US Elections

A joint statement from ODNI, FBI, and CISA follows up on last month’s reports about Iranian Election Influence Efforts, which Iran’s government has denied.

From a blog post:

Former US President Donald Trump, who posted AI-generated images of Taylor Swift implying that she had endorsed him for President, now says he hates her, in a post on Truth Social.

Meanwhile, Trump claims that under a Harris presidency, “Oil will be dead. Fossil fuel will be dead. We’ll go back to windmills and we’ll go back to solar.”

In tonight’s debate, she describes her China policy as making sure the US “wins the competition for the 21st century” through investments in “American-based technology,” claiming that under Trump, American chips were sold to China and used to modernize its military.

Karen Dunn, a partner at the law firm Paul Weiss, has been busy this week. It’s no wonder Virginia federal judge Leonie Brinkema told Dunn she could be on her way just after she opened Google’s defense against ad tech monopolization charges.

In her first interview since becoming the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris told CNN’s Dana Bash that her “values have not changed,” even though when she ran for the nomination in 2019, she said she was in favor of a ban. Fracking, of course, is a lightning rod issue in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania.

Tony West, who also served in the Department of Justice during the Obama administration, just spoke at the DNC. Of course, he wasn’t there to talk tech, but rather, to speak to Harris’ character.

Olivia Julianna was the latest influencer to get speaking time at the convention, in a nod to young voters and the new ways they consume media. Over the past two nights, the DNC said that “partner-created content” has received 85 million views.

After The New York Times reported that Walz was a Dreamcast fan, IGN did the legwork to find that he apparently really liked Crazy Taxi. Now I’m wondering if Walz knows all the lyrics to “Escape From the City,” too.

There’s a separate song playing for each group of delegates during the DNC roll call (“Empire State of Mind” for New York, “Lose Yourself” for Michigan, and that one Dropkick Murphys song for Massachusetts). Who processed these copyright clearances? Who decided “The Next Episode” is the theme song for the state of California?

The former president said that Elon Musk is “a very smart guy. I certainly would, if he would do it.” The comment is a sign that Musk’s efforts to elect Trump could be personally beneficial, if they’re successful. Yet in the same interview with Reuters, Trump also said he’d consider ending the electric vehicle tax credit.

The president gave the closing speech for night one of the Democratic National Convention, touting climate advancements and the construction of new semiconductor manufacturing fabs among his achievements. When the crowd chanted “Thank you, Joe,” he responded, “Thank you, Kamala, too.” Later, he joked, “like many of our best presidents, she was also vice president.”

“The [intelligence community] is confident that the Iranians have through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties,” according to a joint ODNI, FBI, and CISA statement.

The Democratic National Convention will stream from Chicago next week on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, Axios reported. That’s in addition to Twitch, Amazon Prime Video, X, and on streaming operating platforms like Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon’s Fire TV. So if you’re hoping to avoid political content next week, good luck.

The Wall Street Journal delves into a loose network of TikTok accounts churning out videos with AI-generated voiceovers making ridiculous claims — both positive and negative — about Donald Trump. A political motive is possible, but it sounds likely they’re less a coordinated operation than a bunch of people ripping each other’s content off for views, and Trump is simply the best engagement-bait around.

The incredibly online Harris-Walz campaign cited Dril’s “im not mad. please dont that I got mad” tweet (which is somehow not among the dozens of their posts saved in our preservation effort) in a campaign press release sent to reporters.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign page quickly shared a video of her newly-selected running mate Tim Walz on TikTok, showcasing his ability to produce viral soundbites. The Harris campaign’s use of TikTok underscores why it’s so hard for politicians to quit, even as both parties overwhelmingly passed a bill that could end up banning it.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign announced its running mate pick Tim Walz mostly in a typical press flurry — except on TikTok, where the Kamala HQ account shared a purposely glitchy montage of Walz’s public appearances. It’s another example of the Harris campaign very deliberately tapping into trends, memes, and formats on the platform.