SAN FRANCISCO – Riding the momentum of a tour of the country's swing states alongside her newly minted running mate Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to her home state on Sunday to talk at a fundraiser before a crowd of major Bay Area donors and California politicians.

“There are two very different visions for our nation. One that focuses on our future and one that focuses on the past,” Harris told 700 people on the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill. “Our fight is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom.”

The sold-out event, the primary fundraiser Harris has attended within the Bay Area since she ascended to the highest of the Democratic Party in July, raised greater than $12 million, in keeping with a campaign official. Tickets ranged from $3,300 to $50,000, and donors of $500,000 may very well be named as event chairs.

In her speech, the Vice President took aim at her opponent, former President Donald Trump, and his “Project 2025,” a comprehensive package of policy proposals from conservative groups that will reshape the federal government and expand the president's powers if he’s re-elected.

“Can you believe they put that in writing?” she said.

Harris received thunderous applause when she mentioned abortion rights and promised to enact Roe v. Wade protections as president. She also told the group, “We trust women to know what is in their own best interest.”

Her speech was all about domestic politics. Harris made no mention of the war in Gaza, despite the fact that around 120 protesters gathered within the streets outside the Fairmont and demanded that she “stop the genocide.”

Inside, lots of California's leading Democrats were in attendance, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, whom Harris thanked for being “an extraordinary leader for California,” in addition to U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland, Attorney General Rob Bonta and Evan Low, a California Assembly member and candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. Local San Francisco politicians, including Mayor London Breed and her challenger, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, were also within the audience. Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of DreamWorks and co-chair of Harris' campaign, was among the many donors in attendance.

Harris was led onto the stage by House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, who has been working behind the scenes to get Biden to step down and clear the way in which for the vp to rise. Pelosi urged the group to “take the ground with our mobilization.”

“We don't want to regret the day after the election that we could have done so much more,” she said. “Democracy is on the ballot.”

As Harris finished her speech, the group streamed toward the stage and held out their cellphones to snap a photograph with their hometown candidate. One of the lucky few who got close enough for a handshake clutched her wrist as she left the ballroom.

“I will never wash this hand!” she said, beaming.

Harris has raised a variety of money in recent weeks and 310 million US dollars in July, fueled by a flood of donations after President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid. In addition, she raised $36 million within the 24 hours after announcing Minnesota Gov. Walz as her running mate. (Walz didn’t attend Sunday's event, despite earlier reports that he might appear alongside Harris.)

Polls show the vp has a small lead over former President Trump. New York Times/Siena College A poll conducted this week found Harris leading Trump 50% to 46% in the important thing swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania – but those leads are throughout the poll's margin of error.

Here within the Bay Area, Harris' rapid rise to the nominee position has energized Democratic supporters and donors who had grown weary on the prospect of one other Biden-Trump rematch.

Earlier this week, a gaggle of Silicon Valley investors called “VCs for Kamala” received nearly $150,000 in pledges to Harris' campaign. Among the donors were LinkedIn co-founder and chief executive Reid Hoffman, who was also present at Sunday's fundraiser, and billionaire investor Ron Conway, the New York Times reported.

With lower than three months to go before the November election, Harris' campaign has shifted its campaign efforts into high gear. The night before her fundraiser in San Francisco, Harris spoke to greater than 12,000 people in Las Vegas—her fifth rally in five days—where she promised to abolish the federal tax on suggestions if she is elected. It followed an analogous suggestion made by Trump two months earlier – a fact he was quick to indicate on social media, calling her a “copycat Kamala.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign schedule is comparatively quieter. On Thursday, he said he wouldn’t appear at any rally until after the Democratic Party Convention, which ends on August twenty second.

The convention will cap off a turbulent August campaign schedule for Harris and Walz, however it stays to be seen whether the candidates can maintain Democratic enthusiasm into November.

In the Bay Area, one other fundraiser is planned for August 17 in Mill Valley, but neither Harris nor Walz are expected to seem.

Originally published: August 11, 2024 at 2:18 pm

SAN FRANCISCO – Riding the momentum of a tour of the country's swing states alongside her newly minted running mate Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to her home state on Sunday to talk at a fundraiser before a crowd of major Bay Area donors and California politicians.

“There are two very different visions for our nation. One that focuses on our future and one that focuses on the past,” Harris told 700 people on the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill. “Our fight is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom.”

The sold-out event, the primary fundraiser Harris has attended within the Bay Area since she ascended to the highest of the Democratic Party in July, raised greater than $12 million, in response to a campaign official. Tickets ranged from $3,300 to $50,000, and donors of $500,000 could possibly be named as event chairs.

In her speech, the Vice President took aim at her opponent, former President Donald Trump, and his “Project 2025,” a comprehensive package of policy proposals from conservative groups that will reshape the federal government and expand the president's powers if he’s re-elected.

“Can you believe they put that in writing?” she said.

Harris received thunderous applause when she mentioned abortion rights and promised to enact Roe v. Wade protections as president. She also told the gang, “We trust women to know what is in their own best interest.”

Her speech was all about domestic politics. Harris made no mention of the war in Gaza, regardless that around 120 protesters gathered within the streets outside the Fairmont and demanded that she “stop the genocide.”

Inside, lots of California's leading Democrats were in attendance, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, whom Harris thanked for being “an extraordinary leader for California,” in addition to U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland, Attorney General Rob Bonta and Evan Low, a California Assembly member and candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. Local San Francisco politicians, including Mayor London Breed and her challenger, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, were also within the audience. Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of DreamWorks and co-chair of Harris' campaign, was among the many donors in attendance.

Harris was led onto the stage by House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, who has been working behind the scenes to get Biden to step down and clear the best way for the vice chairman to rise. Pelosi urged the gang to “take the ground with our mobilization.”

“We don't want to regret the day after the election that we could have done so much more,” she said. “Democracy is on the ballot.”

As Harris finished her speech, the gang streamed toward the stage and held out their cellphones to snap a photograph with their hometown candidate. One of the lucky few who got close enough for a handshake clutched her wrist as she left the ballroom.

“I will never wash this hand!” she said, beaming.

Harris has raised numerous money in recent weeks and 310 million US dollars in July, fueled by a flood of donations after President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid. In addition, she raised $36 million within the 24 hours after announcing Minnesota Gov. Walz as her running mate. (Walz didn’t attend Sunday's event, despite earlier reports that he might appear alongside Harris.)

Polls show the vice chairman has a small lead over former President Trump. New York Times/Siena College A poll conducted this week found Harris leading Trump 50% to 46% in the important thing swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania – but those leads are throughout the poll's margin of error.

Here within the Bay Area, Harris' rapid rise to the nominee position has energized Democratic supporters and donors who had grown weary on the prospect of one other Biden-Trump rematch.

Earlier this week, a gaggle of Silicon Valley investors called “VCs for Kamala” received nearly $150,000 in pledges to Harris' campaign. Among the donors were LinkedIn co-founder and chief executive Reid Hoffman, who was also present at Sunday's fundraiser, and billionaire investor Ron Conway, the New York Times reported.

With lower than three months to go before the November election, Harris' campaign has shifted its campaign efforts into high gear. The night before her fundraiser in San Francisco, Harris spoke to greater than 12,000 people in Las Vegas—her fifth rally in five days—where she promised to abolish the federal tax on suggestions if she is elected. It followed an identical suggestion made by Trump two months earlier – a fact he was quick to indicate on social media, calling her a “copycat Kamala.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign schedule is comparatively quieter. On Thursday, he said he wouldn’t appear at any rally until after the Democratic Party Convention, which ends on August twenty second.

The convention will cap off a turbulent August campaign schedule for Harris and Walz, however it stays to be seen whether the candidates can maintain Democratic enthusiasm into November.

In the Bay Area, one other fundraiser is planned for August 17 in Mill Valley, but neither Harris nor Walz are expected to seem.

Originally published: August 11, 2024 at 2:18 pm

Technology entrepreneur Mike Belshe was scheduled to host vice presidential candidate and Ohio Senator JD Vance at his Palo Alto home on Monday for his second fundraising visit to the Bay Area.

Belshe is one in all several technology executives who’ve spoken out in support of Republicans or supported them of their efforts to lift more cash.

Vance began his enterprise capital profession in San Francisco, working closely with enterprise capitalist and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, and counts billionaire investor Marc Andreessen and Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk amongst his contacts within the technology industry.

Donald Trump's Republican vice president-elect hopes to make use of his connections in Silicon Valley to fill the war chest of the Republican presidential campaign.

And tickets to the fundraiser are very expensive. A donation of $25,000 per person includes participation within the roundtable discussion, a photograph and dinner with the vice presidential candidate. For $15,000, participants can get a photograph and dinner, while $3,300 only allows participation within the dinner.

When Vance, known for his bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” about his Appalachian roots, was last within the Bay Area in June, he helped raise $12 million on the San Francisco home of billionaire technology entrepreneur David Sacks.

The announcement that Belshe, a crypto executive, would host Vance on the fundraiser should come as no surprise. Trump has positioned himself as a pro-crypto president should he be re-elected for an additional term.

According to a Newsweek reportThe former president spoke at a cryptocurrency conference on Saturday and made five major guarantees to the cryptocurrency industry. These guarantees included fighting inflation through crypto-friendly policies, encouraging the usage of excess energy for cryptocurrency mining, and firing a government official seen as anti-crypto.

Here are five things it’s best to find out about Belshe:

— Belshe is CEO and co-founder of BitGo, a pioneering cryptocurrency wallet, digital asset, and security company based in Palo Alto. The company was founded in 2013 by Belshe and Ben Davenport, a former software engineer at Google and Facebook. BitGo's valuation was estimated at $1.75 billion last yr after it secured Series C funding.

— As a pc engineer, Belshe helped program the SPDY protocol, which made web browsing faster, and developed HTTP/2.0, which allowed web sites to speak more efficiently with users' web browsers.

— Belshe began his technical profession as a software engineer at Hewlett Packard in 1993 before joining Netscape in 1995, where he worked on the Netscape Enterprise server.

— He is a 1993 graduate of California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo. According to his LinkedIn profile, Belshe was named Computer Science Senior of the Year.

— Belshe has been posting political content on his X account for the past month. On July 27, two days before the fundraiser, he posted this pro-cryptocurrency quote from Trump: “Bitcoin is not a threat to the U.S. dollar. You got it wrong. The U.S. government is the biggest threat to the U.S. dollar.”

“Bitcoin is not a threat to the US dollar. You have it wrong. The US government is the biggest threat to the US dollar.”

– President Donald Trump

— Mike Belshe (@mikebelshe) July 27, 2024

—

Originally published: July 29, 2024 at 16:12

Local news

Vice President Kamala Harris used her first fundraiser since becoming the likely Democratic candidate for the White House to sharply criticize the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as determined to limit the freedoms of Americans.

Harris traveled to Pittsfield on Saturday, where her campaign said she expected to boost greater than $1.4 million from an audience of tons of on the Colonial Theater, greater than $1 million greater than the event's original goal before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

She told an excited crowd of supporters that she entered the race as an “underdog” while expressing confidence that her upstart campaign could defeat Trump.

“I will fight to move our nation forward,” Harris said. “Donald Trump intends to set our country back.”

Harris also made jabs at Trump and his vice presidential candidate, the senator. JD Vancefor making strange attacks on her and other Democrats. The vice chairman appeared to allude to a 2021 interview with Vance wherein he criticized some distinguished Democrats without biological children, including Harris, as “childless female cats” without “direct share” in America.

“You may have noticed that Donald Trump has resorted to some wild lies about my record, and some of the things he and his running mate are saying are just plain weird,” Harris said. “I mean, that's the box you put it in, right?”

Harris' branding of Republicans as “weird” appears to be a part of a concerted effort by her campaign to portray a few of Trump and Vance's rhetoric as questionable. Earlier this week, the Harris campaign called out Vance on the social media site X “strange and creepy” for a few of his positions on women's reproductive rights. Trump has, meanwhile, mentioned the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter from the film “Silence of the Lambs” in campaign speeches.

“These guys are just weird,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who’s on Harris's vice presidential shortlist, said in an MSNBC interview earlier this week. “They're running for the He-Man Club of misogynists or something.”

Supporters of the fundraiser included musician James Taylor and diverse Democratic heavyweights within the state, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, former Governor Deval Patrick and Representative Richie Neal.

Harris raised greater than $100 million in the primary 48 hours after Biden dropped out of the race – a brand new presidential record – and her aides said she continues to boost money at a gradual pace.

“This is a campaign that is driven by the people,” Harris said. “And we have momentum.”

Harris, a former prosecutor in her home state of California, also mocked Trump for his legal troubles, citing his recent conviction on 34 cases of falsification of business documents In New York, a jury found the previous president guilty of liable for the sexual abuse of recommendation columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996 and a settlement of $25 million paid to participants of the now defunct real estate seminar called Trump University.

“I've dealt with people like him my entire career,” Harris said. She added, “So in this campaign, and I say this in all seriousness, I will measure my record against his at all times.”

Harris began her remarks by praising Biden, who decided last weekend to withdraw his re-election bid and endorse Harris after his campaign fell apart following his disastrous performance on the June 27 debate against Trump.

She described Biden's achievements over the past three and a half years as “unprecedented in modern history.”

In a keynote speech at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville on Saturday, Trump denigrated Harris as a “radical left-wing lunatic” who desires to defund the police.

He said that while she was worse than Biden, she was probably the second favorite candidate he would run against after Biden.

Trump told the numerous Bitcoin supporters that he would embrace the cryptocurrency much more strongly than the Biden-Harris administration, promising to “replace economic stagnation under Biden and Harris with an economic boom.”

The vice chairman told her supporters at her fundraiser in Massachusetts that her economic program was in sharp contrast to Trump's. Trump's focus was clearly on lowering tax rates for wealthy Americans and improving corporate profits, she claimed.

“Building the middle class will be the defining goal of my presidency,” Harris said. She added: “Let's face it, this campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump. Our campaign has always been about two very different visions for our nation.”

The Vice President's office also announced that Harris will travel to Atlanta on Tuesday for a campaign event and can travel to Houston on Thursday to attend a memorial service for Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, 74, a longtime Democratic member of the House of Representatives who died on July 20.

Jackson Lee, who suffered from pancreatic cancer, led the federal government's efforts to guard women from domestic violence and to acknowledge Juneteenth Day as a national holiday.

Local news

Vice President Kamala Harris is once more traveling to Massachusetts for a high-profile fundraiser.

Last weekend, she headlined an event in Provincetown to drum up support for President Joe Biden. Every week – and a momentous decision by Biden – later, Harris is scheduled to look at a non-public fundraiser in Pittsfield on Saturday, a campaign official confirmed.

She will undoubtedly proceed to oppose Donald Trump and maintain the early arguments of her campaign. Swing.

The exact time and placement of the event weren’t released and tickets sold out quickly. WBUR reported.

“We don't get the opportunity to have experiences like this as often in the Berkshires as we do elsewhere. And when it becomes possible, there is great excitement,” Pittsfield Mayor Peter Marchetti told WBUR.

According to several reports, musicians James Taylor, Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax in addition to historian Heather Cox Richardson will perform.

Hosting a vice chairman has at all times been an enormous deal for a city like Pittsfield, but Harris' profile has only increased since she became her party's presumptive nominee. Following this transformation and the attempted assassination of Trump, security is predicted to be stepped up.

“We will use all available resources.” Police Chief Thomas Dawley said .

The Harris Victory Fund had received $1.4 million in donations and pledges related to the event by Wednesday evening, it said.

Fundraiser last weekend in Provincetown behaved greater than $2 million, doubling the fundraising goal of $1 million.

Co-hosting the event in Pittsfield are former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, former state Rep. Sherwood Guernsey and former Pittsfield Mayor Evan Dobelle and his wife, Kit Dobelle, in keeping with the .

Following Biden's decision to withdraw, Democrats have rallied behind Harris. The party's base appears strengthened, and recent polls from New Hampshire show Harris making gains amongst independents who turned away from Biden after his debate performance. She received the endorsement of Barack and Michelle Obama on Friday.

Local news

HONOLULU (AP) — David Letterman will host a fundraiser with President Joe Biden in 10 days with Governor of Hawaii, Josh Greenan indication that his campaign is moving forward despite persistent calls for the president to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race.

The July 29 fundraiser will probably be held at the house of a family friend on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Green told the Associated Press on Friday. Guests include the longtime late-night host, Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. The campaign has at the very least 10 more fundraisers planned for the last 10 days of July.

Letterman hosted CBS' “Late Show” for 22 seasons. The event takes place while other celebrities reminiscent of George Clooney, director Rob Reiner and Stephen King called on Biden to drop out of the 2024 race after his disastrous Debate appearance on 27 JuneThere are also growing concerns about continued fundraising support after concerned donors raised serious concerns about his performance and the longer term of the party.

Biden insists he’s the most effective man to defeat Donald Trump and he is not going to resign. On Friday, Biden, who’s recovering from COVID-19 at his home in Rehoboth Beach, called for party unity and sought to return focus to Donald Trump's agenda.

He said he looked forward to getting back on the campaign trail next week to challenge Republican claims, “while standing up for my own record and my vision for America: an America where we save our democracy, protect our rights and freedoms, and create opportunity for all.”

“There is a lot at stake and the decision is clear,” he said. “Together we will win.”

Green is hosting the event as more lawmakers have expressed doubts about Biden's candidacy. An individual acquainted with the plans initially told the AP the fundraiser could be held at Green's home, but Green later clarified that the home belonged to a family friend. Green has known the Biden family for years — his wife's uncle was Biden's college roommate — and he said the choice whether or to not drop out of the race would have to come back from Biden himself.

Green told AP: “We support the president, the vice president and the Democratic Party through good times and bad because he has been there for us as a family and as a country.”

Green has been governor of Hawaii since 2022 and leads the state by the devastating forest fires last summer.

George Clooney remains to be expected to attend a star-studded fundraiser for Joe Biden's re-election campaign on June 15, though a report has raised questions on the actor's phone call to the White House last month through which the actor complained concerning the president's criticism of his wife's work – the International Criminal Court, which has issued arrest warrants against Israeli politicians over the Gaza war.

The Washington Post, which reported on Clooney's call to the White Housesaid some Biden campaign staffers had been concerned that the actor might cancel the Los Angeles event, which can be expected to feature former President Barack Obama, late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel and actress Julia Roberts. For weeks, the campaign had also been running a contest where supporters could win an all-expenses-paid trip to Los Angeles to satisfy Obama, Clooney and Roberts on the event.

But Clooney is anticipated to be there, and the Biden team denied that there have been fears the actor might intentionally avoid the event, in line with the Washington Post.

But Clooney and Biden's re-election campaign should must cope with criticism that the Oscar-winning actor, who donated $500,000 to Biden's campaign in 2020, was given access to a senior White House official to air his complaints.

In his phone call with Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, Clooney also raised concerns concerning the Biden administration's initial willingness to impose sanctions on the ICC over its decision to hunt arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant, the Washington Post reported. Clooney was “upset” because his wife, a human rights lawyer, could face penalties, the Washington Post said.

Clooney reportedly called Ricchetti after Biden denounced ICC prosecutors for looking for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant. Clooney, a longtime supporter of Democratic candidates and causes, was particularly surprised that the president used the word “outrageous” to explain the ICC's move.

On May 20, Karim AA Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced that he would indict three senior Hamas leaders, in addition to Netanyahu and Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in reference to Hamas' October 7 terrorist attack on Israel and Israel's response.

Amal Clooney was amongst a bunch of UK-based international law experts who unanimously agreed with Khan to request arrest warrants for the leaders of each side.

“The attacks by Hamas in Israel on October 7 and the military response by Israeli forces in Gaza have tested the system of international law to its limits,” human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and other legal advisers wrote in an opinion piece published by the Financial Times. The panel of lawyers and former judges said they’d been asked by Khan to advise on the arrest warrant applications.

The panel of legal experts unanimously declared that the prosecutor's evidence provided “sufficient grounds” to consider that Netanyahu and Gallant “committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.” Since the beginning of Israeli military operations, greater than 36,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including about 15,000 children. in line with the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The legal experts also said there was reason to consider that Hamas's senior leaders – Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh – “committed war crimes and crimes against humanity” for killing over 1,200 people, taking a minimum of 245 hostages and “committing acts of sexual violence against Israeli hostages” on October 7.

“The ICC prosecutor's request for arrest warrants against Israeli politicians is outrageous,” Biden said in a press release. “And let me be clear: Whatever this prosecutor may imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand by Israel when its security is threatened.”

Biden's administration also initially signaled a willingness to work with Congress to punish the ICC, including the potential of imposing sanctions on the organization, the Washington Post reported. On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed a bill providing for sanctions.

But the White House has since spoken out against the sanctions, saying they’re “not the right answer” and represent an “overreach,” the Washington Post reported.

The White House said in a press release that it opposed the bill since it “could result in sanctions against court staff, judges, witnesses, and U.S. allies and partners who provide even limited, targeted assistance to the court in a number of aspects of its work.”