Harris condemns Trump over plans for mass deportations
Kamala Harris has shifted to immigration, hitting out at Donald Trump for his promise to carry out mass deportations if elected, while insisting that border security and sorting out the status of undocumented people brought to the country as children are not mutually exclusive.
“While we fight to move our nation forward to a brighter future, Donald Trump and his extremist allies will keep trying to pull us backward,” Harris said. “We all remember what they did to tear families apart, and now they have pledged to carry out the largest deportation, a mass deportation, in American history. Imagine what that would look like and what that would be. How’s that going to happen? Massive raids, massive detention camps. What are they talking about?”
Harris also mentioned Dreamers, as undocumented people who grew up in the United States are known, and improving border security, which an increasing number of Democrats are demanding:
We must also reform our broken immigration system and protect our Dreamers. And, understand, we can do both – create an earned pathway to citizenship and ensure our border is secure. We can do both, and we must do both.
Key events
Harris just wrapped up her speech, but before she did, she made the case that restoring reproductive freedom was a concern of Hispanic voters.
“Today, 40% of Latinas in America live in a state with a Trump abortion ban,” the vice-president said.
She then described how difficult it could be for a pregnant woman to travel out-of-state to seek care:
So, imagine if she is a working woman – understand that the majority of women who seek abortion care are mothers, understand what that means for her. So, she’s got to now travel to another state. God help her that she has some extra money to pay for that plane ticket. She’s got to figure out what to do with her kids. God help her if she has affordable childcare. Imagine what that means. She has to leave her home to go to a airport, stand in a TSA line.
…
Go through the details. So, she’s got to stand in the TSA line to get on a plane, sitting next to a perfect stranger, going to a city where she’s never been to go and receive a medical procedure. She’s going to have to get right back to the airport, because she got to get back to those kids, and it’s not like her best friend can go with her, because the best friend is probably taking care of the kids, all because these people have decided they’re in a better position to tell her what’s in her best interest than she is to know.
Harris then argued that support for reproductive freedom does not necessarily clash with religious beliefs against abortion: “It’s just simply wrong, and I think we all know one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do if she chooses. If she chooses, she will talk with her priest, her pastor, her rabbi, her imam, but not the government telling her what to do.”
Harris condemns Trump over plans for mass deportations
Kamala Harris has shifted to immigration, hitting out at Donald Trump for his promise to carry out mass deportations if elected, while insisting that border security and sorting out the status of undocumented people brought to the country as children are not mutually exclusive.
“While we fight to move our nation forward to a brighter future, Donald Trump and his extremist allies will keep trying to pull us backward,” Harris said. “We all remember what they did to tear families apart, and now they have pledged to carry out the largest deportation, a mass deportation, in American history. Imagine what that would look like and what that would be. How’s that going to happen? Massive raids, massive detention camps. What are they talking about?”
Harris also mentioned Dreamers, as undocumented people who grew up in the United States are known, and improving border security, which an increasing number of Democrats are demanding:
We must also reform our broken immigration system and protect our Dreamers. And, understand, we can do both – create an earned pathway to citizenship and ensure our border is secure. We can do both, and we must do both.
Harris began her remarks with a staple of her stump speeches: her background as a prosecutor in the Bay Area of northern California, which she said was informed by her mother’s quest to cure breast cancer.
Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a biomedical scientist, “had two goals in her life, to raise her two daughters, my sister, Maya and me, and to end breast cancer,” the vice-president said.
“She was a breast cancer researcher, and growing up, our mother taught us certain fundamental values, the importance of hard work, the power of community, and the responsibility that we have to not complain about anything, much less injustice, right? Because, why are you complaining about it? She would say, do something about it,” the vice-president said.
Harris continued:
Part of the background on why I became a prosecutor was actually when I was in high school, I learned that my best friend was being abused, being molested by her stepfather, and when I learned about it, I told her she had to come live with us. And I called my mother, and my mother said, of course she does, and she did.
And so I decided I wanted to start a career and do the work of … making sure that we protect the most vulnerable. And so I started my career as a courtroom prosecutor and took on those who would be predators against the most vulnerable.
Kamala Harris is now giving remarks at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s annual leadership conference in Washington DC.
She’s about 30 minutes late to starting the event.
This evening, Donald Trump will rally in New York’s Long Island, a state home to several House districts that will determine whether the GOP retains control of Congress’s lower chamber.
Earlier this morning, a social media account reported that police securing the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, where Trump will speak, had found an explosive device. But the county police department said on X that report is not correct, though it had detained for questioning one person “who may have been training a bomb detection dog near the site”.
Harris to speak at Latino leadership institute conference
We’re expecting Kamala Harris to soon deliver remarks at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s annual leadership conference in Washington DC.
She will undoubtedly mark Hispanic Heritage Month, which began on Sunday, and make the case for why Latino voters should support her in the November election.
We’ll let you know what the vice-president has to say.
Senate Democratic leader Schumer hits GOP for again blocking bill to protect IVF access
Yesterday, Senate Democrats tried for the second time to pass legislation protecting access to IVF care nationwide, in reaction to an Alabama supreme court ruling earlier this year that temporarily cut off access to the procedure in the state.
But Republicans stood in the bill’s way, voting almost unanimously to keep it from clearing the 60-vote threshold needed for passage.
In remarks on the Senate floor today, the chamber’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the GOP’s votes were a harbinger of what would come if Project 2025, the rightwing blueprint to remake the US government authored by conservatives connected to Donald Trump, was implemented. Pro-abortion groups fear the plan’s proposals to curb access to the procedure could also be used against IVF:
Yesterday was a sad day in the Senate as Republicans – for the second time this year – blocked legislation to protect families’ access to IVF.
By voting against IVF, Republicans confirmed many Americans’ worst fear: Project 2025 is alive and well when it comes to reproductive rights.
Senate Republicans have spent months tying themselves into knots claiming that of course they are in favor of protecting IVF.
But when it mattered most – when it came time to actually vote – Republicans showed their true colors and voted no.
And what made yesterday’s vote even worse was that was the second time they’ve blocked IVF protections, even though it’s increasingly clear many Americans are worried about access.
Both times, without hesitation, Senate Republicans caved to the extremists on their right flank.
Here’s more on the effort by Democrats to protect IVF access:
Over in the Senate, Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer continued to press House Republicans to approve spending legislation, known as a continuing resolution (CR) that has the support of both parties.
“For the last two weeks, Speaker Johnson and House Republican leaders have wasted precious time on a proposal that everyone knows can’t become law. His own Republican Conference cannot unite around his proposal. Today, the House is expected to vote on the speaker’s CR, and it is expected to fail,” Schumer said, in remarks on the Senate floor.
“I hope that once the Speaker’s CR fails he moves on to a strategy that will actually work: bipartisan cooperation. It’s the only thing that has kept the government open every time we have faced a funding deadline. It’s going to be the only thing that works this time too. Bipartisan, bicameral cooperation. That’s what works. That’s what we’re willing and happy to do. And the clock is ticking. If Republicans keep squabbling and careen us into a shutdown, the consequences will reverberate across the country.”
House Democrats are expected to vote against the government funding bill that is paired with legislation intended to keep non-citizens from voting.
Even if the legislation does pass, the White House said it “strongly opposes” the Save act, which requires people to prove citizenship when registering to vote.
But a perhaps more significant question is whether Republican House speaker Mike Johnson’s push even has the requisite support of his own party. Punchbowl News suggests it does not:
The House is set to vote today on a short-term funding bill that won’t pass. GOP lawmakers are grumbling about messaging, strategy and yearning to get back home to run for reelection. And Speaker Mike Johnson is being publicly and privately cagey about his next move, frustrating the entire House Republican Conference, which is looking for guidance about the leadership’s plans.
In fact, the GOP leadership is even in the dark at most times as to what Johnson is thinking and planning.
Johnson is putting a bill on the floor that his entire leadership team — Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Tom Emmer of Minnesota — knows is going to fail. One House Republican lawmaker entered a meeting of GOP whips Tuesday and told us that he was “going to see how well they’re polishing this turd.”
In theory, the impending failure of the six-month stopgap funding bill coupled with the SAVE Act will lead House Republicans toward accepting a clean CR. Johnson can then tell hardline conservatives that he has no other option.
“It’ll fail, then we’ll go back and do something that’s to the end of the year clean,” said Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), a senior House appropriator. “That’s just reality. We’ve been through this drill enough times to know that nobody’s come up with a silver bullet to put somebody in a chokehold ‘till they scream, ‘Uncle.’”
Republican House speaker Johnson vows to press on with spending bill tied to non-citizen voting ban
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, this morning elaborated on his plan to hold a vote on a government funding bill linked to legislation that would require people to prove their citizenship before registering to vote.
Congress is scrambling to authorize new spending to ward off a partial government shutdown that could begin 1 October, but Johnson has insisted on pairing a funding bill with the legislation intended to crack down on non-citizens casting ballots, even though that rarely happens.
Johnson has scheduled for today a vote in the House on the controversial package, told Fox News this about his intentions in an interview this morning:
Listen, Congress has an immediate obligation to do two very important things. We have to keep the government funded, and we need to make sure that our elections are secure. And we have a vehicle today to do both things, because we owe that to the American people and because they demand it. We’re moving legislation today to have a continuing resolution to keep the government going for six months and to make sure that illegals cannot vote, noncitizens cannot vote in the upcoming election. It’s a number one issue around the country.
It’s not just Georgia where Black voters have grown skeptical of Democrats.
Polls taken throughout this year showed Joe Biden struggling with the group, and Kamala Harris has made winning their support a priority. In a conversation organized by the National Association of Black Journalists yesterday, the vice-president was asked about her strategy, specifically as it pertained to men. She replied:
I think it’s very important to not operate from the assumption that Black men are in anybody’s pocket. Black men are like any other voting group – you gotta earn the vote. So I am working to earn the vote, and not assuming I’m going to have it because I am Black, but because the policies and perspectives I have understand what we must do to recognize the needs for all communities.
One reason why Kamala Harris may be trailing Donald Trump in Georgia? Weakness with Black voters.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll of the state finds that the vice-president’s support among the group – a key part of the Democratic constituency – is not where it should be, and that Harris also has not rallied enough of her party’s voters overall.
Harris has the support of 86% of Democrats, and 77% of Black voters, which the Journal-Constitution said is 10 percentage points below her campaign’s goals. If there’s a silver lining here for Harris, it’s that about 12% of Black voters say they have not made up their minds.
Trump leads Harris in swing state Georgia – poll
Donald Trump has a lead over Kamala Harris in swing state Georgia, a new poll finds, raising questions about the vice-president’s ability to repeat the victory Joe Biden pulled off there four years ago.
Biden’s triumph in 2020 was the first time since 1992 that Georgia had supported a Democratic presidential candidate, but prior to his departure from the presidential race in July, polls of the state had generally shown Trump with the advantage in this year’s election.
That trend continues under Harris, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found in its data released this morning, although the gap between Trump and Harris is not as big as it was with Biden on the ballot. Trump leads with 47% support, compared to Harris’ 44%. In June, Trump had a five-percentage-point lead against Biden.
More than 100 Republican former national security officials, congressional lawmakers endorse Harris
In an open letter, a group of more than 100 Republican former national security officials and House and Senate lawmakers have endorsed Kamala Harris, saying Donald Trump cannot be trusted to manage threats and the United State’s relationships with allies and adversaries.
“We expect to disagree with Kamala Harris on many domestic and foreign policy issues, but we believe that she possesses the essential qualities to serve as president and Donald Trump does not. We therefore support her election to be president,” the group writes, adding that, “We firmly oppose the election of Donald Trump.”
They write that the former president “promoted daily chaos in government, praised our enemies and undermined our allies, politicized the military and disparaged our veterans, prioritized his personal interest above American interests, and betrayed our values, democracy, and this country’s founding documents.” They also say Trump has shown he is susceptible to manipulation by foreign rivals like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.
The letter continues:
We appreciate that many Republicans prefer Donald Trump to Kamala Harris, for a variety of reasons. We recognize and do not disparage their potential concerns, including about some of the positions advocated by the left wing of the Democratic party. But any potential concerns pale in comparison to Donald Trump’s demonstrated chaotic and unethical behavior and disregard for our Republic’s time-tested principles of constitutional governance. His unpredictable nature is not the negotiating virtue he extols. To the contrary, in matters of national security, his demeanor invites equally erratic behavior from our adversaries, which irresponsibly threatens reckless and dangerous global consequences.
The signatories stretch from recent government veterans all the way back to officials who served under Ronald Reagan. The group includes former congressman and January 6 committee member Adam Kinzinger and Chuck Hagel, a former senator who served as defense secretary under Barack Obama.
John Negroponte, a director of national intelligence for George W Bush, signed, as did Eliot A Cohen, a co-founder of the neoconservative Project for the New American Century, which was influential in laying the groundwork for Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Also on the letter is Chester Crocker, who served as assistant secretary of state for African affairs under Reagan, and was a key figure in Washington’s relationship with South Africa and its neighbors during the volatile years that preceded the end of Apartheid.
This post has been corrected to read that Chuck Hagel served under Barack Obama, not Donald Trump.
Another poll released today showed a majority of Americans would support mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, something Donald Trump has suggested doing in a second term.
Vows to crack down on undocumented migrants are a major plank of Trump’s campaign, and at the Republican national convention in Wisconsin two months ago, attendees at one point were given signs reading, “Mass deportation now!”
A Scripps News/Ipsos survey released today finds that 54% of those polled would support mass deportations, while 42% would be opposed to it.
However, the poll found that 68% of those surveyed would be ok with creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people brought to the United States as children. Enacting such a policy has eluded Congress for years:
Majorities of Americans hold unfavorable views of Trump and Harris – poll
With all this talk of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, one would think that they are popular with Americans. A new survey indicates otherwise.
Gallup released data this morning showing that more people view both the Democratic vice-president and Republican former president unfavorably than favorably.
Trump’s unfavorability rating is 53%, seven points higher than his favorability rating. Harris has seen a jump in her popularity with voters since becoming the Democratic nominee last month, but even with that, 54% of voters view her unfavorably, and 44% favorably – a gap of 10 percentage points.
If you’re looking for a clue as to how this data, gathered from 3 to 15 September, could affect the election, you’ll find it among the perceptions of independent voters, who might make a difference in deciding the winner of battleground states.
Trump has the edge with that group, with 44% viewing him favorably, as opposed to 35% feeling the same about Harris.
Both Donald Trump and JD Vance have campaign events today, though only one is in a battleground state.
Vance will rally in North Carolina’s capital city, Raleigh, at 3pm. Polls have recently shown Kamala Harris coming within striking distance of winning the Tar Heel state, which has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 2008. Vance wants to keep that streak going.
Trump will be hold a rally at 7pm in a coliseum in Uniondale, in New York City’s Long Island suburbs. The state is not considered winnable by Republicans this year, but is home to several heavily contested House districts that the GOP is vying for. The former president’s campaign said he will zero in on crimes involving undocumented people on Long Island – even though study after study has shown that group offends at comparatively lower rates.
National Hispanic Heritage Month began on Sunday, and will be a focus of both Kamala Harris and Joe Biden today.
The vice-president will address the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute annual conference at 12.15pm ET, then hold a virtual campaign event at 3.45pm.
At the White House, Joe Biden will host a reception in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month at 5pm.
Hugo Lowell
America Pac, one of the largest and the most ambitious of the groups supporting Donald Trump’s campaign, is replacing its voter turnout operations in the crucial battleground states of Arizona and Nevada, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The political action committee, backed by billionaire Elon Musk, has ended its contract with the September Group and will hire a new company to knock on doors with fewer than 50 days left until the election.
America Pac used non-performance as the stated reason to back out of the contract in the past few days, claiming the September Group was not hitting its door-knocking targets, one of people said.
The shake-up comes at a crunch moment for the Trump campaign, which has outsourced virtually its entire ground game operation to a number of political action committees in this presidential cycle. America Pac is seen as the most ambitious, with a presence in every swing state.
As a result of the shake-up, America Pac has not canvassed any neighbourhoods in Arizona and Nevada on behalf of the Trump campaign for the past few days as it resets its operations in the two states.
America Pac hopes the roughly 300 canvassers employed by the September Group will be rehired by its successor but whether that occurs remains uncertain.
You can read the full piece here: