July 28, 2024, presidential campaign news

Our live coverage has ended. Follow the latest 2024 election news here or read through the posts below.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks at a campaign rally in Middletown, Ohio on July 22.

GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance on Sunday said his comments about “childless cat ladies” were a “quip” and not a criticism of people without children.

“But there are a whole host of people who don’t have children for a whole host of reasons, and they certainly are great people who can participate fully in the life of this country, and that’s not what I said,” the Ohio senator told Fox News’ Trey Gowdy.

Vance said in 2021 that the US was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies.” He said: “And it’s just a basic fact — you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”

But on Sunday night, Vance said, “This is not a criticism and was never criticism, Trey, of everybody without children,” accusing Democrats of taking his comments “out of context.”

What he was attempting to convey, Vance said, was that it’s “important for us to be pro-family as a country.”

“Of course, for a whole host of reasons, it’s not going to work out for some people. We should pray for those people and of course have sympathy for them. I still think that means we should be pro-family, generally speaking, as a party,” he argued.

With 100 days to go until the election, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris spent Sunday largely allowing their political allies to spread their messages after the two candidates hit the campaign trail the day earlier.

Here’s what both candidates’ teams were up to Sunday:

Harris announces fundraising haul: The vice president’s campaign said in a memo that it has raised $200 million since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her, with 66% of those donations coming from first-time donors.

Trump and Harris take a breather: Trump, the Republican nominee for president, and Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, both held off from hosting large campaign events after they each hit the trail Saturday to fundraise and rally potential voters.

Harris and allies call Republicans “weird”: Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, seen as a contender to be Harris’ running mate, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” that he’s been labeling Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, “weird” in an attempt to “ratchet down some of … the scariness” he sees in the campaign’s policy proposals. It’s a motif other Democrats have latched on to, with Harris saying Saturday that some of what Trump and Vance are saying is “just plain weird.”

Running mate hopefuls back Harris: Democratic officials who have been floated as possible vice presidential picks took the opportunity to defend the vice president on morning news programs and campaign events. Walz, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker all went on the attack for Harris as the vice president vets potential running mates.

Vance hits a diner: Trump’s running mate, meanwhile, passed through a diner in Waite Park, Minnesota, as the Ohio senator seeks to sway voters in the Midwestern battleground away from Harris. Vance argued that voters will turn on the vice president’s liberal record and will “turn Minnesota red.”

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords rallied volunteers at a canvassing event for Vice President Kamala Harris in Rochester Hills, Michigan, on Sunday, just 100 days before Election Day.

Giffords, who was shot in the head in a 2011 mass shooting, spoke about her work to make the world safer, saying, “It can be so difficult, losses hurt. Setbacks are hard. But I tell myself, move ahead.”

The former congresswoman is married to Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, who CNN has reported is being vetted as a possible running mate for Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Oakland County Executive David Coulter reminded the group that gun violence is an issue that impacts their own community, referencing a shooting last month at a splash pad in Rochester Hills that injured nine people, including two children.

The walls of the newly opened Democratic campaign office in Rochester Hills were adorned with “Harris for President” signs, one week after President Joe Biden stepped aside from the race and endorsed his vice president.

After Giffords spoke, volunteers prepared to knock on doors on a warm evening. Earlier Sunday, Harris’ campaign said it had 170,000 new volunteers.

Sen. Bernie Sanders questions witnesses during a Senate hearing in Washington, DC, on March 14.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont told supporters at a rally in Portland, Maine, on Saturday that “our job is not just to defeat Donald Trump, it is to elect Kamala Harris as our next president.”

Sanders’ remarks come as the progressive senator has previously stopped short of formally endorsing Harris for president. On Monday he told CNN regarding a Harris endorsement: “I’m sure that I will, I want to just chat with her.”

Former President Donald Trump endorsed two candidates who have been feuding in a closely watched Republican primary in Arizona to replace GOP Rep. Debbie Lesko.

Trump endorsed Hamadeh for the seat last year, but his support of Masters comes just ahead of Arizona’s Tuesday primary elections. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, previously endorsed Masters. 

Masters and Hamadeh ran on the same ticket in 2022, losing their races for US Senate and Arizona attorney general, respectively. But their campaigns for the 8th Congressional District seat have turned ugly, with Masters attacking Hamadeh as “dishonest Abe” and Hamadeh calling Masters a “snake.”

Meanwhile, Lesko endorsed state House Speaker Ben Toma as her replacement. Other candidates vying for the seat include state Sen. Anthony Kern, one of the Republicans charged in the Arizona fake electors case, and former US Rep. Trent Franks, who resigned from Congress in 2017 in lieu of an ethics investigation for discussing surrogacy with two of his female staffers.

Republican presidential nominee, former US President Donald Trump stands onstage with Republican vice presidential candidate, Sen. J.D. Vance during a campaign rally on July 20, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Sunday that former President Donald Trump is not reconsidering JD Vance as his running mate after the Ohio senator faced backlash for previous comments.

In a recently resurfaced 2021 interview with Tucker Carlson, Vance used the term “childless cat ladies” to describe Vice President Kamala Harris and other politicians who don’t have biological children. Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is a stepmother to her husband Doug Emhoff’s two children.

The backlash to comments was widespread among fellow politicians and celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston. Vance on Friday tried to defend those comments, saying his criticism was directed at the Democratic Party for becoming “anti-family” — not at those who don’t or can’t have children.

When asked Sunday whether Trump was reconsidering choosing Vance following the backlash, Graham — who also does not have children — said, “not at all.”

He added, “Yeah, I don’t have children, but I’m going to vote for JD and Trump because I think we’ll be safer and more prosperous and more secure. … No, you should never say anything to hurt anybody’s feelings. But when you look at all these interviews by JD, he was talking about how the Democratic Party has abandoned the traditional family.”

Al Gore speaks during a panel discussion on day one of Tech Arena 2024 on February 22, in Stockholm, Sweden.

Former Vice President Al Gore on Sunday endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid, citing her record on handling big oil companies and the climate crisis. 

Former President Bill Clinton — who Gore served as vice president — and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed Harris the same day Biden dropped out of the race.

As California’s attorney general, Harris sued big oil companies like BP and ConocoPhillips, and investigated Exxon Mobil for its role in climate change disinformation. While in the Senate, she sponsored the Green New Deal resolution. During her 2020 campaign, she supported a fracking ban but walked that back later when she became Biden’s running mate.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear speaks during an interview with the Herald-Leader in June.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, one of the Democratic politicians in contention to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, continued his attacks on former President Donald Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance while campaigning for Harris in Georgia on Sunday.

Speaking to a crowd gathered in Forsyth County, the suburban Atlanta county that could play a pivotal role in determining the winner in battleground Georgia, Beshear responded to attacks from Trump, who called Harris a “bum” at a recent campaign rally.

Beshear doubled down on his attacks on Vance, who he has repeatedly criticized for claiming roots in Kentucky. Vance shared in his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” that he regularly visited parts of eastern Kentucky, where he has family. In response to Beshear’s initial attacks, Vance criticized Beshear for belittling his “origin story.” Beshear said Vance’s use of that phrase suggests his claims to Kentucky roots are inauthentic.

Beshear also praised Harris and her campaign, and appeared to acknowledge concerns about the vice president being thrust to the top of the Democratic ticket without a traditional primary election process taking place.

“She has not won this nomination through a coronation. She’s won this nomination through acclamation,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump has revived his four-year-old false claim about how he and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz handled the civil unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

Walz is among the Democrats whom sources say Vice President Kamala Harris is considering as a potential running mate. Trump, the Republican nominee, claimed during a Saturday campaign speech in Minnesota: “Every voter in Minnesota needs to know that when the violent mobs of anarchists and looters and Marxists came to burn down Minneapolis four years ago — remember me? I couldn’t get your governor to act. He’s supposed to call in the National Guard or the Army. And he didn’t do it. I couldn’t get your governor. So I sent in the National Guard to save Minneapolis.” (Trump went on to criticize Harris for her own response to the unrest.)

CNN fact-checked this Trump story in July 2020. But he has repeated the tale on multiple subsequent occasions, including an abbreviated version during his June 2024 presidential debate with President Joe Biden.

Facts First: Trump’s claims that he sent the National Guard to Minneapolis in 2020 and that Walz refused to do so are both wrong. Walz, not Trump, sent the National Guard to Minneapolis — and Walz first deployed the Guard more than seven hours before Trump publicly threatened to deploy the Guard himself. 

The Minnesota National Guard, the entity that Walz deployed, is under the command of the governor, not the president. The president has the power to federalize states’ Guard troops under certain circumstances, but Trump never did so during the 2020 unrest in Minnesota.

After Trump began telling this false story in June 2020, Walz spokesperson Teddy Tschann provided a statement to CNN in the form of a question-and-answer sheet. It said, among other things: “Did President Trump ‘call out’ the Guard? No.” “Did Gov. Walz call out the Guard? Yes.” “Did Gov. Walz call out the National Guard at the direction of the President? No. He activated the Minnesota National Guard at the request of the Mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul, before he talked to the White House.”

Read a timeline of events based on public evidence that refutes Trump’s claim here.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks during an on camera interview on July 23, in Washington, DC.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, one of several Democratic politicians being considered as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, said voters should look at which campaign promises former President Donald Trump didn’t fulfill and which ones he did.

“He actually did keep two promises. He kept his promise to destroy the right to choose this country. And he kept his promise on tax cuts for the rich. And if you want to know what a second Trump term would be like, I would start by looking at those rare promises that he actually managed to keep,” he continued.

Buttigieg also attacked the 78-year-old Trump for his age and for comments he characterized as “rambling,” echoing other Democratic politicians including Harris, who have labeled Trump and his allies as “weird,” while defending President Joe Biden’s decision to stay in office while dropping out of the presidential race.

Buttigieg also pushed back on the suggestion that Harris has not been properly vetted through a primary election process, a point raised by some Republicans who have casted doubt on her qualifications for office. 

“The idea that somebody hasn’t been tested or vetted when they have been Vice President of the United States for nearly four years just doesn’t make any sense.”

US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 23.

An ABC/Ipsos poll released Sunday finds Americans’ opinions about Vice President Kamala Harris closely split, with 43% viewing her favorably and unfavorably while another 14% have no opinion.

That’s an improvement for her from a poll released the previous week, where 35% viewed her favorably and 46% unfavorably.

Former President Donald Trump’s rating, meanwhile, stands at 36% favorable to 52% unfavorable. That’s down slightly from a week ago in the aftermath of the Republican National Convention and the assassination attempt against him, but still higher than his ratings during most of this campaign cycle.

His running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, saw an uptick in negative sentiment, from 31% unfavorability last week to 39% this week, with the shift largely reflecting a drop in the share who had no opinion of him.

Overall, the poll finds that 7% of Americans hold negative views of both Harris and Trump — cutting the shares of so-called “double haters” roughly in half from the 15% who said last week they held negative views of both Biden and Trump. Other recent polling has found similar movement.

The poll finds that 88% of Democrats say they’re at least somewhat enthusiastic about Harris as the Democratic nominee for president, while 82% of Republicans say they are at least somewhat enthusiastic about Trump as the GOP nominee.

Overall, about half (48%) of Americans say they’re enthusiastic about Harris becoming the Democratic nominee, with 39% expressing enthusiasm for Trump as the GOP nominee. The survey did not directly ask about vote preference.

The ABC News/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,200 US adults on July 26-27, using a nationally representative online panel. The results have a margin of error of 3.0 percentage points.

Republican vice presidential nominee US Sen. J.D. Vance speaks during a rally on July 27, in St Cloud, Minnesota.

Vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance while speaking with diners in Waite Park, Minnesota, acknowledged that Vice President Kamala Harris “got a little bit of a bump” after becoming the new Democratic presidential candidate but said voters will ultimately reject her liberal record. 

“The people are going to learn her record. They’re going to learn that she’s a radical,” Vance said outside Park Diner. “They’re going to learn that she’s basically a San Francisco liberal who wants to take San Francisco policies to the entire country.”

Vance said those policies won’t work for Minnesotans and also told diners “we’re going to turn Minnesota red.”

Vance also attempted to clarify what Donald Trump meant when he urged Christians to vote, telling them they “won’t have to do it anymore” after this election. He said the media “totally distorted” what he said and is “lying about what he meant.”

Asked if he’s spoken to Trump about his prior criticism of the former president, Vance said no. 

“Donald Trump accepts that people can change their mind,” Vance said. “He doesn’t care about what I said eight years ago.”

Inside the diner, Vance was joined by his wife, Usha, and two of his three kids, who sipped on chocolate milk at the counter. 

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker speaks during a briefing on July 25, in Chicago, Illinois.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who is being considered as a running mate to Vice President Kamala Harris, downplayed the importance of Harris’ pick being from a battleground state.

Pritzker told ABC News on Sunday he believes Harris should choose a candidate who has “got the message right” rather than using her pick to try to win a particular state, even as he acknowledged that “winning those battleground states is most important.”

His comments come as the Harris campaign is reportedly considering Pritzker for the vice presidential role along with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly.

US Sen. Tom Cotton departs from a luncheon with Republican presidential candidate former US President Donald Trump on June 13, in Washington, DC.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton on Sunday defended former President Donald Trump’s recent comments about conservative Christians not needing to vote in four years, saying Trump’s comments were “obviously a joke.”

The former president said Friday at the gathering of conservative Christians, “Let’s get out and vote, just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed. It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”

Cotton brushed off the comments during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

Cotton also defended comments from Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, on a podcast in 2022 where he said he was sympathetic to the idea of using federal power to prevent women from leaving states where abortion is restricted to seek abortions elsewhere.

“What JD is saying – or what JD has said since he became the vice-presidential nominee, it’s the same thing that President Trump has said. He is pro-life,” said Cotton.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a Biden-Harris campaign and DNC press conference on July 17, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who is seen as a contender to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, continued to attack former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, as “weird” while defending Harris and the Biden administration’s record.

Walz told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” Sunday that he began labeling Trump and Vance as “weird” in an attempt to “ratchet down some of … the scariness” he sees in the Trump campaign’s policy proposals.

“Listen to the guy, he’s talking about Hannibal Lecter and, you know, shocking sharks and just whatever crazy thing pops into his mind. And I thought we just give him way too much credit. And I think one of the things is, is when you just ratchet down some of the, you know, the scariness or whatever, and just name it what it is,” he continued.

Harris has been trying out a similar attack on Trump and Vance in recent days, saying at a Massachusetts rally Saturday that the former president was “resorting to some wild lies about my record” and that some of what he Vance were saying was “just plain weird.”

Walz would not share whether he’s been asked to submit vetting materials to the Harris campaign. When asked if he would join the Democratic ticket if offered the role, Walz said he “would do what is in the best interest of the country.”

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore speaks at a campaign event on June 7, in Landover, Maryland.

Maryland’s Democratic Gov. Wes Moore said Sunday that’s he flattered his name has been floated as a potential running mate to Vice President Kamala Harris, but he stressed that he loves his job and wants to continue as governor.

Moore, who has long been seen as a rising star in the Democratic party, said Harris needs to look for someone that gives her “a sense of comfort.”

Moore has been floated in some circles as a potential pick, though the Harris campaign appears to be focusing on others during the vetting process, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Moore endorsed Harris for president last week.

In the run-up to President Joe Biden dropping out, Moore revealed he had conversations with Biden, saying: “When you care about somebody you tell them the truth.” Responding to questions about what ‘the truth’ he told Biden was, Moore said he told the president he was hearing “real concerns” from fellow Democrats.

In an episode of “The Assignment,” Audie Cornish speaks with activist Deja Foxx, who worked on Kamala Harris’ 2019 presidential campaign as a social media strategist.

She explains how old Harris memes have been transformed in a positive way, and why that might be happening:

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Former President Donald Trump painted his new chief rival, Kamala Harris, as worse than President Joe Biden at a Saturday night rally, calling her “the most incompetent, unpopular and far-left vice president in American history.”

Moments into his remarks in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Trump again blamed a deadly rocket attack in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights earlier in the day on the “incompetent Biden-Harris administration.”

He then quickly pivoted to Harris, calling her the “border czar,” as Republicans have been hammering the presumptive Democratic nominee over how she has handled her task of stemming the root causes of migration. “She’s terrible. She’s worse … she’s worse than he is,” Trump said of Harris and Biden.

Trump compared Biden to a fighter who was “badly beaten” and taken out of the fight.

Trump also called Harris “evil” over her handling of the border and said that if “a crazy liberal like Kamala Harris gets in, the American dream is dead.”

A Harris spokesperson responded to Trump’s Minnesota speech by slamming the GOP nominee as a “bitter, unhinged, 78-year-old convicted felon.”

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has raised $200 million since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her, with 66% of those donations coming from first-time donors, according to a Harris campaign memo. 

The memo, written by the campaign’s communications director Michael Tyler, also highlights organizing efforts and says the campaign has 170,000 new volunteers.

Tyler concludes the memo by digging at the Trump-Vance ticket, saying they are “scrambling” and claiming the former president is “scared” of debating Harris.