POLITICS

When pundits and political watchers raise the specter of who would would replace President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket, they are often, to mangle a favorite phrase of Vice President Kamala Harris, burdened by what has been. Even as many names have been floated as possible Biden replacements, Harris has the clearest path to the top of the ballot — both because people have voted for her there before and because she would have access to the Biden-Harris campaign’s resources and fundraising war chest. She also now has Biden's backing. But the country’s real history shapes the conversation. Biden's decision means uncertainty in a way no political party wants this close to a national election, regardless of who would take Biden’s place. And when it comes to Harris, there’s an added qu...

Kamala Harris adds trips to speak to Black women voters in July. Vice President Kamala Harris will be traveling throughout the month of July for targeted outreach to Black women voters, the White House shared exclusively with The 19th. In addition to a previously announced appearance at the 30th annual ESSENCE Festival of Culture this weekend in New Orleans, Harris will be giving the keynote address during the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority’s 71st annual Boulé, or gathering of total membership, in Dallas on July 10. Harris is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. Then on July 24, she will have a moderated conversation during the Zeta Phi Beta sorority’s Grand Boulé in Indianapolis. The appearances at the annual meetings of two of the “Divine Nine” historically Black fraternities and sororities a...

Biden crashes, Trump lies: A campaign-defining presidential debate. With four months to go until Election Day, the earliest-ever general election debate featured two presidents – one current, one former – and a lot of bitter personal attacks. Joe Biden’s universally acknowledged poor performance surprised and even panicked Democrats; Donald Trump gave a more forceful – if not truthful – performance. The Conversation asked two scholars, Mary Kate Cary and Karrin Vasby Anderson, to watch the debate and analyze a passage or a moment that stood out to them. Anderson is a communications scholar with a specialty in gender and the presidency, as well as political pop culture. Cary teaches political speechwriting and worked as a White House speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush, for wh...

New Biden administration rule would ban medical debt from credit reports. Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday announced a new effort to ban medical debt from credit reports, something that would ease a burden that falls most heavily on women and Black people. “Medical debt makes it more difficult for millions of Americans to be approved for a car loan, a home loan or a small business loan, all of which in turn makes it more difficult to just get by, much less get ahead, and that is simply not fair. Especially when we know that people with medical debt are no less likely to repay a loan than those without medical debt,” Harris said. “No one should be denied access to economic opportunity simply because they experienced a medical emergency.” Federal efforts to remove medical debt fr...

5 reasons Supreme Court ethics questions are more common now than in the past. In recent years, all nine sitting justices on the U.S. Supreme Court have been the subject of reports calling their ethics into question. Is this an old problem? Something new? Political gamesmanship? Something more serious? As a legal scholar who has studied judicial history, politics and ethics, my answer to each of these questions is “yes.” On the one hand, accusing a Supreme Court justice of ethical misconduct is not new. In 1804, Justice Samuel Chase was impeached by the House of Representatives, but acquitted by the Senate, for violating his oath to act “faithfully and impartially” in several cases, including one where he announced his legal opinion before the defendant was heard, and another, wher...

Trump found guilty: 5 key aspects of the trial explained by a law professor. After the May 30, 2024, conviction of former President Donald Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York, what comes next? Trump’s legal team will likely appeal the verdict. “We will fight for our Constitution,” Trump said following the jury’s announcement. “This is long from over.” A sentencing hearing for Trump is set for July 11. The Conversation U.S.‘ politics and society editor Amy Lieberman spoke with Gabriel J. Chin, a scholar of criminal law and procedure, to better understand the verdict. 1. Why were there so many different felony counts in this case? The essence of the offenses Trump was convicted of is falsifying documents or records. Accordingly, each check, invoice o...

How Trump is using courtroom machinations to his political advantage. The second week is wrapping up in former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial on charges from the state of New York related to paying hush money to an adult film star. So far, the jury has been selected, but no other proceedings have begun. The Conversation U.S. interviewed Tim Bakken, a former New York prosecutor and now a legal scholar teaching at West Point, and Karrin Vasby Anderson, a political communication expert at Colorado State University, to find out what overarching themes they have observed, both in the courtroom and outside it. Is this trial proceeding normally? Bakken: It seems like an ordinary trial, but it is an extraordinary trial underneath if we really look at some of the details. T...