Republican leaders urge colleagues to steer clear of racist and sexist attacks on Harris
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leaders are warning party members against using overtly racist and sexist attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris, as they and former President Donald Trump 's campaign scramble to adjust to the reality of a new Democratic rival less than four months before Election Day.
At a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday, National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., urged lawmakers to stick to criticizing Harris for her role in Biden-Harris administration policies.
“This election will be about policies and not personalities,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the meeting.
“This is not personal with regard to Kamala Harris,” he added, "and her ethnicity or her gender have nothing to do with this whatsoever.”
The warnings point to the new risks for Republicans in running against a Democrat who would become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian decent to win the White House. Trump, in particular, has a history of racist and misogynistic attacks that could turn off key groups of swing voters, including suburban women, as well as voters of color and younger people Trump's campaign has been courting.
___
Harris tells roaring Wisconsin crowd November election is 'a choice between freedom and chaos'
WEST ALLIS, Wisconsin (AP) — A roaring crowd of battleground state voters greeted Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday as she opened her public case against Republican former President Donald Trump by declaring November's election will be "a choice between freedom and chaos.”
“In this campaign, I promise you, I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week,” Harris said. “We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead.”
Harris arrived in the Milwaukee area having locked up nomination support from Democratic delegates after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid on Sunday. It was her first campaign rally since she jumped into the race just two days ago with Biden’s endorsement.
The event reflected a vibrancy that had been lacking among Democrats in recent weeks, and Harris was intent on projecting a sense of steady confidence about the November election. She's pulled in $100 million in donations since Sunday afternoon and on Tuesday picked up the backing of more Democratic officials and political groups, including congressional leaders Charles Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries.
By stopping in Wisconsin, Harris was putting down a marker in one of the “blue wall” states along with Michigan and Pennsylvania that Democrats see as essential for securing a presidential victory.
___
Officers left post to go look for Trump rally gunman before shooting, state police boss says
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two local law enforcement officers stationed in the complex of buildings where a gunman opened fire at former President Donald Trump left to go search for the man before the shooting, the head of Pennsylvania State Police said Tuesday, raising questions about whether a key post was left unattended as the shooter climbed onto a roof.
Pennsylvania State Police Col. Christopher Paris told a congressional committee that two Butler County Emergency Services Unit officers were stationed at a second-floor window in the complex of buildings that form AGR International Inc. They spotted Thomas Matthew Crooks acting suspiciously on the ground and left their post to look for him along with other law enforcement officers, he said.
Paris said he didn't know whether officers would have been able to see Crooks climbing onto the roof of an adjacent building had they remained at the window. A video taken by a lawmaker who visited the shooting site on Monday shows a second-story window of the building had a clear view of the roof where Crooks opened fire; it was unclear if the video showed the window where the officers had been stationed.
The Pennsylvania State Police commissioner's testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee provides new insight into security preparations for the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, but raises further questions about law enforcement's decisions before Crooks opened fire.
Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger, who oversees the emergency services unit, didn't immediately respond to a text message Tuesday from The Associated Press. A Secret Service spokesperson didn't respond to questions from the AP, including who gave the command for those officers to leave their post.
___
Secret Service director steps down after assassination attempt against ex-President Trump at rally
WASHINGTON (AP) — The director of the Secret Service resigned Tuesday in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump that unleashed an outcry about how the agency failed in its core mission to protect current and former presidents.
Kimberly Cheatle, who had served as Secret Service director since August 2022, faced growing calls to resign and several investigations into how a gunman was able to get so close to the Republican presidential nominee at an outdoor campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
“I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” she said in an email to staff obtained by The Associated Press. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”
Cheatle’s departure was unlikely to end the scrutiny of the long-troubled agency after the failures of July 13, and it comes at a critical juncture ahead of the Democratic National Convention and a busy presidential campaign season. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have promised more investigations. An inspector general probe and an independent, bipartisan effort launched at President Joe Biden’s behest will keep the agency in the spotlight.
Cheatle’s resignation came a day after she appeared before a congressional committee and was berated for hours by both Democrats and Republicans for the security failures. She called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades, but she angered lawmakers by failing to answer specific questions about the investigation.
___
Demonstrators stage mass protest against Netanyahu visit and US military aid to Israel
WASHINGTON (AP) — Protesters against the Gaza war staged a sit-in at a congressional office building Tuesday ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress, with Capitol Police making multiple arrests.
Netanyahu arrived in Washington Monday for a visit that includes meetings with President Joe Biden and a Wednesday speech before a joint session of Congress. Dozens of protesters rallied outside his hotel Monday evening, and on Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of demonstrators staged a flashmob-style protest in the Cannon Building, which houses offices of House of Representatives members.
Organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, protesters wearing red T-shirts that read “Not In Our Name” took over the building's rotunda, sitting on the floor, unfurling signs and chanting “Let Gaza Live!”
After about a half-hour of clapping and chanting, officers from the U.S. Capitol Police issued several warnings, then began arresting protesters — binding their hands with zip ties and leading them away one-by-one.
“I am the daughter of Holocaust survivors and I know what a Holocaust looks like,” said Jane Hirschmann, a native of Saugerties, New York, who drove down for the protest along with her two daughters — both of whom were arrested. “When we say ‘Never Again,’ we mean never for anybody.”
___
Clip resurfaces of Vance criticizing Harris for being 'childless,' testing Trump's new running mate
Comments JD Vance made in 2021 questioning Vice President Kamala Harris’ leadership because she did not have biological children have resurfaced, testing the young conservative senator in his early days campaigning as part of the Republicans' presidential ticket.
During Vance's bid for the Senate in Ohio, he said in a Fox News interview that “we are effectively run in this country via the Democrats," and referred to them as "a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too." He said that included Harris, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat.
“How does it make any sense that we've turned our country over to people who don't really have a direct stake in it?" asked Vance, who is now Donald Trump's running mate. Harris became stepmother to two teenagers when she married entertainment lawyer Douglas Emhoff in 2014. And Buttigieg announced he and his husband adopted infant twins in September 2021, more than a month before Vance made those comments.
The clip has started to spread online, with Hillary Clinton sharing it in a Tuesday post on X and adding sarcastically “what a normal, relatable guy who certainly doesn’t hate women having freedoms.”
The recirculated comment may be a sign of the GOP ticket’s troubles appealing to women voters, and on the issue of reproductive rights. It follows the explosive entrance in the race of Harris, who secured the support of enough delegates to become the official nominee in less than 32 hours after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid.
___
A group of 2,000 migrants advance through southern Mexico in hopes of reaching the US
TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — A group of 2,000 migrants from dozens of countries set out on foot Tuesday through southern Mexico as they attempt to reach the U.S., although recent similar attempts have failed, with groups disbanding after a few days without leaving the region.
Several members of the group said they hoped to reach the U.S. before the November presidential election as they fear that if Donald Trump wins, he will follow through on a promise to close the border to asylum-seekers.
Entire families, women with baby strollers, children accompanied by their parents and adults started walking before sunrise from Tapachula, considered the primary access point to Mexico’s southern border, in an effort to avoid the high temperatures. They hoped to advance 40 kilometers (24 miles).
Several hundred migrants left the Suchiate River on Sunday, a natural border with Guatemala and Mexico, encouraged by a call to join a caravan that began to spread on social media a couple of weeks earlier.
The formation of the new caravan comes at the heels of U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 race for the White House. While some migrants said they weren't aware of Biden's announcement, many said they feared that if Trump was elected their situation would become more complicated.
___
US is investigating Delta's flight cancellations and faltering response to global tech outage
U.S. regulators are investigating why Delta Air Lines failed to recover as quickly as other airlines from a global technology breakdown and whether Delta's treatment of passengers stranded by canceled and delayed flights violated federal rules.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday announced the investigation into Delta's response to the outage, which he said has affected more than half a million of the airline's passengers.
A Delta official said the airline expects to return to normal operations by the end of the week.
Delta and its Delta Connection partners canceled more than 500 flights Tuesday. That was down by more than half from Monday but still accounted for nearly two-thirds of all canceled flights in the United States, according to tracking platform FlightAware.
Many airlines were affected when cybersecurity company CrowdStrike sent a faulty update to more than 8 million Microsoft computers around the world late last week. Most of them reduced cancellations to roughly normal levels by the end of the weekend.
___
Monsoon rains worsened by offshore typhoon leave 8 dead and displace 600,000 in Philippines
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Monsoon rains worsened by an offshore typhoon have left at least eight people dead and displaced more than 600,000 people due to flooding and landslides mostly in the southern and central Philippines.
Typhoon Gaemi, locally called Carina, did not blow inland in the Philippines but has enhanced its seasonal monsoon rains. On Wednesday morning, the typhoon was east of Taiwan with 162 kph (100 mph) winds.
In the densely populated region around the Philippine capital, government work and school classes were suspended Wednesday after nonstop rains flooded many areas overnight, trapping cars in rising floodwater and stranding people in their homes. Residents who ventured out of their homes waded into knee- and waist-high floodwaters iwith some using improvised dinghies and paddling their way alongside cars, trucks and SUVs.
"I have instructed all concerned agencies to provide swift assistance to all those affected by Typhoon Carina and the enhanced southwest monsoon,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement he posted on the X social media platform.
While the typhoon and an earlier storm did not blow inland, the intense rains they enhanced in the past five days have set off at least a dozen landslides and floods that have caused eight deaths and displaced more than 600,000 people, including 35,000 who went to emergency shelters, the Philippines' disaster risk mitigation agency said.
___
How employers are taking steps to safeguard workers from extreme heat
McKINNEY, Texas (AP) — At the start of every work day, construction worker Charles Smith puts on the essentials: hard hat. Safety glasses. A reflective vest. And a small, watch-like band for his wrist.
But rather than track time, its purpose is to ensure he doesn't overheat while working during sweltering summer days in Texas. The wristband monitors his heart rate, core body temperature, stress level and more. If it detects signs of overheating, it warns him and his safety manager, advising Smith to rest and hydrate. The device serves as an early warning system to prevent heat-related injuries and illnesses.
The technology is one way that workplaces are setting up employee protections as summers grow hotter, longer and more extreme due to climate change. On Sunday, the Earth reached the hottest day ever measured, according to a European climate service group. And in the absence of federal heat rules for workers, which the Biden administration recently proposed, some employers in states without rules are taking it upon themselves to safeguard employees from extreme heat dangers.
“We can catch it before it happens,” said Seth Campbell, safety manager for the construction company Rogers-O’Brien, Smith’s employer, of monitoring signs of heat-related illnesses. Their team started using the technology last summer.
UPS recently equipped delivery drivers with cooling hats and sleeves that provide relief from heat — and increased access to ice, cold water and electrolytes for employees, according to its website. They have also added more cooling equipment to its vehicles and facilities, said vice president of global communications Genny Bowman in an email. That includes installing exhaust heat shields to lower vehicle floor temperatures, as well as fans in package cars and more fans in its facilities.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
