Harris vs Trump live: New poll shows Kamala Harris leads Donald Trump in three crucial battleground states

The White House has condemned Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich for arguing against a ceasefire and hostage release deal brokered with the Biden administration, calling his recent public statements unhelpful and dangerous.

National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby on Friday said the US welcomes Israel’s announcement that it will participate in talks with Hamas representatives set to begin next week, either in Doha or Cairo, and said President Joe Biden has spoken with Israeli and Qatari leaders about “a way forward” to “close remaining gaps and to see if we can get this hostage deal concluded.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was just a year into his first term when in May 2020 a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes, spurring protests across the state and the nation.

To Philonise Floyd, Walz’s compassion and dedication to ensure accountability for his older brother’s murder — and for other police brutality victims in Minnesota — is one of the things that make him worthy of being the next vice president of the United States.

“He’s built for this,” Floyd, 43, said on Friday. “He’s built for this fight that he’s going to go through and I think he can do it.”

The Associated Press reported that the plane was diverted from Bozeman, Montana due to a mechanical issue but landed safely at Billings Logan International Airport. A staff member at the Billings airport confirmed the incident.

Michelle Del Rey reports.

A California man with a history of political violence was sentenced on Friday to 20 years in prison for repeatedly attacking police with flagpoles and other makeshift weapons during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.

David Nicholas Dempsey’s sentence is among the longest among hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions. Prosecutors described him as one of the most violent members of the mob of Donald Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory.

Dempsey, who is from Van Nuys, stomped on police officers’ heads. He swung poles at officers defending a tunnel, struck an officer in the head with a metal crutch and attacked police with pepper spray and broken pieces of furniture, prosecutors said.

Kamala Harris is leading Donald Trump in three of the most important battleground states that will likely decide the election.

A new poll from The New York Times and Siena College shows the vice president has dramatically reversed the fortunes of the Democratic Party in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

In a survey of likely voters conducted between August 5 and 9, Harris leads Trump by four percentage points 50 per cent to 46 per cent.

While the reshaped race is still in its volatile early weeks, Democrats are now in a notably stronger position in these three battleground states that have long been key to the party’s victories — or defeats. Still, the results show vulnerabilities for Ms. Harris. Voters prefer Mr. Trump when it comes to whom they trust to handle the economy and immigration, issues that remain central to the presidential race.

Much of the newfound Democratic strength stems from improved voter perceptions of Ms. Harris. Her favorability rating has increased 10 percentage points among registered voters in Pennsylvania just in the last month, according to Times/Siena polling. Voters also view Ms. Harris as more intelligent and more temperamentally fit to govern than Mr. Trump.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have won the endorsement of the powerful Culinary Union.

In a statement released on Friday evening, the group said the vice president “You have consistently championed our union and hospitality workers” and “stood by us as we negotiated and won the best union contract ever.”

As Donald Trump’s campaign promises a “no tax on tips” rule, the union nevertheless says: “Kamala has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to addressing issues that are important to guest room attendants who clean hotel rooms, cooks who make gourmet food, and the tip -earning servers who deliver cocktails and unparalleled hospitality.”

Accusing Republicans of siding with Wall Street landlords and the super-rich, the union concludes its statement by saying: “The path to victory runs through Nevada, and the Culinary Union will deliver Nevada for President Kamala Harris and Vice President Tim Walz.”

Harris for President Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in response: “Vice President Harris and Governor Tim Walz are honored to be endorsed by Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 and will never stop fighting for their 60,000 workers across the great state of Snowfall.”

Shortly before the presidential candidate appeared on stage in Bozeman, Montana on Friday (August 9), his supporters watched as a clip of Dion singing her 1997 track “My Heart Will Go On” was played on a large screen.

Dion previously refused to perform at Trump’s inauguration when he was elected president in 2016.

Jacob Stolworthy reports.

Two years ago, Republican Kari Lake, the news anchor-turned-election denier, lost the governorship in Arizona by 17,117 votes. Since then, she’s filed lawsuits to overturn the results while at the same time announcing that she will be running for the US Senate seat Kyrsten Sinema will vacate at the end of this year.

“We are in a difficult time in our country and it seems that Arizona is kind of right there at ground zero for a lot of the problems that people are facing,” she said to open a press conference at the Maricopa County Republican Party office on Thursday. “Whether it be the inflation and the cost of living that has soared under the Biden-Kamala regime or whether it be the wide open border that used to be secure and is no longer secure in America.”

Donald Trump’s federal election interference case is slowly coming back to life.

The four criminal cases against the former president — spanning 88 charges in four jurisdictions — have been hung up in months of appeals and delays, creating a Russian nesting doll of courtroom battles, with court dates and side hearings on evidence, gag orders and defense arguments all designed to slow down the likelihood of another conviction before Election Day.

JD Vance sparked a firestorm this week when he accused fellow veteran and Democratic vice presidential nominee, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, of abandoning his unit before he deployed to Iraq.

“When the United States Marine Corps…asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it,” Vance told reporters. “When Tim Walz was asked by his countryman to go to Iraq… he dropped out of the army and allowed his unit to go without him.”

Democrats were quick to hit back at the claim, pointing out that Walz filed to run for Congress and officially retired from the Minnesota National Guard months before his unit was alerted about deployment. But Vance’s criticism of his opponent’s record has drawn greater scrutiny of his own time as a “combat correspondent” in the Marine Corps, a role that involves gathering news and writing articles for internal Marine Corps publications and facilitating interviews and access for civilian media.