September 30, 2024, presidential campaign news

The only scheduled debate between the vice presidential nominees on Tuesday night – five weeks before Election Day – may also serve as the final word for the campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump before a large audience on national television.

It’s an unusual twist of fate for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, whose selections over the summer thrust them into an intense political spotlight. A few months ago, Walz was a little-known Democratic governor and former six-term congressman who emerged as an unexpected contender as Harris’ running mate. When Trump announced Vance as his pick at the Republican National Convention in July, the first-term senator had yet to turn 40, and he has served less than two years in elected office.

A review of several past general election and primary debates for Vance and Walz yields a picture of two candidates with specific approaches to their previous performances, which could be instructive for this high-stakes moment.

The Walz-Vance matchup may be the last debate of the 2024 election, unprecedented in modern presidential campaigns, with Trump rejecting calls from Harris to agree to a second meeting, including one proposed by CNN for October 23 in Atlanta. With an exceedingly tight race entering the closing stretch and early voting underway in a handful of states, the running mates’ showdown Tuesday in New York presents one of the last major opportunities to make the case for their respective tickets.

Keep reading here about the VP candidates’ past debate performances.

Former President Donald Trump tours downtown Valdosta, Georgia, a town that was impacted by Hurricane Helene on Monday, September 30.

Former President Donald Trump on Monday criticized the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene and praised GOP Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, saying he’s been doing a “very good job.”

“The governor’s doing a very good job. He’s having a hard time getting the president on the phone, I guess they’re not being responsive. The federal government is not being responsive,” Trump said.

The White House said President Joe Biden spoke with Kemp and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, as well as other officials across North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida and South Carolina on Sunday.

Trump said he hadn’t reached out to Biden about federal relief efforts when asked by a reporter, and he slammed his Democratic 2024 rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

“The vice president, she’s out someplace campaigning, looking for money. So they gotta be, they have to be focused over here. It’s too big. This is a really bad one,” Trump said.

CNN reported that Harris ended her West Coast campaign swing early to attend Helene briefings in Washington, DC.

“In the meantime, we’re at Valdosta and we’re gonna go with (the) mayor and congressman and everybody else,” Trump said.

Trump landed in Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday to “receive a briefing on the devastation of Hurricane Helene and to facilitate the distribution of relief supplies.”

“We’ve brought a lot of supplies. We’re with Franklin Graham, who’s been always fantastic in these cases, nobody better,” Trump said.

Graham is an evangelical missionary who runs Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical humanitarian aid organization.

Democrats sued Georgia’s State Election Board on Monday over a new rule that requires counties to hand-count the number of ballots cast at polling places on Election Day.

Democrats argued that it will allow “for bad-faith actors to claim that fraud has affected election results.”

The new lawsuit escalates an ongoing legal battle between the Democratic Party and Georgia’s GOP-controlled elections board over a series of controversial rules passed in recent weeks that critics say will bring post-election “chaos” into the state.

Backed by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, the lawsuit argues that the hand-counting rule conflicts with state law and that the board overstepped its authority when it approved it. Three Donald Trump allies on the board approved the new rule earlier this month in a 3-2 vote.

Delays caused by the hand-counting, they argued, would “introduce opportunities for bad-faith actors to claim that fraud has affected election results – a result that would undermine public confidence in the results and in the election of Democratic candidates specifically.”

Before the election board passed the new rules, the office of Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, warned the board members that the new policies probably violated state law and would likely be blocked by a judge if anyone filed a lawsuit.

The letter from Carr’s team echoed concerns from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, who said it was too late to change the rules for the 2024.

Read more about the lawsuit.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance will have the following surrogates in the spin room after the vice presidential debate taking place on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar:

The list was first reported by NOTUS.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance and his wife Usha Vance have landed in New York City ahead of tomorrow’s vice presidential debate.

On the way, the campaign plane made a stop at Washington Reagan National Airport, where Vance’s children were dropped off.

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance and his Democratic counterpart, Tim Walz, are gearing up to participate in their first and likely only debate tomorrow.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate is in his second term as Minnesota governor and chairs the Democratic Governors Association.

A onetime high school teacher and football coach who served in the Army National Guard, Walz later spent 12 years in Congress, representing a conservative-leaning rural district in Southern Minnesota.

Former President Donald Trump’s running mate was elected to the US Senate from Ohio in 2022 after receiving a boost from Trump in a contentious Republican primary.

A venture capitalist and the author of the best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance had once been a key voice in the “Never Trump” movement during the 2016 election.

Donald Trump’s campaign said that the final debate in the 2024 cycle is likely going to be between the vice presidential candidates, but noted that “we will see what happens” with regards to another presidential debate.

Miller claimed that Harris only wants a rematch with Trump on CNN in October because she “lost terribly” in the first debate on ABC News.

Martin County Sheriff’s Office released body cam video of the apprehension of Ryan Wesley Routh on an interstate in Florida.

The man who prosecutors said stalked Donald Trump in Florida and set up what they called a “sniper’s nest” on the fence boarding the former president’s West Palm Beach golf course has pleaded not guilty to attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate.

Ryan Wesley Routh faces five charges including the assassination attempt, gun charges and assaulting an officer. He pleaded not guilty to each charge in federal court.

Routh appeared in tan prison scrubs and wore glasses at times during the brief hearing. He told the judge he understood the charges against him.

Armed with a Soviet-designed rifle between two bags packed with bulletproof plates, prosecutors say Routh had a clear shot of the sixth-hole green when Trump was golfing that Sunday afternoon. The former president was minutes away from Routh’s line of sight, prosecutors alleged during a detention hearing last week.

Investigators have found a wealth of information allegedly on Routh and what may have been the motivation behind the alleged attempted assassination. One piece of information prosecutors have cited is a letter Routh allegedly left with a witness who came forward after Routh was arrested.

“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” Routh allegedly wrote. “I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.” Trump “ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unraveled,” the letter said.

Routh also wrote a self-published book in which he told Iran, “You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of” the Iran nuclear deal.

When arguing for his detention pending an outcome in the case, which was ultimately granted, prosecutors said Routh has been arrested over 100 times — many of which were because of traffic violations — and that his travels to Ukraine and Taiwan show that he’s able slip across borders.

Routh’s case has been randomly assigned to Judge Aileen Cannon, the federal judge who dismissed charges against Trump earlier this year after his attorneys argued that special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully assigned to oversee the investigation and prosecution of Trump.

Former President Donald Trump on Monday said he was going to stop in North Carolina to provide disaster relief but said “access and communication is now restricted,” and he wanted to make sure not to strain the local emergency response dealing with the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene.

Trump is making a stop in Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday to receive a disaster briefing and make remarks, and Trump said in his post on Truth Social that he was going to “pay my respects and bring lots of relief material” to the area.

Trump said, “I was also going to stop into North Carolina, which has really been hit hard. I have a lot of supplies ready for them, but access and communication is now restricted, and we want to make sure that Local Emergency Management is able to focus on helping the people most affected, and not being concerned with me.”

More on Hurricane Helene: Hundreds of roads remain closed, especially in the Carolinas, hampering the delivery of badly-needed supplies. And more than 2 million customers remain without power, according to poweroutage.us.

The Trump campaign is aiming to undercut the idea that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is fighting nerves about facing off Ohio Sen. JD Vance at the vice presidential debate tomorrow night.

On a call with reporters, senior Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller stressed multiple times that Walz is a seasoned politician who is “very good in debates.”

While Miller said that Vance is “great” and “ready to step up and lead,” he reminded that the first-term Ohio Senator has less experience in politics than his opponent.

“JD is ready to step up and lead, but Tim Walz is a wily political veteran. He’s run countless campaigns. So really, it’s two years in official politics for JD Vance but two decades in politics for Tim Walz. So don’t let any of this ‘Tim Walz is real nervous and chewing on his fingernails about how tomorrow night is going to go,’ — he’ll have things memorized,” Walz said. “He’ll be very polished.”

Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer also joined the call and talked about his role standing in for Walz during Vance debate preparations.

“Quite frankly, it’s tough because he is really good on the debate stage,” Emmer said. “He will stand there, and he lies with conviction, and he has these little mannerisms where it’s just hey, I’m the nice guy, but he’s not nice at all.”

Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated her belief that cannabis should be legalized and that people “should not be going to jail for smoking weed,” during a podcast interview released on Monday.

Speaking to former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on the “All the Smoke” podcast, Harris called for cannabis legalization and decriminalization, while insisting that she has “felt for a long time” that marijuana should not be criminalized despite her history as a district attorney prosecuting cannabis-related offenses.

Harris has endorsed decriminalizing cannabis dating back to her 2019 presidential run and admitted during that campaign that she had used marijuana in college. As vice president, she has called for the Drug Enforcement Administration to reclassify marijuana into a lower drug schedule.

But as San Francisco’s district attorney, Harris oversaw thousands of marijuana convictions. And as California’s attorney general, she opposed a failed 2010 effort that would have legalized marijuana. In 2015, she called for an end to the federal government’s ban on medical cannabis, stopping short of full legalization.

A leading pro-Harris super PAC on Monday announced plans for a massive campaign behind a new ad slamming Donald Trump’s tax policies.

Future Forward, the top outside group backing Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, said it would spend $35 million airing the new ad — more than the group has spent on any other ad so far — targeting seven key battleground states and national airwaves. Politico first reported on the new ad campaign.

The ad features a Pennsylvania voter named “Buddy” watching video of Trump at a glitzy 2023 fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, praising his guests’ wealth and promising tax cuts. “I know about 20 of you, and you’re rich as hell,” Trump says in the clip, as the voter shakes his head. “We are gonna give you tax cuts,” Trump continues.

The voter takes over, saying, “I’m not rich as hell. I’m the one that really needs the break, not the people that are already rich and have the money. The 1% don’t serve anybody but themselves. So for them to get a tax break, no, that’s not cool.”

He continues, “Kamala Harris is gonna make billionaires pay their fair share, and she’s gonna cut taxes for working people, like me. I’m Buddy, and I’m not rich as hell, and I’m voting for Kamala Harris.”

The ad features images of billionaire Elon Musk, and Trump greeting wealthy supporters, juxtaposed with video of Buddy pumping gas and standing in his neighborhood, aimed at portraying a contrast between the presidential candidates’ competing economic pitches.

FF PAC has spent more than any other group to support the Harris campaign — since July 22, the day after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, and today, the super PAC has run more than $130 million worth of pro-Harris advertising; and from tomorrow through Election Day, the group is set to run nearly $200 million more worth of ads.

Democrats outspent Republicans by nearly two-to-one on advertising for the presidential race in September, seizing the edge on battleground airwaves after running about even in the previous month.

According to AdImpact data, in September, Democrats spent about $292.9 million on ads targeting the seven key swing states — Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina and Nevada — while Republican spent about $156.5 million. Including national advertising and spending in other states, the ratio was about the same: $361.6 million to $180.9 million.

In August, the advertising wars were much closer — during that month, Democrats spent about $209.2 million on advertising in the seven battlegrounds, while Republicans spent about $206.6 million. Including national advertising and spending in other states, Democrats had a slightly larger overall lead in August, $279.6 million to $228.1 million, but nowhere near the gap that emerged in September.

In Pennsylvania — seen as the linchpin for both sides in their path to 270 electoral voters —Democrats significantly expanded their advertising edge from August to September. In August, Democrats and Republicans ran about even on Pennsylvania airwaves, $56.8 million to $52.6 million. But in September, Democrats spent about $77.1 million advertising in Pennsylvania, while Republicans spent about $42.5 million.

Overall, including national advertising and spending in other states, the gap is larger, $696 million to $438 million — pushing total presidential ad spending between July 22 and September 30 past $1.1 billion.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs building is seen on August 21 in Washington, DC.

Employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs improperly accessed the medical files of Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and an investigation is under way, sources said.

Two sources familiar with the situation confirmed that VA employees improperly accessed Vance’s medical records, and roughly two months ago, an employee in VA Inspector General Michael Missal’s office reached out to someone in the Ohio Republican’s operation to alert them of the breach, one of the sources said. A Harris campaign spokesperson said it was informed about the breach of Walz’s records.

The Washington Post, which first reported the incident, said at least a dozen employees accessed the records.

Terrence Hayes, a spokesperson for the VA, confirmed to CNN that the department reported to law enforcement “allegations that VA personnel may have improperly accessed veteran records” but did not elaborate and referred additional questions to the Justice Department, which declined to comment.

Vance enlisted in the military after high school, spending four years in the Marines and serving a tour in Iraq in 2005 as a combat correspondent. Walz enlisted at 17 and served 24 years in the National Guard before retiring in 2005 to run for Congress.

A new Gallup poll finds that most Americans think health care isn’t getting enough attention this election cycle, and they say drug prices and mental health are among the key voting issues.

CNN Polling’s Ariel Edwards-Levy notes that voters often rate multiple different issues as being highly important to their vote, so the share of voters calling different aspects of health care their top issue are more useful in comparison to each other than as absolute percentages.

For example, about 63% of Americans said a candidate’s position on protecting Medicare and Social security is the single most important or among the most important health care-related issues in determining their vote in November, compared with 57% who said lower health care costs, 47% who cited lower drug costs and 43% who named policies related to mental health care access.

Vice President Kamala Harris waves while boarding Air Force Two in Los Angeles on Sunday, September 29.

Vice President Kamala Harris will visit areas affected by Hurricane Helene, a White House official said, as soon as it is possible without disrupting emergency response operations.

Harris offered her condolences Sunday to those impacted by Helene, which made landfall last week as the strongest hurricane on record to slam into Florida’s Big Bend region.

“I know that everyone here sends their thoughts and prayers for the folks who have been so devastated by that hurricane and the ensuing events in Florida, in Georgia, the Carolinas and other impacted states,” Harris said at a rally in Las Vegas, adding that “we will stand with these communities for as long as it takes to make sure that they are able to recover and rebuild.”

A White House official said Harris was briefed by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell on the federal response to Helene, which tore through multiple states, killing at least 95 people, knocking out power to millions and trapping families in floodwaters.

Harris also spoke with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper about rescue and recovery efforts, and reached out to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the White House official said.

House Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer speaks during a news conference after a House Republican Caucus meeting on September 24, 2024 at the US Capitol in Washington, DC.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said he researched Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who he said he has known for 20 years, to accurately play the “character” in order to help prepare Sen. JD Vance for Tuesday’s vice presidential debate.

The two men worked together in the House from 2015, when Emmer was first sworn in, to 2019, when Walz was sworn in as governor.

Emmer called Walz a “complete disaster in Minnesota” and said while the Democrat governor served in Congress “he played this character for several years of being kind of a – a folksy, [agriculture] friendly, outdoorsman.”

“He’s not well liked because once you get to know the real Tim Walz, he’s like Gavin Newsom in a flannel shirt,” Emmer said of Walz, who won his 2022 gubernatorial race in Minnesota by over 7 points.

Emmer would not get into specifics about Vance’s debate prep but said Donald Trump’s running mate will do “great,” adding that “once he understands that Tim Walz is just going to try and deflect and go into this folksy whatever, he’ll hold him accountable.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s team has dubbed their debate prep sessions “Camp North Star,” an indication of the relaxed atmosphere in woodsy northern Michigan as the campaign is seeking to cultivate authentic aspects of Walz’s identity, a source familiar with the debate prep sessions of Kamala Harris’ running mate told CNN.

He’s gone for a hike and eaten pizza at a downtown Harbor Springs restaurant during his stay there. On Sunday, he visited a local farm, where he petted goats and rabbits, purchased some of the farms’ goods and shot pumpkins from a hydraulic squash launcher.

Televisions at the property where Walz and his staff are staying have been turned to professional and college football games this weekend, with staff showing up in gear supporting their favorite teams on Saturday and Sunday. Some staff have been tossing a football around between sessions, the source said.

But not every participant in “debate camp” arrived in casual camp gear. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has been portraying Ohio Sen. JD Vance in debate prep sessions, surprised staff by showing up in a red tie, mimicking the attire often worn by Vance on the campaign trail.

Former President Donald Trump on Monday is expected to visit Valdosta, Georgia, where he will receive a briefing on the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene and “facilitate the distribution of relief supplies.”

The former president will then give remarks to the press at 2 p.m. ET, according to his campaign.

Trump on Sunday sent his condolences to those affected by Helene, which was the strongest hurricane on record to slam into Florida’s Big Bend region.

“It’s been a rough one. That was a big, monster hurricane and … hit a lot harder than anyone even thought possible. So we want to just extend our best wishes to everybody,” Trump said at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.

As of Sunday afternoon, at least 90 people have died in relation to Helene in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.

Vice President Harris will end her West Coast campaign swing early and travel from Las Vegas to Washington, DC on Monday morning where she will be briefed on the ongoing impacts of Hurricane Helene at the FEMA Headquarters, according to a White House Official.

During the meeting, the vice president is expected to also be briefed on the federal actions being taken to support emergency response and recovery. It comes as the Southeast is still grappling with widespread devastation after Helene made landfall last Thursday as the strongest hurricane on record to slam into Florida’s Big Bend region and tore through multiple states. At least 95 people were killed, in addition to knocking out power to millions and trapping families in floodwaters.

Harris was previously scheduled on Monday to make two campaign stops in Nevada before diverting her plans. The adjusted schedule also comes after former President Donald Trump slammed Harris for fundraising on the West Coast this weekend after Helene ripped through the Southeast region.

On Sunday, Harris was briefed by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell while traveling on Air Force Two from California to Nevada. She also spoke with North Carolina Gov. Cooper, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Georgia Gov Kemp and reassured them that the Biden Administration will stand with the impacted communities throughout their recovery. She intends to visit impacted communities as soon as it is possible without disrupting emergency response operations. It was not immediately planned when or where she would go.

“We stand in these communities for as long as it takes to make sure that they are able to recover and rebuild,” Harris said during a rally in Las Vegas.

“We will provide whatever help they need in the days and weeks ahead,” she later added.

Trump is expected to visit Valdosta, Georgia, on Monday where he will receive a briefing on the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene and “facilitate the distribution of relief supplies.”

Kamala Harris’ campaign is needling former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance over what the Republican ticket has said about their health care plans, releasing a new report Monday striking down, what the campaign describes, as the Trump-Vance proposals on the eve of the vice presidential debate.

The report— titled “Concept” on Health Care, in a swipe at Trump’s response at the presidential debate — is a 43-page analysis and collection of expert reports by the Harris campaign on Trump’s plans including proposals to cut Medicare and Medicaid, terminate the Affordable Care Act, among other measures.

A senior Harris campaign official described the report as an attempt to force Trump and Vance to address their proposals and go on the offensive on an issue top of mind for voters.

“Donald Trump and JD Vance have told us their ‘concept’ of a health care plan, and it is devastating for American families,” said Harris campaign senior policy advisor Brian Nelson in a statement. “They may not want Americans to see the details of their plan, but Vice President Harris and Governor Walz won’t let them get away with hiding its effects.”

New polling from NBC News, Telemundo and CNBC finds Vice President Kamala Harris solidly ahead of former President Donald Trump among Latino registered voters, but faring less well than other recent Democratic nominees with this growing segment of the electorate.

Overall, 54% of Latino registered voters in the poll said they supported Harris, while 40% backed Trump. The survey suggests that Harris has held on to a wide advantage among Hispanic women (leading 60% to 34% now), but is now running evenly with Trump among Hispanic men (who split evenly between Trump and Harris, 47% each).

Harris holds a wide advantage among Latino voters overall on several issues tested in the poll, including leads of 30 points or more on treating immigrants humanely and protecting immigrant rights (57% Harris to 18% Trump); handling abortion (56% Harris to 24% Trump); and addressing the concerns of the Hispanic community (53% Harris to 23% Trump), but trails Trump by narrower margins on handling the economy (45% Trump to 41% Harris); dealing with inflation and the cost of living (46% Trump to 37% Harris); and securing the border and controlling immigration (47% Trump to 34% Harris).

The survey suggests that Latino voters’ views on immigration as an issue have shifted since 2016. Back then, 69% said that immigration helps the US more than it hurts, while now, just 62% hold that view, and the share of Latino voters saying that immigration does more to hurt than help has more than doubled over that time, from 16% in 2016 to 35% now.

The new poll adds to a growing body of evidence that Democrats have lost ground among some voters of color.

Former President Donald Trump is wildly distorting new statistics on immigration and crime to attack Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump falsely claimed Friday and Saturday that the statistics are specifically about criminal offenders who entered the US during the Biden-Harris administration; in reality, the figures are about offenders who entered the US over multiple decades, including during the Trump administration. And Trump falsely claimed that the statistics are specifically about people who are now living freely in the US; the figures actually include people who are currently in jails and prisons serving criminal sentences.

“Kamala should immediately cancel her News Conference because it was just revealed that 13,000 convicted murderers entered our Country during her three and a half year period as Border Czar,” Trump wrote in one post on Friday, the day Harris visited the southern border in Arizona. Harris “allowed almost 14,000 MURDERERS to freely and openly roam our Country,” Trump wrote in another Friday post. They “roam free to KILL AGAIN,” he wrote, escalating his rhetoric, on Saturday.

Facts First: Trump’s claims are false in two big ways. First, the statistics he was referring to are not specifically about people who entered the country during the Biden-Harris administration. Rather, those statistics are about noncitizens who entered the country under any administration, including Trump’s; were convicted of a crime at some point, usually in the US after their arrival; and are now living in the US while being listed on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “non-detained docket” — where some have been listed for years, including while Trump was president, because their country of citizenship won’t let the US deport them back there. Second, that ICE “non-detained” list includes people who are still serving jail and prison sentences for their crimes; they are on the list because they are not being held in immigration detention in particular.

Read more here.