Highlights: Harris outlines small business plans; Trump admits he lost the 2020 race

Like the nation as a whole, the economic fortunes of the counties poised to decide November’s election are starting to show early signs of distress. 

From Reno, Nevada, to the Midwest to the suburbs of Atlanta, unemployment rates that were recently at all-time lows have begun to creep back up. Meanwhile, housing costs have exploded in these regions, creating divides between homeowners and renters.    

In other words, these seven counties — part of NBC News’ “The Deciders” project — are microcosms of the U.S. economy writ large.

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Adm. Mike Mullen, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, weighed in on Trump's recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery, saying it's no place for politics.

"I was sorry to see that happen and never want to see it happen again," Mullen said in an op-ed published by The Washington Post today, referring to how Trump's visit to Section 60 became "a political event." Service members killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are buried in this area.

"Politics has no place in the ranks. And it absolutely has no place in our national cemeteries," Mullen said. "That goes double for Section 60."

Trump's lawyers moved tonight to request a pause of a judge's order from yesterday that rejected the former president's efforts to transfer his New York hush money case to federal court.

The request to pause U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein's order comes as Trump's legal team seeks to appeal the order. Trump's lawyers started that process late last night.

The former president is set to be sentenced in the case on Sept. 18. His lawyers have requested that date be pushed back until until after the Nov. 5 election.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday, while campaigning for former President Donald Trump, criticized Vice President Kamala Harris and the Biden administration for busing migrants to other parts of the country. Minutes later, he bragged about doing the same thing. 

“When you saw 5,000 people a day crossing into a town like Eagle Pass, Texas, you could see that that was on your TV. You knew what was going on in America,” Abbott told a crowd of about 50 people gathered at a wedding venue in a Phoenix suburb. “What Harris wanted to do was to silence the critics, and they could silence the critics by making this problem go invisible.” 

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Trump reiterated his criticism of ABC News during a Wednesday Fox News town hall.

The former president called ABC News unfair, arguing that the network is the "meanest" and "nastiest." He also criticized George Stephanopoulos' interview with Biden after the previous debate, calling it a soft interview.

But he also criticized an October 2020 Washington Post-ABC News poll, which showed that Biden led Trump by 17 points, arguing without evidence that the poll artificially inflated Biden's lead to discourage Trump voters. Biden ultimately beat Trump by less than one percentage point.

ABC News is set to host the debate between Trump and Harris on Sept. 10.

Trump’s co-campaign managers, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, warned staff in an internal email this evening not to leak to reporters or risk losing their jobs.

In the email obtained by NBC News, LaCivita and Wiles write: “We have done a great job of preventing leaks, and that has been because everyone knows what the policy is and what we expect from everyone. Information is power — and the press doesn’t give a damn if you lose your job because you spoke out of school.

As this team moves forward with only 61 days left until victory, please do not deviate from this policy. Success requires buy-in from everyone.

If just one of us goes off course, it jeopardizes not only the team, but also President Trump and Republicans up and down the ballot.”

Vance criticized former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., tonight when asked about her endorsement of Harris during a moderated discussion with the conservative group Turning Point Action in Mesa, Arizona.

“A very good thing that I could say about the next presidency of Donald J. Trump is that he’s going to make sure people like Liz Cheney are laughed out of the Oval Office instead of rewarded,” Vance told moderator Charlie Kirk, who had suggested that warmongers had backed Harris while peacemakers stood behind Trump. "I think it's the best thing in the world that she's supporting Kamala Harris."

Cheney, who represented Wyoming in Congress for six years before she lost in the GOP primary in 2022 to a Trump-backed candidate, was among a handful of Republicans to vote to impeach Trump. She sharply criticized the former president over his actions in connection with the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021 — remarks that cost her the No. 3 post in House GOP leadership.

Employees of the Russia-backed media network RT funded and directed a scheme that sent millions of dollars to prominent right-wing commentators through a media company that appears to match the description of Tenet Media, a leading platform for pro-Trump voices, according to an NBC News review of charging documents, business records and social media profiles.

The indictment today of two RT employees, Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, includes allegations that the duo implemented a nearly $10 million plan to fund an unnamed Tennessee-based company as one of their “covert projects” to influence American politics by posting videos to TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube.

The company’s description matches that of Tenet Media, according to a review by NBC News of details included in the indictment. Prosecutors said that the website of “Company-1” describes itself as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues,” the exact same language used by Tenet Media on its website and social media channels. The indictment also states that Company-1 is registered in Tennessee and changed its name on or about May 22, 2023. Tennessee Secretary of State records found by NBC News show that Tenet Media entered its new assumed name on the same date: May 22, 2023.

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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are set to debate each other next week for the first time after their campaigns on Wednesday agreed to the ground rules set by host network ABC.

The Sept. 10 event in Philadelphia will use the same rules and format as the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.

Both campaigns had previously agreed to hold the debate on that date, but the agreement appeared to be in jeopardy after Trump suggested he might back out and Harris’ team sought to change the rule on muted microphones.

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The state of the economy in key counties across the country could have major impacts on the 2024 presidential race. NBC News’ Christine Romans looks deeper at the economic statistics in certain states that could impact the 2024 election.

From Donald Trump’s perspective, his upcoming sentencing in the New York hush money case should include jail time.

A spokesperson for his 2024 campaign commented this week on reports of a Trump clemency recipient being convicted of a domestic violence-related charge by saying, “President Trump believes anyone convicted of a crime should spend time behind bars.”

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Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., on Wednesday endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, the latest high-profile Republican endorsement for Democrats.

Cheney’s comments took place during an appearance at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

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New "I voted" stickers may be coming to a polling place — or Instagram post —near you this fall, after officials in at least two states let citizens have a hand in updating the familiar red, white and blue designs that are often featured in selfies posted by Americans after they cast their ballot.

Election officials in Michigan and Kentucky each held their first-ever open design contests this year, inviting grade-school students and the general public to submit fresh ideas.

In Michigan, the secretary of state's office today announced nine new contest-winning options that local election clerks can order and offer to voters at polling places this year.

Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., who represents Barrow County, displayed a gun in his ad when he was running for his seat in Congress. The ad is now resurfacing after the shooting today.

In the video, Collins did not address gun rights, but at the end of the video, he can be seen firing the gun at a target. This is one of several ads from Collins that displays a gun.

As Vance heads out west through the weekend for a mix of campaigning and fundraising, his first stop of the multi-day swing features remarks with conservative media personality Charlie Kirk as a part of Turning Point Action’s “Chase the Vote at the Church” event. 

The gathering is set to take place at the Generation Church in Mesa, Arizona, where lead pastor, Ryan Visconti, has a history of anti-gay comments on social media. 

In one post on his X account from July of this year, Visconti wrote that in order for “America to be ‘great again,’ we need to go back to opposing the abomination of gay mirage [sic] & abortion as we did before.” A separate post from the fall of 2023 features Visconti saying that in “God’s eyes, there’s no such thing as ‘gay marriage,’ and argued in a lengthy thread posted earlier that year that “God wants homosexuals to repent and change.”

In a post on Instagram last week, Visconti wrote that he is “honored” to host Vance as a part of the Turning Point event.

“Senator Vance supports every American’s right to freely practice their religion,” Vance spokesperson Luke Schroeder said in a statement provided to NBC News. “It’s a shame the media is attacking a pastor over his religious beliefs simply because he is hosting an event at his church,” he continued. 

Vance, for his part, said in a debate during a run for the US Senate in 2022 that marriage equality is “the law of the land in this country, and I’m not trying to do anything to change that.” 

Representatives for Turning Point Action did not respond to a request for comment. 

The House Education and Workforce Committee issued subpoenas today to Walz, the Minnesota Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for how they responded to what federal prosecutors have called the largest pandemic fraud schemes in the country.

The subpoenas, obtained first by NBC News, demand that Walz, Minnesota Commissioner of Education Willie Jett, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Agriculture Inspector General Phyllis Fong turn over documents concerning oversight of the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which is alleged to have misused millions of dollars intended to feed children during the pandemic.

Walz’s record has faced new scrutiny since Harris tapped him as her running mate last month, though this new request by the Republican-led committee is part of an investigative effort that goes back to 2022.

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Fred Daibes — the man convicted of bribing now-former Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., with gold bars and cash — is expected to plead guilty in federal court tomorrow to separate bank fraud charges, his attorney Larry Lustberg told NBC News.

Daibes, a N.J. developer, and Menendez were convicted in July as part of a wide-ranging bribery scheme in a case prosecuted in New York’s Southern District.

One part of the bribery scheme was an attempt by Daibes to pay Menendez cash and gold bars and in exchange, prosecutors said, Menendez tried to use his power to interfere with the New Jersey U.S. Attorney and that office’s separate bank fraud case against Daibes.

In a TikTok posted last night, Trump encouraged people to vote by any means despite his previous, long-held opposition to mail-in ballots.

"It’s time to start thinking about let’s vote," he said. "So important. This will be the most important election in the history of our country. So whether it’s mail in ballots, early voting, voting on the day, you gotta get out and vote. We want to save our country. We’re the only ones going to save it. That other group of people, they’re going to destroy our country."

This is a shift for Trump, his allies and many Republican Party leaders, who falsely claimed that fraudulent voting by such means resulted in Trump's 2020 loss. After his defeat, some GOP states, like Texas and Georgia, tightened their requirements on absentee voting.

In a post to Truth Social, Trump weighed in on today's mass shooting at a Georgia high school.

"Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA," he wrote. "These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster."

His post came shortly after Harris commented on the shooting, calling it a "senseless tragedy."

The Trump campaign today confirmed a Daily Mail report that the former president's son Barron Trump is attending New York University. The elder Trump told the news outlet that his son had been accepted to several colleges, but he landed on the Stern School of Business.

“He’s a very high aptitude child, but he’s no longer a child," Trump said. "He’s just passed into something beyond child-dom. He’s doing great.”

Trump also said his son had been considering the former president's alma mater, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, but added: "We didn't do that. We went for Stern."

In a first-of-its-kind survey, NBC News polled Gen Z voters ahead of the 2024 election and the results were surprising. The poll explored voter sentiments and issues surrounding the election. NBC News’ Savannah Sellers spoke with some young voters about the 2024 election and their views on the Harris campaign.

During remarks in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Harris addressed the school shooting in Georgia, telling attendees, "Our hearts are with the students, the teachers and their families, of course."

She called the incident a "senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies" and called it "outrageous" that "everyday in our country ... parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive."

The vice president also said that "we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in this country once and for all ... it doesn't have to be this way."

Following the announcement of new sanctions targeting what the Biden administration describes as Russian government-sponsored attempts to manipulate U.S. public opinion, White House National Security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that "RT is no longer just a propaganda arm of the Kremlin; it’s being used to advance covert Russian influence actions."

Kirby said that the RT network was being used "to funnel disinformation through outlets and social media influencers that a certain number of Americans find credible. We will not stand for that."

He added that the U.S. government believes Russian officials, as high as Russian President Vladimir Putin, were weighing in on RT's operation.

President Joe Biden criticized Republicans’ stance on gun control and said that the White House was closely working with state, local and national law enforcement after a mass shooting at a high school in Georgia.

“After decades of inaction, Republicans in Congress must finally say ‘enough is enough’ and work with Democrats to pass common-sense gun safety legislation," the president said in a statement. "We must ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines once again, require safe storage of firearms, enact universal background checks, and end immunity for gun manufacturers.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., praised law enforcement for their response in today's Georgia high school shooting.

"Our prayers go out today for the Apalachee High School community, and especially the victims and their families who have endured this terrible tragedy," he wrote in a post on X. "The officers of the Winder Police Department are commended for their quick action in apprehending the suspect. May justice here be swift."

During a campaign stop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Walz addressed the high school shooting in Georgia.

"We don’t know any of the details on it yet, but it’s a situation that’s all too common, and our hearts are out there right now," he said, adding that "work" should be focused on how to "prevent these in the future."

Ahead of his news conference on election threats, Attorney General Merrick Garland addressed the shooting at a high school in Winder, Georgia. He said the FBI and ATF are on scene to assist local law enforcement.

"I'm devastated for the families who have been affected by this terrible tragedy," he said. "The Justice Department stands ready to provide any resources or support that the Winder community needs."

Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., who lost her son Jordan Davis to gun violence in 2012, said in a post on X: "I am praying for the students of Apalachee High School and the community of Winder. I am praying for families across our state and entire country. Too many continue to experience the pain of gun violence. No family should have to go through this."

McBath became active in efforts to curb gun violence after her son's killing and made the issue a main thrust of her campaign for Congress in 2018.

Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement on X that he has ordered the state to aid in the response to the shooting at a high school in Winder, Georgia.

"I have directed all available state resources to respond to the incident at Apalachee High School and urge all Georgians to join my family in praying for the safety of those in our classrooms, both in Barrow County and across the state," he wrote.

Biden has also been briefed by his homeland security adviser, Liz Sherwood-Randall, as his administration coordinates with state and local partners, a White House official said.

Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia, who represents Barrow County, also posted about the incident.

Trump publicly acknowledged that he did not win the 2020 presidential election, telling podcaster Lex Fridman that he “lost by a whisker.”

Fridman asked Trump about his expectations for his debate next week against Harris, in a podcast episode released yesterday.

Trump initially answered, “I’ve done a lot of debating ... I’ve done well with debates,” before embarking on a tangent about the number of votes he received in 2020, saying: “I became president. Then the second time I got millions more votes than I got the first time.”

“I was told if I got 63 million, which is what I got the first time, ‘You would win. You can’t not win.’ And I got millions more votes than that and lost by a whisker,” Trump added.

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The X accounts of two family members of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appeared to have been hacked on Tuesday in order to promote a scam aimed at cashing in on the Trump family’s nascent crypto venture.

The hacks come as the former president prepares to release his crypto policy platform and his campaign wrestles with the fallout of a foreign cyberattack.

Shortly after 8:15 p.m. ET, the X account belonging to Trump’s daughter-in-law, Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, appeared to announce that the digital currency project, dubbed World Liberty Financial, had been launched.

The account provided several links to Trump’s 1.7 million followers to a coin and websites claiming to be “the only official channels of World Liberty Financial.” 

Read the full story here.

The Biden administration will announce a series of actions Wednesday targeting what it says are Russian government-sponsored attempts to manipulate U.S. public opinion ahead of the November election, two senior officials told NBC News.

Some of the alleged manipulation has been through RT, a Russian-backed media network, the sources said. The expected moves include Treasury sanctions and a law enforcement action by the Justice Department. Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to speak publicly Wednesday afternoon about the announcement.

U.S. intelligence agencies have previously assessed that Russia wants to interfere in the 2024 election and flagged RT as a source of Russian propaganda and disinformation and required it to register as a foreign agent.

Read the full story here.

Trump is dismissing national polls that show Harris is outperforming him, within the margin of error. It comes as the vice president is set to propose a series of new benefits for small-business owners in an effort to support the creation of millions of new businesses and bolster her economic policies. NBC News’ Peter Alexander reports for "TODAY."

As Harris hits the campaign trail in New Hampshire today, Trump interviewed with a local media outlet and said there's not much preparation he can do ahead of the debate on Tuesday.

"You have to know your subject. You’re living with your subject. I live with my subject. I live with all of these, these horrible problems that they’ve caused because we’ve got to straighten them out," he said. "We’re going to make America great again. So, you know, I do, I have meetings on it. We talk about it, but there’s not a lot you can do. Either know your subject or not, either have good policy or not."

Trump's nephew Fred Trump III said in an interview this morning on CNN that last year, when he called this uncle asking for financial help for his disabled son William, the former president told him, "'He doesn't recognize you. Let him die and move down to Florida.'"

"Now I don't know how anyone could say that about any other human being, but to say it about your grandnephew is pretty grotesque," said Trump's nephew, the son of Fred Trump Jr., the former president's brother who battled alcoholism and died of a heart attack in 1981.

Trump is pressuring Republicans to shut down the government at the end of this month if Congress doesn’t pass a GOP-backed proposal to establish new election rules nationwide.

Trump has called on Republicans in Congress to link funding the government with the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote — in a bid to target noncitizen voting, which is already illegal. And House Republican leaders are considering adopting the strategy and picking a fight with Democrats.

Read the full story here.

As Trump tries to win over Jewish voters in the 2024 election, he’s made a point of attacking Jewish Democrats — targeting the faith of three of the most prominent Jewish Americans in politics and criticizing any Jew who backs Democrats as an “absolute fool” who needs “their head examined.”

Those attacks have increasingly colored the background of a pivotal fight for potential swing voters: Jewish Americans in critical battleground states, a group that has consistently supported Democrats in past elections and, this year, is increasingly concerned about issues including rising antisemitism at home, U.S. support for Israel in its war in Gaza, and the hostages held by Hamas — six of whom, including one American, were recently killed in Hamas captivity.

A number of Jewish advocates, quick to note Jewish voters are voting on an array of issues beyond Israel, say Trump’s attacks are blatantly antisemitic and lean on age-old tropes suggesting “dual loyalty” for American Jews between the U.S. and the Jewish state. Even some of Trump’s allies on the right view the comments as increasingly unhelpful in the broader effort to win over a small but meaningful number of Jewish voters in a close election.

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Vance will deliver campaign remarks in Mesa, Arizona, tonight. The event is hosted by the conservative group Turning Point Action.

The Harris and Trump campaigns are hitting Pennsylvania and other key battleground states this week with just over two months to go before the election. The candidates were also preparing for their first debate next week. NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez reports.

Walz is headed to Pennsylvania for a pair of campaign events: one in Lancaster, the other in Pittsburgh.

Three in 10 voters under 30 years old say that inflation and the cost of living is the most important problem currently facing the country — three times more than the share calling “threats to democracy” their most important issue, which was the next highest issue among young voters.

That category came in at 11% in the new NBC News Stay Tuned Gen Z poll powered by SurveyMonkey.

Abortion is the third most selected issue at 9%, followed by the Israel-Hamas war and “crime and safety” — both of which were selected by only 8% of young voters.

Read the full story here.

Trump said in a phone interview on Sean Hannity's show yesterday that there was "no conflict" when he visited Arlington National Cemetery last week despite cemetery officials saying there was an "incident" and the Army confirming one took place in a statement.

"What happened is so horrible. If you look at just the records, there was no conflict, there was no fight, there was no anything," Trump said.

Trump said he got home that night and his staffer said that there was a story in the press about what happened.

"The nice thing, the beautiful thing, was all the parents and relatives got together and they said, ‘That’s a false story.’ It was totally false. I get enough publicity. Believe me, I’d like to get less publicity," Trump added.

Half of Gen Z voters say they’ll vote for Harris in November, while one-third say they’ll vote for Trump — a bigger gap for the Democratic nominee than some other polls this year but not quite at 2020 levels for the party, according to a new survey of registered voters under 30.

The results of the NBC News Stay Tuned Gen Z Poll, powered by SurveyMonkey, come as young voters grapple with new economic and cultural challenges in 2024, including rising costs and concerns about debt that are prompting delays to some critical life events.

Another 1 in 10 respondents to the poll said they will not vote in the presidential election.

Read the full story here.

Trump will be in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for a town hall tonight. The event will moderated by Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Harris is expected to deliver remarks at a campaign event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, this afternoon, where she will discuss her plan to boost small businesses, including expanding tax deductions for startup expenses. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan and Rep. Chris Pappas also are expected to speak. 

Harris did not hold any campaign events yesterday.