Lancer Ledger

Trump-Harris Debate Impact

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, held their first presidential debate on Tuesday, September 11, 2024 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, leaving Harris with a slight lead in the polls. 

Multiple news sources, including a Fox News voter panel and an ABC poll created by Langer Research Associates, reported that Kamala won the debate, but her performance did not have a meaningful impact on polls, where she still has only a slight lead over Trump. 

Although Harris came out on top in last week’s debate, some found she knew what voters wanted to hear, but thought she avoided answering some of the hard hitting questions. A complaint from the Fox News voter panel was that she was not called out on avoidance, but Trump was. Additionally, both candidates had to be fact-checked on topics throughout the debate, and although Trump had to be checked more often, some felt the moderators were softer on Harris than Trump. 

Although the debate brought in bigger numbers than Trump’s debate with President Biden in June, with 67 million people tuning in, Trump’s team has not accepted Harris’ request for a second round. 

Another Assassination Attempt on Former President Trump

Former President Trump faced a second assassination attempt while golfing at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida on Sunday, September 16, 2024. 

The suspect, who has been identified as 58-year old Ryan Wesley Routh of Hawaii, was located 300 to 500 yards away from the former president armed with an assault rifle before a Secret Service agent spotted and fired at him. Witnesses supplied authorities with Routh’s license plate number, which led to a quick arrest. 

According to NBC News, in a fundraising email Trump sent to supporters shortly after the incident, he wrote, “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL! Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER!”

Although Routh’s motives are still unclear, CBS reported that he had been interviewed by the news agency after he went to Ukraine to support the war efforts in 2022. Routh also voted for Trump in 2016, but by 2020 his social media showed disdain for the administration. 

Taylor Swift Endorses Harris

Taylor Swift took to her Instagram account after Tuesday night’s debate to endorse Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Swift urged her followers to register to vote and research each candidate to make an informed choice in the upcoming election. 

Swift shared that her reasons for her endorsement are due to the Harris-Walz campaign in her post, stating that Harris is a “gifted leader” who will lead with “calm and not chaos. Additionally, she stated the campaign “fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” including LGBTA+ rights, IVF, and Woman’s right to her own body. Swift also shared the link to Vote.gov, which NBC News reported had over 337,826 hits by the following afternoon. 

Swift also stated in her Instagram post that felt the need to address her “plans” for this election after an AI image was posted on Trump’s Truth Social account that made it appear that Swift may have been supporting his campaign. 

Even with Swift’s 284 million Instagram followers, a recent ABC News poll shows that her endorsement and voting PSA had only a small impact on the current campaign numbers.