What to watch on the campaign trail today
- Former President Donald Trump held a rally this afternoon in Asheville, North Carolina, where he said his administration would commit to slashing energy costs if he wins in November. In a speech that was meant to focus on the economy, Trump veered off topic numerous times to engage in personal attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris and his former opponent, President Joe Biden.
- Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's itinerary today included speaking at campaign receptions in Denver and Boston, where he mocked the intelligence of Sen. Tommy Tuberville. Walz's GOP rival, Sen. JD Vance, held a rally in western Michigan.
- Walz accepted one of four VP debate dates CBS News proposed this afternoon. Vance did not commit to a date but said his team would "figure out when we can debate."
Google says it observed Iran trying to hack the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns
Google said in a research report today that it detected efforts by Iranian hackers to target both the Trump and the Biden-Harris campaigns in May and June, part of a larger email phishing operation that still persists.
Google’s announcement adds credence to the Trump campaign’s claim Saturday that it had been hacked as part of an Iranian campaign to interfere with the election.
In its report, Google’s Threat Analysis Group, which tracks government-backed cyberattacks, said it had disrupted a “small but steady” phishing operation from a hacking unit tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Pennsylvania poll: Democrats are more enthusiastic about Walz than Republicans are about Vance
A new Quinnipiac poll of Pennsylvania out today finds that 58% of likely Democratic voters are more enthusiastic about Harris' candidacy because she picked Walz as her running mate.
By contrast, just 42% of Republican likely voters say Trump's selection of Vance as his running mate makes them more enthusiastic about voting for Trump.
The enthusiasm gap between Democrats and Republicans over the vice presidential candidates is striking, as Vance was picked in large part to help Trump win Pennsylvania in November and Walz was picked over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who would have been expected to assist in Harris' efforts to win the state.
Trump’s economy speech veers into familiar territory: Personal attacks against Harris and Biden
Trump today delivered what had been billed as remarks focusing on his plans for the economy, but he went on numerous tangents about Biden, Harris, Walz and windmills.
Trump spoke before an enthusiastic crowd in Asheville, North Carolina, as Trump allies and advisers have been urging him to focus on his policy differences with Harris and veer away from personal attacks. While Trump outlined several areas where the two diverge on policy, they were overshadowed by insults lobbed at top Democrats.
“For four years, she’s cackled while the economy burned,” Trump said of Harris. “That’s the laugh of a crazy person, I tell you. She’s crazy.”
Walz mocks Sen. Tommy Tuberville's intelligence at Boston fundraiser
Walz mocked the intelligence of Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., at a fundraiser in Boston tonight.
“I feel like one of my roles in this now is to be the anti-Tommy Tuberville, to show that football coaches are not the dumbest people," said Walz, who was a high school football coach.
Walz also claimed that he doesn't name-call, saying, "This thing about describing the behavior of Donald Trump and his running mate as weird and out of touch with the rest of us, that was an observation, not name-calling. Nobody’s asking for the things they’re asking for.”
Walz also took aim at Trump's remarks at his rally in Asheville, North Carolina, today suggesting that more oil drilling would help to dramatically reduce energy and electricity prices.
“That is nonsense. We’re producing more oil than we ever have," Walz said. "That’s not the issue. The issue is for us to be able to transition and transition smartly."
Harris to call for federal ban on corporate price gouging, campaign says
In an economic address Friday, Harris will call for imposing the first federal ban on corporate price gouging in the food and grocery industries.
The policy would set "clear rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries," the Harris campaign said in a statement.
If elected, Harris will also "direct her Administration to crack down on unfair mergers and acquisitions that give big food corporations the power to jack up food and grocery prices," her campaign said.
"These actions stand in stark contrast to Trump’s economic agenda, which would increase inflation and costs for middle-class families," the campaign said.
Harris is scheduled to deliver the address at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, just days after Trump delivered an economic address in the state.
Other proposals she will announce Friday will deal with prescription drug costs and housing costs.
X’s AI image generator debuts with few guardrails on political content
An upgraded version of X’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, can now generate images — of almost anything. And some users have noticed just how few guardrails this latest language model has, compared with its competitors.
The model, Grok-2, appears to carry few limitations on creating fake images of political figures. Since its rollout yesterday in beta, X users have shared Grok-generated images of everything from Trump locking lips with Elon Musk to Trump and Harris giving a thumbs up to the camera from a pilot’s cockpit as the two seemingly re-create 9/11.
Most of the images are high-quality but not quite photorealistic, and many of them are easily identified as having been computer-generated. Some, however, might pass for a real photo at first glance.
Vance's past comments responding to a podcast host about the role of 'postmenopausal women' resurface
In a 2020 interview on "The Portal" podcast, Vance appeared to respond affirmatively when host Eric Weinstein made a claim about the role of women past child-bearing age in raising children.
Weinstein said of grandmothers helping to raise grandchildren, “That’s whole purpose of the postmenopausal —"
“Yes,” Vance responded.
“... female in theory,” Weinstein continued, finishing his thought.
The interview four years ago was recently resurfaced by The Heartland Signal, a digital news site linked to a progressive radio station in Chicago.
A spokeswoman said Vance did not agree with the host's claim.
“The media is dishonestly putting words in JD’s mouth — of course he does not agree with what the host said," the spokeswoman, Taylor Van Kirk, said in a statement. "JD reacted to the first part of the host’s sentence, assuming he was going to say: ‘that’s the whole purpose of spending time with grandparents.’ It’s a disgrace that the media is lying about JD."
The remarks resurfaced after Vance has already faced criticism over past comments disparaging "childless" women in positions of political power.
NBC News’ Garrett Haake is on the campaign trail with Trump as he slams Harris for the nearly 20% rise in prices over the last four years. But Trump again veered into personal attacks, despite growing Republican appeals to focus on Harris’ record instead of unleashing insults.
Bob Casey says he hopes to speak at DNC
Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who is up for re-election in November, told NBC News he hopes to be speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week. Biden, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are confirmed as speakers at the convention.
Casey’s opponent, Dave McCormick, spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month. Their race will help determine the balance of power in the Senate.
With Harris and Walz now at the top of the ballot, McCormick told NBC News, the change after Biden's departure from the race “crystallized the choice,” saying, “This is a race between what I believe the strength and weakness but also a common-sense practical set of policies to get our country back on track versus a very liberal agenda. A very San Francisco liberal agenda.”
McCormick said he never thought this race was going to be easy, saying, “This is going to be tough … but I’m optimistic we’re going to win.”
“I see enormous energy among people who aren’t just Republicans but independents, Democrats, and the reason I say that is because these problems that we have — sky-high inflation, wide-open border, fentanyl crisis, crime — these are not just Republican problems,” McCormick said. “They are Republican problems, independent problems, Democratic problems. And I think they’re mobilizing the people to think this election really matters.”
Casey told NBC News this week, “I think every candidate and every campaign has gotten a great lift” from having Harris and Walz at the top of the ticket.
Trump campaign revives attacks that his opponent is hiding
The Trump campaign is again accusing its opponent of hiding, trying to draw a contrast with Trump's remarks today.
"Team Trump Speaks to American People while Kamala Hides," read the subject line of a fundraising email the Trump campaign sent out this evening after he spoke in Asheville, North Carolina.
The Trump team frequently referred to Biden as "Hidin' Biden" and said he was holed up in his basement during the 2020 campaign, during which Biden often held virtual events amid the Covid pandemic.
Harris is set to deliver remarks Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina, just two days after Trump's rally in the state.