APPLENEWS - STORY ADD

Election 2024 updates: Schumer, Jeffries endorse Harris

Vice President Harris will hold her first campaign rally Tuesday in Wisconsin.

After President Joe Biden's decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race on Sunday, Vice President Kamala Harris has emerged as the party favorite to replace him at the top of the ticket.

Biden endorsed Harris on Sunday -- and, since then, a wave of others Democrats have done so. Harris on Monday secured enough delegates to become presumptive Democratic nominee, ABC News reported.


0

Harris to Indianapolis on Wednesday

The White House has just sent details on two upcoming trips, one for Vice President Kamala Harris this week and one for President Joe Biden next week.

Harris will travel to Indianapolis on Wednesday to attend the biennial convention of one of the nation's largest historically Black sororities. This will be on the heels of her visit to Milwaukee today.

Biden will travel to Austin next Monday, July 29 -- a rescheduled visit to the LBJ Presidential Library for the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. The president didn't go last week, as originally scheduled, in the aftermath of the assassination attempt.

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett


Blinken talks up Harris' foreign policy experience

In a very rare move, the State Department organized a press gaggle with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, creating an opportunity for him to address the recent Washington headlines.

ABC News asked Blinken for his reaction to President Biden's decision not to seek another term and whether he saw Vice President Harris as an able replacement.

"As you all know, I don't engage in politics," Blinken began, but said he has known Harris for more than a decade and said he had been able to "observe her very closely in the situation room, in the Oval Office, around the world as a leading voice for American foreign policy."

Though the secretary did not explicitly endorse Harris, he extolled her leadership during foreign engagements, citing her work in East Asia and also claiming she was "deeply engaged in the Middle East and trying to find a peaceful path forward" and “helping to drive investment in countries in our own hemisphere so people have opportunity in the countries that they come from so they don't have to make the hazardous journey to the United States."

Blinken continued: "What I've observed is someone that asks time and again the penetrating questions, who cuts to the chase, and is intensely focused on the interests of the American people and making sure our foreign policy is doing everything it can to advance those interests."

Vice President Harris' perceived lack of experience in foreign policy has clouded her campaign. While in office, she has spent just three days in the Middle East and four days in Latin America. Still, the secretary rejected the notion that it wasn't her forte.

"My observation is she is a very strong, very effective and deeply respected voice for our country around the world. When she speaks, she speaks on behalf of the United States," Blinken said.

-ABC News' Shannon K. Kingston


When Biden took ill in Vegas last week, roads were shut down on route to hospital: Police

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department began shutting down roads leading to UMC Hospital last week when President Biden took ill in Vegas, according to the department.

"The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was notified that President Joe Biden was sick on July 17th during his visit to Las Vegas. We did not know the nature of his illness. As a precaution, LVMPD proactively began to shut down roads leading to UMC Hospital. The Secret Service then advised LVMPD the President was going directly to Harry Reid International Airport and would be leaving Las Vegas," the department told ABC News.

Biden tested positive for COVID on Wednesday, following a campaign event in Las Vegas, the White House said. He has been self-isolating in Rehoboth, Delaware.

-ABC News' Josh Margolin and Alex Stone


VP vetting process has begun: Shapiro, Cooper, Kelly, Beshear asked to submit materials

The vetting of potential running mates for Harris has already begun, according to a source briefed on the process.

"The horse has left the barn," the source said.

The campaign does not see Aug. 7 as a deadline -- a date that marks the end of the planned virtual roll call, according to the source. The vice presidential pick is unlikely to be finalized by then.

The source said these four individuals have all been asked to submit materials: Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly; Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania; Roy Cooper of North Carolina and Andy Beshear of Kentucky.

But that list is "not exhaustive" -- in other words, there may be another name or two, the source added.

-ABC News' Jonathan Karl