Trump stokes fears with ‘unconstitutional’ Harris talk

 https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4821089-donald-trump-kamala-harris-unconstitutional/

Trump has repeatedly sought to cast Harris replacing President Biden as the Democratic nominee as nefarious, likening it to a “coup” and in recent days claiming it may be unconstitutional because she was not atop the ballot in the primary process. 

Biden and other Democrats, as well as some Republican Trump critics, have suggested the former president’s rhetoric is intended to cast doubt on November’s results should Harris prevail.

“We know one thing for sure. Trump never loses. And so if he’s not the winner of 2024 as in 2020, it must be because he was treated unfairly, yet again,” former Trump national security adviser John Bolton said on CNN.

Trump Mixes-Up Black Men on Chopper Ride, Threatens to Sue

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-mixed-up-willie-brown-for-former-sen-nate-holden-in-helicopter-story-says-holden?ref=home?ref=home+

Former President Donald Trump wasn’t completely lying about his near-death helicopter experience after all, but the 2024 Republican presidential nominee did get a few details mixed-up.

For one, the Black man Trump mistook for former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown was actually former Los Angeles city councilman and state senator, Nate Holden.

“I guess we all look alike,” said Holden in an interview with Politico. He added, “Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco. I’m a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles.”

Trump’s Dramatic Helicopter Story Is BS Says Supposed Fellow Survivor - More lies from Trump

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-dramatic-helicopter-story-is-nonsense-kamala-harris-ex-willie-brown-says?ref=home?ref=home

Every aspect of Trump’s account is wrong, according to Brown.

The 90-year-old told The New York Times that he’d never ridden a helicopter with Trump, nor had he ever been close to death during any trip in a chopper. “You know me well enough to know that if I almost went down in a helicopter with anybody, you would have heard about it!”

Trump's New GOP Platform Is a Massive Win for LGBT Americans

 https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-new-gop-platform-massive-win-lgbt-americans-opinion-1924048

For years, a key goal of gay Republicans and their allies has been the removal of the GOP's anti-gay-marriage plank from its official platform. While Trump made history as the first president to take office accepting gay marriage, the Republican platform he formally ran on in 2016 explicitly endorsed "traditional marriage and family, based on marriage between one man and one woman" and specifically denounced the Supreme Court cases enshrining gay marriage as the law of the land. And in 2020, Republicans essentially recycled the 2016 platform and ran on it again, rather than produce a new one, citing the pandemic's disruptions.

In the new 2024 platform Republicans just released, this language is nowhere to be found. The document says nothing about gay marriage at all. There is no endorsement of "traditional marriage," no call to overturn the Supreme Court's decisions, or anything else. The absence of a formal position implies that Republican candidates are officially free to adopt their own position on the issue, a tacit statement that the GOP has no problem with candidates and politicians who, like Trump, have embraced gay marriage.

Trump pushes new GOP platform softening party’s positions on abortion and same-sex marriage

 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-pushes-new-gop-platform-softening-partys-positions-abortion-sex-rcna160730

At the urging of former President Donald Trump and his allies, the Republican Party is set to abandon a decadeslong push for a federal abortion ban and soften its stance on same-sex marriage in its platform, according to changes made in a draft policy platform passed Monday morning ahead of next week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Is Tim Walz Guilty of ‘Stolen Valor’?

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/tim-walz-military-record-national-guard-iraq-jd-vance-peter-meijer-59dbd84e?mod=hp_opin_pos_3#cxrecs_s

Republicans are comparing this to John Kerry’s service in Vietnam and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign that countered Mr. Kerry’s service narrative. But that was far different. Upon his return from Vietnam Mr. Kerry slandered his former comrades in arms as war criminals before Congress, yet in running for President he wanted to use his military service as a credential. The Swift Boat Vets who served with him were correcting the record.

Evangelical Leaders Call Out Danger as 'Prophets' Tie God to Donald Trump

 https://www.newsweek.com/evangelical-leaders-call-out-danger-prophets-god-donald-trump-maga-preachers-pastors-1936620

In recent years, a number of influential evangelical figures have come forward and spoken about receiving prophecies about former President Donald Trump as a secular messiah who will deliver conservative Christians from cultural exile. Many of them have gone viral, telling thousands and even millions of people that God will reinstate Trump in the White House, leaving their followers hanging on to promises of a second Trump term.

Vance runs a Swift Boat attack against Walz’s military service

 https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/07/vance-walz-military-stolen-valor-garbage-00173172

Ohio Sen. JD Vance slammed the timing of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s retirement from a more-than-two-decades-long military career as a means of avoiding a deployment to Iraq on Wednesday, calling it “stolen valor garbage” and testing a new line of attack on the newly minted Democratic vice presidential contender.

There is no evidence that Walz retired to avoid a wartime deployment, and it’s a move that may not work — Walz has faced similar attacks from opponents before during successful races for Congress and governor, in which he explained his Army record in detail but did not make it a central part of his campaign.

U.S. Warns Iran of ‘Serious Risk’ if It Conducts Major Attack on Israel

 https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-warns-iran-of-serious-risk-if-it-conducts-major-attack-on-israel-fddd0715?mod=hp_lead_pos1

But the U.S. has also made clear that it is ready to use force to defend Israel, as it did in April. Stealthy F-22 fighters have been deployed to a base in the Middle East, the U.S. Central Command said Wednesday.  

The U.S. has sent more ships capable of shooting down ballistic missiles to the region. A U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, is also in the Gulf of Oman. The Navy has also moved an F/A-18 fighter squadron from that carrier to a base in a Middle East nation to position the aircraft closer to the action should hostilities erupt, according to another U.S. official.

'Where did the cash go?': Maddow looks for clues in new report about Trump, Egypt and $10 million

Trump’s Speeches May Show Signs of ‘Dementia’ and Cognitive Decline, Top Experts Say

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-speeches-may-show-signs-of-dementia-and-cognitive-decline-top-experts-say?ref=home

The most significant change since 2017, according to Michaelis, is the increase in Trump’s digressions and speeches which don’t remain focused on a single topic. Michaelis said he couldn’t offer a formal diagnosis, but said the Republican nominee’s speaking style is a concern. “There’s reasonable evidence suggestive of forms of dementia,” he said. “The reduction in complexity of sentences and vocabulary does lead you to a certain picture of cognitive diminishment.”

Uncovered audio of Trump praising Walz contradicts criticisms of riot response

Trump praised Minnesota Gov. Walz in 2020 for response to unrest over Floyd’s murder, audio shows

 https://apnews.com/article/tim-walz-trump-audio-riots-george-floyd-3b349ec2a8611f242333b76512a82d4f

While former President Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance have been hammering Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over his response to the violence that erupted after George Floyd’s murder, Trump told the governor at the time that he fully agreed with how Walz handled it.

“What they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately,” Trump told Walz and other governors and officials in a phone call on June 1, 2020. The Associated Press on Wednesday obtained an audio recording of the call, which has taken on new significance now that Walz has been tapped as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate against Trump and Vance.

Trump praised Walz in 2020 over handling of George Floyd protests - Who is lying?

 https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/07/trump-praised-walz-2020-george-floyd-protests-00173152

Donald Trump praised Tim Walz’s response as Minnesota governor to civil justice protests in 2020, undercutting a Republican line of attack against the newly minted vice presidential candidate, according to a recording that emerged Wednesday.

Trump — who wanted state authorities to take tough measures to address the civil unrest that erupted around the nation in response to the killing by police of George Floyd in Minneapolis — told governors on a conference call that Walz responded well.