October 10, 2024, presidential campaign news

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

Former President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event in support of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 10, 2024.

Former President Barack Obama on Thursday delivered his most personal, furious indictment yet of Donald Trump and a Republican Party he said was in thrall to a man who he believes had, over the last week, violated the trust of Americans devastated by a pair of catastrophic hurricanes.

“The idea of intentionally trying to deceive people in their most desperate and vulnerable moments – my question is, when did that become OK?” Obama said, pointing to Trump’s lies about the federal government withholding assistance to hard-hit “Republican areas” or “siphoning off aid to give to undocumented immigrants.”

When a cheer rose up, he sharply quieted the room.

“I’m not looking for applause right now!” Obama said, his voice vibrating with emotion, before he asked Republicans and conservatives allied with Trump, “When did that become OK? Why would we go along with that?”

Obama, addressing a buzzing crowd in Pittsburgh, drew sharp contrasts on policy and character – ripping Trump and talking up Harris on both fronts – and cast his successor as the mascot for a dangerous and increasingly nasty version of the country. Obama in past campaigns has relished mocking and criticizing Trump, but his speech and delivery on Thursday were stinging and unusually visceral.

“If you had a family member who acted like (Trump), you might still love them, but you’d tell ‘em, ‘You got a problem,’ and you wouldn’t put him in charge of anything,” Obama said. “And yet, when Donald Trump lies or cheats, or shows utter disregard for our Constitution, when he calls POWs ‘losers’ or fellow citizens ‘vermin,’ people make excuses for it.”

Read more about Obama’s argument against Trump.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a campaign rally at Temple University in Philadelphia on August 6.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday attempted to walk back a comment he made earlier in the week calling for the elimination of the Electoral College, trying to align himself more closely with Vice President Kamala Harris’ position.

After Walz said at a fundraiser on Tuesday he believes the Electoral College “needs to go,” which the Harris campaign later said was not an official campaign position, Walz told ABC News in an interview that “my position is the campaign’s position” on the issue. He said he was attempting to “make sure that everybody understands their vote … matters.”

“It’s not the campaign’s position. And the point I’m trying to make is – is that there’s folks that feel every vote must count in every state. And I think some of folks feel that’s not the case,” Walz said in a clip of the interview released Thursday evening.

“The point I’m saying is: I’m in five states in two days, we’re out there making the case that – the campaign’s position is clear, that that’s not their position. Their position and my position is – is to make sure that everybody understands their vote, no matter what state they’re in, matters.”

Walz’s comment mark the latest instance of the Democratic vice presidential nominee trying to clear up a previous remark made on the campaign trail or from his long career in politics prior to joining the Harris campaign. Walz has faced scrutiny for previously misrepresenting his military rank, falsely claiming to have carried assault weapons “in war,” wrongly insinuating his family conceived using in vitro fertilization and incorrectly stating he was in China during the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.

When asked if he and Harris disagree on whether the Electoral College should be eliminated, Walz reiterated that his position on the issue aligns with the campaign’s view.

“I have spoken about it in the past, that she’s been very clear on this. And … my position is the campaign’s position,” he said.

Read the full report on Walz’ remarks about the Electoral College.

A leading Democratic super PAC added nearly $34 million to its advertising buys in a series of key Senate races this week, pouring funds into the party’s defense of some of its most vulnerable members.

WinSenate, the super PAC aligned with national Democrats and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, disclosed a total of $33.9 million in new independent expenditures, and its top targets were Ohio, where it spent $10.5 million on new ad buys to support vulnerable Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, and Pennsylvania, where the group spent $6 million to support Sen. Bob Casey.

The group also reported spending about $3.4 million on the Senate race in Arizona, $3.2 million in Nevada, $2.9 million in Wisconsin, $2.8 million in Michigan, $2.6 million in Maryland, and $2.5 million in Montana.

Notably absent from the group’s target this week were Senate races in Florida and Texas, a contrast to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which at the end of September announced plans for multimillion ad campaigns targeting both races.

Both seats, currently held by Republicans, represent reaches for Democrats, but the party is under pressure to expand the map as it looks for ways to defend its narrow Senate majority, with Republicans all but certain to pick up a seat in West Virginia and looking favorably on their chances in Montana.

WinSenate’s new ad buys in Maryland also stand out – the race in the reliably blue state is not one that Democrats would typically budget for, but popular former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan’s decision to run has energized Republicans and attracted a flood of outside spending.

According to the latest data from the ad tracking firm AdImpact, WinSenate’s ad buys on the Maryland race total more than $5 million, ramping up throughout October, as the party looks to avoid a damaging upset that could further dampen their chances of defending their majority. Even if the buys are ultimately precautionary, they’re critical funds that the party could direct to races in more traditionally competitive states.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday outlined her plans for immigration reform as she tried to court Latino voters ahead of Election Day.

In an emotional moment during a town hall hosted by Univision, set to air in full later Thursday, a woman said her mother – who died six weeks ago – wasn’t able to gain US citizenship while she was alive, and ultimately wasn’t able to get proper medical treatment. The woman asked Harris about her plans to support the subgroup of immigrants who have been in the country and “have to live and die in the shadows.”

Harris expressed her condolences – “I’m so sorry. … You must remember your mother as she lived,” the vice president said – and highlighted the Biden administration’s first proposed immigration bill that she said aimed to fix the immigration system and create a pathway to citizenship.

“The first bill we offered within hours of taking the oath was a bill to fix the immigration system, including creating a comprehensive earned pathway to citizenship for hard-working people and it was not taken up,” Harris said.

“Now we look at a situation where people are suffering. The reality is that in terms of having access to health care, had your mother been able to gain citizenship, she would have been entitled to health care that may have alleviated her suffering in their orders,” she added.

Harris again knocked former President Donald Trump for tanking the bipartisan border security bill earlier this year and accused him of wanting to “run on a problem, instead of fixing a problem.”

Former President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally in support of Vice President Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh on Thursday.

Barack Obama made clear Thursday which voters are very much on his mind: Black men, and a lack of energy that he said “seems to be more pronounced with the brothers.”

Obama was in Pittsburgh on Thursday for the first of a series of rallies aimed at driving up support for Harris and sparking more enthusiasm among low propensity voters, particularly Black men.

Obama said that with a choice between Harris and Donald Trump so clear to him – because, he said, she understands growing up struggling and having experiences like them, and wants to fight for them – he’s been thinking about what is holding them back in voting for her. The vice president wants to work on housing, make medicine more affordable and work on improving neighborhoods, he said, while “on the other side, you have someone who has consistently shown disregard, not just for the communities, but for you as a person.”

Obama made a point of highlighting the role Black women have played in Black families and in America. “When we get in trouble and the system isn’t working for us, they’re the ones out there marching and protesting,” he said.

He said he fears the reason why Black men are not showing up for Harris comes down to sexism.

“You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses, I’ve got a problem with that,” he said. “Because part of it makes me think – and I’m speaking to men directly – part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”

The former president said Black men shouldn’t support Harris just because she is Black, from “our side” and “our tribe.”

“This is excellence on display,” Obama said, “and it needs to be rewarded by our enthusiasm, by our work.”

Former US Attorney General Eric Holder, who served as an adviser during the Harris campaign’s vetting process for her vice presidential pick, defended Tim Walz on Thursday, saying the Minnesota governor has apologized for his “misstatements” and that the vetting team didn’t miss information “of any substance.”

Since his selection as Harris’ running mate, Walz has come under fire for misrepresenting his military record, the fertility treatment he and his wife used and that he was in Hong Kong during protests in China’s Tiananmen Square.

Walz and his campaign has acknowledged that the vice presidential nominee misspoke on those occasions. During a recent interview, Walz said that Harris had encouraged him to choose his words more carefully.

When asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer whether Holder and others who were part of the vetting process had missed any information about Walz, the former attorney general said no, defended his team’s work and stressed that Walz has “taken responsibility” for his statements.

“I think that these slight exaggerations, misspeaking that he has done — and again, for which he has, you know, taken responsibility — is not something that’s going to ultimately hurt him,” he said.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday was asked by a voter to name three virtues that former President Donald Trump possesses during a Univision town hall. In response, the Democratic presidential nominee noted she doesn’t “really know” her opponent, but was able to name one: “Trump loves his family.”

Harris highlighted that her first time meeting the former president was at last month’s presidential debate. Before listing the single virtue, she criticized Trump for his divisive rhetoric and stoking fear.

“Based on life experience, I know that the vast majority of us have so much more in common than separates us, and part of what pains me is the approach that, frankly, Donald Trump and some others have taken, which is to suggest that it’s us versus them, whoever that may be, and having Americans point fingers at each other,” Harris said.

She continued, “Using language that’s belittling people and calling them names and meant to make them afraid and live in fear. I don’t think that’s healthy for our nation, and I don’t admire that and in fact, I’m quite critical of it coming from someone who wants to be president of the United States.”

At a Pittsburgh rally to energize voters for Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, former President Barack Obama on Thursday is planning to highlight the experience and values of the Democratic leaders that make them uniquely positioned to lead the country, according to a source familiar with his remarks.

It’s a familiar approach for the former president, whose speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention touched on the same themes.

“We are ready for a President Kamala Harris. And Kamala Harris is ready for the job,” Obama said then, before detailing her curriculum vitae and working-class upbringing.

He is also poised to deliver a sharp critique of Trump, an aide said, drawing a pointed contrast between a second Trump administration and a Harris presidency.

Four years ago, Obama made belittling and criticizing Trump a hallmark of his rallies in the countdown to the election. Tonight’s speech will be about renewing that contrast, even as he works to lift up Harris.

Tonight’s rally is the first in a 27-day sprint by the campaign targeted at getting out the vote in the critical election home stretch.

Obama has long approached the 2024 election as all-hands-on deck, headlining fundraisers that raked in millions for both President Joe Biden and Harris, and now taking to the trail for the critical final push. After Pittsburgh, he is poised to do a series of rallies and events in the coming three weeks.

“He’s clear-eyed about how close this race is,” the source said.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to the media before departing for New York at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on October 7.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday acknowledged her shortened campaign may be “a bit unprecedented,” but emphasized the stakes in the upcoming election when asked by an independent voter to clarify the process of how she became the Democratic nominee.

A concerned voter during a Univision town hall asked Harris to explain her primary process after he noted he is still undecided but feels inclined to vote for former President Donald Trump and said he also feels President Joe Biden was “pushed aside.”

Harris railed against former President Donald Trump as she painted him as a threat to democracy “who has said he will be a dictator on day one” and “would weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies.”

The Univision townhall will be broadcast at 10 p.m. ET tonight.

Some background: Biden’s exit from the 2024 race in July came later than any previous president and after he had won an overwhelming majority of the delegates during the primary process earlier this year. But the Democratic Party quickly consolidated support behind Harris, who secured the backing of enough delegates to win the nomination in less than 36 hours.

Former President Donald Trump, speaks at the Detroit Economic Club on October 10 in Detroit.

Former President Donald Trump compared Detroit to a “developing nation” when speaking in the key Michigan population center on Thursday.

While claiming China had abused its “developing nation” status, Trump said, “we’re a developing nation, too. Just take a look at Detroit,” he said, calling the city a “developing area…hell of a lot more than most places in China.”

Trump also later warned the country would be “like Detroit” if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected.

“The whole country will be like, you want to know the truth? It’ll be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president,” he said, claiming Harris “destroyed” San Francisco and later adding, “we’re not going to let her do that to this country. We’re not gonna let it happen.”

Earlier this year, Trump sparked controversy for telling House Republicans that Milwaukee, a major city in Wisconsin, is “horrible,” when speaking about crime and election concerns. He later assured Wisconsin voters “I love Milwaukee” and said he chose the city to host the Republican National Convention.

Harris later told reporters that Trump’s remarks about Detroit showed that he is “unfit” to be the next president.

“My opponent, Donald Trump, yet again, has trashed another great American city when he was in Detroit, which is just a further piece of evidence on a very long list of why he is unfit to be president of the United States,” she said.

CNN’s Ebony Davis contributed to this report.

Univision will not fact check Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump on stage during their respective town halls, the Spanish language network confirmed to CNN.

The two town halls, on October 10 and October 16, will be moderated by Enrique Acevedo, the Mexico-based anchor of parent company Televisa’s flagship nightly newscast “En Punto.” Acevedo, who was criticized by many last year for what was considered by critics to be a “soft” interview with Trump, has become the marquee face of the Mexican broadcaster, which merged with Univision two years ago.

“He will be a guardian of time, keep the rhythms, and highlight the questioners,” Univision said in a statement.

Instead, the network plans to fact check the candidates following the broadcasts and during an October 17 special on both town halls called “Después de las respuestas,” or “After the answers.”

While the network is publicly stating there will be no live fact checks of the candidates, it is possible that Acevedo will quickly correct the record on stage, a person familiar with the situation said. A TelevisaUnivision spokesperson told CNN the fact checking decision was not a condition for any candidate’s participation.

Fact checking has become a major sticking point during the 2024 election, with both Trump and his running-mate Sen. JD Vance complaining about fact checks during debates, arguing that the moderators are ganging up on Republicans for pointing out falsehoods.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will attend a fundraiser in Potomac, Maryland, on Wednesday, according to a copy of an invitation obtained by CNN.

Walz will speak at a DC-area fundraiser hosted by Democrat Rep. David Trone and his wife June Trone along with real estate developer Peter Snell and his wife Lindsay Snell. Tickets start at $3,300, according to the invitation.

Tiffany Trump, daughter of former President Donald Trump, attends the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 15 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday said his daughter, Tiffany, is pregnant.

He pointed out that Dr. Massad Boulos, the father of Tiffany’s husband, Michael, was in the audience at his remarks at the Detroit Economic Club.

Trump called Michael a “very exceptional young guy,” and said Tiffany is a “very exceptional young woman,” adding, “and she’s gonna have a baby. So that’s nice.”

Tiffany Trump married Michael Boulos in November 2022 at Mar-a-Lago.

Vice President Kamala Harris debates former President Donald Trump at The National Constitution Center on September 10 in Philadelphia.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has accepted CNN’s invitation for a live, televised town hall on October 23 in Pennsylvania, campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.

“Trump may want to hide from the voters, but Vice President Harris welcomes the opportunity to share her vision for a New Way Forward for the country. She is happy to accept CNN’s invitation for a live, televised town hall on October 23 in Pennsylvania,” O’Malley Dillon said.

CNN invited both Harris and former President Donald Trump to participate in town hall events with voters. The network said the town halls will take place before a live audience of persuadable and undecided voters from Pennsylvania.

“We continue to believe the American people would benefit from hearing more from the two major candidates for President of the United States and so CNN has extended invitations to both Vice President Harris and President Trump’s campaigns to participate in separate CNN Town Halls on October 23,” CNN said in a statement on Thursday.

The network previously proposed a debate between Harris and Trump in Atlanta on October 23. Harris quickly accepted the invite, but Trump repeatedly shrugged it off, despite the Harris campaign’s attempts to goad him into participating.

With the CNN offer on the table, and a Thursday deadline for a response looming, Fox News wrote to both campaigns on Wednesday and offered to host its own debate in Pennsylvania on October 24 or 27. The Harris campaign likely would have said yes to that invitation, too, if the CNN deadline passed without a deal, according to a person familiar with the matter.

But on Wednesday night, Trump very bluntly said “THERE WILL BE NO REMATCH” in a post on Truth Social.

Read more about CNN’s town hall invitations to Harris and Trump here.

Former President Bill Clinton speaks at the DNC on Wednesday, August 21, in Chicago.

Former President Bill Clinton will hit the trail this weekend to begin what is expected to be a very targeted push across battleground states through Election Day, three sources familiar with his plans told CNN.

The former president will seek to appeal to rural voters, among whom polls have shown Vice President Kamala Harris is performing worse than some of the last few Democratic nominees, particularly among younger Black men.

Clinton will start with stops in Georgia on Sunday and Monday, with a bus tour next week in North Carolina expected to follow, pending recovery from the hurricanes.

The emphasis is on counties won by former President Donald Trump. But it’s also on Clinton voters, hoping there are enough left from when he was the last Democratic presidential nominee before Biden to win Georgia in 1992 and that he can reconnect them to a coalition they’ve been steadily dropping out of over the last decade.

Clinton won’t appear at rallies. Going back to a kind of campaigning that he hasn’t done since before he became the “Comeback Kid” in the 1992 New Hampshire primary, Clinton’s schedule is for local fairs and porch rallies, talking to at most a few hundred people at a time.

Read more on Clinton’s plans to hit the campaign trail for Harris.

The latest polls from Quinnipiac University in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin suggest a challenging environment for Vice President Kamala Harris among likely voters in the critical “Blue Wall” states, as the advantages Quinnipiac’s poll found for her last month have slimmed in Pennsylvania and disappeared in Michigan, while Wisconsin continues to be a tight race.

In Pennsylvania, the new poll finds Harris holding a slight edge over Trump (49% to 46%) compared with a wider advantage in September (51% Harris to 45% Trump). There is no clear leader in the university’s Michigan poll (50% Trump, 47% Harris, with a 3.1 percentage point margin of sampling error), while the September poll showed Harris holding a lead (50% Harris to 45% Trump).

And in Wisconsin the poll shows no clear leader (48% Trump, 46% Harris, with a 3.0 percentage point margin of sampling error), similar to the tight race it showed in September (48% Harris to 47% Trump).

Quinnipiac’s polls suggest that in Michigan and Wisconsin the pool of likely voters may have grown more Republican-leaning overall since September.

The Quinnipiac surveys are the first CNN-approved polling in each state conducted in October, and leave her with no clear advantage in any of these critical “Blue Wall” states in CNN Poll of Polls averages including the new results.

In Michigan, Harris has an average of 48% support among likely voters, with Trump averaging 47%. In Pennsylvania, Harris also averages 48% support to Trump’s 47% support among likely voters. And in Wisconsin, Harris holds an average 49% support to Trump’s 46% among likely voters.

Allies of Vice President Kamala Harris cast former President Donald Trump as a threat to the future of American manufacturing as he is due to give remarks on Thursday in Detroit, a hub of the US auto industry.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, a long-time critic of Trump, called the former president a “job killer in chief” and highlighted the loss of auto jobs in Michigan during his presidency.

Harris economic adviser Gene Sperling, who left the White House in August to join the campaign after serving as Biden’s implementation coordinator for the $1.9 trillion Covid relief law, known as the American Rescue Plan, said Trump “never even tried to have the back of US workers” when he was in office.

“Now, I of all people get how hard it is when you’re in divided government to get what you want. In 2017, he had both houses of Congress, he had all the power and he was able to get that Congress to pass huge tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans,” he said, highlighting that Trump’s signature tax legislation had “nothing” to “make sure that it actually helped manufacturing or workers.”

On the other hand, Sperling highlighted how Harris helped pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act, which included provisions to boost clean energy manufacturing.

Keep reading here for Harris’ and Trump’s economic policy proposals.

Vice President Kamala Harris has raised $1 billion since entering the presidential race in July, two sources familiar with the figure told CNN, marking a massive fundraising milestone in her campaign against former President Donald Trump.

The Harris campaign declined to comment.

NBC News was first to report on Harris’ fundraising haul.

Pro-Trump outside groups added to a flood of attack ads targeting Vice President Kamala Harris this week, launching a wave of new spots covering a range of issues, including transgender policies – a growing point of emphasis in Republican advertising.

Preserve America – a leading pro-Trump super PAC that has received millions from megadonor Miriam Adelson – went up Wednesday with a pair of spots that included criticism of Harris for expressing support for taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for detained immigrants and federal prisoners during her 2020 presidential campaign.

“With high inflation, working families like mine are hurting and Kamala Harris helped create this mess,” says a Wisconsin voter featured in one of the ads. “Now, while Americans struggle, Kamala spent our tax dollars putting illegal immigrants up in hotel rooms and she supported spending our tax dollars to give illegals sex changes. It’s not just liberal, it’s insane.”

Other leading pro-Trump outside groups have also ramped up their advertising about LGBTQ rights targeting Harris.

MAGA Inc., the super PAC that has spent the most money supporting Trump’s 2024 campaign, launched an ad Tuesday that said “Kamala will give criminal illegal aliens taxpayer funded transgender surgeries,” then adding, “Crazy liberal Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

The ads reflect a pronounced messaging shift from Republican advertisers, including the Trump campaign itself, which has ramped up its focus on LGBTQ rights and transgender health care policies with a series of new ads in the beginning of October. On Wednesday, the Trump campaign launched a Spanish-language version of one of its spots attacking Harris on the issue.