9 takeaways from Kamala Harris’ new book
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Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ memoir of her failed 2024 campaign for the Oval Office skewers some of the nation’s most prominent Democrats — including former President Joe Biden — offers her perspective on crucial moments in the election and outlines her own regrets about her decisions and performance.
Published by Simon & Schuster on Tuesday, “107 Days” zooms in on the narrow window during which Biden abruptly handed her the reins of the Democratic nomination and she lost to Donald Trump.
The book is notable among election memoirs in its often candid assessments of figures who are still active in politics and in the possibility that Harris will use it as a launch pad for a third bid for the presidency in 2028.
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Washington and Beijing will have to communicate better if they are to resolve their various disagreements — and if they don’t talk it could be “dangerous,” a U.S. lawmaker said Tuesday during a rare congressional visit to China.
Though a group of U.S. senators visited Beijing in 2023, this is the first delegation of House lawmakers to visit China since 2019. Their trip comes amid tensions between the U.S. and China over trade, technology and wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the leader of the bipartisan delegation, said they held “robust and very helpful” meetings with Chinese officials and that the objective of the trip was to reopen lines of communication between “the two most powerful countries in the world.”
“Our relationship is going to be the most consequential relationship in terms of what the world is going to be like for decades to come,” Smith told reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. “It is really important that we work to strengthen that relationship and better understand each other.”
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Trump will address the United Nations General Assembly today at a moment of heightened strain with U.S. allies over Palestinian statehood, trade and other flash points as his administration retreats from the global body.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previewed Trump’s remarks, saying he will highlight “the renewal of American strength around the world” and what the White House sees as key accomplishments since he returned to office, including winding down conflicts abroad. Leavitt said Trump would also deliver a “straightforward and constructive” vision of global leadership.
After his speech, Trump is scheduled to meet with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, as well as leaders from Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also take part in a multilateral meeting with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, Leavitt said.
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Former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s campaign for Virginia governor is launching a new TV ad on Tuesday, knocking Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears for her stances on taxes and Trump’s sweeping tax cut and spending legislation.
“When she speaks about taxes, it’s disturbing,” a narrator says in the 30-second ad, shared first with NBC News, which also labels Earle-Sears as a “MAGA Republican.”
“Sears pledged not to raise a penny of taxes on billionaires and corporations. But what about you? Sears backs Trump policies that are raising prices for everything: groceries, mortgages, health care, electricity. You pay more so billionaires pay less,” the narrator says.
The ad points to Earle-Sears’ agreeing to Americans for Tax Reform’s pledge to oppose any efforts to raise taxes and her support for Trump’s so-called “one big beautiful bill.” Earle-Sears said during a Newsmax interview in July that the measure “does so many great things.”
The ad is Spanberger’s first new TV spot since early voting kicked off on Friday. Her campaign has so far dominated the airwaves, spending $22.1 million on ads to Earle-Sears’ $9.7 million, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.
Voters in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District will fill the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva’s vacant seat tonight, with Democrats favored to hold onto the district, which then-Vice President Kamala Harris carried with more than 60% of the vote in 2024.
Democrat Adelita Grijalva, the late congressman’s daughter and a former county supervisor, faces Republican Daniel Butierez in the special election. The district takes hundreds of miles of the U.S.-Mexico border from Tucson to Yuma, as well as a slice of the Phoenix suburbs.
Polls close at 7 p.m. local time (10 p.m. ET). Republicans’ majority in the House currently stands at 219-213, with two vacancies in districts Democrats won last year and one vacancy in a district Republicans won last year.