Coverage on this live blog has ended.
What's happening on the campaign trail today
- Former President Barack Obama and singer Bruce Springsteen appeared in Philadelphia at a "When We Vote We Win" concert as Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned in Michigan.
- Former President Donald Trump spent the day in Georgia, where he attended the National Faith Summit near Atlanta before a rally at Georgia Tech.
- Both vice presidential nominees, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, held events in the critical battleground state of Wisconsin.
How to avoid misreading the early voting numbers
One week out from Election Day, who is casting early votes is getting increased attention. NBC News’ tracker of early ballot returns is one of several presenting information about who has already cast ballots state by state — tantalizing hard numbers after a campaign full of polling suggesting a close race but nothing more definitive than that.
But while early voting is a useful tool for understanding what has happened to date, it is easy to read more than is appropriate into the patterns and what they mean for the election, given what we know about when different types of people are likely to vote. In particular, we know that younger people disproportionately wait until closer to Election Day to cast their early votes.
Our main takeaway: Even with weeks of early voting already complete in some places and only days left before it’s all over, it’s still dangerous to read too much into partisan breakouts of who has voted so far. There is still time for those patterns to shift — and we’ve already seen them shift in twists and turns through recent weeks of early voting.
Lara Trump doesn't think disparaging remark about Puerto Rico will affect Latino outreach
Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump said tonight that she doesn't think a comedian's disparaging comment about Puerto Rico at a campaign rally in New York yesterday will affect Latino outreach.
"I don’t think it’s going to be a problem at all," Trump, the former president's daughter-in-law, said in response to a question from NBC News in Arizona.
"I think it’s a shame that there’s so much that’s been made about it. It was not, obviously, a joke that was condoned in any way by the campaign, the RNC or Donald Trump. It was a comedian," she said. "And I just wish that people were actually looking at the impact of that actual rally in Madison Square Garden with all those people. It was really incredible. And I think it’s a shame that so much has been made of that."
Trump's campaign has sought to distance itself from the remark by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, with a senior adviser saying yesterday that the "joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at Trump's rally yesterday.
In battleground Arizona, voters are eyeing two key issues: immigration and abortion. NBC News’ Liz Kreutz reports on the ballot measures that can affect the election decision.
Archbishop in Puerto Rico calls on Trump to apologize for comedian’s remarks
The archbishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico, released an open letter addressed to Trump today, rebuking him and calling on him to personally apologize for comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s derogatory joke about Puerto Rico at Trump's rally yesterday.
“These kinds of remarks should not be a part of the political discourse of a civilized society,” Archbishop Roberto González Nieves wrote.
“I call upon you, Mr. Trump, to disavow these comments as reflecting in any way your personal or political viewpoints,” González Nieves added. “It is not sufficient for your campaign to apologize. It is important that you, personally, apologize for these comments.”
Since Hinchcliffe's comments, the Trump campaign has tried to distance itself from him. In a statement, campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said, "This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign."
According to the Pew Research Center, 56% of Puerto Ricans on the island identify as Catholic. Though island residents cannot vote in the presidential election, the Puerto Rican community’s vote is an important one for Trump, as battleground Pennsylvania is home to the third-largest Puerto Rican diaspora in the country.
The race for county clerk in a rural Michigan county has become a battle over 2020 election denialism
Sheryl Guy never dreamed she’d be thrust into a national political firestorm.
“I was appalled,” she said. “I was betrayed, and I was used.”
Guy, 63, is the Antrim County clerk in northwest Michigan. After a 45-year career working for the county from switchboard operator to clerk and everything in between, she had planned to retire after the 2024 election. Instead, fueled by concern she would be replaced with a 2020 election denier, she changed her mind — and the race to become the county’s top election official has exploded into a larger battle over the trustworthiness of the American political system in an increasingly polarized electorate.
Obama addresses comedian’s racist Puerto Rico jokes
Campaigning for Harris in Philadelphia tonight, Obama addressed the racist joke comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made about Puerto Rico at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally last night.
Obama slammed Trump for having Hinchcliffe and warmup speakers “peddling the most racist, sexist, bigoted stereotypes.”
“Here’s a good rule: If somebody does not respect you, if somebody does not see you as fellow citizens with equal claims to opportunity, to the pursuit of happiness, to the American dream, you should not vote for them,” he said.
Trump calls Michelle Obama ‘nasty’ during Atlanta rally
Speaking in Atlanta, Trump criticized former first lady Michelle Obama, calling her “nasty” and saying she opened up a box by going after him.
“You know who is nasty to me? Michelle Obama. I always tried to be so nice and respectful. She opened up a little bit of a little bit of a box. She opened up a little bit of something. She was nasty,” Trump said.
A spokesperson for Obama did not immediately respond to a request for comment this evening.
Obama campaigned with Harris on Saturday — her first appearance on the 2024 campaign trail. She slammed Trump for “gross incompetence,” saying that he was not capable of putting together a “coherent argument” and that he had “no honesty, no decency [and] no morals.”
Jeff Bezos defends Washington Post’s decision to stop presidential endorsements
Jeff Bezos, the billionaire Amazon founder who owns The Washington Post, defended the newspaper’s decision to stop endorsing presidential candidates, arguing in part that the move is a way to shore up credibility and combat perceptions of political bias.
“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, ‘I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.’ None. What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one,” Bezos wrote in a nine-paragraph article published on the Post’s website tonight.
Bezos published his comments three days after Will Lewis, the publisher and chief executive officer of the Post, announced that the storied publication would not make a presidential endorsement this year or “in any future presidential election” — breaking with decades of tradition. The announcement sparked immediate backlash from readers, current and former staff members, an employee guild and liberal social media influencers.
Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupt Harris’ remarks in Michigan
A group of roughly a dozen pro-Palestinian protesters, many of whom appeared to be students, were escorted out of Harris’ rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, tonight after they began protesting the war in Gaza about 10 minutes into her remarks.
The protesters chanted: “Israel bombs, Kamala pays, how many kids will you kill today?”
Harris responded by pledging her support to end the war and free the hostages.
“Hey guys, I hear you. On the subject of Gaza, we all want this war to end as soon as possible and get the hostages out, and I will do everything in my power to make it so,” she said.
Democrats have faced tensions with some Arab American voters in the critical battleground state this cycle amid frustration over the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
Comedian workshopped Puerto Rico remarks the night before
The comedian who let loose a series of racist jokes, some about Puerto Rico, at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally last night workshopped the material the night before at a local comedy club.
The comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” to warm up the New York City crowd — drawing immediate criticism from across the political spectrum and derailing what was supposed to be a night highlighting Trump in the final stretch of the campaign.
It was not the first time Hinchcliffe had used the Puerto Rico line — he practiced it at The Stand comedy club in New York City, where he made a surprise appearance Saturday night, according to an NBC News producer and three other people who happened to be in the audience.