Election 2024: Harris says no decision on VP pick yet; former Trump lawyer flips in Arizona 'fake electors' probe

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the former House speaker, said in an interview tonight that she hasn't spoken to Biden since he dropped his re-election bid last month.

Asked whether her relationship with Biden is OK, Pelosi told CNN, " I hope so, but he knows."

“Look, I have loved Joe Biden, respected him for over 40 years," Pelosi said tonight. "I think he has made one of the biggest contributions to our country in the shortest period of time of any president you can name.”

NBC News previously reported that Pelosi played a key role in efforts to persuade Biden to step aside in the presidential race.

The selloff in stock markets and recession fears put the economy front and center in the presidential race once again. It comes as Harris is expected to name her running mate tomorrow. NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez reports.

Democratic Rep. Cori Bush greeted volunteers and supporters two days before tomorrow's primary election with a buoyant chant: “I believe that we will win!”

Bush is known as a fighter; it’s how she went from being an unhoused single mom protesting on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, to becoming a prominent member of the so-called Squad of progressive House members in Washington. But now, the activist-turned-politician is fighting to avoid losing a primary against a well-funded challenger — four years after she came to Washington by defeating the then-incumbent in a primary.

“I’m just trying to make sense of why so much money would be spent in our congressional race when our district has so many needs,” an exasperated Bush told NBC News in an interview on a sweltering summer day.

Read the full story here.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz alluded to his experience being vetted as Harris' potential running mate at a Democratic fundraiser tonight in Minneapolis where he also touted his record.

“I think all of you know you don’t wake up as a schoolteacher just angry about something and figure out how to get elected to Congress and become the governor and then ... and then life comes at you fast, whatever happens!” he said in what appeared to be a reference to the vetting process.

Walz said Harris “can handle herself, but we’ve got to have her back." He touched on protecting reproductive rights and Social Security and preventing tax cuts for the wealthy — all key talking points for the Harris campaign.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has spent the past year raising the alarm about the need for lawmakers to regulate artificial intelligence.

Just last week, tech billionaire Elon Musk, a Trump backer, shared a parody deepfake video to his nearly 200 million followers on X featuring audio of Harris saying things she had never said.

Without guardrails for using artificial intelligence to depict political candidates, Schumer and others fear it could lead to a Wild West situation in which deepfakes of Harris, Trump and others would proliferate in the media landscape — and undermine voters’ faith and trust in candidates, elections and American democracy.

Read the full story here.

The Harris campaign said in a text message to her supporters tonight that Harris has not yet made a decision on her running mate.

The text message provided a link for supporters to sign up to be a part of the “exclusive list of supporters who will be notified immediately when the news breaks.”

Harris has no public events scheduled for tomorrow until she departs Washington in the afternoon and heads to Philadelphia for the first campaign event with her eventual running mate. She is scheduled to speak at 5:30 p.m. ET.

The Harris Victory Fund has a “Harris-Running Mate Yard Sign” available for purchase under the “What’s New” section of its web store.

The sign features Harris’ name, though her soon-to-be running mate’s name is concealed, for now, with a piece of tape and three question marks in the photo posted onlineonline. It is available for pre-order, with an expected release date of Sept. 5, according to the item description.

Harris is expected to announce her running mate tomorrow, two sources familiar with the process said. The pair will appear at a rally in the evening in Philadelphia.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could have been hit with a fine for dumping a dead bear cub in New York’s Central Park, but the state agency that investigated the bizarre incident said the statute of limitations for the decade-old offense has long since expired.

The State Department of Environmental Conservation “led the 2014 investigation and forensic analysis into the Central Park bear cub,” it said in a statement today.

The discovery of the dead cub in the middle of Manhattan made headlines in October 2014, but investigators at the time were not able to determine how it got there.

Read the full story here.

After Trump told journalists Wednesday that his presidential opponent, Harris, “turned Black” for political gain, his comments have affected how many multi-race voters are thinking about the two candidates.

“She was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said in an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention last week. “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black.”

“Is she Indian or is she Black?” he asked.

She’s both.

Read the full story here.

As of late this afternoon, Harris has not decided on her running mate, according to a campaign spokesperson.

“We understand the excitement and interest here, but VP Harris has made no decision on a running mate yet!” campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a post on X.

His tweet was in response to a post this afternoon from a Detroit-based reporter who said that Harris had “made her decision” and that the person had “accepted the position of running mate.”

Trump today continued a streak of appearances with controversial influencers, this time in a 90-minute livestream with Adin Ross.

The live interview, streamed on the platform Kick, which took place at Mar-a-Lago with a small live audience of Trump supporters, featured Ross asking Trump questions about current events and world leaders, similar to Trump’s podcast interview with YouTuber Logan Paul. Along with his vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s appearance on a podcast hosted by the YouTube group Nelk Boys last week, the Republican ticket has aimed to reach young voters through content with influencers who have large, young male followings.

Harris’ campaign, which has received attention for its digital savviness and popularity among meme-makers, responded to Trump’s interview with Ross in real time, posting clips of Trump talking about Venezuela and insulting a journalist who interviewed him at the National Association of Black Journalists conference last week.

Read the full story here.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office announced today that Jenna Ellis, a former Trump attorney and one of the 18 defendants in the Arizona “fake electors” case stemming from the 2020 election, is cooperating with the prosecution.

Ellis signed the cooperation agreement this morning, according to the announcement, which said prosecutors are dropping the charges against her.

“This agreement represents a significant step forward in our case,” Mayes, a Democrat, said in a statement. “I am grateful to Ms. Ellis for her cooperation with our investigation and prosecution.

Read the full story here.

A source familiar with the campaign’s thinking said Harris aides want a running mate who can “appeal in short order to that 1 or 2 percent of voters” in battleground states, hence the battleground tour.

“They are feeling like you need somebody who can go in and talk to these suburban women,” the source said. “The internal polling is showing that’s who you’re targeting."

Another source said they are interested in someone who will appeal to demographics and the voters Biden would have brought to the table, including older white voters and suburban women. Aides to Harris also would like the running mate to appeal specifically to white men who don’t like Trump but who may question whether they want to vote for a Black and South Asian woman. 

Vance is scheduled to deliver remarks in Philadelphia tomorrow at noon ET, several hours before Harris is expected to appear with her running mate choice at an event in the same city.

Harris’ planned event in Savannah, Georgia, on Friday is being postponed because of Tropical Storm Debby, two campaign officials said. 

Harris has been expected to embark on a five-day, seven-state battleground state tour with her running mate, beginning tomorrow in Philadelphia.

Trump bashed ABC News reporter Rachel Scott again during an interview with online streamer Adin Ross today at Mar-a-Lago.

"She was nasty," Trump said about his interview with Scott during the National Association of Black Journalists convention last week. "She was a terrible person. ... The woman was so rude that it's hard to believe."

Trump said that Scott didn't introduce herself and wasn't nice to him at the beginning of the interview but that she did greet him and thanked him for participating in the panel.

"That was like a booby trap," Trump said about the interview. "If I owned that network, I would fire her so fast."

A Virginia man has been charged with making numerous death threats against the vice president.

Frank Carillo, of Winchester, Virginia, posted numerous extremely violent threats about Harris last month using an alias on the social media site GETTR, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in the Western District of Virginia on Friday. It alleges that Carillo had posted about Harris 19 times, including threats to shoot, stab, or burn her alive.

In one of the July 27 posts, Carillo said that if she's elected “I will shoot and kill everyone” who tries to stop him from taking her out, the complaint says. Investigators said a search of his home turned up two guns — a handgun that he bought last year and an RF-15 rifle that he bought this year.

Read the full story here.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has been on the vetting list of Harris' potential running mate, is scheduled to visit Maine tomorrow and Wednesday, according to the Transportation Department.

Buttigieg will participate in a tour of the Portland International Marine Terminal and a construction tour of East Deering as part of efforts to highlight the Biden administration’s investments in strengthening supply chains.

Buttigieg will visit Maine tomorrow while Harris is expected to announce her vice presidential pick, with her and her running mate attending a rally tomorrow evening in Philadelphia, NBC News reported.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said on MSNBC today that one of the main reasons he told the Harris campaign he didn't want to be considered for the vice presidential slot was that the state's lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, whom he called "the most extreme right-wing statewide candidate in the country,” would use it to his advantage. 

“He likes attention, and if I had been on a national ticket, we could see him calling a press conference every week, when I’m out on the campaign trail, attracting attention to himself and being a distraction to the presidential campaign,” Cooper said. 

Robinson faces Democratic state Attorney General Josh Stein in the race to succeed Cooper, who is term-limited.

Cooper said in the interview, "If we win North Carolina for Kamala Harris, she is the next president of the United States.”

The New York City Department of Sanitation threw some social media shade at Kennedy's admission that he dumped the carcass of a bear cub in Central Park — while also using the incident as a teaching moment.

"Wondering how to dispose of a dead animal in New York City?" a post on the department's X account read. It included a figure standing in front of three trash bags, marked "Paddington," "Fozzie" and "Gummy," referring to the fictional character, the Muppet and the candy respectively.

The post links to information about how to properly dispose of a dead animal in New York City. Throwing a carcass into the park is not one of the options listed.

Harris is expected to reveal her vice presidential pick tomorrow ahead of their first rally together in Philadelphia in the evening, according to two sources familiar with the plan.

These people cautioned that the timing of the announcement is still subject to change based on when Harris makes her final decision or whether there’s a media leak that affects the plan.

The rollout tomorrow will likely look similar to past major announcements, including digital video and social media components, as well as a fundraising appeal, the sources said. The Harris campaign will also disseminate text messages to its supporters throughout the day, as has been common in the past around big moments. The final details are still being hammered out.

Trump appears to have looked at the field of candidates trying to depose Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse in this week's Washington Republican primary and said I'll take two, please.

Trump endorsed Tiffany Smiley, who ran unsuccessfully for Senate last cycle, in a post on Truth Social over the weekend. But in it, he made reference to the fact he had already endorsed a candidate in the race, former NASCAR driver Jerrod Sessler, whom he's still endorsing.

"Tiffany will be an INCREDIBLE Fighter in Congress," Trump said in the long post on his social media platform, before adding, "Likewise, Jerrod Sessler, who I have Endorsed in the past, would be fantastic, fighting for the same things that Tiffany, and I, want for our Country."

The endorsement could muddy the waters ahead of tomorrow's primary, and it's far from the first time Trump, who likes to tout his endorsement record, has taken a less-than-definitive stance in a primary.

Looking to draft off the success of massive Zoom calls organized by groups like White Dudes for Harris, a group of comedians is hosting its own star-studded fundraising call tonight.

Comics for Kamala, organized by Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and two comedy producers, is set to feature a long list of famous people: Ben Stiller, Cecily Strong, D.L. Hughley, Jason Bateman, Patton Oswalt, Jon Hamm, Kathryn Hahn, Kathy Griffin, Ed Helms, Jay Ellis, John Stamos, Tom Arnold, Rosie O'Donnell, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Craig Robinson, Tim Heidecker, Ike Barinholtz and "many more."

"I’ve always thought that in politics, like sports, the team that has the most fun wins!” Swalwell said.

A series of massive Zoom calls, some attracting more than 100,000 participants, have raised millions of dollars each for Harris. The Comics for Harris event starts at 8 p.m. ET today.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who is seeking re-election in a vulnerable seat for Democrats, is running a new digital campaign ad that aims to highlight the detrimental effects of a national abortion ban supported by his Republican rival, Tim Sheehy.

The ad, titled “Devastated,” features Sarah, a Montana woman who needed an abortion after finding out her baby would not survive her pregnancy.

“We were devastated to find out our baby wouldn’t survive,” she says in the ad. “An abortion saved my chance to have children.”

In a post on X, the Trump campaign used Charli XCX's 'Brat' theme for the first time to say "the stock market is crashing."

The campaign has stayed away from using the popular meme, which Charli XCX fans who support Harris have used on social media in a reference to the singer's album, which was released in June. Charli XCX herself also chimed in, saying "Kamala IS Brat" in a post to X, and the vice president has embraced the meme as a way to try to harness the Gen Z vote.

When asked if Trump was "Brat" at a July rally, Steven Cheung, Trump's campaign communications director said "no."

Harris is poised to announced her running mate after meeting face-to-face with at least three top contenders. Meanwhile, Trump pulled out of a scheduled debate with the vice president, instead proposing a separate matchup hosted by Fox News. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports for "TODAY."

Harris does not have any public events scheduled today, but she will join Biden in the Situation Room in the afternoon for a closed press meeting with his national security team to discuss developments in the Middle East.

White House senior adviser Gene Sperling is leaving his post to be a senior economic adviser to the policy team on the Harris campaign, according to two sources familiar with the move. 

In a statement announcing Sperlin’s departure, Biden said, “I’m grateful to Gene’s wife Allison, his children Nina and Miles and his godchildren Derick and Samantha for allowing Gene to lend me his wisdom, his counsel, and his friendship. They should know our nation is stronger and more just because of the families that Gene has spent every day fighting for over the past three-and-a-half years.”

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients said in a statement, “The President knew the historic economic crisis we faced needed a historic response — and it’s why he picked Gene Sperling to coordinate it. Gene helped implement a recovery that produced the strongest economy in the world and got families across the country back on their feet.” 

As Trump and Harris squabble over the terms of their coming presidential debate, a similar dispute is taking place in the Arizona Senate race.

The state’s GOP Senate candidate, Kari Lake, has long challenged her Democratic competitor, Rep. Ruben Gallego, to take the debate stage. Now that Gallego says he’s game, Lake is insisting the debate deviate from its traditional format. 

Read the full story here.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. acknowledged yesterday that he abandoned a dead young bear in Central Park after he initially planned to skin the cub for meat.

Kennedy said in a three-minute video on X that The New Yorker magazine found out about the incident, the date of which is unknown, and asked him for confirmation. Kennedy described driving north of New York City to go falconing with a group when he saw a woman in a van hit and kill a young bear.

Read the full story here.

Adin Ross, a popular online streamer, will interview Trump today, the campaign confirmed. Trump is set to join the livestream at around 1 p.m. today, Ross said.

"It's going to be insane," Ross said in his announcement video on YouTube, where he also thanked UFC President Dana White, a prominent Trump supporter, and Barron Trump, the former president's youngest son, for their help.

Usha Vance, the wife of Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, defended her husband when pressed on his resurfaced 2021 remarks about “childless cat ladies” leading the country that came under widespread scrutiny last month.

In a taped interview that aired on “Fox and Friends” this morning, Usha Vance said her husband's “quip” intended to convey that U.S. policies do not do enough to provide the support families need.

“He made a quip in service of making a point that he wanted to make that was substantive,” she said. “And I just wish sometimes that people would talk about those things and that we would spend a lot less time just sort of going through this three-word phrase or that three-word phrase, because what he was really saying is that it can be really hard to be a parent in this country, and sometimes our policies are designed in a way that make it even harder.”

“And we should be asking ourselves, ‘Why is that true? What is it about our leadership and the way that they think about the world that makes it so hard sometimes for parents?’” she added.

Biden will speak with Jordan's King Abdullah II in the morning amid turmoil in the Middle East as Israel braces for a possible attack from Iran or Iran-backed proxies.

The meeting comes after two high-profile Hezbollah and Hamas militants were assassinated last week. Iran and Hamas accused Israel of assassinating Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, though Israel did not confirm the allegations. Israel took responsibility for killing Hezbollah official Fuad Shukr.

Later in the day, Biden will meet with his national security team in the Situation Room "to discuss developments in the Middle East," the White House said.

Trump said Friday he would no longer participate in a September debate on ABC, opting instead to propose a debate against arris on Fox News on Sept. 4.

He said the ABC debate was agreed to when Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee “but has been terminated in that Biden will no longer be a participant.”

Read the full story here.