The presidential political landscape is in upheaval following the resignation of President Joe Biden from his position as the Democrat nominee. It became even more tumultuous when Vice President Kamala Harris stepped into his shoes.
Now the question of who will step into the number two position remains unanswered, but many more experienced Democrats are concerned about who the already unpopular Harris might pick, as The Washington Examiner reported.
As rumors circulate that the senator from a swing state could secure the highly sought-after position of vice president, Kamala Harris's running mate, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and several Democrats are cautioning that he may not be the best choice.
According to John LaBombard, a political insider from Washington, D.C., who has worked as a senior advisor for Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and former Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, he is uncertain that Kelly will help the presidential ticket.
“My guess is that Sen. Kelly would have some growth to do in that part of the role, at least as compared to Gov. Walz,” the Democratic strategist said. Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) is also rumored to be on the vice presidential shortlist.
“The vice presidential candidate really ideally would be somebody who would be comfortable being an attack dog on the other ticket but doing it in a way that’s not off-putting to winnable voters,” LaBombard added.
According to Steve Jarding, a former counsel to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and another Democratic strategist, Kelly did not conform to the conventional "attack dog" profile for candidates running for vice president.
Jarding, on the other hand, thinks that might work in favor of people who are turned off by "pit bull" politics.
This week, the senator from a battleground state stepped up his attacks on the Trump-Vance ticket, seemingly eager to portray himself as the "pit bull" that campaign strategists aspire for, amid growing speculation that Kelly leads the probable Democratic nominee's vice presidential shortlist.
Kelly avoided questions regarding the vice president while swiftly criticizing the GOP immigration reform ticket on Wednesday's MSNBC Morning Joe.
“We can’t have four more years of Donald Trump, especially with J.D. Vance one heartbeat away from the presidency,” the Democrat said.
In other comments from this week, Kelly told reporters that Trump had made the world “a more dangerous place.”
Kelly may already have a significant backer. During an appearance on MSNBC on Sunday, Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J. ), a personal friend of Harris, lauded the senator, who is now in a battleground state, as "out of the world."
Booker has stated that he personally urged Biden's candidate for the position of heir apparent to run for the United States Senate in the year 2016.
Booker looked to favor "one of the greatest champions and heroes in the country" in his enthusiastic approval for the Arizonan.
Talking heads were in a frenzy and the headlines were flying when it was announced that the Supreme Court sided with Trump on presidential immunity.
However, according to a recent exclusive report by CNN, this case was one of the Supreme Court's toughest decisions since Chief Justice John Robers has presided over the nation's high court.
The report states that Roberts is no stranger to controversy and has often been criticized for his decision, with last minute switches and vote shifting marking his time in office.
Many consider these moves to be part of the chief justice participating in "playing politics," with a branch of government that shouldn't be partisan in any way.
In contrast, this was not the case in the spring of this year, when six conservatives nominated by the Republican party secured a quite extensive immunity from prosecution for former President Donald Trump.
As the justices convened in private in the oak-paneled conference room that is adjacent to the chief justice's chambers, sources who are acquainted with the negotiations told CNN that there was an early and straightforward 6-3 split.
There was not even a smidgen of the cross-ideological accord that distinguished decisions involving presidential powers in the past, and Roberts did not make any significant efforts to get the three liberal justices to concur with him. He believed he could persuade people to look beyond Trump.
During the previous decades, when the Supreme Court was faced with significant challenges to the power of the president, they have traditionally reached a consensus.
In spite of the fact that the bench and the entire Washington area are significantly more divided than they were in the past, Roberts was able to mediate compromises in two Trump document instances as recently as the year 2020.
The belief that Roberts would oppose any resounding victory for Trump and that a middle ground could be found on certain issues in the immunity dispute was conceivable to outsiders and even some justices within the court.
The chief justice's institutionalist inclination had been solidified in decision after decision over the previous two decades.
This is something Roberts spoke to frequently, including in 2018 when he chided Trump saying jurists have no political affiliation when they take on their robe:
“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.”
The chief justice, who is now 69 years old and is about to begin his 20th term, appears to have dropped his typical concerns regarding the institution.
Only a week after securing the delegates to become the Democrat presidential nominee without a single voter casting a ballot for her as such, the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris is already lowering expectations for a Democrat victory under her leadership.
“Harris and emerging campaign brain trust share the view that shifting the fundamentals of the race will be difficult with a calcified electorate and fragmented media environment,” Politico Playbook reported Monday.
Breitbart noted that Harris has not given a one-on-one press interview since becoming the presumptive nominee, but it has only been a week.
Given her history of gaffes, though, it isn't surprising that a Democrat senator said the campaign was going to be "brutally tough."
An Economist/YouGov poll found that only 39% of registered independents even think Harris is qualified to be president.
That can't be encouraging for the campaign.
In the same poll, 92% said Harris was at least "a little" involved in the coverup of Biden's mental decline.
Party elites including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) were reportedly "lukewarm" to concerned about Harris's candidacy, a source involved in internal discussions told the Hill.
“She wasn’t a great candidate,” a Democrat senator told the Hill referring to Harris's 2020 candidacy, when she dropped out of the primary before any votes had even been cast.
Another Democrat senator said it was going to be hard for Harris to gain support if she steadfastly praised Biden because his record (and hers by association) was unpopular.
And then there's her record in the Senate, where she was ranked the most liberal senator there.
She's a pretty weak candidate already, so it stands to reason she might not be able to withstand close scrutiny of her record.
They must have really needed to get Biden out of there if they latched onto Harris despite her unpopularity.
It looks like they are already expecting to lose to former President Donald Trump in November, and they may not even fight it all that much. Either that or they want to brag about a come-from-behind victory when the time comes.
The New York Times got access to texts between members of the Beaver County Emergency Service Unit before the shooting of former President Donald Trump that show shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was seen as a suspicious person almost 100 minutes before the shooting occurred.
“Someone followed our lead and snuck in and parked by our cars just so you know,” a counter-sniper texted a colleague at 4:26 p.m.
Another counter-sniper took pictures of Crooks at 5:38 p.m. and sent them to a group chat.
One of the texts suggested letting the Secret Service know about the suspicious person since he was aiming his rangefinder at the stage of the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
“Kid learning around the building we are in. AGR I believe it is,” the text reads. “I did see him with a range finder looking towards stage. FYI. If you wanna notify SS snipers to look out. I lost sight of him.”
Around 6:00 p.m., the members said they thought he had moved away from the event, but that was only a guess--and it was dead wrong.
Crooks was already on the roof at that time, and it was only a few minutes later that he shot Trump and several rallygoers, killing one and injuring two others.
Trump's Secret Service detail said it had not received reports of a suspicious person prior to spotting Crooks on the roof just minutes before the shooting.
Crooks was shot down by Secret Service counter-snipers moments after firing on Trump, but it is unclear why he wasn't shot down before he could shoot.
Rallygoers near the roof where Crooks was located shouted at police to alert them of his presence several minutes before Trump was shot, slightly injuring his ear.
While Trump escaped serious injury or death, firefighter Corey Comperatore lost his life after he threw himself over his wife and daughter's bodies to shield them from the bullets.
It seems that all of it could have been prevented if police and the Secret Service were doing their jobs and communicating effectively in those 90-plus minutes before the shooting occurred.
The security failures were obviously multi-layered, and have already caused Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle to resign over the debacle.
There is still no known motive for the shooting.
In a new poll by YouGov and the Times of London, nearly all voters surveyed--92%--who believed there was a coverup of President Joe Biden's health said that Vice President Kamala Harris was at least partly to blame.
A majority of voters, 54%, said they believed there was a coverup of Biden's declining health, which was made evident during the June presidential debate against former President Donald Trump.
68% of that 54% said they blamed Harris "a great deal" for the coverup, while 17% said they blamed her somewhat and 7% said they thought she was a little bit to blame.
An even bigger percentage, 95%, said they believed the Biden family was to blame for the coverup. That included 84% who said they were a great deal to blame, 9% who said somewhat, and 3% who said a little.
The news media, Democrats in Congress, and White House staff all had majorities of voters that also got some of the blame for the coverup.
When asked if they thought Biden should resign now, however, only 30% said yes, while 63% said no and 7% weren't sure.
Harris was also the favorite candidate to replace Biden, with 50% indicating they thought she was the best choice. A number of other candidates including Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro and Joe Manchin had from three to 10% each, with 22% saying "other."
It's hardly an overwhelming level of support, but Harris already has enough delegates to become the Democrat nominee without a single primary vote being cast for her, at least in the presidential position on the ticket.
There is a lot of trepidation about Harris as the Democrat nominee. Even Black Lives Matter denounced "annointing" Harris as "not democratic" and said they didn't support the move.
"Democratic Party elites and billionaire donors are attempting to manipulate Black voters by anointing Kamala Harris and an unknown vice president as the new Democratic ticket without a primary vote by the public," Black Lives Matter said in a statement.
Harris remains deeply unpopular, with a -10 approval rating, even higher than Trump's -6 in the same poll.
Voters who complained they didn't like either of the two major candidates are not seeming any happier with Harris than they were with Biden.
There was a lot of support for Biden dropping out of the race, however, with 76% indicating they strongly or somewhat agreed with the decision.
Donald Trump was two points ahead of Kamala Harris in the poll, 46% to 44%, even though when asked which party's candidate they would vote for without giving names, the poll was tied at 44% each. Third-party and independent candidates were included in the survey.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Florida Gov. Ron Desantis says Democrats in power along with their left-leaning friends in the media and Hollywood "have to whitewash" the background of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris "to make her palpable to the American people."
The former 2024 Republican presidential appeared on "Sunday Morning Futures" on the Fox News Channel, telling anchor Maria Bartiromo:
"The Biden-Harris policies put the Democratic Party in a very precarious situation this election, and then the debate where Biden, they tried to do the basement for three-and-a-half years, and it was clear after that debate that was not gonna the happen."
"So the media really worked hard to push Biden out. And now what you see is all the arteries to of the left, the corporate media, Hollywood, academia, they're using all the king's horses and all the king's men to try to put the Democratic Party back together again, and they have to whitewash Harris' background be able to to make her palpable to the American people. But I think we've all seen her. She's incredibly vapid, even more incredibly liberal, and she doesn't have any accomplishments.
"In fact, she owns all the policies of the Biden-Harris administration. She owns the border, she owns the inflation. She was there cheerleading that every day for the last three and a half years. So I don't think it's going to work, but make no mistake about it, concern about it, you are in for a hundred days of massive gaslighting from the corporate press.
"They're already taking down, there was a website where she was the most liberal senator, GovTracktrack, they took that down. They're whitewashing things from her past. That's going to continue, and they're going to try to the pull the wool over the eyes of the American people."
Bartiromo noted: "The Democrats have been misleading the public for so many years beginning with Russian collusion, the Hunter Biden lapptop, the origins of COVID, the true state of Joe Biden's mental capacity.
She asked DeSantis: "Will Kamala and her team continue to mislead or, I mean, is it a reach to say lie to the American people in the next hundred days and perhaps in office?"
"Oh, without question," DeSantis responded.
"We're down here in Florida. It's hot in July, be hot in August but, you know, you're gonna see a blizzard of lies over the next few months. That's what it's going to be about.
"There's not gonna be any pushback from the entrenched corporate media, and they're gonna try to rewrite history, and they're going to try to present her as something that she's just not.
"And here's what I would just say to Republicans, because we wanted to run against Biden. I think the election was over once Donald Trump walked off that debate stage at the end of June. There was no way Biden was going to win.
"Now that he's out, if we had to pick someone, I think we would pick Harris because she owns all the policies. She's not going to be able to distance herself from them, and most Americans think this country's going in the wrong direction. So make the case there. And I think the ultimately truth is going to prevail.
"But the one thing, I think, we do have to to acknowledge, Biden set the bar so low it's like the soft bigotry of low expectations. He couldn't even deliver a sentence, so now you take somebody like Harris who's not exactly lighting the world on fire, but Biden makes her look like Socrates because we're so used to him not being able to do anything.
"Now you have somebody that's younger. So we're in for a battle here, but the record speaks for itself. The Trump administration was far more successful than the Biden-Harris administration, and people are going to have that stark choice.
The FBI confirmed that former President Donald Trump was “struck” by a “bullet” at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania after FBI Director Christopher Wray downplayed the attempt on Trump's life.
To no one's surprise, Wray and the rest of the bureaucratic state, in alignment with Democrats, are trying to downplay the fact that Trump was nearly killed by an assassin. Democrats are desperate to regain the "moral" high ground and suggesting that Trump was hit by shrapnel and not a bullet is one of the ways in which they are downplaying the event.
Wray told lawmakers that, "With respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear."
"With respect" looks so damning after the FBI issued a statement following Wray's comment saying, "What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle."
There was never a question about if Trump had been struck but Wray was clearly stoking speculation and feeding information that Democrat lawmakers will no doubt bring up in the future.
Not long after Wray gave his misleading statement to lawmakers, media outlets were already running with the fake story.
Newsweek posted an article titled “Donald Trump Might Not Have Been Shot After All." After intense backlash, Newsweek edited the title adding, "FBI Director Says."
However, it's likely that the damage has already been done and leftists desperate to downplay Trump's shooting have the ammunition they need to argue that Trump wasn't shot because the director of the FBI said so.
After the FBI issued a clarifying statement debunking Wray's claim, Trump reacted on Truth Social saying, "I assume that’s the best apology that we’ll get from Director Wray, but it is fully accepted."
One can only imagine the outrage that would have ensued had the victim in this scenario been a Democrat president.
There are still many questions about what exactly happened on that fateful day but there is no question that Trump was millimeters from dying. What we still don't know is why that shooting happened in the first place.
Downplaying Trump's shooting serves two purposes; as mentioned before Democrats want to reclaim the "moral" high ground but the deep state clearly wants Americans to not look too deeply into this shooting.
Already information has come out that Trump's shooter was allowed to fly a drone over the rally while the Secret Service didn't deploy similar technology. Furthermore, no agents were posted on the shooter's position because "the roof was sloped."
There is much more to this story and already many conservatives suspect that Trump's shooter was not working alone. The bizarre behavior of federal agencies further implies that there is more to this story that they don't want regular Americans investigating.
The California Supreme Court ruled on Thursday to uphold Proposition 22, which allows rideshare drivers like those from Uber and Lyft to remain contract employees rather than as employees with benefits.
The rule gave some limited benefits to contract employees but allowed them to remain employed on a contract basis.
A lower court had ruled the law unconstitutional, which would have required major changes to the way rideshare and other companies that use gig workers operate.
The ruling was expected after the justices seemed to side with proponents of Prop 22 during a ruling in May.
The two sides have been fighting over the rule for years, but it has remained in effect during the fight.
Companies including Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and other gig-based companies had threatened to shut down their operations in California if Prop 22 was overturned.
That will not be necessary now.
Gig work is attractive for many who need a flexible schedule and those who need or want to work part-time. It can work well for students, parents caring for young children, and disabled workers who have times when their health does not allow them to work.
"Today marks an historic moment and a landmark victory," general counsel for Instacart Morgan Fong said in a statement Thursday. "Instacart shoppers consistently and overwhelmingly tell us they value their flexibility and independence. The Court’s decision preserves access to the flexible earnings opportunities they want and the important benefits provided under Prop. 22."
More than 1 million people drive for app-based companies in California and would have been impacted by striking down the rule.
The companies spent $200 million campaigning for Prop 22 before it's passing.
Uber spokesperson Zahid Arab said the decision "affirm[ed] the will of the nearly 10 million Californians who voted to deliver historic benefits and protections to drivers, while protecting their independence."
Arab referred to the original vote on Prop 22, which was on the ballot in 2020.
Opponents of the rule tried to argue that the state constitution gave the legislature the exclusive right to determine rules for worker's compensation in the state, but the judge rejected that argument.
The news that former President Donald Trump was the victim of an assassination has dominated the headlines for two straight weeks, and finally, there have been details about the shooter from those who lived nearby.
Additionally, there has been no decrease in the level of national interest in the gunman who came dangerously close to taking the life of the former president.
Reporters who are sifting through public material have spoken to some of the individuals who knew the shooter in their personal lives.
After the shooting, which took place in Pennsylvania, residents of the neighborhood where the 20-year-old lives are still trying to come to terms with the "evil" that was lurking just down the street, as reported by Fox News.
"That's sheer fear. If [Trump] had his head turned, he would've had his brains blown out, and that was manufactured around the corner from my house," said a neighbor who lives about the same distance from the Crooks home that the shooter was from the president when Crooks opened fire.
"There was such evil around the corner," she said Tuesday. "We're always going to have a scar from what happened and how close to us [it was]."
During the course of the summer, another woman who runs in the neighborhood on a daily basis reported that she repeatedly observed Crooks in the peaceful area in their neighborhood.
According to the neighbor, when she was trying to make friendly exchanges with the young man and garner his attention, he would "look up as though nobody had been passing him," despite the fact that she was making an effort to "look over and smile and say hello."
Journalists reported that the woman was left in a state of amazement after hearing the news of the incident that took place only forty minutes from her residence.
After more details flooded the news, the neighbor realized the perpetrator lived much closer to her home than she thought, making her life even more "surreal".
"When I first thought about the shooter being in Butler, I thought, 'Wow, that's in my backyard.' It ended up being closer. All of a sudden, it's a neighbor," she said.
The Crooks' neighbor, an elderly woman, said the gunman helped her with housework but hadn't talked much.
"I would ask Tom, ‘Would you rake the leaves? Could you shovel the driveway?’ If I saw their mail, I'd pick it up," she said. "You get shocked, but you also get mad that something like this happened."
Those who lived nearest to the Crooks residence on Milford Drive were apparently evacuated by the police for around twenty-four hours after the shooting, as it was recounted by the eyewitness.
However, they were not provided with any precise directions on where they should go, and the only reason they were instructed to evacuate was because of an inquiry into a device.
Investigators had conversations with members of the Crook family a minimum of three times during the previous week. One of these conversations took place at their residence, which was visited several days after the shooting and lasted for at least an hour.
National interest in the shooter who almost took the life of former President Donald Trump has not yet diminished, and reporters parsing through public information have spoken to some of those who knew the shooter in life.
Residents of the 20-year-old's neighborhood are still trying to come to terms with the "evil" that was lurking just down the street after the shooting at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, which nearly assassinated former president Trump and killed firefighter Corey Comperatore, occurred just over a week ago, as Fox News reported.
"That's sheer fear. If [Trump] had his head turned, he would've had his brains blown out, and that was manufactured around the corner from my house," said a neighbor who lives about the same distance from the Crooks home that the shooter was from the president when Crooks opened fire.
"There was such evil around the corner," she said Tuesday. "We're always going to have a scar from what happened and how close to us [it was]."
Another woman who runs in the neighborhood on a regular basis stated that she saw Crooks in the calm area on multiple occasions over the course of the summer in their neighborhood.
Despite her efforts to "look over and smile and say hello," he would "look up as though nobody had been passing him," when she was trying to get his attention.
The news of the shooting that occurred barely forty minutes away from her home reportedly left that woman in a state of disbelief.
According to the woman, her life began to feel even more "surreal" after more details flooded the news, and she became aware that the perpetrator lived much closer to her own home than she originally thought.
"When I first thought about the shooter being in Butler, I thought, 'Wow, that's in my backyard.' It ended up being closer. All of a sudden, it's a neighbor," she said.
According to an old woman who lived down the street from the Crooks, the gunman helped her out with housework on a regular basis but they hadn't had many conversations.
"I would ask Tom, ‘Would you rake the leaves? Could you shovel the driveway?’ If I saw their mail, I'd pick it up," she said. "You get shocked, but you also get mad that something like this happened."
Those who lived closest to the Crooks residence on Milford Drive were reportedly evacuated by the police for a period of twenty-four hours after the shooting, according to the witnesses.
It was only because of a bomb investigation that they were advised to evacuate, but they were not given any specific instructions on where to go.
At least three times in the previous week, investigators spoke with members of the Crook family, including a visit to their home days after the shooting for at least an hour.