Kamala Harris, Joe Biden make joint campaign stop; Harris now leading Trump in Pa., according to new polls

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey on Thursday got some backup in his tough reelection battle from his Senate colleague Corey Booker, a New Jersey Democrat who crossed the river to boost Casey at a North Philadelphia event aimed at engaging Black voters.

Although Casey has had a substantial lead over Republican challenger Dave McCormick in recent polls, the incumbent Democrat said he expects the race to tighten as Election Day approaches.

“Our race is going to very, very close. It’ll be probably a 1 point race,” said Casey, who is seeking a fourth term in the Senate. “And we just got to make sure people know the differences between us.”

Trump says he feels that he’s earned the right to take on his political opponents in a personal way, citing what he termed the way the justice system has been “weaponized” against him.

It’s a theme Trump often hits in his rally speeches, citing the legal cases against him and characterizing them as politically motivated attacks by Democratic prosecutors and the Biden Justice Department.

On Thursday, asked if he felt he needed to run a more disciplined campaign in the closing months ahead of Nov. 5 and pivot away from making personal attacks on Harris, Trump said, “I think I’m entitled to personal attacks, I don’t have a lot of respect for her, I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence, and I think she’ll be a terrible president.”

More than an hour into his Bedminster press conference Thursday, former President Donald Trump discussed his thoughts on how Vice President Kamala Harris will fare in Pennsylvania in the election, saying that her past support for a ban on fracking would cause her to "do very badly" in the state.

Trump brought up the issue after being asked about whether the federal government should be responsible for determining food prices. Harris, he said, "wants no fracking," but "may go and change that."

"I don't think there's any way in hell that somebody that's intelligent living in Pennsylvania is going to vote for somebody that basically will eventually end fracking and fossil fuel," Trump said.

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.

Former President Donald Trump said during his news conference Thursday that he should have been “a little bit easier” on President Joe Biden during their June 27 debate.

Biden’s disastrous debate performance ultimately led to the president withdrawing his reelection bid and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to be the nominee.

Trump then added that he believes Harris will “be just as bad” or “in many ways, going to be worse” at debating.

During a news conference at his golf course in Bedminster New Jersey, former President Donald Trump used some various props, like cereals, coffee grinds, and raw sausages basking in the sun, to demonstrate the impacts of inflation in the United States, pinpointing the blame on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Two years ago inflation was around 9% and has declined since then, much to the relief of consumers, but economists have said that neither Trump nor Biden is to blame for high inflation. During the June 27 debate between Trump and Biden, the two men tried to pin the country’s economic troubles on each other.

On Wednesday, inflation dropped below 3% for the first time since 2021.

Randolph Fagans Jr. from West Philly said he worked on President Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020 and came to the event in Brewerytown Thursday so he could “be more involved into history making events.”

Fagans Jr. is a veteran and feels that the attacks from the Trump campaign on Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s record in the National Guard are moot.

“As a fellow veteran, he served. That’s all that matters to me,” Fagans Jr. said.

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis stopped by the state's Democratic Coordinated Campaign office in Brewerytown Thursday ahead of a weekend of action aimed at mobilizing Black voters ahead of the DNC, which starts next week. Some state representatives and city council members were also in attendance at the event.

Davis, who is Pennsylvania’s youngest and first Black lieutenant governor, emphasized the importance of having representation in the White House and at the ballot box. Vice President Kamala Harris, if elected, would become the first Black and Asian American woman president in U.S. history.

“When I think of Kamala Harris, and I think about what her campaign means to not just me, but to all of us,” Davis said. “I think about my family, I’m a proud husband to a Black woman, a father to a Black girl…I think about the fact that my daughter, who’s going to be one in a couple weeks, will grow up in a world seeing herself as the president of the United States.”

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker on Thursday visited North Philadelphia to campaign for his fellow Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and said he was “Jersey jealous” of Pennsylvania’s purple electorate.

“I'm a Jersey boy,” Booker said at Prince of Peace Baptist Church in Strawberry Mansion. “I live across the river. But I’m Jersey jealous of you all here in Pennsylvania because we don’t have a competitive Senate race right now and we’re definitely not the most important state — the swingiest of all states — like you all are.”

In remarks that were heavy on religion, Booker praised Casey’s work in the Senate and said voters should give him a fourth consecutive term in Washington. Casey faces a tough reelection challenge from Republican Dave McCormick.

President Joe Biden described Vice President Kamala Harris as an “incredible partner” Thursday who cast the tie-breaking vote to pass legislation that will lower the cost of drugs for people on Medicare.

“Not a single Republican voted for this bill, period. Not one in the entire Congress,” Biden said during a joint campaign appearance with Harris in Maryland.

The joint appearance was the first time the two have hit the campaign trail together since Biden dropped out of the race last month, paving the way for Harris to become the Democratic presidential nominee.

During a joint appearance in Prince George's County in Maryland, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris touted government negotiations that will dramatically lower the cost of drugs for Americans on Medicare.

“We believe deeply that every senior in our nation should be able to live with security, stability, and dignity,” Harris said to supporters Thursday. “In the United States of America, no senior should have to choose between either filling their prescription or paying their rent.”

Earlier today, the Biden administration announced new Medicare discounts on 10 popular and expensive drugs. This new, lower prices won’t go into effect until 2026. But when they do, they could be significant, according to numbers provided by the White House.

Much of Sen. JD Vance’s appearance at VFW Post 92 in New Kensington, Pa. was dedicated to dissing the military record of his opponent, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Interrogating Walz’s record has become a key part of the Trump campaign’s attack strategy, accusing him of “stolen valor.” Vance said Thursday that he feels like Vice President Kamala Harris and Walz are playing the “victim” after Walz’s record underwent questioning.

“I think the victims are the veterans who are having their service disparaged because the guy who wants to be their vice president is lying instead of telling the truth. I think those are the real victims of what Tim Walz has done,” Vance said.

While taking questions from reporters at VFW Post 92 in New Kensington, Pa., Vance said he feels a responsibility to debate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in front of the American people and doubled down on his proposition to debate the governor on CNN on Sept. 18.

“As the person who’s asking the American people for the awesome honor and responsibility of being their vice president, I think I would have to go before the American people and make the case for why I deserve to have that job,” Vance said.

Vance seems to have taken a different approach to the debates than former President Donald Trump who originally backed out of debating Vice President Kamala Harris on Sept. 10 on ABC before recommitting to the event last week.

Tim Walz and JD Vance will face off in a vice presidential debate on Oct. 1 on CBS in New York.

CBS News gave the candidates four date options: Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1, and Oct. 8. Walz, Kamala Harris' running mate, agreed to Oct. 1 on Wednesday. Vance, Donald Trump's vice presidential nominee, said on Thursday morning he accepted CBS terms.

Vance proposed a second vice presidential debate on Sept. 18 on CNN. It is unclear if Walz will agree to participate.

Kamala Harris' narrow lead over Donald Trump in national polls continue to grow, according to averages done by RealClearPolitics and FiveThirtyEight.

The majority of the polling was done prior to Harris selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

In the RealClearPolitics average of recent national polls, Harris had taken a nearly one-percentage-point lead over Trump, 47.9% to 47.0%. While Harris’ lead remains slim, it’s notable because Trump was ahead by three percentage points when Joe Biden dropped out of the race on July 21.

Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are making a joint campaign stop in Maryland today, their first appearance together since Biden dropped out of the race last month.

The event is taking place in Prince George's County, just outside of Washington D.C. According to Biden's public calendar, the pair are slated to speak around 1:30 p.m.

The location of the campaign event has not yet been announced.

Former President Donald Trump will be in New Jersey Thursday for a planned news conference at his Bedminster golf club, scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m.

It's Trump's second news conference in the past week, as he tries to force his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, to hold her own event with the press. Harris has said she'll schedule a sit-down interview with a news network this month following next week's Democratic National Convention.

Trump held an hour-long news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. last week, where he reversed his decision to pull out of an ABC debate with Harris, complained about her crowd sizes, and described Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as a "terrible guy."

Sen. JD Vance (R., Ohio), Donald Trump's running mate, will be back in Pennsylvania today.

Vance is making a campaign stop at a VFW post in New Kensington in Westmoreland County, where he is expected to speak at 10 a.m.

After that, Vance is off to Milwaukee for another campaign event Friday.