Trump and Harris make their pitch to voters as polls show race remains tight

Former President Donald Trump has previously praised North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson as “Martin Luther King on steroids” and “outstanding” at campaign rallies. 

Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, made a series of inflammatory comments on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago, in which he referred to himself as a “black NAZI!” and expressed support for reinstating slavery, a CNN KFile investigation found.

At a March campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, Trump said he was listening to Robinson speak while he was on his plane and told people that Robinson was “better than Martin Luther King” and “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

At a more recent rally in Asheville, North Carolina, last month, Trump called Robinson a “very good man” and a “fighter.”

Trump’s response to the allegations: The Trump campaign weighed in on CNN’s reporting on Robinson Thursday, saying in a statement that “we will not take our eye off the ball.”

“President Trump’s campaign is focused on winning the White House and saving this country,” spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to CNN, adding that North Carolina is a “vital part of that plan.”

“We are confident that as voters compare the Trump record of a strong economy, low inflation, a secure border, and safe streets, with the failures of Biden-Harris, then President Trump will win the Tarheel State once again,” Leavitt said.

CNN’s Alayna Treene contributed reporting.

The Democratic Governors Association said CNN’s reporting on Mark Robinson’s past disturbing comments on a porn forum reveal him to be “unhinged, dangerous and completely unfit to be governor.”

In a statement, DGA deputy communications director Izzy Levy said the reporting reveals the importance of defeating Robinson, warning of the “damage Robinson would do as governor.”

More backlash: The NAACP has called on Robinson to drop out of the race following CNN’s report.

CNN’s Omar Jimenez contributed reporting.

Two additional election officials in battleground states said Thursday that they have been sent suspicious mail, an expansion in the number of affected states around the country as officials prepare to administer November’s election.

Lisa Marra, the state election director for Arizona’s secretary of state, said an envelope addressed to the secretary’s office recently arrived at the election department at the state capitol, and was intercepted with the help of the United States Postal Service and FBI.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said his office has been notified by the USPS that there is a suspicious package “headed our way,” and that the mail service will try to intercept it, as they previously did with an envelope of fentanyl sent to an election office in Fulton County.  

North Carolina’s state election board director told CNN earlier Thursday that the board had recently received a suspicious envelope, which was intercepted. The incident is being investigated by the FBI.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that suspicious packages were sent to election officials in at least fifteen states, but there were no reports that any of the packages contained hazardous material. The FBI and USPS are also investigating those incidents.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign responded to CNN’s reporting on disturbing comments made by North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson by sharing pictures of Robinson and former President Donald Trump together.

The campaign’s official X account shared four images of Trump and Robinson together, including three with Trump smiling and giving a thumbs-up and another of Trump and Robinson shaking hands at a campaign rally.

The campaign added a thumbs up emoji in the caption accompanying the photos.

In another social media post, the Harris campaign shared video of Trump praising Robinson, calling him “one of the great leaders in our country” and labeling him “better than Martin Luther King.”

The campaign superimposed an image of the headline to CNN’s reporting on Robinson’s comment in the video.

JD, who prefers to go by his initials for his safety, is a Haitian immigrant on a green card in Springfield, Ohio.

After the Republican presidential ticket amplified false claims about Haitians eating cats and dogs in the town, he said wishes he could move out of Springfield, but tells CNN that his three-year lease for his business keeps him here.

JD works as an electrical technician for Amazon, owns three properties and leases a photography studio for his portrait business.

“I cannot get any new customers because if they talk to me, they know I have an accent, and they find out I’m Haitian. They think I eat their cats, you know, it’s crazy. And that’s the reason why I want to move.” JD said. “With everything going on, it’s bad for the business.”

JD says his wife wants to move out of Springfield, too, and that they believe it would be safer for their family. He tells CNN he has been afraid to go to the park or ride bikes with his son on his days off.

JD was born in Haiti but moved to Florida on a B-2 visa. He obtained a green card around the time he moved to Springfield five years ago.

Mike DeWine speaks to the press at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 15.

Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said he still supports former President Donald Trump’s campaign for the White House despite the fact that Trump and his vice-presidential running mate continue to push false claims about Haitian immigrants in his state.

DeWine’s remarks come a week after the former president thrust the small town of Springfield, Ohio, into the center of the nation’s immigration debate by spreading false claims about Haitian immigrants eating local pets and animals. 

Mayor wary of Trump visit: Trump said Wednesday that he intends to visit Springfield “in the next two weeks.” Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said a visit from either presidential candidate would tax the city’s already limited resources.

Rue said he hopes Trump and others will stop spreading false rumors about his city.

“Absolutely, we’ve asked many times that those with the national spotlight, with a national microphone would speak truth. And we need help and not hate,” Rue said.

President Joe Biden speaks at the Economic Club of Washington in Washington on Thursday.

The United States economy has reached a “new phase,” President Joe Biden said Thursday, one day after the Federal Reserve announced its first interest rate cut since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Biden used an economic speech today to make the case that his economic vision for the country has laid a foundation for the future — even as he acknowledged that he believes more needs to be done.

During his remarks at the Economic Club in Washington, DC, Biden floated the hope that this week’s news could help shake the primarily negative outlook many Americans have on the economy.

The majority of the speech ticked through the president’s legislative victories since he took office and the ways in which those measures have helped support the economy, from the American Rescue Plan to the Inflation Reduction Act. 

The president said he still wants to see more progress on increasing the supply of housing, lowering the costs of health care and supporting child care.

Biden also swiped at former President Donald Trump for his proposed tax cuts and economic policies, saying they would raise costs for everyday Americans, and accused his former GOP rival of playing politics with his comments about the Federal Reserve.

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson speaks before Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Asheville, North Carolina, on August 14.

Mark Robinson, the controversial and socially conservative Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, made a series of inflammatory comments on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago, in which he referred to himself as a “black NAZI!” and expressed support for reinstating slavery, a CNN KFile investigation found.

Despite a recent history of anti-transgender rhetoric, Robinson said he enjoyed watching transgender pornography, a review of archived messages found, in which he also referred to himself as a “perv.”

The comments, which Robinson denies making, predate his entry into politics and current stint as North Carolina’s lieutenant governor. They were made under a username that CNN was able to identify as Robinson by matching a litany of biographical details and a shared email address between the two.

Many of Robinson’s comments were gratuitously sexual and lewd in nature. They were made between 2008 and 2012 on “Nude Africa,” a pornographic website that includes a message board. The comments were made under the username minisoldr, a moniker Robinson used frequently online.

Robinson listed his full name on his profile for Nude Africa, as well as an email address he used on numerous websites across the internet for decades.

CNN is reporting only a small portion of Robinson’s comments on the website given their graphic nature.

What Robinson is saying: In an interview with CNN, Robinson repeatedly denied making the comments and said the issues that faced North Carolinians were more important than what he called “tabloid trash,”

What his opponent has said: North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein has released a statement on CNN’s reporting saying, “North Carolinians already know Mark Robinson is completely unfit to be Governor. Josh remains focused on winning this campaign.”

Keep in mind: Donald Trump won North Carolina in the 2020 presidential election by about 74,000 votes out of some 5.4 million cast. Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and Democratic organizers are making an aggressive play to flip the state.

Read more about the investigation’s findings.

A volunteer holds a "Vote Uncommitted" sign outside of a polling station at Oakman School in Dearborn, Michigan, on February 27.

The “Uncommitted” movement, which sprung up during the Democratic primaries in opposition to the Biden administration’s policy on the war in Gaza, said Thursday it will not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign after it again spurned activists pushing for a halt to US military aid to Israel and an immediate ceasefire.

“Uncommitted” leaders, however, warned against a vote for former President Donald Trump, whose agenda, they said in a statement, “includes plans to accelerate the killing in Gaza while intensifying the suppression of anti-war organizing.” The group also said it was “not recommending a third-party vote” because of the potential for “inadvertently” helping Trump in key swing states.

Key voting group: The campaign for Michigan, a part of Democrats’ “blue wall” of must-win states in November, is expected to be among the closest contests in the country. Pro-Palestinian activists have repeatedly spoken about the anger over US support for Israel’s war in Gaza, which began in response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks and has now claimed the lives of more than 40,000 Palestinians. “Uncommitted” leaders said their decision means allied organizers will not pro-actively push for Harris ahead of the election.

Thursday’s announcement comes ahead of a Harris campaign event with Oprah Winfrey in the Detroit suburbs later in the evening. Michigan is home to one of the country’s largest Arab American populations, which helped fuel the more than 100,000 “uncommitted” ballots cast – as a message to Biden — in the state’s February Democratic primary.

“Uncommitted” movement leaders, including Abbas Alawieh – a former Hill staffer for Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American, and Missouri Rep. Cori Bush – and Tlaib’s sister, Layla Elabed, pushed for a speaking slot at August’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago but were turned down by party leaders. 

They held a sit-in outside the United Center to protest the decision, eventually shifting their demand to a visit from Harris to bereaved Palestinian American families in Michigan. “Uncommitted” leaders said the campaign failed “to address the request.”

The Harris campaign views the “Unite for America” livestream event hosted by Oprah Winfrey tonight as a “big moment” to reach a broad range of persuadable voters, according to campaign officials. 

Oprah, in collaboration with a group known as Win With Black Women, will hold a massive, virtual rally, in Farmington Hills, Michigan, aimed at uniting groups of Vice President Harris’ supporters to turn out to vote in November’s election.

Harris’ team believes the event could potentially have a large impact, similar to Oprah’s long-running talk show, where according to the campaign, “she commanded the attention of viewers to bring powerful stories to light that ended up sticking in the public consciousness.”

More about the event:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, is meeting Thursday in Washington, DC, with the families of the American hostages held captive by Hamas, two sources familiar tell CNN. 

The meeting would mark the first time that the governor is meeting with those families, many of whom have regularly visited DC since October 7 to advocate for the return of their loved ones.

Walz is in town on Thursday to, in part, participate in a meeting with the Business Roundtable.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff joined TikTok on Thursday, following Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on to the social video platform as part of the campaign’s push to engage younger voters. 

Emhoff, who has previously filmed videos for the campaign’s official TikTok account, said he decided to join TikTok because his contributions to the campaign TikTok “have been going so well.” 

In a comment on Emhoff’s video, Harris wrote “Welcome to TikTok, Dougie.”

Sen. JD Vance speaks with media at the airport before he departs on September 14 in Greenville, North Carolina. 

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said Vice President Kamala Harris could be doing “much more” to unearth details and security failures surrounding the Butler, Pennsylvania ,assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump — suggesting that it is beneficial for the current government to suppress information. 

“Do we trust Kamala Harris’ Department of Justice to really investigate this stuff? I mean, I don’t,” Vance said in a previously taped interview with Tucker Carlson. “I don’t think the president does either.”  

Vance claimed Harris is “totally uninterested” in learning about the security breakdown.  

“Kamala Harris is running against Donald Trump for president. Kamala Harris runs the government right now, and Donald Trump came within millimeters of having his life taken by a massive security breakdown. She should be using every lever of power to force insight and to force some sunlight into what’s actually been going on here,” Vance said.

Following the assassination attempt in July, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement, “The Justice Department will bring every available resource to bear to this investigation.”

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy pledged Thursday that the US Postal Service will undertake “heroic efforts” to deliver all mail ballots on time this year. 

“We encourage the voting public to mail early if they chose to vote by mail,” he added.  

USPS will work “around the clock” and implement “extraordinary measures” to ensure the timely delivery of mail-in voting, DeJoy said. A record 43% of voters cast mail ballots in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic — the level isn’t expected to be as high this year, but many states across the country have expanded the availability of mail-in voting. 

These special measures include designated lines at post offices for people with ballots, extra deliveries and collections by letter-carriers, “after-hours” drop-offs to election offices, and keeping processing facilities open on the Sunday before Election Day.

Read more about the Postmaster General’s comments today.

Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien speaks with workers during a rally with workers and union members as part of an "Amazon Teamsters Day of Solidarity" in support of the unionization and collective bargaining of Amazon delivery drivers at the Teamsters Local 848 on August 29 in Long Beach, California.

Teamsters president Sean O’Brien defended his labor union’s decision against endorsing in this year’s presidential race, saying on CNN’s Inside Politics that “this was not an endorsement for the Republican Party, this is a wake-up call that the system is broken.”

O’Brien explained that one reason for not endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris was a lack of “a commitment that the government will not interfere or impede our right to strike,” citing the 2022 rail strike, when the Biden administration used a century-old labor regulation to end the work stoppage.

Former President Donald Trump, O’Brien said, “couldn’t commit to vetoing national right to work” or commit to supporting the PRO Act during his meeting with the Teamsters. 

Responding to the New York lawmaker’s criticism of the decision, O’Brien said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “has to remember: there is a clear divide, especially in Teamster members, between the Democrats and the Republicans and instead of trying to pick a fight with labor leaders who listen to their members and embrace their members’ opinions, she should maybe get into her district.”

“She may want to focus on her job instead of mine,” he said, claiming that Teamster members in her district voted overwhelmingly for the former president without providing data to back up that claim.

“This is an opportunity for Republicans who claim they want to be the working part for American workers to prove that they can do that by supporting the PRO Act,” O’Brien said.

Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen leave court after his guilty plea in his trail on tax evasion in Los Angeles, California, on September 5.

The judge presiding over Hunter Biden’s gun case in Delaware has agreed to push back his sentencing until early December after Biden’s attorneys ask for a delay — citing the November presidential election. 

The sentencing was already set after the November 5 election, but Hunter’s attorneys asked the judge to move the November 13 sentencing to later in the month or early December, in part because his family members are preoccupied with the presidential campaign and election, according to court filings.

President Joe Biden’s son is now set to be sentenced on December 4 for three gun felonies after he was convicted on all charges at a June trial in Delaware. Separately, he pleaded guilty to nine federal tax offenses, and is scheduled to be sentenced for those crimes in December in California. 

In all, he could face a maximum of 25 years in prison for the gun case and 17 years in the tax case, though it’s rare for people to get the most severe punishment available. 

Special counsel David Weiss opposed delaying the sentencing, according to emails made public as part of Hunter Biden’s request to postpone the sentencing. 

Biden’s lawyers also told the judge that they want more time because some members of the Biden family, who want to write and submit supportive letters for sentencing, are busy on the campaign trial. 

They also raised the possibility that they might want to bring in witnesses to testify on Hunter Biden’s behalf at his gun sentencing. But they said these people “may not be available until after November 5 and the events that could occur right after that date,” referring to the presidential election.  

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick hosts a press conference on Monday, March 11, in Fort Lauderdale.

A US congressional delegation plans to visit Springfield, Ohio, next week to offer support to the city and to visit with members of the Haitian community who are reportedly struggling after former President Donald Trump and others promoted an unfounded conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants in the city eating people’s pets.

Cherfilus-McCormick is the only Haitian American currently serving in Congress.

“The goal is not to give Donald Trump the fight that he wants. He wants a fight in middle America where he can scare more people into believing about this invasion,” Cherfilus-McCormick said. “The goal is to assist the people in the community to find peace and stability again.”

Cherfilus-McCormick did not provide any additional details or specifics on the trip or who would be part of the delegation.

Mary Estimé-Irvin, Chair of NHAEON said the organization plans to have a presence in Springfield as well, but is planning their trip carefully.

“As you know and you’ve been hearing in the news that there’s been bomb threats and people are just fearful for their lives, and we don’t want to come in and create more of a chaos, so we will be mobilizing … to go and be supportive of this community in various ways.”

At a rally in Uniondale, New York, on Wednesday, Trump said he was going to visit Springfield “in the next two weeks” despite Springfield Mayor Rob Rue and Gov. Mike DeWine publicly discouraging the former President from making a trip to the city.

“It would be very difficult to have either candidate visit our community,” Rue told CNN.

Emmy-award winner Liza Colón-Zayas and Grammy-award winner Anthony Ramos will appear alongside Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, a campaign official told CNN.

The appearance from the two actors marks the Harris campaign’s effort to ramp up engagement with Latino voters after the campaign announced a $3 million investment in Spanish-language radio advertising last week. 

Colón-Zayas became the first Latina to win an Emmy for best supporting actress on Sunday for her role in “The Bear.” Ramos, who starred in “Hamilton” and “In the Heights,” campaigned along Vice President Kamala Harris at an event in Miami last year. 

Variety first reported the two actors appearing alongside Walz.

In this screengrab from video, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore attend a NASA press conference about Boeing Starliner on September 13, 2024.

When NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched to the International Space Station in June on the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, they were supposed to return to Earth roughly a week later, nearly five months before the US presidential election. 

But after the space agency deemed the capsule too risky to take them home — and decided Wilmore and Williams would stay in space until 2025 — the two veteran astronauts will now be floating more than 200 miles (322 kilometers) above their nearest polling place on Election Day in November.

As with so many things in the fickle world of spaceflight, NASA already had a contingency plan in place for this exact scenario. Thanks to a special Texas law, the two astronauts will still be able to perform their civic duty, voting absentee from low-Earth orbit.

“I sent down my request for a ballot today,” Wilmore said at the news conference. “It’s a very important role that we all play as citizens to be included in those elections, and NASA makes it very easy for us to do that.”

American astronauts have been able to cast ballots from space ever since the Texas Legislature passed a bill in 1997, expanding the Texas Election Code to include “a person who meets the eligibility requirements of a voter… but who will be on a space flight during the early-voting period and on election day.”

That year, NASA astronaut David Wolf became the first American to “vote while you float” during his four-month mission aboard Russia’s Mir Space Station.

Read more about the history of astronauts casting their ballots.

Jerome Powell, the unflappable Federal Reserve chair, would never march into a news conference, declare victory over inflation and drop the mic while giving a middle finger to his haters. That’s not his style.

But in his own way (very demure, very mindful), that is what happened Wednesday when he announced the Fed’s first rate cut in four years, a giant half-point reduction that will lower the cost of borrowing and offer financial relief for consumers and businesses.

In a parallel universe, everyone would agree to be happy that the pandemic-ravaged economy is finally returning to a healthy equilibrium. But this is America, 48 days before a national election. So everything is political, even the routine monetary policy adjustments of the fiercely nonpartisan, independent Fed.

On Wednesday, Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama called the decision “shamelessly political,” arguing the central bank “is clearly trying to tip the balance in favor of Kamala Harris.”

While it’s true that the rate cut could help the vice president, it’s far from clear whether voters will be swayed by interest rate changes that take months to ripple through the economy.

Former President Donald Trump responded with his own spin:

Just to clarify: The Fed does cut rates when the economy is “bad,” like when the pandemic forced us into lockdown. But in this case, the cuts are more akin to taking your foot off the brake rather than hitting the gas.

Read the full analysis.

Carl Ruby.

A pastor in Springfield, Ohio, said his community is under “tremendous stress” and that “bomb threats are unfolding right now” as a direct result of former President Donald Trump and his running mate’s unfounded claims about Haitian immigrants in the city. 

Carl Ruby, pastor of Central Christian Church, told CNN that since the debate “it’s just been complete chaos” in Springfield. 

Asked if he thought that would happen Ruby responded, “Uh, no, but I wish it would.”  

The city of Springfield has received more than 30 bomb threats since the presidential debate last week, where Trump repeated the false claims, according to local officials. A corporate spokesperson for Walmart confirmed to CNN that two of its area locations were “briefly evacuated” on Wednesday “at the direction of local police.” 

And CNN affiliate WHIO reported that a local Kroger, the Pregnancy Resource Center of Clark County and a Planned Parenthood also received threats.  

Springfield police have not responded to CNN’s request for more information regarding the threats. 

Ruby acknowledged tensions had been high in the last year between residents and the city’s growing immigrant community, following a traffic accident that killed a local 11-year-old boy.  

“That had really died down and pretty much gone away until the debate and since the debate it’s been just complete chaos,” Ruby said.

Former President Donald Trump is littering his public remarks with fictional stories.

This isn’t run-of-the-mill political spin, the kind of statistic-twisting and accomplishment-exaggerating that political candidates of all stripes engage in. Rather, the Republican presidential nominee is telling colorful lies that are completely untethered to reality.

Trump’s inflammatory assertion about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, whom he baselessly accused at the September presidential debate of eating people’s dogs and cats, has received the most attention. But Trump’s lower-profile recent public appearances, like rallies and interviews, have also featured wholly imaginary tales.

Here are some examples from the past month alone.

Harris and the military draft: At a rally in Las Vegas last week, Trump claimed his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, is talking about forcing Americans to serve in the military: “She’s already talking about bringing back the draft. She wants to bring back the draft, and draft your child, and put them in a war that should never have happened.”

That’s absolute bunk. Harris is not talking at all about bringing back the draft.

Harris’ CNN interview Trump claimed during a Fox News event in Pennsylvania in early September that Harris “had notes” to assist her during the television interview she did with CNN in late August. He even performed an impression in which he portrayed Harris supposedly looking down at these notes.

She didn’t actually have any notes.

Read more fact checks on Trump’s fictional stories.

North Carolina’s state election board was among the recipients of a suspicious envelope, as a wave of threatening packages were sent to election offices across the county in recent days, a state election official told CNN.

Bell said they take precautions to mitigate against potential threats such as this one, but they are taxing on the election workforce particularly as the state prepares to begin sending out mail ballots and is processing voter registration packets. 

“It’s things like wearing gloves now when we process the mail, having an insulated area in case something’s contaminated. Things that really do add to the labor intensiveness of the volume of mail that’s coming in,” Bell said. “When we have to take these extra measures, it really adds to the workload and it really adds to the anxiety that we have about doing our job, that really what we want to do is make sure people are able to vote.”

The sustained support from women has put Kamala Harris within reach of defeating Donald Trump, but her campaign is urgently working to bolster its standing with another group of voters that could ultimately determine the election: Men.

In the final weeks of the race, male voters are among the biggest persuasive targets for the Harris campaign as it seeks to erode part of Trump’s advantage by spending tens of millions in TV ads on major league baseball games, college football broadcasts and soccer matches in the top battleground states and beyond.

It’s also one of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s most important assignments, particularly among White men.

While Harris and Walz rarely discuss gender or the historic nature of her candidacy, the size of the gender gap may help decide the outcome of the November election. The campaign is working to “blow the ceiling off turnout among women,” one adviser told CNN, and “finding the gettable men.”

Male voters, of course, are hardly a monolith.

But the strategies of both sides have overlapping objectives, with Trump working to widen his advantage with White men while making gains among young Black and Latino voters. Harris is seeking to increase turnout among Black and Latino men, younger and older alike, even as she tries to chip away at the Republican edge among White working-class men.

Read the full story.

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham denied that former President Donald Trump’s campaign had asked him to go to Nebraska yesterday to push for the state to adopt a winner-take-all approach to electoral college votes – a change that would potentially give the Republican nominee one more vote in the battle to reach 270. 

Graham told reporters that Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and Sen. Pete Ricketts, both Republicans, had asked him to discuss foreign policy concerns for the next administration. However, he acknowledged that while he was in Nebraska he did push for them to do away with their current electoral college strategy. 

“The governor asked me to come out to talk to the caucus — I guess that’s what you call it — about the state of play in the world, the consequences of the next election on foreign policy front,” said Graham. 

GOP Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska said that he asked Graham to push for a winner-take-all electoral college system in his home state because the South Carolina senator is “a great spokesperson” for the issue.

Pressed on whether the Trump campaign was involved in getting Graham to visit Nebraska, Ricketts did not deny it. Instead, he told reporters, “talk to Lindsey about that.”

Remember: In April, CNN reported that Trump and his allies were furiously fighting to change the state’s system of awarding electoral votes in presidential elections.

Even after the Nebraska Legislature closed the door on a pressure campaign intended to keep President Joe Biden from winning one of the state’s five electoral votes – as he did in 2020 by carrying the Omaha-anchored 2nd Congressional District – Trump loyalists were pledging to keep the effort alive.

“We are going to keep on pushing and keep on pushing and keep on pushing until Nebraska gets winner-take-all,” said conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier this year, who appeared alongside several state Republican officials in Omaha, rallying support for the change. “Nebraska could pick a president.”

CNN’s Jeff Zeleny and Gregory Krieg contributed reporting to this post.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has begun debate preparations with top advisers as he gets ready to face off against Ohio Sen. JD Vance in less than two weeks, and he is leaning on a fellow Midwesterner to play the role of his opponent: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Buttigieg newly started standing in as Vance this week, sources tell CNN, as Walz has begun ramping up preparations – which are still described as being “informal” — for the upcoming vice presidential debate on October 1. In 2020, Buttigieg had played the role of Mike Pence in Kamala Harris’ vice presidential debate preparations.

Other details on debate prep: Walz has had a heavy travel schedule as Harris’ running mate, and has been squeezing in debate prep at a hotel in Minneapolis as well as when he has been traveling. 

The Walz-Vance debate would come weeks after the first match-up between Harris and Donald Trump, where the vice president appeared to successfully get under the former president’s skin at numerous points.

Earlier in the cycle before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, Harris herself had been making preparations to face off against Vance. At the time, her team made clear that they saw Vance as likely a tough debate opponent who would be skilled at deflecting questions about Trump’s past statements and policy positions.

Harris-Walz campaign officials continue to insist that they see Vance as a skilled debater, and assume that there will be additional pressure on Vance to make up for what many saw as a poor debate performance from Trump earlier this month.

The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, has issued a proclamation granting him temporary emergency powers as threats linked to false claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets continue to disrupt daily life for residents.

Republicans, including Donald Trump and vice presidential candidate JD Vance, have promoted the misinformation, despite denial by local authorities and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.

“Ensuring the safety of Springfield’s residents is our top priority,” Mayor Rob Rue said in the proclamation. “We are addressing these threats with the seriousness they warrant and are taking immediate steps to ensure the security of both our community and our employees.”

These powers will remain in effect “until it is determined that public safety risks have subsided.”

In recent days, the city has reported bomb threats and other intimidation forcing lockdowns or closures at Springfield’s City Hall, schools, colleges, stores and hospitals.

The Harris-Walz campaign is building out their celebrity engagement efforts with a new hire from the White House, according to a source familiar.  

Sydney Harvey will step down from her post as an Advisor for Public Engagement in the Office of Public Engagement to join the campaign as an Entertainment Surrogates Outreach Manager. 

In her post, she was responsible for being the liaison between the White House and industry leaders, artists, athletes and celebrities.

This comes has Harris has received endorsements from major celebrities, including Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish.

A grassroots network formed to support Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign called “White Dudes for Harris” is launching a substantial digital campaign with a striking advertisement, making emphatic appeals to male voters.

The group plans to spend up to $10,000,000 running the ad on digital platforms in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin — the crucial trio of “Blue Wall” states where Democrats’ ability to blunt Donald Trump’s edge with working-class men could be pivotal. Politico was the first to report on the ad.

Filled with images of Harris and Walz touring factories and speaking to firefighters, men grilling and at the hospital for the birth of a child, the ad is unmistakably aimed at closing what polls show is a yawning gender gap in the 2024 race.

In in social media post unveiling its ad said, “Proud to unveil the very first ad from #WhiteDudesForHarris! We’re coming together to support @KamalaHarris, focusing directly on talking to white dudes about our role in this election. This is just the beginning—we’re showing up, speaking out, and standing for what matters.”

The ad’s disclosure shows that it was paid for by Beige Rainbow PAC, an outside spending group that FEC records show was formed in mid-August, though the PAC has not yet disclosed information about its donors.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff sharply rebuked recent comments made by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggesting Vice President Kamala Harris not having biological children robs her of something “keeping her humble.”

While introducing former President Trump at a town hall in Michigan, Sanders said her three children serve as a “permanent reminder of everything that is at stake in this country” that Harris “doesn’t have anything to keep her humble.”

Emhoff said Wednesday that he and Harris experience the “same joys of raising children as any parent anywhere.”

“There is nothing more important to me Kamala and Kerstin than our kids, our big, beautiful, blended family,” Emhoff continued, referring to his first wife Kerstin Emhoff, the mother of his children.

The second gentleman also swiped at Trump while rallying women Harris supporters, who he said “will never humble themselves before Donald Trump.” 

“We know what they’re really trying to do. It’s Dobbs. It’s Project 2025. It’s spreading hate and trying to pit women against each other, trying to pit us all against each other,” he said. “But I’ve got news for him. Women in this country are sick and tired of weak men trying to take away their fundamental rights and then and then gaslight you about it.” 

“We’re sick and tired of it, and the women in this country will never humble themselves before Donald Trump,” he added.

Mail voting is kicking off in the key state of Wisconsin. Thursday marks the last day for counties to begin sending out ballots to voters who’ve requested them.

Absentee ballots are also officially available in Alabama, although, somewhat ironically, it is a state that discourages early voting.

Each state has its own rules and deadlines for how and when to request a mail-in ballot and by when those ballots must be returned. In some states, mail ballots must be in the hands of election officials before polls close, but others will count ballots that arrive after Election Day if they were postmarked earlier.

Here are some other key dates coming up:

For specifics on your state, visit CNN’s Voter Handbook, which has the dates for every state.

Donald Trump’s obsession with election fraud that doesn’t exist in any significant form could drive the country into a government shutdown — and may even put the Republican House majority at risk.

In a fresh show of governing futility, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday failed to pass a six-month extension of government funding, with a measure attached to please Trump that makes it harder for Americans to vote.

The Republican nominee’s demands for a bill that targets noncitizen voting, which is already illegal, pushed Johnson into a corner with no obvious exits, raising the possibility of a Washington crisis in the run-up to Election Day that could blow back on the GOP.

The gambit has zero chance of producing a new law — since Democrats who control the Senate oppose it. And Johnson couldn’t even get 16 of his own members to vote for it for various reasons — including unreconcilable demands by some arch-conservatives for massive budget cuts, which also have no chance of making it into law because of the reality of divided power in Washington.

Johnson now appears to have little choice but to negotiate with Senate Democrats on a short-term funding measure. But given the tiny House GOP majority and Trump’s looming presence, every step the speaker takes will be perilous – especially if he hopes to cling to his job if Republicans succeed in holding the House in November.

Trump seems to be setting the GOP up for an intra-party fight that could turn into a disaster in November.

Read the full analysis.

It’s another busy day on the campaign trail today, with Vice President Kamala Harris participating in a virtual rally with Oprah Winfrey in Michigan as former President Donald speaks at the Israeli-American Council (IAC) National Summit in Washington, DC.

In case you missed the latest updates from the campaign trail, here are the headlines from the presidential race so far this week to get you up to speed:

For several weeks after Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee for president, media observers and critics questioned her decision to remain inaccessible to the press. Some Donald Trump allies assailed the vice president as incapable of getting through an interview.

Half a dozen interviews later, her media strategy is taking shape, even if viewers in New York and Washington might not be seeing it. In recent days, Harris has granted sit-downs to local media outlets and fielded questions in unconventional forums to target crucial swing state and minority voters. Her running mate Tim Walz is doing the same.

Earlier this week, Harris parried tough questions from the National Association of Black Journalists and taped an appearance with Stephanie “Chiquibaby” Himonidis, a popular Spanish-language radio host and podcaster. On Thursday, she will participate in a live-streamed event with supporters hosted by Oprah Winfrey.

Harris is doing a little bit of this, a little bit of that – emphasis on “little.” The media’s access to Harris is still limited, and journalists always want more. Harris’ aides say they’re implementing a strategy that reflects how the media world works in 2024.

Ian Sams, a spokesperson for Harris, said “she does a steady dose of media engagements because she believes speaking to a broad array of voters where they consume their news and information is important. It’s how you reach people where they are.”

To that end, the campaign also regularly creates original content for social media platforms as well.

But “we know she is under pressure to be unscripted,” a staffer on the Harris campaign told CNN on condition of anonymity.

Read Stelter’s full analysis here.

Here’s where Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump and their running mates will be today and the rest of the week:

Harris: The Democratic presidential candidate will participate in a “Unite for America” livestream with Oprah Winfrey in Michigan on Thursday night. The event will stream across multiple platforms including Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitch.

On Friday, she will travel to Georgia to deliver remarks on women’s reproductive rights, her campaign said.

Trump: The former president will speak at an event focused on fighting antisemitism and be a featured speaker at the Israeli-American Council (IAC) National Summit — America’s largest pro-Israel conference — in Washington, DC, on Thursday. President Joe Biden and Harris were also invited to speak. 

On Saturday, the former president will hold another rally in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Walz and Vance: The vice presidential candidates – Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz – will attend a Business Roundtable gathering in Washington, DC, on Thursday, according to two sources familiar with the plans. 

The appearances will take place at the BRT’s quarterly gathering of its executive members, which has become a common forum for sitting presidents and political candidates to discuss policies like regulation, immigration, and taxes.

Instead of delivering traditional stump speeches, Vance and Walz will each be interviewed separately by one of the Business Roundtable’s member CEOs.

On Saturday, Vance will join Tucker Carlson in Hershey, Pennsylvania, as part of the former Fox News host’s tour across the country.

Walz is set to hold a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.

This post has been updated with more details on the candidates’ events this week.

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was going to visit Springfield, Ohio, “in the next two weeks” after repeatedly promoting an unfounded conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants in the city eating people’s pets.

“I’m going to go there in the next two weeks, I’m going to Springfield and I’m going to Aurora. You may never see me again, but that’s OK. I gotta do what I gotta do,” Trump said at a rally in Uniondale, New York, also referring to Aurora, Colorado — another city he has used to promote false claims about immigration. 

Trump on Wednesday said he thought the mayor of Springfield was “a very nice person” but slammed him for not expelling the migrants, who Trump falsely claimed are undocumented.

The city of Springfield says on its website that approximately 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants live in Clark County — which has a population of 136,000 — and that Haitian immigrants are there legally as part of a parole program that allows citizens and lawful residents to apply to have their family members from Haiti come to the United States.

A new CNN Poll of Polls of surveys conducted in Pennsylvania after last week’s presidential debate finds no clear leader in the pivotal state, with Vice President Kamala Harris averaging 49% support among likely voters compared with 47% for former President Donald Trump.

The new average includes polls released today from the New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena College, Marist College, and the Washington Post, plus a Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday.

Three of the polls found no clear leader in the contest, with support for Harris and Trump within each poll’s margin of sampling error, while one suggested a narrow Harris lead.

Although the bulk of the polls in Pennsylvania have found a margin-of-error race recently, no polling there that meets CNN’s standards for reporting has found Trump even numerically ahead of Harris in the state since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and Harris became the Democratic party’s nominee in late July.

Donald Trump’s campaign launched a new ad Thursday in battleground Michigan saying that “Kamala Harris wants to end all gas cars” and warning of “massive layoffs” for auto workers, reflecting an intensifying fight over the crucial battleground state.

“Attention auto workers: Kamala Harris wants to end all gas powered cars,” the ad opens. “Crazy but true.”

The ad continues, “Harris’s push requiring electric only is failing big and Michigan auto workers are paying the price. Massive layoffs already started. You could be next. President Trump’s committed to protecting America’s auto workers. Standing up to China’s unfair trade. Fixing the economy, and ending inflation.”

The Harris campaign has pushed back on the criticism, which has come up before, calling the attacks “lies,” and the campaign sent out an email late last month, writing “FACT: Vice President Harris does not support an electric vehicle mandate.” 

However, the attack has dogged Harris and several other Democrats in key races, animated by new federal regulations from the Biden administration aimed at eventually phasing out gas-powered vehicles.

Read more about Harris’ and Trump’s campaign promises on key issues.

Oprah Winfrey speaks on stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 21 in Chicago.

Waves of emotion washed over DeJuana Thompson as she stood in the convention hall in Chicago last month watching Vice President Kamala Harris become the first Black woman nominated for the presidency by a major political party.

But “literally two seconds” later, reality hit her, she said. 

Around the country, Harris’ historic candidacy has unleashed a surge of activism among Black women like Thompson, who have long been a key part of the Democratic coalition but are now working overtime to advance the nomination of a woman who also shares their ancestry. 

Tonight, Oprah Winfrey – in collaboration with a group known as Win With Black Women – will hold a massive, virtual rally, aimed at uniting groups of Harris supporters to turn out the vote. Harris is slated to participate.

Tens of thousands of people already have expressed interest in the “Unite for America” livestream – which will take place across several platforms, ranging from YouTube to Twitch, organizers said. The event, which kicks off at 8 p.m. ET Thursday, is an outgrowth of a Zoom meeting that Win With Black Women hosted within hours of President Joe Biden ending his reelection bid on July 21.

That event quickly ballooned to more than 90,000 participants – between those on the Zoom and those tuning in through other means – delivering an early and powerful sign of Black female support for Harris’ historic bid.

Read the full story.

ie President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are in a tied race nationally among likely voters, according to the latest poll from the New York Times and Siena College, with Harris holding a narrow edge over Trump in the critical battleground of Pennsylvania. 

In the national poll, the two candidates each hold 47% support among likely voters, about the same as the near-even race the same poll found before the presidential debate, when 48% supported Trump and 47% backed Harris. 

Harris holds a narrow edge over Trump in Pennsylvania, with 49% supporting her and 45% Trump with the third-party candidates who will be on the ballot in Pennsylvania – Libertarian Chase Oliver (1%) and Green Jill Stein (1%) – included in the matchup. That’s similar to the results of an early August poll from the Times and Siena, which found Harris at 50% to Trump’s 46% among likely voters there.

National polls: The results mirror other recent national polls suggesting little change in the presidential race following the debate between Harris and Trump last week, as both the Fox News poll and the ABC News/Ipsos poll suggested little movement in support of either candidate since the two met on stage. 

Narrow majorities in the national poll say they see each of the two candidates as more of a risky choice than a safe one, 52% say so about Trump, 51% about Harris. About a quarter of likely voters nationwide say they feel they still need to learn more about Harris (25%), narrowly down from the 28% who felt they needed to learn more about her pre-debate. About 9 in 10 (89%) say they pretty much know what they need to about Trump, about the same as pre-debate. While more likely voters in the poll say they see Harris as “too liberal or progressive” (47%) than say Trump is “too conservative” (35%), far more consider Trump to be extreme than say the same about Harris (74% say Trump is extreme, 46% say so about Harris). 

Senate race: The Pennsylvania poll finds Democratic Sen. Bob Casey ahead of Republican David McCormick 49% to 40% among likely voters there.

Iranian hackers sent unsolicited information they stole from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to people who were affiliated with Joe Biden’s campaign over the summer, federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

Iranian malicious cyber actors “sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails,” the officials said.

There is no indication that Biden’s staff ever replied, they said.

A spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign said that “a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails.”

A campaign official told CNN that “the material was not used.”

The Trump campaign said that Harris and Biden “must come clean on whether they used the hacked material,” claiming it’s “further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election” to help the Democratic ticket.

Trump claimed without evidence that Biden was involved in the hack despite the law enforcement statement.

Read the full story.

Former President Donald Trump said during a campaign rally in New York on Wednesday that if reelected he would make Ground Zero in Manhattan a national monument. 

 “I am announcing tonight that as president I will officially make the Ground Zero site at the World Trade Center a national monument protected and maintained by the United States government so that hallowed ground and the memory of those who perished there will be preserved for all time, preserved forever,” Trump said during the rally in Uniondale, New York.  

Trump visited Ground Zero last week for a commemoration event to mark the 23rd anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Former President Donald Trump appeared on a late-night talk show on Fox News on Wednesday and joked about many things, including the apparent assassination attempt against him that took place just days ago. 

 The first question to Trump from the host of Fox News’s “Gutfeld!” was: “So, Mr. T, how’s your golf game?” 

Greg Gutfeld then asked: “If they had told you that the shooter was there, would you have tried to take him out with your three wood?”

“I think so,” Trump said. “I think so, if I knew.” 

Trump was asked later in the show about the ABC presidential debate, and he said, “My only regret is that I wanted to be elegant and I did not want to go after the anchors — I wish I did, in a way.”

Trump has repeatedly attacked the ABC debate moderators since the debate took place as he baselessly suggests that Vice President Kamala Harris was given the debate questions in advance and that the whole debate was “rigged.” He has also repeatedly said ABC host David Muir’s hair “was better five years ago” – an insult he repeated on Wednesday’s show.

The former president was also asked if he would rule out reality TV, and he said, “I think so.” 

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed he received the endorsement of the “rank-and-file” of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters despite the union declining to endorse a presidential candidate.

The union announced on Wednesday that for the first time in nearly three decades it would not endorse a presidential candidate. Internal polling released by the Teamsters showed about 60% of its members believed the union should endorse Trump, while 34% supported Vice President Kamala Harris.

Meanwhile, the Harris campaign on Wednesday touted the endorsement of local Teamsters union chapters in some key battleground states.