Rep. Ritchie Torres says he was 'deeply offended' by racist remarks at Trump rally
Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., lambasted Trump this morning over the Madison Square Garden rally last night, where a number of speakers made hate-filled and racist comments, including about Puerto Ricans and members of the Black community.
“Hate is the core calculus of the Trump campaign,” Torres told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC. “Hate is not an accident. It is the consequence of who Donald Trump is.”
“I was deeply offended, not only as a Puerto Rican, but as an American,” he said. “There are thousands of Puerto Ricans who are serving in the U.S. Armed Services, risking their life for the country.”
The congressman pointed to how “Donald Trump has spent years inciting hatred for immigrants, inciting hatred for Latinos,” citing Hurricane Maria.
“Donald Trump abandoned Puerto Rico," he said. "He did everything he could to sabotage the reconstruction and recovery of Puerto Rico in its moment of greatest crisis.”
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe disparaged Puerto Ricans at the rally, saying the U.S. territory is “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now.”
Older voter cries when she meets Biden at Delaware voting center
Before casting his vote in Delaware today, President Joe Biden and Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester greeted people in line at the early-voting center.
An older woman in a wheelchair began crying when she met the president, who gave her a kiss on the head and led her into the voting center.
Vance says, 'Can we all just take a chill pill?' in response to question about racist joke
Vance was asked about the racist joke disparaging Latinos made at a Trump rally yesterday in New York.
"I haven’t seen the joke. You know, maybe, maybe it’s a stupid, racist joke as you said, maybe it’s not. I haven’t seen it. I’m not going to comment on the specifics of the joke, but I think that we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America. I’m just — I’m so over it," Vance said.
He went on to talk about a joke George Lopez made at a Harris rally that had been sent to him.
Vance said he told the person who sent him the Lopez joke, "'can we all just take a chill pill and take a joke from time to time?’ This is ridiculous."
"We are not going to — we’re not going to restore the greatness of American civilization if we get offended at every little thing. Let’s have a sense of humor and let’s have a little fun and let’s go win in eight days."
Trump to deliver remarks at Mar-a-Lago tomorrow morning
Trump will deliver remarks to the press at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, tomorrow at 10 a.m., his campaign said.
It was not immediately clear whether the former president plans to take questions from the news media.
Trump's appearance will come hours before Harris delivers a "closing argument" at the Ellipse in Washington. The vice president's remarks are expected to focus on threats to the democratic system and the stakes of the election.
Sen. Mark Kelly defends the CHIPs Act
Holding a news conference on behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign, Sen. Mark Kelly said the jobs of Arizonans are in danger if Trump rips up the CHIPs Act.
The presser was called in response to Trump’s recent comments on the Joe Rogan podcast. “That chip deal is so bad,” said Trump. “All you had to do was charge them tariffs.”
Kelly, who was a chief architect of the CHIPs Act, responded to Trump’s comments forcefully. “He is showing us every day just how unhinged he’s become,” said Kelly. “These guys standing behind us today, if Donald Trump was to win another term in the White House, could be losing their jobs,” Kelly added, referring to the steel workers assembled at the press conference.
On Trump’s suggestion that tariffs would be more successful than the CHIPs Act, Kelly said: “This concept of a plan, he talks about how he has concepts. It’s to replace these critical investments that we have made with tariffs. And these tariffs, according to economists, are going to raise the costs for Arizona families about $4,000 every year.”
Republicans ask Supreme Court to prevent some Pa. ballots from being provisionally counted
Republicans asked the Supreme Court today to prevent some mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania flagged as being potentially defective from being provisionally counted.
The case arises from this year's primary election in the state but Republican lawyers say the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling they are seeking to block is binding on the general election too.
The divided state court said mail-in ballots that machines detect as lacking secondary “secrecy envelopes” as required under state law can be counted provisionally, a finding that Republicans had argued against. Such ballots automatically lead to voters’ being notified that there are problems with the ballots that can be remedied by voting in person.
The legal issue could be of major importance if the election is close in the key swing state because it raises a question potentially of interest to the conservative Supreme Court justices about whether the state court ruling unlawfully encroached on the legislature’s authority to set election rules under the U.S. Constitution.
The issue was the subject of a Supreme Court ruling last year that mostly rejected the “independent state legislature” theory, which says legislatures’ authority over elections is unfettered while leaving the door open to revisit it in the future.
"This case is of paramount public importance, potentially affecting tens of thousands of votes in a State which many anticipate could be decisive in control of the U.S. Senate or even the 2024 presidential election," Republican National Committee lawyers wrote in the new filing.
They asked the court to act on the application by Friday.
Harris campaign to launch Pittsburgh Steelers-themed ad during tonight's game
The Harris campaign is launching a new campaign ad focused on male Pittsburgh Steelers fans tonight during their Monday night football matchup against the New York Giants.
The ad showcases a man named Chris, a Steelers fan and maintenance worker, who says in the ad that Trump "does not care about the working man." He also called Trump a "rich kid" and a "little silver spoon boy," posing the question, "How is he relatable to me whatsoever?"
This ad is one of several that the Harris campaign has used to target men, including on sports betting sites.
Harris highlights how the CHIPS and Science Act is benefitting a semiconductor facility in Michigan
Harris touted the CHIPS and Science Act signed into law by President Biden and explained how it was benefitting a semiconductor facility in Michigan.
"That was billions of dollars investing in just the kind of work that's happening here," Harris said in remarks today after touring a semiconductor facility in Hemlock, Michigan.
“First of all, we talked about the fact that the people were doing this extraordinary work," Harris continued. "You’re doing work that requires an incredibly high level of skill, as I listen to it. It’s about engineering. There’s a technology piece to this, there’s a chemistry piece to this. There is math to this."
Harris also slammed Trump in her comments: “We are eight days off from an election. So I just gotta also talk about the contrast, because my opponent spends full-time talking about just kind of diminishing who we are, and talks it down, talking about the garbage can of the world.”
Abortion rights group pours millions into final ad campaign backing Harris
In the final sprint before Election Day, an abortion-rights group is spending millions in battleground states on a new ad highlighting reproductive rights, a top issue for voters.
On Monday, Reproductive Freedom for All’s political arm launched an $8 million ad buy in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to details shared first with NBC News.
“Whether and when to start or grow a family is the biggest financial decision a person will make in their lifetime,” the group’s President and CEO Mini Timmaraju said in a statement.
The group will spend $6 million on TV ads in Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee, and another $2 million in digital ads.
The ad begins by slamming Trump over his signature tax law, accusing him of wanting “more tax cuts for billionaires and corporations instead of us.” It calls restrictions on abortion “Trump’s abortion bans.”
The ad praises Harris as a “daughter of a middle-class single mom” who “knows hardworking families need a break,” lauding her tax plan and intent to restore federal abortion protections.
Harris has made abortion rights and access to health care central to her campaign, particularly over the last stretch. She held high-profile rallies with Michelle Obama and Beyoncé over the weekend where the issue took center stage.
“Now, 1 in 3 American women lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban,” Harris said Friday in Texas, a state with the most restrictive abortion ban in the country. “If Donald Trump wins again, he will ban abortion nationwide.”
Geraldo Rivera defends Puerto Rico, posts anti-Trump comments
Former Fox News host Geraldo Rivera, who was once a Trump ally but said earlier this month he would vote for Harris, criticized Trump for comments disparaging Puerto Rico at a rally in New York City yesterday.
Rivera posted a picture of himself at a parade in New York City with a Puerto Rican flag shirt and said Madison Square Garden is now tainted by Trump's rally.
"MSG is a legendary arena memorable for many historic occasions. Now it will be remembered as the place Donald Trump lost his bid for re-election. It was one hate speech too many," he said.
He also posted a picture of himself alongside Trump, writing, "Sorry you went to the dark side." Last week, Rivera told MSNBC's Ari Melber that he wishes he "had bailed on the Trump train a lot sooner."