PITTSBURGH — Vice President Kamala Harris’s pick of Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), the two-term governor of Minnesota, was a shot across the bow that this election cycle is going to be a get-out-the-base election rather than the coalition builder Democrats would have enjoyed if she had chosen Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) as her running mate.

Mike Mikus, a Pennsylvania-based Democratic strategist, said this race will look very similar to the election cycle we saw with former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection race rather than his 2008 race. In 2008, Obama ran an aspirational race with a message of “Hope and Change” that attracted a sizable amount of working-class “New Deal Democrats” to his coalition; in 2012, he shed those voters in favor of delivering the new base of Democrats called the ascendant coalition that had a heavy focus on minorities, suburban college-educated women, and young people.

As a result of that pitch to the leftward party “base,” Obama became the first president since Franklin Roosevelt to lose voters in his reelection while still winning overall — but as a unique candidate, he was able to pull that base election off.

The next Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton in 2016, was not successful with that shift left. The former first lady, who was less likable and trusted than Obama, fell short because many of those legacy New Deal Democrats had now folded long-term into the Republican Party. Joe Biden was able to bring just enough of them back in 2020, in large part because of the pandemic, but polling leading up to this cycle before the president dropped out of the running in July showed these voters’ disappointment in his left-wing governance.

As a result, these voters were going back to former President Donald Trump in this year’s election cycle.

Harris is further left than Biden, and if the press ever interviews her, or gives her the same scrutiny they gave her before she was named the Democratic nominee, voters will be able to see her positions on the economy, energy, the border, and crime are demonstratively left of Biden’s policies.

Walz, who served six terms in Congress with a left-wing record, has governed for two terms in Minnesota as a proudly progressive governor.

Chris Borick, Muhlenberg College political science professor, said when you are one of a couple of hundred members in the House, you are there to represent your district. “However, when you are the executive of a state, you can be more true to your political beliefs,” he said.

Borick nonetheless said that because of Walz’s Will Rogers-like folksiness, people might believe he is a centrist.

“In politics, it is often about what you project with your style and not always what your policies have been,” he said.

Paul Sracic, political scientist and fellow at the Hudson Institute, said the Walz pick reminds him of Republican Mitt Romney choosing Paul Ryan in 2012: “It emphasizes policies your opponents are most likely to attack.”

 CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

A Shapiro pick would have brought competence to the ticket, Sracic said. Not so with Harris’s choice.

“Walz had the biggest COVID spending case in the country, he has had a lack of oversight by his Department of Education — the list goes on and on,” he said, adding if there are violent protests in Chicago, “The GOP will have been handed the two weakest law and order candidates.”

2024-08-06 19:20:00, http://s.wordpress.com/mshots/v1/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonexaminer.com%2Fopinion%2F3112776%2Fharris-vice-presidential-pitch-goes-wide-left%2F?w=600&h=450, PITTSBURGH — Vice President Kamala Harris’s pick of Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), the two-term governor of Minnesota, was a shot across the bow that this election cycle is going to be a get-out-the-base election rather than the coalition builder Democrats would have enjoyed if she had chosen Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) as her running mate.,

PITTSBURGH — Vice President Kamala Harris’s pick of Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), the two-term governor of Minnesota, was a shot across the bow that this election cycle is going to be a get-out-the-base election rather than the coalition builder Democrats would have enjoyed if she had chosen Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) as her running mate.

Mike Mikus, a Pennsylvania-based Democratic strategist, said this race will look very similar to the election cycle we saw with former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection race rather than his 2008 race. In 2008, Obama ran an aspirational race with a message of “Hope and Change” that attracted a sizable amount of working-class “New Deal Democrats” to his coalition; in 2012, he shed those voters in favor of delivering the new base of Democrats called the ascendant coalition that had a heavy focus on minorities, suburban college-educated women, and young people.

As a result of that pitch to the leftward party “base,” Obama became the first president since Franklin Roosevelt to lose voters in his reelection while still winning overall — but as a unique candidate, he was able to pull that base election off.

The next Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton in 2016, was not successful with that shift left. The former first lady, who was less likable and trusted than Obama, fell short because many of those legacy New Deal Democrats had now folded long-term into the Republican Party. Joe Biden was able to bring just enough of them back in 2020, in large part because of the pandemic, but polling leading up to this cycle before the president dropped out of the running in July showed these voters’ disappointment in his left-wing governance.

As a result, these voters were going back to former President Donald Trump in this year’s election cycle.

Harris is further left than Biden, and if the press ever interviews her, or gives her the same scrutiny they gave her before she was named the Democratic nominee, voters will be able to see her positions on the economy, energy, the border, and crime are demonstratively left of Biden’s policies.

Walz, who served six terms in Congress with a left-wing record, has governed for two terms in Minnesota as a proudly progressive governor.

Chris Borick, Muhlenberg College political science professor, said when you are one of a couple of hundred members in the House, you are there to represent your district. “However, when you are the executive of a state, you can be more true to your political beliefs,” he said.

Borick nonetheless said that because of Walz’s Will Rogers-like folksiness, people might believe he is a centrist.

“In politics, it is often about what you project with your style and not always what your policies have been,” he said.

Paul Sracic, political scientist and fellow at the Hudson Institute, said the Walz pick reminds him of Republican Mitt Romney choosing Paul Ryan in 2012: “It emphasizes policies your opponents are most likely to attack.”

 CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

A Shapiro pick would have brought competence to the ticket, Sracic said. Not so with Harris’s choice.

“Walz had the biggest COVID spending case in the country, he has had a lack of oversight by his Department of Education — the list goes on and on,” he said, adding if there are violent protests in Chicago, “The GOP will have been handed the two weakest law and order candidates.”

, PITTSBURGH — Vice President Kamala Harris’s pick of Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), the two-term governor of Minnesota, was a shot across the bow that this election cycle is going to be a get-out-the-base election rather than the coalition builder Democrats would have enjoyed if she had chosen Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) as her running mate. Mike Mikus, a Pennsylvania-based Democratic strategist, said this race will look very similar to the election cycle we saw with former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection race rather than his 2008 race. In 2008, Obama ran an aspirational race with a message of “Hope and Change” that attracted a sizable amount of working-class “New Deal Democrats” to his coalition; in 2012, he shed those voters in favor of delivering the new base of Democrats called the ascendant coalition that had a heavy focus on minorities, suburban college-educated women, and young people. As a result of that pitch to the leftward party “base,” Obama became the first president since Franklin Roosevelt to lose voters in his reelection while still winning overall — but as a unique candidate, he was able to pull that base election off. The next Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton in 2016, was not successful with that shift left. The former first lady, who was less likable and trusted than Obama, fell short because many of those legacy New Deal Democrats had now folded long-term into the Republican Party. Joe Biden was able to bring just enough of them back in 2020, in large part because of the pandemic, but polling leading up to this cycle before the president dropped out of the running in July showed these voters’ disappointment in his left-wing governance. As a result, these voters were going back to former President Donald Trump in this year’s election cycle. Harris is further left than Biden, and if the press ever interviews her, or gives her the same scrutiny they gave her before she was named the Democratic nominee, voters will be able to see her positions on the economy, energy, the border, and crime are demonstratively left of Biden’s policies. Walz, who served six terms in Congress with a left-wing record, has governed for two terms in Minnesota as a proudly progressive governor. Chris Borick, Muhlenberg College political science professor, said when you are one of a couple of hundred members in the House, you are there to represent your district. “However, when you are the executive of a state, you can be more true to your political beliefs,” he said. Borick nonetheless said that because of Walz’s Will Rogers-like folksiness, people might believe he is a centrist. “In politics, it is often about what you project with your style and not always what your policies have been,” he said. Paul Sracic, political scientist and fellow at the Hudson Institute, said the Walz pick reminds him of Republican Mitt Romney choosing Paul Ryan in 2012: “It emphasizes policies your opponents are most likely to attack.”   CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER A Shapiro pick would have brought competence to the ticket, Sracic said. Not so with Harris’s choice. “Walz had the biggest COVID spending case in the country, he has had a lack of oversight by his Department of Education — the list goes on and on,” he said, adding if there are violent protests in Chicago, “The GOP will have been handed the two weakest law and order candidates.”, , , https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/zito-walz-left.webp, Washington Examiner, Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/cropped-favicon-32×32.png, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/feed/, Salena Zito,

For the past four years, inflation has rattled local small businesses across the country. The inflation rate peaked in 2022, but of course the cost of goods never went back down.

In fact the prices just kept rising, just not at the same clip they had been rising at the peak.

In short, gas prices, food prices, housing prices, energy prices, and insurance costs are still blowing away everyday people’s budgets, making them cut costs on essentials or drive up credit card debt despite the Biden-Harris administration consistently dismissing their plight for two years.

On Friday, things just became worse for middle America’s economic concerns when the latest jobs report for July showed that not only has job growth slowed to an alarming number, only adding 114,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis when experts had been expecting 176,00 new jobs, but the June and May jobs reports were revised lower by 29,000 jobs.

This means that 10 out of the last 14 reports have now been revised lower.

Which means all of those jobs report headlines that we’ve read for the past year, suggesting the economy is booming, were mistaken. The truth is that jobs numbers in this country are weak and the new unemployment rate of 4.3% is now the highest it has been since 2021. The reality has been what small businesses and consumers have been warning about for a while: The trends on the ground in real life show a very different world than the headlines.

By midafternoon Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by more than 1,500 points since its high on Wednesday, and market experts at The Kobeissi Letter say the volatility index is up officially more than 100 percent.

At the same moment, the Sahm Rule, a widely accepted economic rule that maintains if the unemployment rate rises by half a percentage point quickly enough, then the economy is in recession, was triggered by the data.

In April, Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for president and sitting vice president, kick-started an “Economic Opportunity Tour” across the country, touting the Biden-Harris administration’s record on job creation and erasing student loan debt.

Harris said launching the tour that “our economic approach has delivered great progress, and we will continue to invest in you, your family, and your future.”

In that same month of April, the Labor Department noted that hiring had fallen short of expectations and was one of many indicators that the labor market was cooling. Yet in her role as the vice president, Harris was spinning a very different story.

News coverage of her kick-off of the Economic Opportunity Tour in Atlanta in April focused solely on her galvanizing and mobilizing black voters.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers below the headline showed some disturbing trends for middle Americans who are still struggling under the weight of inflation. People without college degrees saw the biggest jump in the declining job market jumping up to 4.6%, up from 3.3% in July.

For perspective, as of 2021, Pew Research shows 37.9% of adults over the age of 25 have bachelor’s degrees, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population survey.

When it comes to what is most important to people when they go to the voting booth, the economy is always the No. 1 concern. The latest Brookings Report, released before the weak jobs market came to light and inflation was the overriding economic issue, showed a whopping 65% of voters rate the economy as good during Donald Trump’s presidency as compared to 38% under the Biden-Harris administration.

Paul Sracic, political science professor at Youngstown State University, said political strategist James Carville was right when he said “It’s the economy stupid” when he centered former President Bill Clinton’s campaign on economic issues.

“As it was then and now, it is how people feel about the economy and if their lives are better that is driving this election,” he said. “The word recession is powerful. A lot of economics is psychological. The numbers that came out on Friday is very bad news for the Harris campaign. They were touting a soft landing last week and that is not going to happen now.”

Sracic said Biden and Harris both got the messaging wrong from the onset on the economy: “It began with inflation. They woefully underestimated inflation from the start, dismissing it as transitory. Maybe if they had reacted sooner ,not understanding would not have become an overarching theme for them.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

 How Trump handles this is critically important for him, Sracic said.

“We always thought this election was about the economy. Still is, but now it is even bigger.”

2024-08-02 20:54:00, http://s.wordpress.com/mshots/v1/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonexaminer.com%2Fopinion%2F3109500%2Fmiddle-america-rattled-by-jobs-report%2F?w=600&h=450, For the past four years, inflation has rattled local small businesses across the country. The inflation rate peaked in 2022, but of course the cost of goods never went back down. In fact the prices just kept rising, just not at the same clip they had been rising at the peak. In short, gas prices,

For the past four years, inflation has rattled local small businesses across the country. The inflation rate peaked in 2022, but of course the cost of goods never went back down.

In fact the prices just kept rising, just not at the same clip they had been rising at the peak.

In short, gas prices, food prices, housing prices, energy prices, and insurance costs are still blowing away everyday people’s budgets, making them cut costs on essentials or drive up credit card debt despite the Biden-Harris administration consistently dismissing their plight for two years.

On Friday, things just became worse for middle America’s economic concerns when the latest jobs report for July showed that not only has job growth slowed to an alarming number, only adding 114,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis when experts had been expecting 176,00 new jobs, but the June and May jobs reports were revised lower by 29,000 jobs.

This means that 10 out of the last 14 reports have now been revised lower.

Which means all of those jobs report headlines that we’ve read for the past year, suggesting the economy is booming, were mistaken. The truth is that jobs numbers in this country are weak and the new unemployment rate of 4.3% is now the highest it has been since 2021. The reality has been what small businesses and consumers have been warning about for a while: The trends on the ground in real life show a very different world than the headlines.

By midafternoon Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by more than 1,500 points since its high on Wednesday, and market experts at The Kobeissi Letter say the volatility index is up officially more than 100 percent.

At the same moment, the Sahm Rule, a widely accepted economic rule that maintains if the unemployment rate rises by half a percentage point quickly enough, then the economy is in recession, was triggered by the data.

In April, Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for president and sitting vice president, kick-started an “Economic Opportunity Tour” across the country, touting the Biden-Harris administration’s record on job creation and erasing student loan debt.

Harris said launching the tour that “our economic approach has delivered great progress, and we will continue to invest in you, your family, and your future.”

In that same month of April, the Labor Department noted that hiring had fallen short of expectations and was one of many indicators that the labor market was cooling. Yet in her role as the vice president, Harris was spinning a very different story.

News coverage of her kick-off of the Economic Opportunity Tour in Atlanta in April focused solely on her galvanizing and mobilizing black voters.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers below the headline showed some disturbing trends for middle Americans who are still struggling under the weight of inflation. People without college degrees saw the biggest jump in the declining job market jumping up to 4.6%, up from 3.3% in July.

For perspective, as of 2021, Pew Research shows 37.9% of adults over the age of 25 have bachelor’s degrees, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population survey.

When it comes to what is most important to people when they go to the voting booth, the economy is always the No. 1 concern. The latest Brookings Report, released before the weak jobs market came to light and inflation was the overriding economic issue, showed a whopping 65% of voters rate the economy as good during Donald Trump’s presidency as compared to 38% under the Biden-Harris administration.

Paul Sracic, political science professor at Youngstown State University, said political strategist James Carville was right when he said “It’s the economy stupid” when he centered former President Bill Clinton’s campaign on economic issues.

“As it was then and now, it is how people feel about the economy and if their lives are better that is driving this election,” he said. “The word recession is powerful. A lot of economics is psychological. The numbers that came out on Friday is very bad news for the Harris campaign. They were touting a soft landing last week and that is not going to happen now.”

Sracic said Biden and Harris both got the messaging wrong from the onset on the economy: “It began with inflation. They woefully underestimated inflation from the start, dismissing it as transitory. Maybe if they had reacted sooner ,not understanding would not have become an overarching theme for them.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

 How Trump handles this is critically important for him, Sracic said.

“We always thought this election was about the economy. Still is, but now it is even bigger.”

, For the past four years, inflation has rattled local small businesses across the country. The inflation rate peaked in 2022, but of course the cost of goods never went back down. In fact the prices just kept rising, just not at the same clip they had been rising at the peak. In short, gas prices, food prices, housing prices, energy prices, and insurance costs are still blowing away everyday people’s budgets, making them cut costs on essentials or drive up credit card debt despite the Biden-Harris administration consistently dismissing their plight for two years. On Friday, things just became worse for middle America’s economic concerns when the latest jobs report for July showed that not only has job growth slowed to an alarming number, only adding 114,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis when experts had been expecting 176,00 new jobs, but the June and May jobs reports were revised lower by 29,000 jobs. This means that 10 out of the last 14 reports have now been revised lower. Which means all of those jobs report headlines that we’ve read for the past year, suggesting the economy is booming, were mistaken. The truth is that jobs numbers in this country are weak and the new unemployment rate of 4.3% is now the highest it has been since 2021. The reality has been what small businesses and consumers have been warning about for a while: The trends on the ground in real life show a very different world than the headlines. By midafternoon Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by more than 1,500 points since its high on Wednesday, and market experts at The Kobeissi Letter say the volatility index is up officially more than 100 percent. At the same moment, the Sahm Rule, a widely accepted economic rule that maintains if the unemployment rate rises by half a percentage point quickly enough, then the economy is in recession, was triggered by the data. In April, Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for president and sitting vice president, kick-started an “Economic Opportunity Tour” across the country, touting the Biden-Harris administration’s record on job creation and erasing student loan debt. Harris said launching the tour that “our economic approach has delivered great progress, and we will continue to invest in you, your family, and your future.” In that same month of April, the Labor Department noted that hiring had fallen short of expectations and was one of many indicators that the labor market was cooling. Yet in her role as the vice president, Harris was spinning a very different story. News coverage of her kick-off of the Economic Opportunity Tour in Atlanta in April focused solely on her galvanizing and mobilizing black voters. The Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers below the headline showed some disturbing trends for middle Americans who are still struggling under the weight of inflation. People without college degrees saw the biggest jump in the declining job market jumping up to 4.6%, up from 3.3% in July. For perspective, as of 2021, Pew Research shows 37.9% of adults over the age of 25 have bachelor’s degrees, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population survey. When it comes to what is most important to people when they go to the voting booth, the economy is always the No. 1 concern. The latest Brookings Report, released before the weak jobs market came to light and inflation was the overriding economic issue, showed a whopping 65% of voters rate the economy as good during Donald Trump’s presidency as compared to 38% under the Biden-Harris administration. Paul Sracic, political science professor at Youngstown State University, said political strategist James Carville was right when he said “It’s the economy stupid” when he centered former President Bill Clinton’s campaign on economic issues. “As it was then and now, it is how people feel about the economy and if their lives are better that is driving this election,” he said. “The word recession is powerful. A lot of economics is psychological. The numbers that came out on Friday is very bad news for the Harris campaign. They were touting a soft landing last week and that is not going to happen now.” Sracic said Biden and Harris both got the messaging wrong from the onset on the economy: “It began with inflation. They woefully underestimated inflation from the start, dismissing it as transitory. Maybe if they had reacted sooner ,not understanding would not have become an overarching theme for them.” CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER  How Trump handles this is critically important for him, Sracic said. “We always thought this election was about the economy. Still is, but now it is even bigger.”, , , https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image0-1.webp, Washington Examiner, Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/cropped-favicon-32×32.png, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/feed/, Salena Zito,

TYRONE, Pennsylvania — Shirley Hall has always lived in this charming Blair County borough, located a few miles from the big city of Altoona and once the home of booming coal and paper mill industries. She has also been a Catholic all of her life and for most of it a registered Democrat, two attributes she says are, or at least were, a profound part of her identity.

She is still a Catholic, faithfully so, but last week when watching former President Donald Trump walk into the convention hall in Milwaukee just two days after being shot, she changed her voter registration on the spot.

In short, she is not just a Democrat voting for Trump come November, but she is now a Republican and will be voting so up and down the ballot. How solidly Democrat was Hall? The retired administrator for a local Catholic church voted for Barack Obama twice and Hillary Clinton in 2016 and did not vote for Donald Trump in 2020.

“I didn’t vote for Biden either. I just didn’t vote for either man that year,” Hall said.

Hall said a number of things led to her pivotal decision last week. “The last three years had really disheartened me in how my party had handled inflation, never recognizing that it is really impacting people’s lives, but also the border and how that has made accessing drugs even easier for people,” she said.

But the 78-year-old grandmother of two said she has great concern for the younger generation because of her grandsons, “not just because of them but because of all young people, with the debt, higher taxes, our education system, our immigration system, and I’ve been really frustrated with the whole thing.”

She adds, “I want to tell you, oh, I’m not a big Trump fan when he goes on too much, but I also recognize he can also be very likable. But after the shooting, as an American citizen, I really felt bad.”

Hall says she was curious to catch Trump at the convention, something she would not normally watch.

“I wanted to see his demeanor, and I was really moved by him when he came in,” she said. “As a matter of fact, I had tears in my eyes when he did. He really looked like he took a blow, not only physically but emotionally, which I’m sure he did.” 

She added, “I used to work for a priest [who was] a bit gruff and a pain in the butt, and he grumbled and growled and shouted and yelled. And yet he had the wherewithal to feel for people. He did that. Well, that was what I saw in Trump. And I thought, ‘I’m changing my party.’ Click, click, click, click, click. I went into my computer and did it.”

The choice of Vice President Kamala Harris to replace President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket after last weekend’s dramatic turn of events changed nothing for Hall, who said, “First, I like her less than Biden. She is much further left than I am comfortable with for our country. And second, she was shoulder to shoulder with Biden on every big policy decision that has been made the past three years, so she is the same as him only more removed from now former Democrats like me.”

Hall’s decision is notable, Chris Borick, political science professor at Muhlenberg College, explained, in that she is not just a Democrat voting for Trump but “she has shed her Democratic Party identity in its entirety, that is as personal to her as her identity as a Catholic.”

And Borick said her experience is not anecdotal. “She is part of a shift in party registration in Pennsylvania that has been seismic in this past state that began in 2016 and has accelerated in the past 18 months,” he said.

In 2008, the same year Obama won this state by a resounding 10 percentage points, Democrats held a sizable 12% registration advantage over Republicans.

In 2022, that number had shrunk in half to a 529,000 Democratic registration edge, and by this year, that number had shrunk even further to 360,982, which is barely a 4% advantage. Republicans have actually surpassed Democrats in the all-important counties of Bucks and Beaver, for the first time ever in the latter.

And Borick explains that sometimes registration numbers are lagging indicators.

“What I mean by that is that voters have changed their voting patterns before they change their registration,” he said. “So they might vote, have been voting Republican for a long time, or at least since 2016 with the ascension of Trump and the GOP.”

“By the way, this is not an easy decision for a voter to make, especially for legacy Democrats in this case that might’ve had family for years be Democrats to say, ‘OK, well, I’m no longer a Democrat,’” he said. “That’s part of our identity. There’s lots of research, by the way, that shows we hold fast to our political identity more so than some of our other identities like religion.”

Borick said the effect in Pennsylvania of Harris’s entry into the race is going to be highly scrutinized because of the importance of the state’s 20 electoral votes. While most recent polling showed Trump favored to varying degrees over Harris, CNN polling expert Harry Enten warned on air that number might be tough for her to overcome.

“Beating Trump won’t be easy,” Enten said. “His favorable rating is higher now than it has ever been [per two polls taken over the weekend].”

Harris may poll better than Biden did against Trump, but Trump is running 5 points further ahead nationally against her than he finished against Biden in 2020.

Borick said Harris’s challenges are much the same as Clinton faced in 2016 in that she doesn’t connect with them where they are.

“We always try to quantify likability and how people relate to others in the political realm,” he said. “The vice president certainly has contended with those challenges and will, in terms of her connection.”

Borick said Harris has opportunities based on identity and her demographics to maybe make some connections that Biden was struggling with.

“That’s unquestionable with younger voters, with voters of color. At the same time, does her ability to resonate with voters that are often older and older in a state like Pennsylvania, are those going to be new challenges she faces?”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Overall though, Borick said Harris’s challenges with voters here are no different than Biden’s in that they rarely addressed the issues in a way that voters needed them to be meaningful, and “inflation is of course front and center.”

“That is part of why I changed my registration,” Hall said. “They never saw me, they never heard me. It was hard for me to leave until I realized they didn’t want me anymore, and then it wasn’t hard to leave at all.”  

2024-07-23 22:25:00, http://s.wordpress.com/mshots/v1/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonexaminer.com%2Fopinion%2F3096631%2Flifetime-pennsylvania-democrats-are-becoming-republicans%2F?w=600&h=450, TYRONE, Pennsylvania — Shirley Hall has always lived in this charming Blair County borough, located a few miles from the big city of Altoona and once the home of booming coal and paper mill industries. She has also been a Catholic all of her life and for most of it a registered Democrat, two attributes,

TYRONE, Pennsylvania — Shirley Hall has always lived in this charming Blair County borough, located a few miles from the big city of Altoona and once the home of booming coal and paper mill industries. She has also been a Catholic all of her life and for most of it a registered Democrat, two attributes she says are, or at least were, a profound part of her identity.

She is still a Catholic, faithfully so, but last week when watching former President Donald Trump walk into the convention hall in Milwaukee just two days after being shot, she changed her voter registration on the spot.

In short, she is not just a Democrat voting for Trump come November, but she is now a Republican and will be voting so up and down the ballot. How solidly Democrat was Hall? The retired administrator for a local Catholic church voted for Barack Obama twice and Hillary Clinton in 2016 and did not vote for Donald Trump in 2020.

“I didn’t vote for Biden either. I just didn’t vote for either man that year,” Hall said.

Hall said a number of things led to her pivotal decision last week. “The last three years had really disheartened me in how my party had handled inflation, never recognizing that it is really impacting people’s lives, but also the border and how that has made accessing drugs even easier for people,” she said.

But the 78-year-old grandmother of two said she has great concern for the younger generation because of her grandsons, “not just because of them but because of all young people, with the debt, higher taxes, our education system, our immigration system, and I’ve been really frustrated with the whole thing.”

She adds, “I want to tell you, oh, I’m not a big Trump fan when he goes on too much, but I also recognize he can also be very likable. But after the shooting, as an American citizen, I really felt bad.”

Hall says she was curious to catch Trump at the convention, something she would not normally watch.

“I wanted to see his demeanor, and I was really moved by him when he came in,” she said. “As a matter of fact, I had tears in my eyes when he did. He really looked like he took a blow, not only physically but emotionally, which I’m sure he did.” 

She added, “I used to work for a priest [who was] a bit gruff and a pain in the butt, and he grumbled and growled and shouted and yelled. And yet he had the wherewithal to feel for people. He did that. Well, that was what I saw in Trump. And I thought, ‘I’m changing my party.’ Click, click, click, click, click. I went into my computer and did it.”

The choice of Vice President Kamala Harris to replace President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket after last weekend’s dramatic turn of events changed nothing for Hall, who said, “First, I like her less than Biden. She is much further left than I am comfortable with for our country. And second, she was shoulder to shoulder with Biden on every big policy decision that has been made the past three years, so she is the same as him only more removed from now former Democrats like me.”

Hall’s decision is notable, Chris Borick, political science professor at Muhlenberg College, explained, in that she is not just a Democrat voting for Trump but “she has shed her Democratic Party identity in its entirety, that is as personal to her as her identity as a Catholic.”

And Borick said her experience is not anecdotal. “She is part of a shift in party registration in Pennsylvania that has been seismic in this past state that began in 2016 and has accelerated in the past 18 months,” he said.

In 2008, the same year Obama won this state by a resounding 10 percentage points, Democrats held a sizable 12% registration advantage over Republicans.

In 2022, that number had shrunk in half to a 529,000 Democratic registration edge, and by this year, that number had shrunk even further to 360,982, which is barely a 4% advantage. Republicans have actually surpassed Democrats in the all-important counties of Bucks and Beaver, for the first time ever in the latter.

And Borick explains that sometimes registration numbers are lagging indicators.

“What I mean by that is that voters have changed their voting patterns before they change their registration,” he said. “So they might vote, have been voting Republican for a long time, or at least since 2016 with the ascension of Trump and the GOP.”

“By the way, this is not an easy decision for a voter to make, especially for legacy Democrats in this case that might’ve had family for years be Democrats to say, ‘OK, well, I’m no longer a Democrat,’” he said. “That’s part of our identity. There’s lots of research, by the way, that shows we hold fast to our political identity more so than some of our other identities like religion.”

Borick said the effect in Pennsylvania of Harris’s entry into the race is going to be highly scrutinized because of the importance of the state’s 20 electoral votes. While most recent polling showed Trump favored to varying degrees over Harris, CNN polling expert Harry Enten warned on air that number might be tough for her to overcome.

“Beating Trump won’t be easy,” Enten said. “His favorable rating is higher now than it has ever been [per two polls taken over the weekend].”

Harris may poll better than Biden did against Trump, but Trump is running 5 points further ahead nationally against her than he finished against Biden in 2020.

Borick said Harris’s challenges are much the same as Clinton faced in 2016 in that she doesn’t connect with them where they are.

“We always try to quantify likability and how people relate to others in the political realm,” he said. “The vice president certainly has contended with those challenges and will, in terms of her connection.”

Borick said Harris has opportunities based on identity and her demographics to maybe make some connections that Biden was struggling with.

“That’s unquestionable with younger voters, with voters of color. At the same time, does her ability to resonate with voters that are often older and older in a state like Pennsylvania, are those going to be new challenges she faces?”

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Overall though, Borick said Harris’s challenges with voters here are no different than Biden’s in that they rarely addressed the issues in a way that voters needed them to be meaningful, and “inflation is of course front and center.”

“That is part of why I changed my registration,” Hall said. “They never saw me, they never heard me. It was hard for me to leave until I realized they didn’t want me anymore, and then it wasn’t hard to leave at all.”  

, TYRONE, Pennsylvania — Shirley Hall has always lived in this charming Blair County borough, located a few miles from the big city of Altoona and once the home of booming coal and paper mill industries. She has also been a Catholic all of her life and for most of it a registered Democrat, two attributes she says are, or at least were, a profound part of her identity. She is still a Catholic, faithfully so, but last week when watching former President Donald Trump walk into the convention hall in Milwaukee just two days after being shot, she changed her voter registration on the spot. In short, she is not just a Democrat voting for Trump come November, but she is now a Republican and will be voting so up and down the ballot. How solidly Democrat was Hall? The retired administrator for a local Catholic church voted for Barack Obama twice and Hillary Clinton in 2016 and did not vote for Donald Trump in 2020. “I didn’t vote for Biden either. I just didn’t vote for either man that year,” Hall said. Hall said a number of things led to her pivotal decision last week. “The last three years had really disheartened me in how my party had handled inflation, never recognizing that it is really impacting people’s lives, but also the border and how that has made accessing drugs even easier for people,” she said. TYRONE, Pennsylvania — Shirley Hall has been a registered Democrat for over 50 years. She voted for Barack Obama twice and Hillary Clinton and skipped voting for Donald Trump or Joe Biden in 2020. Hall changed her voter registration last Monday when watching Trump walk into the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. But the 78-year-old grandmother of two said she has great concern for the younger generation because of her grandsons, “not just because of them but because of all young people, with the debt, higher taxes, our education system, our immigration system, and I’ve been really frustrated with the whole thing.” She adds, “I want to tell you, oh, I’m not a big Trump fan when he goes on too much, but I also recognize he can also be very likable. But after the shooting, as an American citizen, I really felt bad.” Hall says she was curious to catch Trump at the convention, something she would not normally watch. “I wanted to see his demeanor, and I was really moved by him when he came in,” she said. “As a matter of fact, I had tears in my eyes when he did. He really looked like he took a blow, not only physically but emotionally, which I’m sure he did.”  She added, “I used to work for a priest [who was] a bit gruff and a pain in the butt, and he grumbled and growled and shouted and yelled. And yet he had the wherewithal to feel for people. He did that. Well, that was what I saw in Trump. And I thought, ‘I’m changing my party.’ Click, click, click, click, click. I went into my computer and did it.” The choice of Vice President Kamala Harris to replace President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket after last weekend’s dramatic turn of events changed nothing for Hall, who said, “First, I like her less than Biden. She is much further left than I am comfortable with for our country. And second, she was shoulder to shoulder with Biden on every big policy decision that has been made the past three years, so she is the same as him only more removed from now former Democrats like me.” Hall’s decision is notable, Chris Borick, political science professor at Muhlenberg College, explained, in that she is not just a Democrat voting for Trump but “she has shed her Democratic Party identity in its entirety, that is as personal to her as her identity as a Catholic.” And Borick said her experience is not anecdotal. “She is part of a shift in party registration in Pennsylvania that has been seismic in this past state that began in 2016 and has accelerated in the past 18 months,” he said. In 2008, the same year Obama won this state by a resounding 10 percentage points, Democrats held a sizable 12% registration advantage over Republicans. In 2022, that number had shrunk in half to a 529,000 Democratic registration edge, and by this year, that number had shrunk even further to 360,982, which is barely a 4% advantage. Republicans have actually surpassed Democrats in the all-important counties of Bucks and Beaver, for the first time ever in the latter. And Borick explains that sometimes registration numbers are lagging indicators. “What I mean by that is that voters have changed their voting patterns before they change their registration,” he said. “So they might vote, have been voting Republican for a long time, or at least since 2016 with the ascension of Trump and the GOP.” “By the way, this is not an easy decision for a voter to make, especially for legacy Democrats in this case that might’ve had family for years be Democrats to say, ‘OK, well, I’m no longer a Democrat,’” he said. “That’s part of our identity. There’s lots of research, by the way, that shows we hold fast to our political identity more so than some of our other identities like religion.” Borick said the effect in Pennsylvania of Harris’s entry into the race is going to be highly scrutinized because of the importance of the state’s 20 electoral votes. While most recent polling showed Trump favored to varying degrees over Harris, CNN polling expert Harry Enten warned on air that number might be tough for her to overcome. “Beating Trump won’t be easy,” Enten said. “His favorable rating is higher now than it has ever been [per two polls taken over the weekend].” Harris may poll better than Biden did against Trump, but Trump is running 5 points further ahead nationally against her than he finished against Biden in 2020. Borick said Harris’s challenges are much the same as Clinton faced in 2016 in that she doesn’t connect with them where they are. “We always try to quantify likability and how people relate to others in the political realm,” he said. “The vice president certainly has contended with those challenges and will, in terms of her connection.” Borick said Harris has opportunities based on identity and her demographics to maybe make some connections that Biden was struggling with. “That’s unquestionable with younger voters, with voters of color. At the same time, does her ability to resonate with voters that are often older and older in a state like Pennsylvania, are those going to be new challenges she faces?” CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER Overall though, Borick said Harris’s challenges with voters here are no different than Biden’s in that they rarely addressed the issues in a way that voters needed them to be meaningful, and “inflation is of course front and center.” “That is part of why I changed my registration,” Hall said. “They never saw me, they never heard me. It was hard for me to leave until I realized they didn’t want me anymore, and then it wasn’t hard to leave at all.”  , , , https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image0.webp, Washington Examiner, Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/cropped-favicon-32×32.png, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/feed/, Salena Zito,

WORLD EXCLUSIVE — Former President Donald Trump has completely rewritten his convention speech in light of the assassination attempt against him on Saturday and will call on Thursday for a new effort at national unity.

In an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner a day after being hit by a sniper’s bullet, Trump said he wanted to take advantage of a historic moment and draw the country together.

“The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,” he said, “Had this not happened, this would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches” aimed mostly at the policies of President Joe Biden. “Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now.”

SECRET SERVICE UNDER CLOUD OF QUESTIONS AFTER FOILED TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

salena

He has switched, he said, from planning to excite his voter base to one that demonstrates his belief that the attack on him at a rally in Pennsylvania had changed the election campaign entirely. Both Republicans and Democrats have acknowledged this in the aftermath of Saturday’s shocking incident.

Trump said people all across the country from different walks of life and different political views have called him, and he noted that he was saved from death because he turned from the crowd to look at a screen showing data he was using in his speech. 

“That reality is just setting in,” he said. “I rarely look away from the crowd. Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?”  

Talking as he boarded his plane in Bedminster, New Jersey, for Milwaukee, where the Republican National Convention starts Monday and lasts through Thursday, Trump said his speech will meet the moment that history demands. “It is a chance to bring the country together. I was given that chance.”

Early Sunday morning, Trump posted on Truth social that it was “God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening” and that he would “fear not.” Again, in talking to the Washington Examiner, he invoked “God” for his deliverance.

“This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” he said.

The Washington Examiner’s interview with Trump had been due to take place on his airplane on the return flight from the rally to Bedminster. That arrangement put this reporter just feet from Trump when he was shot.

Trump hailed Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief who was shot and killed at the rally, and two other supporters, David Dutch and James Copenhaver, who were wounded and are recovering at a local hospital in stable condition.

Trump said his decision to raise his hand when the Secret Service was leading him off stage was to let the people there know he was OK, “And that America goes on, we go forward, that we are strong,” he said.

The photograph of him holding his fist in the air, blood streaming across his face as the agents surrounded him, has already become the iconic image of the 2024 election.

If he speaks in Milwaukee of uniting the country, it would echo President Ronald Reagan, who, in 1981, projected strength as he, too, recovered from wounds — far graver than Trump’s — inflicted by a would-be assassin in Washington, D.C.

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Trump said when he stood up and saw the crowd had not moved, he needed to tell them that he and the country were going to be OK. “The energy coming from the people there in that moment, they just stood there; it’s hard to describe what that felt like, but I knew the world was looking. I knew that history would judge this, and I knew I had to let them know we are OK.”

BUTLER, PENN. — As soon as he saw me, he shook my hand. 

It was that thing that all electeds do—the familiarity, the warmth, or the faux-warmth—but he’s better. It feels like he means it.

“Salena, it’s so great to see you. How are you doing? How are all those grandkids?”

Donald Trump always remembers my grandkids. I have four. Last time I talked to him, over the phone in the spring, I told him about my latest, Rocco. He replied, “I love my grandkids, too. I love being around them.” 

It was just before six o’clock on Saturday when he greeted me. He was about to go onstage for a rally about 50 miles from my hometown of Pittsburgh. Inside the tent with me were forty local cops—men and women.

Many of them told him they were looking forward to him being president.

“Thank you so much for your service,” he said. 

He was in great spirits. At rallies like these, he always is.

These are the people I wrote about during his first campaign in 2016, when I noticed that Trump, the billionaire, was connecting with blue-collar crowds. They weren’t taking him literally, as I wrote at the time. They were taking him seriously.

Eight years ago, he won this county by 65 percent. He won it again, by the same margin, in 2020. Despite January 6, despite his felony conviction, the support of the people in this corner of Pennsylvania has not wavered.

The crowd formed in the sprawling field five hours before he arrived. Even in the 90-degree heat, they waited for him. Kids. Old people in wheelchairs. They waved signs: “Trump 2024.” “Joe Biden You’re Fired.” They listened to music. They heard speeches. A Ukrainian priest gave an invocation. As they waited, the crowd swelled to 30,000 people. 

Then Lee Greenwood blared through the speakers: “God Bless the USA.”

Right around 6 p.m., Trump appeared on a red walkway, in his trademark blue suit and MAGA hat, waving to his fans. The excitement grew to a frenzy as he strode to the podium.

I was four feet from the stage, in a causeway with about five other journalists. My daughter, a photographer, was next to me. Her husband was next to her.

Trump started speaking.

Six minutes later, we heard the noise.

Pop.

Pop.

Pop.

Some people in the crowd might have thought they heard fireworks. But I knew exactly what it was. I own a gun.

I looked up at the president. He touched his ear. I was shocked to see blood on his face. A smear of red across his cheek.

Suddenly, he was surrounded. Everyone went down.

My daughter hit the ground. My son-in-law lay on top of her. I threw my body next to theirs. Immediately, a security officer was on top of me.

“ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU OKAY?” he asked.

Three more shots.

Pop.

Pop.

Pop.

I’ve since seen videos of what happened. People were screaming. But all I remember hearing was an eerie silence. With that kind of crowd, you’d expect pandemonium, a stampede. But I never had a sense of chaos. 

Trump was back on his feet within seconds, although his red hat was knocked off his head. He was calm.

I heard him shout to one of his staffers, “Get my shoes!” 

He lifted his arm in the air. I think he shouted, “Fight!” 

Then he definitely shouted, “USA!” 

The crowd chanted it back in unison.

The former president was moved off the stage. We were told he was flown to a local hospital. I was moved into a holding pen with the other journalists.

I’m still in shock. I can’t make sense of any of it right now. As a journalist, you’re always looking 360 degrees around you at all times—but for details, not for danger. 

The whole thing was deeply disorienting. We’ve all seen enactments of this sort of violence—in movies or documentaries—but when you experience it, it doesn’t happen that way. There’s no soundtrack, no visual signposts. It’s just unreal.

What’s clear to me after today is that if someone is determined to commit an act of political violence, they will find a way.

Earlier that afternoon, before the shooting that left two people dead including the gunman, I asked an 11-year-old: “Is this your first Trump rally?”

“Yeah,” he smiled, “but it’s not going to be my last.”

BRIDGEVILLE, Pennsylvania — Devlin Robinson wasn’t supposed to be at his Pennsylvania home that afternoon. Neither was his neighbor Mark Macala. And Adonis Whitmer, the FedEx driver who pulled in front of Macala’s driveway to deliver several packages? Well, he wasn’t supposed to be on that route that day either.

Had any of those three men done what they were supposed to do that day, June 13, it is likely this story would have a dramatically different ending.

Whether it was divine intervention or happenstance that all three men were in the same place at the same time, the circumstances ultimately led to saving Whitmer’s life when he collapsed while unloading a package from his truck, suffering from cardiac arrest at the same time Macala looked out his window and Robinson pulled into his driveway across the street.

Robinson, a Pennsylvania Republican state senator who served one combat tour in Afghanistan and two in Iraq in the Marines, said he started the morning at the local coffee shop, Bella LaBean Coffee on Washington Avenue, when a series of delays in his schedule turned his day upside down.

“I decided to get my car washed, fill up my gas tank, then change into a suit and spend the rest of the day downtown,” he said, adding that 60 seconds after he pulled into his driveway, the FedEx driver collapsed.

“Had I not done any of those things that morning, I would’ve been inside my house even getting changed and missed the ability to help,” he said.

Macala, an IT specialist for PPG Industries, also wasn’t supposed to be home. But because he was waiting for a contractor to show up, he was working from home. It was Macala’s dog’s persistent barking at the FedEx driver at his front door while he was trying to participate in a work conference call that drew his attention outside.

Whitmer, too, wasn’t where he was supposed to be, in that he was not on his usual route, Robinson explained.

“The person that has the usual route was overloaded with packages that day, so the overflow packages went into a second truck,” Robinson said. “So Adonis was essentially the utility man and went to take on the secondary truck, so he wasn’t supposed to be there either.”

Whitmer was in the process of delivering a sectional couch to Macala, who came out to ask him how many more packages he had left to deliver.

“Adonis turned around to answer him and didn’t even get the seven out,” Robinson said. “He just said, ‘Se—,’ and then fell over.”

As Macala rushed toward Whitmer and got no response when he asked if he was OK, Robinson was pulling up in his driveway across the street.

“I heard my neighbor talking, and I saw that he was kind of kneeling over, and I thought that he was just kind of doing yard work,” Robinson said. “So I went up to my porch and put the key in my door to open up the door, and I saw two legs sticking out from underneath my neighbor, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is serious,’ so I just literally dropped everything and ran across the street.

“When I came upon him, I knew just from Marine training you have to check the airway, let him breathe,” he explained, saying at this point Whitmer was on his side in the fetal position, so he plopped him on his back.

“It was then I saw he wasn’t breathing, and I thought that he was having a seizure or a stroke, so I knew I had to open up the airway, so I dug my knuckle into his sternum and I gave him a sternum rub, and that’s whenever he took his first breath,” Robinson explained. “He took a really deep breath.”

His labored breathing, though, worried Robinson.

“So, at this point, the dispatcher is on the phone with my neighbor and telling me to start compressions until the ambulance got there,” he said.

Robinson said it only took one minute and 37 seconds for the ambulance to show up, but it felt much longer when he was trying to keep someone alive.

The entire thing was caught on Macala’s Ring doorbell camera.

“Almost exactly by the time that Whitmer fell over ’til the first professional responder showed up was just six minutes, and we were already doing CPR within three minutes, so it was like everything happened at the right place, right time, perfectly,” Robinson said.

Six days later the three men had a reunion.

“Adonis is doing well, he now has an external defibrillator that he has to carry around with him all the time until he goes back to the hospital and gets one implanted in his chest,” Robinson said, adding that the doctors still aren’t sure why that happened to him.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

This was not the first time Robinson has been a rescuer of sorts. Four years ago, when he first sought office, running against incumbent Democrat Pam Iovino, in another case of sheer coincidence, it was her wallet he found lying on the street miles from either of their homes but within their suburban Pittsburgh district.

Weeks later Robinson shocked western Pennsylvania Democrats and Republicans by winning that seat, which had started trending Democratic in 2016. This year, in his first bid for reelection, he earned the support of the Labor Council over Democrat Nicole Ruscitto for his seat representing the 37th state Senate District — a laurel that highlights his work in state government supporting labor and industry.

Andrea Lawful-Sanders, the first person to interview President Joe Biden after his debate with former President Donald Trump on July 3, was fired after she revealed on CNN that she accepted and used questions provided to her by the Biden campaign for the interview.

Lawful-Sanders, who was a host on WURD Radio, said during her interview with Victor Blackwell on his Saturday morning show that she was offered eight questions by the campaign to ask Biden, of which she asked four of them.

Blackwell noted on the air in response: “If the White House is trying to prove the vim, vigor, and acuity of the president, I don’t know how they do that by sending questions first before the interview and the president knows what is coming.”

Within minutes after the segment ran, the reactions from reporters, as well as supporters hoping to halt the bad optics of her admission, were on social media, weighing on how bad this looked for both the White House and journalism.

Lawful-Sanders was fired from her job the next day. The radio station issued a statement and said it was not involved in the negotiations over the interview.

“The interview contained predetermined questions provided by the White House, which violates our practice of remaining an independent media outlet accountable to our listeners. As a result, Ms. Lawful-Sanders and WURD Radio have mutually agreed to part ways, effective immediately,” the network noted in a statement.

“WURD Radio is not a mouthpiece for Biden or any other Administration,” the station said.

WURD Radio boasts it is the only black-owned talk radio station in both the city of Philadelphia and in the entire state of Pennsylvania. Since its inception in the 1950s, it has gone through several owners — it is now owned by the Lomax family, who established a format that focuses on the black community of the state’s largest city.

Philadelphia also has the largest concentration of minority residents in the state and is considered a minority-majority city.

In April, ex-ESPN host Sage Steele revealed that the network told her to use a script during a pre-taped interview with Biden in 2021, saying that the whole interview with Biden was entirely scripted.

Lawful-Sanders’s questions resembled the ones asked the day after by Earl Ingram in Milwaukee, which included: “Can you speak to some accomplishments that we may or not be familiar with about your record?” and “What do you say to the people who plan on sitting this election out?”

Ingram, the host in Milwaukee, told ABC News that he was also supplied with multiple questions by the Biden team, of which he asked four.

A Biden White House spokesperson told Axios reporter Alex Thompson that the “White House did not manage the process or the questions. This was a campaign interview and, as such, it was handled by the campaign and our Black Media Director. To overcommunicate, the White House Black media director was not involved because it was a campaign interview and not a White House one.”

Jake Lahut, a Daily Beast reporter, said a source who is familiar with the booking operations of the president’s campaign said that the practice will be discontinued.

MT. LEBANON, Pennsylvania — Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) held a campaign event for President Joe Biden in one of the wealthiest suburbs of Pittsburgh on Friday. His speech was an effort to put out the growing fire of calls for Biden not to seek reelection one week after his disastrous debate in Atlanta with former President Donald Trump.

A few dozen older guests, along with a handful of younger families, crowded into the second-floor office of a strip mall law firm to hear Newsom put the brakes on escalating calls for Biden to leave the race.

Newsom then attended a meeting with members of the Service Employees International Union in downtown Pittsburgh. He is scheduled to head to Bucks County on Saturday morning for additional low-key events to bolster the argument that Biden should stay in the race.

Despite his surrogate work for Biden, Newsom, along with the Democratic governors of Michigan, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, are all at the top of the list as potential replacement candidates should Biden drop out.

Local grassroots activists and labor leaders said they were scratching their heads not only as to why Newsom had been chosen as a surrogate for Biden considering his interest in replacing him on the ticket but also as to why a strip mall law office was chosen as the venue.

Newsom was here shortly before Biden gave a speech in Wisconsin, where the president defiantly doubled down on his vow to stay in the race, saying, “There’s been a lot of speculation: ‘What’s Joe going to do? Is he going to stay in the race? Is he going to drop out? What’s he going to do?’ Well, here’s my answer: I am running and gonna win again,” Biden said in Madison, the state capital.

Biden shouted at the crowd that people are trying to push him out of the race: “Let me say it as clear as I can: I’m staying in the race!”

Newsom spoke to SEIU members, the social justice organization that has the most active volunteers within the party, in an effort to calm fears among the progressive activists.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who has been a stalwart supporter of Biden staying in the race, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that he wants to see Biden here in western Pennsylvania giving Democrats reassurance: “Erie [County] is the ultimate bellwether. Erie picks Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania picks the next president.”

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Fetterman said he also would like to see Biden in Cambria and Beaver counties connecting with voters in the way the president had the potential to do, adding he is tired of members of his own party lining up saying Biden should leave.

“I don’t know what’s in it for them other than they get their name mentioned,” Fetterman said, adding, “I think Joe Biden after 50 years in his career deserves to have the kind of space and the dignity and our support. And of course he’s very clear that he is going to make his case.”