Weekend Updates: Aug. 11, 2024
— The Trump campaign said that its internal email had been hacked, with documents “obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process.” Steven Cheung, the campaign communications director, warned reporters in a statement: “Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want.” Politico reported that over the past few weeks, beginning July 22, a person with an AOL account and identifying themselves as “Robert” began relaying what appeared to be internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official — along with a 271-page vetting report, dated Feb. 23, about Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. Microsoft released a report Friday warning that Iran-backed hackers had targeted a high-ranking political campaign official via a spear-phishing email. — Monday night, Donald Trump will be interviewed by social media platform X owner Elon Musk. This interview is being described as a “major” event and is part of Trump’s ongoing campaign for the 2024 presidential election. Musk, who has previously expressed skepticism about Trump’s candidacy, has recently endorsed him following an assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. This endorsement signifies a shift in Musk’s political stance, as he had previously supported Democratic candidates, including President Joe Biden, in past elections. — Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance floated more than doubling the federal child tax credit to $5,000, seeking to reframe a “pro-family” stance that has come under attack from Democrats. “I don’t think that you want this massive cutoff for lower-income families, which you have right now,” the Ohio senator and Donald Trump’s running mate said on CBS’s Face the Nation. He didn’t offer specifics on who would quality if the tax credit were expanded from its existing maximum of $2,000 per child. Vance, 40, a father of three, has also said parents should pay a lower tax rate than people without children. — Vance criticized the Biden administration for worsening racial divides, specifically targeting USDA’s financial assistance program for Black farmers. Vance made the comments Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation (link to transcript of program). While Vance did not specify the USDA program, it is part of the Inflation Reduction Act, and aims to address past discrimination against minority farmers by providing $2.2 billion in support. While supporters see it as a necessary step to rectify historical wrongs, critics like Vance argue that it deepens racial tensions instead of promoting unity, sparking debate on how to address past injustices while ensuring fairness. When CBS’ Margaret Brennan noted the USDA program “wasn’t born in the last four years,” Vance said: “No, no not at all, but I think that President Biden and Harris have certainly accelerated it. I don’t think you’ve seen any- anything like what we’ve seen from Kamala Harris when it comes to handing out government benefits based on people’s immutable characteristics. The actual legal enshrinement of discrimination in this country, we haven’t seen anything like in the last 30 or 40 years. Certainly back in the ‘60s and ‘50s, we all look at that as a period that we wanted to get away from, and in some ways, the Harris Administration has re-implemented it. I think it’s pretty disgraceful.” — Biden singles out Pelosi in first interview about dropping out. President Joe Biden gave his first televised interview on Sunday since dropping out of the 2024 presidential race. Biden highlighted his concerns about former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) coming out against him if he stayed in the race. Biden said House and Senate Democrats pressured him to drop out, worrying he was hurting their chances of re-election. Biden gave Rep. Pelosi a special mention. “A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races,” Biden said in the CBS News Sunday Morning interview. “And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic — you’d be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say [something] . . . and I thought it’d be a real distraction. Biden said he ended his re-election bid after hearing from congressional Democrats that he’d harm their chances in November, and concluding that he’d be “a real distraction” if he stayed in the race. “We must, we must, we must defeat Trump,” Biden, 81, said in the CBS News interview, which was recorded last week. Biden’s exit from the race made him the first sitting U.S. president not to pursue a second term since 1968, when fellow Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson said he wouldn’t accept his party’s nomination. — Biden and Harris plan to campaign in Maryland on Aug. 15, their first joint appearance since he left the race, and she secured their party’s presidential nomination. — Harris echoes Trump policy on tips. “When I am president, we will continue our fight for working families of America, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers,” Harris said to a crowd estimated at 12,000 people. Taxing tips is a huge issue in Nevada, which, Bloomberg notes, “has the highest proportion of food service and accommodation workers in the U.S.” Back in June, Donald Trump targeted these tip-dependent workers by announcing the same policy at a Vegas rally, and it’s become a popular line in his speeches. Trump accused Harris of copying his plan for political advantage. “This was a TRUMP idea —She has no ideas, she can only steal from me,” he wrote on Truth Social, his social-media platform. Trump narrowly lost Nevada in 2016 and 2020, and the state is competitive again this year, ranking as one of six tossup states in the presidential contest. The state is also a Senate battleground, with Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), who is up for re-election, one of this year’s most embattled Democratic incumbents. The amount of tips reported to the IRS has risen steadily in recent years and exceeded $38 billion in 2018, according to IRS data. |
