It’s Thursday. It’s the eve of a long holiday weekend! Here’s what’s happening today:

• Vice President Harris and Tim Walz are sitting down for their first joint interview to be aired at 9 p.m. on CNN.
• Former President Trump will be attending a town hall moderated by former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
• New polls show Harris closing the gap with Trump in key battleground states.

I’m Lauren Sforza, filling in for Cate, with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Send tips, commentary, feedback and cookie recipes to cmartel@digital-staging.thehill.com. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here.  

New polls from Emerson College/The Hill and Fox News show a very close race in battleground states across the country and carry some notable warning signs for former President Trump.

The numbers: Trump is behind in several states he lost in 2020 by similar margins, like Michigan, Georgia and Nevada. The Emerson College/The Hill poll found Vice President Harris narrowly leading Trump in Georgia (49 percent to 48 percent), Michigan (50 percent to 47 percent) and Nevada (49 percent to 48 percent).

It’s not all bad news for Trump: He narrowly edges out Harris in Arizona and Wisconsin — two states he lost in 2020 — according to the Emerson College/The Hill poll. The Fox News poll shows him trailing Harris in Arizona by 1 point.

The two candidates are tied in Pennsylvania at 48 percent support, according to the Emerson College/The Hill poll. The Hill’s Caroline Vakil has the breakdown here.

According to The Fox News poll, Harris leads Trump in these states:

• Arizona by 1 point (48 percent support to 47 percent)
• Georgia by 2 points (48 percent to 46 percent)
• Nevada by 2 points (48 percent to 46 percent).
  

Trump leads in North Carolina, which he narrowly won in 2020.

Trump’s campaign has tried to discredit the Fox News poll, which dropped Wednesday, calling it “atrocious polling.” The Hill’s Dominick Mastrangelo has the latest here.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Harris has widened her lead among both women and Hispanic voters. Harris led Trump by 13 percentage points among both women and Hispanic voters, according to Reuters. This is up from the 9-point lead she had among women and the 6-point lead she had among Hispanics, according to four Reuters/Ipsos polls conducted last month.

Overall, the poll found Harris leading Trump with a 4-point lead among registered voters. Harris garnered 45 percent, while Trump received 41 percent support.

Read more about the poll from Reuters.

According to a new USA Today/Suffolk University Poll, Harris has surged ahead of Trump and leads the former president 48 percent to 43 percent nationally.

This poll, conducted after the Democratic National Convention, found that major shifts by Hispanic, Black, young and lower-income voters were the biggest factor in pushing Harris into the lead.

What a shift: The poll reflects an 8-point turnaround from President Biden’s numbers in late June, when he trailed Trump by 4 points.

Vice President Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) are sitting for their first full interview on Thursday since rising to the top of the Democratic ticket in recent weeks. CNN’s Dana Bash will interview the duo weeks after Harris vowed to sit for a full interview by the end of August.

Dig deeper: Harris has faced mounting criticism from Trump and his allies for not sitting down for a full interview since launching her campaign last month. She has also faced backlash from Republicans for only answering a few questions from reporters. The Trump campaign mocked Harris for bringing Walz to her first interview despite the Harris campaign noting that it was traditional for candidates to do so (The Hill).

The Hill’s Niall Stanage breaks down the top five things to look out for in tonight’s joint interview:

• Are there any gaffes?
• Does the decision to include Walz work or not?
• How tough are the questions?
• Does Harris get defensive, as she has in the past?
• Does Harris signal any differences with Biden?

The Hill also highlighted tough questions Harris may need to answer, including questions on how she handled the border, why should Americans trust her on the economy and how her stance on Gaza may differ from Biden’s. Our reporters discuss these questions and more here.

Former President Trump is still taking heat over a disputed altercation during his visit to Arlington National Cemetery earlier this week. The criticism arose shortly after NPR reported that a cemetery official tried to stop Trump staffers from filming and photographing in an area of the cemetery where soldiers recently killed in Afghanistan and Iraq are buried.

A defense official told The Associated Press that the Trump campaign was warned beforehand about not taking photos. Meanwhile, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) dismissed the controversy during a rally on Wednesday, saying that the photographer “happened to be” there (The Hill).

Vance’s response: After being asked a question about the incident, Vance said that the “altercation at Arlington Cemetery is the media creating a story where I really don’t think there is one,” and he argued there was “verifiable evidence” that the campaign was allowed.

Vance used the question to go after Harris and the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021, saying that the 13 deaths at Abbey Gate were because “Kamala Harris refused to do her job.”

He also called her “disgraceful” and said she could “go to hell.”

Watch Vance’s remarks 

On Thursday, the Army defended the cemetery staffer at the center of the controversy, saying they were trying to enforce rules that prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds. The Army added that it now “considers this matter closed.” 

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said Trump and his supporters are not the “party of law and order” in response to the disputed altercation. The Hill’s Tara Suter has more here.

Learn more: The Hill’s Lauren Irwin explains Arlington National Cemetery’s rules regarding  politicizing the grounds.

• ‘Trump Videos at Arlington Stir More Fallout After Gravesite Visit’: The New York Times
• ‘Trump Dishonors Fallen Soldiers Again’: The Atlantic
• ‘For Trump, Arlington National Cemetery controversy goes from bad to worse’: MSNBC

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not let his wife’s disapproval of former President Trump stop him from endorsing him last week. In a recent interview with TMZ, the independent presidential candidate conceded that his support of Trump brought his wife, actor Cheryl Hines, some “discomfort.”

“She is a lifelong Democrat, and the idea of me supporting Donald Trump was, like I said — it was something she would have never imagined, something that she never wanted in her life,” he said Tuesday. 

Read more on Kennedy’s comments from The Hill.

CIA Deputy Director David Cohen said the suspects in the failed plan to attack Taylor Swift fans outside her concerts in Vienna earlier this month were looking to kill “tens of thousands.”

His comments come weeks after three of the pop star’s shows were canceled in Vienna due to a suspected terrorist attack. He said that the suspects “were quite advanced in this.”

Read more on Cohen’s comments, here.

Yelp accused Google in a lawsuit filed Wednesday of violating antitrust law by abusing its monopoly over search. Yelp maintains that Google used its monopoly over search to give itself an advantage in local search services and advertising. 

What Yelp is saying: “For years, Google has leveraged its monopoly in general search to pad its own bottom line at the expense of what’s best for consumers, innovation, and fair competition,” Aaron Schur, Yelp’s general counsel, said in a statement.

But Google said in a statement that the accusations are “not new.” 

The Hill’s Julia Shapero reports on the lawsuit here.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was formally indicted by a French judge Wednesday on charges that accuse him of being complicit in the criminal activity taking place on the messaging app (The Hill). 

What to know: Telegram has faced scrutiny from Western governments, which claim that a lack of moderation leads to potential proliferation of criminal activity on the platform. Durov was arrested on Saturday night in Paris, but French President Emmanuel Macron has maintained that the arrest was not political.

What could Durov’s arrest mean for U.S. companies? The indictment and arrest of Durove have thrust the debate over online privacy and free speech into the spotlight. The Hill’s Miranda Navarro spoke to experts about what it could mean for tech companies in the U.S. here.

🍋 Celebrate: Today is National Lemon Juice Day

💳Shopping spree: Washingtonian Magazine highlights the places where Vice President Harris likes to shop in D.C. Check out their list for inspiration on your next shopping trip here.

🏅 Tune in: The Paralympic Games opened this week in Paris, setting the stage for more than 4,000 athletes to compete across 22 sports. Tune in Thursday to catch some wheelchair basketball, para swimming, and many more events.

🚨 The listeria outbreak continues: Nine people have now died in a listeria outbreak linked to recalled Boar’s Head deli meat, the CDC said in an update Wednesday. The CDC said that it is the largest listeria outbreak since the 2011 outbreak linked to cantaloupe.

The House and Senate are out. President Biden is in Rehoboth Beach, Del., and Vice President Harris is in Savannah, Ga. (all times Eastern)

• 12:30 p.m.: President Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief.
• 1:45 p.m.: Vice President Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will tape their first joint interview with CNN.
• 5:30 p.m.: Harris will host a rally in Savannah, Ga. before heading back to Washington. 💻 Livestream
• 7 p.m.: Former President Trump is attending a townhall in La Crosse, Wis. That will be moderated by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii). 💻 Livestream
• 9 p.m.: Watch Harris and Walz’s joint interview with CNN’s Dana Bash. How to watch.

Because you made it this far, watch this dog greet a friendly intruder.