Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* Vice President Kamala Harris’ new 2024 campaign released its first video on Thursday morning, which emphasized “freedom” against a Beyoncé soundtrack.
* At his latest campaign rally, Trump repeatedly mispronounced Harris’ first name, continued to say weird things about Hannibal Lecter, and effectively admitted that he no longer has use for the “nice” rhetoric he briefly embraced after the recent assassination attempt.
* On a related note, after Trump appeared on Fox News again this morning, the Harris campaign issued a press statement that said the former president is “old and quite weird.” The headline on the release read, “Statement on a 78-Year-Old Criminal’s Fox News Appearance.”
* The latest CNN poll found Trump leading Harris nationally, 49% to 46%. Before Sunday’s announcement from President Joe Biden, a CNN poll found the Republican nominee leading the Democratic incumbent by six points. (Click the link for information on the survey’s methodology and margins of error.)
* Fox News is not currently scheduled to host a 2024 presidential debate, though the controversial network apparently hopes to change that, reaching out to the Trump and Harris campaigns this week, inviting the candidates to debate in Pennsylvania on Sept. 17. The letter added that the moderators would be Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.
* Barack Obama has not endorsed Harris, but NBC News reported that the two have been “in close touch” in recent days, have had “multiple conversations,” and the former president’s formal support will be announced soon.
* And the Secret Service confirmed this week that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. now has a protective detail. Protection for the conspiracy theorist began last week.