlined it Roland, what does it show you?” she asked after making the constellation analogy. “That the cities that he picks on in terms of black population or black mayor or both. C’mon.”
I Guess Lizzo’s stars are creating a constellation of racism too then.
NEW: Kamala Harris gives an astrology lesson during an interview with show host Roland S. Martin in North Carolina.
Brilliant.
“You know, there’s this whole, I, I talked with somebody once who said, you know, if you just look at where the, the, the stars are in the sky. Don’t… pic.twitter.com/4I0hVxuCd5
Prior to flying out to Detroit to stump for Kamala Harris, Lizzo was showing off her fossil fuel-guzzling private jet and declaring she was a “bad […]” ready to “save democracy”.
Which, incidentally, is the same thing Adam Kinzinger calls himself when looking in the mirror every morning before he throws on his little J6 boxers and starts his day.
“This is how a bad […] saves democracy. You ho’s couldn’t even spell democracy,” she said. As to who the “ho’s” are, she wasn’t specific.
Lizzo’s grasp of the English language though is tenuous at best. As is her grasp on decorum. And decency. Rational thoughts. Intelligence. Etc.
Here she is playing a 200-year-old crystal flute once owned by Founding Father James Madison during a concert in DC while wearing a skimpy bodysuit and “twerking.”
Ever the gifted orator, Lizzo, who is a classically trained flutist, played a few notes and exclaimed, “[…] I just twerked and played James Madison’s flute from the 1800s.”
NOBODY HAS EVER HEARD THIS FAMOUS CRYSTAL FLUTE BEFORE
Door County, Wisconsin voted for Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden. Here’s what voters are thinking in the battleground-state swing county ahead of the presidential election.
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In the frantic last weeks of the campaign, both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are doing everything they can to get an edge.
One development that has Democrats concerned and Republicans thrilled is Trump’s relative strength with minority voters.
In 2020, President Biden got 90% of the Black vote while Trump received only 9%.
But in 2024, polls show Harris is not doing as well and Trump has made gains. Harris has 78% of the Black vote while Trump has 15% — an advantage of 63%.
The bottom line is that Harris still has a huge edge among Black voters, but in an election that is expected to be razor close, the difference is significant.
If you break it down by gender, you can see a big source of the divide — 70% of Black men support Harris while 83% of Black women do. The numbers have both sides scrambling.
“As a person who the polls don’t always capture well, I can tell you that I am not sure those numbers are right, but let’s just act like they are,” Ellison said. “It means we have a lot of work to do. It means we have to help voters understand that Donald Trump has been frankly hostile to Black people for a long time.”
On the Republican side, Minnesota Republican National Committee Member AK Kamara says Trump is gaining momentum.
“From my perspective, this is a trend that is continuing nationally,” Kamara said. “I think there are a lot of Black men who see a hero in Donald Trump, a guy that is going to stand up for what he actually believes in.”
Last week, Harris countered by offering up what she calls her “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men.” The policies include a plan to provide as many as 1 million fully forgivable loans of up to $20,000 for Black entrepreneurs.
In these final weeks, Trump is focusing especially hard on younger Black men who polls show are especially receptive to him.
You can watch WCCO Sunday Morning with Esme Murphy and Adam Del Rosso every Sunday at 6 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
Esme Murphy, a reporter and Sunday morning anchor for WCCO-TV, has been a member of the WCCO-TV staff since December 1990. She is also a weekend talk show host on WCCO Radio. Born and raised in New York City, Esme ventured into reporting after graduating from Harvard University.
For all the polarization in American politics, everyone can agree that seven states hold the key to next month’s election. These swing states contain a total of 513 counties, and among them only one has voted for the winning candidate in every presidential election this century. Door County, Wisconsin, offers a distinct shade of purple. Unencumbered by tribal loyalties, the citizenry has whipsawed from George W. Bush twice to Barack Obama twice; to Donald Trump and then to Joe Biden… consider Door a window into this critical election. Feverishly, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have been campaigning in swing states, especially Wisconsin. But neither has visited America’s swingiest county. So, we decided to.
The Wisconsin tourism board could do worse than to anchor its next marketing campaign in Door County, the peninsula wedged between Lake Michigan and Green Bay– the water not the home of the Packers…. nicknamed “the Cape Cod of the Midwest,” Door County and its coastline come embroidered with limestone cliffs, trees that blaze to life in the fall and enduring traditions like the fish boil.
The population: 30,000….and no one knows more of the locals than 84-year-old Niles Weborg, long-time fire chief…
Jon Wertheim:: Tell me about Door County…
Niles Weborg: How far do you want to go back? My relatives landed here, in 1851, from Norway…
Weborg has a handy way of placing Door County on Wisconsin’s map…
Niles Weborg: And, uh, this is where we’re at. Door County is up the thumb of Wisconsin. And Nor, Green Bay is down here. Milwaukee is down here. And we’re right about here on the Peninsula.
Jon Wertheim: So we got, we got a bay side. And we got a Lake Michigan side.
Niles Weborg: There you go.
Jon Wertheim: Tell me, politically, what are people like.
Niles Weborg: Well, politically, we were strictly Republicans.
But then the transplants came and now Door County is the ultimate political weathervane…. in 2020, Joe Biden carried Door County by 292 votes…the tightest margin in any Wisconsin county.
Joel Kitchens: And it’s not just the presidential elections. It’s virtually every state-wide election, we seem to pick the winner. It’s, it’s kind of weird.
Joel Kitchens
60 Minutes
Republican Joel Kitchens represents Door County in the State Assembly.
Jon Wertheim: What do you attribute that to?
Joel Kitchens: I think a lot of it is that we are such a cross section of the state that we have a lot of people that came from the cities and from the suburbs and retired. We have a strong agricultural community. We have heavy manufacturing, and as you can see when you drive along the lake shore and the bay shore, there’s a lotta money here. But there are also a lot of people that are really struggling as well.
On our road trip through Door County last week, we saw this first hand. The county is 92% White, but politically diverse. In the rural south: abundant signs for Donald Trump and towering silos….
25-year-old Austin Vandertie is a sixth-generation dairy farmer.
Jon Wertheim: When you go into that voting booth, first Tuesday in November, what is the one issue that’s most going to impact how you vote?
Austin Vandertie: Inflation. You know, inflation affects the cost of my feed, my fuel, my seed, my fertilizer, everything that it takes for me to grow a crop and feed it to my cows to get a good product.
Like many of his neighbors, Vandertie is voting for Trump. But as we headed north, cows and deer blinds gave way to artists and rainbow flags…
Near the top of the thumb in Door County, in the tourist town of Sister Bay—where red gives ground to blue—we met Emma Cox, who runs Kindgoods, a new-age boutique.
Emma Cox speaks with Jon Wertheim
60 Minutes
Jon Wertheim: For this election, what is gonna be the issue that you’re most concerned about?
Emma Cox: I think the issue that has been driving the– work of activism that I’ve been doing for the last two years has been reproductive rights.
Charming as her little pocket of America might be, she understands: Door County may be the leading indicator in this most contentious election.
Emma Cox: Well, it feels like all eyes are on us. All eyes are on Wisconsin, all eyes have been on Door County. And it feels like there’s pressure for us to deliver. (laugh)
Inasmuch as you can have a bellwether town within a bellwether county, Sturgeon Bay is Door’s gravitational and political center. Shipbuilding is the big industry here. Sensibilities vary from one yard to the next…
Even the animals get into the act
Jon Wertheim: Tell me who we have here?
John Vincent: This is Ziva. She’s our dog for democracy.
We met Ziva, as well as her owners, John and Annette Vincent, who organized a pop-up rally, flanking both sides of the main drag in Sturgeon Bay, drumming up support for the Democratic ticket…. and this is where shabby stereotypes come to die….
Annette and John Vincent with their dog Ziva
60 Minutes
Jon Wertheim: I saw a truck with a gun rack honk and I saw a Prius–
John Vincent: Yes.
Jon Wertheim: –go by and give you a thumbs down–
John Vincent: Isn’t that interesting–
Annette Vincent: Isn’t that interesting–
John Vincent: It’s more than just coincidental. We’re s– we’re so (truck honking) on the edge that we’re–
Annette Vincent: I mean, here comes a truck.
John Vincent: Whoa–
Jon Wertheim: On cue.
Annette Vincent: We– we have–
John Vincent: We’re purple.
Jon Wertheim: On cue–
John Vincent: We’re purple–
Annette Vincent: We– we are very purple. That is our impression from moving up here, is that we are very, very purple.
Now retired, they relocated from Chicago. They come three days a week not just to rally, but to gauge the political winds swirling off the bay….
Jon Wertheim: What’s a positive response look like?
John Vincent: Well, positive response can be anything from just a nod of the head to an enthusiastic wave, a horn honk– a solid horn honk– thumbs up
Jon Wertheim: You have data on raised thumbs versus raised middle fingers?
John Vincent: Well, that happens, too–
Annette Vincent: Oh, we get those too.
John Vincent: But I would say on– keep– you know, I have a pretty good sample size, and we run well over 80% positive to the negative.
Charles Franklin
60 Minutes
For a more scientific assessment of the entire state of Wisconsin, we turned to the director of the Marquette Law School poll, Charles Franklin. His poll, widely considered Wisconsin’s best, currently has Kamala Harris up four—but, not so fast….
Jon Wertheim: What is it like being a pollster these days?
Charles Franklin: It’s challenging, because we’ve seen polling errors in 2016 and 2020. And those were major issues.
Memorably, in 2016 and 2020, most polls—CBS included— fell short when accounting for the Trump vote.
Jon Wertheim: There’s something specific, particular to Trump that makes his support hard to capture.
Charles Franklin: In these four most recent elections, the two big errors have both come when Trump’s on the ballot. And the two elections without him on the ballot, we’ve been as good or better than our long term average.
Jon Wertheim: Say more about why you think that is.
Charles Franklin: The people that Trump mobilizes to vote really do turn out for him. But they seem to drop out of the electorate in the midterm.
Brian Schimming: My suspicion is it keeps the Kamala Harris campaign up all night long.
Brian Schimming
60 Minutes
Jon Wertheim: That there’s this cohort that hasn’t been capturable.
Brian Schimming: Correct.
Brian Schimming, Wisconsin’s Republican Party chair, is shaking the trees to identify those hidden Trump voters… and, crucially, get them to the polls.
Jon Wertheim: How many potential Trump supporters are there in Wisconsin who have never voted before?
Brian Schimming: Well, I spoke at President Trump’s rally the other day, and I said to the folks there, “Look, there are hundreds of thousands of people in this state who think like us, they act like us, they live like us, they believe like us, but they don’t vote.” And I truly believe that.
Jon Wertheim: Is it risky to rely on this sector, these low-propensity voters who have been so unreliable in the past?
Brian Schimming: It’s risky not to.
For the Democrats the strategy entails running up the numbers in Milwaukee…. and booming Dane County – home to Madison, the state capitol and the University of Wisconsin – where Biden won more than 75% of the vote in 2020…. meanwhile, they’ll try to stanch the bleeding in rural swaths that have swung heavily towards Trump….
Ben Wikler – state Democratic Party chair – thinks it’s a complete jump ball right now for Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes.
Ben Wikler: So on Election Night, expect to stay up very late. And when you find out who won Wisconsin, which might happen at 4:00 in the morning, you probably know who won the presidential election.
Jon Wertheim: It’s that pivotal?
Ben Wikler: Wisconsin was the state that tipped the Electoral College for Donald Trump in 2016. There is every possibility that Wisconsin could tip the presidential election again in 2024.
Ben Wikler
60 Minutes
Wisconsin was decided by less than 1% in the last two elections. But get this: around 80% of the state’s counties were decided by a double digit margin… which only magnifies Door County’s uncanny distinction.
Ben Wikler: I think in Door County this election’s almost perfectly tied as well. I was just looking at the county-by-county data before I joined you today. Whoever wins Door County on Election Day probably wins the state of Wisconsin yet again.
Jon Wertheim: You say whoever wins Door County likely wins Wisconsin. You also just said whoever wins Wisconsin likely wins the national election.
Ben Wikler: Yes–
Jon Wertheim: Not an exaggeration.
Ben Wikler: But–
Jon Wertheim: Door County, Wisconsin–
Ben Wikler: –historically the case. Whoever wins in Door County is probably the next president of the United States.
It got us thinking, is there one person in Door County who’s actually picked the winning candidate in each of the last six presidential elections?…..The county did collectively; but did any single voter? If so, finding this mystery figure might provide a heck of a clue into how this presidential election will go…. So we went on a search….
We started with an APB at the local radio station…
TIM KOWOLS: If you or someone you know in Door County has voted for the presidential winner of every election going back to the year 2000, please reach out to 920…
But no response…. from the airwaves to the rooftops, Al Johnson’s swedish restaurant is best known for the goats that graze on the grass roof…
Inside, we found the locals who beat the sunrise and the tourists, let themselves in through the back door and pour their own coffee…
Jon Wertheim: Do you know anyone that’s voted for presidents six straight years now and gotten it right?
Male Voice (unidentified): No. No–
Female Voice (unidentified): No. (laughter)
We were told to go to another table and ask the guy in the hat…
Jon Wertheim: We got a hot tip it was…
Male Voice (unidentified): No, I had some of them. George H. W. was– was my vote. But– not his son.
Next stop in our pursuit, the local watering hole.
Jon Wertheim: Do you know that person?
Female Voice: I’m out.
Female Voice: I did not.
Female Voice: You have your work cut out for you. (laughter)
Then suddenly: a promising lead…
Female Voice: I hear you found your voter. (laughter)
Jon Wertheim: Seriously?
Female Voice: Right over there. He’s down there–
Jon Wertheim: Seriously?
There at the end of the bar…sitting before something called a Badger Melt and a tall glass of milk—trucker, Joe Conlon.
Jon Wertheim: Bush, Bush, Obama, Obama, Trump, Biden.
Joe Conlon: I came close. Five out of six.
Jon Wertheim and Joe Conlon
60 Minutes
Jon Wertheim: Five out of six?
Joe Conlon: Yeah. Yeah, I didn’t vote for Biden.
Jon Wertheim: Can I ask you how you’re–gonna be votin’ this year?
Joe Conlon:: I think I’m gonna be voting for Trump again.
Jon Wertheim: Three times in a row?
Joe Conlon:: Yes.
We had come agonizingly close…
Our last stop: the Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay.
Jon Wertheim: I’m curious: does anyone know someone, a voter, who actually voted for the winning candidate all six years? Anyone?
Female Voice: I think I did. (laughter) Now that you ask the question, yes, I think I did.
Behold! our Door County unicorn….
Female Voice: No, no, now– no, I didn’t, now that I’m thinking about it. (laughter)
Jon Wertheim: We thought you had all six?
Female Voice: I thought I did. But, no, now I’m thinking back, I didn’t.
After scouring Door County, we came up empty… which shows the improbability of it all…
But in our quest, maybe we stumbled across something even more rare, we found a place in America where family and community outrank party loyalty. In this divisive election season, we came to America’s ultimate battleground….except there was no battle … as they say here with pride, we live above the tension line.
Jon Wertheim: What’s your sense of how the tone in Door County compares to the tone nationally?
Emma Cox: You don’t wanna alienate your neighbors. You don’t wanna alienate your fellow business owners. You all come together.
Jon Wertheim: Do you have family members that are gonna vote differently from you?
Austin Vandertie
60 Minutes
Austin Vandertie: Oh, absolutely.
Jon Wertheim: Everyone invited to Thanksgiving, regardless?
Austin Vandertie: Absolutely. Politics is, you know, if we can’t talk about it that means it’s gone way too far in the wrong direction.
Jon Wertheim: You recognize that’s not necessarily the, the vibe in the country at large?
Austin Vandertie: Hey. We’re a little different in Wisconsin, I guess. We got that Midwest nice going on.
In keeping with the undulations of Highway 42, in Door County, Wisconsin, you swing back and forth and continue on down the road.
Produced by Draggan Mihailovich. Associate producer, Emily Cameron. Broadcast associate, Elizabeth Germino. Edited by Peter M. Berman.
ATLANTA — Vice President Kamala Harris said Saturday that Republican former President Donald Trump was “cruel” for how he talked about the grieving family of a Georgia mother who died after waiting 20 hours for a hospital to treat her complications from an abortion pill, as she put combating restrictions on reproductive care at the center of her pitch to voters.
At a rally in Atlanta, Harris blamed Amber Thurman’s death on Georgia’s abortion restrictions that took effect after the Supreme Court in 2022, with three Trump-appointed justices, overturned Roe v. Wade. It comes as Harris is looking to the issue to propel support to Democrats, who have pledged to restore a national right to abortion if they win the White House and enough seats in Congress.
“Donald Trump still refuses to take accountability, to take any accountability, for the pain and the suffering he has caused,” Harris said.
Thurman’ story features at the center of one of Harris’ closing campaign ads, and her family attended her Atlanta rally, with her mother holding a photo of her daughter from the audience. Harris showed a clip of Trump saying during a recent Fox News Channel town hall, when he was asked about the Thurman family joining a separate media call, “We’ll get better ratings, I promise.”
“A grieving family, a grieving family, sharing the memory of their daughter with our nation. Where is the compassion?” she asked. “What we see continually from Donald Trump is exactly what that clip shows,” Harris added. “He belittles their sorrow, making it about himself and his television ratings. It is cruel.”
Before Harris became the Democratic nominee, Ian Summer, 19, planned on voting against Trump – but he wasn’t enthusiastic about President Joe Biden. Since Harris stepped into the race “she’s brought great energy,” Summer said. Summer is worried about restrictions on abortion access under Trump. “The fact that I could have a wife in the future that may not be able to receive the care that she needs, that’s a very scary thing,” he said.
Early voting is also underway in Georgia. More than 1.2 million ballots have been cast, either in person or by mail. Democrats hope an expansive organizing effort will boost Harris against Trump in the campaign’s final weeks. Harris referenced that former President Jimmy Carter recently voted by mail days after his 100th birthday.
“If Jimmy Carter can vote early, you can too,” Harris said.
Roderick Williams, 56, brought his three daughters to Harris’ Atlanta rally. His youngest daughter was born around the time former President Barack Obama entered office, and he hopes they can witness history again by seeing Harris become the first Black woman to be president.
“It’s important for them to see that anything’s possible,” Williams said.
Harris was joined at the rally by hometown music icon Usher, drawing again on star power as she looks to excite voters to the polls. Earlier Saturday she appeared with Lizzo on Saturday in the singer’s hometown of Detroit, marking the beginning of in-person voting and lavishing the city with praise after Trump recently disparaged it.
“All the best things were made in Detroit. Coney Dogs, Faygo and Lizzo,” the singer joked to a rally crowd, pointing to herself after listing off the hot dogs and soda that the city is famous for.
She said it was time to “put some respect on Detroit’s name” noting that the city had revolutionized the auto and music industries and adding that she’d already cast her ballot for Harris since voting early was “a power move.”
Heaps of praise for the Motor City came after Trump, the former president, insulted it during a recent campaign stop. And Harris continued the theme, saying of her campaign, “Like the people of Detroit, we have grit, we have excellence, we have history.”
Arms wide open as she took the stage, Harris let the crowd see she was wearing under her blazer a “Detroit vs. Everybody” T-shirt that the owner of the business that produces them gave her during a previous stop in the city earlier in the week. She also moved around the stage during her speech with a hand-held mic, not using a teleprompter.
More than 1 million Michigan residents have already voted by mail in the Nov. 5 election, and Harris predicted that Detroit turnout for early voting would be strong.
“Who is the capital of producing records?” Harris asked when imploring the crowd to set new highs for early voting tallies. “We are going to break some records here in Detroit today.”
She slammed Trump as unstable: “Somebody just needs to watch his rallies, if you’re not really sure how to vote.”
“We’re not going to get these 17 days back. On Election Day, we don’t want to have any regrets,” the vice president said.
Lizzo also told the crowd, “Mrs. Commander-in-Chief has a nice ring to it.”
“This is the swing state of all swing states, so every last vote here counts,” the singer said. Then, referencing her song of the same title, Lizzo added, “If you ask me if America is ready for its first woman president, I only have one thing to say: “It’s about damn time!”
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement that Harris needed Lizzo “to hide the fact that Michiganders were feeling good under President Trump – real wages were higher, prices were lower, and everyone was better off.”
Talona Johnson, a product manager from Rochester, Michigan, attended Harris’ rally and said that Harris “and her team are doing the things that are required to make sure that people are informed.”
“I believe she’s telling the truth. She’s trying to help the people,” said Johnson, who said she planned to vote for Harris and saw women’s rights as her top concern.
“I don’t necessarily agree with everything that she’s put out, but she’s better than the alternative,”
In comments to reporters before the rally, Harris said she was in Detroit “to thank all the folks for the work they are doing to help organize and register people to vote, and get them out to vote today. She also called Detroit “a great American city” with “a lot of hard-working folks that have grit and ambition and deserve to be respected.”
The vice president was asked about whether the Biden administration’s full-throated support for Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza might hurt her support in Michigan. Dearborn, near Detroit, is the largest city with an Arab majority in the nation.
“It has never been easy,” Harris said of Middle East policy. “But that doesn’t mean we give up.”
___
Associated Press writers Matt Brown in Detroit, Charlotte Kramon in Atlanta and Will Weissert and Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.
ATLANTA — Vice President Kamala Harris said Saturday that Republican former President Donald Trump was “cruel” for how he talked about the grieving family of a Georgia mother who died after waiting 20 hours for a hospital to treat her complications from an abortion pill, as she put combating restrictions on reproductive care at the center of her pitch to voters.
At a rally in Atlanta, Harris blamed Amber Thurman’s death on Georgia’s abortion restrictions that took effect after the Supreme Court in 2022, with three Trump-appointed justices, overturned Roe v. Wade. It comes as Harris is looking to the issue to propel support to Democrats, who have pledged to restore a national right to abortion if they win the White House and enough seats in Congress.
“Donald Trump still refuses to take accountability, to take any accountability, for the pain and the suffering he has caused,” Harris said.
Thurman’ story features at the center of one of Harris’ closing campaign ads, and her family attended her Atlanta rally, with her mother holding a photo of her daughter from the audience. Harris showed a clip of Trump saying during a recent Fox News Channel town hall, when he was asked about the Thurman family joining a separate media call, “We’ll get better ratings, I promise.”
“A grieving family, a grieving family, sharing the memory of their daughter with our nation. Where is the compassion?” she asked. “What we see continually from Donald Trump is exactly what that clip shows,” Harris added. “He belittles their sorrow, making it about himself and his television ratings. It is cruel.”
Before Harris became the Democratic nominee, Ian Summer, 19, planned on voting against Trump – but he wasn’t enthusiastic about President Joe Biden. Since Harris stepped into the race “she’s brought great energy,” Summer said. Summer is worried about restrictions on abortion access under Trump. “The fact that I could have a wife in the future that may not be able to receive the care that she needs, that’s a very scary thing,” he said.
Early voting is also underway in Georgia. More than 1.2 million ballots have been cast, either in person or by mail. Democrats hope an expansive organizing effort will boost Harris against Trump in the campaign’s final weeks. Harris referenced that former President Jimmy Carter recently voted by mail days after his 100th birthday.
“If Jimmy Carter can vote early, you can too,” Harris said.
Roderick Williams, 56, brought his three daughters to Harris’ Atlanta rally. His youngest daughter was born around the time former President Barack Obama entered office, and he hopes they can witness history again by seeing Harris become the first Black woman to be president.
“It’s important for them to see that anything’s possible,” Williams said.
Harris was joined at the rally by hometown music icon Usher, drawing again on star power as she looks to excite voters to the polls. Earlier Saturday she appeared with Lizzo on Saturday in the singer’s hometown of Detroit, marking the beginning of in-person voting and lavishing the city with praise after Trump recently disparaged it.
“All the best things were made in Detroit. Coney Dogs, Faygo and Lizzo,” the singer joked to a rally crowd, pointing to herself after listing off the hot dogs and soda that the city is famous for.
She said it was time to “put some respect on Detroit’s name” noting that the city had revolutionized the auto and music industries and adding that she’d already cast her ballot for Harris since voting early was “a power move.”
Heaps of praise for the Motor City came after Trump, the former president, insulted it during a recent campaign stop. And Harris continued the theme, saying of her campaign, “Like the people of Detroit, we have grit, we have excellence, we have history.”
Arms wide open as she took the stage, Harris let the crowd see she was wearing under her blazer a “Detroit vs. Everybody” T-shirt that the owner of the business that produces them gave her during a previous stop in the city earlier in the week. She also moved around the stage during her speech with a hand-held mic, not using a teleprompter.
More than 1 million Michigan residents have already voted by mail in the Nov. 5 election, and Harris predicted that Detroit turnout for early voting would be strong.
“Who is the capital of producing records?” Harris asked when imploring the crowd to set new highs for early voting tallies. “We are going to break some records here in Detroit today.”
She slammed Trump as unstable: “Somebody just needs to watch his rallies, if you’re not really sure how to vote.”
“We’re not going to get these 17 days back. On Election Day, we don’t want to have any regrets,” the vice president said.
Lizzo also told the crowd, “Mrs. Commander-in-Chief has a nice ring to it.”
“This is the swing state of all swing states, so every last vote here counts,” the singer said. Then, referencing her song of the same title, Lizzo added, “If you ask me if America is ready for its first woman president, I only have one thing to say: “It’s about damn time!”
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement that Harris needed Lizzo “to hide the fact that Michiganders were feeling good under President Trump – real wages were higher, prices were lower, and everyone was better off.”
Talona Johnson, a product manager from Rochester, Michigan, attended Harris’ rally and said that Harris “and her team are doing the things that are required to make sure that people are informed.”
“I believe she’s telling the truth. She’s trying to help the people,” said Johnson, who said she planned to vote for Harris and saw women’s rights as her top concern.
“I don’t necessarily agree with everything that she’s put out, but she’s better than the alternative,”
In comments to reporters before the rally, Harris said she was in Detroit “to thank all the folks for the work they are doing to help organize and register people to vote, and get them out to vote today. She also called Detroit “a great American city” with “a lot of hard-working folks that have grit and ambition and deserve to be respected.”
The vice president was asked about whether the Biden administration’s full-throated support for Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza might hurt her support in Michigan. Dearborn, near Detroit, is the largest city with an Arab majority in the nation.
“It has never been easy,” Harris said of Middle East policy. “But that doesn’t mean we give up.”
___
Associated Press writers Matt Brown in Detroit, Charlotte Kramon in Atlanta and Will Weissert and Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.
Vice President Kamala Harris turned to star power Saturday on the campaign trail, as she held events with musicians Lizzo and Usher in Michigan and Georgia, while former President Donald Trump rallied in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania.
At a rally in Atlanta, Harris said that Trump was “cruel” for how he talked about the grieving family of a Georgia mother who died after waiting 20 hours for a hospital to treat her complications from an abortion pill, as she put combating restrictions on reproductive care at the center of her pitch to voters.
Harris blamed Amber Thurman’s death on Georgia’s abortion restrictions that took effect after the Supreme Court in 2022, with three Trump-appointed justices, overturned Roe v. Wade. It comes as Harris is looking to the issue to propel support to Democrats, who have pledged to restore a national right to abortion if they win the White House and enough seats in Congress.
“Donald Trump still refuses to take accountability, to take any accountability, for the pain and the suffering he has caused,” Harris said.
Thurman’s story features at the center of one of Harris’ closing campaign ads, and her family attended her Atlanta rally, with her mother holding a photo of her daughter from the audience. Harris showed a clip of Trump saying during a recent Fox News Channel town hall, when he was asked about the Thurman family joining a separate media call, “We’ll get better ratings, I promise.”
Early voting is also underway in Georgia. More than 1.2 million ballots have been cast, either in person or by mail. Democrats hope an expansive organizing effort will boost Harris against Trump in the campaign’s final weeks. Harris referenced that former President Jimmy Carter recently voted by mail days after his 100th birthday.
“If Jimmy Carter can vote early, you can too,” Harris said.
Harris was joined at the rally by hometown music icon Usher, drawing again on star power as she looks to excite voters to the polls. Earlier Saturday she appeared with Lizzo in the singer’s hometown of Detroit, marking the beginning of in-person voting and lavishing the city with praise after Trump recently disparaged it.
“All the best things were made in Detroit. Coney Dogs, Faygo and Lizzo,” the singer joked to a rally crowd, pointing to herself after listing off the hot dogs and soda that the city is famous for.
Heaps of praise for the Motor City came after Trump insulted it during a recent campaign stop. And Harris continued the theme, saying of her campaign, “Like the people of Detroit, we have grit, we have excellence, we have history.”
More than 1 million Michigan residents have already voted by mail in the Nov. 5 election, and Harris predicted that Detroit turnout for early voting would be strong.
She slammed Trump as unstable: “Somebody just needs to watch his rallies, if you’re not really sure how to vote.”
“We’re not going to get these 17 days back. On Election Day, we don’t want to have any regrets,” the vice president said.
Lizzo also told the crowd, “Mrs. Commander-in-Chief has a nice ring to it.”
“This is the swing state of all swing states, so every last vote here counts,” the singer said. Then, referencing her song of the same title, Lizzo added, “If you ask me if America is ready for its first woman president, I only have one thing to say: “It’s about damn time!”
Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign had suggested he would begin previewing his closing argument Saturday night with Election Day barely two weeks away. But the former president kicked off his rally with a detailed story about Arnold Palmer, at one point even praising the late, legendary golfer’s genitalia.
Trump was campaigning in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where Palmer was born in 1929 and learned to golf from his father, who suffered from polio and was head pro and greenskeeper at the local country club.
Politicians saluting Palmer in his hometown is nothing new. But Trump spent 12 full minutes doing so at the top of his speech and even suggested how much more fun the night would be if Palmer, who died in 2016, could join him on stage.
“Arnold Palmer was all man, and I say that in all due respect to women,” Trump said. “This is a guy that was all man.”
Then he went even further.
“When he took the showers with other pros, they came out of there. They said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable,’” Trump said with a laugh. “I had to say. We have women that are highly sophisticated here, but they used to look at Arnold as a man.”
Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters before the speech that Trump planned to preview his closing argument against Harris and “start to get into that framing.”
Trump eventually hit many of his favorite campaign themes but didn’t offer much in the way of new framing of the race or why he should win it. He instead boasted of creating strong tax policies and a strong military during his first term in office.
He slammed Harris as “crazy” and added a profanity.
“You have to tell Kamala Harris that you’ve had enough, that you just can’t take it anymore, we can’t stand you anymore, you’re a s— vice president,” Trump said to roars of the crowd. “The worst. You’re the worst vice president. Kamala, you’re fired. Get the hell out of here.”
He also criticized Harris for suggesting during her unsuccessful run for president in 2020 that she’d support a ban on hydraulic fracking, which is important to Pennsylvania’s economy and a position Harris’ campaign says she no longer supports.
Trump invited on stage members of a local steelworkers union that endorsed him. He donned a construction hat with his name on it.
“He said, ‘It’s incredible what’s happened,’” Trump said of the Netanyahu call before moving to a criticism of President Joe Biden, saying that the Israeli prime minister “wouldn’t listen to Biden.”
(NewsNation) — Child labor violations are increasing, and over two dozen states have made moves that are exacerbating the issue, a recent report by Governing for Impact, the Economic Policy Institute and Child Labor Coalition says.
“Many assume that children working long hours in dangerous jobs is a thing of the distant past in the United States,” the report’s authors said. “Unfortunately, they’re wrong.”
Injury rates almost doubled among workers under 18 between 2011 and 2020, the report said.
The Fair Labor Standard Act, passed by Congress in 1938, authorized some restrictions on child labor. Still, the report says, in recent years there have been “noted increases” in child labor violations, workplace injuries and chronic absenteeism from school.
In FY 2023, the Department of Labor concluded 955 investigations and reported that it found a 14% increase in violations from the previous year. Nearly 5,800 children were working in ways that didn’t follow the laws, and the department assessed more than $8 million in penalties, an 83% increase from FY 2022.
Organizations, in their report, detailed the stories of a 16-year-old boy who was killed while deep cleaning a piece of machinery in the deboning area of a Mississippi chicken processing plant. Proper supervision and precautions failed him, the report said.
Another teen near Orlando, Florida, died at the construction site of a two-story house in 2019 when he fell from a height of 8 feet off a step ladder while holding a 24-foot flooring joist. The joist fell on the boy’s chest and killed him, the report said.
A number of factors can lead to youth getting hurt on the job, including which occupation they’re employed in, the report said. Agriculture is an industry where the risks to child workers are the highest and regulations are the weakest, for example, according to the report.
“Instead of addressing the troubling increase in workplace injuries among children, industry-aligned groups like those behind Project 2025 have actually proposed to change federal regulations to let more young people work in more dangerous jobs,” the report said.
Project 2025 is a nearly 1,000-page handbook from conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, as well as other organizations, that serves as a guide for what they want done under a Republican presidential administration.
While Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, dozens of people who worked closely with him during his time in the White House are involved in it, a fact Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ campaign has pointed out.
Authors of Project 2025 wrote that some young adults “show an interest in inherently dangerous jobs.”
“Current rules forbid many young people, even if their family is running the business, from working in such jobs. This results in worker shortages in dangerous fields and often discourages otherwise interested young workers from trying the more dangerous job,” Project 2025 authors said. “With parental consent and proper training, certain young adults should be allowed to learn and work in more dangerous occupations. This would give a green light to training programs and build skills in teenagers who may want to work in these fields.”
Along with those in the industry pushing for less child labor protections, legislators in more than 30 states have taken steps to weaken them since 2021, Governing for Impact, the Economic Policy Institute and Child Labor Coalition wrote in their report.
“Citing labor shortages and under pressure from industry groups, these states have taken steps to: allow children under 18 — often much younger — to work in dangerous occupations, limit employer liability when their child workers are injured, and let employers schedule children for overnight shifts,” the report said.
What can be done to prevent child labor violations?
Since 2021, the Department of Labor has “ramped up enforcement” of current federal regulations and given employers who have committed “some of the worst abuses” the maximum penalties, the report notes. However, “the regulations themselves are out of date and insufficient.” the report said.
“Even with full-throated enforcement of these regulations, it’s not enough to sort of protect kids from what’s going on now in the economy,” Reed Shaw, policy counsel at Governing for Impact and co-author of the report, told The Guardian.
Report authors had some suggestions for changes the department can make. These include expanding the list of occupations deemed too hazardous for workers under 18 years old; increasing protections for child workers in hazardous agricultural jobs; and issuing regulations prohibiting employers from scheduling certain child workers for overnight shifts, as well as requiring rest breaks and one-day off a week for others.
Newly minted Donald Trump surrogates, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, will be at the Hilton in downtown Omaha, Nebraska on Saturday in the duo’s latest campaign stop for the Republican presidential nominee. Just a short 25-minute drive away, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz will also be vying for Omahans’ votes, hosting a rally at SumTur Amphitheater in Papillion.
With just over two weeks until Election Day, the two camps are fighting for a small and politically unique slice of the Cornhusker State’s eastern border. Nebraska is one of two states, the other being Maine, that doesn’t do a winner-takes-all system with their electoral college votes. The area around Omaha, the state’s second congressional district, holds one electoral vote—and this election, according to an analysis by NBC News National Political Correspondent Steve Kornacki, that one vote could decide the race.
“It’s especially important for democrats,” Kornaki began, “there’s an electoral map scenario for Kamala Harris that absolutely hinges on locking it down.” That scenario looks like this: Harris takes home Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania; Trump wins North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada; Omaha, in this hypothetical, could get Harris to 270.
Since 1992, when Nebraska switched its electoral process to the one it has now, the district has gone blue twice—once in 2008 for Barack Obama and again for Joe Biden in the 2020 election. To show their support for the Harris-Walz ticket, local Omaha residents have put up campaign signs in their yards featuring a single blue dot.
Campaign signs for Democratic congressional candidate Tony Vargas, Harris Walz, and a blue dot camapign sign are planted in front of a house in Omaha, Neb., on Tuesday, October 15, 2024. If Vice President Kamala Harris wins the second district, which includes Omaha, she will win one electoral vote from the otherwise red Nebraska. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Bill Clark/Getty Images
In September, Republicans across the country, along with Trump himself, tried to interfere in Nebraska’s electoral college system, executing a last-ditch and ultimately unsuccessful lobbying campaign to overturn the decades-old law and lump together all of the districts in the state. The Harris campaign has exponentially outspent Trump in Nebraska, dedicating $5 million toward advertising in the state, compared to Trump’s $200,000, according to reporting from NPR based on data from ad-tracking firm AdImpact.
Still, the Trump campaign’s choice to send RFK Jr. and Gabbard to Omaha points to a continued effort to turn the whole state red.
Kennedy—who once referred to Trump as a “terrible president” and a “bully”—and Gabbard—who opted for critiques like “corrupt” and “unfit to serve” in 2020—have both taken on prominent roles in the effort to elect the former president. Since ending his own bid for office in August, he’s been stumping for Trump. Though Kennedy—whose campaign included a sexual assault allegation first reported by Vanity Fair—paused his more forward-facing campaigning after news broke that he allegedly had an inappropriate relationship with New York magazine’s Washington, DC, correspondent Olivia Nuzzi.
That repetitional damage wasn’t in evidence Friday night, when she took the stage for the first of three sold-out shows in the redder-than-red state of Florida. Perhaps the crowd was bolstered by out-of-town celebrities who were also in attendance—TMZ spottedTom Brady, Miley Cyrus, Serena Williams, Hoda Kotb, and Savannah Guthrie in the crowd.
Taylor Swift performs onstage during The Eras Tour at Hard Rock Stadium on October 18, 2024 in Miami Gardens, Florida.
John Shearer/TAS24/Getty Images
Also present was Jason Kelce, the brother of Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce. The former Philadelphia Eagle either fell asleep or pretended to during the show, reports the Post. But by keeping his eyes closed, he missed some surprises: BuzzFeed notes that she debuted four new costumes for this final run of shows, while the Miami Herald reports that Florence Welch appeared on stage for “Florida,” her duet with Swift from her most recent album, The Tortured Poet’s Department.
Taylor Swift performs onstage during The Eras Tour at Hard Rock Stadium on October 18, 2024 in Miami Gardens, Florida.
John Shearer/TAS24/Getty Images
Swift’s Eras Tour will continue through the end of 2024, with subsequent three-night stands in New Orleans and Indianapolis. Then, it’s off to Canada for the last leg of the tour, which will end on Sunday, December 8 in Vancouver.
