September 27, 2024, presidential campaign news

Our live coverage has ended. Follow the latest 2024 election news here or read through the posts below.

On Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver remarks at 2:45 p.m. PT (5:45 p.m. ET) at a campaign reception in San Francisco. She’ll then depart San Francisco for Los Angeles at 4:25 p.m. PT (7:25 p.m. ET), according to a news release from the White House.

On Sunday, she will deliver remarks at a campaign reception in Los Angeles at 4: 15 p.m. PT (7:15 p.m. ET) before departing for Las Vegas at 5:30 p.m. PT (8:30 p.m. ET), the release said..

Later Sunday, Harris will make a campaign stop in Las Vegas, delivering on-camera remarks at 7:25 p.m. PT (10:25 p.m. ET), the release said.

A driver approached a vehicle checkpoint at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Friday and claimed he had an explosive in his trunk, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The male driver attempted to plow through the checkpoint but was stopped, and no shots were fired, the source said. No explosive device was found, though a federal official told CNN that lawn fertilizer was found in the trunk.

The agents who stopped the driver were Homeland Security Investigations agents who were assisting the Secret Service, the federal official said.

A Secret Service spokesperson said in a statement: “An individual was arrested by the Walker Police Department,” and thanked their support in protecting Trump.

CNN has reached to the Walker Police Department for comment.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a town hall event at Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan, on Friday.

Former President Donald Trump held a relatively brief town hall in Warren, Michigan, on Friday in which he repeated his usual talking points about illegal immigration and the economy.

He fielded a few questions from voters in the town hall that lasted about 40 minutes and was moderated by Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn. He again lied about being named “Man of the Year” in Michigan before he ran for president — something he has falsely claimed since he ran for president in 2016.

Trump, at one point, attempted to tie together rising grocery prices and the influx of migrants at the border.

The town hall in Warren was Trump’s second event of the day in Michigan. The first was in Walker, Michigan.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Cochise College Douglas Campus in Douglas, Arizona on Friday.

Vice President Kamala Harris vowed Friday to “reach across the aisle” to pass legislation to ease the border crisis, while blaming her opponent, former President Donald Trump, for a failed bipartisan border security bill earlier this year.

It was a notable shift that reflected how the Harris campaign is trying to close the gap with Trump on the issue of immigration by embracing a tougher position on border security.

Harris later directly went after Trump, pledging to “bring back the border security bill that Donald Trump tanked” if elected.

More context: A border security bill negotiated by a bipartisan group of lawmakers failed earlier this year after Trump urged GOP lawmakers to vote against it.

A federal judge on Friday blocked multiple Arizona election regulations, siding with conservative groups who argued that policies aimed at addressing voter intimidation and circumventing local certification disputes raised constitutional issues.

One now-halted provision of the Arizona Election Procedures Manual said that, in the event local officials have not formalized a county’s election results, the Arizona secretary of state was instructed to proceed with the state’s canvass without that county’s votes.

State officials had argued that the policy “is a contingency plan, aimed at minimizing the negative effects on the whole of the state of a county not meeting its statutory obligations.”

US District Judge Michael Liburdi, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, however, agreed with the challengers that the provision likely violated the constitutional right to vote. He wrote Friday that the regulation was “unprecedented in the history of the United States” for how it “gives the Secretary of State nearly carte blanche authority to disenfranchise the ballots of potentially millions of Arizona voters.”

The other set of disputed provisions, the manual’s guidance on how election officials should address voter intimidation, had already been put on hold by a state court in a case some of the conservative groups had brought separately (though a state appeals court on Friday had reversed some of that earlier ruling).

Liburdi, in also putting those regulations on hold, said that the manual’s policy “blanketly prohibits controversial speech at polling places or, perhaps everywhere else in Arizona.” He pointed to language in the election procedures manual that said that “raising one’s voice” or using “insulting or offensive language to a voter or poll worker” could be considered potentially intimidating conduct at a polling place.

The lawsuit was brought by America First Policy Institute, an organization led by former advisers in the Trump administration, among other plaintiffs.

During remarks following her first visit to the US-Mexico border as the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris touted her record as the attorney general of California to argue that she would effectively handle border security as immigration has emerged as a top issue on the campaign trail.

Harris listed that she has “walked through tunnels that traffickers used to smuggle contraband,” broke up a heroin trafficking ring connected to Mexican cartels and was California’s first attorney general to issue an analysis on the threats that transnational criminal organizations pose “to public safety and to the economy.”

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to media in Douglas, Arizona, on Friday.

During her visit to the US-Mexico border Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris said US border patrol agents have a “tough job” and that she travelled to Douglas, Arizona, to discuss how to support them.

Harris made an unannounced stop at US-Mexico border where she received a briefing from Customs and Border Protection officials from the Tucson Sector and Douglas Border Patrol Station, according to a White House official.

Vice President Kamala Harris tours the border wall with border patrol agents near Tucson, Arizona, on Friday.

Vice President Kamala Harris deplaned Marine Two at Bisbee-Douglas International Airport in Douglas, Arizona, at 5:19 p.m. ET (2:19 p.m. PT) where she was greeted by local, state and federal Arizona officials. The airport is near the US-Mexico border.

Harris was briefed at the US southern border by two border patrol agents. The briefing at the US-Mexico border was conducted by John Modlin, chief patrol agent with the Tucson Sector of the US Border Patrol, and Blaine Bennett, US Customs and Border Protection Douglas Station border patrol agent in charge, according to the White House.

Harris met with officials from the Tucson Sector and Douglas Border Patrol Station, according to a White House official. During the briefing, she viewed a border barrier constructed between 2011 and 2012 and heard from CBP officials on their efforts to combat traffickers and transnational criminal organizations, the official said.

Harris was also briefed on CBP’s drug enforcement operations and viewed inspection technology that aids in the seizure of illicit drugs, including fentanyl, alongside US Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and state Attorney General Kris Mayes, according to a White House official.

Douglas Border Patrol Station is in the US Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, covering about 262 miles of the border.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee were joined Friday by three mothers of those killed by undocumented immigrants or fentanyl during a press call that came shortly before Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to the US-Mexico border in Arizona.

When asked by a reporter if they had heard from Harris in a phone call, email or visit since the death of their children, each mother said no.

Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, who was raped and killed by a 23-year-old citizen of El Salvador, said during the call that “this is not a safe time for Americans,” and stressed that the border crisis “is a threat to the American people.”

Also on the call were Anne Fundner, who spoke at the RNC convention about her 15-year-old son dying from a fentanyl overdose, and Alexis Nungaray, the mother of a 12-year-old girl who was found dead in a creek in June. Two undocumented men from Venezuela are accused in the girl’s death and are currently facing charges related to her death.

The call with reporters coincided with Harris’ first visit to the border as the Democratic nominee. Trump and Harris have continued to attack each other on immigration and border security on the campaign trail.

Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, leaves a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, in 2022.

Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was among the prominent political figures that Iranian hackers sought to impersonate as part of their efforts to target people associated with former President Donald Trump, according to court documents and law enforcement officials briefed on the matter.

US federal prosecutors on Friday unsealed criminal charges against three Iranian government-linked hackers in connection with a hacking operation aimed at Trump.

The indictment doesn’t identify Ginni Thomas by name, but it states that between April and May 2024, the hackers used the persona set up in the name of the justice’s spouse to send spearphishing emails to a former homeland security adviser and to a former US president, among other targets.

The hackers had set up a fake email account in Ginni Thomas’ name in April 2020, according to the indictment and law enforcement officials, but it wasn’t until four years later that they used that account in their efforts.

More context: Between June and August 2024, the hackers used access to a Trump campaign official’s personal email account to steal “debate preparation” material and information on potential vice presidential candidates, according to the indictment. The leak of some of that material to US media outlets was part of an Iranian effort to stoke discord during the election, the Justice Department alleged.

Read more here.

Former President Donald Trump went after Vice President Kamala Harris for her Friday visit to the southern border as both candidates continue to emphasize their border security plans on the campaign trail.

He accused Harris of visiting the border to “make up some lies, like she said about the border bill that Trump stopped.”

Harris has vowed to help bring back the legislation, if elected. But Trump said “she doesn’t need a bill,” implying that the vice president could encourage President Joe Biden to take more executive actions on border security.

Trump also directly blamed Harris for the border crisis and influx of migrants, whom he described as “murders” and “drug dealers.”

Trump again accused Democrats of letting people enter the country illegally because “they want the votes,” even though noncitizens can’t vote in the US.

More context: Congress this week passed a short-term bill to fund the government through December 20 that did not include a controversial provision targeting noncitizen voting, which Trump had advocated for and publicly called for a shutdown unless Republicans secured its passage.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event in Walker, Michigan, on Friday.

Former President Donald Trump on Friday encouraged Michigan voters to vote early and by mail as the state began mailing out ballots this week.

“You can do it right now. We want a landslide that is too big, too rig, too big to rig,” he said, echoing language that he and the Republican National Committee have used when encouraging early and mail voting.

Throughout his remarks, Trump repeatedly accused Democrats of committing election fraud, as he often does on the campaign trail, though there is no evidence to back his claims.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., former independent presidential candidate, again urged Michigan voters on Friday to support Donald Trump — even though Kennedy, himself, remains on the state ballot.

Kennedy said “the only way” to get him to Washington to work on the policies he campaigned on is by getting the former president back in office.

Kennedy also said he was “proud” of Trump after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, while reiterating his desire to see the Russia-Ukraine war come to an end. Trump told reporters ahead of his meeting with Zelensky that he expects to have the war “resolved very quickly” if he wins November’s election, signaling he’s prepared to facilitate peace deal between the two nations.

Kennedy added: “We need a peace, and we need to do it very quickly, and we need to protect US interests, not an interest of a country in which we have no strategic interests and no treaty.”

Former President Donald Trump makes a campaign stop in Walker, Michigan on Friday.

Former President Donald Trump on Friday said he will “get the senators to allow” him to move forward with his trade policies, though he has implied that he can move forward with enforcing high tariffs without congressional approval.

Speaking at a metal panel manufacturing plant in Walker, Michigan, Trump vowed to bring jobs and manufacturing back to the state if he’s elected and railed against executives and “foolish and corrupt politicians,” who he blamed for sending work from Michigan to “foreign lands.”

“I think we have no problem with that, right? We’re going to get the senators to allow us to do it. We’re actually allowed to do it as president. We want to make it permanent,” he continued.

More context: A former senior trade official told CNN earlier this month that Trump can likely apply tariffs he’s proposing unilaterally without approval from Congress, though it is possible lawmakers could amend current law to claw back that trade authority.

Trump again on Friday vowed to put a 100-200% tariff on foreign cars coming into the US.

He also touted ending NAFTA, which he called the “worst trade deal ever made,” and replacing it with the US Mexico Canada Agreement, and withdrawing from the Transpacific Partnership.

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to outline plans during her Arizona stop Friday that would make it even harder to lift border restrictions that have largely barred migrants from seeking asylum in the US, according to a senior campaign official.

It’s the clearest example yet of the campaign doubling down on border security by embracing strict rules that have been condemned by some corners of the Democratic party. Harris is expected to go a step further than President Joe Biden’s June executive action by making the threshold for lifting restrictions harder to reach, according to the senior campaign official.

More background: Earlier this year, Biden announced an executive action severely limiting the ability of migrants to seek asylum at the US southern border if they crossed unlawfully —a departure from decades-long protocol. Immigrant advocates have likened the executive action to Trump-era policies.

The measure can be turned on and off and lifted when there’s a daily average of fewer than 1,500 encounters between ports of entry, among other criteria. It remains in place.

Homeland Security officials have credited the action for driving down border crossings to the lowest point since 2020.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a rally at in Austin, Texas on May 13.

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to appear on New York’s presidential ballot, even though he suspended his campaign last month and backed former President Donald Trump.

The high court turned away Kennedy’s longshot appeal without comment and there were no noted dissents.

In an emergency appeal filed this month, the former independent presidential candidate argued voters who signed petitions supporting his placement on New York’s ballot had “a constitutional right…to vote for him, whether he is campaigning for their vote or not.”

State election officials dumped Kennedy’s name because he included an invalid address on his nominating petition.

State election officials countered that voters would be “severely harmed” by holding up the mailing of overseas ballots to accommodate Kennedy’s request. Kennedy’s position, they said, would “not only severely disrupt the state’s election processes and trigger substantial voter confusion, but also cause New York to miss federal deadlines for mailing overseas and military ballots.”

Requiring candidates to disclose their home address, as Kennedy failed to do, officials said, was a minimal burden because “a ‘reasonably diligent’ candidate could be expected to provide truthful and accurate information on their candidacy filings.”

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson speaks at a campaign rally in Asheville, North Carolina on August 14.

North Carolina GOP Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is trailing behind Democrat Josh Stein in the state’s gubernatorial race, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.

The poll, which shows Stein up 53% to Robinson’s 36% among likely Tar Heel State voters, was conducted entirely after the publication of CNN’s KFile reporting on Robinson’s inflammatory and racist remarks on a porn website’s message board that led to a lot Republican officials distancing themselves from him.

A 17-point win for a Democratic nominee for governor would be nothing short of historic. The last North Carolina Democrat to win a gubernatorial race by more than Stein’s lead in the CNN poll was Gov. Jim Hunt in 1980.

A 17-point blowout would also be especially large given the closeness of the presidential race in the state. Our poll, like many before it, has the race tied between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. This would suggest that any fallout afflicting Robinson has not harmed Trump to any large degree — political history has shown that a down-ballot scandal rarely harms the top of the ticket.

Read more here.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign signaled early on that it planned to counter former President Donald Trump’s attacks on the vice president and the administration’s handling of border security. Only days after she launched her presidential bid, campaign officials released a video drawing a contrast between Harris and Trump on immigration policy – notably leaning on border security.

“Kamala Harris supports increasing the number of Border Patrol agents. Donald Trump blocked a bill to increase the number of Border Patrol agents,” the voiceover in the video stated.

Harris previously visited the border as vice president and has cited her work as a border-state senator and state attorney general.

Friday’s visit comes at a time when border crossings are the lowest they’ve been since 2020 – and follows a recent New York Times/Siena College poll that showed Trump leading in the battleground state. A Fox News survey of the state that was released on Thursday found no clear leader, with Trump at 50% and Harris at 47% among likely voters.

Harris campaign officials think she has a case on immigration: using the failed bipartisan border measure to cast Trump as unserious at the border and citing her record as California attorney general tackling transnational criminal gangs.

Campaign allies have also stressed the need to look beyond the border and speak to broader immigration reform, pulling from the vice president’s background in the Senate and in California working on immigrant issues.

Read more on Harris’ visit to the US southern border.

As vice presidential candidates Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are preparing to take the debate stage on Tuesday, CBS News announced the official rules, including a 90-minute debate with no opening statements or studio audience.

The network notes it “reserves the right to mute the candidates’ microphones,” however, unlike the presidential debates, mics will be otherwise be hot, according to a release from CBS News.

Walz will appear on the right side of the screen to viewers and Vance on the left side. As the candidate of the incumbent party, Walz will be introduced to the stage first. The candidate who is asked a question will have two minutes to answer and the other candidate will have two minutes to respond. Candidates will have one minute for additional rebuttals. An additional minute to continue a topic may be given at the moderator’s discretion.

Candidates are not permitted to interact with staff during breaks. They are provided a pen, a pad of paper and a water bottle, but no props or pre-written notes are allowed. There will be two commercial breaks four minutes each.

The debate begins at 9 p.m. ET in New York City and is moderated by Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan.

Here’s a list of the debate rules CBS News released today:

Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, has won the coin toss to determine the order in which the candidates give their closing statements and which side of the stage they will appear on at Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, according to CBS News.

Vance chose to give his closing remarks last, which left Kamala Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, to pick which side of the screen he will appear on. Walz chose the right side.

The US Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions on seven people as part of a sweeping response to Iranian efforts “to influence or interfere” in the 2024 and 2020 US presidential elections.

The sanctions were announced in coordination with a separate action by the Department of Justice against “Iranian election interference actors.”

The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) member Masoud Jalili for his efforts to influence the 2024 presidential election.

According to the agency, Jalili, along with other IRGC members “compromised several accounts of officials and advisors to a 2024 presidential campaign and leaked stolen data to members of the media and other persons for the purpose of influencing the 2024 U.S. presidential election, using technical infrastructure known to be associated with Jalili.”

With the days ticking down to the presidential election, there is a lot of activity on and off the campaign trail as the candidates and their allies jostle to the finish line.

Some of those moments had people talking more than others, especially online.

Here are some of the newsy moments this week:

“Your favorite artist’s favorite artist” will vote for Harris

Pop star Chappell Roan said in a TikTok video Wednesday that she planned to vote for Harris in November, ending days of speculation after she told the Guardian in an interview published Friday that “there’s problems on both sides.”

The saga marks the latest example of the tightrope celebrities in the age of TikTok and social media have had to tread in voicing their support — or silence — on politics.

Trump to women: “I am your protector”

Former President Donald Trump cast himself as a “protector” of women at a Pennsylvania rally Monday evening and claimed that American women won’t be “thinking about abortion” if he’s elected.

The plea to ignore Trump’s own role in undoing national abortion rights protections is a clear signal that the former president is keenly aware of what polls show: His Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, has a clear advantage among women voters, nationally and in key swing states. Trump has kept the race close by countering with a lead among men.

Harris said Wednesday that women don’t need Trump to be their “protector,” but instead need the former president “to trust them” to make their own reproductive decisions.

Contentious Georgia election meeting

The Georgia State Election Board meeting became contentious on Monday after two members defended their reasons for approving a controversial new rule that requires county election officials to hand-count the number of ballots on Election Day.

After a speech by Dr. Janice Johnson, one of the Republicans who voted to approve the rule, there was a contentious back-and-forth between Republican Janelle King, a media personality who is the board’s newest member, and Sara Tindall Ghazal, the board’s lone sitting Democrat. King took issue with Ghazal’s appearance on MSNBC, where she questioned her colleagues’ agendas.

Click here to read more about the tense meeting and what other Georgia officials are saying about the rule’s uncertain legal future.

Encouraging voting in a battleground state — with a “bob-shullet”

TikTok’s newest political style icon: Brenda Pollard, a delegate for the North Carolina Democrats. She may not be nationally known, but because of her distinctive style and sense of humor, another video she made with content creator and comedian Lauren Howard Hayes went viral on the platform late last week, racking up more than 145,000 views. In the video on Hayes’ account, Hayes is dressed in a wig that cut to look like Pollard’s — what appears to be a bob with bangs in the front and longer hair in the back, which Hayes has nicknamed a “bob-shullet.”

It’s the latest in a series of videos Pollard has participated in with Hayes, encouraging Americans to vote for Harris in November. In the caption of one of the first videos that Pollard appears in, Hayes writes that the North Carolina Democrats put them in touch after several videos of Hayes poking fun at Pollard on Spectrum News got hundreds of thousands of views each.

“In the front, we call this sweet tea, but in the back…” Pollard says of her haircut. “Oh, it’s moonshine,” Hayes finishes.

North Carolina is an important battleground state for both campaigns.

CNN’s Kate Sullivan and Eric Bradner contributed reporting to this post.

The Trump campaign on Friday continued criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris over her trip to the US-Mexico border Friday and claimed she was making “empty calls for more security.”

CNN has reported Harris plans to go on the offensive against Trump on immigration on Friday during the trip and plans to slam Trump for scuttling the bipartisan border deal. She also plans to lean into her work as attorney general of California, a border state, a campaign aide said.

Read more about Harris’ and Trump’s stances on key issues, including immigration.

United Autoworkers President Shawn Fain slammed former President Donald Trump’s trade policies and said Vice President Kamala Harris’s criticism of her opponent on the issue was “spot on” as Trump campaigns across Michigan on Friday in an appeal to the state’s industrial base.

Fain, who endorsed Harris’ candidacy over the summer, reflected on Trump’s visit to Flint last week, where he lamented auto jobs leaving Michigan, saying, “it’s his type of policies trickle down economics and his failed trade policies like Trump’s NAFTA that have led to all these jobs leaving America,” in a reference to the US Mexico Canada Agreement that Trump negotiated.

He noted how later on Friday, Trump will visit the same location in Warren, Michigan, where he campaigned in 2016, promising to take care of auto workers if elected.

“He thinks auto workers are stupid and, you know, he believes he can continue to lie to them,” Fain said.

On the other hand, Fain touted the Biden-Harris administration’s investments in manufacturing and industrial policy, as well as the newly finalized 100% tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, as well as other products.

“Kamala Harris and Joe Biden actually have talked the talk, they’ve actually done the work and showing that they care about working-class people and, and keeping manufacturing in this country and building an infrastructure in this country that keeps manufacturing here versus Trump talking about it but not doing a damn thing to make it happen,” he said.

Fain, who will attend a campaign event and canvass for Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s Senate bid in Flint, Michigan this weekend, said UAW’s members are campaigning “all over this nation right now” every weekend in support of the Harris-Walz ticket and other candidates that align with their values.

From left to right, Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri and Yasar Balaghi.

US federal prosecutors on Friday unsealed criminal charges against three Iranian government-linked hackers in connection with a hacking operation aimed at Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

The three are accused of a multi-year hacking effort aimed at current and former US officials and journalists, including the breach of the Trump campaign this summer, according to an indictment unsealed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

Masoud Jalili, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri and Yasar (Yaser) Balaghi are accused of aggravated identity theft and wire fraud for their hacking efforts on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Separately, the US Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions on seven people as part of a sweeping response to Iranian efforts “to influence or interfere” in the 2020 and 2024 US presidential elections.

The alleged Iranian hack threw a twist in the presidential campaign in August when multiple news outlets reported receiving emails from a pseudonymous email account peddling documents stolen from the Trump campaign.

Read more about the criminal charges.

When former President Donald Trump emerged from a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky that was all but certain, Trump said he “learned a lot” and signaled a willingness to assist the war-weary leader in reaching an end to the yearslong conflict.

That standpoint, sources familiar with Trump’s views say, is far more nuanced than the president would let on.

“He wouldn’t pull the rug out on day one,” one adviser said.

More on Trump’s stance: For months, Trump has promoted a harder-line stance that the United States should not continue delivering billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine.

The genesis of that position, these sources said, is traced back to the early days of the Republican primary cycle. In March 2023, Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis proclaimed that defending Ukraine was not a priority for the United States, suggesting the federal government devote resources to fighting crises within its own borders.

DeSantis walked back a description of the war in Ukraine as a “territorial dispute,” but the refusal to commit to provide unconditional aid to Ukraine put Trump in a difficult political position. Against a bevy of more moderate GOP voices calling for the continued defense of Ukraine, one source described the DeSantis position as “out-Trumping Trump.”

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are tied among likely voters in North Carolina, while Harris holds a comfortable lead in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, according to two new CNN polls conducted by SSRS.

The North Carolina survey also shows scandal-plagued Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson trailing his Democratic opponent by a wide margin in the state’s gubernatorial race.

Why this matters: Both places could be key to either Harris or Trump winning the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Trump faces limited paths to victory should he fail to hold North Carolina – the state where he earned his slimmest margin of victory in 2020 – and a win in Nebraska’s 2nd District would open up a path for Harris through the northern “blue wall” states even if she fails to carry any of the Sun Belt battlegrounds.

In North Carolina, Harris and Trump stand at 48% each among likely voters. In Nebraska’s 2nd District, the so-called blue dot encompassing Omaha, Harris has 53% to Trump’s 42%, the poll finds.

North Carolina, which narrowly supported Barack Obama in 2008 and has gone red in the past three presidential elections, is a state Democrats hope to make competitive again this year. Nebraska, meanwhile, is one of two states, along with Maine, that splits its Electoral College votes – awarding two to the statewide winner, with the other three awarded separately to the winner of each of the state’s congressional districts.

Read the latest CNN poll.

Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump are seen speaking at Trump Tower in New York City on Friday.

Asked what his vision for a “fair” deal that would see an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine would look like, former President Donald Trump provided a vague answer.

Zelensky, who was standing next to Trump, cut in: “This war shouldn’t be started. I think that the problem (is) that Putin killed so many people, and of course we need to do everything to pressure him to stop this war. He’s on our territory — that’s the most important to understand — he’s on our territory.”

Asked whether there will be another meeting between the pair, Trump left the door open.

“Could very well happen, but I think the president said it the best: this is a war that should have never happened,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are seen in New York City on Friday.

Standing next to Volodymyr Zelensky inside Trump Tower, former President Donald Trump emphasized he has a “very good relationship” with both the Ukrainian president and Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he thinks he can work out a resolution to the war “that’s good for both sides” if he is elected in November.

“I hope we have more good relations between us,” Zelensky interjected.

“Oh, I see,” Trump said. “It takes two to tango, you know, and we will— we’re going to have a good meeting today. And I think the fact that we’re even together today is a very good sign.”

“Hopefully, we’ll have a good victory, because if the other side wins, I don’t think you’re going to have victories with anything to be honest with you. So, we’re going to sit down just discuss it, and if we have a win, I think long before I, before January 20, before I would take the presidency – it’s January 20 – but long before that, I think that we can work out something that’s good for both sides. It’s time,” Trump continued. “By the way, the president knows that too. He wants to get something done. He doesn’t want to do this.”

Former President Donald Trump meets with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky at Trump Tower in New York City on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he met with former President Donald Trump on Friday because Ukraine wants to count on the United States in its war against Russia —regardless of who will hold the White House in January.

His meeting with Trump came a day after he met with both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House.

On the war, Trump said: “It has to end. At some point, it has to end.” Trump has previously suggested that Ukraine should relinquish some territory to Russia in order to end the war.

“He’s going through hell, and his country has gone through hell,” Trump said. “… It’s terrible, the whole situation.”

Standing next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, former President Donald Trump on Friday recounted the phone call that led to his first impeachment in 2019.

“It was a hoax, just a Democrat hoax, which we won,” Trump said after meeting with Zelensky on Friday in New York.

“But one of the reasons we won it so easily … he could have grandstanded and played cute but he didn’t do that,” Trump said, referring to Zelensky. “He said President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong — he said it loud and clear — and the impeachment hoax died right there.”

Trump was impeached in 2019 over allegations he tried pressuring Ukrainian authorities to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings. He was acquitted on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after a trial in the Senate.

Zelensky stood emotionless next to Trump as he said this.

“I remember that,” Trump said. “I remember that.”

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

With five weeks until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are visiting key battleground states today as they make their pitch to voters.

Harris: Harris will travel to Arizona to visit the US-Mexico border. At 6:35 p.m. ET, Harris will receive a closed-press briefing at the Raul H. Castro Port of Entry on operations.

At 7:45 p.m. ET, Harris will deliver remarks at a campaign event in Douglas, Arizona. Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly is expected to join the vice president during her visit. After, Harris will travel to San Francisco.

Harris plans to go on the offensive against Trump on immigration Friday, campaign aides told CNN, as she tries to turn a political vulnerability on its head.

Trump: Trump is expected to hold a closed-press meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Trump Tower in New York City on Friday morning amid GOP tensions over Ukraine assistance.

At 2 p.m ET, Trump will deliver remarks at an event in Walker, Michigan, on inflation and household expenses. At 6 p.m. ET, Trump will host a Town Hall in Warren, Michigan, focused on the Michigan auto industry.

VP candidates: Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance do not have any public events scheduled for Friday as they gear up for their first vice presidential debate on Tuesday.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz attends a rally in Asheville, North Carolina, on September 17.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his advisers are setting up “debate camp” in Harbor Springs, Michigan – a small waterfront resort town about a four-hour drive from Detroit — ahead of Tuesday’s vice presidential debate against Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

With the exception of a campaign event in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Saturday, when the governor plans to attend a University of Michigan Wolverines football game, sources said Walz is planning to remain at debate camp until the day of the debate, when he will travel to New York City.

So far, debate prep sessions for Walz and his team have remained largely informal, sources said, and mock debates have not yet begun.

Those full rehearsals are expected to begin over the weekend, with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg standing in for Vance, as CNN has previously reported. Buttigieg has participated in both in-person and virtual debate sessions, and will soon also make his way to Harbor Springs.

The campaign declined to comment on those details.

More on the debate prep: Helping to lead Walz’ debate preparations are former White House official Rob Friedlander and Zayn Siddique, a lawyer at the law firm Paul, Weiss, who was also involved in Vice President Kamala Harris’ debate prep, sources said.

Former President Donald Trump and Ohio Senator JD Vance attend a 9/11 ceremony in New York City on September 11.

In newly uncovered direct messages from 2020, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance offered a candid assessment of former President Donald Trump’s failure to deliver on economic populism during his term, expressed belief Trump would lose the 2020 election and suggested he turned down a position in Trump’s administration, as reported by the Washington Post.

The Post reported that this message was written in the context of a discussion of wealthy business executives running for office, naming New York mayor Mike Bloomberg or former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi as examples. They said Vance expressed doubt that Trump’s wealthiest donors would jump ship in 2020 because he catered to their interests during his presidency.

“Not sure any of these people feel like they need to switch sides,” he wrote.

In a statement to the Post, Vance spokesperson William Martin said Vance did not mean the failure comment as a criticism of Trump, rather of “establishment Republicans who thwarted much of Trump’s populist economic agenda to increase tariffs and boost domestic manufacturing in Congress.”

In another message from June 2020, Vance said that he believed Joe Biden would win the election.

“I think Trump will probably lose,” Vance said.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

A new CNN Poll of Polls of recent surveys in Georgia finds no clear leader in the key state, with former President Donald Trump averaging 49% support among likely voters compared with 48% for Vice President Kamala Harris.

The average includes four surveys of likely voters conducted in mid-September, including a Fox News poll released Thursday evening. Each of the polls finds the candidates separated by a margin of 3 percentage points or less, within each survey’s margin of error.

Fox also released a poll of Arizona on Thursday, where it similarly finds no clear leader, with Trump taking 50% to Harris’ 47% among likely voters.

Top outside groups are plowing tens of millions of dollars this week into new ad reservations for the final sprint to Election Day, with all signs pointing to an extremely competitive race set to be contested in seven battleground states.

Yesterday, FF PAC, the leading super PAC backing Kamala Harris, added more than $20 million to its ad reservations over the final month of the race. The group has run more than $114 million worth of advertising since Harris took over the Democratic ticket – and now has more than $201 million in remaining bookings.

Over the final five weeks of the race, FF PAC is set to concentrate its ad dollars in battleground Pennsylvania, where the group has nearly $42 million reserved; Michigan, where it has more than $27 million booked; Arizona, with $22 million; North Carolina, with $19 million; Georgia, with $18.5 million; Wisconsin, with $17 million; Nevada, with $10 million; and an additional $4.4 million directed to Nebraska.

On the other side, several leading pro-Trump super PACs have also ramped up their spending this week.

MAGA Inc., the top pro-Trump outside group, bought a total of $20 million in new ad time so far this week, with reservations beginning at the end of September and stretching through Election Day.

Between July 22 and today, when President Joe Biden dropped out, MAGA Inc. has been the largest non-candidate advertiser in the 2024 race, spending more than $140 million on ads in that stretch.

Including its new bookings, MAGA Inc. now has nearly $60 million in ad time booked through Election Day, targeting four of the key battleground states: $32 million in Pennsylvania, $10 million in Georgia, $9 million in North Carolina, and $7.3 million in Arizona.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at an event in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday slammed former President Donald Trump ahead of his trip to Michigan, accusing him of making empty promises to American workers.

“As President, he cut taxes for corporations, encouraged outsourcing, and lost nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs, including auto jobs. He has joked about firing workers, supported state anti-union laws, and suggested companies move jobs out of Michigan,” she said.

The vice president’s statement comes as Trump is expected to host a town hall in Warren, Michigan, on Friday focused on the auto industry. She argued Trump’s previous trade deal with Mexico and Canada facilitated the loss of American auto jobs and pledged to bring autoworker jobs back to the US.

“We’ve seen this movie before. Once again, he is repeating the same playbook and telling the same old lies about how he’ll fight for working people, including those in Michigan. Yet it was Trump’s trade deal that made it far too easy for a major auto company like Stellantis to break their word to workers by outsourcing American jobs,” Harris said.

Both Harris and Trump have been campaigning in battleground states to make their pitch to voters on the economy, a top issue this campaign cycle. A recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS found likely voters overall say they trust Trump over Harris to handle the economy (50% Trump to 39% Harris). Even among those who say Trump’s views and policies are too extreme, 15% say they trust him over Harris to handle the economy.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump Tower in New York on Thursday.

Donald Trump slammed Vice President Kamala Harris Thursday, ahead of her trip to the US-Mexico border today, blaming her for undoing policies that he enacted during his four years and spawning an “invasion” of undocumented immigrants.

“She’ll be out there (Friday), standing probably in front of the wall that I built, trying to say what a wonderful job she did,” the former president said Thursday at a news conference at Trump Tower.

Trump also said migrants are “infecting our country” and “destroying our country.”

Praising his own administration’s efforts to secure the southern border, Trump said it “took a lot of talent” to negotiate “Remain in Mexico” policy that President Joe Biden reversed.

“He assigned her the job. And whether you call her a ‘border czar’ or just say that she was put in charge of the border doesn’t make any difference. Same thing, done a horrible job,” Trump said.

As CNN’s Daniel Dale has reported, Biden gave Harris a more limited immigration-related assignment in 2021, asking her to lead diplomacy with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in an attempt to address the conditions that prompted their citizens to try to migrate to the United States.

Former President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Former President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet at Trump Tower on Friday morning, according to Trump, giving the Ukrainian leader the chance to make a personal pitch to a GOP presidential nominee openly skeptical of continued US security assistance for Ukraine against Russia.

Trump told reporters Thursday he would be sitting down with Zelensky, a meeting that had appeared murky earlier in the week following comments from both leaders critical of the other.

Still, it’s unclear whether Zelensky can say anything to convince Trump to change his position on the Russia-Ukraine war and US security assistance. Friday’s meeting comes at a pivotal moment for Zelensky ahead of November’s US election. He’s sought this week to convince the Biden administration that his country can still win the war, so long as the US and other countries significantly and quickly ramp up military assistance.

Trump has repeatedly complained about the funding the US has provided for Ukraine and claimed he will quickly end the war between the two sides, which began with Russia’s unprovoked invasion in February 2022. Zelensky said this week that Trump doesn’t know how to end Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Read more about today’s meeting here.

Vice President Kamala Harris plans to use her trip to the US-Mexico border on Friday to slam former President Donald Trump for scuttling a bipartisan border deal and lean into her work as California attorney general, according to a campaign aide.

The Harris campaign announced Wednesday the vice president will make a stop at the US southern border while visiting Arizona on Friday, confirming CNN reporting.

Why she’s making the trip: Some Harris campaign officials remain concerned about the gap in polling, which shows Trump holding a lead on the issue, but also see an opportunity to narrow a gap they believe is closing and try to shut down GOP attacks over her not visiting the border enough, according to a source familiar.

The campaign has touted endorsements by border town mayors, pointed to a dramatic drop in border crossings to argue that the Biden-Harris administration has strengthened border security, and cited the bipartisan border bill, which included some of the toughest border measures in recent memory.

But that’s so far done little to convince voters who place more trust in Trump than Harris on handling the US-Mexico border. Recent polling shows that Trump continues to hold an edge on Harris on the issue of immigration.

Harris previously visited the border while vice president and has cited her work as a border state senator and attorney general.