Coverage on this live blog has ended.
What's happening on the campaign trail today
- Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at a rally in Marietta, Georgia, focused on reproductive rights. She also campaigned in Madison, Wisconsin, where she thanked the local Teamsters chapter for endorsing her even as the national union declined to endorse.
- Former President Donald Trump attended a fundraiser in Miami, an hour from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach. His running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, had no public events.
- Early voting began today in Virginia, South Dakota and Minnesota, home of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz.
How the top election official in America’s biggest swing state is preparing for November
Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania’s top state election official, outlined Thursday how administrators in the nation’s biggest battleground state are preparing to take on election misinformation and even potential violence before and after ballots are cast this year.
Schmidt, a Republican who in 2020 was a Philadelphia election official and was targeted by Donald Trump as the then-president peddled false accusations of fraud in the city, spoke to NBC News in between panels at an event focused on election safeguards. He pointed to the importance of proactively debunking incorrect information swirling online, which he says can inflame emotions during voting season and stir people to threats or acts of violence.
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in the state, is facing pressure to drop out, over inflammatory and lewd comments he reportedly made online. He denies these reports and vows to stay in the race. NBC’s Laura Jarrett reports for TODAY.
Democrats seize on new Mark Robinson scandal to boost down-ballot prospects in N.C.
Democrats are preparing to ramp up efforts to tie Republicans up and down the ballot in North Carolina to Mark Robinson following a report that the GOP gubernatorial candidate made inflammatory comments on the message board of a pornography website.
National and state Democratic groups were already making Robinson the centerpiece of their strategy in down-ballot races in the state amid an expanding list of incendiary remarks he’s made over the years. But the fallout from CNN’s latest report has only added fuel to that fire.
Arizona Supreme Court decides nearly 100,000 voters will get full ballot access after clerical error
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday that roughly 98,000 Arizonans whose voter registration status was in limbo will be able to participate in the full ballot in November.
The uncertainty regarding the voters’ fate came after the Maricopa County Recorder’s office discovered a clerical error from 2004 that granted the nearly 100,000 Arizonans voting registration status despite not providing documented proof of citizenship.
Trump has no plan to pull his endorsement of Mark Robinson after alleged porn site scandal
Donald Trump is facing calls both from his allies and from within his own campaign to pull his endorsement from scandal-plagued North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, according to four people familiar with the discussions.
So far, however, there are no plans for the former president to formally drop him.
Trump told Jewish voters that they would have “a lot” to do with a loss in the 2024 election during an antisemitism event in Washington, D.C.
Trump shares fake photo of Harris with Diddy in now-deleted Truth Social post
Amid the recent news of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ arrest, former President Donald Trump reposted a doctored image falsely showing Vice President Kamala Harris with Combs with text questioning if she was involved in his alleged “freak offs.”
The image, which Trump reposted to his Truth Social profile, is an edited version of a 2001 photo of Harris with former talk show host Montel Williams, whom she briefly dated, and his daughter Ashley. The edit replaced Montel Williams’ face with a photo of Combs.
Harris acknowledges local Teamsters endorsement in Madison
Harris acknowledged the endorsement of a local Teamsters council during her remarks tonight at a campaign rally in Madison.
"And to everyone at Teamsters Joint Council 39, I am so honored and grateful for your endorsement," Harris said at the opening of her remarks. "I will work so closely with you, as we always have, and we will win."
The council represents roughly 15,000 workers in Wisconsin.
Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said on Wednesday that the union would decline to endorse in the presidential race, but some local Teamsters groups have backed Harris, with her campaign saying today that nearly two-dozen local Teamsters unions and joint councils have endorsed her presidential bid, including those in battleground states of Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The results of a survey conducted after President Joe Biden bowed out of the race released by the union this week showed that roughly 60% of its rank-and-file union members favored a Trump endorsement, while 34% supported Harris.
American Muslim 2024 Election Task Force urges voters to cast ballots for third-party candidates
The American Muslim 2024 Election Task Force today issued a statement urging voters to cast their ballots for third-party candidates and saying it could not "in good conscience" endorse Harris.
The task force, made up of a coalition of national political advocacy organizations, said voters should support "up and down the ballot" candidates who endorses a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on the Israeli government, such as Green Party nominee Jill Stein, Justice for All nominee Cornel West and Libertarian Party nominee Chase Oliver.
"American Muslims have the potential to significantly influence local and national elections by voting strategically," the task force said. "By doing so, they can support candidates who advocate for civil rights, racial equality, religious freedom, rule of law, freedom of speech, and a humane foreign policy."
"It’s important to remember which candidates supported or opposed local ceasefire resolutions and campus protests when making voting decisions," the statement read.
The task force's endorsements go a step further than the tactic of expressing disapproval employed by the Uncommitted Movement, which refused to endorse Harris even as it expressed disapproval for third-party candidates and Trump.
Secret Service releases report summary on probe of Trump assassination attempt in July
The Secret Service said its investigation into the July 13 attempt on Trump's life at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, revealed a series of operational failures and "communications deficiencies."
In a report summary released today, it said some of its failures included a "lack of due diligence" to address vulnerabilities on the site and a failure to implement certain security measures on the day of the event. The agency also said that law enforcement were using different radio frequencies at the venue that made communication difficult, and that complicated sharing information in real time.
The Office of Professional Responsibility and the Office of Integrity are reviewing the findings as the Secret Service weighs next steps in accountability, the agency said in a news release.
“It is important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13 and that we take the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another mission failure like this again,” the agency's acting director, Ronald L. Rowe, said in a statement.
“What has become clear to me is that we need a shift in paradigm in how we conduct our operations,” he added.
The agency said it plans to finalize its report in the coming weeks.