AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
There's been a heavy exchange of fire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. And later this hour, we'll get the latest from our reporter in the region. Right now, the latest on the U.S. presidential race. There are just 10 weeks to go until election day, and it seems neither the Harris-Walz ticket nor the Trump-Vance ticket plan to take any swing states for granted. Joining me now is NPR political correspondent Susan Davis. Hi, Sue.
SUSAN DAVIS, BYLINE: Hey, Ayesha. Great to be with you.
RASCOE: So you were just in Chicago covering the Democratic National Convention, and I want to do a little fact-check on a comparison to Barack Obama's first presidential nomination because - and I can't believe I'm saying this - a lot has happened in the last 16 years. Is it 16 years?
DAVIS: Yeah, that's right.
RASCOE: We have repeatedly heard from Democrats that they hadn't seen this kind of enthusiasm since Obama. Is that really the case, or is this a bit of smack talk aimed at, you know, making the GOP nervous?
DAVIS: Well, there's probably some truth to that, but certainly, in Chicago, all week long, you were hearing it from delegates and from speakers that they haven't seen this kind of enthusiasm since 2008, and I do think there is some truth to that. You know, on Thursday night, when Kamala Harris gave her acceptance speech, the Fire Marshal had to shut down the building, and they couldn't even let more people in because they had hit capacity. And that was something that was really happening back in 2008. I think it's not quite there. Recall, Obama, in 2008, had to give his acceptance speech - they had to move it to the football stadium, to - that had a capacity of about 80,000 'cause there was so many people that wanted to be there.
So not quite there yet - but in one regard, money - the Harris campaign announced this morning that they raised $82 million during those four days the convention. All in, she's raised $540 million since she entered the race just over a month ago, an absolutely unprecedented sum in that period of time. But obviously, what we're looking for now is the convention - the post-convention polling - and see if she got any bounce out of it or if this is still a really static race.
RASCOE: So it's always good to keep things in perspective. So with the campaigns now kicking into high gear, what's on the agenda this week?
DAVIS: I mean, obviously, the focus is on swing states, as you mentioned. Harris and Walz are going to be doing a bus tour together in Georgia. It's the first time they're together there, but Harris has traveled there seven times this year. I think that's a really good state that's an example of how this race has changed. With Biden at the top of the ticket, Democrats were saying Georgia has - had sort of moved away from them. It's absolutely back in play with Harris, especially as she's energizing young voters and Black voters, which are very critical in that state.
Donald Trump's going to hold a town hall in Wisconsin later this week and a rally in Pennsylvania, two very critical states to his campaign. One thing that the Trump campaign is pointing out that they do a lot of that Harris has not done yet - you know, they're doing town halls. He's talking to the media. She has not really put herself in any position to be faced tough questions yet since she entered the race.
Obviously, you know, they don't do it because they love to talk to people like you and me. They do it because it's good practice for when they get on a debate stage. And that's going to be, obviously, the next big event that people are looking towards - is that September 10 debate. And Harris has been goading Trump a little bit herself there. She had that line - you know, if you want - have something to say, say it to my face. They were selling T-shirts that said that at the convention. She's certainly setting a high bar for herself to perform at the debate there.
RASCOE: Former President Trump on Friday got the endorsement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who made this appeal at a Trump rally in Glendale, Ariz.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ROBERT F KENNEDY JR: Don't you want a safe environment for your children?
(CHEERING)
KENNEDY JR: Don't you want to know that the food that you're feeding them is not filled with chemicals that are gonna give them cancer and chronic disease?
(CHEERING)
KENNEDY JR: And don't you want a president that's going to make America healthy again?
(CHEERING)
RASCOE: These issues aren't the usual ones that Trump's been talking about. What do you make of this endorsement?
DAVIS: Look, everything matters. And in the case of RF - in the case of Kennedy, our colleague Domenico Montanaro did some poll crunching, and he's analyzed that Trump is likely to benefit from - or Trump is likely to benefit with a point or two with him out of the race in key states. But what's not clear is - you know, it's one to one. Do all of these voters go for Trump, or do some of them just not vote? It's also complicated by the fact that Kennedy wasn't actually on the ballot in key swing states like Arizona, and he might not be able to get off the ballot in key states like Michigan.
But obviously, Donald Trump's campaign is trying to steal a little bit of the spotlight back. It's been off of him since Kamala Harris has entered the race and made it much closer. And getting a Kennedy endorsement is, you know, one way that is going to appeal to those swing and independent voters.
RASCOE: That's NPR political correspondent, Susan Davis. Thanks, Sue.
DAVIS: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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