Harris at the border
Plus: Melania says nothing prepared her more for being FLOTUS than fashion
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Vice President Kamala Harris is trying to turn a weakness into a strength. During her visit Friday to Douglas, Ariz., a town on the U.S.-Mexico border, she met with U.S. Border Patrol officials and toured the border wall and port of entry. Harris is taking a tough stance on border security and mimicking the tropes of Republican campaign ads about the border, and a New York Times-Siena College poll shows why.
The poll found 55% of Arizona likely voters believe former President Donald Trump would do a better job handling immigration than Harris, and immigration is the second-most important issue for voters in the swing state just behind the economy. The case Harris made during her remarks Friday was that her record as a former attorney general of California, a border state, show she’s more serious about getting things done than Trump, who tanked a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year.
“He prefers to run on a problem than fixing a problem,” Harris said. She touted her record prosecuting cartels in California and argued securing the border and a humane immigration system wasn’t either-or. “Our system must be orderly and secure and that is my goal,” she said. Harris is striking a tone on the border we don’t often hear from Democrats nationally, and if voters find it convincing, it could give her an edge on an issue Trump has long run on. — Hunter
Zelenskyy seeks aid:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wanted to cover all his bases. In the U.S. to speak at the United Nations General Assembly this week, Zelenskyy made sure to meet with every current and potentially future U.S. president he could while he was here. He met Thursday in the White House with President Joe Biden, who announced $7.9 billion in military aid, as well as separately with Harris, and he then met Friday with Trump at Trump Tower in New York for a last-minute meeting.
Harris said during a joint apperance with Zelenskyy that Ukraine’s war with Russia is a fight for “freedom and independence” and that to let Russia win would embolden “other would-be aggressors around the world.”
Trump criticized Zelenskyy earlier in the week as “the greatest salesman on Earth” and someone who makes “little nasty aspersions toward your favorite president, me,” and he said during his joint appearance with the Ukrainian president that he has a good relationship with both Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. “I hope we have more good relations,” Zelenskyy said.
Biden’s advice to Harris: be yourself:
Biden is the first sitting U.S. president to appear live on The View after he stopped by the show Wednesday and told hosts he “was at peace” with his decision to step down from seeking a second term. “I know I only look 40, but I’m 180 years old,” he joked. Biden reiterated his belief that he could have beat Trump had he stayed in the race and said his advice to Harris is to “be herself.”
“Look, she is smart as hell, number one,” he said. “She’s tough, she was a first-rate prosecutor, she is a United States Senator of significant consequence, and as vice president, there wasn’t a single thing that I did that she couldn’t do.”
Trump vows to prosecute Google if elected:
Trump doesn’t like his search results. In a post on his social network Friday, Trump claimed “it has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J. Trump” while “only revealing good stories about Comrade Kamala Harris.”
“This is an ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, and hopefully the Justice Department will criminally prosecute them for this blatant Interference of Elections,” Trump wrote. “If not, and subject to the Laws of our Country, I will request their prosecution, at the maximum levels, when I win the Election, and become President of the United States!”
Picking Walz was a “gut decision”:
When asked by MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle the last time she used her instincts to make a decision, Harris said it was when she picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
"The biggest gut decision I made most recently was to choose my running mate,” Harris said. "There were lots of good, incredible candidates, and ultimately that came down to a gut decision."
Emhoff on fighting antisemitism:
Trump’s refusal to disavow North Carolina’s controversial Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson is “pure cowardice,” said Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. In a preview of an interview with MSNBC that will air in full on Sunday, Emhoff also criticized Trump’s remarks at the Israeli-American Council summit last week, saying it was “an event purporting to fight antisemitism and he said vile, antisemitic things.”
“We have to speak out every single time when something like that happens,” he said. Emhoff added that he takes “being the first Jewish White House principal ever very seriously” and “when we win, and I am the first Jewish first gentleman, I’m going to continue to speak out very loudly.”
Melania says nothing prepared her more for being FLOTUS than fashion:
In her first interview in more than two years, former First Lady Melania Trump told Fox News working in fashion gave her thick skin that came in handy when her husband entered office.
“I think nothing prepared me more to be First Lady in front of the world than the fashion industry,” Trump said. “The fashion industry, it’s glamorous but it’s at the same time very tough and as everybody judges you, look at you a certain way. So it can be mean world as well so nothing prepared me more for this world than fashion. It gives you a thick skin.”
Trump also recalled heading straight to work from the airport after arriving in New York City in 1996 as a model with just two suitcases, a carry on, her passport, and modeling portfolio. She said one word she would use to describe her husband is “caring,” and spoke about coping with her mother’s death. “It’s a grief that comes in waves and you need to feel it,” she said.
Adams pleaded not guilty:
After becoming the first mayor to be indicted on criminal charges in modern New York City history, New York City Mayor Eric Adams pleaded not guilty. Adams was indicted on charges for bribery, conspiracy, campaign finance violations, and more on Thursday and accused of accepting illegal campaign donations from Turkish nationals. He pleaded not guilty Friday.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has called on Adams to resign (“I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City,” she wrote on X. “The flood of resignations and vacancies are threatening gov function. Nonstop investigations will make it impossible to recruit and retain a qualified administration.”) Other top New York Democrats including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies, and Gov. Kathy Hochul have not called for Adams to step down.
Jackie Kennedy’s 1968 wedding dress sells for $24,320:
The Valentino wedding dress Jacqueline Kennedy wore to marry Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis sold for more than three times its presale estimates at Bonhams’ Classic Luxury: Style Icon sale, which ended Thursday. The cream silk crepe pleated sleeveless dress has a chiffon and lace overlay shell with a buttoned back. The sale also included items previously owned by the late FLOTUS’ son John F. Kennedy Jr.: a black Armani trench coat, which sold for $10,240, and a Calvin Klein suit and tuxedo, which sold for $2,560 each.
“Jacqueline Kennedy's 1968 couture ensemble is not only an important piece of fashion history marking the emergence of one of the most stylish women in the world — Jackie O — but it also showcases an important design in maison Valentino's history,” Marissa Speer, Bonhams U.S. head of sales for handbags and fashion said in a statement.
📈 Dow jumps 100 points to close at a record, major averages extend rally to third week. Traders received encouraging inflation data that could give the central bank more reason to confidently cut interest rates further. [CNBC]
🌀 At least 42 dead as Tropical Depression Helene churns over Southeast. More than 4 million people are without power across Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia amid fears that outages could last weeks. [NBC News]
🤖 OpenAI looks to shift away from nonprofit roots and convert itself to for-profit company. OpenAI’s history as a nonprofit research institute that also sells commercial products like ChatGPT may be coming to an end as the San Francisco company looks to more fully convert itself into a for-profit corporation accountable to shareholders. [Associated Press]
📺 Hoda Kotb announces she is leaving TODAY: “I will miss you all.” She said she will remain with TODAY through early next year, and is going to stay in the NBC family in an unspecified role. [Today]
Demi Lovato on hand for bill signing to protect child stars:
A California law has been updated for the social media age. Demi Lovato, the star of the forthcoming Hulu documentary Child Star, attended a bill signing with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) for an update to the Coogan Law, which will require employers of online child stars to put at least 15% of their gross earnings in a trust that they’ll receive when they turn 18. Another law he signed will give children who are online creators other financial and legal protections.
Newsom thanked Lovato for her advocacy and said her documentary was “really good.” Paris Hilton, no stranger to using celebrity to effect change, commented on Lovato’s social media post about the signing and wrote, “So proud of you sis. You are incredible.”
Kylie dishes on Tension II tracklist and tour:
Kylie Minogue is out with “Lights Camera Action,” the lead single for her forthcoming album Tension II, and in an interview with NME, the singer said it’s “kind of a hybrid” between a deluxe edition of last year’s Tension and a new album that “was never intended to be another volume of work.”
Minogue said one song called “Taboo” sounds as “if Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ had a kind of a distant cousin,” which sounds exactly like the family reunion I’d like to attend. Her upcoming Tension Tour will be “a celebration” of the two albums, plus a bit from her 2020 record Disco, but after that, she’s looking for a “fresh start,” she said.
LG7 will be a pop record, Gaga says:
Lady Gaga isn’t content to stick with just one “era” at once. Gaga, who said on the red carpet for Joker: Folie à Deux that her seventh studio album will be released in February 2025, spilled some deets about her forthcoming album to Rolling Stone.
“The pop album is nothing like Chromatica,” she said. “It’s a completely different record. I don’t know that I’m even ready to talk about it yet, but I recognize that it’s coming out soon, and I will. What I would say is, it’s all for me. It’s meant to be ingested as a time in my life. And I’m also really excited about this idea that I don’t have to adhere to an era if I don’t want to. I can have a few going at once.”
Chappell Roan will vote for Harris, but not endorse her:
Chappell Roan has been doing a lot of explaining about her political views. After telling Rolling Stone she doesn’t “feel pressured to endorse someone” in the presidential election because there are “problems on both sides,” Roan said in a TikTok video her comments had been “completely taken out of context.” In a follow-up video, she added, “I’m voting for f**king Kamala” and “obviously, f**k the policies of the right — but also, f**k some of the policies on the left! That’s why I can’t endorse.”
Roan said Friday she’s dropping out of the All Things Go festival because “things have gotten overwhelming over the past few weeks” and she’s prioritizing her mental health.
The AMAs are turning 50. Here’s how they’re celebrating:
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the American Music Awards on Oct. 6, organizers are putting together an all-star lineup that includes Mariah Carey, Green Day, Brad Paisley, Jennifer Hudson, Gladys Knight, and more.
Carey is slated to perform a medley of hits from her excellent 2005 comeback album The Emancipation of Mimi to kick off the album’s 20th anniversary, while Hudson will do a tribute to Whitey Houston. Knight, who performed “Midnight Train to Georgia” with her group the Pips at the first-ever AMAs in 1974, will return for an encore performance.
Maggie Smith dies at 89:
The actress, who starred in Harry Potter, Downton Abbey, and more than 80 films and TV shows, died Friday. Dame Maggie Smith won two Academy Awards, and in a statement, King Charles was among those who said he was “deeply saddened” by the news. “As the curtain comes down on a national treasure, we join all those around the world in remembering with the fondest admiration and affection her many great performances, and her warmth and wit that shone through both off and on the stage,” he said.
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