‘Feels kind of weird’: Vance reflects and looks ahead as his VP campaign ends
Vance, who says his partnership with Trump has cost him friends, is wrapping up his campaign for vice president by asking voters not to let their political differences come between them.
“I really don’t like Kamala Harris and her policies, but most of the people who are voting for Kamala Harris are fundamentally decent people,” Vance, R-Ohio, said in an interview aboard his campaign plane today. “I just believe that.”
It’s a belief Vance has articulated at his rallies ahead of Election Day.
Trump has women speak for him at Pittsburgh rally
Three female supporters gave speeches during the main part of Trump's rally in Pittsburgh today as he seeks to narrow his gender gap among women vs. Harris.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and conservative personality and former Fox News and NBC News host Megyn Kelly took the stage during Trump's address.
In her speech, Kelly said Trump "will protect" women and talked up his efforts to curb undocumented immigration and prevent trans women from participating in women's sports. She also mocked the idea that women were secretly voting for Harris because they didn't want their husbands to know they weren't backing Trump.
"President Trump gets it," Kelly said. "He will not look at our boys like they’re second-class citizens. And ladies out there who want a bit of girl power in this election, let me tell you something: How can you win when the sons and the husbands and the brothers and the dads you love are losing? It’s not a win."
Vance hits up four battleground states on final day of campaigning
As Trump savors what could be his last rallies as a candidate, his running mate is running like a man in a hurry.
Vance’s day began in Cincinnati, where he and his wife, Usha, boarded their private campaign plane and promptly cranked up the volume on Europe’s “The Final Countdown” as the plane, known as Trump Force 2, took off for the first stop of the day in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Since that very loud needle drop, Vance has remained mostly ahead of schedule on his last day on the trail. From La Crosse it was on to Flint, Michigan, and then to Atlanta. He took the stage for his final rally of the night, in Newtown, Pennsylvania, about 15 minutes earlier than expected.
While Pennsylvania is the fourth and final battleground state of the day for Vance, he has been in six states today. His visit to La Crosse took his motorcade briefly through Minnesota. And for the Newtown rally, Trump Force 2 landed in nearby Trenton, New Jersey.
Vance has stuck to his standard stump speech, with minor tweaks here and there, through all four stops, though he teased the crowd in Newtown that he was looking to go off script.
“You know, for the last few weeks, my team has been telling me we’re doing good. We’re doing good. Just go out there, make sure people know what a disaster Kamala Harris has been. Make sure people know how great Donald J. Trump is. And that’s the message I’ve been carrying forward,” he said. “But you know, it’s the last day of the campaign, and I think today I’m just going to say whatever the hell I want to.”
He then gave largely the same speech he delivered at the three previous rallies.
Fake Arizona election whistleblower is Russian disinformation, agencies say
Federal agencies said tonight that Russian propagandists are behind a video on X that falsely purported to show a former Arizona aide confessing to a plot to rig the state’s election for Harris.
The video was posted yesterday, and the account that uploaded it has been suspended.
Tonight's statement from the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and national intelligence director's office is the fourth time in the past 10 days that federal agencies have publicly rebutted a staged Russian video that falsely claims to depict voter fraud in the U.S.
“Influence actors linked to Russia in particular are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences,” the statement says. “We anticipate Russian actors will release additional manufactured content with these themes through election day and in the days and weeks after polls close.”
With early voting done, Trump returns to advocating for Election Day-only voting
Trump was fairly disciplined the past few weeks as his campaign and the Republican Party generally urged him to embrace vote-by-mail and early voting — and Republican voters complied.
But tonight, with early voting concluded, Trump’s Election Day-only preference is back with a vengeance.
Tonight in Pittsburgh, he said he wanted to see “paper ballots, voter ID, one-day voting,” and decried the time it takes to count votes in some states.
“How can you do this where they say its going to take days?” Trump said.
Trump brings his kids onstage, tells story about Barron at home
Trump brought up two of his three sons, Eric and Donald Jr., and his daughter Tiffany onstage during his speech. His other children, Barron and Ivanka, were not in attendance.
“And do I have good kids?” Trump said after he told a story about Barron’s spending too much time on his computer. “Where are my kids? ... Get them out here.”
Trump said Barron and Ivanka were at home watching.
Roberto Clemente Jr., son of MLB legend, shakes hands with Trump before rally
Ahead of his Pittsburgh rally, Trump met backstage with Roberto Clemente Jr., son of the late Pittsburgh Pirates legend Roberto Clemente, both professional baseball players from Puerto Rico, a Trump adviser told NBC News.
Clemente, who died in a 1972 plane crash on a humanitarian mission to Nicaragua, is considered a barrier-breaker for Latino ballplayers in Major League Baseball.
Clemente Jr. is at Trump’s closing rally as his campaign has faced backlash over a comedian's racist jokes at his Madison Square Garden rally, including calling Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage."
Trump invited Clemente Jr. on stage during the rally, with the former president saying: "Puerto Rico! I love Puerto Rico."
Clemente Jr. said, "It’s very important for me to support this man," adding to Trump: "I believe in everything you stand for right now.”
"I told this man I commit myself to helping RFK Jr. with making America healthy again," he added.
Trump says there's a '96.2% chance' he wins the election
Iowa voters react to new poll and wonder if the Hawkeye State is a battleground again
Iowa voters seem to be just as surprised as political experts by Saturday’s Des Moines Register Poll showing Harris leading Trump by 3 percentage points, within the margin of error.
The state, which voted ruby red for Trump the last two presidential elections, now appears to be shifting, according to the poll, largely because of senior women and politically independent women.
“Seeing the poll, I was honestly just amazed,” Karen Jackson, who voted for Harris, told NBC News. “Trump had his chance. He didn’t provide us with what we needed, and now we’re going on to someone who will be able to do that for us.”
“I hope it can just change into a big blue wave, and we can reform some things that need desperately reformed, everything from health care and all the way up and all the way down,” Michelle Lorey said, explaining that she’s invested in making sure her two daughters have the ability to make their own decisions when it comes to their health care, which is why she also voted for Harris.
Several voters said their voting choices coincided with their opposition to Iowa’s strict six-week abortion ban, which passed this summer.
“It’s historically been a swing state,” Matthew Todd said. He voted for Trump but added, “I’m not going to be shocked if Harris wins the state.”
Both Democratic and Republican strategists remain skeptical, given the poll is an outlier compared with others conducted in state. Some strategists have suggested the poll may indicate that Trump could win by a smaller margin than the 8 points he carried the state with in 2020. They also pointed out that Republicans have increased their voter registration advantage in the state by about 170,000 people since the previous election cycle, highlighting a potential roadblock for Harris.
Pennsylvania county says tabulation center has more cameras per square inch than local casino
Election officials here are confident they are prepared to ensure a smooth process on Election Day and into the night. They also say they're ready for any lawsuits that may arise.
“We’re running an extremely tight process to prepare for any legal challenges,” Allegheny County spokesperson Abigail Gardner told NBC News today. “It’s very expensive and time-consuming, as you can imagine.”
The county spent six figures on cameras, which it installed at every polling location, at all 10 ballot drop boxes and in the Pittsburgh warehouse where ballots will be counted. There are more cameras per square inch in the tabulation center than in the local casino, Gardner said.
The goal is to ensure the county has “eyes on everything.” Four to five people will staff each precinct, with 7,000 poll workers scattered throughout the county.
An additional 100 election workers are “roaming,” to be dispatched as needed.
The county expects 225,000 to 230,000 registered votes to vote by mail and 500,000 more to vote in person on Election Day.