CHICAGO – As day two of the Democratic National Convention gets underway Tuesday in blue state Illinois’ largest city, former President Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, will be in nearby battleground states.

It is part of the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee’s plan to offer a full week of counter-programming to the Democrats’ national nominating convention.

‘Donald Trump is barnstorming all across the country over the course of this next week,’ RNC Chair Michael Whatley emphasized in a Sunday interview on Fox News’ ‘America’s Newsroom.’

‘We are going to be out directly talking to every American family across the country the way that only Donald Trump can. And we are absolutely asking for their votes. We’re asking for their support,’ Whatley highlighted.

The move is partially to try and blunt the momentum of Vice President Kamala Harris heading into the Democrats’ convention. Harris has been riding a wave of energy and enthusiasm – both in polling and in fundraising – since replacing President Biden at the top of the Democrats’ 2024 ticket four weeks ago.

However, it also appears to be another move to try and put pressure on Harris for not holding a news conference or a major interview since Biden bowed out and backed his vice president.

‘At the DNC, Kamala Harris will hide behind celebrities because everyday families know that she has been an absolute disaster for our nation, and real Americans are worse off now than four years ago,’ Trump campaign co-chairs Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita charged in a statement on the eve of the convention.

They argued that the vice president ‘has failed to answer media questions for 28 days because she can’t explain away her record of supporting policies that cause inflation, bans on private health insurance, destroying American energy, and higher taxes.’

As Fox News first reported last week, both Trump and Vance are on the campaign trail during the Democrats’ convention, headlining ‘messaging events’ in the states that will likely decide the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.

Additionally, as a Trump adviser revealed last week, ‘a whole cadre of people’ – including top surrogates – will also be making the GOP’s case throughout the week.

Trump’s schedule is packed with more events than he has done in months.

On Monday, he was in York, Pennsylvania, taking aim at Harris over the economy, while Vance was also talking about pocketbook issues during a stop in Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania, with 19 electoral votes up for grabs, is the largest prize among the crucial swing states.

At his event at a factory in York, Trump reiterated his pledge to cut taxes if he returns to the White House.

‘Our plan will massively cut taxes,’ Trump said. ‘I gave you the best tax cut in history.’

Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chikita took aim at Trump, charging that ‘Americans should be clear on what he will do: He will raise costs on middle class families by $3,900 a year. He will ship American jobs overseas. He will cut Social Security and Medicare and repeal the Affordable Care Act — just like he tried to do last time he was in the White House.’

On Tuesday, Trump will be in Michigan while Vance spotlights the issue of crime during a news conference in southeastern Wisconsin, close to the Democrats’ convention in Chicago.

On Thursday, Trump will visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona while Vance highlights the issue of immigration during a stop in Georgia. On Friday, the former president stumps in Arizona and Nevada on his ‘no tax on tips’ pledge.

‘As they meet Americans where they are in battleground states across the country, President Trump and Senator Vance will remind voters that under their leadership, we can end inflation, protect our communities from violent criminals, secure the border, and Make America Great Again,’ LaCivita and Wiles said.

On Monday, as the convention kicked off, top Trump allies in the Senate – Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin – were also making the case for the former president and slammed Harris and Walz at a news conference in downtown Chicago’s Trump International Hotel and Tower. 

Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, a top House ally of Trump, fills the role on Tuesday, and the campaign plans Wednesday and Thursday news conferences as well. 

The Biden campaign counter-programmed with news conferences that included top surrogates in Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention last month.

Meanwhile, Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will travel Tuesday from Chicago to nearby Milwaukee to headline a rally in the key Midwestern battleground.

In years past, it was traditional for a presidential candidate to lie low while the other party held its national nominating convention. 

However, last month, as the Republicans held their convention in Milwaukee, Biden briefly campaigned in the key swing state of Nevada before cutting his trip short after catching COVID.

Days later, Biden’s blockbuster announcement that he was ending his re-election campaign following his disastrous late June debate performance against Trump upended the 2024 election.

President Biden’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago was delayed until after prime time on Monday night. 

The 81-year-old president used a tissue to dry his tears after being introduced on stage by daughter Ashley Biden at about 10:25 p.m. CT. 

He went on to deliver about an hour-long address that did not conclude until well after midnight on the East Coast. 

‘This is awful,’ a longtime Biden aide texted Axios. ‘He literally set up a campaign and handed it over to them – do they have to cut him out of prime time?’

In a statement to Fox News, convention officials attributed the delay to the energy of the audience throughout the night. 

‘Because of the raucous applause interrupting speaker after speaker, we ultimately skipped elements of our program to ensure we could get to President Biden as quickly as possible so that he could speak directly to the American people,’ convention officials said in a statement obtained by Axios. ‘We are proud of the electric atmosphere in our convention hall and proud that our convention is showcasing the broad and diverse coalition behind the Harris-Walz ticket throughout the week on and off stage.’ 

After concluding his speech in the dead of night, Biden arrived on the West Coast after 5 a.m. ET. The president is now on vacation and is not expected to participate in the remaining three days of the convention, including when Vice President Harris is expected to formally accept the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday. 

In his keynote speech, which wrapped the first night of the four-day convention, Biden attacked Republican nominee and former President Trump on issues including the violent Charlottesville protests, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the border and crime, referencing the start of Harris’ political career in urging Americans to ‘put a prosecutor in the Oval Office instead of a convicted felon.’ 

Biden also denied reports that he was angry after fellow Democrats urged him to discontinue his re-election campaign following his disastrous Atlanta debate performance against Trump in June. 

‘It’s been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your president. I love the job, but I love my country more. I love my country more. Now, all this talk about how I’m angry. All those people said I should step down. That’s not true. I love my country more,’ Biden said. The president noted his advanced age and decades-long career in politics. 

‘I made a lot of mistakes in my career. But I gave my best to you,’ Biden said. ‘For 50 years. Like many of you, I give my heart and soul to our nation. And I’ve been blessed a million times in return with the support of the American people. I’ve either been too young to be in the Senate because I wasn’t 30 yet and too old to stay as president. But I hope you know how grateful I am to all of you.’ 

Yet, as he’s notorious for, Biden mangled his words during a portion of the address regarding the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.  

‘As you heard earlier tonight, United States Supreme Court majority wrote the following quote: women are not without electrical, not not allowed, not without electoral, electoral. Or political power. No kidding,’ Biden said, as some applauded in support. ‘MAGA Republicans found out the power of women in 2022. And Donald Trump is going to find out the power of women in 2024.’ 

Biden referenced his stutter later, proclaiming ‘nowhere else in the world could a kid with a stutter and modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, grow up to sit behind the Resolute Desk.’ 

He also further passed the torch to Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. For a brief moment, Biden appeared to joke that Harris was already president. 

‘Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made before I became, when I became our nominee, and it was the best decision I made my whole career. We’ve not only gotten to know each other, we’ve become close friends. And like many of our best presidents, she was also vice president. That’s a joke,’ Biden said. ‘But she’ll be a president our children could look up to. She’ll be a president respected by world leaders because she already is. She’ll be a president we can all be proud of. And she will be a historic president who puts her stamp on America’s future. This will be the first presidential election since January 6th.’ 

‘I promise I’ll be the best volunteer Harris and Walz’s camp have ever seen. Each of us has a part in the American story,’ he said. 

‘I’ve got five months left in my presidency. I’ve got a lot to do. I intend to get it done,’ Biden added. 

Fox News’ Kellianne Jones contributed to this report. 

Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd President of the United States. 

Harrison, born on Aug. 20, 1833, was from North Bend, Ohio, about 15 miles outside Cincinnati.

Harrison studied at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and graduated in 1852. Upon graduation, he went to Indianapolis, where he practiced law and campaigned for the Republican Party. 

In 1853, he married future first lady Caroline Lavinia Scott. The pair had two children, Russell and Mary. 

During the Civil War, Harrison served as a colonel of the 70th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, according to The White House Association, and went back to Indianapolis after the war to practice law once again. 

In 1876, Harrison ran for political office, but was defeated for governor of Indiana. He went on to serve in the Senate during the 1880s before making his bid for president. 

In the presidential election of 1888, Harrison received 100,000 fewer popular votes than incumbent Democrat Grover Cleveland, according to WhiteHouse.gov, but he won the electoral vote 233 to 168. 

Harrison was one of the first to implement a campaign strategy known as ‘front-porch’ campaigns, delivering short speeches to the delegations that visited him. 

During his presidency, he showed support to veterans, including through his signing of the Dependent and Disability Pensions Act in 1890, which expanded aid to disabled service men, their widows and dependents, according to the White House Historical Association. 

Harrison also added six states to the Union during his presidency, according to the Benjamin Harrison Presidential site. 

In 1892, Harrison’s wife, while still serving the role of first lady, passed away. 

That same year, Harrison lost the White House to Cleveland. Following his term in the Oval Office, Harrison returned to Indianapolis and continued to practice law. 

In 1896, Harrison went on to marry the widowed Mary Dimmick Harrison, the niece of his first wife. They had one daughter, Elizabeth, who was born on Feb. 21, 1897. 

Harrison died on March 13, 1901, when he was 67 years old. 

Former President Trump said Monday night that Vice President Kamala Harris’ team told his campaign that she would not participate in a Fox News presidential debate on September 4.

The proposed debate would have been held in Pennsylvania and moderated by Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.

‘I am not surprised by this development because I feel that she knows it is very difficult, at best, for her to defend her record setting Flip-Flopping on absolutely everything she once believed in, including her statements that THERE WILL BE NO FRACKING IN PENNSYLVANIA and her HORRIBLE Performance on the Border,’ Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

The former president had initially been reluctant to debate Harris after President Biden suspended his re-election campaign because she was not the Democratic Party’s official candidate before later agreeing to debate her once she secured the party’s nomination for president.

Trump and Harris have both confirmed they would participate in a Sept. 10 debate on ABC News. Trump previously said he also agreed to an NBC News debate on Sept. 25. 

The Harris campaign has said it would consider a second presidential debate in October. Both campaigns have also agreed to a vice presidential debate on CBS News on Oct. 1 between Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance.

‘Voters deserve to see the candidates for the highest office in the land share their competing visions for our future,’ Harris’ campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement last week. ‘The more they play games, the more insecure and unserious Trump and Vance reveal themselves to be to the American people. Those games end now.’

In place of the Fox News debate, Trump says he will participate in a town hall in Pennsylvania with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Kamala Harris’s first big policy speech did not exactly draw rave reviews from a media establishment that largely seems to adore her.

But with the Democratic convention getting under way, does that matter?

Perhaps the most stinging criticism came from the Washington Post’s mostly liberal editorial board, which declared that ‘unfortunately, instead of delivering a substantial plan, she squandered the moment on populist gimmicks.’

That may well be true. But again, does it really matter?

Policy is crucially important as voters weigh how the candidates would govern for the next four years. It’s especially vital because Harris suddenly emerged as the substitute nominee in a three-month campaign – not a ‘coup,’ as Donald Trump says – when Joe Biden was pressured into stepping aside.

But as ideologically different as the two nominees are, I believe policy will play a relatively minor role in 2024.  

Josh Barro, in the Atlantic, says a crackdown on price-gouging will make things worse and be virtually impossible to enforce: 

‘The substance likely won’t appeal to many people who actually know about economics. But it’s hard for me to argue with the politics….

‘Harris is trying to win a presidential election, and to win elections, you run on popular ideas.’ 

By the way, while I agree that going after price-gougers won’t work–groceries already operate on very thin margins–I see the Harris proposals as being mischaracterized as wage and price controls. I lived through Richard Nixon doing just that in the early 1970s and it was a disastrous failure. Harris isn’t saying the government should set prices for all products, though I can see why that’s a useful attack line for the Trump campaign.

I also agree with the Post’s editorial page that the vice president is offering all kinds of expensive goodies – such as a $25,000 down payment for first-time home buyers – without explaining how to pay for them. As the paper notes, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says her overall plan would add $1.7 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. That’s sobering stuff.

But I don’t believe this election will turn on policy. Harris, who’s done a strikingly skillful job of handling her first three weeks, is drawing big crowds, raising a fortune and rising in the polls because she brings youth, vigor, excitement and, her favorite word, joy.

Harris is, among other things, a cultural phenomenon and a TikTok sensation. Much of what she’s proposing now is largely symbolic and will never pass, but she’s sending a message that she’s laser-focused on reducing inflation on kitchen-table issues for middle-class families (and distancing from Bidenomics).

That doesn’t mean she’s going to win. Trump still has an easier path to 270. The VP still has to win Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, even though a New York Times/Sienna College poll shows her closing the gap or statistically tied in four Sun Belt states – Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.

Harris remains, as she says, the underdog.

But if Kamala does pull it out, it will be because key voters, especially women, are drawn to her personally. And in the end, that’s how most elections are won.

In 2016, when everyone expected a Hillary victory, Trump ran on a few key issues – especially immigration and crime – but he won because of his image as a relentless fighter, not to mention an entertaining one. 

After the eight-year Obama presidency, enough voters were drawn to Trump’s culture war–and the media were criticized for carrying his rallies!–that the Democrats’ Midwestern blue wall collapsed.

Running against a 59-year-old woman of color–and a hostile press corps–seems to have thrown Trump off his game. While insisting he is ‘entitled’ to make ‘personal attacks’ against Harris–despite advice from the likes of Lindsey Graham–the former president has continued to denigrate the vice president, rightly noting that she and her campaign are ripping him as well. That’s the Trump pattern. 

And after journalists and commentators kept insisting that Joe Biden had the mental acuity for another four years, the press has now flipped to spotlighting every mistake by the 78-year-old Trump. Man, does Trump miss Biden – he keeps talking about how Joe was unfairly deposed – because he spent years preparing to run against the frail 81-year-old president.

Trump has in fact become the old man in the race, but this is sheer media hypocrisy.

Imagine how depressed the Democrats and the pundits would be if Biden had stuck it out and was speaking in Chicago as the nominee, headed for certain defeat. Instead, they’re swept up by Kamala fever.

And most of the mainstream media, having pounded the president for avoiding interviews, are largely uninterested in whether Harris does any. She’s getting a total pass. The veep did take questions for about 4 minutes the other day, the second time she’s done that, but largely because Trump and his allies keep ripping her as a Teleprompter candidate. 

Trump openly says he wants to define Harris as a communist, so he dredges up far-left positions she took four years ago as if those are her current positions, a game played by both sides. But she left the opening by not explaining her flip-flops (or, more charitably, evolution). Policy may matter to that extent. We’ll also see after the convention whether her numbers are a ‘sugar high,’ meaning the inevitable bump may soon bring her back to earth.

Keep in mind that Harris still hasn’t done an interview. Nor, for that matter, has Tim Walz, while JD Vance is working the Sunday shows and holding pressers.

The reason: with such a docile press corps, which Harris prefers to brief off the record on Air Force 2, it’s working for her.

One more thing: While Harris largely ducks the press, MSNBC refused to cover the second of Trump’s two news conferences in about a week, with Nicolle Wallace saying such events ‘have been less about the issues and the news lately, as if they ever were, and more about threats and lies and demeaning people.’ CNN bailed for awhile when Trump read off blue cards for 40 minutes, then jumped back in when he took questions. Only Fox carried the whole thing (and has been airing some of Kamala’s rallies!).

Trump has also been tying Harris to the unpopularity of the Biden-Harris record, which is a common problem for VPs who don’t have the ability to set policy on their own.

MSNBC’s all-liberal lineup for big events – Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, Lawrence O’Donnell, Chris Hayes – hates Trump with the heat of a thousand suns. They basically don’t think he should ever be allowed on the air because it hurts their reputation (and, not coincidentally, ticks off their audience). 

Instead, they talk about Trump all day, and they have the next 22 hours to point out falsehoods and exaggerations.

So by that logic, why wouldn’t they blow off his convention speech as well? 

– In what may be one of the last major speeches of his decades-long political career, President Biden on Monday night handed the reins of the party to Vice President Kamala Harris as he spotlighted their administration’s accomplishments over the past three and a half years.

Speaking in front of a jam-packed United Arena, site of the Democratic National Convention, the president declared ‘America, I gave my best to you,’ as the crowd of party officials and delegates, activists, and supporters repeatedly gave Biden sustained ovations and chants of ‘thank you, Joe.’

Praising his vice president, Biden said that ‘selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made before I became when I became our nominee, and it was the best decision I made my whole career.’

‘She’s tough, she’s experienced, and she has enormous integrity, enormous integrity. Her story represents the best American story,’ the president highlighted.

And he asked the crowd are ‘you are ready to vote for freedom. Are you ready to vote for democracy and for America? Let me ask you, are you ready to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, President and Vice President of the United States.’

Biden repeatedly took aim at former President Trump and the threats he said the Republican presidential nominee posed to America’s democracy and international alliances. And looking to his vice president and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, he pledged to be ‘the best volunteer Harris and Walz have ever seen.’

Harris and Walz and their spouses, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz, joined the president, First Lady Jill Biden and their family, at the podium following Biden’s address, in a clear sign of party unity.

The president’s speech came four weeks and one day after his blockbuster announcement that he was ending his own White House bid and endorsing his vice president to replace him on the party’s 2024 ticket in the election showdown against former President Trump.

Biden’s disastrous performance against Trump in their late June debate fueled questions over whether the 81-year-old president had the physical and mental abilities to handle another four years in the White House and sparked a chorus of calls from within his own party to end his 2024 campaign.

Biden eventually caved to the pressure, announcing the suspension of his re-election campaign three days after the Republican National Convention ended with a solidified GOP ticket of Trump and running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. 

Biden spoke in front of a crowd that included plenty of politicians who publicly urged or maneuvered behind the scenes for the president to drop out of the race, as his support in public opinion polls began to fade following his debate showdown with Trump.

Since Harris succeeded Biden, the vice president has been riding a wave of energy, with a jump in polling and fundraising as the battle with Trump is once again a margin-of-error race.

As Harris has surged, Trump has increasingly attacked the Democrats for what he charged was ‘a vicious COUP’ against Biden.

‘Crooked Joe Biden was told, ‘Sorry Joe, you’re losing to Trump, BIG, and you can’t beat him – You’re Fired,’ the former president claimed Monday in a social media post.

But Biden in his speech aimed to dispel any notion that he was angry about changing course and giving up his bid for a second term in the White House.

‘You see, it’s been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your president. I love the job, but I love my country more,’ Biden said. ‘And all this talk about how I’m angry [at] all those people who said I should step down — that’s not true.’

With five months left in his presidency, the speech was not billed as a farewell address, but it did in some ways have the feeling of a swan song, as he touted his administration’s accomplishments.

But Biden also pointed to the work he has left – including supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia and securing a cease-fire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas to end the deadly war in Gaza.

Outside the security zone surrounding the arena, anti-Israeli protesters marched throughout the day. And inside the United Center, a small group of delegates protesting Biden’s handling of the war briefly held up a banner that read ‘stop arming Israel.’ But delegates quickly blocked them with ‘We Love Joe’ signs and drowned them out. 

At one point, pointing to the rising death toll, Biden said the ‘protesters have a point.’ 

Speaking minutes before Biden at the convention podium was former Secretary of State, former senator, and former first lady Hillary Clinton, the Democrats’ 2016 presidential nominee. 

Clinton, in her speech, blasted Trump, praised Biden, and said that Harris has the ‘character, experience and vision to lead us forward.’

The speeches by Clinton and Biden – the party’s two previous standard-bearers – symbolized how the Democrats old guard was passing the torch to a younger generation.

Harris, in a brief surprise appearance from the podium earlier in the evening, praised her boss.

‘I want to kick us off by celebrating our incredible president,’ she emphasized. ‘Joe, thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation, and for all you will continue to do. We are forever grateful to you.’ 

– President Biden delivered his highly anticipated address to the Democratic National Convention late Monday night and touched on a variety of subjects including strong criticisms of former President Trump and the conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization in control of Gaza.

‘Those, those protesters out in the street, they have a point,’ Biden told the crowd in the United Center after anti-Israel protesters marched on the convention calling for an end to the U.S. support of Israel. ‘A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides.’

‘We’re working around the clock,’ Biden said. ‘To end the civilian suffering of the Palestinian people and finally, finally, finally deliver a ceasefire and end this war.’

‘We’re working around the clock. My Secretary of State, to prevent a wider war and reunite hostage to their families and surge humanitarian, health and food assistance into Gaza. Now. To end the civilian suffering of the Palestinian people and finally, finally, finally deliver a cease-fire and end this war.’

In the same speech, Biden repeated the claim that Trump said there were ‘fine people’ on ‘both sides’ of the 2017 Charlottesville protest which has been debunked by several fact checkers.

Criticizing Trump was a major theme in Biden’s speech, which did not conclude until after midnight on the East Coast.

‘I never thought I’d stand before a crowd of Democrats and refer to a president who’s a liar so many times,’ Biden said. ‘Now, I’m not trying to be funny. It’s sad.’

Biden also hit Trump on abortion and the overturning of Roe v. Wade, warning that Trump ‘is going to find out the power of women in 2024.’

‘Now, where Trump is MAGA Republican, right-wingers seek to erase history,’ Biden said. ‘We Democrats continue to write history and make more history. I’m proud. I’m proud to have kept my commitment to appoint the first black woman in the United States Supreme Court. Ketanji Brown Jackson. A symbol for every young woman in America that you can do anything.’

Biden also renewed the allegation that Trump called military members who had died in battle ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’, which Trump and sources present at the time have said did not occur. 

‘Who in the hell does he think he is?’ Biden said. 

‘Who does he think he is? There’s no words for a person. There are not the words for a person not worthy of being commander in chief. Period. Period. Not then, not now, and not ever. I mean that I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Just as no commander chief should ever bow down to a dictator, the way Trump bowed down to Putin, I never have. And I promise you, Kamala Harris will never do it, will never bow down.’

Praising Harris was another theme in the speech which Biden did several times.

‘Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made before I became when I became our nominee, and it was the best decision I made my whole career,’ Biden said. 

‘We’ve not only gotten to know each other, we’ve become close friends. She’s tough, she’s experienced, and she has enormous integrity, enormous integrity. Her story represents the best American story.’

Biden, who appeared to shed a tear after walking out on stage following an introduction from his daughter Ashley, said Harris will be ‘a president we can all be proud of’ before mentioning the Capitol Hill riots on January 6th.

‘This will be the first presidential election since January 6th,’ Biden said. ‘On that day, we almost lost everything about who we are as a country and that threat. This is not hyperbole. That threat is still very much alive.’

‘Donald Trump says he will refuse to accept the election result if he loses again. Think about that. He means it. Think about that. He’s probably seeing a bloodbath if he loses. In his words, and that he’ll be a dictator on day one. In his own words, by the way, this sucker means it. No, I’m not joking. Think about it.’

Biden told his supporters that the ‘power’ is ‘literally’ in your hands.

‘History is in your hands, not hyperbole,’ Biden said. ‘It’s in your hands. America’s future is in your hands. And because of this, nowhere else in the world could a kid with a stutter and modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania and Claymont, Delaware grow up to sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.’