Trump and RFK Jr. promote unproven claims about autism at White House event

Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ memoir of her failed 2024 campaign for the Oval Office skewers some of the nation’s most prominent Democrats — including former President Joe Biden — offers her perspective on crucial moments in the election and outlines her own regrets about her decisions and performance.

Published by Simon & Schuster on Tuesday, “107 Days” zooms in on the narrow window during which Biden abruptly handed her the reins of the Democratic nomination and she lost to Donald Trump.

The book is notable among election memoirs in its often candid assessments of figures who are still active in politics and in the possibility that Harris will use it as a launch pad for a third bid for the presidency in 2028.

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David Perdue, the U.S. ambassador to China, interjected with comments on last week’s phone call between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

“They had a great call,” he said. “They’re looking forward to getting together. I would say the relationship between President Xi and President Trump is actually very good and very encouraging right now.”

After the lengthy call, their first since June, U.S. officials said that Trump and Xi had agreed to meet on the sidelines of next month’s APEC Summit in South Korea and that Trump would visit China “early next year” followed by a Xi visit to the United States.

(It’s worth noting that the Chinese readout of the phone call did not include any mention of an upcoming meeting or reciprocal visits, but it did make a point of saying Trump had described Beijing’s recent military parade as “phenomenal and beautiful.”)

The news conference has concluded.

Some context on the visit to China by the U.S. congressional delegation, whose meeting with the Chinese defense minister yesterday came weeks after a massive military parade on Sept. 3 that showed off Beijing’s capabilities. 

Rep. Adam Smith acknowledged the need to improve communication with China given the advancement of military technologies on display, from drones to nuclear weapons.

“I hope we can ramp up that dialogue,” he said, “to make sure that we understand each other and we don’t stumble into any sort of conflict.”

In response to our question about lines of communication, Rep. Adam Smith acknowledged that “both China and the U.S. are in entirely different places now than they were even a decade ago.”

“It’s going to be different, because our two countries are in an entirely different place,” he said. “And then we have to look at what the broad issues are that we’re trying to resolve,” including trade, military competition, tensions on the Korean Peninsula and wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

“So I would say it’s going to be in a different place than where it was in the past, and that is where we need to go,” he said.

Lindsey Halligan, a former insurance lawyer and member of Trump’s legal team, was officially named interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Justice Department officials told NBC News today.

Attorney General Pam Bondi swore in Halligan around noon at Justice Department headquarters in Washington.

Halligan was part of the legal circle representing Trump in the Mar-a-Lago classified records case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

Trump announced over the weekend that he would appoint Halligan, a White House adviser with no experience as a criminal prosecutor, to the position in a series of Truth Social posts demanding that the Justice Department and Bondi criminally charge three of his longtime targets: New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI Director James Comey and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

Rep. Adam Smith is speaking now about the objective for the congressional visit to Beijing. He said the Chinese government has been “very generous with its time.”

“Everybody has disagreements,” said Smith, adding that the objective of the trip is to open up lines of communication.

“China and the United States are the two most powerful countries in the world. Our relationship is going to be the most consequential relationship in terms of what the world is going to be like for decades to come,” he said.

“It is really important that we work to strengthen that relationship and better understand each other.” 

We’re at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing for a news conference with the first congressional visit from the House of Representatives in six years after the Covid-19 pandemic ended formal House visits to China in 2020.

We’ll hear from Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, a Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, about meetings the lawmakers have held with Chinese officials, including Premier Li Qiang, China’s No. 2 official, and Defense Minister Dong Jun.

Other members include Rep. Michael Baumgartner of Washington, a Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, both Democrats on the Armed Services Committee. It will also be the first official media event attended by the new U.S. ambassador to China, David Perdue.

Harris said in tonight's MSNBC interview that although she favored former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, she decided it would be a "real risk" to name him as her running mate.

"To be a Black woman running for president of the United States and as a vice presidential running mate, a gay man, with the stakes being so high, it made me very sad, but I also realized it would be a real risk," Harris said when she was asked about the decision.

"We had such a short period of time," Harris said. "I think Pete is a phenomenal, phenomenal public servant, and I think America is and would be ready for that."

Harris, who ultimately selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, also conceded tonight that "maybe I was being too cautious."

In recent months, Buttigieg has raised speculation about a potential 2028 presidential campaign.

Harris would not say in the interview whether she will consider a run for president in 2028.

"That’s not my focus right now," Harris said on MSNBC when host Rachel Maddow asked her about 2028. "That’s not my focus at all."

Asked whether a decision not to run for governor of California next year shed any light on her political ambitions, Harris said: "That was a decision before me, and I made the decision not to run for governor of California."

Harris had announced in July that she wouldn't run for governor in her home state, saying, “For now, my leadership — and public service — will not be in elected office.”