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Election 2024 live updates as Trump and Harris campaign to sway voters amid head-to-head presidential polls
Harris to begin campaign concert series in Georgia, with Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen
Vice President Kamala Harris is set to hold a campaign event Thursday in Georgia, which former President Barack Obama and the singer Bruce Springsteen will also attend.
Springsteen’s involvement marks the first of several concerts taking place along Harris’ campaign trail, which are part of a series her campaign has called “When We Vote We Win.” The series will touch all seven battleground states, starting in Atlanta and moving next to Philadelphia on Monday. Obama and Springsteen are both set to appear at Monday’s event, too, a senior campaign official told CBS New Philadelphia.
GOP former Rep. Fred Upton backs Harris
Former Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump before retiring in 2022, told The Detroit News on Thursday that he’s backing Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
Upton, who represented Michigan for more than three decades in the House and worked alongside Walz, said Trump is “totally unhinged.”
“We don’t need this chaos,” he told The Detroit News. “We need to move forward, and that’s why I’m where I am.”
Upton also told The New York Times that he cast his ballot for Harris, noting that it marked the first time he has supported a Democrat for president.
Harris addresses immigration, the Middle East conflict and how her policies differ from President Biden’s
Vice President Kamala Harris shared where she stands on key political issues at her CNN town hall on Wednesday night, with her positions on immigration and the United States’ approach to conflict in the Middle East being some of the event’s most notable takeaways. Harris also assured her administration would take a different approach to policies than the current one under President Biden, although she did not offer many specifics.
Moderator Anderson Cooper pressed Harris on her views about immigration, an issue that has recurred in Republican attacks on her presidential campaign. Harris criticized the border wall proposed by former President Donald Trump during his time in office but did not respond directly when asked if she supports continuing that project now.
“I want to strengthen our border,” she said, pledging to push through a bipartisan bill focused on border security, which calls for $650 million initially earmarked under Trump.
Harris also commented on war in the Middle East, after an undecided voter asked how she plans to protect Palestinian civilians. The Democratic nominee called the death toll “unconscionable” and said she believes there is an opportunity to end Israel’s war with Hamas now that Yahya Sinwar has been killed.
As for how her policies would deviate from President Biden’s, Harris said she embodies “a new generation of leadership” in this country.
“My administration will not be a continuation of the Biden administration,” she said. “I will bring to this role my own ideas and my own experience.”
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is expected to announce a recommendation Thursday on possible resentencing in the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez, decades after the brothers were sentenced to life without parole for the 1989 killings of their parents in Beverly Hills.
Los Angeles County D.A. George Gascón is holding a news conference at 1:30 p.m. PT (4:30 p.m. ET) to announce his decision following growing calls to consider resentencing for the brothers, who are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole after they were convicted of first-degree murder in the slayings of their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, in 1989. Gascón could also recommend a new trial, or make no recommendation at all, keeping their conviction and sentencing as is.
Gascón said earlier this month that his office had been looking into the Menendez brothers’ case for about a year. The focus of the case has been on why the brothers killed their parents.
During their highly publicized first trial in 1993, prosecutors argued that the murders were committed out of greed, while defense attorneys said the killings were done in self-defense. The brothers admitted they killed their parents but claimed that they had been sexually, emotionally and physically abused by them. Prosecutors suggested those claims were false. A mistrial was declared, and in a second trial, what defense attorneys called evidence of abuse was excluded.
In May 2023, the brothers’ appellate attorney, Cliff Gardner, filed a habeas petition to challenge the convictions. The petition cited a 1988 letter from Erik Menendez to a cousin where he detailed alleged abuse by his father as new evidence.
Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo, has also alleged that he was abused by José Menendez, who was an executive at RCA Records, where the band had a recording contract. Gardner has said these circumstances mean the brothers should have been convicted of first-degree manslaughter, not murder, and have received shorter sentences that would have seen them released from prison years ago.
Two recent high-profile Netflix projects have brought renewed attention to the brothers’ case. Gascón said this has helped speed the decision-making process. Family members have also called for the brothers to be freed.
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