Skip to Content Facebook Feature Image

The Latest: Trump holds news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Harris and Walz campaign in Michigan

News

The Latest: Trump holds news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Harris and Walz campaign in Michigan
News

News

The Latest: Trump holds news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Harris and Walz campaign in Michigan

2024-08-09 02:47 Last Updated At:02:50

With both major party tickets now decided, the campaign is set to play out as a 90-day sprint, and the Rust Belt and the Sun Belt are prime fronts. Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are showing their support for organized labor by appearing at a United Auto Workers event in Detroit.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump is holding a news conference Thursday at Mar-a-Lago, making his first public appearance since Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee and selected Walz as her running mate.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the Latest:

Trump misrepresented the realities of the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the Capitol and the electorates of several Southern states as he repeated the lie that President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 was due to fraud.

He insisted there “was a peaceful transfer of power” after the 2020 election. Certainly, Biden was inaugurated on schedule. But Washington was on lockdown that day, with the streets patrolled by military personnel and domestic police two weeks after Trump’s supporters had attacked the Capitol as Congress convened to certify Biden’s win.

Trump, meanwhile, argued, “You don’t win Alabama and South Carolina by records and lose Georgia. It doesn’t happen.”

Except Alabama and South Carolina are overwhelmingly Republican and Georgia has been trending toward a two-party battleground for years.

Alabama and South Carolina have about 5 million residents and heavily Republican electorates. Georgia, driven by decades of growth in metro Atlanta, now has about 11 million residents -- and 5 million presidential voters.

As a comparison, Barack Obama lost Georgia by about 5 percentage points in 2008 without spending significant resources in the state. That same year, he lost Alabama by more than 22 points and lost South Carolina by 9 points.

Trump began his press conference with a three-pronged attack on Harris, her new running mate Gov. Walz of Minnesota and even President Biden, who has been out of the presidential race for weeks.

Trump began the event with a statement before calling into question Harris’ legitimacy as the nominee. “We have somebody who hasn’t received one vote for president,” he said. Harris was nominated by virtual roll call by the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday.

He called Walz “a radical left man,” adding that “he has positions that it’s not even possible to believe they exist.”

And he said “the presidency was taken away” from Biden, whom Trump has spent years focusing on, even as he said he did not plan to recalibrate his campaign, in light of a new opponent.

Trump suggested he would participate in as many as three debates against Harris. He said he’s willing to appear separately on Fox, NBC and ABC, all spread across September.

The former president has been inconsistent in recent weeks about his debate preferences, and Harris has not committed to any of Trump’s more recent ideas. Trump had agreed previously to a debate against President Biden on ABC in late September but then he pulled out of that commitment and called on Harris to join him in a Fox News debate.

ABC has said it would continue its regularly scheduled event and host whichever of the candidates shows up. Trump was noncommittal when asked if he would move forward if Harris only agreed to the ABC debate.

Trump has opened a press conference at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, his first since Vice President Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday.

He warned of World War III, a depression of “the 1929 variety” and a nation overrun with migrants from south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I think that our country is right now in the most dangerous position it’s ever been in, from an economic standpoint, from a safety standpoint,” he said, adding that President Joe Biden is the “worst president in the history of our country” and that Vice President Kamala Harris also ranks at the bottom of the people to hold the No. 2 spot.

Trump’s supporters typically hear his “America First” and “Make America Great Again” rallying cries as a fundamentally optimistic vision for fixing deep-seated problems. The question is whether more moderate voters hear the same message or are turned off by such sweeping, often-hyperbolic critiques of the country.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, is leading the U.S. presidential delegation to the Paris Olympics’ closing ceremony Sunday, cheering on with American athletes over the next few days and holding events such as a UNESCO roundtable to discuss combating antisemitism.

At the roundtable Thursday, Emhoff said the Biden administration is “working with Congress” to support a $2.2 million grant for UNESCO’s international program on Holocaust and genocide education.

“UNESCO plays a vital role in ensuring that Holocaust education is taught and used to combat antisemitism all around the world,” he said. “And in the wake of the horrific Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel where hostages were taken, this work has never been more urgent.”

President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, will meet with campaign staffers in Wilmington, Delaware on Thursday, using the time to thank them for their hard work over the past year and their continued work in support of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. That’s according to a person familiar with the president’s plans, who insisted on anonymity to discuss plans that are not yet public.

The event at a local venue in Wilmington will feature food and, naturally for Biden, ice cream.

The president exited the presidential race two weeks ago and wanted to say hello to the hundreds of staffers expected to attend.

-Josh Boak

Nancy Pelosi’s influence can be seen all across the Democratic Party shakeup that in a few short, agonizing weeks has reengineered the 2024 presidential ticket and the race for the White House.

It was Pelosi who publicly encouraged President Joe Biden to make a decision about his reelection campaign when he had already insisted he had no plans to step aside. Once he exited and endorsed Kamala Harris atop the ticket, it was Pelosi who was a big fan of her future running mate, Tim Walz.

For the House speaker emerita, the upheaval is less about Biden, a friend of 40 years, and more about Republican Donald Trump, the former president she refers to as “Bozo,” “a snake-oil salesman,” “what’s his name” and the “Creature from the Black Lagoon.”

“How can I say this in the nicest possible way: My goal in life was that man would never step in the White House again,” Pelosi said, slapping the table with every word.

Pelosi spoke Wednesday with reporters and columnists about her new book, “The Art of Power, My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House,” which calls for an end to political violence in the U.S.

Deputy Wayne County Executive Assad I. Turfe, the highest ranking Arab American official in Michigan’s largest county, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign for president shortly after she gave remarks just outside Detroit on Wednesday.

Turfe told The Associated Press he spoke with Harris backstage at the event prior to his endorsement.

“Kamala Harris embodies the America we deserve – an America that stands for strength, inclusivity and unwavering commitment to justice,” Turfe said in a statement. “I wholeheartedly endorse Kamala Harris, as she represents the true spirit of our nation and the values we hold dear.”

Metro Detroit, home to one of the largest Arab American populations in the United States, has become a focal point of tension and unrest due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. Harris’ speech outside Detroit was interrupted for several minutes Wednesday by a small group of pro-Palestinian protesters yelling.

Turfe also pressed the need for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, but said Harris “gives us the best chance of achieving peace in that region moving forward.”

The Thursday news conference would be his first public appearance since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee and selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

The former president announced the 2 p.m. EDT news conference on his Truth Social network and then posted he was eager to debate Harris. He had teased an announcement on the presidential debate earlier this week after pulling down from the scheduled ABC News debate. Trump had said he would rather the debate be on Fox News, but on Wednesday was showing willingness to reconsider ABC News.

“I will expose Kamala during the Debate the same way I exposed Crooked Joe, Hillary, and everyone else during Debates,” he said on Truth Social. “Only I think Kamala will be easier.”

Trump’s running mate JD Vance has criticized Harris for not conducting news conference or sitting down for interviews since President Joe Biden stepped aside and she launched her presidential bid. Harris sometimes answers shouted questions while boarding or leaving her plane for campaign stops.

Five secretaries of state are urging Elon Musk to fix an AI chatbot on the social media platform X, saying in a letter sent Monday that it has spread election misinformation.

The top election officials from Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington told Musk that X’s AI chatbot, Grok, produced false information about state ballot deadlines shortly after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.

While Grok is available only to subscribers to the premium versions of X, the misinformation was shared across multiple social media platforms and reached millions of people, according to the letter. The bogus ballot deadline information from the chatbot also referenced Alabama, Indiana, Ohio and Texas, although their secretaries of state did not sign the letter. Grok continued to repeat the false information for 10 days before it was corrected, the secretaries said.

The letter urged X to immediately fix the chatbot “to ensure voters have accurate information in this critical election year.” That would include directing Grok to send users to CanIVote.org, a voting information website run by the National Association of Secretaries of State, when asked about U.S. elections.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks at a campaign event at Wollard International, Aug. 7, 2024, in Eau Claire, Wis. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks at a campaign event at Wollard International, Aug. 7, 2024, in Eau Claire, Wis. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is welcomed by running mate Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz before she delivers remarks at a campaign rally in Eau Claire, Wis., Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is welcomed by running mate Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz before she delivers remarks at a campaign rally in Eau Claire, Wis., Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)

FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump waves as he walks off stage after speaking at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, July 31, 2024, in Chicago. Trump's false attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris' Black identity have worried top Republicans that Trump may lose a campaign they still see as favorable for him. They say he should focus solely on the economy and immigration. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump waves as he walks off stage after speaking at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, July 31, 2024, in Chicago. Trump's false attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris' Black identity have worried top Republicans that Trump may lose a campaign they still see as favorable for him. They say he should focus solely on the economy and immigration. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

Next Article

The Gulf of Whatnow? Mapmakers grapple with Trump's geographic renaming plans

2025-01-23 15:31 Last Updated At:15:40

What's in a name change, after all?

The water bordered by the Southern United States, Mexico and Cuba will be critical to shipping lanes and vacationers whether it’s called the Gulf of Mexico, as it has been for four centuries, or the Gulf of America, as President Donald Trump ordered this week. North America’s highest mountain peak will still loom above Alaska whether it’s called Mt. Denali, as ordered by former President Barack Obama in 2015, or changed back to Mt. McKinley as Trump also decreed.

But Trump's territorial assertions, in line with his “America First” worldview, sparked a round of rethinking by mapmakers and teachers, snark on social media and sarcasm by at least one other world leader. And though Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis put the Trumpian “Gulf of America” on an official document and some other gulf-adjacent states were considering doing the same, it was not clear how many others would follow Trump's lead.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum joked that if Trump went ahead with the renaming, her country would rename North America “Mexican America.” On Tuesday, she toned it down: “For us and for the entire world it will continue to be called the Gulf of Mexico.”

Map lines are inherently political. After all, they're representations of the places that are important to human beings — and those priorities can be delicate and contentious, even more so in a globalized world.

There’s no agreed-upon scheme to name boundaries and features across the Earth.

“Denali” is the mountain's preferred name for Alaska Natives, while “McKinley" is a tribute to President William McKinley, designated in the late 19th century by a gold prospector. China sees Taiwan as its own territory, and the countries surrounding what the United States calls the South China Sea have multiple names for the same body of water.

The Persian Gulf has been widely known by that name since the 16th century, although usage of “Gulf” and “Arabian Gulf” is dominant in many countries in the Middle East. The government of Iran — formerly Persia — threatened to sue Google in 2012 over the company’s decision not to label the body of water at all on its maps. Many Arab countries don’t recognize Israel and instead call it Palestine. And in many official releases, Israel calls the occupied West Bank by its biblical name, “Judea and Samaria.”

Americans and Mexicans diverge on what to call another key body of water, the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Americans call it the Rio Grande; Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo.

Trump's executive order — titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness” — concludes thusly: “It is in the national interest to promote the extraordinary heritage of our Nation and ensure future generations of American citizens celebrate the legacy of our American heroes. The naming of our national treasures, including breathtaking natural wonders and historic works of art, should honor the contributions of visionary and patriotic Americans in our Nation’s rich past.”

But what to call the gulf with the 3,700-mile coastline?

“It is, I suppose, an internationally recognized sea, but (to be honest), a situation like this has never come up before so I need to confirm the appropriate convention,” said Peter Bellerby, who said he was talking over the issue with the cartographers at his London company, Bellerby & Co. Globemakers. “If, for instance, he wanted to change the Atlantic Ocean to the American Ocean, we would probably just ignore it."

As of Wednesday night, map applications for Google and Apple still called the mountain and the gulf by their old names. Spokespersons for those platforms did not immediately respond to emailed questions.

A spokesperson for National Geographic, one of the most prominent map makers in the U.S., said this week that the company does not comment on individual cases and referred questions to a statement on its web site, which reads in part that it "strives to be apolitical, to consult multiple authoritative sources, and to make independent decisions based on extensive research.” National Geographic also has a policy of including explanatory notes for place names in dispute, citing as an example a body of water between Japan and the Korean peninsula, referred to as the Sea of Japan by the Japanese and the East Sea by Koreans.

In discussion on social media, one thread noted that the Sears Tower in Chicago was renamed the Willis Tower in 2009, though it's still commonly known by its original moniker. Pennsylvania's capital, Harrisburg, renamed its Market Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard and then switched back to Market Street several years later — with loud complaints both times. In 2017, New York's Tappan Zee Bridge was renamed for the late Gov. Mario Cuomo to great controversy. The new name appears on maps, but “no one calls it that,” noted another user.

“Are we going to start teaching this as the name of the body of water?” asked one Reddit poster on Tuesday.

“I guess you can tell students that SOME PEOPLE want to rename this body of water the Gulf of America, but everyone else in the world calls it the Gulf of Mexico,” came one answer. “Cover all your bases — they know the reality-based name, but also the wannabe name as well.”

Wrote another user: “I'll call it the Gulf of America when I'm forced to call the Tappan Zee the Mario Cuomo Bridge, which is to say never.”

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

FILE - Peter Bellerby, the founder of Bellerby & Co. Globemakers, holds a globe at a studio in London, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

FILE - Peter Bellerby, the founder of Bellerby & Co. Globemakers, holds a globe at a studio in London, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

FILE - A boat is seen on the Susitna River near Talkeetna, Alaska, on Sunday, June 13, 2021, with Denali in the background. Denali, the tallest mountain on the North American continent, is located about 60 miles northwest of Talkeetna. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)

FILE - A boat is seen on the Susitna River near Talkeetna, Alaska, on Sunday, June 13, 2021, with Denali in the background. Denali, the tallest mountain on the North American continent, is located about 60 miles northwest of Talkeetna. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)

FILE - The water in the Gulf of Mexico appears bluer than usual off of East Beach, Saturday, June 24, 2023, in Galveston, Texas. (Jill Karnicki/Houston Chronicle via AP, File)

FILE - The water in the Gulf of Mexico appears bluer than usual off of East Beach, Saturday, June 24, 2023, in Galveston, Texas. (Jill Karnicki/Houston Chronicle via AP, File)

Recommended Articles
Hot · Posts