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Vice President Kamala Harris faces the next test in her presidential bid on Thursday with her first unscripted interview with a major media outlet since becoming the Democratic nominee.

Harris will be hoping to extend the momentum she’s conjured at the start of her campaign – and to avoid the types of unforced errors that plagued her first presidential bid in 2019, as well as her early days as vice president. It’s also a chance for the newly anointed candidate to heighten a contrast with Republican nominee Donald Trump, to connect with undecided voters and to highlight her credentials to lead in the Oval Office at a tense time for the United States at home and abroad.

Harris will appear alongside her vice presidential pick, Tim Walz, in a CNN primetime special airing at 9 p.m. ET from Georgia, where she is on a bus tour designed to put a swing state the GOP thought it was close to securing in November back on the board. The interview is the most important chapter of the campaign between last week’s Democratic convention in Chicago and the presidential debate set for Philadelphia on September 10.

Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election not only failed, but some of them also rested on a misreading of the U.S. Constitution, as our new analysis argues. The relevant constitutional provision dates back to just after the Civil War, and contemporaries recognized it as a key protection of American democracy.

In November 2020, as it became clear that Trump had lost the popular vote and would lose the Electoral College, Trump and his supporters mounted a pressure campaign to convince legislatures in several states whose citizens voted for Joe Biden to appoint electors who would support Trump’s reelection in the Electoral College votes.

Trump and his allies contacted Republican lawmakers in Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania to induce the state legislatures to overturn the results of the popular election. Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, emailed GOP legislators in Arizona, encouraging them to “ensure that a clean slate of Electors is chosen.”

Trump once said he had “great admiration” for Lila Rose’s work. Now he’s lost her support.

For years, the anti-abortion activist Lila Rose has pushed the GOP to curtail access to abortion. But now, as Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance conspicuously soften their abortion message ahead of the November election, Rose — who leads the prominent anti-abortion group Live Action — is embracing a more radical strategy: Urging her followers not to vote for Trump unless he changes course.

That position — which she teased in a series of social media posts earlier this week — defies both Democratic and Republican common sense about Trump’s strategy on abortion. In the eyes of many Democrats and anti-abortion conservatives who support Trump, a second-term Trump would still be sympathetic to the anti-abortion cause — even if he needs to moderate his message to win in November.

But since Trump and Vance have come out against a number of the anti-abortion movement’s key policy priorities — including a national abortion ban, a crackdown on the abortion pill and restrictions on IVF — Rose, who leveraged her large internet following into influence in the first Trump White House, is no longer confident that Trump is an ally, she told POLITICO Magazine. “It’s disappointing to say — but perhaps he personally lacks principle on this issue,” said Rose.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday offered her most expansive explanation to date on why she’s changed some of her positions on fracking and immigration, telling CNN’s Dana Bash her values haven’t shifted but that her time as vice president provided new perspective on some of the country’s most pressing issues.

In the CNN exclusive sit-down interview, Harris also said she would name a Republican to serve in her Cabinet if elected.

She described for the first time President Joe Biden’s telephone call informing her he was planning to abandon his bid for a second term after his disastrous debate performance. She stopped short of saying she would alter Biden’s policy toward arm sales to Israel.

Poll question
Is it a mistake for Kamala Harris to do her CNN interview alongside Tim Walz?

Selection of Smerconish Daily Headlines

Why Is Harris Bringing a Plus One?, BBC
Kamala Harris will do her first major interview alongside Tim Walz, a move seen by some as sharing the spotlight and by others as a strategic way to emphasize their economic agenda.

MI and WI Won’t Let Kennedy Withdraw, NBC News
RFK Jr. cannot remove his name from the ballots in Michigan and Wisconsin due to state laws preventing candidates from withdrawing after filing, despite his decision to drop out.

Trump Seen as “Target of Opportunity”, Associated Press
Though the FBI hasn’t determined a clear motive, the gunman in the attempt on Trump’s life targeted a PA rally as a “target of opportunity” after extensive planning and research.

401(k) Millionaires at Record High, The Hill
A record 497,000 401(k) accounts reached millionaire status in Q2 2024, a 2.5% increase from Q1, as average retirement balances grew, according to Fidelity Investments.

SCOTUS Blocks Biden Debt Plan, SCOTUSblog
The Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s latest student loan forgiveness plan, leaving millions of borrowers in limbo as GOP-led legal challenges continue.