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.
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.
Keagan Smith gives you a preview, prediction and pick for today’s game between the Washington Nationals and Tampa Bay Rays on Friday’s MLB slate.
Did anyone have the Tampa Bay Rays and Washington Nationals competing for the MLB Postseason on their bingo cards? It’s June 19 and both these teams have winning records, but the ways they’ve gotten there are completely different. On Friday evening, this pitching-reliant Rays group squares off against the Nats’ formidable offense, setting up a fun battle at the Trop.
As the new series begins tonight at 7:40 p.m. ET, here’s a betting prediction and pick for this Nationals vs. Rays matchup courtesy of MLB odds and lines on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Nationals vs. Rays prediction, preview
Washington Nationals
The Nats are perhaps the most fun team in the entire MLB this season. With a group of talented young bats, they’ve cruised to a 39-36 record on the campaign with a +15 run differential, also going 6-4 over their last 10 games. The upside of this offense is immense, and if they can get the pitching figured out, we could be looking at a future power in the NL. Washington produces an MLB-best 5.43 runs per game with a .744 OPS that ranks fifth overall. The full slash line reads .247/.323/.421 with a .287 BABIP; tonight, the group faces a RHP with a split of .238/.311/.414 for a .725 OPS against similar handedness. It may be the lower of their splits, but the Nationals do have 73 of their 96 homers against righties. The club’s .174 ISO comes in at fourth in the sport, but a composite speed score of 6.0 also leads all other teams, too. Plus, a 21.0% K% and 8.9% BB% are solid-enough marks.
RHP Cade Cavalli was scheduled to start for the Nats today but has now been scratched due to illness. A new starter is currently TBD, but this section will be updated when the announcement is made. The bullpen’s numbers aren’t great though, sitting 24th in ERA at 4.71 with a 1.42 WHIP and 7.5% K-BB%.
Tampa Bay Rays
The Rays have dropped from the top spot in the AL East after a few rough weeks in June, now sitting 41-30 with a +5 run differential. However, momentum is not on their side after going 4-6 over their last 10 and dropping both of their last two series — one to the Angels and the other to the Dodgers. Their offense is good with 4.44 runs per game, but doesn’t quite have the elite upside of today’s opponent. Tampa Bay has a .713 OPS and a slash line of .255/.333/.379, and the club gets the better of its lefty/righty splits today at .259/.339/.393 for a .732 cumulative mark against right-handed pitching. That’s a positive, as is a BB/K ratio of 0.50 fueled by an MLB-best 19.1% K% and a 9.6% BB%. A .301 BABIP is nice to see, but a .124 ISO and 58 home runs this year leave much to be desired in terms of power. That’s the biggest weakness of this team by far, but they have hit 45 of those off a RHP.
RHP Griffin Jax gets the starting nod for Tampa Bay today. He’s 1-5 across 20 games and nine starts. His numbers include a 3.68 ERA, a 1.36 WHIP and 41 SO in 44.0 IP. He’s forced ground balls at an above-average rate and has seen positive results in terms of chase and whiff rate as well. The Rays’ bullpen has a 4.67 ERA that ranks 22nd with a 1.37 WHIP and 10.9% K-BB%.
Nationals vs. Rays pick, best bet
DraftKings Sportsbook lists the Rays as -126 Moneyline favorites at home today. The Rays are underdogs at +104 odds to win outright with the run total set at eight.
Best Bet: WAS Nationals ML (+104)
A straight-up pick is the move tonight as we target the Nats for an outright win on the road. Here’s the logic. I like the Washington offense far more than Tampa Bay’s, especially as of late. The Nationals have an .840 OPS in the last two weeks with a .221 ISO, though that drops a smidge to .772 and .185 over the last seven days in particular. They’re just as productive as usual though, if not more so. On the opposite side, the Rays are dead last over the last week at a .609 OPS and an .088 ISO, and while their strikeout rate has remained the same as on the full year, the OBP has dropped and they’re hitting a paltry .216. Looking at the last two weeks, they’re still 25th in the league with a .676 OPS as well and below .100 in ISO once again at .097. Jax has been solid as per usual, but it hasn’t translated to wins yet this year and likely won’t against such a high-powered lineup.
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