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What's happening on the campaign trail today
- Former President Donald Trump visited Valdosta, Georgia, this afternoon to survey the damage from Hurricane Helene and spoke to the media. During his remarks, he falsely claimed that Biden had yet to speak to the state's governor, Brian Kemp.
- Vice President Kamala Harris canceled events in Las Vegas after her rally there last night to travel back to Washington for a briefing at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters about the storm damage. President Joe Biden said he plans to survey the damage in North Carolina on Wednesday.
- Trump's and Harris' running mates, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are gearing up ahead of their CBS News debate tomorrow. The debate could be the final one of the campaign cycle.
A hurricane, an intensifying war and a looming strike present a battery of new crises for Harris
Harris and Trump are scrambling to revise travel plans and tactics as they face a real-time test of how they cope with unexpected crises: a trifecta of life-threatening weather, a war and a looming dockworkers strike that could drive up prices.
Harris’ challenge is to shape a government response without politicizing a moment that calls for bridging national divisions.
Trump’s dilemma is that any condemnation he delivers may call attention to his own actions in 2017, when he blithely tossed paper towels to Puerto Rican residents reeling from Hurricane Maria.
Trump claims the Biden-Harris administration is denying hurricane assistance to his supporters
Trump claimed without evidence that the Biden-Harris administration is "going out of their way to hurt" Trump voters in rural North Carolina who were affected by Hurricane Helene.
“They’re not getting water, they’re not getting anything,” Trump said in an interview with his former adviser Kellyanne Conway that aired tonight.
Earlier today at a news conference, NBC News' Garrett Haake asked Trump about a similar claim he made on Truth Social accusing the federal government and Democratic governors of withholding relief.
"Just take a look," Trump said before he refused to answer follow-up questions.
DNC projects messages on Trump Tower ahead of VP debate
Ahead of the vice presidential debate between Vance and Walz in New York tomorrow, the Democratic National Committee projected messages on Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.
The projections went up just after 9 p.m. ET and read: “Project 2025 HQ,” “Go Coach Walz,” “Trump is a chicken” and “Trump on Vance: ‘what an idiot,’” appearing next to the Trump Tower sign. The messages were projected on the scaffolding and building adjacent to the midtown Manhattan skyscraper.
“As Vance takes the debate stage to attempt to make up for Trump’s own lackluster debate performance, these projections on Trump Tower NYC are a reminder that Trump and Vance are out for themselves while Trump remains afraid to go back on that debate stage and be held accountable by Vice President Harris for his failed record and his dangerous agenda," DNC Deputy Communications Director Abhi Rahman said in a statement.
Trump compares missing migrant children to the Holocaust
In an interview today with his former adviser Kellyanne Conway, Trump compared missing migrant children to the Holocaust.
Trump claimed hundreds of thousands of "children are missing. Remember that stat. That would be a stat that — it’s sort of like the Holocaust," he said. "Many of those children are dead; you’ll never see them again."
The Nazis killed 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.
Trump made a similar comparison between missing migrant children and the Holocaust in an interview with "Dr. Phil" McGraw in June.
‘It’s very complex’: Biden struggles with being out of the national conversation
Biden has privately complained to allies that his name and his accomplishments have virtually disappeared from the national conversation and about how quickly the party that he has served for more than five decades appears to have moved on from him, according to six people familiar with his comments.
Biden has noted at times that Harris, who took his place at the top of the Democratic ticket in July, hasn’t been mentioning him in her campaign speeches lately, including when she talks about an economy he believes his policies set on a positive trajectory, these people said.
And he was particularly stung by one of the recent notable times when she did talk about him — during this month’s debate with Trump, three of the people familiar with his comments said.
Voters blame ‘extreme’ rhetoric for contributing to attempt on Trump’s life
A majority of voters blame “extreme political rhetoric” from some politicians and media figures for contributing to the assassination attempt targeting Trump in Florida this month, according to the latest NBC News poll, part of a rising trend across a decade-plus of violent attacks on political figures.
Slightly more than half of respondents, 54%, agreed that “extreme political rhetoric used by some in the media and by political leaders was an important contributor” in the days after a gunman was spotted on the fence line outside Trump’s golf course and arrested after fleeing. Another 37% said it was more of an “incident caused by a disturbed person,” and 6% volunteered that it was “some of both.”
Republicans blamed extreme rhetoric 76%-18%, going along with Trump, who quickly blamed Harris’ statements against him for inspiring the attempt. Harris said, “I will be clear: I condemn political violence. We all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence.”
Iran’s history of elaborate election interference efforts before the Trump campaign hack
On Friday, U.S. authorities accused three Iranian men of stealing and leaking files from Trump’s 2024 campaign, the largest “hack and leak” election influence operation since Russia’s breach of Hillary Clinton’s campaign and Democratic organizations in 2016.
Iran’s influence efforts using hacked material from the Trump campaign follow what the U.S. says was a series of brazen influence operations in 2020, all authorized by Tehran’s senior leadership. Iran has consistently denied such allegations.
Iran, like China and Russia, constantly creates fake accounts on U.S. social media platforms in attempts to shift Americans’ opinion, U.S. intelligence officials say. It’s unclear that such operations have had much effect.
Democrats sue Georgia election board over new rule requiring hand-counting of ballots
Democrats want a judge to block the Georgia State Election Board’s newly passed requirement for counties to hand-count ballots cast on Election Day, arguing the eleventh-hour move is unlawful and could cause “chaos” in the battleground state.
The board’s controversial 3-2 vote this month “changes the rules of the game in the ninth inning,” read the suit, which was filed by the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Party of Georgia, with support from Harris’ campaign.
“In sum, the Hand Count Rule is contrary to the Election Code, exceeds the Board’s rulemaking authority” and “violates foundational limits on agencies that are intended to avoid precisely the scenario here—an unelected body unilaterally making significant changes to the law without notice or explanation,” the suit says.
State judge strikes down Georgia abortion ban
A judge in Fulton County, Georgia, struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban today, allowing the procedure to resume and making it legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.
The state law, known as the LIFE Act, was signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 but didn’t take effect until July 2022, after it faced a legal challenge and the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.
Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his ruling that a review of “our higher courts’ interpretations of ‘liberty’ demonstrates that liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its bundle of rights the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices.”
House Republican subpoenas DHS for documents on Walz and China
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., subpoenaed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas today for documents that he said pertained to alleged ties between Walz and the Chinese Communist Party.
The subpoena letter referred to a "non-classified" Microsoft Teams group chat with DHS staff members that allegedly includes relevant information for the Republican-led committee, which in August launched a probe into what it called Walz’s "extensive" engagement with China.
Comer today gave DHS until Oct. 7 to produce the requested documents. DHS and the Harris-Walz campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Walz has had experience with China going as far back as his graduation from college, after which he taught American history and culture for a year in the city of Foshan as part of a Harvard program. He and his wife, Gwen, took groups of high schoolers to the country for years and even spent their honeymoon in China.
His familiarity with China drew immediate criticism from Republicans when he was chosen as Harris' running mate.
Walz has criticized China’s government and advocated for human rights issues in the country, co-sponsoring pro-democracy bills and resolutions when he was a member of Congress.