Election 2024: Harris, Biden survey hurricane damage; Vance stumps in Michigan

House Democrats need to flip just four seats to take the chamber’s majority in November, and super PACs are going all-out on the airwaves in battleground districts, blasting Republicans over abortion and reproductive rights in ads.

Some of the ads feature doctors speaking passionately about abortion and saying Republican candidates shouldn’t represent “us” or “our” communities in Congress. But in at least four instances, the House Majority PAC, a super PAC aligned with House Democratic leadership, featured Republican-blasting doctors in their ads who did not live in the districts where they were advertising.

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Hung Cao, the Republican Senate nominee in Virginia, disparaged drag queens and people who are tolerant of them by implying today that they are not tough enough to serve in the military.

Cao made the remarks in a televised debate against Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine when one of the moderators asked him about his previous comments tying what he called the White House’s “growing obsession” with diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, to military recruitment issues. Cao, a Navy veteran, was asked to explain how he believes DEI could affect military recruitment.

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Trump said in an interview with NewsNation released today that he would "absolutely" revoke Temporary Protected Status for Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio.

“Absolutely, I’d revoke it, and I’d bring them back to their country,” he said.

Trump has repeatedly pushed debunked rumors about Haitian migrants in the city, many of whom are legally in the U.S.

In an interview with KDKA-TV of Pittsburgh, Harris acknowledged that the vice president cannot achieve the same things as president.

“Absolutely, there’s only one president of the United States," she said.

Republicans have sought to hit back against Harris' campaign by arguing that she should already have been able to achieve her policy priorities as vice president.

As Trump calls for overhauling the Affordable Care Act with a new health care system, a Republican senator running for an influential leadership position says the party should combine that pursuit with a major tax bill in the new year.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., told NBC News after the vice presidential debate in New York last night that if voters elect Trump and a GOP-controlled Congress, Republicans will be able to “make health care more affordable, more tailored and more personalized than the one size fits all option,” referring to the ACA, or Obamacare.

“We’ll have an opportunity next year, when it comes time to extend the Trump tax cuts, to adopt new policies that again will make health care more affordable and more personalized,” Cotton said. “Because a lot of health care in this country does go through our tax code. So I think that’ll be a very good opportunity next year.”

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No more “Midwest nice.” 

Vance, back on the campaign trail after his matchup with Walz, eschewed the debate-stage niceties that marked their relatively cordial meeting and went back on the offensive today.

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A day after he refused to acknowledge Trump's 2020 defeat, Vance told Michiganders that Democrats are to blame for any skepticism of the U.S. election system.

“Part of the reason that people are skeptical of our elections is, frankly, a lot of national policymakers not doing their job,” he said during a visit to suburban Grand Rapids when he was asked what his message would be to local elections clerks who say they are properly administering the vote.

“There are a lot of poll workers out there that are working hard to keep our elections safe and secure. We ought to say thank you to these folks,” Vance said before he falsely claimed that Democrats, led by Harris, want to make it easier for noncitizens to vote.

In a threat assessment published today, the Department of Homeland Security detailed how domestic violent extremists and foreign actors — particularly Russia, Iran and China — may pose threats to the 2024 election cycle.

DHS said it expects domestic violent extremists to "pose the most significant physical threat to government officials, voters, and elections-related personnel and infrastructure, including polling places, ballot drop box locations, voter registration sites, campaign events, political party offices, and vote counting sites."

The assessment pointed to potential violence after the election, saying domestic violent extremists "could also react violently should their preferred candidate lose, or they could seek to exploit possible civil unrest if there are perceptions of election fraud."

A group of national security experts led by Cabinet members from the Trump administration endorsed Trump today, citing his foreign policy record and calling him “a peacemaker.”

The group, organized by former Trump national security adviser Robert O’Brien and former National Security Council chief of staff Alex Gray, wrote in a letter that “securing peace” is “the legacy of Trump.”

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In his capacity as Minnesota governor, Walz authorized his state's National Guard to help North Carolina with Hurricane Helene recovery efforts, according to a new executive order.

"Those recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Helene are not alone," Walz said in a news release. "Minnesota will be there to support the region however we can. As communities rebuild, I am grateful for the dedication of Minnesota’s first responders in answering the call to travel east to help impacted areas."

An estimated 43.145 million viewers watched last night's vice presidential debate, according to the media analytics company Nielsen.

The number is significantly lower than the 67.1 million people estimated to have watched the Harris-Trump debate in September or the roughly 51.3 million viewers who saw Trump's debate against Biden in June, per Nielsen. Vice presidential debates are expected to draw lower ratings than presidential faceoffs.

The first and only scheduled vice presidential debate of the election was held at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City and aired from about 9 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. ET.

Harris distributed food at a senior center in Augusta, Georgia.

She chatted with people in line and took pictures with them.

In remarks in storm-battered Augusta, Georgia, Harris highlighted that the White House has approved the Georgia governor's request for complete federal reimbursement of local costs for efforts to recover from Hurricane Helene.

She said the reimbursements will help with debris removal, emergency services, food, water and shelter as communities start to recover.

Harris president thanked first responders, calling them "heroes." She also praised how Americans "rally together and show the best of who they are in moments of crisis."

Following Jack Smith's court filing that argues Trump was not participating in official presidential acts when he sought to overturn the 2020 election, Trump's campaign blasted Smith, calling the brief "falsehood-ridden" and "unconstitutional."

Campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung also baselessly blamed Smith for colluding with Harris' campaign on the timing of this brief.

"The release of the falsehood-ridden, Unconstitutional J6 brief immediately following Tim Walz’s disastrous debate performance is another obvious attempt by the Harris-Biden regime to undermine American Democracy and interfere in this election," Cheung said in the statement.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In remarks at a campaign event in York, Pennsylvania, Walz called Vance "a slick talker," saying he did not underestimate him.

Walz also blasted Vance for "gaslighting," saying Vance tried "to mislead us about Donald Trump’s record — that’s gaslighting.”

"They tried to tell us last night, ‘Wow, you should be happy, Donald Trump tried to save Obamacare.’ Are you kidding me? He spent his entire presidency trying to eliminate it," Walz added, referring to a moment in the debate when Vance said Trump tried to "salvage" the Affordable Care Act during his term.

That assertion is false, as a main promise of Trump's 2016 campaign and his early presidential agenda was to repeal Obamacare.

Trump was “fundamentally” acting as a private candidate for office and not as president of the United States when he sought to overturn his 2020 election loss, special counsel Jack Smith’s team argued in a filing today that revealed new details of Trump’s federal election interference case.

The filing is a response to the Supreme Court ruling that Trump had immunity for some actions he took as president and that prosecutors could not use his official acts in their case. Smith’s team has argued that Trump “must stand trial for his private crimes as would any other citizen,” and a federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment against him in August adjusting Smith’s case to comply with the Supreme Court’s order.

Trump “resorted to crimes to try to stay in office” after his loss, Smith’s team wrote in today’s filing, arguing that he launched “a series of increasingly desperate plans to overturn the legitimate election results in seven states that he had lost—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.”

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Judge Tanya Chutkan has ruled that special counsel Jack Smith can file a redacted brief against Trump regarding whether he was protected by presidential immunity for actions he took when he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Less than 24 hours after the relatively cordial vice presidential debate, Vance returned to the campaign trail to attack Harris and Walz.

At an event in Michigan today, Vance recounted learning from Trump last night that Walz had accidentally said he was "friends with school shooters" rather than friends with school shooting victims.

Clarifying his remarks today, Walz said he "was talking about meeting people where there are school shooters," including the students who survived the 2018 Parkland high school shooting in Florida and parents of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims in Connecticut.

At an event in Michigan, Vance was asked about his dodging questions last night about who won the 2020 election. He said didn't answer because he's focused on the current election.

"I'm focused on the election of 33 days from now, 'cause I want to throw Kamala Harris out of office and get back to common-sense economics," Vance said.

He also used the question to target election integrity, saying the 2024 vote will be "the safest and most secure election that we've had."

Democrat Janelle Stelson, running against Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., raised an eye-popping $2.7 million in the third quarter, her campaign told NBC News.

Stelson, a former TV news anchor, is the underdog against Perry in Pennsylvania's red-leaning 10th District, but her fundraising and familiarity to many voters there have made Democrats optimistic. Perry, who was first elected in 2012, is a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, which he chaired from January 2022 to January 2024.

The Cook Political Report rates the race as “Lean Republican,” moving it in Democrats’ direction in December. Inside Elections rates it “Tilt Republican.” Nonpartisan surveys in the district are sparse, but a Franklin & Marshall College Poll in June found Perry leading Stelson by just 1 point, well within the margin of error.

Stelson has sought to portray Perry as out of touch with the district. She’s running a new TV ad in which she resurfaces — and criticizes — a policy proposal that appeared on Perry’s website in 2016 calling for changes to Social Security, including an “increase the retirement age to 69,” as part of a “combined mix of benefit reductions and tax increases.” That language no longer appears on Perry’s campaign website.

Biden will travel to Florida and Georgia tomorrow to visit communities affected by Hurricane Helene, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One.

Jean-Pierre did not specify where in Florida and Georgia Biden will go. He is visiting South Carolina and North Carolina to survey the storm damage, while Harris is visiting Georgia and will speak about the response efforts.

Trump has made the issue of crime a cornerstone of his campaign. He says violence in America is out of control and rising. 

“You can’t walk across the street to get a loaf of bread. You get shot, you get mugged, you get raped,” the former president said recently at a campaign event north of Detroit.

But several years of national data tell the opposite story: Crime is falling in cities and towns across the United States. NBC News recently spent a day with Detroit police, who say Trump’s characterization is false.

“That’s simply not true,” Detroit Police Chief James White said. “I invite him to walk the streets of Detroit, and I’d be more than happy to do that with him and show him how Detroit is performing.”

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PITTSBURGH — Rick Cimina, 67, a registered Republican from the battleground state of Pennsylvania, is unsure who he plans to vote for.

Cimina says he enjoyed the vice presidential debate last night, adding, “It was nice to see two politicians work through some of the challenges we have and not be involved in calling each other names and things like that.”

Nevertheless, the debate did not persuade him one way or the other.

He supports many of Trump and Vance’s policies, but said of Trump: “I’d actually like to hear how he’s going to stop all these wars. You know, I can’t imagine how he can do it.”

As for Harris and Walz, he said, “They’d have to steal Donald Trump’s plan to eliminate the tax on Social Security” to earn his vote.

Vance and Walz mentioned "Biden" only a combined seven times in last night’s 90-minute-plus debate, according to the full transcript released by CBS News.  

On its face, that’s not too surprising — given how Vance and the Trump campaign have tried to turn Harris into the incumbent in this race, and given how the Democratic campaign has tried to boost her accomplishments as vice president. 

It also comes after NBC News reported that Biden has privately complained that his name and accomplishments have virtually disappeared from the national conversation.  

By comparison, in 2008 when Biden and Sarah Palin debated, the outgoing President George W. Bush's name was invoked 18 times by the candidates.

But the efforts by Vance and Walz to avoid Biden last night were eyebrow-raising. 

Walz, for example, appeared to give Harris sole credit for passing the Inflation Reduction Act. “Kamala Harris negotiated drug prices for the first time with Medicare,” he said. 

Vance, for his part, referred to the “Kamala Harris administration” in the debate. 

So did Walz — before correcting himself. “What we’ve seen out of the Harris administration now — the Biden-Harris administration — is we’ve seen this investment, we’ve seen massive investments.”

The Harris campaign released a series of new ads today targeting battleground state voters featuring Wisconsin farmer Tina Hinchley, who denounced Trump over his efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act, which she credits with saving her life.

"It saved my life and my business," Hinchley says in one of the ads, saying that she survived a brain tumor and breast cancer and now has coverage because of Obamacare. "Donald Trump says he wants to kill the Affordable Care Act. He doesn’t care what that would mean for families like mine."

Hinchley, a dairy farmer, said in the same ad that Trump "only cares about himself" and said that before Obamacare, she could have lost her life, her farm and her family.

Biden said in a statement that he directed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to approve the deployment of up to 1,000 active-duty soldiers to reinforce the North Carolina National Guard as part of efforts to bring resources to storm-ravaged areas.

The soliders are in addition to support the Defense Department is already providing to FEMA and others, the White House said.

“These soldiers will speed up the delivery of life-saving supplies of food, water, and medicine to isolated communities in North Carolina — they have the manpower and logistical capabilities to get this vital job done, and fast,” the president said.

Harris is holding a rally in Fox Valley Wisconsin, tomorrow, her fifth stop to the state since becoming the Democratic Party's nominee, her campaign announced. On Friday, Harris will rally in Flint, Michigan, her first visit to the city and fourth trip to the state.

Trump gave remarks at a pair of campaign events yesterday in Wisconsin and held a town hall last in Michigan last month, states he has also visited multiple times as he and Harris vie for the important electoral battlegrounds. He plans to return to Wisconsin on Sunday.

Harris said in a taped interview with a Pittsburgh TV station that she believes U.S. Steel Corp., which is headquartered in the city, should remain in the United States.

Biden has said he's prepared to block Japanese company Nippon Steel from buying U.S. Steel. The acquisition is supported by U.S. Steel but not the United Steelworkers union.

"I feel very strongly that U.S. Steel needs to remain a U.S. company, and that the people working there need to be American workers, and I think that is also why I am proud, and I do have the support of the steelworkers union," Harris told KDKA.

Harris said it's her priority to keep the jobs there.

Trump will hold a rally in rural Juneau, Wisconsin, on Sunday, the campaign said in a release attacking Harris on the economy and cost of living, a top issue for voters.

"Wisconsin’s agriculture industry is among those hit the hardest," the campaign release said, adding that farmers are dealing "with sky-high input costs and crippling red tape from the Harris-Biden administration" and citing trade publication reporting on dairy farm closings.

On Monday, Trump will host an event with Jewish community leaders at his Miami golf club for the anniversary of the terrorist group Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, as well as other victims of antisemitic violence.

"Hamas and other Iranian-backed proxies launched a war, not just against Israel, but against all of our shared values," the release said before going on to blame the Biden administration's policies on Iran, which it said "have enabled the Iranian-backed proxies that have sewn a path of death and destruction, resulting in catastrophic global ramifications."

In a taped interview with an Atlanta news outlet, Harris said ahead of her tour today of the storm damage in the state that she's has been in touch with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and has been receiving regular briefings from FEMA in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

“We’ve got boots on the ground in Georgia,” Harris said. “There has been a big effort that we have made to make sure that we get food, water and generators to folks who need that after the hurricane.”

Harris also talked about Iran’s missile launch against Israel, saying she was in the Situation Room for several hours yesterday with Biden and the administration’s national security team getting updates on the attack.

“It is important that we as the United States stand with Israel and its right to defend itself, especially against Iran, which poses a threat to American interests, American people in the region,” she said.

Walz will take on a more aggressive travel and media schedule following the VP debate, including rallies, events with voters, fundraisers and targeted interviews, a Harris campaign official said.

He begins his cross-country travel blitz with events in key states such as Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona and fundraisers in Ohio, California and Washington.

Walz is taking a bus tour through central Pennsylvania today, with stops in Harrisburg, York and Reading. He will be joined by Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., in a campaign rally in York in the afternoon. Walz plans to engage with labor leaders, rural communities, Latino stakeholders and voters throughout the bus tour, the campaign official said.

On Saturday, Walz is holding fundraisers in Cleveland and Cincinnati. He will participate in a fundraising swing on the West Coast immediately afterward, including stops in California and Washington.

The Harris campaign released a 30-second ad this morning that includes portions of the debate in which Vance dodges questions about whether Trump lost the 2020 election interspersed with clips from the Jan. 6 attack.

"It's really rich for democratic leaders to say that Donald Trump is a unique threat to democracy when he peacefully gave over power," Vance said. As he's saying that line, the ad shows footage of violence outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The ad was shared on Walz's X and YouTube accounts.

"I would just ask that — did he lose the 2020 election?" Walz asks Vance.

"Tim, I’m focused on the future," Vance says.

"That is a damning non-answer," Walz says.

The ad says, "If we elect Donald Trump, the past will be the future," as additional footage of Jan. 6 violence plays.

After Vance and Walz faced off in the first and only vice presidential debate, "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker and NBC’s Hallie Jackson join "TODAY" to break down the key takeaways and whether the debate will influence the way Americans vote, especially in key swing states.

Commenting on the vice presidential debate, Vance said "last night was fun" in a post on X before criticizing the Biden administration and Harris for its immigration and spending policies.

In a separate post, he also acknowledged he was nervous.

"A friend asked me how nervous I was on a scale of 1 to 10. The answer? 11," Vance wrote, sharing a prayer he said a friend sent him before the debate.

Walz and Vance are campaigning in battleground states today after they squared off in the vice presidential debate last night.

Walz is heading to central Pennsylvania for a bus tour through Harrisburg, York and Reading. He will hold a rally with Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., at 3 p.m. in York, and also stop in York County at 4:30 p.m. and meet with local Latino leaders in Reading at 6 p.m.

Vance will travel to Michigan to deliver remarks in Auburn Hills at 1:30 p.m. ET and Marne at 5:30 p.m. ET.

On the vice presidential debate stage last night, Vance conceded that Republicans needed to do a better job of talking to women about the issue of abortion.

Vance recalled growing up in a working-class family in which he knew “a lot of young women who decided to terminate those pregnancies.” He specifically called out a friend of his who he said aborted a pregnancy that was from an abusive relationship and relayed how difficult it was for her. 

“I think that what I take from that as a Republican who proudly wants to protect innocent life in this country, who proudly wants to protect the vulnerable, is that my party, we’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue where they, frankly, just don’t trust us,” Vance said. “That’s one of the things that Donald Trump and I are endeavoring to do. I want us as a Republican Party to be pro-family in the fullest sense of the word. I want to support fertility treatments.” 

It was a shift from Trump’s comments, in which he has repeatedly tried to hold out the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as something the public had overwhelmingly wanted.

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Vance claimed last night — in contradiction of history — that his running mate, Trump, “salvaged Obamacare,” the health insurance program that the former president tried to kill.

During the vice presidential debate against Walz, Vance, a senator from Ohio, echoed Trump’s own recent revisionism. But the assertion also served to remind voters that Democrats ultimately won the yearslong political fight over expanding access to health insurance: The Republican ticket no longer wants to repeal the 2010 law.

Trump “actually implemented some of these regulations when he was president of the United States,” Vance said last night. “And I think you can make a really good argument that it salvaged Obamacare, which was doing disastrously until Donald Trump came along. I think this is an important point about President Trump.

“When Obamacare was crushing under the weight of its own regulatory burden and health care costs, Donald Trump could have destroyed the program,” Vance added. “Instead, he worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care.”

But when Trump was president, repeal was a centerpiece of his agenda.

Trump is set to participate in two Texas fundraisers during his visit to the Lone Star State this week, with one in Houston and another in Midland, a campaign official said.

The former president made campaign stops in the battleground state of Wisconsin yesterday.

Walz conceded during the vice presidential debate that he “misspoke” in the past when he claimed that he was in Hong Kong during the crackdown in Tiananmen Square in which China’s military attacked and killed pro-democracy demonstrators.

The Minnesota governor said that he had been in Hong Kong during the summer of the Tiananmen Square protests, but not in June 1989, when the crackdown took place in and around the square in Beijing, the Chinese capital.

The admission comes after news accounts contradicted Walz’s past contention that he was in Hong Kong as the deadly protests unfolded.

At the debate Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, Walz said the misstatements were born of rhetorical exuberance rather than a deliberate attempt to mislead Americans.

Read the full story here.

Vance said “Kamala Harris’ open border” has “destroyed” the lives of American citizens in Springfield, Ohio, before having his mic cut by debate moderators.

In last night’s vice presidential debate on CBS, Vance claimed undocumented immigrants are pushing up home prices and overwhelming local schools across the country, at the expense of American citizens.

“In Springfield, Ohio, and in communities all across this country, you’ve got schools that are overwhelmed, you’ve got hospitals that are overwhelmed, you’ve got housing that is totally unaffordable, because we’ve brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes,” the Ohio senator said.

Springfield has been the center of a national debate on immigration since Trump claimed in his debate with Harris last month that Haitian immigrants were eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs. Local officials said they had “no credible reports” of that actually happening.

Biden and Harris are set to take separate tours today of the catastrophic damage resulting from Hurricane Helene, which caused the deaths of at least 150 people.

Biden is expected to visit North Carolina and South Carolina, days after the storm swept through Florida and traveled north, causing damage as far north as Tennessee and Virginia.

Harris will be visiting Georgia, which Trump toured Monday and where he criticized Harris and the Biden administration for their response to the hurricane.

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Vice presidential candidates Vance and Walz faced off in their first and only debate last night, squaring off over everything from foreign policy and the economy to the 2020 election and abortion rights.

The debate was remarkably courteous — especially compared with this year’s presidential debates — but both candidates ran afoul of the facts at times.

Here’s what the VP nominees got wrong and right and everything in between.

NEW YORK — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he believes his rival for vice president, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, wants to solve the nation’s immigration crisis, but he questioned if former President Donald Trump really does.

Vance acknowledged that Walz wants to solve the problem, too, but he questioned if Vice President Kamala Harris really does. 

Read the full story here.