• Final sprint: With 25 days until Election Day, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are racing to make their final pitches to voters as the battle for the White House remains exceedingly tight. The candidates continue to focus on crucial battleground states this week that will shape the outcome in November.
• On the campaign trail: Trump spoke on crime and immigration in Colorado and later appeared at a rally in Nevada focused on the economy. Meanwhile, Harris marked the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur during a campaign call, where she outlined her vision for the future. The vice president also joined President Joe Biden virtually for a briefing on the government’s hurricane response.
Our live coverage has ended. Follow the latest 2024 election news here or read through the posts below.
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In Nevada, Trump continues pushing false claims about Venezuelan gangs overrunning Colorado city
From CNN's Veronica Straqualursi
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, speaks during a campaign rally in Reno, Nevada, on October 11, 2024.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Speaking Friday in Nevada, former President Donald Trump continued pushing his sensationalized claims about Venezuelan gang members taking over the city of Aurora, Colorado, and “terrorizing the residents” there while recalling his visit to the Mountain West city earlier in the day.
“Kamala Harris has supported a savage Venezuelan prison gang – other than that, they’re fine people – known as Tren de Aragua,” the Republican presidential nominee said at a campaign rally in Reno. “That has taken over an entire apartment complex. You know, they are like me. They’re in the real estate business. The differences is I do it with financing. They do it with weapons that we’ve never even seen before.”
Aurora became a flashpoint in the presidential race after Trump supporters seized on footage from an apartment complex in the city that captured men wielding guns walking down hallways, in one case kicking open a door, followed by several women and small children.
The images rapidly spread around social media, with Trump supporters claiming they depicted Venezuelan gangs taking over the apartment complex. The building’s owner appeared to verify that description, but the city said the substandard housing conditions maintained by the landlord were the issue, not migrants. Meanwhile, local police have encountered some gang activity tied to a Venezuelan group, but rejected theories that the gang has taken over any buildings in the city.
In Reno on Friday, Trump again attacked Colorado’s Democratic governor, Jared Polis – though not by name – as being “petrified,” “afraid” and “chicken sh*t” to take on the gang members.
Polis shrugged off the attacks Friday, telling CNN he was glad to distract Trump from attacking Harris.
Trump also made a pitch Friday for Nevada Senate candidate Sam Brown, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Jacky Rosen in a race that ranks among the most competitive in the country.
“You also need to defeat your disastrous, radical Democrat Sen. Jackie Rosen and elect a great patriot to defend your Washington values and your values in Reno,” he said.
CNN’s Steve Contorno contributed to this report.
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Jill Biden returns to the campaign trail
From CNN's Betsy Klein
First Lady Dr. Jill Biden speaks at a rally in Yuma, Arizona on October 11, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a video.
KYMA
First lady Jill Biden is making a return to the campaign trail for a series of events supporting Vice President Kamala Harris, marking her first campaign activity since the president dropped out, with the exception of her remarks at the Democratic National Convention.
Speaking in Yuma, Arizona, on Friday, Biden wove together some personal stories with her own relationship and understanding of Harris, recycling some of her traditional lines on the stump for her husband.
She described Harris as a “quick, tough, compassionate, decisive leader,” and spoke about Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan.
This marked the first in a series of Biden events in Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Colorado governor brushes off Trump’s attacks: “He’s not running against me”
From CNN's Piper Hudspeth Blackburn
Democratic Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado shrugged off attacks from Donald Trump on Friday, telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that he was glad to distract the Republican presidential nominee from going after Kamala Harris.
Polis’ comments came hours after Trump called him a “coward,” “fraud,” “pathetic,” “weak” and “ineffective” during a speech in Aurora, Colorado, as he railed against illegal immigration and an unsuccessful push in Colorado to remove the former president from the ballot over his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
Trump also stoked fears about undocumented immigrants by making sensationalized claims about Venezuelan gang members taking over parts of Colorado, including Aurora. He also promised to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in order to expedite the removal of undocumented gang members if reelected.
Polis told CNN on Friday that Trump’s claims about violence in Aurora were overblown.
“It’s a great place to live, to raise a family, and it’s only gotten safer. So the Aurora he’s talking about is one that the people of Colorado have never heard of,” he said.
Asked if immigration has put a strain on local resources in Colorado, Polis said that Harris “is a candidate that has a plan to solve the border crisis,” while Trump “has stood in the way of fixing our border every step of the way.”
When pressed on whether Trump’s promise to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 had “any merit,” Polis said that “of course” undocumented immigrants who commit crimes “should be out.”
“I don’t think anybody’s done that research in the 1780s yet, but I can tell you that if somebody commits a crime and they’re here illegally, of course, we want them deported,” he said.
Over recent years, the Department of Homeland Security has implemented enhanced screening measures at the US southern border to identify known or suspected gang members, including members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
CNN’s Kate Sullivan and Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.
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Biden administration sues Virginia over voter purge program
From CNN's Tierney Sneed
Voting booths sit empty midway through a day of primary elections in Arlington, Virginia, on March 3, 2020.
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
The Biden administration has sued Virginia election officials, alleging that they were violating federal law by purging voters flagged as potential non-citizens during the so-called quiet period before an election, when election officials are forbidden from undertaking systematic removals of voters from registration rolls.
In court filings Friday, the Justice Department said that Virginia’s purge program, formalized in an August executive order by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, violates the National Voter Registration Act’s requirement that any mass voter removal programs be completed no later than 90 days before the election.
Earlier iterations of the program caused likely citizens to be removed from the rolls, the DOJ alleged in its lawsuit, pointing to recent comments by a county election official who said that they looked at dozens of voters who had been purged under the program’s protocols and found that many of them had repeatedly affirmed their citizenship, including some with social security numbers.
The lawsuit also said that local election officials have no discretion under the program to prevent the cancellation of voters who fail to return the notices even if officials have reason to believe that those voters are US citizens.
In a statement responding to the lawsuit, Youngkin accused the Biden administration of “filing an unprecedented lawsuit” less than 30 days out from the election.
Some context: Youngkin’s executive order was rolled out exactly 90 days before the election, but the Justice Department is pointing to indications that removals under the order have been ongoing since. The executive order directed local election officials to initiate removals of any voters who indicated on DMV forms that they were non-citizens. Those voters are sent mailers giving them 14 days to affirm their citizenship or have their registrations cancelled.
Vance says attorney general position would be "most important" role after president in a second Trump administration
From CNN's Kit Maher
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said Friday that the “most important person in government after the president” wouldn’t be him, but the attorney general, if Donald Trump wins in November.
“We really do have to clean house. The broken leadership of the Department of Justice, it’s gotta work for equal justice under law, and we need a strong, smart, courageous attorney general,” the Ohio senator said.
Vance also hinted that he is working on potential attorney general choices, as one of the honorary chairs of the Trump transition team.
“That’s one of the things I help out with on the transition,” he said. “Obviously, we’re thinking about – you know, I’m a very superstitious guy, so I don’t like to think that much about what happens after we win. I’m focused on winning, but you gotta do a little bit of that work beforehand. We’re going to have an attorney general who serves the people.”
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Allred becomes first Democrat to respond to emerging wave of transgender policy attacks against him
From CNN's David Wright
Texas Democratic Senate candidate Colin Allred speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 22.
Paul Sancya/AP
Texas Democratic Senate candidate Colin Allred launched a notable new campaign ad on Friday responding to a wave of attacks against him from his rival Republicans centered around transgender policies – a criticism that has become increasingly pronounced in GOP advertising as the 2024 campaign has entered its final month.
In the ad, Allred appears on camera and speaks directly to the attacks coming from his opponent, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, and allied GOP outside groups that are spending millions on the race.
He continues, “Ted Cruz is lying about my record because he can’t defend his own. He’s done nothing to secure the border and he wants to raise the retirement age for social security. He’s full of it. You know that.”
Allred is the first Democrat to run a TV ad this year explicitly responding to the criticism of transgender policies — which has become a key line of attack for Republicans in recent weeks. In both the presidential race and in several competitive Senate races, transgender policies have emerged as a focus of criticism for Republicans.
Cruz’s ads seize a number of items from Allred’s record, including his no vote in 2023 as a US representative on a bill that would have banned transgender athletes from women’s and girls’ sports at federally funded schools and educational institutions. In 2023, Allred also voted no on the “Parents Bill of Rights Act,” which sought to establish “various rights of parents and guardians” as they related to school transgender polices, and would have imposed several reporting requirements on schools that adopted accommodations.
Neither bill was taken up by the Senate.
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Fact Check: During speech in which he used teleprompters, Trump falsely claims he doesn’t use teleprompters
From CNN's Daniel Dale
Vice President Kamala Harris takes questions during a Univision Town Hall in Las Vegas on Thursday.
Melina Mara/The Washington Post/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed at a Friday rally that Vice President Kamala Harris used a teleprompter during her Univision town hall on Thursday. Univision itself debunked that claim on Thursday night.
Trump also made a false claim that he doesn’t use teleprompters himself. In reality, Trump regularly uses teleprompters for his speeches and, as usual, had one visible to his left and one visible to his right during this very speech.
Trump said at the Friday rally in Aurora, Colorado: “Did you see where she did a town hall yesterday and she used a teleprompter? I never saw a town – they never – you don’t use teleprompters, we don’t use teleprompters, period, pretty much. You don’t use ‘em for town halls.”
The false claim that Harris used a teleprompter at the town hall generated millions of views on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. It was made by several right-wing commentators with significant followings, including Benny Johnson, Charlie Kirk, Greg Price and Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Both the moderator of the town hall, Enrique Acevedo, and the president of Univision News, Daniel Coronell, refuted the claim in their own X posts – noting that the teleprompter that was seen on the broadcast had text in Spanish, not English, and that it was material for Acevedo, not Harris.
Acevedo, responding to Johnson’s claim that “Univision accidentally broadcast proof that Kamala used a teleprompter at her town hall,” wrote: “The prompter displayed my introduction (in Spanish) and then it switched to a timer. Any claim to the contrary is simply untrue.”
Coronell, responding to Price’s claim that “Kamala is using a teleprompter during her ‘town hall’ with Univision,” wrote: “That’s not true. The teleprompter that displays a text written in Spanish was a support element for the town hall moderator. I can tell you this with first-hand knowledge because I was in charge of the television program.”
Acevedo and Coronell both posted their debunkings late Thursday night, but the viral posts from Price, Johnson and Kirk remained online as of 4 p.m. on Friday; Hannity deleted his post. Price, Johnson and Kirk did not respond to CNN requests for comment on Friday.
Trump has made teleprompter-related comments a staple of his recent criticism of Harris as he has insulted her intelligence. Last month, he falsely claimed that Harris used notes in a televised interview with CNN.
This headline and post have been updated with additional developments.
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Trump campaign connected with Elon Musk’s X before it blocked links to hacked materials
From CNN's Liam Reilly
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign connected with Elon Musk’s X last month to discuss hacked Trump campaign materials circulating on the social media platform before X blocked links to the files and banned the independent journalist who published the materials, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
The research dossier published by Ken Klippenstein, allegedly the result of an Iranian government-supported hacking operation, contained internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official and materials the campaign had put together on Sen. JD Vance before Trump named him his running mate. The dossier published by Klippenstein contained some of Vance’s personal information, including his home address and part of his social security number.
Following his publication of the dossier on Substack last month, Klippenstein shared that his X account had been suspended for violating the platform’s rules on posting private information. An X spokesperson told CNN at the time that Klippenstein had been temporarily suspended from the platform “for violating our rules on posting unredacted private personal information,” but Klippenstein later shared a screenshot showing that he had been permanently banned.
A person familiar with the matter told CNN on Friday that the Trump campaign had a conversation with X officials about the hacked materials before Klippenstein was banned and links to his newsletter were blocked. The person said the campaign did not push X officials to remove links to the materials and that X had made the decision. A spokesperson for X did not respond to a CNN request for comment.
The New York Times first reported the Trump campaign’s correspondence with X officials in an article on Musk “going all in” to elect Trump.
As CNN has previously reported, Musk regularly uses his X pulpit to elevate the former president’s candidacy before his 201 million followers. Musk has also committed tens of millions of dollars to a pro-Trump super PAC he founded to reelect Trump.
Read more about the Trump campaign’s communication with X officials.
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Trump says he would create federal program to expedite removal of undocumented gang members if reelected
From CNN's Kate Sullivan and Priscilla Alvarez
Former President Donald Trump holds a rally in Aurora, Colorado, on Friday.
Isaiah J. Downing/Reuters
Former President Donald Trump said Friday he would create a federal program to expedite the removal of undocumented gang members if reelected.
The Republican presidential nominee said the program would be created to “target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil.”
The announcement comes as Trump continues to promote false and sensationalized claims about Venezuelan gang members taking over parts of Colorado, including Aurora. Stoking fears about undocumented immigrants is a central part of Trump’s campaign message and he has ramped up his use of dehumanizing and disparaging language toward immigrants in the final stretch before Election Day.
“We will send elite squads of ICE, Border Patrol and federal law enforcement officers to hunt down, arrest and deport every last illegal alien gang member until there is not a single one left in this country,” Trump said.
He continued, “And if they come back into our country they will be told it is an automatic 10 year sentence in jail with no possibility of parole.”
The former president also said that he was “calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement already deports individuals who pose a national security or public safety threat once ordered removed by an immigration judge. Homeland Security Investigations also has a National Gang Unit that works with partners to identify violent street gangs and to arrest, prosecute, detain and remove transnational gang members.
Over recent years, the Department of Homeland Security has implemented enhanced screening measures at the US southern border to identify known or suspected gang members, including members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
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Trump repeatedly attacks Colorado Gov. Jared Polis at campaign stop in the state
From CNN's Kate Sullivan from Aurora, Colorado
Former President Donald Trump on Friday unloaded on Colorado’s Democratic governor, Jared Polis, at a campaign stop in the state over illegal immigration and the unsuccessful push in Colorado to remove Trump from the ballot over his involvement in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol.
During a speech in Aurora, Colorado, Trump called Polis a “coward,” “fraud,” “pathetic,” “weak” and “ineffective.”
“Your weak and ineffective, governor, you know, he’s a totally ineffective guy, by the way. I hope you know that,” Trump said.
Trump said, “Polis, he’s a coward. He’s a fraud. He’s pathetically trying to deny, He’s pathetic. He doesn’t see. You know they don’t want to see. You know what? They don’t want they want to stay with Washington, because otherwise they’ll get indicted. They’ll find they did something wrong. They’ll get indicted if they don’t. So he’s afraid. They’re all afraid. They’re all cowards,” Trump said.
Trump, who has been promoting false and sensationalized claims about Venezuelan gang members taking over Colorado, said, “This guy doesn’t see what you see. He doesn’t see people bursting into buildings with AK-47s, military style weapons, sometimes better than our own military.”
The former president tried to blame Polis for the push to remove Trump from the ballot. Six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters filed a lawsuit last year with the backing of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and argued Trump is disqualified from serving as president again because of his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection. The court case eventually reached the Supreme Court, which ruled that Trump should appear on the ballot in Colorado.
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First on CNN: Harris releases new ad slamming Trump for his criticism of Detroit
From CNN's Kristen Holmes
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is up with a new television and digital ad responding to Trump’s attacks on the city of Detroit yesterday.
“Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president,” Trump said while speaking in Detroit.
Narrated by actor Courtney B. Vance, the Harris ad lays out the rebuilding of the city of Detroit and repeats Trump’s remarks noting Trump “should be so goddamn lucky.”
The ad will air during the Detroit Tigers ALDS game five and Detroit Lions game this weekend and is part of a $370 million dollar ad buy.
Harris is scheduled to travel to Detroit Tuesday, and she is expected to participate in a radio town hall hosted by comedian, advocate, and nationally syndicated radio co-host Charlamagne tha God.
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Walz slams Trump for taking a dig at Detroit and tears into GOP record on manufacturing
From CNN's Ali Main and Aaron Pellish
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks in Warren, Michigan, on Friday.
Carlos Osorio/AP
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sharply criticized former President Donald Trump for his swipe at the city of Detroit while speaking in Michigan this week and for not committing to preserving federal funding for a Michigan automobile manufacturing plant during his speech in Warren, Michigan on Friday.
Trump warned in remarks at the Detroit Economic Club that the country would end up “like Detroit” if Harris is elected, his latest jab at an urban center in a swing state that he hopes to win next month.
Walz said the comment was “not unexpected” for Trump, explaining, “that’s exactly what he’s going to do, tear down America.
“Look, I’m a Twins fan, and you whipped our ass,” he joked, remarking about Detroit, the “city’s growing. Crime’s down. Factories are opening up. But those guys, all they know about manufacturing is manufacturing bullshit.”
Speaking at a community college in Macomb County, Walz called Trump “one of the biggest losers of manufacturing jobs of any American president in history,” noting that the former president visited the same location when he first ran for president and promised Michigan workers they wouldn’t lose a “single plant” if he was elected.
As some in the crowd shouted out “liar” about Trump, Walz responded, “technically, it wasn’t a lie, because he lost six of them, not one. So…as they fact check me, I got it right. They lost six of them,” referencing his repeated efforts recently to clean up instances of misspeaking.
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Vance again refuses to say if he believes Trump lost 2020 election
From CNN's Kit Maher
JD Vance speaks at a campaign event at Eastern Market in Detroiton on October 8 .
Paul Sancya/AP
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance refused five times to say if he believes former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election during part of an hour-long interview with the New York Times that will fully air on Saturday.
“Do you believe he lost the 2020 election?” host of “The Interview,” Lulu Garcia-Navarro said.
“Senator, yes or no: Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election,” Garcia-Navarro pressed.
“Let me ask you a question. Is it OK that big technology companies censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, which independent analysts have said cost Trump millions of votes?” Vance said.
“Senator Vance, I’m going to ask you again,” Garcia-Navarro said. “Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?”
“Did big technology companies censor a story that independent studies have suggested cost Trump millions of votes? I think that’s the question,” Vance replied.
Asked again, Vance said, “You answer my question, and I’ll answer yours.”
Pressed again, Vance said Garcia-Navarro was “repeating a slogan rather than engaging with what I’m saying.”
Bill Clinton will hit battleground states to campaign for Harris
From CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere
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.
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Trump will participate in a Fox town hall in Georgia in front of an audience of all women
From CNN's Kate Sullivan and Kristen Holmes
Former President Donald Trump listens to a question from the audience during a town hall-style campaign event in Fayetteville, North Carolina on October 4.
Win McNamee/Getty Images/File
Former President Donald Trump has agreed to participate in a town hall hosted by Fox News next week in Georgia before an audience of all women, Fox announced Friday.
The town hall will be taped on October 15 and will air the next day on “The Faulkner Focus” at 11 a.m. ET. It will take place at Reid Barn in Cumming, Georgia.
Fox News said the town hall would be “focusing on issues impacting women ahead of the election and news of the day.” The event come as Trump makes a more concerted effort to try to win over female voters less than four weeks from Election Day.
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Barack Obama will campaign for Harris in Tucson next week
From CNN's Andrew Millman
Former President Barack Obama will campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz in Tucson, Arizona, next Friday.
Obama made two stops on Thursday to support Harris — the first at a local Harris campaign office in Pittsburgh and the second at a rally in the city later that evening, where he issued some of his most searing public criticisms of his successor to date.
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Today's campaign schedule: Where you can expect to see the candidates
From CNN staff
With less than 30 days until Election Day, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are racing to make their final pitches to voters as the battle for the White House remains tight nationwide.
Here’s a brief overview of what the candidates are up to today:
Trump will deliver remarks at a rally in Aurora, Colorado, focused on crime and immigration before traveling to Reno, Nevada, for a campaign event centered on taxes and the economy.
Harris will mark the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur on a call hosted by “Jewish Voters for Harris-Walz,” where she will “share her thoughts with us directly and lay out her vision for a New Way Forward.” Later, Harris will address a campaign event in Scottsdale, Arizona. The vice president is also expected to virtually join President Joe Biden for a briefing on the federal government’s response to hurricanes Milton and Helen.
Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, is in battleground Michigan, a day after Trump appeared in Detroit, comparing the city to a “developing nation.” Walz is expected to deliver remarks on jobs and the economy at a campaign event in Macomb County, Michigan. The governor will later travel to Mankato, Minnesota to attend the Mankato West High School football game against crosstown rivals Mankato East High School. Walz was Mankato West’s assistant football coach when the team won a state championship in 1999.
Vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance is expected to travel to New Orleans and Atlanta to attend fundraisers.
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New Wall Street Journal polling finds tight races in 6 swing states
From CNN's Ariel Edwards-Levy
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump
Getty Images
A new set of state polling from the Wall Street Journal released Friday finds deadlocked presidential races among registered voters in six key states, with Donald Trump holding a slight advantage over Kamala Harris in Nevada.
With third-party candidates included, there is no clear leader among registered voters in Arizona (Harris 47%, Trump 45%), Georgia (Harris 46%, Trump 45%), Michigan (Harris 47%, Trump 45%), North Carolina (Trump 46%, Harris 45%), Pennsylvania (Trump 46%, Harris 45%) or Wisconsin (Harris 46%, Trump 45%).
Trump’s edge in the Silver State: In Nevada, Trump takes 47% to Harris’ 42% among registered voters. The margins in each state are similar when looking at a head-to-head matchup among just Harris and Trump.
Combining the data across all seven states, the Wall Street Journal poll finds that Trump holds the advantage over Harris on trust to handle the economy (50% trust him more, to 40% who say Harris is better able to do so). A 65% majority of registered voters in those states say that inflation has moved in the wrong direction over the past year (down from 74% who said the same in March), with 50% saying their own finances have moved in the wrong direction, relatively unchanged from earlier this year.
While 41% of voters in these states call the economy or inflation their top issue in the election, compared with 18% who choose abortion, abortion is the issue more widely seen as a litmus test. Across the states, 28% of registered voters choose abortion as the issue they feel so strongly about that they could not vote for a candidate who disagreed with them, while a combined 17% choose the economy or inflation. Across the seven states, Harris leads Trump, 51% to 35%, on trust to handle abortion.
About the poll: The Wall Street Journal poll was conducted September 28 through October 8 by telephone and online, and surveyed 600 voters in each of the following states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Results for the full set of registered voters in each state have a margin of sampling error of +/- 4.0 percentage points; for the combined data, it is +/- 1.5 percentage points.
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Jill Biden will hit 5 battleground states in 4 days starting Saturday
From CNN's Aaron Pellish
First lady Jill Biden waves from the stage on the opening night of the DNC on August 19 in Chicago.
Biden will appear in Arizona on Saturday and Nevada on Sunday before traveling to both Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday and campaigning in Pennsylvania on Tuesday.
The Harris team is deploying the first lady to smaller, targeted markets to court undecided voters and to city suburbs as they look to mobilize women voters with less than a month until the election, the source said.
The return to the campaign trail marks a new phase of the first lady’s longtime role as a top Democratic surrogate. It comes more than two months after her husband, President Joe Biden, ended his own reelection bid after fellow Democrats privately and openly questioned his ability to win a second term — a difficult period for their family in his more than five decades in politics.
The first lady, a fierce supporter and defender of the president’s campaign for a second term up until his decision to withdraw on July 21, has largely stayed out of the political fray since that moment. She introduced her husband at the Democratic National Convention in August and expressed her support for Harris, who her late son Beau Biden worked with as a state attorney general.
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New DNC ad attacks Jill Stein in midwestern battleground states
From CNN's Aaron Pellish
The Democratic National Committee is running a new ad attacking Green Party candidate Jill Stein in midwestern battleground states, calling her a “spoiler” helping former President Donald Trump and telling voters “a vote for Stein is a vote for Trump.”
The ad, which will run in media markets in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and on cable networks across the country, blames Stein for Trump’s victory in 2016 and suggests Stein is collaborating with Trump allies to boost his chances in November. The ad features a clip of Trump praising Stein’s campaign, saying at a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this year, “Jill Stein, I like her very much. You know why? She takes 100% from them.”
“Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for president. So why are Trump’s close allies helping her? Stein was key to Trump’s 2016 wins in battleground states. She’s not sorry she helped Trump win. That’s why a vote for Stein is really a vote for Trump,” a narrator says in the ad as an image of Stein slowly morphs into an image of Trump.
Stein has tapped Jay Sekulow, a longtime conservative activist and former attorney for Trump, to represent her campaign in its fight to get on the ballot in Nevada, which ultimately failed after the Supreme Court declined to overturn a lower court ruling blocking Stein from the ballot.
While Stein has repeatedly denied she played a role in helping Trump get elected in 2016, Democrats often point to Stein’s vote share in midwestern battleground states, including in Wisconsin where her vote share was larger than the margin of victory for Trump in the state, as being a key factor in Trump’s 2016 path to victory.
In a statement announcing the ad, DNC senior adviser Mary Beth Cahill said the DNC’s new ad is an effort to make voters aware of Stein’s ties to Trump, arguing “the stakes of this election are too high to allow Stein to spoil it.”
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Walz expected to hit Trump over Detroit jab in remarks today
From CNN's Aaron Pellish and Ali Main
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is expected to sharply criticize former President Donald Trump for his swipe at the city of Detroit while speaking in Michigan on Thursday and for not committing to preserving federal funding for a Michigan automobile manufacturing plant during his speech in Warren, Michigan on Friday, a senior campaign official told CNN.
Walz is expected to slam Trump after the Republican presidential nominee after he warned during remarks at the Detroit Economic Club on Thursday that “our whole country will end up being like Detroit” and “you’re going to have a mess on your hands” if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected. Walz is expected to say of Trump and his Republican allies, “all these guys know about manufacturing is how to manufacture bullshit,” the official said.
The official said Walz will also push back on attacks lobbed by Trump and other Republicans that Harris is pushing for mandates to produce and purchase electric vehicles, insisting Americans will have “choice” on which cars to drive while continuing to call for investments in electric vehicle manufacturing “so our auto industry can stay competitive.”
“Some of these plants will produce electric vehicles. And I know some folks here might be a little skeptical of that. Here’s my take on this: People are looking for choices — and we need to make those choices more affordable. Nobody’s mandating anything. If you want to drive a ‘79 International Harvester Scout like I do, knock yourself out,” Walz is expected to say.
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In final stretch, Trump is defying polls and betting that voters care more about immigration than the economy
From CNN's Steve Contorno
Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Detroit Economic Club in Detroit on Thursday,
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
At last month’s presidential debate, Donald Trump claimed violent migrant gangs were “taking over” Aurora, Colorado, amplifying and exaggerating a disputed rumor his supporters had spread across the internet in the days leading up to his nationally televised face-off with Kamala Harris.
Now, the former president is set to hold a rally in Aurora, thrusting this midsize Mountain West city into the spotlight once again, along with the topic Trump hopes will decide this race: immigration.
Trump has all but staked his presidential campaign on convincing Americans that closing the border and kicking out those who illegally crossed it are the most pressing priorities for the country. It’s a pitch he has delivered with increasingly dark and offensive rhetoric that leans into stereotypes of foreigners from poorer countries.
He has claimed – over the repeated objections of state and local leaders, including from his own party – that Haitian migrants living in Springfield, Ohio, are “eating the pets” of the local residents. To the residents in a tiny Wisconsin town, he warned against what people from all over the world were “doing to the fabric, to the guts of our country.” This week, Trump espoused nativist arguments about some immigrants having “bad genes,”which cause them to commit crimes.
It’s a closing argument, though, that carries considerable risk. A steady stream of polls throughout the year and leading up to the final weeks of the presidential race have repeatedly affirmed that the economy is the issue of greatest concern to the most number of voters. In a recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS, more than 4 in 10 likely voters said the economy was the most important issue as they chose a candidate to lead the country. Only 12% said immigration ranked highest for them.
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Kamala Harris appears on digital Vogue as media blitz continues
From CNN's Andrew Millman
Vice President Kamala Harris is appearing on the cover of Vogue Magazine’s October digital cover, the latest in her media blitz this week as the election heads into the final stretch. The cover describes Harris as “the candidate for our times”
In the profile, Harris details what her priority would be on day one as president saying, “One of my first calls—outside of family—will be to the team that is working with me on our plan to lower costs for the American people” and she says she will also meet with “those who can help us put back in place the freedoms that have been taken away with the Dobbs decision,” which overturned Roe v. Wade, but acknowledged “that’s going to take some work.”
The vice president discussed the conflicts in the Middle East as CNN reports there is increasing frustration among Arab American leaders about Harris’ response to Israel’s recent actions in Lebanon. Michigan, which Biden narrowly won in 2020, will be a crucial battleground again this November and is home to a large Arab American population. Harris has dealt with pro-Palestinian protesters interrupting her speeches throughout her campaign.
Harris’ upbringing, early career as a prosecutor and personal life are also discussed in the profile. Matthew Rothschild, a friend and LGBTQ advocate, remarks at one point about Harris’ fashion style, “I remember one time I saw her coming out of a dental surgery and she looked great.”
In addition to Vogue this week, Harris has appeared on “60 Minutes,” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “The Howard Stern Show,” the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, and a Univision town hall.
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Charlamagne tha God and Harris will sit for "We the People" event in Detroit in effort to reach Black men
From CNN's Eva McKend
Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Detroit, Michigan, where she will participate in a radio town hall hosted by comedian, advocate, and nationally syndicated radio co-host Charlamagne tha God Tuesday in an event billed as “We the People,” the host announced on “The Breakfast Club” this morning where he solicited questions from listeners in advance of the event.
It comes as Democrats voice acute concern with the incremental gains Republicans are making with Black men and Harris’ struggles to recreate the multiracial coalition that led in part to President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020.
The popular host, also known as Lenard McKelvey, has millions of followers across digital platforms and “The Breakfast Club” reportedly boasts an estimated 8 million listeners per month, more than half of them Black.
During the hour-long conversation slated for 5 p.m. ET, Harris will take questions from callers from across battleground states. An estimated 139 radio stations in markets across the country will take the program, in addition to multiple digital streams and the iHeartRadio app.
Harris will focus in part on the economy and address and identify obstacles to creating intergenerational wealth for Black Americans, a senior Harris campaign official tells CNN.
The campaign’s decision to engage with “The Breakfast Club” host, who has voiced support for Harris, is part of a larger strategy of reaching voters in non-traditional platforms and through influencers to reach consumers who don’t get their information from mainstream media.
Making a surprise appearance at a Harris campaign office in Pittsburgh Thursday, former President Barack Obama lamented what he described as a lack of energy among Black men that “seems to be more pronounced with the brothers,” he said.
In the lead up to the big event, the Harris-Walz campaign will host a number of virtual and in-person voter activation events targeting Black voters across key battleground states in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.
Last week in Flint, Michigan, NBA star Magic Johnson echoed a similar sentiment.
“Our Black men, we gotta get them out to vote, that’s number one. Kamala’s opponent promised a lot of things last time to the Black community that he did not deliver on, and we gotta make sure we help Black men understand that,” Johnson said.
Tomorrow, in Atlanta, entertainers Jermaine Dupri, Armani White and Isaac Hayes III will host “Brothas and Brews” to connect with Black men.
And on Saturday, the campaign’s HBCU Homecoming Tour will host tailgates at Lincoln University in Philadelphia and at Fort Valley State University in Georgia.
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Walz praises Biden's record but stops short of saying he’s "done everything right"
From CNN's Aaron Pellish
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during the vice presidential debate on October 1.
Matt Rourke/AP
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said President Joe Biden has done “everything in the best interest of the American public” but stopped short of saying he’d done “everything right” during an interview with ABC News on Friday.
Walz was asked if he agreed with Vice President Kamala Harris, who said in an interview on Tuesday that she couldn’t think of anything she’d do differently from Biden over the last four years. Walz said he believes Harris was making the point that “her values on these hasn’t changed.”
“I think for all of us, we make decisions, we reanalyze afterwards. I think the thing that drew me to this ticket, and I think what the vice president’s talking about, is that her values on these hasn’t changed,” he said.
Walz praised Biden’s record over his last four years but stopped short of saying Biden has “done everything right” while stressing the difference between the Biden administration’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic versus the Trump administration.
“Look, I don’t know if any of us do everything right, but I can tell you he’s done everything in the best interest of the American public. He’s listened to what the public good. He’s asked for answers, and I think — you know, and reevaluated afterwards,” he said. “And I think if your values and the judgments you’re making and the ethical decisions you’re making — he’s done that, and I, again, have seen the difference that it made, especially during the Covid pandemic, of what it looks like to have that ethical, visionary leadership versus someone who’s incredibly self-centered.”
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Obama to Black men: It’s "not acceptable" to sit out this election
From CNN's Gregory Krieg and Edward-Isaac Dovere
Former President Barack Obama speaks at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh on Thursday.
Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
Former President Barack Obama on Thursday admonished Black men who he believes have not adequately supported Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, telling them it’s “not acceptable” to sit out this election and suggesting they might be reluctant to vote for Harris because she’s a woman.
The striking comments by Obama, made to a small group of voters in a surprise stop at a local Harris campaign office in Pittsburgh, were part of a more forceful campaign message delivered by the former president on Thursday as polls continue to show a neck-and-neck race. At a rally in the city later that evening, Obama issued some of his most searing public criticisms of his successor to date.
The lack of energy some see around Harris’ campaign, Obama told the group, “seems to be more pronounced with the brothers.”
The problem, he suggested, was less complicated than some are making it out to be – and that it often comes down to sexism.
“You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses, I’ve got a problem with that,” Obama 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.”
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Trump compares Detroit to a "developing nation" while speaking in the city
From CNN's Alayna Treene and Ali Main
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.
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Obama makes his harshest case yet against Trump at Pittsburgh rally
From CNN's Gregory Krieg and Edward-Isaac Dovere
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.”
“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.”
Harris campaign accepts CNN's invitation for a live town hall on October 23
From CNN's Samantha Waldenberg
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.
