August 26, 2024, presidential campaign news | CNN Politics

August 26, 2024, presidential campaign news

<p>As both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump hit the campaign trail in a bid to win over battleground states, Paula Newton speaks with CNN Contributor Elaine Kamarck and CNN Political Commentator Scott Jennings.</p>
The debate about the Trump-Harris debate
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Trump and Harris prepare for upcoming debate and sprint to November. Here's what to know from Monday

Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Donald Trump.

With the presidential race entering its final stretch, Vice President Kamala Harris looking to build on the momentum of last week’s Democratic National Convention and former President Donald Trump honing his lines of attack.

The two candidates are expected to go head-to-head at a debate later this month.

Here’s the latest news from Monday:

  • Afghanistan withdrawal: Trump and Harris marked the third anniversary of the attack at Kabul airport’s Abbey Gate that killed 13 US military service members. Trump participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. At an event in Michigan later in the day, Trump said he would demand the resignation of all officials involved in the withdrawal if he is reelected. Harris and President Joe Biden also commemorated the occasion in a statement.
  • Former Democrat endorses Trump: Former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, who now identifies as an independent, endorsed Trump on Monday. Gabbard said she believes Trump would “walk us back from the brink of war.” She has been helping Trump with debate prep.
  • Debate dispute: Trump said on Monday he was “not spending a lot of time” preparing for the upcoming debate with Harris on September 10. Meantime, the former president and his campaign have been casting doubt on whether the debate will take place amid a dispute over the rules. Trump said on Monday he would rather have the microphones always on, despite his campaign pushing to keep the same rules as the last presidential debate — when mics were muted unless it was the candidate’s turn to speak. The Harris campaign believes the debate issue is “resolved,” a spokesperson said.
  • Focus on the economy: Both candidates put out a new wave of campaign ads this week focusing on the economy. One of the ads from the Trump campaign stitches together clips of Harris voicing concerns about rising prices, juxtaposed with clips of Harris saying that “Bidenomics is working.” The Harris campaign, meanwhile, also began airing a new ad that echos her pitch for an “opportunity economy.”
  • Classified documents case: The Justice Department is arguing to revive its classified documents case against Trump. In the first formal filing since Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the criminal case last month, the DOJ vigorously defended special prosecutors. Cannon ruled the Justice Department didn’t have the ability to appoint or fund special prosecutors like Jack Smith.
  • Meantime: An Arizona judge has set a trial date of January 5, 2026, for allies of Trump charged with a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. Several defendants, including conservative attorney John Eastman and multiple Arizona Republicans who served as fake electors, were in the courtroom during the hearing. Trump himself was not charged.

RFK Jr. says he's been asked to serve on Trump's transition team

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he’s been asked to serve on former President Donald Trump’s transition team following his endorsement of the Republican nominee. 

In an interview with conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson released Monday, Kennedy reiterated that he’s going to campaign on behalf of Trump, and said he’s involved in conversations about “policy issues” with Trump’s team, including conversations about potential staff for his next administration. 

 CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

The comment is the latest detail revealed about the conversations between Kennedy leading up to and following his endorsement of Trump. Prior to suspending his presidential campaign, Kennedy and Trump spoke on multiple occasions, and discussed the possibility of Kennedy dropping out of the race in exchange for a role in his administration. After he dropped out, both Kennedy and Trump suggested Kennedy would play oversee a health-related portfolio in the next Trump administration. 

Here's what Harris has said about Israel's war in Gaza — the most fraught US foreign policy issue

Kamala Harris speaks during the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 22.

The Israel-Hamas war is the most fraught foreign policy issue facing the country and has spurred a multitude of protests around the US since it began in October.

After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in late July, Kamala Harris gave a forceful and notable speech about the situation in Gaza.

Harris echoed Biden’s repeated comments about the “ironclad support” and “unwavering commitment” to Israel. The country has a right to defend itself, she said, while noting, “how it does so, matters.”

The sympathy she expressed for Palestinians’ suffering was far more forceful than what Biden has said on the matter in recent months. Harris mentioned twice the “serious concern” she expressed to Netanyahu about civilian deaths in Gaza, the humanitarian situation and destruction she called “catastrophic” and “devastating.”

Harris emphasized the need to get the Israeli hostages back from Hamas captivity.

But when describing the potential ceasefire deal being negotiated, she didn’t highlight the hostage for prisoner exchange or aid to be let into Gaza. Instead, she singled out the fact that the deal stipulates the withdrawal by the Israeli military from populated areas in the first phase before withdrawing “entirely” from Gaza before “a permanent end to the hostilities.”

Harris didn’t preside over Netanyahu’s speech to Congress in late July, instead choosing to stick with a prescheduled trip to a sorority event in Indiana.

Read more about what Harris has said so far on other key issues.

Trump has continued to attack NATO members. Here's where he stands on foreign policy

Donald Trump has continued his attacks against member countries of NATO, a European and North American defense alliance. At a South Carolina rally earlier this year, the former president said he would not abide by the alliance’s collective-defense clause and would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” if a member country didn’t meet spending guidelines.

The former president has also previously pledged to end the war in Ukraine, though he’s offered no details on how he would do so. “Shortly after I win the presidency, I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled,” Trump said at a New Hampshire campaign event last year, adding in another speech that it would take him “no longer than one day” to settle the war if elected.

Trump further addressed his strategy of stopping the “never-ending wars” by vowing to remove “warmongers,” “frauds” and “failures in the senior ranks of our government,” and replace them with national security officials who would defend America’s interests. The former president added in a campaign video that he would stop lobbyists and government contractors from pushing senior military officials toward war.

In addition, Trump has said he would restore his “wonderful” travel ban on individuals from several majority-Muslim countries to “keep radical Islamic terrorists out of our country” after Biden overturned the ban in 2021.

The Democrats are focusing on reproductive rights as a primary issue. Here's what Harris has said about it

Kamala Harris took on the lead role of championing abortion rights for the administration after Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022.

In January, she started a “reproductive freedoms tour” to multiple states, including a stop in Minnesota thought to be the first by a sitting US president or vice president at an abortion clinic.

On abortion access, Harris embraced more progressive policies than Biden in the 2020 campaign, as a candidate criticizing his previous support for the Hyde Amendment, a measure that blocks federal funds from being used for most abortions.

Policy experts suggested that although Harris’ current policies on abortion and reproductive rights may not differ significantly from Biden’s, as a result of her national tour and her own focus on maternal health, she may be a stronger messenger.

Here’s what Harris has said about other key issues.

Trump has promised to use the Justice Department to attack critics and former allies

Donald Trump has promised to use the Department of Justice to attack critics and former allies. In several videos and speeches, the former president also laid out plans to gut the current justice system by firing “radical Marxist prosecutors that are destroying America.”

“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” Trump said in June 2023 remarks. “I will totally obliterate the Deep State.”

Trump said in a campaign video last year that he would reinstate a 2020 executive order to remove “rogue” bureaucrats and propose a constitutional amendment for term limits on members of Congress.

“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” he said.

To address what he labeled the “disturbing” relationship between technology platforms and the government, the former president said in a January 2023 video that he would enact a seven-year cooling off period before employees at agencies such as the FBI or CIA can work for platforms that oversee mass user data.

Trump added in multiple campaign releases that he would task the Justice Department with investigating online censorship, ban federal agencies from “colluding” to censor citizens and suspend federal money to universities participating in “censorship-supporting activities.”

RFK Jr.’s long history of attacking Trump melted away after he endorsed him for president

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks on stage beside Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during a campaign event at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, on August 23.

Former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suspended his campaign on Friday and endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump, has a long history of criticizing the man he now supports, including calling Trump a “threat to democracy,” and, as recently as July, a “terrible president.”

For years, Kennedy has repeatedly condemned Trump, referring to him as a “bully,” who appealed to “bigotry,” “hatred,” “xenophobia” and “prejudice.” Among the chief attacks Kennedy has leveled at Trump through the 2024 campaign is to accuse him of corruption for turning his administration over to corporate lobbyists and special interests and failing to “drain the swamp” as he’d promised.

But on Friday, Kennedy was full of praise for Trump, saying that while he and the former president “don’t agree on everything,” they do share similar isolationist views on US foreign policy, government censorship, and the need to address chronic disease in America.

“Don’t you want a president who’s gonna protect America’s freedom? And is gonna protect us from totalitarianism?” Kennedy said at a Trump campaign event in Glendale, Arizona, as part of his endorsement.

For his part, Trump has a history of disparaging Kennedy, calling him “the dumbest member of the Kennedy clan” and “Democratic plant” and “radical left liberal,” in posts on Truth Social.

But on Friday, Trump had only nice things to say about Kennedy, calling him “an incredible champion for so many of these values that we all share.” Never one to forget a slight though, Trump did note on Friday that Kennedy “also went after me a couple of times, I didn’t like it.”

A Kennedy campaign spokesperson did not return CNN’s request for comment.

Read more about RFK Jr.’s history of attacking Trump

Harris will schedule a sit-down interview by the end of the month, senior campaign adviser says

Kamala Harris speaks during the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 22.

Vice President Kamala Harris will schedule a sit-down interview by the end of the month, according to a senior campaign adviser.

“The vice president’s been taking questions from reporters who are covering her on the campaign trail,” Ian Sams also told CNN.

This comes amid mounting pressure and criticism against Harris for not participating in a sit-down interview or news conference since being named the Democratic nominee. Harris campaign officials have previously said that she would participate in an interview by the end of August.

On the September ABC debate, Sams said that as far as the Harris campaign is concerned the disagreement over the microphones is essentially “over.” This comes after former President Donald Trump said earlier today that he would rather have the microphones always on for both candidates during the debate despite his campaign pushing to keep the same rules as the last presidential debate.

Harris campaign releases new ad focused on lowering costs for Americans

Kamala Harris’ campaign on Monday launched a new ad focused on the economy as the vice president continues to make her pitch to voters that bringing down costs will be a top priority if elected.

The ad, titled “Everyday,” highlights Harris’ economic agenda, which she unveiled earlier this month in North Carolina, including her plans for affordable housing and tax relief for more than 100 million middle-class and lower-income Americans.

The ad is part of a $150 million August paid media buy and will run on national cable TV and locally across battleground states. This is the second economic-focused ad the campaign released in the days following the Democratic National Convention. On Friday, the campaign unveiled “Opportunity,” in which Harris called for “an opportunity economy” to enable all Americans to have a chance to get a car loan, buy a home and start a business.

Fact check: How Trump uses a deceptive chart to lie about the border

Donald Trump speaks during the National Guard Association at Huntington Place Convention Center in Detroit, Michigan, on August 26.

Former President Donald Trump keeps displaying a chart that includes a significant lie. And he keeps citing that deceptive chart to deliver his own lie about immigration trends in his last year in office.

The chart – the one Trump had fortunately turned his head to look at when a gunman tried to kill him at a campaign rally in July – is a bar chart about the monthly number of official encounters with migrants at the southern border. It features a large red arrow pointing to a month with a particularly small bar. And it says in red text beside that arrow: “TRUMP LEAVES OFFICE. LOWEST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IN RECORDED HISTORY!”

The monthly bars get bigger right after that, insinuating that illegal immigration suddenly began rising from a Trump record low when President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were sworn in. And on numerous occasions, including in his recent public conversation with billionaire supporter Elon Musk, Trump has declared that the chart shows that the record low was set in his very last week in office.

“You see the arrow on the bottom, the red arrow on the bottom, that’s the lowest point. That was the week I left office. Look what happened after I left office. Look at that,” Trump said at a rally earlier this month in Montana.

“If you look at the arrow on the bottom, that’s the lowest level, the one on the bottom, heavy red arrow – that’s the lowest level of illegal immigrants ever to come into our country in recorded history, right there, right there. And that was my last week in office. And then you see what happened after I left. Look at the rest,” Trump said in his speech at the Republican National Convention in July.

But that’s not true.

Read more of our fact check on Trump’s chart

Walz to speak at firefighters' union convention in Boston on Wednesday

Tim Walz speaks at the United Center during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, on August 21.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will deliver remarks at the International Association of Fire Fighters convention in Boston on Wednesday, addressing a major labor group with close ties to President Joe Biden that has yet to make an endorsement in this year’s presidential election.

Walz will speak Wednesday morning, his second solo campaign event after he addressed the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union’s convention in Los Angeles earlier this month, as part of the campaign’s effort to use Walz, a former public school teacher and union member, to appeal to labor groups. 

IAFF was the first major labor organization to endorse a presidential candidate in the 2020 presidential cycle when it endorsed Biden in 2019. But the union has not officially made an endorsement in this election.

Arizona police association that endorsed Trump last week backs Democrat Ruben Gallego for Senate

The Arizona Police Association, whose president appeared with former President Donald Trump at his campaign rally last week, on Monday endorsed Democratic Senate nominee Ruben Gallego over his Republican opponent Kari Lake. 

Campaigning in Glendale, Arizona, on Friday, Trump invited Harris up on stage with him, turning over the mic to Harris so he could announce an endorsement of the former president’s reelection bid. After several minutes of Harris speaking, the crowd appeared to get restless and Trump could be heard telling Harris, “You gotta go.”

At the conclusion of his remarks, Harris said the Arizona Police Association was proud to endorse Trump for president.

Kirby says nothing will be enough to repay families of service members killed in Afghanistan withdrawal

As politicians mark the third anniversary of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the service members killed, the White House said nothing will ever be enough to repay families for the sacrifice and loss. 

Former President Donald Trump laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery while President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris released paper statements on Monday.

He continued: “And that’s why the president, the vice president, the first lady, the second gentleman have been working so hard their entire time in office to make sure that we meet, as President (Joe) Biden said, that sacred obligation to our troops, our veterans and their families.”

Kirby also defended the president against criticism from some, including the families, over his handling of the crisis.

“I don’t think you’re ever going to find a commander in chief of the United States of America and our military who doesn’t — who better understands what grief is like, what mourning is like, what sorrow is like, what frustration is like, than Joe Biden,” Kirby said. 

Trump says NATO countries spending 2% of GDP on defense is “too little”

Former President Donald Trump said in an interview aired Monday that the target NATO has set that each member country should spend a minimum of 2% of gross domestic product on defense is “too little.” 

Some context: Trump has long complained about the amount other countries in NATO spend on defense compared with the United States.

Earlier this year, Trump drew backlash when he said he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to any NATO member country that doesn’t meet spending guidelines on defense. It was a stunning admission that if reelected, Trump would not abide by the collective defense clause that is at the heart of the alliance.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in June that 20 of the alliance’s 32 members are expected to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense this year.

Trump vows to demand resignations of all officials involved in US withdrawal from Afghanistan

Former President Donald Trump on Monday marked the three-year anniversary of the killing of 13 service members during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan by vowing to demand the resignations of all officials involved if he is reelected. The comments came as the Republican nominee worked to draw contrasts between how he and Vice President Kamala Harris would serve as commander-in-chief.

“They took the soldiers out first and they had a field day at our expense and our reputation. We will never forget those brave warriors who made the supreme sacrifice for our country,” he said, lamenting the tragedy at an event for the National Guard Association in Michigan.

Trump said if he’s elected he’ll ask for the resignations of “every single senior official who touched the Afghanistan calamity” to be on his desk by noon on Inauguration Day. 

Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance also promised accountability during a call held by the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee to mark the anniversary of the 2021 suicide attack outside the Kabul airport.

“I aim to be the kind of vice president that honors the sacrifice of the people who wear the uniform, and I know that when President Trump is back in the Oval Office, we are going to get to the bottom of this, and the people who screwed this up are going to suffer some consequences,” Vance said. 

Speaking directly to the families of some of the service members who died joined the call, Vance said the administration “will make the people who did this face some accountability, face some firings. And we are going to learn why this happened.”

Here's how Harris turbocharged the presidential money race

Vice President Kamala Harris is seen at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 22.

The dramatic change at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket unleashed a flood of donations to the campaign account Kamala Harris inherited from Joe Biden, swamping even Donald Trump’s strongest fundraising days, a CNN analysis of newly filed campaign reports shows.

Over the three-day period in July that covered Biden’s withdrawal from the White House race and the rapid consolidation of Democratic support for his vice president, Harris’ principal campaign committee took in more than double what Trump’s campaign account reported collecting in the three days surrounding his felony conviction in New York, according to the review of contributions that total more than $200 this cycle.

The donor enthusiasm for Harris’ surprise candidacy has quickly eroded the cash advantage Trump once held.

The Harris campaign had previously announced collecting a whopping $310 million in July through its joint fundraising efforts with aligned Democratic Party committees – far exceeding the nearly $139 million that the Trump political operation said it had brought in last month.

The CNN review examined sums raised by each candidate’s main campaign committee – a valuable resource in politics because those committees by law must receive discounts on television advertising, giving candidate-controlled money a greater impact than donations to parties and outside groups.

Harris’ campaign said Sunday that it had raised $540 million since she launched her presidential bid just over a month ago.

Read more on the newly filed campaign reports here.

Georgia Democrats push governor to investigate state election board members over new rules

Georgia Democrats and voting rights advocates are calling on the governor to investigate three Republicans on the state election board after they used their partisan majority to pass a series of controversial election rules changes ahead of the general election in November. Critics say the new rules could be used to delay certifying the results of the upcoming presidential election. 

Speaking from the state capitol on Monday, Georgia Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath repeated calls made by other Georgia lawmakers for Gov. Brian Kemp to take disciplinary action against the board. McBath called the latest rules changes “restrictions on ballot access,” claiming it would make it harder for communities of color to vote.

Last week, Democratic state Sen. Nabilah Islam-Parkesfiled a formal state ethics complaint alleging election board members Janelle King, Rick Jeffares and Dr. Janice Johnston broke state law in pushing the rules changes so close to the general election.

Some background: Earlier this month, Georgia’s State Election Board approved an ambiguous new rule saying that counties will now have the opportunity for a “reasonable inquiry” to ensure tabulation and canvassing of the election are complete and accurate before local election officials certify the results.

Certification is the official confirmation of voting results. It is a mandatory part of the voting process as a final check to verify the results with the secretary of state’s office.

Typically, the five-member state election board is tasked with ministerial duties ahead of the election, but recently arrived partisan appointees have pushed the limits of the board’s power. 

One of the board’s staunchest critics, Georgia state Rep. Sam Park, argued that Georgia law grants Kemp the authority to investigate and remove election board members if they violated the law. It was not immediately clear if Kemp had the authority to remove members. The board’s chair, Independent John Fervier, was appointed to lead the board by Kemp earlier this year.

CNN reached out to a spokesman for Kemp but has not heard back.

Justice Department seeks to revive Trump classified documents case and defends role of special counsel 

This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

The Justice Department is arguing to revive its classified documents case against former President Donald Trump with a vigorous defense of special prosecutors, in the first formal filing since Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the criminal case last month.

The new brief, which special counsel Jack Smith’s team filed Monday to the 11th Circuit US Court of Appeals in Atlanta, argues that Cannon’s decision to end the Trump case, because she believed the prosecutors’ office lacked Constitutional authority, was “novel” and “lack[ed] merit.”

In her ruling, Cannon decided the Justice Department didn’t have the ability to appoint or fund special prosecutors like Smith.

Smith’s team also cast the decision from Cannon as not just affecting other special counsel prosecutions – of which there are several ongoing in other courts, against Trump and others — but also as potentially affecting the power of leaders across the federal government.

“The district court’s rationale would likewise raise questions about hundreds of appointments throughout the Executive Branch, including in the Departments of Defense, State, Treasury, and Labor,” the prosecutors added.

More on the case: Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against Trump the same day the Republican National Convention opened on July 15. Cannon said the appointment of Smith violated the Constitution. She did not rule on whether Trump’s behavior was legal.

Trump was indicted in June 2023 by a federal grand jury in Miami for taking classified national defense documents from the White House after he left office and resisting the government’s attempts to retrieve the materials. Both Trump and his aide Walt Nauta have pleaded not guilty.

This is one of four criminal cases Trump faces while running again president.

Trump says he'll create Space National Guard if reelected

Donald Trump stands is seen with the United States Space Force flag as it is presented at the White House in 2020.

Former President Donald Trump vowed on Monday to create a Space National Guard if reelected, expanding on his signature achievement of creating the United States Space Force during his first term.

He told the service members, “I agree with your leadership. You want this very badly, but I agree that the time has come to create a Space National Guard as the primary combat reserve of the US Space Force,” saying he would sign “historic legislation” to establish the unit

In December 2019, Trump signed national defense legislation that designated the US Air Force Space Command as the US Space Force, the first new service since the US Air Force came into being in 1947.

He said the Space Force has been “very, very important” to the country’s defense, saying, “We were getting just destroyed in space, and now we’re leading.”

“Russia and China were killing us because we had, we didn’t really have a focus on it, and once you did that, we have a focus. And now we’re leading in space throughout the armed forces,” he said.

Trump said the US will make a “historic investment in building a US military for the 21st century, investing heavily in drones, robotics, artificial intelligence, hypersonics.”