Trump to hold town hall in Flint, Michigan, next week
Trump will hold a town hall in Flint, Michigan, next Tuesday that will be moderated by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former White House press secretary to Trump, his campaign announced today.
Trump's campaign signaled in the news release that he will talk about his plan to protect the auto industry in the state and bashed Harris' campaign proposal and the Biden administration's efforts to increase electric vehicle production.
New York Court of Appeals rejects Trump's efforts to toss out gag order in hush money case
The New York Court of Appeals today rejected Trump’s efforts to overturn the gag order in the hush money case against him.
Among its decisions posted this morning, the state’s highest court dismissed Trump’s appeal “upon the ground that no substantial constitutional question is directly involved.”
The gag order was imposed by New York State Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s hush money trial. It barred Trump from making statements outside of court about witnesses, court and Manhattan DA staffers, jurors, prosecutors and their relatives. Merchan later expanded the order to extend to his own family and that of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg after the former president attacked his daughter in social media posts.
In June, Merchan then lifted some of the gag order’s restrictions on Trump ahead of the former president’s debate against President Joe Biden. Trump remains prohibited from making statements about prosecutors, court staff, the DA's staff or the family members of those people, Merchan and Bragg if his intent is to "materially interfere" with work on the case.
Garland denounces ‘dangerous’ and ‘outrageous’ attacks on DOJ prosecutors and personnel
Attorney General Merrick Garland today denounced “dangerous” and “outrageous” attacks on Justice Department prosecutors and personnel and sought to reassure them that he has their backs.
The speech to DOJ employees, at times emotional and forceful, appeared to allude to the kinds of accusations and threats made by former President Donald Trump, his allies and supporters, though Garland didn’t explicitly name Trump in his remarks.
Garland thanked DOJ workers for their dedication in the face of “an escalation of attacks on the Justice Department’s career lawyers, agents and other personnel” over the last three-and-a-half years.
“These attacks have come in the form of conspiracy theories, dangerous falsehoods, efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants by repeatedly and publicly singling them out, and threats of actual violence,” Garland said. “It is dangerous and outrageous that you have to endure them.”
Walz co-sponsored a 2017 bill to ban killing cats and dogs for human consumption
Amid the continued fallout from Trump’s false debate stage claim that immigrants are killing and eating pets, here is the legislative equivalent of there being a Trump tweet for everything: Trump signed a bill banning the practice of killing cats and dogs for human consumption when he was president.
The bill was part of an effort to stop the trafficking of these animals and did not refer to or connect immigrants in its text.
The Dog and Cat Meat Prohibition Act of 2018 was among the pieces included in that year’s Farm Bill, which Trump signed in December 2018.
The bill passed in 2018 is a similar version to a 2017 bill co-sponsored by a familiar name: then-Minnesota Rep. Tim Walz. Walz did not co-sponsor the 2018 version, though, and did not vote on the bill that ultimately passed.
N.H. Democrats launch TV ads slamming Kelly Ayotte in governor's race
In two new TV ads out Thursday and shared first with NBC News, the New Hampshire Democratic Party is attacking former GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte for her views on abortion and her work on corporate boards.
The first of the ads, which are up just two days after Ayotte won the GOP primary for governor, go after Ayotte for “looking out for herself” while serving on the boards of corporations, which the ad says laid off workers and “pocketed profits.”
The second ad opens with a clip of Ayotte identifying herself as “pro-life” earlier this year and continues with her saying, “I certainly think that Roe should be overturned.”
The issue of abortion is expected to be front and center in New Hampshire’s governor’s race this year, which Democrats are eyeing as an opportunity to flip the state.
GOP Gov. Chris Sununu opted not to run for re-election this year, and Tuesday’s primary set up a general election race between Ayotte and former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, a Democrat.
Former GOP Attorney General Alberto Gonzales endorses Harris
Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who served in the George W. Bush administration, endorsed Harris on Thursday, writing in a Politico piece, "I can’t sit quietly as Donald Trump — perhaps the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation — eyes a return to the White House."
"For that reason, though I’m a Republican, I’ve decided to support Kamala Harris for president," Gonzales added.
Vance dodges when asked about possibility of second Trump-Harris debate
Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, dodged when asked whether he thinks there will be a second debate between the former president and Harris during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” this morning.
“Is there going to be a second debate? I think it’s an interesting question,” he said. “It’s telling to me that while some pundits walked away from the debate and said Kamala Harris did great, the actual undecided voters appear to think that Donald Trump did better.”
Vance reiterated Trump’s argument that Harris’ call for a second debate against the former president means that she admitted defeat in the debate.
“It’s telling that immediately after the debate, Kamala Harris came out and said, ‘Yes, I’d like to do another debate,’” he said. “If you think things went so well, you’re normally not asking for a rematch right away. Like when a boxing match happens, the guy who loses is typically the one who’s immediately asking for a rematch.”
Asked whether he had any frustrations with what Trump focused on during the debate, Vance said that the former president’s closing statement was “a critical piece of the debate” because he had the chance to go after Harris’ record in the White House.
“He drove home the entire message up to that point, which is Kamala Harris says she wants to do all these great things. Kamala Harris is currently the vice president of the United States. Why isn’t she doing it now?” he said, adding that he thinks "a lot of her economic policies are insane.”
Vance also slammed the questioning of the moderators of the presidential debate hosted by ABC, saying that they “asked more about ridiculous lies” about Trump rather than questions related to the economy.
Pressed about a recent Goldman Sachs report showing that immigration brings positive aspects to the jobs market, Vance pivoted to attacking Harris’ record on immigration by accusing Haitians in Springfield, Ohio — the center of a baseless allegation that Trump has pushed about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating pets — of driving up housing costs and communicable diseases.
“Wall Street has said that the way to create prosperity in this country is to flood the country with cheap labor and off source our manufacturing to places like China, which use cheap slave labor,” he said. “What that’s actually led to is communities like Springfield, Ohio, where you have 20,000 Haitians who have come in. Housing costs are unaffordable. Communicable diseases are on the rise, and people can’t afford to live a good life in this Ohio town.”
“If the path to prosperity was flooding your nation with low wage immigrants, then Springfield, Ohio, would be the most prosperous country and the prosperous city in the world,” he added.
STEM-focused progressive group invests in 5 key House races
A progressive political group that backs candidates with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and math is targeting five House seats that Democrats hope to flip this fall.
The STEM-focused group, 314 Action Fund, will invest more than $5 million across the five races, according to details shared first with NBC News. A gain of four seats this November would give Democrats control of the chamber.
Republicans hold each of the five targeted seats, but President Joe Biden won each of these five districts four years ago, making them among the most competitive races in the country:
- Arizona's 1st, where Amish Shah, a former state representative and an emergency room physician, is challenging U.S. Rep. Dave David Schwiekert.
- California's 27th, where George Whitesides, a former NASA chief of staff and Virgin Galactic executive, is trying to unseat U.S. Rep. Mike Garcia.
- Nebraska's 2nd, where state Sen. Tony Vargas, a former science teacher, faces U.S. Rep. Don Bacon.
- New York's 22nd, where state Sen. John Mannion, a former biology and chemistry teacher, is challenging U.S. Rep. Brandon Williams.
- Oregon's 5th, where state Rep. Janelle Bynum, an owner of several McDonald’s restaurants who has a background in electrical engineering, is running against U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
“Our investments in these crucial battleground districts is a demonstration of our commitment to not only winning back the House, but also making sure we elect leaders who are willing to follow the facts to fight climate change, protect a woman’s right to choose, and push back against an anti-science agenda that is eroding trust in our most prized institutions,” Josh Morrow, the 314 Action Fund’s executive director, said in a statement.
The group has plans to spend $20 million across all races, including the five House battles, this year.
The morning after their debate, Harris and Trump shook hands at ground zero as they honored the lives lost on 9/11. The candidates are now back on the campaign trail traveling around critical battleground states. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports for "TODAY."
Harris seeks to build on debate momentum with push to flip North Carolina
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Riding a fresh wave of momentum after her debate performance, Harris is ramping up her campaign today by holding two rallies in North Carolina as she tries to wrestle back the key battleground state and close off one of Trump’s main paths to victory.
Both campaigns see the state as playing a key role in November. Trump narrowly won it in 2020, and no Democrat has prevailed in the presidential race here since Barack Obama in 2008. There’s also a hard-fought battle for governor, in which Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein faces Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.
“Voters across North Carolina are building a powerful coalition to elect Vice President Harris and to defeat Donald Trump and his allies like Mark Robinson, who are pushing an extreme Project 2025 agenda to rip away our freedoms, raise costs on our families and undo the Medicaid expansion we fought so hard to deliver,” said Dory MacMillan, the Harris campaign’s North Carolina communications director. “This is going to be a close race — but we have built a campaign ready to win close races and to reach voters across the political spectrum in our cities and in rural areas.”
According to a Quinnipiac University poll out this week, Harris leads Trump 49% to 46% in North Carolina, within the survey’s margin of error. It’s still an extremely tight race, but it’s an improvement for Democrats from where President Joe Biden stood in the spring. A Quinnipiac University poll in April found Trump leading Biden 48% to 46%, again within the margin of error.