Kamala Harris has taken a slim three-point lead over election rival Donald Trump in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, which puts her ahead of the Republican by 46 percent to 43 percent.
The vice president is in Washington, DC, today recording an interview with NBC. On the campaign trail, former president Barack Obama will join her running mate Tim Walz in Wisconsin and later appear with rapper Eminem in Detroit, Michigan.
Former president Trump is pursuing the Latino vote with a roundtable and will hold a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina to shore up the vote in a state Democrats have not won since 2008 but that seems to be in play this year.
Trump was on the campaign trail in the hurricane-hit state on Monday, where he again pushed a false conspiracy that the government has been giving FEMA disaster relief funding to illegal immigrants, also scaremongering over “migrant crime” and smearing Harris on human trafficking.
In Michigan, Harris appeared alongside Never Trump Republican Liz Cheney and accused her “increasingly unstable” rival of “hiding” by not debating her again, urging voters: “We cannot despair.”
“We rise to a moment and we stand on the broad shoulders of people who have fought this fight before for our country,” she said.
Gerald Ford’s daughter says Harris is leader Americans need
Susan Ford Bales, the only daughter of the 38th president, said the country needs a “serious, compassionate, and honorable leader” – similar to the state of the country at the time her father took office in 1974 after Richard Nixon resigned.
Ariana Baio has the story.
Oliver O’Connell22 October 2024 16:10
Watch LIVE: Trump participates in roundtable with Latino civic leaders
Oliver O’Connell22 October 2024 15:58
Trump wants divine help to count California’s ballots?
Kelly Rissman has the story.
Oliver O’Connell22 October 2024 15:50
Harris to campaign in Texas on Friday
Kamala Harris will campaign in Houston, Texas, on Friday, with a focus on the state’s abortion restrictions.
She will be joined by Democratic Senate nominee Colin Allred who is running to try and unseat incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz.
Democrats have long dreamed of turning Texas purple, but polling in the presidential race still sees Donald Trump leading by more than the margin of error.
Oliver O’Connell22 October 2024 15:45
Lifelong Republican transitions to a new party, years after gender reassignment surgery
A decade ago, Jessie McGrath began a physical transition to make her body match her gender identity. More recently, she underwent a political transformation.
A veteran, NRA member and lifelong Republican, McGrath stuck with her political leanings even after starting gender reassignment surgeries in 2014 at the age of 53. Then Donald Trump and his opposition to gender reassignment surgery changed her mind.
“The Trump campaign and his history show he is no friend of trans people,” she told The Associated Press.
Oliver O’Connell22 October 2024 15:40
Democrats worry about possible crack in blue wall, report says
NBC News reports there are concerns within the Harris-Wlz campaign that a crack might be developing in the so-called “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — winning these three tends to pave the path to a Democratic candidate taking the White House.
Citing three sources with knowledge of the campaign’s strategy, the network reports that there is concern that Donald Trump could win either Michigan or Wisconsin, while the other two states go to Kamala Harris.
Losing Wisconsin or Michigan would mean that even if Harris secures Pennsylvania — where both Harris and Trump have spent the most time and resources — she would not reach the necessary 270 electoral votes to win the White House without winning another battleground state or possibly two.
“There has been a thought that maybe Michigan or Wisconsin will fall off,” said a senior Harris campaign official, who stressed that the bigger concern is over Michigan. Two other people with knowledge of campaign strategy — who, like others in this article, were granted anonymity to speak candidly — also underscored deep concern about Michigan. Those people still believe that all the states are close and that there are alternative routes to victory.
A campaign spokesperson rejected the notion that they are worried about either of those states, noting that recent polling had Harris with a small lead in both.
NBC also reports that while a few weeks ago the Harris campaign was bullish about the possibility of winning North Carolina, that optimism has receded in the wake of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene and the rampant spread of disinformation that followed.
However, Harris battleground state director Dan Kanninen said in a recent interview: “I don’t see a blue wall path or a Sun Belt path or a Southern path. I see seven states that are as close as it gets that will all be decided by margins on the ground … truthfully, one of the seven has as good a chance as any other to be the tipping-point state.”
Oliver O’Connell22 October 2024 15:28
Eminem to introduce Obama at Detroit rally for Harris
CNN reports that Eminem will open for former President Barack Obama tonight at a rally for Kamala Harris in Detroit, Michigan.
A Democratic official familiar with planning for the event said Eminem is not expected to perform, but rather to welcome Obama to the Motor City for a get-out-the-vote rally for Kamala Harris. In doing so, Eminem is expected to offer his thoughts on the presidential race, which he has rarely done.
But Eminem’s views of Donald Trump are well known, accusing the former president of “brainwashing” his supporters. He delivered a blistering critique on Trump that went viral at the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards.
Here’s our report on the rapper’s takedown of Trump in 2017:
We’ll be following the rally live this evening.
Oliver O’Connell22 October 2024 15:10
Is Elon Musk breaking the law with his $1 million giveaways?
The Department of Justice has confirmed to CBS News that it has received an enquiry from former federal prosecutors and Republican appointees to “request that [the DOJ] review payments that are being made by the Elon Musk-founded America PAC to voters in Pennsylvania and other states that experts say raise serious questions under applicable law.”
Here’s Alex Woodward’s report from Monday on this very issue:
Oliver O’Connell22 October 2024 15:00
Trump’s policies ‘could drain Social Security in just six years’
If the former president wins the November election and institutes his planned agenda, the Social Security Trust Fund may be empty in just six years, according to a new report.
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), which opposes large federal deficits, said in their report released on Monday that Vice President Kamala Harris’s proposed policies wouldn’t change the current timeline.
As the US is aging, the funding of the program will come into sharper focus as the current prediction by trustees that the fund will become insolvent in 2035 gets closer.
The CRFB found that Trump’s policies would bring that deadline closer by a magnitude of years.
The group found that many of his proposed policies for a second term push the fund towards insolvency.
Gustaf Kilander has more.
Joe Sommerlad22 October 2024 14:50
Watch: AOC says Trump and Musk are ‘making fun of us’ with McDonald’s stunt and cash giveaways
Oliver O’Connell22 October 2024 14:40