August 14, 2024, presidential campaign news

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a campaign rally at the University of Las Vegas Thomas & Mack Center on August 10 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a social media post he has agreed to participate in a vice presidential debate with his Republican counterpart Ohio Sen. JD Vance on CBS News on October 1.

Walz responded to a social media post from CBS News detailing its invitation to both campaigns for a vice-presidential debate with two dates in September and two dates in October as options. 

In response, Walz wrote, “See you on October 1, JD.”

Walz’s campaign later confirmed that he accepted the invitation. A campaign official said Walz is looking forward to debating Vance “if he shows up.”

Vance did not answer questions yelled from reporters on if he has accepted an invitation from CBS for its vice presidential debate. 

CNN is reaching out to the Trump-Vance campaign.

This post has been updated with details from Walz’s campaign.

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday attacked Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the rollout of her economic proposal later this week, arguing that she would ensure the economy would get worse.

He suggested that Harris’s economy proposal would be a “copy of my plan,” pointing to her also backing the elimination of taxes on tips for service workers – a policy proposal he announced back in June.

 “When Kamala lays out her fake economic plan this week, probably will be a copy of my plan, because basically that’s what she does,” he said.

He accused Harris of not tackling inflation and bringing down prices while serving as vice president. 

“Kamala has declared that tackling inflation will be a ‘Day One’ priority. Think of it, for her, but day one for Kamala was three and a half years ago. Why hasn’t she done it?” he said.

Former President Donald Trump said his administration would cut energy and electricity prices by “at least half.”

He said if he is elected, he expected that it will take up to a maximum of 18 months.

“And if it doesn’t work out, you’ll say, ‘Oh well, I voted for him, I still got them down a lot,’” Trump said.

The former president is speaking at an event about his economic policy in North Carolina. He has focused much of his remarks on the rising costs of goods and the effects of inflation, something many Americans have said is important to them in this election.

He also railed against clean energy, like wind energy, and vowed to push America back to fossil fuels and amp up drilling — a common rallying cry at his events. Trump and his allies have falsely claimed before that more drilling would bring the cost of gas and other goods down.

Former President Donald Trump criticized what he called Vice President Kamala Harris’ “fake economic plans.”

He went on to ask the crowd: “What happened to her laugh? I haven’t heard that laugh in about a week.”

“That’s why they keep her off the stage,” he said, calling Harris’ laugh that “of a crazy person” and saying that it is “career-threatening.”

“That’s the laugh of a person with some big problems,” Trump said.

He also attacked Harris as unintelligent, saying it’s the reason why she hasn’t sat for any interviews recently or held a news conference. 

In a speech that was meant to focus on the economy, Trump went off topic several times, including attacking Harris’ running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for signing a bill that mandates school districts and charter schools provide free menstrual products in all restrooms for students grades 4-12.

“Kamala Harris wants to be in charge of the entire US economy but neither she nor her running mate — Isn’t he a beauty, isn’t he? He signed a bill. He wants tampons in boys’ bathrooms. I don’t think so,” Trump said.

This post has been updated with additional remarks from Trump.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Asheville, North Carolina on Wednesday.

In his economic pitch to Americans on Wednesday, former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump said he would “rapidly drive prices down and make America affordable again,” if he’s elected for a second term.

If only it were that easy.

Consumer price inflation, or the rate of change in prices, is expected of a healthy, growing economy. The Federal Reserve, which is tasked with stabilizing prices, targets inflation to be at a 2% annual rate over the long term.

That’s seen as a manageable pace of price increases that nudges people to spend their money. On the other hand, if prices are declining outright, known as deflation, then that can be disastrous because it disincentivizes people from spending, which makes up the vast majority of the US economy. If you expect prices to drop in the future, why spend now when you can spend less in the coming months?

Deflation usually occurs during a steep economic downturn, which is what happened for a few months during the Great Recession. It’s a symptom of an ailing economy.

At a rally Wednesday in North Carolina, former President Donald Trump said car insurance prices were going through the roof. He’s right.

Car insurance rates are up 18.6% for the 12 months ended in July, according to Consumer Price Index data released Wednesday. That marked the third-largest jump in prices over the past year across all goods and categories that CPI tracks.

Still, that’s an improvement from March, when car insurance rates were up 22.2% annually. The last time car insurance rates rose that much on an annual basis was in 1976.

However, with cars themselves, consumers are paying lower prices. That means price increases didn’t just slow down, car prices actually dropped.

Used car prices fell by 10.9% over the past year, marking the third-largest drop in prices across all goods and categories that the CPI tracks. Rental and new cars also got cheaper, with prices falling by 6.2% and 4.4%, respectively.

Former President Donald Trump claimed that Americans would be better off financially if he is elected to another term.

Trump was speaking at an event centered around the economy in Asheville, North Carolina on Wednesday. The former president did not offer any specific examples of policies that would achieve these claims.

His opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, is expected to unveil her economic plan on Friday.

A new Pew Research Center poll finds no clear leader nationally in the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump, amid “clear signs that Harris has energized Democratic voters.”

In Pew’s latest poll, 46% of registered voters support Harris, 45% support Trump, and 7% support Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a shift from Pew’s July polling, when Trump held a 4-point edge over President Joe Biden.

Similarly sized majorities of both Harris supporters and Trump supporters now say they’re strong backers of their chosen candidate (64% of Trump supporters and 62% of Harris supporters say this). In July there was more of a gap: just 43% of Biden supporters said they supported their chosen candidate strongly, compared with 63% of Trump supporters.

The poll finds most of Harris’ gains coming at the expense of Kennedy. The vast majority of Biden’s former supporters now support Harris (97%) and Trump also has retained most of his July supporters (95%). But just 39% of voters who supported Kennedy in July still say they’re backing him, Pew finds, with 39% now backing Harris, and 20% now backing Trump. The poll did not test a head-to-head version of the race without Kennedy included.

Pew finds that Harris has improved on Biden’s performance with voters in a number of key subgroups, with Trump’s support remaining largely stable since July:

The Pew Research Center poll surveyed 7,569 registered voters on Aug. 5-11, using a nationally representative online panel. Results from the full sample have a margin of sampling error of +/- 1.4 percentage points.

Vice President Kamala Harris has a narrow advantage over former president Donald Trump among likely voters in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, according to a Quinnipiac University poll of the state’s presidential race released Wednesday.

In a head-to-head matchup, Harris takes 50% to Trump’s 47% among likely voters. When additional candidates are included, Harris takes 48% to Trump’s 45%, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. taking 4%. Other recent polling of the state has similarly shown a close race.

In the Quinnipiac poll, 70% of Trump supporters and 66% of Harris supporters say they’re “very enthusiastic” about supporting their chosen candidate. Likely voters pick the economy (32%) and preserving democracy in the US (25%) as their top issues, followed by immigration at 10%.

The poll also tests the upcoming US Senate race, finding Democratic Sen. Bob Casey currently leading Republican David McCormick, 52% to 44%, among likely voters.

Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will roll through Pennsylvania on a bus tour Sunday, just days before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

More about the poll: Quinnipiac survey 1,738 likely voters in Pennsylvania on Aug. 8-12, using live interviewers to call both landlines and cell phones. Results for the full sample have a margin of error of +/- 2.4 percentage points.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about healthcare on March 26 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Kamala Harris may be done with Medicare for All, but Medicare for All — with a new nudge from former President Donald Trump — isn’t done with her.

The Trump campaign on Wednesday attacked Harris over her past support of a single-payer, government-run health care system long championed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Medicare for All gained broad support among progressive Democrats, especially those with eyes on the White House, before and during the early stages of the party’s 2020 presidential primary.

Harris’ team said recently that she no longer backs the plan, which fell out of vogue with Democrats as Joe Biden surged to the nomination four years ago as one of the few candidates to vocally oppose it. Instead, he campaigned on improving and expanding the Affordable Care Act, which he has focused on during his term and Harris has supported as his vice president.

But Harris has not addressed the question herself, touting the Biden administration’s record while trying to avoid any relitigation of the years-old fight, and putting out word now only through campaign aides. Now, Trump is reviving the debate as he seeks to paint Harris as both a radical liberal and a flip flopper.

The Trump camp’s focus on Medicare for All is emerging as the centerpiece of a wider strategy to use Harris’ 2020 primary positions against her now, less than 90 days before the general election.

Read more about Harris’ previous stance on Medicare for All.

The Harris campaign blasted former President Donald Trump’s economic agenda ahead of his visit to Asheville, North Carolina, where he is expected to speak on the economy.

The campaign criticized Trump’s record as president, arguing he “cost the country millions of jobs, left us on the brink of a recession, and gave massive handouts to billionaires and big corporations.”

The campaign stressed that voters have a choice between two “very different” economic agendas in November:

Harris is expected to roll out her economic policy agenda on Friday in Raleigh. She said it would be focused on bringing down costs and strengthening the economy.

Remember: The economy remains a critical issue for voters. An NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released last week found that Americans trust Trump over Harris to handle the economy – but it is closely split. 51% say Trump would be better at handling the economy, while 48% favor Harris on the issue.

Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida on August 08, 2024.

Some of those most eager to quiet Donald Trump are those who want to him back in the Oval Office.

Appearing dazed and flustered by an unfamiliar and fast-changing political landscape, Trump in response has unleashed a torrent of mean-spirited missives, race-baiting insults and conspiratorial broadsides that even close allies and donors acknowledge as unproductive. Some have privately expressed serious concerns that the former president’s recent inability to stay on message has wasted an early opportunity to blunt the momentum of his new opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

For Trump, staying on message has rarely been easy, as illustrated by the former president’s return to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, where he was once a towering figure. Ahead of his Monday interview with Elon Musk, Trump’s account posted for the first time in a year, featuring a series of slickly edited videos that articulated the case for another Trump presidency in a way that regularly eludes the candidate himself. One post asked, “Are you better off now than you were when I was president?”

That question strikes at the heart of his campaign’s message to voters – but Trump failed to pose it until near the end of his two-hour conversation with Musk, during which he aired familiar grievances about the 2020 election, commented on Harris’ beauty on Time Magazine’s latest cover, remained fixated on President Joe Biden and, according to a CNN tally, told at least 20 falsehoods.

Read more about the frustrations some Trump allies here.

A sign to register to vote at a polling station inside Plymouth Elementary School in Plymouth, New Hampshire, on January 23.

A group of Republican state attorneys general sued the Biden administration Tuesday over a federal effort to expand access to voter registration. 

The lawsuit targets an executive order issued by President Joe Biden in March 2021 that directed the heads of all federal agencies to submit proposals for their respective agencies to promote voter registration and participation through various points of contact with the public. The president issued the order as GOP-led statehouses were pushing voter suppression legislation in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

The nine Republican attorneys general who filed the lawsuit in federal court argue that Biden exceeded his authority when he issued the directive, which they also say violates the US Constitution and “undermines the voter registration systems set up by the States.”

The states also claim that the executive order was “motivated by a partisan desire to unfairly increase the Democrat vote.” They argue that the executive order and its implementation have caused them “pocketbook injuries, procedural harms, and harms to the States’ sovereign interests” by allegedly trampling on their own “ability to regulate voter registration.” 

The lawsuit points to some of the different agencies that have implemented the directive, including the Treasury Department, which had planned to “include information about registration and voter participation in its direct deposit campaigns for Americans who receive Social Security, Veterans Affairs, and other federal benefit payments,” according to a 2021 White House fact sheet. 

The states that brought the lawsuit are Montana, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Carolina. The case has been assigned to US District Judge Daniel D. Crabtree, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on the lawsuit.

Read more about this lawsuit and next steps here.

Members of Arizona for Abortion Access hold a press conference on April 17 in Phoenix. 

This November, many voters across the country could take to the polls to determine the future of abortion access in their state, with organizers working to secure a wave of measures on the 2024 ballot.

Most of the proposed ballot measures aim to enshrine the right to an abortion in state constitutions. They follow a series of restrictive trigger laws that went into effect after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, along with abortion policies that were handed down by politicians or decided by state supreme courts since the decision. Some are up against a handful of counter measures aimed at restricting abortion access.

Here are the states with abortion measures:

Read more about the ballot measures.

The Harris campaign is touting the Consumer Price Index released on Wednesday, a key report measuring inflation that showed price hikes slowed more than expected in July, landing below 3% for the first time in more than three years. 

Harris is expected to deliver her economic policy rollout on Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina. Costello said the vice president will make “building up the middle class the defining goal of her presidency.”

“She will lower costs by taking on greedy corporations that are overcharging consumers, ban hidden fees, and cap unfair rent increases and prescription drug costs,” he added.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg departs after an on camera interview on the North Lawn of the White House on July 23 in Washington, DC.

The speaker lineup for next week’s Democratic National Convention is coming into sharper focus as organizers finalize their plans. 

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is expected to speak during prime time on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the plans, the same evening as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the vice presidential nominee.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is expected to speak on Tuesday evening.

Both were under consideration to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, though they were ultimately passed over for Walz.

CNN has previously reported that Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will each speak during the proceedings. President Joe Biden will deliver his address on Monday.

The Trump campaign has announced that former President Donald Trump will hold a news conference in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Thursday, August 15 at 4:40 p.m. ET.

Last week, Trump held his first news conference since Vice President Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential pick.

The former president repeatedly slammed his opponent and made a string of false and often confusing claims about her running mate.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is poised to return to his Nebraska roots on Saturday to headline a Democratic campaign event, two people familiar with the visit tell CNN, shining a light on the fight for the state’s critical swing electoral vote. 

Walz, a Nebraska native who moved to Minnesota nearly three decades ago, is scheduled to visit Omaha at a weekend rally. It marks the first time Walz has visited the state since joining Vice President Kamala Harris on the Democratic ticket.

Nebraska is one of two states – along with Maine – that divide Electoral College votes by congressional district, rather than statewide, winner-take-all rules.

President Joe Biden carried the electoral vote from the state’s 2nd Congressional District in 2020. Former President Donald Trump has been pushing Nebraska Republicans to change the state’s election law.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, has said he was open to calling a special legislative session dedicated to making his state’s presidential contest a winner-take-all affair, all but assuring that Trump would collect the full lot of electoral votes. But Pillen has said he would do so only “when there is sufficient support in the legislature to pass it.”

Nebraska Republican officials have not closed the door to trying to change the rules this year, even with less than three months remaining until Election Day.

The Nebraska Examiner was first to report the Walz visit to Omaha.

Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers Union, appears on CNN on Tuesday, August 13.

Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers Union (UAW), blasted former President Donald Trump and Elon Musk for threatening to intimidate workers who go on strike during their conversation on the social media platform X on Monday night.

The UAW, which recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, filed separate charges against Trump and Musk to the National Labor Relations Board after their discussion on X. During the interview, the pair discussed a potential role for Musk in Trump’s administration should he get reelected. Trump called Musk “the cutter,” and praised Musk for his anti-union stances.

“I look at what you do, you walk in and you just say, ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike – I won’t mention the name of the company – but they go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s okay, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. Every one of you is gone,” Trump said.

Musk could be heard laughing and replying “yeah.”

Fain noted that “it is federal law that workers have a right to strike and you cannot be fired for striking.”

He also called Trump’s campaign “completely weird” and asked, “Who takes pride in firing workers?” He said Trump “was a disaster for working class people” while president.

Fain said Harris and her running mate, Gov, Tim Walz, would “stand up for working class people.”

CNN’s David Goldman contributed reporting to this post.

The Harris-Walz campaign reiterated Kamala Harris’ earlier commitment to participate in an interview before the end of August, amid continuing attacks from the Trump campaign and their allies for not participating in interviews since becoming the Democratic standard bearer. 

“She’s the vice president,” Michael Tyler, Harris-Walz campaign communications director, told CNN. “She can handle the questions.”

“You hear her take questions as she’s out on the stump, and she said last week, we’re going to be having a sit down interview here before the end of the month,” said Tyler, who argued that that Harris has spent her time “communicating directly with the voters” at campaign events instead of in the media. 

He reiterated that reporters would have the opportunity to “have a deep dive conversation” with the vice president “by the end of the month and during the rest of the campaign.”

When asked whether Harris would commit to a press conference by the end of the month in addition to the interview, Tyler said “we will commit to directly engage with the voters that are actually going to decide this election.”

This comes as former President Donald Trump announced today that he will hold another news conference on Thursday.

Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz hold signs during a campaign rally at the University of Las Vegas Thomas & Mack Center on August 10 in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Two new polls released Wednesday find rising Democratic enthusiasm about this year’s presidential election, helping to close the partisan enthusiasm gap that existed earlier this year when the race was between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. 

In a new Monmouth University poll, 85% of Democratic registered voters say they’re enthusiastic about the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, up from just 46% who said in June that they were enthusiastic about a Trump-Biden rematch.

GOP voters’ enthusiasm for the current matchup stands at 71%, unchanged from their feelings about the Biden-Trump contest in June. Just 8% of registered voters are now so-called “double haters” with negative impressions of both Trump and Harris, the poll finds – by contrast, 17% currently have negative views of both Trump and Biden.

In a new AP-NORC poll, 63% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning adults say they’d be excited if Harris were elected president, compared with 57% of Republican-aligned adults who say the same about Trump. In March, just 40% of Democratic-aligned Americans said they would be excited about a Biden victory.

The AP-NORC poll finds that, asked to compare the two candidates, more Americans see Harris than Trump as someone who’s committed to democracy (48% to 28%), disciplined (47% to 28%), honest (43% to 24%), has the right vision for the country (42% to 35%) and cares about people like them (42% to 30%), with closer divides over which candidate is more capable of handling a crisis (41% say Harris, 38% Trump) and who is better described as a strong leader (40% say Trump, 37% Harris).

In the AP-NORC poll, Harris is trusted over Trump to handle abortion policy (51% say they trust her to do a better job of handling the issue, to 27% who say Trump), issues relating to race and racial equality (51% to 26%), and health care (46% to 31%), with Trump trusted over Harris to handle the economy (45% Trump to 38% Harris), immigration (46% to 36%) and the war in Gaza (36% to 31%). Americans are evenly split on whether Trump or Harris would better handle crime or the war in Ukraine. Recent polling has varied on voters’ relative assessments of Harris and Trump to handle the economy, although several show Harris making up some ground against Trump relative to Biden’s standing on the issue.

Neither the Monmouth poll nor the AP-NORC poll directly tests a match-up between Harris and Trump. The Monmouth poll asks a series of separate questions about voters’ likelihood of voting for each candidate, which should not be combined or treated as a horserace question.

Imam Asad Zaman speaks to the media on May 17, 2023, in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The Muslim community leader who appeared alongside Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at several events told CNN in a statement he does not have a “personal relationship” with Walz and explained previously sharing antisemitic content on Facebook by saying he sometimes shares links on social media “without fully looking at them.” 

Asad Zaman, a Minnesota imam and executive director of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, echoed the Harris campaign’s statement on the nature of the relationship between him and Walz in a series of answers to questions emailed to him by CNN. 

When asked about previous social media posts in which he shared a neo-Nazi propaganda film and a Hamas news release, Zaman attributed sharing the posts to a tendency to “pass along social media items without fully looking at them.” 

When asked about his opinions on the Harris-Walz campaign’s stance toward the Israel-Hamas war, Zaman said he wasn’t familiar with its views on the conflict but expressed solidarity for those experiencing “enormous human suffering.” 

Some background: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during a campaign event in 2018 praised Zaman as a “master teacher” and briefly touched on their shared history, according to video newly revealed by the Washington Examiner. In a statement to CNN, Harris campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said that Walz and Zaman do not have a “personal relationship.”

A sign supporting former President Donald Trump hangs from a billboard along Brevard Road near Asheville, North Carolina, on August 11.

Donald Trump heads to North Carolina today for a campaign event and Kamala Harris will make a competing visit to the state on Friday, putting a spotlight on a presidential battleground that has been a top target for both parties this cycle. 

Though North Carolina has voted Republican in 10 out of the last 11 presidential elections, Democrats have consistently run close there, and both parties are pouring resources into the state. 

According to AdImpact data, the state has seen $25.8 million in ad spending so far, including TV and digital ads.

Here’s how that breaks down:

Much of it – $13.5 million – has come from the Biden campaign, as it made early messaging investments before Biden dropped out of the race. As of today, including that Biden spending, Democrats have outspent Republicans in North Carolina by about $18.8 million to $7 million.

In addition, the Trump campaign has run about $4 million worth of advertising in North Carolina so far, while the Harris campaign has spent about $2.5 million there. A pro-Harris super PAC, FF PAC, has also contributed to the advertising flood, spending about $2.3 million, while MAGA Inc., a leading pro-Trump super PAC, has spent just over $500,000 in the state.

And both parties have reserved tens of millions worth of airtime in the coming months as they prepare to contest the important battleground state.

The Trump campaign on Wednesday attacked Vice President Kamala Harris for reversing her position on the progressive policy proposal “Medicare for All,” which she supported as a 2020 presidential candidate but is no longer backing today. 

Some context: As a 2020 presidential candidate, Harris unveiled a “Medicare for All” plan that would have put the US on the path toward a government-backed health insurance system but stopped short of completely eliminating private insurance.

The Harris campaign says the vice president no longer supports a single-payer health care system.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has qualified for the ballot in Maine, a spokesperson for Maine’s Secretary of State told CNN on Wednesday.

Remember: On Monday, the office of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced they would consider a challenge to Kennedy’s petition from a Maine voter. But after the hearing was scheduled, the voter withdrew the objection, Bellow’s office announced yesterday.

When asked for clarification on the status of Kennedy’s petition, a spokesperson for Bellows told CNN that Kennedy will appear on Maine’s ballot in November.

Why this matters: By appearing on the ballot, Kennedy could complicate the dynamics over the race for Maine’s electoral votes, particularly the sole electoral vote awarded to the winner of Maine’s 2nd congressional district, a competitive district that Trump won in the 2020 election. 

Including Maine, Kennedy has gained ballot access in 19 states.

Earlier this week, a New York judge ruled that Kennedy’s ballot-access petition in the state was invalid, delivering the first major blow to the independent presidential candidate’s bid for nationwide access. In a statement following the decision Monday, Kennedy said he plans to appeal the ruling in federal court.

In total, Kennedy is eligible to receive 236 electoral college votes. 

Walz, right, and Gary Bloomberg stand at an artillery training facility at Camp Guernsey in Wyoming in 1992. 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, defended his military record during remarks in Los Angeles on Tuesday, saying he is “damn proud” of his service in the Army National Guard.

Speaking to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union convention, Walz addressed attacks from Republicans, including GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance, who have claimed he misrepresented his military record and falsely suggested he evaded an overseas deployment.

Some context: Walz’s defense of his record comes after Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign acknowledged Saturday he “misspoke” during a 2018 campaign event when he said he handled assault weapons “in war.” After the Harris campaign shared a video of the 2018 remarks last week, Vance, who served in the Marine Corps, accused Walz of “stolen valor.”

In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday, Vance defended his attacks on Walz by arguing he is criticizing Walz’s statements about his record, rather than his actions while serving.

Barricade fencing set up near the United Center ahead of the Democratic National Convention, seen on August 12. 

Local and federal law enforcement officials say Chicago is prepared to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention next week while ensuring the safety and security of attendees and residents alike. 

When asked about the security lapse that led to the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month, Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Derek Mayer said the department is learning all the time, but there is no comparison between the two events.

“This is a whole-of-government approach we’ve been planning for this convention for well over a year. So, we can’t compare the two,” he said.

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling also noted the yearlong training officers have embarked on with federal, state, and county partners to ensure that the venue will be secure while promising that police resources will be present “in every single neighborhood.”

“We will not deplete resources from our neighborhoods to simply put in the area where the Democratic National Convention is being held,” said Snelling.

Snelling also emphasized the importance of allowing protesters the space and time to express their First Amendment rights but stopped short of saying there would be no arrests. Preventative measures including street closures and parking restrictions will be in place, especially near the United Center, where the convention will be held.

Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and former President Donald Trump.

Voters keep telling pollsters that their economic insecurities are the biggest issue in the 2024 election. So, it’s a knock on both parties that none of their candidates have yet found a decisive way to address those fears.

But both nominees will make new attempts to convince Americans they can deliver prosperity in the next three days. Former President Donald Trump will try to make a case against Kamala Harris’ role in the Biden economy today in North Carolina. The vice president will chase his jet fumes down to the critical swing state on Friday, with the first major policy speech of her campaign, which aides say will provide answers on how she will lower prices.

The US economy has recovered more strongly from the Covid-19 pandemic than many other developed nations. But for decades, many Americans have felt squeezed, and 21st-century presidents have all struggled to deal with the political consequences of inequality fostered by globalization.

Trump, who found fertile political ground amid economic blight in 2016, has this year spent more time flinging insults, race-baiting, and whining about his personal grievances than rolling out detailed plans to help workers. His hyperbole — like a warning of a looming Great Depression – lacks seriousness. And the nostalgic revisionism of his economic management during his first term ignores the reality that his major initiative — a huge tax cut — did far more to benefit the wealthy than working Americans.

President Joe Biden dedicated his domestic agenda to restoring economic fairness and sought to revive manufacturing and repair the country’s crumbling infrastructure. But his big spending plans helped fuel the inflation that has hurt so many Americans. And he often looked like he was chiding voters for not giving him credit for his legislative successes as they struggled through tough times.

Read the full analysis.

The Harris campaign is launching a $90 million paid media buy throughout key battleground states for the last three weeks of August aimed at sharpening the contrast with former President Donald Trump. 

The campaign said the ads will lean into the vice president’s personal story, her career as a prosecutor in California, her commitment to standing up to powerful interests and contrast Trump’s “dangerous, extreme agenda” as they seek to court undecided voters.

They believe running an aggressive paid media campaign over the course of the next few weeks will ensure their message will help cement the choice for battleground voters ahead of “Get Out the Vote” efforts starting in the fall.

The ad buy will reach seven swing states and will expand the Harris’ team spending to smaller markets they have not yet reached, such as Marquette, Wisconsin, Alpena, Michigan and Erie, Pennsylvania. 

Ads will be targeted on radio, digital platforms and television including high-impact programming watched by voters they are looking to motivate to the polls, such as “The Bachelorette,” “Big Brother,” “The Daily Show,” “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” and “The Simpsons.”

Remember: In July, the campaign said it raked in $310 million in its fundraising efforts and has $377 million cash on hand.

Here’s a brief overview of what to expect from today’s campaign schedule.

2024 presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump will speak about the economy at an event in Asheville, North Carolina, at 4 p.m. ET.

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance will also be in Byron Center, Michigan, where he will speak at 2 p.m. ET.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will speak at a Harris-Walz campaign event in Denver, Colorado, around 2.20 p.m. ET. He will then also speak at a campaign reception in Boston, Massachusetts.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris does not have any events planned for today.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, in July.

Kamala Harris is officially the Democratic presidential nominee, but Donald Trump is continuing to describe the vice president’s elevation to the top of her party’s ticket as “unconstitutional” and accusing her of taking part in a “coup.”

No serious effort to challenge Harris’ status as the Democratic nominee is underway. But some of Trump’s critics warn that the former president could be laying the groundwork to question the outcome of the 2024 election if he loses a second time.

Democrats are set to gather next week in Chicago for a national convention at which they’ll rally around Harris as their new standard-bearer after President Joe Biden’s decision not to seek reelection.

The Democratic National Committee made it official last week: Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are the party nominees for president and vice president, respectively. Convention delegates held a virtual roll call ahead of the convention, with Harris receiving 99% support from the participating delegates.

Republicans have acknowledged that after the DNC vote, there is no longer any path to challenge Harris’ placement on ballots.

But that hasn’t stopped Trump – now facing a much closer race, polls show, than the one he’d led against Biden – from complaining about Harris’ ascension, which took place after Biden had swept the Democratic presidential primaries earlier this year.

One of Trump’s intraparty foes said the former president’s efforts to question the legitimacy of Harris as the Democratic nominee could be a way to lay the groundwork to question the legitimacy of this year’s election.

“And I think this is why people need to start thinking more now about how to deny Trump the ability, the day after the election, if he loses, to try and throw the process into chaos again,” he added.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz greet the crowd at a campaign rally in Las Vegas on Saturday.

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will roll through Pennsylvania on a bus tour Sunday, dropping in on the crucial battleground state just days before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

It’s a move that underscores how aggressively the Harris-Walz ticket plans to compete for Pennsylvania and its 19 Electoral College votes. The pair’s first rally shortly after Walz was announced as Harris’ running mate was in Philadelphia, the commonwealth’s largest city, and they embarked on a dayslong tour of battleground states shortly after.

Sunday’s tour, which is scheduled to begin in Pittsburgh, will mark the first time that Harris, Walz and their respective spouses – second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz – will appear on the campaign trail together. The goal, according to the campaign, is to have a cluster of intimate events with voters, ranging from canvass kick-offs to stops at local retail shops.

The campaign has 36 coordinated offices and 300 staffers in Pennsylvania, which Harris has already visited seven times this year. The campaign has touted a robust volunteer operation: Some 43,000 people have signed up to volunteer in the Keystone State since Harris announced her candidacy last month.

The Harris campaign is also discussing holding a rally Tuesday in Milwaukee in the battleground state of Wisconsin, just about 90 miles from the site of the Democratic convention in Chicago, according to a source involved in the talks.

Read more about their tour through the swing state here.

Former President Donald Trump said his voice was “somewhat different and strange” during his Monday night conversation with Elon Musk on X because of technical issues.

At several points in the interview, Trump’s speech sounded as if he had a lisp or was slurring his words.

When CNN previously asked whether there was an explanation, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said: “Must be your hearing.”

On Tuesday night, Musk uploaded a version of their conversation to X that he said had “higher quality audio.”

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff criticized the federal judge who oversaw the classified documents case against Donald Trump at a fundraiser in Los Angeles on Tuesday, suggesting she would be a judge Trump would consider appointing to the Supreme Court to his “bidding” if he’s reelected.

At a private event benefitting Vice President Kamala Harris’ joint fundraising committee, Emhoff stressed the stakes of the election, arguing that if Trump defeats Harris, he could fill the next set of Supreme Court vacancies with judges who “don’t follow any precedent,” singling out as an example Judge Aileen Cannon, who oversaw the Trump classified documents case before dismissing it last month.

Emhoff’s comments come as Harris has sought to distance herself from commenting on Trump’s legal cases. At multiple rallies in battleground states last week, she quieted down chants from members of the audience to “lock him up,” referring to Trump, by insisting Democrats should focus on defeating Trump at the ballot box.

The fundraiser, hosted by investment banker Stephen Paul and his wife Nancy Paul at their Beverly Hills home, raised over $3 million, Emhoff told the crowd.

In this January 2023 photo, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks at a news conference in Washington, DC.

Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar will beat back a primary challenge from former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels, CNN projects, all but guaranteeing that the four original members of the “squad” of progressive House Democrats will be on the ballot this November.

First elected in 2018, Omar, who also beat Samuels last cycle, has now defended her 5th District seat in three consecutive primary elections. Two other original “squad” members, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, both eased to renomination earlier this year, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts is unopposed in her primary next month.

Omar’s victory is a salve for progressives, especially those critical of Israel’s war in Gaza, after a pair of high-profile losses to moderate Democratic primary challengers heavily backed by big-spending pro-Israel outside groups. Those organizations, which spearheaded the unseating of “squad” members Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri, did not invest in Omar’s Minneapolis-area district, a deep blue enclave where Democrats tend to run up the score in statewide elections.

Read the full story.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley appeared on Fox News on Tuesday, August 13.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley urged Republicans and former President Donald Trump to “quit whining” about Vice President Kamala Harris and instead focus on the voters.

The Trump campaign has repeatedly criticized Harris for not doing a media interview since starting her White House bid.

Haley reiterated that she wants to see the Trump campaign win, “but the campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes. It’s not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It’s not going to win talking about whether she is dumb. It’s not — you can’t win on those things. The American people are smart. Treat them like they’re smart.” 

Trump has attacked Harris’ racial identity and spread a false conspiracy theory about Harris’ crowd size.

“Now we’re 80-plus days to make sure that there is not a President Kamala Harris. And the way to do that is let’s focus, let’s get to work,” Haley said.

Asked if she would serve in a Trump adminstration, Haley said:

“No, I’m not interested in serving in the administration. I said that on the campaign. This was never about a position for me. This was never about something else. I ran because i love this country so much.” 

Eric Hovde speaks during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 16.

Wisconsin Republicans will nominate businessman Eric Hovde to take on Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, CNN projects, in a contest seen as crucial to the battle for control of the narrowly divided Senate.

Both Hovde and Baldwin are projected to advance in their respective primaries Tuesday – with Hovde overcoming nominal opposition from two little-known candidates and Baldwin unopposed.

Their wins set up one of the year’s marquee Senate races, in a state that is also poised to be a major presidential battleground.

Recent polling has given Baldwin the edge in her quest for a third term. A New York Times/Sienna College poll from earlier this month found the senator leading Hovde 51% to 43% among registered voters.

Hovde, in Madison on Tuesday, acknowledged the surge of Democratic energy after Vice President Kamala Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket once a Joe Biden stepped down – a change that could also damage the prospects of down-ballot Republicans.

Read more about the November matchup.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Democratic vice presidential candidate, speaks at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Convention in Los Angeles, on Tuesday, August 13.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during a campaign event in 2018 praised a Muslim cleric and leader in the Muslim community who has spread antisemitic content on Facebook, according to video newly revealed by the Washington Examiner. 

The video features Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, speaking at an event hosted by the Muslim American Society of Minnesota during his first gubernatorial campaign, according to the Washington Examiner. In the video, Walz praises Imam Asad Zaman, executive director of the organization hosting the event, as a “master teacher” and briefly touches on their shared history. 

Walz’s appearance alongside the Muslim cleric, one of several in recent years, came after Zaman had shared a link to a neo-Nazi propaganda film in 2015 portraying Adolf Hitler in a positive light. Zaman had also shared a Hamas press release in 2016 mourning the death of a Muslim politician in Bangladesh who was executed after being found guilty of war crimes.

In the wake of the October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel, Zaman has shared anti-Israel posts on social media. On the day of the attacks, he expressed solidarity for Palestinians “against Israeli attacks” while sharing a statement from the Muslim American Society of Minnesota condemning “Israel’s recent unprovoked attacks.” Earlier that day, Zaman shared a post arguing “Palestine has the right to defend itself.”

In a statement to CNN, Harris campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said that Walz and Zaman do not have a “personal relationship.” 

“The Governor and he do not have a personal relationship. Governor Walz strongly condemns Hamas terrorism,” Hitt told CNN. 

CNN has reached out to Zaman and the Muslim American Society of Minnesota for comment.  

Read more about Walz’ past appearances with Zaman here.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, is digging in on his attacks against Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s military record, as the Minnesota governor defended himself during a campaign event in Los Angeles today.

Earlier today, Walz said, “I am damn proud of my service to this country, and I firmly believe you should never denigrate another person’s service record.”

Walz caught heat from Vance last week for saying in 2018 that he handled assault weapons “in war.” Harris’ campaign acknowledged Saturday he “misspoke” during this event. As CNN reported, Vance also accused Walz of ducking service in Iraq.

Vance defended his comments earlier this week, telling CNN’s Dana Bash: “I’m not criticizing Tim Walz’s service; I’m criticizing the fact that he lied about his service for political gain.”

The Trump campaign on Tuesday said it had raised $1 million off of the conversation former President Donald Trump and X owner Elon Musk had on X Spaces the night before. 

The campaign touted the reach of the interview and said 25 million X users listened to the interview from start to finish and that there were roughly 1.5 million concurrent listeners during the live stream. 

The start of the conversation was delayed by more than 40 minutes on Monday night because of technical issues, and Musk and Trump engaged in a friendly conversation in which they praised each other and Trump repeated many of his campaign talking points. The former president made at least 20 false claims during the over two-hour conversation, CNN reported.

“President Trump will do everything he can to bring his unscripted message directly to the people, something the fake news media refuses to do. While Kamala Harris enjoys the luxury of hiding from the press, President Trump accepted Elon’s invitation to have an unfiltered conversation about his America First policies with voters and people around the world,” Cheung said.