The Latest: Harris and Trump paint different pictures for voters as the White House intensifies

Aug 12, 2024 10:15 AM - 651 words

By The Associated Press

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are painting much different pictures as they meet with voters on the campaign trail. Harris, by turns, is pushing “joy” — branding the Democratic ticket, which includes her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, “as joyful warriors.”

Trump, meanwhile, has promoted a gloomier view for Republicans, saying at a news conference last week that, “We have a lot of bad things coming up.”

Voters will more from both candidates and their running mates in the days ahead.

Walz will hold his first solo events this week, traveling on Tuesday to Los Angeles to speak at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees convention, before attending a series of fundraisers around the country.

Trump is set to do a live interview Monday on X, the social platform from which he was banned for nearly two years following the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the Latest:

Vance hails Trump’s Fed idea and pushes back against criticism over past words on American families

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance used a round of Sunday news show appearances to disparage the Democratic ticket and promote Donald Trump’s record and second-term plans and defend himself from criticism over past remarks that have become a campaign issue.

The Ohio senator, in a series of taped interviews, said there was merit to Trump’s suggestion that presidents have more control of U.S. monetary policy and kept up the GOP line that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrats’ vice presidential candidate, had exaggerated his military record.

Vance, who shadowed Vice President Kamala Harris and Walz during their recent visits to several battleground states, was quizzed about abortion and his past comments about American family life, among other topics.

▶ Read more about some of his other appearances.

Trump campaign says its emails were hacked

Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign said Saturday that it had been hacked and suggested Iranian actors were involved in stealing and distributing sensitive internal documents.

The campaign provided no specific evidence of Iran’s involvement, but the claim comes a day after Microsoft issued a report detailing foreign agents’ attempts to interfere in the U.S. campaign in 2024.

It cited an instance of an Iranian military intelligence unit in June sending “a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor.”

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung blamed the hack on “foreign sources hostile to the United States.” A spokesperson for the National Security Council said in a statement that it takes any report of improper foreign interference “extremely seriously” and condemns any government or entity that attempts to undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions, but said it deferred to the Justice Department on this matter.

▶ Read more here.

Walz to hold first solo events as Harris' running mate

Tim Walz is holding his first solo events as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, traveling on Tuesday to Los Angeles to speak at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees convention, before attending a series of fundraisers around the country.

After his speech in Los Angeles, the Minnesota governor will hit five states in three days, beginning with a fundraiser in Newport Beach, California.

He will headline two more fundraisers on Wednesday in Denver and Boston. He’ll speak at fundraisers in Newport, Rhode Island, and Southampton, New York the following day.

Harris introduced Walz as her running mate during a joint rally last week in Philadelphia, and the pair then campaigned together in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. The vice president is set to campaign with Biden in Maryland this week, and also has promised to detail her policy proposals on the economy.