Kamala Harris to name running mate in hours as front-runner posts cryptic message

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior Political Reporter

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate no later than Tuesday.

Harris and her pick will appear together for the first time at a campaign rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

The Democratic vice presidential race appears to be down to three men: Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. All three met with Harris on Sunday.

Three other candidates are also believed to be under consideration: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

The closely watched decision will immediately kick off a five-day, seven-state campaign tour this week in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

Lindsey Graham has told Donald Trump what he needs to do to beat Kamala Harris after polls showed the vice president was quickly catching up.

Overall, the race is very close, according to a new CBS News/YouGov poll. Nationally, Harris leads Trump 50 percent to 49 percent among likely voters. In battleground states, the race is now tied at 50 percent.

Graham, the South Carolina senator, said Trump should focus on the issues where Harris is weak, rather than causing controversy over her identity as a biracial woman.

“The problem I have with Kamala Harris is not her heritage, it’s her judgment,” Graham told Fox News on Sunday.

“He’s been wrong about everything. When he tried to explain what he would do about inflation and the looming recession, it didn’t make sense. It was gibberish.”

Stock markets around the world continued to fall on Monday amid fears the U.S. economy could be headed for a recession, while Japan suffered its worst sell-off since Black Monday in 1987.

Experts at investment bank Goldman Sachs said they now believed there was a staggering 25 percent chance of a US recession, up ten percent from their previous estimate of 15 percent, while JP Morgan put the chances of a recession at 50 percent.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Monday, with those linked to the Nasdaq down nearly 4 percent, but traders are now increasing bets that the Federal Reserve will announce an emergency interest rate cut in response to the global stock market collapse and to prevent a major recession.

Employers added just 114,000 jobs last month, according to Labor Department data released Friday, well below the Dow Jones estimate of 185,000.

House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi has revealed exactly what her role was in Democrats’ efforts to get President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, leading to his dramatic exit and Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the nominee.

Pelosi shared her thoughts on the president, his suitability for office and her decision to step aside in an interview with veteran journalist Lesley Stahl for CBS Sunday Morning ahead of the release of her new book, “The Art of Power.”

Pelosi was asked what she told Biden to persuade him to step aside ahead of his dramatic exit from the 2024 presidential race on July 21.

“Well, I’ve never shared any conversation with the president of the United States publicly, no,” Pelosi said with a smile. Pelosi said Biden knows she loves him “very much.”

Stahl pressed Pelosi for reporting that she was, in fact, the leader of a pressure campaign to get Biden to step down.

—No, I was not a leader in any pressure… —Pelosi said, shaking her head.

Arizona Senator Mark Kelly caused a stir by suggesting he was no longer being considered to be Kamala Harris’ running mate.

In a now-deleted social media post, Kelly wrote Sunday night:

I spent my life in the Navy and NASA, where the mission always comes first. Now, my mission is to serve Arizonans.

By writing “serving Arizonans,” many speculated that the former astronaut meant he had lost his chance to be the next Democratic vice president.

Just 30 minutes after X’s original post, Kelly deleted it and replaced it with:

Whether it was during my time in the Navy and at NASA, serving in the U.S. Senate or visiting our troops overseas, I learned that when your country calls you to serve, you always answer the call.

Kelly is considered among the top three men Harris is considering for the post, along with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

President Joe Biden is scheduled to meet with his national security team in the Situation Room later Monday amid rising tensions between Iran and Israel.

The Islamic Republic could attack Israel in the next 24 to 48 hours following a major Hezbollah attack that left two IDF soldiers wounded, senior Western diplomats have warned.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told the G7 on Tuesday that a strike was imminent in response to Israel’s killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Fuad Shukr in Beirut, Axios reported.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III reportedly spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on Sunday to assure the Jewish state of U.S. support.

It would be the second time during the escalating Middle East crisis that Iran has directly attacked Israel, the first being in April, when it sent in a salvo of missiles and drones overnight.