COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were abducting and eating pets, repeating during a televised debate the type of inflammatory and anti-immigrant rhetoric he has promoted throughout his campaigns.
There is no evidence that Haitian immigrants in an Ohio community are doing that, officials say. But during the debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump specifically mentioned Springfield, Ohio, the town at the center of the claims, saying that immigrants were taking over the city.
“They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” he said.
Harris called Trump “extreme” and laughed after his comment. Debate moderators pointed out that city officials have said the claims are not true.
Trump’s comments echoed claims made by his campaign, including his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, and other Republicans. The claims attracted attention this week when Vance posted on social media that his office has “received many inquiries” about Haitian migrants abducting pets. Vance acknowledged Tuesday it was possible “all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”
Officials have said there have been no credible or detailed reports about the claims, even as Trump and his allies use them to amplify racist stereotypes about Black and brown immigrants.
While president, Trump questioned why the U.S. would accept people from “s—-hole” countries such as Haiti and some in Africa. His 2024 campaign has focused heavily on illegal immigration, often referencing in his speeches crimes committed by migrants. He argues immigrants are responsible for driving up crime and drug abuse in the United States and taking resources from American citizens.
Here’s a closer look at how the false claims have spread.
How did this get started?
On Sept. 6, a post surfaced on X that shared what looked like a screengrab of a social media post apparently out of Springfield. The retweeted post talked about the person’s “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” seeing a cat hanging from a tree to be butchered and eaten, claiming without evidence that Haitians lived at the house. The accompanying photo showed a Black man carrying what appeared to be a Canada goose by its feet. That post continued to get shared on social media.
On Monday, Vance posted on X. “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” he said. The next day, Vance posted again on X about Springfield, saying his office had received inquires from residents who said “their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants. It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”
Other Republicans shared similar posts. Among them was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who posted a photo of kittens with a caption that said to vote for Trump “So Haitian immigrants don’t eat us.”
Hours before Trump’s debate with Harris, he posted two related photos on his social media site. One Truth Social post was a photo of Trump surrounded by cats and geese. Another featured armed cats wearing MAGA hats.
A billboard campaign launched by the Republican Party of Arizona at 12 sites in metropolitan Phoenix plays off the false rumors. The billboard image resembles a Chick-fil-A ad, portraying four kittens and urging people to “Vote Republican!” and “Eat Less Kittens.”
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Chick-fil-A said the party didn’t reach out to the restaurant chain before running the ad, declining to comment further. In a statement, the state party said the ad humorously underscores the need for border security.
What do officials in Ohio say?
The office of the Springfield city manager, Bryan Heck, issued a statement knocking down the rumors.
“In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” Heck’s office said in an emailed statement.
Springfield police on Monday told the Springfield News-Sun that they had received no reports of stolen or eaten pets.
Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, held a news conference Tuesday to address the influx of Haitian immigrants to Springfield. He said he will send state troopers to Springfield to help local law enforcement deal with traffic issues and is earmarking $2.5 million over two years to provide more primary health care to immigrant families.
DeWine declined to address the allegations, deferring comment to local officials. But he repeatedly spoke in support of the people of Haiti, where his family has long operated a charity.
What do we know about a separate case 175 miles (281 km) away?
An entirely unrelated incident that occurred last month in Canton, Ohio, quickly and erroneously conflated into the discussion.
On Aug. 26, Canton police charged a 27-year-old woman with animal cruelty and disorderly conduct after she “did torture, kill, and eat a cat in a residential area in front (of) multiple people,” according to a police report.
But Allexis Ferrell is not Haitian. She was born in Ohio and graduated from Canton’s McKinley High School in 2015, according to public records and newspaper reports. Court records show she has been in and out of trouble with the law since at least 2017. Messages seeking comment were not returned by several attorneys who have represented her.
She is being held in Stark County jail pending a competency hearing next month, according to the prosecutor’s office.
What do advocates for Haitian immigrants say?
The posts create a false narrative and could be dangerous for Haitians in the United States, according to Guerline Jozef, founder and executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a group that supports and advocates for immigrants of African descent
“We are always at the receiving end of all kind of barbaric, inhumane narratives and treatments, specifically when it comes to immigration,” Jozef said in a phone interview.
Her comments echoed White House national security spokesman John Kirby.
“There will be people that believe it, no matter how ludicrous and stupid it is,” Kirby said. “And they might act on that kind of information, and act on it in a way where somebody could get hurt. So it needs to stop.”
What is the broader context of Haitians in Ohio and the United States?
Springfield, a city of roughly 60,000, has seen its Haitian population grow in recent years. It’s impossible to give an exact number, according to the city, but it estimates Springfield’s entire county has an overall immigrant population of 15,000.
The city also says that the Haitian immigrants are in the country legally under a federal program that allows for them to remain in the country temporarily. Last month the Biden administration granted eligibility for temporary legal status to about 300,000 Haitians already in the United States because conditions in Haiti are considered unsafe for them to return. Haiti’s government has extended a state of emergency to the entire country due to endemic gang violence.
Another matter cropping up and raised by Trump in an email Monday is the August 2023 death of an 11-year-old boy after a vehicle driven by an immigrant from Haiti hit the boy’s school bus. After that, residents demanding answers about the immigrant community spoke out at city council meetings.
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Catalini reported from Trenton, New Jersey, and Shipkowski from Toms River, New Jersey.
Presidential candidates relationship with the marijuana industry has involved – now she wants to deliver the winning goal.
The cannabis industry has been nervously waiting for some federal action to let the industry move to the next level. While consumer use is growing and taking a bite out of the alcohol industry, federal resections have put a significant hold on the profitability and growth of cannabis. President’s Biden made a promise to support the industry in 2020, but waited until 2023 to make a move with no noticeable action taking place until 2025. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is making an announcement on rescheduling in the first part of December, after the election. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has leaned in the DEA not to reschedule and made it clear he firmly opposes cannabis. This would go against all precedents as both the Food and Drug Administration and Health and Human Service has said it should be done.
There will be a new president and a new set of rules in December, and the DEA will be watching the political winds. So what is Kamala’s Harris Take on legalizing cannabis? With almost 90% of the country believing it should be legalized in some forms and groups like the American Medical Association, AARP, and the American College of Physicians supporting it, it is not a hot pototo, except for a few in power.
Photo by Alexander Sanchez/Getty Images
The latest take is Harris proposed legalizing marijuana nationally for recreational use and ensuring Black entrepreneurs have access to the growing cannabis industry. She made the announcement while in California. She has become the first sitting vice president to encourage legalizing it and has become a public champion. This is more open and aggressive than the current Biden administration’s approach. During a wide-ranging conversation on the podcast “All the Smoke” with former NBA stars Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes, Harris expressed her belief that marijuana should be legalized.
Harris stated, “I believe we have reached a moment where it is crucial to recognize that we need to legalize it and cease the criminalization of this activity.” She emphasized her conviction that individuals “should not face incarceration for using marijuana”
Harris has been critical of the current federal classification of marijuana. During a White House roundtable, she pointed out the absurdity of cannabis being considered as dangerous as heroin and more dangerous than fentanyl under current law. During her 2020 presidential campaign, she expressed support for marijuana legalization and admitted to having used it herself in the past. This shift from her earlier career as a prosecutor demonstrates a changing perspective on cannabis policy.
The $23+ billion industry is full of mom and pop businesses. Democrats have been traditionally been more of ally to the industry. Republican blocked SAFE Banking for 7 times and then the GOP Speaker coup ended any chance for movement last year. Some marijuana industry leaders don’t have faith in Biden or Harris, but the congressional GOP has not be the support to cannabis and the other party.
John Fabbricatore enforced federal immigration laws in his position as an ICE field office director until two years ago, and now he hopes to help secure America’s borders as a congressman.
The Republican candidate in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District is drawing on his career with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as he runs against U.S. Rep. Jason Crow in the Nov. 5 election. Crow, a Democrat, just finished his third term in Congress as the representative of the district, which includes Aurora, Littleton, Englewood, Greenwood Village and Centennial.
The odds weigh heavily in Crow’s favor. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report doesn’t consider the fight for the 6th District to be competitive. It’s ranked as solidly Democratic, in part because Crow, 45, won all three of his elections by double-digit percentages and redistricting in 2020 resulted in boundaries more favorable to Democrats.
That’s a change from 2018 when the district was seen as a battleground and Crow won his first race by unseating then-U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, now Aurora’s mayor.
But this time, Fabbricatore, 52, says voters are looking for a candidate who will prioritize the economy and lower taxes — and he contends that he’s the person for the job.
“They want someone that wants to fight,” Fabbricatore said.
He and Crow share certain traits. They’re both veterans: Fabbricatore served in the U.S. Air Force, and Crow was an Army Ranger. They’re hunters, each having longstanding experience with firearms. Neither hails from Colorado originally, with Fabbricatore raised in New York City and Crow in Madison, Wisconsin.
And the candidates, both fathers of two children, reside in Aurora.
Beyond that, their stances on major issues diverge — including on immigration, which Fabbricatore refers to as his “subject matter expertise.”
He argues jobs are going to immigrants compensated with lower wages, taking positions that could be filled by Americans for higher pay. Fabbricatore says he supports “legal, vetted” immigration and more stringent enforcement of existing laws.
“If we actually just enforce those laws, we will be doing much better than we are doing today with immigration,” he said.
In recent weeks, Fabbricatore has raised the alarm alongside former President Donald Trump and other conservatives about the presence of Venezuelan gangs in Aurora — while Crow has called out exaggerations and criticized Trump for distorting the problems in certain apartment complexes.
Crow notes that he represents “one of the most diverse districts in the nation,” with nearly 20% of his constituents born outside of the U.S. He wants to use federal grants and other programs to help immigrants and defend them against racist rhetoric.
He said he backed a bipartisan immigration deal that ran aground earlier this year after failing to earn enough Republican support. It would have boosted the number of border patrol agents, immigration judges and officers that oversee asylum cases, as well as established more legal pathways for migrants and others without documentation.
Fabbricatore said in a Denver Post candidate questionnaire that he would not have supported the bipartisan bill, instead preferring another bill with a greater focus on border security.
Gun violence is what motivated Crow to run for office. He backs a ban on assault weapons and supports universal background checks. He’s also working to pass a bill that would apply the same restrictions to out-of-state residents when they purchase long guns and shotguns as they face when buying handguns — requiring that the gun be shipped to a federally licensed seller in their home state, with a background check performed there.
Gun violence is “just an unacceptable, avoidable, ongoing national tragedy,” Crow said. “We don’t have to live with mass shootings.”
Fabbricatore says he believes in gun rights and is instead pushing for investments in mental health.
The candidates differ on abortion. Crow favors abortion rights, saying he aligns with the majority of Coloradans who back legal access to abortion — and he would support a federal law establishing that as a right. Fabbricatore says Congress should leave abortion’s legal status to the states. He opposes abortion, but he says he recognizes a need for exceptions, including in cases of rape.
“Having been someone who worked in sex trafficking and saw what many women went through, I could never tell a woman that she couldn’t have a medical procedure to end what happened to her,” he said.
Fabbricatore points to the economy as his No. 1 issue, saying it’s impacted by energy policy and immigration. He sees Colorado’s potential to participate in the energy sector through solar, wind, fracking and coal.
He says he wants to leave the younger generations with a prosperous economy, reliable job market and reasonable housing prices.
Crow says the nation’s inflation and interest rates are dropping, but he contends that prices are still “way too high for many Coloradans.”
He points to corporate price gouging as a contributing factor. Crow argues that the labor shortage, which drives up prices, could be addressed through immigration reform.
“There’s more work to do, but we’re on a good path — and certainly need to keep on the path that we are to make sure things are affordable,” Crow said.
The national Border Patrol union made a major endorsement for President.
Paul Perez, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, announced the union endorsed former Republican President Donald Trump over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) represents Border Patrol agents and support personnel assigned to the U.S. Border Patrol. The union announced its full support of former President Trump during a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona.
“If we allow border czar Harris to win this election, every city, every community in this great country is going to go to hell,” Perez announced. “The untold millions of people unvetted, who she has allowed into this country that are committing murders, rapes, robberies, burglaries and every other crime will continue to put our country in peril.
“Only one man can fix that. That is Donald J. Trump. He has always stood with the men and women who protect this border, who put their lives on the line for the country. A man who knows about putting his life on the line for what is right.”
Former President Trump called the Border Patrol union endorsement a “great honor,” as he has made illegal immigration and the border crisis a major plank in his campaign. President Trump said he will secure the border and stop catch-and-release, as well as implement a mass deportation program.
“On behalf of the 16,000 men and women represented by the National Border Patrol Council, we strongly support and endorse Donald J. Trump for President of the United States,” Perez concluded.
Republicans are also trying to capitalize on former President Bill Clinton seemingly blaming Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden’s administration – all Democrats – for Laken Riley’s murder by an illegal immigrant.
DALLAS (AP) — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Rep. Colin Allred met for their only debate Tuesday night, trading attacks over abortion and immigration in a closely watched race that could help determine which party wins control of the U.S. Senate.
Nationally, Democrats view Texas as one of their few potential pickup chances in the Senate this year, while Cruz has urged Republicans to take Texas seriously amid signs that the former 2016 presidential contender is in another competitive race to keep his seat.
From start to finish in the hourlong debate, Cruz sought to link Allred to Vice President Kamala Harris at nearly every opportunity and painted the three-term Dallas congressman as out of step in a state where voters have not elected a Democrat to a statewide office in 30 years.
Allred, who would become Texas’ first Black senator if elected, hammered Cruz over the state’s abortion ban that is one of the most restrictive in the nation and does not allow exceptions in cases of rape or incest. The issue is central to Allred’s underdog campaign and his supporters include Texas women who had serious pregnancy complications after the state’s ban took effect.
Pressed on whether he supports Texas’ law, Cruz said the specifics of abortion law have been and should be decided by the Texas Legislature.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during a U.S. Senate debate with Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Dallas. (Shelby Tauber/Texas Tribune via AP, Pool)
“I don’t serve in the state Legislature. I’m not the governor,” he said.
Cruz later blasted Allred over his support of transgender rights and immigration polices of President Joe Biden and Harris, accusing him of shifting his views on border security from the positions he took when he was first elected to Congress in 2018.
“What I always said is that we have to make sure that as we’re talking about border security, that we don’t fall into demonizing,” Allred said.
Allred accused the two-term U.S. senator of mischaracterizing his record and repeatedly jabbed Cruz for his family vacation to Mexico during a deadly winter storm in 2021 that crippled the state’s power grid.
The two candidates closed the debate by attacking each other, with Cruz painting an Allred victory as a threat to Republicans’ grip on Texas.
“Congressman Allred and Kamala Harris are both running on the same radical agenda,” Cruz said.
Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, left, speaks during a U.S. Senate debate with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Dallas. (Shelby Tauber/Texas Tribune via AP, Pool)
Allred, meanwhile, cast himself as a moderate and accused Cruz of engaging in what he described as “anger-tainment, where you just leave people upset and you podcast about it and you write a book about it and you make some money on it, but you’re not actually there when people need you.”
The last time Cruz was on the ballot in 2018, he only narrowly won reelection over challenger Beto O’Rourke.
The debate offered Allred, a former NFL linebacker, a chance to boost his name identification to a broad Texas audience. Allred has made protecting abortion rights a centerpiece of his campaign and has been sharply critical of the state’s abortion ban. The issue has been a winning one for Democrats, even in red states like Kentucky and Kansas, ever since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to strip away constitutional protections for abortion.
Cruz, who fast made a name for himself in the Senate as an uncompromising conservative, has refashioned his campaign to focus on his legislative record.
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Allred has meanwhile sought to flash moderate credentials and has the endorsement of former Republican U.S. Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney.
The two candidates alone have raised close to $100 million, according to the most recent reports from the Federal Election Commission. Tens of millions more dollars have been spent by outside groups, making it one of the most expensive races in the country.
Despite Texas’ reputation as a deep-red state and the Democrats’ 30-year statewide drought, the party has grown increasingly optimistic in recent years that they can win here.
Since former President Barack Obama lost Texas by more than 15 percentage points in 2012, the margins have steadily declined. Former President Donald Trump won by 9 percentage points in 2016, and four years later, won by less than 6. That was the narrowest victory for a Republican presidential candidate in Texas since 1996.
“Texas is a red state,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston. “But it’s not a ruby-red state.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — There has been a doubling of petitions by workers to have union representation during President Joe Biden’s administration, according to figures released Tuesday by the National Labor Relations Board.
There were 3,286 petitions filed with the government in fiscal 2024, up from 1,638 in 2021. This marks the first increase in unionization petitions during a presidential term since Gerald Ford’s administration, which ended 48 years ago.
During Trump’s presidency, union petitions declined 22%.
President Joe Biden said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press that the increase showed that his administration has done more for workers than his predecessor, Donald Trump, the current Republican nominee who is vying to return to the White House in November’s election.
“After the previous administration sided with big corporations to undermine workers — from blocking overtime pay protections to making it harder to organize — my Administration has supported workers,” Biden said. “Because when unions do well, all workers do well and the entire economy benefits.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, is relying heavily on union support to help turn out voters in this year’s presidential election. But Trump with his push for tariffs on foreign imports has a blue collar appeal that has for some unionized workers mattered more than his record his office.
Just 16% of voters in 2020 belonged to a union household. Biden secured 56% of them, compared to Trump getting 42%, according to AP VoteCast. The margin of support in union households in this year’s election could decide the outcome of potentially close races in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Workers have also become more empowered to report what they judge to be unfair labor practices. The National Labor Relations Board said its field offices received a total of 24,578 cases last fiscal year, the most in more than a decade.
ATLANTA (AP) — A judge has blocked a new rule that requires Georgia Election Day ballots to be counted by hand after the close of voting. The ruling came a day after the same judge ruled that county election officials must certify election results by the deadline set in law.
The rulings are victories for Democrats, liberal voting rights groups and some legal experts who have raised concerns that Donald Trump’s allies could refuse to certify the results if the former president loses to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in next month’s presidential election. They have also argued that new rules enacted by the Trump-endorsed majority on the State Election Board could be used to stop or delay certification and to undermine public confidence in the results.
The State Election Board last month passed the rule requiring that three poll workers each count the paper ballots — not votes — by hand after the polls close. The county election board in Cobb County, in Atlanta’s suburbs, had filed a lawsuit seeking to have a judge declare that rule and five others recently passed by the state board invalid, saying they exceed the state board’s authority, weren’t adopted in compliance with the law and are unreasonable.
In a ruling late Tuesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote, that the hand count rule “is too much, too late” and blocked its enforcement while he considers the merits of the case.
McBurney on Monday had ruled in a separate case that “no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance.” While they are entitled to inspect the conduct of an election and to review related documents, he wrote, “any delay in receiving such information is not a basis for refusing to certify the election results or abstaining from doing so.”
Georgia law says county election superintendents — generally multimember boards — “shall” certify election results by 5 p.m. on the Monday after an election, or the Tuesday if Monday is a holiday as it is this year.
The two rulings came as early in-person voting began Tuesday in Georgia.
In blocking the hand count rule, McBurney noted that there are no guidelines or training tools for its implementation and that the secretary of state had said the rule was passed too late for his office to provide meaningful training or support. The judge also wrote that no allowances have been made in county election budgets to provide for additional personnel or expenses associated with the rule.
“The administrative chaos that will — not may — ensue is entirely inconsistent with the obligations of our boards of elections (and the SEB) to ensure that our elections are fair legal, and orderly,” he wrote.
The state board may be right that the rule is smart policy, McBurney wrote, but the timing of its passage makes implementing it now “quite wrong.” He invoked the memory of the riot at the U.S. Capitol by people seeking to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory on Jan. 6, 2021, writing, “Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public.”
During a hearing earlier Tuesday, Robert Thomas, a lawyer for the State Election Board, argued that the process isn’t complicated and that estimates show that it would take extra minutes, not hours, to complete. He also said memory cards from the scanners, which are used to tally the votes, could be sent to the tabulation center while the hand count is happening so reporting of results wouldn’t be delayed.
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State and national Democratic groups that had joined the suit on the side of the Cobb election board, along with the Harris campaign, celebrated McBurney’s ruling in a joint statement: “From the beginning, this rule was an effort to delay election results to sow doubt in the outcome, and our democracy is stronger thanks to this decision to block it.”
The certification ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Julie Adams, a Republican member of the election board in Fulton County, which includes most of the city of Atlanta and is a Democratic stronghold. Adams sought a declaration that her duties as an election board member were discretionary and that she is entitled to “full access” to “election materials.”
Long an administrative task that attracted little attention, certification of election results has become politicized since Trump tried to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 general election. Republicans in several swing states, including Adams, refused to certify results earlier this year and some have sued to keep from being forced to sign off on election results.
Adams’ suit, backed by the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, argued county election board members have the discretion to reject certification. In court earlier this month, her lawyers also argued county election officials could certify results without including certain ballots if they suspect problems.
Judge McBurney wrote that nothing in Georgia law gives county election officials the authority to determine that fraud has occurred or what should be done about it. Instead, he wrote, state law says a county election official’s “concerns about fraud or systemic error are to be noted and shared with the appropriate authorities but they are not a basis for a superintendent to decline to certify.”
The Democratic National Committee and Democratic Party of Georgia had joined the lawsuit as defendants with the support of Harris’ campaign. The campaign called the ruling a “major legal win.”
Adams said in a statement that McBurney’s ruling has made it clear that she and other county election officials “cannot be barred from access to elections in their counties.”
A flurry of election rules passed by the State Election Board since August has generated a crush of lawsuits. McBurney earlier this month heard a challenge to two rules having to do with certification brought by the state and national Democratic parties. Another Fulton County judge is set to hear arguments in two challenges to rules tomorrow — one brought by the Democratic groups and another filed by a group headed by a former Republican lawmaker. And separate challenges are also pending in at least two other counties.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday unveiled his ticket’s plans to improve the lives of rural voters, as Vice President Kamala Harris looks to cut into former President Donald Trump’s support.
The Harris-Walz plan includes a focus on improving rural health care, such as plans to recruit 10,000 new health care professionals in rural and tribal areas through scholarships, loan forgiveness and new grant programs, as well as economic and agricultural policy priorities. The plan was detailed to The Associated Press by a senior campaign official on the condition of anonymity ahead of its official release.
It marks a concerted effort by the Democratic campaign to make a dent in the historically Trump-leaning voting bloc in the closing three weeks before Election Day. Trump carried rural voters by a nearly two-to-one margin in 2020, according to AP VoteCast. In the closely contested race, both Democrats and Republicans are reaching out beyond their historic bases in hopes of winning over a sliver of voters that could ultimately prove decisive.
Walz, wearing a flannel coat and a campaign camo hat, announced the plan during a stop in rural Lawrence County in western Pennsylvania, one of the marquee battlegrounds of the 2024 contest. He is also starring in a new radio ad for the campaign highlighting his roots in a small town of 400 people and his time coaching football, while attacking Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
“In a small town, you don’t focus on the politics, you focus on taking care of your neighbors and minding your own damn business,” Walz says in the ad, which the campaign said will air across more than 500 rural radio stations in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. “Now Donald Trump and JD Vance, they don’t think like us. They’re in it for themselves.”
The Harris-Walz plan calls on Congress to permanently extend telemedicine coverage under Medicare, a pandemic-era benefit that helped millions access care that is set to expire at the end of 2024. They are also calling for grants to support volunteer EMS programs to cut in half the number of Americans living more than 25 minutes away from an ambulance.
It also urges Congress to restore the Affordable Connectivity Program, a program launched by President Joe Biden that expired in June that provided up to $30 off home internet bills, and for lawmakers to require equipment manufacturers to grant farmers the right to repair their products.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday unveiled new proposals targeting Black men as she seeks to strengthen her coalition ahead of Election Day.Related video above: Get the Facts: Checking claims made about taxes by Kamala HarrisThe announcement comes as Harris lags behind President Joe Biden’s numbers with Black voters in 2020, especially men, though recent polling suggests she has room to grow. Last week, former President Barack Obama delivered a stark warning to Black men, saying it’s “not acceptable” to sit out this election and suggesting they might be reluctant to vote for Harris because she’s a woman.The proposal aims to provide Black men “with the tools to achieve financial freedom, lower costs to better provide for themselves and their families, and protect their rights,” according to a release by the campaign.Part of the proposal includes providing one million loans that are fully forgivable up to $20,000 to Black entrepreneurs and others to start a business. According to the campaign, the loans would be provided through a new partnership between the Small Business Administration and some lenders and banks.Harris is also calling for creating and investing in programs that help expand pathways for job opportunities for Black men, including promoting apprenticeships, strengthening the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and investing in more Black male teachers. On the campaign trail, Harris has said she will cut college degree requirements for certain federal jobs if elected president.The plan will also support a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency and other digital assets and a National Health Equity Initiative that focuses on addressing health challenges that disproportionately impact Black men. Another component includes legalizing recreational marijuana and creating opportunities for Black Americans to succeed in the industry. The vice president has often reiterated that she believes marijuana should legalized in the U.S.The campaign will tout the agenda during several upcoming events, including “Black Men Huddle Up” events, an Economic Freedom Talk series and paid media outreach as they try to draw a contrast with former President Donald Trump.“Donald Trump’s outreach is gold sneakers, T shirts of mug shots and insults and putting other communities down. The Vice President is actually speaking to what Black men can achieve under her presidency. We think that’s a stark point of contrast, and one that is important to talk about,” Harris-Walz campaign communications Director Michael Tyler said in a statement.As CNN has reported, Harris had been focused on turning out Black men even before she took over as the Democratic nominee, trying to get the enthusiasm there for Biden when he was still running for reelection.“The concern is that the couch is going to win,” one person close to the Harris team previously told CNN. “We need to make sure that Black men, Hispanic men, don’t sit on the couch. Because if they don’t vote at all. That’s (a) vote for him.”Harris will travel to Detroit this week for a Tuesday radio town hall hosted by nationally syndicated radio co-host Charlamagne tha God, who has millions of followers across digital platforms, while “The Breakfast Club” enjoys a vast nationwide audience, much of it Black.
WASHINGTON —
Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday unveiled new proposals targeting Black men as she seeks to strengthen her coalition ahead of Election Day.
Related video above: Get the Facts: Checking claims made about taxes by Kamala Harris
The announcement comes as Harris lags behind President Joe Biden’s numbers with Black voters in 2020, especially men, though recent polling suggests she has room to grow. Last week, former President Barack Obama delivered a stark warning to Black men, saying it’s “not acceptable” to sit out this election and suggesting they might be reluctant to vote for Harris because she’s a woman.
The proposal aims to provide Black men “with the tools to achieve financial freedom, lower costs to better provide for themselves and their families, and protect their rights,” according to a release by the campaign.
Part of the proposal includes providing one million loans that are fully forgivable up to $20,000 to Black entrepreneurs and others to start a business. According to the campaign, the loans would be provided through a new partnership between the Small Business Administration and some lenders and banks.
Harris is also calling for creating and investing in programs that help expand pathways for job opportunities for Black men, including promoting apprenticeships, strengthening the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and investing in more Black male teachers. On the campaign trail, Harris has said she will cut college degree requirements for certain federal jobs if elected president.
The plan will also support a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency and other digital assets and a National Health Equity Initiative that focuses on addressing health challenges that disproportionately impact Black men. Another component includes legalizing recreational marijuana and creating opportunities for Black Americans to succeed in the industry. The vice president has often reiterated that she believes marijuana should legalized in the U.S.
The campaign will tout the agenda during several upcoming events, including “Black Men Huddle Up” events, an Economic Freedom Talk series and paid media outreach as they try to draw a contrast with former President Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump’s outreach is gold sneakers, T shirts of mug shots and insults and putting other communities down. The Vice President is actually speaking to what Black men can achieve under her presidency. We think that’s a stark point of contrast, and one that is important to talk about,” Harris-Walz campaign communications Director Michael Tyler said in a statement.
As CNN has reported, Harris had been focused on turning out Black men even before she took over as the Democratic nominee, trying to get the enthusiasm there for Biden when he was still running for reelection.
“The concern is that the couch is going to win,” one person close to the Harris team previously told CNN. “We need to make sure that Black men, Hispanic men, don’t sit on the couch. Because if they don’t vote at all. That’s (a) vote for him.”
Harris will travel to Detroit this week for a Tuesday radio town hall hosted by nationally syndicated radio co-host Charlamagne tha God, who has millions of followers across digital platforms, while “The Breakfast Club” enjoys a vast nationwide audience, much of it Black.
Internal Republican polling polling numbers are based on a rosy turnout scenario for the GOP, so the takeaway from these numbers is that even with a good Republican turnout model, Trump is still trailing in two of the three blue wall states.
If Trump loses, Michigan and Pennsylvania, he loss the election.
Except for Jon Tester in Montana, Senate Democratic incumbents are more than holding their own. The Republican polling memo makes it clear that the GOP is counting on Trump winning in places like Michigan and Pennsylvania and pulling the Republican Senate candidates over the finish lines. If Trump loses these states, the GOP Senate candidates are probably cooked too.
Add in the fact that Republicans could lose a Senate seat in Nebraska to an Independent, and the GOP control of the Senate is far from a given. If Ted Cruz gets upset in Texas, Republican dreams of Senate control if Harris wins the election will dead.
If the Republican internal polls show Harris leading in key swing states, it is a bad sign for the GOP and Trump just weeks before election day.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday was on the campaign trail in North Carolina, which is still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Helene. Former President Trump meanwhile was in Arizona to announce a new proposal to expand the Border Patrol. Nikole Killion has more.
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Missed the second half of the show? The latest on…Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida has signed a letter urging Congress to return from recess to replenish relief funds, telling “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that although FEMA currently has enough funding, “why would we leave it up to chance” for the remainder of the hurricane season, and The latest CBS News poll shows that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are effectively even in all of the battleground states likely to determine the presidential election. CBS News Director of Elections and Surveys Anthony Salvanto joins “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” to break down the poll the latest CBS News poll shows that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are effectively even in all of the battleground states likely to determine the presidential election. CBS News Director of Elections and Surveys Anthony Salvanto joins “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” to break down the poll.
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Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris face off in the ABC presidential debate on Sept. 10, 2024.
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With the U.S. election less than a month away, the country and its corporations are staring down two drastically different options.
For airlines, banks, electric vehicle makers, health-care companies, media firms, restaurants and tech giants, the outcome of the presidential contest could result in stark differences in the rules they’ll face, the mergers they’ll be allowed to pursue, and the taxes they’ll pay.
During his last time in power, former President Donald Trump slashed the corporate tax rate, imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, and sought to cut regulation and red tape and discourage immigration, ideas he’s expected to push again if he wins a second term.
In contrast, Vice President Kamala Harris has endorsed hiking the tax rate on corporations to 28% from the 21% rate enacted under Trump, a move that would require congressional approval. Most business executives expect Harris to broadly continue President Joe Biden‘s policies, including his war on so-called junk fees across industries.
Personnel is policy, as the saying goes, so the ramifications of the presidential race won’t become clear until the winner begins appointments for as many as a dozen key bodies, including the Treasury, Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
CNBC examined the stakes of the 2024 presidential election for some of corporate America’s biggest sectors. Here’s what a Harris or Trump administration could mean for business:
The result of the presidential election could affect everything from what airlines owe consumers for flight disruptions to how much it costs to build an aircraft in the United States.
The Biden Department of Transportation, led by Secretary Pete Buttigieg, has taken a hard line on filling what it considers to be holes in air traveler protections. It has established or proposed new rules on issues including refunds for cancellations, family seating and service fee disclosures, a measure airlines have challenged in court.
“Who’s in that DOT seat matters,” said Jonathan Kletzel, who heads the travel, transportation and logistics practice at PwC.
The current Democratic administration has also fought industry consolidation, winning two antitrust lawsuits that blocked a partnership between American Airlines and JetBlue Airways in the Northeast and JetBlue’s now-scuttled plan to buy budget carrier Spirit Airlines.
The previous Trump administration didn’t pursue those types of consumer protections. Industry members say that under Trump, they would expect a more favorable environment for mergers, though four airlines already control more than three-quarters of the U.S. market.
On the aerospace side, Boeing and the hundreds of suppliers that support it are seeking stability more than anything else.
Trump has said on the campaign trail that he supports additional tariffs of 10% or 20% and higher duties on goods from China. That could drive up the cost of producing aircraft and other components for aerospace companies, just as a labor and skills shortage after the pandemic drives up expenses.
Tariffs could also challenge the industry, if they spark retaliatory taxes or trade barriers to China and other countries, which are major buyers of aircraft from Boeing, a top U.S. exporter.
Big banks such as JPMorgan Chase faced an onslaught of new rules this year as Biden appointees pursued the most significant slate of regulations since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
Those efforts threaten tens of billions of dollars in industry revenue by slashing fees that banks impose on credit cards and overdrafts and radically revising the capital and risk framework they operate in. The fate of all of those measures is at risk if Trump is elected.
Trump is expected to nominate appointees for key financial regulators, including the CFPB, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that could result in a weakening or killing off completely of the myriad rules in play.
“The Biden administration’s regulatory agenda across sectors has been very ambitious, especially in finance, and large swaths of it stand to be rolled back by Trump appointees if he wins,” said Tobin Marcus, head of U.S. policy at Wolfe Research.
Bank CEOs and consultants say it would be a relief if aspects of the Biden era — an aggressive CFPB, regulators who discouraged most mergers and elongated times for deal approvals — were dialed back.
“It certainly helps if the president is Republican, and the odds tilt more favorably for the industry if it’s a Republican sweep” in Congress, said the CEO of a bank with nearly $100 billion in assets who declined to be identified speaking about regulators.
Still, some observers point out that Trump 2.0 might not be as friendly to the industry as his first time in office.
Trump’s vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance, of Ohio, has often criticized Wall Street banks, and Trump last month began pushing an idea to cap credit card interest rates at 10%, a move that if enacted would have seismic implications for the industry.
Bankers also say that Harris won’t necessarily cater to traditional Democratic Party ideas that have made life tougher for banks. Unless Democrats seize both chambers of Congress as well as the presidency, it may be difficult to get agency heads approved if they’re considered partisan picks, experts note.
“I would not write off the vice president as someone who’s automatically going to go more progressive,” said Lindsey Johnson, head of the Consumer Bankers Association, a trade group for big U.S. retail banks.
Electric vehicles have become a polarizing issue between Democrats and Republicans, especially in swing states such as Michigan that rely on the auto industry. There could be major changes in regulations and incentives for EVs if Trump regains power, a fact that’s placed the industry in a temporary limbo.
“Depending on the election in the U.S., we may have mandates; we may not,” Volkswagen Group of America CEO Pablo Di Si said Sept. 24 during an Automotive News conference. “Am I going to make any decisions on future investments right now? Obviously not. We’re waiting to see.”
Republicans, led by Trump, have largely condemned EVs, claiming they are being forced upon consumers and that they will ruin the U.S. automotive industry. Trump has vowed to roll back or eliminate many vehicle emissions standards under the Environmental Protection Agency and incentives to promote production and adoption of the vehicles.
If elected, he’s also expected to renew a battle with California and other states who set their own vehicle emissions standards.
“In a Republican win … We see higher variance and more potential for change,” UBS analyst Joseph Spak said in a Sept. 18 investor note.
In contrast, Democrats, including Harris, have historically supported EVs and incentives such as those under the Biden administration’s signature Inflation Reduction Act.
Harris hasn’t been as vocal a supporter of EVs lately amid slower-than-expected consumer adoption of the vehicles and consumer pushback. She has said she does not support an EV mandate such as the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act of 2019, which she cosponsored during her time as a senator, that would have required automakers to sell only electrified vehicles by 2040. Still, auto industry executives and officials expect a Harris presidency would be largely a continuation, though not a copy, of the past four years of Biden’s EV policy.
They expect some potential leniency on federal fuel economy regulations but minimal changes to the billions of dollars in incentives under the IRA.
Both Harris and Trump have called for sweeping changes to the costly, complicated and entrenched U.S. health-care system of doctors, insurers, drug manufacturers and middlemen, which costs the nation more than $4 trillion a year.
Despite spending more on health care than any other wealthy country, the U.S. has the lowest life expectancy at birth, the highest rate of people with multiple chronic diseases and the highest maternal and infant death rates, according to the Commonwealth Fund, an independent research group.
Meanwhile, roughly half of American adults say it is difficult to afford health-care costs, which can drive some into debt or lead them to put off necessary care, according to a May poll conducted by health policy research organization KFF.
Both Harris and Trump have taken aim at the pharmaceutical industry and proposed efforts to lower prescription drug prices in the U.S., which are nearly three times higher than those seen in other countries.
But many of Trump’s efforts to lower costs have been temporary or not immediately effective, health policy experts said. Meanwhile, Harris, if elected, can build on existing efforts of the Biden administration to deliver savings to more patients, they said.
Harris specifically plans to expand certain provisions of the IRA, part of which aims to lower health-care costs for seniors enrolled in Medicare. Harris cast the tie-breaking Senate vote to pass the law in 2022.
Her campaign says she plans to extend two provisions to all Americans, not just seniors: a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket drug spending and a $35 limit on monthly insulin costs.
Harris also intends to accelerate and expand a provision allowing Medicare to directly negotiate drug prices with manufacturers for the first time. Drugmakers fiercely oppose those price talks, with some challenging the effort’s constitutionality in court.
Trump hasn’t publicly indicated what he intends to do about IRA provisions.
Some of Trump’s prior efforts to lower drug prices “didn’t really come into fruition” during his presidency, according to Dr. Mariana Socal, a professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
For example, he planned to use executive action to have Medicare pay no more than the lowest price that select other developed countries pay for drugs, a proposal that was blocked by court action and later rescinded.
Trump also led multiple efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, including its expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults. In a campaign video in April, Trump said he was not running on terminating the ACA and would rather make it “much, much better and far less money,” though he has provided no specific plans.
He reiterated his belief that the ACA was “lousy health care” during his Sept. 10 debate with Harris. But when asked he did not offer a replacement proposal, saying only that he has “concepts of a plan.”
Top of mind for media executives is mergers and the path, or lack thereof, to push them through.
The media industry’s state of turmoil — shrinking audiences for traditional pay TV, the slowdown in advertising, and the rise of streaming and challenges in making it profitable — means its companies are often mentioned in discussions of acquisitions and consolidation.
While a merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media is set to move forward, with plans to close in the first half of 2025, many in media have said the Biden administration has broadly chilled deal-making.
“We just need an opportunity for deregulation, so companies can consolidate and do what we need to do even better,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said in July at Allen & Co.’s annual Sun Valley conference.
Media mogul John Malone recently told MoffettNathanson analysts that some deals are a nonstarter with this current Justice Department, including mergers between companies in the telecommunications and cable broadband space.
Still, it’s unclear how the regulatory environment could or would change depending on which party is in office. Disney was allowed to acquire Fox Corp.’s assets when Trump was in office, but his administration sued to block AT&T’s merger with Time Warner. Meanwhile, under Biden’s presidency, a federal judge blocked the sale of Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House, but Amazon’s acquisition of MGM was approved.
“My sense is, regardless of the election outcome, we are likely to remain in a similar tighter regulatory environment when looking at media industry dealmaking,” said Marc DeBevoise, CEO and board director of Brightcove, a streaming technology company.
When major media, and even tech, assets change hands, it could also mean increased scrutiny on those in control and whether it creates bias on the platforms.
“Overall, the government and FCC have always been most concerned with having a diversity of voices,” said Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Integrated Media, which specializes in digital media investment. “But then [Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter] happened, and it’s clearly showing you can skew a platform to not just what the business needs, but to maybe your personal approach and whims,” he said.
Since Musk acquired the social media platform in 2022, changing its name to X, he has implemented sweeping changes including cutting staff and giving “amnesty” to previously suspended accounts, including Trump’s, which had been suspended following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Musk has also faced widespread criticism from civil rights groups for the amplification of bigotry on the platform.
Musk has publicly endorsed Trump, and was recently on the campaign trail with the former president. “As you can see, I’m not just MAGA, I’m Dark MAGA,” Musk said at a recent event. The billionaire has raised funds for Republican causes, and Trump has suggested Musk could eventually play a role in his administration if the Republican candidate were to be reelected.
During his first term, Trump took a particularly hard stance against journalists, and pursued investigations into leaks from his administration to news organizations. Under Biden, the White House has been notably more amenable to journalists.
Also top of mind for media executives — and government officials — is TikTok.
Lawmakers have argued that TikTok’s Chinese ownership could be a national security risk.
Earlier this year, Biden signed legislation that gives Chinese parent ByteDance until January to find a new owner for the platform or face a U.S. ban. TikTok has said the bill, the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which passed with bipartisan support, violates the First Amendment. The platform has sued the government to stop a potential ban.
While Trump was in office, he attempted to ban TikTok through an executive order, but the effort failed. However, he has more recently switched to supporting the platform, arguing that without it there’s less competition against Meta’s Facebook and other social media.
Both Trump and Harris have endorsed plans to end taxes on restaurant workers’ tips, although how they would do so is likely to differ.
The food service and restaurant industry is the nation’s second-largest private-sector employer, with 15.5 million jobs, according to the National Restaurant Association. Roughly 2.2 million of those employees are tipped servers and bartenders, who could end up with more money in their pockets if their tips are no longer taxed.
Trump’s campaign hasn’t given much detail on how his administration would eliminate taxes on tips, but tax experts have warned that it could turn into a loophole for high earners. Claims from the Trump campaign that the Republican candidate is pro-labor have clashed with his record of appointing leaders to the National Labor Relations Board who have rolled back worker protections.
Meanwhile, Harris has said she’d only exempt workers who make $75,000 or less from paying income tax on their tips, but the money would still be subject to taxes toward Social Security and Medicare, the Washington Post previously reported.
In keeping with the campaign’s more labor-friendly approach, Harris is also pledging to eliminate the tip credit: In 37 states, employers only have to pay tipped workers the minimum wage as long as that hourly wage and tips add up to the area’s pay floor. Since 1991, the federal pay floor for tipped wages has been stuck at $2.13.
“In the short term, if [restaurants] have to pay higher wages to their waiters, they’re going to have to raise menu prices, which is going to lower demand,” said Michael Lynn, a tipping expert and Cornell University professor.
Whichever candidate comes out ahead in November will have to grapple with the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence sector.
Generative AI is the biggest story in tech since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022. It presents a conundrum for regulators, because it allows consumers to easily create text and images from simple queries, creating privacy and safety concerns.
Harris has said she and Biden “reject the false choice that suggests we can either protect the public or advance innovation.” Last year, the White House issued an executive order that led to the formation of the Commerce Department’s U.S. AI Safety Institute, which is evaluating AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic.
Trump has committed to repealing the executive order.
A second Trump administration might also attempt to challenge a Securities and Exchange Commission rule that requires companies to disclose cybersecurity incidents. The White House said in January that more transparency “will incentivize corporate executives to invest in cybersecurity and cyber risk management.”
Trump’s running mate, Vance, co-sponsored a bill designed to end the rule. Andrew Garbarino, the House Republican who introduced an identical bill, has said the SEC rule increases cybersecurity risk and overlaps with existing law on incident reporting.
Also at stake in the election is the fate of dealmaking for tech investors and executives.
With Lina Khan helming the FTC, the top tech companies have been largely thwarted from making big acquisitions, though the Justice Department and European regulators have also created hurdles.
Tech transaction volume peaked at $1.5 trillion in 2021, then plummeted to $544 billion last year and $465 billion in 2024 as of September, according to Dealogic.
Many in the tech industry are critical of Khan and want her to be replaced should Harris win in November. Meanwhile, Vance, who worked in venture capital before entering politics, said as recently as February — before he was chosen as Trump’s running mate — that Khan was “doing a pretty good job.”
Khan, whom Biden nominated in 2021, has challenged Amazon and Meta on antitrust grounds and has said the FTC will investigate AI investments at Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft.
According to NBC News, Trump has been told that his safety can’t be guaranteed, so he’s temporarily choosing life over one of his favorite pastimes:
Trump has not played golf since an apparent assassination attempt near one of his courses on Sept. 15, and he will not do so until after the election, according to a person close to the campaign and another person familiar with the situation. A third person familiar with the conversations said Trump was told that federal agents could not ensure his safety to a degree that they were comfortable with if he were to play. The concerns were conveyed in two conversations with Trump since the September incident: one with Ronald Rowe, the acting director of the Secret Service, and the other with officials from the national intelligence director’s office.
He and his campaign aren’t just worried about golf courses. Per the Washington Post, the Trump campaign has asked for a number of additional protective measures while he’s on the trail — apparently including the Air Force:
Trump’s campaign requested military aircraft for Trump to fly in during the final weeks of the campaign, expanded flight restrictions over his residences and rallies, ballistic glass pre-positioned in seven battleground states for the campaign’s use and an array of military vehicles to transport Trump, according to emails reviewed by The Washington Post and people familiar with the matter.
The requests are extraordinary and unprecedented — no nominee in recent history has been ferried around in military planes ahead of an election. But the requests came after Trump’s campaign advisers received briefings in which the government said Iran is still actively plotting to kill him, according to the emails reviewed by The Post and the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive discussions. Trump advisers have grown concerned about drones and missiles, according to the people.
It sounds like arcane insider jargon best kept inside a campaign headquarters: Does this election come down to persuasion or mobilization? But the terminology is really just a fancy way of asking whether a campaign should prioritize swaying undecided voters or turning out its base. No matter the rhetoric, though, answering that question is fundamental to every campaign’s chance of winning, and the internal debate will shape the crucial choices Kamala Harris makes in the less than four weeks before a crazy-close presidential election.
See, for example, Harris’s recent appearance in Wisconsin with former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney and Cheney’s starring role in a new Harris TV ad (running frequently during the Major League Baseball playoffs) aimed at persuadable Republicans. Cheney’s conservative record and policy positions—stridently antiabortion, pro-repealing Obamacare—are anathema to most core Democrats. Yet Cheney emerged as a leading and principled critic of then president Donald Trump in the wake of January 6, and the Harris campaign sees her as a powerful weapon in persuading undecided Republican moderates in swing states to vote against Trump, if not vote completely in favor of Harris. “We are definitely making a play for Republicans and independents and Never Trumpers in a very real way,” a campaign insider tells me. “We are spending a lot of time in red counties—like one third of our offices in Pennsylvania are in Trump counties, rural counties that he won by double digits in 2020. And it’s not necessarily because we think we can win those counties, but because, in a close race, cutting the margins matters.”
That tactic has been part of the Democratic formula all along, even back when President Joe Biden was the Democrats’ 2024 candidate. But the mix between persuasion and mobilization has shifted since Harris suddenly stepped into the top of the ticket in late July. Jen O’Malley Dillon, the chair of Biden’s reelection effort and a master of the complicated blocking and tackling of voter turnout—down to the granular precinct level—had been installing the nationwide infrastructure to replicate her successful work on behalf of Biden in 2020. Harris kept O’Malley Dillon in the same role, and JOD (as she is referred to by staffers) is relentlessly deploying and fine-tuning the mechanisms she put in place during the past year.
But Harris also added David Plouffe, who managed Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, as a senior adviser. A strategist in touch with Harris’s campaign says Plouffe’s impact is clear. “The Biden campaign had decided this was a turnout election. The Harris campaign thinks it’s a persuasion-and-turnout election, which is classic David Plouffe,” the strategist says. “Besides the Cheney thing, you see it in other ways. The Biden team was never going to talk about immigration. The fact that Harris goes to Arizona to give a speech on immigration, and the fact that they’re trying to own the economic lane exactly like Obama did—David Plouffe is all over that campaign.”
No campaign—at least no successful campaign—is exclusively about one or the other, and the campaign insider argues forcefully that strenuously pursuing both base and undecided voters was always part of the plan, regardless of whether Biden or Harris was the candidate. Harris’s ability to wage an energetic war on both fronts at the same time has been greatly enhanced by the gusher of money, at least $1 billion, that the vice president has raised in less than three months. However, campaign leadership is concerned that the massive haul may not be enough. There will inevitably be tough choices regarding how much money and manpower is devoted to turnout versus persuasion. The calculus is even trickier because Harris’s campaign believes it needs to persuade people not simply to vote for the Democrat, but to vote at all. “We always sort of grouped our targets into two sets,” the Harris campaign insider says. “One is traditional swing targets—folks who are going to vote anyway and it’s a question of us or Trump. The other is what we call ‘persuade to participate.’ They are deciding between the couch and us.”
Reaching the disengaged was one big reason Harris appeared, for instance, on the All the Smoke podcast. And this weekend the persuasion push takes to the skies. The Democratic National Committee will be flying skywriting and banner-trailing planes over stadiums hosting games between six NFL teams from swing states, with messages about “sacking” the right-wing Project 2025 and voting for Harris. But there’s a risk in emphasizing persuasion over mobilization, as base turnout is hardly guaranteed, particularly with issues like Israel and Gaza angering elements of the Democratic coalition. “There are no warning lights, but there are things we need to tighten up,” says Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina legislator who is close to Harris’s campaign and believes Black and Hispanic men should be the campaign’s focus. “It’s a no-stone-left-unturned strategy—because she can lose a close race, or she can win all six swing states. That’s kind of where it is.”
Credit: Pete Souza, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Kamala Harris has a serious problem with black voters. Barack Obama can clearly sense it.
Obama was in Pittsburgh for a Black Voters for Harris event – as opposed to the ‘white dudes‘ they were courting over the summer – and tore into “brothers” for not backing his chosen candidate.
“We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters in our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running,” Obama admitted.
“Now, I also want to say that seems to be more pronounced with the brothers. So if you don’t mind, just for a second, I’m going to speak to y’all for a minute.”
That’s when Professor Obama lectured black voters and suggested their lack of excitement for Harris was motivated by sexism.
Former President Barack Obama has a “tough talk” at the Black voters for Harris event in East Liberty. He addressed that Black men have not been as enthused about Harris as during his first run, and he sought to encourage them to join Harris’ movement pic.twitter.com/gDFZhsdLxC
Barack Obama: Black Voters Who Don’t Bend The Knee To Kamala Are Sexist
Lecturing your own voters and claiming their lack of support for Kamala Harris is misogynistic, while simultaneously turning it into a race-driven argument, is an interesting tactic.
Obama basically just told the “brothers” that if they don’t vote for Harris, ‘you ain’t black.’
And then things got worse.
“You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses (not to vote for Harris), I’ve got a problem with that,” said Obama.
“Because part of it makes me think – and I’m speaking to men directly – part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”
Catch that? Have a problem with the garbage economy? That’s just an excuse not to vote for a woman!
Wow. Obama’s message to Black men in PA tonight, per pooler @EricaLG
“Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and reasons for that.” pic.twitter.com/oPmfjAgwJy
The takeaway here isn’t that Barack Obama would stoop to race and sex-baiting in order to motivate black men to get behind Kamala Harris. No, that’s been the playbook for eons.
The takeaway here is the desperation. Look at the somber tone Obama is taking while talking down to these men. It’s clear Democrats are seeing trouble in the internal polls regarding support from the black community.
Kamala, you see, has no street cred and Barack Obama knows it. She struggles immensely in trying to connect with minority communities. A rich history of trying to prosecute parents in low-income minority families for their kids’ school attendance doesn’t help.
Harris, in one resurfaced video clip, can be heard describing how she tried intimidating a single homeless mother of three kids. The Democrat can be seen laughing about sending her office’s homicide and gang prosecutors to school to meet with the struggling woman.
“When you go over there, look really mean,” she recalled.
Kamala Harris continued on to describe how she’d brought charges against a single homeless mother of 3 who was working 2 jobs because her children were truant…and this was a success story. pic.twitter.com/FT5uJmI6x9
— Follow me on Threads/Bluesky, download OptOut app (@WalkerBragman) January 28, 2019
Another sticking point for minority voters has been Harris’s history of expanding convictions of marijuana users in California.
Oh, not to mention that old stubborn economy. Less money in your pocket affects everybody, regardless of skin color.
This isn’t the first time Obama has criticized minorities for not toeing the line.
The famously un-macho former President has said black men are “susceptible” to Donald Trump’s “macho style” because of a history in the hip-hop community “rapping about bling and depicting women in a certain way.”
He also took a shot at Hispanic voters who side with Trump on issues like traditional marriage and abortion.
“People were surprised about a lot of Hispanic folks who voted for Trump,” Obama observed after the 2020 election.
“But there are a lot of evangelical Hispanics who, you know — the fact that Trump says racist things about Mexicans or puts detainees, you know, undocumented workers in cages, they think that’s less important than the fact that you know he supports their views on, you know, gay marriage or abortion.”
Insulting voters is certainly an interesting tactic. No doubt people who are just tired of being poor and running out of money due to the Biden-Harris economy are going to respond favorably to the insults.
Las Vegas — Vice President Kamala Harris fielded questions about immigration, the economy and healthcare at a town hall with Univision Thursday. Polls suggest these issues are critical to the Latino voting bloc, and many of these questions were posed by people who had very personal, emotional stories to tell.
Supports “Dreamers,” pins blame on Trump for bipartisan border bill
Jesus Aispuro, a first-time voter from California, told Harris he has friends who are “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children. Pressing her on what she’d do to protect Dreamers under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Harris said she’d prioritize an immigration plan that establishes a pathway to citizenship.
In response to a case in front of a federal appeals court over the fate of DACA, Harris’ campaign issued a statement during the town hall saying Harris “will always stand with Dreamers and keep families together” and urging Congress to pass “an earned pathway to citizenship for these young people.”
Yvette Castillo began her question by noting she and Harris have something in common: both of their mothers are dead. Castillo noted her mother died six weeks ago, and while she was alive, she did not succeed in acquiring U.S. citizenship. Harris’ mother died in 2009.
“What are your plans to support that subgroup of immigrants who have been here their whole lives and have to live and die in the shadows?” Castillo asked.
Harris repeatedly said she was sorry for Castillo’s loss, and then she said the bipartisan border bill that former President Donald Trump lobbied Republican lawmakers to vote against could have created “a comprehensive earned pathway to citizenship for hard working people.”
She went on to argue that this failure to enact legislation bore responsibility for the outcome Castillo’s mother had.
“Had your mother been able to gain citizenship, she would have been entitled to health care that may have alleviated her suffering and yours. And this is one example of the fact that there are real people who are suffering because of an inability to put solutions in front of politics,” Harris added.
The Latino vote is crucial for Harris’ path to the White House, and polling shows it’s a more competitive fight than in 2020. Harris holds an 18-point advantage over former president Donald Trump, according to a September CBS News poll. It’s a smaller gap compared to President Joe Biden’s 33-point advantage with Latino voters in a 2020 CBS News exit poll.
“The largest segment of undecided voters right now are still within the Latino community. So doing town halls like this, it’s going to places like Arizona… having folks like the rest of us all across those state, are going to be very important,” Rep. Robert Garcia of California said after the debate.
“Latinos are going to have an outsized influence in this election because the margins are so tight,” he added.
Criticizes Trump over reports he sent COVID tests to Putin, can’t list three virtues about him
Mario Sigbaum, a 70-year-old independent and undecided voter, questioned how Harris was able to become the Democratic nominee and said the late switch resulting from President Biden’s late exit from the race “inclined me to vote for Trump.”
After Harris praised Mr. Biden for supporting her run, she highlighted her own support from Republicans and argued Trump admires “dictators and autocracy.” She criticized Trump over reports he sent Russian President Vladimir Putin a COVID test machine during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m sure people here have family members or friends who died [from COVID], and he secretly shipped off COVID tests to Vladimir Putin of Russia. When people died — hundreds were dying every day,” Harris said, adding that she and Mr. Biden tried to address the disproportionate rate of Latino and Black Americans dying from COVID infections.
“So, I present that to you, sir, to say, this is an extraordinary time,” she said.
Asked by a voter at the end if she could name three virtues of Trump, Harris noted his love for his family, but declined to add more.
“Family is one of the most important things that we can prioritize. But I don’t really know him to be honest with you. I’ve only met him one time on the debate stage. So, I don’t really have much more to offer you,” she said.
Hurricane Milton response
The town hall began with Ramiro Gonzalez, a voter from Tampa, Florida, who noted more than one hurricane had struck his home.
“Rumors are that your administration didn’t do enough to respond to the last hurricane. What would you specifically do, or your administration do, to help us in the Tampa Bay area or the Central Florida area with this hurricane?” he asked Harris.
Harris responded by decrying disinformation spread about the federal response to recent hurricanes. “I have to stress that this is not a time for people to play politics,” she said. She then listed her continual briefings and contact with state and local officials on the ground, and warned against companies that are raising prices in impacted areas.
Economy and health care: “Prices are too high, still… and we have to deal with it.”
Asked by Wendy Solares — a mother who houses her children, as well as her parents — what Harris would do to help the middle class, Harris took a more sympathetic tone to the rise in the cost of living.
“I know prices are too high, still. You know prices are too high, still. And we have to deal with it,” she said, before listing out her economic plan to lower costs through being more aggressive on price gouging by grocery companies and by issuing tax credits for parents and down payment assistance for first time home buyers.
Martha Rodriguez, a 62-year-old homeless woman whose medical conditions — a heart attack and “long COVID” — caused her to lose her job and income, asked Harris how she’d help disabled citizens get their insurance faster through Social Security.
Harris noted that she pushed to designate long COVID as a condition that should be covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, and that as president, she would work to make sure medical debt does not affect credit scores.
“The point is being very simple, frankly, which is that all people, regardless of disability, should have equal access to housing, to job opportunities, to education, and again, community, and there’s still a lot of work that we have to do in that regard,” Harris responded.
Aaron Navarro is a CBS News digital reporter covering the 2024 elections. He was previously an associate producer for the CBS News political unit in the 2021 and 2022 election cycles.
When Vice President Kamala Harris appeared in conversation with Oprah Winfrey last month, she dropped a tidbit that may have come as a surprise. “If somebody breaks in my house,” she said, “they’re getting shot.”
It was, or at least it should have been, one of the more relatable things she’s ever said. Whatever your politics—Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Jill Stein groupie, etc.—the right to protect your life and your family when threatened with potentially deadly aggression is something so basic as to transcend partisanship.
It’s a bit less relatable, however, when considering Harris’ past advocacy against other people accessing the same type of protection she has.
She provided more specifics during her recent 60 Minutes interview. “I have a Glock, and I’ve had it for quite some time,” she said. “My background is in law enforcement. And, so there you go.”
That admission should hardly be a bomb drop. But it’s difficult to reconcile with her support, as San Francisco District Attorney, for Proposition H, which banned the city’s residents from merely possessing (as well as manufacturing or selling) handguns. The ordinance passed in 2005, and a California appeals court threw it out three years later.
Harris hasn’t said exactly how long she’s owned her firearm. Yet if it’s been for “quite some time,” as she said, then one can reasonably assume that her owning a gun overlapped with her view that the state should curtail others from doing the same. But the next detail she provided—that she was in law enforcement—possibly provides some context for her position, at least attitudinally, as Proposition H provided gun ownership exemptions for law enforcement, military, and security guards.
Not long after, Harris would also go on to file a brief in District of Columbia v. Heller, the landmark Supreme Court decision that ruled D.C.’s handgun ban unconstitutional and established that people have a right to own a firearm for self-defense, divorced from military service.
That was not the outcome Harris sought in the brief she submitted. Citing past jurisprudence at the time, she said that “the Second Amendment provides only a militia-related right to bear arms,” “the Second Amendment does not apply to legislation passed by state or local governments,” and “the restrictions bear a reasonable relationship to protecting public safety and thus do not violate a personal constitutional right.” Had that view prevailed, the handgun ban in D.C., where she now lives, would have remained intact.
This position may be a bit easier to reconcile. “I don’t think there’s anything inherently hypocritical or duplicitous about someone owning a gun while also taking the position that the Constitution doesn’t protect the right to own a gun,” says Clark Neily, who successfully argued Heller as co-counsel, via email. “For example, many thoughtful people think women should be able to have an abortion—and have had or would have an abortion themselves—but nevertheless don’t believe there’s a constitutional right to an abortion.”
The abortion comparison is an apt one, and it’s an interesting one to interrogate when considering Harris believes the U.S. Constitution promises a right to one, despite there being no text touching the topic directly. She has not struggled, meanwhile, to argue over the years that gun ownership should be heavily regulated, the Second Amendment notwithstanding.
Neily is still correct, though, that these things are not necessarily inconsistent logically. But it’s still worth noting the practical implications: Had the Supreme Court ruled her way, the law would prohibit the people in the city where she lives from having the very sort of gun she now openly acknowledges she keeps to protect her safety—a contradiction that a journalist should be interested in cross-examining at some point during one of her campaign trail interviews, should she continue to give them.
Harris’ interests as a prosecutor, it seems, directly contradicted her interests as a private person, and the interests of the little people generally. That discrepancy, if anything, is cause for introspection.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris heard from federal officials leading efforts to prepare for Hurricane Milton’s expected historic impact. The storm will make landfall in Florida late Wednesday or early Thursday. Here’s how the Biden administration is responding to the storm.
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In a California fundraiser hosted at Gov. Gavin Newsom’s home Tuesday in Sacramento, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz advocated for doing away with the Electoral College system, stating that “we need a national popular vote.”
“I think all of us know the electoral college needs to go,” the Democratic vice presidential candidate said. “But that’s not the world we live in. So we need to win Beaver County, Pennsylvania. We need to be able to go into York, Pennsylvania, and win. We need to be in western Wisconsin and win. We need to be in Reno, Nevada and win.”
The comments were immediately seized on by the Trump campaign and prominent Republicans, who accused Walz of attempting to throw the results of a victory by former President Donald Trump into question if Trump were to win in November.
Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt questioned if Walz was attempting to lay “the groundwork to claim President Trump’s victory is illegitimate?” in an X post.
In a statement provided to CBS News, a spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign said that “Walz believes that every vote matters in the Electoral College and he is honored to be traveling the country and battleground states working to earn support for the Harris-Walz ticket. He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes. And, he was thanking them for their support that is helping fund those efforts.”
Getting rid of the Electoral College is not a position the campaign holds, a campaign official said.
The comment from Walz, and the swift clarification, comes just days after he told Bill Whitaker on “60 Minutes” that his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, said he needs to be more careful when he speaks.
Since being thrust into the national spotlight, the Minnesota governor has faced scrutiny about his misrepresentations of his military status regarding when he retired from the Army National Guard as well as his whereabouts when pro-democracy protests broke out in China and Hong Kong in 1989.
“I speak like everybody else speaks. I need to be clearer. I will tell you that,” Walz told CBS News in a press gaggle last week.
The Electoral College was established by the Constitution, so changing it would require a Constitutional amendment. But calls to do so have gained traction in some Democratic circles, such as after 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by about 3 million votes, but lost the electoral vote to Trump. The same occurred to former Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 presidential race. According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, 63% of Americans favor the election being decided by who wins the popular vote, not the Electoral College system.
In the Electoral College system, there are a total of 538 electoral votes, divided among the states in a way that mirrors each state’s congressional delegation, with one vote allocated for each member of the House, plus two more for the two senators. Most states have a winner-take-all system, which means that all of the state’s electoral votes go to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote.
