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Poll shows Harris performing better than Biden against Trump – but the Republican still has the edge
Morning Consult is out with one of the first polls taken since Joe Biden ended his re-election bid, and shows Kamala Harris with more support in her matchup against Donald Trump than the president had.
The Republican nonetheless has the edge, but it’s a smaller one than when Biden was on the ballot. In its survey taken following Biden’s exit from the race, Morning Consult found that Trump has 47% support to Harris’s 45%, a gap of only two percentage points. Biden trailed Trump by six percentage points in an earlier poll.
Harris’s campaign appears to have given Democrats a spark of enthusiasm, with 27% saying they are “much more motivated” to participate in the political process, compared to 24% for Republicans. The three-percentage point gap between the two parties is comparable to the gap in the 2020 election, Morning Consult notes.
And for those wondering if Harris is the best candidate Democrats can pick, the polls found she performs best against Trump of the 10 candidate surveyed.
Key events
House Republicans, Democrats set up task force to investigate Trump assassination
The House of Representatives is creating a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
The task force will be composed of seven Republicans and six Democrats, and investigate what went wrong at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, how to prevent it from happening again, and “to ensure accountability”, Republican speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a joint statement.
“The security failures that allowed an assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life are shocking. In response to bipartisan demands for answers, we are announcing a House Task Force made up of seven Republicans and six Democrats to thoroughly investigate the matter,” Johnson and Jeffries said.
“The task force will be empowered with subpoena authority and will move quickly to find the facts, ensure accountability, and make certain such failures never happen again.”
The House will vote on creating the task force later this week.
Newt Gingrich, former House speaker, has called Kamala Harris’ reported decision to skip Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress on Wednesday a “sign of the pro-Hamas, pro-terrorist bias” of the Democratic Party.
Harris was already scheduled to attend an event for the Zeta Phi Beta sorority in Indianapolis before the Israeli prime minister’s address date was set, Politico reported.
Posting on X, Gingrich wrote:
Vice President Harris refusing to meet with President Netanyahu is a clear sign of the pro-Hamas, pro-terrorist bias which increasingly permeates the Democratic Party.
I watched speakers attack anti-semitism and speakers supporting Israel in the Republican Convention. Both would have caused a huge fight at the Democratic Convention. VP Harris will increasingly show her true colors as a San Francisco radical.
Vice President Harris refusing to meet with President Netanyahu is a clear sign of the pro-Hamas, pro-terrorist bias which increasingly permeates the Democratic Party. I watched speakers attack anti-semitism and speakers supporting Israel in the Republican Convention. Both would…
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) July 22, 2024
Harris is to meet Netanyahu this week separate from the Israeli prime minister’s meeting with Joe Biden (see post at 12.28).
A Harris aide said she will stress to Netanyahu that it is time for the Gaza conflict to end in a way where “Israel is secure, all hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can enjoy their right to dignity, freedom, and self-determination.”
Joe Biden and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to meet on Thursday, a US official has told the Associated Press. Kamala Harris will meet with Netanyahu separately. It remains uncertain if he will meet with Donald Trump.
Biden is expected to focus on working out what it will take to secure a hostage-release and ceasefire deal in the coming weeks.
The US president reportedly called in to a meeting of campaign staffers on Monday, telling them, “I think we’re on the verge” of ending the war in Gaza.
Netanyahu told his Cabinet last month that there had been a “dramatic drop” in US weapons deliveries for Israel’s war in Gaza, underling a strain in the relationship with Washington.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration said it would resume shipping 500-pound bombs to Israel, despite mounting calls by Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups to limit weapons supplies. It said it would continue to hold back on supplying 2,000-pound bombs over concerns about their use in densely populated Gaza.
However, Amnesty International USA has said that US-supplied weapons provided to Israel have already been used in serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, and in a manner that is inconsistent with US law and policy.
Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has surged in the 24 hours since announcing her candidacy, with 28,000 volunteers signing up to help with organisational efforts, the vice president’s campaign has said.
Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison has vowed that the party would deliver a presidential nominee by 7 August. A virtual nominating process before the national convention in Chicago, beginning on 19 August, is still needed.
Oliver Milman is an environment reporter for Guardian US
Kamala Harris has a strong record on the environment that will provide a vivid contrast with Donald Trump, who has vowed to rescind climate change policies should he return to the White House, according to green advocates who have welcomed the prospect of a Harris presidency.
“We are confident that she is ready to carry forward President Biden’s historic legacy and set a new high bar for climate ambition in America,” said Lena Moffitt, executive director of Evergreen, one of a raft of green groups, including Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, the NRDC Action Fund, and Climate Power, that has now endorsed the leading contender for the Democratic nomination.
Harris, as vice-president, cast the tie-breaking vote to pass Joe Biden’s landmark legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, which unleashes hundreds of billions of dollars into building clean energy and electric car capacity. Biden, in his Sunday letter confirming he will drop his bid to be re-elected president, called the bill “the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world”.
You can read the full story here:
The National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP’s campaign arm, sent talking points to their members in competitive races warning of the difficulties of trying to define a presidential candidate in such a short amount of time before the November election.
“Republicans have never had less time to define the presidential nominee of our opponents,” the memo said, according to a copy seen by Punchbowl News. “Because of that, it is vital that our entire conference is on message and working together to present Kamala Harris as an extreme San Francisco progressive who is out of step with the American people.”
During her visit to Wisconsin today (see post at 10.14), Kamala Harris is to be joined by major elected officials in the state, including governor Tony Evers, senator Tammy Baldwin, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, attorney general Josh Kaul, secretary of state Sarah Godlewski and Wisconsin Democratic party chair Ben Wikler, as well as state labor leaders.
House Democrats and Republicans will meet separately today for the first time since the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on 13 July and Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race on Sunday, Chad Pergram, the senior congressional correspondent for Fox News, has posted on X. He said there will be a House hearing today on the shooting at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
House Dems & GOPers meet separately today for first time since the Trump shooting and Biden’s decision to withdraw. Senate back in session for 1st time since both events as well
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 23, 2024
Kamala Harris to visit battleground state of Wisconsin in first rally since launching presidential campaign
Kamala Harris is travelling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, today where she will hold her first campaign rally since she launched her presidential campaign on Sunday with Joe Biden’s endorsement. Biden won Wisconsin by about 20,000 votes in the 2020 election, and recent polling had suggested a tight race between Biden and Donald Trump in the battleground state again.
Tuesday’s visit was scheduled before Biden ended his campaign, but took on new resonance as Harris prepared to take up the mantle of her party against Trump, who is scrambling to pivot his campaign against the vice-president.
According to Wisconsin Democratic party chair Ben Wikler, 89 of Wisconsin’s 95 delegates, including senator Tammy Baldwin and governor Tony Evers, had already pledged their support for Harris as of yesterday afternoon.
After confirming the state Democratic Party had officially backed Harris for the nomination, Wikler was quoted by Wisconsin Public Radio as saying:
And in hearing from elected officials across the state of Wisconsin, hearing from Democratic Party activists, hearing from donors, there is a surge of focus, of enthusiasm – a kind of flowering of the kind of unity that we’re going to need to defeat Donald Trump.
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