It’s Friday and we’re heading into a long weekend. Happy (early) Labor Day! This is considered the unofficial kickoff for campaign season, so if you think the political world has been just a little bit crazy this summer, hold onto your tush. Things are just getting started. Anyway, here’s what’s happening: 

• Trump is facing backlash from several musicians over his unauthorized use of their music.
• The latest economic figures have arrived.
• Trump is amping up his online attacks against Harris.

I’m Cate Martel 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.  

Vice President Harris’s first major interview since securing the Democratic presidential nomination aired on CNN Thursday night. Here are some highlights from the long-awaited back-and-forth:

Harris seeks to defend changing positions: Harris was pressed in the interview on how she has changed positions on multiple policy issues since the last time she ran for president in 2020. “I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” she told CNN’s Dana Bash.

“Next question please”: Harris had little to say about former President Trump’s assertion during the National Association of Black Journalists’ (NABJ) conference last month that the vice president “happened to turn Black” a few years ago. “Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please,” she said, with a laugh. 

Radio silence: Harris confirmed she has never spoken directly to Trump. They’ll come face-to-face for the first time when they take the debate stage Sept. 10. 

During his NABJ appearance, Trump said of their relationship: “I’ve known her a long time indirectly. Not directly very much.” 

Answering President Biden’s call: Harris said she found out Biden planned to end his reelection campaign only shortly before the rest of us heard the news. 

She recounted of the unexpected Sunday call from her boss:

“My family was staying with us, including my baby nieces. And we had just had pancakes and, you know, ‘Auntie, can I have more bacon?’ ‘Yes, I’ll make you more bacon.’ We were sitting down to — to do a puzzle. And the phone rang. And it was Joe Biden. And he told me what he had decided to do. And I asked him, ‘Are you sure?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ That’s how I learned about it.” 

Bipartisanship ahead?: Harris said she would entertain the idea of appointing a Republican to her Cabinet if elected, though she had no one specifically to name. 

“We’ve got 68 days to go with this election, so I’m not putting the cart before the horse. But I would,” she said. 

What about fracking?: Harris addressed her seemingly about-face on the issue of fracking. Harris voiced her support for a ban on the drilling method in 2019, but she said in her CNN interview that she would not press for one if elected and said she has held that view since 2020. She wouldn’t admit to a change of tune, though, saying she “made that clear on the debate stage in 2020, that I would not ban fracking … As vice president, I did not ban fracking … As president, I will not ban fracking.”

Republican rapid response: The GOP used Harris’s line that her “values have not changed” in a video Thursday night resurfacing past clips of her discussing a gun buyback program, abolishing fracking and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), defunding police and more. Expect more of this ahead of the Sept. 10 debate.

Trump’s response to the interview?: “BORING!!!” he wrote on his social media site Truth Social.

Check out The Hill’s recap of Harris’s interview. 

Five takeaways from the interview from The Hill’s Niall Stanage. 

Bret Stephens, The New York Times: “Kamala Harris didn’t hurt herself in her interview this week with CNN’s Dana Bash. She didn’t particularly help herself, either.” 

Michelle Cottle, The New York Times: “I think that went pretty well, don’t you?” 

Wall Street Journal Editorial Board: “Kamala Harris’s campaign handlers were no doubt giving each other high-fives on Thursday night watching their candidate’s interview on CNN.” 

Joe Concha, Fox News: “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sat down for their first interview as the 2024 Democratic ticket on Thursday and only two words come to mind: Dishonest. Trainwreckalicious.” 

Jarvis DeBerry, MSNBC: “The hype preceding Kamala Harris’ first and utterly unremarkable ‘sit-down’ interview as a 2024 presidential candidate is a reminder that nobody running against Donald Trump is ever graded fairly.” 

The battle between former President Trump and Vice President Harris is heating up.

Trump, who has shown no qualms about breaking political and social norms in the past, has begun sharing online crude and sexist attacks against Harris that are filled with innuendo. 

The Hill’s Brett Samuels reports on the shift here: “Trump has repeatedly waved away suggestions from his own advisers that he should lay off the personal attacks. The former president has indicated at recent campaign events he feels ‘entitled’ to insulting his opponent, largely because of the attacks and legal cases he has faced. “

Harris’s response: Harris’s campaign has generally responded to Trump’s social media attacks by waving them off.  

“Donald Trump is out of his mind. If a family member posted what Donald Trump is sharing, Americans would rightly be concerned,” Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer said in a statement. 

Democrats see opening to attack Trump on military after Arlington altercation (The Hill) 

Former President Trump has been hesitant to take a strong stance when it comes to abortion and reproductive health care, seeking to moderate his positions.

On one hand: This week he signaled support for government-funded access to fertility treatments.

On the other: He didn’t toe the GOP’s position on a Florida ballot measure on abortion rights, sending his campaign into explainer mode. 

“I think the six week is too short. There has to be more time,” Trump said, referring to Florida’s current six-week ban. 

When pressed about how he would vote on the amendment in Florida, where he lives and is registered to vote, Trump said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.” 

Trump camp clarification: Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, followed up on the comments. 

“President Trump has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida; he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short,” she said. 

Trump said in a press conference earlier this month that he would elaborate on his position on the measure in Florida, “at some point in the near future.” 

It’s not the first time Trump has waffled on the issue. In the 1990s he claimed to be “pro-choice.” He suggested in his 2016 campaign that women who have abortions should face criminal charges. More recently, he has said that he thinks the issue should be left to the states. 

Harris bus tour focused on reproductive rights to start in Palm Beach (The Hill) 

Rocker Jack White is the latest musician to blast President Trump over using his music, after one of the former president’s campaign aides posted a clip online of Trump boarding a plane with The White Stripes’ iconic “Seven Nation Army” playing in the background. 

“Oh….Don’t even think about using my music you fascists. Law suit coming from my lawyers about this (to add to your 5 thousand others.),” White, one-half of the rock duo, wrote to his nearly 700,000 followers on Instagram alongside the video.

According to Trump’s campaign, they have a general agreement with BMI and ASCAP clearinghouses to use some pop tunes at his events and has defended its playlist, despite pushback from the artists. 

Other musicians who have recently made it known they don’t want to be associated with Trump’s campaign: 

The Foo Fighters: The band publicly stated last week that they did not give permission for the Trump campaign to use the song “My Hero,” and any royalties earned from the song would be donated to Vice President Harris’s campaign. 

Celine Dion: The powerhouse singer distanced herself from Trump’s campaign with a snarky social media post after his team played “My Heart Will Go On” during a rally in Montana earlier this month. “In no way is this use authorized and Celine Dion does not endorse this or any similar use… and really, THAT song?” a statement posted on Dion’s Instagram account said of the ballad from the movie “Titanic.” 

ABBA: The Swedish group chided Trump over the “the unauthorized use of their music” and requested the “removal and deletion of such content” from Trump’s playlist. 

Beyoncé: Trump’s team tried to adopt the superstar singer’s song “Freedom,” which is the approved theme of Harris’s campaign, prompting reports of a cease and desist threat from Beyoncé’s team. 

In the past, Bruce Springsteen, Rihanna, Phil Collins, Pharrell, John Fogerty, Neil Young, Eddy Grant, Panic! at the Disco, R.E.M. and Guns N’ Roses have come out against Trump’s use of their music. 

Inflation held steady another month as American households spent more money and saw their incomes increase slightly in July, according to figures the Bureau of Economic Analysis released Friday. 

The personal consumption expenditures price index, which is the Federal Reserve’s preferred way to measure inflation, rose 0.2 percent last month and 2.5 percent over the past year. That’s about what economists expected. 

What that means: Fed Chair Jerome Powell recently said “the time has come” for the central bank to begin reducing borrowing costs after keeping them at two-decade highs for more than a year.  

The Fed’s baseline interest range has been set at 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent since July 2023. (The Hill) 

RELATED:  Americans’ confidence in the economy ticked up this month, according to a new Gallup poll. (The Hill) 

Americans’ confidence in the economy ticked up this month, according to a new Gallup poll. (The Hill) 

The United States is facing a surge in COVID-19 infections once again as the summer season wanes. 

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 infections are growing or are likely to grow in 27 states this month. Wastewater tests have shown “very high” levels of infections since early June in what doctors predict could become one of the largest summer waves since the start of the pandemic in 2020. 

What to know.

Terrorist groups are seeing a resurgence around the globe three years after the U.S.’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

More than two decades since the launch of the global War on Terror, ISIS and affiliated groups have claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in Turkey, Iran, Russia and Germany. An ISIS-affiliated group also plotted a foiled effort to kill thousands at a Taylor Swift concert in Austria.  

The Hill’s Brad Dress reports: “The renewed ISIS threat, along with the proliferation of terrorist groups across the Middle East, Central Asia and African Sahel regions, underscores how the U.S. and its allies are struggling to combat these groups in an era that is also marked by threats from state actors, including Russia, Iran, North Korea and China.” 

Israel has agreed to a temporary pause in fighting in Gaza after the World Health Organization (WHO) sought “humanitarian pauses” in the ongoing war for a polio vaccine drive.  

The goal is to vaccinate 640,000 children in the Gaza Strip amid the outbreak of the virus. 

The pause, starting in central Gaza, will go from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. for three days beginning Sunday and stretch through the territory. Israeli authorities are helping coordinate the effort with the WHO. 

“I am not going to say this is the ideal way forward. But this is a workable way forward…we have to stop [polio] transmission in Gaza and outside Gaza,” Rik Peeperkorn, a WHO senior official for the Palestinian territories, said in a social media post. (The Hill) 

🏝 It’s National Beach Day! Soak up the last bit of summer sun if you can during this long weekend! The Washington Post has a helpful list of beaches only an hour from D.C.

🎼️  Make it POP: The National Symphony Orchestra will perform its free annual Labor Day weekend concert on the Capitol West Lawn at 8 p.m. Sunday. Thankfully, the weather should be nice.

🎥  Yeesh: The reviews are in for the new “Reagan“ biopic, and the consensus is … not great.

📺  Hi, KBJ!: Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson will appear on the “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday night. The first Black woman on the high court, nominated by President Biden in 2022, is on tour promoting her memoir, “Lovely One.”

The House and Senate are still on their August break and will return next week after the holiday. President Biden is in Delaware and has no events on his public schedule for the day; Vice President Harris is back in D.C. for meetings and debate prep. All times Eastern. (all times Eastern)

• 1:15 p.m.: Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will appear at a Harris-Walz campaign reception in San Francisco before heading to Aspen, Colo., for a campaign event in the evening. 
• 4:30 p.m.: Former President Trump holds a campaign rally in Johnstown, Pa. 
• 8 p.m.: Trump addresses the conservative Moms for Liberty national gathering in Washington, D.C. 
• Coming up: President Biden and Vice President Harris will hold a joint campaign event in Pittsburgh on Labor Day. 

To kick off the long weekend, check out the coolest cat on the block. 😼