Election 2024: Harris speaks in Phoenix after Obama's Pittsburgh rally; Biden slams Trump

One measure on the ballot in New York state this November means two very different things to its supporters and its opponents.

The measure, Proposition 1, seeks to expand the state’s Equal Rights Amendment by adding “sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy,” as protected classes. The New York Constitution currently protects against unequal treatment based on race, color, creed and religion.

Advocates of the measure argue that it is simply a way to codify New Yorkers’ right to reproductive care. But, because the language of the proposition is vague and does not explicitly include the word “abortion,” opponents argue the measure has an ulterior motive: expanding transgender rights for minors and taking parental rights away.

Read the full story here.

Republicans have filed lawsuits over the past week in three pivotal battleground states seeking to challenge the legitimacy of some ballots cast by U.S. citizens living abroad, including military members, arguing that some votes are particularly prone to fraud.

Election officials in those states — Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania — and nonpartisan voting experts strongly defended the previously uncontroversial overseas voting rules, arguing that the suits amounted to efforts to further lay the groundwork to question the veracity of the election results next month.

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Walz will take his message to male voters in swing states over the next few days, according to a Harris campaign official.

After he gives a pep talk tomorrow to the football team at Mankato West High School, where he used to coach, Walz will speak in Michigan and participate in an event with Black male voters, the campaign official said. On Saturday, he will be accompanied by a group of digital creators for an early morning hunt to mark the start of pheasant season.

He will also do media appearances with local TV stations in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the official said.

"This latest campaign push to reach male voters in swing states comes on the heels of the Governor’s recent media blitz, and builds on ongoing efforts to engage and out to persuadable men," the official said in a statement.

Walz said in an interview set to air tomorrow that his recent remark about getting rid of the Electoral College isn't the view of the Harris campaign and that they're both on the same page.

"Well, it's not the campaign's position," Walz said in a clip of his interview with ABC's "Good Morning America."

"And the point I'm trying to make is, is that there's folks that feel that every vote must count in every state, and I think that some folks feel that's not the case," he said.

Asked whether the Electoral College is an area in which he and Harris disagree, Walz said no.

Ahead of Obama’s rally for Harris is Pittsburgh, NBC News spoke to Black voters about the significance of his visit to Pittsburgh.

“I think he has a broad appeal. His coalition is pretty much intact. They were just waiting for the right candidate to bring him back out, and I feel like Kamala is that candidate,” Bettyjean Waller said. 

Her daughter, Kashmir Waller, who was attending the rally with her, cast her first vote in 2008 for Obama. She said the fact that Obama “is rallying for potentially the first woman of color to be president, I think, is a huge deal.”

On his first trip back to North Carolina since Hurricane Helene devastated western parts of the state, Sen. JD Vance leaned on his usual criticisms of the federal government’s response to the storm and called for “accountability” for those who “screwed up” those efforts.

“If you don’t have accountability — in other words, if you don’t fire the people who screwed up — it’s never going to get better,” Vance told a local pilot who said he had been transporting goods to storm-affected parts of the state.

In what has become a new staple of his stump speech of late, Vance chided the Biden administration for not deploying the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division sooner and for what he described as overall “bureaucratic incompetence" at a town hall-style event moderated by former NASCAR driver Danica Patrick.

“Donald Trump, I mean, hell, he got famous saying, 'You’re fired.' He believes in accountability in our government. Kamala Harris just doesn’t,” Vance said. “I think it’s this attitude of 'go along to get along,' of 'Yeah, you screwed up, and maybe even you got people killed, but we’re not going to fire you.' That’s not going to do good for our people in the 21st century.”

Harris sidestepped a town hall question today about how she would handle the border differently from Biden, instead pointing to her experience on the issue and pivoting to attack Trump’s policies.

“Let me start with this, perhaps what distinguishes me from at least a couple of people: I was the top law enforcement officer of the biggest state in this country, California, that is also a border state,” she said at the Univision event set to air tonight. “I have taken on transnational criminal organizations. I have taken on transnational criminal organizations that traffic in guns, drugs and human beings, and I have prosecuted them.”

“I will put my record up against anyone in terms of the work I have always done and will always do to ensure we have a secure border,” she added before she pivoted to a criticism of Trump.

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Obama painted an image of the two presidential candidates with contrasting views about freedom, suggesting Trump believes freedom "is getting away with stuff," while Harris embraces "a broader idea."

"We believe in the freedom to provide for our families, if we’re willing to work, the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water, send our kids to school without worrying if they come home," he said.

Obama described a view of freedom that affords "the right to make decisions about our own life," such as abortion rights.

In their first and only debate of an unusually competitive Maryland Senate race today, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and former Gov. Larry Hogan sparred over the issue of abortion and whether the deep blue state would be best represented by a staunch Democrat or an anti-Donald Trump Republican.

Hogan distanced himself from the former president and current GOP presidential nominee, framing himself as someone willing to put “country over party.” He emphasized his support for codifying federal protections for abortion and argued that Maryland could push back against growing partisanship by electing “strong, independent leaders.”

Read the full story here.

During a campaign event on behalf of Harris in Pittsburgh, Obama reiterated his argument that Trump is selfish and that he is always trying to make a sale over providing solid leadership.

"There is absolutely no evidence that this man thinks about anybody but himself," Obama said, describing Trump as a 78-year-old billionaire who "has not stopped whining about his problem since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago."

Obama said Trump spews a "word salad" of conspiracy theories and sales pitches.

"It’s like Fidel Castro, on and on, constant attempts to sell you stuff. Who does that? Selling you gold sneakers, a $100,000 watch and, most recently, a Trump Bible," Obama said. "He wants you to buy the Word of God, Donald Trump edition, got his name right there next to Matthew and Luke."

Harris said today that Trump "trashed" Detroit when he appeared to criticize the city in his remarks at a campaign event there this afternoon.

"My opponent, Donald Trump, yet again, has trashed another great American city when he was in Detroit, which is just a further piece of evidence on a very long list of why he is unfit to be president of the United States," Harris told reporters on the tarmac in Las Vegas.

Trump suggested in his remarks Detroit that the U.S. will "be like Detroit" if Harris wins the election.

“You want to know the truth? It’ll be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president,” he said.

Attorneys for Trump argued today against the release of additional evidence in his federal election interference case in the lead-up to Election Day.

“There should be no further disclosures at this time of the so-called ‘evidence’ that the Special Counsel’s Office has unlawfully cherry-picked and mischaracterized—during early voting in the 2024 Presidential election—in connection with an improper Presidential immunity filing that has no basis in criminal procedure or judicial precedent,” Trump’s attorneys wrote.

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Patrick Swain, 21, a student at the University of Pittsburgh, waited in line to see Obama campaign for Harris at his school.

“I think the gravity of Barack Obama coming to the University of Pittsburgh shows just how much of a battleground Pennsylvania is,” he said.

Swain, who planning to voting for Harris, said his first memory of a global event was watching Obama’s first inauguration in his kindergarten classroom.

Trump said today that if he is elected, he will make it known to Mexico and Canada that he will invoke the six-year renegotiation provision of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which he called the "the hardest thing" to get in the trade deal.

“Upon taking office, I will formally notify Mexico and Canada of my intention to invoke the six-year renegotiation provisions of the USMCA that I put in. That was the hardest thing I had to get," he said. "They didn’t want that. They wanted to have it, but I wanted to, because there’s always like, little tricks they want to play. I said, 'Nope, I want to be able to renegotiate in six years; otherwise we’re not making the deal.' And I got it, and it’s coming due very soon.”

The Trump administration renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement to create the USMCA with Canada and Mexico, which went into effect in July 2020.

Harris will participate in a televised town hall on CNN on Oct. 23, her campaign said in a news release. The event, which take place in Pennsylvania, will be live.

"This will be a unique opportunity for voters to hear directly from the Vice President on her commitment to be a President for all Americans and her plans to lower families’ costs, protect our freedoms including reproductive freedom, and keep us safe and secure," the Harris campaign said in a statement.

The network offered both candidates a town hall as a replacement for another debate. Trump has repeatedly said he would not agree to another debate with Harris. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether he would participate in the town hall.

Amid Democratic concerns about a presidential race that remains deadlocked in the key battlegrounds, Harris’ campaign dispatched a handful of seasoned political operatives to troubleshoot in swing states in recent weeks, according to six people familiar with the surge.

The group of senior advisers includes Paulette Aniskoff, a former director of the White House Office of Public Engagement for President Barack Obama who was sent into Pennsylvania two weeks ago to shore up what officials thought was a lackluster state operation. One of the sources described the state as a “problem spot” for the Harris campaign.

Harris’ race against Trump has settled into trench warfare in seven states. In the RealClearPolitics average of recent polls in those states — Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada — neither candidate has more than a 1-point lead.

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In his speech in Detroit, Trump said he would make interest on car loans fully deductible.

"That’s going to revolutionize your industry. This will stimulate massive domestic auto production and make car ownership dramatically more affordable for millions and millions of working American families. This is a phenomenal thing," Trump said.

He has made other proposals leading up to Election Day, including getting rid of taxes on tips and ending the cap on state and local tax deductions.

Trump announced today in his Detroit speech that his youngest daughter, Tiffany Trump, is expecting a baby. He mentioned it while he was thanking attendees, including Tiffany Trump's father-in-law, Massad Boulos.

“He happens to be the father of Tiffany’s husband, Michael, who’s a very exceptional young guy,” Trump said. “And she’s an exceptional young woman, so, and she’s going to have a baby. So that’s nice.”

Tiffany Trump has not announced her pregnancy publicly. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

Biden told Trump to "get a life" after he castigated him for his recent false claims about the federal government's response to hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Biden made the remark after he delivered a briefing at the White House about the response to Milton and a reporter asked whether he had spoken to Trump.

"Are you kidding me?" said Biden, who then turned and looked directly into the camera and said: “Mr. President Trump, former President Trump, get a life, man. Help these people.”

Earlier in his comments, Biden said people who engage in lies about hurricane recovery efforts are "undermining confidence in the rescue and recovery work that’s opening and ongoing." He also called Trump and others who spread hurricane misinformation "so damn un-American."

House Speaker Mike Johnson said it “would be premature to” call Congress back into session right now to address hurricane relief. 

“FEMA has the resources they need to get about delivering those resources and services,” Johnson, R-La., told NBC News during a campaign stop in Hellertown, Pennsylvania.

Johnson pointed to the time it takes to assess damage.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., blasted TD Bank's settlement today in a criminal case in which it pleaded guilty to failing to monitor money laundering by drug cartels and agreed to pay $3 billion in fines and other penalties to the Justice Department and federal financial regulators.

“Big banks treat government fines as the cost of doing business,” Warren said. “This settlement lets bad bank executives off the hook for allowing TD Bank to be used as a criminal slush fund. The Department of Justice and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency need to do better."

Trump said in his speech to the Detroit Economic Club that foreign companies have become powerful and have "raped our country."

"We were stupid. We allowed them to come in and raid and rape our country. That's what they did. Oh, he used the word 'rape,'" he said. "That's right, I used the word 'raped.'"

Trump did not specify which foreign companies he was referring to. He made similar remarks in 2016, accusing the U.S. of allowing China "to rape our country."

Read the full story here.

Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., is looking for Harris to focus on the economy in her Univision town hall in Las Vegas this afternoon.

“What I want to hear from her tonight, or wherever she is, is what she’s been doing: It’s about an opportunity economy, one that works for everyone; it’s about expanding our middle class,” Rosen said in a brief interview before a meeting with Culinary Workers Union members this morning. 

Asked whether Harris should distinguish herself more from Biden in order to win the competitive battleground state, Rosen said, “The race is about Kamala Harris versus Donald Trump. It’s about me versus Sam Brown. It’s about what she brings to the table, what her experience teaches her, what she knows about who she’s met and her experiences and the dreams that people have shared with her, that they want for this country.”

“She is her own person,” Rosen said, adding later, “I think that she’s been clear about who she is and how she’s trying to translate the dreams of most Americans into reality.”

 

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., warned on X this morning that Project 2025 would "gut the National Weather Service."

Markey issued the warning in a repost of a National Weather Service message on X from yesterday that showed a map displaying dozens of tornado warnings in Florida.

"Project 2025 would gut the National Weather Service — they want to put your safety behind a paywall," Markey wrote.

The National Weather Service is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which Project 2025 says should be "broken up and downsized."

The audiences cheered for Harris during her media blitz this week. So did the talk show hosts posing the questions.

“You’ve gotta win,” Howard Stern told her on his eponymous radio show.

“I personally cannot understand why anyone would vote for him,” Joy Behar of ABC’s “The View,” said of Donald Trump.

“Would you like to have a beer with me so I can tell people what that’s like?” asked CBS’ Stephen Colbert.

Out came the Miller High Life, and the vice president gamely clinked cans with Colbert and sipped.

In a video message today on his social media site Truth Social, Trump vowed that help "is on the way" and would be available to storm victims in Florida "like never before" if he wins the presidential election in November.

"Hopefully on Jan. 20, you’re going to have somebody that’s really going to help you and help you like never before," he said in the video. "Because help is on the way. Together, we will rebuild, we will recover, and we will come back stronger, bigger, better than ever before."

Trump also praised Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ response to hurricanes Milton and Helene. "Your governor is doing an excellent job," he said. "I’ve been talking to him and watching. Ron is doing a really good job. We’re proud of him."

Trump made no mention of Biden or Harris in the video. The former president has repeatedly made false claims about the Biden administration's response to the hurricane and where FEMA money is going.

Several Republican lawmakers from Florida said today that they've spoken to Biden about the federal government's response to hurricanes Milton and Helene.

Sen. Rick Scott said in a post on X that he had just spoken to the president about the response and is focused on ensuring that FEMA, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Agriculture are "fully funded" and have "boots on the ground until Florida is fully recovered."

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who represents Florida's 13th Congressional District, which covers Pinellas County along the state's Gulf Coast, said she also had just gotten off the phone with Biden.

The Trump campaign is up with a new digital ad featuring a half-dozen Black women saying they will not be voting for Harris in November.

The ad is running on YouTube and is targeted statewide in specific swing states and in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which Trump has carried twice, earning an Electoral College vote separate from the statewide result each time. The Trump campaign has been targeting northern Maine with digital ads more actively over the last few weeks.

In this new digital ad, the Black women featured cite several reasons for not voting for Harris, including immigration, the economy and crime. The ad ends with a full-screen graphic that says, “Not With Her.”

Black voters are typically a strong bloc for Democrats, but the Trump campaign has made efforts to try to peel off support this year, especially among men.

“I’m with her” was a main slogan of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, which she lost to Trump.

Ethel Kennedy, who lost her husband, Robert F. Kennedy, and brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy, to assassins’ bullets, and who channeled her grief into raising her 11 children and a lifetime of public service, died Thursday. She was 96.

Kennedy had recently suffered a stroke and was receiving treatment when she died, former Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., a grandson, said in a statement posted on X.

“It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother, Ethel Kennedy,” the former congressman said. “She died this morning from complications related to a stroke suffered last week.”

Read the full story here.

LAS VEGAS — Milijana Rodriguez showed up to an office park on the outskirts of Las Vegas for the first time last night, and she was on a mission.

“The decision about abortion should be up to women, their doctors and those they love and trust, not politicians. Vote yes on Question 6,” she wrote on a postcard, the other side of which read, “voting is your superpower.”

Question 6 would codify the right to an abortion up to fetal viability, or about 24 weeks, with an exception to protect the life and health of the mother, in the Nevada constitution. It’s one of 10 similar measures on the ballot in November.

Rodriguez was optimistic that the voter who would receive her postcard would support the measure, and other activists involved in the effort were confident it would pass. In Nevada, a ballot initiative has to pass in two subsequent elections to take effect.

Biden will receive a briefing this morning on the response to hurricanes Milton and Helene across the Southeast and how the Department of Defense and Coast Guard are supporting FEMA’s mission.

The Defense Department has deployed active-duty troops to assist the National Guard and has sent the Coast Guard to Florida to assist with response and recovery efforts. Harris, who is campaigning in Las Vegas, will join the briefing virtually.

This morning, Biden spoke with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, about the initial impact of Milton and was also briefed by his homeland security adviser, Liz Sherwood-Randall, and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, the White House said in a statement.

Obama is campaigning for Harris in Pittsburgh today because he believes it's an "all hands on deck moment" in the final weeks of the presidential election, his spokesperson said in a statement.

Obama will "discuss the enormous stakes of this election" and highlight the importance of re-electing Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., the spokesperson said. Casey, who is locked in a competitive race, put out a campaign ad this morning featuring Obama.

Obama has been working to help Democrats throughout the election cycle. Now that early voting has begun in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, "his focus is on persuading and mobilizing voters, especially in states with key races," the spokesperson said.

Obama "has been actively supporting the presidential campaign since last year, helping to raise $80 million, cultivating relationships and content with online creators, and filming dozens of digital ads," his spokesperson said.

With less than a month to Election Day, NBC News correspondents Monica Alba and Dasha Burns join “Meet the Press NOW” from the campaign trail as Harris goes on a media blitz and Trump rallies in Pennsylvania. NBC News justice and intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian reports on the arrest of an Afghan man who is charged with plotting an Election Day terror attack.

Harris will head to Phoenix today to deliver a speech in the crucial swing state of Arizona.

Early voting in the state began yesterday. Biden flipped the state by a narrow margin in 2020.

Obama will head to Pittsburgh today to campaign for Harris.

NBC News has reported that the event marks the start of a larger campaign push by Obama in the final few weeks before the election.

“President Obama believes the stakes of this election could not be more consequential and that is why he is doing everything he can to help elect Vice President Harris, Governor Walz and Democrats across the country,” Obama senior adviser Eric Schulz said in a statement last week.

Biden hadn’t been briefed about a back-and-forth between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Vice President Kamala Harris over hurricane recovery before he praised him as “gracious” in a news conference Wednesday, a source familiar with the situation said. 

NBC News first reported Monday that DeSantis refused to take Harris’ call when she reached out about Hurricane Helene’s impact on Florida. DeSantis charged that Harris was trying to “politicize the storm.” Harris called him “utterly irresponsible” and “selfish.” The spat grabbed headlines for several days. 

On Wednesday, Biden delivered a widely televised address warning the public about the potentially catastrophic impact of Hurricane Milton, which began ravaging Florida’s coastline Wednesday night. 

A reporter then asked Biden whether DeSantis should be taking Harris’ phone calls. He praised DeSantis and dodged answering the question directly. 

PHOENIX — Republican Kari Lake and Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego faced off in Arizona’s feisty first and only Senate debate yesterday evening, trading shots over the border, abortion, tax policy and more.

The barbs started before the moderators even asked a single question.

“We are at a crossroads, Arizona,” Gallego said in his opening statement, highlighting Lake’s repeated election denialism. “We’re going to see and talk to somebody who has really failed the basic test of honesty.” 

Lake shot back: “Tonight, we’re going to watch as somebody tries to reinvent himself. Somebody who used to be a member of the Progressive Caucus, somebody who has destroyed the very congressional district that he has served for the past 10 years.”

The Casey campaign is out with a new ad featuring one of the most popular political figures: former President Barack Obama.

In the ad, Obama argues Casey would fight to hold big corporations accountable for "greedflation" with the goal of ensuring Pennsylvanians have more money in their pockets.

“People are hurting right now. Meanwhile, corporations are raking in record profits. My friend Bob Casey is fighting back,” Obama says straight to the camera.

Obama praises Casey for capping the price of insulin, lowering the price of more prescription drugs and pushing for a child care tax credit. He says Casey is guided by “faith and family,” adding, “He is Pennsylvania through and through.”

Trump is set to head to Michigan, where he will deliver remarks today at the Detroit Economic Club.

Vance will head to Greensboro, North Carolina, where he is set to hold a town hall. In a news release announcing the visit, the campaign said Harris "has completely failed the people of North Carolina."

Trump won North Carolina in 2020 by a slim margin, and Democrats are working to flip it blue.