VP Harris, hot button issues take center stage at DNC

 

CHICAGO (CBS 58) -- The Democratic National Convention concluded this week with lots of energy surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris' acceptance of her party's presidential nomination. However, the week also featured plenty of reminders about which issues remain particularly divisive.

The conversations, as they often do during presidential campaigns, began with the economy. Democrats touted the Harris campaign's rollout of an economic plan that included limits on how much major food producers can increase prices and step up enforcement of laws against big businesses colluding to set prices.

"We need to catch more of those people who are cheating the average Wisconsinite, and that's what I think Kamala Harris was talking about," Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) said in an interview Monday. "Trying to go after those companies that are price gouging and making sure the average person is getting their fair shake."

Harris also proposed a $25,000 credit for first-time homebuyers and making permanent a $3,600 per child tax credit.

Republicans, including Sen. Ron Johnson at a press conference Monday at the Trump Hotel in Chicago, have said Harris' plan sets businesses up to fail by imposing more regulations.

Harris also faced criticism from within during the convention. A group of uncommitted Democratic delegates voted present as a form of protest against the Biden-Harris administration's handline of Israels war against Hamas in Gaza.

Then, on Wednesday night, several of those delegates held a sit-in outside United Center. Abbas Alawieh, a delegate from Michigan, said the group was frustrated DNC organizers would not meet their request to allow a Palestinian American to speak for five minutes at the convention.

"I'm deeply offended," he said. "I'm deeply offended that this level of suppression would happen in today's Democratic Party."

The parents of an Israeli hostage still being held by Hamas delivered a speech during the convention. In her speech Thursday, Harris pledged the U.S. would continue to have unwavering support for Israel's right to security while also saying she would keep pushing for an immediate ceasefire to spare innocent civilians in Gaza.

Alawieh said he was firmly committed to voting for Harris in November, but he added it was unlikely many of his fellow Palestinian Americans in Michigan felt the same way.

"I come from a community where telling them what I believe to be true, that Vice President Harris feels differently about this, that she feels sympathetic to Palestinians," he said. "It's not enough to convince them to show up and vote."

Democrats and the Harris campaign are far more comfortable speaking about the issue of abortion rights, which came up often during speeches and interviews this week.

"Half of America now has fewer rights and freedoms than our mothers and grandmothers," Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) said. "And that is solely due to Donald Trump and his pledge to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would overturn Roe."

It's a sensitive subject for former President Donald Trump, who along with the GOP, has tried tried to moderate his position on the subject.

On his Truth social media site Friday, Mr. Trump posted, "My administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights."

While he aims to ease the concerns of women voters, Norma Fuentes, a Catholic from Chicago, said outside the United Center Friday she planned to support Mr. Trump specifically because she believed he'd support abortion restrictions.

"I'm disappointed because I really don't want abortions no more," Fuentes said. "I don't think that's the solution to the problem."

Those issues all figure to remain central parts of campaign pitches from both Democrats and Republicans as they return to Wisconsin between now and November.