Sen. Ted Cruz named Carly Fiorina as his running mate last week in a final gambit to edge out Donald Trump for the GOP nomination. Unfortunately for the Cruz-Fiorina campaign, poll results released Tuesday indicate it didn't help.

Six in 10 voters said the addition of Fiorina to Cruz's ticket had "no impact" on their decision to support or oppose his candidacy, a Morning Consult survey revealed, while 22 percent said the veep pick made them less likely to vote Cruz. Only 18 percent report they are now more likely to be Cruz voters, suggesting the announcement may have slightly decreased Cruz's election success.

The same poll discovered Fiorina still has fairly low name recognition — more than a third of respondents did not know who she is — and among those who are aware of her, most hold an unfavorable opinion. Bonnie Kristian

Actress Gabrielle Union's role as a sexual assault victim in the upcoming film Birth of a Nation hit particularly close to home for her. Union admitted last February that she was raped at gunpoint at the age of 19.

But, she acknowledged in a moving essay published Friday in the Los Angeles Times, she isn't the film's only star with personal ties to the matter. After Union signed onto the film, allegations about Nate Parker, the movie's director and star, resurfaced. Parker was charged with rape in 1999, but then acquitted in 2001; the alleged victim committed suicide in 2012.

As much as that revelation pushed Union into what she described as a "state of stomach-churning confusion," she maintains that the film, and its message, are still significant:

Regardless of what I think may have happened that night 17 years ago, after reading all 700 pages of the trial transcript, I still don't actually know. Nor does anyone who was not in that room. But I believe that the film is an opportunity to inform and educate so that these situations cease to occur on college campuses, in dorm rooms, in fraternities, in apartments, or anywhere else young people get together to socialize.

I took this part in this film to talk about sexual violence. To talk about this stain that lives on in our psyches. I know these conversations are uncomfortable and difficult and painful. But they are necessary. Addressing misogyny, toxic masculinity, and rape culture is necessary. Addressing what should and should not be deemed consent is necessary. [Los Angeles Times]

Still, Union wrote, as "important and ground-breaking as this film is, I cannot take these allegations lightly."

The film, about 19th-century slave and preacher Nat Turner, comes out Oct. 7. You can read Union's full essay at the Los Angeles Times. Becca Stanek

Most people don't respond to charging bears by fighting back. Yet rather than run from a snarling Asian black bear, one Japanese man decided to put his karate skills to the ultimate test.

Atsushi Aoki, 63, was fishing in the mountains when the bear attacked him. "The bear was so strong, and it knocked me down," Aoki told Tokyo Broadcasting System. Aoki took up a karate fighter stance, putting his right fist in front of him, and punched at the bear's eyes, which made the beast retreat.

"I thought it's either 'I kill him or he kills me,'" Aoki said. After fending off the bear, he was able to get back to his car and drive to the hospital to treat the wounds on his head, arm, and leg.

"[Aoki] drove himself to the hospital and even remembered to grab the fish that he had caught," a police officer told Agence France-Presse. Jeva Lange

Are you fabulously wealthy, ostentatiously attired, convinced President Obama is a secret Muslim Kenyan, and a personal acquaintance of Donald J. Trump? If yes, Trumpettes USA may be the elite new club for you.

Founded by a group of happy members of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, the Trumpettes came together after connecting over their mutual love of all things Trump at a gala at the Beverly Hilton. Now they meet, bedecked in oversized jewels and surrounded by gilded photos taken with their good friends, Bill and Hillary Clinton, to talk and fundraise for the Trump campaign.

The group is mostly composed of women around Trump's age, but also includes Pat Boone, a pop singer who was only surpassed by Elvis for chart-topping hits back in the 1950s and early 1960s. They are particularly incensed by allegations that their candidate and his supporters are racist. "I was raised by a black nanny, there's no prejudice on my side," said Toni Holt Kramer, a Trumpette organizer. "I'm not bigoted." The main way Trump's campaign could be better, another member mused, would be more birtherism, alluding to a conspiracy theory that President Obama is not an American citizen.

But perhaps the most fascinating tidbit about the Trumpettes is this exchange, sparked by Kramer's mention of her many minority employees whose existence, she believes, disproves all charges of bigotry:

For example, there is Maria, Kramer's housekeeper. "Maria is one of our Trumpettes who has converted her entire church," Kramer said, describing her as part of the family. "She's Latina."

Maria, a U.S. citizen from Mexico, cited her opposition to abortion in explaining why she was voting Republican, but she disappeared into the kitchen instead of joining the group discussion. [Politico]

Read the whole profile over at Politico. Bonnie Kristian

In case you hadn't heard, Donald Trump is a big fan of walls. He apparently is such a big fan that he set one up at Trump Tower on Friday:

CNN's Carol Costello pointed out the "not-so-beautiful wall" erected outside of Trump Tower, which partially shielded Trump from view as he left for his intelligence briefing. Costello said that CNN's producers could not recall another time that such a measure had been taken.

"Of course, Secret Service actually put it up," Costello said. "We don't know exactly why this happened." Jeva Lange

The last time Hillary Clinton held a true press conference — in which multiple members of the media are permitted to ask unvetted questions and the candidate is expected to answer on the spot — was Dec. 5, 2015. In the 272 days since (find a live tally down to a tenth of a minute here, courtesy of The Washington Post), Clinton has stuck to strictly controlled press interactions like one-on-one interviews.

All that is about to change come Monday, as the Clinton camp announced Thursday their candidate will begin flying on a larger plane with room for media to tag along. The bigger aircraft will replace Clinton's personal jet and will also make space for additional staff plus Secret Service agents.

During Clinton's conference-free eight months, her opponent, Donald Trump, has held 17 press conferences, by the The Washington Examiner's count. His running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, was the first of the four nominees to begin flying with press in tow. Bonnie Kristian

With the first presidential debate just weeks away, the Commission on Presidential Debates on Friday revealed the list of moderators for the three scheduled face-offs between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

The first debate, slated for Sept. 26, will be hosted by NBC's Lester Holt. The second debate on Oct. 9, which The Hill described as "town hall-style," will be hosted by ABC's Martha Raddatz and CNN's Anderson Cooper. Fox News' Chris Wallace will finish things off by hosting the third debate Oct. 19. The vice presidential debate between Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) and the Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Mike Pence (Ind.) will be hosted by CBS News' Elaine Quijana on Oct. 4.

The commission initially planned to announce the moderators in late August. However, after Trump declared he would only participate in the debates if there was a "fair moderator," the commission faced what CNN described as an "unprecedented challenge" in "selecting individuals who are immune (or at least as immune as possible) to accusations of bias." Becca Stanek

Donald Trump was none too pleased when he faced tough questions from Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly during last summer's Republican debate; he famously claimed that she had "blood coming out of her wherever" when moderating. A new report from New York, though, might suggest Trump tried to wiggle out of Kelly's tough interrogating before the debate even began:

... Kelly had even begun to speculate, according to one Fox source, that Trump might have been responsible for her getting violently ill before the debate last summer. Could he have paid someone to slip something into her coffee that morning in Cleveland? she wondered to colleagues. [New York]

Last August, Kelly detailed the pre-debate illness to MediaBuzz, saying, "I think it was food poisoning."

"I just started to go downhill," she explained. "First the splitting headache and I started to feel nauseous and then I actually got sick and I went to the hotel room to lie down for a little bit and was still sick and then the beautiful, wonderful savior of my life, Dr. David Silverman of New York, called me in anti-nausea medicine. My assistant was feeding me full of medicine and I was sweating with wash cloth on me at 3 in the afternoon."

"I almost didn't make that debate," she added. "The power of modern medicine." Jeva Lange