The Latest: Trump holds news conference; Harris touts Medicare drug price cuts

Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has invited reporters to his New Jersey golf club for a news conference — his second in as many weeks. Trump is meeting the press as he steps up his criticism of Harris for not holding a news conference or sitting down for interviews since President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed her to replace him. Trump’s campaign, meanwhile, announced it was adding to its staff. The new additions include Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager during his 2016 campaign.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Biden held a joint appearance to announce price cuts for popular Medicare drugs. Federal officials have reached deals with drug companies to lower the price for 10 of Medicare’s most popular and costliest drugs. The drugs include the blood thinners Xarelto and Eliquis and diabetes drugs Jardiance and Januvia. Medicare spent $50 billion covering the drugs last year. It’s a landmark deal for the Medicare program, which provides health care coverage for more than 67 million older and disabled Americans.

Vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz have agreed to debate each other on October 1.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here's the Latest:

Trump claims Harris will turn the US into a ‘communist-type country’

It’s a regular feature of modern U.S. elections for Republican nominees to cast Democratic nominees for various offices as “too liberal” or even “socialist.”

Trump has elevated that line of attack on Harris. “She wants to change a free-enterprise-type country into a communist-type country,” he insisted.

Trump’s argument depends heavily on certain positions Harris took as a U.S. senator from California and candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Harris once co-sponsored Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” Senate proposal, but she has backed away from that since the 2020 campaign.

The Biden-Harris campaign in 2020 advocated for a “public option” plan to be added to existing private health insurance exchanges set up under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. That policy would not, as Trump claims, end private health insurance or private health care.

‘If Kamala wins the election, the worst is yet to come’

Trump is warning that his Democratic opponent would upend not only the U.S. economy but also American relationships abroad.

“If Kamala wins the election, the worst is yet to come,” Trump said, claiming that Harris is “far more radical” than Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and “wants to change a free enterprise type country into a communist type country.”

On foreign relations, Trump warned that “you’ll have a real problem in the future because people don’t respect her in the world.”

Trump cites inflated price of grocery items

Turning to the grocery items that are surrounding him, Trump quoted various inflation statistics for various staples of U.S. household diets.

But he blasted Harris’ talk of taking on price gouging, including on food, calling it “communist price controls” and “the Maduro plan,” a nod to the authoritarian socialist leader of Venezuela. “She wants price controls,” he said. “They don’t work. ... They lead to food shortages.” He’s adding references to higher car insurance premiums and fuel costs.

So far, Trump has not introduced any of his proposals to confront the situation. He’s opting instead for blaming Harris, because she is Biden’s top lieutenant, and recycling his sweeping predictions that a President Harris would tank the economy.

Trump lays blame over inflation at Harris’ feet

Trump is opening his latest news conference with renewed attacks that Harris “broke the border and broke the world.”

He is highlighting her role as vice president casting the tie-breaking Senate vote on major spending initiatives for the Biden administration.

As the economy takes center stage in the presidential contest, Trump is blaming inflation directly on government spending — sidestepping some of the more complex realities of global supply chain interruptions during the pandemic and global oil price spikes after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Harris, in turn, has focused the blame on corporate greed, glossing over the effects of considerable stimulus spending by the U.S. and other governments around the world.

Trump’s news conference begins

Trump has started a news conference outside at his Bedminster resort in New Jersey, where he is speaking surrounded by groceries set on tables.

The former president and Republican nominee is trying to step up his attacks on Vice President Harris, shifting blame for rising prices from Biden to her as she becomes her party standard-bearer.

Trump delivered what was billed as a major address on the economy a day earlier in North Carolina but he spent most of the 75-minute speech on his usual grievances. The news conference marks another opportunity for him to focus his argument on what many political observers believe can be a weak spot for Harris.

For her part, Harris is planning an address on the economy Friday in North Carolina.

Can Trump stick to a clear message?

At a rally Wednesday in North Carolina that his campaign billed as a big economic address, Trump made little effort to stay on message. He mixed pledges to slash energy prices and “unleash economic abundance” with familiar off-script tangents.

He aired his frustration over the Democrats swapping the vice president in place of Biden at the top of their presidential ticket. He repeatedly denigrated San Francisco, where Harris was once the district attorney, as “unlivable” and went after his rival in deeply personal terms, questioning her intelligence, saying she has “the laugh of a crazy person” and musing that Democrats were being “politically correct” in trying to elevate the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president.

Trump campaign leaders announce an expanded staff

Trump invited reporters to his New Jersey golf club Thursday for his second news conference in as many weeks as he adjusts to a newly energized Democratic ticket ahead of next week’s Democratic National Convention.

Hours before the news conference was slated to begin, Trump’s campaign leaders announced they were expanding his staff, bringing a number of former aides and outside advisers formally into the fold. Corey Lewandowski, Taylor Budowich, Alex Pfeiffer, Alex Bruesewitz and Tim Murtaugh will advise the campaign’s senior leadership.

Lewandowski was Trump’s first campaign manager during his 2016 campaign. Budowich and Pfeiffer are moving over from MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC. Bruesewitz produces pro-Trump content for a large social media following. And Murtaugh was the communications director for Trump’s 2020 campaign.

Harris and Walz talk football, music and tacos in video released by campaign

Harris’ campaign has released a video of her chatting with her running mate as the pair discuss their upbringings and tastes.

Running just under 10 minutes and filmed last week when the pair made a joint campaign appearance in Detroit, the video recalls a similar one then-candidate Joe Biden had with former President Barack Obama during the 2020 campaign.

Harris, who’s played up her running mate’s former career coaching high school football responds, “I’m looking at Coach Walz right now.”

The vice president asks her running mate about liking what he describes as “white guy tacos,” which he says are ground beef and cheese but no sauce — prompting Harris to note that she’s grown chili peppers at the vice president’s residence.

Walz tells her about his love of Bruce Springsteen and Harris talks about growing up with the music of Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Miles Davis and John Coltrane and her love of Prince. She says she’s “more of a hip hop girl” while her husband, Doug Emhoff, is more partial to Depeche Mode.

Trump to highlight cost of feed at upcoming press event

Trump will speak at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Thursday flanked by popular grocery store items as he seeks to highlight the rising cost of food.

Staff were seen laying out a selection of items, including tubs of instant coffee, sugary breakfast cereals, pastries and fruit, on tables behind the lectern where he’ll speak at a press conference Thursday afternoon.

The event comes one day after the Labor Department announced year-over-year inflation reached its lowest level in more than three years in July — the latest sign that the worst price spike in four decades is fading.

But consumers are still feeling the impact of higher prices — something Trump’s campaign is banking on to motivate voters this fall.

Biden and Harris make first appearance since he dropped reelection bid and endorsed her

Biden and Harris have appeared together for the first time since she replaced him as the Democratic presidential nominee.

Biden and Harris spoke at an event at a Maryland community college to talk about the administration’s work to lower the cost of prescription drugs.

They also praised each other.

Harris, who spoke first, said it’s her “eternal and great honor” to serve with Biden, whom she called an “extraordinary human being and American and leader.”

Biden said of Harris, “She’s going to make one hell of a president.”

The Biden administration said Thursday that drug price negotiations will knock hundreds of dollars — in some cases thousands — off the list prices of 10 of Medicare’s most popular and costliest drugs.

The discounts, agreed to after months of negotiations with drug manufacturers, range between 38% and 79% on the medication’s list price, which is the cost of medication before discounts or rebate.

Chicago chief says city is ready for Democratic National Convention

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling is touting extensive officer training as a critical part of the city’s preparations for the Democratic National Convention next week.

Roughly 50,000 people are expected in Chicago for the convention, including thousands of anti-war activists who plan to demonstrate near the United Center where Vice President Kamala Harris will officially accept the party’s nomination.

Snelling maintained that the Chicago Police Department — working alongside federal law enforcement agencies — is prepared to deal with large crowds and any security concerns.

“There’s a possibility that things could take a turn. Something could happen that we don’t expect,” Snelling told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

“We know that our officers can respond in a professional manner with training behind them. They’ll be more effective in decision making. And then the response becomes greater and better.”

RFK Jr.'s campaign suffers legal setback in New York

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential campaign suffered a blow this week when a judge in New York invalidated his petition to put his name on the state ballot, a ruling that could potentially create problems for the candidate as he faces challenges elsewhere.

Kennedy’s attorneys filed an appeal Wednesday to a ruling this week from Justice Christina Ryba, who said the residence listed on his nominating petitions was a “sham” address he used to maintain his voter registration and to further his political aspirations. The judge ruled in favor of the challengers, who argued Kennedy’s actual residence was the home in Los Angeles he shares with his wife, the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Cheryl Hines.

New York is just one of more than a half-dozen states where challenges have been made to Kennedy’s petitions from Democrats and their allies. Some of the challenges allege he falsely listed the same New York address that was the subject of litigation in that state, or that there were problems with petition signatures.

Trump asks judge to delay sentencing in hush money case until after November election

Donald Trump is asking the judge in his New York hush money criminal case to delay his sentencing until after the November presidential election.

In a letter made public Thursday, a lawyer for the former president and current Republican nominee suggested that sentencing Trump as scheduled on Sept. 18 — about seven weeks before Election Day — would amount to election interference.

Trump lawyer Todd Blanche wrote that a delay would also allow Trump time to weigh next steps after the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, is expected to rule Sept. 16 on the defense’s request to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July presidential immunity ruling.

“There is no basis for continuing to rush,” Blanche wrote.

Vance is emphasizing his own military experience as he campaigns in western Pennsylvania.

To attendees gathered at a VFW post in New Kensington on Thursday, Vance lauded Trump for putting “in place real policies that really benefit the veterans who served in our military.”

Vance was introduced by several veterans now serving in Congress, including Florida Reps. Brian Mast and Mike Waltz.

Pat Harrigan, a Republican running for the U.S. House in North Carolina, levied harsh criticism on Tim Walz’s record, calling the Minnesota governor “a coward who betrayed his men at their greatest time of need.”

Since Harris named Walz — a 24-year veteran of the Army National Guard — as her running mate, Vance has repeatedly questioned his rival’s military credentials, accusing him of retiring so as to avoid deploying with his unit and saying Walz misled voters about serving in a combat zone, when he was deployed to Italy in 2003 in a supportive, not combat, role.

As he ramped up for a congressional bid in 2005, Walz’s campaign in March issued a statement saying he still planned to run despite a possible mobilization of Minnesota National Guard soldiers to Iraq. According to the Guard, Walz retired from service in May of that year.

AP-NORC poll shows Harris has perceived advantage over Trump in several leadership qualities

Vice President Kamala Harris has a perceived advantage over former President Donald Trump on several leadership qualities such as honesty, a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds, although Americans are slightly more likely to trust Trump on the economy and immigration.

Nearly half of Americans say that “committed to democracy” and “disciplined” are attributes that better describe Harris. About 3 in 10 say these qualities better describe Trump.

About 4 in 10 say Harris is someone who “cares about people like you” while about 3 in 10 say that about Trump. About 4 in 10 say “honest” better describes Harris and 24% say that quality better describes Trump.

Read more about the AP-NORC poll

Walz and Vance agree to debate on Oct. 1

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance have agreed to debate each other on Oct. 1, setting up a matchup of potential vice presidents as early voting in some states gets underway for the general election.

CBS News on Wednesday posted on its X feed that the network had invited both Vance and Walz to debate in New York City, presenting four possible dates in September and October as options.

Walz accepted later on Wednesday and Vance responded Thursday that he would attend on Oct. 1. He also challenged Walz to meet on Sept. 18.

Harris to hold rally in Milwaukee next week

MADISON, Wis. — Harris plans to hold a rally in Milwaukee on Tuesday in the same venue where Republicans gathered for their national convention last month.

Harris will hold the event at the Fiserv Forum while the Democratic National Convention is underway about 100 miles to the south in Chicago, the Harris campaign said Thursday.

The stop will mark the third time since Harris become the Democratic presidential nominee that she’s come to swing state Wisconsin, a nod to the importance of the state.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump's running mate, planned to be in Milwaukee on Friday to speak at the Milwaukee Police Association. That would be his second visit to Wisconsin as the vice presidential nominee.

Harris to deliver economic policy speech

Harris is giving a preview of the economic policy speech that she plans to deliver in North Carolina on Friday, and she’s zeroing in on corporate price gouging.

Her campaign says Harris plans to push for a federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries. She’s putting particular emphasis on rising meat prices, which she says account for a large part of rising grocery bills.

Year-over-year inflation has reached its lowest level in more than three years. But many Americans are still struggling with food prices, which remain 21% above where they were three years ago. Trump has been pointing to inflation as a key failing of the Biden-Trump administration and its energy policies.

Judge rejects Donald Trump’s latest demand to step aside from hush money criminal case

Donald Trump has lost his latest bid for a new judge in his New York hush money criminal case as it heads toward a key ruling and potential sentencing next month.

In a decision posted Wednesday, Judge Juan M. Merchan declined to step aside and said Trump’s demand was a rehash “rife with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims” about his ability to remain impartial.

It’s the third time Merchan has rejected such a request from lawyers for the former president and current Republican nominee. They contend the judge has a conflict of interest because his daughter works as a political consultant for prominent Democrats, including Kamala Harris when she sought the Democrats’ 2020 presidential nomination. Harris is now the party’s nominee against Trump.

The judge’s daughter, Loren Merchan, met Harris occasionally in 2019 but never “developed an individual relationship” with her, consulting firm founder Mike Nellis told the chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, in a letter Tuesday. The firm, Authentic Campaigns Inc., has not worked for Harris’ campaign, President Joe Biden’s now-ended reelection bid or the Democratic National Committee in the 2024 election cycle, Nellis said.

Democrats plan “DemPalooza” during the party’s convention in Chicago next week

The Democratic National Committee will offer a schedule of trainings, panels and other programming it’s calling “DemPalooza” during the party’s convention in Chicago next week. The name is a play on the Lollapalooza music festival Chicago plays hosts to every year.

“DemPalooza” events will range from trainings on how to use organizing tools to polling briefings and skills workshops. The DNC says these programs are part of its and the Harris campaign’s efforts to organize and reach voters in an evolving media environment and provide opportunities for Democrats to take what they’ve learned back to the communities that will decide the November presidential election.

Presented with rise in border crossings, Kamala Harris chose a long-term approach to the problem

Vice President Kamala Harris was never the “border czar,” as her critics claim.

Biden administration officials say she was assigned to tackle the “root causes” of migration from the Central American nations of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras that were responsible for a large chunk of border crossers.

A review of Harris’ work on immigration reveals a record that is more nuanced than the one presented by her critics or allies. It also provides insights into how Harris — who took over as the Democratic standard-bearer when Biden dropped out of the presidential race last month — might tackle one of the nation’s most vexing concerns.

Read more about Harris’ work on immigration

There’s an apostrophe battle brewing among grammar nerds. Is it Harris’ or Harris’s?

Whatever possessed Vice President Kamala Harris to pick Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, it probably wasn’t a desire to inflame arguments about apostrophes. But it doesn’t take much to get grammar nerds fired up.

“The lower the stakes, the bigger the fight,” said Ron Woloshun, a creative director and digital marketer in California who jumped into the fray on social media less than an hour after Harris selected Walz last week to offer his take on possessive proper nouns.

The Associated Press Stylebook says “use only an apostrophe” for singular proper names ending in S: Dickens’ novels, Hercules’ labors, Jesus’ life. But not everyone agrees.

While there is widespread agreement that Walz’s is correct, confusion persists about Harris’ vs. Harris’s. Dreyer’s verdict? Add the ’s.

Read more about the political world’s latest grammar debate

Walz launches 5-state fundraising blitz in LA, warns Trump will wage ‘war’ on working people

In his first solo appearance as the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz warned cheering union members Tuesday that Donald Trump would wage war on working people and threaten Medicare and Social Security as he kicked off a five-state fundraising swing.

He spoke of a grim future for unions if Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance are elected, describing a nation where bargaining rights, overtime pay and other protections would be scuttled. He said Trump and Vance have “waged war on working people.”

However, Trump also has courted union support. When he accepted the Republican nomination, he said that he would rescue the auto industry from what he called “complete obliteration.”

Read more about Walz’s 5-state fundraising blitz