Kamala cribs Trump’s policy platform

Vice President Kamala Harris is set to unveil her policy platform this week after criticism that she has failed to say what she would actually do as president in the weeks since becoming the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee.

The process does not appear to be going well. Harris said her platform will “be focused on the economy and what we need to do to bring down costs,” which is a bit puzzling as she is the number two executive in the Biden administration, which has repeatedly assured us that “Bidenomics” is working to heal the economy post-Covid. Harris will face this conundrum with all of the policies she puts forward; why hasn’t she done it in the past four years? Will she blame a divided Congress? President Joe Biden?

Her other issue will be explaining why she apparently no longer supports the extremely progressive policies she adopted in 2019 when running in the Democratic primary. As Fox News contributor Guy Benson points out, “Her platform has already been announced. By her: eliminate private health insurance, the Green New Deal, ban fracking, decriminalize illegal immigration, taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal immigrants, gun confiscation & redirecting funds away from police. All on the record.” CNN describes Harris’s shameless political maneuvering as a “recalibrat[ion]” and notes she has, through campaign spokespeople rather than via her own words, abandoned a ban on fracking and support for a single-payer healthcare system, now believes in border security over decriminalization of illegal crossings and abolishing ICE and, instead of defunding the police, wants to be “tough and smart on crime.” 

Maybe all of the confusion is why Harris is now pinching ideas from former president Donald Trump’s playbook. Months ago, Trump promised that he would eliminate taxes on tips for service workers if he is elected president again. The idea was adopted as an official part of the Republican Party platform at the national convention in July. Then, on Saturday, Harris announced at a rally in Nevada that she also supports getting rid of taxes on tips. However, the Biden-Harris administration previously announced a program to empower the IRS and Treasury Department to crack down on service workers who attempt to dodge taxes on their tips. The program was optional for employers but was “designed to take advantage of advancements in point-of-sale, time and attendance systems, and electronic payment settlement methods to improve tip reporting compliance,” the Daily Wire reported. Harris also gave the tie-breaking vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act in the Senate; the legislation gave $80 billion in additional funding to the IRS so they could hire more than 80,000 more employees. The IRS is also phasing in a new rule under the American Rescue Plan that lowers the threshold for reporting business payments on mobile transaction apps such as Venmo and Zelle, which many service workers use to collect tips.

Harris has yet to personally offer any explanation for these inconsistencies as she continues to dodge the media. The vice president is gracing the cover of TIME magazine this month, yet declined to sit for the interview that would traditionally accompany such a profile. “Harris has yet to do a single substantive interview or to explain her policy shifts. (Her campaign denied a request for an interview for this story.)” the otherwise glowing profile noted. Is there even an answer at this point that would be satisfactory? 

-Amber Duke

On our radar

TRUMP ON X Former president Donald Trump returned to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday ahead of an interview with the social media platform’s CEO, Elon Musk, at 8 p.m. Eastern time. He has posted several campaign ads via his account since rejoining. 

TIMES UP The New York Times announced that its editorial board will no longer make endorsements in New York elections, including in this year’s Senate, congressional or state legislative races or next year’s mayoral race. Kathleen Kingsbury, the Times’s opinion editor, did not provide a reason for the change. 

VANCE ON AIR In a wide-ranging CNN interview, vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance agreed to debate his counterpart, Governor Tim Walz, and criticized Walz for being dishonest about his military record. “I’m criticizing the dishonesty, dishonesty spoken in favor and for the purpose of political benefit,” Vance asserted. 

Trump sues the DoJ

Former president Donald Trump is planning to sue the Department of Justice for $100 million in damages during the FBI’s raid at his Mar-a-Lago resort in 2022, arguing it was done “with clear intent to engage in political persecution.”

The lawsuit comes just a month after the classified documents case was dismissed by Judge Aileen Cannon, as she ruled that the appointment of Jack Smith as special prosecutor was unlawful.

In a memo obtained by Fox News, the Trump campaign claims the raid was “tortious conduct by the United States against President Trump.” The lawsuit accuses both Attorney General Merrick Garland, who assigned Smith in 2022 to oversee two federal investigations and the eventual indictment, and FBI director Christopher Wray of running a “malicious prosecution” against him.

“Garland and Wray should never have approved a raid and subsequent indictment of President Trump,” said Trump attorney Daniel Epstein. “The well-established protocol for former US presidents is to use non-enforcement means to obtain records of the United States.”

Epstein is also accusing the DoJ of violating Florida law regarding privacy. “There was no constitutional basis for the search or the subsequent indictment,” he said, claiming the DoJ brought a “lawless criminal indictment” on Trump. He filed the suit on Monday, which gives the department 180 days to respond. If no resolution is made, the case will move to federal court in the Southern District of Florida.

Trump is apparently not just “standing up for himself,” but also “standing up for all Americans who believe in the rule of law and believe that you should hold the government accountable when it wrongs you,” Epstein added.

–Elisenne Stoller

A NSFW rapper versus congressman beef 

“Welcome to the party, bitch,” rapper Lil Pump intones in his 2018 song with Diplo, French Montana and Zhavia Ward. The Donald Trump-endorsing rapper sent former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger a similar message this week when he posted what he purported to be lewd photos of the lawmaker-turned-Democratic Party talking head.

The beef kicked off on X, where Kinzinger posted that we should “expect another jump in [Kamala Harris’s] poll numbers now” that Pump, born Gazzy Garcia, said he’ll leave America if Harris wins in November. Out of nowhere, the rapper quote-tweeted Kinzinger with a collage of pictures he purported to be from the Illinoisan, including one where he posts about “ass for ass.” Some MAGA activists attempted to compare the tattoo in the photos to one Kinzinger has on his bicep. The pictures appear to be from Snapchat. 

Shortly after the feud kicked off, Kinzinger’s wife posted a thread on X in which she wrote to “MAGA people” telling them that “l don’t hate you, but sometimes you guys make it really hard not to dislike you. Over & over again you prove that you can’t be normalized, your priorities are not in the right place. The desire to build a movement based on lies & manipulation is not sustainable.” 

While it’s unclear if Sofia Kinzinger was referring to Pump or to other, more safe for work, criticisms of her husband, the rapper responded, “so are the pictures of your ‘husband’ real? 🤔.” Neither Kinzinger has responded to Pump at the of time of publication. 

–Cockburn