All posts tagged: 2024 United States presidential election

Microsoft report details Russia disinformation campaign against Harris

Microsoft report details Russia disinformation campaign against Harris

Mashabuba | Getty | Getty Images The video was seen millions of times across social media but some viewers were suspicious: It featured a young Black woman who claimed Vice President Kamala Harris left her paralyzed in a hit-and-run accident in San Francisco 13 years ago. In an emotional retelling from a wheelchair, the alleged victim said she “cannot remain silent anymore” and lamented that her childhood had “ended too soon.” Immediately after the video was posted on Sept. 2, social media users pointed out reasons to be wary. The purported news channel it came from, San Francisco’s KBSF-TV, didn’t exist. A website for the channel set up just a week earlier contained plagiarized articles from real news outlets. The woman’s X-ray images shown in the video were taken from online medical journals. And the video and the text story on the website spelled the alleged victim’s name differently. The caution was warranted, according to a new Microsoft threat intelligence report, which confirms the fabricated tale was disinformation from a Russia-linked troll farm. The tech giant’s report released Tuesday …

Trump classified documents trial in Florida postponed indefinitely

Trump classified documents trial in Florida postponed indefinitely

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures while he walks with his attorney Todd Blanche, as his criminal trial over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 continues, at Manhattan state court in New York City, U.S., May 6, 2024.  Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters A federal judge Tuesday indefinitely postponed the criminal classified documents trial of former President Donald Trump, a court filing shows. The trial on charges that Trump willfully retained classified national security records after leaving the White House and then hid them from federal authorities was scheduled to start May 20. But the new ruling from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon vacates that date and sets a new slate of pretrial proceedings, the latest of which is a hearing set for July 22. The ruling casts more doubt on whether Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will face trial on the federal criminal charges prior to the Nov. 5 election. Lawyers for Trump have urged Cannon, whom Trump …

Trump could drive inflation up with second-term economic agenda, analysts say

Trump could drive inflation up with second-term economic agenda, analysts say

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks to guests during a rally at Clinton Middle School on January 06, 2024 in Clinton, Iowa.  Scott Olson | Getty Images News | Getty Images Former President Donald Trump is building a second-term economic agenda that analysts say could reheat the very inflation that he has slammed President Joe Biden for creating. “I call it a ring around the country. We have a ring around the country,” Trump said in a Time magazine interview released Tuesday, referring to aggressive tariffs he has promised to impose in a second term. “I also don’t believe that the costs will go up that much.” The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has repeatedly pledged to hike tariffs, cut taxes and encourage cheap money policy if he wins the November election. Yet economists and Wall Street analysts agree that these plans would likely drive consumer prices higher. Trump has outright dismissed this idea: “I don’t believe it’ll be inflation. I think it’ll be lack of loss for our country,” he said in the Time interview. …

Poland’s president becomes the latest leader to visit Donald Trump as allies eye a possible return

Poland’s president becomes the latest leader to visit Donald Trump as allies eye a possible return

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump met Wednesday in New York with Polish President Andrzej Duda, the latest in a series of meetings with foreign leaders as Europe braces for the possibility of a second Trump term. The presumptive Republican nominee hosted Duda at Trump Tower, where the two discussed the war in Ukraine and Duda’s push to boost NATO members’ defense spending, according to a readout from Trump’s campaign. Duda, who has long expressed admiration for Trump, is also a staunch supporter of Ukraine and has encouraged Washington to provide more aid to Kyiv amid Russian’s ongoing invasion. That funding has been held up by Trump allies in Congress. As he arrived, Trump praised the Polish president, saying, “He’s done a fantastic job and he’s my friend.” “We had four great years together,” Trump added. “We’re behind Poland all the way.” Following the almost 2 1/2 hour meeting, Duda said only that it was a “friendly meeting in very nice atmosphere.” His aide, Wojciech Kolarski, also in attendance, described it as an …

Trump’s abortion statement angers conservatives and gives the Biden campaign a new target

Trump’s abortion statement angers conservatives and gives the Biden campaign a new target

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump still says he’s proud that the Supreme Court justices he nominated overturned Roe v. Wade. Yet he again on Monday avoided tough questions about abortion, including whether he would support a national abortion ban should he return to the White House. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee tried to put to rest an issue widely seen as a general election liability. Instead, his video statement exposed the tough road ahead and inflamed leaders on both sides of the issue. Religious conservatives said they were deeply disappointed. Progressives said he was lying. And there’s every indication that abortion will define the 2024 election no matter what Trump does or says — in large part because Republicans in Congress and in statehouses across the country continue to fight for new restrictions. Here are some takeaways exploring the complicated politics of Trump’s latest statement. SEARCHING FOR POLITICAL SAFE GROUND For Trump, fights over abortion, like any other major issue, have always been about winning. And so it should not be a surprise that …

2 women who say abortion restrictions put them in medical peril feel compelled to campaign for Biden

2 women who say abortion restrictions put them in medical peril feel compelled to campaign for Biden

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Texas woman who went into premature labor, developed sepsis and nearly died and a Louisiana woman who said restrictive abortion laws prevented her from getting medical help for a miscarriage are now campaigning for President Joe Biden as the Democrat highlights how women’s health is being affected by the overturning of federal abortion protections. Amanda Zurawski and Kaitlyn Joshua will travel to North Carolina and Wisconsin over the next two weeks to meet with doctors, local officials and voters. The Biden campaign sees their stories as potent firsthand accounts of the growing medical peril for many women as abortion restrictions pushed by Republicans complicate health care. “The abortion topic is a very heavy topic, and I understand that, said Joshua, 31, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. ”But I also understand and believe that the Biden and Harris administration is the only administration that could do anything remotely close to addressing the abortion bans … and then also doing a deeper dive into research and understanding women’s health in general.” Biden and Democrats …

He once swore off politics. Now, this Georgia activist is trying to recruit people who seldom vote

He once swore off politics. Now, this Georgia activist is trying to recruit people who seldom vote

ATLANTA (AP) — Davante Jennings cast his first ballot for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race. Republican Donald Trump’s election that year, he says, turned him from an idealistic college student to a jaded cynic overnight. Jennings walked away from a system he thought ignored people like himself, a young Black man who grew up politically conscious in Alabama but wielded no obvious power. It took nearly six years for him to see that view as self-defeating. Now, at 27, Jennings is not only eager to cast his second presidential vote for Democratic President Joe Biden, but he also is fully invested as an activist, top aide to a Georgia state lawmaker and regular volunteer recruiting would-be voters off the sideline as part of the not-for-profit New Georgia Project. “I was like, I’m not voting for this if it’s all rigged and doesn’t even matter,” he said in an interview. “Now, I can talk to people that have been beaten down by the system and say, ‘I get it. Let’s talk about why …

Trump sets fundraising record with .5M from Florida event

Trump sets fundraising record with $50.5M from Florida event

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s campaign said it raised $50.5 million on Saturday, a staggering reported haul as his campaign works to catch up to the fundraising juggernaut of President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. The reported haul from the event with major donors at the Palm Beach, Florida, home of billionaire investor John Paulson sets a new single-event fundraising record and is almost double the $26 million that Biden’s campaign said it raised recently at a gathering with former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama at Radio City Music Hall in New York. “It’s clearer than ever that we have the message, the operation, and the money to propel President Trump to victory on November 5,” his campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement. The event, billed as the “Inaugural Leadership Dinner,” sends a signal of a resurgence of Trump and the Republican Party’s fundraising, which has lagged behind Biden and the Democrats. “This has been some incredible evening before it even starts because people — they …

Pressure builds from Nebraska Trump loyalists for a winner-take-all system

Pressure builds from Nebraska Trump loyalists for a winner-take-all system

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Far-right conservatives loyal to former President Donald Trump aren’t slowing their push for the Republican-led Nebraska Legislature to adopt a “winner-take-all” system of awarding Electoral College votes, despite having almost no viable avenue to do so with only five days left in this year’s legislative session. The Nebraska Republican Party, currently led by Trump loyalists, will hold a rally Tuesday in Omaha featuring conservative activist Charlie Kirk to target the state’s atypical system of splitting its five presidential electoral votes based on the popular vote within its congressional districts. Maine is the only other state to split its electoral votes. Republicans want the switch ahead of this year’s hotly contested presidential election to ensure an electoral vote tied to Nebraska’s Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District doesn’t go to President Joe Biden, as it did in 2020. Barack Obama became the first presidential contender to shave off that electoral vote in 2008. “California would never do this. New York would never do this. And as long as that’s the case, neither should we,” …

Democrats hope Biden could get a boost from down-ballot races under Wisconsin’s new legislative map

Democrats hope Biden could get a boost from down-ballot races under Wisconsin’s new legislative map

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s presidential primary Tuesday clears the way for a general election campaign that Democrats see as an opportunity unlike any in recent state history. New legislative districts adopted last month erase Republican advantages that gave the GOP dominance of the Wisconsin Assembly even as Democrats won 14 of the past 17 statewide elections. Democrats think they can now compete for a majority, but also that invigorated legislative campaigns can help turn out votes for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in November. Ben Wikler, the state Democratic Party chairman, describes the idea as “reverse coattails,” a play on the traditional idea that down-ballot candidates are carried by the top of the ticket. “It drives up turnout among people who had been unlikely to vote in a way that can directly affect the number of votes we get for Biden-Harris,” he said. “It’s why, I think, there are consequences far beyond the state Legislature of having the new state legislative maps drawn.” It’s too early to test Wikler’s idea. But …