12:30 Report — Trump fires back at Harris

It’s Thursday. The Olympics are starting to wind down, but here’s a list of events you should watch today.

• Trump’s holding a news conference at 2 p.m., which may be worth watching.
• Tropical Storm Debby made landfall again. It’s expected to weaken as it moves inland.
• Suni Lee definitively won the “sad to report I wasn’t selected for the Olympic team” trend on TikTok. Keep reading for the explainer.

I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Send tips, commentary, feedback and cookie recipes to cmartel@thehill.com. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here. 

🎤 Happening at 2 p.m.

This could be … newsy:

Former President Trump is holding a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida this afternoon, marking his first public appearance since Vice President Harris named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as her running mate.

Theme to watch for: Trump has attacked Harris over her lack of media interviews since being elevated to the top of the ticket. His campaign has been pressuring her into taking questions from the media.

Where polling stands: The Cook Political Report shifted its election prediction ratings for Arizona, Georgia and Nevada toward Harris this morning.

^ And nationally: Harris has moved the race by more than 3 points in her direction. Three weeks ago, Trump was leading Biden by 2.5 percent. Now, Harris leads Trump by less than a point.

💡 Reading between the lines — Trump’s had a bad stretch: Harris has had weeks of good headlines, attention and polling since President Biden bowed out of the presidential race. She’s cut his lead in a number of recent polls* and has drawn big crowds with Walz. Just three weeks ago, Democrats were in disarray over Biden’s electability — and Trump was in a pretty good spot. This sure seems to be getting under his skin. Watch out today for his demeanor and how he frames his jabs at the Harris-Walz ticket.

this The Hill and Decision Desk HQ chart 📊 showing the polling average between Trump and Harris over the past 18 months.

How we know this is getting under Trump’s skin: Trump has been very active on Truth Social this morning, including slamming the press for going “crazy” about Harris’s crowd sizes. “When I have a Rally, and 100,000 people show up, the Fake News doesn’t talk about it,” Trump alleged. 🔎 More of Trump’s posts this morning

💻 Livestream for Trump’s 2 p.m. remarks

🔎 Read Trump’s announcement on Truth Social

➤ TIDBITS FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL:

Wow

📹 the crowd waiting for Harris in Michigan. Reuters’s Jeff Mason noted that he could hear the noise from inside the plane. 📹 Here’s another angle

And 📹 here’s a video of the crowd in Wisconsin on Wednesday.

📹 Watch Walz wave to staff before heading on the battleground tour.

➤ RELATED READS:

🔷 ‘Trump Says He’ll Focus on Issues. His Allies Are Not Holding Their Breath.’: The New York Times

🔷 ‘Trump complains about campaign as advisers try to focus on attacking Harris’: The Washington Post

🔷 ‘How liberal is Tim Walz?’: Niall Stanage’s column in The Hill

🔷 ‘“Trump is weird” will only get Kamala Harris so far’: Vox

🔷 ‘Teachers swoon over Walz joining Democratic ticket’: The Hill

⛈️Tropical Storm Debby

She’s baaack:

Tropical Storm Debby has made its second landfall in the U.S., after restrengthening off the South Carolina coast.

The threat: The storm poses coastal flooding risks. There could also be some strong winds and tornado warnings, according to The Weather Channel. It’s expected to weaken as it moves inland.

⌚ Debby’s latest timing and path

🐊 Tidbit: AccuWeather posted a video of a large alligator crossing the road during the storm on Hilton Head Island, S.C.

🪩 In Other News

How scary:

© AP

Taylor Swift’s three Vienna concerts were canceled on Wednesday after authorities arrested two people who are suspected of planning a terrorist attack at the stadium. Roughly 195,000 people were expected to attend.

What we know: One of the suspects is a 19-year-old Austrian citizen and was arrested in Ternitz. The other was arrested in Vienna. Both had been “radicalized on the internet,” “had sworn an oath of allegiance” to the Islamic State and had taken “concrete” steps for a terrorist attack. Read more on what we know

Happening today in Vienna: Devastated fans gathered in Vienna to swap friendship bracelets and sing in the streets.

📹 Watch the crowd in Vienna

📸 And specifically on Cornelia Street

Remember when the Supreme Court sent the Trump case back to the lower courts?:

Well, it has arrived. The case is officially back in District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan’s hands after the Supreme Court determined that former President Trump has broad immunity from criminal prosecution.

What now?: “That ended a roughly eight-month pause in the case, and Chutkan has made clear the hiatus is over. Just hours after the case was handed back over on Friday, she scheduled an Aug. 16 conference to chart the course for handling numerous unresolved issues in the case — likely teeing off a discussion over whether to hold what some have deemed a minitrial.”

Read Rebecca Beitsch’s reporting: ‘Chutkan in charge: Judge ignites flurry of activity in Trump Jan. 6 case’

🐝 Internet Buzz

🍡 Celebrate: Today is National Mochi Day!

🥇 Suni Lee wins this TikTok trend: TikTok users have been posting hilarious clips of their awkward misses and falls while doing a sport with the caption, “Sad to report I wasn’t selected for the 2024 Olympic team.” Here are a few that made me laugh:

🥇 Gymnastics, 8M+ likes

🥇 Diving, 1.6M+ likes

🥇 Gymnastics, 1.1M+ likes

🥇 Diving, 13.4M+ likes

🥇 Pole vaulting, 761K+ likes

^ Then U.S. Olympic gymnast Suni Lee entered the chat. She posted a video of her fall in the Olympic beam final earlier this week with the caption, “Unfortunately I was selected for the Olympics❤️”

📆 On The Agenda

The House and Senate are out. President Biden is in Washington, and Vice President Harris is in Michigan and then Arizona today. (all times Eastern)

• 12:30 p.m.: Biden speaks with the governor of Hawaii and the mayor of Maui County to commemorate the first anniversary of the wildfires.
• 2:15 p.m.: Biden receives his daily briefing.
• 3:10 p.m.: Harris campaigns in Detroit.💻 Livestream
• 4 p.m.: Biden welcomes the Texas Rangers to the White House to celebrate their 2023 World Series championship season. 💻 Livestream
• 5 p.m.: Biden leaves for Delaware.
• 8:45 p.m.: Harris lands in Phoenix.
• 9 a.m. Sunday: Robert Costa’s exclusive interview with President Biden airs on CBS News’s “Sunday Morning.”

👋 And Finally…

There’s absolutely no way this little puppy could be a terror. They’ve been framed, I tell you!