Welcome to the online edition of From the Politics Desk. This evening newsletter brings you the latest reporting and analysis from campaigns, the White House and Capitol Hill from the NBC News politics team.
In today’s Campaign Embed, Katherine Korecki explores how Tim Walz began to come out of his shell over the course of the campaign. Additionally, White House correspondent Monica Alba reports on Kamala Harris’ efforts to distance herself from Joe Biden. And senior national affairs correspondent Jonathan Allen refuted Donald Trump’s comments in which he referred to the January 6 rioters as “we.”
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Tim Walz comes out of the bubble
Written by Katherine Korecki
In the weeks following the vice presidential debate, Tim Walz has been less of a proper person than an active campaigner in his role since joining Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. He sounds like an aggressive campaigner who has earned the role.
Walz looked more natural on the trail in recent days. Ditching the blue sport coat and white collared shirt he’s been wearing for the past few months, he wore a khaki and navy Harris Waltz sweatshirt during a stop in Green Bay, Wisconsin on Monday, and a Harris Waltz sweatshirt in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. In the countryside, he wore his signature flannel.
Campaign officials say Walz is returning to television after making headlines for labeling her as a Republican before she was selected as Harris’ running mate, and is returning to “The View.” He is also scheduled to appear on “The Daily Show.” In a cable news interview, he called the tickets “bizarre.”
“Since I’ve been a regular on Fox News, I’ll probably do one or two more interviews,” Walz said Tuesday during a campaign stop in Valencia, Pennsylvania. The Democrat appeared on “Fox News Sunday” for the second weekend in a row, saying he was returning mid-campaign to speak directly to undecided voters who watch the channel.
It’s all part of the Harris-Waltz campaign’s move to take a “more aggressive” approach to the Minnesota governor’s campaign in the wake of her showdown with J.D. Vance. Until then, after becoming the Democratic Party’s vice presidential candidate, he avoided answering questions from the media and was largely absent from television.
Walz has ramped up his attacks on Donald Trump, hitting battleground states and appearing on multiple media platforms.
“Donald Trump talked over the weekend about using the U.S. military against people who oppose him,” Walz said. “He called it the enemy within, and for Donald Trump, anyone who disagrees with him is an enemy. This is not to scare you or anything. I say that to you. , because we need to whip his ass and put this guy behind us. That’s what you have to do.”
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Harris’ team and the White House have discussed her plans to distance herself from Biden.
Written by Monica Alba
The White House and Kamala Harris’ team are in frequent communication about how she plans to distance herself while remaining loyal to President Joe Biden, three people familiar with the matter said. That’s what it means.
That’s why Biden’s comments on Tuesday night that Harris would “chart her own path” were followed by an interview with Fox News on Wednesday that said if Harris is elected, her presidency will be his “continuation.” Officials said that this was the trigger for the company to declare that it was not. .
One of the sources said no one in the White House was surprised by the comments because the conversation took place privately before the Fox interview.
The person said Biden has emphasized that Harris should do “whatever it takes” to win and understands that she represents a new generation of leadership.
Meanwhile, the Harris campaign recognized the need to refine its response to questions last week about how Harris would be different from Biden and what changes she would bring to the administration if elected.
During the Fox interview, she talked about how her leadership style differs from Biden’s decades of experience in Washington.
“Like every new president who takes office, I’m going to bring my life experience, my professional experience, my fresh new ideas,” Harris told Bret Bayer. “For example, I didn’t spend the majority of my career in Washington.”
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📺 On Air: Monica also reported that the Harris campaign is launching new TV ads in battleground states that portray Trump as “unstable” and “unstable.”
The reason President Trump referred to the January 6th rioters as “we” was very revealing.
Written by Jonathan Allen
If it were up to Donald Trump, this would be a signature election, but it’s starting to become a double-edged sword for the former president.
Two of President Trump’s most prominent ads during the campaign are boosting Kamala Harris’ support for states to perform gender reassignment surgeries on prisoners, including illegal immigrants. The spots show that she is for “them/them” and Trump is for “you”.
But the first-person plural raised eyebrows this week when President Trump used the term at a Univision town hall.
Asked about the mob of his supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 in a deadly and ill-fated attempt to prevent the official certification of his 2020 defeat, Trump said he saw himself, at least figuratively, as part of the crowd. I answered that I had put it inside.
“There were no guns there. We didn’t have any guns,” he said. “The others had guns.”
Of course, the “others” were law enforcement officers protecting the Capitol and the members of Congress inside. Hundreds of “us” people were convicted of various crimes related to the riots.
It was unclear at the beginning of his answer whether President Trump wanted everyone to know that he still sided with the mob (almost four years later), but he quickly brushed off any questions. Ta.
“And when I say ‘we,’ these are the people who walked in, and this is just a small part of the whole, and no one is looking, and no one is showing. But… It was a day of love,” he said.
President Trump did not walk to the Capitol as he had suggested. He returned to the White House and watched the violence unfold.
Although there is a partisan divide over the importance of January 6th, polls show that most Americans do not support the riots. Former president and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance continues to deny that Trump lost the 2020 election.
With less than three weeks until the end of this election, pronouns have become one of the ways President Trump is trying to portray Harris as ideologically outside the mainstream. His use of the word “we” speaks of an area in which he not only holds extreme views, but is a major proponent of them.
It’s unclear whether voters will pay attention to pronouns the way Trump does, but he is taking a risk by siding with the perpetrators of what critics say is an attack on democracy itself. It will be.
🗞️ Today’s Top News
😬 Nerves frayed: Democrats are once again worried that the election is getting further away. And Harris seems okay with party members feeling that way. Continue reading → 📕 Book report: Mitch McConnell endorsed Trump for president this year. But in a new book, Senate Republican leaders are quoted derogating President Trump after the 2020 election, calling him a “scumbag,” “a fool,” and “a hothead.” Continue reading → 🗣️ Notable quote: President Trump declares himself the “father of IVF” during Fox News town hall, while recently discovering what this decades-old procedure actually is He also said that he did. Continue reading → 📈 Poll position: The latest Howard University poll shows Harris maintaining a strong lead over black voters in key battleground states. Continue reading → 🧾 Aftermath of assassination attempt: An independent, bipartisan review of the assassination attempt targeting Trump at a July rally in Pennsylvania found that the Secret Service made “numerous mistakes” and “certain failures.” It turned out that there was a malfunction. Continue reading → 🌀 Hurricane Impact: Early voting is underway in North Carolina, but damage from Hurricane Helen continues to make it difficult for voters to get to the polls, leading to candidates’ last campaign days. will be canceled before Election Day. Continue reading → ☀️ Florida: Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allies are stepping up efforts to defeat a November ballot measure that would enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution. Continue reading → 🌏 Traveling around the world: Biden is visiting Germany on one of his last occasions as president to outline his foreign policy vision. Continue reading → 🔑 Key races in the Keystone State: Democrats optimistic they can finally defeat Trump ally and former Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania) are. Continue reading → 🗳️ Honor Roll: St. Olaf College in Minnesota boasted an 87.6% turnout in 2020 and is looking to break its own record this year. Read more → Follow the live broadcast from the campaign trail →
That’s all from the political desk. If you have any feedback, love it or hate it, email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com.
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