Bitter New Hampshire House primary splits Democratic power brokers
Voters in New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District will select a new member of Congress tomorrow this fall for the first time in 12 years, a prospect that has led to a contentious and expensive primary between influential Democrats.
Former New Hampshire Executive Councilor Colin van Ostern and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Maggie Goodlander are squaring off in the Democratic primary to replace six-term Rep. Annie Kuster, who is retiring.
Van Ostern jumped into the race first, quickly earning Kuster’s endorsement. But his straight shot to the Democratic nomination in a district rated “likely Democratic” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter was stifled when Goodlander, a longtime congressional and legal staffer in Washington, launched her campaign in May.
Navajo voters list most important issues in election
Several Indigenous voters spoke with NBC News at the Navajo Nation parade in Window Rock, Arizona, about the issues that matter most to them heading into the November election.
The voters cited infrastructure-related issues, such as road construction and access to water, electricity and broadband on their reservations. They also raised education, missing and murdered Indigenous women, gun control, inflation and immigrants as important issues to them.
Lomakoyva Manuel, 25, of Sacaton, Arizona, said she voted for Biden in 2020 but is now undecided. Missing and murdered Indigenous women is a top issue for her, and water and land rights are important to her tribe, she said.
“There’s a lot of missing and murdered Indigenous women, and there’s not a lot of light that sheds that,” she said. “And I feel like they should because I know some of my cousins, some of my aunties and some of my sisters, they’ve all been through that type of stuff, and we just need to do better.”
Lorinda Strayhorn, 60, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who said she voted for Biden in the last election and supports Harris’ campaign, listed immigrants coming into Navajo’s land as a top issue.
“They’re doing a lot of land buy-back now, and a lot of our lands have been taken, and that’s not good, you know, for our tribes, our Navajo tribes,” she said. “But the good thing that they’re doing right now is they’re doing land buy-backs."
Denzel Bia, 22, a rancher from Many Farms, Arizona, who voted for Trump in 2020 and plans to do so again in November, said road repairs are crucial.
“The dirt roads have been getting bad,” he said. “So (Navajo Nation president) Buu Nygren and other people, they said they’re going to do this and that, but it never happened. They never fixed the road — so one big thing was fixing the roads on the Navajo Nation, putting highways on those dirt roads — but that’s what would help the people and save their vehicles.”
Bia said he buys and resells hay, and the cost to grow hay for his ranch has gotten too high, "and it’s ridiculous." He added that he recalls prices were lower when Trump was president.
Steve Blackrock, 65, a retiree from Black Mesa, Arizona, voted for Biden in 2020 and supports Harris’ campaign. He said infrastructure is lacking on the Navajo reservation — utilities and water power as well as roads.
A retired coal minor, Blackrock, acknowledged the environmental damage that carbon fuels cause and said it’s important to keep the environment clean for future generations.
“As the years grow go on, we realize we have to at least think of our younger generations coming up, so that they enjoy a healthy environment,” Blackrock said.
Leo Mann, 56, a construction worker from Nazlini, Arizona, a Trump supporter who said he will vote for him again in November, mentioned the economy and gun control as his top issues.
“I think the most important thing is, right now is, I think the cost of living has gone up,” Mann said. “I mean, if they, if it keeps going up, you know, it’s going to be pretty horrible.”
“Also the the gun laws," he said. "I know that there’s a lot of shooting going on in schoolyards now, but it’s just the kids that probably weren’t raised right. I’m not sure, but back in my day, if you had trouble in school, you duked it out, you had a fist fight. Nowadays, they take this kid — the kids take the guns to school.”
Mann also said infrastructure on reservations, especially for veterans and school systems, needs to be addressed.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, joins Andrea Mitchell to discuss the House GOP's release of a scathing report on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the White House’s response.
Democratic lawmakers says GOP 'cherry-picked facts' in Afghanistan report; GOP chair says Biden stonewalled
Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., said in an interview on MSNBC this afternoon that Republicans "cherry-picked facts" in their new report on the 2022 U.S. exit from Afghanistan and played up Harris' role in the withdrawal.
"They have contorted it, and it really does a disservice to the answers that the American public deserve,” Crow said on "Andrea Mitchell Reports," adding that Republicans refused to publicize transcripts of certain interviews because they give "information contrary to their narrative."
“The witnesses only mention her three times in those interviews, yet their 350-page report mentions her over 280 times,” he said about how the report plays up Harris' role. “This is a deeply flawed partisan attack."
Crow said the report doesn't touch on Trump’s role in the withdrawal. "It was the Trump White House that negotiated this flawed Doha agreement with the Taliban, which excluded our own military, which excluded the Afghanistan government.”
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Mike McCaul, R-Texas, who released the new report Monday, told Andrea Mitchell in a separate interview today that the Biden administration didn't cooperate with his panel, adding that the timing of the report's release "was not political."
“It was not by accident on the administration’s part," he said. "They wanted to stonewall this past the election. I will tell you this investigation is not over. And it will continue after the election.”
“I wish we had this report out sooner, but the fact is, I had to subpoena after subpoena to get documents, testimony, had to threaten motions to compel,” McCaul said about the timing. “The first year we had to investigate, I was not in the majority. We did nothing.”
As Harris and Trump are getting ready for their first debate, NBC News has new reporting on how both of the candidates are preparing. NBC News’ Aaron Gilchrist has more.
Nikki Haley says Trump and Vance 'need to change the way they speak about women'
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Monday that former President Donald Trump and running mate Sen. JD Vance, of Ohio, should change the way they speak about women and focus instead on policy positions.
In an interview on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” Haley was asked why she thinks Harris has a 14-point lead in the gender gap among women.
“I think it’s because Donald Trump and JD Vance need to change the way they speak about women. You don’t need to call Kamala dumb. She didn’t get this far, you know, just by accident. ... She’s a prosecutor. You don’t need to go and talk about intelligence or looks or anything else. Just focus on the policies,” she said.
Haley said that when Republicans call Democratic women “dumb,” “Republican women get their backs up, too.”
“The bottom line is, we win on policies,” she added. “Stick to the policies, leave all the other stuff. That’s how he can win.”
Liz Cheney says it’s ‘not enough’ for anti-Trump Republicans to vote for someone other than Harris
Former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney encouraged anti-Trump Republicans and independents Sunday to consider voting for Harris, saying it’s “not enough” to write in someone other than former Trump in the November election.
“Given how close this race is, in my view, again, it’s not enough. You have many Republicans out there who are saying, ‘Well, you know, we’re not going to vote for him, but we will write someone else in,’” Cheney said in an interview on ABC News’ “This Week.” “And I think that this time around, that’s not enough, that it’s important to actually cast a vote for Vice President Harris.”
Asked why she decided to support Harris, Cheney said that she had never voted for a Democrat in her 40 years of voting but that Trump “poses a challenge and a threat fundamentally to the republic.”
Who’s coaching Harris and Trump on foreign policy for Tuesday’s debate?
Foreign policy and national security have not played a dominant role in this year’s campaign so far, but a fumbled answer at Tuesday’s presidential debate could damage either candidate in a race with no margin for error.
As Trump and Harris head into the homestretch of debate preparation, who is coaching them on how to address the Israel-Hamas war, Russia’s onslaught against Ukraine and China’s efforts to overtake the U.S. as the world’s superpower?
There are stark differences between Harris and Trump in their foreign policy positions and how they express them. And the current and former officials and lawmakers who advise each candidate reflect those divergent outlooks.
Trump threatens lawyers, donors and election officials with prison for ‘unscrupulous behavior’
MOSINEE, Wis. — Trump, who makes frequent false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen through rampant fraud, warned over the weekend that he would try to imprison anyone who engages in “unscrupulous behavior” during this year’s race.
He issued the threat on Truth Social, his social media website, and repeated his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, accusing Democrats of “rampant Cheating and Skullduggery.”
“The 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,” he wrote.
Harris to return to North Carolina on Thursday
Harris is traveling to battleground North Carolina for two campaign events on Thursday, with a rally in Charlotte in the late afternoon and another in Greensboro in the evening. Both Harris and Trump, who will face off in a debate tomorrow night, have been aggressively courting voters in the state, where polling shows the two in a dead heat.