Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, is being vetted by Kamala Harris’s campaign as a potential vice-presidential nominee pick, NBC is reporting, citing sources.

The political analyst Cliston Brown reports that Beshear has gotten additional security detail protection:

Beshear’s unlikely position as a Democratic governor of Kentucky – a state that voted for Donald Trump by a margin of 25 points in 2020 – makes him a compelling running mate for Harris.

In office, Beshear has vetoed Republican bills banning abortions and gender-affirming care for transgender minors, although the GOP-controlled state legislature was able to override his vetoes in both cases.

Acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe, in his opening statement to lawmakers, said the attempted assassination of Donald Trump was a “failure on multiple levels”.

Rowe accepted blame for the Secret Service’s mistakes while also criticizing local law enforcement for not sharing information that a gunman had been spotted on a roof near the rally site in the minutes before the shooting, AP reported.

That information, Rowe said, had been kept “siloed” among the local officers on the scene. He said:

That information, he said, had been kept “siloed” among the local officers on the scene. We didn’t know that there was this incident going on.

The Secret Service’s acting director, Ronald Rowe, has told lawmakers he was “ashamed” by the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

Rowe, appearing before a meeting of the Senate judiciary committee and homeland security and governmental affairs committee, said he considered it indefensible that the roof used by the gunman was unsecured.

In his opening statement, Rowe said he had recently visited the site of the 13 July rally and “what I saw made me ashamed.” He told lawmakers:

As a career law enforcement officer and a 25-year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured to prevent similar lapses from occurring in the future.

Donald Trump on Monday repeated his weekend remarks to Christian summit attendees that they would never need to vote again if he returns to the presidency in November.

Trump, in an interview with Fox News that aired last night, was asked to explain what he meant when he told a crowd on Friday to “get out and vote, just this time”, adding that “you won’t have to do it any more. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote any more, my beautiful Christians.”

“That statement is very simple, I said, ‘Vote for me, you’re not gonna have to do it ever again,’” Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

It’s true, because we have to get the vote out. Christians are not known as a big voting group, they don’t vote. And I’m explaining that to them. You never vote. This time, vote. I’ll straighten out the country, you won’t have to vote any more, I won’t need your vote any more, you can go back to not voting.

Trump denied threatening to permanently stay in office beyond his second – and constitutionally mandated final – four-year term.

When Ingraham pointed out that many Democrats had interpreted his comments to mean there would never be another election again, Trump responded that he had not heard that and continued to talk about how lots of Christians tend to not vote.

Christians do not vote well. They vote in very small percentages. Why? I don’t know. Maybe they’re disappointed in things that are happening. I say, ‘You don’t vote.’ I’m saying, ‘Go out – you must vote.’

Donald Trump said he would “probably” end up debating Kamala Harris but said he could “also make a case for not doing it”, prompting the Harris campaign to say the former Republican president was “scared”.

Trump, in an interview with Fox News Channel that aired Monday night, was asked repeatedly whether he would commit to debating Harris.

I want to do a debate. But I also can say this. Everybody knows who I am. And now people know who she is.

Trump eventually said:

The answer is yes, I’ll probably end up debating … The answer is yes, but I can also make a case for not doing it.

Trump has skipped debates before, including all the 2024 Republican presidential primary debates.

The Harris campaign’s spokesperson, Ammar Moussa, said:

It’s clear from tonight’s question-dodging: He’s scared he’ll have to defend his running mate’s weird attacks on women or his own calls to end elections in America in a debate against the vice president.

Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance, will appear at a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, his campaign said.

Kamala Harris will be in Atlanta today for a rally featuring the rapper Megan Thee Stallion in a state that some Democrats now consider up for grabs in the November election.

Democrats are hoping that the fresh burst of energy and a surge in fundraising that kicked off following Joe Biden’s withdrawal and endorsement of Harris puts Georgia – the state that delivered Biden his narrowest victory margin in 2020 – a toss-up again.

The Ohio senator JD Vance’s rollout as Donald Trump’s running mate has not been smooth.

Under fire for misogyny including calling his opponents “childless cat ladies”, his past opposition to Trump – including calling him “America’s Hitler”, “cultural heroin”, a “morally reprehensible human being”, “a disaster” and a “bad man” – has also been widely reported.

Trump defended Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comments in an interview on Fox News that aired on Monday. Trump said:

He grew up in a very interesting family situation, and he feels family is good. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong in saying that.

Vance’s 2021 comments criticizing Kamala Harris and other Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives” prompted a backlash and warnings from some political strategists that they could cost the Trump campaign valuable votes in a close election.

In the Fox interview, Trump said he did not place a higher value on people with families. He said:

You know, you don’t meet the right person, or you don’t meet any person. But you’re just as good, in many cases, a lot better than a person that’s in a family situation.

In newly uncovered remarks from 2017, Donald Trump’s 2024 vice-presidential pick, JD Vance, said “some people who voted for Trump are racist and they voted for him for racist reasons”.

“Race definitely played a role in the 2016 election,” Vance said. The remarks were first reported by Mother Jones. Vance said:

I think that race will always play a role in our country. It’s just sort of a constant fact of American life. And definitely some people who voted for Trump are racist and they voted for him for racist reasons.

He was then a Trump critic. But Vance is now a hard-right Republican US senator from Ohio, this month named as Trump’s running mate for the November election.

Kamala Harris’s campaign has responded to Donald Trump’s first major ad attacking her handling of the issue of immigration.

A statement from the Harris campaign’s spokesperson, Ammar Moussa, reads:

After killing the toughest border deal in decades, Donald Trump is running on his trademark lies because his own record and ‘plans’ are extreme and unpopular. As a former district attorney, attorney general, and now vice-president, Kamala Harris has spent her career taking on and prosecuting violent criminals and making our communities safer. She’ll do the same as president.

Donald Trump’s campaign also released its first television ad of the general election attacking Kamala Harris over her handling of the issue of immigration, and accusing the vice-president of being a failed “border czar”.

The 30-second ad attacks Harris as “failed”, “weak”, “dangerously liberal”.