Candidate Preference Among All Adults vs. Likely Voters — ABC News, Ipsos poll
(NEW YORK) — Much of the work of election campaigning goes on beneath the radar, where campaigns fight furiously to identify and register potential supporters and ensure their participation. Identifying likely voters, as such, is a moving target — but with absentee voting now beginning, an initial look reveals some intriguing patterns.
As previously reported, Kamala Harris leads Donald Trump by a slight 4 percentage points, 50-46%, among all adults and registered voters alike, and by 6 points, 52-46%, among likely voters in the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll. While those numbers are virtually identical, closer assessment shows movement to Harris in some groups when comparing all adults with likely voters — notably, those younger than 40, younger women in particular and Black people.
This analysis, produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates, finds that support for Harris goes from 54% of all adults younger than 40 to 64% of those identified as likely voters. Trump’s support, meanwhile, drops from 42% of adults in this age group to 33% of those likely to vote.
That shift is driven largely by women: Harris’ support increases from 60% of all women younger than 40 to 73% of those in this age group who are likely to vote. Trump sees a corresponding drop in support, from 35% among all women younger than 40 to 24% of those likely to vote.
Harris has 82% support among all Black people, rising to 93% among those who are likely voters. Trump, for his part, goes from 15% support among all Black people to 7% among those who are likely to vote. Harris also gains among liberals.
Countervailing movement in Trump’s direction doesn’t reach the level of statistical significance in any group. He has, for example, 52% support among all 50- to 64-year-olds (his best age group) and 56% among likely voters in this group. He goes from 85% to 88% among conservatives and from 52% to 54% among people who don’t have a four-year college degree.
But it’s not all about who receives more support in likely voter groups; it’s also about the size of those groups. Harris, for example, leads Trump by 23 points, 60-37%, among likely voters with four-year degrees — and, as such, benefits from the fact that this group makes up 45% of likely voters, vs. 35% of the general population.
Trump pushes back with his 10 point likely voter advantage among white people: they account for 61% of all adults but 71% of likely voters. He’s also aided by a lower prevalence of adults younger than 40; they make up 36% of all adults vs. 25% of those identified as likely to vote.
All told, it’s the combination of group sizes and preferences among groups that add up to keep the race a close one. Likely voters are defined here, in part, by people saying they are certain to vote. Motivating them actually to do so is what both campaigns are all about — starting now.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will need to navigate the pitfall-filled debate of their political lives on Tuesday as each tries to persuade millions of voters and viewers that they’re the one best suited to be president.
Harris, whose wave of momentum has brought Democrats back to a neck-and-neck presidential race, will have to prosecute the case against Trump while also laying out how her agenda could help the country — particularly beleaguered middle- and working-class Americans.
Trump, meanwhile, has the task of casting his record on the economy and immigration as superior to Harris’ while avoiding distracting personal attacks on Harris.
The ABC News presidential debate will take place on Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. ET and air on ABC and stream on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.
The showdown in Philadelphia is taking place months after the last debate ended President Joe Biden’s reelection bid, sending Harris rushing to stand up an eleventh-hour campaign and Trump scrambling to figure out how to negatively define a new opponent voters are less familiar with.
“I think there’s an outsized expectation of ‘gosh, the last guy dropped out, let’s watch it.’ So, I think that there’s a lot more at stake than normally I would ever say is at stake,” said Sean Spicer, Trump’s first White House press secretary.
“I’m not a huge believer that debates move the needle that much,” he added, “but I do think that because of the nontraditional nature of what’s happening right now, there’s going to be an outsized degree of attention.”
Democrats who spoke to ABC News said that Harris has two main goals: affirm to voters that she is ready to lead the country and the free world and to describe in more detail what policies she’d pursue as president.
Some Democratic sources said that voters could be concerned by Harris’ rapid ascension as the Democrats’ nominee and — unjustly, they said — her gender when thinking of the kind of president they’d feel comfortable with.
A strong debate performance could allay worries and cement the momentum she’s enjoyed to date.
“I think she has to answer the overarching question, which is, can she lead the country, and what type of president will President Harris be? People just want to be comfortable in that decision,” said Bakari Sellers, a prominent Harris ally. “I don’t want her to be timid at all. Just be yourself, be comfortable, answer questions and turn around and hammer him.”
Trump has sought to cast Harris as “dangerous” by painting her as a “California liberal” who was soft on crime and generally out of step, referencing her time as state attorney general and senator and relying on voters’ perceptions of the progressive bastion to fill in the blanks.
That’s something Harris could use the debate stage to push back on, possibly repeating parts of her stump speech in which she details her efforts as California attorney general combating transnational gangs operating across the southern border.
One source familiar with the Harris campaign’s thinking said the vice president should “clearly [stake] out where she stands on issues like the border and crime and [talk] about her record on those issues as a prosecutor and attorney general to demonstrate that the portrayals are misrepresenting her actual views on those issues.”
That defense will likely be complemented by an effort to highlight Harris’ economic policies, which she’s recently begun to roll out, to also address voter worries about inflation.
Harris has introduced plans to make it easier to buy a house and start a small business, while, in a nod to the business community, saying she’d also increase the capital gains tax by less than Biden has proposed.
“It’s an important opportunity for her to continue to lay out her economic vision, to demonstrate both through talking about her experience and her vision, that she will be a strong leader, as she has said, for all Americans,” one source close to Harris’ team said.
However, Harris is facing off against maybe the most unpredictable non-traditional figures in modern politics, and Trump is likely to throw in curveballs that could take the vice president off her talking points.
Trump has already launched a fusillade of personal attacks, including questioning Harris’ race and intelligence and highlighting vulgar suggestions about sexual acts.
So far, Harris has barely responded, casting the barbs as the “same old, tired playbook.”
Now, some allies would like to see her fight back.
“I think there is a mechanism whereby you stand up to bullies and you call it out for what it is and simply say that, ‘while the former president is using racism as political currency, I represent a new future, one where we don’t divide people and use such degrading terms to anyone,’ Sellers said. “I would look him dead in the eye and say, ‘former President Trump, we are better than you right now.'”
Others weren’t so sure.
“I would ignore what are likely to be rude, disrespectful behaviors from Trump, and stay focused on the substance, because by doing so, it will further highlight for people just how disgusting his behavior can be,” said the source close to Harris’ team.
Republicans, for their part, hope to avoid that scenario altogether.
GOP operatives who spoke to ABC News said Trump should focus on policy contrasts, boasting that he has the edge on issues like inflation and immigration and can try to pin her down on her policy reversals on things like fracking – while he himself searches for consistent stances on issues like abortion.
“He’s not going to have many other windows where Kamala Harris is going to be asked tough questions and tough follow up questions, and so he needs to keep his responses and very focused on her issue positions that have come out of her mouth and make her reconcile what she’s saying now with what she said in 2020,” said GOP strategist Brad Todd.
“When she says, ‘I’m not for banning fracking,’ then he needs to say, “so, you wrong before? What caused you to believe that your previous position was wrong? Or are you just worried about Pennsylvania?'” Todd said, referencing the swing state’s economic reliance on the practice.
Trump has at times knocked leaned into that message, knocking her promises for “day one” by noting she’s already been in office for almost four years serving a president facing severe disapproval ratings when he dropped out of the race.
It’s unclear precisely how effective that tie could be — an ABC News/Washington Post poll last month showed that only 11% of voters said Harris had a great deal of influence over economic policy, and just 15% said the same of immigration policy. But Republicans urged Trump to hammer the connection.
“For him to be viewed as having a successful debate, he has to continue that assault,” said one former campaign aide in touch with Trump’s current team. “She’s the vice president United States seeking the second term of Joe Biden. We can make that case.”
Still, Trump has a proven penchant for veering off into unrelated attacks, whether it be against opponents or moderators — a strategy that has helped him on the stump but one that could backfire on Tuesday.
“If he takes the bait and makes some kind of one-off comment about her and calls her names, I think that’s going to be the story the next day,” Spicer said.
“He’s a field player and he’s an improviser, and that’s what’s made him effective as a communicator,” Todd added. “But this is a time for discipline.”
An ABC News graphic shows the expected path of a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. — ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A tropical system churning in the southern Gulf of Mexico is forecast on Monday to become Tropical Storm Francine as it moves toward a Wednesday landfall in Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center said.
A Tropical Storm Watch has been issued for parts of Texas, with the expectation that hurricane watches could be issued later today for parts of the Gulf Coast.
The storm is forecast Tuesday night into Wednesday morning to significantly strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane with winds near 80 mph.
The storm could then make landfall in western Louisiana late Wednesday afternoon or early evening, as a possible Category 1 hurricane, weather officials said.
Storm surge, rainfall flooding and hurricane wind gusts are forecast from Port Arthur, Texas, to Lake Charles, Louisiana, officials said.
A foot of rain is forecast for parts of Louisiana, with up to a half a foot in eastern Texas.
Heavy rain with flood threats is expected to spread into New Orleans and north into the Mississippi River Valley and Mid-South, all the way to Jackson, Mississippi, and even into Memphis, Tennessee, by Thursday, officials said.
Hand crews clear a defense line during severe temperatures in California as the Line Fire burns near Mentone, California, Sept. 8, 2024. — David Swanson/AFP via Getty Images
(LOS ANGELES) — The wildfire tearing through the foothills of Southern California’s San Bernardino County is now endangering more than 36,000 structures, according to emergency officials.
The Line Fire began on Sept. 5 and has since burned some 20,553 acres east of Los Angeles, with three firefighters so far injured attempting to control the blaze, fire officials said. As of 9:25 p.m. Sunday night local time, the fire remained at 0% containment, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
No structures have been damaged or destroyed, but the Cal Fire’s Sunday evening update warned that 36,328 structures were under threat.
“Line Fire behavior was moderated Sunday morning due to smoke, but as the afternoon progressed, the smoke cleared and temperatures climbed leading to more fire activity,” Cal Fire said.
“Night flight capable aircraft will be utilized when possible to try to hold the fire within [current] containment lines,” the update said. “Early next week, cooler weather will moderate fire activity below the marine layer. However, fire activity above the marine layer will remain active. There is still potential for spot fires to become established well outside the control lines.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for San Bernardino County on Saturday, and mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for residents in the path of the blaze. The evacuations were expanded on Sunday.
Newsom said the state’s request for Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance was approved by President Joe Biden on Saturday afternoon.
“I thank President Biden for his swift approval of support for the work of our firefighters and first responders battling this fire and protecting local communities,” Newsom said.
“It’s critical that residents in the impacted areas remain vigilant and prepare to evacuate immediately if called for by local authorities.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Elsewhere, the Bridge Fire in Los Angeles Country has burned around 800 acres north of Azusa in the Angeles National Forest, fire officials said. The fire is at 0% containment and evacuation orders are in place for a mobile home park, campgrounds and a small river community. Night-flying helicopters have been deployed in the effort to control the blaze.
The Boyles Fire in California’s Lake County was at 90 acres late Sunday, 10% contained with Cal Fire noting that “crews are making good progress,” though “forward progress has not been stopped.” Around 30 structures and between 40 and 50 vehicles were destroyed.
Fire fighters are also battling the Davis Fire in Nevada’s Washoe County, where 6,500 acres have been burned and the fire is at 0% containment. The fire is “burning in heavy timber and brush,” according to the U.S. Forest Service. “Gusty conditions” are forecast through the week, the service added on social media, noting that at least 14 structures were so far impacted.
“Power outages continue,” the Forest Service said, with a “portion of south Reno under evacuation notice,” impacting between 12,000 and 14,000 people.
ABC News’ Marilyn Heck contributed to this report.
(DALLAS) — Former President George W. Bush doesn’t plan to make an endorsement or voice how he or his wife Laura will vote in November, his office told ABC News Saturday.
The announcement came a day after Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney, announced he would cross party lines and vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Cheney said former President Donald Trump “can never be trusted with power again.”
“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him,” he said in a statement.
Cheney’s daughter, former Wyoming member of the House Liz Cheney, also announced this week that she would be voting for Harris.
(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, the latest round of cease-fire discussions appears to have reached an impasse.
Meanwhile, after six hostages were found dead in Gaza, protests erupted in Israel. Protesters have lashed out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demanded the government bring the hostages home.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Aerial attack targets northern Israel, officials say
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported “a hostile aircraft infiltration” in the north of the country on Monday morning.
“Two suspicious aerial targets were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory,” The IDF said in a statement. “An aerial target fell in the area of Nahariya. No injuries were reported.”
The Magen David Adom (MDA) — Israel’s emergency services — said in a social media post that its personnel “located the site of the impact, as of now no casualties have been found.”
Israeli media reported that a drone detonated after crashing into an apartment block.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir and David Brennan
Hundreds gather in Central Park for hostage vigil
The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters organized twin protests in Tel Aviv and New York on Sunday, as pro-cease-fire activists look to build pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and American politicians.
Hundreds of people rallied in Central Park “to mourn six Israeli and American hostages murdered after 11 months in captivity,” the Forum said in a press release.
Among the speakers were Gilad and Nitza Korngold — the parents of hostage Tal Shoham who was abducted into Gaza on Oct. 7.
“The Red Cross has refused to help our loved ones while shamelessly requesting better conditions for the terrorists in Israel’s imprisonment,” they said, per the Forum’s press release. “We ask everyone here to call your representatives and demand the release of our loved ones from captivity.”
Moran Stela Yanai — released in November 2023 after 54 days as a hostage in Gaza — also spoke, telling attendees: “My brothers and sisters in captivity are hungry and in pain and in constant danger.”
“We must find the strength to keep fighting for them and bring them home,” she added, as quoted in the Forum’s press release.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and David Brennan
Jordanian border crossings partly reopened after shooting
Israeli and Jordanian authorities confirmed the partial reopening of border crossings on Monday following their closure due to the killing of three police officers at the Allenby Bridge.
An Israel Airport Authority spokesperson said the crossings at Yitzhak Rabin near Eilat, at the Jordan River near Beit Shean and at the Allenby Bridge would open for passenger traffic.
The media spokesman for the Jordanian Public Security Directorate said that King Hussein Bridge leading to the Allenby entry point would remain closed to freight traffic.
Meanwhile, Jordan’s Interior Ministry said that its preliminary investigations into Sunday’s shooting at the Allenby Bridge crossing confirmed that the alleged gunman was a Jordanian citizen named Maher Dhiyab Hussein Al-Jazi.
The alleged shooter — whom Israeli security forces said they shot and killed — was a resident of the Al-Husseiniyah area in Ma’an Governorate, and was crossing the bridge as a driver of a freight vehicle carrying commercial goods.
Al-Jazi acted alone, the ministry said, noting its investigation is ongoing. Authorities are attempting to organize the return of his body so he can be buried in Jordan.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller, Ghazi Balkiz and David Brennan
Airstrikes hit Syrian scientific research center, state media says
Strikes targeted a Syrian scientific research area in the city of Masyaf in the Hama countryside on Sunday night, Syrian state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.
“Ambulance vehicles rushed towards the center of the area” amid reports of casualties, the SOHR — a U.K.-based war monitor — said on its website.
Both Syrian state media and the SOHR attributed the strikes to Israel. The SOHR said Syrian anti-aircraft weapons intercepted some Israeli missiles.
There was no immediate confirmation on the number of casualties. At least 14 people were killed and 43 others were wounded, Syrian state news agency SANA reported. ABC News was not able to immediately confirm the reported casualties or whether they were military personnel.
ABC News asked the Israel Defense Forces for comment. Israel typically does not confirm or deny responsibility for strikes in Syria, where it has been engaged in a “shadow war” with Iran and its allies — including the Lebanese Hezbollah militia — for several years.
-ABC News’ Ghazi Balkiz and David Brennan
Nearly 70% of children in Gaza vaccinated against polio, health ministry reports
The polio vaccination campaign continued today in south Gaza, Khan Younis and Rafah, after early issues in the region when vaccines could not be properly distributed to the eastern side of Gaza.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced Sunday that 441,647 children in Gaza have received the first dose of the polio vaccine, so far.
This accounts for about 69% of the targeted population, according to the ministry.
According to the World Health Organization, 95% of children need to be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease effectively.
On Monday, vaccinations will be offered in northern Gaza where daily, eight-hour pauses in fighting and airstrikes will be instituted so children can be taken to one of the roughly 33 locations across Gaza City and north Gaza where the vaccine will be administered, according to the ministry.
-ABC News’ Victoria Beaulé
Israel closes Jordan border crossings after deadly shooting
Israel closed on Sunday the two land crossings between Jordan and Israel, as well as the Allenby Bridge crossing between Jordan and the occupied West Bank, the Israel Airports Authority — which oversees the crossings — told ABC News.
The closures followed a shooting on Sunday morning at Allenby that killed three police officers.
The gunman — who was shot dead by security forces — came from the Jordanian side, but it was not immediately clear if he was affiliated with any militant group. Both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad issued congratulatory statements about the shooting.
Netanyahu condemned the attack, saying it was attributable to the “murderous ideology led by Iran’s ‘Axis of Evil’.”
Israel did not say how long the closures would last. The Allenby crossing is one of the key entries through which goods destined for Gaza pass.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller, Nasser Atta, Victoria Beaule and David Brennan
Hamas rocket commander ‘eliminated’ in Gaza: IDF
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported the killing of a Hamas rocket commander in an airstrike last week.
The IDF wrote on social media on Sunday that its Southern Command “eliminated” Raef Omar Salman Abu Shab — the commander of the rocket unit of the eastern Khan Younis Brigade — in an airstrike on Tuesday
The commander was “responsible for launching rocket barrages from the area of Khan Younis toward southern and central Israel since the start of the war,” the IDF said.
(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans on Monday released the results of a sweeping three-year investigation they say is the most detailed public accounting yet of the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan that left behind hundreds of Americans and thousands of allies, some so desperate they clung to U.S. planes as the last military aircraft departed Kabul in 2021.
The report by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul — which relied on interviews with 18 top officials and 20,000 pages of documents — blames the White House, its National Security Council and the State Department for being slow to listen to military generals who warned the security situation would deteriorate quickly once U.S. troops began to depart.
The investigation did not, however, find evidence that Vice President Kamala Harris played any role in the planning or execution of the evacuation, although she expressed public support for President Joe Biden’s decision at the time.
Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have suggested Harris is culpable, noting past comments by the vice president that she was the “last person in the room” when Biden decided to leave Afghanistan.
“Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world,” Trump told National Guard members and their families in Detroit last month on the anniversary of the 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport during the evacuation, which killed 13 U.S. service members and some 170 Afghans.
The Biden administration pushed back on the findings by Republicans, calling it a partisan effort that sought to cherry-pick facts ahead of an election.
The Republican probe also is being released ahead of the first political debate between Harris and Trump, which ABC News is hosting on Tuesday night in Philadelphia. Trump and GOP loyalists are expected to hammer the Democratic administration for failing to prepare for a Taliban takeover once U.S. troops began to depart.
“The chaos and devastation that took place in August of 2021 has forever damaged U.S. credibility in the eyes of our allies, while emboldening our adversaries like China, Russia and Iran,” said McCaul, R-Texas. “Yet, not a single person was fired and, to this day, no one was ever held accountable by President Biden or Vice President Harris.”
Last week, McCaul issued a subpoena for Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s testimony on the withdrawal, threatening to hold him in contempt if he doesn’t testify on Sept. 19. In a written statement, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller noted that Blinken has already testified on Afghanistan and the State Department provided the 20,000 pages of documents the committee was relying on to inform its investigation.
“Though the secretary is currently unavailable to testify on dates proposed by the committee, the State Department has proposed reasonable alternatives to comply with Chairman McCaul’s request for a public hearing,” Miller said. “It is disappointing that instead of continuing to engage with the Department in good faith, the committee instead has issued yet another unnecessary subpoena.”
On the investigation, Miller accused Republicans of politicizing the war and “presenting inaccurate narratives.”
“The State Department remains immensely proud of its workforce who put themselves forward in the waning days of our presence in Afghanistan to evacuate both Americans and the brave Afghans who stood by our sides for more than two decades,” he said.
While many of the details included in the Republican investigation have already become public through media reports and internal government reviews, among the more interesting details come from inside-the-room accounts of U.S. Embassy personnel.
At one point, according to Republicans, staff grew so panicked at the rushed evacuation that they began filling Tupperware containers with passports and visa foils to burn as Taliban forces arrived outside their building. Classified documents were eventually left behind in the scramble, according to the report, although the report doesn’t say how many or what type.
Meanwhile, the NSC was slow to establish criteria for who was eligible for evacuation, a standard the report says changed hourly. At one point, electronic visa letters known as “hall passes” were given to eligible Afghans, but the documents were so easily replicated that bootleg copies began circulating and the U.S. quickly scrapped the plan, according to the report.
The report also paints a picture of a State Department and NSC slow to understand the danger U.S. personnel were in as the Afghanistan government collapsed and the Taliban took control.
Ambassador Ross Wilson, who was brought out of retirement in the Trump administration to serve in Afghanistan and was the top American diplomat in Kabul at the time of the withdrawal, was allegedly reluctant to trigger a military-led evacuation, according to the report. Wilson has spoken publicly before that his staff worked feverishly in those final days to try to process as many travel documents as possible to help qualified people evacuate.
Biden has defended the State Department’s handling of the evacuation in the wake of the operation.
“In the 17 days that we operated in Kabul after the Taliban seized power, we engaged in an around-the-clock effort to provide every American the opportunity to leave. Our State Department was working 24/7 contacting and talking, and in some cases, walking Americans into the airport,” Biden said in 2021 in the wake of the withdrawal.
Biden and other Democrats have also defended the decision to pull out U.S. troops and shutter the embassy after 20 years in the country, saying their options were limited after Trump struck a deal with the Taliban to depart by May 1, 2021.
Trump’s agreement with the Taliban included the departure of U.S. troops and the release of 5,000 Taliban fighters from Afghan prisons so long as the Taliban promised not to collaborate with al-Qaeda or engage in “high-profile” attacks.
Wanting to bring an end to the war and concerned that Taliban fighters might target American service members if the U.S. reneged on the deal, the Biden administration stayed the course but amended the U.S. withdrawal deadline to Aug. 31, 2021.
“He could either ramp up the war against a Taliban that was at its strongest position in 20 years and put even more American troops at risk or finally end our longest war after two decades and $2 trillion spent,” said Sharon Yang, the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations. “The President refused to send another generation of Americans to fight a war that should have ended long ago.”
Military generals in charge at the time have previously testified that their recommendation to Biden earlier that year was to maintain some 2,500 troops beyond that date regardless of what Trump had agreed to.
“At the end of 20 years, we the military helped build an army, a state, but we could not forge a nation. The enemy occupied Kabul, the overthrow of the government occurred and the military we supported for two decades faded away,” Gen. Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time of the withdrawal, testified last March.
“That is a strategic failure,” he said.
ABC News’ Emily Chang, Matthew Seyler and Shannon Kingston contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., a once-rising star in the GOP who fell out with her party over her criticism of Donald Trump, slammed the former president as an “unrecoverable catastrophe” in her call for other Republicans to vote against him this year.
“We see it on a daily basis, somebody who was willing to use violence in order to attempt to seize power, to stay in power, someone who represents unrecoverable catastrophe, frankly, in my view, and we have to do everything possible to ensure that he’s not reelected,” Cheney told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
“You have many Republicans out there who are saying, ‘Well, you know, we’re not going to vote for him, but we will write someone else in.’ And I think that this time around, that’s not enough, that it’s important to actually cast a vote for Vice President Harris,” Cheney added.
Cheney made her endorsement of Harris official this week, also announcing her father, former Vice President and liberal antagonist Dick Cheney, would follow suit.
The announcements from the Cheneys marked the highest profile endorsements from Republicans for Harris yet as the vice president looks to peel off disgruntled GOP voters frustrated with Trump’s hardline and personal brand of politics.
For his part, Trump appeared unconcerned with the endorsements, calling the former vice president “an irrelevant RINO, along with his daughter,” on his Truth Social platform. “RINO” stands for “Republican in name only.”
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded in kind when asked about the endorsements, replying, “who the f— is Liz Cheney?”
Liz Cheney cited both Harris’ policy stances this year — some of which have moved to the center since her first run in 2019 — and a speech Harris gave at the Democratic convention this summer which leaned heavily on themes of patriotism.
“I have never viewed this as a policy election, but I think that it’s very important point. If you look at Vice President Harris’s speech, for example, at the Democratic Convention, it is a speech that Ronald Reagan could have given. It’s a speech that George Bush could have given. It’s very much an embrace and an understanding of the exceptional nature of this great nation,” she said.
“I think that she has changed in a number of very important ways on issues that matter. And I would encourage independents to look at where she is on these policy issues today. I would encourage independents to compare where she is today with where Donald Trump is on these issues,” she added. “And on top of all of that, the Republicans have nominated somebody who you know is depraved.”
Cheney seemed to recognize the stark departure from carrying on a career as a conservative warrior in the House to now endorsing a Democrat for president, suggesting that the GOP has shifted its values while she has remained consistent.
When pressed by Karl if she’s still a Republican, Cheney responded, “I’m a conservative.”
“I am certainly not a Trump Republican. I am a conservative. I think that what’s happened to the Republican party today is indefensible, and I hope to be able to rebuild, as I said, after this cycle,” Cheney said.
“But I also think it’s really important for us as we’re thinking about rebuilding, as we’re thinking about the future the country, to recognize that at the end of the day, the vast majority of people in this country want to know fundamentally that their elected officials are going to defend the peaceful transfer of power,” she said. “And as someone who’s been a lifelong Republican, it’s heartbreaking to me to see what has happened to so many of the elected officials in my party, and I know we can do better.”
(LONDON, Ky.) — An AR-15 rifle investigators believe was used in a Kentucky freeway shooting Saturday evening that left seven people injured and nine vehicles with bullet holes was found Sunday afternoon near the crime scene as a search for a person of interest continued, authorities said.
The person of interest wanted for questioning was identified as 32-year-old Joseph A. Couch, who the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said is “considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached.”
The sheriff’s office released a photo of Couch, who allegedly fled the freeway shooting near London, Kentucky, and is believed to still be in the area, Laurel County Sheriff’s Deputy Gilbert Acciardo said during a news conference Sunday morning.
“We’re not listing him as a suspect at this point, but he probably will more than likely be a suspect before day’s end,” Acciardo said.
On Sunday afternoon, Acciardo said Couch’s vehicle was located in the area of the shootings Saturday night. He also said officers searching the area found an AR-15 rifle in the woods near the interstate.
The weapon, which investigators believe was used in the freeway shooting, was discovered in an area where a shooter could have “shot down upon the interstate from that wooded location,” Acciardo said.
“It’s a random act,” Acciardo said when asked about a possible motive for the shooting.
Police have received more than 100 calls from people reporting they may have spotted Couch, Acciardo said. He said authorities believe Couch is hiding in the woods near the interstate.
Acciardo described the shooting as “sniper-like” and said it was not the result of road rage. He said investigators do not believe the shooter knew any of the victims or had contact with them before the shooting.
Acciardo said that up to 60 members of law enforcement searched the area of the shooting until 3 a.m. Sunday before halting the search out of safety concerns, saying it was pitch black on the highway and describing the terrain where the search was being conducted as very rugged.
The search for Couch resumed at 9 a.m. local time Sunday, Acciardo said.
The FBI, the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting local authorities in the investigation, officials said.
The shooting unfolded about 5:30 p.m. local time on Interstate 75, near exit 49 about eight miles north of London, officials said.
Arriving deputies found nine vehicles had been shot in both the north and southbound lanes of I-75, Laurel County Sheriff John Root said at a news conference late Saturday night.
Root said deputies found five people with serious gunshot wounds, including one who was shot in the face. He said one vehicle contained two people who were shot.
Acciardo said Sunday that none of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries and were all in stable condition.
“A couple of our deputies, because of the severity of the injuries, loaded the people up, the injured persons, and transported them to London Hospital,” Root said.
Two additional people were injured in a car crash that occurred during the shooting, authorities said.
Root said I-75 was immediately shut down in both directions, saying that at the time, deputies didn’t know where the bullets came from.
“We couldn’t risk somebody else being shot,” Root said.
The sheriff declined to say why Couch is a person of interest in the shooting but did say it is “based on our investigation at the scene.”
He said initial reports that the shooting stemmed from a road rage incident were not accurate.
Root said Couch has an address in Woodbine, Kentucky, and the sheriff’s office described him as about 5-foot-10-inches tall and 154 pounds.
Interstate 75 was closed for more than three hours after the shooting as law enforcement officers worked to secure the scene and collect evidence.
Root did not immediately disclose the type of weapon investigators believe was used in the crime.
A motive for the shooting remained under investigation.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement on X that he is monitoring the situation.
In an interview Sunday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Christina Dinoto said she was driving with a friend southbound on I-75, heading to Tennessee, when the shooting erupted.
“All of a sudden we just heard this loud, deafening sound,” Dinoto said. “And my ear, my right ear, started ringing, and we didn’t know what the sound was, but we both looked at each other and said, was that a gunshot?”
Dinoto said that when she pulled off the interstate in Knoxville, she discovered damage to her vehicle that she suspects was caused by a bullet that may have ricocheted off another car.
The Kentucky shooting came less than a week after six people were injured in six shootings that occurred on Sept. 2 on Interstate 5 in the state of Washington between 8:26 p.m. and 11:01 p.m. local time, officials said. A suspect whose vehicle was sought in connection with several of the shootings was arrested in the Tacoma area on Sept. 3, police said.
(WASHINGTON) — Forty-two years ago, Lita Rosario-Richardson was the only woman on Howard University’s debate team. She made sure that changed — successfully recruiting Kamala Harris.
“I noticed Kamala’s analytical skills and critical thinking skills and that she had a very cogent way of making arguments,” said Rosario-Richarson.
Rosario-Richardson and Harris’ former debate opponents are some of the people who know her debating style best. Many of them are now expressing for the first time how Harris’ earlier debates could impact her upcoming one on Sept. 10 against former President Donald Trump.
The ABC News presidential debate will take place on Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. ET and air on ABC and stream on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.
Seizing a moment
When then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris took the stage against Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley in the general race for California attorney general in 2010, Harris was trailing in the polls.
A reporter asked Cooley about accepting both his pension as a former LA district attorney and an attorney general salary, which would bring him over $400,000 from taxpayers.
“I definitely earned whatever pension rights I have and I will certainly rely upon that to supplement the very low – incredibly low salary that’s paid to the attorney general,” Cooley responded.
Harris’ campaign turned Cooley’s answer into a campaign ad.
Her former aides tell ABC News that Harris had hoped to focus the race on her accomplishments and vision, but she signed off on the ad regardless.
In an interview with ABC News, Cooley said “I think she had very good consultants who constructed an ad,” but added he thought Harris “was not smart.”
On election night, Cooley was narrowly ahead and initially claimed victory, but Harris emerged as the winner when the votes were fully counted weeks later.
Cooley said he had not watched the debate since it happened, but he predicted that in the upcoming debate against Trump “a lot is going to depend upon the rules of the debate, and if she is there for an hour and a half on generally important issues and the questions are fair, she will not be well in a debate setting. She needs her teleprompter. She needs her notes that are probably written by someone else in order to do well.”
Cooley and Harris’ former aides both said neither had a teleprompter during the AG debate and both had notes on stage.
Former California Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, who lost to Harris in the primary for the AG race, said it would be a mistake for Trump to assume Harris is “dumb” going into the debate. “She’s not dumb, and she’s going to prosecute him. She’s not going to debate him … She’s going to treat him like one of the defendants that she prosecuted when she was a rank and file DA in Oakland.”
A perceived Achilles’ heel
Just a few months before the 2010 general election debate, Torrico, former Facebook executive Chris Kelly, Congressman Ted Lieu, former LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and former state assembly member Pedro Nava were among Harris’ opponents in the AG primary race.
Congressman Lieu remembered, “She came from a law enforcement background, and that really came out. She didn’t take any crap. I wouldn’t want to debate her.”
Nava was one of the five men who faced Harris in the primary debate held by Los Angeles ABC station KABC. He described her as unfazed, saying, “There’s nothing more scary than a woman who doesn’t fear men.”
Delgadillo, who was next to Harris at the debate, said what stood out to him most was a call she made to him after the race. “She was extraordinarily magnanimous and gracious after defeating all of us,” he said.
Torrico said he knew Harris was the frontrunner going into the race.
He said, “The question that I always had in my mind was, can we trap her? Can we get her to say something? Can we get her to lose her cool?”
Torrico said in one forum they were seeking the Service Employees International Union’s endorsement. Torrico said he reminded the members in attendance that he had represented many of them, and knowing many spoke Spanish, answered part of a question in Spanish. “They went crazy … and I just looked at her and I thought, ‘Okay, bring it now.'”
He said Harris deflected the original question. “She just went after corporate America and the rich,” he said. “She just totally diffused all of the enthusiasm.”
“I was just sitting there fuming and saying, ‘She’s not answering the question at all. I just answered the question. I hit a home run … and everyone’s clapping for you.'”
Torrico said, “I always thought it was an Achilles’ heel for her … she’s very good at saying a lot of things without answering the actual question.”
He said once at a forum, when he didn’t know she was in attendance, he initially felt he had a great response on stage to a question about criminal justice. “I said something like, whoever the next attorney general is, he would have to do such and such.” Torrico said Harris “just popped out of nowhere, threw her finger in the air and declared, ‘or she will have to!'”
“I was like, ‘Oh God, what are you doing here? Where’d you come from?'” said Torrico.
“The room loved it,” he said.
Torrico said he grew reflective at the DNC. “I’m among the many people she vanquished on the path to where she is now,” he said.
Changing a moment
During her first public office debate for San Francisco district attorney, Harris had been in single digits in the polls, but her former campaign manager says that would change during one of the forums.
Someone in the audience asked Harris how she’d lead independently of the current mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown. Harris had dated Brown about a decade before when he was the Speaker of California’s State Assembly. Harris responded by walking over to her opponents, Bill Fazio and the current DA, Terrance Hallinan, and mentioned the scandals that had been highlighting about each other.
Then she said, “I want to make a commitment to you that my campaign is not going to be about negative attacks.”
Former Harris aides say moments like that helped her beat Fazio, and got her to the runoff.
Fazio said he doesn’t recall that specific moment, but told ABC News that he had more experience as a trial attorney than Harris. But “she certainly was a much more accomplished and natural politician than I ever was. It’s probably the reason I lost.”
“She didn’t back down”
As the only woman at the time on Howard’s debate team, Rosaro-Richardson noticed how Harris challenged men.
“Oftentimes men use their physical prowess and the strength of their voices to win an argument. But I noticed that she didn’t allow that to deter her,” she said.
She remembers one specific moment when Harris was debating a man during her time on the Howard team.
“She was in cross examination, and [the opponent] hit her hand … I don’t know if it was intentional,” she said.
She said Harris stated out loud, “He hit my hand.” But Harris, according to Rosario-Richardson, did a “good job of it at the time … it didn’t throw her off. She was able to gather herself back after a few seconds and get back to the point.”
Rosario-Richardson said she will be watching Tuesday’s debate with other Howard alums and believes Donald Trump will be her most unpredictable opponent yet.
“I would say this is a unique situation because of the unpredictability of how Donald Trump will approach this debate and whether or not she can focus on substantive issues or focus on personal attacks,” Rosario-Richardson said.
She added that regardless of having known Harris’ debate style for over four decades, she has little idea of what to expect like everyone else. “I’m going to be excited. I’m going to feel some of the anticipation,” she said.
