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Kamala Harris will join President Joe Biden tonight at Andrews Air Force Base to greet the Americans released from detention in Russia today.
The historic prisoner swap deal has been hailed as a diplomatic victory across the world, with the apparent exception of Donald Trump, who bitterly posted on Truth Social that the US never makes good deals and the negotiators were an “embarrassment”.
Meanwhile, with just over two weeks to go before the Democratic National Convention, the party’s virtual roll call has begun with Harris soon expected to become the party’s official nominee.
Voting got underway at 9am ET on Thursday and runs through August 5. Harris will announce her running mate next week before embarking on a tour of key battleground states.
On the campaign trail, Harris has rebuked Donald Trump’s comments about her race, claiming that he put on the “same old show” and says that “America deserves better”.
Trump had appeared at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, where he wildly, and falsely, claimed that the vice president only recently “became a Black woman.” Harris’s father is from Jamaica and her mother is Indian.
Key Points
- Biden and Harris to greet freed Americans tonight
- Trump trashes prisoner swap deal as formerly detained Americans fly home to freedom
- How does the DNC virtual roll call to nominate Kamala Harris work?
- Trump claims he ‘didn’t know Harris was Black’
- Harris calls Trump's remarks to Black journalists on her heritage ‘the same old show’
- JD Vance calls Trump’s race remarks ‘hysterical'
What we know about Kamala Harris’ ethnic background after Trump questioned it
Vice President Kamala Harris has faced a barrage of attacks about her race — including one from Donald Trump, who claimed Harris “happened to turn Black” only recently.
During a question-and-answer session with the National Association of Black Journalists on Wednesday, the former president questioned: “Is she Indian or is she Black?”
In short, she’s both. The presumptive Democratic nominee is both the first Black and Asian-American vice president.
Gustaf Kilander reports.
Everything we know about Kamala Harris’ ethnic background after Trump questioned it
The vice president’s father was born in Jamaica and her mother was born in India
Oliver O'Connell2 August 2024 00:15 1722552331Watch: Kamala Harris describes Sheila Jackson Lee as a ‘force’ who ‘never allowed anything to be mediocre'
Oliver O'Connell1 August 2024 23:45 1722550531Veepstakes: Moskowitz says progressives oppose Shapiro because they ‘don’t want a Jew’
Florida Democratic Rep Jared Moskowitz, who is Jewish, said on X today that progressive Democrats who oppose the selection of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as running mate for Kamala Harris “don't want a Jew”.
“These Progressives don’t want a Jew. Let’s say it out loud,” he wrote. “Imagine if moderate Dems said they didn’t want a certain minority. The condemnations would be deafening. Yet now we hear much silence.”
Moskowitz was reacting to an article in The Hill that cited some progressives opposing the governor because of issues relating to Israel among other policies.
Oliver O'Connell1 August 2024 23:15 1722549949How Trump’s attacks on Kamala Harris’s Black heritage are reviving racist ‘birther’ conspiracy theories
Trump’s allies have seized on his latest unhinged remarks by reviving racist “birther” claims that Trump has repeatedly used to undermine his opponents’ ethnic backgrounds. He had previously suggested that Kamala Harris wasn’t “born in this country” during the 2020 election and years earlier doubted whether Barack Obama was a US citizen by demanding to see his birth certificate.
His latest statements have turchocharged online racism that has surrounded the 2024 election, with supporters posting copies of her “birth certificate” and accusing Harris of “changing” her race for political reasons.
Trump attacks on Kamala Harris’s Black heritage revive ‘birther’ conspiracy theories
Trump’s allies and right-wing media have spent years trying to undermine her legitimacy by attacking her biracial background. His latest lies are turbocharging racist attacks against his rival, Alex Woodward reports
Alex Woodward1 August 2024 23:05 1722548967Just in: Trump’s attorneys push back against Manhattan prosecutors over ‘immunity’ arguments in hush money verdict
Donald Trump’s attorneys have replied to objections from Manhattan prosecutors who want to block the former president from trying to overturn his hush money verdict by claiming that the Supreme Court’s “immunity” ruling applies to his criminal case in New York.
His legal team has claimed that evidence used in the trial should have been shielded from jurors under the scope of the “immunity” decision, which shields presidents from prosecution for their “official” duties in office.
“The Supreme Court of the United States ruled conclusively and unequivocally that President Trump is protected by immunity for his official acts,” they wrote on Thursday.
“In this case, a politically motivated district attorney violated that immunity by using official-acts evidence in grand jury proceedings and at trial. Therefore, the case must be dismissed, and the jury’s verdicts must be vacated,” they added.
Trump pursued an immunity defense in the hush money case before it went to trial, which Judge Juan Merchan rejected.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg “fought President Trump’s pretrial motions and urged the Court to rush ahead to trial. That was wrong,” his attorneys wrote.
“President Trump is entitled to absolute immunity and disputes that rebuttable presumptive Presidential immunity can ever be ‘sufficient’ to protect the interests at stake, which is an issue the Supreme Court expressly left open,” they added.
“But in light of [prosecutors’] strenuous resistance to the reasonable pre-trial request to wait for the [Supreme Court] decision, they are not entitled to a post-trial rebuttal opportunity,” Trump’s attorneys argued. “The bell cannot be unrung.”
Last week, Bragg’s office argued that “the evidence that he claims is affected by the Supreme Court’s ruling constitutes only a sliver of the mountains of testimony and documentary proof that the jury considered in finding him guilty of all 34 felony charges beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“Under these circumstances, there is no basis for disturbing the jury’s verdict, and defendant’s motion should be denied,” prosecutors added.
Judge Merchan is scheduled to make a decision on the immunity claims on September 6.
Alex Woodward1 August 2024 22:49 1722548731Watch: Kamala Harris gaffe cheers crowd as she deliver eulogy to Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee
Trump denies being weird
Donald Trump has responded to Democrat attacks on him as being “weird”.
Speaking to Clay Travis and Buck Sexton on their eponymous podcast, the former president said: “We’re not weird people.”
“Nobody’s ever called me weird. I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not.”
“And he’s not either,” Trump said of running mate JD Vance. “I will tell you JD is not at all. They are”
Oliver O'Connell1 August 2024 22:35 1722547831As Trump spirals, major prisoner swap delivers win for Democrats
John Bowden writes:
They’re out, finally.
The release of a group of Americans and other westerners held in Russian detention provided a jolt of energy for an unsuspecting figure on Thursday: President Joe Biden, whose relevance as commander-in-chief has suddenly been sharply reinforced for a national news media with a short attention span. A total of 16 captives held by Russia were released, including former US Marine Paul Whelan, journalist Evan Gershkovich, and British-Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza.
It was a clear political victory for Biden at an unexpected time. He is still reeling from the political effects of withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race just weeks before his party’s national convention. Kamala Harris, his vice president, is now the presumptive nominee and has taken on a starring role in the campaign as well as back home in Washington.
And this victory couldn’t have come at a better time.
Continue reading...
Major prisoner swap delivers a win for Democrats as Trump spirals
Even Republicans couldn’t bring themselves to criticize Biden on Thursday
Oliver O'Connell1 August 2024 22:30 1722547531Bill Clinton hails Biden administration diplomatic efforts for prisoner swap
Oliver O'Connell1 August 2024 22:25 1722547361Biden thanks European leaders for partnership in historic prisoner swap
From the White House:
This afternoon, the President spoke individually with Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to thank them for their partnership on today’s historic deal that brought home Americans and others detained in Russia. The President expressed his appreciation for their support during the complex negotiations and active engagement throughout the process to achieve this monumental release.
Oliver O'Connell1 August 2024 22:22 Newer1 / 12OlderDisclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
