Vance, Given 5 Chances to Say Trump Lost in 2020, Takes None

Yayın tarihi Ekim 12, 2024 Prizmabet

Heading into the final three weeks of the 2024 election, Senator JD Vance of Ohio will still not say whether his running mate won or lost the last race for the White House.

In an interview with The New York Times that will be published on Saturday, Mr. Vance repeatedly refused to acknowledge former President Donald J. Trump’s defeat and went to even greater lengths to avoid doing so than he did during the vice-presidential debate earlier this month.

When asked about the previous election during an hourlong interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro, a host of “The Interview,” a Times podcast published each Saturday, the Republican vice-presidential nominee responded that he was “focused on the future.” It was the same phrase he used to evade the same question during his debate with his Democratic rival, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota.

“There’s an obsession here with focusing on 2020,” Mr. Vance said in the interview. “I’m much more worried about what happened after 2020, which is a wide-open border, groceries that are unaffordable.”

When pressed a second time, Mr. Vance pivoted to a complicated counterargument: He suggested Mr. Trump would have won more votes in 2020 had social media companies not limited posts about a New York Post story about the contents of a laptop that belonged to Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son. Trump allies had maintained that documents on the laptop linked President Biden to corrupt business dealings, but those claims were unfounded.

“Senator Vance, I’m going to ask you again,” Ms. Garcia-Navarro said. “Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?”

Trump Agrees to a ‘Women’s Issues’ Event on Fox News, but Shuns Debate

Yayın tarihi Ekim 12, 2024 Prizmabet

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Former President Donald J. Trump turned down Fox News’s invitation to debate Vice President Kamala Harris on the air this month.

But the Republican nominee will appear on the network next week for an unusual televised town hall, fielding questions from an all-female audience.

The event, announced by Fox News on Friday, will focus on “issues impacting women ahead of the election,” the network said, including abortion, day care, child care, health care and the economy.

It will not be shown live. The event will be taped on Tuesday evening, in Cumming, Ga., and air on Wednesday at 11 a.m. The moderator is the Fox host Harris Faulkner.

Mr. Trump’s Democratic opponent, Ms. Harris, is set to appear for her own town hall on CNN on Oct. 23, with voters in Pennsylvania. That event will be aired live.

CNN has said that Mr. Trump has an open invitation to appear on the network for a town hall.

Fox News on Friday said the same regarding Ms. Harris. “Fox News has a standing invitation to Vice President Harris for a town hall event of equal stature which has been extended to her campaign multiple times since she became a candidate for president in August,” the network said in a statement.

Mr. Trump, whose performance at the ABC debate in September was widely viewed as lackluster, has repeatedly signaled that he has no intention of meeting Ms. Harris again on the debate stage before Election Day.

Chris LaCivita, one of Mr. Trump’s campaign managers, formally declined Fox News’s invitation for a debate in Pennsylvania on Oct. 23 or 27 several hours after the network first proposed it, according to a person familiar with the exchange. Ms. Harris’s campaign has not commented on the Fox invitation to debate, with the anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum moderating.

If Ms. Harris accepted the Fox News invitation, it could allow her to sharpen her argument that Mr. Trump is afraid to joust with her face-to-face — even on a channel where he enjoys sympathetic coverage from commentators.

Agreeing to a Fox debate, though, could increase pressure on Ms. Harris to appear on Fox for her own solo town hall, which her campaign has so far been reluctant to do.

In an interview set to air next week, Ms. Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, told the MSNBC host Joe Scarborough that he believed Mr. Trump was afraid to debate the vice president.

“You saw the first debate, didn’t you? Yeah, that’s why,” Mr. Emhoff said when Mr. Scarborough asked what was stopping Mr. Trump, according to an advance excerpt. “He’s afraid that that’s going to happen again.”

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy meets Pope Francis as he continues European tour to push ‘victory plan’

Yayın tarihi Ekim 12, 2024 Prizmabet

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Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday as he continues his tour of Europe to bolster support for a “victory plan”.

During his conversation with the head of the Catholic Church, Zelenskyy and Francis reportedly discussed the state of the war, the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and well as how it could be brought to an end.

Zelenskyy has been city-hopping across the continent to promote a proposal which he says “aims to create the right conditions for a just end to the war” against Russia.

Since the first Russian attack on Kyiv, Francis and Zelenskyy have made multiple visits, letters and phone calls to each other.

Francis has repeatedly and strongly called for an end to the war in Ukraine, focusing on prisoner exchanges and on reaching a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

The Pope drew some criticism from Ukrainian leaders in March when he suggested they should have the “courage of the white flag” and consider a negotiated end to the war with Russia, an notion interpreted by many as a call to surrender.

Rounding up support

A day before meeting the Pope, he had detailed the plan’s proposals to European allies after a planned summit including US President Joe Biden was derailed by Hurricane Milton.

He met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in London on Thursday before heading to France for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, who signalled his support by visiting Ukrainian troops being trained in France.

Zelenskyy also met with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, who ensured Italy’s full and continued support to put Ukraine in a position to build lasting peace.

The Ukrainian leader has yet to publicly present his proposals for victory, but the timing of his efforts to lock in European support appeared to have November’s US presidential election in mind.

Former President Donald Trump, who could return to the White House next year, has long been critical of US aid to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy had planned to present his blueprint at a weekend meeting of Western leaders in Germany, but it was postponed after sitting President Joe Biden stayed in the US to respond to Hurricane Milton, which has wreaked havoc in Florida.

Trump’s Lead Over Harris Widens on Polymarket’s Prediction Market

Yayın tarihi Ekim 12, 2024 Prizmabet

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Donald Trump’s odds of winning the U.S. presidential election have surged to a more than two-month high on the leading prediction market, Polymarket.

Traders are giving the former president a 55.8% shot versus Vice President Kamala Harris’ 43.8%, according to pricing on Polymarket, where more than $1.6 billion has been wagered on the November election.

Trump’s chances have risen to levels last seen days after President Joe Biden said he wouldn’t seek reelection, clearing the way for his vice president to take over.

Another prediction market, Kalshi, which just recently won permission to list contracts based on U.S. elections, also shows Trump in the lead over Harris: 52% to 48%. PredictIt, meanwhile, shows a slimmer Trump lead: 53% to 52%.

Polymarket is not technically available to Americans, though VPN users likely sidestep that restriction. Kalshi and PredictIt are allowed in the U.S., however.