Vice President Harris plans to speak Wednesday afternoon at the Indianapolis convention of a historically Black sorority, delivering one of her first speeches as the likely Democratic nominee for president to women who represent the base voters she needs to energize.
Washington
Harris, Trump hold dueling events as a new presidential race takes shape
The dueling appearances are a chance for each candidate to frame the stakes of the race as it plunges into uncharted territory, with Trump no longer running against his ideal opponent and Harris seeking to take charge of the Democratic ticket a little more than 100 days before the election. Democrats are hoping that Harris can refocus the contest on Trump’s flaws, while Republicans want to quickly define Harris and saddle her with Biden’s weaknesses.
Biden’s exit — triggered by a dismal June debate performance — has filled Democrats with new hope for November. In a Wednesday morning memo, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said the vice president is less known than Trump and Biden and “opens up additional persuadable voters,” especially in groups that lean Democratic. “This race is more fluid now,” she wrote.
Trump’s team, meanwhile, is bracing for a “Harris honeymoon” that it says could intrude on Trump’s summer of momentum and polling gains. In a Tuesday memo, Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio predicted that Harris would see a polling bump starting in the next few days — but he said it would pass. With voters upset about inflation, the border and other issues, he wrote, the “fundamentals of the race stay the same.”
Harris plans to arrive in Indianapolis just after noon on Wednesday and deliver a keynote speech there at the Grand Boulé, the national convention of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority. Zeta Beta Phi is one of the “Divine Nine,” a group of historically Black sororities and fraternities that includes Harris’s sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.
Democrats are hopeful that Harris — who is Black and Indian American and would be the first female president — can motivate key left-leaning constituencies in a way that Biden did not. In interviews, Black women gathered for the Grand Boulé said they were excited about Harris’s candidacy but also nervous about her chances. They worried that voters would hold her race and gender against her.
“If you had your eyes closed and you just go based on her qualifications versus [Trump’s] qualifications, yes, she’d definitely win,” said Lora Rice, 55, from Georgia. “But they’re not going to do that.” She said Biden, “the White guy,” would have had a better shot.
Democratic leaders and delegates to next month’s nominating convention have quickly rallied behind Harris. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who made history as the country’s only female presidential nominee from a major party, voiced support for Harris in a New York Times op-ed published Wednesday.
“I know a thing or two about how hard it can be for strong women candidates to fight through the sexism and double standards of American politics,” wrote Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016. She warned that Harris’s “record and character will be distorted and disparaged” as she runs against Trump, and that “she and the campaign will have to cut through the noise.”
In her memo, O’Malley Dillon laid out her case for confidence in Harris. She led the charge on abortion rights, an issue on which Democrats have demonstrated a clear political advantage. In Milwaukee on Tuesday, she drew the campaign’s largest crowd to date. Some $126 million in donations have flooded into the campaign since Sunday, when Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris.
O’Malley Dillon said the campaign would continue its focus on the so-called “Blue Wall” states — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — as well as the “Sun Belt” battlegrounds of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina. “We intend to play offense in each of these states, and have the resources and campaign infrastructure to do so,” she wrote.
Biden, before he dropped out, had increasingly looked to the Blue Wall as his path to victory — as other states slipped further from his grasp and as Trump threatened to put Democrats on defense in traditionally blue states. And Trump’s campaign is still trying to expand the map: The former president has another rally planned for Saturday evening in Minnesota, a state that Biden won by seven points in 2020.
Even as Trump’s campaign pivots to attacking Harris, the former president has tried keep attention on Biden.
“Does Lyin’ Kamala Harris think Joe Biden is fit to run the U.S.A. for the next six months? She must answer the question,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media site, on Tuesday.
Biden is scheduled to give a speech Wednesday night from the White House about his decision to bow out, which came after weeks of pressure from other Democratic leaders and a debate in which Biden repeatedly appeared to lose his train of thought.
Harris heads to Houston on Wednesday after the sorority event. Trump’s team, eager to needle Harris about immigration policy, quickly highlighted her planned proximity to the southern border.
Trump has several events lined up later this week. He plans to speak Friday evening in West Palm Beach, Fla., at an event hosted by the conservative group Turning Point Action. On Saturday, he will deliver a keynote speech at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, underscoring his newfound interest in cryptocurrency. Trump was once skeptical of cryptocurrency but has embraced it after aggressive lobbying by executives in the industry.
Sabrina Rodriguez in Indianapolis contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump on Saturday announced that federal authorities had made “multiple arrests” of people he said were vandalizing the Reflecting Pool as he struggled to explain why the $14-million-plus rehabilitation project he launched for the nation’s 250th anniversary seemingly backfired.
Trump said his predecessors had let the pool turn an algae-stained green and that he’d line it with “American flag blue” so it better reflected the Washington Monument. But after the new pool was unveiled, its blue tinge quickly became a familiar green. Workers treated it with chemicals to kill the algae, but then the painted blue lining on the bottom began to peel.
On Friday night, Trump posted about the pool.
“We’ve had some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool,” he posted on his social media site Friday night. “Just like three days ago, they destroyed the grass outside of the Pool, they’ve also done everything possible to hurt the inside surface that was just installed.”
He offered no details to substantiate his claim.
AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein A peeling section of blue coating is seen in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Saturday, June 20, 2026, in Washington.
Agencies responsible for law enforcement and upkeep on the National Mall — the U.S. Park Police, National Park Service and Interior Department — did not respond to requests for comment. Trump on Saturday followed up by posting that Park Police “have arrested multiple individuals for vandalizing our Nations magnificent Reflecting Poll,” correcting his spelling to “Pool” later.
He went on: “Who would do such a thing? These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail!”
Trump later acknowledged in a post that the Reflecting Pool will need to be repaired, yet again, to restore it to “an equal level of Beauty” as before. “We met with contractors today, will probably be forced to release and drain much of the water in order to do the necessary repairs, but will have them done as quickly as possible,” he wrote.
One man arrested was David Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland, who owned a company that made composite used to build watercraft. He said he stopped by the pool during his 64-mile bike ride Friday to see what was going on.
Hearn, a former Olympic canoe racer, told The Associated Press that he reached into the pool because he wanted to examine the peeling new coating. He said he briefly touched a chunk that was still attached to the side of the pool, then let go shortly after a park worker told him to.
But, Hearn said, he was then detained by National Guard troops and Park Police for five hours before being released Friday night.
“I’m a curious citizen,” Hearn said in a telephone interview. “I reached down to see what it felt like. It was very rubbery.”
The Washington Post first reported Hearn’s arrest, and he said he has a date to appear in court next month and is looking for legal help.
Even if someone pulled ribbons of paint from the side of the pool, it would not explain the clouds of algae in green water and swaths of loose blue paint detached from the bottom.
Trump insisted something nefarious has been going on at the scene. “No different than the chemicals that were used on the National Mall, they used something similar in the Reflecting Pool to try to destroy and demean our beautiful work,” he posted Friday evening.
That was an apparent reference to the discovery of large numbers etched in discolored grass on the National Mall the week before: “86 47.” Authorities said the numbers could have been meant as a threat to Trump, the 47th president. The number 86 can be slang for “getting rid of.” They are investigating.
Trump’s claims came after days of negative attention to the state of the pool, which has drawn television cameras and curious onlookers.
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ga. (WJBF) – A man is in custody, charged with Murder in the shooting death of a teenage girl.
Washington County Deputies responded to calls of a shooting at a home on Hagan Circle, Friday night just before 10 p.m.
Once there, deputies located 15-year-old LuVenya Knight lying unresponsive inside the home. Life-saving measures were attempted but unsuccessful. Knight was pronounced dead at the scene.
22-year-old Kermarion Markel Washington of Tennille has been arrested and charged in the case.
Washington is charged with Felony Murder, Malice Murder, Child Molestation, Statutory Rape, Aggravated Assault, and Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony.
Additional charges may be forthcoming.
Washington is currently being held at the Washington County Jail.
INDIANAPOLIS — IMPD has a new public safety camera downtown to help address crime or deter it altogether.
The technology is up and running at the intersection of W Washington Street and N Illinois Street. It’s the third camera to be installed along Washington Street in the last three months.
“We’ve had a lot of success with our cameras, using them with juvenile mitigation or violence crime reduction efforts to identify those people involved in crimes, and we’ve been able to make arrests because the cameras are there,” IMPD Downtown District Commander Shane Foley said. “If the cameras weren’t there, there’s certain situations we would not be able to make arrests.”
The other intersections that had cameras installed back in March previously had mobile surveillance units in place, but that wasn’t true for the Illinois Street location.
“Washington and Illinois is one of the most travelled parts of downtown and it’s important to have this tool to monitor activity,” Foley said. “We didn’t have a camera at this location at all, so that really emphasizes the importance of this location being added.”
The streams from the cameras are monitored by IMPD’s real-time crime center, but also by officers on the streets. The video can alert officers to incidents before 911 is even called.
“We have five different camera angles, and as you can see here, this can be used for traffic investigations,” Foley said while showing the stream from inside of his car. “If there was a crash or a pedestrian struck, this might help identify a vehicle involved in that incident.”
The Conrad Hotel on the corner paid to put the camera in place, an investment General Manager Ryan Fitzgerald hopes helps officers better secure the area.
”All the men and women that are down here making the city safe, it’s really important to us and we just wanted an opportunity to support that,” Fitzgerald said. “They do all the hard work, so anything we can do to support that effort is in the interest of all of our residents, our team members and our guests.”
Video from the cameras that don’t show criminal activity is thrown out after 30 days. IMPD is hopeful to further secure community partnerships to fund more cameras in the future.
“Ultimately, the goal of these cameras is to make downtown a safer place for people to work, live and visit,” Foley said.
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