What's happening on the campaign trail today
- Vice President Kamala Harris, responding to former President Donald Trump's attack on her racial identity during an appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists' annual convention, said his comments were divisive.
- Trump went after Harris at the event in Chicago earlier today, saying she recently decided to "turn Black."
- Trump continued to criticize Harris at a rally in Pennsylvania, saying he'd welcome comparing their records "point by point." Harris has attacked Trump for not committing to debating her on Sept. 10, the date he originally agreed to debate President Joe Biden before Biden withdrew from the race.
- Harris and Biden had a private luncheon at the White House before she flew to Texas, where she will speak at a Sigma Gamma Rho sorority event.
This coverage has ended. Get the latest news and live updates on the 2024 election here.
Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy says 'we need a massive reset'
Former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said on X that "the hard truth is we need a massive reset right now."
Ramaswamy, a staunch Trump ally who rarely breaks with the Trump campaign’s rhetoric, pushed for a change in tactics for campaigning against Harris.
"The criticism that Kamala mounted a coup on Biden isn’t landing; neither is the claim that she covered up Biden’s cognitive decline," he continued. "None of that matters to voters now. We need to offer our vision for the future of America. It’s the only way we’re going to win this election."
Josh Shapiro’s VP bid ignites debate over Israel and antisemitism
In the weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s message to young Americans protesting the Israeli counteroffensive in Gaza was straightforward: study up on the conflict.
“I don’t blame them for wanting to engage and speak out,” he told NBC News in an interview in November, pointing to “disturbing” imagery coming out of Gaza. “I think that’s really healthy. I think it’s incumbent upon them to know some history and not just enter the conversation in recent weeks but go back and understand what happened in the past.”
Harris disavows single-payer health care system
Harris co-sponsored Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All Act in 2019, a bill that would put all Americans in Medicare and effectively eliminate private insurance.
But her presidential campaign says that’s not part of her health care agenda if she wins this fall.
“The VP will not push single payer as president,” a Harris spokesperson told NBC News.
‘The same old show’: Harris criticizes Trump's comments at Black journalists' convention
At an event in Houston tonight for the historically Black sorority Sigma Gamma Rho, Harris said Trump's comments at an appearance at an annual convention of Black journalists today were divisive and disrespectful.
"It was the same old show — the divisiveness and the disrespect," Harris said. "And let me just say the American people deserve better. The American people deserve better."
Trump had engaged in a hostile exchange with journalists asking him questions during a panel at the event this afternoon, and he had falsely questioned Harris' Black identity, saying that a number of years ago "she happened to turn Black and now wants to be known as Black.”
"The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth, a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us," Harris said tonight.
Vance dodges question about Harris' race
Vance told reporters tonight on the tarmac at the Phoenix airport that Harris is a “chameleon,” saying she has “flip-flopped on every issue.”
“I think he pointed out the fundamental chameleon-like nature of Kamala Harris,” Vance continued. “I mean, you guys saw yesterday she was in Georgia, and she put on a Southern accent for a Georgia audience.”
Asked whether he questions whether Harris is Black, Vance responded, “What I question is why she presents a different posture, regardless, depending on which audience that she’s in front of. She’ll say one thing to one audience to say another thing to another audience to say something totally different to another audience.”
Trump, appearing earlier today at a conference of Black journalists, baselessly suggested that Harris decided to “turn Black” only recently for political gain.
Vance praised Trump’s appearance at the NABJ conference, which was marked by contentious exchanges, saying his decision to participate in the event showed “one of the good things about him.”
“The president doesn’t do scripted BS stuff. He actually goes into hostile audiences,” Vance said. “He answers tough questions. He pushes back against them, but he actually answers them, and how nice it is to have an American leader who’s not afraid to go into hostile places and actually answer some tough questions.”
Harris' fundraiser in Houston raised $2.5 million, campaign official says
A fundraiser in Houston that Harris is attending tonight raised $2.5 million, exceeding its $1 million goal, according to a campaign official.
NBC News has not been able to verify the figures reported by the campaign, which have not yet been made public in Federal Election Commission filings.
“We are the underdogs in this race,” Harris said at the fundraiser. "We have a fight in front of us. And we have work to do.”
The fundraiser, which was organized in four days, was also attended by Texas Democrats, including Reps. Al Green and Lizzie Fletcher and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.
Trump incorrectly refers to the office Dave McCormick is running for
At his Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, rally, Trump has referred to Senate candidate Dave McCormick twice as the "future governor." McCormick is running for the Senate, not governor.
In one instance, he pointed to McCormick and called him "Mr. Future Governor."
Later in the rally, Trump correctly referred to McCormick as a Senate candidate and invited him to speak to his supporters.
Mark Kelly refers to Trump as a 'desperate, scared old man' amid his false questioning of Harris' racial identity
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who is considered a potential running mate for Harris, described Trump's remarks falsely casting doubt on Harris' Black identity at a Black journalists' convention in Chicago today as "the comments of a desperate, scared old man."
Kelly told NBC News that in the past week, Trump "has been having his butt kicked by an experienced prosecutor,” referring to Harris, adding that he believed Trump is "worried."
“These comments are not unexpected from him,” he added.
Abe Hamadeh wins crowded GOP primary in Arizona’s 8th District
Former Maricopa County prosecutor Abe Hamadeh won a crowded and bitter GOP House primary in Arizona’s 8th District, NBC News projects, defeating a fellow Trump acolyte in financier Blake Masters.
Hamadeh was ahead of Masters 29.8% to 25.3%, with 86.6% of the expected vote in. State House Speaker Ben Toma, state Sen. Anthony Kern and former Rep. Trent Franks were also among the candidates for the Republican nomination for the seat being vacated by Rep. Debbie Lesko.
Hamadeh and Masters ran unsuccessfully for the Senate and attorney general, respectively, in 2022 with Trump’s endorsement, promoting his false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. After he lost by just 280 votes, Hamadeh also made unfounded claims that his election had been stolen.
The two lobbed personal insults for months, duking it out over who was more aligned with Trump. Hamadeh had won Trump’s endorsement in December, but in an unusual move, Trump threw his support behind both candidates over the weekend.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, had endorsed Masters, while Lake had backed Hamadeh.
The 8th District — in the northwest valley of the metropolitan Phoenix area with an older, retired population and a large chunk of evangelical Christians — is solidly Republican, meaning Hamadeh is now all but certain to defeat likely Democratic nominee Greg Whitten in November.
Trump responds to Harris' challenge to compare records
Trump responded to Harris' saying she would put her record against his, saying, "Well, Kamala, let's go."
"Challenge accepted. Are you ready? Let's compare our record point by point," Trump said at his rally tonight.
The Trump and Biden campaigns originally agreed to a Sept. 10 ABC debate, but that plan has been in flux since Biden withdraw from the race. Harris has pressed Trump to debate her on that date, but Trump has not committed to debating her. He did acknowledge this week that he'll "probably" debate her but repeated his previous criticism of ABC.