Presidential election 2024: Kamala Harris announces policy huge capital gains tax u-turn to distance herself from Biden

Kamala Harris is rolling out a tax proposal that will include a lower top rate for big earners earning long-term capital gains – her latest effort to distinguish her agenda from President Biden’s.

Capital gains tax rates have long been contentious in budget wars. The current top rate is 20 percent, plus a 3.8 percent tax on investment income. (Those earning between $47,000 and $519,000 pay a 15 percent rate).

Biden’s budget calls for taxing capital gains as ordinary income, nearly doubling it with a proposed top rate of 39.6 percent for households with a taxable income of $1 million or more (the top bracket is currently 37 percent). A boost in an investment income tax would make the effective capital gains rate nearly 45 percent. Additional state taxes on capital gains could bring the rate even higher.

Harris, who speaks in New Hampshire today, plans to set a lower top rate, while maintaining the $1 million threshold, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Her overall plans are still expected to call for raising billions from wealthy taxpayers.

By Rob Crilly, Chief Political Correspondent

Barron Trump was spotted arriving at New York University for the start of classes on Wednesday after his father told DailyMail.com that he will become a student at its Stern School of Business.

'He was accepted to a lot of colleges,' said a proud Donald Trump.

'He's a very smart guy, and he'll be going to Stern, the business school, which is a great school at NYU.'

Stern is among America's best business schools with a highly selective undergraduate program - only about 1 in 20 applicants is successful.

Barron, 18, is the youngest son of the former president and wife Melania.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Kamala Harris blasted the epidemic of school shootings in the United States as 'senseless,' saying ‘it does not have to be this way.’

Harris, while campaigning in New Hampshire, addressed a school shooting that took place in Georgia on Wednesday morning, which happened as many students are returning to the classroom.

She noted when she visits universities, she asks the students how many of them have had to sit through an active shooter drill and that ‘almost every hand’ was raised.

‘I grew up in California, earthquake drills. We had fire drills, but our kids are sitting in a classroom where they should be fulfilling their god given potential and some part of their big, beautiful brain is concerned about a shooter busting through the door of the classroom. It does not have to be this way,’ she said.

She acknowledged she was ‘going off script’ in making her comments.

Harris was in New Hampshire to talk about small businesses as part of her presidential campaign.

She did address the Georgia shooting at the top of her remarks, saying ‘our hearts are with all the students, the teachers and their families, of course, and we are grateful to the first responders and law enforcement.’

She added this is ‘just a senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies, and it's just outrageous that every day in our country, in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive.’

‘It's senseless. It is. We've got to stop it, and we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all. You know, it doesn't have to be this way. It doesn't have to be this way.’

The shooting at a high school about 45 miles outside Atlanta left four dead and an additional nine taken to various hospitals with injuries, state officials said. The suspect is in custody.

Several schools in Georgia were under lockdown on Wednesday morning, the fifth full week of school in the state, after gunfire was reported at the high school about 9:30 a.m. The FBI is also on the scene.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been subpoenaed for records relating to a $250 million COVID-19 relief fraud.

The subpoena was sent to Walz by Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee.

The notice demands Walz to hand over files about 'the Minnesota Department of Education’s (MDE) administration of federal child nutrition programs (FCNP).'

Feeding Our Future, a Minnesota nonprofit embroiled in the scheme, decided to spend the COVID relief money on lavish cars and property instead of feeding needy kids.

The Bidens condemned today's school shooting in Georgia, expressing their horror at what they called 'senseless gun violence.'

President Joe Biden laid the blame squarely at the door of Republicans in Congress and accused them of 'decades of inaction.'

Jill and I are mourning the deaths of those whose lives were cut short due to more senseless gun violence and thinking of all of the survivors whose lives are forever changed. What should have been a joyous back-to-school season in Winder, Georgia, has now turned into another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart. Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal.

President Joe Biden will formally block Nippon Steel’s proposed $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, the Washington Post reported.

Japan's play on the American industry caused a massive political controversy ahead of the November presidential election.

Biden, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have all voiced opposition to the deal.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he could not confirm the report. He noted there is a review 'process' when it comes to deals like this and pointed out President Biden has said U.S. Steel should remain American-owned.

The deal has been under investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

The CFIUS review is not complete but Biden is prepared to kill the sale if it reaches his desk, Bloomberg News reported.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Pollster Frank Luntz predicts the 'honeymoon period is official over' for Kamala Harris amid new enthusiasm polling.

There was a sharp drop in Democratic voter enthusiasm in the latest YouGov poll.

When Harris entered the race at the end of July, Democrats went from mid-50s to 70 percent in terms of those excited to cast their presidential ballot in November.

But now, at the start of September, the enthusiasm is back to 59 percent, compared to 60 percent of Republicans who are excited to vote.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Gov. Tim Walz responded in real time to the Georgia school shooting (pictured above) during a campaign stop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on Wednesday.

In the basement of an office building, Walz spoke with Lancaster County Democratic volunteers and encouraged them to keep working towards change in the midst of the latest tragedy.

The Democratic vice presidential nominee said:

The White House has been briefed on it. This is tragic. We don't know any of the details on it yet, but it's a situation that's all too common and our hearts are out there right now but our work needs to do to prevent these in the future, as we know.

So I know it's a little bit of a heavy heart for all of us, if you think about it, but it's the work you're doing. Thanks to each and every one of you.

He then told the volunteers that he brought them apple cider donuts after he and daughter Hope came from a stop at Cherry Hill Orchards in Lancaster.

A White House official said Harris was briefed on the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia.

She will receive regular updates from her staff as additional information becomes available. The Biden-Harris administration will continue coordinating with federal, state, and local officials.

Donald Trump's attempt to get his hush-money case moved to federal court was rejected... for a second time in two days.

The former president has tried to delay proceedings after he was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

A federal judge on Tuesday swiftly rejected Trump's request to intervene in his New York hush money criminal case, spurning the former president's bid to overturn his conviction ahead of his sentencing in two weeks time.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said the defense failed to meet the high burden of proof for changing jurisdiction and that Trump's conviction for falsifying business records involved his personal life, not official actions that the Supreme Court ruled are immune from prosecution.

Ella Emhoff, the daughter of VP Kamala Harris' husband Doug, hit NYC fashion week.

She was spotted wearing a black grungey ensemble and black glasses with a bright blue handbag en route to the Proenza Schouler fashion show in Tribeca.

Congress is again looking down the barrel of a potential government shutdown that could throw Capitol Hill into chaos, and Republican leaders are scrambling.

House Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, are plotting a path forward for a must-pass federal funding package due by September 30.

But on a House GOP call Tuesday morning, members expressed concern over how the party should proceed in the funding fight, and whether they should use their leverage to attach a proof-of-citizenship voting law to the funding deal.

The conservative legislation, dubbed the SAVE Act, would require proof of citizenship to vote in the presidential election and it has the backing of Trump.

Time is ticking since if there's no deal in 26 days, the government will be thrown into a shutdown. But that doesn't seem to bother former President Donald Trump.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

A new image shows members of vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz's family are supporting his Republican rival Donald Trump.

The photo shared by former Nebraska GOP gubernatorial candidate Charles W. Herbster shows eight people wearing 'Nebraska Walz's (sic) for Trump' t-shirts.

A representative for Herbster told DailyMail.com those posing are related to Walz through his grandfather's brother.

'Tim Walz's family back in Nebraska wants you to know something…' Herbster captioned the image first posted to X on Wednesday morning.

The Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign did not respond to DailyMail.com request for comment on the image.

The image of the grammatically incorrect t-shirts donned by a faction of pro-Trump Walz family members comes after it was revealed that the Democratic vice presidential nominee's brother Jeff, 67, also warned people against allowing him into the White House.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Tim Walz and daughter Hope stopped for some sweet treats while campaigning in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

The duo bought pumpkin and chocolate whoopie pies and apple cider donuts at Cherry Hill Orchards in Lancaster. They toured the orchard and then visited the farm store.

‘We’re pumpkin people,’ Hope said. ‘We’re a big fan of pumpkin.’

Meanwhile, the governor joked: ‘Look at me I have no problem picking out donuts.’

‘I already picked them out,’ Hope told him, holding two boxes in her hands.

Walz is on a two-day campaign tour of the must-win state, which makes up part of the Democrats’ ‘blue wall’ of defense against Trump.

Nikki Haley is joining Edelman Global Advisory, a public affairs firm, as a consultant.

She will work for the firm part-time.

‘The reason for this is there’s never been a more crazy political time,’ said Richard Edelman, CEO of the firm, per PR Week.

He announced her hire at an employee townhall meeting. Former Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mong.), a one-time ambassador to China, also joined the firm.

‘Adding these seasoned political people to our communications experts is essential,’ Edelman said.

Haley challenged Donald Trump for the GOP presidential nomination and lost to him in the primary process. She also served as his representative to the United Nations.

Haley is also working with think-tank the Hudson Institute.

Edelman said Haley would not work in a second Trump administration if the former president wins the November election.

A victory for Vice President Kamala Harris could mean that her national security advisor Phil Gordon would be the first point person for helping her develop her positions on foreign policy.

That has some Republicans concerned, especially when it comes to his soft approach to Iran.

Rep. Elise Stefanik and Sen. Tom Cotton have raised questions about Gordon's connections to groups that work to promote Iran's agenda in the United States

She has insisted their workplace romance is a thing of the past after it threw her groundbreaking prosecution of former President Donald Trump on election interference charges into disarray.

And yet Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and ex-lover Nathan Wade looked remarkably like a couple as they are seen on recent police bodycam footage obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com.

The pair were filmed together at the scene of her pregnant daughter Kinaya's August 24 arrest for allegedly driving with a suspended license.

Our footage shows them arriving in a black Ford SUV before approaching a group of cops at the roadside in Tyrone, Georgia, with casually-dressed Willis, 52, introducing herself to them as 'Fani.'

The officers mistake the pair for Kinaya's mom and dad but Willis corrects them, describing 51-year-old Wade – who stepped down as her special prosecutor when their affair came under public scrutiny – as 'just a friend.'

The Biden administration plans to accuse Russia of a 'sustained effort' to influence teh 2024 presidential election, according to a new report by CNN.

They allegedly are using Kremlin-run media and other online platforms to target U.S. voters with disinformation according to six sources.

On Wednesday, the U.S. will make a series of moves to address the efforts including the White House publicly condemning the actions.

The Justice Department is also expected to announce law enforcement actions targeting the campaign, sources told CNN.

The Russian state media network, RT, is reportedly at the center of the announcement.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

The House Task Force investigating the assassination attempt on Donald Trump are asking local law enforcement and officials for more information related to the attack.

The five different letters were sent from the task force's Republican Chairman, Rep. Mike Kelly (Pa.), and Democratic Ranking Member, Rep. Jason Crowe (Colo.) on Tuesday.

The 13-member task force is requesting transcribed interviews with relevant officials as well as documents and communications related to the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.

The letters were sent to Butler Township Police Department, Butler County Sheriff's Department, Butler and Beaver County Emergency Services Units.

Butler County Coroner William Young and Allegheny County Coroner Ariel Goldschmidt also received letters asking for information related to autopsy of shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks' body.

House assassination task force Chairman Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Ranking Member Rep. Jason Crowe (D-Colo.) are requesting transcribed interviews with local law enforcement about the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania

Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Whistleblowers have come forward to divulge the 'nightmare' situation of how agents were not properly trained to protect Donald Trump against the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.

Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley recounted how individuals described when Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents were reassigned to work on Trump's protective detail they were 'woefully unprepared.'

The HSI agents were given a single two-hour pre-recorded webinar on Microsoft Teams riddled with technical glitches, the whistleblowers alleged of the Secret Service training.

They also describe that the training session has not been updated since the assassination attempt on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Hawley told Fox News on Tuesday:

This is a nightmare, the only reason we know about this stuff is because of whistleblowers.

Other HSI agents who worked that consequential rally told Hawley their training was just 'one power-point presentation.'

The battleground state of North Carolina will start mailing out ballots of the 2024 election on Friday, September 6. It's the first state in the country to do so.

Election officials will begin mailing ballots to all voters who request them including to members of the military and voters aboad. The state does not require voters to have an excuse for voting absentee by mail. They simply need to fill out the form online or submit a paper one.

It comes sixty days before the election and 10 days before Pennsylvania also starts mailing its first ballots on September 16.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

A notable number of voters in critical swing states of Georgia and Pennsylvania are still undecided on their vote with just six days until the first debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

In battleground Georgia, 12 percent of voters say they haven't decided on a caididate yet or might change their mind before November – and 16 percent said the same in critical Pennsylvania.

Additiaonlly, according to the new CNN/SSRS poll released on Tuesday, about a quarter of independent voters across all seven swing states say they are likely to change their minds about the race in the next two months.

Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are the key siwng states that hold 93 Electoral College votes and will ultimately determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.

Sarah Ewall-Wice, Senior U.S. Political Reporter:

One million people have now registered to vote this cycle through Vote.org, DailyMail.com has confirmed.

That includes 17 percent who live in the top swing states, giving them an outsized sway in the upcoming election. A rough breadown of the battleground new registrations include:

• 18,000 voters in Arizona
• 43,000 voters in Georgia
• 21,000 voters in Michigan
• 28,000 voters in North Carolina
• 37,000 voters in Pennsylvania
• 19,000 voters in Wisconsin
• 8,000 voters in Nevada

More than one-third of the new registrations are eighteen year olds, a massive boost from the eight percent in 2020.

79 percent of the voters who registered through Vote.org were under 35.

The registrations were first reported by Politico.

Economist and Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs slammed the government for refusing to explain the details behind the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

Speaking to Tucker Carlson, Sachs said that the lack of background on what led to Trump being shot is what happens when the government refuses to level with citizens.

'We don't know what happened, it's absolutely shocking, we don't know the story and whether we ever will know the story is, like so many things now that are huge events,' he said.

Sachs - an Ivy Leaguer who has worked with the UN in the past but has been on the outs with liberal elites since promoting the COVID-19 'lab leak' theory - blames Americans' short attention spans preventing them from keeping Washington accountable.

'Assassination attempt on Trump, isn't that weeks ago? That's old news, we don't even talk about that anymore! We have no attention span, we have complete lying from the government, we have secrecy and confidentiality, so we never solve any of these issues'.

Sarah Ewall-Wice, Senior U.S. Political Reporter in Portsmouth, NH:

Vice President Kamala Harris is headed to New Hampshire today to make her pitch for helping grow small businesses and deliver tax relief.

The Democratic presidential nominee will deliver her remarks in the late afternoon at the Throwback Brewery in North Hampton, just outside Portsmouth. The brewery was able to open their location thanks to measures in the American Rescue Plan passed in 2021.

During the visit, the vice president will announce a new goal for a record 25 million new business applications during her first term if elected. That would surpass the previous record of 19 million set during the Biden administration.

Harris will also unveil her policy proposal to expand the startup tax deduction tenfold from $5,000 to $50,000 to help more small businesses launch. The proposal also will allow small businesses to wait to claim the deduction to help reduce their tax burden. She will also lay out several other efforts to support small businesses.

While in New Hampshire, the vice president will be joined by a number of elected officials including Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan as well as Congressman Chris Pappas.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House Correspondent

Doug Emhoff said he is ‘gutted’ after the killing of American Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

‘This is hard. I feel raw. I´m gutted,’ he said Tuesday evening at a vigil for the hostages at his synagogue in Washington.

The second gentleman is the first Jewish person married to a nationally elected U.S. leader. He has become the Biden administration’s leading voice on antisemitism.

‘I haven´t been able to stop thinking about Hersh and his parents, or about the five others and their families,’ he said.

He talked about how he and Kamala Harris spoke to Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jonathan Polin – Hersh’s parents – the day after the bodies were discovered. In the conversation, the couple were pressing Harris about the latest on the cease-fire negotiations that would free other hostages.

Emhoff noted that Harris and President Joe Biden are working ‘around the clock to get a hostage and cease-fire deal done.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Of the seven battleground states needed to clinch a victory in November, a new poll finds that Pennsylvania and Georgia are the key toss-ups that could go either way.

Likely voters in Wisconsin and Michigan go for Kamala Harris by 6 percent and 5 percent respectively and for Trump in Arizona by 5 points, according to a new CNN/SSRS survey released on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in Georgia, the split is only 1 percent for Harris over Trump and the candidates are in a dead tie in Pennsylvania at 47 percent each.

Nevada also just has the 1-point split – 48 percent to 47 percent leaning to the vice president over the former president. But there are only six Electoral College votes in the blue-leaning western state.

In total, the seven swing states share 93 Electoral College votes and the outcome in the battlegrounds will determine the 2024 victor.

President Joe Biden carried six of the seven swing states in 2020 – flipping five from red to blue and winning some states by tiny margins. In Georgia, Biden won by just under 12,000 votes and Arizona by just over 10,000.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called a suggestion that Kamala Harris uses different accents 'insane.'

'Do you think Americans seriously think this is an important question? You know what they care about?,' she told Fox News' Peter Doocy when he asked her about it in Tuesday's press briefing. 'They care about the economy, they care about lowering costs, they care about health care, that's what Americans care about.'

'I'm not even going to entertain some question about -- hearing it sounds so ridiculous.'

'It's insane,' she added.

Social media went crazy on Monday with claims Harris  used a 'fake accent' when speaking to a teachers union during a campaign rally in Michigan.

The internet erupted with accusations the Democratic presidential candidate altered her voice during the remarks praising teachers union members at a Detroit high school.

Ask Donald Trump, a man known for putting his family at the heart of his political and his business worlds, whether we will see more of former First Lady Melania on the campaign trail and his eyes light up.

For a moment.

'Well, I would like to. It's not a question of that. It's a nasty world for me,' he said, six weeks after an assassin's bullet ripped through his ear.

'It's not nasty for Democrats like it is for me. And I would like to have my family not have to go out there and go in front of some of the things that you know happen.'

Melania, he said, cares deeply about the country.

A bombshell congressional report claims would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks was incapacitated by a local cop before he was killed by a Secret Service sniper.

Two months after Crooks shot the former president's ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a preliminary report from Rep. Clay Higgins offered a differing narrative to the official one pushed by the FBI.

While it was initially claimed that Crooks was shot in the head within seconds by a Secret Service sniper, Higgins' report claimed it was actually a local SWAT operator who stopped the gunman's hail of bullets.

The congressman said the local cop's shot 'hit Crooks' rifle and fragged his face/ neck/ right shoulder area from the (gun) stock breaking up', which meant Crooks was unable to keep firing before he was killed.

It comes amid mounting scrutiny on the FBI and Secret Service's investigations into the shooting, weeks after Higgins also revealed Crooks' body was mysteriously cremated with approval from the FBI after just 10 days.