Evelyn Reynolds

Kamala Harris has said she is looking forward to “formally accepting the [presidential] nomination” of the Democratic party after she earned enough support from delegates including hundreds from her native California.“When I announced my campaign for President, I said I intended to go out and earn this nomination,” she said in a statement late Monday.“Tonight, I am proud to have secured the broad support needed to become our party’s nominee, and as a daughter of California, I am proud that my home state’s delegation helped put our campaign over the top. I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon.”Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi made the motion to endorse Harris for president at a virtual meeting of California’s DNC delegation on Monday evening, a spokesperson confirmed.Pelosi, who represents San Francisco in Congress, announced that with the endorsement of California’s delegation, Harris had earned enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination for president in August.Earlier on Monday, top Democrats rallied to support Harris in their bid to defeat Republican Donald Trump.Harris was headed to the battleground state of Wisconsin on Tuesday as her campaign for the White House kicks into high gear. The event in Milwaukee will be her first full-fledged campaign event since announcing her candidacy.She offered a sense of how she plans to attack Trump in a speech to campaign staff in Wilmington, Delaware earlier on Monday, referring to her past of pursuing “predators” and “fraudsters” as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general.“So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said of her rival, a convicted felon who was found liable for sexual assault in civil court. Other courts have found fraud was committed in his business, charitable foundation and private university.She also cast herself as a defender of economic opportunity and abortion access. “Our fight for the future is also a fight for freedoms,” she said. “The baton is in our hands.”Biden, who is recovering from Covid-19 at his house in Rehoboth, spoke by phone to the staff first, saying he would be out on the campaign trail for Harris and adding: “I’ll be doing whatever Kamala Harris wants me or needs me to do.”When Harris took the microphone to address staff, Biden said to her: “I love you, kid.” Harris put her hands on her heart and said: “I love you, Joe.”Joe Biden’s departure freed his delegates to vote for whomever they choose at next month’s convention. And Harris, whom Biden backed after ending his candidacy, worked quickly to secure support from a majority.Big-name endorsements on Monday, including from governors Wes Moore of Maryland, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Andy Beshear of Kentucky, left a vanishing list of potential rivals.According to an Associated Press tally, Harris had 2,668 delegates, well beyond the simple majority of 1,976 needed to clinch the nomination on the first ballot.The survey is unofficial, the AP said, as Democratic delegates are free to vote for the candidate of their choice when the party formally chooses its candidate. Delegates could still change their minds before 7 August but nobody else received any votes in the AP survey, and 57 delegates said they were undecided.Pelosi, who had been one of the notable holdouts, initially encouraging a primary to strengthen the eventual nominee, said she was lending her “enthusiastic support” to Harris’s effort to lead the party.Pelosi said: “Politically, make no mistake: Kamala Harris as a woman in politics is brilliantly astute – and I have full confidence that she will lead us to victory in November.”A tweet late on Monday night announced that Pelosi’s office had confirmed Harris’s endorsement.Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison vowed that the party would deliver a presidential nominee by 7 August. A virtual nominating process before the national convention in Chicago, beginning on 19 August, is still needed.“I want to assure you that we are committed to an open and fair nominating process,” Harrison said on a conference call.The DNC had said earlier that a virtual vote would take place between 1 and 5 August, in order to have the nomination process completed by 7 August, the date by which Ohio law had required a nominee to be in place to make the state’s ballot.Ohio lawmakers subsequently pushed back the deadline to 1 September, but party officials said they hoped to beat the 7 August deadline to avoid any legal risk in the state.Winning the nomination is only the first item on a staggering political to-do list for Harris after Biden’s decision to exit the race, which she learned about on a Sunday morning call with the president.She must also pick a running mate and pivot a massive political operation to boost her candidacy instead of Biden’s with just over 100 days until election day.But Harris has also been raking in campaign contributions. Her campaign said on Monday she had raised $81m since Biden stepped aside on Sunday, nearly equalling the $95m that the Biden campaign had in the bank at the end of June.Hollywood donors ended their “Dembargo” on political donations, as fundraisers and celebrities from rapper Cardi B to Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis and TV producer Shonda Rhimes endorsed Harris.Wisconsin, where Harris will campaign on Tuesday, is among a trio of Rust-Belt states that include Michigan and Pennsylvania widely considered as must-wins for any candidate, and where Biden was lagging Trump.“There are independents and young people who did not like their choices, and Harris has a chance to win them,” said Paul Kendrick, executive director of the Democratic group Rust Belt Rising, which does routine polling in the battleground states where voting preferences can swing either way.Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report More

It’s been a rollercoaster couple of weeks in the US election campaign. On Sunday Joe Biden announced he would not stand for re-election, before endorsing his vice-president, Kamala Harris, as the presidential candidate for the Democrats. On Monday endorsements – and money – rolled in from donors and political luminaries. Mehdi Hasan, a columnist for the Guardian US and a co-founder of the media organisation Zeteo, tells Michael Safi why despite criticising Kamala Harris in the past he is now an enthusiastic supporter of her campaign to be the next president. He explains how her entry will change the race for the White House, how Republican politicians might attack her, how her campaign may differ from Biden’s and, crucially, what he thinks of her chances of success against Donald Trump. More

Joe Biden has called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, moments after shocking police video was released showing an Illinois officer fatally shooting Sonya Massey after she called police fearing a home intruder.In his first public statement since dropping his bid for re-election, Biden said the shooting of Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman, by white Sangamon county sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson, in her home in Springfield, after a dispute over a pot of boiling water, “reminds us that all too often Black Americans face fears for their safety in ways many of the rest of us do not”.Biden, who is recovering from Covid at his home in Delaware, said Massey, “a beloved mother, friend, daughter and young Black woman … should be alive today”.“When we call for help, all of us as Americans – regardless of who we are or where we live – should be able to do so without fearing for our lives,” he said in the statement, adding: “Sonya’s family deserves justice.”“While we wait for the case to be prosecuted, let us pray to comfort the grieving,” he continued. “Congress must pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act now. Our fundamental commitment to justice is at stake.”The act, known as HR-1280, addresses a range of issues in policing practices, including excessive force and racial bias and increases accountability for law enforcement misconduct. The bill was passed by the House in 2021 but stalled in the Senate.The statement came as a protest march is planned for Monday evening after police bodycam video released showed a rapidly escalating situation.Massey had been retrieving a pot of water from the stove after Grayson told her he did not want a house fire. Massey asked the officers – who visibly distanced themselves from her as she goes to handle the pot – why they moved away from her.“Where you going?” she asks them.“Away from your hot steaming water,” Grayson answers, with a laugh, before Massey responds: “Away from the hot steaming water? Oh, I’ll rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”“You better fucking not. I swear to God I’ll fucking shoot you right in your fucking face,” Grayson warns.Massey can be heard saying, “I’m sorry,” as Grayson continues to advance. “I’m sorry,” she says again as Grayson, with his gun drawn, fires three shots, killing her instantly. After the shooting another deputy said he was going to get his medical kit.“No, a head shot, dude, she’s done,” Grayson responds.Later on in the video, Grayson calls Massey “fucking crazy”.The prominent civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing Massey’s family, previously said the video would “shock the conscience of America like the pictures of Emmett Till after he was lynched”, referring to the photograph released after Till was lynched in Mississippi in 1955.Crump also likened the video to the police killing of Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times in the back by police in Chicago in 2014, and to the police murder of George Floyd in 2020.“It is that senseless, that unnecessary, that unjustifiable, that unconstitutional,” Crump said at Massey’s funeral on Friday. “This video is tragic in every sense.”Grayson has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and is being held without bond until his trial is set to begin. Springfield resident Tiara Standage told the Guardian that when she watched the George Floyd tape, “it pissed me off. When I watched this, it pissed me off even further.”Antwaun Readus Sr, a local community activist, criticized city officials for spending money on police equipment but neglecting basic community services.“They militarized the whole police department,” he said, predicting that when the police video of Massey’s death was released, “the whole country can go upside down.” More

Lawmakers grilled the director of the US Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, during a contentious House hearing on Monday, where members of both parties called for her resignation in the wake of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump earlier this month.In her opening statement, Cheatle acknowledged the Secret Service had “failed” on 13 July, when a 20-year-old gunman was able to take a clear shot at the former president from a rooftop near Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.Trump survived but sustained an injury to his ear, and one rally attendee, former fire chief Corey Comperatore, was killed in the attack. Two others were injured.“As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency,” Cheatle told the House oversight committee. “We are fully cooperating with ongoing investigations. We must learn what happened, and I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13th does not happen again.”In a particularly damning moment, Cheatle acknowledged that Secret Service agents were informed of a suspicious individual at the Trump rally “somewhere between two and five times” before the gunman opened fire.The Republican chair of the committee, James Comer, mourned the assassination attempt as “a horrifying moment in American history” and demanded that Cheatle offer her resignation.“While we give overwhelming thanks to the individual Secret Service agents who did their jobs under immense pressure, this tragedy was preventable,” Comer said. “It is my firm belief, Director Cheatle, that you should resign.”Lawmakers repeatedly pressed Cheatle on how such a galling security lapse could have occurred, but the director dodged many of their questions, reminding members that the investigation of the shooting was still in its earliest stages. When Cheatle again told Comer that she could not specify how many Secret Service agents were assigned to Trump on the day of the shooting, the congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene interjected: “Why are you here?”Cheatle did deny allegations that the Secret Service rejected the Trump campaign’s demands for additional security on 13 July, telling lawmakers: “The assets that were requested for that day were given.”But Cheatle became more vague when the Republican congressman Jim Jordan pressed her on whether the Secret Service had denied past requests for additional security at Trump campaign events.“It looks like you won’t answer some pretty basic questions,” Jordan said. “And you cut corners when it came to protecting one of the most important individuals, one of the most well-known individuals on the planet.”Some Republicans representatives grew openly combative as they questioned Cheatle, with Nancy Mace telling the director: “You’re full of shit today.”Democratic members joined in on the criticism, and at least two of them, Jamie Raskin and Ro Khanna, echoed Republicans’ calls for Cheatle’s resignation. Khanna compared the situation to the fallout after an assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan in 1981.The then Secret Service director, Stuart Knight. stepped down in the months after the Reagan shooting.“Do you really believe that the majority of this country has confidence in you right now?” Khanna asked.Cheatle replied: “I believe that the country deserves answers, and I am committed to finding those answers and providing those answers.”Asked when more answers might be available, Cheatle said the agency hoped to conclude its internal investigation in 60 days, a timeline that sparked censure from committee members.“The notion of a report coming out in 60 days when the threat environment is so high in the United States, irrespective of party, is not acceptable,” said the progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “This is not theater. This is not about jockeying. This is about the safety of some of the most highly targeted and valued targets – internationally and domestically – in the United States of America.”Raskin, the Democratic ranking member of the oversight committee, agreed with calls for accountability at the Secret Service while adding that lawmakers must reckon with the broader problem of gun violence in the US. He noted that the Trump campaign rally attack was not even the deadliest shooting on 13 July, as four people were killed later that day after a gunman opened fire at an Alabama night club.“What happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, was a double failure: the failure by the Secret Service to properly protect Donald Trump and the failure of Congress to properly protect our people from criminal gun violence,” Raskin said. “We must, therefore, also ask hard questions about whether our laws are making it too easy for potential assassins and criminals to obtain firearms generally and AR-15 assault weapons specifically.”With Republicans in control of the House, it seems unlikely that a gun safety bill will pass Congress anytime soon. And after Cheatle’s performance on Monday, it seems even less likely that she will be able to hold on to her job for much longer. More

A Democratic party ticket led by Kamala Harris seems increasingly likely as scores of high-profile elected Democrats line up to endorse her for president in the wake of Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race.In Biden’s announcement that he would no longer pursue a second term, he thanked Harris “for being an extraordinary partner in all this work”, and later, in endorsing her, called his choice to run with her in 2020 “the best decision I’ve made”.In short order, a series of powerful endorsements rolled in, including from Democrats formerly viewed as possible presidential candidates themselves, some of whom are now being floated as potential vice-presidential candidates on a Harris ticket.If Harris takes up the mantle for the Democratic party, one of her first major decisions as a candidate will be choosing a running mate. Harris has not indicated who she would consider, but here are some of the names Democrats are floating, so far, as possible vice-presidential candidates.Andy BeshearBeshear’s unlikely position as the Democratic governor of Kentucky – a state that voted for Trump by a margin of 25 points in 2020 – makes him a compelling vice-presidential candidate for the Democratic ticket. In office, Beshear has vetoed Republican bills banning abortions and gender-affirming care for transgender minors, although the GOP-controlled state legislature was able to override his vetoes in both cases. Beshear would also offer a contrast to Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, the Ohio senator who in his popular 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy claimed Appalachian culture was to blame for the region’s impoverishment. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe show Monday, Beshear endorsed Harris and knocked Vance. “JD Vance ain’t from here,” Beshear said, nodding to Vance’s depictions of Kentuckians as lazy.Mark KellyArizona senator Mark Kelly would offer swing-state credibility and could be a favored choice among party elites, given his role as a moderate in the Democratic party. His record as a combat veteran and former astronaut could also be a draw for independent voters. Kelly has been an advocate for gun reform after a shooting left his wife – former US representative Gabby Giffords – partly paralyzed. “I couldn’t be more confident that Vice-President Kamala Harris is the right person to defeat Donald Trump and lead our country into the future,” Kelly wrote on X on Sunday.Josh ShapiroShapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, has been a strong supporter of Biden and a faithful surrogate for his campaign. Shapiro has a track record of winning races in the swing state, serving as Pennsylvania’s attorney general for six years before he was elected governor in 2022. An outspoken opponent of Trump for years, Shapiro has nonetheless built bipartisan support within Pennsylvania; a May Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena College poll showed he enjoyed 42% approval from Republicans in the state – a rare showing of support in an age of hyper-partisanship. Shapiro endorsed Harris Sunday, saying she had “served the country honorably” and describing her as a unifying figure. Roy CooperThe 67-year-old governor of North Carolina touts a long record in the state as a representative, attorney general and governor. Cooper is approaching the end of his time in the office (North Carolina governors are term-limited), where he has fought for the passage of bipartisan legislation despite the Republican party controlling the state legislature. In 2023, Cooper signed into law Medicaid expansion, which some red states have declined despite the measure being guaranteed under the Affordable Care Act. Cooper also quickly endorsed Harris’s presidential campaign. “I appreciate people talking about me, but I think the focus right now needs to be on her this week,” he said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show on Monday.  Wes MooreMaryland governor Wes Moore has also been floated by some Democrats as a running mate alongside Harris. Moore, who is the only sitting Black governor in the US, is widely considered to be a rising star in the Democratic party. Sworn into office in January 2023, Moore’s record in office is short. He has said that he would not want to be tapped as a vice presidential candidate, saying: “I want to stay as the Governor of Maryland, I love the momentum we are seeing right now in the state of Maryland.”Gretchen WhitmerMichigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democratic star who some hoped would run for president this year, has been floated as a potential running mate, even if it’s highly unlikely that Harris would pick another woman. Whitmer endorsed Harris Monday morning – but quickly dispelled the notion that she would be joining Harris on the ticket. “I’m not leaving Michigan,” Whitmer said at a media event. “I’m proud to be the governor of Michigan.” Whitmer, who enjoys broad popularity within the Democratic party for helping to flip the swing state blue, emphatically backed Biden before he dropped out of the race.Pete ButtigiegUS transportation secretary and former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Buttigieg rocketed into political stardom during his 2020 presidential bid, which gained surprising momentum given his sparse political record. Buttigieg, who is a navy veteran, has spoken powerfully about coming out in 2015 and later marrying his husband, Chasten Glezman Buttigieg. Buttigieg has served during a tumultuous time for US transportation systems – from the devastating and high-profile derailment of a train in East Palestine, Ohio, to airline meltdowns, to the Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore. More

The independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr reportedly held recent talks with Donald Trump about endorsing his campaign for a second presidency and – if successful – taking a job in his administration.The talks, first reported Monday by the Washington Post, come days after Kennedy publicly apologized for a video posted online that showed part of a private phone call between him and Trump. The clip included Trump sharing his thoughts about childhood vaccines and being in broad agreement with Kennedy, a noted vaccine sceptic. In the video, Trump seemingly invited Kennedy to endorse his campaign.But the Post reported that it was Kennedy – a Democratic candidate who became independent in October last year – who later sought a post overseeing health and medical issues under any new Trump administration in exchange for his support.At a meeting in Milwaukee early last week, the outlet said, discussions between the two included possible jobs that Kennedy could be given at the cabinet level – or posts that do not require Senate confirmation. The talks also explored the possibility of Kennedy dropping out and endorsing the former president.Trump advisers were reportedly concerned that such an agreement could be problematic – but they did not rule out the idea.The idea surfaced after Kennedy, with about 9% voter approval in the presidential race and both major parties fearing he could win vital independent votes, was denied the opportunity to debate Joe Biden and Trump in June.That encounter between Trump and the president – who performed poorly – set the stage for the latter man to announce Sunday that he would not seek re-election.Kennedy told the Post on Monday that Trump campaign had been more open to him than the Democratic party apparatus. His uncle, President John F Kennedy Jr, was assassinated in 1963 and his and father, Senator Robert F Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968.“I am willing to talk to anybody from either political party who wants to talk about children’s health and how to end the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy Jr said, adding that he had “a lot of respect for president Trump for reaching out”.Kennedy added: “Nobody from the DNC, high or low, has ever reached out to me in 18 months. Instead, they have allocated millions to try to disrupt my campaign.”The reported exchange comes despite Trump’s comments in April when he said Kennedy is “far more LIBERAL than anyone running as a Democrat”. Trump also said Kennedy had been pushed out of the Democratic party “because he was taking primary votes away” from Biden, among other things.Kennedy, in turn, called Trump’s vice-presidential pick JD Vance – a US senator and retired marine – “a salute to the CIA, to the intelligence community and to the military industrial complex”. Kennedy said on CNN in April that “there are many things President Trump has done that are appalling” – and that the former president had overseen “the greatest restriction on individual liberties this country has ever known”.Trump campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez told the Post: “President Trump met with RFK and they had a conversation about the issues just as he does regularly with important figures in business and politics because they all recognize he will be the next president of the United States.” More