©  Stephanie Scarbrough and Manuel Balce Ceneta, Associated Press

As the race for the White House nears the 100-day sprint to the finish line, former President Trump plans to rally in a traditionally blue state this weekend, while Vice President Harris’s team of surrogates fan out across the battlegrounds.

Polls show a tightening race since President Biden dropped out. Election analysts view Trump as the slight favorite, but early polls indicate Harris is running stronger than Biden.

What does this mean? Well, the nation could be headed for another nail-biter.

Republican ticket:

• Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) will campaign in St. Cloud, Minn., Saturday, as the pair seeks to become the first GOP presidential ticket to carry the North Star State in 52 years.
  
  
• Trump will headline a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday — his first trip back to the state since he the assassination attempt against him less than two weeks ago. Trump will campaign in Harrisburg, about four hours east of the Butler rally where the assassination attempt took place.
  

Democratic ticket:

There is tremendous energy on the Democratic side, with Harris giving the party new hope for November…

• Former President Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama endorsed Harris on Friday. Obama acknowledged Democrats appear to be “underdogs” in the election, but he told Harris “we’re absolutely confident that you’re gonna be able to make it happen.”
  
  
• Harris will headline a fundraiser in Massachusetts on Saturday. The swanky fundraiser in the Berkshires will reportedly feature musicians James Taylor and Yo Yo Ma.
  
  

Harris’ strong bench of surrogates — including several potential running mates — will be fanning out across the battlegrounds to carry her message.

• Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) will oversee a “Weekend of Action Volunteer Kick-Off” on Saturday in Carlisle, Pa., not far from where Trump’s Wednesday rally will take place.
  
  
• Minn. Gov. Tim Walz (D) will provide counterprogramming outside of Trump’s rally in St. Cloud, Minn., on Saturday.
  
  
• Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff will headline a canvass launch in Wisconsin.
  
  
• On Tuesday, Harris will head to Atlanta for a campaign rally. It’s her sixth trip to the swing state this year.

Trump has been swamping Harris on the airwaves since Democrats swapped candidates, effectively getting his message across the swing states without interference.

That will soon change .

• Future Forward, the largest Democratic super PAC, is putting $50 million behind an ad campaign introducing Harris to the country ahead of next month’s nominating convention. The 30-second ad, which lays out Harris’s political career, will run during the Olympics.
  
  
• The gun safety group founded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), the wife of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), is launching a $15 million ad campaign to elect Harris.
  
  

The polls show the presidential race has effectively returned to where it was prior to President Biden’s disastrous debate performance.

The national polls are essentially tied, with Trump holding a small advantage in the battlegrounds.

CNN election analyst Harry Enten said the early polling indicates Harris has earned back support from one-time Biden backers who questioned whether he could serve another term. But, so far, there’s no evidence to indicate she’s cut any further into Trump’s support.

“There’s all this talk of all this Harris momentum. Maybe there’s a slight bit of momentum, but I would argue it’s actually smaller than folks think…the movement is actually from Biden to Harris, not actually Harris herself necessarily moving.”

As exciting as the past few days have been for Democrats, strategist James Carville told MSNBC’s Ari Melber that it’s time for the party to move beyond the “giddy elation” of having a new candidate.

“They’re coming at us and they’re gonna keep coming. And this kind of giddy elation is not going to be very helpful much longer ‘cause that’s now what we’re gonna be faced with.”

The big question now … Will Trump and Harris debate?

• The Trump campaign is keeping the matter open, saying Democrats must officially nominate someone first.
  
  
• Trump has pushed to debate Harris on Fox News after previously agreeing to debate Biden on ABC News.

The Harris campaign is trying to cast Trump as scared to debate.

“I have agreed to the previously agreed upon Sept. 10 debate. He agreed to that previously,” Harris said. “Now, here he is backpedaling, and I’m ready, and I think the voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on a debate stage, and so I’m ready. Let’s go.”

Perspectives:

• Andrew Sullivan: Democrats nominate their weakest, wokest candidate.
• Ed Kilgore: How Harris can fight the “too liberal” label.

Read more:

• Trump says World War III will break out if he’s not elected.
• Family, friends, longtime aides dominate Harris’ inner circle.
• Emhoff goes to bat for Harris.

Welcome to Evening Report! I’m Jonathan Easley, catching you up from the afternoon and what’s coming tomorrow. Not on the list? Subscribe here.

• The Pentagon found another $2 billion accounting mistake pertaining to aid for Ukraine, creating a path for billions more to be sent to Kyiv.
  
  

• A key Fed inflation gauge ticked higher in June. The cost-of-living crisis is hitting sales of food, cars and luxury goods. A $1 million starter home is the norm in more than 200 cities.

   

• Four years later, students are struggling to shake learning losses.
  
  

• Rain disrupted the opening ceremony at the Olympics in Paris.

©  Alex Wong/Getty Images

Ohio Sen. JD Vance (R) is on the defensive as Democrats dig through the vault to highlight his past remarks.

Vance has been followed this week by past remarks to Tucker Carlson, in which he said the Democrats running the country are a bunch of “childless cat ladies.”

Before Vance talked to Carlson, he laid out his world view in a talk to a think tank, in which he called out Vice President Harris, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg by name.

“Not a single one of them has any children… look, a lot of people are unable to have kids for very complicated and important reasons … The target of these remarks is not them … it’s one thing to recognize there are people who don’t want to have children … But it’s something else to build a political movement invested theoretically in the future of this country, when not a single one of them actually has any physical commitment to the future of this country… we should treat this as a crisis in this country and we should send the signal to the culture that we’re the pro-family party and we’re going to back it up with real policy.”

Harris is a stepmother to two children, while Pete Buttigieg and husband Chasten Buttigieg adopted twins in 2021.

Speaking to Megyn Kelly on SiriusXM Friday, Vance called the “cat lady” remarks “sarcastic,” but he stood by his broader point. He claimed Democrats who don’t have children supported the masking of other people’s children and are trying to eliminate the child tax credit.

“This comment that I made was actually motivated in part by a conversation I had with my wife…she was talking about this incredible professional pressure to not have kids because it set back her professional advancement.”

“It’s not about criticizing people who for various reasons didn’t have kids. It’s about criticizing the Democratic party for becoming anti-family and anti-child…I’m proud to stand up for parents…they’ve become anti-family, it’s built into their policy, it’s built into the way they talk about parents and children.”

The Hill’s Mychael Schnell reports that some House lawmakers are grumbling privately about Vance, believing he was the wrong pick.

Meanwhile, Republicans are searching for the right attack lines against Harris.

Top Republicans are warning against swiping at Harris as a “DEI” hire after several members made remarks about how she only became vice president because of her race and gender.

“It’s not helpful. Look, I mean, we’re talking about a liberal senator who literally has not accomplished very much and what she was given, she didn’t do much with. You don’t need to talk about what she looks like or what gender she is. The American people are smarter than that.” —  Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) on CNN.

“If Trump follows the examples of some of the irresponsible members of Congress and starts taking shots at her race and her gender and talking about a DEI candidate, that’s going to backfire.” – Republican pollster Whit Ayres to The Washington Post.

Read more:

• Vance went to Iraq a believer in overseas wars. He came back a skeptic.
• Inside Vance’s many name changes.
• In Vance Country, an addiction scourge that won’t go away.
• Vance-aligned think tank challenges traditional GOP ideas.

Former President Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday at Mar-a-Lago, a day after Netanyahu met privately at the White House with Vice President Harris.

The big question on the minds of Washington insiders is what the U.S.-Israel alliance would look like under a potential Harris administration.

• Harris’s policy stance toward Israel is effectively the same as Biden’s. She says she supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas following the Oct. 7 terror attack.
  
  
• Harris supports a two-state solution, which Netanyahu opposes.
  
  
• Harris urged Netanyahu to accept a cease-fire agreement proposed by the Biden administration. That proposal sets up a framework to free the remaining 111 hostages in Gaza believed to still be alive.
  
  
• In remarks at the White House, Harris spoke solemnly about the “devastating” loss of life and the “dire” humanitarian crisis in Gaza from Israeli attacks.
  
  

“What has happened in Gaza over the past 9 months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time. We cannot allow ourselves to look away from these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silenced.”

Harris faces political pressure from the left to stand up to Netanyahu, as hundreds of thousands of Democrats voted “uncommitted” in the primary to protest the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza.

Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton told CNN on Friday that Netanyahu should be concerned by Harris’s posture toward Israel.

“The Democratic Party’s very special relationship with Israel I think has disappeared, and I think a Harris administration would be a whole different world in U.S.-Israeli relations.”

Perspectives:

• The Free Press: Harris should not have snubbed Netanyahu.
• The Wall Street Journal: Anti-Israel protesters make Netanyahu’s point.

©  Allison Bailey/ Middle East Images/ AFP via Getty Images

Former President Trump and his doctor insisted Friday that its was a bullet that grazed his ear following the failed assassination attempt against him, pushing back on FBI director Christopher Wray’s claim that the agency hadn’t determined yet if the wound was from a bullet or shrapnel.

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas.), who serves as Trump’s physician, released a letter on Friday calling for Wray to correct the record.

“There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet. Congress should correct the record as confirmed by both the hospital and myself. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”

Trump railed against Wray in a TruthSocial post.

“No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel. The hospital called it a ‘bullet wound to the ear,’ and that is what it was. No wonder the once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!”

Read more:

• Officers did not leave post to search for Trump shooter.

Here are newsmakers who will be making TV appearances Sunday, via The Hill’s Liz Crisp:

• FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
  
• MSNBC “The Weekend”: Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Sen. Gary Peters (Mich.) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Suzan DelBene (Wash.) in a joint discussion on the November elections.
• ABC “This Week”: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D); New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R).
• CNN “State of the Union”: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D); Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.); Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
• CBS “Face the Nation”: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.); Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.); Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas); New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D).
• NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.).

“Forget the hype, it’s still a Working Class election,” by Ruy Teixeira for The Liberal Patriot.

“Post-Biden, Democrats need a more muscular foreign policy,” by Robert Hamilton and Dan Perry for The Hill.

“Don’t be fooled by Trump, GOP’s abortion myths,” by The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board.

“Political candidates should be chosen democratically,” by Freddie Deboer on Substack.

24 days until the next Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

46 days until the second presidential debate (maybe).

102 days until the 2024 general election.

178 days until Inauguration Day 2025.

Friday

• Biden travels to Camp David.
• Trump delivers remarks to the Turning Point Believers Summit in West Palm Beach at 8 p.m

Saturday

• Trump and Vance hold a rally in St. Cloud, Minn. 
• Harris attends a fundraiser in the Berkshires.

There a story you think should be getting more attention? Something people should be talking about? Drop me a line: jeasley@digital-release.thehill.com

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