Vice presidential candidate Josh Shapiro said Harris’ comments about Israel and Gaza were “spot on” and that Netanyahu was a “destructive force.”
At an event where the Philadelphia Council of Building Trades Unions announced its endorsement of Harris, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, one of Harris’ running mates, told reporters that the statements Harris made yesterday about Israel and Gaza were “sound so true.”
“She spoke about Israel’s right to self-defense, the need for the hostages to be returned, that’s what it takes to achieve peace in the Middle East,” he said. “She was right to highlight the suffering of innocent people in Gaza, and I thought she was right to put it that way. My view has always been, even before October 7, that we need a two-state solution where Palestinians and Israelis live side by side in peace.”
“I also think we have to tell the truth about the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu is a dangerous and destructive force and someone who has been an obstacle to peace in the Middle East,” he added.
Speaking to reporters after meeting with the Israeli prime minister yesterday, Harris said he expressed concern about the ceasefire agreement and the need for the release of hostages being held by Hamas.
“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months has been devastating,” Harris said. “We cannot turn a blind eye to these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. I will not be silent.”
She added that she had told Prime Minister Netanyahu that “the time has come to get this deal done.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu receives warm welcome from President Trump at Mar-a-Lago
According to a video posted on X by a Trump aide, President Trump welcomed Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife, Sara Netanyahu, to Mar-a-Lago.
RFK Jr. declined to say whether he would have been offered a position in the Trump administration if he dropped out of the race.
Robert Kennedy Jr., who is running as a third-party presidential candidate, declined to comment this morning on whether he would be prepared to drop out of the race to take a job in the Trump administration.
Asked on “CBS Mornings” if he was ready to end his campaign, support Trump and accept a role in his administration, Kennedy said “No.”
When asked if that was part of the discussions, Kennedy said he would not discuss specifically what was discussed because it would be “a breach of trust.”
Kennedy said he told Trump that more votes were being taken away from his campaign, but Trump said he had to do something about it.
He then posted to X this morning, “I’m in it to win. I’m leading in popularity and Independents are currently the largest voting group. The momentum is tipping in my favor as we get closer to voting in all 50 states. I look forward to taking on President Trump and the DNC nominee in the next debate. #AmericaStrong.”
Political pressure on Bitcoin conference, President Trump to speak tomorrow
The annual Bitcoin Conference got a new look this year: After three years on Miami Beach, organizers opted for a new hub of conservative energy: a Nashville honky-tonk.
The conference’s new location will also bring a new focus on politics, with speakers scheduled to include President Trump and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Conference organizers said Harris declined the invitation.
While some crypto and tech industry heavyweights, including Elon Musk (himself rumored to be a speaker at the conference), have begun to support Trump and the Republican Party, other conference attendees, rather than focusing on a specific candidate, expressed general optimism that strict cryptocurrency regulations will be relaxed under a Biden administration, regardless of who wins the White House.
Garrett Curran, an associate at Boston-based Qubic Labs, a group that supports blockchain and Web3 technologies, told NBC News that despite Harris’ decision not to attend, the Politico report suggests she may be more open to cryptocurrency than Biden.
Curran said that in general, cryptocurrency has become popular enough that candidates now have to address it, which is groundbreaking.
“They’re coming to us now,” he said.
Harris aims to open up Silicon Valley’s checkbooks
As the Harris campaign seeks to re-engage with Democratic donors who had refrained from endorsing Biden, it is seeing renewed interest from an industry that has increasingly backed Trump: Silicon Valley.
Democrats say claims of tech donors drifting to Republicans have been exaggerated, but they agree that Ms. Harris, who got her start in California’s Bay Area, has helped unlock supporters from the sidelines.
Read the full story here.
Trump releases first election ad targeting Harris
Last night, Trump posted his first election ad specifically targeting Harris on Instagram.
The nearly two-minute ad shows Harris being questioned about the border visit and dodging the questions. It ends with the words “Kamala Harris. Weak. Failed. Dangerously Liberal.”
Last night, Trump posted another video attacking Harris to Instagram and his social media site, Truth Social, but without the “official campaign” tag at the end of the video. NBC News has reached out to the campaign about the ad.
Harris campaign reveals details about vetting vice presidential nominee
Harris’ campaign confirmed that the vetting process has begun “in earnest.”
“Vice President Harris has directed her team to begin vetting candidates for vice president,” Harris campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement.
A Harris campaign aide said Harris was “selecting her running mate based on the same qualities that President Biden considered important when he selected her four years ago, and he has called the choice ‘the best decision he’s ever made.'”
Harris is looking for someone who shares her “shared values of fighting for the middle class, defending democracy and freedom, treating people with respect and dignity, and creating an America where everyone has a fair chance,” and a source said she is looking for “an experienced governing partner who can deliver from day one.”
Buttigieg slams Trump for setback in presidential debate
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a possible running mate for Harris, criticized Trump for saying he would not participate in the next presidential debate until the Democratic Party had formally chosen a nominee.
“Bulletproof rhetoric is this man’s trademark, and now he’s showing surprising weakness,” Buttigieg said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“He said, ‘Anytime, Anywhere,’ but more than that, he agreed to this particular debate, this particular network, this particular date, and now he’s backing out,” Buttigieg continued, referring to the Sept. 10 ABC debate that the Biden and Trump campaigns had agreed to. “And of course, this shows that he’s afraid. It shows that he knows that having those two on the same stage is not going to end well for him.”
Harris campaign breaks political ad record on Meta
The $3 million the Harris campaign spent on meta political ads on Monday is the most ever spent on a single profile page in the past five years.
Harris’ ad spending on Tuesday was also the fourth-highest of all time.
Trump focuses attacks on “Border Secretary Harris,” Harris’ team fires back
Trump has used Biden’s 2021 mandate for Harris to work with Central American countries to address the “root causes” of migration to go on the offensive by portraying his new presidential rival as the face of the chaotic U.S. border.
In a fiery speech at a rally in North Carolina yesterday, President Trump called the Vice President “Border Secretary” six times and criticized the strained refugee system. “We’re letting millions and millions of illegal immigrants in under Secretary Harris,” he said, calling Harris “crazy,” drawing boos from the crowd.
The term, which Republicans have used widely to criticize Harris, dates back to March 2021, when she was tasked with responding to a surge in Central American migrants. Most of the migrants were from the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where violence and organized crime have caused millions to flee the region. The terms “czar” and “border czar” never appeared in White House materials but have taken hold among critics.
But Harris’ mission was misunderstood: It was a diplomatic mission to develop a regional strategy to reduce the need for migration, not a national security mission to oversee domestic border security.
The White House quickly sought to clarify that Harris’s assignment was not about “the border” but focused instead on forces trying to push migrants out of the Northern Triangle, but the title remained as the crisis caused by migration unfolded.
Read the full story here.
