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The running mates of Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris are coming under greater scrutiny as the presidential election heats up.
Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance winds down several unsuccessful charities that he started after the successful publication of “Hillbilly Elegy,” while the DUI arrest of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, from nearly 30 years ago has attracted attention, particularly from his detractors.
Meanwhile, members of Congress are pressing Pentagon leaders to ensure the military is not swept up in politics during the presidential election and that active-duty troops are not used illegally as a domestic police force.
The 2024 presidential race is the first since the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 aimed at preventing President Joe Biden’s victory from being certified.
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Here’s the Latest:
Yesterday, Trump gave his second news conference in as many weeks as he adjusts to a newly energized Democratic ticket ahead of next week’s Democratic National Convention.
At his New Jersey golf club, he blended falsehoods about the economy with misleading statements and deeply personal attacks about his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“As a result of Kamala’s inflation, price hikes have cost the typical household a total of $28,000. … When I left office, I left Kamala and crooked Joe Biden a surging economy and no inflation. The mortgage rate was around 2%. Gasoline had reached $1.87 a gallon. … Harris and Biden blew it all up.”
However, the claims were either exaggerated or misleading. Prices did surge during the Biden-Harris administration, though $28,000 is far higher than independent estimates. Moody’s Analytics calculated last year that price increases over the previous two years were costing the typical U.S. household $709 a month. That would equal $8,500 a year.
Politicians often recalibrate in the face of shifting public opinion and circumstance. Across two decades in elected offices, Vice President Kamala Harris is no exception.
She has staked out expedient and – at times — contradictory positions as she climbed the political ladder.
In addition to reversing course on fracking and cash bail, Harris has changed tack on issues including health care (she supported a plan to eliminate private health insurance before she opposed it), immigration and gun control.
The Trump-Vance campaign says the Republican vice presidential nominee is preparing to dissolve what’s left of the modest charitable effort he launched to help people in Appalachia after writing “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Vance formed two nonprofits starting in 2016 to address problems in Ohio and other “Rust Belt” states.
They were primarily supposed to focus on boosting job opportunities, improving mental health treatment and combating the opioid crisis.
The original organization folded within five years and Vance put the other on hold when he ran successfully for the Senate in 2022.
Now that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is Vice President Kamala Harris ′ running mate, his drunken driving arrest from 1995 in Nebraska — long before he entered politics — is getting renewed scrutiny.
Walz was a 31-year-old teacher when he was stopped the night of Sept. 23, 1995, near Chadron, Nebraska. He pleaded guilty in March 1996 to a reduced charge of reckless driving.
Members of Congress are pressing the Pentagon’s top two leaders to ensure the military is not swept up in politics during the presidential election and that active-duty troops are not used illegally as a domestic police force.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, lawmakers asked the defense leaders to reaffirm that U.S. law prohibits forces from being used for civilian law enforcement and that they should not carry out unlawful orders.
The concerns come as the campaign heats up — the first presidential vote since the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, aimed at preventing Joe Biden’s victory from being certified.
Trump continues to claim that fraud cost him the 2020 election even though his own attorney general, recounts and investigations found no evidence of that. And he still faces charges of illegally conspiring to undo the results of the election.
