October 22, 2024, presidential campaign news

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris clasp and raise their hands after speaking at Prince George's Community College in Largo, Maryland, on August 15.

Vice President Kamala Harris defended President Joe Biden when asked about his ability to be president.

She called him “extremely accomplished, experienced and capable in every way that anyone would want of their president” during an interview with NBC News’ Hallie Jackson on Tuesday.

Asked specifically about Harris’ defense of Biden’s debate performance in June, the vice president reiterated that it “was a bad debate, people have bad debates.”

Pressed further that the debate could be a large part of why Harris is now the Democratic nominee, she told Jackson that “you’d have to ask him if that’s the only reason why.”

When he was the nominee, Biden fielded persistent questions about his age. At 81, he is the oldest president in history, and would have been 86 at the end of a potential second term.

The vice president continued to defend Biden, saying that she worked closely with the president and touted his accomplishments and relationships on the world stage and progress on agenda items.

“I speak with not only sincerity but with a real, first-hand account of watching him do this work,” Harris said. “I have no reluctance in saying that.”

Vice President Kamala Harris declined to say during an interview on Tuesday whether she would consider pardoning former President Donald Trump if she were to be elected president.

Asked by NBC News’ Hallie Jackson whether she would consider doing so if Trump is convicted in his pending federal cases, Harris responded: “I’m not going to get into those hypotheticals.”

Jackson’s question carries some historic precedence. Then-President Gerald Ford in 1974 granted his predecessor, Richard Nixon, a full preemptive pardon for any crimes Nixon may have committed as president. Unlike Trump, Nixon was never charged with a crime.

Trump was convicted earlier this year of dozens of felonies after a New York jury found he illegally paid a porn star who said she had an affair with Trump. The former president is facing pending cases related to alleged wrongdoing in the aftermath of the 2020 election and his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Two of those cases are being tried in federal court, and Harris as president would have the power to pardon Trump in those cases if she chose to do so.

Harris told Jackson she’s “focused on the next 14 days.”

Asked whether she thought a pardon would help the country move on from Trump’s criminal cases, Harris responded: “Let me tell you what’s going to help us move on – I get elected president of the United States.”

Asked whether she would consider a Cabinet appointment for Republican former Rep. Liz Cheney, who has endorsed Harris, the vice president responded: “I’ll keep you posted.” She has previously vowed to place a Republican in her Cabinet.

Democratic presidential nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 19.

Kamala Harris lifted language from a Republican attorney when she testified in front of Congress in 2007, a CNN review of her testimony finds.

Experts CNN spoke with said that the instance, first reported by conservative news outlet the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday, raises concern but does not constitute a serious example of plagiarism.

The instance occurred when Harris was district attorney of San Francisco. She testified at the time before the House Judiciary Committee in support of the John R. Justice Prosecutors and Defenders Incentive Act of 2007, which would have created a student loan repayment program for state and local prosecutors and public defenders.

Her prepared testimony lifted paragraphs from the prepared testimony of Paul Logli, then a Republican state’s attorney from Illinois and chairman of the board of the National District Attorneys Association, who testified before the Senate two months earlier. The paragraphs use the same survey and nearly identical language to each other.

At the time, Harris served on the board of directors of the National District Attorneys Association, according to her testimony. CNN reached out to Logli for comment but did not receive a response.

Logli told the Free Beacon that he remembers the organization researched and drafted his opening statement. He said the organization likely used similar statements to be consistent with its positions.

“Kamala Harris represented California state prosecutors as a member of the Board of Directors of NDAA and was testifying in that capacity two months later before the House Judiciary Committee,” he told the Beacon. “I believe she also relied on NDAA staff support for her opening statement.”

The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Read more here about the testimony

Vice President Kamala Harris was repeatedly pressed on Tuesday about whether she would make concessions on abortion legislation if she were to be elected president with a Republican-controlled Congress.

In the interview with NBC News’ Hallie Jackson, Harris initially resisted answering the hypothetical question before telling Jackson: “I don’t believe we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decision about your own body.”

“I’m not going to engage in hypotheticals,” she said when asked about Republican members of Congress who may vote for watered-down abortion protections.

Harris was also asked about her support for gender-affirming care. The Trump campaign has attacked Harris for supporting such care for transgender federal prisoners.

“I believe we should follow the law,” Harris said when asked whether transgender Americans should have access to gender-affirming care.

“But also let us understand that Donald Trump is running tens of millions of dollars in ads to talk about two cases to distract from the fact that his policy and plan is also to take away the Affordable Care Act,” she added.

“I believe that all people should be treated with dignity and respect, period,” Harris said. “And should not be vilified for who they are, and should not be bullied for who they are.”

Former President Donald Trump praised Adolf Hitler’s generals for their loyalty to the German dictator and said he wished American military personnel showed him the same deference, according to a new story published Tuesday by The Atlantic.

American military officers, such as generals, swear an oath to the Constitution and not the commander-in-chief.

Trump has reportedly made similar comments about Adolf Hitler and his generals. A book published in 2022 also reported Trump told his then-chief of staff, John Kelly, “Why can’t you be like the German generals?” The comments by Trump when he was president were reported in “The Divider: Trump in the White House,” by reporters Peter Baker and Susan Glasser.

When The Atlantic asked Kelly recently about the exchange, the retired Marine general confirmed it.

“‘Do you mean Bismarck’s generals?’” Kelly told The Atlantic, recounting the moment. He added, “I mean, I knew he didn’t know who Bismarck was, or about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, ‘Do you mean the kaiser’s generals? Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’ I explained to him that Rommel had to commit suicide after taking part in a plot against Hitler.”

“This is absolutely false. President Trump never said this,” said Alex Pfeiffer, a Trump campaign adviser.

The article lays out a series of stories that The Atlantic uses to illustrate Trump’s views on the military and his desires on how they perform under his command. In addition to recounting the former president’s musings on the loyalty of Nazi generals, The Atlantic also reported Trump was furious when told how much the funeral for a fallen servicemember cost after he had volunteered to pay for it.

The Atlantic reported that that Trump told the family of Fort Hood Pfc. Vanessa Guillen, who was bludgeoned to death with a hammer in the armory room where she worked, that would pay for the funeral costs but never paid.

When he received the $60,000 bill, the Atlantic reported – citing two people present at the meeting and the notes of someone at the meeting – Trump said, “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f–king Mexican!”

Trump told his then-chief of staff Mark Meadows and directed him not to pay the funeral bill. Later in the day, Trump reportedly said, “F–king people, trying to rip me off.”

“President Donald Trump never said that. This is an outrageous lie from the Atlantic two weeks before the election,” Pfeiffer said.

Vice President Kamala Harris said during an interview on Tuesday that she is worried Donald Trump might prematurely try to claim victory in the election like he did in 2020.

During an interview with NBC News’ Hallie Jackson, Jackson asked the vice president what she would do if Trump declared victory before all votes were counted. Harris initially resisted directly answering the question.

“Well, let me say this: We’ve got two weeks to go, and I am very much grounded in the present in terms of the task at hand, and we will deal with election night and the days after as they come, and we have the resources and the expertise and the focus on that as well.”

Jackson cut in to ask: “So you have teams ready to go, is that what you’re saying? Are you thinking of that as a possibility?”

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks at NHTI Concord Community College in Concord, New Hampshire, on October 22.

President Joe Biden took aim at former President Donald Trump on the issue of health care on Tuesday, starkly warning there would be more efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act if Trump is back in the White House, ousting millions of Americans from their coverage.

He pointed out that Republicans have introduced 51 bills over the last three years to cut the ACA. Biden warned that if Trump is reelected, he “can kick up to 45 million people off their health insurance,” and “over 100 million people could lose health care coverage because they have a pre-existing condition.”

Trump, he added, “means what he says.”

On drug costs: With three months before a to-be-determined successor takes office, Biden also touted his work fighting Big Pharma throughout his political career, seeking to burnish his legacy on health care accessibility and affordability. Biden was speaking at an event with his one-time rival, Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders.

“One of the proudest things I’ve ever done,” he said, was passing the Inflation Reduction Act during his presidency.

He noted it was “a law that Democrats passed,” even as some Republicans are trying to take credit for its provisions, and highlighted the impact that the bill has had on taxpayers, saving $160 billion.

In a ruling Tuesday, the Georgia Supreme Court decided it won’t let the state election board enforce a slate of controversial new election rules that were passed by allies of Donald Trump, siding against Republicans who asked for them to be revived as early voting got underway in the critical battleground state.

The unanimous decision from the conservative-majority court was technical: The justices did not rule on the legality of the seven rules but instead declined to pause a decision issued by a lower-court judge last week that struck them down.

The order is a major victory for Democrats and others have filed a slew of lawsuits against the rules, arguing the board exceeded its authority when it passed them.

Among the seven rules is one that would require county election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into election results before certifying them and another that would allow them to “examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results.”

Other rules would have required officials to hand-count the number of ballots cast at each polling place on Election Day, expanded the number of areas poll watchers can access and required after-hour video surveillance of drop boxes at early voting locations.

The post was updated with more details on the ruling.

Jane Beckering appears before a senate committee on the judiciary hearing for her nomination to be United States District Judge, in Washington, DC, on October 6, 2021.

A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a Republican National Committee lawsuit that tried to force Michigan to remove inactive voters from the rolls, concluding that the GOP fell short of proving anything more than “a mere possibility of misconduct.”

The decision comes amid a public battle over the integrity of Michigan’s voter rolls, waged between the state’s top election officials and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has promoted false claims that there are more registered voters than citizens in the state.

Federal District Judge Jane Beckering, a Biden appointee, threw out the lawsuit on procedural grounds, finding that the RNC didn’t have standing to pursue the case.

But Beckering also wrote in a 30-page ruling that even if the RNC had standing, they didn’t come close to offering enough evidence demonstrating that Michigan election officials neglected their legal responsibility to remove inactive voters from the rolls.

“The quality of the pleading does not permit the Court to infer more than a mere possibility of misconduct,” Beckering said, adding that Republicans presented weak “factual inferences” based on US Census data to argue that the voter rolls were bloated.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office, the RNC and DNC did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling. The RNC sued Benson, a Democrat, because her office oversees elections in the state.

The federal law at the heart of the case – the National Voter Registration Act, passed in 1993 with bipartisan support – requires states to make a “reasonable effort” to remove ineligible voters from the rolls. There are limits in place to prevent eligible voters form being purged: States can only remove inactive voters after two federal general elections.

“In telling fashion,” Beckering wrote, the RNC proposed a remedy that “flips the statutory mandate on its head.” They sought a court order forcing Michigan to “ensure that ineligible registrants are not on the voter rolls” – though the law actually requires states to “ensure that any eligible applicant is registered to vote,” the judge noted.

Former President Barack Obama empathized with voters who say they are struggling and want things to change — whether that be the cost of goods or the price of housing rent — but argued that former President Donald Trump is not the candidate who can improve things.

Obama slammed Trump, saying that “there is absolutely no evidence that this man thinks about anybody but himself.”

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

He also attacked the other former president for trying to sell things like watches and Trump-themed sneakers while he is running for president: “When he’s not complaining, he’s trying to sell you stuff.”

Obama also pushed back against claims that Trump’s policies created in a better economy under the Trump administration.

“I talk to some folks and-and they’ll say, ‘Yeah, you know, I do remember the economy was pretty good when Trump first came into office.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, because it was my economy,’” Obama said.

He then slammed Trump’s economic policies, “So when I handed over 75 straight months of job growth to Donald Trump all he did was give a tax cut to people who didn’t need it, drove up the deficit in the process. So, don’t have nostalgia for what his economy was, because that was mine.”

The post was updated with more of Obama’s remarks in Madison.

CNN’s Maureen Chowdhury contributed to this post.

Former US President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign rally with Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz in support of Kamala Harris in Madison, Wisconsin, on October 22.

Former President Barack Obama has cast his ballot, he announced during a campaign rally in Wisconsin on Tuesday.

Obama, who appeared at the Madison rally after Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said he voted by mail on Monday in Chicago. They were holding the rally in Wisconsin to mark the start of early voting in that state.

Obama told the crowd: “If you haven’t voted yet, I won’t be offended if you just walk out right now.”

Obama kicked off his speech by apologizing for being late. He said he was originally slated to fly to Wisconsin from Chicago on Tuesday, but opted to drive after discovering his plane was leaking oil.

Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz speaks at a campaign rally in support of Kamala Harris in Madison, Wisconsin, on October 22.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz delivered a series of attacks on former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, as Kamala Harris’ campaign seeks to ratchet up the pressure on their opponent with two weeks until the Election Day.

Speaking ahead of former President Barack Obama during a rally in Wisconsin, where early in-person voting kicked off today, Walz lambasted Trump’s hair, weight and mental fitness. Running a campaign and being president, Walz said, “takes stamina.”

“And Donald Trump does not have stamina. He has been rambling more than the normal rambling. He calls it the weave. Donald, c’mon, we know there is only one weave that you know anything about — and it is not this.”

Referencing Trump’s debate with Harris and his refusal to participate in another, Walz said that when you are “whipped that hard, you don’t come back for seconds.”

And on the visit Trump made to a Pennsylvania McDonald’s over the weekend, Walz said: “They found him an apron his size and put it on him.”

He said Trump might have thought he was dressing up for Halloween because “he’s been forgetting things lately, as you might have noticed.”

Attacks on Trump’s age and stamina did not come easy for Democrats until the 81-year-old incumbent President Joe Biden dropped from the race in July over persistent concerns about his own age. The Harris campaign has long leaned into bizarre comments Trump makes during his public appearances.

Walz then turned his ire onto billionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk, who he jokingly described as Trump’s “running mate.” Discussing an appearance Musk made at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month, Walz said Musk was “on that stage, jumping around, skipping like a dipsh*t.”

Walz criticized Trump’s vow to appoint Musk to a commission overseeing government efficiency if he wins.

“In other words, Donald Trump, in front of the eyes of the American public, is promising corruption,” Walz said. “That’s what he’s promising you. And you know what? I don’t believe he keeps many promises, but he’ll keep that one.

“Here’s the good news, Madison: Donald Trump is never going to be president and Elon Musk is never going to run anything,” Walz concluded.

Two weeks to Election Day and millions of Americans are voting every day, either early in person or by returning mail-in ballots. According to the the firms Catalist and Edison Research around noon Tuesday, more than 18 million people have cast their ballots already. For reference, more than 150 million total ballots were cast in 2020.

But, don’t draw conclusions from the early vote. For starters, all of the votes — those cast early and those cast on Election Day — count equally. This is also a much different year from 2020. In that pandemic year, far more Americans voted by mail than are expected to this year. Much of the early vote this year will be cast in person.

Beyond the differences in how people might vote this year, it’s also hard to compare 2020 with 2024 because the populations in key states and across the country have changed in the past four years, according to CNN senior political analyst Ronald Brownstein.

In North Carolina: Nearly equal percentages of Republicans, Democrats and independents have cast ballots in North Carolina so far, either by mail or early in person. But, Republican strategist Doug Heye said Tuesday on CNN that he is mostly paying attention to the unaffiliated voters who he said could ultimately decide the outcome.

In Georgia: More women, making up 55% of the early vote so far, have voted in the Peach State, according to the ballots for which Catalist has data. Biden won more than half of Georgia women in 2020, and women also accounted for more than half of voters that year, according to CNN exit polls.

On the other hand, the largest age group that has cast early ballots in Georgia is older voters. Trump won them in 2020, according to exit polls.

Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas told voters that they should focus on the future that they want when they cast their ballots in this year’s election.

Crockett, a national co-chair for Kamala Harris’ campaign, told voters in Michigan that she understands that some people may be” triggered” when they hear Harris or when they hear Donald Trump, “but honestly … neither one of them should really be the biggest focus. The focus has to be on us and the future that we want in this country, the future that we demand as the people.”

Crockett, who has risen to prominence since being elected in 2022, said she keeps “it real, whether, you know it’s good or bad or indifferent,” explaining that people don’t want to engage in politics “because they simply don’t trust politicians.”

She said Harris wasn’t “leaving any stone unturned” in terms of which groups of voters she is reaching out to, and spoke to the importance of younger, Gen-Z voters.

Crockett took a question from a voter who asked if the campaign had “contingencies” for Trump’s potential behavior if he loses the election and stokes the same chaos that he did in 2020.

She brought up how Congress has overhauled the Electoral Count Act since January 6, 2021 to make it clear certification is “more ministerial than an actual act of something that y’all need to do.”

She also said she has been helping out congressional candidates in competitive districts, including in Michigan, to ensure Democrats take back the House.

Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump hugs Elon Musk at a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on October 5.

Elon Musk’s pro-Trump super PAC has reported spending more than $110 million on its efforts to get the former president reelected – giving the Trump campaign a huge lift on canvassing and field operations in key swing states during the closing weeks of the race.

America PAC reported a new round of independent expenditures to federal regulators on Tuesday, bringing its total disclosed spending on the White House race just past $110 million, including more than $70 million that the super PAC has designated as spending on canvassing and field operations. The rest goes to digital ads, printing and postage, and texting and phone calls.

Recent disclosures from America PAC show how Musk, the world’s richest person, has funneled tens of millions of dollars into the pro-Trump effort, giving the group about $75 million during the third quarter of the year, enabling the super PAC’s spending spree as the group’s sole donor during that period.

Musk also made headlines over the weekend when he upped the ante on his support, declaring that he would give away $1 million each day until Election Day to registered voters in battleground states. Musk’s giveaway is not being paid for by America PAC, but it’s another example of the tech billionaire deploying his personal fortune to support Trump in the White House race.

And America PAC has also participated in cash giveaways, offering $47 to organizers for each battleground voter that they are able to get to sign a petition in support of the U.S. Constitution – a tactic aimed at building the group’s voter contact list, a key component of field organizing.

During the first three weeks of October, Democrats outspent Republicans in six of the ten Senate races that saw most advertising. Those ten contests accounted for more than 90% of all the ad spending in Senate races across the country.

Democrats led in Pennsylvania, Texas, Montana, Arizona, Nevada and Florida. Republicans, meanwhile, led in key Senate contests in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Maryland, putting pressure on Democrats as they fought to defend their narrow majority.

But that could change: Future ad bookings are subject to change, and could shift as the candidates and their allies pour money into these key contests — but looking at reservations for the final two weeks, Republicans are set to take the advantage in six of the ten top contests.

Here’s a look at ad spending in key races in the final two weeks:

Former President Donald Trump will record an interview with Joe Rogan for his podcast on Friday, according to two sources familiar with the plans.

The interview is expected to take place at Rogan’s studio in Austin, Texas. This will be Trump’s first appearance on Rogan’s podcast.

Trump campaign officials have been working to secure this interview for months and had hoped that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement would help secure the interview. This is part of the campaign’s effort to reach low-propensity and third-party voters.

Some context: Rogan first launched his podcast in 2009. In the past three years, “The Joe Rogan Experience” has consistently been the number-one podcast across the globe. The show has attracted its fair share of controversy, too, coming under fire during the pandemic for Rogan’s skepticism about Covid-19.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz falsely claimed in a high-profile Monday television appearance that more manufacturing jobs were lost under President Donald Trump than any other president.

“We know Donald Trump lost more manufacturing jobs than any president in American history. That’s simply factual,” the Minnesota governor said in an interview on the ABC talk show “The View.”

Facts First: Walz’s claim is false. Official statistics show that significantly more manufacturing jobs were lost during the presidencies of George W. Bush (4.54 million), George H.W. Bush (1.27 million), Dwight D. Eisenhower (1.2 million), Gerald Ford (767,000) and Ronald Reagan (582,000) than during the Trump presidency (178,000). There were also slightly more manufacturing jobs lost under President Barack Obama (195,000) than under Trump, though that was overwhelmingly because Obama inherited a steep recession.

From the beginning of his presidency in January 2017 through February 2020, just before the pandemic crash, the economy added 414,000 manufacturing jobs.

Manufacturing employment, like overall employment, plummeted as much of the US economy shut down in March and April 2020 – shedding 1.3 million jobs in April 2020 alone.

The economy then immediately resumed adding manufacturing jobs, adding them each month from May to December 2020 before a small loss in January 2021. But those gains were not enough to make up for the losses of March and April 2020.

Read more on this fact check about Trump and manufacturing here.

Lizzo attends a campaign event for Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris at Western International High School in Detroit, on October 19.

With Vice President Kamala Harris aides still on a frantic chase to find disengaged voters with two weeks until Election Day, much of the campaign’s upcoming outreach will come in the form of tactics that are new to presidential campaigns.

Campaign aides believe they can make the difference via the surrogates they have lined up, whether those are celebrities making targeted social media appearances or community members sending direct texts.

After months of carefully poll-testing well-known nonpoliticians, including entertainers and athletes, the campaign will roll out even more endorsements, interviews and appearances meant to break through to tuned-out voters.

Former President Barack Obama is campaigning on behalf of the Harris-Walz ticket in Detroit, Michigan, on Tuesday where rapper Eminem will be making an appearance. And on Thursday, singer Bruce Springsteen will appear with Harris and Obama at a get out the vote rally in Atlanta, Georgia, according to sources familiar with the plans.

While several top Democratic operatives said they worry Harris may be losing the traditional TV ad wars in the face of Republicans’ extensive and intense attacks on transgender issues, the Harris aides disagreed.

Most of the up-for-grabs voters aren’t paying attention to those ads if they’re watching TV at all, the aides contended. And the campaign believes it has the edge over Trump’s operation, thanks to months of precinct-by-precinct organizing and planning that is constantly being adjusted based on early vote and online data.

Russian operatives created and amplified false online content attempting to smear Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday.

The content in question — which included manipulated audio content that circulated on the social media platform X in the last week — contained “several indicators of manipulation that are consistent with the influence efforts and tactics with Russian actors,” an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) told reporters on Tuesday.

The statement was based on newly available intelligence and analysts worked over the weekend to analyze the media content, the official said.

Some posts circulating the fake content on X garnered hundreds of thousands of views and were amplified by right-wing personalities. The episode had echoes of the bizarre and false “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory that attempted to smear Democrats in 2016.

It is evidence of Russia’s 11th-hour efforts to malignly influence the 2024 presidential election in favor of former President Donald Trump, whom US intelligence assesses is the Kremlin’s preferred choice.

With two weeks until Election Day, accusations of foreign meddling are extremely political sensitive. The intelligence community has repeatedly exposed influence operations from Russia and Iran aimed at hurting Vice President KamalaHarris and Trump, respectively, in an effort to make those influence operations less impactful with the American public.

In a statement, the Harris-Walz campaign expressed concern that media coverage could amplify the false Russian claims.

“We believe it is possible to cover the Russian targeting operation without giving additional exposure to their false claims, which have already been well-debunked,” Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said in an email.

Pennsylvania’s secretary of state issued a sharp warning this week to Lancaster County in response to claims that it was creating improper hurdles for local college students trying to register to vote.

In a letter Monday, Al Schmidt, a Republican, said:

Local college students have reported their registrations were put in pending status or they were told they had to cancel voter registrations in their home states before their Pennsylvania voter registration could be confirmed.

“The Department demands that you immediately investigate these matters and compel the elections office to properly adjudicate all registration applications in compliance with Pennsylvania law, as well as to reinstate all registrations which have been erroneously placed on hold,” Schmidt wrote to the Lancaster County Commissioners.

Former President Donald Trump carried Lancaster County by nearly 16 points in the 2020 presidential election.

In a public meeting Tuesday, members of the Lancaster County Commissioners defended local election staff and criticized the letter from Schmidt.

Ray D’Agostino, the Republican vice-chairman of the commission, said “a simple misunderstanding was blown way out proportion.”

He added that all the voter registrations by students in question were entered into the system.

“What’s happened here recently is a disservice to the people of Lancaster County, to the election process and most importantly to the staff and volunteers who conduct elections,” D’Agostino said.

The post was updated with reaction from Lancaster County Commissioners.

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

Mark Cuban, the billionaire investor supporting Kamala Harris’ campaign, says he had suggested to the Harris team that the vice president meet with Elon Musk — another billionaire who is supporting Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.

“I suggested they meet privately,” Cuban told CNN, but said the Harris campaign made clear their concerns about discretion. “They felt like the meeting wouldn’t stay private.”

Asked why he felt a Harris-Musk meeting might be worthwhile, Cuban said simply: “It never hurts for them to get to know each other.”

A Harris campaign aide declined to comment.

More context: Musk’s public involvement with the Trump campaign this cycle has attracted a large amount of attention, including the Tesla CEO’s promise to give away $1 million each day to registered voters in battleground states. Musk has also given more than $75 million to his pro-Trump super PAC and backed efforts to get Trump supporters out to vote

Former President Donald Trump participates in a roundtable discussion at the Latino Summit held at Trump National Doral Golf Club on October 22 in Doral, Florida.

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday hosted a roundtable with Latino faith and business leaders at his South Florida golf club, where he vowed to end what he described as a “sickness” in the country once he is elected.

During his opening remarks at the event at Trump National Doral, the former president complained about solar energy and claimed his opponent Vice President Kamala Harris was “taking the day off” from campaigning. The vice president is in Washington, DC, today and will participate in interviews with NBC News and Spanish-language network Telemundo.

Trump’s last day without a public event was October 8, which was 12 days ago when he had to postpone the Latino roundtable event and Univision also postponed a town hall they were scheduled to hold with Trump because of Hurricane Milton.

Referencing the leak of US intelligence that detailed an Israeli attack plan against Iran, Trump suggested that an “enemy from within” released the classified material. The FBI is leading the probe into the leak, which is in its early stages.

Trump slammed the Biden administration’s policy on the border, saying “I actually think that the biggest thing is the border, because the border is destroying our country.” Trump also painted a dark picture as he described what he believes are the stakes of the election in two weeks.

“If we lost this election, we may not have a country anymore. We may never — and I’ve heard this from a lot of very smart people that are very straight down the middle — they say we may never have an election again in this country,” Trump said.

Toward the end of the event, Trump criticized Harris’ policy on transgender people. After speaking about trans women playing in sports, the former president said: “There’s a sickness going on in our country. We have to end the sickness.”

The event ended with attendees gathering around Trump and laying their hands on him in prayer.

CNN’s Donald Judd contributed reporting to this post.

This post has been updated with more reporting on the candidates’ public events.

Sen. Ted Cruz addresses supporters during a campaign event on October 5 in Keller, Texas.

In the final weeks of key 2024 Senate races, Republicans are targeting Democrats with sharp attacks focused on transgender policies, reflecting a messaging tactic also shaping the presidential contest, and prompting some Democratic candidates to respond on-air.

On Tuesday, GOP Texas Sen. Ted Cruz launched the latest ad from his campaign focused on the issue, going up with an ad slamming his opponent, Democratic Rep. Colin Allred, and linking him to Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Harris called keeping boys out of girls’ bathrooms hateful. Colin Allred voted for boys in girls sports twice,“ Cruz’s ad opens, closing with the line, “Harris and Allred: two liberals, too liberal for Texas.”

Facing waves of attacks on the issue, Allred became the first Senate Democrat to respond to the criticism on-air, launching a TV ad earlier this month pushing back and saying that “Ted Cruz is lying again, but now he’s lying about our children.”

“I’m a dad. I’m also a Christian. And my faith has taught me that all kids are God’s kids. So let me be clear. I don’t want boys playing girls sports or any of this ridiculous stuff that Ted Cruz is saying,” Allred says in the ad.

Allred was the first Democratic candidate to respond to the Republican attacks in an ad of his own, but in recent weeks, a few of his peers have also produced responses to attack ads from their opponents on certain transgender-related issues.

Rep. Colin Allred speaks during a campaign event that saw volunteers man phones on October 3, in San Antonio, Texas.

In Ohio, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown launched an ad in a joint buy with the DSCC rebutting some of the charges leveled at him by Republicans.

“What if I told you all of this was a lie, a complete lie. And Bernie Moreno knows it. The truth is in Ohio, this has already been banned. Sherrod Brown agrees with Governor DeWine. These decisions should be made by local sports leagues, not politicians,” Brown’s ad says.

And on Tuesday, Democratic Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin also launched an ad responding directly to the attacks from her GOP opponent Eric Hovde and his allies.

“Eric Hovde is trying to scare you. The truth is, no sex change surgeries take place on minors in Wisconsin. Zero. And Baldwin didn’t give funding to a transgender clinic. It’s actually a youth homeless shelter. Eric Hovde is a billionaire banker who thinks he can lie about anything,” Baldwin’s ad says.

Bruce Springsteen will appear with Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Barack Obama at a get out the vote rally in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, according to sources familiar with the plans.

The singer will also appear with Obama for a campaign event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Monday, October 28.

Obama is also campaigning on behalf of the Harris-Walz ticket in Detroit, Michigan, today where rapper Eminem will be making an appearance.

CNN’s Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.

Two weeks remain in the 2024 presidential race, and advertising reservations from both candidates and their allies show how each side is placing its bets down the stretch in key battlegrounds.

Democrats are set to outspend Republicans in five of the seven key swing states, but Republicans are currently poised for an edge in Pennsylvania, the largest battleground prize, and in North Carolina, the focus of a concerted Democratic push earlier this month.

Here’s what ad spending looks across a few swing states:

Pennsylvania: The Keystone State is set to see more than $86 million worth of advertising in the final two weeks, and Republicans have about $45 million booked, while Democrats have about $42 million reserved.

Michigan: Democrats have blitzed Republicans with advertising for the presidential race, outspending their rivals by more than $50 million across the state between Biden’s decision to drop out of the race on July 22 and yesterday, October 21.

Georgia: This state is set to see the third most presidential advertising during the final two weeks. Democrats are investing heavily, currently poised for an advantage of more than $7 million across the state, according to the latest AdImpact data.

Remember: Future ad bookings are subject to change as the candidates and outside groups continue pouring money into the race – but as of two weeks out, Pennsylvania remains the dominant target.

Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Houston, Texas on Friday to campaign on abortion rights as she seeks to draw a contrast with former President Donald Trump over the controversial issue ahead of Election Day, according to a senior campaign official.

During her remarks, the vice president is expected to warn of the threat a second Trump term poses to women’s reproductive freedom. Harris will also place blame on the former president for extreme abortion bans, including in Texas, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. She will be joined by women who have been impacted by the restrictive laws.

Democratic Senate nominee Rep. Colin Allred will join Harris in Houston as part of a get out the vote effort as he seeks to replace incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. While in Texas, Harris will also sit down for an interview with popular podcaster Brené Brown as she continues to participate in media engagements in an effort to reach voters where they are.

More background: In 2021, Texas banned abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy — before many people know they are pregnant. A trigger law came into effect, essentially blocking all abortions other than those when the mother is “at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function unless the abortion is performed or induced.”

In addition to criminalizing abortions, Texas also allows private citizens to file a civil lawsuit against anyone who knowingly “aids or abets” an abortion.

On the campaign trail, Harris has often labeled extreme measures on abortion rights being adopted across the country a “health care crisis,” and has argued Trump is “the architect of this crisis.”  If elected, she has vowed to restore women’s reproductive freedom.

Harris’ trip to Texas comes with less than two weeks until Election Day and the campaign is hoping the political saliency of reproductive rights can help mobilize voters to head to the polls. This November, voters in at least 10 states will take to the polls to determine the future of abortion access in their state.

Elena Jimenez carries a voting guide during a voter engagement event for the Latino community in Greensboro, North Carolina, on September 21.

With two weeks until Election Day and nearly 16 million ballots already cast across the country, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are competing for a shrinking universe of available voters — with the audiences the two nominees are striving to reach serving as a guide of where their campaigns see the 2024 race ultimately being decided.

Targeted message: The fight for Latino voters is very much in the spotlight Tuesday. Trump is holding a roundtable with Latino leaders at his Doral golf resort in the Miami area while Harris sits down for an interview with Telemundo where she is expected to announce new efforts to expand economic opportunity aimed at Latino men. The dueling appeals come as polls have shown Harris’ support among Latino voters lagging behind the performance of past Democratic nominees, with even a small shift in the margins having the potential to alter the outcome in battleground states such as Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

On Monday, Harris spent the day alongside former Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney in an effort to try and win over independent and moderate Republican voters in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee. Cheney leaned on her conservative credentials to vouch for the vice president and encourage likeminded Americans to “vote your conscience” without ever needing “to say a word to anybody.”

CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere explores the strategy for the Harris campaign in the final two weeks and how it plans to reach the increasingly narrow slice of the electorate that remains up for grabs:

In addition to the vice president’s outreach, the campaign is also deploying surrogates in ways to maximize their impact ahead of Election Day. Former President Barack Obama will visit two Democratic strongholds on Tuesday — Madison, Wisconsin and Detroit. In Wisconsin, the former president will be joined by vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, while in Michigan, Obama will be introduced by rapper Eminem, who is expected to offer rare thoughts on campaign politics, CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reports.

Trump’s Tar Heel pitch: Following his Florida event, the former president is set to return to North Carolina for a second consecutive day after holding a trio of events in the Tar Heel State on Monday that underscored the importance of the state’s 16 electoral votes to Trump’s pathway to victory in November.

Taken together, the three events showed how the GOP nominee has made stoking fears about a Harris presidency central to his closing argument. He sought to appeal to evangelical voters by accusing Harris of being “very destructive to religion” while also railing against the vice president’s handling of immigration, continuing to push false claims that FEMA has run out of money for disaster relief for those affected by recent storms because the Biden administration spent the funds on undocumented immigrants.

The Harris campaign has made concerns about Trump a centerpiece of its messaging as well — with the vice president repeatedly warning that her Republican rival is “unstable” and “unhinged” — leaning on that contrast to motivate voters who might still hold reservations about her candidacy.

Vice President Kamala Harris listens as Liz Cheney speaks during a moderated conversation at Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookfield, Wisconsin, on October 21.

Republican women can vote for Kamala Harris — and they don’t need to tell anyone about it.

That was the most striking takeaway from Liz Cheney’s blue wall swing-state tour with the vice president on Monday, as the hardline conservative and former congresswoman created a permission structure of personal empowerment for suburban Republican and independent women to snub Donald Trump and back the Democratic nominee.

The mother of five, who was staunchly anti-abortion as a lawmaker and who cheered the demise of Roe v. Wade, also warned women aren’t getting needed reproductive health care after the Supreme Court’s momentous 2022 decision and said that only Harris had the compassion to deal with the issue.

Cheney repeatedly made clear she still opposes abortion but explained in Waukesha County, a swing district just outside Milwaukee, that “I have been very troubled, deeply troubled by what I have watched happen in so many states.” She added, “I have been troubled by the extent to which you have women who, as the vice president said, in some cases, have died, who can’t get medical treatment that they need because providers are worried about criminal liability.”

Earlier, in a Detroit suburb, Cheney had noted that some Republicans feared reprisals, even violence, if they came out against Trump.

Her appearance alongside Harris shows she’s not given up on principled politics simply because she lost power. It also points to one of the most critical factors in the final days of the general election campaign — whether the Democratic vice president can win over significant numbers of Republicans.

This November, voters in at least 10 states will take to the polls to determine the future of abortion access in their state, after a nationwide effort by organizers to secure a wave of ballot measures aimed at restoring or protecting the right to an abortion — and some aimed at restricting it.

Abortion rights advocates hope the effort will restore the issue of reproductive health access to the people, after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, eliminating the national right to an abortion.

Most of the proposed ballot measures aim to enshrine the right to an abortion in state constitutions. They follow a series of restrictive trigger laws that went into effect following the Dobbs decision, along with abortion policies that were handed down by politicians or decided by state supreme courts since the decision.

Anti-abortion organizers backed a handful of initiatives aimed at restricting abortion access, though similar restrictive measures have failed in the few states where votes have been held in the past couple of years.

Ten states — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York and South Dakota — have already secured abortion measures on the 2024 ballot.

Read more about the states with abortion rights on the ballot.

There’s a reason Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are intensifying efforts to reach beyond their party’s traditional supporters in the final weeks of this razor-thin campaign.

Extending a pattern that stretches back decades, White voters without a college degree, the cornerstone of the modern GOP coalition, have declined by a little more than 2 percentage points as a share of eligible voters since 2020, falling below 40% of the eligible voting pool for the first time ever, according a new analysis of the latest Census Bureau data by demographer William Frey shared exclusively with CNN.

While those working-class Whites are shrinking, Frey found that both Whites with at least a four-year college degree and voters of color have each increased since 2020 by about a single percentage point as a share of eligible voters. Those increases also continue long-term trends that have seen well-educated Whites grow to represent more than 1-in-4 eligible voters and people of color rise past 1-in-3.

These trends help explain why the former president has devoted so much effort to reaching beyond his traditional base of White voters without a college education to attract more Black and Latino voters, especially men. And, in turn, the trends help explain the emphasis the vice president is placing on attracting more college-educated White voters who have previously leaned toward the GOP — a priority she underscored by barnstorming across populous white-collar suburbs outside Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee with GOP former Rep. Liz Cheney on Monday.

Read the full analysis.

The presidential campaigns are in critical battleground states today as the race for the White House enters its final stretch with exactly two weeks to go until Election Day.

Here are some of the key campaign events to watch today:

• Vice President Kamala Harris is in Washington, DC, where she will tape an interview with NBC’s Hallie Jackson which will air at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBC News. At 4:30 p.m. ET, the vice president will tape an interview with Spanish-language network Telemundo which will air on Wednesday as she looks to reach undecided Latino voters. Today’s interviews come as Harris prepares to participate in a CNN town hall tomorrow outside Philadelphia.

• Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will deliver remarks with former President Barack Obama at a rally in Madison, Wisconsin. Walz is also expected to speak in Racine. Obama will be heading to Detroit, Michigan, as well to speak on behalf of the Harris-Walz ticket. He will be introduced by rapper Eminem.

• Former President Donald Trump is expected to participate in a meeting with Latino business leaders in Doral, Florida. Later, Trump will hold a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, focused on the economy and inflation.

• GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance will speak at a campaign event in Peoria, Arizona. In the evening, Vance will deliver remarks on the economy at a campaign rally in Tucson.

CNN’s Christian Sierra, Christina Asencio, and Joseph Bonheim contributed reporting to this post.

Former President Donald Trump works the drive-through line as he visits a McDonald's restaurant on October 20 in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania.

The last time Congress voted to increase the federal minimum wage, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns both still existed, Patrick Mahomes was just 11 years old and Kamala Harris was San Francisco’s district attorney.

That minimum wage hike in July 2007 lifted the pay floor in the United States from $5.15 to $5.85 and allowed for two more increases to $7.25 in July 2009.

The federal minimum wage hasn’t budged since then.

Former President Donald Trump’s visit to a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania highlights the longest period without a national increase in the federal minimum wage since it was established in 1938.

After briefly manning a McDonald’s fry station, Trump punted when asked by a reporter if he’s in favor of lifting the minimum wage.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday attacked Trump for that non-answer and reiterated her calls for a higher minimum wage without specifying what the new federal minimum wage should be.

The Harris campaign did not respond to CNN’s request for comment on how high she favors raising the minimum wage.

Read the full story.

Vice President Kamala on Tuesday unveiled new economic proposals targeting Latino men in a push to grow support among key voting bloc ahead of Election Day.

Here are key things to know about the proposals:

Courting a key voting bloc: With two weeks until Election Day, Harris intends to outline her latest economic agenda during an interview with Telemundo’s Julio Vaqueiro as she makes her pitch to undecided Latino voters. Gov. Tim Walz and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will also participate in Spanish-language media interviews.

In the final sprint, the Harris campaign will participate in organizing efforts to mobilize Latino men including a lowrider early vote event in Wisconsin and a horse parade early vote caravan in Las Vegas. Key surrogates, including Congressional Hispanic Caucus members, Cabinet secretaries and Latino influencers will also be deployed across swing states.

Eminem performs onstage during the 37th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Microsoft Theater on November 5, 2022 in Los Angeles.

Eminem makes few public appearances, but the famed rapper is set to make an exception when he introduces former President Barack Obama at a Detroit rally tonight.

A Democratic official familiar with planning for the event said Eminem is not expected to perform, but rather to welcome Obama to the Motor City for a get-out-the-vote rally for Kamala Harris. In doing so, Eminem is expected to offer his thoughts on the presidential race, which he has rarely done.

But Eminem’s views of Donald Trump are well known, accusing the former president of “brainwashing” his supporters. He delivered a blistering critique on Trump that went viral at the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards.

A parade of celebrities have stepped forward to campaign for Harris and the Democratic ticket, but few of which have the iconic pull of Eminem, particularly in Detroit, as Harris fights to fortify the blue wall in her deadlocked race with Trump.

Elon Musk participates in a town hall-style meeting to promote early and absentee voting at Ridley High School on October 17 in Folsom, Pennsylvania.

Elon Musk is making some big promises while campaigning for former President Donald Trump. But his business record calls into question whether he can deliver.

Musk and Trump have publicly discussed some kind of government role for the Tesla and SpaceX CEO if Trump wins the presidency. Although Musk and Trump haven’t provided any specifics, Musk has jokingly referred to his potential job as leading a Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the name of Musk’s favorite meme and cryptocurrency. Trump on Fox News last week said Musk may serve as the “Secretary of Cost-Cutting,” a government agency that also doesn’t currently exist.

If he were to lead some kind of task force, Musk, on the campaign trail and in an August X interview with Trump, has promised to recommend steep cuts to reduce wasteful spending that doesn’t benefit Americans, perhaps using AI to determine where to cut. He has also said he’d pitch a massive rollback of government regulations, which has has long griped about. And Musk has promised a gentle touch, offering generous severance packages to laid-off government workers, while at the same time proposing an assessment system that threatens layoffs to wasteful employees.

All of those are tactics Musk has employed or promised at his businesses. His track record is mixed. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

Steep cuts: Trump, in his interview with Musk in August and in subsequent public discussions about a possible government role for Musk, has praised the CEO for his ruthlessness with layoffs. The UAW autoworkers union filed labor charges against the pair in August after Trump called Musk a “cutter” and suggested he would fire striking autoworkers. And Trump, announcing in September his plans for Musk’s possible role, said Musk would make recommendations for “drastic reforms.”

When discussing what he might do for the government, Musk said in a Pittsburgh town hall Sunday that major cuts to government spending would be necessary: “Step No. 1 is to spend a lot less of it,” Musk said. “Let’s start from scratch.”

But cuts haven’t always worked out so well for Musk’s companies.

At X, Musk has made significant layoffs, slashing roughly 80% of the company’s staff. That has led to a janky, unstable product, as evidenced by his disastrous technology failures when interviewing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023 and Trump a couple of months ago. Musk has also eliminated X’s trust and safety teams, leading to an escalation in hate speech and unchecked misinformation — and an advertiser exodus from the platform.

X is worth 80% less than what Musk bought it for in October 2022, according to Fidelity.

Read Goldman’s full analysis here.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz rejected the foreign policy views of former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney and former Vice President Dick Cheney even as he touted their support of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign as a way of inviting conservative-leaning voters alienated by former president Donald Trump.

Walz told “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart on Monday that even as the campaign targets Republican voters who “don’t have a home,” Harris won’t embrace “their foreign policy decisions” as president.

Walz’s comments came the same day Harris hosted campaign stops in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin with Liz Cheney. At each event, both Harris and Cheney argued that Republican voters who believe in upholding the rule of law and defending the Constitution should put “country over party” and vote for Harris.

Walz again stressed in the interview that support from the Cheney’s is a key part of their strategy to make inroads with historically Republican voters who have been turned off by Trump but are wary of supporting a Democratic candidate for the first time.

Cheney’s allegiance with Democrats has been one example of the dramatic reorientation of American politics since Trump entered the White House. Stewart, a longtime critic of Vice President Cheney’s role in the Bush administration choosing to invade Iraq, acknowledged the irony of the Cheney’s supporting Harris during his opening monologue. Walz was once a staunch opponent to the Iraq War, winning his first term in Congress in 2006 by making his opposition to the war a top issue.