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Here's what's happening on the campaign trail
- Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz this week will sit for their first interview as running mates after pressure mounted for them to take questions at length from the media. The interview will air Thursday night on CNN.
- Special counsel Jack Smith secured a new indictment of former President Donald Trump on federal election interference charges. The indictment is similar to the previous one, but it incorporates the Supreme Court's ruling from last month on presidential immunity.
- Trump's campaign has named Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to the former president's transition team, senior campaign adviser Brian Hughes said.
- Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, campaigned in Michigan and Tennessee today. His mom joined him on the trail.
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., stumped for Harris and Walz in Wisconsin. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, meanwhile, spoke at a campaign event in New York.
Vance to address firefighters union this week, after Walz
With its endorsement up for grabs, Vance will address the firefighters union convention Thursday, a source familiar with the matter said. He will appear one day after Walz speaks to the group.
Vance’s late addition to the convention schedule speaks to the pitched battle from both campaigns to earn the International Association of Fire Fighters’ endorsement.
The union was the first major labor group to endorse Biden when he launched his 2020 campaign. But, under new leadership, it has been taking a more deliberate approach in the 2024 race. It is one of a two major unions, along with the Teamsters, that have yet to endorse in the presidential race.
NBC News first reported Walz’s plans to address the union tomorrow.
Harris addressed the IAFF’s gathering in Washington in March, when Biden was still the Democratic standard-bearer. IAFF General President Edward Kelly told members then that union leadership would survey members about a variety of issues before the union proceeded with a potential endorsement.
A union official told NBC today that the group does not expect to make a presidential endorsement this week.
RFK Jr. won’t be able to remove himself from ballots in Michigan and Wisconsin
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be unable to remove himself from the ballots in the key swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin, election officials confirmed today, days after he ended his independent presidential campaign and endorsed Trump.
Kennedy is on the ballot in Michigan as a candidate for the Natural Law Party, which nominated him at its convention this year. Cheri Hardmon, a spokesperson for the Michigan secretary of state’s office, confirmed that “minor party candidates cannot withdraw, so his name will remain on the ballot in the November election.”
In Wisconsin, the state election commission met today to certify ballot access for presidential and vice presidential candidates. Even though Kennedy asked to withdraw his nomination petition as an independent candidate, the commission voted to decline the request, according to an archived video of the proceedings published by WisconsinEye, a nonprofit public affairs network.
Shooter in Trump assassination attempt used air-conditioning unit to get on roof
The gunman who tried to assassinate Trump last month gained access to the roof he fired from by getting atop an air-conditioning unit, a source briefed on the investigation into the shooting told NBC News today.
Trump was shot in the ear on July 13 during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a rallygoer was killed and two others were wounded before a Secret Service countersniper shot and killed the 20-year-old gunman.
The source said video recorded from a nearby ice cream shop shows the shooter using an air-conditioning unit to climb onto the roof of a building to get into position about 450 feet from where Trump was starting his speech.
Pro-Trump police association hits Harris over 2020 remarks about systemic racism and policing
A police organization that's backing Trump criticized Harris today over her remarks at a 2020 Senate hearing at which she linked slavery, Jim Crow and policing in describing systemic racism in America.
“When we say that America has a history of systemic racism, we mean that from slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynchings and policing, our institutions have done violence to Black Americans,” Harris said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on policing not long after a police officer murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Harris later posted her remarks online but changed “policing” to “the criminal justice system.”
“We call on her to retract and apologize for her comments equating policing to lynching and slavery,” Michael McHale, president of the National Association of Police Organizations, said in a statement. “Far from being today’s cruel slavers, the men and women of America’s police agencies are the single biggest force for public safety, freedom, and liberty in our nation.”
The police association also backed Trump in 2020.
The Harris campaign declined to comment on McHale's statement.
Elizabeth Warren stumps for Harris on 'Swifties for Kamala' call
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., joined a "Swifties for Kamala" Zoom call tonight to campaign for the Harris-Walz ticket among Taylor Swift fans.
Warren talked about abortion rights, climate change and protecting against big corporations' "screwing you over."
"Yes, I'm looking at you, Ticketmaster," Warren said, referring to the chaos Swift fans faced when they tried to buy tickets for her blockbuster Eras Tour.
The call's leaders sported red, white and blue friendship bracelets and sparkly blue number 47s on their hands — a reference to the bracelets and the number 13 fans don at Swift's concerts.
Warren referred to Swift's work, saying her favorite songs were "Karma" and "All Too Well (10 minute version) (Taylor's Version)."
"To be blunt, it's a tough fight ahead, and there are only 24 hours in the day," Warren said. "Or 144 All Too Well 10 Minute Versions."
Swifties for Kamala organizers said on the call that more than 20,000 people joined the webinar and that more than $113,000 was raised. NBC News could not independently verify those numbers.
Other speakers included singer Carole King, Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass.
Markey also packed in the Swiftie references, referring to Swift's "I Did Something Bad," among other songs.
"I never trust a narcissist," Markey said, riffing on the song lyric and likening Trump to a narcissist.
Swift transcended political divides in an NBC News national poll last year.
Swift herself, who was not on the call or involved with organizing efforts, has not endorsed a presidential candidate. In 2020, she endorsed Biden.
A recent study found that celebrity endorsements can have an impact on elections by motivating groups who may follow stars but are not likely to vote.
Conservative group plans $10 million effort to soften Harris’ Black voter support
A conservative nonprofit group plans to spend $10 million in the hope of chipping away at Harris’ key base of Black voter support by criticizing the White House’s proposal to ban menthol cigarettes, which it postponed this year.
The new ad campaign from Building America’s Future and Americans for Consumer Protection, which a Building America’s Future official described to NBC News, will target primarily Black voters in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Through digital advertising, text messages and direct mail, the message will try to frame the Biden-Harris administration as out of touch for focusing on banning menthol cigarettes over other issues.
Democrats launch PAC to counter Republican legal election challenges
A group of Democratic strategists is launching a super PAC focused on supporting the party’s legal efforts around election protection and battles that could come after Election Day.
The group is anticipating that Trump and his allies will repeat their large-scale attempt to undermine confidence in the election before Nov. 5 and then work to overturn election outcomes by challenging ballots and results in court in the days and weeks after the voting.
The new group, which can raise and spend unlimited sums of money, is called Democracy Defenders. It will be chaired by Jim Messina, who was campaign manager for President Barack Obama’s successful 2012 re-election campaign.
Vance says he doesn't think new Trump indictment 'changes anything legally'
Vance commented on special counsel Jack Smith's superseding indictment of Trump over his efforts to overturn 2020 election results, saying, "I don't think that it changes anything legally."
“Looks like Jack Smith doing more of what he does, which is filing these sort of lawsuits in an effort to influence the election," Vance said, noting that he had not read the full indictment, as he came off of a plane in Nashville, Tennessee.
"He should be ashamed of himself, but it’s one of the reasons why we have to win, because he should not be anywhere near power," Vance said of Smith.
Vance also drew attention to last month's Supreme Court presidential immunity ruling in the election interference case.
"Of course, the reason the Supreme Court threw out his lawsuit is because they said it implicated the president’s official acts," Vance said.
The high court did not dismiss Trump's case; it ruled that he did have some immunity for certain official acts in office.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson says she is 'concerned' about immunity ruling
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she is "concerned" about the court's immunity ruling last month, arguing it appeared to create a different standard for presidents.
"I was concerned about a system that appeared to provide immunity for one individual under one set of circumstances when we have a criminal justice system that had ordinarily treated everyone the same," Jackson told CBS News in a clip of an interview that will air in full Sunday.
Jackson wrote a scathing dissent in the Trump v. United States decision last month, saying, "The court declared for the first time in history that the most powerful official in the United States can, under circumstances yet to be fully determined, become a law unto himself.”
The court ruled 6-3 that in the federal election interference case, Trump had immunity for some of his conduct as president. The ruling added an extra obstacle for special counsel Jack Smith, who secured a new indictment today in that case with revisions to adhere to the court's decision.
Jackson said in the CBS interview that she is "as prepared as anyone can be" for the scenario in which the 2024 presidential election ends up before the Supreme Court.
"I think there are legal issues that arise out of the political process. And so the Supreme Court has to be prepared to respond — if — if that should be necessary," she said.
Pennsylvania warns of voter registration scam messages
The Pennsylvania State Department said today it's aware of phishing scam messages designed to mislead voters about their registration status.
The scams are messages by third parties claiming recipients aren't registered to vote and seeking personal identifying information, the state agency said.
"Voters should be aware that opportunistic bad actors may attempt to use this campaign season to send phishing or smishing emails/texts," a spokesperson for the State Department wrote in a statement.
The spokesperson warned voters in the battleground state not to click on links from sources they aren't sure are credible or provide personal identifying information in response to such messages.
"The Department of State does not use third parties to contact voters, and text messages and emails from the Department never make mention of a voter’s specific record," the spokesperson wrote. "They only serve as reminders of upcoming election deadlines and always include our vote.pa.gov url."
"People should not be alarmed, but they should be vigilant," the statement read.
The department told voters to visit the state attorney general's website to learn more about how to protect themselves from voting scams and said it maintains a tool to look up accurate information about their voter registration status and their mail ballot status.