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What to know about the campaigns today
- Former President Donald Trump spoke this afternoon in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he lashed out at Vice President Kamala Harris by calling her “a horrible person,” “a liar,” a “radical left Marxist” and “not a smart person.” He then held a rally in Reading.
- President Joe Biden and Harris were briefed this afternoon on the administration's preparations for Hurricane Milton as Florida braces for landfall. Biden gave remarks about the hurricane in the early evening and called out Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., over her conspiracy theory about controlling the weather.
- Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, joined an event honoring veterans and military families in the Phoenix area this afternoon with Rep. Ruben Gallego, the Democratic nominee for the Senate, who's facing off against Republican nominee Kari Lake in a debate tonight.
- Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance, also campaigned in Tucson, holding a rally in the afternoon before speaking at an event in Mesa, Arizona.
Why Kamala Harris is facing criticism for owning a Glock
Harris revealed this week that she owns a Glock — a weapon that is restricted for purchase in California amid a court battle over the state’s gun laws.
“I have a Glock, and — I’ve had it for quite some time,” she said in an interview that aired Monday on CBS News’ “60 Minutes.” “My background is in law enforcement.” She added that she has fired the weapon at a shooting range.
A Harris campaign aide said in a statement to NBC News that it is the same gun that she mentioned owning in 2019 during her previous run for president and that it “is in a secure location in her home in California.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro shares details of his Elon Musk call, says they didn’t discuss politics
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro confirmed to NBC News today that he spoke with tech mogul Elon Musk on Sunday — but said politics never came up.
NBC News reported yesterday that Musk called Shapiro while he was at the Pittsburgh Steelers-Dallas Cowboys game in Pittsburgh over the weekend. The two were connected by Thomas Tull, a Hollywood producer-turned-investor, in whose box Musk was sitting.
In Tucson, neither Vance nor Walz mentions state polls open today
Vance and Walz had one thing in common during their campaign events in Tucson today: Neither brought up the fact that Arizona's polls are now open for early voting.
Both candidates did post to X to spread awareness that today is the first day of early voting in the state. Vance encouraged supporters to vote early.
The state can also begin tallying early ballots today.
But in their speeches, the vice presidential contenders focused on issues including the border, gun violence and women's rights.
Harris campaign livestreams Walz rally on Twitch
The Harris campaign livestreamed Walz's rally in Tucson, Arizona, on the gaming platform Twitch today in an attempt to make inroads into nontraditional ways to campaign on social media.
A campaign official said the livestream got around 65,600 views, an increase of 450% from the campaign's last livestream on the platform. The video also generated 14% follower growth, the official said.
Twitch is a social media platform that focuses on livestreaming.
Trump plans rallies in solidly Democratic states in an unorthodox strategy for the election’s final weeks
Get ready for Trump’s blue state extravaganza.
With less than four weeks until Election Day, Trump is scheduled to hold rallies in staunchly Democratic states he has virtually no chance of winning. It’s an unorthodox strategy campaign advisers say is designed to focus on areas where Democratic policies have failed, but it will also keep him away from the small handful of swing states almost certain to determine the election.
Over the next month, the former president has events scheduled in Colorado, California, Illinois and New York. Biden won those states by an average of 20 points in 2020, with his 13-point Colorado win the closest margin. Colorado is the only one of those states to vote for a Republican nominee for president this millennium, backing George W. Bush in 2004.
Former national security adviser Susan Rice spotted at Walz rally
Susan Rice, who was national security adviser during the Obama administration and domestic policy adviser for Biden, attended tonight's rally for Walz in Tucson.
She was in the audience with her husband, dressed in a campaign T-shirt and sporting a green “Kamala” button.
Rice suggested yesterday that Trump may have committed a crime by reportedly having numerous conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin after he left office.
Rice called it “another apparent Trump crime” and referred to the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from communicating with foreign leaders “with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States.”
Afghan accused of plotting Election Day terrorist attack worked as CIA guard, officials say
An Afghan man arrested on charges of planning a terrorist attack on Election Day worked as a security guard in Afghanistan for the CIA, two sources with knowledge of the matter told NBC News.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, was arrested Monday in Oklahoma and accused of plotting to kill Americans with an assault rifle on behalf of ISIS. Court documents said he had contributed to an ISIS charity in March and accessed online ISIS propaganda, but they did not say whether he was radicalized before or after he came to the U.S. in 2021. A senior law enforcement official said the FBI is still investigating that question.
The CIA declined to comment.
Liz Cheney and Trump White House aides criticize former president in joint appearance
Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., appeared alongside former Trump White House aides Alyssa Farah Griffin, Cassidy Hutchinson and Sarah Matthews, the first time all four Trump critics had gathered for a public event.
Asked whether the Republican Party will split in two after the election, Cheney said she’s unsure how the party comes back from what it has experienced, saying Trump and others have used hurricane response as a political tool.
"They’re intentionally spreading lies that could well cost people their lives," she said. "It’s not unlike the lies that we saw, the behavior that we saw, on Jan. 6th," Cheney said, referring to the false information Trump and his allies spread about hurricane relief.
Farah, Hutchinson and Matthews described how they decided to resign from their White House jobs after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"He used those conspiracy theories ... to inspire a mob to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6. And I was in the West Wing that day, and I sat there and watched as adviser after adviser went into the Oval Office dining room to beg and plead with him," Matthews said.
Farah said Trump "is the person of the lowest moral character that I’ve ever worked for."
Trump blames Harris for allowing the Afghan national charged for terrorist plot into the country
Trump referred tonight to the arrest of Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, who was charged this week with conspiring to execute a terrorist attack on behalf of the Islamic State terrorist group on Election Day.
"It was reported that Kamala Harris brought in a totally unvetted refugee from Afghanistan who is now arrested for plotting an ISIS terror attack on the United States during our election. This is the people we brought in," Trump said in Reading, Pennsylvania. "Got thousands of them. This is one. Kamala completely abandoned her duty to law-abiding Americans and spent the last four years importing criminals, unvetted refugees and terrorists into our country."
A charging document unsealed yesterday indicates that Tawhedi entered the U.S. on a Special Immigrant Visa “and is currently on parole status pending adjudication of his immigrant proceedings.”
Special Immigrant Visas are given to Afghans who worked with the U.S. in Afghanistan after they pass vetting by the Department of Homeland Security. The charging document says he came to the U.S. on Sept. 9, 2021 —less than a month after U.S. forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan.
An Afghan refugee group and two U.S. officials familiar with the matter told NBC News that the charging document is incorrect and that while Tawhedi had a pending application for the Special Immigrant Visa, he never obtained it and was in the U.S. on humanitarian parole.
Biden administration officials at the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the Justice Department have declined to tell NBC News how Tawhedi reached the U.S., for whom he worked, who vetted him and who recommended him for parole.
It was not immediately clear whether he was evacuated in the chaos of the withdrawal — when many Afghans got through the process with minimal or no vetting — or whether he had been trying for years to get the special visa and had gone through more scrutiny.
In a statement that did not address his case specifically, DHS said: “Afghan evacuees who sought to enter the United States were subject to multi layered screening and vetting against intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism information. If new information emerges after arrival, appropriate action is taken.”
Trump lashes out at media personalities who've interviewed Harris
Trump fired off criticisms of the media personalities who recently interviewed Harris during her media blitz, saying at a rally tonight that he once liked Howard Stern but has since "dropped him like a dog."
"We need a free and fair press badly, desperately," Trump said in Reading, Pennsylvania. "I watched the way they asked questions of Kamala yesterday. Howard Stern, he's a weak guy. He's weak."
"Howard, I knew him very well. I was on his show many times. I used to think he was good. And then I dropped him. I dropped him like a dog," he added.
Trump also said he watched "that stupid 'View' where you have these really dumb people." He claimed co-host Whoopi Goldberg once told him before his career in politics: "You're so great. If you ever ran for president, you'd win."