Sylvia Garcia

Long before President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris had established herself as the administration's leading advocate of abortion rights.Now, Democrats are hoping that will help tip the scales in November's election."We'll stop Donald Trump's extreme abortion bans because we trust women to make decisions about their own bodies and not have the government tell them what to do!" Harris, her party's presumptive nominee, thundered in front of a crowd in Milwaukee this week.Two years after Trump-appointed judges helped overturn the national right to abortion, a passionate defender of reproductive freedoms at the top of the Democratic ticket could help mobilize more progressives in a tight race expected to hinge on turnout.From investigating anti-abortion activists accused of deceptive practices as California's attorney general, to grilling conservative Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing, to becoming the first VP to visit an abortion clinic this spring, Harris's bona fides on abortion rights are unquestionable.- Better messenger -That contrasts starkly with Biden, who has often been reticent on the issue, frequently citing his Catholic upbringing as a reason for his discomfort.During this year's State of the Union address, Biden deviated from pre-written remarks, opting for terms like "reproductive freedom" or "freedom to choose" instead of "abortion."As a brand-new senator in 1973, Biden felt the Supreme Court went "too far" in deciding Roe v Wade, the ruling that established the right to terminate a pregnancy, and as recently as 2006, he described the procedure as "always a tragedy" and "not a choice and right."Though his stance has since evolved, abortion rights activists have long sensed his reluctance to fully embrace the issue."What makes Harris so dangerous to Trump on abortion specifically is that, unlike Trump, she knows what she's talking about, and she can channel the anger of women voters," feminist author Jessica Valenti, who runs "Abortion, Every Day" on Substack, told AFP."I don't think people fully understand just how angry women are about Roe being overturned -- Harris has the ability to drive that home."Polling by YouGov released this week found Harris enjoying a 12-point advantage over Trump on abortion, significantly higher than the five-point lead Biden held over Trump in early July.While she hasn't yet been formally nominated, the abortion rights group Reproductive Freedom for All was quick to throw its weight behind her."There is nobody who has fought as hard for abortion rights and access, and we are proud to endorse her in this race," the nonprofit's CEO Mini Timmaraju said.- Honeymoon period? -On the other side of the race, Trump's running mate J.D. Vance makes the divide between the two parties even clearer.Where Trump speaks from both sides of his mouth -- boasting about his role in overturning Roe to conservatives while emphasizing state rights to court independents -- Vance has unequivocally stated his desire to make abortion "illegal nationally."Valenti called Vance the "personification of Republican anti-abortion extremism" who has supported a federal abortion ban, voted against protecting IVF, and compared abortion to "slavery.""Vance's selection is definitely going to make it harder for Donald Trump to act as a moderate on this issue," Marc Trussler, a political scientist at the University of Pennsylvania told AFP.Despite Harris being an effective messenger, the renewed focus on abortion and other issues partly arises from the simple fact that the political conservation had for months been dominated by questions about Biden's mental acuity, and those are now out of the way, added Trussler.And while abortion has been a vote winner for Democrats in recent races, it's uncertain if it will be the single biggest factor in the upcoming election."We are very much in the honeymoon period of Harris's candidacy," he said, where she is still seen as "everything to everybody" and hasn't yet had to take up hard positions on contentious issues dividing the party, from Gaza to criminal justice reform.

A federal judge said that Rudy Giuliani's bankruptcy has not been officially dismissed because the former New York City mayor has refused to pay administrative expenses — even though he seems to have the funds to do so.In July, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane said he would dismiss the bankruptcy case at the request of Giuliani and two former Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. Giuliani had initially declared bankruptcy after a court ordered him to pay Freeman and Moss $148 million for defamation.In a five-page order on Thursday, Lane noted that the order to dismiss the case had not been entered into the court record because Giuliani claimed he could not afford to pay related administrative expenses."The administrative expenses in question are the fees for the financial advisors retained by the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors," the judge's Thursday order said. "What little we know about the Debtor's financial situation makes his stance here more troubling.""Even assuming that the Debtor does not have the funds on hand to immediately pay these bankruptcy expenses, he certainly has considerable assets upon which he can draw to pay such expenses," Lane continued. "It is undisputed that he owns two apartments of considerable value."Giuliani's New York apartment was said to be worth $5.6 million, and his Florida apartment was valued at approximately $3.5 million.EXCLUSIVE: Trump ‘secretary of retribution’ won't discuss his ‘target list’ at RNCLane explained that the "most obvious path forward" would be to hold hearings to determine Giuliani's financial conditions and possibly force him to testify."[T]here may come a point when dismissal is no longer an option because the Debtor is unwilling to pay these administrative expenses, a necessary requirement under the law for dismissal of the case," Thursday's order said. "Under such circumstances, the Court may be forced to reevaluate the alternative of a Chapter 11 trustee to supervise the administration of the Debtor's financial affairs and to promptly liquidate assets such as the New York apartment as appropriate."Lane gave Giuliani and his creditors until July 31 to submit proposals for a path forward.

A GOP strategist unleashed an attack on Kamala Harris that was dripping in sarcasm Thursday after losing his cool over positive media coverage of the Democratic Party’s presumed presidential candidate.Doug Heye was on CNN as the vice president finished a rally speech in Houston. As his co-guest, Democratic Party strategist Maria Cordona, finished praising the candidate’s performance, Heye got flustered.Raising his voice, he said, “Everything we heard is 'Oh my god, Kamala Harris is the greatest thing ever. She's the greatest cook that we've ever had near the Oval Office. She knows more about wine than anybody other than maybe Thomas Jefferson. Everything she does is amazing.'“So we should just cancel the election because clearly she's going to win by 25 points?”He then tried to bring the CNN panel back from what he saw as rose-colored adoration.ALSO READ: ‘Creepy weirdos’: Senator fears Trump WH staff would destroy government from ‘inside’“The reality is, i'm not going to get in Donald Trump's head, don't want to be there, don't know what's in there. But he sees the same polling that we do," he said.“Kamala Harris is marginally less unpopular than Joe Biden. She's not winning in the polls. Maybe that changes in a week or two, or six or eight, but at this point, Donald Trump is still winning despite this barrage of nothing but positive press for Kamala Harris and has been marinated in the public's mind.”Cardona had set him off by suggesting that Trump was “going through a mental meltdown” because of his opponent's popularity.“Not just that she is incredibly accomplished as DA, AG, senator, VP,” she said, “but the fact that she is also very attractive. I mean, I have to say it.“...In addition to that, she's not only a woman, she's a woman of African American Asian descent, daughter of immigrants, Jamaican descent.I mean, it's it's this sort of cauldron of all of the things that Trump has nightmares about every single night.”Watch the video below or click the link here.