NationalWatch

Voters in Dearborn, Michigan, who led a movement against President Biden’s bid for re-election, are unlikely to support Vice President Harris even after she tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

“Nope,” Mike Hachem, a Dearborn leader of the Abandon Biden movement, told Fox News Digital when asked if the choice of Walz might move the needle toward Harris in the community. “He means nothing for the Arab and Muslim community, especially in Michigan. He’s just a younger Joe Biden.”

The plain answer comes as some have speculated that Harris’ decision to choose Walz over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, the only Jewish candidate under consideration, was done in an effort to appease far-left members of the Democratic Party more sympathetic to Gazans and thousands of voters in Dearborn, who could hold the key to a victory in the critical swing state of Michigan.

HARRIS SNUBBING SHAPIRO MAKES LIBERAL JEWS IN HOLLYWOOD FEEL ‘NOT WELCOME’ AMONG DEMOCRATS: REPORT

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (Anthony Souffle/Star Tribune via AP/File)

Leaders of the National Uncommitted Movement, which was inspired by the Listen to Michigan campaign and Abandon Biden movements, had the chance to briefly speak with Harris before her campaign event in Detroit on Wednesday. According to a New York Times report about the conversation, the leaders stressed their demand that the U.S. place an arms embargo on Israel and also asked for a meeting with the vice president to discuss the demand, something she told them she was open to.

Reports of the meeting quickly sparked fears among supporters of Israel that Harris was open to the idea of an embargo, an idea her national security adviser sought to clarify.

“[Harris] has been clear: she will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups,” the adviser, Phil Gordon, said in a post on X. “She does not support an arms embargo on Israel. She will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and to uphold international humanitarian law.”

Nevertheless, the moment demonstrated the fine line Harris will have to walk to win Michigan: expressing sympathy and understanding for those most upset about the carnage in Gaza while maintaining support for Israel.

Hachem said there is nothing Harris can do to gain the support of much of the Dearborn community, noting the vice president actually moved in the wrong direction when she shouted down protesters who disrupted her remarks at the Detroit rally.

COMIC MICHAEL RAPAPORT SAYS HARRIS LOST HIS VOTE OVER ISRAEL: ‘CAN’T SUPPORT PARTY THAT IS FOR THIS BULLS—‘

“She alienated the Arab and Muslim community even further,” he said, noting that many members of the community are “ready to support” former President Trump over the Harris ticket.

Former President Trump (Sean Rayford/Getty Images/File)

But Abed Ayoub, the national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, signaled a more optimistic tone, telling Fox News Digital that while choosing Walz didn’t help Harris gain support from within the Muslim community, the choice did at least leave the door open.

“He can connect with people, he seems like an overall nice guy, but that doesn’t win, that’s not going to be enough to win votes and to win the support of the community back,” Ayoub said. 

Instead, Ayoub argued that the choice at the very least gave a lifeline to Harris, whereas a choice of Shapiro likely would have shut the door on any chance the vice president had to pick up supporters in the Arab community.

“His opposition to student encampments, things he said in the past, the way he has degraded Arabs and Palestinians,” Ayoub cited as a few of the reasons Shapiro on the ticket would close the door on support. “He has a record of being anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian through his career and most of his adult life.”

Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, arrive at a campaign rally in Philadelphia on Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

With Walz on the ticket instead, Ayoub said Harris now must focus on policy changes that would potentially help her pick up support going forward. He cited a potential arms embargo of Israel as a step that would help her gain traction within the community.

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“They should take immediately clear policy positions,” Ayoub said. “Give their immediate commitment early on rather than waiting.”

The Harris campaign did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Vice President Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, claimed responsibility for preventing riots in Minneapolis in the spring of 2020 as the city spiraled into chaos and destruction, recently unearthed comments show. 

“The responsibility to ensure it doesn’t happen falls upon me, and I will do everything in my power to do that,” Walz told the media on May 29, 2020, when asked if “we’re not going to see a repeat of the unrest last night, tonight or for the rest of the weekend.”

Walz noted that he couldn’t “assure” the media that riots wouldn’t continue to unfold, but he highlighted that it was his personal responsibility to work to prevent destruction.

“As I said, I spent, myself, 24 years in the National Guard. I’m surrounded by good people. We’re pulling the assets, and I’m going to need the help of Minnesotans, like we do on a lot of this. I’m going to need folks to cooperate to get this through. I want to acknowledge, again, that pain that people are feeling, the need to get justice,” he continued.

TIM WALZ’S BLM RIOTS RESPONSE LEFT MINNESOTA HUSBAND, DAD OF 2 ‘DISGUSTED’: ‘CAN’T BELIEVE’ PEOPLE SUPPORT HIM

Protesters throw objects into a fire outside a Target store near the 3rd Police Precinct in Minneapolis on May 28, 2020, during a demonstration over the death of George Floyd. (Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images)

Minneapolis was the epicenter of the 2020 riots, which were sparked when George Floyd, a Black man, died at the hands of a White officer during a police encounter in the city. Floyd’s death was followed by social justice protests and riots across the nation, which came at a time when COVID-19 cases and government-mandated lockdown measures meant to control the pandemic upended society in unprecedented ways ahead of the 2020 election.

After Walz’s comments on May 29, 2020, Minneapolis was again rocked by riots that evening, according to local media reports. 

“Protesters blanketed the area near the Fifth Precinct, heavily damaging at least seven buildings – including a U.S. Post Office, a Wells Fargo branch, a staffing agency and a Subway in a nearby strip mall,” the Star Tribune reported at the time.

Democrat vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a campaign event in Detroit on Aug. 7, 2024. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

The outlet in a separate article described the evening of May 29 into the following morning as “perhaps the worst night in [Minneapolis’] history” as residents of an apartment building recalled jumping out of bed at 4 a.m. while a neighboring building that housed an O’Reilly Auto Parts store and a Family Dollar burned.

More than 1,500 buildings in the city were damaged or destroyed due to the riots, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.

TRUMP PRAISED WALZ’S GEORGE FLOYD RIOT RESPONSE IN 2020, AUDIO SHOWS: ‘VERY HAPPY’

“Where I live now, people are disgusted by Tim Walz. But where I live now doesn’t represent a large swath of Minnesota’s population,” Max Rymer, who moved with his wife and two children from a neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis to a suburb about 45 minutes north of the city in 2020, told Fox News Digital in a previous comment this week.

A protester is shown in front of a building set ablaze on May 29, 2020, during a demonstration over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)

Rymer is running as a Republican for the Minnesota House of Representatives and said he “still can’t believe there are people in the state who support the guy after” what residents “have been through the last four years.”

Walz deployed the Minnesota National Guard on May 30, with the state’s National Guard saying at the time that it was “‘all-in’ to restore order.”

The riots plaguing the Twin Cities were “no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd,” said Walz at the time.

Gov. Tim Walz waited several days to call in the National Guard as riots destroyed parts of Minneapolis in 2020. (Getty Images)

WALZ SLAMMED FOR ‘HESITATING’ TO SEND IN GUARD AS HIS DAUGHTER TIPPED OFF RIOTERS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

“Our great cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are under assault,” Walz said. “The situation in Minneapolis is now about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great city.”

The move earned praise from then-President Trump, who lauded Walz in a phone call with governors.

“What they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately,” Trump told Walz and the others on the call.

People take their seats ahead of Vice President Harris’ campaign rally with her newly chosen vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in Philadelphia on Aug. 6, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

His comments came as other cities, stretching from Seattle to New York City, saw riots that police departments alone were hard-pressed to handle. Portland, Oregon, for example, saw at least 100 nights of rioting and protests that summer. 

Though Walz did mobilize the state’s National Guard just days after the riots began, locals have said the Democrat governor acted slowly to curb the destruction.

“I called the White House after [four] days of unbridled rioting with the Governor frozen on what to do,” Republican state Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka wrote on X on July 28. “I know that Gov[.] Walz and Pres[ident] Trump talked. I know Walz finally brought the Guard out in full for the next night. But Walz was [three] days too late. Pressure may have made him move.”

Flames rise from the post office near the 3rd Police Precinct in Minneapolis on May 28, 2020, during a protest over the death of George Floyd. (Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images)

Minnesota’s first lady, Gwen Walz, set social media ablaze this week after an unearthed clip of her describing how she handled the riots went viral.

WIFE OF HARRIS’ VP PICK SETS SOCIAL MEDIA ABLAZE WITH ‘BIZARRE’ ADMISSION ABOUT 2020 RIOTS

“Again we had more sleepless nights during the riots,” Walz’s wife told KSTP in July 2020. “I could smell the burning tires, and that was a very real thing. And I kept the windows open as long as I could because I felt like that was such a touchstone of what was happening.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz greets Vice President Harris at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on March 14, 2024. (Stephen Maturen/AFP via Getty Images)

5 CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE TIM WALZ, FROM DUI TO COVID FRAUD

Critics and conservatives slammed the remarks as “bizarre” on social media.

“What might you call this? Bizarre? Abnormal? Peculiar? Eccentric? Offbeat? Quirky?” wrote Noah Rothman, a senior writer at the National Review Online. “Gotta be a word that describes reveling in the catharsis represented by the torching of other people’s property.”

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk described the comments as “weird.”

A Minneapolis post office burns on May 29, 2020. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

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Harris named Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, with the Minnesota Democrat winning the ticket spot against other reported contenders such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly. Harris rose to the top of the ticket after President Biden dropped out of the race amid mounting concerns over his mental acuity and pressure from Democrats that he pass the torch to another candidate.

Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Several progressive women’s groups were silent when asked by Fox News Digital about how second gentleman Doug Emhoff’s affair when he was married to his ex-wife could affect his image as a leader championing their cause.

Fox News Digital sent an inquiry for comment to EMILYs List, the League of Women Voters, the Progressive Women’s Alliance of West Michigan, the National Organization for Women, the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the Women’s Liberation Front and the International Center for Research on Women. None of the groups returned a request for comment about whether Emhoff should face heightened scrutiny as potentially the next first gentleman by press deadline.

13 DAYS: KAMALA HARRIS HAS NOT HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE SINCE EMERGING AS PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE

Kerstin Emhoff addressed ex-husband Doug Emhoff’s affair with a nanny. (Getty)

As the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer husband, Emhoff has been involved in a number of left-wing causes and has encouraged men to advocate for abortion in the aftermath of the summer 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Earlier this year, he teamed up with Men4Choice to tour Florida, Arizona and North Carolina to campaign for abortion rights. Meanwhile, his wife was making press stops at abortion clinics.

“This is an issue of fairness to women. Women are dying,” Emhoff said in an NBC interview in May. “It’s affecting man’s ability to plan their lives. And it’s also an issue of what’s next, what other freedoms are at risk. And these freedoms are affecting all Americans, not just women.”

Emhoff, Vice President Harris’ husband, admitted to having an affair with a nanny shortly after the Daily Mail published a report last week that the second gentleman had an affair with his daughter’s nanny and got her pregnant. The nanny’s close friend told the outlet that she did not keep the baby but did not elaborate further.

“During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions. I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side,” Emhoff told CNN last week of the affair.

KAMALA HARRIS’ HUSBAND DOUG EMHOFF ADMITS TO EXTRAMARITAL AFFAIR THAT LED TO BREAKUP OF FIRST MARRIAGE

Vice President Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, head toward Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Aug. 6, 2024. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Emhoff and his first wife were married from 1992 to 2008 and share two adult children. Harris married Emhoff in 2014 and helped co-parent his children, who call their stepmother “Mommala.”

The divorce cited “irreconcilable differences” as the motivation behind parting ways, the New York Post reported. 

Harris knew about the affair before they married, and the Biden 2020 campaign knew about it when it was vetting her for Biden’s vice presidential pick, CNN reported. 

KAMALA HARRIS’ HUSBAND DOUG EMHOFF RESPONDS TO TRUMP’S ATTACKS ON HER: ‘THAT’S ALL HE’S GOT?’

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images/File)

Kerstin Emhoff defended her ex in a statement to the Washington Post on Saturday. 

“Doug and I decided to end our marriage for a variety of reasons, many years ago,” she wrote. “He is a great father to our kids, continues to be a great friend to me and I am really proud of the warm and supportive blended family Doug, Kamala, and I have built together.”

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Despite the affair and divorce, Kerstin Emhoff has posted supportive messages about her ex-husband’s second wife and has endorsed Harris on social media.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

President Biden is scheduled to hold his first public event of the week on Thursday before flying to his beach house in Delaware. 

Biden hasn’t been seen publicly since walking back to the White House from Marine One on Monday after returning with first lady Jill Biden from their residence in Wilmington, Delaware. 

None of the events on the president’s public schedule have been open to the press so far this week. 

On Thursday, Biden – during events closed to the press – is scheduled to call Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen “to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the tragic Maui wildfires and those who lost their lives” and receive his presidential daily briefing. 

Biden later Thursday afternoon is to welcome the Texas Rangers to the White House to celebrate their 2023 World Series championship season during an event open to only press-credentialed media. 

BIDEN HUNKERS DOWN IN WHITE HOUSE WITH NO PUBLIC EVENTS ON SCHEDULE AGAIN

President Biden walks on the South Lawn of the White House after arriving on Marine One on Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The president then is scheduled to depart the White House for Joint Base Andrews, from where he will then travel to Wilmington, Delaware. Biden’s arrival in Wilmington is listed as open to the press, but the president and Jill Biden will then greet campaign staff there during an event listed on the public schedule as closed to the press. The couple will then go back to their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Thursday evening. 

Biden sat down with CBS News for his first interview since exiting his race for re-election at the White House on Wednesday afternoon. The interview isn’t scheduled to air in full until Sunday. 

Aside from a promotional clip of the interview, the public hasn’t seen Biden since Monday as he returned to the White House. The president told CBS News that he is “not confident at all” that there would be a peaceful transfer of power in January 2025 if former President Trump loses the election, though Biden misspoke initially and said, “if Trump wins.” 

President Biden returned from a weekend in Delaware to the White House on Monday, where he received a classified briefing on Iran-Israel military situation. (Andrew Leyden/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“He means what he says. We don’t take him seriously. He means it, all the stuff about, ‘If we lose, there’ll be a bloodbath, it’ll have to be a stolen election,’” Biden said. “Look what they’re trying to do now in the local election districts where people count the votes,” the president added, “or putting people in place in states that they’re going to count the votes, right?”

HARRIS SNUBBING SHAPIRO MAKES LIBERAL JEWS IN HOLLYWOOD FEEL ‘NOT WELCOME’ AMONG DEMOCRATS: REPORT

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the president, telling Fox News congressional correspondent Aishah Hasnie, “You’ll see him tomorrow. There will be more opportunities. We have five months left here. There’ll be plenty of opportunities, obviously, to see the president and, certainly, when we have events, public events to share and travel to share as we normally do, we will do just that.” 

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during a campaign event at Temple University’s Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Asked if the president has yet spoken to any of the U.S. service members injured in the attack by Iranian proxies on a base in Iraq over the weekend, Jean-Pierre said at the White House press briefing that she did not “have any conversations to speak of,” but added, “obviously, we are wishing them a speedy recovery. They were injured. And so we have to give them some space and opportunity, to get better, to get that treatment that they need. As the president, he’s also the commander in chief, as you know, and he takes that incredibly seriously.” 

Of the seven injured U.S. personnel, Jean-Pierre said two have been returned to duty, two are recovering locally, and three have been evacuated for further treatment and remain in stable condition. 

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As Pennsylvania comes into focus as a key 2024 battleground, there’s speculation about whether “Scranton Joe” will campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris in the state, especially after Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was passed up for Harris’ running mate. Harris announced earlier this week that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz would join her on the Democratic ticket. 

Vice President Kamala Harris has established a 4-point lead over former President Trump among registered voters, according to a Thursday poll from Marquette Law School.

The poll, conducted from July 24 to Aug. 1, surveyed 879 registered voters from across the country. It advertised a margin of error of 4.1%. The poll found that Harris expanded her lead among likely voters, with Trump trailing 6 points in a 53% to 47% matchup.

Marquette says its likely voters result has a margin of error of 4.7% and was based on a survey of 683 people.

The poll comes as momentum for Harris continues to surge following President Biden’s unprecedented decision to withdraw from the race last month.

HARRIS IS ‘BIDEN’S CO-PILOT’ ON ‘BIDENOMICS’ POLICIES THAT PROMPTED WOEFUL JOBS NUMBERS: TRUMP CAMP

Vice President Kamala Harris has established a 4-point lead over former President Trump among registered voters, according to a Thursday poll from Marquette Law School. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

A Wednesday poll from NPR, PBS and Marist found that Harris has a 3-point lead over the former president.

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS NAMES MINNESOTA GOV. TIM WALZ AS HER RUNNING MATE

The poll had found Harris leading Trump 51% to 48%, but clarified that the difference is within the margin of error. Harris has also narrowed Trump’s lead on key issues like the economy.

A Wednesday poll from NPR, PBS and Marist found that Harris has a 3-point lead over former President Trump. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Both polls had Trump leading Harris on key issues, including illegal immigration and foreign policy issues like Israel’s war in Gaza.

TRUMP QUICKLY MOVES TO DEFINE HARRIS AS ‘MORE LEFT THAN BERNIE SANDERS’

The Marquette poll showed that 49% of Americans believe Trump would be better for the economy than Harris, with just 37% saying the reverse.

The Marquette poll showed that 49% of Americans believe Trump would be better for the economy than Harris, with just 37% saying the reverse. (Getty Images)

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The surveys come days after a Fox News poll found Trump and Harris deadlocked in Pennsylvania, a key swing state for the presidential election.

The state of the race in the Keystone State is similar to where it was in April, when President Biden and Trump were tied 48%-48%. The survey, released Friday, shows Harris and Trump locked in a tie in Pennsylvania at 49%-49% — barely different from what the final election results were in the state in 2020 (49.85% Biden vs. 48.69% Trump).

Vice President Kamala Harris’ decision to tap Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as running mate over Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, the only Jewish candidate under consideration, sparked immediate speculation that the Keystone State’s governor was cast aside because of his pro-Israel politics.

“This is a person who listened to the Hamas wing of her own party in selecting a nominee,” former President Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, told reporters in reaction to the pick, according to a CBS News report.

The comment comes amid heavy backlash to the selection of Walz over Shapiro in some corners, with many speculating that the pick was made to appease the far-left wing of the Democratic Party that some see as hostile to Israel.

“Those in the overly online left who are attacking Josh Shapiro’s pro-Israel positions in a different way than they are attacking non-Jewish veep contenders’ positions, they’re just telling on themselves,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., told CNN Monday.

WALZ WAITED UNTIL LEGISLATIVE SESSION WRAPPED TO DEMAND RESIGNATION FROM DEM LAWMAKER ACCUSED OF BURGLARY

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a news conference on Jan. 26, 2021, in St. Paul. (Anthony Souffle/Star Tribune via AP, File)

“There is a strong undercurrent of antisemitism to that,” he continued. “It’s unacceptable. Every contender’s positions on all policy issues, their track records in elected office, all of that is fair game. That is totally open to be subjected to interrogation and to questioning by the Harris team, by observers, but holding him to a different standard because of his religion just simply isn’t who we are in the Democratic Party.”

The defense of Shapiro comes as some supporters of Israel have become increasingly worried in recent months that Harris has started to carve out a position different from President Biden on support for the Jewish state, claiming the vice president has begun to take a more sympathetic view toward the faction of the Democratic Party that has showed support for Palestinians amid Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

While Harris has continued to express that Israel has a right to defend itself and has repeatedly condemned the October terrorist attacks against the Jewish state, she did become the first administration official to call for an “immediate cease-fire” in Gaza.

Harris also vowed “not to be silent” about the suffering of Gazans ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, remarks some took as a continued signal of a shifting position from the president.

Walz has taken a similar approach to Harris, at times expressing support for Israel while also expressing sympathy for the plight of Gazans.

VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS NAMES MINNESOTA GOV TIM WALZ AS HER RUNNING MATE

“You can hold competing things: That Israel has the right to defend itself, and the atrocities of October 7 are unacceptable, but Palestinian civilians being caught in this… has got to end,” Walz said during an appearance on Minnesota Public Radio in March, according to a report from Al Jazeera.

Walz has also consistently argued that Israel has a right to exist, telling the Jewish Community Relations Council earlier this year that the “ability of Jewish people to self-determine themselves is foundational.”

“The failure to recognize the state of Israel is taking away that self-determination. So it is antisemitic,” he said.

Gov. Tim Walz arrives to speak at a press conference regarding gun legislation at City Hall on Aug. 1, 2024, in Bloomington, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

The Minnesota governor was quick to condemn the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, arguing those that carried out the attack showed “an absolute lack of humanity.”

“That’s not a geopolitical discussion. That’s murder,” Walz said, according to a Times of Israel report.

He also urged members of his own party to take the concerns of Jewish students seriously amid a wave of anti-Israel demonstrations on American college campuses in the spring.

KAMALA HARRIS’ VP PICK TIM WALZ PREVIOUSLY CHARGED WITH DUI IN NEBRASKA

“I think when Jewish students are telling us they feel unsafe in that, we need to believe them, and I do believe them,” Walz said during a PBS appearance. “Creating a space where political dissent or political rallying can happen is one thing. Intimidation is another.“

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

According to a USA Today report, Walz also expressed support for Israel while serving in Congress between 2007 and 2019, voting with Israel multiple times, including a vote to condemn the United Nations resolution that declared Israeli settlements on the West Bank illegal.

But Walz also showed that his support for Israel is not unlimited, warning the country about those same settlements during a diplomatic tour through the Middle East in 2009, arguing that they were damaging prospects for peace.

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Like Harris, the Minnesota governor called for a cease-fire to the conflict in March. That same month, he praised Democrats who voted uncommitted during the state’s primary, following a movement that started in Michigan to protest the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict in Gaza.

As former President Trump blasts Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over his response to the unrest in his state in May 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, a resurfaced audio recording shows that Trump had praised Walz at the time for how he “dominated” the situation.

In the audio recording, which was obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, Trump was on a phone call with Walz and other governors and officials on June 1, 2020.

“What they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately,” Trump told Walz and the others on the call.

Walz, who has served as Minnesota’s governor since 2019, was selected as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate Tuesday, putting a spotlight on his handling of the riots that spread across Minneapolis in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder on May 25, 2020.

TIM WALZ’S BLM RIOTS RESPONSE LEFT MINNESOTA HUSBAND DAD OF 2 ‘DISGUSTED’: ‘CAN’T BELIEVE’ PEOPLE SUPPORT HIM

Flames from a nearby fire illuminate protesters standing on a barricade in front of the Third Police Precinct on May 28, 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during a riot over the death of George Floyd. (Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images)

Walz deployed the National Guard three days later to stop the violence, which included the torching of a police station, but critics have said both the governor and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey were too slow to act. Walz and Frey each blamed the other for the delays.

Walz has been criticized over his delay in deploying the National Guard to Minneapolis during the riots in May 2020. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Trump offered federal help to Walz at the time, but the governor did not take him up on it.

WALZ SLAMMED FOR ‘HESITATING’ TO SEND IN GUARD AS HIS DAUGHTER TIPPED OFF RIOTERS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

Trump didn’t blame Walz at the time for the delays, later saying: “I don’t blame you. I blame the mayor.”

“I was very happy with the last couple of days, Tim,” Trump said during the call. “You called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them out so fast, it was like bowling pins.”

FIVE CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE TIM WALZ, FROM DUI TO COVID FRAUD

But on Wednesday, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told The Associated Press in a statement that Trump was only acknowledging that Walz took steps to end the violence after days of violence and unrest in Minneapolis.

Trump can be heard praising Walz for his response to the unrest in a resurfaced phone call from June 1, 2020, though the former president has blasted the governor in recent months. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

“Governor Walz allowed Minneapolis to burn for days, despite President Trump’s offer to deploy soldiers and cries for help from the liberal Mayor of Minneapolis,” Leavitt said. “In this daily briefing phone call with Governors on June 1, days after the riots began, President Trump acknowledged Governor Walz for FINALLY taking action to deploy the National Guard to end the violence in the city.”

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Fox Digital reached out to the Trump campaign for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Fox Digital’s Michael Lee and Chris Pandolfo, along with The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Vice President Kamala Harris has moved into the betting lead for the first time since being elevated to the top of the ticket.

Harris has a 50.7% chance to be elected president, while former President Trump sits at a 47.9% chance to win the election, according to the Real Clear Politics betting average on Thursday.

Thursday marked the first time Harris has been the betting favorite to win the election, while it’s also the first time the Democratic ticket has been favored over Trump since May 1, when President Biden was still in the race. On that day, Biden held a narrow 42.3% to 42.2% advantage in the Real Clear Politics betting average.

KAMALA HARRIS AND HER NEWLY NAMED RUNNING MATE KICK OFF A BATTLEGROUND STATE SWING

Since that day, Trump continued to put distance between himself and Biden, peaking as a 66.2% favorite on July 15.

But Trump’s lead steadily declined in the weeks after Biden’s decision to drop out of the race and endorse Harris, who quickly went on to lock up the Democratic nomination.

Trump’s odds tumble culminated Thursday, just days after Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to join her on the ticket, a move the Harris campaign believes will help her solidify support in critical Midwestern swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Vice President Kamala Harris. (Reuters/Kevin Mohatt/Pool)

VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS NAMES MINNESOTA GOV TIM WALZ AS HER RUNNING MATE

Harris was either leading or tied with Trump on Thursday in all the major betting markets tracked by Real Clear Politics, with her biggest lead coming on the popular platform Predictit, a New Zealand-based prediction market that offers “shares” of political outcomes.

Harris shares were selling for 57 cents on the platform as of Thursday morning, while Trump shares were selling for 46 cents, an 11-cent lead for the vice president. Shares on the platform are priced between $0.01 and $0.99, meaning the price of a share essentially represents the percentage chance of a particular outcome.

Former President Trump. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

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The shift in the betting favorite comes as Harris has also overtaken Trump in many national polls, becoming the leader on the Real Clear Politics polling average for the first time on Monday. That lead represents the first time the presumed Democratic ticket has had the advantage since September 11 of last year, when Biden a 44.5% to 44.3% advantage.

Neither the Trump nor Harris campaigns immediately responded to Fox News Digital requests for comment.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ influence on the botched withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan remains unclear publicly despite her previously confirming she was the “last person in the room” with President Biden before he made the decision. 

According to a new Washington Post report, officials say Harris did not push for policy change but did raise some important questions during interagency meetings in early 2021 before what resulted in a chaotic 17-day evacuation from Kabul and a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians at Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate,.

The vice president, now the Democratic presidential nominee, acted “like a district attorney” while asking questions during the deliberations but did not provide much insight into what she was thinking, one senior military official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Post. 

“She never gave a sense for where she was on it,” the official told the newspaper.

KAMALA HARRIS SHUTS DOWN ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS DURING CAMPAIGN SPEECH IN MICHIGAN: ‘I’M SPEAKING’

Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at Philadelphia International Airport to attend a campaign event on Aug. 6, 2024. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Despite that account, another former military official who participated in the administration’s deliberations at the time told the Post he does not remember Harris “playing any role of significance” during meetings of the National Security Council that Biden led in 2021. The official did admit that the vice president could have counseled Biden outside those briefings.  

In a statement to the Post, a Harris aide said the vice president asked, “probing questions” during deliberations in which she was fully involved before the withdrawal and “strongly supported President Biden’s decision to end America’s longest war.” 

“We’re not going to get into the Vice President’s private counsel to the President,” the aide added. 

Positioning herself as a vice president who is closely involved in the administration’s key matters, Harris confirmed to CNN in 2021 that she was the “last person in the room” with Biden before his decision to withdraw U.S. troops and effectively end more than 20 years of war in Afghanistan. 

While campaigning for president in 2019, Harris said she wanted to “ensure that the country is on a path to stability, that we protect the gains that have been made for Afghan women and others,” according to the Post. 

Gold Star families of U.S. military members killed at Abbey Gate in Afghanistan in August 2021 speak during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 17, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

HARRIS AND WALZ MADE UNPRECEDENTED ABORTION CLINIC VISIT PRIOR TO PRESIDENTIAL TICKET TEAM-UP

When Biden’s presidency began in 2021, Afghan official Nader Nadery, who served as an adviser to then-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, said he hoped Harris would help persuade Biden to keep some U.S. troops in the country until the Taliban could agree to a peace deal. With the Taliban’s seizure of power came the erosion of women’s rights, and Nadery questioned whether Harris had tried to convince Biden to change direction. 

“I hoped that President Biden listened to her and other voices who advocated for Afghan women,” he reportedly said of the withdrawal.  

Taliban fighters control access to the Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan, Aug. 25, 2021. (Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)

Republicans and former President Trump have criticized Biden’s handling of the withdrawal, especially after Biden’s stunning omission of the 13 U.S. service members killed at Abbey Gate during the June presidential debate in Atlanta, where he claimed to be the “only president this century” and in “this decade” who did not have “any troops dying anywhere in the world.” 

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Attendees of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month heard from the families of those service members, who condemned how Biden never publicly said the names of their loved ones. 

Now, as the Democratic ticket pivots to Harris and her newly selected running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, criticism of the vice president on the Afghanistan withdrawal has not gained similar traction. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Harris’ campaign and the vice president’s office for comment, but they did not immediately respond.

A group of Republican attorneys general on Thursday sued to block the Biden-Harris administration from granting free health care to illegal immigrants.

President Biden’s administration is working to grant DACA recipients access to Obamacare, despite their lack of U.S. citizenship. Kansas AG Kris Kobach, who is leading the lawsuit, says the administration is illegally redefining DACA recipients as “lawfully present” in the U.S. in order to grant the coverage.

DACA refers to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a policy that delays deportation for illegal immigrants who crossed into the U.S. when they were infants or young children.

Kobach argues that defining DACA recipients as lawfully present is “laughable.”

KAMALA HARRIS SHUTS DOWN ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS DURING CAMPAIGN SPEECH IN MICHIGAN: ‘I’M SPEAKING’

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are facing a legal challenge to their effort to get free health care coverage for DACA recipients. (Tierney L. Cross)

“You have to have entered the U.S. illegally to qualify for DACA status. The 2012 memo creating DACA affirms that it ‘confers no substantive right, immigration status or pathway to citizenship. Only the Congress, acting through its legislative authority, can confer these rights.’ And at least two federal courts have held DACA itself to be illegal,” Kobach wrote in an opinion article for the Wall Street Journal.

BIDEN URGES RESPECT FOR LEGAL SYSTEM AFTER TRUMP CONVICTION WHILE PUBLICLY FLOUTING SCOTUS RULINGS

“The new Biden-Harris rule will worsen the disaster at the border. When word about taxpayer-subsidized healthcare reaches the home countries of would-be illegal aliens, many more will make the journey. When you reward illegal behavior, you get more of it,” he added.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has filed several legal challenges against President Biden’s administration.

Earlier this year, Kobach sued the Biden administration over a student loan forgiveness program. Biden has sought for years to find a legal path forward for unilaterally forgiving student debt but has yet to succeed.

The Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan announced by the administration last year would help millions of borrowers enrolled in a federal student loan program to lower their monthly debt payments and provide a path to debt forgiveness.

Many of President Biden’s executive actions have been thwarted by Republican legal challenges. (Susan Walsh/AP)

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The lower payments were expected to kick in on July 1 for an estimated eight million borrowers enrolled in the SAVE program, but the administration has run into several legal hurdles.

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with reporters for the first time Thursday since becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee nearly three weeks ago.

She talked to the media on the tarmac at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport after a campaign event in Michigan and after former President Trump held a lengthy news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida Thursday afternoon.

Harris responded to criticism about not doing a formal press conference or a wide-ranging interview since she became the presumptive nominee.

“I’ve talked to my team. I want us to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month,” Harris said.

18 DAYS: KAMALA HARRIS HAS NOT HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE SINCE EMERGING AS PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for president, speaks to members of the press before departing from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Detroit Thursday. ( Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The vice president also touched on an agreement with Trump to conduct at least one presidential debate prior to Election Day Nov. 5.

“Well, I’m glad that he’s finally agreed to a debate on Sept. 10,” she said, adding she would be willing to schedule additional debates with the former president. 

Trump said on Thursday that he would participate in a trio of debates on Fox News Channel, NBC and ABC next month.

JD VANCE ROASTS HARRIS ON WISCONSIN TARMAC FOR AVOIDING PRESS, CALLS AIR FORCE 2 HIS ‘FUTURE PLANE’

Trump previously indicated he may not agree to the ABC debate, originally set with President Biden before Harris replaced him as the Democratic presidential candidate nearly three weeks ago.

“I am beyond trying to speculate about how he thinks,” Harris said when asked about Trump backing out of the debate.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, greets audience members at a campaign rally at United Auto Workers Local 900 Thursday, in Wayne, Mich. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Harris also addressed Republicans who questioned Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s military record after she named him her running mate Tuesday.

“Listen, I praise anyone who has presented themselves to serve our country,” she said. “And I think that we all should.”

The controversy came after Republicans accused Walz of engaging in “stolen valor garbage” with respect to his military credentials.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump are expected to debate next month. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Harris’ stop at the tarmac came after Trump attacked the vice president for not taking on-the-record questions from reporters on the campaign trail since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee. 

“Kamala refuses to do interviews because her team realizes she is unable to answer questions, much like Biden was not able to answer questions, but for different reasons,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

She also failed to appear at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Chicago, where former President Trump made headlines last week for a question-and-answer session.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, waves as she boards Air Force Two prior to a departure from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Detroit. ( Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Harris has gone 18 days without holding a formal press conference since emerging as the presumptive nominee last month. President Biden endorsed her July 21 when he suspended his re-election campaign.

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Since then, Harris has been traveling across the U.S. on the campaign trail and giving informal remarks.

The Harris campaign did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

The Harris campaign has altered its biography of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on its campaign website, making a change to a reference to his military service amid ongoing scrutiny of the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee’s military credentials.

Walz’s biography initially said he was a “retired Command Sergeant Major.” 

It has since been updated to say that he “served as a command sergeant major.”

Vice President Kamala Harris announced Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, setting off a series of attacks over his background as Minnesota’s governor, a lawmaker and a member of the National Guard for nearly 25 years.

VETERAN WHO SERVED IN TIM WALZ’S BATTALION ADDRESSES STOLEN VALOR ACCUSATIONS: ‘FAR DARKER THAN PEOPLE THINK’

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has come under scrutiny over his military service in the National Guard. Walz in his National Guard uniform, right. (Fox News)

When Walz left the Guard, he had achieved the rank of command sergeant major, but he was reduced in rank months after retiring, leaving him as a master sergeant. National Guard officials have said that he retired before fulfilling requirements for the position, including coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy. The subsequent lower rank was due to benefit requirements and a technicality.

However, Republicans have accused Walz of engaging in “stolen valor garbage.”

“Do not pretend to be something that you’re not,” Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and former President Trump’s running mate, said this week. Vance is a Marine Corps veteran.

“I’d be ashamed if I was saying that I lied about my military service like you did,” he said.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, appear on stage together during a campaign event at Girard College in Philadelphia on Tuesday. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Vance accused Walz of having dropped out of the National Guard to avoid serving in the Iraq War.

JD VANCE ACCUSES TIM WALZ OF ‘LYING’ ABOUT MILITARY SERVICE: ‘STOLEN VALOR GARBAGE’

“As a Marine who served his country in uniform when the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it. I did what they asked me to do, and I did it honorably,” he said. “When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him, a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with.” 

However, the Minnesota National Guard told Fox News that Walz’s unit was not given deployment orders to Iraq until July, and he had submitted retirement papers five to seven months prior to his retirement in May 2005.

Army Lt. Col. Ryan Rossman, the Minnesota National Guard’s director of operations, also explained Walz’s rank at the time of his retirement in a statement to Fox News.

“He was technically a command sergeant major when he deployed to Europe with his battalion but to retire as a CSM you have to go through a final course, which he had not completed. So, from a benefits perspective, the Army retired him as a master sergeant (lower enlisted rank). But, according to National Guard records, he was a command sergeant major technically when deployed. The lower rank was as a result of benefit requirements and a technicality.”

Vance noted comments from Walz on gun control, saying the governor had used his military history in an attempt to push gun restrictions.

“He said, ‘We shouldn’t allow weapons that I used in war to be on America’s streets.’ Well, I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? When was this? What was this weapon that you carried into war, given that you abandoned your unit right before they went to Iraq? And he has not spent a day in a combat zone? What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage,” Vance said.

The Harris campaign has defended Walz’s record.

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“After 24 years of military service, Governor Walz retired in 2005 and ran for Congress, where he chaired Veterans Affairs and was a tireless advocate for our men and women in uniform. And as vice president of the United States, he will continue to be a relentless champion for our veterans and military families,” the campaign said this week.

Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin, Jeffrey Clark and Anders Hagstrom and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Welcome to Fox News’ Politics newsletter with the latest political news from Washington D.C. and updates from the 2024 campaign trail. 

What’s happening…

-Harris’ role in Afghan withdrawal remains mystery…

-Harris takes +4 lead over Trump in new poll…

-What are Walz’ views on Israel…

Punch for Punch

Standing in front of over 15,000 supporters packed into an airport hanger at the airport in Detroit, Michigan, Vice President Kamala Harris proclaimed that “this election’s going to be a fight.”

“We like a good fight,” added Harris, who rose to the top of the Democratic Party’s 2024 ticket two and a half weeks ago after President Biden suspended his re-election bid and endorsed his vice president as his successor.

Hours earlier, Trump aimed to paint Harris and Walz as ultra-liberals as he called into Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” for an interview.

“You know, nobody knew how radical left she was, but he’s a smarter version of her, if you want to know the truth,” Trump claimed in his Wednesday interview. “He’s probably about the same as Bernie Sanders. He’s probably more so than Bernie Sanders.” And the former president argued that “this is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately, if not sooner.” …Read more

Former President Trump is ready to debate Vice President Kamala Harris.  (Photographer: Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Photographer: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

White House

‘LAST PERSON IN THE ROOM’: Harris’ role in Afghanistan withdrawal remains a mystery despite close proximity to Biden …Read more

Capitol Hill

DC IS NO MARGARITAVILLE: Summer on Capitol Hill explained by ‘yacht rock’ …Read more

QUESTIONABLE CONTRIBUTIONS: House GOP demands FEC probe ‘potentially illegal’ ActBlue fundraising as Dem platform hauls Harris millions …Read more

Tales from the Trail

GAINING GROUND: A new poll shows that Harris has taken a 4-point lead over Trump among likely voters …Read more

‘PERFECT PICK’ FOR HARRIS: Mike Pence’s think tank reacts to Walz as Democratic VP nominee …Read more

REVISED OPINION: Trump is now criticizing Gov. Tim Walz for his response to 2020 riots despite praising him at the time …Read more

HEARTLAND: Walz doesn’t move needle with rural voters, data shows …Read more

HARRIS’ HONEYMOON: Kamala Harris enjoys a favorability bump in 3 battleground states: forecasters …Read more

‘STARK CONTRAST’: Trump to stage Mar-a-Lago press conference as Harris avoids media …Read more

THE FAVORITE: Walz pick moves Harris into betting lead for the first time …Read more

BACKTRACKING?: Harris campaign response to Israel arms embargo speculation …Read more

A NEW VP: What are Walz’s views on Israel? …Read more

‘NEVER WENT TO WAR’: Walz ripped after touting he wants to ban guns he ‘carried in war’ …Read more

DETROIT, MICHIGAN – AUGUST 07: Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a campaign event on August 7, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan. Kamala Harris and her newly selected running mate Tim Walz are campaigning across the country this week. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) (Andrew Harnik)

Across America

‘LAUGHABLE’: Republican attorneys general are suing the Biden-Harris administration to prevent free health care to DACA recipients …Read more

BREAKING NEWS: Pennsylvania police release bodycam from Trump assassination attempt …Read more

‘VERY SIMILAR’: Walz in 2010 appeared to endorse Social Security plan for raising retirement age …Read more

CAUSE OF DEATH REVEALED: Coroner shares how Trump assassination attempt victim died …Read more

DEADLY SIGHT: Police to release bodycam video of officer confronting Trump shooter …Read more

HONING HIS SHOT: Records show lengths would-be Trump assassin went to prepare …Read more

‘WE DON’T PLAY GAMES’: Youngkin codifies all paper ballots as part of Virginia election security protocol …Read more

Subscribe now to get the Fox News Politics newsletter in your inbox.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

The 2024 presidential race is a “complete contrast campaign” pitting former President Trump’s record against Vice President Kamala Harris’, senior Trump campaign officials said Thursday, while stressing that the new Democrat ticket is “dangerously liberal,” but that “the fundamentals of the race are the same.” 

“Democrats say, ‘We can’t go back,’ but many Americans like the idea of no inflation, affordable food and gas, and low mortgage rates,” a Trump campaign official said. “Hire Trump, Fire Kamala.” 

TRUMP SAYS BIDEN HAD THE ‘RIGHT TO RUN,’ BUT DEM PARTY ‘TOOK IT AWAY’

The campaign official said Trump is the “change” and Harris is the “status quo.” 

The Trump campaign said Harris is going to make an effort to separate herself from Biden. 

“We’re in a suspended reality for a few weeks,” an official said. “It is like Harris has never met Joe Biden and like she has no responsibility for what happened in the administration. But that is not what the voters think.” 

The official added: “But nothing has changed. The fundamentals of the race are the same.” 

The campaign also blasted Harris’ pick of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, saying he “reinforces the narrative that Harris is a dangerous liberal.” 

“When they start talking about ‘equal outcomes,’ they are essentially talking about communism,” a campaign official said. 

Meanwhile, as the campaign turns into the general election cycle, former President Trump is focused on continuing his efforts to persuade new voters in battleground states—specifically by delivering messages that present the contrasting records and policy stances between Trump and Harris. 

TRUMP STAGES MAR-A-LAGO PRESS CONFERENCE IN ‘STARK CONTRAST’ WITH HARRIS AS SHE AVOIDS MEDIA

Trump campaign officials said they are focused on advertising, direct mail, texting and calling new and traditional Republican voters and more. 

The Trump campaign said that it has made more than 150 million direct voter contacts with prospective voters so far and has mobilized through its “Trump Force 47” effort. 

Fox News Digital first broke the campaign’s “Trump Force 47” grassroots effort to recruit new voters. 

The program, which the campaign says is focused on mobilizing “highly targeted voters in critical precincts across the battleground states and districts,” has already engaged tens of thousands of volunteers. 

TRUMP CAMPAIGN TOUTS ‘TRUMP FORCE 47’ GRASSROOTS RECRUITMENT EFFORT 100 DAYS OUT FROM ELECTION DAY

“Trump Force 47 is highly effective, because it takes traditional voter contact tactics a step further by equipping voters with the skills to persuade their neighbors to vote for President Trump,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital last month. 

The campaign told Fox News Digital that “Trump Force 47” builds on its early-state primary strategy of organizing volunteers at the precinct level, where each volunteer works to attract several specifically targeted voters. 

Former President Trump said he is ready to debate Vice President Kamala Harris.  (Photographer: Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Photographer: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The “Trump Force 47” website says it is “the official army of volunteer neighborhood organizers working together to defeat Kamala Harris and the far-left liberal democrats.” 

Potential volunteers can sign up to target voter outreach in their own neighborhoods, call targeted voters, sign up for poll watching, be a “Trump Captain; host a “Trump House Party,” or deliver yard signs to neighbors. 

The Trump campaign said that economic concerns and the border are the issues that drive voters. 

“They are far more sour on the economy,” an official said. “They are more pessimistic about their overall personal finances.” 

As for campaign cash, a senior campaign official said the former president has $327 million cash-on-hand. 

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“We never thought we’d have more than Democrats, but we have enough to do what we need to do,” a campaign official said, adding that they “imagine the Harris honeymoon ends soon.”  

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a new interview with Time Magazine, apologized for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists happening on his watch, and warned that the country now faces a “full-fledged Iranian axis.”

Netanyahu had been prime minister for almost a year when Hamas terrorists launched the attack on southern Israel that left 1,200 people dead and hundreds more taken as hostages in Gaza. 

In an interview conducted on Aug. 4 at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, Time asked Netanyahu whether he would apologize for the Oct. 7 attack, noting his 17-year cumulative political career has been built on the argument that he is the best leader to ensure Israel’s safety.  

“Apologize?” Netanyahu asked. “Of course, of course. I am sorry, deeply, that something like this happened. And you always look back and you say, ‘Could we have done things that would have prevented it?’”

ISRAEL ISSUES MESSAGE TO LEBANESE CITIZENS AMID REPORTS OF POTENTIAL PREEMPTIVE STRIKE ON HEZBOLLAH

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on July 24, 2024, in Washington, D.C.  (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Ten months after what amounted to the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, the Biden administration has increasingly grown frustrated with Netanyahu for failing to deliver a plan to end the war and get the more than 100 hostages still held by Hamas home. 

Israel now faces more fronts – in the north with Hezbollah in Lebanon, in the Gulf with the Houthis in Yemen – and now is bracing for an aerial assault from its main enemy, Iran. 

“We’re facing not merely Hamas,” Netanyahu told TIME. “We’re facing a full-fledged Iranian axis, and we understand that we have to organize ourselves for broader defense.”

According to a July poll by Israel’s most watched television station, 72% of Israelis believe Netanyahu should resign now or after the conflict ends. 

Critics, including former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, have accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war to further his own political ambition. 

“Netanyahu is focused on his longevity in power more than the interests of the Israeli people or the State of Israel,” Barak told Time. “It will take half a generation to repair the damage that Netanyahu has caused in the last year.” 

Netanyahu argued that Israel must demolish every element of Iran’s “axis of resistance” in the region to ensure that Israel is never subjected to future massacres and that Hamas can no longer lay claim to Palestinian territories.

“Being destroyed has bigger implications about Israel’s security,” Netanyahu told Time, describing the war as existential. “I’d rather have bad press than a good obituary.”

Netanyahu delivered a speech to Congress in Washington, D.C., on July 25 to rally support from Israel’s closest ally, but nearly 130 Democrats and Vice President Harris declined to attend. 

“I don’t think that the much-reported erosion of support among some quarters of the American public is related to Israel,” Netanyahu told Time. 

“It’s more related to America,” he added, referencing a Harvard-Harris survey in January showing that 80% of respondents supported Israel, while 20% supported Hamas. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces Herzi Halevi and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at an operations center in Jerusalem on July 20, 2024. (Israeli Prime Minister’s Office / Handout /Anadolu via Getty Images)

EXPECT IRAN’S RESPONSE TO EXTEND BEYOND THE MIDDLE EAST: ROBERT GREENWAY

“There’s a problem that America has,” Netanyahu said, noting a significant amount of support for a terrorist organization. “It’s not a problem that Israel has.”

The Biden administration and former President Trump have both expressed a desire for the war to end. Netanyahu has noted in the past that Israel did not start the war, but must be able to end it for its future security.

When U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Tel Aviv earlier this year, he reportedly told Netanyahu to bring the war to a close, because Israeli forces had already ensured that another Oct. 7 couldn’t happen again. Netanyahu reportedly replied that wasn’t his objective. Instead, he said, the goal was to “completely destroy Hamas’ military and governing capabilities.”

“We’ve gone out of our way to enable humanitarian assistance since the beginning of the war,” Netanyahu told Time, responding to allegations brought by Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi that the Israeli operations amounted to “collective punishment” of civilians for Hamas’ actions. 

President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House on July 25, 2024, in Washington, D.C.  (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Time noted how Netanyahu embraced a policy over the past 10 years allowing Qatari funds to flow into Gaza after Hamas rose to power first through elections and later by force. It was meant as an incentive for Hamas to govern peacefully but instead financed miles of terror tunnels under civilian infrastructure. Also in January 2023, Netanyahu led government reforms that curbed judiciary powers, prompting large-scale protests. 

“You are weakening us, and our enemy is going to see it, and we’re going to pay the price,” former Minister of Defense Benny Gantz cautioned Netanyahu at the time. 

The prime minister placed blame on the protesters, many of whom said they would not serve in the Israeli military if the country’s democratic institutions were weakened. 

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“The refusal to serve because of an internal political debate – I think that, if anything, that had an effect,” Netanyahu told Time.

Netanyahu said his biggest mistake, however, was not going to war with Hamas in the past, listening to his security cabinet, which opposed such a move. For years, Israel’s strategy was to respond to Hamas’ attacks periodically by striking back and damaging them to the point of the terror group agreeing to a cease-fire that ultimately kept them in control of Gaza, with the ability to bolster their terror infrastructure that includes a complex network of underground tunnels.

Time reported that when Israel did go to war against Hamas for less than two months in 2014, Israeli officials said the security cabinet brought Netanyahu a plan to end the terror organization. The plan was predicted to lead to the deaths of approximately 10,000 Gazan civilians and 500 Israeli soldiers.

“There was no domestic support for such an action,” Netanyahu told Time regarding that plan. “There was certainly no international support for such an action – and you need both.”

Former President Trump said President Biden had “the right to run” for re-election and the Democratic Party “took it away” from him, while blasting his new opponent Kamala Harris as the “least admired, least respected, and worst vice president in the history of our country.” 

Trump held a press conference at Mar-a-Lago Thursday afternoon after holding off-the-record meetings with major media outlets. The Trump campaign said the Republican presidential nominee wanted to address the media “while they were already in Palm Beach because he’s the most transparent candidate in history.” 

Trump said Thursday that the U.S. is in “the most dangerous period of time I’ve ever seen for our country.” 

“We have somebody that hasn’t received one vote for president, and she’s running, and that’s fine with me, but we were given Joe Biden, and now we’re given somebody else,” Trump said. “I think, frankly, I’d rather be running against somebody else, but that was their choice.” 

TRUMP STAGES MAR-A-LAGO PRESS CONFERENCE IN ‘STARK CONTRAST’ WITH HARRIS AS SHE AVOIDS MEDIA

Both the Trump and Harris 2024 campaigns have put out ads attacking each other for their U.S. southern border policies. (Getty Images)

Trump said Harris is “a radical left person at a level that nobody’s seen,” and said her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is a “radical left man that has positions that are not even possible to believe they exist.” 

“He’s heavy into the transgender world, heavy into lots of different worlds having to do with safety. He doesn’t want to have borders, he doesn’t want to have walls. He doesn’t want to have any form of safety for our country,” Trump said. “He doesn’t mind people coming in from prisons and neither does she — I guess because she couldn’t care less.” 

Harris formally became the nominee after Biden suspended his re-election campaign and endorsed her amid pressure from within the Democrat Party. The Democratic National Committee formally nominated Harris as their nominee this week. 

“The presidency was taken away from Joe Biden, and I’m no Biden fan,” Trump said. “From a constitutional standpoint, from any standpoint you look at, they took the presidency away, and people are saying he lost after the debate and he couldn’t win.” 

“Whether he could win or he couldn’t, when he had the right to run, and they took it away, and they said they would use the 25th amendment,” Trump continued. 

Trump said the pressure from within the Democrat Party and “what they’ve done” is “pretty incredible.” 

18 DAYS: KAMALA HARRIS HAS NOT HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE SINCE EMERGING AS PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE

“Now I’m running against somebody else, and we’re leading. We’re leading — so I’m not complaining,” he said. “I’m saying, for a country with a Constitution that we cherish — we cherish this Constitution — to have done it this way is pretty severe, pretty horrible.” 

Trump said he thought Democrats “would have gone out to a vote” or “would have had a primary system.” 

“But just to take it away from him like he was a child?” Trump said, adding that Biden is “a very angry man right now.” 

“I can tell you that he’s not happy with Obama, and he’s not happy with Nancy Pelosi,” Trump said. “He’s not happy with any of the people that told him ‘you’ve got to leave.’ He’s very unhappy, very angry.” 

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at the National Association of Black Journalists, NABJ, convention, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Trump said he thinks Biden “also blames” Harris. 

“He’s trying to put up a good face, but it is a very bad thing in terms of a country when you do that,” Trump said. “I’m not a fan of his, as you probably have noticed, and he had a rough debate, but that doesn’t mean that you just take it away like that.” 

Trump added: “You go out to a vote, you do something — he had 14 million votes. She had no votes.” 

“And she’s crashing,” Trump said. 

JD VANCE ROASTS HARRIS ON WISCONSIN TARMAC FOR AVOIDING PRESS, CALLS AIR FORCE 2 HIS ‘FUTURE PLANE’

“We have a vice president who is the least admired, least respected, and the worst vice president in the history of our country. The most unpopular vice president,” Trump said of Harris. 

Trump also slammed Harris for not engaging with the media. Harris has been the de facto Democrat nominee for 18 days, and she has not held a formal press conference or sat for a wide-ranging interview. 

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, left, greets Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump during at a campaign rally at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024.  (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

“She’s not doing any news conference. You know why she’s not doing it? Because she can’t do a news conference. She doesn’t know how to do a news conference,” Trump said. “She’s not smart enough to do a news conference.” 

Trump said he is “very happy to run against” Harris, and said he “hates to be defending” Biden, but pointed to the Constitution again. 

“We have a Constitution. It’s a very important document, and we live by it. She has no votes, and I’m very happy to run against her. I’m not complaining from that standpoint. And I hate to be defending him, but he did not want to leave. He wanted to see if he could win,” Trump said. “They said, ‘you’re not going to win. After the debate, they said, ‘you’re not going to win. You can’t win. You’re out.'” 

Trump said Democrats, after successfully pressuring Biden to drop out of the race, “just picked a person.” 

US President Joe Biden, left, and Vice President Kamala Harris on the Truman Balcony of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, July 4, 2024. (Tierney L. Cross)

Trump, pointing to Harris’ failed 2020 Democratic presidential primary campaign, said she was “the first out.” 

“She was the first loser. Okay. So we call her the first loser. She was the first loser when, during the primary system, during the Democrat primary system, she was the first one to quit, and she quit. She had no votes, no support, and she was a bad debater, by the way, a very bad debater,” Trump said. “And that’s not the thing I’m looking forward to. But she was a bad debater. She obviously did a bad job. She never made it to Iowa then for some reason.” 

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Trump said he thinks Biden “regrets” tapping Harris as vice president. 

“He picked her and she turned on him too. She was working with the people that wanted him out,” Trump said. “But the fact that you can get no votes, lose in the primary system. In other words, you had 14 or 15 people. She was the first one out, and that you can then be picked to run for president.” 

Trump added: “It seems, seems to me actually unconstitutional. Perhaps it’s not.” 

FIRST ON FOX — Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., demanded in a letter Thursday that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) investigate recent allegations “of fraudulent, deceptive, and potentially illegal behavior” on the part of ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising platform that’s hauled in millions of dollars in donations for Vice President Harris’ presidential campaign and its affiliated entities. 

Tenney, who co-chairs the House Election Integrity Caucus, cited in the letter addressed to FEC Chair Sean Cooksey and Vice Chair Ellen Weintraub “significant public reporting on anomalous transaction activity involving hundreds of thousands of dollars.” According to the agency’s publicly available data, Tenney wrote, “numerous individuals have allegedly donated to ActBlue thousands of times annually.” However, “it was reported many of these individuals were unaware their names and addresses were being used to make thousands of dollars in political donations.” 

The FEC declined to comment on the letter. Fox News Digital reached out to ActBlue regarding the allegations, but it did not immediately respond.

The letter noted ActBlue did not require a card verification value (CVV) number to complete a transaction, unlike most online platforms engaged in e-commerce. Relative to campaign contributions, Tenney said using CVV numbers “is an effective antifraud measure that prevents unlawful transactions that violate the Federal Election Campaign Act, 52 U.S. Code 30101-30145, and various state election laws.” 

‘SERIOUS LOOPHOLE’: GOP WIDENS PROBE INTO ACTBLUE, DEM FUNDRAISING PLATFORM HELPING HARRIS RAISE MILLIONS

Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., is urging the FEC to investigate ActBlue.  (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“Given the deliberate lack of security in their donation practices, it is unsurprising that ActBlue could be exploited for fraudulent activities,” Tenney wrote. “Recognizing that foreign actors use fake accounts to exploit donation systems lacking robust verification safeguards, most individual campaigns and political action committees (PACs) require CVV numbers to donate online. However, despite its widespread use among its online counterparts, ActBlue deliberately chooses not to require CVV numbers for donations, possibly facilitating fraudulent activities and foreign interference in our electoral system.” 

Tenney specifically urged the FEC to investigate “anomalous transaction activity as it relates to donations to ActBlue,” and answer whether the FEC had already examined anomalous transaction activity or ActBlue’s lax verification processes. If so, the congresswoman asked the FEC to provide “a detailed summary of the results of that investigation.” 

If not, Tenny asked if the FEC would “commit to investigating potential fraudulent donations to ActBlue, as well as the organization’s lack of verification guardrails” 

The letter also asked whether ActBlue is “in compliance with federal rules as it relates to accepting online donations” and whether the FEC will consider the Committee on House Administration’s Aug. 5 request for “emergency rulemaking” to force campaigns to verify online donors’ CVV numbers.

Kamala Harris and the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, during a campaign event Aug. 6, 2024, in Philadelphia.  (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

TOP REPUBLICAN CALLS ON DEM FUNDRAISER ACTBLUE TO STOP PROCESSING DONATIONS FOR HAMAS-SYMPATHIZING GROUPS 

“As a founding member of the House Election Integrity Caucus, I take the safety, security, and integrity of our elections very seriously. Public trust in our elections has been eroded to historic lows, and Congress and our federal regulators must take meaningful action to restore this faith,” Tenney wrote. 

On Monday, Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., who chairs the Committee on House Administration, sent a letter to top FEC officials urging them to “immediately initiate an emergency rulemaking to require political campaigns to verify the card verification value (‘CVV’) of donors who contribute online using a credit or debit card, and to prohibit political campaigns from accepting online contributions from a gift card or other prepaid credit cards.” The Aug. 5 request came in response to accusations that ActBlue is skirting campaign donation laws that allow for rampant fraud on the site.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, speaks at Girard College Aug. 6, 2024, in Philadelphia.  (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

According to his committee, whistleblowers who approached the panel in recent weeks have accused ActBlue of deliberately not using CVV numbers for donations to reduce the bar for verification. 

As of Monday morning, however, a CVV number was required on the page accepting credit card donations for the vice president.

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Whistleblowers have also reported the receipt of a significant number of donations from retirees living on a fixed income, and hundreds of donations of $2.50 from the same individual, according to the committee.

The site has been used to raise millions of dollars for Harris as she takes on former President Trump in November.

Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report. 

A summer breeze has swept across Capitol Hill over the past two weeks.

Not the “Summer Breeze” Seals and Crofts sing about, but a political summer breeze which made lawmakers “Run Like the Wind” for the exits.

To quote Gino Vannelli, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle declared “I Just Wanna Stop” – and vacated Washington for the summer.

BEWARE THE IDES OF JULY: TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, BIDEN ENDS REELECTION CAMPAIGN IN WILD MONTH

One is wise to embrace this miniature respite in governance. The fall and winter will be a challenge in Congress.

So here’s the “Lowdown.” One can describe much of what unfolds on Capitol Hill in terms of “yacht rock.”

Lawmakers may be counting down the days “Minute By Minute” until they have to return to Capitol Hill in the fall, when election season will be in full swing. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Both bodies of Congress usually adjourn for a four- to six-week period between late July and early September. But this year’s congressional summer breeze has been more like a political gale. Lawmakers barely spent any time in session over the past few months. Both the House and Senate took off a week in the middle of July so Republicans could conduct their convention in Milwaukee. That was after an abbreviated week in Washington just after July 4th. Congress was out of session from late June until after the Fourth. The House ditched town early last month, lopping off one week of its schedule. In fact, the House has only convened for a handful of weeks since May 24.

Yacht rock impresario Rupert Holmes would characterize this as an “Escape.”

Do you really need more of a reason to blend a piña colada?

Expect Congress to accomplish much the rest of the year? Well, that yacht – has sailed. We’re deep into the throes of what is going to be a brutal campaign season for the presidency, control of the House and the Senate. All lawmakers are required to do the rest of the year is figure out a way to avoid a government shutdown in late September. Is Congress capable of much else? Well, doubtful. But in the words of the Doobie Brothers, “What a Fool Believes.”

A cryptocurrency bill? Maybe in the lame duck session, but doubtful. A tax bill – involving credits for parents? Same. How about legislation offered by GOP vice presidential nominee and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to bolster rail safety after the Norfolk Southern crash in East Palestine, Ohio, early last year? Few are on board with that. Democrats don’t want to award Vance a legislative victory just before the election. And Republicans aren’t willing to help Brown. He faces one of the most competitive Senate contests in the country against GOP challenger Bernie Moreno.

Like the Doobie Brothers and James Taylor, Sen. JD Vance is seen “Takin’ It to the Streets” as he delivers remarks during a campaign rally on Aug. 6, 2024, in Philadelphia. (Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)

A farm bill?

Hey. Wrong genre. This is about yacht rock. Talk to John Cougar Mellencamp or Neil Young about that one.

Lawmakers won’t necessarily don their captain hats and recline on the foredeck, catching rays and sipping a mai tai over the next few weeks. Democrats set their GPS for Chicago and their convention in two weeks. There are robust campaigns as Democrats try to cling to control in the Senate and stand a good chance of flipping the House. Democrats are especially enthused about their chances now that President Biden effectively ceded the Democratic nomination to Vice President Kamala Harris. Why did it take so long for Biden to defer to Harris – or anyone else? The Eagles would croon, “I Can’t Tell You Why.” But since it’s “Just the Two of Us,” Democrats were freaked out about bleeding seats down ballot.

“You’re Out to Lose,” as Pablo Cruise might sing, had Democrats stuck with the incumbent.

Republicans contend that 14 million voters cast ballots for Biden in the Democratic primaries earlier this year. They could even assert that Raydio was right when they penned, “You Can’t Change That.” Biden was “Still the One” for several weeks after the debate debacle in Atlanta in late June. But once Biden stepped aside, Democrats quickly courted voters who may have abandoned them. “Baby Come Back,” by Player may have been the Democrats’ theme song as they attempted to woo people who considered sitting things out this fall.

But some pols will welcome the early respite from Capitol Hill. Most House and Senate incumbents lack competitive races this fall. They might not find themselves in “Margaritaville.” But who can blame them if they skip out of the 100-degree heat of Washington for a Caribbean destination?

Former President Trump certainly has a contingent of ultra-loyalists who are happy to campaign on his behalf – or at least want to be seen as advocating for him. They may want to score a potential Cabinet post. Or at least duck the ire of the former president, so they attempt to appeal to his good graces. And many Democrats are now supercharged that Biden won’t be on the ballot. They will likely do all they can for Harris. So these lawmakers face a busy August and early September.

But other lawmakers will coast. In fact, they may secretively “Steal Away” – in the words of Robbie Dupree. Perhaps you will find some of these politicians sipping chardonnay or a dry martini on a yacht somewhere as the sun sets across the water. You’d be lucky to catch them. Of course, you can always leave a message on their “Answering Machine.”

Not that anyone uses an answering machine anymore.

Both Republicans and Democrats will be wishing they had some of Olivia Newton-John’s “Magic” as election campaigns pick up and Donald Trump and Kamala Harris square off for the presidency. (Getty Images)

Yacht rock might not capture all that’s going on in politics right now. One can understand the need to just check out of the political environment this month, especially after the drama involving Biden and the attempted assassination of Trump.

Yacht rock is for summer. But when it comes to elections and governing, that is the season of classic rock.

“There must be some way out of here, said the joker to the thief,” declared both Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix in “All Along the Watchtower.”

But Congress will be back in due time in early September. Tens of millions of people will cast their ballots. And no one has addressed this as poignantly as The Who.

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“Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. We won’t get fooled again,” they sang.

It may be enough for you to let loose one of Roger Daltrey’s signature screams.

Which is why the “yacht rock” period of politics is much more pleasant.

EAU CLAIRE, WI – Standing in front of over 15,000 supporters packed into an airport hanger at the airport in Detroit, Michigan, Vice President Kamala Harris proclaimed that “this election’s going to be a fight.”

“We like a good fight,” added Harris, who rose to the top of the Democratic Party’s 2024 ticket two and a half weeks ago after President Biden suspended his re-election bid and endorsed his vice president as his successor.

Hours earlier in neighboring Wisconsin, another crucial battleground state that will also likely determine the outcome of the presidential election between Harris and former President Trump, the vice president’s newly named running mate took aim at Trump.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, enjoying what seemed like a hometown crowd at a rally just an hour from his own state, spoke to a sea of supporters – over 12,000 who had waited in line for hours on the roads and farm fields of mostly rural northwest Wisconsin to see Harris and her running mate.

KAMALA HARRIS AND HER NEWLY NAMED RUNNING MATE KICK OFF A BATTLEGROUND STATE SWING

Vice President Kamala Harris is welcomed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz before she delivers remarks at a campaign event, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Walz charged that the former president “sees the world differently than we see it. He has no understanding of service. Because he’s too busy serving himself again and again and again.”

“This guy weakens our country to strengthen his own hands. He mocks our laws. He sows chaos and division among the people. And that’s to say nothing of the job he did as president,” Walz argued.

Walz, a former high school teacher and football coach before entering politics, showcased his Midwestern roots as he told the “Packers and Badgers fans” in the crowd that he once coached his team to a state championship and touted that he was the “top gun” three years running at the trap shoot during his dozen years representing a mostly rural red-leaning district from southern Minnesota in Congress.

KAMALA HARRIS AND HER NEWLY NAMED RUNNING MATE KICK OFF A BATTLEGROUND STATE SWING

Hours earlier, Trump aimed to paint Harris and Walz as ultra-liberals as he called into Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” for an interview.

“You know, nobody knew how radical left she was, but he’s a smarter version of her, if you want to know the truth,” Trump claimed in his Wednesday interview. “He’s probably about the same as Bernie Sanders. He’s probably more so than Bernie Sanders.”

And the former president argued that “this is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately, if not sooner.”

Trump’s team was planning on painting the Democratic ticket as extreme left-leaning regardless of whom the vice president chose as her running mate, a source in Trump’s campaign told Fox News.

But Harris’ naming on Tuesday of Walz, a moderate congressman who shifted to a more progressive governor, over more moderate running mate finalists Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona seemed like a gift to Trump’s team.

“I could not be more thrilled,” Trump said regarding the choice of Walz as running mate. “I was shocked when, when it came down to the final two, that she didn’t pick Shapiro. I was very surprised.”

But the naming of a running mate has been lucrative for the Harris campaign, which highlighted that it had hauled in $36 million in fundraising in the 24 hours since the Walz announcement.

At the rally, Walz once again argued that Trump and running mate Sen. JD Vance of Ohio “are creepy and weird as hell.”

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, hold a rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Aug. 7, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

Vance, at a dueling campaign event just miles away, pushed back on the “weird” label, saying he and Trump are “normal guys who want to make this country great.”

In a viral moment, Vance appeared to try and troll the vice president, as he approached Air Force Two at Chippewa Valley Regional Airport, where the senator’s campaign plane was also parked.

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“I figured that I would come by and get a good look at the plane because hopefully it’s going to be my plane in a few months,” Vance said in front of Air Force Two. 

And once again pointing out that Harris has yet to sit for a major interview or hold a press conference in the two and a half weeks since she replaced Biden at the top of the Democrats’ national ticket, Vance told reporters, “I also thought you guys may get lonely, because the VP doesn’t answer questions from reporters.”

Vance also took aim at Walz, who served nearly a quarter-century in the National Guard, for what he claimed was “stolen valor,” as the Trump campaign launched a full-frontal assault on the governor, accusing him of misrepresenting his rank, his service and charging he abandoned his unit on the eve of its deployment to Iraq.

The charge, if substantiated, could be explosive, as Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita well knows.

He was the mastermind 20 years ago behind the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” campaign that aimed to discredit Vietnam War veteran and Purple Heart recipient Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts ahead of his narrow 2004 presidential election loss to GOP incumbent George W. Bush.

But Vance himself never served in combat. While Vance was deployed to the war in Iraq as a Marine, he worked in the public affairs department while on his deployment.

And Trump over the years has faced well-documented allegations that as a young man he dodged the Vietnam War draft by claiming to have bone spurs in his feet, which sidetracked him from service.

It’s no surprise that Harris and Walz so far this week have held rallies in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, with Vance holding events nearby to stay in close proximity.

The three states make up the so-called “Blue Wall” that Democrats reliably won in presidential elections for nearly a quarter-century before Trump narrowly carried them in capturing the White House eight years ago.

But in 2020, Biden won back all three states with razor-thin margins as he defeated Trump, and the states remain extremely competitive as Harris and Trump face off in the 2024 presidential election.

The latest polls now show a margin-of-error race in the Blue Wall states, as well as in Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada, the other key battleground states.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Romulus, Michigan. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Biden dropped his re-election bid on July 21, after a disastrous debate performance against Trump in late June prompted increased questions over whether the 81-year-old president had the physical and mental abilities to serve another four years in the White House. It also sparked a rising chorus of calls from fellow Democrats for Biden to end his re-election bid.

Harris didn’t mention her boss at a large rally in Atlanta last week, nor did she or Walz reference the president at their rally Tuesday night in Philadelphia.

But Harris, in her sixth visit to Wisconsin so far this year, praised the president at the top of her comments.

“I want to bring greetings from our incredible president, Joe Biden,” Harris said. “He loves Wisconsin, and I know we are all deeply grateful for his lifetime of service to our nation and for all he continues to do.”

After the crowd broke out in a chant of “Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!” the vice president responded, “That’s right. I’m gonna tell him what you said.”

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Former President Trump is holding a general news conference at Mar-a-Lago Thursday afternoon with members of the press – a move that the campaign says presents a “stark contrast” with Vice President Kamala Harris, who has avoided the media since being tapped as the Democratic presidential nominee. 

“I will be doing a General News Conference at 2:00 P.M. at Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach. Thank you!” Trump posted to his Truth Social Thursday morning. 

A Trump campaign source told Fox News Digital that the former president and Republican presidential nominee is holding off-the-record meetings with major members of the press Thursday. 

Former President Trump arrives to speak during a campaign rally at Sunset Park in Las Vegas on June 9, 2024. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

18 DAYS: KAMALA HARRIS HAS NOT HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE SINCE EMERGING AS PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE

“President Trump wanted to address them while they were already in Palm Beach because he’s the most transparent candidate in history,” the Trump campaign source told Fox News Digital. 

“Meanwhile, it’s been 18 days since Kamala Harris was installed as the Democrat Nominee, and she has yet to answer a single question from the media,” the source continued. “A stark contrast!” 

Harris has gone 18 days without holding a formal press conference. 

The vice president became the de facto nominee after President Biden endorsed her on July 21 when he suspended his re-election campaign. 

The Democratic National Committee held a virtual roll call vote, and she was offically named the Democratic presidential nominee. 

Since then, Harris has been on the campaign trail, spoken at various events, and given informal remarks to reporters at various points, but has not done a formal press conference or a wide-ranging interview. 

Former President Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

She also failed to appear at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago, where Trump made headlines last week with a heated question-and-answer session, although she could make a future appearance with the group.

This week, she made headlines by picking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, but the two have still not been questioned formally in interviews or press conferences. It’s gotten the attention of GOP vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, who has implored the media to do better on the issue and get Harris to answer questions.

JD VANCE ROASTS HARRIS ON WISCONSIN TARMAC FOR AVOIDING PRESS, CALLS AIR FORCE 2 HIS ‘FUTURE PLANE’

During a Wednesday press conference in Detroit, Vance urged reporters to “show a little bit of self-awareness” and pushed Harris to “do the job of a presidential candidate” by speaking to them.

“Until she does, you guys have got to stop giving her a honeymoon and pretending that she is something she isn’t,” he said. 

Vance on Wednesday also attempted to confront Harris over not answering reporters’ questions while both of their planes were on the tarmac of a Wisconsin airport on Wednesday.

Vance told a press gaggle at Chippewa Valley Regional Airport that he was trying to get a better look at Air Force Two because it’s “going to be my plane in a few months.”

The Republican told reporters that he worried Harris’ press gaggle “might get a little lonely” because Harris doesn’t answer their questions.

JD Vance said he tried approaching Vice President Kamala Harris at a Wisconsin airport on Wednesday. (AP | Getty Images)

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“Hey, guys. How are you?” Vance asked the group as he walked toward them. “I just wanted to check out my future plane, but I also wanted to go say hello to the vice president and ask her why Kamala Harris refuses… why does she refuse to answer questions from the media?”

“And I also thought that the press gaggle following her might get a little lonely,” he added. “I, at least, have enough respect for you all, and for the American people you report to, to come and talk to you and to answer some questions. And so I thought her reporters might actually benefit from that as well.”

Fox News Digital’s Brian Flood contributed to this report.