Election 2024: Trump campaigns in Pennsylvania ahead of Biden's U.N. speech

Spectators at Trump's campaign rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, tonight chanted "Send them back!" when he said Springfield, Ohio, and Pennsylvania communities will "never be the same" after having been "inundated" with immigrants.

“They will never be — do you think Springfield will never be the same?” Trump asked as a few spectators began to shout, "Send them back!"

“The fact is, and I’ll say it now, you have to get them the hell out. You have to get them out. I’m sorry. Get them out,” Trump said.

The crowd then chanted: “Send them back!”

An apology thought to be from singer Janet Jackson after a comment repeating misinformation about Harris’ racial identity wasn’t actually made by her or authorized by her team.

Representatives confirmed to NBC News today that the statement, made to BuzzFeed over the weekend by a man named Mo Elmasri, was not authorized. Elmasri claimed to be Jackson’s manager, but representatives for Jackson said her brother Randy Jackson is her only manager.

The controversy began Saturday when Jackson’s interview with The Guardian was published, in which Jackson made an erroneous claim about Harris. Jackson told the interviewer that she “heard” Harris was Indian not Black.

Read the full story here.

Noted Puerto Rican actors rallied in Bethlehem and hundreds of Latino canvassers knocked on doors in Lancaster over the weekend as Democrats aimed to mobilize voters in predominantly Hispanic cities in Pennsylvania who have previously skipped elections.

Latino voters in the battleground state, especially those who are of Puerto Rican descent, are less likely to pledge their unconditional loyalty to specific presidential candidates compared with the general voting population in Pennsylvania — making them “one of the few voting groups where there’s a chance of either mobilizing them or changing their minds,” Michael Jones-Correa, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told NBC News.

More than half of the nearly 580,000 eligible Latino voters in Pennsylvania are of Puerto Rican descent. Considering that the last presidential election in the state was decided by less than 81,000 votes, Puerto Rican voters “could be decisive” this year if they turn out, according to the Latino Policy & Politics Institute at UCLA.

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NBC News’ Shaquille Brewster spoke to voters in the swing county of Door County, Wisconsin, about how their views of Harris have favorably changed since she became the Democratic presidential nominee.

Trump accused the Justice Department of “downplaying” an alleged apparent assassination plot against him this month and suggested state officials in Florida should take over the investigation and prosecution.

“The Kamala Harris/Joe Biden Department of Justice and FBI are mishandling and downplaying the second assassination attempt on my life since July. The charges brought against the maniac assassin are a slap on the wrist,” Trump said in a statement today, alleging they have a conflict of interest “since they have been obsessed with ‘Getting Trump’ for so long.”

Federal prosecutors charged Ryan Routh with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number after he was allegedly seen with a long gun lying in wait on Sept. 15 outside Trump International Golf Club, where Trump was golfing. The Justice Department hasn’t ruled out filing additional charges, and it has hinted that it intends to file more. It is common for the Justice Department to file initial charges and later additional charges after it ensured the necessary evidence and information have been gathered.

Read the full story here.

Trump said tonight that he would restore the state and local tax deduction known as SALT.

He said the deduction would save taxpayers "thousands of dollars."

The move would reverse part of a 2017 law that capped a federal deduction for state and local taxes at $10,000 per filer that Trump signed into law in his first year in office.

At a campaign rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Trump urged his supporters to vote early while simultaneously bashing early voting as "stupid stuff."

"We got to get out and vote. You can start right away. You know that right now, we have this stupid stuff where you can vote 45 days early," Trump said.

He mused about "what the hell happens" during the period between the start of early voting and Election Day, claiming election fraudsters "move" votes from one candidate to another.

“It’s terrible. What happened the last time was disgraceful, including right here. But we’re not going to let it happen again, too, you know, too big to rig, right?” Trump said referring to his 2020 election defeat to Biden. "That’s one way you do it."

An abortion rights political action committee in Florida raised about $8 million to support a high-profile ballot initiative that would loosen restrictions on abortion access in the state. NBC News’ Marissa Parra details the fight and explains what state government says about fraud on the ballot.

The Trump campaign used a still image from the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black” in a new 30-second ad that claims Harris supports transgender surgery for "prisoners and illegal aliens."

"Kamala supports taxpayer funded sex changes for prisoners and illegal aliens. Every transgender inmate would have access," the narrator says alongside a shot of characters in the series dressed in orange jumpsuits.

A campaign spokesperson did not immediately provide a comment on why an image from a fictional program was used in an ad that otherwise consists of politicians and government employees.

Trump today threatened John Deere with a 200% tariff if the agricultural manufacturer moves production to factories in Mexico.

“They’ve announced a few days ago that they’re going to move a lot of their manufacturing business to Mexico,” the Republican nominee said at a policy roundtable in Smithton, Pennsylvania, hosted by the Protecting America Initiative.

“I’m just notifying John Deere right now: If you do that, we’re putting a 200% tariff on everything that you want to sell into the United States,” said Trump, who has made tariffs a key focus of his campaign’s economic policy.

Read the full story here.

Trump plans to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, where he faced an assassination attempt in July, for a rally next month, according to three sources familiar with the campaign’s schedule.

The event is scheduled for Oct. 5 — one month before Election Day — said the sources, who requested anonymity to share information about a rally that hasn’t been publicly announced.

Trump has long teased a return to the town where he was shot in the ear during an assassination attempt on July 13. Weeks after the attempt on his life, Trump wrote in all caps on Truth Social that he would be back “for a big beautiful rally” honoring Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief who died in the shooting, and two other people who were injured when a gunman opened fire from an elevated post not far from the rally site.

Read the full story here.

During a campaign event in Charlotte, North Carolina, Vance called Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson's alleged antisemitic and racist comments "pretty gross."

"Now, look, I’ve seen some of the statements — I haven’t seen them all. Some of them are pretty gross, to put it mildly," Vance said. "Mark Robinson says that those statements are false, that he didn’t actually speak them."

Vance previously said the allegations against Robinson, who is running for governor, “aren’t necessarily reality.” A slew of Robinson’s campaign staff members quit yesterday amid the backlash following a CNN report.

The Harris-Walz campaign helped register nearly 2,000 young voters over weekend while collecting 10,000 commitments to cast their ballot for the Democratic ticket, according to a campaign official. The figures were first shared with NBC News.

The Youth Vote Week of Action consisted of 400 total events and more than 2,000 volunteer shifts completed. Jane Fonda, Bill Nye, Jack Schlossberg and Reps. Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York stumped for Harris and Walz among college campuses.

The events included basketball games, football games and bracelet-making events focusing on issues of importance to young voters in battleground states and encouraging young people to vote. The campaign hosted events across 60 HBCU campuses in key states, including Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Among the events was a national youth organizing call featuring Harris, Tennessee state Rep. Justin J. Pearson and actor Chloë Grace Moretz.

At a policy roundtable hosted by the Protecting America Initiative, Trump listened to farmers as they outlined the challenges to their businesses, such as increasing fuel and fertilizer costs.

"I love the farmers. It’s — I’m very comfortable with the farmers. I feel I know your business, but I haven’t plowed quite as much as you, but I do know your business very well," he said. "We’ve, we’ve had a tremendous relationship. I’ve always won with the farmers, and that’s because I produce promises made, promises kept."

He also occasionally chimed in and asked questions while weaving in criticisms of Harris, suggesting she wouldn’t allow fracking, among other jabs. In this month's debate, Harris disputed that claim.

Mark Robinson, the embattled Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, reiterated his intention to stay in the race today, despite a key group's saying it would no longer spend on behalf of his struggling campaign and following the departure from his team of a number of staff members.

In a pull-aside with reporters after an event in Wilkesboro, Robinson — days after a bombshell CNN report — said he had “full confidence that we can go on" and that his campaign was “in the process right now of forming” a new team. Robinson also said he is in the process of taking legal action against CNN for “what they have done to us.”

The report has led to a cascade of consequences for Robinson’s campaign. They included most recently — this afternoon — confirmation from the Republican Governors Association, which had been one the main spenders on behalf of the Robinson campaign, that it would make no further ad buys for him.

Trump plans to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, for a rally on Oct. 5, according to three sources familiar with the campaign’s schedule, who requested anonymity to share information about an event not yet publicly announced.

Trump has long teased a return to the town where he was shot in the ear during an assassination attempt. Now the campaign has settled on a date of some symbolic significance — one month before Election Day, Nov. 5. 

The sentencing of former Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., has been delayed until Jan. 29, according to an order filed by the judge overseeing the case, which also includes two other defendants.

They were originally scheduled to be sentenced next month.

Menendez was found guilty in July on charges of accepting bribes, including cash and gold bars, to benefit the governments of Egypt and Qatar.

The two other defendants, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, were convicted, as well.

Shares of Trump Media today sank to their lowest price in more than a year, days Trump, the majority owner, and other company insiders got the green light to start selling their stakes in the Truth Social maker.

The stock, which trades as DJT on the Nasdaq, dropped more than 6% at the market open, putting the company on track for its sixth straight day of declines.

Read the full story here.

TikTok has banned all political advertising on the app since 2019, but that hasn’t stopped advertisers from running what appear to be paid political messages on the platform.

NBC News found 52 videos on the platform tagged with “Paid Partnership” labels or #ad or #sponsored hashtags that have received up to hundreds of thousands views per video while spreading political messages that appear to violate TikTok’s rules.

TikTok says it does “not allow ads featuring political content across any of our monetization features, including paid ads, creators being paid to make branded political content, and other promotional tools on the platform.”

Read the full story here.

As the Trump campaign looks to make inroads with young men, it's targeting men under 35 in key swing states with new digital ads about Zyn nicotine pouches and featuring YouTuber Jake Paul.

One spot features members of the YouTube group The Nelk Boys, who went onstage at a recent Trump rally to criticize Walz for Minnesota's tax on tobacco products, including products like Zyn, a tobacco-free nicotine pouch. The ads are running across the presidential battlegrounds in states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and in Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District.

Biden is expected to outline the progress his administration has made in fighting climate change in remarks in New York tomorrow.

Biden's remarks will highlight the administration's "unprecedented progress in tackling the climate crisis, cutting energy costs for everyday Americans, and creating good-paying union jobs," the White House said.

The administration secured investments in a "clean power sector," has invested in decarbonizing various modes of transportation like rail and aviation, and has slashed energy costs and pollution across communities, the White House said in a news release.

A Nebraska Republican state lawmaker said today that he remains opposed to switching how the state allocates its electoral votes — a blow to Trump and his allies, who are seeking the change in a bid for an extra electoral vote this fall.

“After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change,” state Sen. Mike McDonnell wrote in a letter obtained by NBC News.

McDonnell represents an Omaha-area state Senate district. He is reportedly weighing a run for Omaha mayor. A former Democrat, he switched parties in April, becoming a Republican, after state Democrats censured him.

Biden and Harris each released statements today touting new FBI data showing a reduction in crime across the U.S. last year.

The president said that when they took office, the U.S. had seen "the highest increase in murders ever recorded under the previous Administration." But now, the FBI data showed "the largest ever one-year decrease in the homicide rate, which is now 16% below its level in 2020." He said violent crime also declined again.

"None of this happened by accident," Biden said, listing various actions the administration took to reduce crime. "We’re not stopping now. The only way to continue this progress is by investing in what works. That’s why I will continue to urge Congress to fund 100,000 additional police officers and a strong ATF, invest in community violence intervention programs, and make commonsense gun safety reforms, including a ban on assault weapons."

Trump said in a Truth Social post today that he plans to attend the 79th annual Al Smith dinner on Oct. 17 in New York.

"It will be great to see so many wonderful people there, including Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan. We know the Spirit of Al Smith, the first Catholic Nominee of a Major Party, and John F. Kennedy, the FIRST Catholic President, will be in the room with us that night," he wrote.

"It’s sad, but not surprising, that Kamala has decided not to attend. I don’t know what she has against our Catholic friends, but it must be a lot, because she certainly hasn’t been very nice to them, in fact, Catholics are literally being persecuted by this Administration," Trump claimed without citing any evidence. "Any Catholic that votes for Comrade Kamala Harris should have their head examined. ..."

Walz’s first name was misspelled on more than 200 emailed military and overseas ballots, which listed him as "Tom" instead of "Tim" Walz, the office of the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections confirmed to NBC News.

The ballot was approved by the elections office after it underwent review and proofing. The error occurred as a result of the vendor making a manually typed change to the ballot without authorization from the office, typing “Tom” instead of “Tim” Walz, the office's spokesperson, Alison Novoa, said.

The vendor notified the office of the typographical error, which affected 257 electronic ballots, less than 18 hours after they were sent out, Novoa said. The office said it was unaware that the vendor had changed the ballot after the final version of it had been approved.

Harris is scheduled to meet with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at 2 p.m., their fifth bilateral discussion.

In their meeting this afternoon, Harris and the UAE president are expected to discuss the war in Gaza and efforts to secure a cease-fire and hostage deal, a White House official said. The two leaders will also discuss the civil war in Sudan, actions that both countries are taking on artificial intelligence and space, and commitments to strengthening U.S. defense cooperation.

The partnership between the U.S. and the UAE is viewed as critical to the security and prosperity of both countries, the official said, adding that the meeting is an opportunity to discuss more efforts to strengthen the alliance. 

Biden was meeting with the UAE president earlier in the afternoon.

Vance continues to defend baseless conspiracy theories about migrants in the city of Springfield, Ohio. The city’s mayor, Rob Rue, joins Ana Cabrera to share how the conspiracy theories have affected his community.

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., will play Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in Sen. JD Vance’s final vice presidential debate rehearsals, a source directly involved with the preparations told NBC News.

Those final sessions will cap more than a month of work to ready Vance, an Ohio Republican, for next week’s faceoff with Walz in New York.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign, including key members of Vance’s team, has been honing his debate strategy for more than a month, the source said. The approach has involved in-person and virtual practice sessions over Zoom, as well as “murder boards” — a process intended to work through potentially tough questions. 

Jason Miller, a senior Trump campaign adviser, and Vance’s wife, Usha, have been involved in the sessions, the source said, along with Vance’s closest political advisers. Those helping with the prep have immersed themselves in old videos of Walz’s previous debates from his past campaigns in a swing congressional district and from two runs for governor.

Read the full story here.

Crime, including serious violent incidents like murder and rape, dropped nationally from 2022 to 2023, according to data released by the FBI on Monday.

Violent crime was down about 3% from 2022 to 2023 and property crime took a similar drop of 2.4%, the FBI reported in its annual “Summary of Crime in the Nation.” The most serious crimes went down significantly: Murder and non-negligent manslaughter were down an estimated 11.6% — the largest single-year decline in two decades — while rape decreased by an estimated 9.4%.

Preliminary numbers showed that 2024 crime numbers were also dropping for the early part of this year, continuing a trend of crime easing as America has come out of the pandemic.

Trump said on a pre-recorded phone call with Fox News that aired this morning that it would be a "very bad thing to be doing a debate in the middle of the vote counting," referring to some states, such as Minnesota, Virginia and Alabama, that have kicked off early voting.

"I’ve already done two debates, and they, you know, were good, but to do a third one, everybody’s voting now, and it’s very late to be doing a third debate," he said. "But once the election starts — and it started — it’s a very bad thing to be doing a debate in the middle of the vote counting, and this would really be late into the election. So I think it would be a very bad thing I think would actually be bad thing for the country."

Trump has said over the past few weeks that he is no longer interested in debating Harris, although he originally said he wanted to debate her multiple times.

Trump participated in October debates in the 2016 and 2020 elections. The final 2020 debate took place on Oct. 22 and the final 2016 debate took place Oct. 19. There have been October debates in every presidential election dating back to 1960.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked the Supreme Court today to allow him to appear on New York's general election ballot.

Kennedy, who has endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump, is fighting to appear on ballots in certain states over Democratic opposition.

His lawyers say a state court was wrong in concluding that he could not appear on the ballot because of a dispute over his place of residence. Kennedy lives in California but had included a New York address as his residence when circulating a petition to appear on the ballot.

After losing in state court, Kennedy filed an emergency application in federal court, but lost at both the district court and appeals court level.

Three former chairmen of the Maine Republican Party "enthusiastically" endorsed Kamala Harris in a Bangor Daily News op-ed Monday.

"Trump’s MAGA Republican Party is unrecognizable to us," Robert A.G. Monks, Ken Cole and Ted O’Meara wrote in the op-ed. "Like people all over Maine, we are tired of the chaos and lies of Trump."

"Much of the leadership of today’s Republican Party has joined the cult of Trump, and we know that they will care little for what we have to say," the former chairs wrote. "But we also know that the Republican Party in Maine is still home to many honest, hardworking, principled people who — more than any party label — want what is best for our state and nation. We hope that they will join us in supporting Harris for president."

All three ran the Maine GOP when it was known for moderation and bipartisanship. Monks ran for Senate in 1996 but lost the GOP primary to Susan Collins, who is still the state's senior senator and is seen as one of the few moderate GOP holdouts in Congress.

A major new NBC News poll is showing Harris leading Trump by 5 points but trailing him on some key issues. Now, the former president is saying he won’t run in 2028 if he loses in November to Harris. NBC’s Hallie Jackson reports for "TODAY."

The man charged in connection with an apparent assassination attempt against Trump in Florida this month dropped off a box at a person’s home that included a letter that declared, “This was an assassination attempt,” a court document revealed Monday.

The note came to light in a U.S. District Court filing asking that Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, be held in pre-trial detention. 

Law enforcement was contacted by a civilian on Sept. 18 who said that Routh had dropped off a box at his residence several months earlier, the filing said. The witness opened the box after learning of the Sept. 15 incident at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. 

In that box was ammunition, four phones and various letters. 

For many who answered to Trump, the job was a risk-reward proposition like no other.

There was a chance to win his favor and shape national policy. And there was the possibility of running afoul of the boss and getting publicly humiliated.

Cabinet secretaries came and went in a Trump administration marked by head-spinning turnover.

Former advisers churned out memoirs detailing their frustrations with Trump, who in turn used his massive public platform to shower them with insults.

Should he return to the White House, Trump would need to build a leadership team once again — a challenge made more daunting by his track record and his ability to win Senate confirmations for the loyalists he would need to carry out his orders.

Read the full story here.

Harris will not be on the campaign trail today, instead carrying out internal meetings and receiving briefings in Washington, D.C. The vice president will meet with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at 2 p.m., after President Joe Biden meets with him in the early afternoon.

In an ad released this morning, the Harris campaign targeted in vitro fertilization, claiming that another Trump administration could put in jeopardy access to IVF. The ad features a military wife in Arizona who is undergoing IVF treatments and expresses concern about possible threats to the procedure.

“My husband is in the military. He volunteered to serve. We are patriots, and we go where he is assigned," she said. "What if we end up in a state where IVF is no longer legal. What will we do then?”

Contrary to the claims in the ad, Trump has sought to distance himself from any Republican efforts to limit IVF or that have been a product of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, done in part because of the Supreme Court justices he names.

The group advocating for the passage of a proposed constitutional amendment in Arizona in November that would enshrine abortion access launched a $15 million ad campaign today that will run through Election Day.

The first ad from Arizona for Abortion Access’s latest buy went up streaming on digital, social media and YouTube this morning and will begin airing on TV statewide tomorrow. The 30-second spot highlights the potentially dangerous consequences of Arizona’s current abortion ban. (Under current state law, abortion is legal up until the 15th week of pregnancy, with an exception after that to save the woman’s life, but not for rape or incest.) 

“With fewer than 50 days until Election Day, we’re reaching Arizona voters everywhere to urge them to vote Yes on Proposition 139, end Arizona’s abortion ban, and keep Arizonans — not politicians — in charge of personal medical decisions about pregnancy and abortion,” the group’s campaign manager, Laura Dent, said in a statement.

NBC’s Steve Kornacki breaks down a new NBC News presidential poll that shows a major reshaping of the race, with Harris now leading but Trump scoring high with voters on several key issues.

Vance will campaign in North Carolina today, speaking at two events in Charlotte.

The remarks come amid the upheaval in Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson's campaign for governor after his antisemitic and racist comments on a porn website were resurfaced.

Several members of Robinson's campaign for governor have departed from his staff.

Vance has previously said the presidential election would be "very hard" to win without North Carolina.

While his campaign kicks off a three-day tour across Wisconsin today, Trump will be hundreds of miles away tackling another battleground state: Pennsylvania.

Trump will sit for a roundtable in Smithton, hosted by the Protecting America Initiative — a group that says its mission is "to stop the threat of Communist China at the state level."

In the evening, Trump will speak at a rally in Indiana County, Pennsylvania.

A three-day Trump bus tour across Wisconsin will kick off this morning in Hudson.

Reps. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin and Troy Nehls of Texas and local allies will rally on behalf of Trump. After Hudson, the bus will make a stop at the GOP headquarters in Eau Claire County and end the day at Kronenwetter.

A bipartisan group of more than 700 former military and national security officials announced their endorsement of Harris in an open letter published yesterday, saying the November election is a “choice between serious leadership and vengeful impulsiveness.”

“It is a choice between democracy and authoritarianism. Vice President Harris defends America’s democratic ideals, while former President Donald Trump endangers them,” the group wrote in the letter.

“We do not make such an assessment lightly. We are trained to make sober, rational decisions. That is how we know Vice President Harris would make an excellent Commander-in-Chief, while Mr. Trump has proven he is not up to the job,” they added. “As leaders, we know effective leadership requires in-depth knowledge, careful deliberation, understanding of your adversaries, and empathy for those you lead. It requires listening to those with expertise and not firing them when they disagree with you.”

Harris' campaign is launching two WhatsApp channels dedicated to reaching Muslim and Arab voters and volunteers today, according to a campaign official who shared the plans with NBC News.

According to the official, WhatsApp is one of the primary methods of communication in Muslim and Arab communities, and it is used far more than other social media outlets. The campaign sees the new WhatsApp channels — one aimed at Arab voters and one at Muslim voters —  as effective outreach on a platform where voters are already gathering.

“We’re meeting these voters where they are, including popular online communities like WhatsApp,” Nasrina Bargzie, the campaign’s director of Muslim and Arab outreach, said in a statement. “We’ll share information on everything from the Vice President’s work towards a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza to her plan to grow small businesses — and all those issues that matter to this diverse voting bloc. Our goal is to engage both undecided voters and to make sure our volunteers have the resources they need to talk to their friends and family.”

Harris leads Trump by 5 points among registered voters, 49%-44%, in the new national NBC News poll.

While the result is within the poll’s margin of error, it does represent a shift from the last NBC News survey, when President Joe Biden was still in the 2024 presidential contest. In that July poll, Trump was ahead of Biden by 2 points, 45% to 43%.

The new poll shows the key voting blocs that have moved — and those that haven’t really budged — since Biden’s exit.

Four top staff members of Mark Robinson‘s campaign for North Carolina governor have stepped down, the campaign announced Sunday as the candidate faces calls from Republicans to do the same.

The campaign’s comment did not link the staff departures to the bombshell CNN report alleging Robinson, a Republican, made antisemitic and racist comments years ago on a porn website, and it did not say why the staffers were stepping down.

The campaign said the staff members who stepped down are Chris Rodriguez, campaign manager; Heather Whillier, finance director; Jason Rizk, deputy campaign manager; and Conrad Pogorzelski III, general consultant and senior adviser.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., launched his first TV campaign ad today, highlighting his support for infrastructure jobs in Virginia.

In the ad, shared first with NBC News, Kaine highlights his experience, telling viewers: “I grew up working in my dad’s ironworking shop. Then I ran a school teaching kids carpentry and welding.”

That work, he continues, led him to pass “laws so that we’re building and manufacturing again. Ships and submarines, roads and bridges, electric vehicles and clean energy and microchips and broadband; we’re bringing high-tech manufacturing and infrastructure jobs to Virginia.”

The House plans to vote this week on a three-month stopgap funding bill as the clock ticks down and Donald Trump pressures Republicans to shut down the government without policy concessions they have no realistic chance of achieving.

Defying Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., struck a deal with the White House and top Democrats on Sunday that calls for keeping the government funded at current levels through Dec. 20 but strips out a provision demanded by the ex-president that would revise election law nationwide to require proof of citizenship to vote.

As the House adjourned for the week on Friday, Johnson declined to say whether Trump, whom he has regularly consulted during the funding fight, would be OK with moving a package without the citizenship voting component, known as the SAVE Act. Trump and Johnson met for three hours at Mar-a-Lago last week right after a second apparent assassination attempt on Trump, and they met again in Washington on Thursday.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is hitting the campaign trail to stump for Harris-Walz.

Emhoff will be in San Antonio campaigning for Texas Democrats and then delivering remarks at a campaign reception in the same city.

In a bid to coax Trump back onto the debate stage with Harris, Democrats plan to launch a new messaging campaign dubbing the former president a “chicken” for saying he won’t debate again.

The Democratic National Committee will launch static billboards and mobile billboards and even have a staffer dressed as a chicken who will appear at Trump’s coming campaign events.

Read the full story here.