New York:

For nearly four years, the United States has been experiencing its worst border crisis in the history of the world, Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump said.

The remarks by Trump on Thursday came on the eve of his Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris’s visit to the US-Mexico border down South on Friday.

“For nearly four years, we have been living through the worst border crisis in the history of the world. There’s never been anything like it, which has brought untold suffering, misery, and death upon our land. The architect of this destruction is Kamala Harris,” Trump told reporters at a news conference in New York.

“When you look at the four years that have taken place after being named border czar, Kamala Harris tomorrow (Friday) will be visiting the southern border that she has completely destroyed. Why would she go to the border now, playing right into the hand of her opponent. There can be no justification for what she’s done. Nobody is saying, oh, gee, she’s done a fabulous job. She’s done the worst job probably in the history of any border, not just our border. She keeps talking about how she supposedly wants to fix the border,” Trump said.

“We would merely ask, why didn’t she do it four years ago? She’s got no plans, got no talent, got no ability to do it. I’m here today to present you with the facts and only the facts about how comrade Kamala Harris willfully threw open our border, helping to virtually destroy our country. Our country has never been under siege like this,” Trump said.

Four years ago, he said, Harris inherited the most secure border in US history with the lowest illegal immigration on record.

“Those who violated our borders were captured, detained, and quickly sent back home under the Trump administration,” he said.

“But on her first day in office, Kamala Harris terminated every single Trump policy that sealed and secured the border. She ordered an immediate stop to the completion of the border wall. It was almost complete. We built hundreds and hundreds of miles of wall, and it worked. She suspended all deportations. She instituted catch and release across the entire southern border,” Trump alleged.

“She sent Congress a bill demanding amnesty for all illegal aliens, every single illegal alien, even if they’re criminals, murderers, drug dealers, human traffickers. She wanted amnesty for everybody. This is a radical left person,” he said.

Meanwhile, at an election rally in Pennsylvania, Harris told her supporters that Trump was an unserious man.

“Donald Trump has a very different plan based on a very different vision of who we are and the needs of the American people. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. The consequences of putting him back in the White House are extremely serious,” she said.

“Look, for example, at Project 2025, a detailed and dangerous blueprint for what he will do if elected president again. He intends to cut social security and Medicare; repeal our climate investments and send thousands of good-paying clean energy jobs overseas; and he wants to impose what I call a Trump sales tax, a 20 per cent tax on everyday necessities, which will cost the average American family an additional USD 4,000 a year,” Harris said.

Trump is headed to Michigan on Friday to speak on manufacturing.

“Donald Trump is one of the biggest losers of manufacturing in American history. He makes empty promises after empty promises to American workers but never delivers. As President, he cut taxes for corporations, encouraged outsourcing, and lost nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs, including auto jobs. He has joked about firing workers, supported state anti-union laws, and suggested companies move jobs out of Michigan,” Harris alleged on Thursday night.

“Enough is enough. American workers deserve a leader who keeps their promises and stands with workers when it matters, and as President, I will bring autoworker jobs back to this country and create an economy that strengthens manufacturing and unions and builds prosperity and security for America’s future. I will always stand with the UAW. Trusting Donald Trump again is a risk America’s autoworkers cannot afford,” she said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Global pop sensation Taylor Swift’s support for Kamala Harris may have boosted the Democratic vice president’s hopes of attracting young voters, but the question remains: Will the celebrity endorsement make a difference on Election Day?

Locked in a tight White House race, both Kamala Harris and her rival, Republican former President Donald Trump are doing all they can to lure voters on Election Day Nov. 5 and in early voting starting next week.

For his part, Trump dismissed Swift’s Tuesday night endorsement of Harris, saying he was “not a Taylor fan.”

With voter registrations down among young people in a country where 18 is the voting age, the first challenge for either campaign may be getting them to register to vote at all.

Young voters played a decisive role in Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory over the then-incumbent Trump in 2020. Biden captured about 61% of the vote to Trump’s 36% of voters between the ages of 18 and 29, according to data from Tufts University.

A July 2024 analysis by Tufts University’s youth civic engagement group, CIRCLE, found that voter registrations have dropped significantly since then in 36 states among those aged 18-29. Harris launched her campaign on July 21 after Biden withdrew.

“Registering youths remains a major task in the months ahead,” the analysis said.

Enter Swift, an artist so successful she tied hip-hop star Beyonce’s record of 30 lifetime awards at the MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday night. A 2023 Morning Consult poll found that 55% of self-described Swift fans were Democrats and 45% were millennials aged 28 to 43.

“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift wrote on Tuesday to her 284 million Instagram followers, urging them to register to vote and make their own choice.

Her post drew 10.4 million “likes.” The vote.gov website received 405,999 visitors in the 24 hours after Swift shared a custom URL with followers, a U.S. government spokesperson said.

Harris aides say they would love for Swift to actively campaign, such as by appearing at a rally in her native Pennsylvania, a battleground state that could well decide the election.

But the campaign itself was not involved in Swift’s decision to back Harris.

The vice president’s aides said they learned of Swift’s support only when the entertainer, 34, posted it on Instagram minutes after the vice president stepped off the debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

A QUESTION OF INFLUENCE

What difference does a celebrity endorsement make?

A 2008 Northwestern University report found Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement added a million votes to Barack Obama’s tally.

But a 2010 North Carolina State University report found celebrity endorsements by George Clooney and Angelina Jolie did little to move the political needle.

Margaretha Bentley, a professor at Arizona State University whose class studies Swift’s social importance, is unsure whether the pop singer will have an impact. She asked her students earlier this year whether a Swift endorsement would matter.

Some said they would follow Swift’s lead and others said it would prompt them to do more research. “Some students told me they listen to celebrities when it comes to, like, what coffee they would drink, not politics,” Bentley said.

A Swift fan at the VMA awards on Wednesday, Morgan Paris, said: “It’s good that she said what she feels. And I mean, I feel like her politics and her music are two separate things, so you can’t really combine them.”

Ashley Spillane wrote in a study published last month by Harvard’s Kennedy School that non-profits found “higher rates of online voter registration or poll worker sign-ups when a celebrity promotes these calls to action.”

“While some polling shows that people claim they aren’t influenced by celebrity voices when it comes to politics, more rigorous evidence indicates that these voices are incredibly powerful,” Spillane said.

SWIFT ACTION ON BEHALF OF HARRIS

The Harris campaign and their supporters are building on the endorsement, announcing pre-orders for its latest campaign wear: Swift fan-inspired friendship bracelets.

The progressive group MoveOn.org is selling Swift T-shirts that play on Swift’s ongoing Eras concert tour. The shirt, reading “In My Voting Era,” is the fastest selling item the group has sold this year, spokesperson Britt Jacovich said.

Voters of Tomorrow, which seeks to boost the youth vote, is teaming up with the informal group “Swifties for Harris” on a phone bank on Saturday to target college students in Georgia and Wisconsin, both battleground states like Pennsylvania.

Swift “is one of the most influential people of our generation, and we’re definitely excited to see how we can take her message and turn that into more political action and get more people involved,” said Jessica Siles, a spokesperson for Voters of Tomorrow.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Global pop sensation Taylor Swift’s support for Kamala Harris may have boosted the Democratic vice president’s hopes of attracting young voters, but the question remains: Will the celebrity endorsement make a difference on Election Day?

Locked in a tight White House race, both Kamala Harris and her rival, Republican former President Donald Trump are doing all they can to lure voters on Election Day Nov. 5 and in early voting starting next week.

For his part, Trump dismissed Swift’s Tuesday night endorsement of Harris, saying he was “not a Taylor fan.”

With voter registrations down among young people in a country where 18 is the voting age, the first challenge for either campaign may be getting them to register to vote at all.

Young voters played a decisive role in Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory over the then-incumbent Trump in 2020. Biden captured about 61% of the vote to Trump’s 36% of voters between the ages of 18 and 29, according to data from Tufts University.

A July 2024 analysis by Tufts University’s youth civic engagement group, CIRCLE, found that voter registrations have dropped significantly since then in 36 states among those aged 18-29. Harris launched her campaign on July 21 after Biden withdrew.

“Registering youths remains a major task in the months ahead,” the analysis said.

Enter Swift, an artist so successful she tied hip-hop star Beyonce’s record of 30 lifetime awards at the MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday night. A 2023 Morning Consult poll found that 55% of self-described Swift fans were Democrats and 45% were millennials aged 28 to 43.

“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift wrote on Tuesday to her 284 million Instagram followers, urging them to register to vote and make their own choice.

Her post drew 10.4 million “likes.” The vote.gov website received 405,999 visitors in the 24 hours after Swift shared a custom URL with followers, a U.S. government spokesperson said.

Harris aides say they would love for Swift to actively campaign, such as by appearing at a rally in her native Pennsylvania, a battleground state that could well decide the election.

But the campaign itself was not involved in Swift’s decision to back Harris.

The vice president’s aides said they learned of Swift’s support only when the entertainer, 34, posted it on Instagram minutes after the vice president stepped off the debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

A QUESTION OF INFLUENCE

What difference does a celebrity endorsement make?

A 2008 Northwestern University report found Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement added a million votes to Barack Obama’s tally.

But a 2010 North Carolina State University report found celebrity endorsements by George Clooney and Angelina Jolie did little to move the political needle.

Margaretha Bentley, a professor at Arizona State University whose class studies Swift’s social importance, is unsure whether the pop singer will have an impact. She asked her students earlier this year whether a Swift endorsement would matter.

Some said they would follow Swift’s lead and others said it would prompt them to do more research. “Some students told me they listen to celebrities when it comes to, like, what coffee they would drink, not politics,” Bentley said.

A Swift fan at the VMA awards on Wednesday, Morgan Paris, said: “It’s good that she said what she feels. And I mean, I feel like her politics and her music are two separate things, so you can’t really combine them.”

Ashley Spillane wrote in a study published last month by Harvard’s Kennedy School that non-profits found “higher rates of online voter registration or poll worker sign-ups when a celebrity promotes these calls to action.”

“While some polling shows that people claim they aren’t influenced by celebrity voices when it comes to politics, more rigorous evidence indicates that these voices are incredibly powerful,” Spillane said.

SWIFT ACTION ON BEHALF OF HARRIS

The Harris campaign and their supporters are building on the endorsement, announcing pre-orders for its latest campaign wear: Swift fan-inspired friendship bracelets.

The progressive group MoveOn.org is selling Swift T-shirts that play on Swift’s ongoing Eras concert tour. The shirt, reading “In My Voting Era,” is the fastest selling item the group has sold this year, spokesperson Britt Jacovich said.

Voters of Tomorrow, which seeks to boost the youth vote, is teaming up with the informal group “Swifties for Harris” on a phone bank on Saturday to target college students in Georgia and Wisconsin, both battleground states like Pennsylvania.

Swift “is one of the most influential people of our generation, and we’re definitely excited to see how we can take her message and turn that into more political action and get more people involved,” said Jessica Siles, a spokesperson for Voters of Tomorrow.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Donald Trump and Taylor Swift
| Photo Credit: AP/Reuters

Donald Trump took aim at Taylor Swift for endorsing Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race, during a “Fox & Friends” interview. Swift, who formally endorsed Harris shortly after their first debate, praised the vice president’s leadership and commitment to key issues such as LGBTQ+ rights and women’s health.

Trump, however, responded dismissively, stating, “I actually like Mrs. Mahomes much better. If you want to know the truth. She’s a big Trump fan. I was not a Taylor Swift fan.” He referred to Brittany Mahomes, wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, in contrast to Swift. Trump added that Swift “always endorses a Democrat” and predicted that she would “probably pay a price for it in the marketplace.”

The former president’s remarks highlight a potential cultural clash, as Swift has become politically outspoken, while Brittany Mahomes, a known Trump supporter, has maintained a public friendship with Swift. The two women were photographed together earlier this month at the U.S. Open, sparking controversy online.

Swift’s endorsement of Harris emphasized her belief in the vice president’s calm leadership, contrasting it with the “chaos” she associates with Trump’s tenure. Swift’s statement concluded with a call for unity and progress under Harris’ leadership.

Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a Presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Pennsylvania on Tuesday (September 10, 2024).
| Photo Credit: AFP

Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has said he will end the Russia-Ukraine war if he wins the November Presidential elections, an assertion dismissed by his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, who said the former U.S. President would “just give up”.

Trading barbs with Vice President Harris on Tuesday (September 10, 2024) at their first Presidential debate in Pennsylvania ahead of the U.S. General Elections on November 5, Mr. Trump said the war would have never started had he been the President.

“I’ll get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended. If I’m President-elect, I’ll get it done before even becoming president,” Mr. Trump (78) said in response to a question during the debate.

Asserting there was no threat of war in the four years he was President from 2017 to 2021, Mr. Trump said, “I know (Russian President Vladimir) Putin very well. He would have never — and there was no threat of it either, by the way, for four years — gone into Ukraine and killed millions of people when you add it up”.

Mr. Trump blamed the Biden-Harris Administration for not preventing the war in Ukraine and said, “If I were President, it would have never started.” The former President asserted that he wanted the war to stop and claimed that millions were being killed in it.

Data | The battleground States that could decide the U.S. Presidential elections

“I want to save lives that are being uselessly people being killed by the millions. It’s the millions. It’s so much worse than the numbers you’re getting, which are fake numbers,” he said.

“I know (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy very well and I know Putin very well. I have a good relationship. They respect me, they don’t respect (incumbent President Joe) Biden,” he said.

“How would you respect him (Biden)? He hasn’t even made a phone call in two years to Putin. He hasn’t spoken to anybody. That is a war that’s dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become President if I win when I’m President-elect,” Mr. Trump said.

Disagreeing with him, Vice President Harris said, “I believe the reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours is because he would just give it up. And that’s not who we are as Americans.” Ms. Harris said she met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and shared “American intelligence about how he could defend himself” a few days before the Russian invasion and went to NATO’s eastern flank to Poland and Romania days later, bringing 50 countries together to support Ukraine in its “righteous defence”.

“Because of our support, because of the air defence, the ammunition, the artillery, the javelins, and the Abrams tanks that we have provided, Ukraine stands as an independent and free country,” she said.

“If Donald Trump were President, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now and understand what that would mean because Putin’s agenda is not just about Ukraine,” she said.

Addressing Mr. Trump, she said, “Understand why the European allies and our NATO allies are so thankful that you are no longer President and that we understand the importance of…NATO. And what we have done to preserve the ability of Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians to fight for their independence. Otherwise, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe, starting with Poland.”

During the debate, Mr. Trump claimed that when Putin endorsed Ms. Harris last week, saying ‘I hope she’ wins, the Russian President meant it “because what he’s gotten away with is absolutely incredible”.

“It wouldn’t have happened with me. The leaders of other countries think that they’re weak and incompetent and they are grossly incompetent,” he said, referring to the Biden-Harris administration.

Ms. Harris alleged it was well known that Mr. Trump was weak and wrong on issues of national security and foreign policy. “It is well known that he admires dictators and wants to be a dictator on day one, according to himself. It is well known that he said of Putin that he can do whatever the hell he wants and go into Ukraine. It is well known that he said when Russia went into…,” she said.

“In Ukraine, it was brilliant; it is well known. He exchanged love letters with (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un. It is absolutely well known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be President again because it’s so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favours,” she said.

Alleging that military leaders with whom Mr. Trump has worked have told her that he is a “disgrace”, Ms. Harris said, “That is why we understand that we have to have a President who is not consistently weak and wrong on national security, including the importance of upholding and respecting in the highest regard our military.”

This was the second Presidential debate, but the first between Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris. The first presidential debate in Atlanta on June 27 was between Mr. Trump and President Biden. Following his terrible performance at the debate, Biden withdrew from the race and paved the way for Harris to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for the November elections.

In the 2016 presidential debates, Republican candidate Donald Trump loomed over Democratic contender Hillary Clinton, called her a “nasty woman” and said she didn’t have the “look” or “stamina” to serve as commander-in-chief.

Tuesday’s nationally televised debate, the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, could be a critical juncture in a race that is essentially tied eight weeks before the November 5 election.

Trump has already leveled a series of racist and sexist attacks against Harris. The former president has falsely claimed Harris, who is Black and South Asian, only recently “became a Black person.” He reposted a vulgar online message suggesting she used sex to advance her career. He fired off insults that play into tropes about women and Black people, calling her “weak,” “dumb as a rock” and “lazy.”

Deploying those attacks in front of tens of millions of viewers – and Harris’ response – would carry risks for both candidates, according to interviews with eight pollsters, debate and political experts, and Black activists. More than 51 million TV viewers tuned in to watch the debate between Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden in June.

Trump’s insults might alienate key voter groups, including women, Black voters and moderates, according to John Geer, a professor at Vanderbilt University and an expert on presidential politics. “They’re just going to get turned off by that kind of rhetoric,” he said.

But Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist, said the persistent tightness of the race showed that Trump’s attacks had not cost him support. 

Harris, who would be the first woman, Black woman and South Asian American to serve as president, faces a complicated political calculus on Tuesday.

If she brushes off Trump’s attacks on the debate stage, as she has done on the campaign trail, she could be seen as unwilling to stand up for herself. If she engages with Trump’s rhetoric, she could be dragged into the mudslinging he thrives on and expose herself to accusations, fair or not, that she is exploiting her race and gender.

Too forceful a reaction also risks playing into the stereotype of an angry Black woman, said Kelly Dittmar, the director of research for Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics.

“If Kamala calls it out, will she be accused of playing the race card, the gender card?” Dittmar said.

‘I’M SPEAKING’

Harris has the additional challenge of fielding Trump’s attacks while also defining herself for voters who are still getting to know her after her surprise entry into the race seven weeks ago.

In a national poll released on Sunday by The New York Times and Siena College, 28% of likely voters said they needed more information about Harris, while opinions on Trump were largely set.

Harris will try to avoid getting pulled into personal exchanges while aiming to draw Trump into the sort of offensive comments likely to go viral, campaign sources said.

Harris, a former prosecutor, may be able to send a more subtle signal about Trump’s attacks without explicitly calling them out as racist or sexist. She managed that in her 2020 vice presidential debate against Mike Pence, when she responded to his interruptions by saying, “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking,” a moment that went viral.

“That was an effective way to acknowledge the gendered style of how men speak over women,” Dittmar said.  

In a radio interview that aired on Monday, Harris said she was prepared for Trump’s tactics.

“[Trump] plays from this really old and tired playbook,” she told the “The Rickey Smiley Morning Show.” “There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go.”

In a call with reporters on Monday, former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who has been advising Trump ahead of the debate, said the former president would focus on Harris’ record and speak to her the same way he did Biden.

“President Trump respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way than he would speak to a man,” Gabbard said.

Trump has previously dismissed calls from advisers and fellow Republicans to moderate his tone and stick to the issues, telling reporters, “I have to do it my way.”

PERSONAL ATTACKS

But the former president has labored to find an effective attack line against Harris, who unlike Clinton is not saddled with decades of political baggage, and who has unleashed a wave of energy among Democrats since she took over Biden’s flailing reelection campaign.

The Democratic research firm Blueprint polled various negative messages against Harris in late July and found that personal attacks based on her race, gender or family were “incredibly unproductive” across all voter groups, including independents, according to Evan Roth Smith, the firm’s pollster.

Criticisms that focus on immigration and economic policies or portray Harris as a California liberal tested better, Smith said.

The firm also examined possible rebuttals to attacks focused on Harris’ race and gender. Responding by calling Trump racist was far less effective than labeling the insults a distraction from Trump’s “extreme” agenda.    

Some Trump attacks – such as questioning Harris’ Blackness – are so transparently false that Harris doesn’t need to respond directly, said Andra Gillespie, a professor at Emory University who researches African American politics.

“It was so unbelievably outrageous that everybody was like, ‘That’s ridiculous,'” she said. “She didn’t have to say anything.”

But Aaron Kall, a debate expert at the University of Michigan, said Trump should not be underestimated. Trump has proven to be a skilled debater, Kall said, dispatching more experienced opponents with sharp retorts and unpredictable segues and using his background as a reality television star to command the camera.

“He may be the best counter-punching debater of all time,” Kall said. “He gets people off their talking points. He has relatable language and talks like undecided voters. He’s got a pretty good pulse on what voters are concerned about.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a news conference at Trump National Golf Club, on August 15, 2024, in Bedminster, New Jersey
| Photo Credit: AP

Republican Presidential candidate former president Donald Trump said he is “very angry” at Vice President Kamala Harris and is entitled to personal attack on his Democratic opponent.

“I don’t have a lot of respect for her. I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence. I think she’ll be a terrible president. I think it’s very important that we win. And whether the personal attacks are good or bad … she certainly attacks me personally,” Trump said to reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Also read | Kamala Harris more incompetent than Biden, Trump tells Elon Musk

Trump was responding to questions from his party members urging him not to make personal attacks on Harris, who is the first woman of colour running for presidency.

“As far as the personal attacks [against Harris], I’m very angry at her because of what she’s done to the country. I’m very angry at her that she weaponised the justice system against me and other people. [I am] very angry at her. I think I’m entitled to personal attacks,” he said.

“She [Harris] actually called me weird. He’s weird, it was just a sound bite, and she called J D [Vance, his running mate] and I weird. He’s not weird. He was a great student at Yale, he went to Ohio State, graduated in two years at the top of his class and all of these different things. We have this guy that’s running failed, really a very failed state who had a terrible career. I mean, you have him saying they’re weird. No, he’s a weird guy,” Trump said.

He said Ms. Harris is “weird in her policy”, adding that “people don’t know who she is yet”.

“She is weird in her policy. Who wouldn’t want to have strongholds, who doesn’t want to have lower taxes? You know, all my life I’ve watched as politicians campaigned and I’ve always been on for the most part, on the other side. This is the only campaign I’ve ever heard. When they’re saying we’re going to increase your taxes and then people say they’re going to vote for,” Trump said.

Early this week, several of his party colleagues and aides, including former Trump White House aide Peter Navarro and former Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, urged him to focus on policy instead of attacking Ms. Harris.