Election 2024 Latest: Tulsi Gabbard endorses Trump, Harris campaign says it’s raised $540M

The campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are arguing in advance of their high-stakes Sept. 10 debate over whether microphones should be muted except for the candidate whose turn it is to speak. President Joe Biden’s campaign team made microphone muting a condition of its decision to accept any debates this year. Trump on Sunday suggested he might not show up for the ABC-hosted debate.

Trump traveled to Michigan on Monday to address the National Guard Association of the United States conference in Detroit. He was joined by former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who endorsed him.

Meanwhile, Harris’ campaign said it has now raised $540 million and saw a surge of donations during the Democratic National Convention last week.

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

Here’s the Latest:

Strategist who ran DeSantis’ ill-fated bid is working with Musk to help organize voters for Trump

Ron DeSantis’ senior political aides were gathered last year at the Florida governor’s campaign headquarters, an office across the street from a Red Lobster on Tallahassee’s north side, planning the announcement of his candidacy for president.

Some wanted the Republican to go to a baseball stadium in Tampa, near where he grew up and starred in Little League, for what they hoped would be a photogenic rally with his young family. Campaign manager Generra Peck supported a different idea, according to people familiar with the matter — one she had quietly been working on for weeks with Elon Musk, the then-new owner of the platform still known at the time as Twitter. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose internal deliberations.

DeSantis opted for an audio-only conversation with Musk on Twitter Spaces. Initially drawing interest and curiosity, the call was a disaster. The feed crashed due to technical glitches, creating an inauspicious opening for what would ultimately be DeSantis’ ill-fated campaign.

Peck, who was demoted three months into DeSantis’ candidacy, and Musk are now working together again, this time on a super political action committee, America PAC, dedicated to electing Donald Trump, who beat DeSantis on his way to winning this year’s Republican nomination.

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Georgia judge rules independent and third-party candidates ineligible

A judge says four independent and third-party candidates are ineligible to appear on Georgia’s presidential ballot.

The final decision is now up to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after Monday’s rulings by Michael Malihi, an administrative law judge. If affirmed, the rulings would block independents Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, as well as the Green Party’s Jill Stein and the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Claudia De la Cruz.

Kennedy has said he wants to withdraw his name in Georgia and some other closely contested states after he endorsed Donald Trump. Democrats legally challenged whether all four qualify for the ballot, seeking to block candidates who could siphon votes from Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris after Joe Biden won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020.

Raffensperger must make a decision before Georgia mails military and overseas ballots beginning Sept. 17. Spokesperson Mike Hassinger said Raffensperger’s office is reviewing the decisions and will decide each as soon as possible. If finalized by Raffensperger, the rulings mean that Georgia voters will choose among only Harris, Trump and Libertarian Chase Oliver in the presidential race.

Voter Voice: ‘I wish he would just state the facts’

Michelle Boyack of Salt Lake City was heartened by Trump’s speech because, she said, “I appreciate the way he supports the military.”

And although Boyack, a 45-year-old national guard spouse, plans to vote for Trump, she said she wished he would have been less aggressive in criticizing Biden and more focused on policy.

“It’s hard because we’re not supposed to be political,” said Boyack. “I wish he would just state the facts of what he plans to do if elected, and not so much going after Biden.”

Jill Stein will remain on Wisconsin presidential ballot

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein will remain on the ballot in the crucial swing state of Wisconsin after the state Supreme Court decided on Monday not to hear a Democratic challenge seeking to oust her.

The presence of independent and third party candidates on the ballot could be a deciding factor in a state where four of the last six presidential elections have been decided by between 5,700 votes and about 23,000 votes.

The liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court decided against hearing the challenge brought by David Strange, an employee of the Democratic National Committee, who sought to oust Stein from the ballot. The court did not explain its reasoning.

Michael White, co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party, called the complaint a “mark of fear by the Democratic Party” and hailed the court’s decision not to consider it.

Stein last appeared on the Wisconsin ballot 2016, when she won just over 31,000 votes — more than Donald Trump’s winning margin of just under 23,000 votes. Some Democrats have blamed her for helping Trump win the state and the presidency that year.

Voter Voice: ‘Unfortunately, decorum has gone out of town’

Karen Dill said she didn’t mind Trump’s harsh criticism of Biden, the U.S. military’s commander in chief, in part because both major party candidates were invited to speak. Harris declined the invitation.

“There is a big difference between our military now and before, when he was president,” said Dill, the 66-year-old retired accountant whose husband is a 42-year-retired national guardsman. “So, I didn’t think it was out of order.”

“And, unfortunately, decorum has gone out of town,” said Dill, who plans to vote for Trump. “Would it be great if he didn’t act like that? Wouldn’t that be great and wonderful. It’s just where we are now.”

Families of killed service members are still fighting for answers

In a media call on Monday with Trump’s running mate JD Vance and Republican congressmen, families of some of the service members who were killed by the bombing three years ago said they had not heard from Harris and they are still fighting for answers on how their loved ones died.

Alicia Lopez, the mother of Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, said she wanted to be present when they fired those responsible for the operation that led to their deaths.

“For them to think that is OK and treat it as another page in a book that they’re just flipping over for the next chapter it saddens me and frightens me all at the same time,” she said. “I do have a son that’s currently serving, and I pray that I don’t get another knock on my door because of the lack of responsibilities this administration has for our military.”

Mark Schmitz, father of Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, said he wanted politicians from both parties to ask harder questions at the Afghanistan War hearings.

“This is not a Republican versus Democrat issue, this is an American issue. This is a lack of leadership, and this is the result. America needs to recognize that when choosing a leader,” he said. “Those that are privileged enough to challenge these people in the committee setting need to take full advantage of that to get to the bottom of it.”

Tulsi Gabbard endorses Trump against former foe Harris

Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has endorsed Donald Trump’s presidential bid, furthering her shift away from the party she sought to represent four years ago and linking herself to the GOP nominee’s critiques of Vice President Kamala Harris and the chaotic Afghanistan War withdrawal.

Appearing Monday with Trump in Detroit, Gabbard, a National Guard veteran who served two tours of duty in the Middle East, said that the GOP nominee “understands the grave responsibility that a president and commander in chief bears for every single one of our lives.”

The pair appeared at the National Guard Association of the United States on the third anniversary of the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport, which killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghans. Gabbard accompanied Trump earlier Monday to Arlington National Cemetery, when the former president laid wreaths in honor of three of the slain service members — Sgt. Nicole Gee, Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover and Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss.

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Takeaways from the AP’s review of Tim Walz’s descriptions of his military record

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz served in the National Guard for 24 years, rising through the enlisted ranks and receiving an honorable discharge. It is a record seen as one of his political strengths. Republicans are trying to turn it into a weakness.

They have seized on criticism from former National Guard members denouncing Walz, the Minnesota governor, for retiring from the military in 2005 to run for Congress shortly before his unit was deployed to Iraq and for overstating the rank he held after he left the service. They also have pointed to a comment Walz made that implied he had seen combat, when he had not.

It is a risky strategy for Republicans that invites comparison between Walz, with decades of military service, and former President Donald Trump, who received a series of deferments to avoid serving in Vietnam, including one attained with a physician’s letter stating he suffered from bone spurs in his feet.

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Trump takes stage at National Guard Association’s conference in Detroit

Former President Donald Trump has taken the stage at the National Guard Association of the United States’ general conference in downtown Detroit’s Huntington Center conference hall.

It’s the first of several stops for the Republican presidential ticket this week in Michigan, a pivotal state in the race for 270 Electoral College votes. Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance plans to campaign in Michigan Tuesday and Trump plans to be back Thursday.

Walz’s exit from Minnesota National Guard left openings for critics to pounce on his military record

John Kolb, a retired Minnesota National Guard colonel, knew Tim Walz by reputation as an “excellent leader” who adroitly guided the enlisted troops in his field artillery battalion. But Kolb was stunned by what he saw when Walz left the military and entered politics.

Walz retired from the National Guard in 2005 to run for Congress just before his unit received an order to mobilize for the war in Iraq. Then during the campaign, Walz overstated the rank he held at the point he left the service.

“That is not the behavior I would expect out of a senior noncommissioned officer,” Kolb said in an interview.

Those two sides of Walz’s service have been in the spotlight now that the Minnesota governor is the Democratic nominee for vice president. Supporters have lauded Walz’s 24 years of service in the National Guard, where he rose through the enlisted ranks and received an honorable discharge.

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She’s the sitting vice president. She’s the candidate of change. How Harris is having it both ways

She’s the sitting vice president who has been in office for 3 1/2 years. She’s also the presidential candidate of just five weeks promising a “new way forward.”

Kamala Harris is having it both ways as she hits the campaign trail after the Democratic National Convention, taking credit for parts of President Joe Biden’s record in rallies staged in front of Air Force Two while casting herself as a new leader who rails against “the politics of the past.”

In every presidential cycle candidates run on experience or freshness, but Harris so far appears to be successfully harmonizing two seemingly competing messages, much to the frustration of former President Donald Trump and his allies.

“She has this powerful and unique and interesting advantage that we have never seen before in our politics,” said Patrick Gaspard, CEO of the Democratic-leaning think tank Center for American Progress Action Fund and a former executive director of the Democratic National Committee under President Barack Obama.

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Harris campaign says it’s raised $540 million and saw a surge of donations during the convention

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign says it has now raised $540 million for its election battle against Republican nominee former President Donald Trump.

The campaign has had no problems getting supporters to open their wallets since President Joe Biden announced on July 21 he was ending his campaign and quickly endorsed Harris. The campaign said it saw a surge of donations during last week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago where Harris and her vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, accepted their nominations.

“Just before Vice President Harris’ acceptance speech Thursday night, we officially crossed the $500 million mark,” campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in a memo released by the campaign on Sunday. “Immediately after her speech, we saw our best fundraising hour since launch day.”

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Trump tries to connect Harris to the chaotic Afghanistan War withdrawal on anniversary of attack

Former President Donald Trump on Monday is tying Vice President Kamala Harris to the chaotic Afghanistan War withdrawal on the third anniversary of the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, laid wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery in honor of three of the slain service members — Sgt. Nicole Gee, Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover and Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss. Later in the day, he was going to Michigan to address the National Guard Association of the United States conference.

Monday marks three years since the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport, which killed the American service members and more than 100 Afghans. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.

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Trump would veto legislation establishing a federal abortion ban, Vance says

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance says Donald Trump would not support a national abortion ban if elected president and would veto such legislation if it landed on his desk.

“I can absolutely commit that,” Vance said when asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether he could commit to Trump not imposing such a ban. “Donald Trump’s view is that we want the individual states and their individual cultures and their unique political sensibilities to make these decisions because we don’t want to have a nonstop federal conflict over this issue.”

The Ohio senator also insisted that Trump, the former president who is the Republican nominee this year, would veto such legislation if it were passed by Congress.

“I mean, if you’re not supporting it as the president of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it,” he said in an interview that aired Sunday.

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Behind the rhetoric, a presidential campaign is a competition about how to tell the American story

Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination “on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth.” America, Barack Obama thundered, “is ready for a better story.” JD Vance insisted that the Biden administration “is not the end of our story,” and Donald Trump called on fellow Republicans to “write our own thrilling chapter of the American story.”

“This week,” comedian and former Obama administration speechwriter Jon Lovett said Thursday on NBC, “has been about a story.”

In the discourse of American politics, this kind of talk from both sides is unsurprising — fitting, even. Because in the campaign season of 2024, just as in the fabric of American culture at large, the notion of “story” is everywhere.

This year’s political conventions were, like so many of their kind, curated collections of elaborate stories carefully spun to accomplish one goal — getting elected. But lurking behind them was a pitched, high-stakes battle over how to frame the biggest story of all — the one about America that, as Harris put it, should be “the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.”

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In boosting clean energy in Minnesota, Walz lays foundation for climate influence if Harris wins

When Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz strolled onstage to welcome a conference of clean power advocates to Minneapolis in May, he was quick to note that his state is now getting a little over half of its power from renewables. In the next breath, Walz said Minnesota would never get to 100% — a goal he helped set — without changing what he called “outdated” permitting laws.

“There are things we are doing that are too cumbersome, they don’t fit where we’re at, they add costs, and they make it more prohibitive to get where we need to go,” Walz told the industry group American Clean Power.

A few weeks later, he signed legislation to speed things up. Developers no longer have to demonstrate that a clean energy project — that is, solar and wind, storage and transmission projects — is needed as part of Minnesota’s energy system. And they no longer have to study alternative sites and transmission line routes — a requirement that had effectively doubled the possible opponents for a project.

Walz’s effort to resolve a major obstacle to the clean energy transition nationwide is getting new attention since he was tapped as Kamala Harris’ running mate. His experience enacting such laws in Minnesota could position him as a leader on climate issues if Harris wins in November.

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