Obama says at Harris-Walz rally that he voted yesterday
Former President Barack Obama said today that he has cast his ballot in the general election.
"I voted yesterday," Obama said as he campaigned for Harris in Madison, Wisconsin. "I got my ballot, filled it in, sealed it, signed it, and then I walked, which I don’t always get a chance to do, and Secret Service got nervous, but I said, 'Now, let’s walk to a mailbox.'"
Obama encouraged supporters to vote and help their friends and families make plans to vote. “Because together, we’ve got a chance to choose a new generational leadership in this country and start building a better, stronger, fair, more hopeful America now,” he said.
Former President Jimmy Carter voted by mail in Georgia last week. His grandson Jason Carter has said Carter planned to vote for Harris.
Walz calls Musk a 'dips---' at campaign rally in Wisconsin
At a campaign rally today in Wisconsin, Walz made jabs at both Vance and Elon Musk, saying Musk is Trump's real running mate.
"I’m going to talk about [Trump’s] running mate — his running mate, Elon Musk," Walz said. "Elon is on that stage, jumping around, skipping like a dips--- on these things."
Musk has been ramping up his campaigning for Trump while raising eyebrows from legal experts with his $1 million lottery-style daily giveaway for people who sign a conservative-leaning petition in battleground states.
Walz targeted Musk a few days after Trump called Harris a "s--- vice president." Trump told the crowd at Saturday's rally that profanity helps him underscore his arguments.
Parties duel for Latino voters in battleground Nevada
As Harris answered a question at this month’s Univision town hall about immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children, Elvira Diaz began to applaud.
Sitting with other Harris supporters at a watch party at Taqueria Jalisco in Reno, with Harris campaign signs that read “¡Cuando Luchamos Ganamos!” (“When we fight, we win!”) lining the walls, Diaz had been waiting to hear Harris talk about so-called Dreamers, as such immigrants are known.
But she’s worried other Latino voters aren’t hearing Harris’ message.
Meta bans accounts tracking private jets of Trump, Musk and Zuckerberg
Meta has banned a series of accounts that post location updates about private jets belonging to some of the world’s richest and most powerful people, including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Trump.
Those accounts have been deleted from Threads and Instagram, and corresponding Facebook accounts will be deleted soon, Andy Stone, Meta’s communications director, told NBC News.
The accounts, run by a Florida college student named Jack Sweeney, also track Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. Some still exist on other platforms, including Bluesky.
Texas county says no reason to believe votes are being switched
A viral claim by a voter in Texas that a machine had changed his choice for president was easily resolved and is the only such report out of the 58,000 votes already cast, officials in Tarrant County said.
In a viral video with more than 6 million views on X, a man says he had voted in Tarrant County and that his choice for president was not whom he had intended to vote for in the printout. The video is followed by another man making a claim, without evidence, that it has happened to other voters as well.
A county spokesperson told NBC News in an emailed statement that the only voter who reported a discrepancy was allowed to invalidate the initial ballot and print a new one to accurately reflect their choice.
“Tarrant County Elections has no reason to believe that votes are being switched by the voting system,” the spokesperson said. “Tarrant County Elections highly encourages voters to confirm their selections on the physical paper ballot before placing it into the scanner to be counted.”
The county uses the Hart InterCivic Verity Voting System, which allows voters to pick candidates on a digital screen and prints out a marked ballot that they can verify is accurate before submitting it.
It’s unclear what caused the discrepancy in this instance — if it was machine or user error — or why only a single voter would experience the problem.
Trump’s comments on military use should be taken ‘seriously,’ D.C. mayor says
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said people need to take seriously Trump’s recent suggestion that the U.S. military could be used against “the enemy from within,” referring to Democrats and others, on Election Day.
“When we hear the threat that the United States military would be used against American citizens, people should take it seriously, because we have the 82nd Airborne Division on the banks of Washington, D.C.,” Bowser said at a news conference this morning. “A president without guard rails can use the United States army against its citizens in America.”
D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at the news conference that about 4,000 police officers from around the country are expected to travel to D.C. to support local law enforcement during the inauguration. Officials also said a security fence will be erected around the Capitol from Jan. 5, the day before Congress certifies the election, to Jan. 21, the day after the inauguration.
The city began planning for the 2024 election cycle on Jan. 7, 2021, after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Bowser said. The biggest change in security is that the congressional certification of the election on Jan. 6 has been designated a National Special Security Event, which allows for more coordination between national and local authorities under a command-and-control system led by the Secret Service, she said.
“The United States Capitol Police are prepared to ensure a peaceful transfer of power at the Capitol, regardless of the victor,” Bowser said.
Currently, officials are not aware of any credible threats in D.C. between Nov. 5, Election Day, and Jan. 20, Inauguration Day. Bowser said officials will set up a rapid response team to address potential misinformation and disinformation over the next several months.
Jan. 6 rioter who allegedly built a giant ‘Trump’ billboard that was used to assault cops is arrested
A Trump supporter who federal authorities say built a giant pro-Trump billboard that the mob of Trump supporters used as a battering ram against police officers during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was arrested on Tuesday.
Jeffrey Newcomb, 41, from Polk, Ohio, faces several charges, including felony counts of obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers while using or carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon. The FBI says he later bragged about his work on X.
“Went to Jan 6th to peacefully protest in the loudest way possible: With a 13ft by 10ft signs on custom made aluminum wagon,” Newcomb wrote on a now-deleted X profile in 2023, FBI prosecutors said. “I spent $700 on this. Keeping my identity a secret because bullets are expensive.”
Trump unleashes a torrent of personal attacks on Harris, calling her ‘the worst’ and ‘lazy as hell’
Trump unleashed a torrent of personal attacks against Harris today, saying at a Latino outreach campaign event in Miami that she is “the worst” and “slow,” with a “low IQ.”
“This woman is the worst. I mean, it’s just unbelievable,” the former president said at the roundtable event with Latino leaders.
Trump first attacked Harris for choosing Walz as her running mate. “I think she made a horrible mistake. We’ll see what happens. On Nov. 5, you know, let’s see what happens. But there’s something wrong with him. Honestly, there’s something wrong and there’s something wrong with her, too. She’s slow, low IQ, something, I don’t know what the hell it is, but they lied.”
“We don’t need another low-IQ person,” he continued. “We had one for four years. We don’t need another.”
During the event, during which participants of the roundtable repeatedly praised Trump, the former president also attacked Harris for not appearing on the campaign trail on Tuesday.
While Harris is not appearing at campaign events today, she is sitting down for interviews with NBC News’ Hallie Jackson and Telemundo’s Julio Vaqueiro. Though she had been criticized by Trump and his allies previously for a lack of news interviews, she has done a flurry of media appearances in recent weeks, including an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that Trump himself skipped.
Trump to appear on Joe Rogan's podcast in latest outreach to young male voters
Trump will sit with Joe Rogan for a taping of his podcast in Austin, Texas, on Friday, according to two sources familiar with the planning.
Trump will visit Texas the same day Harris is scheduled to host a campaign rally in Houston.
“The Joe Rogan Experience” has been one of the most popular podcasts for years, particularly among young men, who have been key targets of the Trump campaign.
Trump has done a number of interviews in recent weeks with other media figures popular among men, including Ben Shapiro, Adin Ross and Theo Vonn. He also appeared on Andrew Schulz’s “Flagrant” podcast with Akaash Singh.
This is a developing story. Check here for updates.
U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia is trying to help Trump campaign
U.S. intelligence agencies assess that Russia is continuing to work to benefit Trump's campaign, including by circulating a false story about Harris' running mate.
“Based on newly available intelligence … the IC assesses that Russian influence actors manufactured and amplified inauthentic content claiming illegal activity committed by the Democratic vice-presidential candidate during his earlier career,” the assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence says.
The fake video that attracted millions of views last week on social media purported to be from a former student alleging sexual misconduct by Tim Walz when he was a high school teacher. Independent researchers had attributed it to a Kremlin-linked propaganda group called Storm-1516, a disinformation mill that was the subject of an NBC News report last week.
The intel agencies are also “increasingly confident that Russian actors are considering — and in some cases implementing — a broad range of influence efforts timed with the election. Some of these are aimed at inciting violence and calling into question the validity of democracy as a political system, regardless of who wins. Others are aimed at amplifying false information and conspiracies—that may exacerbate post-election tensions in the United States.”
Iran may try to do the same thing, the assessment warned.
In a separate assessment, U.S. agencies say they believe foreign actors may use cyber operations to stoke allegations of fraud after the election and undermine confidence. It warns that foreign adversaries will see the time between poll closing and the certification of official results as an opening to generate disinformation about election integrity.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.