Author: chicagoinquirer

by Adriana Gomez Licon Vice President Kamala Harris is sitting down with CNN this week for her first interview since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid. The Democratic presidential nominee will be joined by her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in an interview with CNN anchor Dana Bash in Savannah, Georgia. The interview will air Thursday at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Harris’ lack of access has become one of Republicans’ key lines of attacks against her as she ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket after Biden’s July 21 announcement. The CNN interview may be an opportunity…

by Eric Tucker and Alan Durbin Richer WASHINGTON — Special counsel Jack Smith filed a new indictment Tuesday against Donald Trump over his efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election that keeps the same criminal charges but narrows the allegations against him following a Supreme Court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents. The new indictment removes a section of the indictment that had accused Trump of trying to use the law enforcement powers of the Justice Department to overturn his election loss, an area of conduct for which the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 opinion last month, said…

by Melanie Lidman JERUSALEM — Israeli forces rescued a hostage found alone underground in Gaza on Tuesday, freeing a living captive from Hamas’ vast tunnel network for the first time since the Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war. The 52-year-old Israeli man was taken to a hospital in Israel, where members of his large Bedouin Arab family gathered around his bedside in a joyful reunion. The rescue brought a rare moment of relief to Israelis after 10 months of war but also served as a painful reminder that dozens of hostages are still in captivity as international mediators try…

by Meg Kinnard More than 200 staffers for four previous Republican presidential nominees have endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris’ White House bid, cautioning that the notion of a second term for GOP nominee Donald Trump is “simply untenable” and “will hurt real, everyday people.” In an open letter, first written about on Monday by USA Today, 238 people who worked for former President George H.W. Bush, former President George W. Bush, former Arizona Sen. John McCain and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney call on their fellow “moderate Republicans and conservative independents” to join them in backing Harris and her running mate, Minnesota…

by Patrick Whittle A New Hampshire resident infected with the mosquito-borne eastern equine encephalitis virus has died, state health authorities said. The Hampstead resident’s infection was the first in the state in a decade, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday. The resident, whom the department only identified as an adult, had been hospitalized due to severe central nervous system symptoms, the department said. About a third of people who develop encephalitis from the virus die from the infections, and survivors can suffer lifelong mental and physical disabilities. There is no vaccine or antiviral treatment available…

by Andrew Dalton Sean “Diddy” Combs asked a federal judge Monday to throw out a lawsuit from a music producer who accused the music mogul of a broad pattern of sexual abuse and other misconduct. The lawsuit filed in February by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones — one of many filed against Combs in the past year — is overrun with “tall tales,” “lurid theatrics,” “legally meaningless allegations” and “blatant falsehoods” whose intent is only to “generate media hype and exploit it to extract a settlement,” according to the motion to dismiss filed in federal court in New York. The case…

by Will Wisert, Zeke Miller and Darlene Superville CHICAGO — Kamala Harris summoned Americans on Thursday to reject political division and instead chart what she called a “new way forward,” as she accepted her party’s nomination while blending biography with warnings about electing Donald Trump again to the White House. Taking the stage to a thunderous standing ovation as she closed out the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the vice president argued that her personal story and background as a prosecutor made her uniquely qualified to protect Americans’ interests against a former president she cast as only having his own…

by Jonathan J. Cooper and Ali Swenson PHOENIX — Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will speak Friday “about the present historical moment and his path forward,” his campaign announced Wednesday, fueling growing speculation that Kennedy could drop out and support Republican nominee Donald Trump. Kennedy’s running mate openly discussed the possibility on a podcast this week, saying the campaign was considering a move to “join forces” with Trump to limit the election chance of Kamala Harris, whose Democratic convention winds up Thursday night in Chicago. The move would have once seemed unthinkable for Kennedy, a Democrat for most…

CHICAGO — Warning of a difficult fight ahead, former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama on Tuesday called on the nation to embrace Kamala Harris in urgent messages to the Democratic National Convention that were at times both hopeful and ominous. “America, hope is making a comeback,” the former first lady declared. She then tore into Republican Donald Trump, a sharp shift from the 2016 convention speech in which she told her party, “When they go low, we go high.” “His limited and narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated,…

by Steve Peoples, Zeke Miller and Bill Barron CHICAGO — A refreshed Democratic Party reintroduces itself to a divided nation this week, having been transformed by the money, momentum, relief and even joy that followed Vice President Kamala Harris ‘ rise to the top of its ticket. The whiplash of the last month culminates in a convention that begins Monday in Chicago. Above all, the four-day gathering of thousands of activists and party leaders from across the nation is designed to celebrate and strengthen Harris as President Joe Biden’s replacement and boost her campaign to defeat Republican Donald Trump in…