CBS News
Kamala Harris fighting to “earn everyone’s vote” in leadup to Nov. 5 election
In the final countdown to the election, Vice President Kamala Harris is defending her record and making her case for the presidency while dealing with unrelenting attacks from former President Donald Trump.
The Democratic Party rallied around Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, after President Biden dropped his reelection bid in July. Supporters across the country responded with relief and optimism in the early days of Harris’ candidacy, but the race remains extremely close.
“I take it seriously that I have to earn everyone’s vote,” Harris said. “This is an election for president of the United States. No one should be able to take for granted that they can just declare themselves a candidate and automatically receive support. You have to earn it. And that’s what I intend to do.”
A quarter of registered voters in a recent poll said they need to learn more about Harris, even though she’s been vice president for nearly four years and has been on the national stage for even longer. Critics say the reason so many voters don’t have a clear picture of Harris is because she’s changed her position on so many issues. She was against fracking, but now supports it; she supported looser immigration policies, but is now in favor of tougher restrictions; she was for Medicare for all, but now she’s not.
Harris defended her evolution, saying it reflects her experience as vice president seeking common ground.
“What the American people do want is that we have leaders who can build consensus,” she said. “Where we can figure out compromise and understand it’s not a bad thing, as long as you don’t compromise your values, to find common-sense solutions. And that has been my approach.”
Building that consensus also involves bridging the gap in a politically divided America.
“I believe that the people of America want a leader who’s not trying to divide us and demean,” Harris said. “I believe that the American people recognize that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it’s based on who you lift up.”
60 Minutes
Late last week, Harris was in Ripon, Wisconsin — the 1854 birthplace of the Republican Party. She was joined by staunch conservative and former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney at a rally plastered with “country over party” banners.
“I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year, I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,” Cheney said to applause at the rally.
As vice chair of the House January 6th committee, Cheney became one of Trump’s fiercest critics.
“I hope that if you had said to me four years ago, ‘Our constitution is going to be under threat and it’s going to be crucial for the parties to come together and to support Vice President Harris because she’ll defend the rule of law,’ I know I would’ve said, ‘That’s exactly what I’ll do,'” Cheney said.
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The northern lights made an incredible display over much of the United States on Thursday — and might make a return appearance Friday night.
The aurora borealis was visible as far south as Florida on Thursday. Photos show the sky lit up in red and purple, even in some brightly-lit areas like New York City and Chicago.
The strong geomagnetic storm that created such a show has subsided, according the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but some parts of the U.S. may again see the northern lights tonight. Here’s what to know.
Roy Rochlin / Getty Images
Where will the northern lights be visible tonight?
The northern lights will be visible for parts of the northern U.S., according to the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center’s aurora forecast. The aurora will be visible over much of Canada and Alaska, but the northern lights can also be seen from as far as 620 miles away if the conditions are right, NOAA says.
Parts of Idaho, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin may be able to see the lights Friday night. On the East Coast, the aurora might be visible in northern New York and parts of Vermont and New Hampshire. Areas of Maine may also see the northern lights.
The lights will appear to the north when it’s dark outside. If you can’t see them with the naked eye, they may be visible through a phone camera or other device.
NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
What time will the northern lights be most visible?
The northern lights are most visible just after sunset or just before sunrise, NOAA said. The aurora is not visible during the day. Dark, cloudless skies with little artificial light provide the best viewing experience.
Ross Harried/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Why have the northern lights been so visible lately?
Over the last several months the sun has been incredibly active, unleashing a series of coronal mass ejections from its surface, CBS Boston reported. That’s resulted in multiple visible aurora shows.
The geomagnetic storm responsible for Thursday’s stunning skies is now subsiding, CBS Boston reported. That means there will be less chance of seeing the aurora on Friday, but there may be more opportunities in the future.
Shawn Dahl, a forecast coordinator with the Space Weather Prediction Center, told CBS Boston that the northern lights have been so intense lately because of where the sun is in its 11-year solar cycle. Dahl said that “we are in the midst of solar maximum.”
Heather Kepple
“What that means is the sun is now this twisted-up mass of strong magnetic fields, and some of these are so localized and intense they reveal themselves as these sunspot groups,” Dahl said. “That’s the source of a bunch of the space weather storms that we’re looking for and predict.”
What causes the northern lights?
The northern lights are caused by interactions between the sun’s solar winds and the Earth’s protective magnetic field, according to NOAA. Those two phenomenons result in geomagnetic storms and increased geomagnetic activity.
The higher the geomagnetic activity is, the better your odds are of seeing the aurora. Increased geomagnetic activity means the aurora will become brighter, more active and visible farther from the poles of the planet, NOAA said.
Even moderate solar wind creates the aurora, NOAA said, so there is usually a weak aurora visible from somewhere on Earth. The best places to see these weaker auroras is close to the planet’s poles, like in Greenland or southern Argentina. If you see the aurora near the North Pole, it’s nicknamed the northern lights. The same phenomenon near the South Pole is called the southern lights.