(WASHINGTON) — The race for the White House is heading into the final stretch with most polls showing Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump neck-and-neck in key states with two weeks to go.
Another former GOP member of Congress endorses Harris
Fred Upton, a former GOP congressman who voted to impeach Trump over the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, is endorsing Harris for president.
He joins a growing list of other Republicans, including Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, in backing the Democratic nominee over concerns about Trump’s role in the unrest.
“Today, I’m joining more than 30 former Republican members of Congress who publicly refused to support Donald Trump, and I’m proud to say that I’ve already cast my ballot for Kamala Harris,” Upton told reporters on Thursday.
He added, “I’ve never before voted for a Democrat for president, and I honestly never thought I would, but she’s strong, committed public servant. She’s running to put people together, strengthen our economy and protect our fundamental freedoms.”
Upton, who served 30 years in the House, said impassioned fights about policy were always the norm but “with Trump in charge, politics was more personal, more angry and more divided than ever before.”
Beyonce to join Harris rally in Houston: Sources
Superstar Beyoncé is set to appear in her hometown with Harris during the vice president’s planned rally in Houston, Texas, on Friday, according to two sources with Harris’ presidential campaign and the White House.
The musician was thought to be on the program for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, but she did not end up performing despite headlines saying she was planning to. The buzz around the potential performance was notable.
Friday’s event is slated to be focused on reproductive health care. Beyoncé has spoken publicly about her own fertility journey.
The moment comes as Democrats are hopeful that their Texas Senate candidate Colin Allred is surging, though he remains behind in the polls.
-ABC News’ MaryAlice Parks, Gabrielle Abdul-Hakim and Molly Nagle
Trump’s generals call him a threat to democracy: ANALYSIS
After he won the 2016 election, Trump surrounded himself with decorated military officers such as John Kelley and James Mattis. He called them “my generals.”
But now, those figures are offering harsh condemnations of the former president.
Kelly this week told the New York Times that Trump “falls into the general definition of fascist.” Mattis, years earlier, said Trump purposely tries to divide the American people and made “a mockery of the Constitution.”
ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl offers an analysis of the comments and their impact here.
Harris readies for rally with Obama, Trump heads to 2 battlegrounds
With just 12 days left in the campaign, Harris on Thursday will do local media interviews in Georgia before a 8 p.m. ET rally with former President Barack Obama and concert with Bruce Springsteen.
Trump will be in Arizona for a rally at 5 p.m. ET before going to Nevada for a Las Vegas rally hosted by Turning Point Action at 10 p.m. ET.
538’s new forecast on which party is favored to win the Senate
The 538 forecast unveiled Wednesday gives Republicans an edge in gaining control of the upper chamber.
Republicans win control in 87 times out of 100 in simulations of the 2024 election, while Democrats win control only 13 times.
The Senate model comes as the presidential race and races for House control remain razor thin.
Read more about the forecast here.
Election officials, concerned about misinformation, confront Musk online
Election officials are increasingly confronting billionaire X owner Elon Musk on his own platform over election disinformation, but their reach typically pales in comparison to Musk’s 200 million followers.
“It’s just not a fair battle,” said Larry Norden, a voting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit think tank.
Henrico County registrar Mark Coakley, for example, received fewer than 100,000 views for a thread debunking a 2023 claim shared by Musk falsely alleging that “election integrity leaders in Virginia” found fraudulent votes in the county from the 2020 election.
The original post shared by Musk — a vocal supporter of and donor to former President Donald Trump — received 27.7 million views.
In Philadelphia, Musk reposted a tweet suggesting that 5,200 voters had registered with the same address. “This is crazy,” Musk commented.
Seth Bluestein, a Philadelphia County Commissioner, replied hours later, tweeting, “The post you shared is spreading disinformation.” But Bluestein’s response garnered fewer than 10,000 compared with the nearly 10 million views for Musk’s initial tweet.
-ABC News’ Laura Romero and Lucien Bruggeman
Harris lines up stars for Atlanta rally
Vice President Kamala Harris’ rally near Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday night — her first with former President Barack Obama — will feature more stars in addition to Bruce Springsteen.
The campaign announced that Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Tyler Perry and Mix Master David will also join the vice president at what is the first in a series of “When We Vote We Win” concerts.
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie
Musk election giveaway misses beat amid DOJ questions
Elon Musk’s super PAC — which had promised to give out a $1 million prize every day to a random swing state voter who signed its petition — has yet to announce its fifth winner amid the Justice Department’s questioning of the legality of the offer.
America PAC announced on Tuesday night its fourth recipient of a $1 million prize — Andy Steinle of Holly Spring, North Carolina. The first three recipients were all Pennsylvania voters.
No winner was announced by the America PAC’s website or social media pages on Wednesday.
A source familiar with the matter told ABC News Wednesday that the Justice Department had sent a letter to the America PAC warning that Musk’s giveaway may violate federal law.
-ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim
Trump says Harris raising rhetoric because ‘she is losing’
In a Wednesday social media post, former President Donald Trump suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris criticized him as a “fascist” because she is losing ground in the presidential race.
“She is a Threat to Democracy, and not fit to be President of the United States — And her Polling so indicates!” Trump fired back at the vice president.
“Now she is increasingly raising her rhetoric, going so far as to call me Adolf Hitler,” Trump added.
Trump did not mention why Hitler’s name emerged. The New York Times reported this week that the former president allegedly praised Hitler, according to former White House chief of staff John Kelly.
-ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Lalee Ibssa and Soo Rin Kim
‘Be a little careful’: Trump floats baseless election claims in Georgia
Former President Donald Trump addressed a packed 13,000-seat arena in Duluth just outside of Atlanta on Wednesday, suggesting to supporters — without evidence — that vote counting might not be secure.
“Got to get out there and vote, but most importantly, just vote whichever way you want to do it,” Trump said at the rally hosted by Turning Point USA.
“I’ve been one that says whichever way. Just get out and vote. Be a little careful. Make sure your vote gets counted. There are ways of doing that too.”
Trump also again floated a conspiracy theory that Vice President Kamala Harris did not hold a public campaign event on Wednesday because she already knew the results of the coming election.
“Maybe she knows something we don’t know,” Trump said. “That’s bad, right? Maybe she knows something we don’t know.”
“Does everybody understand that? Maybe,” he added, to supportive responses in the crowd.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Harris says ‘yes’ Trump is a fascist during town hall
During Wednesday’s town hall, moderated by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Vice President Kamala Harris was asked point-blank if she believes former President Donald Trump is a fascist.
“Let me ask you tonight, do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?” Cooper said.
“Yes, I do. Yes, I do. And I also believe that the people who know him best on this subject should be trusted,” Harris replied, referencing the recent statements made by John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff.
Harris calls John Kelly coming out against Trump a ‘911 call to the American people’
Vice President Kamala Harris reacted to John Kelly, a former four-star Marine general and the former chief of staff to Donald Trump, coming out swinging against the former president, saying he could fit the bill of a “fascist.”
During her CNN town hall in Aston, Pennsylvania, Harris reacted to Kelly’s statements and noted how he went public with his interviews so close to the election.
“Why would someone who served with him [Trump], who is not political, a four-star Marine general — why is he telling the American people now?” Harris questioned.
“And frankly, I think of it as… he’s just putting out a 911 call to the American people,” Harris said.
Kelly, who had previously refrained from discussing his time in the White House so openly, said in expansive interviews with The New York Times that Trump’s discussion of using the military against the “enemy within” pushed him to come forward.
“Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy,” Kelly told The Times.
“So, certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America,” he added of Trump.
During the town hall, Harris was asked by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper if she believes Trump is a fascist.
“Yes, I do,” Harris said.
“I also believe that the people who know him best on this subject should be trusted,” the vice president added.
Georgia secretary of state’s office says it stopped cyberattack aimed at crashing voter website
The Georgia secretary of state’s office said that its online security experts stopped a cyberattack earlier this month, the intention of which was to crash the state’s absentee voter website.
The office was first alerted to a potential issue when staff noticed a dramatic spike in attempts to gain access to the site, sources told ABC News affiliate WSB-TV.
Gabriel Sterling, chief operations officer for the secretary of state’s office, confirmed the details to ABC News.
The office also told WSB-TV that its computer experts quickly prevented it from becoming a major issue for Georgia voters, calling it “a big win for the good guys.”
The cyberattack consisted of more than 420,000 nearly simultaneous attempts to access the state’s absentee voter portal from around the world. The coordinated flood of entries, late in the afternoon of Oct.14, was intended to make the site crash and become unavailable to Georgia voters.
Oct. 14 was the last day to register to vote in the state of Georgia.
“We are a target. We are the center of the political universe. Our absentee ballot portal is live right now in the middle of an election. It is a ripe and juicy target for bad actors and enemy powers,” Sterling said.
Sterling told WSB-TV that, most likely, a majority of the attempts to access the portal were carried out by bots. “These different login attempts were from all over the globe,” Sterling said. “Many of these entities and these computers have been used in previous attacks.”
But, Sterling added: “We identified it and attempted to mitigate it immediately.”
Sterling told ABC News that the attempted breach had the “hallmarks” of a foreign attack, based on his discussion with cyber experts.
However, he told WSB-TV that because of the safeguards in place, the only effect for voters was a brief slowdown on the absentee ballot portal. “By having these resources in place to begin with, we have lowered the likelihood of such an attack being attempted in the future,” Sterling said.
As of Wednesday evening, officials don’t know who was behind the attempted cyberattack or who coordinated it.
-ABC News’ Olivia A. Rubin and T. Michelle Murphy
Country singer Jason Aldean introduces Donald Trump at Georgia rally
Jason Aldean was on hand in Duluth, Georgia, to introduce former President Donald Trump to the campaign rally stage.
The “Try That In a Small Town” singer spoke of his friendship with Trump and the over $6 million in hurricane relief donations they raised in a joint GoFundMe campaign.
Harris pitches herself as a ‘pragmatic capitalist’ to Latino voters
Less than two weeks from Election Day, Harris sat down with Telemundo’s Julio Vaqueiro for an interview that touched on how her economic plan will affect Latino voters, immigration, how she would politically label herself and which team she’s rooting for in the World Series.
Harris pitched herself as a “pragmatic capitalist.”
“I believe that we need a new generation of leadership in America that actively works with the private sector to build up the new industries of America, to build up small business owners, to allow us to increase home ownership, to allow people and their families to build intergenerational wealth. I believe in supporting workers,” she said.
Harris emphasized how important the Latino vote is in the election while, despite recent polling and disagreed with the idea that Trump was making gains with Latino voters.
“I talk with Latino voters every day, all the time, and there is an incredible amount of support there, because Latino voters understand that they want a president of the United States who treats all people with dignity, with respect, and invests in their dreams for themselves and their family,” she said.
Harris reiterated to Telemundo her belief that the U.S. needs an immigration policy that includes a pathway to citizenship
“We need smart, humane immigration policy in America that includes a pathway to citizenship, putting more resources at the border in terms of security, honoring America’s history as a country of immigrants, not vilifying people who are fleeing harm, but instead, creating an orderly system for them to actually be able to make their case. That’s where I stand. I stand on the principle that we should not be talking about immigrants as ‘poisoning the blood of America,’” she said referring to Trump’s rhetoric.
On a lighter note, when asked who she supports in this year’s World Series, Harris backed her husband’s team, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“I’m there with him,” she said. “He was very excited about this.”
-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie
Trump calls Kelly ‘lowlife,’ denies stories
Trump lashed out Wednesday at John Kelly following his former chief of staff’s accounts that Trump praised Adolph Hitler and denigrated soldiers and veterans.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Trump claims Kelly, who he labeled a “degenerate” and “tough and dumb,” “made up a story out of pure Trump Derangement Syndrome Hatred!”
“The story about the Soldiers was A LIE, as are numerous other stories he told. Even though I shouldn’t be wasting my time with him, I always feel it’s necessary to hit back in pursuit of THE TRUTH. John Kelly is a LOWLIFE, and a bad General, whose advice in the White House I no longer sought, and told him to MOVE ON!” Trump said.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
PA voters who submitted ‘naked ballots’ allowed to vote provisionally: Court
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that voters in the swing state must be allowed to cast a provisional ballot at their polling place if their mail-in ballot was previously rejected because it was not placed in a so-called “secrecy envelope.”
The case stems from two voters in Butler County whose mail-in-ballots were rejected after they were sent in without the required secrecy envelope, creating what is known as a “naked ballot.” They later submitted provisional ballots, but they were not counted, leading to the lawsuit.
In its ruling, the court said Butler County “erred” when it rejected those provisional ballots to be uncounted and affirmed the lower courts ruling directing them to be counted.
“The General Assembly wrote the Election Code with the purpose of enabling citizens to exercise their right to vote, not for the purpose of creating obstacles to voting,” the opinion said.
The ruling is a loss for the Republican National Committee, which was looking to have the lower court’s ruling overturned and have those voters’ provisional ballots remain uncounted. It is one of the multiple cases around the country the RNC is involved in, litigating over which ballots should count during the 2024 election.
The court seemed to reprimand the RNC repeatedly in its order, including for “engaging in wordplay to confuse the Code and reach an absurd result” where provisional ballots of these voters should not be counted.
The order also rebuked the RNC’s claims that “election integrity” calls for the votes to not be counted stating, “[W]e are at a loss to identify what honest voting principle is violated by recognizing the validity of one ballot cast by one voter.”
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin
Harris campaign confirms ‘closing argument’ on the National Mall
The Harris campaign confirmed reports Wednesday that the vice president will deliver a major “closing argument” address at the Ellipse on the National Mall on Tuesday, a week before Election Day.
The location is the same location where Trump held his rally on Jan. 6 before his supporters stormed the Capitol.
Harris will provide a contrast between a first Harris term and a second Trump term by pointing to the future as a way to move past Trump and pursue a new way forward, according to a senior Harris campaign official.
The campaign believes that this symbolic location will help crystallize the choice for the American people in the election — providing an opportunity for Harris to stress that the U.S. does not have to be defined as a nation by Trump’s chaos and division.
Campaign advisers say Harris will approach this moment like the former prosecutor she is: she has given her opening argument, laid out all the evidence, and now plans to take her closing argument directly to the “jury” — the American people who will decide the outcome of this election, the official said.
-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie
Biden to campaign in Pittsburgh on Saturday
President Joe Biden will campaign in Pittsburgh on Saturday, however the White House did not detail any of the events in the announcement.
The president also addressed Pennsylvania local and statewide leadership of the Pennsylvania North American Building Trades Union/AFL-CIO to thank them for their continued efforts to mobilize workers in support of the Harris-Walz campaign and Democratic candidates, according to the Harris-Walz campaign.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
RFK Jr. asks Supreme Court to order his name covered on Wisconsin ballot
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed an emergency application with the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday that seeks to order the Wisconsin Election Commission to cover his name on the swing state’s presidential ballot by with stickers.
Previous attempts to remove Kennedy’s name from the ballot were rejected by state and federal courts.
Trump holds town hall in battleground Georgia
At his first stop of the day in the swing state of Georgia, Trump took questions from supporters at a faith-focused town hall.
Stepping on stage, Trump asked who in the audience had voted. Attendees responded with a loud cheer. A record 2 million people have already cast their ballot ahead of Election Day in Georgia.
“I think it’s the most important election in the history of our country. I really believe that,” Trump said.
Asked about immigration and other hot-button issues, Trump said he believed the border was the “single biggest problem we have” — even more so than the economy or inflation.
He praised Elon Musk using Starlink to help restore internet and cell service in areas effected by Hurricane Helene. He also touted Hungary’s Viktor Orban, saying the authoritarian leader supported his administration.
Near the end of the event, Trump said he leaned on his faith and family amid prosecutions and recent assassination attempts before going on to claim he was investigated more than Al Capone.
Harris stops by Philly deli before town hall
Harris stopped by the Famous 4th Street Delicatessen, one of Philadelphia’s oldest delis, for a Harris-Walz campaign volunteer appreciation event Wednesday afternoon before her CNN town hall.
Harris stopped to take selfies and purchase a pastrami on rye sandwich and a slice of German chocolate cake. She thanked the volunteers and reminded them of the “impact” their efforts have on the world around them.
“You are having an impact on, for the most part, people that you may never end up meeting, because your work here will impact people around the country,” she said.
She told the crowd they are “reminding” people of the “motivations” behind her campaign: “We all have so much more in common than what separates us.”
Without naming Trump, she alluded to Trump as someone who “divides us” and urged the crowd to help “turn the page.”
-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie
More than 24 million Americans have voted early
With less than two weeks before Election Day, over 24.5 million Americans have cast their vote through early voting methods, according to data from the Election Lab at the University of Florida.
The majority of those early votes come from mail ballots as 15.3 million absentee ballots have been returned nationally as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the data.
More than 9.7 million have voted in-person at early voting polling places in several states, the data showed.
Several states are slated to begin early voting options in the coming days.
-ABC News’ Ivan Pereira
DOJ warns Elon Musk PAC its giveaway might be illegal: Sources
The Justice Department has sent a letter to Elon Musk’s America PAC warning its $1 million sweepstakes giveaway to registered voters in swing states might violate federal law, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The letter from the Election Crimes Branch of DOJ’s Public Integrity Section was sent to Musk’s PAC in recent days, according to the source.
Musk announced the lottery-style giveaway over the weekend that he said registered voters in battleground states can enter to support the First and Second Amendments.
While it’s unclear whether the department has determined Musk’s giveaway is outright illegal, experts have questioned whether the lottery violates federal law that prohibits individuals from paying people to register to vote.
The Justice Department declined to comment to ABC News.
ABC News has reached out to representatives for Musk and Musk’s America PAC for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
-ABC News’ Alexander Mallin and Luke Barr
Biden agrees with Kelly’s characterization of Trump as a fascist, press secretary says
The White House said that President Joe Biden agrees with former Trump chief of staff John Kelly’s characterization of Trump as a “fascist” when pressed by reporters during Wednesday’s daily briefing.
“You’ve heard from the former president himself saying that he is going to be a dictator on day one. This is him, not us. This is him,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
She added, “This is not just us, the White House saying this, you heard it from officials, former officials that worked for the former president, say this as well. So, you know, do we agree — I know that the vice president just spoke about this. Do we agree about that determination? Yes, we do. We do.”
When asked whether Jean-Pierre was saying that Biden himself believes that Trump is a fascist, she also responded “Yes.”
-ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart
Harris to give closing speech on National Mall next week: Sources
Harris will deliver a speech on the National Mall in Washington next Tuesday, one week before Election Day, two people familiar with the planning confirmed to ABC News.
The Washington Post first reported the plans.
The Harris campaign has been granted a permit for this event, which it listed as a “First Amendment Activity: Political Speech” in the application with the National Park Service.
The application shows that the campaign requested to move the location of the speech to the Ellipse.
The application requests an 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. window on Oct. 29th, and estimates that roughly 7,500 people will attend along with 250 staff and volunteers. Organizers added that the speaking program will “consist of 4 to 5 individuals & elected officials.”
-ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart, Will McDuffie, Gabrielle Abdul-Hakim and Fritz Farrow
Georgia voter roll audit finds only 20 noncitizens out of 8 million registered voters
A comprehensive audit of Georgia’s voter rolls found that just 20 noncitizens were registered to vote on a registration list of over 8 million, according to an announcement Wednesday from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
All 20 of those registrations have been canceled and referred to the authorities for investigation and potential prosecution, Raffensperger said.
An additional 156 registrations were flagged for a “human investigation” that is now underway.
The result of the audit stands in stark contrast to claims being pushed by some Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, that large numbers of noncitizens are going to vote in the 2024 election.
Read more here from ABC News’ Olivia Rubin.
JD Vance contends ‘joy is gone’ from Harris campaign
“The big theme of the first month of their campaign was that they were the joyful campaign,” Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance said of Harris’ campaign as he stumped in battleground Nevada. “And my friends, the joy is gone. The joy is gone from the Kamala Harris campaign.”
During his remarks in the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, Vance said Harris was scolding Trump supporters.
“She was like, how can you dare have a sense of humor about American politics? It’s one of the things I love about my running mate is he does have a sense of humor. You can fix the country but have a good time while you’re going around and campaigning across the United States, right?” Vance said.
Harris has recently revived one of President Joe Biden’s key campaign attacks: that Trump represents a threat to democracy.
-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie
Republicans warn of Democratic spending swarm in state legislative races
Republicans are warning that they could get vastly outspent in the battle for state legislative races across the country, a continuing reversal from last decade’s elections, when the GOP dominated such contests.
In a donor memo first reported by Politico and obtained by ABC News, Republican State Leadership Committee President Dee Duncan wrote to donors that his group’s historic $44 million investment in state legislative races this year would pale in comparison to the $175 million its Democratic counterpart and allied liberal groups planned to dish out.
“Since the…aforementioned national liberal outside groups have already combined to spend at least $69 million of traceable money across the country, that means they are on the road to dump at least another $100 million into key races between now and November,” Duncan wrote in his call to action.
“We don’t expect to fully close the fundraising gap we face, but additional resources are still immediately needed to counter the opposition’s massive spending advantage in these final weeks to ensure we remain on course to defend our majorities and seize any and all opportunities to flip chambers still within reach,” he added.
Democrats have made a concerted effort to get off the mat in state legislature races across the country. In 2022, the DLCC was able to overwhelm the RSLC in spending in the final weeks, a scenario Duncan specifically referenced as wanting to avoid this time around.
After having their ranks decimated in the 2010 midterms and struggling for over a decade to recoup, voting and abortion restrictions pushed by Republicans helped underscore the importance of such bodies for voters, producing an influx of funds that have helped Democrats go on offense. This year, the Democratic National Committee sent a first-of-its-kind $2.5 million to the DLCC.
Democrats are now on offense in Arizona, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and the Pennsylvania Senate, where they’re seeking to flip state chambers. Republicans are working to regain ground in Michigan and Minnesota, as well as in the Pennsylvania House.
Harris calls Trump ‘unhinged and unstable’
Harris swiped at Trump’s past comment about being a dictator only on “Day One” and his more recent threat to use the military against political opponents.
“Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable,” she said. “And in a second term, people like John Kelly would not be there to be the guardrails against his propensities and his actions. Those who once tried to stop him from pursuing his worst impulses would no longer be there, and no longer be there to rein him in.”
Harris did not take any questions after she finished the brief remarks.
Harris: Trump’s Hitler remarks ‘deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous’
Harris, speaking at the vice president’s residence, hammered Trump after his former chief of staff John Kelly’s bombshell comments to the New York Times.
Kelly claimed Trump said he wanted generals like the ones Adolf Hitler had, and that, in his view as a retired general, the former president fell under the definition of a “fascist.”
“It is deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Harris said. “All of this is further evidence for the American people of who Donald Trump really is.”
“The bottom line is this. We know what Donald Trump wants. He wants unchecked power,” Harris added. “The question in the next 13 days will be: What do the American people want?”
Trump says he’ll vote early while continuing to sow doubt about the process
As Republicans attempt to encourage early voting, Trump called into Fox News host Brian Kilmeade’s radio show to say he’ll vote early, but he continued to show reluctancy about the practice.
“I’m very mixed on it. I mean, I’m OK with the Tuesday voting, which they like doing, Republicans like, and I’m also, I say, the main thing I say is vote,” he said.
Trump also reiterated his baseless claims about cheating in this election cycle, saying it was his biggest concern when he was asked which of the battleground states worried him most.
“All of them. I mean, did they cheat? All of them? I mean, the biggest risk to me,” Trump said. “I think we win it easily.”
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa
Walz and family cast their votes early in Minnesota
Gov. Tim Walz, his wife Gwen Walz and their son Gus Walz voted early in St. Paul on Wednesday. The precinct cheered for Gus Walz as he voted for the first time.
“Exciting, an opportunity to turn the page on the chaos of Donald Trump and a new way forward,” Tim Walz said in brief remarks following the vote.
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray
Harris campaign encourages early voting among swing state college students
The Harris-Walz campaign continues to court young voters, announcing a college campus tour in swing states intended to promote early voting.
“This week, Team Harris-Walz is launching the ‘Vote for Our Future’ early vote college campus tour to mobilize young voters on college campuses across battleground states, encouraging them to make their voices heard, register to vote, and vote early,” the campaign told ABC News.
Officially launched Friday, the early vote campus tour includes a new seven-figure targeted ad buy for battleground college students, as well as concerts, block parties, food and campaign merch.
In addition to second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Maya Harris hosting an early vote mobilization event and concert near the University of North Carolina campus Tuesday evening, Gov. Tim Walz will also visit Duke University in North Carolina on Thursday, the campaign said.
Additional events at Michigan State University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and University of Michigan are scheduled for this week.
These efforts are coupled with a seven-figure ad buy that targets students in battleground states through social media ads and out-of-home ads on campuses, the campaign said.
On Wednesday, the DNC also announced an expansive, mid-six-figure ad campaign targeting young voters on college campuses across battleground states and directing them to IWillVote.com, according to a press release.
– ABC News’ Emily Chang
Harris campaign seizes on John Kelly’s remarks about Trump
The Harris campaign seized on former White House chief of staff and ex-Marine general John Kelly’s remarks panning Trump as a “fascist,” among other things, convening a press call of former GOP military leaders to sound a similar alarm.
“This is a difficult conversation for me as a lifelong Republican who always, you know, supported the Republican Party until Donald Trump came along,” Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson said.
Anderson mocked the fact that Trump “couldn’t qualify to be in the military — he has 34 felony convictions — so, how can we have the commander-in-chief be in charge of a military that he couldn’t possibly join?”
Kevin Carroll, who served as senior counsel to Kelly when he was Homeland Security secretary under Trump, also underscored the seriousness of Kelly’s surprisingly public rebuke of his old boss.
“I had the honor of working aside him, and I know him speaking out this way was no small step for him,” Carroll said.
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow
Gov. Walz voting today with wife, son
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, is casting his ballot Wednesday in the 2024 election.
Walz is voting with his wife Gwen and their son Gus, who is a first-time voter, according to the campaign.
They will vote early for Harris at the top of the ticket, the campaign said. They will also vote for Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is seeking a fourth term, and Rep. Betty McCollum as well as other Democratic candidates further down the ballot.
Hope, the governor’s daughter, has already cast her ballot in Montana, Walz has said. On Sunday during a stop in Saginaw, Michigan, the governor said that Hope, who lives in Bozeman most of the time but is often out campaigning with him, had recently returned to the state to cast a vote for Democratic incumbent Jon Tester in that critical Senate race.
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray
Harris set for CNN town hall, Trump heads to Georgia
Harris will continue a media blitz with a 7 p.m. interview airing on Telemundo. In excerpts of the taped interview released on Tuesday, Harris outlined how her economic plans would benefit Latino me and discussed the recent election in Venezuela.
At 9 p.m., Harris will do a live CNN town hall in battleground Pennsylvania.
Trump will be in Georgia, another key swing state, where he’ll participate in a 3 p.m. “Believers and Ballots Faith Town Hall.” Later, he’ll be at a Turning Point Action rally in Duluth at 7 p.m.
Trump calls Xi Jinping ‘brilliant’ and touts relationship with Putin
At his rally in North Carolina on Tuesday night, Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping and remarked on his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump repeatedly called Xi “a brilliant man” who “runs 1.4 billion people with an iron fist.”
“He’s a fierce man. I got along with him very well,” Trump said. “Putin — these are people that are tough people. Kim Jong Un, North Korea, nuclear weapons all over the place.”
The comments came after Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly warned he believed Trump would rule as a dictator if elected to a second term in an interview with The New York Times.
John Kelly says Trump fits definition of a ‘fascist’
John Kelly, who served as chief of staff in Trump’s administration, described the former president as a “fascist” during an interview with the New York Times.
“Well, looking at the definition of fascism, it’s a far right, authoritarian, ultra nationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized hypocrisy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief, natural, social hierarchy,” Kelly told the newspaper. “So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks will prove work better in terms of running America.”
Kelly also said he believed Trump would “love” to be a dictator, and that he was comfortable saying Adolf Hitler “did some good things, too.” Kelly also claimed Trump referred to veterans who lost limbs as “losers and suckers.”
The Trump campaign pushed back in a statement.
“John Kelly has totally beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated because he failed to serve his President well while working as Chief of Staff and currently suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. President Trump has always honored the service and sacrifice of all of our military men and women, whereas Kamala Harris has completely disrespected the families of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, including the Abbey Gate 13,” said campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung.
Harris tells Telemundo how her economic plan will benefit Latinos
Telemundo, the Spanish-language television network, released clips on Tuesday of an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris — part of a more extensive conversation that will be aired on Wednesday.
In the clips, she comments primarily on her economic position and plan, describing herself as a “pragmatic capitalist.”
“I am a capitalist. I am a pragmatic capitalist,” she can be heard saying in one of the clips.
She went on to describe the need for leadership in America that actively works with the private sector “to drive new industries and build up small-business owners, to allow us to increase home ownership, to allow people and their families to build intergenerational wealth.”
She also stated that a new approach would need to understand “that some of the best jobs that we have available don’t necessarily require a college degree.”
In a separate clip, when asked how that plan might affect Latino men, Harris answered, “A lot of my agenda is about creating opportunity for people to succeed. So, for example, part of the agenda that I’ve already presented, I am very aware how it would affect Latino men.”
She explained that it involved building a strong economy that supports working people, and especially small-business owners, and added: “I know that Latino men often have a more difficult time having access to the big loans from the big banks because of relationships, because of things that are not necessarily grounded in their qualifications. So, I am focused on what we can do to bring more capital to community banks that will understand the community and be able to give those kinds of loans.”
Returning to her thoughts on the importance of families establishing generational wealth, she also said that part of her economic plan that would impact Latinos would be $25,000 down payment assistance for first-time homeowners.
-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow, Conor J. Finnegan, Will McDuffie
Biden says of Trump: ‘We gotta lock him up. Politically, lock him up’
President Joe Biden said former President Donald Trump poses a “genuine threat” to American democracy, during a visit to New Hampshire Democratic Party headquarters, saying, “We gotta lock him. Politically lock him up.”
The remarks came after Biden listed Trump’s proposals such as doing away with the Department of Education, taking on the federal civil service and the Supreme Court’s recent decision granting presidents broad immunity. Biden said: “I mean, so I know this sounds bizarre. It sounds like – if I said this five years ago, you’d lock me up.”
Then Biden said, referring to Trump, “We gotta lock him up. Politically lock him up. Lock him out, that’s what we have to do.”
“Lock her up” was an oft-repeated line by Trump and his supporters in 2016, a reference to Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information on her private email server.
Trump’s campaign quickly seized on Biden’s comments, calling on Vice President Kamala Harris to condemn the remarks and pushing claim that it shows Trump’s legal battles are purely political — charges prosecutors have repeatedly denied.
“Joe Biden just admitted the truth: he and Kamala’s plan all along has been to politically persecute their opponent President Trump because they can’t beat him fair and square,” Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary of the Trump campaign, said in a statement. “The Harris-Biden Admin is the real threat to democracy. We call on Kamala Harris to condemn Joe Biden’s disgraceful remark.”
— ABC News’ Justin Gomez, Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim, Kelsey Walsh
Jill Stein says ‘voters should vote for themselves’ in response to new Harris attack ad
Jill Stein, the Green Party’s presidential candidate, told ABC News Live “Voters should vote for themselves,” in response to Vice President Kamala Harris’ team running an attack advertisement against her. The ad, which started airing in the last week in some swing states, claimed that “a vote for Stein is really a vote for Trump.”
“Voters are being told over and over again that you don’t own your vote, that politicians own your vote,” the candidate who ran for the White House in 2012 and 2016, said in an interview on Tuesday.
“We do not have a lesser evil candidate, we have two greater evils,” Stein added, about Americans casting a vote for either former President Donald Trump or Harris.
A large part of Stein’s campaign has focused on slamming Harris for the Biden administration’s response to the Israel-Hamas war.
In the 2016 election, the serial candidate received almost 1.5 million votes, enough votes in the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to exceed Trump’s margins of victory.
Stein said that if she wasn’t on the ballot, a “vast majority of those voters would not have come out to vote.”
-ABC News’ Shannon Caturano
Tulsi Gabbard announces she’s joining Republican Party
Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard announced Tuesday she is officially joining the Republican Party.
Gabbard made the announcement during an appearance on stage at a rally for former President Donald Trump in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Gabbard has been stumping for Trump on the trail and recently advised him ahead of his Sept. 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Her announcement Tuesday marks a further political shift after her run for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020.
“I’m proud to stand here with you today, President Trump, and announce that I’m joining the Republican Party,” Gabbard said, calling the Republican Party the “party of equality” and “common sense” even as Trump repeatedly used insults to make personal attacks against his opponents during his own remarks.
“I am joining the party of the people … and the party that is led by a president who has the courage and strength to fight for peace,” Gabbard said.
“I’m looking forward to casting my vote for President Trump, because you are our best and only hope in this election to lead our country toward a future where every one of us can live in a truly free, peaceful and prosperous nation,” Gabbard continued, stressing that “every single vote will count.”
Eminem takes the stage at Harris rally in Detroit
Eminem took the stage at a Harris rally in Detroit, Michigan, on Tuesday where he introduced former President Barack Obama.
“I’m here tonight for a couple of important reasons,” Eminem said before sharing how much the city means to him. “Going into this election, the spotlight is on us more than ever,” he said of the swing state.
The Grammy-winning artist encouraged the crowd to “get out and vote.”
Eminem went on to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, saying she supports a future where “freedoms will be protected and upheld” before introducing Obama to the stage.
Walz, Obama energize crowd to get out and vote at Wisconsin rally
At an energetic but not completely packed joint campaign rally to mark early voting in the swing state of Wisconsin on Tuesday, former President Obama and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz made their pitch for the Democratic ticket while blasting former Trump’s behavior and character with just two weeks until Election Day.
The rally was held in Madison’s Alliant Energy Center, which is able to hold more than 10,000 people. The event space was not completely filled — only about two-thirds of the seats and floor space was taken.
Walz took aim at Trump and questioned his ally billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, who Walz claimed was “the real running mate.”
“So look, Elon’s on that stage, jumping around, skipping like a dip*** on these things,” Walz said to laughs.
“Seriously, where is Senator Vance, after he got asked the simplest question in the world at the debate, did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election? And after two weeks, he finally said, ‘No, he didn’t.’ That’s where he’s been spending his time,” Walz said.
Obama then came on stage and embraced Walz.
“Love that dude. Love that man. The kind of person who should be in politics,” Obama said.
At three points during Obama’s remarks at the Madison rally, which was billed as an event where the Democrats pushed early voting on the first day that in-person locations opened in Wisconsin, the former president utilized his old, famous saying: “Don’t boo, vote!”
The crowd started to chant “Vote!” at the end of Obama’s remarks.
“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. Do not think this is a distraction or a joke. Get off your couch and do what? Vote,” Obama said. “Put down your phones and do what? Vote. Vote for Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States. Vote for Tim Walz as the next vice president of the United States, vote for [incumbent Sen.] Tammy Baldwin and this whole incredible Wisconsin Democratic ticket.”
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray
Harris declines to discuss ‘hypotheticals’ on possible Trump pardon
Harris declined to discuss a possible pardon of Trump, who was convicted in May in a New York court of 34 criminal counts.
“I’m not going to get into those hypotheticals. I’m focused on the next 14 days,” she told NBC’s Hallie Jackson.
Asked if doing so could help the country move on, Harris said, “What’s going to help us move on is I get elected president of the United States.”
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Fritz Farrow and Gabriella Abdul-Hakim
Harris evades questions on Biden’s decline
Harris was asked about President Joe Biden’s mental state during an interview with NBC’s Hallie Jackson on Tuesday.
Asked by Jackson whether she had seen “anything like what happened at the debate night behind closed doors,” Harris did not answer directly.
“It was a bad debate. People have bad debates. He is absolutely…”
“Well, that’s the reason why you’re here and he’s not running for the top of the ticket,” Jackson responded.
“Well, you’d have to ask him if that’s the only reason why,” Harris said.
“What do you think?” Jackson asked.
“I am running for president of the United States, Joe Biden is not, and my presidency will be about bringing a new generation of leadership to America that is focused on the work that we need to do to invest in the ambitions and aspirations of the American people.”
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Fritz Farrow and Gabriella Abdul-Hakim
Biden warns Trump will eliminate Inflation Reduction Act, Obamacare if elected
President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders teamed up Tuesday afternoon at an event in Concord, New Hampshire, to tout a new report showing Medicare enrollees saved nearly $1 billion on their prescription drugs so far in 2024 through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Biden warned that this progress could be undone if Trump wins in November.
“Trump and MAGA Republicans want to eliminate the Inflation Reduction Act, which we’re talking about, the big bill which made all these savings possible, raising prescription drug prices again for millions of Americans,” he said.
Biden said Trump and the GOP have tried to replace the Affordable Care Act 51 times and mocked the former president for having only a “concept of a plan.”
Biden said if Harris isn’t elected, Trump will “kick 45 million people off their health insurance,” give tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans, get rid of the Department of Education and gut Social Security and Medicare.
“He’ll hurt hard-working people,” he said.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Vance pushes GOTV message in Arizona
In his fourth visit to the swing state of Arizona, vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance had one simple message to voters: get out and vote for Trump.
“Here’s the scenario that I want you to consider, and I don’t mean to give you nightmare fuel here, but I’m going to do it,” Vance said. “We wake up on November the 6th and Kamala Harris is barely elected President of the United States by a 700-vote margin in the state of Arizona. Think about that and ask yourself what you can do from now until then to make sure it doesn’t happen.”
Asked by local reporters what’s the strategy to get across the finish line with those who are still undecided, Vance asked them to look at the former president’s record, arguing that America was in a better position with him as commander-in-chief.
Asked if he’s confident in the Arizona election system and if he’s going to accept the results of the 2024 election, Vance said he thinks “that we’re in a better place than we were in 2020.”
-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie
Harris says she believes Trump could declare victory before all votes counted
Harris acknowledged Tuesday that “of course” it is possible that Trump could declare victory before all the votes are counted next month.
“This is a person, Donald Trump, who tried to undo a free and fair election, who still denies the will of the people, who incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol and 140 law enforcement officers were attacked, some who were killed,” Harris told NBC’s Hallie Jackson in a clip of their interview that was released Tuesday afternoon.
Harris said that she and her team “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 scenario.
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Fritz Farrow and Gabriella Abdul-Hakim
Georgia Supreme Court unanimously rejects controversial election rules
The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday denied an effort from the Republican National Committee to reinstate a series of election rules, including requiring ballots be counted by hand, after they previously were blocked by a lower judge.
The state’s high court ruling was unanimous, according to the order.
The lower court judge previously ruled that seven election rules passed by the state’s Republican-led Election Board were “unlawful and void.” The RNC then appealed, with RNC chairman Michael Whaley in statement saying the judge “exemplified the very worst of judicial activism.”
The order from the Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday said the appeal “will proceed in the ordinary court” once it is docketed.
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin
Over 19M Americans have voted early as of Tuesday afternoon
Over 19 million Americans have voted early as of Tuesday afternoon, according to data from Election Lab at the University of Florida.
Roughly 7.1 million votes have come in through early in-person methods while the remaining votes have been cast through mail ballots, the data showed.
There is a large showing of early votes in the swing state of Georgia which has seen record early vote turnout since early in-person voting began last week.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 1.84 million Georgians, roughly one in four registered voters, have cast their ballot, with over 1.74 million votes cast at early voting polling places across the state according to Georgia’s Secretary of State office.
-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd and Ivan Pereira
Trump to appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast Friday: Sources
Trump is set to tape an interview for the popular “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast Friday at Rogan’s Austin, Texas, studio, multiple sources told ABC News.
Rogan’s podcast garners a vast amount of viewership each week and ranks as one of the most-listened-to podcast on Spotify.
The interview comes as Trump has been engaging in more long-format media appearances and podcasts and works to appeal to young male voters, a key group of Rogan listeners.
Earlier this cycle, Rogan and Trump got into a back-and-forth spat on social media after Rogan expressed his support for then-candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during on an episode over the summer.
“He’s the only one who makes sense to me,” Rogan said of Kennedy in an August episode.
“He doesn’t attack people. He attacks actions and ideas, but he’s much more reasonable and intelligent.”
In response, Trump posted on his social media platform that “it will be interesting to see how loudly Joe Rogan gets BOOED the next time he enters the UFC Ring??? MAGA2024.”
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Cheney keeps up fire on Trump over Jan. 6
Former Rep. Liz Cheney tore into Trump on Tuesday over the Jan. 6, mob attack on the U.S. Capitol and his tariff policies.
Speaking with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, Cheney excoriated Trump as unfit for office and a threat to American democracy for his role in sparking the mob, echoing an argument she’s been making on the campaign trail with Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate.
“I believe he’s unfit, and he’s dangerous, but I made the decision beyond that to endorse Vice President Harris. And it is certainly the case that there are policies on which we disagree, but she is somebody who’s devoted her life to public service. She is somebody who, even if you disagree with her, and maybe especially if you disagree with her, I can tell you, she will listen,” Cheney, of Wyoming, said at the Detroit Economic Club.
“You all in business, when you think about, what are you looking for in somebody you hire, you’re looking for somebody that you can trust, you’re looking for somebody who’s going to be responsible, who’s going to operate in good faith,” she told the audience. “You certainly wouldn’t hire somebody who was unstable and erratic. And we need to think about this election in those terms.”
-ABC News’ Tal Axelrod
Bruce Springsteen to headline concerts at events with Obama, Harris, campaign says
Bruce Springsteen is bringing his greatest hits to the campaign trail as he is set to headline concerts in key swing state cities with Harris and former President Barack Obama, a senior campaign official told ABC News.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician will perform in Atlanta on Thursday with Harris and Obama as part of a get-out-the-vote event followed by another show in Philadelphia with Obama in attendance, the official said.
More concerts will be announced, the official said.
“The Boss” announced his support for Harris saying she and Gov. Tim Walz have “a vision of this country that respects and includes everyone, regardless of class, religion, race, your political point of view or sexual identity, and they want to grow our economy in a way that benefits all” and that former President Donald Trump, “doesn’t understand the meaning of this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American.”
Campaign advisers see these major mobilization events as massive opportunities to harness voter enthusiasm to get out the vote before Election Day.
–ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Fritz Farrow
Trump takes questions from vocal supporters at Latino event, attacks Harris’ intelligence
Trump took friendly questions from Latino supporters during a roundtable aimed at courting minority voters in Florida on Tuesday.
The questions came from many longtime supporters including Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue, pastor Apostle Guillermo Maldonado and “Sound of Freedom” actor Eduardo Verastegui, who spent a lot of their time praising the former president.
Trump talked about immigration for the first time about 30 minutes in, and used false claims about immigrants crossing into the country, calling them a “military supreme.”
The crowd was relatively calm given the ballroom set-up; however, Trump did get applause when he brought up “men in women sports,” where he doubled down on more transphobic rhetoric.
“So there’s a sickness going on in our country. We have to end the sickness, and we have to start because she’s a radical left,” Trump said of Harris.
Trump also repeatedly made racial and ethnic jokes and attacks during the event.
The former president also went after Harris’ intelligence, calling her “slow” and “stupid.”
He also continued to make his baseless claim that there might not be another election if Harris wins.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Trump hits Harris as ‘lazy as hell’ for not being on the trail
Trump returned to his Doral, Florida, golf club to host a roundtable with Latino community members Tuesday and used the opportunity to criticize Harris for not having any campaign events that day.
The roundtable was supposed to be focused on Trump’s appeal to Latino Americans, but during his opening remarks, Trump gave a generic, rambling stump speech where he complained about his heavy campaign schedule compared to Harris’. The vice president is off the trail on Tuesday and taping interviews for NBC News and Telemundo.
“She’s sleeping right now. She couldn’t go on the trail. You know, you think when you have 14 days left, you wouldn’t be sleeping. She’s not doing anything today,” Trump said, not mentioning her TV interviews scheduled for Tuesday.
As the topic of exhaustion came up into the final stretch of the campaign, Trump kept going after Harris for taking days off as he talked about how much he was campaigning.
“Who the hell takes off? You have 14 days left, and she’ll take a couple of more days off too. You know why she’s lazy as hell, and she’s got that reputation,” he said.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
DOJ launches voter assistance site for hurricane victims
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division launched a webpage on Tuesday that compiles information to help voters in states impacted by recent hurricanes Helene and Milton to have access to the ballot.
The resources are aimed to help voters in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia.
“The site identifies and provides links to various state changes made to accommodate voters who have been displaced, lost their identification documents, have had polling sites moved or who are unsure where or how they can vote. It also provides contact information so that voters can reach local voting officials who can provide the most specific and up-to-date guidance,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
Harris highlights key tie-breaking vote over prescription drugs
Vice President Kamala Harris, who cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, called Tuesday’s Health and Human Services report on cost-savings for prescription drugs evidence of the administration’s mission to deliver accessible health care to everyone.
The report showed 1.5 million Medicare enrollees saved almost $1 billion on prescription drugs in the first half of 2024 as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act.
“All Americans should be able to access the health care they need — no matter their income,” Harris said in a statement.
The Inflation Reduction Act for the first time put a cap on what Medicare enrollees spend on out-of-pocket costs for their medications and a lower cap that goes into effect next year ($2,000) and is estimated to impact 19 million people.
The administration estimated that this year’s cap saved impacted Medicare enrollees an average of $1,802, and that when the cap lowers further, the savings will be higher.
Harris highlighted the combination of other efforts the administration is also making to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, like capping insulin at $35 and negotiating on contracts with pharma companies so the government pays less for drugs.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Senate Dems release report on early voting
Democratic senators, led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Rules Committee Chair Amy Klobuchar, released a report Tuesday urging Americans to cast their ballots as soon as possible and warning that election results may not be known on Election Day.
“Just like 2020, Donald Trump and his allies continue to refuse to commit to accepting the results of the election if he loses while pushing dangerous and divisive rhetoric to sow discord and undermine confidence in our election process. Americans losing faith in the results of our elections doesn’t just risk another January 6th but puts our very democracy at risk,” Schumer said in a statement with the release of the report. “Senate Democrats remain committed to ensuring all Americans can vote without fear or intimidation.”
The report details the early voting and mail-in ballot count procedures, including details on how and when some swing states count their ballots.
Using these details, the report asserts that “early vote counts may create the appearance that one particular candidate is ahead but that may change depending on whether in-person or mail-in vote totals are reported first. Americans should be prepared to reject misinformation and be patient about results in places where counting ballots may take longer.”
Trump still refuses to accept that he lost the 2020 election and has encouraged voters to cast ballots for him on Nov. 5 so that his margin of victory is “too big to rig.”
-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin
ABC News’ John Karl to speak with Liz Cheney
Former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney will sit down with ABC News’ Chief Washington Correspondent and Co-Anchor of “This Week” Jonathan Karl at the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday afternoon.
Part of the event will be streamed on ABC News Live.
Karl’s discussion with Cheney comes a day after she hit the campaign trail with Harris for a series of moderated conversations in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, in which they sought to appeal to white suburban women who vote Republican.
Trump courts Latino voters, Harris off the trail
Trump will hold a roundtable at the Latino Summit at his Doral golf club in Miami. The event was postponed because of Hurricane Milton and comes as the former president seeks to eat away at Harris’ edge with Hispanic voters, particularly males.
Trump will later head to Greensboro, North Carolina, for a rally.
Harris, notably, has no public events scheduled for Tuesday, spending her afternoon instead doing interviews with NBC News and Telemundo.
Former President Barack Obama joins Minnesota Gov. and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz for a rally in Madison, Wisconsin.
Trump and Harris prepare for flood of legal activity around election
Harris and Trump are preparing for a flood of legal activity before and after the election after the former president launched an avalanche of lawsuits seeking to overturn his loss in 2020.
Earlier this year, the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign announced what they described as an “historic” “election integrity” program that an RNC official said in recent months has engaged in over 130 election lawsuits across 26 states, and recruited approximately 5,000 volunteer attorneys who are ready to be activated on Election Day.
Democrats, for their part, have intervened in “dozens of baseless Republican lawsuits to debunk their lies and defeat them in court,” according to an internal memo prepared by Harris’ chief attorney, Dana Remus.
Read more here from Olivia Rubin, Will Steakin and Lucien Bruggeman.
Nevada Republicans outpace Democrats in in-person early voting, trail in mail-in voting
Republicans are outpacing Democrats in in-person early voting in Nevada while Democrats are outpacing Republicans in mail-in voting, the Nevada Secretary of State Office’s latest report shows.
The latest report, updated Monday night, reflects early in-person voting and mail-in voting turnout in the first three days. It showed 52% of in-person early voters so far have been Republicans, while 28% were Democrats. Of all mail-in ballots cast so far, 43% so far have been Democrats and 30% Republicans.
The pattern reflects trends from the 2020 presidential election, when Republicans outpaced Democrats in early in-person voting and Democrats outpaced Republicans with mail-in voting.
In total, 245,356 mail-in ballots and early in-person ballots had been cast as of Monday night, with just under 40% of them being Republicans and 36% of them being Democrats.
In-person early voting in Nevada began on Oct. 19.
-ABC News’ Soorin Kim
Elon Musk’s PAC pays out 3rd $1 million check to voter
Elon Musk’s America PAC said late Monday that it handed out a third $1 million check to a voter who has signed its petition backing the Constitution.
The PAC said in a post to X that the check was given to Shannon Tomei from McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, posting a photograph of Tomei holding the check.
“Every day until Election Day, a person who signs the petition will be selected to earn $1M as a spokesperson for America PAC,” it added.
Musk shared the announcement and congratulated Tomei. In other posts, he has been urging people to register to vote in Pennsylvania — a crucial battleground state in next month’s presidential election.
The first two winners were announced during a town hall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, over the weekend, with Musk handing over the checks to the winners on stage. It’s unclear how the third check was delivered.
Musk has thrown his weight behind former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, describing Trump as the only candidate “to preserve democracy in America.”
-ABC News’ Soorin Kim
Harris takes jabs at Trump’s dance moves, calls him ‘increasingly unstable’
Vice President Kamala Harris and former Rep. Liz Cheney capped off their battleground tour in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in their bid to appeal to moderate Republicans and independents.
During the final event on Monday, Harris continued to draw a contrast between herself and former President Trump and even poked fun at his dance moves during his campaign rally last week.
Harris, who called Trump’s onstage dancing a “solo dance,” said that it was proof that the former president is “increasingly unstable.”
“What we see about him in public, whether it be his rallies or, as you said, the — what would it be called? — just a solo dance? I don’t know,” said Harris, drawing laughter from the crowd.
“I think it does lead us, and it should lead us, to observe that he is increasingly unstable,” Harris said.
Harris was referencing Trump’s town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, last week where two medical emergencies in the crowd interrupted the event, which eventually turned into what his campaign at the time called an “impromptu concert.”
-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim
Tim Walz reacts to ‘Daily Show’ appearance with Jon Stewart while fundraising in NYC
Fresh off his taping of the “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” Gov. Tim Walz told a crowd at the Standard Hotel in New York City on Monday night that the experience was “great” but that the comedian’s monologue at the start of the show was filled with what he considered “doom.”
“I’m like, ‘Quit with the doom.’ You know?” Walz said.
“Yes, Donald Trump is horrible, and the stakes are incredibly high, and women’s lives are at risk, and they demonize immigrants. And then he goes to McDonald’s to try and distract us, even though, the day before that, he said, you know, ‘We need to do something against the enemy from within,’” he went on.
“But there’s an antidote to this,” he concluded, explaining that there was more than enough positivity in the support he has been receiving as he campaigns in battleground states.
At the fundraising event, Walz was introduced by New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Hochul told the crowd that she got to know Walz when they were both representing red districts as Democrats in Congress.
She said that she gives Vice President Kamala Harris “a lot of credit” for choosing Walz as a running mate, whom she called “a genuine human being.”
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray
Trump recalls assassination attempt while courting religious voters in North Carolina
At a Believers and Ballots event in North Carolina Monday, former President Donald Trump worked to court religious voters.
Trump talked about his spiritual journey with the crowd as he emphasized a faith background we don’t often hear him talk about.
“But as I look back at my life’s journey and events, I now recognize that it’s been the hand of God leading me to where I am today,” said Trump.
The former president reflected on the assassination attempt made against him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania over the summer.
“My faith took on new meaning on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, where I was knocked to the ground, essentially by what seemed like a supernatural hand,” Trump said.
“I would like to think that God saved me for a purpose, and that’s to make our country greater than ever before,” he added.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa
Judges in Michigan and North Carolina reject challenges to overseas votes
Judges in Michigan and North Carolina on Monday ruled against legal challenges that attempted to disqualify votes cast by eligible American voters overseas.
Republican plaintiffs claimed that election offices in those two states, as well as in Pennsylvania, had created loopholes that would allow ineligible people to vote through overseas absentee ballots.
In Michigan, the judge dismissed one of three suits filed, calling it in his opinion “an 11th-hour attempt to disenfranchise these electors.”
In North Carolina, the judge denied a request by plaintiffs to set aside the ballots of overseas voters until a time at which their individual eligibility could be verified. Superior Court Judge John Smith wrote in that instance that there was “absolutely no evidence that any person has ever fraudulently claimed that exemption and actually voted in any North Carolina election.”
His ruling also stated conclusively that, “This court has weighed the hypothetical possibility of harm to plaintiffs against the rights of the defendants and finds that on balance the equitable discretion of this court should not be invoked to treat an entire group of citizens differently based upon unsupported and speculative allegations for which there is not even a scintilla of substantive evidence.”
A ruling on a similar lawsuit in Pennsylvania is expected soon.
-ABC News’ T. Michelle Murphy and Ivan Pereira
Trump spends millions on anti-trans ads despite lack of voter interest
Donald Trump and his Republicans allies are aggressively pushing anti-trans messaging in the final stretch of his campaign — despite the fact that transgender issues are among the least important issues motivating voters to head to the ballot box, according to a Gallup poll.
The Trump campaign and Republican groups have spent more than $21 million on anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ television ads as of Oct. 9.
Additionally, in recent months, Trump-aligned political groups have flooded the airwaves with ads disparaging policies that support the transgender community.
Despite the small size of the transgender population in the U.S., these issues have played a key role in many Republican campaigns on both the state and federal levels.
Trump’s own political agenda, titled Agenda 47, is laden with transgender-based proposals, including a ban on transgender participation in women’s sports, an end to gender-affirming care funded by federal or state dollars, and more.
ABC News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on his ad spending.
-ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca and Soo Rin Kim
Walz to travel to Kentucky, North Carolina and Pennsylvania later this week
After Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz campaigns in Wisconsin on Tuesday (where he’ll be joined by former President Barack Obama for a rally in Madison), he’ll remain out on the trail this week.
On Wednesday, Walz will speak at an evening fundraiser in Louisville, Kentucky.
On Thursday, he will spend the morning making political stops in Durham, North Carolina — just a week after he visited the city with former President Bill Clinton. He’ll then make local stops in Greenville, North Carolina, in the afternoon and hold a rally in Wilmington that night.
On Friday, Walz will campaign in Philadelphia, where he’ll speak at a fundraiser in the city around noon.
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray
Harris says she wakes up in middle of night from election stress
Harris said she finds herself waking up in the middle of the night from the stress of the final days of the election, when asked how she handles stress and anxiety during a discussion in Michigan on Monday.
“You know, I wake up in the middle of the night, usually these days. Just to be honest with you,” Harris told Maria Shriver, who moderated the discussion between the vice president and former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in Royal Oak. “But I work out every morning. I think that’s really important to just kind of, you know, mind, body and spirit.”
“Say more about that,” Shriver pressed Harris.
“I work out, I try to eat,” Harris responded. “You know, I love my family, and I make sure that I talk to the kids and my husband every day.”
“My family grounds me in every way,” she added.
The exchange started with Harris making something clear: She’s not taking edibles.
“Everybody I talked to says, you know, I have to turn off the news, I can’t read anything, I’m meditating, I’m doing yoga. I’m so anxious. I just don’t even know. I’m eating gummies, all kinds of things, you know?” Shriver said to Harris, asking, “What are you doing?”
“Not eating gummies,” Harris said to laughs from the crowd.
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie
Liz Cheney makes a case for conservatives to back Harris
Vice President Kamala Harris participated in a series of moderated conversations with former Rep. Liz Cheney in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday.
In those appearances, Cheney made a case for conservatives to vote Democrat in the upcoming election and support Harris’ bid for the White House.
“What I would say is that if people are uncertain, if people are thinking, ‘Well, you know, I’m a conservative, I don’t know that I can support Vice President Harris,’ I would say, I don’t know if anybody is more conservative than I am,” said Cheney, who was the third-ranking member of the House Republican Conference from 2019 to 2021.
Cheney also warned Republicans considering voting for Trump that Congress would not be a check on him.
“For anybody who is a Republican who is thinking that, you know, they might vote for Donald Trump because of national security policy, I ask you, please, please study his national security policy,” Cheney said. “Not only is it not Republican — it’s dangerous. And without allies, America will find our very freedom and security challenged and threatened.”
“And one final point on this: Don’t think that Congress can stop him,” Cheney added.
In Malvern, Pennsylvania, Cheney said she thought there would be Republican voters who would cast their ballots for Harris — even if they did not reveal it publicly.
In Michigan, she went further, encouraging voters to do just that, saying, “If you’re at all concerned, you can vote your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody, and there will be millions of Republicans who do that on Nov. 5, vote for Vice President Harris.”
-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow, Will McDuffie and T. Michelle Murphy
Trump pushes false claims that Democrats are trying to cheat in election
Rallying in Greenville, North Carolina, on Monday, Trump launched baseless claims about possible fraud in the 2024 election — despite earlier in the day saying he hadn’t seen evidence of it.
At one point during the rally, Trump turned to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley to ask him about election security.
“He’ll stop the cheating. He’s going to stop the cheating,” Trump said to Whatley. “Are they cheating? Michael, they’re trying, but are they? They’re not going to get away with it, right? … They got away with it in plenty of places.”
Earlier in Asheville, North Carolina, Trump told his supporters that he hasn’t seen any evidence of cheating in the election thus far, but added, “I know the other side and they are not good.”
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Kelsey Walsh and Soo Rin Kim
More than 1.5M have voted early in battleground Georgia
The office of the Georgia Secretary of State announced Monday that more than 1.5 million voters have voted early in person in Georgia as of Monday afternoon.
“Georgia voters know we’ve made it easy to cast a ballot. It’s really that simple,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement.
In-person early voting started in the key battleground state on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
As of Monday afternoon, more than 15 million early votes have been cast nationally, including almost 5 million in-person early votes, according to an analysis by the Election Lab at the University of Florida.
-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim
Harris reiterates she worked at McDonald’s after Trump stunt
On her way to her moderated conversation in Michigan, Harris was asked if she had worked at a McDonald’s while deplaning Air Force 2.
“Did I? I did,” she said.
Her past experience at McDonald’s has become a fixation of Trump’s, who over the weekend worked the fryer at one of the chain’s restaurants in the Philadelphia area.
Trump has claimed Harris never worked at the fast food giant. Harris, in introducing herself to voters this campaign, has told the story of working there between her freshman and sophomore years at Howard University in an effort to contrast her working-class roots with Trump’s background.
-ABC News’ Gabrielle Abdul-Hakim
Cheney gives Harris backup on abortion
Harris got backup on a hot-button cultural issue from an unlikely source Monday — conservative former Rep. Liz Cheney.
Cheney — who has broken with Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot — still boasts a conservative record. But Monday, she waded into an issue that Democrats hope will help them win over voters on Election Day.
“I think there are many of us around the country who have been pro-life but who have watched what’s going on in our states since the Dobbs decision and have watched state legislatures put in place laws that are resulting in women not getting the care they need,” Cheney said, referencing the Supreme Court decision that scrapped federal abortion protections.
“In places like Texas, for example, the attorney general is talking about suing, is suing, to get access to women’s medical records. That’s not sustainable for us as a country, and it has to change.”
The remarks, made in a Philadelphia suburb, were notable as Harris looks to cement support among suburban female voters.
Harris works to earn Pennsylvania’s Republican votes alongside Liz Cheney
Harris is doing a series of moderated conversations with former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in suburban cities in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday.
While in Pennsylvania, Harris and Cheney worked to pick off Republicans disaffected with their party’s nominee who may vote for the vice president and focus on the dangers Trump poses to the country and to democracy.
“There are months in the history of our country which challenge us, each of us, to really decide when we stand for those things that we talk about, including, in particular, country over party,” Harris said.
Cheney, a staunch Trump critic who endorsed Harris in September despite their party and policy differences, said “every single thing in my experience and in my background has played a part” in her supporting Harris.
“In this race, we have the opportunity to vote for and support somebody you can count on. We’re not always going to agree, but I know Vice President Harris will always do what she believes is right for this country. She has a sincere heart, and that’s why I’m honored to be in this place.”
Read more about Harris and Cheney’s events here.
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Fritz Farrow
Trump appears on The Undertaker’s podcast
Trump continued his alternative media outreach effort by sitting down for a podcast interview with retired pro wrestler Mark Calaway, also known as “The Undertaker.”
During the podcast, Trump repeated his anti-trans rhetoric, promising to not allow “men playing in women’s sports” as Calaway brought up his teenage quarterback daughter.
“You don’t want to go and wrestle a guy like if you were doing that, because people do that — like your father — right? He’s a little too much to handle,” Trump said to Calaway’s daughter, who was present for the interview, after Calaway asked him about Title IX..
“I will get rid of it fast. Men playing in women’s sports is insane,” Trump said.
Republicans have invested heavily in ads targeting the transgender community this cycle.
-ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh
Walz on what he’d do differently from the Biden admin and appealing to voters
Tim Walz joined ABC’s “The View” on Monday, where he discussed what he would have done differently than the Biden-Harris administration — a questioned that Harris herself struggled with in her own appearance on the talk show.
The governor said that he wished one of their ticket’s proposals — an expansion on Medicare — “would have been proposed sooner.” He argued their campaign is focusing heavily on things like the care economy and child care affordability.
Walz also discussed how they can appeal to men and Black voters, two voting blocks where Trump is having success.
“As as vice president says, we have a responsibility to earn the votes from everyone and not make the assumption that men or women are going to be with us. I hear oftentimes about the Black community. Why would we assume that they were with us, unless we’re putting out proposals that positively impact their life?” Walz said.
He argued that they are trying to make voters aware of their proposals on housing, child care, small businesses and more.
Read more about Walz on “The View” here.
Trump won’t denounce violence against FEMA workers during North Carolina stop
Trump toured devastation caused by Hurricane Helene just outside Asheville, North Carolina, and later delivered remarks to the press where he began by slamming the job from the White House for their hurricane response, continuing to push false claims about FEMA assistance in the wake of violence against FEMA workers.
“The power of nature. Nothing you can do about it, but you got to get a little bit better crew in to do a better job than has been done by the White House. It’s been not good. Not good. I’m here today in western North Carolina to express a simple message to the incredible people of the state, I’m with you, and the American people are with you all the way,” Trump said.
Later, he pushed false claims about the allocation of FEMA assistance, once again falsely saying that money dedicated to hurricane relief was going to offer assistance to migrants unaffected by the storm.
“FEMA has done a very poor job … They had spent hundreds of millions of dollars doing other things, things that I don’t think bear any relationship to this money, there was, they were not supposed to be spending the money on taking in illegal migrants, maybe so they could vote in the election. Because that’s what a lot of people are saying. That’s why they’re doing it,” Trump falsely said.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Kelsey Walsh and Soorin Kim
Sen. Bernie Sanders to join Biden in New Hampshire
In a strategic visit to boost Democrats’ presence in the purple state ahead of the election, President Joe Biden will be joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Tuesday in New Hampshire to talk about lowering the cost of prescription drugs, a senior administration official told ABC News.
The president is also expected to stop by a New Hampshire Democratic Party campaign office to support Vice President Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the official said.
The economy and costs are a top issue to voters in New Hampshire, polling shows, and Sanders, who made the high price of U.S. health care a central point of both his presidential campaigns, is a popular figure in the state, which neighbors his own.
Sanders and Biden will discuss new data on savings brought about by the administration’s hallmark Inflation Reduction Act, the senior official said. The act implemented significant price caps for Medicare enrollees, including a $35 cap on insulin already in effect and a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket drug costs that kicks in in 2025. The White House estimates the caps will bring about cost savings of $400 per year for nearly 19 million seniors.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Tim Walz to join ABC’s ‘The View’
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Harris’ running mate, will join ABC’s “The View” on Monday.
His interview comes after Harris herself appeared on the show as part of a media blitz earlier this month.
Walz recently quipped on Trump’s visit to a McDonald’s on Sunday as part of his mockery of Harris’ past employment there. Walz said he took “full responsibility” for the campaign stop after he once joked he couldn’t imagine the former president working a McFlurry machine.
Harris, Cheney to make the case to disaffected Republican voters
Harris is stumping with former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney on Monday in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. The two will hold a moderated conversation in each of the “blue wall” states.
Cheney endorsed Harris in early September, warning Trump posed a threat to democracy after what happened on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Donald Trump was willing to sacrifice our capitol to allow law enforcement officers to be beaten and brutalized in his name and to violate the law and the Constitution in order to seize power for himself,” Cheney said at her first joint appearance with Harris earlier this month.
“I don’t care if you are a Democrat or a Republican or an independent, that is depravity, and we must never become numb to it,” she continued. “Any person who would do these things can never be trusted with power again. We must defeat Donald Trump on Nov. 5.”
Trump to survey hurricane damage before rally in North Carolina
At noon, Trump will survey devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in Asheville, North Carolina.
He’ll later hold a 3 p.m. rally in Greenville before a 6:30 p.m. meeting with faith leaders in Concord.
Trump has criticized the Biden-Harris response to the storm, and spread misinformation about the federal government’s recovery efforts and assistance. Such misinformation, Biden and other officials have said, is harming those who need assistance and resulting in threats against FEMA workers.
Polls show close race between Harris, Trump
The latest polling averages from 538 show the two candidates running even in key swing states Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Trump, meanwhile, has a slight lead over Harris in Georgia and Arizona.
Overall, 538’s national polling average shows Harris ahead by just 1.8%.
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