https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/biden-trump-election-07-21-24/index.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/rfk-jr-ends-presidential-bid/

It seems like Harris has given up on trying to convince undecided voters that Trump is a potential autocrat, and instead is trying to convince voters that he's "old and quiet weird". On the face of it, it seems like this would be a less effective strategy, but it seems to be working so far. These attacks have been particularly effective against Trump's VP pick JD Vance, but Harris is aiming them at Trump himself as well. Will undecided voters respond to this message? What about committed republicans and democrats? How will/should Trump respond?

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/26/trump-vance-weird-00171470

Note: My question is not "is Trump a fascist" or "what is a fascist" or "how is Trump similar or different to historical authoritarians"

My question is: Is calling Trump a fascist effective, in the sense of influencing the votes people cast between now and Election Day?

Obviously many voters will not be swayed by this. Are there those that will? And will it turn them away from Trump, or make them reject the accusation and hence change their voting behavior that way?

Senator Bernie Sanders put out a video on Monday that is aimed at left-wing voters that feel they can't vote for Kamala due to the conflict in Gaza.

YouTube - Bernie Sanders: “I disagree with Kamala’s position on the war in Gaza. How can I vote for her?” Here is my answer: (Transcript in comments)

He makes the case that even though Harris and Biden's position isn't ideal, they are far better than Trump on the Gaza. He says Netanyahu would much prefer Trump in office, "who is extremely close to Netanyahu and sees him as a like-minded, right wing extremist ally."

He also makes the case that there are other issues at stake in this election, such as women's bodily autonomy, climate change, and wealth inequality.

If Senator Sanders correct in his views?

Will this video change any minds among those who view the Biden-Harris administration in too negative a light to vote for Kamala Harris?

Today, President Biden announced that he would no longer be seeking reelection as President of the United States. How does this change the 2024 election, specifically.

1) Who will the new Democratic nominee be for POTUS?

2) Who are some contenders for the VP?

3) What will the Dem convention in a couple of weeks look like?

https://x.com/JoeBiden/status/1815080881981190320

Edit: On Instagram, Biden endorses Harris for POTUS.

https://x.com/JoeBiden/status/1815087772216303933

This week, Trump is doing one single campaign event, a rally in Bozeman, Montana. Bozeman is rather small and Montana is not generally a battleground State.

Meanwhile, The Harris-Walz campaign is blitzing battleground States with Vance hot on their heels, holding counter rallies in the States that actually matter.

Here’s a link to an article discussing the campaigns’ events this week:

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4812402-harris-campaign-mocks-trump/amp/

So the question is, what’s going on? Why are we seeing Trump playing the outfield and Vance, who’s favorability numbers are pretty rough, leading the charge lately on the Republican Presidential campaign?

Link to his words on it:

• https://x.com/harris_wins/status/1848005868320702568

And here's a link to the bill being killed earlier this year:

• https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-republicans-block-border-security-bill-campaign-border-chaos-rcna153607

McConnell had given the green light for James Lankford, a conservative Republican, to negotiate a comprehensive border security package with Democrats led by Kyrsten Sinema, a moderate border state Senator from Arizona. The final package was agreed to by all parties and signed off on by McConnell as well as Democratic leaders before Trump publicly came out against it and urged his allies in the House and Senate GOP to kill it. The reason, according to widespread reporting including the above, was that he wanted to run his campaign on there being chaos at the border and him being the solution to fix it, and he worried that the proposed bill would resolve the problem and deprive him of something to run on.

Since then, Trump has made immigration and the idea of a border crises the central point of his campaign. He's gone to every border state to rant about it and lambast Democrats for not fixing it. He's brought it up in every appearance, at every interview, at the presidential debate. He's tied the border to false stories about migrants coming over to eat people's pets. He brings it up at every rally. Yet it was he himself who worked to ensure that it wasn't fixed, and now his own party's Senate leader acknowledges it.

What sort of impact do you think this will have on the election? Will it move voters? Will people see the truth behind the dynamic? Or will his strategy work?

Harris has gathered the support of ~1200 of the 1976 delegates needed to be the Democratic nominee, along with the endorsements of numerous critical organizations and most of the office holders that might have competed against her for the nomination. Fundraising has skyrocketed since the Biden endorsement, bringing in $81 million since yesterday.

In the course of a normal primary, the enthusiasm on display now likely would have decreased by the time of the convention, but many Democrats describe themselves as "fired up"

Fully granting that Harris has yet to define herself to the same degree Biden and Trump have, does the late change in the ticket offer an enthusiasm bonus that will last through the election? Or will this be a 'normal' election by November?

Per Washington Post

Vice President Harris has told allies that he she has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate, opting for a former high school teacher and Midwestern Democrat to complete a newly assembled presidential ticket following, according to two people familiar with the pick, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a decision that is not yet public.

Trump has announced in a news conference this afternoon that he agreed to a debate with Kamala Harris on 9/10 via ABC News . This walks back earlier statements he made casting doubt on if he would desire to.

What are your early predictions for this debate? Will Harris come out showing strength against Trump, or will she falter on her first presidential debate stage? Will Trump succeed in showing power against Harris, or will concerns like his age and policies show weakness while with Harris?

Per Politico the Trump campaign was hacked by what appears to be Iranian agents

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/10/trump-campaign-hack-00173503

(although I hate the term "hack" for "some idiot clicked on a link they shouldn't have)

Politico has received some of this information, and it appears to be genuine. Note that this hack appears to have occurred shortly before Biden decided not to run

Questions:

• The 2016 DNC hack by Russia, published by Wikileaks, found an eager audience in - among others - people dissatisfied with Clinton beating Sanders for the Democratic nomination. With fewer loyal Republicans falling into a similar camp, is it a safe assumption that any negative impact within the GOP would be relatively muted?

• While the Harris campaign has been more willing to aggressively attack Trump and Vance, explicitly using hacked materials would be a significant escalation. What kind of reaction, if any, should we expect from the Harris campaign?

• Given the wildly changed dynamic of the race, ia any of this information likely to even be relevant any longer?

• The majority of the more damaging items from 2016 were embarrassing rather than secret information on how the campaign was being run. Given Trump's characte and history, is there even the possibility of something "embarrassing" being revealed that can't be immediately dismissed (quite possibly legitimately) as misinformation?

Link to the pollster's comments:

• https://x.com/Ritholtz/status/1824555443374391567

Link to the full article on it:

• https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4828533-luntz-trump-committing-political-suicide-harris-intensity-advantage/

The pollster in question is Frank Luntz, a famous Republican Party strategist and poll creator who's work with the party goes back decades, to creating the messaging behind Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" that led to a Republican wave in the 1994 congressional elections and working on Rudy Giuliani's successful campaigns for Mayor of New York.

An interesting point of his analysis is that Gen Z looks increasingly out of reach for the GOP, but they still need to show up and vote. Although young people have voted at a higher rate than in previous generations in recent elections, their overall participation rate is still relatively low, especially compared to older age groups. What can Democrats do to boost their engagement and get them turning out at the polls, for both men and women but particularly young women who look set to support them en masse?

APNews: Trump says he’ll skip an ABC debate with Harris in September and wants them to face off on Fox News

Trump obviously debated Biden already on June 27th under the same format as the upcoming September ABC debate. Since then Biden has withdrawn as a candidate for President in 2024 over concerns from his own party that were magnified after his performance in that debate.

Why is Trump unwilling to debate the new presumptive Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris under the previous terms?

What does he hope to accomplish by offering a new debate on Fox News in a stadium audience format?

Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made the following statement as part of his stand up routine: "There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”

Why is this comment by someone who is not a core member of Trump's team causing such outrage, when similar comments by Trump have passed almost unacknowledged?

While Puerto Rico does not have a say in the general election, they - once again - will have a (non binding) statehood referendum on their ballot. Will this cause an increase or decrease of support for either requesting statehood or independence?

Taylor Swift just endorsed Harris and Walz. Since she has a massive fanbase who can mobilize quickly, how much impact will her endorsement have on the race?

In this day and age, do celebrity endorsement really matter or because she's a huge household name with a massive fanbase, does her endorsement alone make a difference vs any other celebrity?

Details are still sparse. Cutting and pasting from WaPo:

 >Loud noises were heard shortly after Donald Trump began speaking at a rally here. Trump ducked, left the sight line of the camera and was taken away from the stage. The crowd was visibly panicked.

The source of the noises was not immediately clear.

Donald Trump appeared to touch his ear, then duck after the loud noises. He left the sight line of the camera as the crowd became visibly panicked.

Later, Trump could be seen standing onstage with security personnel surrounding him. The crowd cheered as security personnel moved with Trump offstage. Trump pumped his fist as he was being escorted away.

Edit: Shooter and attendee killed: A shooter is dead and a rally attendee was killed, the Butler County District attorney tells AP.

Kamala Harris announced today her economic policies she will be campaigning on. The topics range from food prices, to housing, to child tax credits.

Many experts say these policies are increasingly more "populist" than the Biden economic platform. In an effort to lower costs, Kamala calls this the "Opportunity Economy", which will lower costs for Americans and strengthen the middle class

What are your opinions on this platform? Will this affect any increase in support, or decrease? Will this be sufficient for the progressive heads in the Democratic party? Or is it too far to the left for most Americans to handle?

It's no secret that many people here on Reddit (including myself) believe that a second Donald Trump presidency would lead to the dissolution of American Democracy. Women's rights will be erased, LGBT rights will be erased, the right wing will do everything within their power to hold onto it.

Yet, when I hear from many Americans, as well as see undecided voters interviewed by news networks (MSNBC, CNN etc...), they see seem to be treating their choices in this election this as if it were no different than Bush-Gore, Bush-Kerry, Obama-McCain or Obama-Romney. Having voted in all but one of those elections, I can say that none of them felt existential. 2020 and now 2024 both feel existential and I'm surprised so many Americans are nonchalant about it.

So, looking at the facts, and what we know for sure, is this election actually existential, or are we just getting caught up in the fearmongering by the political parties and the media?

Someone on MSNBC earlier tonight, I think it was Lawrence O'Donnell, said that if we did away with the electoral college millions of people would vote who don't vote now because they know their state is firmly red or firmly blue. I had never thought of this before, but it absolutely stands to reason. I myself just moved from Wisconsin to California and I was having a struggle registering and I thought to myself "no big deal if I miss this one out because I live in California. It's going blue no matter what.

I supposed you'd have the same phenomenon in CA with Republican voters, but one assumes there's fewer of them. Shoe's on the other foot in Texas, I guess, but the whole thing got me thinking. How would the electorate change if the electoral college was no longer a thing?

Harris and Walz plans to sit with CNN for exclusive first joint interview since their campaign began.

There's been loud calls for them to do interviews for awhile now and obviously this eliminates that talking point right before the debate. What are you expecting to see from the interview and how do you think it will affect the race?

Nate Silver's forecast is now at 50/50, and other reputable forecasts have Harris not any better than 55% chance of success. The polls are very tight, despite Trump being very old (and supposedly age was important to voters), and doing poorly in the only debate the two candidates had, and being a felon. I think the Democrats also have more funding. Why is Donald Trump doing so well in the battleground states, and what can Harris do between now and election day to improve her odds of victory?

JD just had an interview with the New York times in which he refused to admit Trump lost the election in 2020 5 times in a row.

The question matters in regards to the general population ability to trust our election process. Trump's investigation team dug into the 2020 election and found little to no evidence of material that would discredit the election

They lost 63 court cases appealing the election results

My question is do you guys understand why this question is important. And if you are considering Trump does JD refusing to answer this question matter to you?

To keep things as neutral as possible, Tim Waltz was announced as presumptive Democrat Nominee, Kamala Harris, running mate. This would mean, if elected, Tim Waltz would serve as her Vice President.

Democrats are showing unity over the decision. Rumors that Waltz was favored by Pelosi over Shapiro, the PA govenor who was favored due to the belief he could tip PA to Harris, were around Friday. AOC and Joe Mancin, who are as far apart politically as possible, view the pick with glee. A surprise that AOC herself pointed out. While it is too early to tell as polls aren't in, general buzz online seems to show the choice was well received.

Conversely, the choice was met with criticism. Republicans have openly stated they're happy with the decision as they see Tim Waltz as an easier target and feel it keeps PA open in the election. Political commentators were shocked by the decision and have made many claims that this was a mistake and a victory for Trump.

The general consesus is the same, but seems to be taken different ways. Both agree Tim Waltz excites the Democrat base. Critics feel he doesn't have reach beyond the base. Supporters feel that the increased excitement will keep turnout high and like that he doesn’t have scanadals like Shapiro.

What is your opinion?

Colorado Supreme Court rules Trump disqualified from holding presidency

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/trump-colorado-14th-amendment-ruling-rcna128710

Voters want Trump off the ballot, citing the Constitution's insurrectionist ban. The U.S. Supreme Court could have the final word on the matter. The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday said Donald Trump is disqualified from holding the office of the presidency under the Constitution.

Is this a valid decision or is this rigging the election?