Harris-Walz Campaign Strategy Targets Trump as Technical Glitches Mar His Interview with Musk

Harris-Walz Campaign Opts to Needle Trump on Campaign Trail - and it's Working

Vice President Kamala Harris and her campaign have adopted an unusual strategy for opposing former President Donald Trump: needling him. And it appears to be working. Since initiating her bid for the presidency, her campaign has ridden a wave of popularity and goodwill that has seen her surge in the polls even before presenting detailed policy proposals. Similarly, she has also been able to rankle and goad the famously easy-to-upset former president into acting out without even attacking his agenda or his record. While perhaps unusual for a presidential campaign, the strategy has proven effective as Harris' growing momentum continues to unnerve Trump. For his part, the former president has frustrated even his own advisers who have urged him to mount a more disciplined offensive against his opponent and her record. Instead, he has referred to her as a "loser," "a bad debater" and "not smart" and indulged himself in lengthy tirades centered around mispronouncing her name - a pattern of personal attacks often based on race or sex that seems to be corresponding with his losing ground in critical swing states. From the very beginning of her bid, Harris made it clear that she would be confronting the former president head-on. In her first speech after President Joe Biden announced his decision to end his reelection bid and endorse Harris as his successor, she took a direct swipe at Trump's mounting legal troubles by leaning on her lengthy career as a prosecutor in California. Speaking during a campaign event in Milwaukee, Harris told the crowd that she has taken on "predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain." "So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump's type." She outlined how her record lined up directly with Trump's recent issues: She's prosecuted sexual assaults and the former president was found liable in court for committing sexual abuse. She's won cases against for-profit colleges and Trump's now-defunct university was forced to pay a multimillion-dollar settlement. She's won judgments against large banks for fraud and a New York jury convicted Trump for fraud. The contrast was even more pronounced after the way Trump deflected criticisms about his criminal record leveled by Biden during their debate in June. By raising lies about Biden's record, repeating unsubstantiated claims about corruption and flipping the script to Biden's son - a recently convicted felon - Trump was able to charge without much pushback that Biden had weaponized the Justice Department to go after him for political purposes. That seems unlikely going forward. "I know his type" has now become a rallying cry for Harris, one that is sure to rankle Trump as his legal issues continue to be a sore subject for him. It's not always smart to trade insults with Trump - questioning the size of his hands may have been one of the signature moments of the 2016 GOP primary season, but it didn't really help Marco Rubio's campaign. Yet in some cases, a well-directed jab against the real estate developer convicted of inflating his worth can provoke a response that can come across to some as off-putting - or even petulant. Case in point: Trump for years has boasted about his ability to pack venues, often inflating tallies for major events. And while the subject has always been a source of pride for him, it has also become something of an obsession. When outlets covering his 2017 inauguration pointed out low attendance compared to former President Barack Obama, Trump accused the media of lying and claimed that 1.5 million people came to the event. The comparisons unnerved him so much that he had his inauguration crowd photos edited to crop out empty space. And now as Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, draw massive and thunderous crowds on their tour of swing states, their campaign has opted to pull a Trump card and boast about it while poking some fun with the issue. The campaign posted on social media a side-by-side comparison of two events at the same venue in Philadelphia - one for each candidate. The tactic worked, with Trump taking the bait on social media and writing, "If Kamala has 1,000 people at a Rally, the Press goes 'crazy,' and talks about how 'big' it was - And she pays for her 'Crowd.'" "When I have a Rally, and 100,000 people show up, the Fake News doesn't talk about it, THEY REFUSE TO MENTION CROWD SIZE." The Harris campaign then hit back, sharing a photo of his response with the caption, "Oh he's mad lol." To add insult to injury, her campaign opened up a now very active account on Truth Social, bringing the goading to Trump's doorstep. The crowd size issue has continued to be a thorn in his side, telling reporters last week during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago that his rallies are "10 times, 20 times, 30 times" bigger. "In history, for any country, nobody's had crowds like I have," he said. "If you look at Martin Luther King when he did his great speech ... and you look at the picture of his crowd, my crowd - we actually had more people." And now a recent rally in Michigan has led Trump and the rest of his supporters down the rabbit hole, with many of them claiming photos from the tarmac were the work of AI. Conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza posted a photo of the scene, writing, "Check the reflection in the plane. Does this look like a real picture to you?" Within hours, Trump began weighing in on it, writing, "Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she 'A.I.'d' it, and showed a massive 'crowd' of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN'T EXIST!" "She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror like finish on the Vice Presidential Plane." It's not as if Biden did not mount his share of attacks against Trump, but his high-minded characterization of Trump as a threat to democracy just didn't seem to resonate with voters as readily as "weird." The label has become the new viral buzzword, appearing everywhere from social media to campaign videos and podcast episodes. And the more it gets used, the more Republicans seek to try to shrug off the accusation. Harris and Walz's campaign account has used the word in 14 posts since July 23 and the Democratic super PAC Won't PAC Down released an ad centered around it. The label has landed as intended, rankling many on the right. Conservative political activist Matt Walsh wrote on social media that "casting your opposition as cringe, lame, and weird is an effective strategy," adding "It's visceral. It moves people. The Dems are evil but not stupid." Republicans have also sought to take back the label, using it against Harris and to describe members of the LGBTQ+ community. And after weeks of the term being thrown around, Trump finally weighed in during a rally in Montana. "No, we're not weird. We're very solid people. We want to have strong borders. We want to have good elections ... " he said. "I think we're the opposite of weird. They're weird." At a rally Sunday night in Las Vegas, Harris introduced a new policy aimed at raising the minimum wage and eliminating taxes on tips for restaurant workers and other service industry employees. "We will continue our fight for working families of America, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers," Harris told the crowd. Taxes on tips have become a major issue in Nevada, which has the "highest proportion of food service and accommodation workers in the U.S." The new policy is one of the rare areas Harris shares with Trump, who proposed the same plan at a June rally in Las Vegas. Trump voiced his distaste on Sunday night, branding her a "copycat." "Kamala Harris, whose 'Honeymoon' period is ENDING, and is starting to get hammered in the Polls, just copied my NO TAXES ON TIPS Policy," he wrote. "The difference is, she won't do it, she just wants it for Political Purposes! This was a TRUMP idea - She has no ideas, she can only steal from me." Despite his claim, Trump is not the first politician to propose the idea. During the 1980s, former Republican Rep. Phil Crane of Illinois called for the elimination of federal taxes on tips. And in 2007, former Rep. Ron Paul of Texas unsuccessfully introduced legislation to keep tips out of federal income and payroll taxes.

The Latest: Trump interview with Elon Musk on X plagued by glitches

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are painting much different pictures as they meet with voters on the campaign trail. Harris, by turns, is pushing "joy" -- branding the Democratic ticket, which includes her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, "as joyful warriors." Trump, meanwhile, has promoted a gloomier view for Republicans, saying at a news conference last week that, "We have a lot of bad things coming up." Voters will hear more from both candidates and their running mates in the days ahead. Trump was set to do a live interview Monday on X, the social platform from which he was banned for nearly two years following the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol. But the interview has been plagued with technical issues with many users unable to access the conversation, receiving a message that read "Details not available." Musk opened by asking Trump about the assassination attempt at his Pennsylvania rally last month. "I didn't know I had that much blood," Trump said, of the shooting, while also saying it was the "best alternative you could think about" as he wasn't more gravely injured. "I'm a believer, now. I'm more of a believer in God, I think," Trump said, following the shooting. Musk finally began speaking at 8:41 p.m. ET, saying a "massive attack" had "saturated" X's lines. Trump congratulated Musk "on breaking every record in the book tonight" with the number of people trying to get in to listen. After blaming technical issues on a DDOS attack, Musk posted that the interview would "proceed with the smaller number of concurrent listeners at 8:30 ET" and an audio recording would be posted afterward. The electronic elevator music has stopped, now silence. There are currently more than 900,000 people logged on to listen to Trump's interview with Musk, according to an X tally. The interview has still not begun. When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launched his primary campaign with an interview on X that was marred by technological glitches, Trump mocked his former rival and Musk's platform. "Wow! The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER!" he wrote in May 2023 on his Truth Social network. "His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!" DeSantis dropped out of the race after a disappointing finish in Iowa's kickoff caucuses. Musk posted on X that the platform was under a "massive" DDOS, or denial-of-service attack, which is a federal criminal act that involves flooding a site with data in order to overwhelm it and knock it offline. Outage tracker Downdetector reported a spike in reports of X being inaccessible to users starting before 8 p.m. ET but, it could not be immediately verified whether this was due to a malicious attack. Musk also said that X tested its system with 8 million concurrent listeners earlier in the day. Senior adviser for the Trump campaign Chris LaCivita is joking about having broken the internet. He responded to a post on X using that phrase, writing, " @realDonaldTrump did." X users are continuing to have trouble accessing Donald Trump's interview with Elon Musk. The conversation, which was supposed to begin at 8:10 p.m. ET has continued to be plagued with technical difficulties. The issues were reminiscent of the technology-plagued interview that Musk did with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who chose the site to launch his Republican primary campaign. Entrepreneur Elon Musk is set to sit down for a conversation with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on the social media platform X. But with more than 120,000 people joining the event hosted by Trump's X account, there are already some tech issues. Some are receiving error messages and are unable to log in ahead of the advertised live interview. Musk, who had described himself as a Democrat until a few years ago, endorsed Trump's candidacy two days after the former president was wounded during an attempted assassination at a Pennsylvania rally last month. A judge ruled Monday that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. falsely claimed a New York residence on nominating petitions, invalidating the documents he needs to appear on the ballot in the state. Judge Christina Ryba's ruling after a short trial in state court is expected to be appealed. If upheld, it could open the door to challenges in other states where Kennedy used an address in New York City's northern suburbs to gather signatures. The lawsuit backed by a Democrat-aligned political action committee claims Kennedy's state nominating petition falsely listed a residence in well-to-do Katonah, while he actually has lived in the Los Angeles area since 2014 when he married "Curb Your Enthusiasm" actor Cheryl Hines. Kennedy argued during the trial that he has lifelong ties to New York and intends to move back. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been spreading false claims that an image of thousands of people waiting at Detroit's airport as Democrat Kamala Harris arrived for a campaign rally was fabricated with the help of artificial intelligence. Reporters, photographers and video journalists representing The Associated Press and other news organizations who either traveled with Vice President Harris or were on the airport tarmac documented the crowd size last Wednesday as she arrived on Air Force Two. Hany Farid, a University of California, Berkeley, professor who focuses on digital forensics and misinformation, analyzed the photo and found no evidence of manipulation. Harris' campaign also denied the photo in question was manipulated and posted about it on social media. Fifteen thousand people attended the Detroit airport rally, Harris' campaign said. Trump started pushing false theories about the Harris campaign photo a few days after he held a news conference at his Florida estate on Thursday and was asked about the crowds at his Democratic rival's rallies. Trump said no one draws crowds as big as he does. "Russia, if you're listening," Trump said during a press conference in his 2016 presidential run, when Hillary Clinton's deleted personal emails were a hot topic, "I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing." "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press," he said back then. That changed when Trump's latest presidential campaign declared this weekend it had been hacked by Iran. "Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America's enemies and doing exactly what they want," Steven Cheung, the campaign's communications director, said in a statement on Saturday announcing that the campaign had been hacked. The campaign has not responded to questions about why its view on hacking changed, including a query on Monday from The Associated Press. But its new position is a striking change from 2016, when Trump heartily embraced the Russian hacking of his opponent Clinton's aides and the Democratic National Committee. ▶ Read more here. The FBI said Monday it is investigating allegations that sensitive documents from the Trump campaign were stolen in a cyber intrusion days after the campaign declared it had been hacked by Iran. The FBI released a brief statement reading, "We can confirm the FBI is investigating this matter." The campaign provided no specific evidence of Iran's involvement, but the claim came shortly after Microsoft issued a report detailing foreign agents' attempts to interfere in the U.S. campaign in 2024. The report cited an instance of an Iranian military intelligence unit in June sending "a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor." Iran's mission to the United Nations, when asked about the claim of the Trump campaign, has denied being involved. Counting down the days until Jan. 6, 2025, a group is calling on Congress to pledge to certify the election results and prevent a repeat of 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol trying to overturn the 2020 election. Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said with the nation on the cusp of the presidential election, "we should never forget" what happened on Jan. 6, 2021. Morelle on Monday joined a virtual press conference with former police officers Aquilino Gonell and Michael Fanone who were both gravely injured that day as they battled the mob. With 147 days to go until Jan. 6, when Congress is again expected to gather to count the electoral votes, the group Courage for America is urging officials not to spread election disinformation and is asking lawmakers to accept the outcome of the November election. The group noted that 147 Republicans in Congress voted against certification in 2021. "We can't let this time be anything like the last," said Gonell. Big crowds, go-to applause lines, talk of joy -- and some unsolicited Republican counterprogramming. These were common themes during the first big campaign swing for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as the new Democratic ticket barnstormed through five battleground states this past week on a get-to-know-us tour. They opened with a boisterous rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, hours after Harris announced Walz as her running mate. From there it was a march through Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. Planned stops in Georgia and North Carolina were washed out by Tropical Storm Debby. The tour was a way to help both candidates introduce themselves to voters, especially independent and undecided voters in states where the Democrats are in tight races against Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. ▶ Take a look back at the campaign swing. Latino voters and leaders say they are enthusiastic about Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee, but for her to win their crucial support, they want to know where she stands on issues like the economy, immigration and education. As the nation's largest minority group -- 19.5% of the total population, according to the 2020 census -- Latinos form a key voting bloc in what's shaping up to be a tight presidential election. Harris, the daughter of immigrants, has won the backing of influential Latino groups, and some feel her success hinges on energizing young Latino voters. ▶ Read more about where Harris stands with Latino voters. Former President Donald Trump reportedly has used a slur often targeted at women to describe Vice President Kamala Harris during at least two private conversations. His campaign denies it. The New York Times cited two people who, on different occasions, heard Trump call Harris a "b -- -- ." The people were granted anonymity to describe private discussions. In response, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said, "That is not language President Trump has used to describe Kamala and it's not how the campaign would characterize her." Trump, a Republican, has a history of making derogatory statements about women and his political opponents. He has called Harris, the Democrats' presidential candidate, and other women, including 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, "nasty," and he bragged about grabbing women's genitalia in the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape. After first backing out of an agreement, Trump reversed himself and said he'd meet Harris on Sept. 10 for an event hosted by ABC. That sets up a long-anticipated faceoff between the Democratic and Republican nominees -- and, indeed, the chance for both of them to deliver their attack lines directly at one another. Sharing a stage with Trump presents a critical chance for Harris to define herself and her opponent in a truncated campaign, with many open questions about her policy positions. But it also sets up a major test -- one that President Joe Biden failed badly enough that he ended his campaign and made way for her. ▶ Read more about Harris' past debates. With a solidified presidential ticket stumping across the country and a massive amount of money to spend, the Democratic Party is targeting seven critical battleground states with paid advertising for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The Democratic National Committee announced the Harris-Walz advertising push on Monday, which includes more than 70 billboards across the key battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It's the ticket's first paid advertising blitz since Walz joined the campaign -- and the first of many to come in areas that are poised to determine the outcome of the presidential election in November. The billboards will be in several key urban areas across the battleground states, such as Atlanta, Detroit, Charlotte and Philadelphia, according to the DNC. Many are set up along major interstates and highways, including Interstate 95 and Interstate 10. ▶ Read more about the ad campaign. At the top of his first speech as her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz turned to Vice President Kamala Harris and declared, "Thank you for bringing back the joy." The next day, Harris took the theme a step further, branding the Democratic ticket "joyful warriors." Contrast that with former President Donald Trump, who opened a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida a few days later by saying, "We have a lot of bad things coming up," and predicting the U.S. could fall into an economic depression unseen since the dark days of 1929 or even another world war. Two-thirds of Americans reported feeling very or somewhat pessimistic about the state of politics, according to polling by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research from last month. Roughly 7 in 10 said things in the country are heading in the wrong direction. But Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the former president, said people don't care about "vibe checks." "That's not making gas or food or housing less expensive," Miller said. ▶ Read more about whether the mismatched moods matter. Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance used a round of Sunday news show appearances to disparage the Democratic ticket and promote Donald Trump's record and second-term plans and defend himself from criticism over past remarks that have become a campaign issue. The Ohio senator, in a series of taped interviews, said there was merit to Trump's suggestion that presidents have more control of U.S. monetary policy and kept up the GOP line that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrats' vice presidential candidate, had exaggerated his military record. Vance, who shadowed Vice President Kamala Harris and Walz during their recent visits to several battleground states, was quizzed about abortion and his past comments about American family life, among other topics. ▶ Read more about some of his other appearances. Former President Donald Trump's presidential campaign said Saturday that it had been hacked and suggested Iranian actors were involved in stealing and distributing sensitive internal documents. The campaign provided no specific evidence of Iran's involvement, but the claim comes a day after Microsoft issued a report detailing foreign agents' attempts to interfere in the U.S. campaign in 2024. It cited an instance of an Iranian military intelligence unit in June sending "a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor." Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung blamed the hack on "foreign sources hostile to the United States." A spokesperson for the National Security Council said in a statement that it takes any report of improper foreign interference "extremely seriously" and condemns any government or entity that attempts to undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions, but said it deferred to the Justice Department on this matter. ▶ Read more here. Tim Walz is holding his first solo events as Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, traveling on Tuesday to Los Angeles to speak at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees convention, before attending a series of fundraisers around the country. After his speech in Los Angeles, the Minnesota governor will hit five states in three days, beginning with a fundraiser in Newport Beach, California. He will headline two more fundraisers on Wednesday in Denver and Boston. He'll speak at fundraisers in Newport, Rhode Island, and Southampton, New York the following day. Harris introduced Walz as her running mate during a joint rally last week in Philadelphia, and the pair then campaigned together in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. The vice president is set to campaign with Biden in Maryland this week, and also has promised to detail her policy proposals on the economy.