October 19, 2024, presidential campaign news

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A fired-up former President Barack Obama on Saturday took to task people who he said have “made excuses” for former President Donald Trump’s behavior, arguing that “everything a president says is serious.”

Obama said he’s noticed this “especially among some men who seem to think Trump’s behavior of bullying people or putting them down is somehow a macho sign of strength.”

“I’m telling you, that’s not what real strength is. Never has been,” the former president said, adding that “Real strength is about helping those who have less or need some help, standing up for those who can’t always stand up for themselves.”

Closing his remarks, Obama told the crowd, “So whether this election is making you feel excited or scared or hopeful or frustrated or anything in between, do not sit back and hope for the best. Get off your couch and vote. Put down your phone and vote.”

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

The presidential candidates, along with their running mates, will bring their pitches to voters in critical swing states Sunday as the race for the White House enters its final leg.

Here’s where they’ll be:

Vice President Kamala Harris will appear at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, on Sunday morning before attending a “Souls to the Polls” voter mobilization event. Later in the day, MSNBC will air an interview with Al Sharpton and the vice president.

Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will start his day at a church service in Saginaw, Michigan, before delivering remarks at campaign receptions in Boston and Greenwich, Connecticut.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will also make the case for the Harris-Walz ticket in Michigan on Sunday, delivering remarks at a Jewish voters event in Detroit and joining billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban to highlight Harris’ vision for small businesses in Grand Rapids. And former President Bill Clinton will talk to voters in eastern North Carolina on Sunday, concluding his four-day swing in the state on behalf of campaign.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump is expected to hold a campaign town hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. While in the battleground state, he is expected to visit a McDonald’s and work the fry cooker as he continues to baselessly claim that Harris never worked at the fast-food chain.

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, will attend the Green Bay Packers vs. Houston Texans football game in Green Bay before attending campaign event in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Campaigning in Las Vegas on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign Saturday, former President Barack Obama defended the economy under his presidency and took credit for the job growth seen under former President Donald Trump’s first two years in office.

Obama also discussed down-ballot races, urging Nevadans to reelect incumbent Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen.

Former President Barack Obama on Saturday slammed former President Donald Trump as someone who doesn’t think about “anybody but himself” in making the case for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign.

“Donald Trump is a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down that golden escalator nine years ago,” he added.

Obama, who’s been hitting the campaign trail, encouraged Nevadans to vote early.

“We just got to drum this home here in Nevada; voting has already started,” the former president said.

Steve Bannon gets into his car before reporting to Danbury Federal Correctional Institution on July 1 in Danbury, Connecticut.

In a statement first obtained by CNN, former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon criticized Vice President Kamala Harris and suggested without evidence that she has a role in prolonging his prison sentence beyond his earliest possible release date.

The statement was obtained by CNN on Saturday night through Maureen Bannon, a former US Army captain, who keeps in touch with her father as he serves out his sentence at a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.

The First Step Act is a law passed during the Trump administration that allows for federal prisoners who are not considered a threat to public safety to be released earlier than the full time of their sentence. Bannon’s mandatory release date is October 29. Under the First Step Act, he would be eligible for release now.

Bannon’s statement accused the Biden administration and the Federal Bureau of Prisons of failing to carry out the release dates that the law allows, citing thousands of other prisoners without his resources who are also eligible for release but are still serving time.

The First Step Act allows minimum- and low-security prisoners to earn up to 15 days each month off their sentences, and those credits are capped at 365 days. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has struggled with implementation of the law in part because of confusion over calculations of how many credits inmates had earned.

Some background: Bannon is serving a four-month sentence for defying a congressional subpoena from the now-defunct House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack. The conservative podcaster has remained a staunch Trump ally and is a vocal supporter of his presidential reelection bid.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally on October 19, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

While kicking off his speech in battleground Pennsylvania on Saturday, former President Donald Trump spoke at length about the late legendary golfer Arnold Palmer, telling a meandering story for more than 10 minutes.

Trump also said Saturday he thought he was going to a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania on Sunday to “work the french fry,” as he continues to accuse Vice President Kamala Harris without evidence of lying about previously working at McDonald’s.

CNN previously reported Trump plans to visit a McDonald’s on Sunday to work the fry cooker.

Trump also again criticized mail-in voting and pushed for “one-day voting,” paper ballots, and voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements to vote.

Some background: Trump’s comments come even as his campaign is making a last-minute push to advocate for early and mail-in voting, methods the former president has falsely vilified for years as dangerous and fraudulent.

This post and headline have been updated.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a campaign rally on Saturday, October 19, in Papillion, Nebraska.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz doubled down on the Harris campaign’s push to highlight Donald Trump’s age and raise questions about his fitness for office, saying Saturday that the former president is “not up to this anymore.”

Walz argued during a rally in Papillion, Nebraska, that Trump is “more unfit” and “more deranged” now than he was when he first ran for the presidency in 2016 and suggested the criminal charges Trump faces make him more “desperate” to act in his own self-interest.

Walz also suggested Trump doesn’t have the “stamina” to be president, highlighting a Politico report that Trump’s campaign declined to participate in a podcast interview because he was “exhausted.”

“He’s nearly 80 years old. He’s out there rambling, moving around, we’ll give him a break. Look, he’s not up to this anymore, folks, he’s not up to it,” he said.

Walz, who was born in Nebraska, also emphasized the significance of the Electoral College vote awarded to the winner of the state’s 2nd Congressional District — what Democrats are hoping to claim as Omaha’s “blue dot.”

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event in Atlanta on October 19.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday continued to rail against Donald Trump over reproductive rights, as she again cited the case of Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who died in 2022.

A report by ProPublica last month revealed Thurman, 28, died from an infection due to delays in her medical care stemming from the state’s abortion restrictions. Thurman tried to schedule a surgical abortion four hours away in North Carolina, but due to traffic, she was late to the appointment. Instead, she had a medication abortion but developed rare, ultimately fatal complications.

Harris then played a clip of Fox News host Harris Faulkner alleging during a town hall with Trump earlier this week that Democrats were holding a “prebuttal” call with the Thurman family aimed at counterprogramming his appearance, to which Trump said he would “get better ratings.”

Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday blasted former President Donald Trump for describing his off-script moments in which he strays to several topics as the “weave.”

During an Economic Club of Chicago earlier this week, Trump made a virtue of his frequent instances of straying off message, and instead described it as a “weave” of multiple ideas.

“You know, I do the weave,” Trump said. “You know what the weave is? I’ll talk about like nine different things, and they all come back brilliantly together, and it’s like, friends of mine that are, like, English professors, they say, ‘It’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen.’”

Mark Cuban speaks at a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on October 17.

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban on Saturday slammed former President Donald Trump’s across-the-board-tariffs proposal on every import coming to the US as “insanity” and “literally stupid.”

“But if you just do across-the-board tariffs, that’s just insanity. That is literally stupid,” the “Shark Tank” host said at a town hall event in Phoenix while campaigning on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris.

The former president has repeatedly said he plans to impose an across-the-board tariff of either 10% or 20% on every import coming into the US, as well as a tariff upward of 60% on all Chinese imports, in a bid to encourage American manufacturing.

Cuban, who spoke about his own scrappy start in business, argued that Trump has “never felt the fear” and that “you cannot be a business person that helps anybody else, unless you felt the fear.”

Cuban’s comments came after Trump earlier Saturday slammed the billionaire for campaigning for Harris, calling him “a loser.”

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks during a news conference on September 10, in Washington, DC.

House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed Saturday to take up an “aggressive” agenda if he keeps the speaker’s gavel and expressed optimism that Republicans are poised to win the White House and both chambers of Congress.

Johnson, who is on a tour across the country, said he’s visiting 65 cities in 24 states this month, including blue states and swing districts.

Johnson acknowledged it would be a “close election,” but said he didn’t think polls were “fully registering what we’re experiencing and seeing,” predicting a “demographic shift” in the electorate.

He vowed a “very aggressive first 100 days agenda” if Trump is elected, adding, “You’re going to have the Senate Republicans working hand in hand with the House Republicans.”

Johnson, as well several members of the House GOP conference, were in Michigan on Saturday campaigning for House candidates Tom Barrett and Paul Junge, who Republicans see as top contenders to flip seats being vacated by Democratic incumbents.

Johnson also told the Michigan voters he asked his staff to leave “gifts” for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who is due to land later today at the same airport where the speaker held his event.

The items poked at Walz’s tendency to misspeak, including a “knucklehead” pillow, a water gun (“that he can actually load”), Sen. JD Vance’s memoir, a calendar, a map (so he can “find the southern border”) and a US flag (to “remind him what country he’s in”).

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally on Saturday, October 19, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday called Vice President Kamala Harris a “sh*t vice president” at a campaign event in Pennsylvania, ramping up his attacks on his Democratic rival in the final stretch of the campaign.

The crowd erupted in cheers at Trump’s insult.

“You’re the worst vice president. Kamala, you’re fired, get the hell out of here,” the former president said.

Usher speaks at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris on October 19 in Atlanta.

Grammy-winning artist Usher expressed his support for Vice President Kamala Harris and urged voters to head to the polls during a rally in battleground Georgia on Saturday.

Early voting began Tuesday in the swing state, where a record number of votes cast were cast on the first day. The singer stressed the impact voters can have in this election.

At one point during his remarks, an attendee yelled, “I love you.”

Usher responded: “I love you more, but I love Kamala Harris even more. I want her to be our next president of the United States.”

Former President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on October 19.

Jason Miller, senior adviser for Donald Trump, said the former president’s speech Saturday in Pennsylvania is expected to be the beginning of his closing argument in the final stretch of the race, and that a more formal closing argument will be presented at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden rally next weekend.

Mark Cuban speaks at a campaign event for Vice President Kamala Harris in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on October 17.

Former President Donald Trump attacked Mark Cuban on social media following the billionaire’s recent appearance on the campaign trail for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris was joined on the campaign trail this week by Cuban, the “Shark Tank” host and former majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks. In remarks in battleground Wisconsin, Cuban criticized Trump’s economic proposals, including his tariffs plan, and characterized the former president as the “grinch” as he touted Harris as the best candidate to deliver results for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Antonio Brown attends a rally for former President Donald Trump on Saturday, October 19, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

Former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown spoke Saturday at Donald Trump’s campaign event in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where he said the former president is “always ready for the fight.”

“And he’s always ready for the fight,” Brown added, before leading the crowd in chants of “Fight, fight, fight!”

Some background: Before Brown was released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2022, he was suspended for three games without pay after a league investigation determined he violated Covid-19 protocols. The NFL said there was evidence Brown and two other players “misrepresented their vaccination status.”

Brown had previously been suspended without pay when he was a free agent for the first eight games of the 2020 season for multiple violations of the league’s personal conduct policy. Prior to that, Brown was released by the New England Patriots as he faced accusations of sexual misconduct. In 2021, Brown told The New York Times through a representative that he had settled a lawsuit brought by a former trainer who had accused him of rape and sexual assault.

Boxes of ballots are seen in the back of a courier’s car outside Edina City Hall in Minnesota.

After a photo of nearly a dozen boxes of ballots left unattended circulated on social media, officials from Hennepin County, Michigan, said in a statement Friday that there was “no evidence of tampering” while the ballots were unattended.

Local Republican Party officials and supporters of former President Donald Trump with large online followings shared images of an election worker’s open car trunk with boxes of ballots outside Edina City Hall and used the lapse to question the security of mail-in voting.

The election worker has been fired, and county officials posted 18 minutes of surveillance footage to YouTube showing that no one interfered with the ballots while they were unattended with an open trunk in the parking lot for roughly nine minutes.

Officials also said all the ballots in the boxes were fully “accounted for” and that there was “no evidence of tampering” with the seals on the boxes containing the ballots. They further said all of the individual ballots were still “in sealed condition” — meaning nobody had tried to open the ballots or change anyone’s votes.

Experts say mail-in voting is secure, with paper trails and duplicative safeguards to prevent fraud, despite a yearslong effort by Trump to attack the process with false claims that it plagued by widespread fraud.

Read more here.

CNN recently asked readers to submit questions about the election, and submissions ranged from questions about the Electoral College to specific inquiries about why ballots in some counties look the way they do.

Here are some of the questions — edited for style and length — answered:

How long after Election Day could we expect to know the final results, given the myriad of lawsuits that will be filed if Donald Trump loses? From Steve from California

It could take a while, depending on the number of mail-in ballots cast in some states and how close things are. According to CNN’s director of election analytics, Jennifer Agiesta, some states, including Georgia and North Carolina, have taken measures since 2020 that will make their counting a bit faster.

How can we eliminate the Electoral College? From Linda in Washington

You’d need to change the US Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College. And that’s not impossible. The 12th Amendment changed the process early in US history.

But enacting a constitutional amendment is an arduous, two-step process.

First, an amendment can be proposed by a two-thirds majority vote in both the House and the Senate, or two-thirds of states can propose an amendment by requesting a constitutional convention.

Second, once an amendment is proposed, it must be ratified by either three-quarters of the state legislatures or conventions called in each state.

Read the answers to more election-related questions here.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz attends a rally in Durham, North Carolina, on October 17.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz predicted Vice President Kamala Harris “will win” North Carolina while emphasizing the need for her campaign to win the Midwestern battleground states to defeat former President Donald Trump.

Walz told the dozens of supporters at a banquet hall in the Park Hyatt in Chicago on Saturday that November’s election will be close and reiterated his belief that Harris’ campaign is “the underdog.” He promised that the vice president will carry the Tar Heel State — something a Democrat hasn’t done since Barack Obama in 2008.

Walz also expressed some confidence about the campaign’s chances in Georgia, another battleground state, and suggested it would be fulfilling to see former President Jimmy Carter’s vote there play a significant role in the outcome.

“How perfect would the universe align if we won Georgia by one vote and it was Jimmy Carter’s vote?” he said.