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What to know about the campaigns today
- President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are separately touring areas damaged by Hurricane Helene. Biden visited South Carolina before he headed to North Carolina, while Harris is in Georgia.
- Former President Donald Trump traveled earlier this week to Georgia, where he attacked the Biden administration's response to the hurricane and falsely claimed Biden had not spoken to Gov. Brian Kemp.
- Trump was hit with a new filing this evening by special counsel Jack Smith arguing that he was "fundamentally" acting as a private candidate for office and not in his official capacity when he sought to overturn the 2020 election. The Trump campaign deemed the filing “falsehood-ridden."
- The vice presidential nominees, Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, returned to the campaign trail today after their debate last evening. Vance spoke in Marne, Michigan, while Walz made several stops across Pennsylvania.
Republicans expect to confirm even more Supreme Court justices if Trump wins
During Trump’s White House tenure, Republicans assembled the most conservative Supreme Court in a century. Now, they’re excited about the prospect of building on those efforts by confirming even more conservative justices, as well as lower-court judges, if he wins another four years.
GOP senators widely expect there would be at least one Supreme Court vacancy during a second Trump term — and if he defeats Harris, Republicans would be likely to control the Senate, which handles the confirmation process. Two long-serving conservative justices will be on retirement watch in the coming years: Clarence Thomas, 76, and Samuel Alito, 74.
Democrats lean on doctors in battleground ads about abortion — even when they’re not from the district
House Democrats need to flip just four seats to take the chamber’s majority in November, and super PACs are going all-out on the airwaves in battleground districts, blasting Republicans over abortion and reproductive rights in ads.
Some of the ads feature doctors speaking passionately about abortion and saying Republican candidates shouldn’t represent “us” or “our” communities in Congress. But in at least four instances, the House Majority PAC, a super PAC aligned with House Democratic leadership, featured Republican-blasting doctors in their ads who did not live in the districts where they were advertising.
Virginia GOP Senate candidate suggests people who are tolerant of drag queens aren’t tough enough for the military
Hung Cao, the Republican Senate nominee in Virginia, disparaged drag queens and people who are tolerant of them by implying today that they are not tough enough to serve in the military.
Cao made the remarks in a televised debate against Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine when one of the moderators asked him about his previous comments tying what he called the White House’s “growing obsession” with diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, to military recruitment issues. Cao, a Navy veteran, was asked to explain how he believes DEI could affect military recruitment.
Trump says he would revoke Temporary Protected Status for Haitian migrants in Springfield
Trump said in an interview with NewsNation released today that he would "absolutely" revoke Temporary Protected Status for Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio.
“Absolutely, I’d revoke it, and I’d bring them back to their country,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly pushed debunked rumors about Haitian migrants in the city, many of whom are legally in the U.S.
Trump's and Vance's comments about the migrants have prompted criticism, even from some Republicans.
"As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield," Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, said in an op-ed last month. "This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there."
Harris on VP duties: 'There's only one president'
In an interview with KDKA-TV of Pittsburgh, Harris acknowledged that the vice president cannot achieve the same things as president.
“Absolutely, there’s only one president of the United States," she said.
Republicans have sought to hit back against Harris' campaign by arguing that she should already have been able to achieve her policy priorities as vice president.
She initially deflected the question, which was about her response to Trump's saying she has had time in office to achieve her campaign goals.
"I think that the former president is really becoming quite desperate and is really offering a lot of misstatements and misinformation, and perhaps it’s because he wants to distract from the fact that he has offered no plan for the American people," she said earlier.
GOP senator eyes health care overhaul and extending Trump tax cuts in one big 2025 bill
As Trump calls for overhauling the Affordable Care Act with a new health care system, a Republican senator running for an influential leadership position says the party should combine that pursuit with a major tax bill in the new year.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., told NBC News after the vice presidential debate in New York last night that if voters elect Trump and a GOP-controlled Congress, Republicans will be able to “make health care more affordable, more tailored and more personalized than the one size fits all option,” referring to the ACA, or Obamacare.
“We’ll have an opportunity next year, when it comes time to extend the Trump tax cuts, to adopt new policies that again will make health care more affordable and more personalized,” Cotton said. “Because a lot of health care in this country does go through our tax code. So I think that’ll be a very good opportunity next year.”
Back on the trail with MAGA crowds, Vance ditches ‘Midwest nice’ debate tone
No more “Midwest nice.”
Vance, back on the campaign trail after his matchup with Walz, eschewed the debate-stage niceties that marked their relatively cordial meeting and went back on the offensive today.
Vance lauds local elections officials a day after refusing to acknowledge Trump's 2020 defeat
A day after he refused to acknowledge Trump's 2020 defeat, Vance told Michiganders that Democrats are to blame for any skepticism of the U.S. election system.
“Part of the reason that people are skeptical of our elections is, frankly, a lot of national policymakers not doing their job,” he said during a visit to suburban Grand Rapids when he was asked what his message would be to local elections clerks who say they are properly administering the vote.
“There are a lot of poll workers out there that are working hard to keep our elections safe and secure. We ought to say thank you to these folks,” Vance said before he falsely claimed that Democrats, led by Harris, want to make it easier for noncitizens to vote.
DHS highlights potential threats in lead-up to election
In a threat assessment published today, the Department of Homeland Security detailed how domestic violent extremists and foreign actors — particularly Russia, Iran and China — may pose threats to the 2024 election cycle.
DHS said it expects domestic violent extremists to "pose the most significant physical threat to government officials, voters, and elections-related personnel and infrastructure, including polling places, ballot drop box locations, voter registration sites, campaign events, political party offices, and vote counting sites."
The assessment pointed to potential violence after the election, saying domestic violent extremists "could also react violently should their preferred candidate lose, or they could seek to exploit possible civil unrest if there are perceptions of election fraud."
The report also detailed how U.S. government officials believe foreign adversaries are trying to influence the electorate.
"As the election approaches, we expect foreign malign influence actors to increase their overt and covert use of media outlets, networks of inauthentic social media accounts, and agents of influence to launder and spread their preferred narratives and further their election-related goals," it said.
Separately, DHS warned that “malicious cyber actors” could target U.S. election infrastructure, including voter registration databases.
Former Trump national security aides endorse him amid turmoil overseas
A group of national security experts led by Cabinet members from the Trump administration endorsed Trump today, citing his foreign policy record and calling him “a peacemaker.”
The group, organized by former Trump national security adviser Robert O’Brien and former National Security Council chief of staff Alex Gray, wrote in a letter that “securing peace” is “the legacy of Trump.”