Walz defends military service in first solo campaign appearanceSpeaking of the Harris campaign, the vice-president’s newly minted running mate, Tim Walz, today made his first solo campaign appearance at a convention of union members.
The Minnesota governor gave a wide-ranging speech in which he attacked Donald Trump and cheered the power of organized labor, while also taking time to respond to attacks from the former president and his supporters, who say Walz has exaggerated his military service.
Here’s what he said in response, at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees’s annual convention:
“I am damn proud of my service to this country. And I firmly believe you should never denigrate another person’s service record.”
— Amid GOP attacks, Tim Walz defends the timing of his decision to retire from the National Guard in 2005 pic.twitter.com/zEXTt2cXLA
— The Recount (@therecount) August 13, 2024
The attacks on Walz’s military service, from Trump allies including his running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance, have centered on the timing of his decision to retire after 24 years of army national guard service. Here’s more on that:
Key events
Show key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this feature
This blog is closing now, thanks for following along. You can find our latest US politics coverage here.
Walz speaks to donors at fundraising event in NewportTim Walz has wrapped up his 30 minute appearance at an event in Newport that donors paid between $1000 and 100,000 to attend.
The Orange Country register reports that his speech was “peppered with Midwest jokes and self-deprecating quips”.
Here is the local news outlet’s report:
Standing before a large ballroom at the Balboa Bay Resort, a waterfront hotel in Newport Beach, Walz ran through his resume: governor, congressman, educator, coach — “We won the damn state championship,” he reminded a cheering audience. He ran through his platform — supporting gun ownership when balanced with certain regulations, paid family leave and clean air regulations.
‘They keep talking about these are radical things, and I’m like, go ahead and label me whatever you want because I’ll damn sure guarantee you 80% of people in Minnesota and across the country want those things,’ said Walz to applause.
‘You know better than anybody in this state what we’ve got in the vice president,’ Walz said. ‘She’s found her voice.’
One of the fundraiser’s hosts, attorney Wylie Aitken, said he had never seen so much enthusiasm in all the years he’d been doing this:
‘“It’s amazing that when everybody was kind of down and out and feeling, legitimately, concern with Biden, etc., then suddenly to have this reversal and to see this incredible enthusiasm that’s energised everyone.”
Abortion will be on ballot in at least eight states in NovemberMissouri voters will decide in November whether to guarantee a right to abortion with a constitutional amendment that would reverse the state’s near-total ban on the procedure.
Missouri has become the eighth state to have abortion on the ballot in November.
The secretary of state’s office certified Tuesday that an initiative petition received more than enough signatures from registered voters to qualify for the general election. It will need approval from a majority of voters to become enshrined in the state constitution.
People rally in support of abortion rights, 2 July 2022, in Kansas City, Missouri. Photograph: Charlie Riedel/APMissouri will join at least seven states voting on abortion rights during the presidential election.
Arizona’s secretary of state certified an abortion-rights measure for the ballot on Monday. Measures also will go before voters in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and South Dakota.
While not explicitly addressing abortion rights, a New York ballot measure would bar discrimination based on “pregnancy outcomes” and “reproductive healthcare,” among other things.
Harris and Walz are planning to hold a rally in Milwaukee while the DNC is happening in Chicago next week, the New York Times reports – in the venue where Trump accepted the Republican nomination last month.
The rally is planned for Tuesday, according to the report, which cites four people briefed on the discussions.
The Fiserv Forum, where the rally will reportedly take place, is 80 miles, or 128km, from the United Center in Chicago, where the DNC is taking place all week.
The move is not unusual, but is interesting because it will serve as a direct comparison of crowd size and energy to Trump’s event. Trump has claimed, falsely, that Harris’s crowd sizes are fake.
Meanwhile Joe Biden says Ukraine’s military incursion into Russia has “created a real dilemma” for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He added that US officials are in constant touch with the Ukrainians about the move.
About 1,000 Ukrainian troops rammed through the Russian border in the early hours of 6 August, with tanks and armoured vehicles, Reuters reports. A US official said late on Tuesday that the goal of Ukraine’s Kursk incursion appears to be to force Russia to pull troops out of Ukraine to defend Russian territory against the cross-border assault.
Answering questions from reporters upon arrival in New Orleans, Biden said he has been briefed every four to five hours for the last six to eight days on Ukraine’s action.
“It’s creating a real dilemma for Putin,” he said in his first substantive comments about the operation, which appeared to have caught the Russians off guard.
The US has provided billions of dollars of weaponry to Ukraine intended largely for defensive purposes, as Ukraine tries to repel the Russian invasion launched in February 2022.
US President Joe Biden visits New Orleans on 13 August 2024. Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/ReutersIn May, Biden authorised Kyiv to launch US-supplied weapons at military targets inside Russia that are supporting an offensive against the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
The White House said Ukraine did not provide advance notice of its incursion, which took place in the Kursk region of Russia. Russian forces on Tuesday struck back at Ukrainian troops with missiles, drones and airstrikes.
As we await news of Walz’s appearance at a fundraiser in California, here is AP’s look at his first solo appearance since being named the Democratic vice presidential nominee last week:
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz warned cheering union members Tuesday that Donald Trump would wage war on working people while threatening Medicare and Social Security as he kicked off a five-state fundraising swing.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Convention in Los Angeles, Tuesday, 13 August. Photograph: Jae C Hong/APSpeaking in a cavernous, dimly lit ballroom to thousands of members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Walz said he and Vice President Kamala Harris want to spread collective bargaining and other worker protections to “every state in the union.”
“When unions are strong, America is strong,” Walz, a former school teacher and union member, said.
The Democratic campaign chose to kick off Walz’s national swing on the safest of political terrain — heavily Democratic California, home to Vice President Harris and where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans about 2-1.
Though Harris is gaining ground in the polls, Trump is still more popular than he was at this point in 2016 or 2020:
Tim Walz due to appear at California fundraiserTim Walz is scheduled to appear at a fundraiser in Newport Beach, » …
Read More
