Vice President Harris said twice during yesterday's interview in Georgia with CNN's Dana Bash that Americans are ready to "turn the page" on the Trump era.

• Why it matters: It's part of Harris' strategy of portraying herself as the candidate of change, even though she's in the White House — and trying to make former President Trump seem like the exhausting incumbent.

Harris' campaign communications director, Brian Fallon, tweeted while the CNN special was still airing that even after Trump "lost in 2020, he never left the stage — he tried to overturn the election and began running again immediately. America is exhausted with him."

Harris, joined by running mate Tim Walz for her first formal interview since President Biden bowed out, rejected identity politics when asked about Trump's comments about her racial identity.

• "Same old, tired playbook," Harris said. "Next question, please."

Bash followed up: "That's it?"

• Harris replied: "That's it."

Trump, on his Truth Social platform, called the interview: "BORING!!!"

Harris gave her most forceful defense of Biden's economic record since becoming Democratic nominee, Axios' Hans Nichols writes.

• She didn't repeat "Bidenomics" after Bash used the term. The VP instead gave a careful, two-part answer, taking credit for America's post-COVID economic recovery and lowering drug costs, while acknowledging there's more work to do.

🔎 Between the lines: Harris' prime-time defense of Biden's economy contrasts with her TV ads, in which she looks beyond the current administration and focuses on the pain many voters are still feeling — and how she aims to help working- and middle-class Americans.

• That includes proposals to help first-time homeowners and target price-gouging.
• "When I am elected president, I will make it a top priority to bring down costs," she says in a new ad, using lines and footage from her recent speech in Raleigh, N.C., without mentioning the economic progress she boasted about on CNN.

Before he dropped out of the race, Biden's ads amounted to victory laps on the economy.

• Share this story ... Full interview transcript.

Former President Trump's proposal yesterday that the government will pay for IVF — or force insurance companies to pay for it — could cost $7.8 billion a year, NBC News estimates, using data from the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology.

• Why it matters: Trump, who announced the plan at a campaign rally in Michigan, didn't detail how he would fund his plan or how it would work.

IVF treatments are expensive and can cost over $20,000 for a single round.

• "We're doing this because we just think it's great and we need great children, beautiful children in our country," Trump told NBC News.

💡 Context: IVF has become a top campaign issue for Democrats, who have linked Trump to restrictions on reproductive care, Axios' April Rubin and Sareen Habeshian write.

📊 Vice President Harris is leading or tied with Trump in all seven swing states, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult Poll out last night.

• Keep reading.

Like peacocks strutting their stuff in hopes of finding a mate, tech giants are eager to show their chatbot is the one with real momentum, Axios' Ina Fried writes.

• Why it matters: Google, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI have invested huge amounts of talent and money to build their models and add new features, and are eager to demonstrate that those investments are paying off.

👓 Zoom in: A number of the leading players have shared fresh stats in the past 24 hours.

• OpenAI said it now has 200 million weekly active users, twice the number it had last November.
• Meta said usage of its open-source Llama model from the major cloud service providers has doubled between May and July.
• Microsoft highlighted in its July earnings report that Copilot adoption has surged with a 60% increase in business customers. On the consumer side, Copilot use is up more than 150% since the start of the calendar year.

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Vice President Harris told CNN's Dana Bash last night that she was "deeply touched" by this photo of her 8-year-old great-niece, Amara Ajagu, taken by a N.Y. Times photographer during her convention speech last week.

• Why it matters: Harris, who rarely talks about her race or gender on the campaign trail, said she's "running because I believe that I am the best person to do this job at this moment for all Americans."

The backstory: "Todd Heisler was one of just a handful of photographers in the buffer zone, a crowded and contained area that was directly in front of the California delegation," The Times wrote.

• "Crouching down, he maneuvered his way a few feet behind Amara and shot the photograph while kneeling."
• "It's a very frenetic situation," Heisler said. "If you can get one picture that will resonate with people, you're very lucky."

Keep reading.

The world's three largest companies by market cap are all in talks to join the same OpenAI funding round that would value the ChatGPT maker at more than $100 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports.

• Why it matters: Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft — which heavily backs OpenAI already — all fear missing out on the potential upside of a business that Sam Altman may one day take public, Axios' Hope King notes.

Each of the companies has a long-standing relationship with OpenAI.

• Nvidia is "the dominant global maker of chips that power ChatGPT," The Journal writes.
• Microsoft owns a 49% share of OpenAI's for-profit subsidiary.
• Apple named OpenAI the first official partner for its coming Apple Intelligence system for its iPhone and other products.

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Maryland Gov. Wes Moore — a rising Democratic star, and potential future presidential candidate — calls it "an honest mistake" that he regrets not correcting:

• Two years after a campaign controversy over a description of Moore as a Bronze Star honoree (he isn't), the N.Y. Times published his 2006 application for a White House fellowship, which claimed he received the Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division.

Moore — now 45, then 27 — won the fellowship.

• The Times' Reid Epstein obtained the document this week as part of a Freedom of Information Act request.

"I was encouraged to fill out an application for the White House Fellowship by my deputy brigade commander," Moore said in a statement. "In fact, he helped me edit it before I sent it in. At the time, he had recommended me for the Bronze Star. He told me to include the Bronze Star award on my application after confirming with two other senior-level officers that they had also signed off on the commendation."

• The Times talked to the superior officer, Michael Fenzel, now a lieutenant general, who said he told Moore he'd been approved for the medal and advised him: "You've got to include it ... If you are selected as a White House fellow, you're going to be wearing it whenever you're wearing your uniform."

Fenzel told The Times he'll resubmit the paperwork so Moore can be awarded the medal.

• Read Moore's statement ... See his 2006 fellowship application.

Want a career in America's fastest-growing field? Head to the Dakotas or Colorado, and look for jobs in wind energy, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick writes from Energy Department data.

• Why it matters: Wind turbine service technician is the hottest job in the country, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with 60% growth projected between 2023-2033.

Zoom in: North Dakota, South Dakota and Colorado have the most wind energy-related jobs per 10,000 residents as of last year.

• Texas has the highest number of wind energy jobs overall, at nearly 27,400.
• That's more than double that of the next-highest state, Illinois, which has about 9,400.

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The University of Texas at San Antonio is launching a new major for aspiring influencers, Axios San Antonio's Madalyn Mendoza writes.

• Why it matters: The university says the program — Digital Media Influence — combines the art of content creation with the science of audience psychology.

Another school, Arkansas Tech University, introduced a Bachelor of Arts in Digital Content Creation last fall.

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